January in Review

Books I finished

Unfortunately this is much too small. I have not started off nearly as well as I hoped. But, I still managed to complete Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, and Persuasion by Jane Austen, both of which have become new favorites. That's one accomplishment at least.

Books started - not complete

Ah, the biggest pile. In the beginning of January, I started Black, The Rise of Evil, the first book in the Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker. After that, I also started Beauty: A Retelling by Robin McKinley. (This may be shelved until a later date, as I have lots of book club reads to catch up on!)

For my U.S. Presidents Challenge, I started Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser. For some reason or other, this book has been neglected for the last half of January. I definitely need to remedy that, pronto. (It's too good of a book to ignore, anyway.)

My favorite selection, though, by far, is Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Sis and I have been reading it together, and it is great fun. It certainly rivals most fantasy out there, narratively speaking. Our goal is to finish the last 150 pages soon so we can go see the movie version sometime this month.

For February

1. Finish the above selections! Black, especially, is actually getting on my nerves. I love this book; I think it's awesome. But it's just getting in the way of my schedule! It keeps bugging me to read it, and I never have time to get any big chunks out of the way!

2. Read Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. This is for my face-to-face book club, and I can't wait to get started! This is another selection Sis and I will probably be reading aloud together. (It's actually much more fun that way.)

3. Finish listening to the audio version of Holes by Louis Sachar. I have the print version too, but the audio helps with the whole scheduling issue. I probably spend a good 5 hours a week by myself in the car, and this will help to get this book finished before the deadline of February 16. (This is the selection my local library picked for their Book Club, which I run starting this month.)