March Recap

It’s finally spring, right? Sitting comfy cozy on my bed during a much-needed Spring Break, I feel so pleased when I look over the eight books I was able to make time to read this month.

Here’s a recap of the books I read this month:

1. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
2. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
3. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
4. Self Help by Lorrie Moore
5. America Again by Stephen Colbert
6. Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink
7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
8. The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Favorite Fiction: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I read this as a recommendation of my friend Kirsten, and it was lovely. A great, quick read told from the perspective of a boy with autism and a mystery that changes his life forever. Fantastic!

Least Favorite Fiction: Self Help by Lorrie Moore. It was a little bit too “woe is me I’m a twenty-something living in NYC” for me. However, the reason I read the book in the first place fills my heart to the top: my college friends and I started an online book club and this was our second read. So fun to be able to connect through books, even when we all live in five different states and two different countries!

Favorite Non-Fiction: Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink. I hope I get a chance to blog about this book, because it really helped me think about eating in a different way. Everyone struggles with mindless eating- snacking even though you’re not hungry, eating just because food is there, munching because everyone else is. This book put a great perspective on how to use mindless eating to your advantage.

Least Favorite Non-Fiction: America Again by Stephen Colbert. This was a quick read, and a fun audiobook, but didn’t have a lot of meat to it. As could be expected from Colbert, this was more about cracking jokes than anything else.

Looking back on these reads, what’s most enjoyable for me is thinking about when I read them and who I got to read them with. I loved discussing Curious Incident with my tenth graders, who read it in ninth grade. I looked so forward to hanging out on Google+ with my book club buddies to discuss Self Help. I snuggled in on my airplane home from Florida to read Insurgent. I laughed, cried, and pondered about my audiobooks on my way to visit friends, drive home from work, and run errands.

Reading always seems to make life more enjoyable.