Here we are again, Quick Lit link-up time with Modern Mrs. Darcy. I am having a really good time telling you guys about what I have been reading and you continue to hold me accountable to my goal of reading 36 books in 2016. I have read 7 books and am currently 4 books ahead of schedule.

Read:

• The Expats by Chris Pavonne: I previously abandoned this book a about a year ago so this fulfilled the Modern Mrs. Darcy’s 2016 Reading Challenge category: Book You Previously Abandoned. I have been thinking about why I abandoned it. The novel’s main character, Kate is a new stay-at-home mom who has just quit her job. I believe the novel was hitting too close to home in this regard at the time. The emotions that Kate feels, her resentment, her guilt, her boredom, are all emotions that I have felt over the past year since having my son. Since completing the book, I found that I really liked it; as I initially knew I would. I thoroughly enjoyed Pavonne’s second book, The Accident, which I read first because it was a novel about books, publishing, etc. I am looking forward to the release of his third book, The Travelers, releasing next month! And like Kate, (spoiler ahead) I feel like I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of my stay-at-home boredom. I “will reboot [myself]. Relaunch.”
• The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro: Over the past year I have discovered that I really enjoy books about art and art forgery. I really enjoyed this novel; it was entertaining and I read it in 24 hours. Thus another Reading Challenge category: Book You Can Finish In a Day checked. The novel had a lot of flashbacks which could have been confusing but with the change in the font for each time period, it was easy to keep up with the action.
• Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr: I enjoyed Doerr’s writing style which was hauntingly beautiful and sometimes made me ache. So I took my time reading it even though it was a relatively small book. His memories of life with his young twin infant sons, is what I am currently living through right now, the teething being first and foremost. I am also suffering from imsomnia. I am writing this at 3 AM. When I get up to tend to the Buddy Man, sometimes I find that I cannot go back to sleep. So I read. I write. I try to make it productive. And like Doerr, I ask:“Is this what it means to be a parent – to constantly fail to be in control of anything?”
• Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle: This was a YA novel and I have not read many YA novels. This seemed to be what your typical YA novel would be, to me: easy to read and an easy to understand storyline. I enjoyed the time travel aspect (it is fun to read about individuals going back or coming forward to a time not their own. I have loved this ever since I first read Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain). The picture on the cover was slightly misleading in terms of the kind of book it was going to be.  It had a some dark moments that I didn’t expect and  I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought that I would.
• Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman: I heard a lot of good things about this book and I downloaded a sample few months ago. I started it but it took me a while to really get into her writing style. Then the ebook became available for 99 cents about a month ago and I got it. I used it as my inspirational/devotional reading in the morning and I enjoyed it immensely. I highlighted many thought-provoking quotations and will probably reread this many times during my lifetime. One that particularly struck me was this one about how I use to live prior to my journey of comfortably being and what I constantly struggle against to this day: “It’s possible to live as though every move you make is an anxious attempt to avoid unwanted consequences rather than a thoughtful decision to move toward life.”
• 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam: This book caused me to rethink my personal belief system about time and what I can do as a mom. “A life is a bundle of task and activities an individual takes on.  Some, like sleeping and eating, are required, but the rest are simply combinations of choices each of us makes, bundled together for one reason or another…”

Currently Reading:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Fulfilling the 2016 Reading Challenge category: Book You Should Have Read in School. I know, I know! How can I have a degree in English and not have read this great American classic? The subject matter: rape and racial inequality are not my typical reading fare and it was never assigned in school so I never picked it up. However, my good friend, Jamila was reading it recently and loved it! Between her recommendation and the discussion about it on Episode 4 of What Should I Read Next podcast, I figured now was the time.
• Wildflower by Drew Barrymore: I have always been fascinated by Drew Barrymore: her personality, her outlook on life, her history. I admire how she has become the woman that she is today. I thought her book would give me some insights so I picked it up with a huge stack of other Holds from my library.  I didn’t think that it would be the one that I read first (I generally look at my stack and skim the first few pages of each book before deciding what to read next, if I don’t have a particular one in mind). I started and didn’t move on to the others and now I am flying through it.

Paused Reading:

• Daring Greatly by Brené Brown: Still on pause.

What have you read lately that was really good. Tell me in the comments. It’s not like my TBR list isn’t long enough yet.:)

enjoy life…