5 books, 24 hours

I have been a reader all my life, but as a child I read so much more than I do now. Part of this is because I know have a full time job, part of it is because I can’t seem to find books I love the way I did when I was a kid, and part of it is just the world we live in now. Social media is a total time suck, and while some of it is valuable, you have to wade through a lot of dirt to get to the gold.

I recently took two 12 hour plan trips over the span of 4 days, flying from Orlando to Sacramento in two to three hour bursts. This, along with the fact that I wasn’t going to pay $12 for access to wifi bred the perfect conditions for reading. So I read, and it was amazing. Over these flights, I read some amazing books. I don’t have expansive thoughts on all of them, but I do have a few things I want to talk about, so here is goes:

The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale- The whole “Books of Bayernn” series was recommended by my partner, and I cannot believe I didn’t read these when I was a teenager. I loved this book deeply, and would like it to be a mini-series. Someone needs to hop on that, it’d be amazing.

Enna Burning, By Shannon Hale- This book is just pure emotion, raw and beautiful in its richness. This book is lovely, and brings you into this fantastical world, and tells a rare tale of a woman at war with herself while her country is at war.

The Jane Austen Book Club, By Joy Fowler- I love and hate this one. It’s not as good as I wanted it to be, but I am tickled pink by anything Austen inspired, so this was a fun one. It’s definitely worth a read prior to watching the movie (which I haven’t gotten to yet, but I am sure I will)

Hope Was Here, By Joan Bauer– I want to teach this book to a junior year government class. I usually HATE political fiction, because I work in politics, and the last thing I want to do in my free time is read about my work. But the story of a girl who is abandoned by her mother and lives with her aunt, who start working for a diner in a small town and get wrapped up in the owners bid for mayor is charming. This book is a quick read, and teaches a lot about local politics and that I certainly didn’t know when I was 16.

River Secrets, by Shannon Hale- Finally, we return to the Books of Bayernn to talk about a great underdog story. Razo is part of the royal inner circle, but sees himself as not having any talent. This book is great, though has a different tone of the first two, as the main theme here is diplomacy, rather than redemption and war.

So those are the books I read. It’s definitely kicking me into wanting to read more, which is awesome. I’ve read a good amount of books this year so far, but I do want to set a gentle goal for myself for the year. Either way, I’ve read more books this year so far than I did last year, and that in itself, is a miracle.