Reading is me time. Time to live a life unlike mine in a world removed from my day-to-day.  Reading is an escape from stressful or sad days and a joyful way to end any day.  Reading really is for my sanity. 

When I created my A to Z list last January it was only a step towards another of my 101 things in 1001 days.  Having a list reignited my passion to read in bed instead of watching repeats of Criminal Minds I’ve seen 10 times already.  My goal was to finish a book a month and I smashed that.  So much so I set my 2012 goal for 100 books!

Since my last update I wanted to share some of my new favorites and reading in general.

Books I should have read in school

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Such a classic anyone should read yet I chose to see a not-so-good movie by the same name.  Classics like this be required in every education.  The best part is The Crucible is a play.  I took an entire class in college on Spanish Theatre and love reading plays imagining how my “stage crew” brain would set the scene.

Native Son by Richard Wright

Such a powerful tale from the mind of a young boy I’ll never understand.  Even knowing his crime Richard Wright creates a character you root for and reminds my 21st century brain what it was life was like for Bigger Thomas (main character).

Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Wartime Sarajevo: Revised Edition

My generation’s Anne Frank but not entirely.  Reading the stories of the breakdown in Yugoslavia in the newspaper and studying the situation in college politics does not do the story justice.  Told from the point of a young girl who lived the life and how each change in the war affected her life, this story taught me more about the war than I knew.

The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott

I’m slightly biased on this because I’m obsessed with Louisa May Alcott and did several author studies and book reports on her works.  I’ve looked for a copy of this to read for years and finally took the time to inter-library loan it because of this challenge.  So happy I did to see how she was such a fantastic author even from the start.

The Recommendations

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

I’m a proud member of Read It First and therefore I haven’t seen this movie.  I’m so class I read – or listened – to it first.  I loved watching Lily grow as she learned more about her mother. It broke my heart in many places and warmed it in others.  No I can’t wait to see the movie.

The Year of Pleasures: A Novel by Elizabeth Berg

If everything I knew was lost in the death of my loved one I don’t know what I’d do.  Betta Nolan handles it much better than I would.  And just when I thought I could predict the ending…I was wrong.

The not-so-good

I would not recommend these…unless you like them.  I did not.  But I finished them.  That’s what counts.  I gave them a shot.

Life Expectancy by Dean Kountz

The Widower’s Tale by Julia Glass