Current Reads

      I've really been enjoying reading this year. My reading is a mixture of classics, mysteries, children's literature, and pretty much anything that piques my interest on booktube. I am a very active library patron so I visit the library at least once a week. On Thursday we will be leaving for a 2 1/2 week vacation with lots of driving in there so in addition to physical books I wanted to have some audiobooks for the drive. 

The audiobooks I picked up are:
1. Wild - Cheryl Strayed I heard about this one on book riot's channel and that it's an especially good summer read. This tells the story of a woman hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I am even more excited to read this after seeing this video today.

2. Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie As referenced earlier I watched several of the Miss Marple mini-series and grew to really like the little town of St. Mary Mead that Miss Marple lives in and the fact that she's always knitting. I decided this is a detective series I would like to go through. 

3. The Return of the King - J. R. R. Tolkien This series is really rocking my world and it blew my husband's mind that I had never read it before. I have saved the last one for vacation and in addition to the audiobook got a very cheap paperback copy that will be beach friendly. 

The books that I'm reading right now are:

1. The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens Ugh - I go so back and forth over whether I'm enjoying this or not but I'm determined to finish it since I'm over halfway through. 

2. The Gracekeepers - Kirsty Logan This has been getting a lot of booktube buzz and I was pretty happy to jump on the bandwagon since it involves ships with traveling circuses. I'm not yet 50 pages in but I'm really enjoying it so far. 

3. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie This one is also getting lots of booktube buzz and after reading "Half of a Yellow Sun" I was definitely up for another one from her. This one is a romance too and doesn't have as many tragedies of war in it. I'll definitely be doing a review since everyone has been so excited about it. 

4. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen Another ugh - this is the only of Austen's novels that I haven't read. I just haven't really gotten into it simply because I'm not wild about any of the characters. I hear that you don't grow to like Fanny until the very end so we shall see. 

Since we are going on vacation I have (as usual) all of these lofty reading goals. I always bring way too many books but I like to have plenty of options. I'll list the books I'll be bringing with me but save summaries for the later ones that I actually read. *Not included in the list are a couple of Babysitter's Club books and a couple of Boxcar Children books. 
1. Atonement - Ian McEwan (This would be a re-read)
2. The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson
3. The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford
4. Miss Buncle's Book - D.E. Stevenson
5. The Fair Fight - Anna Freeman
6. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling
7. The Cruelest Month - Louise Penny
8. A Rule Against Murder - Louise Penny
9. Simisola - Ruth Rendell (I own all of the Inspector Wexford books and have been making my way through the series)
10. Road Rage - Ruth Rendell
11. The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles #2) - Mary Pearson

Next month is my birthday so I'm very excited to purchase some long desired books with some birthday money.

What are you reading lately?

Cheers, Kate