half way

 My goal is to read 50 books this year.  I finished my 25^th book on July 7^th, so I’m a little bit behind but still going strong.  Here is my reading rundown for the first half of the year-

Excellent

1. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. I loved this book- so fascinating and fun to read, more of my ramblings here.

2. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I LOVED this book.  I learned so much through Gretchen Rubin's insights and discoveries on happiness.  I most love her Second Splendid Truth, "One of the best ways to make myself happy is to make other people happy.  One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy myself."  I've been more aware of happiness and finding ways to create it since reading this.

3. The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters by Jeffrey Zaslow. I loved loved loved this book. Zaslow perfectly mixed the history of the store, interesting facts about marriage, and brides' stories. Fascinating. The true tragedy of 2012 was when this book accidentally made its way into my "books to return" pile when I was just a few chapters from finishing. Then it took a lousy 3 months on the hold list for me to finally be able to finish. Worth the wait.

4. Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley. This book was amazing. Both fascinating and heartbreaking, it told the stories of Thomas Jefferson's children with his slave Sally Hemings. Monticello is one of my very favorite places, and I loved reading more about what went on there. Though this book is historical fiction the author says she did meticulous research and as far as she knows nothing in the story could not have been true.

5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  A wonderful classic that I could read over and over again.

Great

6. Love Life and See Good Days by Emily Freeman, I heard Emily Freeman speak at Time Out for Women and really loved her message so I read the full book.  She has some great ideas to help you to look over the bad to see the good.  Her stories are cute without seeming too preachy.  This was my first book of the year and a great way to start 2012.

7. Matched by Ally Condie, I loved this book!  Comparable to The Hunger Games/The Giver.  It has a cute romance (although I wanted her to love the wrong boy the whole time.) 

8. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. I seriously laughed out loud for the first 3/4 of the book.  I loved Jack's humor, sassiness, and love of history. It reminded me a lot of The Wednesday Wars, which I adore. But then the end fell flat. Some things were resolved way too easily and some things were completely unresolved. I feel like it left me hanging, and that is not the way I want to finish a book.

9. Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. I really enjoyed listening to this book. It definitely wasn't The Hunger Games, but still was very engaging. My 10 year old brother loves this series, and I think they're great books for middle-grade boys. Gregor is a wonderful hero- adventurous, compassionate, and very responsible.

10. Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins.  Again, I love Gregor.

11. Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. Very cute and fun, especially because I read it just a few weeks after visiting Alcatraz myself.

12. 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  This story is thrilling, and I learned a lot about Kennedy and the 60's- a win-win in my book.

13. Still Alice by Lisa Genova. Fascinating and heart-wrenching. Alice is a 50 year old Harvard professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. I started crying halfway through and couldn't stop; this is a great read.

14. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. Somehow I missed this delightful book when I was young (I did see the movie, but that doesn't count.) I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen to my girls.

15. Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson. I really enjoyed this book (in fact, much more than I thought I would.) Very inspiring and heart-wrenching; I love a book that makes me more grateful for what I have.

Good

16. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, This book was a whopping 32 discs but luckily I listened to it during a month that I did a lot of driving and painting.  It is a fascinating story of cathedral building in 12^th Century England.  I enjoyed it, but not enough to take on the second book.

17. Bossypants by Tina Fey. Funny, funny, funny.  Bryan would get annoyed because I was constantly laughing while reading and he felt like he was missing out on a great joke (he was.)  But, it was also annoying at times.

18. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. I love it when a book tells a powerful story but is still accessible to kids. I'm kicking myself for not reading this to my fifth graders.

19. London Refrain by Bodie Thoene.  I have really enjoyed this series; partly because of its WWII setting and partly because of the characters that now feel like my friends.

20. The Last Summer by Ann Brashares. I liked this book more than I thought I would. The story was sweet and full of emotion (even if terribly predictable.) My only complaint is how jumpy it was, but that may have been because I was listening to it.

21. Crossed by Ally Condie.  I actually liked this much less than Matched but I still am excited to read the last book of the trilogy.

22. Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson. Jack's manic depressive mom leaves in the middle of the night while they are camping. He must find his way home without alerting any suspicion that could lead to trouble for his mom. Not my absolute favorite, but a solidly good book.

Meh

23. Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich. Pretty dumb and completely unrealistic

24. Austenland by Shannon Hale.  In my humble opinion Shannon Hale should stick to YA; this was pretty silly.

25. Graceling by Kristin Cashore.  I really struggled getting into this book, then really enjoyed some parts of it.  But, overall, I didn’t like it enough to start the next book in the series.