First Quarter Books

One of my goals this year is to watch less tv and read more.  I'm not so sure about the tv part, but I read twice as many books as I read during the last three months of 2013 so there's some progress to celebrate.  My first ten books of the year:

Fabulous
1. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.  I LOVED this book.  Alice hits her head and wakes up thinking its 1998 and she's pregnant with her first baby but soon learns it's really 2008 and she has three(!) children.  I loved watching the story unfold as Alice firgures out how to navigate her "new" life.  Not only was this a fascinating story, but on a personal level it made me want to live my life so I wouldn't have any regrets 10 years from now.

Great
2. My Story by Elizabeth Smart.  I was worried this book would make me too anxious, but on the contrary, it was very uplifting.  Elizabeth is amazing, and it was so neat to read how she kept up hope and faith the entire time during her ordeal.  It was awful to read what she went through, the chapter about her abduction was the hardest for me, but I am so glad I read it.

3. Nurtureshock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman.  This was chock-full of fascinating research.  My favorite chapter discussed ways that parents can scaffold infants learning to talk, and since I have an infant learning to talk I've been trying some of the strategies and they actually work!

4. Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson.  This was a fun romantic read for Valentine's.  I didn't think it was quite as wonderful as Edenbrooke, but still loved it.

5. The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls.  Because I loved The Glass Castle and Half-Broke Horses so much, I am a little more critical of this one.  It was great, just not really in the same league as her first two books.  This is probably because her first two were memoirs whereas this was a fictional novel.  However, I did love this sweet story that is a little reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird.  Bean is a fun and spunky narrator, and of course I loved the setting in rural Virginia in the 70s.

6. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.  He's such an interesting writer.  I loved the first half, but got just a little bogged down and less interested by the end.  Overall, a great book.

7. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.  Louisa Clark unwillingly takes a six month position caring for a quadriplegic man, assuming he'll be elderly.  But it turns out that Will Traynor is close to her age and is miserable that his happy, successful, life has come to a halt.  After a rocky start the two eventually become friends, but Louisa is horrified when she discovers Will has a plan to end his life.  This was definitely a book that made me think a lot, and I loved the characters and the writing.  But, unlike many others who read it, I didn't get emotional while reading.  Perhaps I'm heartless?  Or perhaps I just knew all along what would happen so I wasn't too emotionally invested.

Good
8. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.  The story was captivating and unpredictable, and I loved the way it all pieced together.  That being said, I liked it a lot but not sure I loved it.

9. I am Legend by Richard Matheson.  I found it fascinating to read the 1954 version of a zombie story (Matheson calls them vampires.)  It was creepy, well-written, and had a surprise ending (not at all like the Will Smith movie.)  This is not my usual type of book, Bryan read it and told me to listen to it so we could discuss and it was fun to read a book of his choice for once.

10. The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld.  I saw Chua and Rubenfeld interviewed and was fascinated by the premise of their book, especially since Mormons were one of the groups they found to be extremely successful thanks to the "triple package."  The book was very interesting, but I wasn't crazy about their writing style, and it felt very repetitive to me.  By the end I was bored and barely skimmed the last ten pages.

Any good book recommendations?