I’m rather impressed with myself for the quantity of books that I’ve been reading! I’m at 20 books for the year, which is more than halfway toward my goal for the year. I’m not sure WHY I’ve managed to read as much as I have. I’ve been in two book clubs for the last 9 months that have kind of forced me to read at least two books, and one of those is usually an audiobook. That said, I am not someone who can read multiple books at a time…read one and listen to one, that I can do.

• Counting Grains of Sand by Natasha Metzler
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• The Happiness Dare by Jennifer Dukes Lee
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell
• Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Christ Cleave
• Still Waiting by Ann Swindell
• As Old As Time by Liz Braswell
• Never Unfriended by Lisa-Jo Baker
• Wild be Cheryl Strayed
• The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
• The Mark of the King by Jocelyn Green

Favorite Fiction Book

I’m going for the cheese factor on this one. I absolutely LOVED As Old As Time, Braswell’s retelling of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Honestly, I think it’s my favorite version of Beauty and the Beast. I felt like the story was fantastically woven, that open plot lines were well concluded, and overall I really loved HOW she rewrote the story.

With all of the Beauty and the Beast hype of the past few months, I felt that this book did a better job of explaining the history of the characters. Far better than even the movie did. The movie was good, don’t get me wrong, but I think this story is much more in-line with the entire Beauty and the Beast premise, particularly regarding enchantment. If you do read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Favorite Non-Fiction Book

This is a tough one! I so liked all of the non-fiction that I read. My top three would have to be Metzler, Swindell, and Baker. But even of those I’d have to see it was Counting Grains of Sand that touched me the most. I’ve “known” Natasha through social media and different groups for several years, and hearing her stories again, in her voice was profound. Throw into that my own struggles with infertility, or anyone’s struggles with prayers not answered as we’d choose and this book will rock you.

This book was so good that I bought it and had it overnighted to a friend who was going through hardships before I had even finished it. THAT is how much this book was grabbing me. Natasha has so many delicious words and good truths that we all seem to not be able to remember.

The Book I hated

My least favorite book was that of The Zookeeper’s Wife. I struggled through this one; and I struggled with the fact that I didn’t love it! I had very high hopes for it, but the writing was less than intriguing. The story of the Antonina Zabinski was one that really struck my interests; keepers of the Warsaw Zoo in Poland during World War II, who were hiding and transporting Jews.

It was a tough one. While the subject matter was very interesting and the story of this family enthralling, I felt like the author couldn’t decide how she wanted to write this, whether a novel or a textbook. There were parts that sucked you in and told you a story, and then abruptly there were parts that were so detailed about things that had no bearing on anything that I skipped over them (i.e. in depth discussion regarding random plants).

Get through it I did though, and I’m glad for it…because it really was interesting, despite the drudgery.

What have you been reading?