I have a habit of adding any book that sounds remotely interesting to me to my Amazon Wish List. When I have time, I search the public library catalog to see if any of the books on my list are available for Kindle. When I get the email that one of the books on my library list is available for check out, I generally put my “real” book stack on hold because of the pressure of the library book to be read and returned (though thanks to some un-named friends, I now understand how to put the Kindle on airplane mode to keep the library book as long as I want – moral problems with that be damned). So, sometimes, the books that come up on my library list are ones I have forgotten about or have no idea why I put them on my must-read list. The Last Original Wife is one of those. However, came up it did, and after reading the first few pages, I was hooked (as embarrassing as that is to admit).

I can only kindly describe The Last Original Wife as a beach read. AT BEST. Just look at the cover. But, it was entertaining, and light, just what I needed to keep me from thinking about all the other things there are to think about. There were definite flaws in this one. Why did Les keep going back and forth from Charleston to Atlanta over and over, for example? And why would she even bother with counseling when she knew it was over? Also, I kept expecting that the relationship with Jonathan would result in Wes being able to keep all the money because Les had had an affair while in Charleston. I had a feeling the entire time that she was going to return to Wes. While I am glad she didn’t, in the end, it took too long for the author to get there. Again, though, it was book candy. An easy and quick read that I did want to return to each day to find out where Les would end up. However, I am glad I am finished and plan to move on to something with a little more meat.

I am a sucker for family stories – fiction, memoir, historical fiction, etc. And, The Kite Runner is one of my favorite books. Even though I didn’t like A Thousand Splendid Suns as much, I was eager to read And the Mountains Echoed. I was not disappointed. I read eagerly, dying to know what happened to Pari and Abdullah. I was so desperate, in fact, for Pari to find out the truth, that I couldn’t stop reading until after four hours, my eyelids closed and I had to call it quits. When I resumed the book the next day, I hit a bit of a lull. I found the section toward the end about Markos simply diverted from the story I wanted to read. I skimmed through, hoping that the ending would recapture the feeling I had the previous evening. And, it did not disappoint. I won’t spoil the story for you by getting into the details – it’s a good one with a fairly good ending. I had hopes through most of the book that things would turn out differently than they did, but there was a satisfaction for me in the way that Hosseini chose to wrap this one up. I recommend you check it out.

As a former classroom teacher and reading specialist as well as a parent, I have had more than the average amount of exposure to children’s books. In another lifetime, I would be a children’s librarian. Here are my favorites – some I read as a kid, some I loved as a teacher, and some I love to read to my kids.

There are so many books in this category, but I am limiting myself to my top 10 next reads.

People know I read a lot. Consequently, I am frequently asked “What have you read lately that you have loved?” and “What are your favorites?” This post is a compilation with no comments. In gathering the list, I loved finding the covers of the versions I actually read. I will follow up with a post about favorites from 2013, since it is drawing to a close.

These are in no particular order…

Well, I do love bagels, and Georgetown Bagels are some of our family’s favorites. Not only is the shop close to our home, but also we truly believe these bagels are the best in town (not that there are many good ones to choose from). Having heard vague stories of the demise of the marriage of “the bagel lady” and her husband who is the owner of Palisades Pizzaria (another place we frequent), I thought this would be an interesting read. I was fortunate that a friend purchased the book and loaned it to me –  glad I didn’t pay for it – but I get ahead of myself.

I began Who Scooped My Bagel having just finished Me Before You (see previous post), so the bar was set high. Perhaps that made this read even worse, but I am not sure that is possible. [Caveat inserted here: I do feel sympathy for Adler. If even 1% of what she claims is true, she has had a terrible time of it. HOWEVER…) Even though Adler claims to be a writer, I am sorry to say that it is not her writing that makes this a page-turner. It is the train-wreck that was her life and having a sense of the place and the players that made me finish the book. Nothing more.

Adler jumps from past to present to cooking lesson in a jarring fashion. She also skips through 20 years in a few pages. However, the book only takes about an hour to read. Thank goodness, because I will never get that time back. Ask someone who has read the book to summarize for you. And, buy her bagels, not her books, should you choose to support her.

Me Before You sat on my bedside table for a while, tempting me. But, I had library books and other important matters to attend to before I could manage it. Wow, I should have made this one a priority. It was such a good read that I read it in two days. My only complaint was the change in voice that surprised me and snuck in too long after I was used to hearing Louisa’s perspective.

Overall, however, this story is one that is worth reading. I began thinking it was going to be predictable. Of course they were going to fall in love. But, what was going to be the hook? How was it going to happen? Moyes wrote the book in such a way that you had to read to find out, even while having the inevitability in the back of your mind the whole way through.

While reading, I was able to shut out everything else happening in life. And, by the end, all I could do was weep.