What I'm Reading

A happy byproduct of pursuing a career that involves books is giving myself "permission" to read more often, something I didn't always have time to do when I was working. And another happy byproduct of pursuing a career with middle school students is that it gives me a built-in excuse to check out some new YA literature, as well as revisit some of my old favorites.

My goal is to read at least one book targeted to the middle school population (give or take) as well as whatever other books I happen to be reading at the time.

Without further ado...

Just One Day - This is my YA pick. I looked through a few different sources and found several top 10 lists from 2013 and this was a pretty consistent pick. Bonus: There's a sequel (built-in pick for another month!)

Verdict: 4 stars - I really liked this book and I was surprised to identify with the protagonist even though   she's 20 years younger than I. I found myself really rooting for her and I will definitely read the companion book (Just One Year) for an upcoming pick very soon. 

The Silent Wife - This is my book club pick for February. While my book club is more of the wine club who occasionally reads the book club, I am still a stickler and am one of the few who reads the book every month. Most of us did read Gone Girl when that was our pick last year, so I'm hopeful this is similarly gripping.

Verdict: 2 stars - I wanted to like this, especially given the Gone Girl comparisons, but Gone Girl, it was not. It was plotted well enough to hold my interest and I got through it pretty quickly (it helped that it was only 250 pages) but I just didn't care enough about the characters, and I wasn't all that satisfied with the ending.

Happier at Home - I picked up the Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin's first happiness tome, on the Parents' Pick shelf in the Children's room of my local library and loved it. I was attracted to the sequel because it breaks down ways to create your own happiness into smaller chunks. And we can all use more happiness in our life, right?

Verdict: In progress - I'm purposely taking my time with this one. So far, so good (not that I've implemented any of her ideas yet), but there's still time!