Happy 2012

Christmas and New Years came and went pretty quickly.  I have really enjoyed being on Christmas break from work (working for a high school has the best perks!)  I go back in 2 days, so thought I'd make a blog post now while I have more time.  These are the books I read so far during the break:
So good.  I loved the first half of the book.  The villain (Warner) was the best villain I've read in a long time.  I wanted him to be the love interest, even though he really is evil!  Good writing made him a villain you love to hate.  He was by far more interesting than the love interest Adam.  Oh well, there will be more books, so maybe Warner will come around to being a good guy after all.  I will pick up the sequel just to read more about him!
Didn't like this one nearly as much as Graceling.  I loved Graceling.  This one, not really.  I ended up just skimming the rest of the book.  Bitterblue is coming out this spring, so I'll give that one a try.  I hope I love it like I did Graceling.  Fire was just a disappointment.
OK, so I picked up three books from my school library that looked interesting.  I've always loved studying history and art, architecture, music, literature all together.  Humanities classes were my favorite classes ever in high school and college.  This book was great.  I loved reading it, and have started on the next one in the series:
I found these books while shelf reading, which is kind of fun.  I go down the rows of books making sure the books are shelved correctly in dewey decimal order.  I know, I'm a geek.  But I find buried treasures like these gems!
I've always been interested in survival stories.  I love to read about people surviving against all odds.  Of course, half of the Donner party did not survive, but it was very interesting to read about.  Makes me appreciate living now, with my comfortable home and car.
   I ended up liking this one.  I started it this summer and just couldn't get into it.  The main character was just a little too obsessed with wolves, kind of in a creepy way.  Eventually that makes more sense when you find out she was bitten, perhaps making her identify more with them than the average person would.  As I continued reading this where I left off a few weeks ago I began enjoying the story.  Maggie Stiefvater really is a great writer.  I plan to read the rest of the trilogy this month.

And finally,
Harry Potter books are some of my all-time favorites of course.  I read this book on the way to Indianapolis for Christmas.  A quick read that gave me the motivation to finally read Jane Austen.  I know!  I love historical romance and have never read her books.  So I am listening to an audio book of Emma.  I listen to it while cleaning the kitchen and cooking dinner.  So far I am on chapter 8, and it makes kitchen work a little more enjoyable.  I got a tablet for Christmas from my dear husband, so I can now listen to books!  I prefer reading them myself of course, but to be truthful, I don't think I would read Austen any other time, so this way works for me.  Here are the books I'm hoping to read in January:
Variant    Robison Wells
The Goddess Test    Aimee Carter
Radiant Darkness     Emily Whitman
The Pledge     Kimberly Derting
The Future of Us     Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
Linger     Maggie Stiefvater
Forever     Maggie Stiefvater