After tallying up the books I've read through September, I am a mere 5 books away from reaching my goal of 60 books for this year!!!! How about that?! I'm kind of excited to see what number I actually do reach! I haven't reached a yearly reading goal in a few years and, because I am nothing but a big ol' dork, I am thrilled to actually meet this year's goal.
Here's what I read this month:
1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Elisabeth and Evan encouraged me to read this book. I had never heard of it before until Elisabeth took an interest in it. A sci-fi dystopia about Earth having been invaded by an alien race they called Buggers, Ender Wiggin is asked to join the Battle School at age 6 due to his genius. Manipulated throughout his entire training, the story revolves around Ender striving for and constantly having taken from him love, friendship, and affection. A great book! I look forward to the rest of the series.
2. Hail, Holy Queen by Scott Hahn
I really enjoy Hahn's books. They are in depth, full of references and resources to prove his points and encourage you to read more on your own, and are well written. Obviously a book to be cataloged in the Catholic book category, I enjoyed this book because there were so many things about Mary I hadn't even know or read before. A great source for lots of Mother Mary questions.
3. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
Yet another book I've had for ages and hadn't read yet. Thank goodness for my current goal to read through my bookshelves alphabetically. This book was beautiful. Historic, full of art, love, and seeking the meaning of life in a chaotic world, I could not put this book down. I loved Alessandra. She was the perfect voice to narrate this book. Dunant's words are palpable. If you love books by Tracy Chevair, you'll love love love this book. Please, someone read this book so I can talk about it with you!!!
4. On Being Human by Fulton Sheen
Fulton Sheen was a priest from the Peoria, IL area (woot!) who went on to become the Archbishop of New York. I guess he was/is a pretty big deal, but I've only recently heard about him. This book is a collection of his newspaper articles that spanned from the 1940s to the 1970s. It was a pretty big book and took me most of the month to get through because it wasn't one you could really fly through. Lots of big ideas to think on. Lots of important views to take your time soaking in. But, I definitely would recommend this one because it'd be super easy to read a smidge at a time the way it's broken up. You could easily read certain parts in between other books.
5. The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
I only got less than 100 pages into this book, but I wanted to put it here to warn you all about its terribleness. Dude, seriously. The writing was just too terrible to ignore. You know how sometimes an author's writing isn't flawless, but their story telling is so you forgive them the writing aspect because you were so lost in the story and characters? Yeah, that did not happen AT ALL. There were supposed to be a back and forth between two characters in two different times, but their stories would eventually overlap. You should really have your writing polished before you attempt this idea and should probably also not throw in a third random time/character/setting without any forewarning. I haven't had a book I've discarded and disliked so much in a long time. Bleh.
6. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
You guys! You guys!!! Tell me one of you has read this book! I picked up this book after Anne Bogel over at Modern Mrs Darcy said she couldn't put it down (I heart Anne. She's yet to steer me wrong in her reading recommendations). Dude, you guys, I read this 850 page book in less than 3 days. I can't stop thinking about it and will probably *have* to get the next book in the series. So, it's about Claire, a nurse and wife to Frank in 1945. They're in Scotland on a second honeymoon waiting for Oxford to start the school year because Frank will be a history professor there. As she's wondering around Scotland she ends up somehow transported to the exact same spot in Scotland in 1743. It's just so great. There were times where I felt the book was a bit campy, times I was like--Wait, what?! Seriously, did they just say that?!--but overall, I just couldn't put it down. I must warn you, the love scenes are quite steamy (!!!) and there is a lot of 1700 types of violence. If you have read this, please, message me so I can go all fangirl over this book for a smidge.
{Fair warning, I will be basically reposting this over at Mea Cuppa on the 15th when I link up with Anne at Modern Mrs Darcy for her monthly Twitterature link up. If you've not read her blog yet, do it!!!}
Yay! Books I have not even HEARD OF let alone read! I love your reading logs!!
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