Ah, books.

I have been lamenting how busy I've been lately, but I've actually been able to read a few books despite my crazy calender. And since all I've been writing about in this blog the past few weeks has been food and the girls, I figured it would be a nice change of pace to talk about something totally different than all that. So, books it is. Glorious books. I have loved to read for as long as I can remember. I think I've been devouring them since I was able to read. I remember spending all my allowance and hard earned babysitting money in the little book store up above the women's clothing store in Sidney, Montana. Oh and the book order from school, those were always great days too. Once I got to high school and then college, I didn't do as much reading for fun. It seemed like there was always a book I had to not only read but also critique or analyze, especially once I changed my major to English in college. There just wasn't much time for fun reading. Even after graduating and getting a job, I still didn't do much fun reading. Maybe I was burnt out on reading or maybe it was just because I was caught up in life, who knows. Of course I didn't read much as a newlywed, either. :-)

But sometime between getting married and having babies, I started to read again. And now I'm right back into it, with what free time I have to read, because all you stay-at-home moms know, I certainly don't have time to read during the day!! So, I usually end up with a book in hands in the evening, before turning in for the night and on vacation. (Oh blessed vacation when I pack four or five books for a week and I can just sit on the beach and read....that is pure bliss in my book.)

Some of my more recent reads are pictured above:

 "Change of Heart" by Jodi Picoult is typical of her books, well written and exploring real life circumstances and filled with 'what-if's'. This one dives into the issue of a man on death row wanting to donate his heart to a young girl, the sister/daughter of his alleged victims. It got me thinking and kind of reminded me of  a book on capital punishment that I read so long ago, "Dead Man Walking." This one was good, though, I would recommend it.

"Alex Cross's Trial" by James Patterson. I do enjoy a good James Patterson novel. How that man can keep cranking books out is really beyond me. But this one was good, and different. Instead of being about his classic detective, Alex Cross, it was written as if he was writing it about an ancestor, set in post-civil war South. Definitely interesting and well written, as usual.

"Song of the Seals" by Christy Yorke. My first fun book checked out from the public library here. The girls have been wanting to go and I have no idea why I'd never gone, but we did and now we are all hooked. I had to implement a 'five book rule' to keep us all reigned in to a reasonable number of books! :-) I love that I can check out cookbooks to try instead of buying them, and I can slowly creep down my "to be read" list without spending a dime! Sure, I love to own books, but lately I've only been keeping the really good ones and then turning the rest in to the Book Exchange, so using the library is perfect. Anyway, this book by Yorke was good, I would recommend it as well.

So, all this talk about the library, check out my "loot" from our last stop there:

I am excited to start on these, three of them are on my list and the other two were just 'found'. Oh, and do you recognize the top one? It is a bit young for me, but I remember it being one of my favorites as a young reader, and so I got it for Lindsay, but also thought if it was too advanced for her, that I could read it to both the girls. I just really enjoy sharing the books that I enjoyed as a youngster, with them--it makes me smile. Hopefully I will be able to tell you about one or two of these books soon!

What about you? What have you been reading or what is on your "to-be-read" list?