Books, Books, and More Books

One thing I love about summer vacation? So much reading time!

So far, I've read the whole of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray. I found them in the Young Adult section of Barnes and Noble, but I quite liked them. They're about a 16-year-old girl, Gemma Doyle who attends a rather stuffy Victorian-era finishing school after living her life in India...only to discover that she has secret powers and access to the Realms, a world of magic, mystery and danger. Like J.K. Rowling, Bray never talks down to her young audience, and her trilogy covers ideas ranging from early feminism to Victorian working conditions. Of course, it wouldn't be Victorian England without class issues and there is even a lesbian relationship between two of the girls. Gemma herself is in love with a young Indian man, Kartik, even though in her world, this is considered wrong.

Anyway, I enjoyed them.

I took a break from three different books to finish off this trilogy, so soon I will finish off Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman , A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, and A Wrinkle In Time. In the picture above, I have books two and three in the Bunnicula series, Howliday Inn and The Celery Stalks at Midnight. I had a blast re-reading Bunnicula (it took me less than one day) and I look forward to re-reading other childhood favorites such as The Indian in the Cupboard...and, of course, one you can see in my stack pictured above: the ever-classic Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by the incomparable Judy Blume.

Also on my mile-high stack are a Tessa Dare romance, One Dance With a Duke (I don't read a lot of romance anymore, but Regency-era romances get me every time), Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners (again, the Regency fascinates me!), and Brigid of Kildare: A Novel.
Other recent reads include Ten Things I Love About You by the always-fabulous Julia Quinn (her books are less bodice-ripping and more wit and verbal back-and-forth, with strong, feisty heroines and funny heroes).  I devoured Dead in the Family, the latest Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris (love the books, feel pretty "meh" about the HBO series).

The newest Stephanie Plum adventure, Sizzling Sixteen, will be out in two weeks, so I'll definitely be buying that.

And should I finish all of these books and find that I have no money to buy more, I am due a good re-read of the whole of the Harry Potter series. I never, ever get tired of Harry Potter.

Next, I suppose I'll have to do a movie post. I've been watching a lot of DVDs of late, too.