Summer Reading

Hello, all! As my super-long summer vacation finally draws to a close (it's lasted almost 4 months), I thought I'd share the list of books I've read since graduation. As we all know, I had lofty goals for the summer and had several reading lists that were about a million books long. True to form, I didn't really follow those lists, but still managed to read 40 books. Here they are! Asterisks denote books that I've read before.

1) A Clockwork Orange. Not my favorite. And I believe it was on the Rory Gilmore reading list.
2) A Brief History of Montmarary. Such a great series!
3) The Lady and the Peacock. A biography of Aang San Suu Kyi, one of my favorite women.
4) A Season of Gifts. Richard Peck wrote a companion novel to A Long Way from Chicago!!
5) The FitzOsbournes in Exile. Montarary book #2.
6) The Great Gatsby*. I also read part of it in German, but I didn't finish it that way.
7) Rather Outspoken. I miss Dan Rather anchoring the CBS Evening News.
8) The Fault in Our Stars*. The movie's about to start filming! This book is the reason why I'm obsessed with visiting Amsterdam.
9) Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way
10) Islam: the Religion and the People.
11) The FitzOsbournes at War. The thrilling conclusion to the Montmarary saga.
12) The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
13) Bossypants*
14) Madam Secretary. Madeleine Albright is my hero.
15) The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. Such a good read!
16) The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Not as good as I was expecting.
17) Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words.
18) The Mystery of the Purple Pool*. Who doesn't love the Boxcar Children?
19) Top Secret America. This was on Kentucky's recommended reading list for their IR grad program. Although I'm not going there, I figured the books were still worth reading.
20) Dreams From My Father.
21) A Farewell to Arms. This wasn't as depressing as I expected!
22) Shakespeare's Sonnets. From the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge
23) The Wisdom of Compassion.
24) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler*. The reason I'm convinced my time in NYC would've been better spent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art than at MoMA.
25) Lean In. Another Kentucky pick.
26) Matilda*
27) An Abundance of Katherines*
28) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone*
29) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*
30) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*
31) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*
32) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix* I read my British edition that I bought in Rome in 2007.
33) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*
34) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
35) Paper Towns*
36) 13 Little Blue Envelopes* Seemed like something a girl about to venture to Europe on her own should re-read...
37) Anna and the French Kiss* Same reasoning as the above.
38) Lola and the Boy Next Door*. I'm waiting for the next book, Stephanie Perkins.
39) Perfect Scoundrels*
40) Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City*

I also read Currency Wars, but I'm not quite sure when because I didn't write it on my list. It was another Kentucky pick. So it's looking like 41 books with a week to go in my summer vacation.

I moved back home around number 27, which is the reason for all the re-reads. I also read portions of Let's Go - Europe (while taking notes) and keep looking at my old German textbook.
I was in a bit of a funk after re-reading the entire Harry Potter series. I'll probably pull out my Beedle the Bard, Quidditch Through the Ages, & Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sometime in the next week. I also stole and am wearing a t-shirt that belongs to my sister and reads "don't let the Muggles get you down," although I finally got over the series enough to change out of my Luna Lovegood-inspired earring combination (owls and purple stars). I'm currently reading Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb.

I'm leaving for Germany one week from today. I think I should be more anxious than I am; I've got a pile of stuff in my room, but I haven't actually started packing. I'm going to do that on Tuesday or Wednesday. Besides that, I'm mostly trying to eat a lot of Mexican food and pizza (German pizza is...underwhelming) and I'm drinking a Dr. Pepper any time I take a notion to! (But caffeine-free because it tastes better and doesn't keep me up all night. I don't really drink much caffeine.) I'm also trying to get up half an hour earlier each morning, which I doubt will make my jet lag any lighter, but makes me feel like I'm doing something AND makes me feel like an old retired lady because now I'm getting up early enough to watch CBS This Morning and the Today Show.

Finally, an important note: I'm going to try and blog on my Fulbright blog about things that relate to moving to Germany and experiences I have there, so I'll probably be posting on that for most of the next year.

eleanor & park

There is nothing like reading a really good book that makes you lose track of time. I was taken aback when I sat down for a few minutes and then looked at the clock an hour later. (Luckily, I did all my work yesterday so I have time for that sort of thing.)

Reading a good book gives me the same feeling as when I've just eaten a good amount of good chocolate. Not something chocolate flavored, like cookies or cake, but actual chocolates. And I started feeling this way about a quarter of the way into this book.

Basically, Eleanor & Park live in a bad part of Omaha. Not like gang-bad; more like poor people in bad situations bad. Park's family is good, while Eleanor has a stepfather from hell. This book also made me feel guilty for every time I've ever thought something rude about someone wearing strange clothes.

By the time I fell asleep last night, about halfway through this book, it felt like someone was sticking a knife into my heart and slowly turning it in a circle but IN A GOOD WAY. This feeling persisted to the end of the book. I'm not sure what I liked about it...but it was so good. I loved that they loved each other, and that they knew Romeo & Juliet well enough to occasionally make fun of young love.

Maybe I shouldn't review books. This is about how I felt, not how they felt. It wasn't passive, at least. Walter Benjamin would be proud. Overall: read this book. It feels like a small town story, but it's set in a city.
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Also in my life: I've started watching all of the Matt Smith episodes of Doctor Who again. It's a nice way to waste time and justify my Netflix subscription. I went to Wilson Park earlier; the weather was beautiful and there were many cute families there to enjoy it. I'm so glad there's a nice walking path there - it feels much safer than using the city trails. While I was walking, I realized that I won't get to Germany until strawberry season is over! What is Germany without strawberries so red they stain your fingers?!