It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/5

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? --From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme startted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers.  This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take.  Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole host of titles to add to your to-read lists.

How can it already be August? It is interesting how certain things mark the time passing for you.  Last Wednesday was my birthday.  I had a lovely time celebrating on multiple days with different family members and having some fun treats.

This was my favorite treat:

Every summer at about this time I start to think about back-to-school and my mind starts to gear up for school again.  It starts with the teacher dreams and then I know it is time to start letting my mind wander over the possibilities for the coming year.  My reading week was a great reading week, but I am beginning to feel a little more scattered with my reading and somewhat desperate realizing that I will not make nearly the dent in my piles that I hoped to make.  Oh well, life goes on and I know I have some excellent new books to share this year.  I also have been making a big effort to balance out some of the adult books I want to read with the young adult and middle grade titles on my TBR list.

Books Finished This Week:

Adult Books

Judgment Calls by Alafair Burke is a compelling mystery which is the first in her Samantha Kincaid series.  This author is one that will be speaking at the literary seminar I will attend in January so I will be reading more of her books before then.  This one was a good start and I will enjoy getting to know this protagonist more in the next mysteries.

Graphic Novels

I enjoyed reading the first volume of Sandman by Neil Gaiman.  My husband has gotten quite into reading graphic novels and comics and I was curious about this series.  I have only read Coraline and The Graveyard Book by this author and wanted to read something else.  I think this graphic novel is really well done, but it wasn't my taste.  It was a little too dark and creepy for me.  I am interested in reading other novels by Neil Gaiman and will probably do this soon since my husband is voraciously reading through his entire bibliography.  

Young Adult/Middle Grade

I really enjoyed the audiobook of Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  I thought the two narrators did an excellent job reading and I liked that I had two distinct voices in my head.  I really like the way this narrative unfolds and I love the messages in the book.  I think this one is more of a high school book but I will probably end up recommending it to a few of my 8th grade students this year.  I would absolutely recommend it to high school students and adults.  

I enjoyed reading Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging and definitely snorted with laughter a few times while reading.  This was a quick and fun read and I am sure many teens will love it and identify with some of Georgia's antics.  I read this one for the NerdPrintz challenge and you can read my review of it here.

I really enjoyed Doll Bones by Holly Black.  I was ecstatic to see that this book, which has been really raved about on multiple blogs, was one of the August Kindle deals.  The e-book is just $1.99 right now.  Go snag the deal if you haven't read it yet!  I really had my teacher brain on the whole time I was reading this one.  I think this would be a great read aloud and I have a few other ideas for connections in my longer review here.

Love this one!  I will post a longer review closer to the publication date.  LOVE IT! You must pre-order this book immediately and read The Raven Boys if you haven't yet.  Maggie Steifvater is an author that I truly admire for her ability to write fantasy that feels so realistic.

Books I am Currently Reading:

This list is definitely a sign of how scattered I have been lately.  I have been really indecisive about what I want to read and then I end up with a huge pile of books.  First, I am listening to Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1).  I love this story so far and will definitely be finding excuses to put on my headphones and listen.  Cleaning my house becomes much less of a chore when I have a good audiobook!  I have also started reading 3 different professional books: Teach Like a Pirate, Write Beside Them, and Mechanically Inclined.  Can you feel the teacher momentum picking up?  The other books I have going right now are We are Not Eaten by Yaks, Dexter in the Dark, and Spilling Ink.  

What's Up Next?

Well, since I have so many books going right now, I will probably not start too many others this week.  If I can finish all of these books I will be in pretty good shape.  I still have a couple library books to get to as well so I might actually set one of the other ones to the side until I get through those.  I also have a few projects around the house that I want to get to before going back to school in a few weeks so I may not have as much reading time.  We shall see.  

What are you reading this week?  Did you read any great books that I must add to my list?  Please share in the comments.  

Have a great reading week!