It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 1/5/15

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? --From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started 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 bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

This was another great reading week, helped along by the fact that it was still winter break. I have been really picking up excellent reading material lately. I hope the trend continues.

Books I Finished This Week:

The Pale Assassin by Patricia Elliott really took me by surprise. I enjoyed reading this book and learning more about the French revolution from the point of view of an aristocrat. I flew through the book because I was so curious about what was going to happen. I have the second book on my TBR shelf and I am sure I will be picking it up to read soon.

I love Kate Messner's books! I have absolutely adored every one of them. All the Answers was no exception.  Imagine that you have a pencil that will answer all your questions for you, provided they are questions that have factual answers. Would you want to know? Ava thinks she wants to know and that she has an amazing find in the pencil that will give her the answers. She soon finds out that maybe learning all the answers is not exactly what she thought it would be. This book is heartwarming and I cannot wait to buy a copy for my class library.

In Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne, disaster is striking all around. There is ridiculously big hail that causes car crashes, there are earthquakes and tsunamis happening around the world. And then the defense company nearby leaks gas into the air. Now, it is dangerous to go outside. In the book, a group of kids are abandoned in a superstore while their bus driver goes to seek help. They are left to fend for themselves and to fight for their survival. This book was fascinating and I had a hard time putting it down. Good thing I was on vacation and could stay up to all hours of the morning to read.

I listened to Confessions of a Murder Suspect on audiobook. I loved this book, but I am not sure I would have loved it as much without the audio narrator. I think she nailed the tone of the book. I will be interested to read more of this series to see if they hold up. I would highly recommend this entertaining read to high school students and adults.

Into the Still Blue is the third book in the Under the Never Sky trilogy. I listened to the first two books and loved them both as audiobooks. This one was a really well written and believable third book. I love when authors really nail the ending of a series. If you are a fan of dystopian/post-apocalyptic books, then you need to read this series right now. Oh, and Perry and Roar are swoon-worthy characters if you like that sort of thing ;)

A Crooked Kind of Perfect was a perfect light and quick read. This is a heartwarming story about a girl who works to make lemonade out of lemons. She is the kind of character that you just love to love. Her father loves her and has good intentions, but never quite comes through for her in the right way. Take for instance the dreams she has of becoming a concert pianist. Her father gets her an organ. Yes, it is an instrument, but it is not the elegant one that she had envisioned for herself. I highly recommend this middle grade read to everyone.

I just finished listening to Of Poseidon by Anna Banks. I loved this book. I must find the next one! It is the perfect mix of supernatural mystery, mythology, and teen romance. The audiobook narrator did an excellent job with this one also. I once again found myself looking for tasks I could do in order to continue listening to my book when I finished my workouts. My kitchen is mighty clean lately.  I highly recommend this one as well.

Books I Am Currently Reading:

I am still plugging away at El tiempo entre costuras and am also reading The Blood of Olympus.

What's Next?

I may have gone a little overboard in requesting books at my local library. I have quite the pile of books to read and some are super lengthy. I will have to see what happens this week and realistically how much time I have for reading. I would like to read Dreams of Gods and Monsters if I have time, but man that book is thick. We shall see what happens.

What are you reading? I would love to hear from you in the comments!