It's finally time. I have gotten enough books read this season that I am able to share the best of them here.
Wild by Cheryl Strayed – this one I saw getting mentioned over and over on the blogs and IG (do you notice books tend to do that? Like Night Circus and Gone Girl? And of course Bossypants.). It took me awhile to get in to, but once I was in, I was so in. For me, it's hard to not draw the comparison between this book and Eat, Pray, Love (which I tremendously enjoyed my first year out of college). Both are told by women who experienced loss and heartbreak, decided to ambitiously travel and met crazy characters along the way. This was gritty at some times and sweet at others and honestly funny. I laughed at the author's ability to laugh at herself. And this book really, really, really made me want to go hiking.
Still Life by Louise Penny – an enjoyable fiction mystery. Sometimes, I forget that I really love mystery books. I think this got added to my queue because the author recently published another and it's on the bestseller list (therefore there is a long wait) and so I decided to read something else from her. The characters were fun and the story was well organized. I didn't know "whodunit" until it was revealed, and it made sense when it was. I'll probably read a few more of these from her (it seems they all feature the same detective).
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver – sometimes you read the right book at the right time and everything clicks. This was that book for me. I loved it. It's on my top five chart of books, I think (though just thinking about having to pick a top five list makes me anxious). I'm a big Kingsolver fan (not from high school when we had to read Pigs in Heaven but from last year when I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle). I like how she weaves her real life with her fiction (although presumably many authors do this, I just don't read their fiction and their memoirs). It's told from the point of view of three characters in the same small farm town and the way their stories were interwoven was creative and (for me) unexpected. I don't know, it took me a bit to get into it, but I just loved this book. I was sad when it ended.
I Feel Bad about My Neck by Nora Ephron – I've been hearing good things about this short (very short – I devoured it in an evening) memoir. Then I saw it on this list of laugh out loud books and had to add it to my library queue. It was so good. Easy to read (again – devoured in a night) and lighthearted, but also incredibly smart. I didn't actually emit laughter out loud. But my face broke into a grin at least six times. I made Paul listen to paragraphs at least twice. Every chapter was on point but her thoughts on parenting and reading really nailed it for me. My favorite quote relates to reading a great book… "Days pass as I savor every word. Each minute I spend away from the book pretending to be interested in everyday life is a misery."
I'm currently reading Pilgrims, short stories by Elizabeth Gilbert and then I think next for me is The Woman in White, recommended by Nora herself and a free download for the kindle or kindle app. For past book reports from me check here, here, and here.
What's on your nightstand? I would love to hear. (And be sure to check back on this post, the comments section is always full of outstanding book recommendations.)
*links throughout are affiliate, though I highly recommend checking these out at your local library. I am the biggest library convert there ever was.
enJOY it 
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