books I read on vacation (the sequel)
My summer travels completed, I come bearing a list. I admit I'm a little surprised I had any time for reading at all, what with all the things I was doing and seeing and enjoying. Jam-packed was the time, one might say. But you can't separate a bookworm from her life's calling, so here's the collection.
I started off with the Elements of Cadence duology by R. Ross: A River Enchanted and A Fire Endless. I've discovered I like reading a fantasy series during the summer. I need something that will suck me in and transport me to other worlds when travelling for many hours at a time and this duology did the job. I liked both books (I didn't love them) and I think I liked A River Enchanted more than A Fire Endless for plot reasons.
I then read North and South by E. Gaskell for the fourth time. I do have a problem; I'll be the first to admit it. But it is oddly comforting in its investigation of complex human relationships, and I think I just needed that.
Next were two rather bland romance novels, Binding 13 by C. Walsh, which might have been actually enjoyable if I was 15 years younger, and Yours Truly by A. Jimenez, which was simply ok. I laughed at certain points for both, but I don't think I'll be reading either again.
Mansfield Park by J. Austen was the last book I read on vacation, well finished, if I want to be entirely accurate. And like North and South, I think I just needed to read it right now. I also am now entirely ready to give it the flowers it deserves, and I apologize for saying it was my least favorite Jane Austen. There is something in the story that I found deeply compelling that I overlooked a decade ago.
I'm currently reading Augustus by J. Williams for the third time? I think? It is one of my favorite books of all time and that fact does make me laugh at myself a little. But I will absolutely never get over it, so I guess here we are.
~nan