I’ve always been a pretty prolific reader, but since the Pizza Hut Book It program in elementary school I’ve never kept track of what I’ve read. This is probably because (1) in the past I didn’t buy most the books I read, but borrowed them from the library and (2) I read so much and so quickly it was hard to keep track; prior to Reagan reading two 300+ page books in one day was common on the weekend or on vacation!
Since then things have changed. I now download 100% of my books (free and paid) to the Kindle app on my iPhone, which makes keeping track of the books I read much easier. And, with Reagan, work, and everything else in my life, I don’t read nearly as much! Thus for 2013 I’ve decided to try and keep track of everything I read on a monthly basis.
Here is the list of books I read this January!
- Betrayed (House of Night Book 2) – P. C. Cast
- Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage – Alfred Alnsing
- Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day – Jonathan Bergmann & Aaron Sams
- Dream Eyes (Dark Legacy Series Book 2) – Jayne Ann Krenz
- Rise of the Fallen (All the King’s Men Series Book 1) – Donya Lynne
- Chosen (House of Night Book 3) – P.C. Cast
- Untamed (House of Night Book 4) – P.C. Cast
- Hunted (House of Night Book 5) – P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast
- Tempted (House of Night Book 6) – P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast
- Burned (House of Night Book 7) – P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast
- Dark Promises – Gwendolyn Cease
- Micah’s Calling – Donya Lynne
- For Time and Eternity – Allison Pittman
Summary
The House of Night Series is addictive and expensive. I kept telling myself that I’d stop and move on to something else, but the author ends each book with such a cliffhanger that I had to get the next one. This probably wasn’t helped by the fact that I’m reading them on my Kindle app and can have the next downloaded and started within a few minutes! I finally researched the series on Wikipedia so I could see what happens in the next books and wouldn’t feel as desperate to download them. This has partially helped because I finally stopped at book 7, but I’m still thinking about them so we’ll see how long it lasts before I start back up again!
Kindle App on my phone!
Endurance was a deep and emotional read. It took me a lot longer to get through this book than most books this length, but I think its because the it’s a real life story and really pulls you into it. This book was also a book group book for our College and it’s been great getting together with others who love to read and really talk about the story.
Flip Your Classroom was a quick and easy read. It is also the educational book for our College’s book group this semester. This means a group of us has been meeting to talk about the book and how to implement some of its teachings it in the classroom. Since the book is so short we’ve had to supplement it with additional articles and presentations, but overall it’s a good book an worth it for educators to read.
Dream Eyes is a typical Jayne Ann Krenz book. I’ve been reading Krenz since I was in high school and still love her books even though at times they can get a bit predictable. This one was actually a little better than the last few have been.
Rise of the Fallen was interesting (and free), but just didn’t grab me quite enough to get me to download the rest of the series. Yet, it must have appealed to my Mom because she went ahead and bought the next book in the series, Micah’s Calling, so I went ahead and read it.
**Side note: My Mom and I share a Kindle account. We both read so much and so much of the same stuff that it makes sense to share an account so that way we could share all of our books. Our account is technically my account, but throughout the year we settle up money wise so it all equals out in the end. It also saves us money because we’re splitting the cost of all the books we buy. We’ve been doing this for almost four years now and it works great!**
Dark Promises was an ok read. It wasn’t your typical vampire book, but was just enough off in some places to not make me want to go read more of this series. In all honesty if my Mom hadn’t bought this book I probably wouldn’t have read it.
For Time and Eternity was an interesting book. It followed the story of a good Christian girl who fell for a Mormon boy and ran off with him to Utah (and got married) in the 1800’s. The main female character seems ok with the Mormon religion for a while, but after her newborn son dies and her husband starts talking about taking another wife, she comes to realize that she doesn’t really believe the Mormon teachings and really is a Christian at heart. I found this book interesting because it delves into the Mormon beliefs and teachings of the time, especially those of polygamy. Yet, the book ended really crappy with the main character becoming lost (and possibly) dying in a snowstorm. On the high side I then researched the author a little bit and found out there is a sequel to this book that covers what happens to the main character after the snowstorm. It’s a newer book and still rather pricey, so I didn’t buy it… yet. 🙂
Guess we’ll have to wait and see what February brings!
