Happiness is...

This delightful mug is by Emma Bridgewater, a brilliant ceramics artist. Sadly, Sadly this mug is in the UK and I am here in West Texas. I can't justify shipping costing more than the purchase, but I wanted to share it anyway. If you feel so inclined...buy it here.

I have been away for quite a long time. I'd like to say I was somewhere exotic reading loads of wonderful novels on the beach. But I was not. Insert sad face. I was attending two brutal semesters of summer school. Blah. And with my two week break over, I am now starting my fall classes. Double Blah!

What I have read in my absence...
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman
And a couple more of those Sookie Stackhouse novels.

Don't judge. My friend gave them to me and I just can't not read something once they give me the whole series. So I have completed the 9 books my friend Shawna gave me, but apparently there are more. I'm not fully invested, and they read rather quickly. I would not buy them myself, but since they were loaned to me, I have read every last one.

What I am reading now...
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer
Eat Love Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert

Current Reading Update

Finished Harry Potter this weekend, again. It such a wonderful story and I am glad I re-read it, I missed or forgot a lot the first round. Which makes me think I should start from the very beginning again.
Tonight, I will finish Judy Blume's Forever. And start the Alchemist.

I couldn't wait. I finished Forever 30 mins after I got home from work.

Currently Reading

As I said before, there is never just one book on the table. I am about to finish the seventh installment of the Harry Potter series (again). My brother and I discussed the fact that when the book came out we were so excited that we read it in a day, but now going back and reading it again we realized in all our excitement that we finished the book without actually retaining the story. We got to the end, and that was the point. Both of us are reading it again, and we will call each other and talk about all the things we forgot. It's silly. But this go around I took my time reading, instead of hurrying before anyone could talk to me about it. It really is a wonderful book.

On my quest to read as many banned books as I can, I picked up Forever by Judy Blume, which is on the top 100 Banned Books of 1990-2000. A relatively small book, but I was captured by the characters in the first 20 pages. For some reason I have always though of Judy Blume as a children/young adult author. And though this books characters are teenagers they are dealing with the topic of sex, which most people still consider an adult activity. I am only on chapter 8, but will give a full review after I am finished.

I encourage everyone to check out the banned book list. In the US, we are lucky enough to have freedom of speech. Banned Book Week is the last week of September, read a banned book.

Top 100 Banned Novels of the 20th Century

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you feel that it all happened to you and after which it all belongs to you.
- Ernest Hemingway