2015 Reading: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (13 books)

I listened to these straight through on my way to work or any car ride that would take longer than 20 minutes. All 13. I originally started them because I had seen the movie and I heard that Tim Curry read the audiobooks and then I just wanted to know more about them. It's very seldom that you get a young children's novel (or set of novels) that have no happy endings in them at all. (I'm fond of Summer of My German Soldier and Jacob Have I Loved as well.)

I really enjoyed listening to them. I can honestly say that there were parts that made me laugh out loud and other parts that made me grip the steering wheel in anger.

This brings my total up to 44 for the year so far and I'm in the middle of another that I hope to finish before New Year's. Better than I was thinking. Still worse than last year.

2015 Reading: Shattered Mirror

This was another one of those books that was on my shelf that I still had not read. I knew it would be a fast read so I went ahead and powered through it. I've read this author before and I know she was a young girl at the time she wrote this and I can't help noticing that it's a little obvious. I liked her other book Demon in My View, but I was much younger when I read it. I guess tastes do change as you get older. Or something.

Another one of those teen angst vampire/witch dangerous romance books. Teenage hunter witch ends up falling for vampire dude, angst and despair. The end. Blah. I don't care. This is one of the books that might fall victim to my next library purge since I think just once is enough. I mean, it was a good book, but it's not something memorable that I'm going to think of fondly ad reread for nostalgia purposes. We'll see.

On to the next.

2015 Reading: The Book of David

FINALLY! An anonymous book that doesn't end in the main character dying!!!! The whole time I was reading this book I kept waiting for something to happen. Maybe his father would beat him to death, maybe his football friend would, maybe he would commit suicide because he just couldn't handle having to hide anymore. But at last, a happy ending for one of these journal-type books.

I really enjoy this series of books and I wish there were more. I know that when I started with Go Ask Alice oh so many years ago, it was really what got me started with my love of books about teenager drug addicts. I don't really know what that says about me as a person, but I don't really care either. They are quick and easy to read, but they also have that something extra. I don't usually like diary type books, but they don't really read like most of the others, either.

This makes number 30 of the year, which is not exactly what I hoped for, but I've been really lazy this year. On to the next one, I suppose.

2015 Reading: Letting Ana Go

I don't know what it is, but I LOVE books about teen angst (especially surrounded by drugs for some reason). These Anonymous diary-style books are so entertaining without taking up much time in my reading schedule.

THIS ONE, however, really started to piss me off. The subject of anorexia is something that I am not familiar with personally (and if you look at me, you'll KNOW that's true) but it's something that I've thought about quite a bit (not to try it, but just as a subject of intrigue and concern). I just don't get it. I understand looking in the mirror and not liking what you see. I do it all the time. But to begin to see ribs and various other bones poking out, hollowed cheeks, and sunken eyes and STILL manage to have the mindset that you are fat is just mind-boggling to me.

Not to mention that the main character of the book started out at a whopping 128... If I LOST 128 lbs. I would STILL be overweight for my age, height, and bone structure. And she wanted to lost MORE?!

Seriously. Mind-boggling.

I had to get a big bowl of ice cream after I finished reading this book.

And I enjoyed every single bite.

2015 Reading: You're Never Weird On the Internet (Almsot)

I have been waiting for my library to process this book FOREVER! It finally arrived and I literally tore through it in a day. It was quirky and funny, with just the right amount of nerd.

There are so many things that I never knew about Felicia that were really interesting to find out. Plus, she tells some of the best stories. Having watched her in shows and interviews and her vlog, as well as other videos and stuff that she's done with other people, you can tell that this whole book is in her voice and it's like she's talking to you over a cup of very caffeinated coffee.

2015 Reading: The Nursing Home Murder

In an effort to read more of the books that I actually own rather than piling up book after book from the library, I decided to finish this book (because it's part of an omnibus). I am still very much enjoying this series, and it even inspired me to entertain the notion of perhaps getting into other British mystery books (maybe Agatha Christie will be next).

The one thing that I have to really say about these books, other than how witty they are (in a very dry sense) and that when I read them I mentally have Benedict Cumberbatch's voice narrating in my head. So, that's a plus.

The plots for these books are pretty much the same, there's a murder and Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn interviews that various characters who all have their quirks and then at the very end, he saves the day and solves the mystery, the end. Not much in the way of substance and each book doesn't really read into the next with a discernible over arching plot, but it's a good filler between books.

2015 Reading: Hidden

I don't really know what made me put this book on my list but I'm glad I did. I have no idea why I like books about young people struggling with their sexual identity and coming to terms with prejudice and first loves, but boy do I.

The first person narrative of this book was very entertaining, I feel. The thought process of the young man while he's going through these very hard times (being sent to a facility to "fix" him, homophobic parents, being all alone on the run to save his own sanity) is incredibly funny yet still shows the heartbreak of everything.

It ends on the biggest cliffhanger in the world and I am kind of both happy and sad about that. I want to know if he finds his mother. I need to know if he saves his boyfriend from being sent back to that horrible hospital with its rapist orderlies and painful, illegal medical procedures. Ugh, I need to know more.

There was one of those little sections in that back where they give discussion topics about the book and ask the author questions and he said that there was no plans to make another book in the story but I really wish that he would.

Now that I have finished that and returned all my previous books to the library, it's time for me to really crack down on trying to read books from my own collection. I've got a lot of unread books on my shelf and I'm going to start working on them right now.