As the year is winding down, I am really narrowing my focus to emphasize books I need to complete the PopSugar 2016 reading challenge, which I had been really chugging along with until I started school. From January to August, I completed about 3/4 of the list simply by reading what I wanted and marking it off the list if it applied. However, now that I am reading less and the items left get into categories of books that I don’t normally pick up, I am having to be a bit more targeted with what I read. Here’s what I’ve read this month:
Cinder (Book #1 of the Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer
This series was recommended to me more than a year ago by a co-worker but when I saw that the PopSugar challenge required reading a retelling of a fairytale, I decided it was time to give this book a try. I really enjoyed this futuristic re-envisioning of Cinderella as an orphan cyborg mechanic – the new Cinderella is much more complex and independent, and romance is no longer the central focus of the plot. I have already ordered and am anxiously awaiting the next book in this series!
Dreams from my Father: Stories of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
Another title I’ve wanted to read for a while and felt like now was a good time given the approaching end of President Obama’s time in office. I loved hearing about his life growing up and all the many things I didn’t know about his family and his childhood – most surprisingly to me that he spent some time as a child living in Indonesia. It was made even better that I listened to this title and Obama himself read it – there is nothing better than hearing someone’s life story in their own voice. Beautifully written and uplifting, and fascinating to read so soon after Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, because of the similarities and differences between the two figures experiences as black children and within a racially tense America.
Books I am currently working on/hope to finish next month:
- Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver
- Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded by Hannah Hart
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