While in-between various schoolwork over the weekend, I was cruising around Amazon, dreaming of giving my brain some reading candy after I finish up this semester and what do I find … a new book by an author I have really enjoyed in the past (and have reviewed on this site). J. Courtney Sullivan’s The Engagements comes out on June 11th, and I couldn’t be more excited. Based on the Amazon synaposis, it seems like this one will take look at love, marriage … and diamonds. I will definitely be loading this on my Kindle and taking it the pool. I think this one could be one of the beach reads of 2013.

If you have a Memorial Day beach trip planned and want to read another Sullivan book in the meantime, I highly recommend Maine.

OK, this is the last week of my semester. In between crunching on papers and exam studying, I did do a little mental break pleasure reading and finished not one, but two books! And once I get through this week I will be back to regular postings and reviews. But today it will be short and sweet (come back Wednesday, I have a Waiting on Wednesday coming too)! It feels good to be giving this blog a little love again. And I can’t wait to reconnect with you readers out there!

Here’s my last week in review:

Books Finished:
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Starting Now by Debbie Macomber (received as an ARE from posting on Shelf Awareness)

Reviews Posted:
None

How about you? How was your week last week and what are you going to be reading this week?

I hope you all had a great April, and that you May is shaping up to be a beautiful one. We have had, and continue to have, gorgeous weather here, in less than two weeks I will be done with this semester, and my birthday is in three weeks so lots to look forward to on this end. Wishing you all an amazing May!

Book Completed:
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

Review Posted:
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey

I loved the show, and to tide me over until Season 3 started I ordered up Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by The Countess of Carnarvon. This book provides the history of one of the stars of Downton Abbey – the castle itself. It has such an amazing history, and while I love Cora and Mary and all the rest of the Grantham family, the Carnarvon family history, and Lady Almina, are such an amazing story I wouldn’t mind seeing that as a series.

To me, the fun of the book was learning all sorts of amazing things so I won’t spoil what I thought was a great sense of discovery and tell you all the things I learned. I’ll just say I really enjoyed this book, it was a good, fast, really interesting read. And if you are a lover of the show, hopefully it will tide you over until January 2014.

If you follow my blog, you may know that in addition to being an avid reader one of the things in my life that takes my time from reading for fun and posting to you all as much as I would like — is running. I’m new to the sport, running my first 5K and then a half marathon last year, but I have now become a bit of an addict. I am proud to report I finished my second half marathon yesterday – the More Magazine/FItness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon. This is my 4th race I have completed this year with the New York Road Runners, and I hope to finish at least 5 more to get entry for the 2014 NYC Marathon. Now, as I sit here typing I want to send best wishes for an amazing day to all the runners up in Boston today.

Now on to reading. Yes I had work, and school and schoolwork – but I did at least finish up one personal read, Nell Freudenberger’s The Newlyweds. Then, instead of reading anything I already had going (which would have probably made more sense to finishing another book) I started Debbie Macomber’s new one Starting Now – which I got as an ARE following a Shelf Awareness posting. I have never read anything from Macomber before, and I am enjoying it. I haven’t read a lot, but it’s a nice book to read to wind down before bed. I do need to get back to reading Born to Run and Pukka’s Promise.

So all good things going on here. I am happy with my reading, but I do need to get some reviews up (soon, I promise).

Here’s my last week in review:

Books Finished:
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

Reviews Posted:
None

How about you? How was your week last week and what are you going to be reading this week?

I really thought I would end March so strong and catch up to be on track for 50 personal books this year. Wow – did that not happen. Not only that, I haven’t at least been keeping up with posting. Sorry for the lag, and thanks for understanding.

While on a little Easter Break I made good headway reading Nell Freudenberger’s The Newlyweds. I am almost done and promise to have that in the completed column by next week’s post. It had a really good start, but it slowed and started to lose me in the middle – so it was easy to be distracted away from it. I continue to read a little in Born to Run but mostly at the gym. I am running a half marathon on Sunday, so maybe after that with less time training I will make it to the finish of that book, too.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not really beating myself up over this: I love that I have work, school, training and a life outside the pages of a book. And I appreciate that you all come visit my site and read the posts that I do mange to get up. So, thanks for visiting and I think you will see that there will be lots of posts in the future from me to read.

Here’s my last week in review:

Books Finished:
None

Reviews Posted:
None

How about you? How was your week last week and what are you going to be reading this week?

A finished book, and a posted review … not too bad for my Spring Break week. I powered through Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. I know there has been a lot of press on this book and a lot of strong feelings. This book really spoke to me, and I highly recommend it to women, and men. Reviews wise, I got my review for Hillary Reyl’s Lessons in French written and posted.

I admit I haven’t picked up Born to Run (but have been out there training for a half marathon) and I am not making a lot of progress in Pukka’s Promise: The Quest for Longer-Lived Dogs by Ted Kerasote, either. I need to get back into both of those. I have a little break coming up, so please send along any lighter, beach reads you might have read recently, I am looking to add a few new things to my Kindle.

Here’s my last week in review:

Books Finished:
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

Reviews Posted:
Lessons in French by Hillary Reyl

How about you? How was your week last week and what are you going to be reading this week?

While Kate’s visual artistic talent is in drawing and painting rather than photography, she is excited to work with Lydia Schell – a world famous photojournalist who has been on the scene of some of the world’s great events, and she is there again, this time in Berlin to capture the fall of the Wall. Kate moves to Lydia’s home in Paris to work as her personal assistant, but quickly becomes interconnected with Lydia’s eccentric, and sometimes downright cruel, family. Kate’s lessons range from family dynamics, to love, to her own morals as the Schell family makes her question everything she thought she knew about herself.

Photojournalists, Paris – yes this book had it all for me. I often found myself frustrated with Kate and the situations she allowed herself to get into, but not in a way that made me put down the book. I appreciated that this book was not a fluffy, sunshine coming of age book, it carried with it some of the clouds that Paris had the last time I was there (seriously 5 days and a little rain nearly every day!?!?). And while I wasn’t always happy with Kate or her choices, she made me care enough about her that I would definitely love to read more about her life and her choices in the 90s and beyond.

*I won this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.*

I am making OK progress on personal reading, I finished up Lessons in French by Hillary Reyl, which puts me at reading about a book a week – but as my Goodreads tracker tells me, I am one book down to be on track with my 50 books this year goal. I foresee that by the end of the month I will pick it up, as there should be a little more personal reading time on the horizon.

School and lots of projects are in full swing so I have neglected working on reviews and adding other additional posts, but I hope to have that in check soon – so expect more posts from me in the near future.

I still have Christopher McDougal’s Born to Run to read – I have sort of stalled on it, only getting a little more read last week while at the gym (on the bike, certainly not while running). I am training for a mid-April half marathon, so I will try and dedicate more time to reading the book. Over the weekend I started Pukka’s Promise: The Quest for Longer-Lived Dogs by Ted Kerasote. In November I said goodbye to my amazing dog of nearly 15 years, so before I get another dog I wanted to read this book. And as of this morning Sheryl Sandberg’s much talked about book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead is on my Kindle and I can’t wait to get started on it.

Here’s my last week in review:

Books Finished:
Lessons in French by Hillary Reyl

Reviews Posted:
None

How about you? How was your week last week and what are you going to be reading this week?

March 4, wow – I can’t believe it’s already March. I am definitely ready for the start of Spring. So this past week was a good one, I got some good work done for school, and was still able to finish up a personal book too. I am only counting personal books in my reading goal this year (which is 50). I am up to 7 books complete, according to the GoodReads tracker, I am 1 book off pace for my reading goal, but I think I can make that up this month.

I finished reading Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani, I wasn’t a fan at the start but the book grew on me, and was a very good escape read from school reading. I didn’t get any reviews posted, so I have some catch up for this week.

In an effort to catch up to my reading pace, I haven’t started anything new yet, and will focus on reading Hillary Reyl’s book Lessons in French by Hillary Reyl and will keep on with Christopher McDougal’s Born to Run.

Here’s my last week in review:

Books Finished:
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Reviews Posted:
None

How about you? How was your week last week and what are you going to be reading this week?