It took me a little while to get into this book. I'm admittedly not an Austen fanatic, so that could have something to do with it; I had to really think to remember the details of Pride and Prejudice to get the most from this book, as the main characters are the servants of the Bennett family. Once it took off for me, though, I couldn't put it down. It's just a lovely romance, with lots of great soap opera-like twists and turns, while being written with subtlety and grace.

It's been awhile since I've read a coming of age novel and I wanted to catch up on some Printz award winners. Where Things Come Back is a gritty, hypnotic read with two seemingly unrelated narratives that come together in a rather shocking way. I was sucked in, and really loved that the book is told from each character's perspective; my favorite being the central character Cullen Witter, who uses the term 'ass-hat' in such an endearing way almost every other sentence.

This book was just delightful! I loved how it read like a romantic comedy. Funny enough, after reading the Q&A at the end with Graeme Simsion, this story started out as a screenplay. Although, the most captivating aspect of it is listening to the inner dialogue of our protagonist with aspergers and I can't imagine how that would translate to the screen... Don, our unlikely hero, is trying to find a wife in a very organized, pragmatic fashion and ends up falling in love with someone that defies all of his logic. It's hilarious, endearing and enlightening.

This was another of the many Printz honor books I've been trying to catch up on, and it was pretty compelling, albeit dark, material (the protagonist is dealing with having been raped). It really called to mind the feelings of isolation most teens feel at some point in their lives (at least I did), and the author does an amazing job of putting you in Melinda's shoes in a very real and visceral way; certainly not uplifting, but very worthwhile.

This was another one of those 'not exactly uplifting, but very worthwhile' novels, as any written about slavery in the South are bound to be. In some ways it felt a little soap opera-like, with person X not knowing that person Y was someone's father, and love triangle misunderstandings. But the story was absolutely riveting and I could barely put it down, it was so suspenseful - in a very ominous way. The characters were all fully realized and I fell in love with every each one in Lavinia's family.

I just don't know about my affinity for self-help type books. It's just a re-hashed version of a lot of common sense to me. It's like someone went on Pinterest for inspirational quotes and then extrapolated it into a book. I wholeheartedly agree with all of her sentiments and would love to hear her speak, but my eyes totally glaze over with these types of books.

Thanks to Bookriot, I learned that Beth Revis wrote a novella prequel to Across the Universe, which is my favorite YA dystopian trilogy as a whole (Meaning, each book was great and the last one didn't fall off the rails like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, Matched, etc etc etc - all fantastic, all they all fall apart IMHO.) As They Slip Away was a rather melancholy story of one of the peripheral characters and how she chose to become a drone on Godspeed (the spaceship where the story takes place). If you have 30 minutes and read this series, it's worth checking out.

A friend of mine suggested I read this and another friend of mine had told me she loved the movie, and I thought I'd better read it before seeing it. This was absolutely heartbreaking and riveting material. It exposes the history of Irish adoptions to the United States in the 1950s by following one remarkable story. I was especially engrossed because my late father in law was adopted around the same time, born to an unwed Irish Catholic mother. I will say that although I really loved this book, I wish there was more of Philomena's story included. We follow her for the first quarter of the book or so, and then don't hear from her again until the very end. Now to watch the film...

I've confessed before that I'm not a huge Austen fangirl, and I've never read Persuasion. I think this was a fine way to enjoy the story mashed up with a pretty original dystopian theme wherein luddites are the ruling class. Also, the love story between the main characters is revealed through letters they ferry to each other in secret and I'm a sucker for epistolary writing. Definitely a quick and romantic read.