So, it's not exactly like curling up with a good book ...

... but it's not too bad. I held off buying a Kindle forever, until the price dropped below $80. And then when Amazon told me I could load mine up with goodies before it even arrived in my mailbox, I quickly added 30 completely FREE classics to it. Woohoo! I also checked out two novels from my library for instant upload (no trip to the library necessary!). I will say, the library has few books that I'm actually interested in reading, and of those, most have a waitlist. The e-books list for our local library is not exactly expansive yet. Hopefully that will change over time.

So long as I'm talking "books", I may as well catch up my blog list with the books I've read over the last several months (well, the ones I remember, anyway).

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger - loved this. beautifully written.

Young Brave Handsome, also by Leif Enger - didn't enjoy this so much as Peace ...

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton - good, old-fashioned mystery - I much enjoyed the story. told cleverly thru various flash-backs, thru the eyes of different characters. only critique: the different characters didn't really have different voices (ie. without being given the dates & context, I wouldn't be able to delineate the characters simply by their internal dialogues).

Also read The House at Riverton & The Distant Hours also by Kate Morton. Don't much remember them. Don't recall enjoying them as much her first novel.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett - fabulous book. similar to The Forgotten Garden, a fabulous story told thru different character's perspectives. unlike The Forgotten Garden, these voices are all clearly distinct.

How to Train your Dragon - meh. I liked the movie better (now, there's something you rarely, if ever, hear me saying!!). Read aloud with Littlest Dude. I enjoyed Littlest Dude, but not the book.

Through the Lens: The Dust Bowl - a photographic rendering of the plight of the dust bowl victims during the Great Depression. Fascinating. Heart-renching. From a photographic stand-point, inspiring.

Jotham's Jour-ney - at the risk of sounding heretical (because I've heard nothing but high praise of this book) ... I hated it. Wanted to poke my eyeballs out as I was reading. For advent reading, I loved The Jesse Tree, and that's what I will return to this Christmas ...

Island of the World by Michael O'Brien - I have not the words to adequately describe this book, perhaps one of the best I've ever read. It's long. It's intense. It's NOT happy-go-lucky. It covers the full gamut of emotion from ultimate joy to deepest despair and hopelessness. A tremendously good book.

A Severe Mercy (includes 18 letters from C.S. Lewis) by Sheldon Vanauken - meh. not my cuppa. a little too overwrought.

The Man who was Thursday by Chesterton - I really wanted to like this, but I didn't like it in the same way I didn't like Alice in Wonderland, just felt like it was written a little over my head. Sci-fi/fantasy just isn't my language, methinks.

Rebecca - by Daphne du Maurier. well-told modern classic mystery/suspense.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Sarah's Key, & somesuch chicklit title from Sophie Kinsella - all not favorites.

The Hand that First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell - my first Kindle library upload. It was pimped by Amazon on one of their "Amazon Picks" lists. I enjoyed it and its clever, overlapping stories.

1984 by George Orwell. Can't say I enjoyed this book (it is, afterall, tremendously dark and depressing and hopeless and all), but I did find it very thought-provoking. The Teen liked it and wanted me to read it, so I cast my sci-fi reluctance to the side and gutted thru it (on vacation, nonetheless ... what was I thinking?!?)

Currently reading an old Maeve Binchy, Echoes, (my second library upload)that I haven't read since high school. It's light, fun, non-deep reading.

That's about all I can remember. I know I grabbed several mysteries and the latest Jan Karon (Mitford, Father Tim series) from the library, but none of these must have left much of an impression.

Oh, and how could I forget? I read Les Miserables. Yah, the whole 1400+ pages. Go ahead and throw rotten tomatoes: I didn't like it. I did not like Cosette. I did not like Maurice. My favorite character was the priest in the very beginning of the book and he was long-gone after the first 100 pages (tho his influence remained). I so much prefered the musical (which I haven't seen in 25 years ... maybe it's time to rewatch??).

Please, if you've read something you've loved, let me know in the comments. I'm always on the prowl for a good book!