2013 Reading Goal & 1st Book Reviews

At the beginning of the year, I chose five books from the To-Read pile beside my bed, plus a sixth book that I downloaded to my Kindle, to read in January. (In all honesty, if I don't read some of the books from my To-Read pile soon, it is likely to topple over and cause some major damage!)

The Ride of a Lifetime by Kitty McGregor

Barbara Bush: A Memoirby Barbara Bush

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

Texas Stories by Craig Savoye

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Hannah's List by Debbie Macomber

I've seen some interesting reading challenges in the blogosphere (like this one that Susanne posted about) and was very tempted to join in with one two, however with the new job and my crazy busy schedule this spring I've simply decided to choose six books each month to reach of goal of 72 books for the year. So far I'm doing great as I've completed two books and am almost done with two more (one I'm reading as I ride the stationary bike each day and one I'm reading right before turning out the lights for the night). Here are reviews of the two I completed.

Robbie introduced me to Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank early in our marriage as it is one of his favorite books. This was my third time to read it - yes, it's that good, definitely worth re-reading every few years! The setting of this novel is a small town in Florida; a town that becomes completely isolated after a nuclear war begins and many areas of the United States are completely decimated and others are designated Contaminated Zones. The story focuses on a small group of neighbors who ban together to survive as most commodities that we take for granted quickly disappear. This book was written over 50 years ago, however it is still relevant and paints a picture of what could happen if our world returned to one without electricity or communication or gasoline or indoor plumbing, etc. For example, the library, which did not have much patronage before the disaster, once again became a popular place when competition from movies and other forms of electronic entertainment were gone. If you've never read this book, I highly recommend it.

 

Last year I read and enjoyed Debbie Macomber's non-fiction book, One Perfect Word(see my review here), however she is primarily a fiction writer. Hannah's List is one of her many fiction books; it centers on the story of Dr. Michael Everett whose wife passed away from cancer. On the one year anniversary of her death, he receives a letter (delivered by his brother-in-law) from her. In the letter she shares how much their life together meant to her and then goes on to say that she wants him to remarry. She includes a list of three women she wants him to consider! He is reluctant at first because he is still grieving her death and isn't interested in someone else. However, he does finally meet all three women. The book follows him as he struggles with learning to date again and includes subplots following the lives of these three women. While it was occasionally hard to keep the timeline straight and I thought things moved very quickly, the story was an enjoyable read with excellent themes about love, loss, reconciliation, communication, grief, and marriage. While the topics are deep, the book felt "light" and optimistic. I highly recommend it.

These two books provided a wonderful start to my 2013 reading! Have you completed a book this year? Are you setting a reading goal for the year?