Readerly Rambles: 12/05/12

What I read:  My normal autumnal cozy reading time hasn't been happening this year.  I'm in full holiday mode, so you're more likely to find me baking, wrapping, and addressing holiday cards rather than being curled up with a book.  When I do read I find myself falling asleep.  It isn't that I'm reading something boring... I'm just super pregnant.  When I do stop, I fall asleep.  I have finished a few things.

I finished a reread of Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte and I pretty much hated it.  While I appreciate the feminist boldness of the heroine in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I still found the heroine so good she's boring.  Agnes Grey is even worse.  A brief novel that does provide a fascinating glimpse into the life of a governess, Agnes Grey is so proper and good and preachy and just and the "love interest" is so predictable and good and preachy.  I knew where the book was headed and that it would end in love and blabbity blabbity blabbity.  I like my heroines complex; Jane Eyre is moral, but she also has a quiet, fiery independence. It can be argued that Lucy Snowe is an unreliable narrator and her story hasn't a happy ending; this deepens her character and broadens my interest.  Catherine Earnshaw is a terrible human and I love that (bad people fall in love too!).  Anne just doesn't do it for me.

I'm also done with my re-re-re-re-read of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  It is tied as my favorite book of the series with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  I finished the book in the dentist office while Hope was having some teeth pulled.  I still cry with Cedric dies and when the wands connect and Harry sees his family.  I'm such a marshmallow.

What I'm reading:  I'm currently reading The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens and I'm enjoying the tone.  So far the "First Chirp" involves happy homes, a mysterious stranger, and a grumpy Mr. Tackleton.  I'm now in the "Second Chrip" in which everything goes to hell in a handbasket.  This brief novella (or long story) should be finished by the weekend and then I plan on burying myself in The Return of the Native.  I started Return of the Native this past weekend and quickly put it away.  I knew that this would be a wonderful, all-consuming novel and I needed to carve out time for a lengthy reading session.  Some books are not meant to be read in tiny, stolen increments.  I've only read the first 30 pages and I need MORE. 

What's up next:  I have so many books I want to read right now.  The end of the year is approaching and I have so many books to read.  Finishing my Harry Potter re-read is first on my list.  I also want to read Alias, Grace by Margaret Atwood, The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, The Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir and Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.  Obviously this isn't all going to happen.  I'll read what I can and enjoy it immensely.

Bookish Plans:  I'm already thinking towards next year, factoring realistic goals for a bookish mom with a tot, a newborn, and a teen.  The end of the year book posts are my favorite.  Expect a bookish wish list for Santa, an evaluation of this reading year, and an optimistic (and realistic) plan for next year.

Happy Reading!