What I read in January / What's in Store for February

On first glance my January reading looks nonexistent. What did I read? A juvenile book, a popular fiction book, and an Agatha Christie novel. Not very impressive for this nerdy book girl. However, I will say that I was steeped in Bleak House and read over 500 pages of the tome. There are roughly 250 more pages to go before I can add another notch on my nerd belt for slaying this Behemoth.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling: I read this little book just after the dawn of the new year all snuggled up in a comfy chair at the back of the coffee shop with a steaming mug of pumpkin juice, er, pumpkin spice latte. I loved it; as a fan of this world's fairy tales and mythologies I recognize that "other worlds" need their mythologies. It makes us who we are -- our stories (real and imagined). I think it is wonderful to have this added piece of wizarding literature and history in this muggle world.

The Sister by Poppy Adams: I inhaled this book; tales about dysfunctional families and all the eerie secrets hiding in big houses are my "thing". This novel is about two estranged sisters who come together in their old age. It is a bit like The Thirteenth Tale and Angels and Insects all smooshed together. I really enjoyed it. Although I think every character was equally despicable in some fashion.

4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie: I adore Agatha Christie and am attempting to work my way through all of her novels. This one concerns a murder witnessed by an old lady when a train passes her train. Of course only Miss Marple could solve this tangled mess that centers on an old family full of greed.

This month's towering pile of books has a little of everything in it:

• Watchmen by Alan Moore (I parked myself on the couch this weekend and inhaled this graphic novel)


• Bleak House by Charles Dickens (still actively in progress)


• Marked / Betrayed / Chosen / Untamed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast ( a teen vampire series that Teacher Friend swears is less "swoony" than Twilight)


• Emma by Jane Austen (I decided to re-read this Austen book; the first time I read it I loathed Emma. Let's see if anything changes)


• Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir (historical fiction, woot!)


• The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (I adored Middlemarch so I thought I'd give this one a shot)


• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (the Play I haven't read will soon be conquered)