My (New) Favorite Books

Happy Top Five Tuesday!

I got a lot of books for Christmas, and as I was stuck for a top five list for today, I decided to write about them, along with some of the other books in my collection.

1. The Long Walk– Seven men escape a work camp in Russia, in March, and hike their way down to India. It takes almost a year, through the Gobi desert, the Himalayas, and a whole bunch of rivers. I just finished this book today, and it’s truly an amazing story of what humans are capable of.
2. Anything by Mary Roach– This is an author. Okay, so I cheat. She picks interesting science topics, does a whole lot of research, and creates a book. There are four titles currently available, and I got all of them for Christmas: Bonk (Science of sex), Stiff (What happens to you after death), Spook (Life after death), and Packing for Mars (Life in space). I’ve gotten about 3/4 of the way through Spook, and I’ve learned some amazing things. For example, did you know T-Rex didn’t just amble about, looking big and scary? Turns out, they would lean forward (back parallel to the ground, tail straight up) and sprint. Which makes them absolutely more terrifying than they used to be, back when I thought there might be a slight chance of outrunning them.
3. Room– I haven’t read this one yet, but it’s next on my list. It’s the story of a boy and his mom, both trapped in a small room. He’s spent his whole life there. It’s supposed to be an amazing story. I’ll keep you posted.
4. Karen Marie Moning. Not new, and another author, but the last installment in her FEVER series is coming out in two weeks. I have been waiting a year and a half for this book. The cliff hanger at the end of the last was killer. No, really. And I can’t wait to get my hands on the last chapter of the story. Which is a new book, right? So it counts.
5. All of my new Mandolin books. Mark got me a mandolin as a late Christmas/early anniversary gift. I got myself a few instruction books. I’ve been working my way through them, slowly. Part of learning mandolin is learning how to sight read, which is something I’ve put off until this point, so the going is a little slow. But I’m actually to the point of knowing enough chords to play a few of my favorite Nickel Creek songs, so that’s keeping me going as I wade through the dullness of learning scales.

While I’m at it, I’m going to throw in a #6, with another author; Christopher Moore. I first noticed him when his book ‘The Stupidest Angel’ was all over Borders one Christmas. A couple years later, I actually bought the book, along with one of his others. And now, Mark and I are hooked. It’s like Monty Python meets Stephen King. We’re hoping to finish up our collection of his books this year.

****UPDATE:

I finished ROOM yesterday. It was everything I heard it was going to be, and I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy books about motherhood or psychological stories. Once I really got into it, I couldn’t put it down.

Tagged as: fun stuff, my thoughts