Saturday Musings

The past two weeks I've been on a blogging break. Blogging has been sort of hit or miss for me the past few months, but I've had a few of those weeks where so much was going on, one or two things had to be let go. I wasn't really planning on being away for so long, but in a way I'm glad that I was because it gave me some time to really think about why I enjoy blogging and talking about books.

We had such a crazy week at the library, the week before last, with spring break (which equals lots of people in the library and so much shelving, I can't even tell you how many carts were shelved throughout the week) and a ton of programming. Plus, I was feeling the pressure of the TBR stack. Does that ever happen to you? Do you ever get to the point where the amount of books you have to or want to read becomes overwhelming?

I needed some time to read without feeling the need to review. I miss those days sometimes. So I gave myself permission to do just that for a few days and then it turned into a few more days. I chose whatever I wanted to read, whether it was on the TBR stack or not, even if I had already read it and just read. I did end up writing a few reviews, which will start posting next week, starting with a review for Haven on Monday. And, if course I found even more books I wanted to read, because it's hard not to keep adding books to the TBR.

Some of the books I've been reading:

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare - this was a reread. After reading City of Fallen Angels, I felt the need to read Clockwork Angel and spend some time with Tessa, Will and Jem. Just as good as the first read through.

The Ruby Oliver books by E. Lockhart - so much fun! Normally, I don't like books with footnotes, I think they remind me too much of research, but they really worked here. And Ruby is such a great character.

Taking Off by Jenny Moss - I WOWed Taking Off last September and I was happy to finally get to read it. A review will be coming next week.

Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz - the first book by Hannah Moskowitz that I've read. It was an interesting read because it was so different than what I expected.

Red Glove by Holly Black - Love this book! Just wow! The wait for Black Heart is going to be very long.

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab - my favorite book of this year, so far. It will most definitely make the top 5 for 2011. You need to read this book, I don't say that too often, but I'll repeat myself - You need to read this book! I'm part of a blog tour for this book in early August, so my review won't be posted until then.

Mercy by Rebecca Lim - it took me a awhile to get into Mercy, it didn't grab me right away. The concept was interesting enough to keep me reading, even though I figured out who the "bad guy" was about 50 pages before the main character.

Die for Me by Amy Plum - a love story set in Paris, Die for Me was fun to read. Even though the current cover is gorgeous, after reading the book, the old cover with the girl in the red boat makes much more sense. Look for a guest post from Amy Plum on May 11 with a review later that week.


I'm excited to be back in the swing of things and to be talking books with people who are just as or even more excited about them than I am.

**Also, I finally gave in and got a custom domain for the blog, so the new url is www.theserpentinelibrary.com. **