Project 35 Reading Update

I always knew reading 35 books in one year would be a huge challenge.  I just don't have as much time for reading as I used to, but reading has always been a huge part of my life and I'm excited to be forcing myself to make more time for it this year.  

Here's a quick update on the pathetic dent I've made in this section of Project 35.

1) The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern.  This is the story of two magicians who enter their proteges into an epic contest, which takes place in a magical night time circus.  In the end, I lloved this book, but it took me a good quarter of the book to make sense of the stories and to not be thoroughly and constantly confused.  I loved the vivid imagery and the complex characters.  This was the first book we read for book club and it created a good basis for an interesting discussion.  I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

2) Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen.  This is our next book club selection.  It is the story of a circus vet, mixed between flash backs and current time.  I liked the history of the story but overall found it a bit dry and boring.  Maybe that is because I read it after a book about a magical circus, because anything would seem boring in comparison!  I did not really like the characters, which is not a nessecary thing to enjoy a book, but it did decrease my enjoyment.  I maybe will re-read in year or two and see if my opinion changes.

3&4) Jessica Darling Series - Fourth Comings and Perfect Fifths - Megan McCafferty.  I read the first 3 books in this series last summer and really enjoyed them.  It was nice to finally wrap up the series.  I enjoyed seeing Jessica mature and grow over the course of the books.  And I really enjoyed the final book which changed format from all the others (narrational diary), to a shared first person narrative.  And, well, i also love a happy ending.

5) Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn. I loved this book so much.  I could not put it down!  The twists and turns were exciting.  It was a really creative and exciting book, and really well thought out.  It is the story of a couple and the disappearance of the wife, and the investigation of said disappearance.  I would also highly recommend this book.

6) Wild - Cheryl Strayed. This book was really interesting and had me considering if I might like to go on extended backpack hiking.  It ran the gamut of emotions and I felt them right along with the main character.  It was a heart-wrenching and also truly informative autobiographical story about Cheryl's months long hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.  This was thoroughly interesting and another i'd certainly recommend.

So that's it.  6 books so far, not very impressive, but since 5 of them were read in the last month, I'll pretend I still have a chance of meeting the quota.  Let's just ignore the fact I've been on vacation for 3 weeks, ok?