I started reading early and quickly grew a voracious appetite for the hobby. Books provide us the ability to travel without leaving home, the opportunity to learn, the chance to see the world through someone else’s eyes.

Early 2014, I decided I needed to make the choice to turn off the TV more often and pick up a book. Here are the books I read in 2014:

• Pretty Monsters – short stories by Kelly Link – gift from Paul and Erin
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I loved this as a child – was such fun to revisit the adventures of Anne-with-an-e and Diana.
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I have always been fascinated by stories from the holocaust. This novel gives a unique perspective through the eyes of a young German girl in Nazi Germany. Tragic and wonderful. A loan from mom (who I inherited my love of reading from).
• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit. Another re-read from my childhood. I loved the magic in this story as a kid and it held up when reading it as an adult. I highly suggest you revisit the books you loved as a child! I re-read the Narnia series a few years back (I vividly remember looking in a mirror as a kid – probably around 8 – and making my future self promise to re-read these books as an adult. I had a strong feeling that it was IMPORTANT and that I would have a different experience with the books as an adult as I did as a kid. It was a lovely series to revisit and my least favorite book in the series, “Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” was one of my favorites as an adult.
• Hollow City by Ransom Riggs. I didn’t enjoy this sequel as much as the original Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.
• Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery. Keeping up with the re-reading theme, I turned to the second book in this series. I’d thought I had read all the books as a child, but as Anne grows up the books appeal less to children, in my opinion. It turns out I never read past book two!
• Bonk by Mary Roach. I love the theme of this book and the idea of blending humor with research, but the author’s sense of humor missed the mark for me a little too much. It did reawaken my interest in learning more about human sexuality though and had lots of interesting information.
• The Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman. She’s a funny lady!
• My Booky Wook by Russell Brand. He’s such an intriguing guy! In light of his recent declarations on the news and videos, I think I was expecting more from this book than I got, but still was a fun read to have on vacation
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I was HOOKED the entire time. The type of book you don’t want to put down.
• Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
• Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery
• Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
• Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. It was a little sad to see Anne grow up in these books. She became quite a bit more normal and lost quite a bit of her adventurous, imaginative ways as she fell into her role of wife and mother. Still I enjoyed this series quite a bit. 
• Rainbow Valley by L.M. Montgomery
• Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. An interesting look at WWI from a Canadian family’s perspective.
• The Fault in our Stars by John Green. Sometimes I read books when I hear they are going to become movies. Also, this came highly recommended to me by Alida and Erin. Really sweet, heartbreaking story and the young narrator’s voice is delightful.
• The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. Took me a while to get into it but really came to love the main character and her journey. Another Alida recommendation.
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Ok, the trouble with reading books on kindle apps is unless you pay attention, you don’t get a sense of how LONG a book is as you do with a physical book. 925 pages isn’t my style, usually. Still, it was a very intriguing story. Last night, I mentioned to my friend Maren that I’ve been reading more and asked if I’d read any books by this author (one of her favorites). I’ll pick up more books by this Japanese author again, but probably will stick to shorter ones. This was originally published in 3 volumes. I found parts of the story to be wonderful but others a bit tedious.
• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. My kind of book! A woman has head trauma and wakes up forgetting the last 10 years of her life. It’s a wonderful read and really made me think about how we change as people over the years. I want to read more books like this. Recommendation from Mom (thanks again!).
• Orange is the New Black by Piper Chapman. Saw this in a recommendation list on the library app. Loved the show so gave it a go. I really enjoyed this quick read – many differences from the show, which is fun to compare, and really draws attention to some major issues in our prison system.
• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I realized I’ve never read a book by this acclaimed author so polled friends to see what I should read first. I didn’t love this one but will give other KV books a go. Recommended by Amanda, Bird and others.
• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. The author of Gone Girl doesn’t disappoint with her earlier mystery.
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman. While I like YA novels, this one felt a little young for me (though is perfect for teens I imagine). That said, I got caught up in the story and will likely read the author’s other books. Recommended by Alida.
• Ethics for a new Millenium by the Dalai Lama. Some chapters definitely resonated more than others with me. I really enjoyed reading his perspective on many subjects. A good reminder that the strongest happiness for ourselves can be found when we do our best to provide happiness for others. Thanks for the recommendation, Wendy!
• The Fever by Megan Abbott. Enjoyed most the read (another teenager based plot -what’s with that theme this year?!) but the ending was disappointing. Recommended by @SPLBuzz (Seattle Public Library twitter).

Using the app and website goodreads I’m able to track books I’ve read, save a list of books I want to read and see what other friends who use the app are reading or recommend. A great app for anyone who likes to read! This year I discovered how to download ebooks and audiobooks for the Seattle Public Library. What a gift! Their social media folks even were able to recommend a book to me via their twitter account @SPLbuzz. Thanks, librarians! I’ve found audiobooks to be a great distraction when organizing or cleaning around the house. They were also a great way to read when outdoors on the roof or at the beach this summer, since it’s hard to read most tablets in the sunshine.

I love reading on my ipad. It gives me the opportunity to change the font to a size I like, it’s smaller than a lot of books (and I can pick up reading on my phone if I don’t have my ipad with me when I’m out and about). It doesn’t bother B as much as as a book light when he’s trying to sleep (I love the option for a black screen with white letters). It even lets me highlight a word to look up in the dictionary if I don’t know the word.

What books have you read that you’ve enjoyed! I would love to hear your recommendations in the comments below or on my Facebook post!