Summer Reading and Beyond...

I compiled this list mostly for Kelly S. I like to steal from her reading lists, but for anyone else looking to curl up with a good book over your break, here's what I've been reading since this summer:

The Centurion’s Wife

The Hidden Flame

The Damascus Way, all by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke

I enjoyed this trilogy, but I LOVE historical fiction. My fascination with early Christianity AND the Roman empire means that these were right up my alley.

First Light

Second Touch

Third Watch

Fourth Dawn

Fifth Seal

Sixth Covenant

Seventh Day

Eighth Shepherd

Ninth Witness

Tenth Stone

Eleventh Quest, all by Bodie and Brock Thoene

Okay, I'll admit that I end up reading a lot of series. If a book has a follow up, I must continue reading. Even to a fault. Unfortunately for me when I began the AD Chronicles, I didn't know there were 11 (!) books. I also didn't know that one of the last books would be dedicated to Sarah Palin. But, let's not hold that against the authors. Some books were better than others, but I really appreciated the imagination it took to develop some of these minor characters in the Gospels. I don't think I'll ever consider the leper or the shepherds, in particular, in the same light again. All Zionist politics from the Thoenes aside, a good series overall.

The above books were my summer. I felt that with going back to work, I had to get all my reading in while the days were long...and when I could take a nap the next day after staying up too late reading.

Now for my school reading...you'll notice a trend away from the first century and in to dystopian fiction. That's my other guilty pleasure. Who wants to read about some unattainable utopia when you could get lost in the dysfunctions of human attempts to create viable and long-term societies? The Suzanne Collins and Michael Grant books are both in the young adult genre, but the Grant books I would save for a high school kiddo with an ability to discern and discuss the choices made by the central characters.

The Hunger Games

Catching Fire

Mocking Jay, all by Suzanne Collins (can't wait for the movie adaptation of this trilogy)

Gone

Hunger

Lies

Plague, all by Michael Grant (book 5 due out in April!)

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood

The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory

(a brief relapse into historical fiction...fast forwarding to the 16th century, of course. Another Gregory book is my next read)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl who Plays with Fire

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, all by Stieg Larsson

I won't be watching any of the movie adaptations of the Larsson books. One thing I appreciate about reading is that my mind tends to limit the amount of visualization I can do without having nightmares. If a scene is particularly graphic or gruesome, I can only imagine it as far as my fears will let me. In a movie, the scene plays out, presumably, as the director intends and that is often farther than my nerves or thoughts would prefer to extend. To sum it up, the Swedish title to the first book is translated to read "Men Who Hate Women"...I think that original title better illustrates a lot of the scenes that I'd rather not replay or have in my mind again. Still, Lisbeth Salander filled my first 3 days of Christmas break, including a last minute trip to the library to check out book 3.

Suggestions for 2012?