2011 Update

2010 went out with several bangs that felt like gunshots straight into my heart and head.  October was opaque.  November was numb.  December was devastating. 

But I kept reading.  The Hunger Games series is out of this world from cover to cover, beginning to end.  Like I said, read it now.  I cannot even recall every book I've read since my last post, but I'm going to try to hit the highlights. 

Did I mention I'm re-reading the J.R.R. Tolkien Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings?  I'm in the midst of The Two Towers at the moment.  While I'm a big fan of the series and the films, I have only read the novels themselves once in college, thanks to a former-boyfriend/self-proclaimed "Tolkienologist".  Something good can come from every relationship.
I also began reading Taylor Caldwell's Great Lion of God.  This is a fictional work chronicling the life of Saul of Tarshish - the Apostle Paul of The Bible.  It's a favorite of my husband's and I had not really given it my full attention the first time I attempted to read it.  This time, however, I got into it and am really loving it!  Very near to the end now.  Caldwell takes some liberties with Saul/Paul's personal life, but brings some real depth to the man we really only know from his biblical writings.  A fascinating novel.

I picked up two more YA novels yesterday - The First Part Last (Angela Johnson) and The Mysterious Benedict Society (Trenton Lee Stewart).  Why YA?  Besides the fact that I've read many wonderful novels under this classification - YA NOVELS ARE CHEAPER.  I've also got a large stack of new acquisitions waiting on the shelf and more LOTR left to read.  My bookshelves are teeming nearly as much as my DVD collection.

Here's to 2011 - the year that I read more, knit more, exercise more, love more...and hopefully STRESS less!