Reading

In college I never had much time for reading. I was always doing something. When I did I was usually bored or on vacation. During those times I was always reading what someone else had just finished. Never really having the time to pick books out for myself.

Now between recommendations and books I choose I find myself consumed by the amount of books I want to read and unsure of where to begin. Last year I entered a little dry spell of not having any reading material. A friend promptly introduced me to the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig. A wonderful series about spies, with a little romance thrown in, beginning in the late 1700s and into the early 1800's. In the first book, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation you are introduced to Eloise a Harvard graduate student studying espionage in England in France around the time of Napoleon. During Eloise's thirst for research she stumbles across a Diary that gives that gives her clues as to the identity of the Pink Carnation. In following along with Eloise you fall back in time and are introduced to Amy a young French-English woman desperately trying to join the league of the Purple Gentian (Another Spy on a mission to keep England from Napoleon).

Bouncing between Eloise and Amy among a few others you find yourself wrapped up in mystery and espinoage that it becomes hard to put down. After the Pink Carnation you follow Eloise's journey and are introduced to other members of the Pink Carnation.

If you are interested in something geared more toward romance and woman power then Susan Carroll's Dark Queen Series is for you. I accidentally read the first three books out of order. However, having now read all of them I am still enchanted by the initial characters. You are introduced to a world of Women around the time of Catherine de Medici the Dowager Queen of France. You learn about magic...not the spell casting and broom stick kind but, the healers, artists, and educated women of the period. The first book in the series is The Dark Queen and introduces you to the Lady of Faire Isle, Ariane and her two sisters as they struggle to fight the Dowager Queen of France.

Moving on further into Romance...One series I am ashamed to enjoy is the Twilight series...You all may know about that one. It is full of the things we hopeless romantics find interesting. This just about proves that my friends and family are correct, I like just about everything.

Currently, I am in the middle of three books. One is a classic entitled, Flowers for Algernon, another is a thriller by David Baldacci called, The Whole Truth, and the last one is Dan Browns, The Lost Sign. Having gone through a phase where I needed more literature and thrilling tales I found a combination of the three perfect. The only thing bad about it is that I cannot put any of the three down making it completely impossible to finish a book.

When I am finally finished with all three I will probably head to my mecca of resources to find a new book, Shelfari.com. It is a wonderful resource in which you can look up books on your favorite genre or author, read the summary, and read people's reviews of the book.