My recent travels and the holiday weekend allowed me to knock out two more books for my Summer Reading Pledge. I whipped through each of these in no more than a few days each--which is just the kind of literary voracity that I was hoping to recapture from my youth! These were both perfect vacation books.
Catching Fire: Although I feel like I am the last person on earth to get into the Hunger Games series, I'm going to refrain from saying too much about Catching Fire, the second book in the series, on the chance that one or two of you might not have read them yet. I never EVER thought I'd be into a Young Adult post-apocalyptic story with a severely twisted premise, but it sucked me in and I have been recommending the series to everyone. Catching Fire picked up where the first book left off, and was so suspenseful and nerve-wracking that I often found myself holding my breath. While I thought the story was slightly more predictable than Book 1, I was still engaged throughout and cursed the fact that I reached the last page so quickly. I'll definitely be picking up Mockingjay (Book 3) ASAP.
Rating: 4/5 Stars. Worth buying (as is the first book, Hunger Games)
enLIGHTened: enLIGHTened is the memoir of one woman's weight loss journey through yoga. It's not a quick-fix diet book or a how-to manual, but rather an exploration of Gross' small, positive changes that you can apply to your own life. I appreciated Gross' conversational tone that avoided veering into holier-than-thou yogi territory. Her story was honest and inspiring, and I enjoyed how she related the yoga sutras to her life and her weight-loss journey. I came away with some new food-for-thought about eating from a yogic perspective, and I've found I've been even more mindful of nourishment since finishing the book. I didn't think it was quite good enough to be added to my bookshelf for future reference, but it's certainly worth checking out if you are interested in yoga and wellness.
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars. Borrow it from the library.
I hope you all are enjoying your Summer Reads! Any good books to recommend?
I just ordered the Huger Games Series from Amazon. I'm debating reading that or A Dance with Dragons (to be released Monday) first. I'm still making my way through Tomatoland, which is pretty good but depressing at times. I highly recommend Cutting for Stone, and also the series by Kate Furnival- The Jewel of St. Petersburg, The Russian Concubine, and The Girl from Junchow.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded Hunger Games on my e-reader but I haven't started it yet. I finished the girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy and I'm not quite ready to get sucked into another series.
ReplyDeleteI just finished Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and Ultra-Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes.