Apparently I blog in spurts...

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I blogged last. And I see that my last post was right before I went on my yearly vacation to the Black Hills, SD. Where am I now? Yep, same place. Vacation in the Hills provides me with the most free time. Free time = movies, books, TV shows, and motivation for blogging. :-)

Life has been busy for me. Since I posted last, I have graduated with my masters in Social Work (go me!) and I landed a therapy job. I've worked at the same hospital for 3 years, and now I've moved up from tech to therapist. Feels good to use my degree and get paid more! Yay!

Of course, I have been reading and watching movies and TV for the past year too, when time and energy let me. It will be overwhelming to try and cover everything I've seen, but I can touch on the main cool stuff. Let's start with last summer's reading list. I actually read three of the books I posted about last time:

Spells
This was the sequel to Wings. I did not like it as much as its predecessor. Spells was not as fast-paced. I thought the story didn't move along quite like the first book did. The prose was still very pretty and enchanting, but I wasn't as thrilled with it. I'm hoping the third book in the series is better.

Marked & Betrayed
I read the first two novels in the House of Night series. I really enjoyed them, especially the voice of the main character, Zoe. These books actually read like it was written by a teenager--lots of spunk, attitude, and fun. I need to continue the series! Time to borrow from a friend...

Catching Fire
This is the third and final book in the Hunger Games trilogy. What an amazing finish to a thrilling series! Absolutely loved it. Books like Twilight and Marked are fun and fast YA novels, but The Hunger Games is in a whole other category. It's been rated some of the best YA fiction in the past decade.

Right now, I'm in the middle of Beautiful Creatures. Next, I plan on reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. :)

I wish I was a fast reader... My summer reading list.

I've got a vacation coming up in a week... 2 weeks at our cabin in the Black Hills, nothing but time to read, watch movies, relax, and watch deer cross the meadow. I've got a lot of great books that have been sitting around, calling my name. I hope to get a lot of reading done, even though there's no way I will read all of these by the end of summer. These are just plain fun and I have heard great things about them. In no particular order:


Spells by Aprilynn Pike. It's the sequel to Wings, which I looooved. Simple, pretty prose... fun and adventurous faerie story. I've never really read faerie books, so this series has my interest peaked.


The Dark: New Ghost Stories, edited by Ellen Datlow. I bought this anthology over a year ago, read a couple of stories, then put it down for some reason. Gotta finish it. The cover alone is reason enough.


The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle, by L.J. Smith. I absolutely love the show, so I want to know how the books compare. Interestingly, the copyright date on this 2-in-1 book is 1991. Took them a while to make the show, eh?


Marked (A House of Night Novel) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. I always see these books while hanging out in the YA section of the bookstore. My friends love them, so I bought the 1st in this series.


The Host, by Stephenie Meyer. I'm such a big Twilight fan and yet haven't read this adult novel by Stephenie. I think it's time, don't you?


Now, those books I have in my little hands. There are a few books I want to read that I haven't bought yet, including The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Water for Elephants, and Catching Fire.

Better get reading!