Five on Friday: Books I'm Devouring

Are you a big reader? Do you keep track of what books you've read? I have a Good Reads account to keep track of what I've read and one of my favorite things about it is seeing how many books I manage to read in a year. I'm a fast reader but I'm always exhausted and since right before bed is usually my only time to read . . . sometimes I don't get too as many books as I'd like to. In 2016 I finished thirty-one books which was ten more than the year before. Challenge accepted!

This year I've read seven so far and am currently driving my husband crazy by reading two books at once (but they're both so good! And are both fourteen-day books from the library, which adds an additional challenge).

For today's Five on Friday, here are five great books I've read so far this year:

1. The Moth: All These Wonders As a fan of this storytelling podcast and one of their former storytellers, I had a special love for this book before I even cracked it open. As expected, it was filled with joy, heartbreak, humor and sorrow.  Bonus for me was the number of names in that book that are people I've actually met. (So cool!) Enter to win your own copy here!

2. Behold the Dreamers Such compelling story telling I figured out a way to squeeze in day time reading and then I missed the characters when it was done. It was that good.

3. The Nightingale This has been on my "want to read" list for a long time. I was wait-listed for it at the library, finally got it but had way too many fourteen-day books (bane of my reading existence) at the time. Glad I finally got around to it. Masterful storytelling and a setting I had never given much thought to before (Nazi-occupied France). 

4. What We Do For Love this is a novel by master doodler and memoirist Ilene Beckerman of Love, Loss and What I Wore fame. I love the way she weaves her drawings into her memories to create such charming and lovely books. Having had the pleasure of meeting her last year and having lunch with her last week, I can tell you she is just as charming and lovely as her books are. You should check out her new blog: http://www.ilenebeckerman.com/

5.  I Will Find You: A Reporter Investigates the Life of the Man Who Raped Her  I write about rape survival a lot but I don't tend to read about other people's experiences. I'd never seen one that seemed relatable before . . . until this book. I had never heard of anyone else even considering (re-)meeting her rapist like I had contemplated myself. I was hooked immediately and finished this one in record time.

(And if you're wondering what two books I'm juggling at the present, they are actually both memoirs:  Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Trevor Noah's Born a Crime. I might have to do some daytime reading to finish these in two weeks but they're both so damned good I won't mind at all)