I’ve been keeping semi-track of the television I watch, but I haven’t been very good at reporting the books I’ve been reading. TV is just so much easier to consume in my after-work, only half-paying attention, my-brain-is-actually-sleeping haze.

Not for nothing, I’ve been thinking about this blog and this post for a number of months. But I never got around to putting fingers to keyboard, so a fat lot of good thinking about it did.

Anyway.

Here’s the rundown of the books I read for the rest of the year.

No One Has to Know – A sleazy young adult novel written by a local author. I’ll admit it was fun to read a story with a setting I am familiar with, much like the Alaska nonfictions I devoured at the beginning of the year, but… oh goodness. This book was bad. And easy enough that I read it in one evening.

Interestingly, the book is getting decent reviews on Amazon. So maybe it’s just my taste that was offended, and I’m an outlier in this stuff.

A Storm of Swords – Otherwise known as Game of Thrones, book 3. This was fantastic. Of course. Most of the folks I’ve talked with say this is their favorite book of the series.

I’ve started book four, A Feast for Crows, and there are so many new characters already that my head is spinning. If you don’t know, each chapter is written from a different character’s point of view. In the fourth book, we hear from characters that have always been in the story, but not hear their direct point of view before. It’s pretty interesting to see who the new players will be, since I’m past where the TV show left off in some of the story lines, and all the other people are dead.

#Girlboss – I was too intrigued by all the social media chatter to pass this one by. I read the  it on the trusty iPad. Not my favorite way to devour a book, but it worked out fine. Anyway, I enjoyed it. I came away inspired and empowered. I appreciate that Sophia Amoruso, the author, is scrappy and determined and very straightforward. She didn’t sugar-coat the hard things, and she wholly celebrates the good things. No need to be demure when she’s the one who built her empire. You go girl.

A snipped from the reviews: “It’s easy to get the sense, reading Lean In, that Sandberg is writing for women who’ve already made it. #GIRLBOSS is for those who haven’t, which means it is aimed at people who have nothing to lose, which makes it a much riskier and more enjoyable manifesto.”  –New York Magazine / The Cut

So there. Moving on.

I feel like I read another book, but I can’t think of what it was now. It’s quite possible that there isn’t a fourth, since it took forever to get through A Storm of Swords. And in the mean time I watch all of Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empie, and nearly made it through all season of Gilmore Girls. Add in a bunch of dating and that’s pretty much my life right now.

Now that dating is calmed down (and I’m back to square one), and Gilmore Girls is nearly over, and add in a dash of new year, I’m ready to make a bit of progress again in the reading department. For the record, I did read not finish 12 books in 2014, which was the ultimate goal. Not yet, anyway. There’s still 10 days left, and I’ve been known to read gargantuan amounts in short periods of time.

Challenge accepted.

Either way, I enjoyed reading all the books so much that I’ll continue the goal in 2015.

Here’s the complete list of books plus their posts:

January – The American Heiress, Daisy Goodwin
February – Chasing Alaska, C.B. Bernard
March – A Long Trek Home: 4,000 Miles by Boot, Raft, and Ski, Erin McKittrick
April – Small Feet, Big Land: Adventure, Home and Family on the Edge of Alaska, Erin McKittrick
May – The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler
June – Where’d You Go Bernadette, Maria Semple
July – Game of Thrones, books one and two, George R.R. Martin
Tiny Beautiful Things, Cheryl Strayed
August – NOTHING. GAH.
September – #GIRLBOSS, Sophia Amoruso
October – No One Has to Know, Amanda Grace
November – NOTHING. GAH.
December – A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin

I’m now on a mission to complete A Feast For Crows and one other in the next 10 days. This is going to happen. I can feel it.

YOU GUYS. I read THREE books in July.

First up, I finished the first and second Game of Thrones. They are so good! The story lines are starting to vary from the TV show – or vice versa – so I’m excited to see just how different the books are.

I would have finished the third, but I don’t have it yet. 🙂

I also read “Tiny Beautiful Things” by Cheryl Strayed. I had heard about this one a few times before I finally picked it up. It’s fantastic. The book is a compilation of entries from an advice column Strayed wrote for The Rumpus under the pseudonym Sugar. The letters and columns are so raw and real, I loved every minute of it. Even the ones that made me cry, and especially the very first one, which sold me on the book hook, line and sinker.

“Do you realize that your refusal to utter the word ‘love’ to your lover has created a force field all its own? Withholding distorts reality. It makes the people who do the withholding ugly and small-heated. It makes the people from whom things are withheld crazy and desperate and incapable of what they actually feel.

“So release yourself from that. Don’t be strategic or coy, Strategic and coy are for jackasses. Be brave. Be authentic. Practice saying the word love’ to the people you love so when it matters the most yo say it, you will.”

YES.

I didn’t have internet in my apartment until last night, (!) so I listened to SO MANY podcasts and read my little heart out. Now that I’m caught up on all the books I brought with me, it’s time to start watching TV again!

Just kidding. Kind of.

Until the rest of my books arrive from Alaska, or I find #3 on a store shelf somewhere, I’ll be catching up on some TV. 🙂

I finished my June read a couple weeks ago, but life is busy you guys! And I haven’t gotten around to writing it down before now. And I just know you’ve been waiting on pins and needles.