a summer of reading

It's officially the last day of summer and pictured above is my biggest accomplishment of the last 6 weeks! I was looking forward to summer so much because I finally had the time to read for pleasure - a welcome change from the countless revision notes that had been my constant companions for the last few months.

I was so excited for City Of Heavenly Fire's release in May, the sixth and final installment in the Mortal Instruments series. I was all caught up with the rest of the books and ready to buy CoHF as soon as it was available, when a friend of mine stopped me in my tracks. She strongly recommended that I read the Infernal Devices series before I raced onwards, because she was worried a lot of it would be spoiled if I didn't.

I am so glad that I took her advice! I loved this trilogy so much and loved all the little connections to the modern Shadowhunter world of the Mortal Instruments. Luckily these books are so easy to read and it wasn't long before I could move on to CoHF and consequentially get my heart broken and put back together multiple times. Real tears were shed. Perhaps the only series I've read that I was actually satisfied and moved by the epilogue! (Cough - The Hunger Games epilogue...blech.)

Although I allowed myself a short mourning period for the end of the Mortal Instruments series, I quickly moved on to the second book in A Song Of Ice And Fire (aka Game Of Thrones.) I was having serious withdrawal after the season 4 finale so I finally revisited the books after reading the first one about a year ago. I'm now determined to catch up with all the books before the next series is aired! In Westeros nobody is safe and I'm anxious to find out the fates of all my favourite characters, of which there are WAY too many. The second book seems to me like a transitional period for a lot of the characters and a set up for the third book, which I'm expecting a lot more action in. A Clash Of Kings was definitely a book of character development.

My number one girl Sansa Stark. I will defend you to the grave.

After that I decided to take a little break and treated myself with reading the completely delightful and swoon-worthy Vince And Joy by Lisa Jewell. I loved this book so much and read it over the course of two days. It sounds terribly cliche when described; two teenagers fall in love on holiday and never get to say goodbye, until fate/destiny/whatever you want to call it leads them to meet again as they grow older. And I suppose it is pretty cheesy, but I fell completely for it. I'm a romantic at heart and this book completely satisfied all my wants.

I read The Night Circus after hearing so many people raving about it and telling me how wonderful it was. Granted, the description in it was lush and Erin Morgenstern definitely knows how to use the readers imagination to her advantage and can paint a beautiful picture with her language. To tell the truth though, I was a bit dissapointed with the pace of this novel. I expected a dramatic magical duel between the two main characters, but it was more like an agonisingly slow game of chess. I was much more interested by the subplots in the book, with Herr Thiessen and the Reveurs, or with Bailey and the twins.

To date, I'm still making my way through all of Jane Austen's novels. I read Pride And Prejudice months ago and completely adored it, and I've always been fascinated by Jane as a person, especially after watching Becoming Jane, which details an affair she had as a young woman with a mischievous Irishman. (played by James McAvoy. Yes, this may have been my original incentive for watching this film. So what?) I'm studying her for my dissertation in my Advanced English class and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of her books! I'm halfway there!

If McAvoy in period clothing isn't enough to make you watch this film then what is?

Unfortunately I'm going back to school tomorrow, so it's likely that I won't be reading books at the rate I want to for a while. (Or for that matter updating my blog. Please forgive me!!!)