#7 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Okay, okay, OKAY:  I'm reading Harry Potter.  (10 years - or more - late?  Um, yes.  I know.)

One down, six more to go...

#2 - Half Broke Horses

Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls (01/27/11)

Lily Smith, grandmother of Jeanette Walls.  Strong woman, independent, determined, focused.  Caring but not loving, not understanding, not accepting.  Hardened.  But likable.  Whether she was or not in real life, it's impossible to tell.  But Jeanette Walls writes her likable.

Love, love, loved this book.  But I have a soft spot for Jeanette Walls.  Her memoir, The Glass Castle, is one of my favorites of all time.  I've read it 3 times.

Lily is a real woman.  She isn't always likable.  She isn't always right.  She's harsh and strong and bold.  But she is loving, too.  Tough, so question.  But loving in her own way.

Dear Jeanette Walls,
Your family's stories are amazing.  And the way you tell those stories is amazing.  You are amazing and I will read anything you write.
Love, Rachel.

Recommend?  Yes, obvi.

#4, #5, and #6 - The Hunger Games Trilogy

This series, these books - they're YA novels.  I happen to like YA books.  But some people hear that and think fluff.  Let me be clear:  these book are not fluff.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (02/08/11)

Catching Fire (02/10/11)

Mockingjay (02/12/11)

It's been an incredibly long time since I felt changed by a book (or, in this case, a collection of books).  This series reached me.  Transformed me in a way I can't yet fully describe.  But the change is there.

I feel it.

I am still soaking it all in, still listening to Mumford & Sons' album "Sigh No More" on repeat.  Because, right now, that seems to be the only thing that can swallow me with the same force as Suzanne Collins' words.  I have that feeling you get after you read a particularly good book - deflated a little, tired, sad that it's over and the story is finished.  I feel shellshocked, almost.  In a good way.  If you've ever read a book you loved, then you know exactly what I mean.

I'm not sure what got to me.  Probably the idea of being connected to someone in a way you can't explain or fight or forget.  I'm so easily thrown by love stories.  Almost to the point of embarrassment.  I don't like cheesy, I don't like predictable, I don't like Valentine's syrupy sweet stories.
I think stories like this one.  (I want a story like this one.)

The larger theme at play, the one about humans as a whole - it got me too, of course.  But I'm more of a sap than people know.  So, to be honest, it's not why I'm reeling now.

Recommend?  Um, YES.

(Yes, I'm going out of order here but WHO CARES.  These deserve to come first, trust me.)