Welcome to the list of books I've read so far this year.  This post will be updated as I go.

1. Turn Coat by Jim Butcher ★★★★★
2. Changes by Jim Butcher ★★★★★
3. Side Jobs by Jim Butcher ★★★★★ 
4. Ghost Story by Jim Butcher ★★★★★ 
5. Cold Days by Jim Butcher ★★★★★ 
   
6. Skin Game by Jim Butcher (currently reading)

031622: Can't believe that when I finish with Side Jobs I still have SIX more Dresden books!!  How is this possible?! XD
051022: Side Jobs was such a fun look at things we hadn't seen previously. Loved.
072822: Ghost Story and now I'm about half through Cold Days.... Curiouser and curiouser. <3

​Book: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Cali Stars: ★★★★★

For January, the Riesling Chapter read Americanah, our second book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (Our first was We Should All Be Feminists!)

Americanah was a brilliant book.  Adichie discusses race in an open and real way.  Even if you don't consider yourself racist in any way, you're able to learn something, or to see something in a different perspective.  I love the challenges the main character, Ifemelu, sets up for the reader, and the perspective of race in the USA from someone who moved to the USA as a young adult.  

There is just so much going on in this story, and Adichie just brings it all together with beautiful words, imagery, and characters.  I really do believe that this is probably one of the most important books I've read, and I sincerely believe that people ought to read this amazing novel.  I look forward to reading more of Adichie's work.

Book: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Cali Stars: ★★★★✰

For the month of November 2018, our book club, The Riesling Chapter, picked Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

This was such an interesting and different book for me.  I've never read a book like this (one girl in RC said she had though).  It was a bit interesting going back and forth between the perspectives of the past-tense battles that Cheryl was facing during her present-day battle against the terrain.

During RC discussion of the book, it became clear that the book had inspired several of us: one our ladies said she definitely wanted to do something similar except on the Appalachian Trail perhaps.  One other said she had decided on a very particular page that she wanted to run a half-marathon for the first time.  For myself, it gave me a particular aching for the week-long camping trip in Yellowstone that I went on a couple of years ago.  And immediately after putting the book down, I may have also done a quick workout (which I'm still feeling two full days later).  

The book feels almost as slow as the trail itself at times. However, I think the journey through the Pacific Crest Trail is worth the time you put into it.  It certainly inspired us.

​Hey my sweet loves!  

I got to thinking about it, and I decided it would be fun to share our book club's list of books we've read!  Also I'm putting little stars next to my favorites. :D
​

1. ★ The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins
3. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
4. Stardust by Neil Gaiman. 
5. ​★ I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. 
6. The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
7. ★ Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
8. ★ My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry by Frederik Backman
9. Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
10. ★ Slade House by David Mitchell
11. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
12. The Girls by Emma Cline
13. ★ The Humans by Matt Haig
14. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
15. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
16. ★ Pieces of Happiness by Anne Ostby
17. ★ We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
19. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
20. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
21. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
22. ★ Wild by Cheryl Strayed
23. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson