Have I read that?

I hate when I'm talking to someone about books (and usually gushing about how much I love them) and they ask me about a particular book and my response is either:

a.) I can't remember if I read that,

b.) I know I read that but I can't remember a stinking thing about it, or

c.) I remember really liking/disliking that book, but I couldn't tell you why.

It makes me feel like the worst reader in the world. I feel like I should be able to speak much more intelligently about books, especially books that I've read.

That's one of the reasons I started writing this blog (which is really just a personal reading diary, since no one but me will likely ever read it). Unfortunately, I'm as bad a blogger as I am a reader, lol.

But 2015 is a new year, and I'm going to make an effort to be a little better about keeping up with it. I usually try to read 100 books a year, but (for a variety of reasons) I've reduced that to 50 this year. I am pretty sure that no matter how busy life gets I can probably manage 1 book a week. I'm currently at 14% of my goal, (Thanks Goodreads for doing the mathing for me!), and since we're currently 12% through the year, I'm just about on target.

So far this year I've read:

1. What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty
2. The Job (Fox & O'Hare #3), Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg
3. We Were Liars, e. lockhart
4. Written in My Own Heart's Blood (Outlander #8), Diana Gabaldon
5. Act of War (Scot Harvath #13), Brad Thor
6. The Longest Ride, Nicholas Sparks
7. Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt

And true to form, I neglected to make any sort of notes while I was reading. Although they've all been read recently, I could probably only give you the vaguest sort of review. So, in bullet points:

• I'd recommend What Alice Forgot and Tell the Wolves I'm Home. I enjoyed both of those, I know this is true because I read them both very quickly.
• Alice is probably still considered chick lit, but only in the sense that the main character and author are both women, and I feel like it's probably the sort of book that would appeal to women more than men (which isn't to say that men shouldn't give it a try, I'm sure there are plenty who'd enjoy it). It raises questions about how we become who we are and what we do when we discover that we've become someone that we don't recognize. Rife with opportunities for self reflection while being entertained.
• Wolves is sad and romantic (in the "appreciating style, beauty, imagination and expression" sense, rather than in the "love and romance" sense. This is definitely not a Romance novel). It's a coming of age story set in the 1980s that follows June as she deals with the loss of her beloved Uncle Finn to AIDS. This is Brunt's debut novel.
• I wasn't overly impressed with We Were Liars, but I didn't hate it. However, I'd heartily recommend picking up the Ruby Oliver Series by the same author. Especially if you enjoy quirky YA novels. (Give them a try if you were a fan of the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty or the Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot.
• I was also not super into The Longest Ride. I think that perhaps I've reached my threshold for Nicholas Sparks novels. It wasn't terrible, but I certainly didn't enjoy it as much as some of his others. It wasn't nearly as dramatic as some of his others, and I found myself skimming a lot of the non-dialogue portions. The character histories were interesting, but the descriptions and events that were supposed to move the plot forward were less than thrilling for me. However, if you're a super fan, you'll probably still enjoy giving this one a whirl.
• The other three books were part of a series, so I'd assume no one is going to pick them up unless they are already reading the series - but if you're looking for a series to pick up, here's my opinion on them:
• Fox & O'Hare: I picked this series up because I'm in love with the Stephanie Plum series. They're alright - great airport/beach reads. If you're looking for anything deep, this isn't the series for you. If you're looking for pure fluff, you might check them out. Like the Stephanie Plum novels, they're pretty formulaic. They are also extremely repetitive. If you removed all the descriptions and back story that's repeated, they'd be short stories. At this point I'm mostly still reading them because I started the series and I like to see things through, and because I happened to see it on the new release shelf when I was at the library.
• Outlander: I've really enjoyed this series (minus the really long (but understandable!) waits between books). If you're into historical fiction/romance/sci fi - definitely read them. But if, like me, you'd rather be able to read a series straight through, you may want to wait a while, because based on the ending of #8, I'd assume the series is not over. Word of caution - if sex scenes in books offend your sensibilities, either skip this series or prepare to do a fair amount of skimming. Gabaldon isn't shy.
• Scot Harvath: I've mostly enjoyed this series. The political leaning of the author is painfully obvious, and is probably a little heavy handed for some. But I dig action, adventure, conspiracies and intrigue, so I'm able to ignore that. Plus, Scot Harvath is just my type of literary main man. These are much deeper than the Fox & O'Hare adventures, so if you're looking for a little more substance in your crime fighting, this is a better bet. Just be prepared for the conservative bent. If you're also of a politically conservative nature, you'll probably love these.

From here on out I'm going to try to be better about reviewing each book as I read it, as well as being able to provide more specific (though not spoilery - cause I hate that) thoughts about the books. As I always used to tell my students - "I liked it" is not really a sufficient book report.

*it occurs to me that maybe I should start talking about some of the things that I'm watching as well... since Netflix is, at least in part, responsible for the decline of my reading - we'll see.