In the Stack October 31st

Hey everyone!  Remember how I keep saying that I've got some blog only stuff in the works?  Well, this is one of the things that I am planning to do a couple of times a month, give or take.  I have loved reading ever since I was a child and since then, my problem has only gotten worse!  Haha!  And now that I work at a library I see shiny new books in the back all the time!  And on top of that co-workers and patrons and friends are constantly telling me that I "have to read this book!" So of course I check it out, which means my stack at home is ridiculous!

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to take a picture of some of the books at the top of my ever-growing stack.  So, about a week ago I took this photo of some of my current reads:

And, because e-books cannot be photographed in the stack--here's a book that I wanted to share with you that I read on my tablet.

Now, it's about a week since taking these photos, so I will tell you about the books in the stack and what I thought of them!  And I will be honest, sometimes I check a book out and then return it to the library if I start it and don't like it or if I didn't have time.  But since I already took the photo, you guys will get full honesty!  I'm including links to the books as well so you can find them easily.  I'm not being paid to do so and it's not an affiliate link.  I just wanted to make it easier to find.  Most of the books that I share or will share in the future are from the library, even if they are e-books.  So I'm certainly not telling you to go buy them, just sharing my quick opinions on them :)  So here we go:

1.  The Queen's Fool--You just can't go wrong with a Philippa Gregory novel.  But in this case, I didn't get around to reading it.  My two libraries close to me both had books sales and I picked up a bunch of historical novels, including a few others by Gregory, so I ended up taking this back to the library before reading it because I knew I would have lots of choices the next time I get bit by the historical novel bug.

2.  Rule of Thoughts--This is a young adult book (which I read a lot of) and it's the second in a new series by James Dashner (Maze Runner author).  Honestly, when I read the first one it was a little slow in the middle, but the end had a twist that shocked me.  I even did a book review on my YouTube channel.  So I had to read the second book when it came out, but honestly it was a bummer.  Way too slow.  I will not be picking up the third one in this series.

3.  Crown of Embers--This is also the second book in a young adults trilogy by Rae Carson.  And this was definitely a second book that was solidly written.  So many trilogies lag in the second book but not this one.  It kept going strong and had plenty of action and plot twists..  The first book Girl of Fire and Thorns was an awesome read too.  And the best part is that all three books in the trilogy are already out.  It's so frustrating following a series as it comes out and then you forget little parts when the books are published a year apart!  So that's definitely a bonus on top of an already great book.  I'm already reading the third in the series as I write this so that's how much I recommend it!

4. The Cricket in Times Square--This is a childhood classic that I felt the urge to pick up and re-read.  If you haven't read it then I highly recommend it!  It's such a sweet story and would be a great one to read out loud with your kids because it has chapters and isn't too long.

5. Heir of Fire--Another book in a series.  This time it's the third one!  So that's something different, haha!  I actually ran out of time with this book.  I kept meaning to look up a recap of the second book and I kept putting it off and by the time I got around to it the book was due back.  But the first two books in this series were amazing so I will be picking this one up to see how they wrap up some of the things that the second book left open.  If you want to start this series the first book is Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas.

6.  The Good Girl--So I'm technically in the middle of this (adult) book by Mary Kubica.  I think it is categorized as a suspense novel or something in that family.  The premise is that the 24 year old daughter of a judge is kidnapped but the kidnapper doesn't hand her over to the 'bad guys' that he's working for--instead he runs off with her to save her and takes her to a cabin hundreds of miles away in Minnesota.  This book has multiple points of view but it also goes back and forth between 'Before' and 'After' so you know from a very early point if the girl is dead or alive.  That takes out some of the suspense to me...but I can't seem to put this one aside.  So I'm sticking with it and will update you when I get done with it :)

7. Gray Mountain--Let me start off by saying that I used to be a huge John Grisham fan.  But his last couple of books have left me wondering what the point was.  And it was no different with this new one.  The main character, Samantha, is a young lawyer who was fired from a big law firm during the mortgage crisis and she goes on furlough to keep her health insurance and goes to work as an intern at a tiny legal aid clinic in the Appalachian Mountains.  I liked the characters and even the cases that she was working on, but nothing ever really came of anything.  You hear a lot (too much for a novel) about strip mining and coal mining and it was very eye-opening and depressing.  But as far as a novel goes, there was just no plot that I could see.  Just a lot of talk.  It was a quick read and had a twist in the middle but even that ended up going nowhere...This is one to skip in my opinion.

Whew, that was a long one!  I hope you liked my 'book report' about the books that are in my stack and I will see you with another update in a week or two!  Thanks for stopping by!