It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

As the semester has slowed down for me and is almost over, I've been reading a lot. In fact, I have surpassed my goal for the year of 82 books, and have now read 87 books. Since each year I challenge myself to read more than the year before, it's going to be difficult to beat that next year!

Last week I finished five books!

• America the Anxious: How Our Pursuit of Happiness is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks, by Ruth Whippman
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce
• The Cyber Effect, by Mary Aiken
• The Magnolia Story, by Chip and Joanna Gaines
• Paris for One and Other Stories, by JoJo Moyes (audiobook)

My favorite book of last week was America the Anxious. I love cultural criticism (probably due to my undergraduate major in sociology), and this is a good one. The writing and the research are both solid, but this book is different from most of this type because it's also funny. The writer has a great sense of humor, and I love the way she combines her personal experience with the research she does. So the book isn't dry at all, which makes it more accessible and interesting for the average reader. I highly recommend it.

This week I've started several books: a novel called The Other Side of the World, by Stephanie Bishop, and two books of nonfiction, The Making of Home: The 500-Year Story of How Our Houses Became Homes, by Judith Flanders and Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books, by Christine Woodside. This Little House book is so gripping so far, I can hardly put it down!

If you'd like to participate in It's Monday, What Are You Reading? Click here.