HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it's been a while.

I know, I know. Bad book blogger! *slaps own hand with ruler*

When we last left off, my back was recovering nicely, my son was starting school, and I was ready to head back to college. And then life happened.

Let's go down the list, shall we? My back is still hinky. Some days are fine and I only have little twinges here and there. Other days are...other days. But I'm doing my best to keep a good sense of humor about the whole thing. The last few days have been kind of rough. To the makers of Celebrex, thank you. That stuff helps a lot.

Stuart. He's doing well in school and still likes it. I do miss homeschooling him, especially on days when he comes home with a boatload of homework. Heck, mostly on days with a boatload of homework. He's got new friends, he's joined the school running club, and overall, it's worked out quite nicely.

College! I have to say I wasn't totally in love with my classes last semester, but I did well (A's on everything, thankyouverymuch!), and I've met some really fantastic people. It feels really good to be accomplishing something concrete for myself. I love learning, I don't even mind homework, so I'm really enjoying putting my brain to work. I'm taking biology and a math class this semester, and so far I love them both (which is a little freaky, because I've never, ever been a math and science person before. Ever). I want a time machine so that I can put my bio teacher in it and send him back to my high school, so he can explain the chemistry portion of bio to me, so that I wouldn't have to spend the next two decades of my life thinking I was a moron for not getting it. He explained the basics of chemistry in class the other day, and it made sense for the first time in my life. I sat there going, "OH. Why didn't anyone explain it like that in the first place?!???" I love it, and I'm feeling really good about both of my classes.

I've also started making some local friends. They're an amazing, talented, funny, friendly group of people, and it's the first time in my adult life that I've actually had more than one or two local friends. It's fabulous. :)

SO. My studies, Stuart's homework, trying to keep the house clean, running errands like grocery shopping and getting the oil changed, cooking dinner every night, writing, finding time to exercise, slipping in a little reading here and there...all that has seriously sucked all the time out of my life. Something had to give, and unfortunately, this book blog was the first thing to go. I'm going to try to be better about it, though. I may not get to update after every single book I read, but I'll try to blog about the books that affect me the most. I'll at least do a monthly post, marking all the books I've read that month (sadly, with all the reading and studying I do for school, my reading has slowed down quite a bit). But posting here more often is one of my resolutions for the year. :)

With that said, let me list the rest of the books I read last year. I'll bold the ones I really loved:

88. Endless Love- Scott Spencer

89. Catch a Match- Gena Showalter

90. Night Light: A Parody- The Harvard Lampoon (If you like Twilight, if you hate Twilight, if you love to make fun of Twilight- read this. I had TEARS. SO very funny.)

91. Skipping a Beat- Sarah Pekkanen

92. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks- E. Lockhart

93. Le Petit Nicolas et Les Copains- Sempé (Yes, all in French. Yay, me! And did you notice the accent mark? I got a new laptop with a keypad. I can do fancy accent marks now! I may be the only person excited by these sorts of things.)

94. Sisterhood Everlasting- Ann Brashares

95. The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde

96. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

97. The Tulip and the Pope: A Nun's Story- Deborah Larsen

98. A Separate Peace- John Knowles

99. Almost Perfect- Brian Katcher

100. Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation Into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamental Church of Latter-Day Saints- Sam Brower

101. Artemis Fowl- Eoin Colfer

102. You Are What You Speak- Robert Lane Greene

103. White Fang- Jack London

104. Holes- Louis Sachar

105. Chosen- Chandra Hoffman

106. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler- E.L. Konigsburg

107. Favorite Wife- Susan Ray Schmidt

108. My Side of the Mountain- Jean Craighead George

109. The Help- Kathryn Stockett

110. The Real State of America Atlas: Mapping the Myths and Truths of the United States- Cynthia Enloe and Joni Seager

111. Goodnight Tweetheart- Teresa Medeiros

112. Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock- David Margolick

113. Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not For Sale, An Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself- Rachel Lloyd

114. What is a Jew? Rabbi Morris N. Kertzer

115. Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels- Hella Winston

And this year so far:

1. Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey Among Hasidic Girls- Stephanie Levine and Carol Gilligan

2. Orange is the New Black- Piper Kerman

3. Future Perfect- Suzanne Brockman

4. Always Something There to Remind Me- Beth Harbison

So that's it! I'll try to be back as soon as I can, when I'm not buried under mounds of biology reading, math problems, and trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing with my writing. :) Cheers!