I’ve been working from home a lot lately, which means my 45-minute commute no longer exists. Thanks to this, I’ve updated my morning routine to include 30 minutes of reading before I dive into work. It helps me feel relaxed and rewarded before my long day begins!
Because if this new habit, I’m finding myself cranking through books a lot faster than I was when I was planning a wedding. (Shocker!) With that in mind, here are the books I’m excited to dive into this winter!
The Inheritance Cycle
No shame here, I love a good young adult fantasy. These books have been on my list for years, and I’m finally sick of lugging around four massive hard-cover books, so I’m going to crank them out this winter and then put them in a local Little Free Library.
The series tells the story of a boy named Eragon (hence the title of the first book) and his dragon Saphira as they try to overthrow the evil king. It sounds like a pretty easy read, so I’m hoping to crank out the whole series on our cruise over the next few weeks!
And since I didn’t want to lug these books all the way to Australia, I was able to get Kindle editions of all four books from my library! Aah, the benefits of an e-reader.
The Outlander Series
Next on my list is another big series (literally) that I downloaded for my Kindle for the library (in case the Inheritance Cycle isn’t my cup of tea). I’ve heard amazing things about this series, and I’ve been slowly picking up copies of the books at library sales over the years. Hence the torn sticker on the cover.
This series is centered around time travel, so I’m all in. British nurse Claire Randall travels back in time to 18th-century Scotland and goes on adventures. Yes, please.
There are 8 books out right now, and there’s a 9th one coming out… eventually. If Diana Gabaldon pulls a George R. R. Martin on us, so help me. My heart won’t be able to handle two of those at the same time.
Every Heart a Doorway
One of my new favorite bloggers, Amber of Space on Third, is a bad influence on me. She keeps writing book reviews and all of them sound so interesting, so I check those books out from the library instead of reading the books I already own.
That’s exactly how Every Heart a Doorway found itself on my winter reading list. It’s a fantasy book about wayward children with no place to go after traveling to mystical places like Narnia and Wonderland. It sounds really fascinating and I’m really excited to dive in!
Malcolm X: An Autobiography
And here’s where my reading list takes a more serious turn.
I’m absolutely fascinated by Malcolm X, but I feel like I know almost nothing about him. He wasn’t really in any of my history lessons, so I’m excited to dive into his autobiography. I’m hoping to learn a lot, not just about him, but about myself as well.
You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain
On a similar (albeit more humorous) note, Phoebe Robinson’s essay collection is pretty high on my want-to-read pile right now. Phoebe is hilarious, and with Jessica Williams writing the foreword, I can’t wait to get home and check this one out from the library.
As a white woman living in…. a tricky political climate, I’m trying to expand my horizons and consume media that I wouldn’t normally consume. I naturally gravitate toward media that “looks like me” (which is a majority of it…) so I’m trying to find media that doesn’t. And this is one I’m really excited about.
The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today
And finally, we’ve got one of my old college textbooks that I wasn’t able to finish due to my crazy work schedule back then (four jobs at once, yo).
When I started it, I was so heartbroken and intrigued, but I just wasn’t able to finish. When book buyback time rolled around, I decided to keep it in hopes that “one day” I’d be able to give it another try, and I’ve decided that this winter is “one day”!
Since I’m doing a lot of traveling (ahem, two 15-hour flights) and sitting on a cruise ship for days on end this holiday season, I’m hoping I can crank a lot of these books out before I return to the states! If that’s the case, expect some book reviews on the other side of the new year!
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