Recent Reads

For me summer has always been synonymous with reading. I think this stems from the reading trees my mom had us build way back in elementary where each leaf represented a book we had completed. This summer's tree is looking pretty promising, people.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

One of the most profoundly sad books I've ever read, this narrative follows nine-year-old Oskar as he uncovers a mystery about his father's death in the September 11th attack. Completely depressing, but very interesting.

"Gravity isn't only what makes us fall, it's what makes our muscles strong."

"You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness."

"I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: "Do you like me?"

"So many people enter and leave your life! Hundreds of thousands of people! You have to keep the door open so they can come in! But it also means you have to let them go!"

"Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living"

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

The story of a girl from England traveling through Italy in the early 20th Century and her own discovery of beauty and love in unusual places. The writing was spectacular, the setting was spectacular, the characters were spectacular... loved this book; beautiful in all of its Britishness.

"A delicate pathos perfumed her disconnected remarks, giving them unexpected beauty, just as in the decaying autumn woods there sometimes rise odours reminiscent of spring."

"Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes."

"Choose a place where you won't do very much harm -- yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine."

"If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting -- both for us and for her."

"Ah! it was worth while; it was the great joy that they had expected, and countless little joys they had never dreamt."

The Hunger Games & Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Haven't joined the Mockingjay rebellion yet? READ THESE. Even better if you can read them straight through. Literally cannot wait until the third one comes out in August.

"And while I was talking, the idea of actually losing Peeta hit me again and I realized how much I don't want him to die. And it's not about the sponsors. And it's not about what will happen when we get home. And it's not just that I don't want to be alone. It's him. I do not want to lose the boy with the bread."

Any leaves to recommend next?