Weekly Wrap-up for November 25, 2012:

I'm actually typing this late Saturday night, since I am still awake, and I felt like writing. That seems to be a rare combination, so I best take advantage of it.

I'm a bit said that tomorrow is the last day of a lovely 5-day break from school. I NEEDED this time off to recharge. I was flying at high speeds through the first few months of school, and now I feel like I have caught my breath. It has been a great weekend filled with a lot of family, reading, time with Matt, and some shopping. Tomorrow I will definitely spend a chunk of the day working on some prep and plan work for the rest of the semester (we have 4 full weeks until our winter break, then 1 week in January before exam week!). I'm hoping that I'll be able to focus for a long time tomorrow and knock a lot of that prep stuff out of the way. I purposefully left my school things in the car when I got home on Tuesday...and they're still there. :)

I've been reading quite a bit. I managed to read both Before I Fall and Hana by Lauren Oliver. I was excited to read both. I'm still a bit undecided on the Delirium series, but Hana was a short little novella. It was okay, not stellar, and left me feeling like I didn't really need to read it. I don't think it added much to the first two books. As for the first title, I've been meaning to read it since it came out. There were so many rave reviews...and I really LOVED it. It was definitely worth the wait!

I also read Son by Lois Lowry. It is the fourth and final book in the Giver series, so I was really excited about it (I bought a copy when it came out). I really like the series as a whole, and I felt it gave a nice rounded feeling to the whole set that Messenger didn't. However, The Giver is by the far the best of the set and will remain a favorite book for always.

Last night and this morning I plowed through Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. It was another book I had been meaning to read because I have read all of Green's other books (LOVE THEM), so why not. I finally picked up a copy on Friday while I was out shopping. It was yet another book that was worth the wait and lived up to the high standards Green as set for himself. It also makes me want to read more by Levithan, so that's good!

I started Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero just a little while ago. Quite a few of my kids are reading The Mark of Athena, which is the third title in the set, so I figured I should read them before they get spoiled for me. I enjoyed the Percy Jackson series, and so far, I'm enjoying this as well. It also helps that it connects to my own mythology class. :)

There is also The Scarlet Letter sitting on my nightstand. I've been reading a few pages here and there in an effort to finish it, but I'm not in a rush.

A very big part of me just wants to fly through the stacks of YA, fantasy, and other titles that I've been picking up over the last three years. And once those piles are gone, I can return my attention to the classics. I think, tentatively, I'm sticking with this plan for the rest of 2012. Come 2013, I think I'm going to refocus my efforts on finishing my list and project. Right now? All I want to do is escape into books, and these are providing that escape for me. Part of that is due to school stress, and some of it is more...but I can't explain that now (I will in the future).

Anyway, I hope you all had a great weekend and that you'll have a fabulous reading week ahead of you. :)