45. The Uncoupling; Meg Wolitzer: Oh, I loved this novel. I loved the prose. I loved the premise. I loved it. A new drama teacher moves into a small town in New England, and suddenly, all sex stops. Wives, girlfriends, mistresses, friends with benefits, they all refuse to have sex with their partners. The result is an entire town of sex-starved men and readers get a first-hand account of how the town handles it, how relationships change, and how people learn to appreciate one another.
46. The Dom of my Dreams; M.F. Sinclair: This book was kindle-loaned to me by a friend {she and I spent the summer trying to find quality novels in the same genre as 50 Shades} and...it was kind of obnoxious. The plot was a little hollow and the ending sappy sweet, but it was a good distraction. I was frustrated with the way one of the characters acted toward the "heroine" of the novel. I probably would never pick this one up again.
47. The Handmaid's Tale; Margaret Atwood: I loved this novel. I generally love dystopian novels and considering the current political climate I thought this one was pretty relevant. You can read my longer review here.
48. The Codex; Douglas Preston {audiobook}: It's what I call a grocery store novel. A decently written thriller that I might pick up at a grocery store {or more recently off the Amazon kindle daily deals site} and enjoy, but only because I didn't pay much for it. It's got a fun plot, mystery, a journey to the rainforest, and plenty of romance. Just don't expect too much out of this one.
49. Bared to You; Sylvia Day: I started reading this novel because I was hooked on 50 Shades of Grey. It was erotic but written from a different viewpoint. Certainly, the author wrote this novel in a more eloquent way than Ms. James did. My review of this novel is here {I'll post the review of the sequel next week}.
50. Love in the Afternoon; Lisa Kleypas: This novel was the end to the Hathaway series. In this novel we follow Beatrix, the Hathaway sister with a fondness for animals and a huge heart. She's "trapped" into a marriage to save her reputation, and everyone lives happily ever after. It makes the feminist in me scream, but given the period of the novel and the sweet ending I can overlook it.
51. The Night Circus; Erin Morgenstern: This is another novel I loved. The imagery and story were we brilliantly constructed, and I tore through this one until the wee hours of the morning. I highly, highly recommend it.
52. Simply Voracious; Kate Pearce: Another winner in the House of Pleasure series. We follow Paul St. Claire, an avowed gay man and bachelor who marries to protect the honor of a relative. Of course, they fall in love and are both GGG about Paul's more fluid sexuality. The sex researcher in me did a little happy dance, and as always, Kate Pearce puts together a fast-paced, sexy novel.
53. Kushiel's Dart; Jacqueline Carey: I found this on the infamous "what to read if you liked 50 Shades" list. Don't be fooled, though. Though the tone of the book is sexual in nature, and more specifically, has an undertone of BDSM, you won't find anything graphic in here. It's much more of a fantasy saga with a nice little erotic undertone. If you like fantasy, but don't really like the erotica scene, you can still read this novel. My full review is here.
54. Changeling; Philippa Gregory: A fun little fantasy novel involving heresy, magic, etc. I generally love Philippa Gregory, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to like this one.
55. Living Abroad in China; Barbara Strother: This book was pretty helpful in telling me a few things that I might want to know about living in China. As helpful as it was, though (and hindsight is always 20/20), I found a bunch of the same stuff on the internet. My original post about this one is here.
56. Kosher Chinese; Michael Levy: Hilarious. And, I've found many of Michael's experiences to be true.
57. Death by Black Hole; Neil deGrasse Tyson: Oh, sciency books, how I swoon for you! I found this book on Cate Linden's site, and both she and her husband recommend it. It tickled the part of my brain that loves space and Tyson brought some nice dry humor into the mix.
58, 59. Divergent and Insurgent; Veronica Roth: I loved these two novels. Roth has spun an interesting tale of dystopian Chicago in which how society defines you is of the utmost importance. My review of Divergent is here.
60. The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy; This one was interesting, but a little bit dry. The idea is that academic philosophers analyze the basic philosophical ideas found in Harry Potter. It was engaging enough but, dare I say, written for a more academic audience even though it was intended as a pop-culture piece.
61. Chinese Cinderella; Adeline Yen Mah: A basic tale of a girl ignored {sort of} by her evil step-mother. She is moved from boarding school to boarding school, left there for the holidays, not given enough to eat, and is expected to keep her mouth shut and not offend her step-mom. Eventually she wins a writing contest and convinces her father to send her to school in the West, and they all live happily ever after. This one moved kind of slow and I'm glad I checked it out from the library.
62. Dreaming in Chinese; Deborah Fallows: A funny little story about Fallows' journey to learn Chinese. It was cute and entertaining, and now that I'm in Beijing, I see exactly what she means.
63. Someone to Watch Over Me; Lisa Kleypas: A fun little historical fiction romance. Lisa Kleypas does these so well!
64. Be Our Guest; The Disney Institute: No one does Guest Service like Disney, and this book tells you exactly how. I found it interesting given my background with the company, and as a former camp director {and hopefully I'll have a similar position here, in the future} I found a lot of the information to be useful.
65-67. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; J. K. Rowling: Just re-reading the series! Obviously, I luuurve Harry Potter!
68. On Dublin Street; Samantha Young: This one is in the same vein as 50 Shades and Bared to you. That is, the plot goes like this: young, unsuspecting woman catches the attentions of a rich, devastatingly handsome man, is seduced, gets scared and runs away. He's so taken that he chases her and wins her back and they all live happily ever after. OK, so I know that these are everywhere, but I found this one to be sweet, and I liked it way better than Sylvia Day's new novel. It's only $4 on Amazon and it's worth it!
69. The Kingmaker's Daughter; Philippa Gregory: Another good, solid, Philippa Gregory novel. This one follows Queen Anne's ascension to the throne and is a direct sequel to The White Queen and The Lady of the Rivers. You pretty much can't go wrong with her.
Whew, I got a lot of reading done these past few months! What about you? Read anything interesting lately?
Linking up!
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