WWW Wednesday 1

This meme/link-up is hosted by Taking on a World of Words, and I thought I'd give it a shot.

What are you currently reading?

I'm halfway through The World Between Two Covers by Ann Morgan, I can't speed-read it because every chapter makes me want to take copious notes and buy all the books mentioned. Another book I'm almost halfway through is The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. Meg Cabot's The Mediator series has been my go-to waiting/queuing e-book, and I'm on the fourth book in the series right now.

Last night I started reading my Puffin in Bloom edition of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, a childhood favorite and the first really nice edition I've decided to invest in, and this morning before breakfast I snuck a couple of pages of The Pedant's Return by Andrea Barham. 

What did you recently finish reading?

For half of last week I was in a small, sort of remote island with no data or Internet connection. I read Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, the movie of which I found adorably quirky; The Forest of the Pygmies by Isabel Allende, which is the final installment of a middle-grade trilogy; and One Plus One by Jojo Moyes, which managed to wring out more tears from me than Me Before You did. 

This week I finished Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes just in time to return it to the library; it's a foodie memoir that makes you want to visit Italy too and taste everything she described. I also finished the second and third books of The Mediator, which are really short (bitin) and meant to be serialized, I guess. Nora Ephron's I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections was a bit of a struggle to read, but in the end I liked it better than I Feel Bad About My Neck. 

What do you think you'll read next?

I just borrowed The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai from the library, so that's what I'll be prioritizing. Aside from that, I'll be trying to finish all the books I'm currently reading. 

March, so far.

In my country, March is National Women's Month. I've been trying to read only books by women, and it's been a great excuse for "marathoning" some authors and further explore some categories I want to "specialize" in.

So far:

• Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes
• Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
• I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
• The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
• Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
• Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
• Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
• Act Like It by Lucy Parker
• Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
• Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
• After You by Jojo Moyes

And in special categories:

Books About Books and Reading:

• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Fairytale/Folklore/Mythology Retellings:

• The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Kid Lit or Middle Grade:

• Beetles, Lightly Toasted by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes

You could probably review this in many ways: complain about being lured in by the beautifully bright cover you love to see in bookstores and get a strange, uncomfortable book; be a preachy feminist/literary critic and point out all the book's shortcomings; stop trying to write an insightful review and just point out that Anika, at least, acted on her guilt, even if she was too late in the end. At least she tried to fix some of the little things she found wrong with the world.

Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik series

Here are your silly little problems; when you look at them in ten years' time may they bring a smile to your face the way Anastasia's problems do now. Here is a reminder of how delightful it is to be weird and young, to realize little by little how tiny your corner of the world is and to learn about it a bit at a time. Here is confirmation you don't need, that lists are important and that collecting words is a thing. 

(This is also why you might not pass your kinetics exam. Honestly, would you rather solve problems about fuel pipes or immerse yourself in Lois Lowry's gift for making small words and small worlds meaningful?)

I write about what I read, and someday soon I will be brave enough to post my writing here.