It’s hard to believe that the month is almost over. In less than a week BOTH of my children will be IN SCHOOL. This is craziness! For roughly three hours each weekday I will have the house to myself (unless you coun’t the dog) while BB is at 4K and of course MM will be starting second grade. We are all super excited (and a little nervous). This last week of summer vacation has been filled with peanut butter and honey sandwiches, PBS Kids shows, discovering and devouring The Lizzie Bennet Diaries in two days and, occasionally, reading.

Anyway, the last time we talked nightstands I was reading  The Selection by Kiera Cass. Similar to the LBD, after discovering the series I became obsessively hooked and read every book out in the series as fast as humanly possible. I am a sucker for a good love story and this one was a complicated doozy – almost as complicated at Elizabeth and Darcy’s.

All in all, I’ve read four books since my last nightstand post:

1. The Selection by Kiera Cass – Finished July 24, 2013 – This book just sucked me in and refused to let go from the first page. Though the writing is fairly simple (YA book), the story is fascinating and the characters are even better. I downloaded the following book, Elite and her novella, The Prince before even finishing this one. – Full Review
2. The Prince a novella by Kiera Cass – Finished July 25, 2013 – It was really interesting to get a chance to get to know Prince Maxon a little better and see the Selection through his eyes. There were a few funny moments when you see his reaction to something that you remember America going through – and it’s a nice quick read – it took me an hour to finish the story.
3. The Elite by Kiera Cass – Finished July 27, 2013 – Good lord, I could not put this book down. I am really enjoying this series and anxious for book three.
4. Moranthology by Caitlin Moran – Finished August 20, 2013 – I think I enjoyed this book even better than her last. With a variety of topics, this book is hilarious and insightful, but mostly hilarious. Interviews with famous musicians, reviews of Downton Abbey and Sherlock and stories about her marriage and childhood and everything in between. If you like Caitlin Moran, you will LOVE this book. If you don’t know who Caitlin Moran is, but you like Tina Fey or Jen Lancaster or The Bloggess – you will LOVE this book. – Full Review

In between starting and finishing Moranthology, I tried reading The Alienist by Caleb Carr to discuss with my book club, but I honestly couldn’t seem to get into it at all. It’s a very long, very descriptive and gruesome book and frankly just not what I was in the mood to read. So I decided to sit out this month’s book club and instead finished Moranthology and LOVED it.

Right now I am reading a bit of non-fiction but also relatively light reading: Secret Lives of the First Ladies by Cormac O’Brien. Goodreads.com describes it thusly:

“Your high school history teachers never gave you a book like this one! Secret Lives of the First Ladies features outrageous and uncensored profiles of the women of the White House—complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright wacko facts.”

For those following along with my summer reading challenge, I would need to somehow finish the book I am reading now and one other title before the end of the month to finish my personal challenge. This seems highly unlikely, especially thanks to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries completely taking over my life for the past two days, but I am still proud of all the reading that I have gotten done this summer and looking forward to making some new fall reading goals.

Books I’m planning to read next include:

• Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (September Book Club Pick & UW Big Read)
• Perhaps something by Jane Austen

In general, my nightstand is starting to get way, way crowded again but my brain is a bit hazy on all the titles so I’ll save them for a longer list on another day!

What are you reading right now?