The Passage by Justin Cronin: Characters, plot, suspense, relationships, action, science, this book has it. And every once in awhile a gem of a bit of prose will pop out at you. I am seriously invested in what happens to these people now. (5 stars)

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville: I was seriously reluctant to read this because I thought it would be majorly boring. It wasn’t though! Really! It was funny, and passionate, and enlightening. There were some boring parts about whales but I am totally glad I read it and enjoyed the process thoroughly. (4 stars)

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss: Yeah okay, I guess this was pretty good. But I don’t know, it took me almost 40% of the way in to really get interested in the story. And I still don’t really care all that much about the larger mystery for some reason. Since this is a series nothing really resolved, so I am somewhat interested in what happens, but I don’t know if it’s enough to get me to read the rest because of course they are loooooong. (audiobook, 3 stars)

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore: I was chugging along just fine through this book – it wasn’t what I expected (which was something light; why don’t I do more research before starting to read?) and I had very little feelings whatsoever about it, other than some vague thoughts about motherhood and adoption and how the 20-year-old narrator seemed a little too think-y to be realistic – and then 3/4 of the way through an event so emotional happened that my heart could hardly handle it and I wanted to do violent things to the book and forget it existed. The more I think about it the more I dislike it. (2 stars)

A Good American by Alex George: Read and reviewed for BlogHer book club. (3 stars)

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple: This was just extremely entertaining to read. A unique format made it quick and interesting. There’s a small element of mystery but it’s mostly a story of an eccentric family. It’s funny, touching, and even the ridiculous characters have redeeming qualities. Thoroughly enjoyed. (4 stars)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: There were a lot of funny, uplifting moments and it had excellent writing, and the characters were great, but come on, it’s about teens with cancer. I avoided reading it for a long time for just that reason, but I finally caved for book club and that’s how I found myself crying mightily on my drive to work, trying not to ruin my mascara, wanting to turn it off but being unable, and then facing the work day (where I’m a nurse for cancer patients) severely depressed. It was a good book, I just wish I hadn’t read it. (audiobook, 4 stars)

Katherine by Anya Seton: This is a new favorite. It kind of wrecked me. From the very beginning the characters were interesting, or funny, or likeable, the story was deep and captivating, the romance swept me up, the historical background was fascinating, and I just loved it all okay? Except toward the end a lot of tragic things start happening and I was really worried for awhile because I just could not even handle it if things didn’t turn out well, so I skipped ahead and read the afterword and it made me cry from happiness right there, and then later that night I stayed up late to finish it (which I never do because SLEEP) and I could not stop crying, from happiness and also because of all the tragedy that led to the eventual happiness and why did they have to go through all that? (5 stars)