2013: A Dance with Dragons

This book took me the majority of December 2013 to read, but with school getting ready to close out for the holiday break I was quite busy. Luckily though, I was able to finish this when I got back to Minnesota and it has now been returned to its dust jacket and put on our brand new bookshelf!

One of my all-time favorite quotes came from the middle of this book: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” I feel as though this should be the quote that we live by as we explore some new books in 2014. So you, my readers, and me ... the reader of these books, shall from now on live by this idea that a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies ... but a man who never reads lives only one life. I hope to pass this idea on to my students. To inspire them to lose themselves in the characters of their books. 

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin was, in my humble opinion, the BEST book so far of the entire "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. It was entirely captivating and I loved the new plot lines introduced and of course the many point of view chapters of Daenerys Targaryen - the Queen of Dragons. The ending ... I was warned by a parent of one of my students as well as Kevin, Scott's father, is quite shocking. AND indeed it was. I was horrified and I am literally chewing my nails as we speak (a.k.a. as I write this) until the next book comes out in the "Game of Thrones" phenomenon. I have heard that HBO is putting a lot of pressure on the author to get these books DONE so that the TV show can continue on and continue to enjoy its success. If you've started this series already - watch out! This book will do you in. I'm hooked and by golly I want more!

Also ... I lent my Game of Thrones DVDs out ... I need them back as I first of all: DO NOT HAVE HBO ... and second of all: The third season is coming out soon and I need to  rehash the first two TV seasons to reacquaint myself with the TV version of this epic adventure. Happy reading!

And thank you to the gift-card givers of this holiday season! Scott and I had a good shopping day. Coming up I want to read the "Divergent" trilogy by Veronica Roth among my other unread beautiful books ... and I'm still working on The Marriage Plot. 

Puzzles! The French Riviera and Greece! Two of my favorite places. Thanks Barnes and Noble!

Seems like an awesome book! People trying to escape Europe during WWII. Definitely a 2014 must-read.

Divergent series!

This is the back of my head as I dive into The Marriage Plot.