Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby.  I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book.  Here are my reads for August, 2014…

The Care and Management of Lies, by Jacqueline Winspear – I’d heard mixed reviews of this, but I wanted to read it because, Jacqueline Winspear!  Plus the premise sounded good – Kezia, a new bride, writes to her husband at the front during World War I, inventing dishes that she “cooks for him” to keep his spirits up, while Thea – Kezia’s best friend and Tom’s sister – struggles with her pacifist principles and eventually finds herself at the front as well.  But the truth is, I was kind of disappointed.  The beginning of the book was full of promise, but the second half just left me feeling flat.

Delicious!, by Ruth Reichl – Billie Breslin is a new assistant to the editor of the venerable Delicious! magazine, where she tries to hide from a tragic past.  But when Delicious! closes its doors and Billie is retained to maintain the Delicious! guarantee hotline, she discovers a treasure in the magazine’s library – letters from a young reader to James Beard during World War II.  I really expected to enjoy this, but again, something about it was a little off.  I loved Gourmet, the dear departed food magazine of which Reichl was editor-in-chief, and I did like the story, but for some reason I wasn’t overly impressed with the writing.  The foodie descriptions were good, but I found the dialogue rather forced.  Still, it was fun and light and a good read, even if the writing didn’t wow me as I’d expected it to.

Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom, by Deborah Yaffe – What fun!  As a confirmed “Janeite” since high school, I loved reading about the Tribe.  Deborah Yaffe dives deep into the world of Austen obsession – spending hundreds of dollars on a Regency dress and interviewing some of the most notoriously eccentric Janeites in the community.  I enjoy books about books, and this certainly satisfied.  Now I want to attend the JASNA convention and dance the night away in a Regency gown.

The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3), by Deborah Harkness – So, I liked the first installment of the All Souls Trilogy, although I found it kind of silly.  I enjoyed the second book even more, and the third was the strongest of all.  Diana and Matthew have returned from 1591 to find that the shadowy creature world is fracturing at the seams.  Matthew dives back into his genetic research, racing against the clock to find a cure for vampire blood rage, while Diana devotes herself to tracking down the three missing pages and finally the Book of Life itself.  But time is running out – Diana is pregnant with Matthew’s twins, and their true enemy has just shown his face.  This was an absorbing and compelling end to a very creative trilogy.

The Magician’s Land (The Magicians Trilogy #3), by Lev Grossman – I liked The Magicians, loved The Magician King, and the final installment in the trilogy was… oh, my goodness.  I don’t want to say too much about it, because I hate to give anything away about these spectacular books.  Suffice it to say: Quentin has been kicked out of Fillory and is now trying to make his way through a world on the fringes of the magical community.  With a promising young magician named Plum by his side, Quentin works on two big projects – neither of which I’ll reveal; you’ll just have to read.  Meanwhile, Fillory is facing the end of the world, and Eliot and Janet depart on a desperate quest to save their beloved land.  READ THIS ASAP.  I kept gasping, “This is AMAZING!” and trying to convince hubby to pick up the series.  (He’s not convinced, so you’d better go read it right away so that my book missionary status doesn’t come into question.)

Misery Loves Company, by Rene Gutteridge – Jules Belleno is in deep mourning for her murdered police officer husband, her only contact with the world through her popular book blog.  But Jules’s blog life and her real life come crashing together when she puts up an unfavorable book review, goes to the grocery store, and ends up the victim of the most surprising kidnapper ever.  Obviously I couldn’t resist.  I almost abandoned the book in the first few pages, which were pretty upsetting, but I’m glad I stuck with it, because I ended up really enjoying it.

This was a weird reading month.  I had a couple of duds to start the month off, then ripped through several good books in a row – The Magician’s Land was a particular highlight and is going to end up on my “Best of 2014” list for sure – before falling off the book bandwagon altogether at the end of the month.  I got crazy busy with moving and work and wasn’t able to finish anything in about the last week.  Still, I was happy with the reading I did manage to get done during a month in which I was go-go-going almost nonstop.  Hoping for a quieter, more bookish September.