I am an obsessive reader. I read about 3-4 books a week. I don't have much time to read, so I try to fit it in after Aidan goes to sleep. That gives me an hour or two a night and it's my favorite time. My time. I also try to fit it in while doing other tasks. I read while knitting and cooking. With introductions out of the way, here is the first installment of 'What I'm Reading.' Well, since this is the first it should actually be 'What I've Read.'
I just completed The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. It was husbands favorite books as a child so I decided to hear him out. I enjoyed them very much. It's basically Lord of the Rings without all the painstaking lore. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but nothing makes a book come to a complete stop like a poem in a middle earth language. The Chronicles of Prydain tell the adventures of Taran the assistant pig-keeper. He loves, he laughs, he learns and he saves Prydain for certain destruction.
I also just finished two books from Jason Goodwin, The Janissary Tree and The Snake Stone. These novels take place in Istanbul in the 1830's. Our hero is Investigator Yashim, the friendly neighborhood eunuch. Jason Goodwin is a great writer. The mysteries are well plotted and interesting and reading about Istanbul in the 1830's is fascinating. I highly recommend his books.