It’s Monday! What are you reading? Is a meme sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.  Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts gave the meme a kidlit twist.  It’s a great way to reflect on what you’ve read and reviewed the last week and plan what you want to read next.  Join up with us and discover what good books other people  are reading.

I did it! I wrote a poem for every day in April to take part in Mary Lee’s PO-EMotion challenge over at A Year of Reading. Some days I struggled–and some poems were better than others–but I loved the community that developed with the poets who took part and the opportunity to stretch my own poetry muscles. I linked the last few poems for the month of April below. Now I’m ready to catch up on some book reviews on the blog. I’ve read some good books that I want to share! We also enjoyed sending my daughter to prom this past weekend. She looked beautiful, but I can’t believe my little girl is growing up so fast.

• 4/27 CONTENTMENT  Just a Glimpse
• 4/28 OPTIMISM  An Inconvenient Optimism
• 4/29 PRIDE  Piano Pride
• 4/30 RELIEF  In an Instant

I finished…

The Niching Nest by Tad Hargrave – I love the concept of marketing for hippies–two ideas that seem to be at odds, but just maybe they can come together. I did like the approach to seeing your niche as your role in the community as opposed to just a way to market goods or services. It is a much more holistic way of looking at life and work together–neither one is enough by itself, but it can be hard to keep them in balance.

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Double Crossed: A Spies and Thieves Novel by Ally Carter – What happens when a top teenage spy runs into a master art thief at a society ball? If Ally Carter is in charge of writing the story, it’s sure to be filled with surprises and adventure. This novella provides a peek into the collision between two worlds–that of spies from the Gallagher Girls series and the thieves of Heist Society.

I’m currently reading…

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What Have You Lost – edited by Naomi Shihab Nye – I loved reading a poem a day so much through April that I’m continuing the tradition. Some of the poems of loss that I read this week spoke to events happening currently. I can’t even begin to imagine the loss experienced by those families in Nepal and in Baltimore who had their lives upended in an instant. It makes the losses of my life pale in comparision.

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A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller – This book is giving me so much to think about. On the one hand, I want to tear through it to read what else Miller has to say, but I also want to slow down and think about the ideas. I have a feeling that this is a book I may turn back to more than once.

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Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter – This was the book I meant to download when I read Double Crossed. I don’t really want to start a career as an art thief–and I generally find thievery immoral–but I can’t help but love Kat Bishop and her “family” business. This time the job is personal since the mark is one of her own–and Kat is playing both sides of a well-thought out con. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

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All Our Yesterdays by Christin Terril, narrated by Meredith Mitchell – Mowing season is here again, so I’ve loaded another audio book to listen to. I downloaded this one last summer from Sync YA, and had forgetten everything I might have heard about it. It can be a little disconcerting to listen to a new book with no clue as to what’s coming, but it does make me pay attention a little more. So far I am enjoying the time travel. Just like the characters, I am having to piece together the clues to figure out what is going on.

Coming up…

I’m not sure what I will pick up once I finish the books I’m in. I like the surprise of letting books find me. I have plenty stacked around waiting for me to pick them up.

Disclosure: I participate in the Amazon Associates Program. If you decide to make a purchase by clicking on the affiliate links, Amazon will pay me a commission. This commission doesn’t cost you any extra. All opinions are my own.