Oh, hey there, Internets.  I'm still alive over here!  I thought having another child wouldn't disrupt life too much, but the past month has punched me in the face while repeatedly screaming HAHAHAHA FREE TIME AND COHERENT THOUGHTS AND SLEEP IN YOUR (NONEXISTANT) DREAMS.

It's been great.  

Actually, it really has been great because I've spent a lot of time snuggling my newborn little boy.  But I've missed talking about books.  So, even though I don't have reviews posted for all the books I read this past quarter yet, I decided to go ahead and post my quarterly reading report.  I decided this for two reasons:

1) I don't want to forget my gut reactions to the books I read;

and 

2) I like it.  Reviewing and organizing my bookish thoughts makes my organizationally particular heart soar.  So I'm doing it.  Yay!  Here goes...

Over July, August, and September I read 13 books.  They are:

• Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas (4.75 stars) - Reading this book shortly after having a baby was a bad idea for my already limited sleep levels. But a very good idea in every other way. I love this story, love Celaena, and love the direction this book took the series.
• The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (4.5 stars) - Delightful Kate Middleton fan fiction.  When I finishd I went back to the beginning and reread the parts I loved most - which was basically the whole book.
• Crossed by Eliza Crewe (4.25 stars) - Imaginative story with a biting and funny protagonist.  I will miss being in Meda's head.
• Crushed by Eliza Crewe (4.25 stars) - I blew through this series so quickly that I forgot to mark this book as "read" on Goodreads.
• Cracked by Eliza Crewe (4.5 stars) - I was wonderfully surprised by this book. Funny, adventurous, and gripping to the very last page.  Why haven't more people read this series??
• The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty (4.5 stars)- This book is actually quite deep and both emotionally and mentally engaging. Equal parts entertaining, illuminating, and satisfying. And even a little bit scary, actually. 
• The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson (4.25 stars) - A strong sequel that left me really mad that I can't read the final book for another year.
• Entwined by Heather Dixon (3.75 stars) - This was a decent retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale, though two months later I had totally forgotten about it.
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman (2 stars) - Relentlessly grim.  Grossman is very talented, but this was a difficult book to read for a lot of reasons.
• Design Mom: A Room-by-Room Guide to Living Well with Kids by Gabrielle Stanley Blair (4.25 stars) - This design book is exactly what you'd expect from reading the title.  Which is a good thing.
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman (4 stars) - A dry and delightfully bizarre adventure.  I liked it even when I didn't love it.
• Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan (4 stars) - A book has never given me such strong cravings for bread.  This book was warm and sweet.
• The Martian by Andy Weir (4.75 stars) - It turns out this is a really remarkable book.  I was proud of myself for reading it, since it's pretty far outside my normal wheelhouse, but not only was it refreshingly different (for me), it was gripping and surprisingly funny.  The intricacies of the scientific portions of the book added substance but not weight to this book, and I left it with a very life-affirming feeling.

(Reviews forthcoming for the books read after going on maternity leave.)

And some graphs:


Wow, apparently this was the quarter of the 4-star book.   (Though Queen of Shadows and The Martian got extremely close to 5 stars.)  

How was your third quarter?