Day 2: Read

I love a good story.  

Don't you?

Here are some of the good ones that I've enjoyed so far this year.  

1.  Unfamiliar Fishes (forgive the long story to follow)

I was thrift store hunting about two weeks before I left on my Hawaiian adventure.  And low and behold I happened upon a Sarah Vowell book (highly unusual).  I greatly enjoy her on This American Life and have had Assassination Vacation on my "to-read" list for a while now.   I snatched it up before I even read what it was about.

This little book turned out to be the most perfect of perfect books to read before one travels to the Hawaiian islands.  It is about the history of the islands focusing on their Americanization.  It is beyond fantastic.  Who would have thought that a history book could be so fascinating?  The writing is superb. I couldn't put it down and read it in just a few days.

I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good book, but especially to anyone traveling to Hawaii on vacation.  It definitely gave me a deeper knowledge of where I was going. The facts were portrayed in a such a way that they just stuck in my brain.  Captain Cook's death was now more than just a beach one that one can visit and see a statue.  I couldn't stop picturing the missionaries who came to bring God to the heathens.  I was constantly thinking about whalers that forever changed the face of the islands when they stopped over in the 1800's.

I almost wished I could have visited the Hawaii of old.  Imagine how it must have looked before all of us tourists basically ate it.  No hotels crowding the picturesque beaches and mountains.  No fast food restaurants or multitude of rental cars.  But then again, I wouldn't have gotten to go.  And everyone should be able to see how magical those islands really are.

Such a conundrum.


2. I'm greatly enjoying Where'd You Go Bernadette at the moment.  Original and fun and has my favorite book cover art in years.  It is witty and clever.  And I almost want a movie made of it so I can see the Twenty Mile house that Bernadette builds.  In my imagination, it is a modern piece of magic.

I've also enjoyed:

3. Eleventh Plague  I liked the whole idea.  It was different and yet similar to every other dystopian story at the same time.  It had a quick pace.  My only quip was that I wanted more character development.

4. Allegiant This one got trashed by so many people but I actually really liked it.  It wrapped up the series nicely and pulled the heart strings.  It wasn't perfect, but it also was no where near the mess that Mockingjay was.  (side note:  hated the Divergent movie.  So bad!)


Your turn.
What has had you up late at night turning pages?