A Monday-ish Tuesday

Was yesterday Tuesday? Because it sure felt like a Monday to me.

I woke up with flaming red, irritated eyes. Pink Eye: 2 (this month), Ashley: 0. Not a happy girl.
Josh woke up to a very lop-sided truck. Flat Tire: 1, Josh: 0. Not a happy guy.

So, in between loads of laundry and scrubbing every surface area I touched in the last 48 hours, I sat down to relax with a new book: Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares. This is set 10 years after the last Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book, so the girls are in their late twenties.

via ew.com

(Confession: I have only read the first Sisterhood book... but I've seen the movies and I didn't feel lost when I picked up this book. I knew  the back stories well enough, although the movies take some liberties, so it was like settling in with a reunion of friends...as cheesy as that sounds).

You Guys. YOU GUYS. Go get this book ASAP. Seriously. I'm not even 100 pages in, and I already had a completely unexpected emotional response to this book. It's great so far. Honestly, I thought the first 30 pages were a bit slow, but I stuck with it. I'm SO glad I did.

Another book I'm kind of loving right now is a young adult book. I try to read a lot of young adult fiction so I can stay current with what's new in that genre and make recommendations to my students. I found this book on one of my favorite YA blogs, Cynsations.

Bumped by Megan McCafferty

If you like dystopian literature, you better scoop this one up. I'm a big fan. It's not depressing like 1984 or Brave New World, but it's just as disturbing. A virus has wiped out the reproductive capabilities of anyone over the age of 18, so people pay teenagers to have babies for them. It's turned into quite the career for some of the genetically gifted, who sign contracts and hunt down the perfect specimen to "bump" with. Some are pro-bump, others are against it. The novel centers around twin girls, separated at birth. One has an impressive contract for when she gives birth, the other has been raised in an almost Amish-like "Goodside." I don't want to give too much away, but just know that it's a page turner more for the oddness of the parallel universe created by McCafferty than the investment in the characters' lives.

What have you been reading lately?