Nerd Alert

Only five more sleeps until our week long ski trip! While my friends are busy fitting in extra leg work outs in preparation for long days on the slopes, I’m busy putting together my reading list. I have a feeling I’ll be doing more reading than skiing next week. 

For someone who describes herself as athletic, I’m just not much into skiing. I like my sports and exercise just fine, as long as they aren’t life threatening. I just don’t have that adrenaline gene that motivates me to speed straight down a mountain. 

Instead, my game plan is to take the ski lift up the mountain, take the easiest path to the cafe, and curl up with a hot cocoa and a good book. Sounds like an ideal ski trip to me. All that’s missing is a good book. Got any in mind? 

You all know that I am very involved in the American Women’s Association here in Aberdeen, and belong to various activity groups within the club from hiking to mahjong; from lunch bunch to book club. 

I’m very grateful for this group of women and how warmly they’ve welcomed us and how easy they’ve made this transition into expat life. Because of this gratitude, I started putting feelers out for ways that I could help out more. At the time, all that was available involved either party planning or super-human organizational skills. Neither skill-set fell on my resume. 

But when our book club leader started studying for her Masters in addition to working full time, she was looking for someone to take over her duties. Since there is hardly anything in this world that I love more than talking about books, it was absolutely the perfect role for me. 

Most of my responsibilities as leader include sending out evites and organizing hostess’ for each month’s meeting. But every 6 months or so something magical happens: We pick a new book list. And all the women personally send book requests straight to my email account. And I’m like a kid in a candy shop. 

To organize their suggestions, I broke the 24 book recommendations down by genre, and asked the ladies to vote for their favorite in each category. 

To aid them in the process, I created a document with a synopsis of each nominated book. 

And that’s where I got into trouble. As I read through the descriptions, I just couldn’t wait for the democratic process to dictate which book I should read next. Nope, I had to read these books NOW. I started with The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman, which happens to be the current frontrunner in our Historical Fiction genre. 

I’ve already told you it’s fantastic. I’ve already told you to stop what you’re doing right now and go read this book IMMEDIATELY. 

After finishing this novel I moved on to The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, which is currently in a neck and neck race for our book club’s contemporary fiction choice. 

I read it in one sitting, which I never ever do. Granted, that one sitting was a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam and the TVs were broken on the plane, but I was so captivated that I think I would have chosen to read it straight through anyway. It was a super great book. 

And now, after months of being at the top of my personal list, I am finally reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which looks to be a shoe in for our Mystery/Thriller winner. 

I’m halfway through, but so far it is living up to the hype. 

Anyway, my problem is that all I have swirling around in my head now are book club suggestions. While I don’t mind re-reading these books when the time comes, I’d like to delay my gratification and wait to read them in the weeks leading up to our book club discussion. So I’m looking for about 4-5 books to load on my Kindle for my ski trip. 

Any of y’all have any recommendations of something you’ve read lately? What books are at the top of your wish list? I truly appreciate your help. 

And if you’re ever stuck for what to read next, check out my reading log in my blog pages for a glimpse of what I’ve been loving (and not loving) lately.