The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (by Sherman Alexie)

Absolutely and utterly charming. We talked about it in my YA novel-writing workshop and it's wonderful: funny, heartwarming. I think Melissa and Eliza both said how great it was; they did not lie.

The Road (by Cormac McCarthy)

My Twitter about this was: "Just finished Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and feel as if I've put my heart through a sieve. Good god."

I read this because Entertainment Weekly put it #1 on the list of best books of the past twenty-five years. Although that list was jacked up (I'm looking at you DAVE EGGERS) it made me brave enough to read a book that I knew was about a father and a son in a postapocalyptic world. Its spare, deceptively simple style reminded me of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and of poetry. A beautiful, haunting book. I recommend it.

Perhaps in the world's destruction it would be possible at least to see how it was made. Oceans, mountains. The ponderous counterspectacle of things ceasing to be. The sweeping waste, hydroptic and coldly secular. The silence. (Page 274)

I, Claudius (by Robert Graves)

I feel like I've been reading this book forever. Not sure why it took me so long; the distractions of the end of the semester, I suppose. Multiple people got very excited upon hearing that I was reading this; they all mentioned the miniseries, too. Plus it's on numerous lists of great books (which was of course my motivation for picking it up in the first place).

I enjoyed it, but was slightly underwhelmed after all the hype. It's quite good, certainly; I want to read the next volume, and I kept thinking back to the time I've spent in Rome, and wanting to go back and revisit all the imperial ruins. And of course before that, to know what the real history of the times was. It's very good. I'm just not totally won over and I'm not sure why.

Breaking Dawn (by Stephenie Meyer)

Basically this.