What I've Been Reading: October 2014

I was thinking just the other day about how much more I seem to be reading in 2014 as compared to years past. I track all my reading on goodreads, which has a handy stats feature that shows I've read 19,790 pages this year, the most of any year recorded there. And then I remembered - this is the first time in my adult life that I've only been working one job, and I finished school in April. Combine the two, and that means more free time and zero required reading! I'll enjoy it while I have it :) 

• Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse - Rifka is a young Russian girl in 1919 whose family is on their way to America to escape anti-Semitism. Of course they face a whole string of troubles along the way. 
• Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson - I'll admit I picked this up because it was sitting next to Letters from Rifka and the cover caught my eye. Lonnie's parents passed away four years ago in a fire, and this is the story of him finding his voice through poetry and connecting with his sister (who lives in a different foster home) through the Bible. On the depressing side, even the ending. 
• If You Find Me by Emily Murdock - Carey and her sister are removed from the trailer hidden in the woods that they (sometimes) share with their mentally ill mother to live with Carey's father. Difficult to read at times, but well written and it made me grateful for my parents and uneventful upbringing!
• This One Summer by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki - The story of Rose's summer, which includes her friend Windy and arguing parents. Filled with lovely drawings (it's a graphic novel). This definitely took me back to my middle school years. And made me crave a beach vacation.
• Hold Me Closer, Necromancer & Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride - Sam, a recent college drop out, meets a fellow necromancer, Douglas, when he accidentally damages Douglas' car with a potato. Disaster ensues. So many awesome things going on in these books, like song lyrics for chapter titles that had me singing aloud, lots of sarcasm, and cool characters. I loved these - I just wish they stood more on their own as separate stories and that the second one didn't feel so rushed.
• Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh - This takes place about 120 years in the future, when scientists have discovered how to cryogenically freeze and revive people. They use this technology to save attractive women (8.5 or better on a scale of 1 to 10), placing them in tubes that potential suitors pay thousands of dollars to visit. The suitors can then choose to pay millions to bring the women back to life to marry. Both the characters and world building were excellent though I found the premise extremely creepy.

Up next: I'm torn between reading Seabiscuit (about a famous race horse, as told by the author of Unbroken, which I loved) or The BIG Disconnect (about how families and relationships are affected by living in the digital age).

What have you been reading?