in addition to crushing carbohydrates my vocation of late has been pummeling through books day and night.

i’m pretty much in bed 20 hours of the day, and there are only so many youtube videos a girl can watch before overdosing on dog fails.

i’ve been reading like i’ve made it to the final four of fiction.

 most of the stuff has been good….some REALLY, REALLY bad. i am a big fan of goodreads.com; it’s a platform where my friends {most linked through facebook} and i can scope out, get recommendations, and anonymously judge each others’ reading likes and dislikes.

here are few reads i’ve found notable of late:

one of my favorite books last year was kevin powers’ stark but beautiful yellow birds. it told the compelling story of an iraq deployment.

redeployment by phil klay {which just won the national book award} is similar in its gritty illustration of this war-torn region. told in a short story format, redeployment is war writing at some of its best. this is sure to go down as a classic.

 now i’m only one-third of the way through this one, but the light between oceans by m.l. stedman has begrudgingly snatched me in.

most massive bestsellers let me down, but so far this soon-to-be dreamworks released blockbuster is an enthralling read about a world war I veteran, turned lighthouse keeper, living along the rugged, australian coast.

if you’re fan of complex, family dynamics, anne tyler’s a spool of blue thread won’t let you down.

 if you’re looking for a quick, easy, beach-read type, the sweetheart by angelina mirabella is a fun romp through the south during the 1950’s. i’m pretty much a sucker for any book with the description “coming of age” on the back cover; not terribly deep, but entertaining {kind of like me.}

bret anthony johnston’s remember me like this stuck with me for a while. a story of a family’s experience with losing a child to a predator, only to have him returned years later, this is a dark, complicated read. the author does a great job of fleshing out a believable and compelling {often conflicted,} characters for each member of the afflicted family.
i loved this book.

 david gilbert’s, & sons, was pretty much on everyone’s top ten list last year. i would add it to mine as well, and that’s pretty much the most detail i can give about this strange, wonderful, unexpected contemporary work of fiction.

everything i never told you, celeste ng’s heart-wrenching debut about a mixed-race, chinese family living in ohio during the late 1970’s, nails the grind that takes place within a family where all the different members {gender, culture, age} strive to be understood and to understand one another.

i loved this book.

ok. so yes this is a post about reading, but none of you should be reading anything until you’ve watched the newest and best show on tv right now:

 bloodline from netflix.

i haven’t been as excited about a show since true detective.

and because it’s a netflix show, you can pound through all 13 episodes in one sitting-hunkiest and i are currently saving the last episode; it’s more like a preservation actually, testing our self-control and delaying our propensity to instantly gratify ourselves—we’re hoping this makes up for us not taking any baby-prep, parenting courses.

so there you have it…what are your current favorite reads? any tv i’m missing?