I feel like January is always a great month to start goals for myself- ones that I can actually maintain and don't feel pressured to complete! The best goal I like to set during the month of January is reading and reading as many books as I possibly can throughout the year. I did this last year with the help of Goodreads, who has a great way to track how many books you read + even helps you set a goal number for how many you want to achieve. I had made a goal to read twenty-five books for 2016 and sadly only made it to about ten, mostly due to health problems, but I've decided to do the same 2017. I already feel like I'm on a good track to reach this, with several books already on my radar to get through. I'm currently reading 'A Man Called Ove' by Fredrik Backman and am actually about 88% through it after only a week or so, it's just that good. Highly, highly recommend you read it! Anyways, I figured I would share the other books I'm already lining up to read next. You'll find a wide variety of books in this list, so I had to narrow it down to just ten. Let me know what books you're reading this year!

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Genre: Historical Fiction
Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this debut novel reveals a story of love, redemption, and secrets that were hidden for decades.

The Ballroom by Anna Hope
Genre: Historical Fiction
1911: Inside an asylum at the edge of the Yorkshire moors, where men and women are kept apart by high walls and barred windows, there is a ballroom vast and beautiful. For one bright evening every week they come together and dance.

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Genre: Classics
Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Genre: Romance
Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome; 2) A person’s undoing; 3) Joshua Templeman.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
Genre: Nonfiction
In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars when only 19 years old.

America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray
Genre: Historical Fiction
In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph—a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
Genre: Fiction
A lush, raw, thrilling novel of the senses about a year in the life of a uniquely beguiling young woman, set in the wild, alluring world of a famous downtown New York restaurant.

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Genre: Fiction
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast.

Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham
Genre: Nonfiction
In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood—along with behind-the-scenes dispatches from the set of the new Gilmore Girls, where she plays the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore once again.

The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati
Genre: Historical Fiction
The year is 1883, and in New York City, it’s a time of dizzying splendor, crushing poverty, and tremendous change.

Since graduating from college I literally have all the time in the world to catch up on my reading. I have yet to find a full-time job, still, and so I've taken it upon myself to read as many books as I can while I'm still in this transition period. I have no idea how long this period will last, but I'm hoping I can read all of the books on my wishlist before time is up! Are any of you on Goodreads? It's probably the best site to keep up-to-date with books you've read in the past, books you're reading right now and books you want to read in the future. Not only can you "check-in" with your status of reading, but you can connect with friends and find recommendations of books that are similar to ones you've read. I'm all about that, and so I've come up with a list of books that are so my taste and that appeal to my heart strings. I won't be bringing any of these to a stylish location, but you can be sure my bed is where I'll be reading them!

1. The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes:  When seventeen-year-old Juliet Dufresne receives a cryptic letter from her enlisted brother and then discovers that he’s been reported missing in action, she lies about her age and travels to the front lines as an army nurse, determined to find him.

2. The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan: The Opposite of Loneliness is an assem­blage of Marina’s essays and stories that, like The Last Lecture, articulates the universal struggle that all of us face as we figure out what we aspire to be and how we can harness our talents to make an impact on the world.

3. Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman: A spellbinding new novel of contraband masterpieces, tragic love, and the unexpected legacies of forgotten crimes.

4. A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams: Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak. 

5. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb: In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen--terrified, but intrigued--is drawn to him.

6. Flora by Gail Godwin: Ten-year-old Helen and her summer guardian, Flora, are isolated together in Helen's decaying family house while her father is doing secret war work in Oak Ridge during the final months of World War II.At three Helen lost her mother and the beloved grandmother who raised her has just died.

7. All The Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld: A stunningly insightful, emotionally powerful new novel about an outsider haunted by an inescapable past: a story of loneliness and survival, guilt and loss, and the power of forgiveness.

8. Wake by Anna Hope: A brilliant debut for readers of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, in which three women must deal with the aftershocks of WWI and its impact on the men in their lives—a son, a brother and a lover. Their tragic connection is slowly revealed as the book unfolds.

9. My Notorious Life by Kate Manning: Axie’s story begins on the streets of 1860s New York. The impoverished child of Irish immigrants, she grows up to become one of the wealthiest and most controversial women of her day.

10. The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow: Georgia Waltz has things many people only dream of: a plush Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park, a Hamptons beach house, valuable jewels and art, two bright daughters, and a husband she adores, even after decades of marriage.

What is on your spring/summer book list?! 

Always,
Mostly Lisa