It's been a really good week for books. On Thursday, Patrick and I went to the library for the first time since MrD was born. Hooray! It felt like coming home. I loaded up on books, including one based on a recommendation I'd seen online: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer. And oh, wow, did I love it. Set in 1946, and told in a series of witty - and often hilarious - letters, it manages to be funny and sweet and charming while also having amazing depth. It made me cry multiple times, but when Patrick suggested I put it down, I clutched it to my chest - I couldn't stop reading till I was done! More than that, it managed to be wonderfully affirming even while being honest about true horrors, and to have a genuinely perfect happy ending. I'm now planning to buy a copy for myself, because I know I'll want to re-read it again and again.

I had good luck with my Amazon order this month, too. One of the books I ordered was Let it Snow: Three Holiday Stories, a collection of 3 linked YA novelettes by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle. All three novelettes are Christmas-themed romances, and while that could have been sappy, all three of them turned out to be smart, cynical, and funny as well as honestly romantic. It was a great book to read on a long night when Mr Darcy wouldn't sleep.

And speaking of Mr Darcy, he also has a book recommendation to pass on! It's the first book he's ever noticed in his life, and it's turned out to be a huge hit with the baby segment of this household: Faces, by John Fordham. OK, there are only three words in the entire book (and at least one of them is misleading: face with short hair = "daddy"? not in this household!), but oh, those fantastic black-and-white-and-yellow patterns on the pages! And the mirror! And the crinkly pages! His whole face lights up every time I read it to him. A definite 5-star book purchase!

In my own book news, I'm halfway through Chapter One of Kat by Ghostlight, and I'm having so much fun with it despite my snail-slow progress. At least the one benefit of not having the opportunity to work on it every day (so far, I'm limited to the days Patrick doesn't go to work - luckily, that's 4 days a week) is that it gives me lots of daydreaming, plotting time in between the writing sessions. I'm looking forward to diving back in on Thursday!

What have you guys been reading lately? Now that the first crazy 6 weeks of babyhood have passed, I'm trying to switch back to reading rather than TV-watching. What do you guys recommend? The pregnancy hormones have safely passed (thank God!); my only stipulation is that, since I'm still really tired, this is probably not the time for a really tragic book devoid of hope. If I tried something like that after a night with no sleep...well, let's just avoid that kind of book for now, okay?