Life List: Reading Without Obligation

I've always loved to read. Unfortunately, from the minute I got engaged, reading fell by the wayside in favor of other things — planning the wedding, blogging, trying to cling to my sanity. Then, after the wedding, I still didn't make it much of a priority. There are always other things that can be done instead of reading, and I hate that I put all those other things ahead of something that I love to do.

So a few weeks ago I decided to put aside everything I had on my to-do list, and spend an entire day reading. It was fantastic. It was relaxing. It reaffirmed my love for reading, and reminded me how much I've missed it. I want to make it a much higher priority from here on out.

Images from Amazon, Among the Mad (book 6) and The Mapping of Love and Death (book 7)

For my reading day, I was trying to finish up the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie is an investigator and psychologist, and the story takes place in London in the 1920s and 1930s, while England is still recovering from World War I. A friend of mine was working through the series at the same time, and was borrowing the books once I was done with them, so I had extra incentive for quickly finishing the last few that have been published (Among the Mad and The Mapping of Love and Death). I've found this series to be very interesting, because it isn't written quite like any other mystery novels I've read. I like to see if I can figure out the ending before it arrives, and this series don't allow me to do that — writer Jacqueline Winspear leaves out key pieces of information until the very end, which I find intriguing.

Have you read any good books lately?