It’s Monday, What Are You Reading is brought to you by the wonderful Sheila over at Book Journey. Stop by!

This weekend I worked, I played, I drank coffee, it was wonderful. My girlfriend and I joined the YMCA last weekend and we love it! It’s so much fun to not only have a lot more equipment (treadmills, free weights, machines, etc) at our disposal but to be around people of like mind. At the gym in our complex, where I worked out before, I was typically the one female lifting weights at all as the few women I saw there were more interested in the cardio machines. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, but I felt out of place. At the Y however, I’m a little fish in big pond. Everywhere I look there are women doing personal training or lifting free weights or using the weight machines. Now I feel like I fit in more as I’m far from the only female interested in building muscle. Yesterday after an hour or so of cardio and stretching, we walked downstairs in the complex where the gym is to a really great bagel place. I can definitely see this as our new Sunday routine! 🙂

But enough about me, let’s talk about books! Here’s what I’ve been reading:

Blameless by Gail Carriger – I’m a big fan of Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series. I think the characters are that perfect mixture of foolish and cunning, good-natured and whiny, good and evil. While I’ve gotten burned out on vampires, werewolves and the like, Carriger manages to keep her story lines and characters fresh and fun. These are books that just don’t take themselves too seriously and I love that. I think (you heard it hear first) that it would make a perfect BBC TV series as it’s practically written for the small screen. Besides there aren’t any steampunk adaptations on TV that I know of, so it could be the first of a new trend. 🙂 Read this series, you won’t be disappointed.

Confessions of the Other Mother: Nonbiological Lesbian Moms Tell All! edited by Harlyn Aizley – Families aren’t a mom, dad and two point five children anymore. More often family is defined as those you may live with, or not, that you love and support no matter what. This is a collection of stories based on lesbian couples who decide to have children and all the delights that come with building a family.

Matched by Ally Condie – There has been a lot of hype surrounding the latest  novel by Condie. Set in a dystopian world where every aspect of society is dictated by a higher organization, the protagonist, Cassia, begins to question the way things are done when she accidentally gets matched with two different boys. While I like the premise of this book I found the pace a little slow for my tastes. And there was something about the events happening in the novel that didn’t quite ring true. I think it has something to do with the fact that there really isn’t much fear in the book. Everyone just goes along with whatever the Officials tell them to do and how they should live. So, while it’s a quick read, it wasn’t my favorite read.

Well, that’s it for me this time. 🙂 Happy reading!