51-Day Book Challenge: Day 2, What Are You Reading Right Now?

See, this question would be answered in a flash if I knew how to install one of those Currently Reading widgets on my blog. Since I don't, get ready for another long-winded answer.

I'm a read-as-many-books-as-you-can-at-once kind of reader, especially now that I've compiled all the unread books I have.

Flirting in Italian by Lauren Henderson
Sometimes, I just need to read some light chic-lit fluff to get away from all the dystopian books I read. I especially love chic-lit books about traveling and studying abroad, like this one, which is why I was so depressed when they stopped publishing the S.A.S.S (Students Across the Seven Seas) series. Flirting in Italian's not as good as those, but it's a sufficient replacement. It's your typical girl-goes-abroad-and-falls-in-love-with-hot-native, but sometimes it's nice to just read predictable stuff, you know? Not to mention you get to learn about the host country. My Italian vernacular is now peppered with words like zitta (shut up), stronza (bitch), and maiali (pig). The Italian characters' use of the word allora also reminded me of the super sweet tour guide we had when we visited Italy 5 years ago, who said "Allora," possibly every 3 sentences. Anyway, I'm more than halfway done with the book (it's a pretty thin read), and I'm looking forward to checking at least one book of my reading list.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Her Royal Majesty, Queen of all Literature J.K. Rowling.
No need for that much description on this one, natch. It's just one of those times during the year when I reread series. (On a side note, now is a particularly good time to read HP, as it is celebrating it's 15th anniversary. Yes, they are actually releasing new book covers for it! Woot wooh) Next up after rereading the Harry Potter, I've got Tamora Pierce's Immortals quartet lined up, and Meg Cabot's the Mediator series.

Prodigy by Marie Lu
I stopped by Barnes & Noble right before we left LA just to pick up this little darling. Unfortunately, my need-for-speed plan backfired, as I glanced at the summary and realized I'd forgotten all that went down in the first book. So I had to wait until I got home, reread the first book in the series, Legend, until I could finally delve into this. All the reviews call Legend "a worthy successor to the Hunger Games" and I totally agree. It's got action, romance, surprises galore. I loved it even more when I found out that it was supposed to be based on Les Miserables, with June Iparis as Javert and Day as Jean Valjean. I even noticed some quotes from the book parallel to the musical (More on that in the actual review). According to readers online, Prodigy will end in a what-just-happened-man-I'm-totes-so-lost cliffhanger, so I can't wait for that.

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie
The Romanovs are bar none, my favorite royal family. Especially the last Tsar, his wife, and their 5 children. So even though I've read their stories multiply times, I still want to see it from every perspective I can. And since Massie is a Pulitzer winner, his perspective is definitely one I have to see. My former go-to author for historical biographies was Julia P. Gelardi, who was--reprezzzent- a Filipino, who wrote about European history. I've finished all three of her biographies, so I was looking for another author to fawn over when I luckily picked up Massie's Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Read it, loved it, now I'm reading another book of his. After this, I'll probably take a break from the Romanovs; I found a Joan of Arc biography that just looks delicious.

So there you have it. It's technically Day 3 of the Reading Challenge, but the Lord deigned to keep me out of cyberspace yesterday and cut off all of Wifi at my house. I literally just got back on, now. Here's hoping it won't happen again (C'mon God. I don't go to school, I have no social life, all I have is my precccioussssss Internet).