Another week and a half of reading

I'm a bit behind on blogging thanks to a crazy-busy week, so here's what I've read since last time:

I just got back my favorite parts of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, which I'd loaned to Rose Lerner for several months, so this month so far I've done more re-reading than reading. (Unfortunately, I failed to hook her--apparently my tactic of giving her a summary of the early books and major characters, then handing her Memory, Komarr, and A Civil Campaign backfired, because she wasn't familiar enough with the characters to get excited about them. I see her point, and she's interested enough to want to try again from the beginning of the series. I only tried starting her midway because to me Memory is where the series goes from good fun to flat-out awesome, and also because the more Barrayar-focused books are more fun for those of us who generally read more fantasy, romance, and mystery than science fiction.

I'm not counting re-reads when I just sort of skim a favorite for relaxation, but with these I'm reading almost every word, so...

19) Memory. Not quite a coming-of-age story, more a coming-of-maturity one. With one of my all-time favorite lines: "The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart."

20) Book Which Must Not Be Named (5 of 8): Another Rita entry that I ended up enjoying quite a bit and scoring well despite it using certain characters and tropes I normally avoid like the plague.

21) Komarr. I love how Ekaterin's strength gradually reveals itself over the course of the book. I remember the first time I read it thinking, "Really? She's Miles's One True Love?" for the first half of the book, but by the end changing to, "OH, yeah. She's perfect."

22) A Civil Campaign. Just plain fun, and even though it's shelved as science fiction it's one of my favorite romance novels of all time.

23) I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui. The story of the girl you may have heard of on the news a few years back, married against her will at age 10 in Yemen, who ran away to a courthouse and successfully petitioned for divorce. A straightforward, harrowing read, all the more so because Nujood is still only 12 or 13, living with her none-too-pleasant or progressive family, so it's by no means certain she'll get the education and independence she longs for.