It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a fun meme hosted by Sheila of Book Journey where you list off the books you've read in the past week, the books you're currently reading and the books you'd like to read.

This is also a meme I used to participate in regularly a couple of years ago. Maybe I can get myself back into it now.

Anyway, I don't believe I've managed to finish reading any books last week, but I am reading four books right now:

I Am Malala
Malala Yousafzai
Little, Brown & Company
Copyright: October 8, 2013
978-0316322409

The amazon.com blurb:

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.

This is an amazing book. I'm only a third of the way though and I'm loving the read. So far, I'd have to say this is a book I highly recommend.


Intrigues: The Collegium Chronicles Book Two
Mercedes Lackey
Daw Books
Copyright Date: October 2010
978-0756406394

The Amazon.com description:

Magpie is a thirteen-year-old orphan chosen by one of the magical Companion horses of Valdemar and taken to the capital city, Haven, to be trained as a Herald. Like all Heralds, Magpie learns that he has a hidden Gift-the Gift of telepathy.
But life at the court is not without obstacles. When Mags is "recognized" by foreign secret operatives whose purpose is unknown, Mags himself comes under suspicion. Who are Magpie's parents-who is he, really? Can Mags solve the riddle of his parentage and his connection with the mysterious spies-and prove his loyalty-before the king and court banish him as a traitor?

Intrigues has made it's way slightly onto the back-burner of my reading pile to be honest, but I do count it on my currently reading list.

The third book I'm currently reading is a gardening book, I'm really looking forward to next spring in the new house where I can design a nice large vegetable garden. So...

The Zero Mile Diet: A Year Round Guide To Growing Organic Food
Carolyn Herriot
Harbor Publishing
Copyright Date: June 2010

The amazon.com blurb:

This definitive month-by-month guide brings gardeners into the delicious world of edible landscaping and helps take a load off the planet as we achieve greater food security. Full of illustrative colour photos and step-by-step instructions, The Zero-Mile Diet shares wisdom gleaned from 30 years of food growing and seed saving with comprehensive advice on:
* Growing organic food year-round
* The small fruit orchard and backyard berries
* Superb yet simple seasonal recipes
* Preserving your harvest
* Seed saving and plant propagation
* Dirt-cheap ways to nourish your soil
* Backyard poultry--it's less time-consuming than you
think
* Growing vegetables in the easiest way possible
* A-z guide to growing the best vegetables and herbs

Put organic home-grown fruits and vegetables on your table throughout the year, using the time-saving, economical and sustainable methods of gardening outlined in The Zero-Mile Diet. This book is about REAL food and how eating it will change our lives for the better.

The final book is one I've read before a few times:

In Her Name: Omnibus Edition
Michael R. Hicks
Imperial Guard Publishing
Copyright: 2008
978-0615208534

The amazon.com product description:

This trilogy collection contains the first three novels of the bestselling IN HER NAME science fiction & fantasy saga: EMPIRE, CONFEDERATION, and FINAL BATTLE...

EMPIRE

This is the coming-of-age story of Reza Gard, a young boy of the Human Confederation who is swept up in the century-long war with the alien Kreelan Empire. Nightmarish female warriors with blue skin, fangs, and razor sharp talons, the Kreelans have technology that is millennia beyond that of the Confederation, yet they seek out close combat with sword and claw, fighting and dying to honor their god-like Empress. Captured and enslaved, Reza must live like his enemies in a grand experiment to see if humans have souls, and if one may be the key to unlocking an ages old curse upon the Kreelan race. Enduring the brutal conditions of Kreelan life, Reza and a young warrior named Esah-Zhurah find themselves bound together by fate and a prophecy foretold millennia before they were born.

CONFEDERATION

Banished from the Kreelan Empire, Reza is once again a stranger in a strange land as he returns to the human Confederation. Befriended by a marooned Confederation naval officer leading a desperate fight against the Kreelans on a distant colony world, she reunites Reza with Nicole Carré. With their help, he fulfills his childhood dream of becoming a Confederation Marine. Reza will need all the help he can get, for dark forces are at work at the heart of the Confederation, and Reza becomes a pawn in a lethal power struggle that leads him back to the planet Erlang. There, a heartbreaking reunion awaits him, along with the discovery of an ages-old power that the Kreelan Empire will stop at nothing to control.

FINAL BATTLE

Reza awakens in a hospital on Earth after having been in a coma for months. Charged with murder and high treason, he finds himself the scapegoat for a daring plot to assassinate the President of the Confederation. Escaping with the help of Jodi Mackenzie, who is now hunted for what she knows about the death of the president, Reza discovers that something is deeply wrong with the Empire: the warriors have lost their will to fight. Compelled to step into a trap set for him and Jodi, the two once again find themselves bound for Erlang. But this time it is to meet Tesh-Dar, who has been captured. When Reza and Jodi are taken prisoner and sentenced to death, they can only watch as a human armada gathers for a strike against the Kreelan homeworld. But the human fleet - and humanity itself - will be doomed to utter annihilation unless Reza can reach the Empress in time...

In terms of books I'm planning to read, well I don't really have anything on