Book Notes: Last, Now, Next - What I'm Reading in September

I've enjoyed playing around with Instagram book posts lately. Instagram inspires me to take more pictures, obviously, and the bookstagrammers start discussions or post hashtag challenges that give me ideas for blog posts and the creative energy to sit down and write them.

This morning I had fun with a hashtag challenge on Instagram called #lastnownextread where participants list the book they just finished, the book they are currently reading, and the book they plan to read next.

My last read was The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People by Meik Wiking. I thought it was interesting, approached important ideas in a creative way, and was more substantive than his earlier book, The Little Book of Hygge, which I adore. I didn't agree with all his conclusions. For instance, while some programs might work in Denmark, I don't know that they would transfer or scale up for other countries. But I like that he is thinking about and discussing what makes people happy and how to achieve that on a broad scale. It’s a book I’d like to discuss with people face to face, which would be a very lykke thing to do.

My current read is The Small Room by May Sarton. I’m enjoying this one a lot because I love “campus novels” and middlebrow, Midcentury fiction. This is set in a women’s college in upstate New York, contemporaneous to when it was published in 1961. So this one is my exact cup of tea! I keep this list of campus novels if others share my enjoyment for Ivy Tower fiction.

My next read is Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. I read this in college, and I’m slowly, in fits and starts, rereading some of the classics I read so long ago.

The three are stacked on one of my favorite needlepoint pillows because fall is here and I dug out that pillow to toss on the living room sofa.

So, what are your three? Feel free to share.