Fun Books Recommended for a Busy College Student

Ever since I discovered the Magic Tree House series, I've been a big reader. Big reading - unfortunately - leads to big textbooks in college. This list consists of all the books that I have enjoyed enough to finish since the start of second semester. Every college student needs a list to recommend good, fun books to read.

1. Sophomore Switch by Abby McDonald 
2. A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff 
3. Chasing Shakespeare by Sarah Smith - a little dry
4. Mrs. Hudson and the Spirits' Curse by Martin Davies 
5. Sarah by Marek Halter  - a little meandering
6. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks 
7. Shade's Children by Garth Nix 
8. Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots by Abby McDonald 
9. Savvy by Ingrid Law 
10. Dinosaurios al Atardecer by Mary Pope Osborne  [in Spanish - what can I say? I'm a Spanish major]
11. Scumble by Ingrid Law 
12. Getting over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald
13. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella 
14. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. Endure by Carrie Jones 
16. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson 
17. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson 

Rejects: Smudge's Mark by Claudia Osmond [so bad], The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson  [Disney shouldn't write books set in Disneyworld], Martha by Diana Wallis Taylor , The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (WAY TOO LONG! I skimmed it but I want to murder appropriately punish his editor for letting him publish the book without a severe hedgewhacking). Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors (It was somewhat original and fun but it was a skim read - I just didn't care enough about the characters to read their angst). 

I've been watching a lot of The Big Bang Theory, and so when we were cleaning out the cookbooks and stumbled across this newspaper insert from Sunday November 15, 1992, I went "YOUNG AMY FARRAH FOWLER!". (On the show, Amy is a Ph. D. who joins the friend group of Penny, Bernadette, Sheldon, Howard, Raj, and Leonard after being matched with Sheldon on an online dating site.) This is a picture of Mayim Bialik at age 16, when she was starring in NBC's Blossom.

Easy Paper Clifford Craft and Coloring

When I was a kiddo, I made a paper Clifford the Big Red Dog with posable legs and head, using brads/paper fasteners. I recently found the original project and decided to turn it into a vector so that other people could use it. The inspiration for this Clifford project update was an event at the Beaverton City Library called "Book Crafts". I searched the web for ages for Clifford paper projects, posable Clifford, and paper dogs to no avail. All this to say, if you are responsible for the original - please let me know! I made it about 15 years ago?

Here are the links to the printables!

Print or photocopy on red construction paper. After cutting out the pieces, connect the Clifford body parts with brads/paper fasteners

Scalable Vector Graphic

Adobe Illustrator (opens like a PDF)

Scalable Vector Graphic

Adobe Illustrator (opens like a PDF)

Scalable Vector Graphic

Adobe Illustrator (opens like a PDF)