So far this year

Inspired by Valarie, I thought I'd take stock of what I've read so far this year.

1. "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama: Someone who obviously didn't know my dad very well gave this to him as a gift, and I promptly took it for myself. In it, Barack addresses how to "fix a political process that is broken" and includes vivid firsthand accounts of his frustrations with political fundraising and partisan divisiveness. Obviously, I've jumped on the Obama bandwagon since reading this.

2. "Battle Cry of Freedom" by James McPherson: If this list seems short for the first seven months of the year, it's because this book is SO LONG -- 887 pages to be exact -- and also very dense. It also happens to be, by virtually every account, the best single-volume history of the Civil War ever written. After reading this, I have an infinitely better understanding of the Civil War than almost two decades of schooling and an honors degree in history from USC ever taught me. For those who can't stomach that long of a book, I recommend another book by McPherson, "For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War."

3. "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote: I picked this up immediately after reading "Battle Cry" and breezed through it in a day and a half -- partly because it was such lighter reading, but also because I was unable to put it down. The story is agonizing and possessing, and Capote, as everyone knows by now, ripped down the wall between crime reporting and serious literature.

4. "Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter" by Steven Johnson: If ever a book were designed to speak to my heart, this is it. It did not disappoint. Johnson makes a solid case for how even today's least nutritional pop culture staples -- reality TV and video games -- are more complex and stimulating than that of previous generations. Referring to some of my personal favorites -- "Seinfeld," "Friends," "The Simpsons" and "The Real World" among them -- Johnson says that today's TV requires more cognitive work of its audience.

5. "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath: The raging feminist inside me had always been meaning to read this, so I'm glad I finally got around to it. It's Plath's mostly autobiographical tale of a young woman's descent into madness. I found it so affecting that as I was driving home from work after reading a large chunk of the book, I began to question every thought that popped into my head, wondering if I, myself, was also going crazy.

Right now, I'm in the middle of "When Trumpets Call" by Patricia O'Toole, which chronicles Teddy Roosevelt's life after his presidency. (For those of you who don't know, TR is my favorite president -- and for those of you who don't know why that's significant, we've probably never met.)

Like I said, it's a short list, but seriously, "Battle Cry of Freedom" should count as about five books on its own.