What I'm reading in my ample spare time

... to be more accurate, what I'm planning to read (other than anything involving Llama llama or rhymes) in my "spare time." It has really hit me in the last week or two that my days have fallen in to a vicious cycle: Go to the gym, go to work, have burst of determination for all of the things I will accomplish that night, pick Elle up, make dinner/play with Elle/bath Elle/put Elle to bed, get hit by semi-truck of reality: lunches need to be packed, gym bag needs to be packed, laundry/dishes/cleaning need to be done. Pass out and get nothing "fun" done, rinse, repeat.

So my slow-going on the blog posting is not because I've been spending my evenings curled up with a glass of wine and a book. It's because I'm exhausted and can't find my 2:30 p.m. idealistic energy rush at 9 p.m.

I think a good way for me to wind down, though, will be to get back to one of my favorite pre-bedtime routines: Reading. And there are plenty of books I want to be reading. I'm a fast reader ... when I make the time to read. So through the powers of Christmas gifts, Amazon.com and mostly my local library, here are the ones on deck or in the current rotation:

The Happiness Project: I read about this a few months ago, and then read about it again recently on Young House Love. Requested at the library, waiting to be picked up and delivered to my nightstand. 

The Book of Awakening: I read this one most mornings. There is a page or two of reflection for each day, and it's a nice, quick and uplifting way to ease in to the day and a natural routine to pair with my morning cup of coffee.

The Bullpen Gospels: I've read a lot of baseball books over the years. The reason this one appeals to me is because the guy who wrote this book went to high school in my high school's athletic conference, and I was a stat for our JV baseball team. He pitched against our team a few times, and years later, I found out he was a pitcher for my college team. I e-mailed him while we in college because I'm cool like that: "Hey, your team played against my team and now we go to the same college," etc., he responded with "Oh yeah, I remember that team, yay for baseball, yay for the same college," and obviously we're now best friends for-eva. Then his name came back up when he was playing for the Tampa Bay Rays and his book was getting a lot of local publicity. Tim was really interested in it, so we bought it and he read it last year. I'm hoping to get to it this season.

Two Kisses for Maddy: I read about the blogger behind this book early last year, and the book sounds amazing. While I think it'll be a tear jerker, I've requested it from the library and am armed with a box of tissues.

Happy Chaos: I was intrigued by this last year - Punky Brewster had babies and wrote about it, whee! Tim bought it for me for Christmas. So far I've had trouble getting in to it, but it could be the whole "I haven't been reading anything consistently since 2009" thing (except for all of the baby/parenting/childbirth stuff I read in 2010, but I'm not counting that).

The Hunger Games: I kept up well with the Twilight craze but kind of missed the boat on the Hunger Games trend. I bought the first book for my brother for Christmas (a year ago? two years ago?) and now I'm going to borrow the books from him to get my YA lit on.

The Happiest Toddler on the Block: In progress. I'd like to gain the knowledge just by being in the same proximity as the book. No dice. This has been a slow read for me, too (my toddler exhausts me=no time to read about toddlers).

Bloom: This one just came out, and I can't wait to read it. I started reading Kelle's blog right around the time Nella was born, and I absolutely love her writing and her photos.

Any books I need to add to my list? Any books I should definitely avoid? What's on your nightstand these days?