Month: March 2018

Down the TBR Hole #4

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March 25, 2018

11:15 pm

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Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Current “to-read” shelf: 929 titles

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain

Published: January 24, 2012
On TBR Since: January 12, 2012

The book on introverts, and I’ve been meaning to read it for ages.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Ready Player One  – Ernest Cline

Published: August 16, 2011
On TBR Since: January 24, 2012

I had an idea of reading this before the movie came out, but I’m not all that psyched about it.

Stay or Go? Go

 

The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity – Bruce M. Hood

Published: January 1, 2012
On TBR Since: January 26, 2012

Another brain book; I don’t even really remember hearing about this one.

Stay or Go? Go

 

The Forgetting River: A Modern Tale of Survival, Identity, and the Inquisition – Doreen Carvajal

Published: August 1, 2012
On TBR Since: January 30, 2012

I must have heard about this one at an ALA conference, since I put it on my TBR a good six months before publication, and I’m pretty sure I never heard anything about it again. Interesting as the subject (the conversos) is, I’m not all that interested in this particular book about it.

Stay or Go? Go
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed

Published: March 20, 2012
On TBR Since: January 31, 2012

I think this one is going to be my book for the 2018 Read Harder task #13: An Oprah Book Club Selection.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis – Lauren F. Winner

Published: January 31, 2012
On TBR Since: February 03, 2012

Just not interested in this one anymore.

Stay or Go? Go

 

For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts’ Advice to Women – Barbara Ehrenreich

Published: January 4, 2005 (revised/updated edition)
On TBR Since: February 8, 2012

This one, on the other hand, I am still interested in.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books – Nicholas A. Basbanes

Published: March 15, 1999 (updated edition)
On TBR Since: March 07, 2012

It’s a book about books. And about people who really like books.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies – Sol Stein

Published: January 25, 2000 (paperback edition)
On TBR Since: March 07, 2012

This is one that’s on my physical TBR shelf at home.

Stay or Go? Stay

Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages – Ammon Shea

Published: July 2, 2008
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

I’m a bit on the fence with this one. Keep it for now.

Stay or Go? Stay

Six to stay, four to go. Now, if I would just stop adding things at the other end of the list….

Down the TBR Hole #3

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March 21, 2018

8:36 pm

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Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Current “to-read” shelf: 930 titles

The Dovekeepers – Alice Hoffman
Published: October 4, 2011
On TBR Since: October 5, 2011

Historical fiction about the women at Masada. Yes, please.

Stay or Go? Stay

Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum – Jason Felch
Published: January 1, 2011
On TBR Since: October 11, 2011

A dive into the Getty Museum’s questionable antiquities deals. This might count for the Read Harder challenge under True Crime.

Stay or Go? Stay

Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages – Alex Wright
Published: January 1, 2007
On TBR Since: November 2, 2011

Another one to file under “Professional Reading”.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Winter of Our Disconnect – Susan Maushart
Published: May 3, 2010
On TBR Since: December 6, 2011

I’m not really feeling this one these days.

Stay or Go? Go

Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World – Dalai Lama XIV
Published: December 6, 2011
On TBR Since: December 9, 2011

Well, this sure still seems relevant.

Stay or Go? Stay

Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe – Norman Davies
Published: September 1, 2011
On TBR Since: December 21, 2011

The historical shifting borders in Europe are interesting, but I’m not that interested in this particular book anymore.

Stay or Go? Go

Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners – Michael Erard
Published: January 10, 2012
On TBR Since: December 23, 2011

People who can pick up other languages are amazing. I took 5 years of Spanish and keep turning back to Duolingo for another try, and I can don’t know enough to be able to conduct a decent reference interview at the library.

Stay or Go? Stay

Shakespeare: The World as Stage – Bill Bryson
Published: November 1, 2007
On TBR Since: December 29, 2011

This one is an alternate on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

Stay or Go? Stay

The World We Found – Thrity Umrigar
Published: January 3, 2012
On TBR Since: January 3, 2012

I might come back to this one sometime, but now is not that time.

Stay or Go? Go


Connectome: How the Brain’s Wiring Makes Us Who We Are – Sebastian Seung
Published: February 7, 2012
On TBR Since: January 12, 2012

There are other books on neuroscience on my TBR that I’m more interested in.

Stay or Go? Go

Seven to stay, three to go. Progress?

Down the TBR Hole #2

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March 11, 2018

5:42 pm

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Everything Else

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Current “to-read” shelf: 932 titles

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference – Cordelia Fine
Published: August 30, 2010
On TBR Since: September 23, 2011

I think I started reading this years ago, but I didn’t finish it before I had to return it to the library.

Stay or Go? Go

Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature – Emma Donoghue
Published: May 25, 2010
On TBR Since: September 23, 2011

Oddly, I thought I had put this on my TBR Pile Challenge List, but I did not. This is a book I own and still want to read.

Stay or Go? Stay

How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It – Arthur Herman
Published: November 27, 2001
On TBR Since: September 24, 2011

Another one I own and still want to read.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Published: January 19, 2008
On TBR Since: September 24, 2011

I think the moment for this (for me) has passed.

Stay or Go? Go

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World – Edward Dolnick
Published: February 8, 2011
On TBR Since: September 24, 2011

I’m on the fence on this one. I think it might be interesting to read before reading Enlightenment Now.

Stay or Go? Stay

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things – Randy O. Frost
Published: January 1, 2010
On TBR Since: September 25, 2011

*eyes bookshelves nervously*

Stay or Go? Stay

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case – Debbie Nathan
Published: January 1, 2011
On TBR Since: October 3, 2011

I first encountered Sybil on my local library’s used book sale shelf when I was in junior high, if memory serves. I’m not feeling the need to revisit the subject.

Stay or Go? Go

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True – Richard Dawkins
Published: October 4, 2011
On TBR Since: October 3, 2011

One day, I will read some Dawkins, and it will probably be this book, mostly because of Dave McKean’s illustrations. Today is not that day.

Stay or Go? Go

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America – Shawn Lawrence Otto
Published: October 11, 2011
On TBR Since: October 3, 2011

This book came out seven years ago, and it still feels completely relevant.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood – James Gleick
Published: March 1, 2011
On TBR Since: October 5, 2011

File under: Professional Reading (Information Theory)

Stay or Go? Stay

Six staying and four going this week. Progress!

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly

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March 6, 2018

7:00 am

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Hello, UniverseHello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eleven-year-old Virgil Salinas already regretted the rest of middle school, and he’d only just finished sixth grade.

It’s the beginning of summer vacation, and the lives of four middle-schoolers are about to cross in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is small and quiet in a family of loud, large personalities. Kaori Tanaka is determined to use her gift of the “second sight” to help other kids. Valencia Somerset loves nature, but doesn’t really want to spend as much time alone as she does. Chet Bullens wants to impress people, especially his father, and believes to make himself bigger he must make others small.

I hadn’t heard about this book before it won the Newbery (though I did have Kelly’s two previous middle-grade books on the shelf at my library), so I really didn’t know what to expect.

I loved this book. It’s sweet and funny, and it captures so much of what it means to be at that age, just on the precipice of teenager-hood, when you’re figuring out who you are and what you believe.

The characters are diverse in a way that feels totally natural, and none of them are one-sided. The perspective rotates among Virgil, Valencia, Kaori, and Chet, giving the reader a wealth of information not available to the individual characters. Valencia’s chapters are written in first person, while the other three are all third-person. (I am curious about that choice!) Chet’s chapters, in particular, were a little heart-breaking to me as an adult (and the parent of an eleven-year-old). While the book is very much centered on the kids, I thought the glimpses of the adults in their lives were really interesting. And Lola is just fabulous.

The action of the novel takes place over just a day or two, so a lot of the “action” is internal, with the characters confronting their own ideas. There’s more than a touch of magical realism, too, giving the book an added dimension, but not drawing the story over the line into fantasy. Are these converging events nothing more than coincidence, or is the universe trying to get the characters’ attention?

This is a lovely little book that touches on big themes – friendship, bullying, standing up for yourself and others. If things seems to wrap up just a little bit too neatly, well, that’s the universe for you.

Source: Checked out from the public library

Reading Challenges: Counts for the Newbery Reading Challenge (Medal Winner: 3 points).

2018 Reading Challenge Check-In #2

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March 5, 2018

7:00 am

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We’re two months into 2018, so how are those Reading Challenges going?

February flew by. I know it’s a short month, but it felt particularly short this year.

On to the Challenges!

Mount TBR (hosted at My Reader’s Block for 2018)
Goal: 24 books
End of February Progress: 16% (target pace: 17%)

I read a lot of library books in February, but I didn’t finish any books from my own shelves! Whoops.

January:

 


The Official 2018 TBR Pile Challenge at Roof Beam Reader
Goal: 12 books
End of February Progress: 8% (target pace: 17%)

No progress on Mt TBR means there was definitely no progress on this one. I started reading both Listening for Madeleine and A Study in Lavender, so I’m hoping to catch up by the end of this month.

January:

 


Newbery Reading Challenge at Smiling Shelves
Goal: Konigsburg (75+ points)
End of February Progress: 15% (target pace: 17%)

As predicted, my point total jumped after the YMA announcements on the 19th. And I haven’t even started this year’s Caldecotts.

  • The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats: 1 point (Caldecott winner, 1963)
  • Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson: 2 points (Newbery Honor, 2018)
  • Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly: 3 points (Newbery Winner, 2018)
  • Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds: 2 points (Newbery Honor, 2018)

January:

  • Sounder by William Armstrong: 3 points (Newbery winner, 1970)

 

Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge 2018 at Read-at-Home Mom
Goal: 12 books
End of February Progress: 8% (target pace: 17%)

Another neglected challenge! A Wrinkle in Time is due for a re-read before the movie, so that will probably be next.

January:

  • Sounder by William Armstrong, published in 1969

 


Book Riot Read Harder 2018
End of February Progress: 21% (target pace: 17%)

I thought that “Celebrity Memoir” would be my next category, but my hold on Mother of Black Hollywood has not yet come in. Instead, I curled up with some cozy mysteries for one task and a fantastic historical romance for another. I recently picked up a copy of the first volume (four issues) of the Black Panther comics written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; the “comic written or illustrated by a person of color” task is likely to be next.

  • A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author: Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon
  • A romance novel by or about a person of color: An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole

January:

  • A children’s classic published before 1980: Sounder by William Armstrong, published in 1969
  • A one-sitting book: The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
  • The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series: Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett

 


2018 Book Blog Discussion Challenge
Goal: Creative Conversationalist (11-20 posts – aiming for 12)
End of February Progress: 8% (target pace: 17%)

Um, oops?

January:

 


2018 Share-a-Tea Reading Challenge at Becky’s Book Reviews

I have still not posted anything about tea this year.

 

So, how’s your 2018 reading going? I’ve got some room for improvement this month!

Down the TBR Hole #1

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March 4, 2018

7:00 am

2 Comments on Down the TBR Hole #1

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Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Current “to-read” shelf: 934 titles
An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science – Edward J. Larson
Published: May 31, 2011
On TBR Since: April 7, 2011

I’ve mentioned my fascination with the Heroic Age of Exploration before, and this has been on my TBR a long, long time. When I was in New York in January, I visited the Strand and purchased a very nice copy for myself.

Stay or Go? Stay

Remarkable Creatures – Tracy Chevalier
Published: August 24, 2009
On TBR Since: May 4, 2011

Early 19th-century lady fossil-hunter. Yes, please.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths – Michael Shermer
Published: May 15, 2011
On TBR Since: May 24, 2011

As much as I like reading about the brain and how it does the things it does, there are newer books I’m more excited about.

Stay or Go? Go

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker – Kevin D. Mitnick
Published: August 15, 2011
On TBR Since: May 24, 2011

This sounded like an interesting Internet History/True Crime/Memoir blend, but I’m just not that interested in it anymore.

Stay or Go? Go

The Story of Charlotte’s Web: E.B. White’s Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic – Michael Sims
Published: January 1, 2011
On TBR Since: June 1, 2011

I’ve mentioned that I’m a Children’s Librarian, right? I’m a little annoyed at myself that this got buried on the list.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie – Wendy McClure
Published: April 1, 2011
On TBR Since: June 1, 2011

I want to read this more because I enjoy McClure’s writing than because of the particular subject

Stay or Go? Stay

A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos – Dava Sobel
Published: October 4, 2011
On TBR Since: September 8, 2011

I wanted to read this because I enjoyed Galileo’s Daughter (which I seem to have neglected to put into my GoodReads), but I don’t think I’m going to get to this one.

Stay or Go? Go

Knitting Lessons – Lela Nargi
Published: April 14, 2003
On TBR Since: September 23, 2011

A book of knitting essays that I completely forgot about? I’m interested to see how this compares to Clara Parkes’ Knitlandia.

Stay or Go? Stay

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void – Mary Roach
Published:: August 2, 2010
On TBR Since:: September 23, 2011

Space travel + Mary Roach = Why haven’t I read this yet??

Stay or Go? Stay

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream – Tanya Lee Stone
Published: February 24, 2009
On TBR Since: September 23, 2011

The 2010 Sibert Award winner, women’s history, and the space program. Another one that just got buried on the list!

Stay or Go? Stay

#BookishBloggersUnite – Women’s History Month Kick-Off

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March 2, 2018

6:06 pm

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Bookish Bloggers Unite was formed when a group of like-minded writers decided they want to talk about books together.

This week’s #BookishBloggersUnite is hosted by Doddy About Books, and the topic is:

Favourite Women Writers Across Multiple Genres. Pick your favourite genres and tell us about your favourite female authors writing within them (or around them or across them!)

Mystery

Lyndsay Faye

I heard Lyndsay Faye speak before I actually read her work. She was at the 2013 Sub-librarians Scion meeting in Chicago, and she gave the toast to Kitty Winter. Her Holmes stories are my first recommendation to new readers looking to explore pastiche. Her Timothy Wilde trilogy is a fantastic read, and Jane Steele is just so clever. Her writing is atmospheric and detail-rich, with characters who seem ready to step right off the page.

Graphic Novel

Alison Bechdel

Okay, I know that “graphic novel” is a format, not a genre. Alison Bechdel’s work covers fiction and non-fiction in her singular style. I fell in love with Bechdel’s long-running “Dykes to Watch Out For” comics series in college, collecting the paperback compilations over the years. I was a little sad to see the end of the regular run, but, of course, Fun Home and Are You My Mother? are excellent memoirs.

Children’s Fiction

Madeleine L’Engle

A Wrinkle in Time is one of the beloved books of my childhood. In elementary school, a friend and I must have spent hours talking about how to “square the squared square”. I’m looking forward to seeing the movie with my daughter, who is just about the age I was when I read the book (and her teacher read the book to her class this year).

Historical Fiction

Sarah Waters

Waters’s novels are full of period detail and fascinating characters. Among her books, my favorites are the ones set in the Victorian era, with Affinity perhaps just edging out the others.

(Lyndsay Faye could have gone in this category, too!)

Fiction

Emma Donoghue

I will read almost anything Emma Donoghue writes. (I say “almost” because I cannot bring myself to read Room. Which is all to do with me, not with her.) I especially enjoy her historical fiction, but I have her new children’s series on my TBR, as well as some non-fiction.

Jeanette Winterson

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is one of my desert island books. I found my copy at a flea market in Florida when I was in college. I fell in love with the narrative voice. It’s a book I’ve gone back to again and again over the years. Winterson plays with style and structure in her writing, creating a distinctive voice that I find really appealing.

(I maybe cheated a little bit, putting two authors in here, but Fiction is a broad field.)

So, who are your favorite women authors who I’ve missed here?

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

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March 1, 2018

7:00 am

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Long Way DownLong Way Down by Jason Reynolds
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

RANDOM THOUGHT

Blood soaking into a
T-shirt, blue jeans, and boots
looks a lot like chocolate syrup
when the glow from the streetlights hit it.

But I know ain’t
nothing sweet about blood.
I know it ain’t like chocolate syrup

at all.

At 15 years old, Will knows the rules: Never cry. Never snitch. Always get revenge. And that’s what he’s going to do. His brother was shot last night, and Will is sure he knows the guy who did it. So, he’s got his brother’s gun tucked in the back of his pants and he’s waiting for the elevator to get down to the lobby. But before he gets there, he has to deal with some ghosts – in a very literal sense.

There was a lot of buzz about this novel-in-verse last year – it was nominated for a National Book Award and an Edgar award – so it wasn’t too surprising to see it get some attention from the ALA Youth Media Awards.

It’s a very timely, powerful book. The verse format makes it a quicker read than it looks at first, but those few words pack some serious punches. The main action takes place in a very short period of time and in one location, and the style brings us right into Will’s thoughts. The subject is serious, but there are moments of humor that remind you that Will is still just a teenage boy.

There’s a lot a food for thought in this novel – questions about responsibility and loyalty, right and wrong, choices and consequences. It would be good for a teen book group prepared to wrestle with those questions.

Source: Checked out from the public library

Reading Challenges: Counts for the Newbery Reading Challenge (Honor: 2 points)