Tuesday, November 28, 2017

My Winter 2017/18 Reading List

I love making these quarterly to-read list posts. It's always fun to think about what I feel like reading, and see what new books are due out, and browse my very long Goodreads TBR -- even if I don't end up following it completely (I do try!).

I had a pretty topsy-turvy reading year in 2017, due in large part, I think, to focusing on new releases. So for the first couple months of 2018, I'm going to read predominantly backlist. That shouldn't be a problem -- there are approximately 10 zillion older books on my to-read list.

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish to share my list for Top Ten Tuesday.

winter 2018 to read list

1. Illustrated Harry Potter books 1-3
I just had to have the first two books on their release days -- and then they wound up sitting neglected on my shelves! I guess I was sort of saving them? For what, I'm not sure. But I recently bought the illustrated "Prisoner of Azkaban" and I decided the time has finally come to do a HP re-read and savor all three.

2. A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn (Veronica Speedwell #3)
This is the one winter release that I absolutely must read, despite my commitment to backlist. I love this historical mystery series!

3. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #1)
I've been in a major fantasy/sci-fi mood lately and this is the first of a few books in that category on my list. I've had this one on my TBR for quite a while; I'm fairly new to the fantasy genre, but I'm pretty sure it's time for me to finally read some Brandon Sanderson!

4. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb (Farseer #1)Another fantasy series I've been dying to start!

5. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #1)
This sci-fi series is a fairly new discovery for me, and it immediately went on my to-read list!

6. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
My Broke and Bookish Secret Santa gave me this well-loved WWII novel last year, and I never got around to reading it! It's time.

7. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
A Broke and Bookish Secret Santa gift from two years ago. Sensing a trend... (though if you read the blog regularly, you'll know I'm horrible about reading my own books).

8. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Ahem. See #6-7.

9. A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman
I have heard only good things about this book and I'm so excited to read it!

10. Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Anderson
I've been wanting to read this comic collection forever, but my library in Hawaii didn't have it. I just checked again recently, and it turns out they finally got in this book and the second in the series, which came out in 2017. Yay!

Monday, November 27, 2017

Monday Musings

IMG_8833
We found snow!

My week: Jarrod and I spent the week with my parents and brother in Colorado! The only way it could've been a better Thanksgiving is if Alohi were there.

Reading: I'd been looking forward to the latest novel in Samantha Shannon's Bone Season fantasy series, but my library in Hawaii never got it in. So I had my mom get it from the Colorado Springs library for me! It was pretty good, though I didn't love it as much as the second book. I was worried I might not have time to finish it on the trip, but I actually read it in just over two days.

After that I read a book my mom already had checked out, the new Stephanie Plum novel. These books haven't been good in several years, but they're bookish comfort food and I'll keep reading the series til the end. The last 10 or so installments have been ok 3-star reads for me, but this one just fell flat. I didn't really enjoy it at all.

And now I'm back to the book I had been reading, "The Heart's Invisible Furies" by John Boyne. I got a decent amount of reading done on the flight from Colorado to Hawaii and I'm hoping to finish it in the next couple days. So far I'm really liking it, even though it's pretty heartbreaking at times.



Watching: I finally made it to the movie theater! We saw "Murder on the Orient Express" (good) and "Wonder" (fabulous!!!).

On the plane back I watched the first four episodes of Netflix's newish Anne of Green Gables series, "Anne With An E," and I'm totally in love! I know it got mixed reviews, but it's been years since I've seen the movies and I've never read the books, so I didn't really have any expectations going in. (P.S. Did you know you can download some Netflix stuff to watch without an internet connection? I didn't until very recently, and it was a lifesaver on the looooong flights.)

Knitting: I'm making great progress on the Newt Scamander scarf! I'm probably two-thirds of the way done now and I'm sure I'll do a lot of knitting this week -- gotta watch everything we recorded on the DVR while we were gone!

Eating: A bunch of the restaurants we don't have in Hawaii and miss: Red Robin, Chickfila, Rudy's BBQ, Pei Wei, Firehouse Subs and Jimmy John's. Plus a delicious and nostalgic Thanksgiving dinner. I hadn't eaten my mom's holiday feast since 2008!

Deciding: To try to read 100 books this year! I just hit the 85-book mark (more than I've read since I started keeping track) and it's soooo close to that nice, round number that I figured I might as well try to make it! I did cheat a tiny bit and requested a few graphic novels I've been meaning to read. But since my current book is almost 600 pages, I guess it balances out!

Buying: 23andMe kits for Jarrod and me. I'd been looking at them forever (from there and from Ancestry) and I couldn't resist Amazon's Black Friday deal! We ordered the ancestry + health kits since they were 50% off, and I can't wait to see our results.

Blogging:
Monday Musings
Non-Fiction November Week 5: New To My TBR

Looking forward to: Ugh... not sure. I'm still firmly in vacation mode and I'm not looking forward to going back to work -- and to the grocery store -- today! Plus it was so nice to be home in Colorado and off this island, and I'm honestly not all that jazzed to be back in Hawaii. I'll just have to console myself with copious amounts of Starbucks peppermint mochas and Hallmark Christmas movies!

*I'm linking up with Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

DSC_4499
Jarrod and me with my dad, mom and brother. I'm so glad we were able to spend Thanksgiving with them!

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Non-Fiction November Week 5: New To My TBR

It's the last week of Non-Fiction November! I had a blast participating in the link-ups and reading other bloggers' posts, and I will definitely do it again next year. This weeks' prompt -- hosted by Lory at Emerald City Book Review -- is about the books we added to our to-read lists this month. I included books I discovered through Non-Fiction November, plus the other NF books I came across.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Where I found it: a whole slew of Non-Fiction November posts (I had heard of it, of course, but since I don't watch Noah's show I never gave it much thought)

From Goodreads: Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of "The Daily Show" began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents' indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa's tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.


Jane Austen at Home: A Biography by Lucy Worsley

Where I found it: Goodreads Choice Awards

From Goodreads: On the eve of the two hundredth anniversary of Jane Austen's death, take a trip back to her world and the many places she lived as historian Lucy Worsley visits Austen's childhood home, her schools, her holiday accommodations, the houses -- both grand and small -- of the relations upon whom she was dependent, and the home she shared with her mother and sister towards the end of her life. In places like Steventon Parsonage, Godmersham Park, Chawton House and a small rented house in Winchester, Worsley discovers a Jane Austen very different from the one who famously lived a "life without incident." She shows readers a passionate Jane Austen who fought for her freedom, a woman who had at least five marriage prospects, but in the end a woman who refused to settle for anything less than Mr. Darcy.


Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly

Where I found it: friend recommendation

From Goodreads: The veteran of four space flights and the American record holder for consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Now, he takes us inside a sphere utterly inimical to human life. He describes navigating the extreme challenge of long-term spaceflight, both existential and banal: the devastating effects on the body; the isolation from everyone he loves and the comforts of Earth; the pressures of constant close cohabitation; the catastrophic risks of depressurization or colliding with space junk, and the still more haunting threat of being unable to help should tragedy strike at home -- an agonizing situation Kelly faced when, on another mission, his twin brother's wife, Gabrielle Giffords, was shot while he still had two months in space. Kelly's humanity, compassion, humor, and passion resonate throughout, as he recalls his rough-and-tumble New Jersey childhood and the youthful inspiration that sparked his astounding career, and as he makes clear his belief that Mars will be the next, ultimately challenging step in American spaceflight.


Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Where I found it: Book Riot (I think)

From Goodreads: Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years --a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today -- an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life. Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them.


Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis

Where I found it: Julz Reads (Ask/Be/Become the Expert: mountains)

From Goodreads: In a monumental work of history and adventure, Wade Davis asks not whether George Mallory was the first to reach the summit of Everest, but rather why he kept on climbing on that fateful day. His answer lies in a single phrase uttered by one of the survivors as they retreated from the mountain: "The price of life is death." Mallory walked on because for him, as for all of his generation, death was but "a frail barrier that men crossed, smiling and gallant, every day." As climbers they accepted a degree of risk unimaginable before the war. They were not cavalier, but death was no stranger. They had seen so much of it that it had no hold on them. What mattered was how one lived, the moments of being alive. For all of them Everest had become an exalted radiance, a sentinel in the sky, a symbol of hope in a world gone mad.


The Outrun: A Memoir by Amy Liptrot

Where I found it: a week 1 or 2 NF November post (didn't write down whose, though!)

From Goodreads: When Amy Liptrot returns to Orkney after more than a decade away, she is drawn back to the Outrun on the sheep farm where she grew up. Approaching the land that was once home, memories of her childhood merge with the recent events that have set her on this journey. Amy was shaped by the cycle of the seasons, birth and death on the farm, and her father's mental illness, which were as much a part of her childhood as the wild, carefree existence on Orkney. But as she grew up, she longed to leave this remote life. She moved to London and found herself in a hedonistic cycle. Unable to control her drinking, alcohol gradually took over. Now thirty, she finds herself washed up back home on Orkney, standing unstable at the cliff edge, trying to come to terms with what happened to her in London. Spending early mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, the days tracking Orkney's wildlife -- puffins nesting on sea stacks, arctic terns swooping close enough to feel their wings -- and nights searching the sky for the Merry Dancers, Amy slowly makes the journey towards recovery from addiction.


Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World by Noah Strycker

Where I found it: Doing Dewey (Non-Fiction November reviews)

From Goodreads: In 2015, Noah Strycker set himself a lofty goal: to become the first person to see half the world’s birds in one year. For 365 days, with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, he traveled across forty-one countries and all seven continents, eventually spotting 6,042 species -- by far the biggest birding year on record. This is no travelogue or glorified checklist. Noah ventures deep into a world of blood-sucking leeches, chronic sleep deprivation, airline snafus, breakdowns, mudslides, floods, war zones, ecologic devastation, conservation triumphs, common and iconic species, and scores of passionate bird lovers around the globe. By pursuing the freest creatures on the planet, Noah gains a unique perspective on the world they share with us -- and offers a hopeful message that even as many birds face an uncertain future, more people than ever are working to protect them.

Monday, November 20, 2017

Monday Musings

leaves collage

My week: Goodbye Hawaii, hello Colorado! Jarrod and I left Saturday night to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado with my family. It's so nice to be home for the week! And to be wearing boots and sweaters! And playing in crunchy leaves! (All that's missing is Alohi -- gosh I miss her!)

Reading: After a few really productive reading weeks, I got hardly any reading done at all last week. I had actually hoped to be finished with "The Heart's Invisible Furies" before our trip, but that sure didn't happen -- I'm only 100 pages in! I also squeezed in a few more chapters of "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" for Non-Fiction November. It's well-done, educational and interesting, but still over my head at times.

Instead of either one of those books, though, I'm reading "The Song Rising" by Samantha Shannon, the new book in the Bone Season series. The library in Hawaii is apparently never going to get it in, so I had my mom pick it up from the Colorado Springs library. Luckily it's only 350 pages, since I have less than a week to read it!


Watching: "This Is Us" and "Poldark." I also watched two delightfully cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies.

On the plane I watched an indie movie starring Chris Evans called "Before We Go," which was pretty good. I had actually downloaded the first three episodes of the British show "Midsomer Murders" -- something I'd been wanting to see forever -- to watch on the plane, but I was so bored! I gave up 30 minutes into the first episode.

Knitting: Making good progress on the Newt Scamander scarf! I've knit more in the last week than in the last year!


Looking forward to: Spending time with my family, going up to the mountains, shopping at stores we don't have in Hawaii (like craft stores!!!), and eating tons of yummy food! And tomorrow we're going to see "Murder on the Orient Express," which will be Jarrod's and my first movie at the theater in a whole year, if you can believe that.

*I'm linking up with Kathryn of Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Thursday, November 16, 2017

My Life in Books Tag

I came across this tag at Rebel Mommy Book Blog, and it was started at Rantings of a Reading Addict. I tried to choose books I enjoyed and would recommend! Feel free to play along if you'd like -- this was a fun tag to put together!

Find a book for each of your initials.


L.A.S.
(All these books are awesome! Read them!)

Count your age on the shelf. Which book is it?


Thirty-two books in: "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver. I bought this years ago at Borders' going-out-of-business sale. One day I'll get around to it. I loved the one Barbara Kingsolver book I've read, "The Poisonwood Bible."

Pick a book set in your city.


The first part of this (fantastic!!!) book is set in Honolulu. 

Pick a book that represents a destination you'd love to travel.


Alaska! And Washington state!

Pick a book that's your favorite color.


I love anything in the blue-green family: teal, turquoise, mint, etc.

What book do you have the fondest memories of?


I read this a couple years ago on my birthday trip to the Smoky Mountains. It was rainy and gray and the trees were on fire with color, and it was the absolute perfect time to read this atmospheric tale nestled in a cabin in the woods! Plus it was an all-around fantastic trip, and I loved the book. Good memories!

(I went with an adult book here, but if we're reminiscing about childhood, I'd have to say Nancy Drew and The Babysitter's Club.)

What book did you find the most difficult to read?


This is a complicated question! I decided to think about books I've read fairly recently, and I chose one I hated and one I liked. For the most part, I've enjoyed Laurie R. King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, but this installment was just brutal for me. I picked it up and put it down so many times, and I finally ended up skimming the last 100 pages. On the other hand, "A Little Life" was long, and it dealt with some very disturbing subject matter. It was tough to read in a completely different way from "O Jerusalem," and it was a book I ended up liking -- or maybe we'll say "appreciating." "Like" isn't quite a word I'd associate with the things that happen in this novel.

Which book on your TBR list will give you the biggest sense of accomplishment?


This book has been languishing on my to-read list for soooooo long. I keep vowing to read it each year and then I put it off and off and off, probably because the length makes it such a time commitment!

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

10 Books I'd Want My (Hypothetical) Kids To Read

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is books I'd want my kids to read, if I ever have any. Boy, was I tempted to choose all picture books -- I have some favorites from my childhood, and I see adorable ones at work every day. Plus there are tons of great picture books that help explain important issues (like "And Tango Makes Three"), teach positive behaviors (like sharing, friendship and understanding feelings, as in the fabulous "Bear" books by Karma Wilson -- my go-to baby shower gift!), and make scary things less frightening ("The Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor" was one I loved as a kid).

But I decided to think about what I'd want my "kids" to read as they got a little older, and this is what I came up with:

books i'd want my kids to read
 
1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: You might have noticed that I'm a pretty big HP fan, and if we ever have kids I will do my darndest to insure they love Harry Potter too! There are so many life lessons to be taken from these books, plus I want my kids to be able to escape into this magical world and enjoy all the fun of the fandom.

2. Wonder by R.J. Palacio: This is a charming, sweet book that reminds everyone -- not just kids -- to be compassionate and kind.

3. Bunnicula by James Howe: I was obsessed with rabbits as a kid, so of course I loved this story about a vampire bunny. I'm always excited when kids check it out at the library, and obviously I'd foist it on my own children!

4. Magic School Bus series by Joanna Cole: There are so many books in this series, and they really make non-fiction fun and interesting! The one above, with the popcorn-filled stomach, was my favorite when I was little.

5. March graphic novel trilogy by John Lewis: Now we're getting into some high school-level books, and I think "March" would make excellent required reading, but if that doesn't happen I'd read it with my kids anyway. It's a fresh way of educating people about the American Civil Rights Movement, and it hit home much more than anything I'd read or learned about it previously.

6. Maus graphic novels by Art Spiegelman: In the same vein as "March," "Maus" brings the Holocaust to life. I read the books in college and it wasn't until then that the full atrocity of it all sunk in; the narrative non-fiction and graphic novel formats give a face and a name to the horror in a way a dry textbook never can.

7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: I didn't read this book until I was around 30, but I think high school is a great time to explore the harms of censorship. Plus this is a highly readable classic! And if my "kids" are anything like me, they'll largely shy away from the classics genre, so it'll be gratifying to find one they'll (presumably) enjoy.

8. 1984 by George Orwell: This book goes hand-in-hand with "Fahrenheit 451." Everyone needs to know where the phrase "big brother" came from!

9. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: This is another book I didn't read until recently that I'd want my hypothetical teenager to read. What adolescent wouldn't relate to angsty Holden Caulfield?

10. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: The earth is wrecked and everyone escapes from their miserable lives in a virtual reality universe -- sounds like something that could happen in our not-too-distant future! But the main reason I'd want my "kids" to read this book is so they can get a feel for the decade during which their parents were born! (Plus, kids these days probably have no idea about half the stuff in there -- cassette tapes? Arcades?)

Monday, November 13, 2017

Monday Musings

alohi book

My week: Monday through Thursday was a bit rough -- it was just one of those weeks -- but who cares when I had a three-day weekend?! Friday we ate lunch out, ran some errands and took Alohi to the vet (always an adventure). Saturday it rained all day long, and while I had a million things on my to-do list I ended up being supremely and completely lazy.

Reading: It was a great reading week for me! I'm blazing my way through the list of 2017 releases I want to read by the end of the year, and so far they've all been really good books. I finished and thoroughly enjoyed "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine." I liked it so much I convinced a patron at the library to check it out this week!

Then I read "The Blinds," a sort of speculative fiction story about a tiny community in the middle-of-nowhere Texas full of heinous criminals whose memories of their misdeeds have been wiped clean. For eight years the Blinds has been a peaceful little settlement, but all of a sudden things start falling apart in quick succession.

After that I read my first book for Non-Fiction November, Lauren Graham's quick and funny and "Gilmore Girls"-filled memoir, "Talking As Fast As I Can." It was pretty much book fluff, but there were definitely a few good takeaways.

Then I positively blew through "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I started it Saturday morning and, as mentioned, it rained all day long, so I spent hours immersed in the glamorous (and not-so-glamorous) world of '50s (and '60s and '70s and '80s) Hollywood. I fell in love with the characters and I just could not put this book down!

Yesterday I read the first few pages of "The Heart's Invisible Furies" by John Boyne, an epic novel set over several decades in Ireland. Several of my real-life and online friends have given it 5 stars and I'm hopeful I'll love it too -- and that it sucks me right in. It's almost 600 pages and I don't want to lug it on an airplane with me just to finish the last bit, so my goal is to get it read before we leave for our Thanksgiving trip on Saturday!

I'm also reading my second Non-Fiction November book, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. It's short and sweet (though still a little over my head sometimes), and I'm reading a chapter a day.




Watching: "Stranger Things" season 2, "Broadchurch" season 3, "Poldark," "This Is Us."

We also watched the first episode of "American Gods," and it was soooo weird. But I'm intrigued! I was planning to read the book before watching, but our DVR is in desperate need of some space and I was chatting with a patron at work who was telling me about the show and convinced me to go ahead and start it.

Movie-wise, we watched "The Dead Poet's Society," a 1989 movie starring Robin Williams as a delightful and unconventional teacher at a stuffy New England prep school. It's one I've been meaning to watch for-ev-er, and I finally got to it as part of our DVR clean-out!

Knitting: It feels so good to have knitting needles in my hands again! I'm chugging along with my Newt Scamander scarf for my friend Jessie. I've made more progress in the last week (after ripping out and starting over) than I did in almost a year! It's definitely been an off-year knitting-wise for me, but every hobby needs a break now and then.

Listening to: "Faking It" by Calvin Harris, etc.


Blogging:
Monday Musings
The Book Releases I'm Most Looking Forward to Oct. to Dec. 2017
Non-Fiction November Week 3: Be the Expert, Ask the Expert, Become the Expert

Looking forward to: Our last-minute trip to Colorado for Thanksgiving! I haven't spent a holiday with my parents since 2008, and I'm soooooooo ready to get off this island for a week!

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Non-Fiction November Week 3: Be the Expert, Ask the Expert, Become the Expert


It's already week three of Non-Fiction November -- the month is positively flying by! This week's link-up prompt is Be The Expert (share books you've read and would recommend), Ask the Expert (ask for suggestions on a specific topic), Become the Expert (create a list of books on a subject you'd like to read).

This was a bit of an overwhelming topic for me because, as it turns out, my non-fiction reading is all over the place. There aren't one or two topics that I find especially interesting -- I've got everything from the Middle East and North Korea to celebrity memoirs to books about race and the invention of the birth control pill on my lists, and I really could not bear to narrow things down.

So instead, I put my own little twist on the prompt. I chose eight subjects and listed one book I've read and would recommend, along with three that are on my to-read list (and even this was difficult to whittle down -- I have sooooo many good-looking non-fiction books on my TBR!). And if you have any recommendations based on the books below, I would absolutely love to hear them!

Today's link-up is hosted by Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness.

dogs

Read and recommend:
Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him by Luis Carlos Montalvan (review)

Want to read:
A Dog Called Hope: A Wounded Warrior and the Service Dog Who Saved Him by Jason Morgan
Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon by Bronwen Dickey
No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII by Robert Weintraub

animals

Read and recommend:
The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming by Shreve Stockton

Want to read:
American Wolf: The True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures With Bumblebees by Dave Goulson

exploration

Read and recommend:
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann (review)

Want to read:
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette by Hampton Sides
Walking the Nile by Levison Wood
Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey Into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon by Paul Rosolie

history

Read and recommend:
Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

Want to read:
How to Be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman
The Radium Girls: The Dark History of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan

medicine

Read and recommend:
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (review)

Want to read:
Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek
The Skeleton Cupboard: The Making of a Clinical Psychologist by Tanya Byron
The Real Doctor Will See You Now: A Physician's First Year by Matt McCarthy

science

Read and recommend:
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (review)

Want to read:
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Young

travel

Read and recommend:
My Life in France by Julia Child (review)

Want to read:
Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen
Bears in the Streets: Three Journeys Across a Changing Russia by Lisa Dickey
The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson

war

Read and recommend:
Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (review)

Want to read:
Ashley's War: The Untold Stry of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
Tough As They Come by SSG Travis Mills

Friday, November 10, 2017

The Book Releases I'm Most Looking Forward To Oct. to Dec. 2017

It's so hard to believe we're already halfway done with the final quarter of the year; 2017 has positively flown by for me. I feel like it was just Christmas, and here we are less than two months away from Christmas all over again! All this is to say, I intended to publish this post back toward the beginning of October, before all these books were released, but oh well: better late than never, right?!

fall book releases

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty: Doughty's first book, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," about her time working in the funeral industry, was fascinating and morbid and has stuck with me more than most books do. It was really thought-provoking -- why are we as a society so distanced from death? what do I want to happen to my body after I die? -- and I'm excited to read her new book, which takes the topic even further.

Origin by Dan Brown: I've already blazed through this newest Robert Langdon installment! It was a typical Dan Brown book, but I'll tell ya -- I could not put it down!

American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee: I'm trying to read more non-fiction and this one, which tells the story of a particular wolf in Yellowstone, sounds really interesting!

Strange Weather by Joe Hill: I've read most of Joe Hills books, and the ones I haven't I'll get to eventually. I don't often read short fiction, but I'm planning to try this compilation, which includes four horror novellas.

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King: Ok, so this technically came out at the tail-end of September, but we might as well include the whole King family here (in case you didn't know, Joe Hill is Stephen King's son too). This book is super-long, but the plot (about a disease/curse/thingie that only affects women) has me totally intrigued!

The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan: I'm in a total fantasy mood right now and the premise of this one, the first in a new series, sounds really good! It's pretty complex, but it has to do with some badass magical women fighting off a "superstitious patriarchy...bent on world domination."

Artemis by Andy Weir: I loved "The Martian" and I've been looking forward to Weir's second novel since the day it was announced! I'm excited that it's more of a traditional sci-fi story -- it's set on the moon -- and I can't wait to get my hands on it!

The Revolution of Marina M. by Janet Fitch: I'm having a moment where I'm really interested in books set in Russia, and this chunkster promises to a captivating epic historical fiction story.

City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty: This is the first book in a new fantasy series set in 1700s Cairo that features a spunky-sounding protagonist and a djinn. I'm not quite sure if it's supposed to be adult or YA (I usually avoid YA) but I'm definitely going to give it a try!


The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden: I enjoyed "The Bear and the Nightingale," a historical fantasy derived from Russian folktales, and I'm excited to dive into book 2!

Monday, November 6, 2017

Monday Musings

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My week: I had fun dressing up with my co-workers at the library for Halloween! It was a nice change to wear a tutu to work instead of my uniform shirt. The rest of the week was pretty quiet... I've been busy at work getting the November bulletin board up (it's 13x9 feet, so it's always an endeavor!). In October I asked patrons to trace their hand and color it in however they liked, and now those hand prints are feathers on a giant turkey.

turkey board

turkey board 2 

Reading: I tried for a second time to read "The Keeper of Lost Things" and I got stuck at the same spot, about three chapters in. I really wanted to love this book, but I decided to give up on it, at least for now. I think part of the problem is the authors way-overuse of alliteration, but really, I'm surprised I couldn't get into it.

Instead I started working on my list of 2017 releases I want to read  by the end of the year, and I stated with "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas. I'm sure you all know the novel has to do with Black Lives Matter and a black teen boy shot by a white policeman. Regardless of your politics or viewpoint, it's a book I recommend because the author did such a good job making me feel connected to the main character, 16-year-old Starr. And it also gave me a glimpse into a life very different from mine -- which is one of the things I most enjoy about reading.

Then I read "Tuck Everlasting," the November book for the 4th and 5th grade book club I do at the library where I work. It started off really cute, but it suffered from exactly what I mentioned above -- I closed the back cover and didn't feel like I knew any of the characters at all. Winnie almost decides to become immortal for Jessie Tuck, a boy she knew for ONE DAY, and I didn't know anything about him other than that he was cute. I imagine the movie version fixes this problem, and since it stars Alexis Bledel (aka Rory Gilmore), I do want to watch it.

And now I'm reading "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" by Gail Honeyman, another book from my list of 2017 releases. I'm a little over halfway done and really enjoying it so far. I didn't exactly know what to expect with it, but it's different that the vague idea I had in my head -- in a good way, though! As prickly and awkward as Eleanor is, I'm starting to fall in love with her!



Knitting: I'm finally knitting again! I hardly knit at all in 2017, but I'm back to work on the Newt Scamander scarf for a friend. Perfect timing, since I like to knit while watching TV (see below).

Watching: I had a wake-up call this week when I saw our rather massive DVR only had 10% space remaining! I feel like since I only work part-time I should watch "my" shows when Jarrod isn't around, but all too often I choose reading over watching and now I have entire seasons of shows to catch up on, not to mention a bunch of movies.

So, what am I watching? I'm keeping up with "This Is Us," "Poldark" (which Jarrod watches with me -- yay!) and "Grey's Anatomy." I finished the first season of the new Masterpiece show "My Mother and Other Strangers," which is set in a small Irish town during WWII, where American troops have set up a base, and I picked back up with the final season of "Switched at Birth." It's been my guilty pleasure for years, but this season is way too political for my taste and I had to take a break from it.

I had been recording the "Will and Grace" revival and I finally gave that a try, but after five minutes of audience sounds and canned laughter I just couldn't handle it. It occurred to me how much TV has changed -- growing up, most of the shows I watched were sitcoms "filmed in front of a live studio audience," but now there aren't even many shows like that left, much less ones that I'm interested in (period dramas don't have laugh tracks!). It never bothered me when I was younger, but hearing a bunch of audience laughter every 20 seconds was like nails on a chalkboard, so "Will and Grace" got the delete button.

We're also watching "Stranger Things" season 2 and it's really good!

Signing up for: The Broke and Bookish Secret Santa! It'll be my third year participating and I'm so looking forward to it. Though the real fun for me is buying for my secret buddy, I've had absolutely fabulous Santas the past two years and it's just been a great experience!

Blogging:
Monday Musings
Turning the Page on October 2017
Mini Reviews: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, The Alice Network, Origin, Setting Free the Kites & Red Sister
Non-Fiction November Week 2: Five Non-Fiction/Fiction Pairings

Looking forward to: Changing out my display of spooky books and movies to Thanksgiving and Christmas ones at work today!

*I'm linking up with Kathryn of Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?
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