Monday Musings

My week: It was on ok week here... a little hard to get back into the swing of things when I was still on vacation brain from our trip to Colorado. I just wasn't feeling work, and then Saturday I had a several-hour CPR/first aid training for work. At least I learned some useful information, though I was a little sad to give up a Saturday in December! I did at least get my Christmas decorations out, so the house is nice and festive!

Reading: I finished and loved "The Heart's Invisible Furies" by John Boyne, which I guess could best be described as an epic portrait of one gay Irishman's life spanning several decades -- and at the same time it's a portrait of Ireland itself.

I also read "Artemis" by Andy Weir, my most-anticipated book of the year, and found it to be just-ok. I had such high expectations, but it was nowhere near as good as "The Martian."

And I finally read "Adulthood is a Myth," a compilation of nerd- and introvert-centric comics by Sarah Andersen. It made me chuckle and I could totally relate to most of them. It only took about an hour to flip through and I closed the back cover wanting more; luckily I also checked out this year's installment, "Big Mushy Happy Lump."

Now I'm reading "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI" by David Grann. It's a fast-paced narrative non-fiction book about a string of (disturbing) events I'd never even heard of before. I'm about halfway done and I'd definitely recommend it so far!

Watching: We finally finished up this season's "Sherlock," and overall I wasn't all that impressed. I miss the first season when it was all about solving individual cases.

Movie-wise I watched a few Hallmark Christmas movies, and together we watched a DVD of "2:22," which was ok... it had a twisty-turny plot that kept me interested, but I was kind of confused by the whole thing.

Knitting: I took a break from the Newt Scamander scarf I've been working on for a friend to knit a hat for my Broke and Bookish Secret Santa swap partner. Hope she likes bright colors!

Receiving: The dictionary-print Toms I ordered (could there be better shoes to wear to work at a library?!).

Blogging:
Monday Musings
My Winter 2017/18 Reading List

Looking forward to: Getting our Christmas tree this week! Here in Hawaii we like to go to a local farm and cut down a Norfolk pine. They look kind of Dr. Seuss-ish, but it's the only way to get a locally grown Christmas tree rather than one that traveled in a container on a ship from the Mainland.

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

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.

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 Musings

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?

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

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 Musings

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!

Blogging:
Monday Musings
10 Books I'd Want My (Hypothetical) Kids To Read

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?

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!

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:

 
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?)