It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday! Here in the Northeast, we are preparing to be snowed in.  I’m looking out the window right now to a steady current of light snow that has been falling and accumulating for several hours now.  Later today, we are expecting Nor’easter conditions that will dump about 8 inches of snow on Philadelphia, leaving me pretty immobilized in my apartment.

 

In terms of reading, last week was rough. Four of five days were late nights at work and I was getting sick, so I broke down after just three weeks on my no-buy for 2015 and picked up St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell and Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink even though I was in the midst of reading other things.  Karen Russell is on my list of authors to discover for 2015 and I have wanted to read Five Days at Memorial since I listened toLiterary Disco’s podcast on it last year so I didn't even feel guilty purchasing these books.

For the past two weeks or so, I've been slowly making progress on Burial Rites by Hannah Kent on my Kindle Paperwhite.  Right now I’m at 30% complete and I would really love to finish this one in January so I can start February with a clean slate. I also started St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves on Sunday afternoon in between my illness-induced naps which was perfect – each story I've read so far is about 20 pages long, which is just enough to catch my attention and keep me interested so I can finish a story and feel that sense of accomplishment without getting bogged down in a story line.  

    

I was listening to Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach on the Audible app for my commute to and from work but I had to move that to my abandoned pile at about halfway through due to some author choices that I didn't agree with. I updated my review on Goodreads to reflect my opinion on this book and you can read that here.

In my queue after these two books are finished is The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters which I have on hold through my library’s e-book system and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.  Harry will be a re-read that I am really excited for; I am hoping to get through all seven books this year.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  You can visit her blog here.

The Little Stranger | Mini Review

I finished reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters a few days ago.  It is an incredibly hyped up book right now and I couldn't stop hearing about it on BookTube.  For everyone who hasn't heard of this book yet, you can check out the Goodreads page for a plot summary.  I am always afraid that I will reveal spoiler-y information in a plot summary I write myself.

Unfortunately I was disappointed in this book. I had many, many high hopes for it after reading and watching so many rave reviews.  The writing was phenomenal, and after the first 100 pages or so, I fell into the English countryside and was devouring the book in large chunks.  That is where my positive experience ends.  I was expecting a creepy book with a Gothic setting, plot twists and turns that would keep me awake at night and a thrilling conclusion.  Instead I received a plot that moved slowly, with characters that I didn't like and an unsatisfying ending. After thinking over this novel for a few days, I still cannot determine the motives of the doctor (whose name I even can’t remember) which I believe was a larger portion of the book than what has otherwise been suggested.  Overall I wouldn't recommend this book to others but I am going to keep reading other Sarah Waters books.

Reflections and Resolutions | 2014-2015

On the last day of 2014, I reflected (through statistics, mostly) on the reading I have accomplished this year.  Goodreads has a wonderful export function on their website that allows you to download all of your reading data into an Excel spreadsheet and analyze it to your heart’s content.  Of course, I did that! 

Here is the breakdown:

• In 2014, I finished 51 books and read a total of 15,049 pages.  This count does not include any book I am currently reading or any book I have started but put down throughout the year.  If that were included, my page count would be significantly increased.  I’m looking at you, Philip Pullman!
• Of the 51 books, 30 (59%) were written by female authors and 17 (33%) were written by male authors.  The remaining four books (8%) were written by multiple authors of differing genders.  45 books (88%) were written by white authors (this includes all nationalities, not just white people from the United States), 5 books (10%) were written by nonwhite authors and 1 (2%) book was written by multiple authors of differing races.
• There was an almost equal distribution throughout the four seasons of the year, with just a little lag in the last few months because of the holidays.  A majority of my reading has been focused in the 21st century (35 books) with quite a few new releases this year and 27 of the authors I read were  “first time” authors for me, meaning I had never read their work prior to this year.

Overall, my reading was much more diverse than I thought it was.  I am not saying it was ideal, and I am making some resolutions on improving my reading experience.  But I am proud of what I have accomplished this year.  Moving forward into 2015 – I have set a few goals, or reading resolutions for myself to direct my reading habits and experience. 

The Goodreads Challenge

I will participate in the Goodreads Challenge reading goal once again, but I am lowering my goal from 50 books to 30 books.  I am doing this for several reasons – most importantly, I know I can reach this goal and I will not feel pressure at the end of the year to squeeze in books I wouldn't normally want to read because I have an arbitrary goal to meet. I want to enhance the quality of my reading, which brings me to my next resolution.

Reading Diversely

I will have a separate post on the revelation I had on reading more diversity in 2015, but I want to state that I am fully on the bandwagon of increasing the diversity of books in stores, in publishing, and in the general public awareness.  I am first making the change within myself and my own habits so I can lead by example when I speak of this topic with others.

Inspired by Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, and wanting to diminish the number of books I have piled up on my TBR shelf, I have created a list of 25 books (20 of which I already own) to read in the new year. The list is diverse in author race, nationality and gender, as well as in genre category.  The goal is to expand my reading with backlist titles while still making room to enjoy 2015 new releases.  Some of the authors on my list include Junot Diaz, Jhumpa Lahiri, Marilynne Robinson, Toni Morrison and Karen Russell. 

Utilizing the Library

A majority of the books on my 2015 Reading List are already on my shelf or waiting on my Kindle because I bought them with the best of intentions of reading them that week, or that month, but got distracted and moved on to something else.  I want to put more intention into my reading and the money I am spending on reading.  Therefore I have decided to utilize my library’s physical and E-book catalogue prior to purchasing books, and then only purchasing the titles if I feel the need to add them to my personal collection.  I just ordered the Kindle Paperwhite to make e-reading even more enticing and I’m stocking up on a few books today to ensure I have plenty of reading material on hand for the upcoming year. 

Events

Perhaps the most exciting portion of 2015 – all of the good book events on the horizon! So far I only know of and am definitely attending BookCon this year in May for a full weekend instead of just one day. I have also located a great independent bookstore near me – the Doylestown Bookshop – that hosts author events on a relatively regular basis that I would like to attend this year. 

Stacks & Shelves

Blogging has been sporadic and mood fueled for me in the past year.  I either feel pressure to update with relentless and usually meaningless (to me) content like book hauls or tags because I want to maintain traffic to the site with regular updates. But posting that content felt empty because I was only doing it to say something, instead of having something to say, if that makes sense.  This year I am not going to guarantee a certain number of posts by week or month.  Instead I am going to focus on meaningful posts, like book reviews or discussions or other events and news happening in the literary world.

So there you have it – my introspection on the past year and my goals for 2015.  I hope everyone has a wonderful new year. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments!

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer | Review

Source: Goole Books

I picked up Belzhar after hearing about it on Book Riot’s Youtube channel and a million other places on the internet book world -  I couldn’t get away from it as an anticipated new release for the fall.  I promptly put it on my library request list and forgot about it.  I already own two other books by Wolitzer, The Wife and The Position, that I haven't read yet.  But with endless recommendations for her writing style and story crafting, and the kick in the pants YA has on my reading habits, I jumped in headfirst and finished Belzhar within 72 hours of picking it up. 

Belzhar is about Jam, a 15 year old girl who is sent to The Wooden Barn boarding school for “highly intelligent and emotionally fragile” teenagers after the trauma of losing her British exchange student boyfriend, Reeve.  At the Wooden Barn, Jam is placed in the Special Topics in English class with four other students hand picked (for mysterious reasons) by Mrs. Quennell.  Mrs. Q helps these five teens heal over the course of one semester by teaching The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and requiring students to journal about themselves.  What happens when the students journal allow them to become a close knit group of friends (almost like a secret society) and overcome the hardships that brought them to The Wooden Barn.

I liked this book for several reasons.  Personally, my entire undergraduate degree was focused on the psychology of school-aged students so this hit home to me on an academic level.  I think mental health is a very important topic that should be taught to young adults in schools, at home, in the media, etc., but doesn’t receive much attention.  Meg Wolitzer creates characters with backgrounds that are relatable enough for people who have not experienced trauma to remain sympathetic and empathetic to the experiences the characters have had.  She brings attention to their mental health issues (depression, binge eating, withdrawal) and emotions (fear, anger, resentment, remorse) without making the issue or emotion the sole defining trait of the character. 

Secondly, the emphasis that Wolitzer put on introspection and journaling was constructive and realistic and generally awesome even though not every character had a happy ending.  At the end of the 260ish page book, despite making growth in their personal journeys to overcome their experiences, every character was not fully healed.  But they were able to function better in their daily lives and form relationships with new people because of their journals.  I think this is a great message for the teens that are going to read this book.

The main drawback I felt while reading this book was the lack of depth with the characters.  Even though every character had a reason to be at the The Wooden Barn, none were explained or explored in a below the surface context.  As a young adult reader, that much depth might not be necessary to pull you into the book, but I think that would have added a lot more for adult readers.  There was also a lot of telling instead of experiencing about the healing each character experienced, specifically at the conclusion of the novel when the characters wrote in their journals for the last time.

Overall I enjoyed Belzhar book for the value it will provide to young adult readers and the contribution to mental health literature but I wouldn't recommend this to everyone.  I think young adults, teachers, and parents would get the most out of this book.  It brings emotional growth and development of adolescents into the forefront of your mind and makes you think about the validity of emotional experiences adolescents have instead of writing them off as hormonal or growing pains.

RIP IX Readalong

Fall is HERE!  Technically we have another few weeks or so until "it's official" but Labor Day is over, I've had my final beach trip of the year and pumpkin spice is everywhere. I started decorating for fall on Sept 1 and I can't wait for October 1 to set up for Halloween.  My birthday is also in October and that is a great reason to buy new books.

Part of celebrating Fall means the RIP IX readalong! I participated in RIP XIII hosted by Carl @ Stainless Steel Droppings and the Estella Society's Readalong of The Historian last year and had a blast.  This year, the readalong runs from September 1 - October 1, two great months of spooky, scary, nightmare inspiring books!

This year I am participating in Peril the First (four books) and Peril of the Group Read by reading The Haunting of Hill House along with the Estella Society.

Here is what I have lined up to read:

• Locke and Key, volumes 1 and 2 (finished yesterday)
• The Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 
• The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero

These are all library books so I will have to add even more to my TBR once September is over.  Stay tuned for reviews!

Landline Review

Landline by Rainbow Rowell was published a few weeks ago and was automatically added to my TBR; I requested it from my library so far in advance I was the second person to be added to the wait list.  I like to call Rainbow Rowell's books my "one hit wonders" because I always finish them in one sitting, so I added this book to my Bout of Books 11.0 TBR and successfully finished it in one sitting at three o'clock in the morning.  Now I can check off the box on my Bookish Bucket List of reading an author's entire published work.  Rainbow Rowell's writing and storytelling capabilities are like sinking into a bubble bath: comfortable.  I knew I was going to enjoy this book even before I knew what it was about.

Landline tells the story of Georgie McCool and the events that unfold when she stays in California one week over Christmas to pursue her lifelong dream of pitching her own sitcom to network executives instead of travelling to Nebraska with her family .  When we meet Georgie, she has devoted her entire existence to being a sitcom writer and mother which resulted in a strained marriage to Neal, her stay at home husband.  During the week that she is separated from her family. Georgie tries to call Neal from the old landline phone in her childhood bedroom and ends up talking to the Neal from 1998, before they were engaged.  Georgie uses these phone calls to repair her relationship with her husband to find out what went wrong in their marriage.

I enjoyed this book and I am glad I read it but I feel like it came up short (I felt the same way about Rowell's other adult contemporary Attachments.  She doesn't seem to have this problem with her YA books). I do not want to delve into spoilers, but throughout the novel, it seemed like Georgie was being forced to choose her marriage or her career, with a greater emphasis on the importance to her marriage.  I am not saying that her marriage is not important- as a married lady myself, I agree that Georgie needed to refocus on her marriage to repair the years of damage that we witness in this novel.  However, I think Georgie should have been able to fix her marriage and still have her career but the novel ended before that could happen.

Did you read Landline and feel the same way? Let me know in the comments!

Bout of Books 11.0 Wrap Up

Hello Bout of Book-ers! It has been an interesting week.  I started the Bout of Books 11.0 readathon with a bang, reading three books in three days. Unfortunately my reading pace slowed down significantly after Tuesday.

So, how did I do?

If you count the books I read last weekend, I finished five books - super close to my goal! Even though I didn't finish a sixth book I am really happy with my progress.

I finished...

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (review here)
• Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins (review here)
• Landline by Rainbow Rowell (review coming soon!)
• Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
• The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (review coming soon!)

... for a total of 1,682 pages! I posted updated Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday here.  Five books on week was a lot, especially when looking at my slower reading habits over the past week.  I'm really happy with the readathon and I am now 1 book ahead of schedule on my reading challenge.

I read about 20% into Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead before putting that down due to lack of interest and picked up This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (prepping for the moving that comes out in September) and The Magician King by Lev Grossman.  Bout of Books was a success!

I also achieved my other goal of interacting with the #boutofbooks hashtag on Twitter, Instagram, and checking out new blogs on the daily progress link up. I also participated in my first ever Twitter chat (Tweetdeck was really helpful for the chat, I tried to follow along on my regular Twitter layout and got lost).

Bout of Book 11.0 was a lot of fun, and with fall right around the corner I am excited for the cooler weather and the awesome bookish things it brings, like Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon (October 18th!) and the RIP Readalong.