Friday Reads & Dog Days of Summer TBR

Today is my last day of work before heading into a three day weekend and it’s also the kickoff of the Dog Days of Summer Readathon hosted by Andi and Heather at Estella Society!  That means, the next three days are going to be a good time.

I have just a few chapters left of In the Woods by Tana French which I am loving in a way that I did not expect.  I was hoping for a good detective novel to bust me out of a mini reading slump.  Instead, I got a can’t-put-it-down, reading during my lunch break book with great characters, a thrilling murder mystery and fabulous writing.  It’s been a real struggle to prioritize my work/sleep needs with my desire to push through to the end in one sitting, so this is my #1 priority as soon as I get home from work tonight.

I also picked up the audio of Wildwood by Colin Meloy from Overdrive and started that for my commute (about 2 hours per day) which I expect to finish over the next week and a half or so.

A few other books I’ve been thinking about for this weekend are Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (first hold at the library, whoop!) and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.  With Slade House coming out next month, I need to pick up the pace on Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks as all three books take place in the same universe.

Happy Friday!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday!

There are only 2 Monday's left in August and I am so excited for Fall right around the corner. Not only are there a ton of new books coming out this year that I can't wait to get my hands on, the cooler weather is so much more conducive to laying around and reading.

This week, I'm focusing on a few things.

On my Kindle, I'm reading Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari.  I picked this up a few weeks ago when it was on the Kindle Daily Deal.  I love Aziz's stand up, so I'm excited to see how his humor comes across in print.

On audio, I will be listening to What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey.  I prefer nonfiction audio during my commute and while doing housework.  Plus, this book is only about four hours long so I should be able to complete it while driving to work without a problem this week.

I also have The Chosen by Chaim Potok and Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia by Susan Massie waiting for my at the library to pick up.  I'm sure I will start, but most likely not finish these books by the end of the week.

On the blog front, I would like to have at least one more post up by the weekend.  I'm not sure what that will be yet (maybe a monthly wrap up?) so let me know if you have any suggestions!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila @ Book Journey

Bout of Books 17 Wrap Up

Well hello there, stranger.  6 1/2 months, no post.  Whoops!

I have been reading in ebbs and flows over the past few months and I utilized this week's Bout of Books 17 readathon as a way to refocus on books and to finish my 2015 Goodreads Challenge.

This week, I started and finished The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons (810 pages!).  The first 200-300 pages of the book were really compelling.  So compelling, that even though I started reading my library's copy of the book I went out and bought not just one, but the entire trilogy so I could read straight through.  In hindsight, I'm not sure the $50 I spent on the trilogy was entirely worth it after finishing the first book.

Some parts of the book dragged on and on, beating their message or a monotonous theme over my head (the God is going to save the Soviet Union message was pretty heavy in the middle section of the book) and if the book were shorter, around 500-600 pages, I think I would have enjoyed the overall reading experience more.  Now, rather than moving on directly to the second books in the trilogy, Tatiana and Alexander, I'm going to move on to something else.

During the week I also listened to Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson on audiobook on a whim at work.  I had a lot of paperwork filing to do and I thought listening to this wouldn't be too difficult or distracting and it was relatively short so I could complete it in one day.  Unfortunately, the story was so simple and non-engaging that I found myself not paying attention.

Despite the fact that most of my reading has been lackluster this week I reached my Goodreads goal of reading 40 books in 2015! I increased my goal to 50 and I am confident I will reach that by December.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday!

This week I’m reading… nothing.  I haven’t picked up a book that has stuck in a few days.  I tried:

·         Burial Rites by Hannah Kent which I started a while ago,

·         Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (re-read),

·         Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (re-read),

·         The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett, and

·         The Bread We Eat in Dreams by Catherynne M. Valente

I keep picking them up and putting them down, forgetting where I was or having my mind drift to a different story line.

I think this is a mini book hangover because I read A LOT last week.  I finished St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell which I LOVED, I re-read Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, which I also loved, and I read All Broke Down (Rusk University #2) by Cora Carmack. Overall a good week! I’m just looking for the right book to snap me out of it.

On the audio book front, I've been listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling as part of my goal to re-read the Harry Potter series this year.  Typically I prefer my audio books to be of the non-fiction flavor because I get lost in the plot lines of audio fiction, but since I know this story so well it’s been the perfect piece to listen to for a few minutes at a time.  I've really enjoyed listening to this before bed, because if I fall asleep I am not worried about losing my place or not knowing what is happening.

I’m not planning on picking anything else up this week, hopefully I will just “find” the right book, or take a break to catch up on my favorite reality TV shows.

Happy Reading J

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

January Wrap Up

So, January is over.  FINALLY.  I was sick for the entire month, first with a viral infection and then with an upper respiratory infection.  I am so happy to see the sickness & snow behind me for the month! Despite being ill (or maybe because of it?) I was able to read five books in January which puts me at 17% of my 2015 Goodreads goal.

I read...
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (mini review)
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
Drown by Junot Diaz

I listened to...
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach (did not finish halfway through)


...for a total of 990 pages read and 11.25 hours listened!

I have plans to write a review for Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass but I am still rolling my thoughts around inside my brain, and I plan on doing a Junot Diaz overview once I finish his other two books.

I am still plowing through St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell, which I will definitely finish this week as I only have 50 pages left; and Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, which I have made no progress on in over a week.  These will be the first two books I finish in February.

Historically, February is my best reading month of the year.  I find it strange that I read the most in the shortest month, because I don't know where I get the time but I am looking forward to it.  In the spirit Valentine's Day, I love to read YA-Romance books (such as Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins) but I don't have any on my queue yet for the month.  Since I am revisting Harry Potter this year, I may make February my re-read month and go back to all of Stephanie Perkins' books.

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.