It's Monday! What Are You Reading? And March Wrap Up

Good morning fellow book lovers. This weekend was a rainy, dreary, curl up with a book and don't get out of bed few days. I loved it!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? Is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at The Book Journey.  I'm currently reading The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss and let me tell you it is GOOD.  More than good, amazing, wonderful and fantastically written and I am only 24% of the way through (currently reading it on my Kindle because it was an impulse purchase and 600+ pages). I purchased this book from a recommendation on Literary Disco's podcast about Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (which I also picked up).  I have no idea what it is about apart from what I have read.

The Name of the Wind is a fantasy for beginners - did I mention that the writing is SO GOOD? That the fantastical elements and world building seamlessly fall into place.  As far as I can tell this is a trilogy and the third book isn't out with no rumored publishing date, so I want to read quickly to find out what happens but not too quickly because if I don't want to extend the wait for the third book.

"He called himself Kote.  He had chosen the name carefully when he came to this place.  He had taken a new name for most of the usual reasons, and for a few unusual ones as well, not least of which was the fact that names were important to him. (The Name of the Wind, page 10)"

March Wrap Up

While enjoying the gloomy weekend weather from my couch, I read Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor and gave it give stars. This novella took about 45 minutes to read and was a great escape back into the world that she created in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy.  It described the first date/love story beginning for Mik and Zuzana from their perspectives, a perfect blend of romance, mystery, and magic - I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads and already preordered the third book, Dreams of Gods and Monsters - 8 days until it arrives on my Kindle.

Earlier in the month I read The Hangman's Daughter (The Hangman's Daughter #1) by Oliver Potzsch.  I am going to write a full review for the book this week.  Overall, I enjoyed it but there were a few flaws that detracted from the story for me.  Unfortunately, just 2 stars.

I also read my first comic book/graphic novel (ever) - Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman.  It was incredible! I will definitely be purchasing the second volume The Doll's House.  What a scary ride into the Dreamworld (figuratively and literally!).  I love everything I have read by Gaiman so far and will continue with his comics and novels.  4 stars.

Image Source: Amazon

The last book I kind of read this month was Judging a Book by Its Lover: A Field Guide to the Hearts and Minds of Readers by Lauren Leto. I kind of read this book because I only got to page 126 before I gave up, handed it 1 star, and put it down. I did not intentionally purchase this book, it came in my Quarterly Co box from Book Riot.  Leto created the website Texts from Last Night, which I loved when I was in college, so I had high hopes that this would be a humorous light read to reflect on readers everywhere.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be a list of pretentiousness and is headed straight to my "donate" pile.

My reading this year has definitely slowed down - I read 7 books in March last month compared to the 3.5 I read this month.  I was bummed at first - why couldn't I make time for reading? But with limited time came greater selectiveness on what I am willing to read.  If it's not good, or well written, or intersteding, I put it down and focus on someting else.  So while my quantity of reading is less, the quality is greatly increased. Overall I think it's a good thing.

That's all for now - what have you read this month? Tell me in the comments or find me on Twitter!

October 2013 Wrap Up - Late!

So- I realize it is not longer October and that this happened quite a few months ago. I found this post in my backlog of drafts that I didn't get to publish before my blogging sebbatical but it's good stuff so I wanted to share anyway! It's fun to look back at what I was thinking almost six months ago.

Enter the Stacks and Shelves time wrap back to 10/2013:

 I can't believe October is already winding down and my favorite time of the year is in full swing.  I experienced a slump in my normal reading habits in September (mostly because of my wedding!) but I bounced back in October and had a wonderful reading month.

I read a total of nine (!!!) books and I wrote posts for almost every book.    I also participated in The Historian readalong, the Doctor Sleep readalong and Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon.  (Click on the book title's name to link back to the original post).

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Doctor Sleep by Stephen Kind
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman
• The Selection and The Elite by Kiera Cass
• Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron by Jonathan Strahan
• Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
• Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Unfortunately, There will not be a review for Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor.  This is a young adult high fantasy series that is definitely out of my comfort zone, and I am not completely comfortable with writing my thoughts about a book I don't fully understand.  Plus, it has been a long time since I read the first book in the series so it would be an unfair assessment on the progression of the story line.  With that being said, it is still an enjoyable series to read and I will definitely be buying the third book that comes out next year (March 2013 update: this book comes out in 2 weeks!).

In August I wrote out my Fall 2013 TBR and I am surprised to say that I actually read books from that list.  Four of the books I talked about were read (one in September, the other three this month) and I am still interested in the remaining books so I might actually read all of them!

Overall, I have read 73 books towards my goal of 80 books on Goodreads (bumped up from my original goal of 60) and I am considering bumping my goal up just a bit because I am going to start reading a lot of middle grade fiction for Middle Grade Mondays and those books take significantly less time to get through.

I also managed to acquire an obscene amount of new books throughout September and October so I am going to try my best and not buy anything new throughout the end of the year.  I recently discovered this new e-lending program at my library which will make my "buying ban" easier to manage.

Top Ten Tuesday - Bookish Bucket List

Hello? Is this thing on? Hi! 

It's been a while - just about FIVE (!!) months since I last posted anything on this site. I've had some pretty good reasons for being MIA (work is crazy, new family members, holiday reading slump) but I am back! Even if that means I can only write posts on the Blogger app while on break at work, like I'm doing now. 

I've got a couple of posts rolling around my brain- some of the standard ones like my 2013 reading wrap up and 2014 reading goals. I've also got a few books to review that I read this year so far.

To jump back into blog mode I'm doing Top Ten Tuesday (hosted at the Broke and the Bookish)! I only have five things on my bucket list so far plus one thing I've already accomplished. Hopefully this list will grow and change as I cross things off.

My Bookish Bucket List

1. Read all of the books that I own/buy in my lifetime 

2. Meet an Author or attend a book signing. Ideally this would be JK Rowling, Betty Smith, Neil Gaiman, John Green, or Cat Valente, just to name a few.

3. Attend a literary conference like BEA

4. Visit the real neighborhood of Francie from A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (located on the Flatbush/Greenpoint area)

5. Be an "author expert" by reading all of the works they've written. I'm currently trying to do this with Neil Gaiman.

Completed:

1. Visit Hogwarts - at least the Hogwarts in Universal Studios which I did on my honeymoon in September 2013.

Waiting on Wednesday - YA Edition

Waiting on Wednesday is a book blog meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we discuss the upcoming book releases we're anticipating.

Over the past few months I have started a few different YA series that are unfinished and I am patiently hanging out in book purgatory with cliffhangers and open endings until these books are released.





Allegiant - Veronica Roth
Book #3 in the Divergent trilogy.  Ok, this is the one and only "cheat" I have on this list.  I read Divergent in the beginning of 2012 and then waited until this summer to read Insurgent on a borrowed copy from the library.  The time between reading the first and second books in the series left me pretty confused about what was going on and I was kind of disappointed because Insurgent didn't seem very interesting or worth reading to me.  However, now that the third book has been released I want to read it to bring closure to the characters and story line of Divergent - but not enough to buy it.  I put a hold on this book at the library and I am only #26 on the list so I will hopefully get to read it by the end of the year.
Release Date: October 22, 2013

Cress by Marissa Meyer
Lunar Chronicles #3.  I mistakenly read the first chapter of this book after finishing Cinder and Scarlett this year and you guys? It's gonna be awesome.  I really enjoyed to innovative take on fairy tales that Meyer brought to the table and I am really excited to see what she does next.
Release Date: February 4, 2014

Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor
Book #3 in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy (can you sense a theme to these books I'm posting about yet?).  I loved the first book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, until the last 100 pages or so but was compelled to pick up the second installment, Days of Blood and Starlight which ended on a really intense plot line that promises to make a great third book.  I have the first two books on Kindle and I will be pre ordering the third book so I can read it as soon as it is released.
Release Date: April 8, 2014

The One - Kiera Cass
Book #3 in The Selection series.  I devoured The Selection on audiobook in September thinking it was a stand alone - and incredibly disappointed when I learned that it was a trilogy and that I would have to wait almost an entire year until the third book is released.  I read The Elite immediately after reading The Selection and we were left on an unpleasant cliffhanger.  I will be acquiring this book as soon as it is released.
Release Date: May 6, 2014

City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare
The Mortal Instruments #6.  Cassandra Clare has been  pretty popular for a while but I never had any interest in her books (the series is so long! too much of an investment!) until I became aware of and fell in love with the Infernal Devices trilogy this year. The story, characters, and world building in that trilogy made me take the leap into the Mortal Instruments, and that leap took me over the edge.  I have read all of Clare's books in one sitting, sometimes two or three in a weekend.  There is something so indulgent and attractive about the characters that I stay up all night reading about them.  I consider them one of my ultimate guilty pleasures because I know when I pick up one of these books I am checking out of the world for a couple of hours with no thought other than what is happening in the book.  I have not read City of Lost Souls (#5) yet because I need a buffer between now and book six to keep me going.
Release Date: May 2014

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron - A Review

Image Credit: Goodreads

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron is a short story collection edited by Jonathan Strahan.  I found out about this book through a few different YouTube videos and to be honest, I only purchased it because Neil Gaiman's name was attached to the book.  Lately it seems that anything with Gaiman's imprint ends up in a package at my door.  I read a majority of this book during Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon in October to break up the monotony of other books I was reading.  I also thought it would be a great, non-horrific way to read some additional material for RIPVIII.

(Disclaimer: Gaiman only contributed a poem to this book that is one page long.  If you are buying this book solely based on his work, I would suggest checking it out from the library).

All of the stories in this book have a common thread of witches (who and what they are, how to find them and how to kill them, among other things). As with most short story collections, you win some and you lose some.  Unfortunately I lost more with this book than I won and can't strongly recommend it to anyone else as a purchase.  This book is a great tool for discovering the writing styles of multiple authors and seeing their take on the same topic.

The most frustrating thing I experience with short stories is their lack of depth and their abrupt endings that are critical to their nature.  After all, if there was in depth character development and plot lines I would be reading a novel instead of a short story and wouldn't be able to dip in and out of so many writing styles within 400 pages.  I don't regret expanding my witch-lore with this book but I don't think I will be trying any short story collections in the near future.

#FridayReads 10.25.2013

HAPPY FRIDAY! 

The weekend is finally here!  I am fully recovered from Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon two weeks ago and back in the full swing of reading.  I finished two books this week, pulling me out of my reading slump.  The Selection and it's sequel, The Elite by Kiera Cass (reviews coming soon!)

The weather in Pennsylvania has cooled down into the 40s and 50s every day.  I am anticipating a chilly weekend again where I can curl up on the couch with a blanket, my cats and some good reading.
 
I plan on working through the rest of Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor and then I have a few different options. I purchased Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice on my Kindle but I also want to dive into The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.

 I am also working on a new series for Stacks & Shelves called Middle Grade Monday where I highlight some of my favorite middle grade fiction and authors, so I want to try some more of Neil Gaiman's books like Coraline or Richard Peck's Here Lies the Librarian.

I will be updating all weekend on my Goodreads page.  You can also find me on Twitter!

What do you have lined up for this weekend?

The Selection - A Review

Image Credit:Amazon.com

Over the weekend, on a whim, I downloaded the audiobook version of Kiera Cass's The Selection. I had a lot of chores to get done and I wanted something light yet engaging to listen to while working around the house and this seemed to fit the bill perfectly.  The Selection is a wonderfully predictable poor girl meets rich prince and falls in love story.  But wait! In typical YA fashion we throw a love triangle into the mix, along with familial obligation and an opportunity to earn money for your poor family and we have The Selection.

I highly recommend this book! I ate it up and even gave it 5/5 stars on Goodreads because I enjoyed it so much.



I listened to all 8 hours of the audiobook in a row because I could not get enough of America's story and what would happen next.  I found myself enraged at some of the decisions America made, the blindness to Maxon's affections towards her and the cruelty of the other girls involved in the hunt for Maxon's hand in marriage.  I haven't been emotionally connected to a book like this in a very long time, even though the premise is silly and conventional overdone in YA.

This is not the most well written, complex, or through provoking book that I had ever read.  But it was an all around good time and I already have the second book in the series, The Elite, waiting for me on my kindle.  I sometimes feel guilty about reading YA books because they aren't widely critically acclaimed or because my colleagues and friends would frown if I recommended them.  However. reading is my hobby and hobby should be fun.  I haven't had so much fun with a book in a long time.