Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Looking backward and forward - July reads, new books and the usual malarkey/twaddle


I didn't write much about any of them, but I liked every single one. Absolute favorites were A Town Like Alice, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Johnson's Life of London and The Knights of Derbyshire. Links lead to my reviews, such as they are. Some are a mere paragraph.

Moving did get in the way of reading, a bit, but I'm extremely happy to have read 9 books. Book time served as my escape when I had time to rest a bit and it helped me recharge for the next round of packing, painting or cleaning.


Recently finished but not yet reviewed:

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shadow Show, ed by Weller and Castle
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison
Enchanting Lily by Anjali Banerjee

I'm going to start cranking out those reviews, ASAP. Don't want to fall so far behind that I start forgetting what they were about.

Currently reading:

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian - will finish this one, today

Looking ahead to future reading:

I've received enough books to make the husband lift his eyebrows in the past few weeks . But, I've also donated 2 bags of books, have swapped a few and have 6 more full bags lined up by the front door (this is a combination of justification and "thank goodness because books are heavy things to move"). I neglected to mention at least one week's arrivals, so brace yourself.

Recent arrivals:

  • Rock Solid Faith Study Bible in NIV, "for teens" came from Zondervan, for review.
  • Undecorate by Christiane Lemieux - purchase
  • Paris in Color by Nichole Robertson - purchase
  • Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn - from Harper for review
  • The Cutting Season by Attica Locke - from Harper for review
  • Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon - from Harper for review
  • Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon - from Atria, I think via their annual giveaway during Book Expo America
  • Khatyn by Ales Adamovich - from Glagoslav Publishing for review
  • The Mirrored World by Debra Dean - from HarperCollins for review
  • Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower - purchase
  • The Stars Shine Bright by Sibella Giorello - from Thomas Nelson for tour
Some whys:

Rock Solid Faith Study Bible - because I love study Bibles and am always interested in the extra info, which doesn't necessarily agree from one edition to another.
Undecorate and Paris in Color (<---that one's Bellezza's fault) - because I need inspiration for dressing up the new house and a bit of an eyeball feast -- I really love design books. I don't want the interior of my new home to just look like "Same old stuff; new space".
The Stars Shine Bright - Love this mystery series and can't bear to miss a release.
The Mirrored World - I confess I requested the title because I loved her first book so much. I didn't even bother reading the description.
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - was on my wish list along with several other books, all of which were short-listed for the Franklin O'Connor Award the year Simon Van Booy won (2009). I found this one at Off-Square Books in Oxford, MS, last week.

Oh, did I forget to tell you Kiddo and I drove to Oxford to wrap up some last-minute details before his big move? I was also sick with a summer cold, all week. It's lingering a bit, hence the lack of a Monday Malarkey or Tuesday Twaddle post.

Irritating book news:

Have you noticed Goodreads changed the "To Be Read" shelf to "Want to Read"? What do you think? My opinion can be summed up in one syllable: eck. "To Be Read" and "Want to Read" are two completely different concepts, in my humble opinion. If it's a TBR book, that means I already own a copy or am planning to chase one down as soon as possible. "Want to Read" is more a more wishy-washy kind of thing, in my mind. To me, it means I'm interested in a book but don't own it -- and who knows if I'll end up with a copy. I wish they'd just added a separate shelf instead of ditching "To Be Read".

Favorite headline and lead line from a news article, this week:

Nome resident opens fire on musk ox in defense of her dog

Authorities in Nome say it would be better for dog owners to fence their yards than rely on firepower now that large numbers of dog-hating musk oxen have taken up residence in and around the Western Alaska City.
--from the Anchorage Daily News
I don't know why; that just made me laugh.

Back with reviews as soon as I can find the time and muster the strength (or whenever I feel like it). :)

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

18 comments:

  1. I want to read Enchanting Lily--I've heard good things about it.

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    1. It's a nice read for a day when you need a mental break, Melissa. Nice and light. And, of course, the cat is great. :)

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  2. Hmm, my Goodreads TBR shelf is just called, "to-read," as I think it's always been. Maybe they're rolling out the change slowly?

    That said, mine basically is a "want to read" shelf. I do all my reading via the library, so I don't have a physical TBR pile the way some people do.

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    1. Probably rolling it out slowly, then, yep. I don't like it but I do own an extensive personal library so the wording doesn't work for me the way it does for you.

      Cool that you have a library good enough to do all your reading for free. Mine is . . . not so hot. I tend to avoid popular fiction, mysteries, and the other things they most commonly stock. That's why I started collecting, when we moved here. I've called a halt to that, now.

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  3. My shelf on Goodreads says "to-read" as well. I don't use it, so it doesn't matter to me how it's phrased; however, I agree that "to-be-read" and "want-to-read" have totally different meanings.

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    1. I must be one of the unlucky first recipients of the new shelf method. Blah. I'm sure it won't matter, once I become accustomed to the wording. I'm just picky because it doesn't fit. For someone like Charleen, who reads only library books, it's a completely different story.

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  4. WAY too much to respond to here. Glad you enjoyed writing it.

    Cat-after-mouse looks good.

    Have I sent you the Esther in the Rain card? I really should keep track who I send these things to... let me know and I will save one for you. You'll LOVE it...

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    1. I know. It's a rather long post. They've been like that, lately - lots of space between posts and then I can't shut up when I do sit down to write.

      Fiona is so cute hunting her little stuffed mice. The funny thing is that she wants praise but she doesn't actually like to bring them all the way down the hall, unlike most kitties. She'd rather I just hollered, "Did you catch a mouse? GOOD KITTY!! You're a good hunter!" Weird.

      No, I haven't gotten an Esther in the Rain card. I do believe I need one. I keep happening across more postcards (invariably from London) that I think you'll love but I need to find something a little different. Apparently, I love British cards.

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  5. Wait,huh? NO, I did NOT notice goodreads changed the tbr ot wtr! huh??!??!?!

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    1. You should check. At this point, it seems like the only person on Planet Earth who is stuck with Want to Read instead of To Be Read. Eck, ick and ugh.

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  6. My father-in law just moved out of Anchorage. Looks like it was just in time too! I am glad that you were able to get so many good books read this month!

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    1. Nome's a bit farther north than Anchorage, but I know they have plenty of trouble with the moose, even in Anchorage. It's such a small town. Tell me you managed to visit your father-in-law while he was there!!! Anchorage is a great place! I adore Alaska, in general, though.

      Thanks! I'm very happy about my reading in July.

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  7. I'm seriously impressed with the number of books you managed to read considering how busy you've been. Well done!

    I loved that picture of your kitties on the step stool so much (particularly Fiona) that I made a loud noise and scared my own sleeping kitty.

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    1. Thanks! I'll bet if you asked my husband if that's impressive, he'd says something that involved the words "goofball" and/or "lazy". Haha. I need my reading time!!!

      I love it that you scared your own kitty because of a reaction to a photo of mine! So funny! You should have seen what Isabel did after that. She sat up on her hind legs and I thought she was just having a look, but then she actually jumped onto the top of the open door (and immediately back down). They're not great, but I've got shots of that little maneuver. I'm amazed at how well the cats have handled this whole moving business. All they care about is that there are new things to play on (except when the guys are bustling around, and then they have to run for it).

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  8. I've been faced with the raised eyebrows lately about the amount of books coming into my house too. I spent hours yesterday cleaning, sorting and finding new places to stash my books so that it is not quite so evident that they are taking over the house. :)

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    1. LOL! Good thinking, Alyce! I may have done that a time or two. Right now, I'm exposed. Most everything is either already packed or still on shelves and obviously I don't want to immediately pack the new books. I want them kept handy! I need to hurry up and walk those donations out the door so I can start filling the bags back up, again. I really do have way too many books for one little human.

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  9. 9 books in one month would be an awesome month for me!

    I want a copy of Paris in Color, too. I saw it all over the Net during Paris in July (which I still need to post about - ACK!) and fell in love with the images. Maybe if I get a copy, I'll be inspired to start planning a trip to France. I so want to go!

    I hope you're over your cold and getting settled in. We are finally getting cooler temps and some rain. The leaves are starting to change (and drop!). I think fall will arrive early, as did spring and summer. Guess that means we'll have snow in September!

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    1. It's a middling month for me, 9 books. I'm very happy with it. :)

      Paris in Color is beautiful - just photo collages, no text. It's not expensive because it's a fairly small book. You should go for it.

      I'm almost over my cold-slash-crud. It really did hang on. Cooler temps. Goodness. Hard to imagine, just yet. However, I'm thinking ahead to the RIP in September. I love that challenge because it's always, always fiercely hot and humid when the challenge begins and some time during the challenge the first cool front arrives. We never know if it'll be September or November or somewhere in between. Getting closer, though! Woot!

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