Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals:

• If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson, 20th Anniversary edition from Penguin
• Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor - purchased
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman - purchased
• Look for Her by Emily Winslow - from HarperCollins

Finally, a book stack! So exciting, after three weeks of no arrivals. Norse Mythology is the book I checked out from my library that had such a short check-out time that I decided to just go ahead and buy a copy. Gaiman has gradually grown on me, over the years. Although I still dislike some of his writing, what I do enjoy I love. So, it's likely one I would have wanted to end up owning, anyway. And, don't you love that cover?

Just One Damned Thing After Another is one that I looked up after seeing it rated by a friend on Goodreads. I hope it's as fun as it sounds. Look for Her is from HarperCollins and it may or may not be an ARC that I won in a drawing for a random ARC. I suspect it is because I don't recall requesting it and there was no publicity material included in the envelope. I haven't checked my ARC file to verify that because, whatever . . . I'm going to read it, either way.

If You Come Softly arrived unsolicited from Penguin in a metallic green bubble wrap envelope. You guys, I just love that envelope so much it's a wonder that I noticed there was a book inside. But, I did and the book is striking, too. I've only read two books by Jacqueline Woodson, so far. One I loved, one I didn't. I got to see her speak at our local book festival and she is amazing. I loved hearing what she had to say about writing and life and have been wanting to read more of her work, so I'll be gobbling this one down, soon. 

Books finished since last Malarkey:

• The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso 
• Supergifted by Gordon Korman 

I enjoyed The Woman Next Door even more, the second time, and discussion was great (I've already written about it -- if you missed that post, see links below). And, Supergifted is loads of fun.


Currently reading:

• Don Quixote by Cervantes
• Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

I'm going to shoot for finishing Princesses Behaving Badly, this week, and I also am dying to get started on the second book in the Warren the 13th children's series. Lincoln in the Bardo is the April selection for my F2F book group and I already owned a copy. So far, I'm finding it a bit bizarre but fascinating. Having said that, I've read two other George Saunders books and, let's face it, "bizarre" is his specialty. I'm trying to follow my own advice, given to friends in my book group before I started on the book, myself: "Relax and embrace the weird." 

Last week's posts:

• Our Native Bees by Paige Embry (book review)
• Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen (book review for book tour)
• Fiona Friday with note (cat photo)
• The Saboteur by Paul Kix (book review)
• Minis: Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Franken and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (book reviews)
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande and The Statue and the Fury by Jim Dees (book reviews)
• The Brontë Sisters by Catherine Reef and a reread of The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso (book reviews)

Whew! My weekend onslaught leaves me with exactly 3 books to review, one of which will also include a giveaway (a children's book). And, of course, I'll do my best to finish more books before I catch up with myself. But, I'm happy to be so close, at this point. Just in looking back at the links, I can tell you that none of those books were duds, not one. 

In other news:

I watched a handful of episodes of Dr. Who, this weekend, and a couple episodes of the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (which I prefer to the more recent movie because it sticks closer to the storyline). I'm still on William Hartnell's Dr. Who, but there were so many missing or unavailable episodes between the two episode series that I watched, that we lost one companion and got a new one. I'm going to have to look online to see what happened to Vicki. I've heard some of the early Dr. Who episodes were filmed over but there have also been times in the available episodes that the quality has suddenly gone bad -- the film goes dark or blurry. So, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the episodes that are unavailable have simply deteriorated over time.

Otherwise, we only watched bits and pieces of various movies when we sat down to take a break from cleaning or to eat, including Independence Day. Otherwise, we did thrilling stuff like finishing the utility room cleaning and sweeping the dust out of the back of the piano. And, you thought your life was exciting.


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