Goals, Goals, Goals: Reading, Blogging, and Personal

I'm not big on resolutions. I've made them in the past, but inevitably, they fall off my radar by the end of January and are replaced with the standard chaos of everyday life. So now instead of resolutions, I choose one word to focus my energy on over the course of a year, and in 2016, it's savor. The intent is to remind myself to enjoy the things I love--in part by letting go of the things that take up my time and energy and are not things I love.

#AMonthofFaves: The Top Ten Books That Blew My Mind This Year

I'll be hopping in and out of #AMonthofFaves this month with some book-related and not-so-book-related content. Today's prompt: The Top Ten Books That Blew Your Mind This Year.

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I've already written about my favorite non-fiction and fiction picks, but using some different criteria, here are the ten books that truly blew my mind this year (and the reasons they did so). Note: These are books read in 2015, not necessarily books published in 2015.

#AMonthofFaves | A Few of My Favorite (Christmas Tree) Things

I'll be hopping in and out of #AMonthofFaves this month with some book-related and not-so-book-related content. Today's prompt: Favorite Holiday Festivities -- or, in my case, favorite Christmas Tree decorations.

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I know many think that Christmas trees--particularly real, needle-dropping, sap-sticky trees--are a pain to put up (and break down) each year, but honestly, it's one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. Here are just a few of my most favorite ornaments, hanging besides more Patriots candy canes than I care to admit:

#WeekendReading: Picking Favorites from This Week's #AMonthofFaves

I'll be hopping in and out of #AMonthofFaves this month with some book-related and not-so-book-related content. Today's prompt: Weekend Reading -- Picking Favorites Shared through A Month of Favorites this week.

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I didn't participate in the "This is How I Blog" prompt this week, but I learned about a ton of new blogging resources from others' posts. In particular:

• Pexels.com, shared by Andi at Estella's Revenge (a gorgeous site for free stock photography)
• This list of 16 Websites Every Blogger Should Know (and Bookmark) from Inkstone Strategies, shared by Sarah at Sarah's Book Shelves

Andi also has me even more excited than I already was about the forthcoming The Lifechanging Magic of Not Giving a F**k, which is out from Little, Brown in December. Cannot. Wait.

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In non-Month of Faves news, it's not too late to sign up for the Clean Your Reader challenge this January-March. The premise is simple: focus on reading all those unread e-books lurking on your e-reader accounts somewhere. I hope you'll join us!

#AMonthofFaves: Five for Winter Survival

I'll be hopping in and out of #AMonthofFaves this month with some book-related and not-so-book-related content. Today's prompt: 5 Must Haves for Winter Survival.

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It's been a shockingly mild winter here... so far. But I know that could change at any minute, and I've got five winter essentials on stand-by for the moment the temperatures start to drop it like it's, er, cold:

Seven Bookish & Bookloving Characters from Literature

I've long loved books about books--bookstores, book collections, and especially fellow bookish types. Seven of my favorite bookish and bookloving characters from literature:

Reading Diversely: Recently Read & Recommended

Over the past several years, I've been making more and more of an effort to read more diversely. Translation: less books by and about straight, white, cisgendered men. It's been an incredible journey, made all the easier (and more collective) by groups like We Need Diverse Books and the efforts of bloggers and writers to acknowledge and write about and highlight a lack of diversity in many, many publishing lists, reviews, and bestseller groupings.

So far this year, I'm counting 32% of the books I've read as by or about diverse authors, of varying races, sexualities, abilities. Here are some recent highlights:

The Best of 2015 (So Far)

JUNE 30TH. Halfway through the year. Holy cats, when did that happen?

It's been a pretty fine reading year in these parts so far; though I had a few weeks of ho-hum reading, I found my groove in recent months and have found some real gems. In no particular order, the best of the best I've read so far this year:

2015 Releases I Can't Wait to Read

We're nearly halfway through 2015 (yipes) which means it's time to look at what the second half of the year will bring in terms of publishing. In no particular order, nine books coming up in the rest of 2015 that I can't wait to get my hands on (titles link to listings on Indiebound if you're interested in the full summary or pre-ordering any of the books below):

Week in Reading: May the 4th (be with you)

Happy Star Wars Day, all, and May the 4th be with you! After a whirlwind of Readathon, last week and this weekend were a bit slow for me on the reading front, but I'm ok with that. I finished Bell Weather (out in July) and The Secret Place (please keep any and all recommendations on what to read now that I've finished all of Tana French's books coming). I'm a chapter from the end of The Underground Girls of Kabul.

Week in Reading: April 11

It's Tax Week! Which is far less exciting than all of the incredible, amazing, awesome books I read over the weekend, and the delicious stack I have lined up for this week.

Ten Books New to My TBR... and the Bloggers Who Put Them There

My TBR list (non-existent, amorphous beast that it is) has always been long, long, long. But that's never kept it from continuing to expand. Below, ten books I've recently added to my TBR stack (and the bloggers/publicists who put them there...):

TBR Tag: What's on My Pile?

Andi at Estella's Revenge tagged me in this TBR Tag post last week (oh wait, shoot, that was two weeks ago....), and I was so behind on work and reading and other things that I'm only just getting around to responding... so, here we go!

1) How do you keep track of your TBR pile? 

Poorly. I've written before about how I eschew the traditional "TBR List", opting instead for an amorphous collection of post-its, notebook entries, Goodreads tags, and storing titles in my brain (that last one's not always ideal, but hey, it makes for fun bookstore browsing). I tend to grab e-books from my "TBR" when they are on sale, and others as they catch my mood.

I do keep a separate shelf in my office (I work at home) of books with upcoming deadlines and/or pub dates, just as a visual reminder, but that's as close to one set "pile" in my house of just TBR books.


2) Is your TBR mostly print or ebook?

I was tempted to say print, but I've accumulated so many unread e-books on super-sales lately that I'd say that's no longer the case (which was part of my motivation for starting the Clean Your Reader challenge this year!).


3) How do you determine which book from your TBR pile to read next?

I'm with Andi on this one: mood! Sometimes I'll limit my options for my next read based on upcoming pub dates (or in some cases, specifically to backlist titles), but I read mostly based on what I feel like reading next. Which is probably why I am traditionally so bad at completing reading challenges.


4) A book that's been on your TBR list the longest?

Because I have such a wonderfully faulty TBR list, I can honestly say I have no idea.


5) A book you recently added to your TBR?

Just one? Ha. Ok, The Fatal Flame, by Lyndsay Faye--third book in her Timothy Wilde trilogy--because it came in the mail last night and I'm super excited to read it.


6) A book on your TBR strictly because of its beautiful cover.

Birds of a Lesser Paradise, though also because so many people rave about Bergman's work.


7) A book on your TBR that you never plan on reading.

If I didn't plan on reading it, it wouldn't be on my TBR pile, now would it?


8) An unpublished book on your TBR that you're excited for.

See above: The Fatal Flame. Also, Hausfrau and Little Life and SO MANY OTHERS.


9) A book on your TBR that basically everyone has read but you.

Miss Marvel.


10) A book on your TBR that everyone recommends to you.

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed.


11) A book on your TBR that you're dying to read.

Um... all of them? Ok, I guess When Women Were Birds, because it looks lovely and wonderful but I keep setting it aside until I have the brainspace to give it the attention I believe it deserves.


12) How many books are on your Goodreads TBR shelf?

Ha! This is embarrassing: 1,065. And counting.


I'm not tagging anyone specifically, but I'd love to hear about your TBR piles... how do you keep track? What are you most excited to read next?

Adventures in Time & Space (My Bookish Problems)

My top ten book-related problems, in no particular order:

1. Time: I will never have enough time to read all of these books.
2. Time: I will never finish my stack of to-be-released books before they all publish.
3. Time: I will never read all the books on my shelf.
4. Time: I will never get to all of the classics on my list.
5. Time: I will never stop acquiring books and expanding the TBR list, which means I will never not have a TBR list.
6. Time: I will never read all of the backlist of my favorite authors.
7. Time: I will never discover all of the new authors I wish I had time to discover.
8. Time: I will never read all of the impossibly long novels I want to read.
9. Time: I will never have read 100% of the must-read lists of the world.
10. Space: I will also never have enough space to store all these books.

I love each and every one of these facts with so much of my readerly heart, because combined, they mean I will never stop learning, exploring, and expanding--and I will never know how it feels not to have something to read next.

What are the bookish problems in your reading lives? 

Part of the Top Ten Tuesday meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This Week in Reading: February 9

I feel like I'm drowning in February review copies over here. Anyone else? Just me? What's with the shortest month of the year having so many amazing releases? I suppose it's a good problem to have, though it's making my brain a little spinny. On my stack this week:

I finished Our Kids (Simon & Schuster, March 10th) this weekend, a fascinating if not exactly uplifting book on class mobility--and immobility--in the United States today. It wasn't without its issues, but it was definitely an interesting read nonetheless. Full review to come in March. Continuing the non-fiction kick, I started and then set aside Galileo's Middle Finger (Penguin Press, March 10th) this weekend--it just wasn't giving me the stories of the intersection of science and social justice I'd expected from it--and turned to Terms of Service (HarperCollins, March 17th) instead.

Fiction-wise, I'm just getting into Geek Love on audio for the February readalong over at Estella Society; join us! I'm also eying The African Equation (Gallic, March 17th) and planning to start in on Frog Music for my book club's February discussion. Miraculously, this will be my first time reading Emma Donoghue. I'm also just wrapping up My Sunshine Away, which comes out from Putnam tomorrow. I'm torn between racing through to the end and trying to savor Walsh's story and language; stay tuned for more thoughts on this one later this week.

What's on your stack this week?

It's Monday! What are you reading? hosted by Book Journey

On the Fence: Books I'm Not Sure I Want to Read

I have so many books. So. Many. Books. We all have this problem, of course, but I've found that lately it has me wondering how many of these I'll actually read... and even more so, how many I actually want to read. My criteria for culling my book stacks lately has been harsh, sending books out the door at an astounding rate. But there are a few I've hung on to, or linger over every time I visit a book shop, and yet find I'm unable to commit to:

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed: I loved, adored, fawned over, cried for, worshipped Tiny Beautiful Things, and have returned to it time and time again when I just need a little... something. In fact, I love it so much I'm not sure I'm brave enough to read her other work.

The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith: I was a fan of The Casual Vacancy, even though a lot of people panned it, but I just haven't found this one calling to me. Has anyone read it? Should I?

War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy: I admitted defeat on this one when I tried to read it last year. I can't bring myself to get rid of my copy... but I also have no motivation to pick it back up.

The Son, by Philip Myer: I have no reasoning for this one. I saw the author speak at Politics and Prose with Rachel from Home Between the Pages, and he was awesome. I know lots of bloggers, like Shannon from River City Reading, cite it as a favorite novel of 2013. But for some reason, I keep picking it up... and promptly putting it back down again. Someone talk me into this.

Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen: I've written before about how I don't think Austen is for me, but I keep thinking maybe I just haven't read the right Austen novel... yet. Maybe

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., by Adele Waldman: I've had this since it came out last summer, but have never made it more than a dozen pages in. Anyone read it? Worth pushing through?

This post is part of Top Ten Tuesday,
hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Authors That Take Up the Most Space on My Shelves

I own a lot of books (something like 28 boxes in storage, give or take a few hundred more tomes in my current apartment). Some are galleys, some are carefully curated selections. Most are by different authors, but there are a few writers that dominate a disproportionate amount of space on my shelves/in my boxes/on my Nook:

J.K. Rowling, 10: All seven Harry Potter books, of course (the hardcovers in the boxed suitcase-like set), plus a few scattered old paperback editions of the earlier titles in the series. Plus A Casual Vacancy and the first Robert Galbraith book, and that makes 10+.

Ernest Hemingway, 11: I long ago decided to try to sit down to read everything Hemingway has ever written, and while I'm still far from accomplishing that goal, I've got a good collection going: The Old Man and the Sea, two editions of The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, Islands in the Stream, To Have and Have Not, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, two editions of A Moveable Feast, a second e-book version of The Sun Also Rises, The Snows of Kilimanjaro. That's 11, and since I'm doing this from memory, I think I missed a few. (Bonus points to Hemingway because of the many Hemingway-themed reading I have, including Hemingway's Boat, Hemingway's Girl, The Paris Wife, and Mrs. Hemingway.)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, 6: I'm a sucker for a pretty edition, and Coralie Bickford Smith's decadent volumes of Fitzgerald's works are no exception. In addition to my battered old paperback copy of The Great Gatsby, which has survived the decade+ since I first read it in high school, I have two of Fitzgerald's novellas from Melville House's Art of the Novella series, The Beautiful and Damned, This Side of Paradise, and Tender is the Night. (Bonus points to Fitzgerald because I own two novelizations of his wife's life, Z and Call Me Zelda, plus two Out of Print Gatsby-themed shirts.)

Margaret Atwood, 6: Oh Margaret Atwood, how I love thee. On my shelf: the Maddaddam trilogy, The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, Alias Grace.

Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson), 15: I've written before about my undying love for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and with fourteen volumes in all, let's just say this dominates my shelves. (Doesn't hurt that I own two copies of the first book in the series, Eye of the World.) On top of that, my husband and I collectively own most, if not all, of Sanderson's other works.

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This post is part of Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

The Best Books of 2014 (So Far)

Stop. Hold on. Is it seriously far enough into 2014 to start talking about the best books of the year (so far)? When did that happen?

I suppose since it is June already, we're just about halfway through the year. So for this week's Top Ten Tuesday post, may I present my favorite books of 2014... so far.

Note: These are books read in 2014. Not all were necessarily published in 2014.

Department of Speculation, by Jenny Offill: This short book absolutely slew me--in a good way. I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks after finishing it. Actually, no, I'm still thinking about it. My full review of Dept. of Speculation.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin: I picked this up because it promised a story the melt the hearts of booklovers everywhere... and melt my heart it did. On finishing, I turned to my husband and managed to mutter, "I need a tissue," before dissolving into downright happy-go-sadly tears.

An Untamed State, by Roxane Gay: I haven't found the words to write about this book yet, which was one of the most challenging and yet most rewarding books I've read in a long time. Read this. But know that it won't be an easy thing to do.

Hotel on the Place Vendome, by Tilar Mazzeo: Here, here! for some non-fiction on the list. Mazzeo's history of the Hotel Ritz presents the lesser-known history of one of the world's most well-known hotels, from famous novelists to Nazi occupation and beyond. This is one of those books that filled me with "Did you know...?" facts while reading and long after, and it's becoming a go-to recommendation for anyone looking for narrative, fun non-fiction with a historical bent. My full review of Hotel on the Place Vendome.

Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig: Stellar, stunning cover. Stellar, stunning writing. Violent and heartfelt and emotional and thoughtful and why the hell did I not read this one sooner?

Redeployment, by Phil Klay: Like Dept. of Speculation, another book that stayed with me long past the last page--but for entirely different reasons. Klay's collection of short stories focuses on the modern veteran and the ongoing struggles in Afghanistan and Iraq and the long-lasting, often unseen impacts of war on those we ask to fight for us. Powerful, emotional, and downright unforgettable: this should really be required reading for all Americans. My full review of Redeployment.

The Enchanted, by Rene Denfield: This was not on my list of favorites after I finished it, but as time goes on and I continue to ruminate on the magic of Denfield's language, and her ability to craft a story that is so emotionally specific without ever dealing the details of her characters' crimes... really impressive, this one is. My full review of The Enchanted.

Thunderstruck: And Other Stories, by Elizabeth McCracken: Like The Enchanted, another that would not have fallen on my list of favorites immediately after finishing it... but that wormed its way in when I found I could not stop thinking about McCracken's stories. Add to that the fact that McCracken writes one hell of a sentence, and here we go: on my top ten of 2014 (so far) list.

Wave, by Sonali Deraniyagala: It's nearly impossible to review a book so centered on someone else's grief. Deraniyagala's story of loss and family and rebuilding her life after the devastation of the tsunami in Sri Lanka is a testament to the lasting power of grief--and our ability to overcome the worst situations, even when we may doubt our abilities to do so. My thoughts on Wave.

The Heaven of Animals, by David James Poissant: It's apparently the year of short stories for me, with this the third collection in my top-ten-so-far list. Poissant's stories are emotional and wonderful and ever-so-slightly unreal, which makes them all-the-more perfect.

This post is part of Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

What are some of the best books you've read so far in 2014?

It's Resolution Season, Baby

2013 has come and gone, and 2014 is well upon us. And January, as everyone knows, is the season of resolutions. What will we set out to do? How will we make 2014 better than last year, the year before, and all the years before that? Resolutions are a sign of our constant striving for improvement--for perfection.

But 2014? This year, I'm throwing perfection out the window. My resolutions in the past have always pushed towards the unreachable state that is "perfect." It hasn't worked. So here's a list of resolutions that push towards... well, not imperfection, but perhaps the embrace of imperfection:

1. Read carefully. Slow down. Savor the pages. If I'm not savoring them, skip it and move on. Life's too short to read bad books.
2. Run in new places. Without the GPS tracker. Who cares how many miles it is?
3. Eat more chocolate. Also, drink more red wine.
4. Go to-do-less. One entire week without a to-do list. Vacation weeks do not count.
5. Be thankful. Sounds easy. Probably isn't.
6. Converse. (Not the shoes, the verb.) In person. Online. Reach out. Connect.
7. Try. Without trying, there is no doing, no matter what Yoda says. 
8. Fail. We can't learn from our mistakes if we're constantly afraid of making them.
9. Sleep. Who doesn't need more sleep?
10. Less multi-tasking. Sure, listening to a book while driving can be great. But so can cruising along with the windows down and the music blaring. Getting a TV show in on the treadmill is a great way not to focus on the running, but maybe focusing on running shouldn't be such a terrible thing. One thing at a time, even if that means sacrificing productivity.

What are your goals (or un-goals) for 2014? What do you do to stick to your resolutions?

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This post is part of The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday meme.

Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 Releases to Look For

I don't often participate in Top Ten Tuesday, but I found it hard to resist today's topic: 2014 releases we can't wait to read. My list ranges from books I've been waiting for for years (Lev Grossman's Magician's Land) to those I've only just discovered in the depths of Edelweiss (Unlearning with Hannah Arendt). It's a lot longer than just 10, but here are some of my picks:

Frog Music, by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown & Company, April 1): Believe it or not, I've never yet read any of Donoghue's work (though I have several of her titles on my shelf). Here, she returns to historical fiction, based on an unsolved murder in 1876 San Francisco.

Magician's Land, by Lev Grossman (Viking, August 5): The third book in Grossman's Magicians trilogy, following up on The Magicians (2010) and The Magician King (2011). I've been waiting since 2011 for this book, and am thrilled that it now has an official pub date.

Perfect, by Rachel Joyce (Random House, January 14): Joyce's debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, was the kind of book I loved so much that I never reviewed it, fearful that trying to put my thoughts in words would somehow dilute the experience of it. Needless to say, there's no way I'm missing her sophomore effort.

The Martian, by Andy Weir (Crown, February 11): One of the first men to set foot on Mars is accidentally left behind, thought to be dead after an unexpected dust storm. Sounds creepy, scientific, and outer-spatial, and comes with lots of bloggers already buzzing.

When Everything Changed, by Gail Collins (Little, Brown & Company, April 2014): This one is a bit of a cheat, as it's a "Keepsake Issue" of a twenty-year old title, but Collins approach to the history of feminism from 1960 to today intrigues me, and I love the idea of combining this account with space for individuals to record their own or their family member's own memories of each time period covered.

The Temporary Gentleman, by Sebastian Barry (Viking, May 1): I loved Barry's The Secret Scripture, and didn't realize until browsing through Edelweiss that he had a new novel out this year. This is the story of an Irishman who fought in WWII, and is--I've just learned--a continuation of Barry's "separate yet interconnected novels that brilliantly reimagine characters from Barry’s own family."

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, by Joshua Ferris (Little, Brown & Company, May 6): Like Ferris' previous two novels, this novel promises a story of one man searching for meaning in an otherwise absurd world--this time a Luddite who finds someone impersonating him online.

The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking, January 7): I loved The Secret Life of Bees, and read Kidd's Traveling with Pomegranates, which she and her daughter co-wrote, at a time when my and my mother's life almost directly paralleled Kidd and her daughter's life. She's solidly on the list of "I'll-read-anything-she-writes" authors, and this story of an slave in 19th century-Charleston and her daughter looks more than intriguing.

Unlearning with Hannah Arendt, by Marie Luise Knott (Other Press, May 13): I wrote a paper on the banality of evil in a college history class, drawing deeply on Arendt's teachings as well as works from other authors, and the topic has long intrigued me. Knott's book is hailed as an examination of the innovative strategies Arendt used to arrive at her now-famous theories.

Astonish Me, by Maggie Shipstead (Knopf, April 8): I haven't read Shipstead's debut novel, Seating Arrangements--yet. But after all the praise it received from bloggers and reviewers I saw, I don't plan to miss her second novel, which focuses on the world of professional ballet.

What books are on your 2014 must-read list? What have you been waiting for?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. See everyone's answers to this week's prompt over on their site.