Readers Imbibing Peril 13 - Book Recs so Far

Usually in the Fall my reading turns in a more focused way to thrillers and horror. I actually read them all year around. I also wear skulls and raven jewelry all year around, too, but it just becomes more concentrated in September with a slight fading by January. 

Anyway, this year I learned of something called Readers Imbibing Peril from my good reading buddy Sarah Says Read and figured I’d sign up. I love signing up for things that I already planned to do!  

I've read six books so far that I'm going to count, with two in the works. Here’re a couple of good ones I’ve read so far, not counting A Study in Scarlet Women, which I talked about in my last summary post and really enjoyed.

Catching Up - What I Read in April and May (Outbox)

Here's a random post just with stuff I read in April and May, since I didn't post then. 

What I read in April

I loved the Porcupine of Truth, which was about two teens who steal one of their mother's car to drive all the way to California, looking for answers to their lives. Or something. You know how teens are always looking for answers and what not. 

I also loved Orphan Mother, about an old Black woman telling the story of loss and love.

What I read in May

Long Way Down is a book of poetry that tells the story of a young boy on his way to seek revenge against the boy he thinks shot his brother. 

Far From the Tree was an amazing story of 3 siblings who grew up with different families. I ugly sobbed, y'all. It wasn't pretty. Hence why it's called "ugly sobbing." Duh.

Dread Nation is an ass-kicking lady story set in a world where the zombie apocalypse interrupted the Civil War. Interesting idea, right!?

Three Star Reads - 2017

All of the #BestBooks of 2017 posts have inspired me to consider the worst books I’ve read this year. Worst is relative, right?

The best way I know to do this is to look at the stuff I DNF’d (posted yesterday) and the books with my lowest ratings.

One of my book goals this year was to give more 3- star ratings, because it's a good score, it just *feels* mean. As it turns out, 3 stars was the lowest rating I gave. This means that even my “worst books” were not that bad. They just weren’t at the top of the pile for me.

Books I DNFd in 2017

All of the Best Books of 2017 posts have inspired me to consider the worst books I’ve read this year.

My goal at the beginning of the year was to DNF more books because last year I felt like I was finishing books I didn’t like, just for the sake of… I don’t know. For no reason.

So, these are the books I added to my Did Not Finish shelf on goodreads. I created this shelf so that I could stop picking up books I had tried and hated.

Note: I also have a shelf for DNF books that I want to come back to, for when I run out of time on a library loan or I think I'm just not in the right head space for the content or something. These are not those books. (I actually just moved some of these over to the other shelf as I'm reviewing them. I was deluding myself.)

Meredith's Book Club - 2017 Wrap up post

Meredith’s book club is my “regular” book club. It’s what most people think about when they think of books clubs. A group of people who know each other in various ways get together. Pairs of us are friends in different settings, outside of book club and we all basically like each other so we might talk about doing non-book related things together too, sometimes. Sometimes we actually do it. Each person hosts at their house and picks the book for that time. Sometimes, everyone reads the book, most of the time at least two people don’t read it.

 

We’ve got six members now, having lost one person this year to whatever else she would prefer to be doing. It happens. She was one of the women who almost always read the book, though. But she also came out of her face with some annoying ass shit, so pros and cons. Bye.

For 2016, I did two posts: one for books I read and one for books I didn’t read [linked]. This time I’m just going to put them all in this one post. Because lazy. 

What I've Been Reading: November

I’ve been relying pretty heavily on audio-books, lately. At one time, I only read them while driving and read printed books at home, but I’ve been just letting the audio book do it’s thing at home more and more. This is really a testament to the books I've been reading, to. Some books are harder to put on hold than others. This feels a little bit like cheating at my reading. Not because I don’t think audiobooks are "real" reading, but because I’m usually listening to them while working on other things, which seems somehow disrespectful to stories when I should be focusing on a book… does that even make sense!? No!! I think, though, reading as a multi-task activity feels like it defeats the purpose of reading, sometimes.

Anywhoo. Incoherent rambling aside, I’ve complete 7 books in November so far. Here's the highlight reel

The Card Catalog: The Book AND The Experience

The Book

The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures by the Library of Congress –

This book takes you through the history and evolution of the card catalog. Apparently, people were attempting to catalog their books using cuneiform! And one early iteration used playing cards because of their uniform size and shape. This book was recommended to me by a friend of mine who is a librarian. She was super excited about it. I can’t say that I was quite as excited but it was really interesting. There are tons of pictures of early catalog cards and original books covers for classic books. I'm using this book for my non-fiction book about technology for the Read Harder challenge. 

The Experience

I recently purchased an old catalog cabinet from a lady on Craiglist. My kickass daughter helped me get it into the house. Praise the universe for whoever decided to put it on wheels, otherwise it would be an outdoor card catalog. I am in the process of refreshing the stain and glossing the drawers. I shoulda just left it as it was because it has 69 drawers! (three were broken, thank god)

The book definitely inspired me to keep working on my cabinet for a while longer when I was running out of steam. I’m looking forward to figuring out what the hell I’m going to do with it. So is hubbo.

Three on a Theme: Books I Recently Cried Over

Alright! Three books for when you feel the need to wipe tears off your face. I would say that these books, like all books, probably hit people in very different ways depending on their own lives. For each, I had overwhelming needs to stop reading and text my children.

I've also noticed that for myself, an adult who often reads YA, I tend to notice the adults (and their behavior) in a story much more so that I actively attended to as a younger reader. And I really think about how important it is to have good adult representation in books.

Speaking of, they each get a wee #WNDB sticker from me!

Mixed Feelings: When the author has a "past"

So I had a bit of a crisis of character while reading If I Was Your Girl. While looking for confirmation that this was an #ownvoices book (it is), I ran across a couple of news articles about the author. According to the articles,  (prior to transition I think) was accused of assaulting and abusing her wife at the time and there was a restraining order.

Now, here’s the thing.

Mini-Reviews: Behind Closed Doors and The Girl on the Train (Book Club Picks)

Already The Girl on the Train and Behind Closed Doors are mingling in my mind and they are not even that similar. It would be hard for me to really talk about them without giving away the stories as they are both psych-thrillers and I have a big-ass mouth with loose boundaries.

I’ll just say that they are probably both good for Book Club options because there are characters with questionable behaviors which always spark those "Bad things for the right reasons and good things for the wrong reasons" discussions. It always ends with everyone feeling a little superior. Neither are good options if one of your book club goals is to read about a non- white person. Or to like men. Either way, add wine.

RocTBF Mini-Reviews: Fat Angie and Melt

Two more books read for #MissionRocTBF! I already know I'm not gonna hit my goal AGAIN this year but I'm just gonna keep on keeping on.

Books in this post:

Mini-Reviews Everything Leads to You and The Outsiders

Quick little post to tell you about a couple of awesome YA books that I’ve read recently.

One was for TBF 2017

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour:

This book is about a senior in high school who has been working on the movie sets as part of her summer internship. She and her best friend discover a letter written by a famous dead movie star and start following clues from it to figure out the mystery of his life. I might be making it sound lame, but this book was well- written, charming, and emotionally satisfying. I’m excited to hear Ms. LaCour talk about the book a the book festival in a few days. The author that I will be working with that day is presenting with Ms. LaCour so I will be all up in her kool-aid all day! 

One was a Classic I thought I had Read

The Outsiders by H.E. Hinton: This book turned 50 years old this year and was originally written when Hinton was only 16 years old. It’s a coming of age tale (whatever the fuck that is) about a 14 year old boy who lives on the rough side of town, dodges fists, and almost drowns. And then, bad stuff happens. I knew it was coming and I almost decided not to finish the book to avoid it, but no. I hung in there. There are many great quotes about life and the interesting ways in which the social classes are different, but so-much-the same. Stay gold, y'all. This might be a challenged book, which makes it count for Read Harder.

Related Posts: 

   

And I Call Myself a Book Blogger!?

Once again, Hobby 2 has interfered with Hobby 1. This is assuming that books are hobby 1 by default and seniority, because theatre is definitely bucking for the spot light based on time.

Sister Act through the Rochester Association of Performing Arts ran for the first two weekends in March, which means that the last two weeks of February were also a bust for anything resembling a normal life or book- reading and blogging. I didn't even do a February wrap up post! What kind of book blogger am I!?

I did finish a couple of audiobooks during commutes. I thoroughly enjoyed Alan Cumming's memoir, Not My Father's Son, about his adult- self remembering and then coming to terms with the abusive relationship he had with his father when he was a child. I always love when authors read their own books. 

The show was amazing, by the way. Here's some pics for your eyeballs' pleasure:

January Wrap Up - Three Excellent YAs

I’m exhausted right now. But, I have to wait for my daughter to get out of rehearsal, anyway so I might as well tell you why by Book January sucked so hard.

First off, I have only completed 6 books this month, three since the outbox post a couple of weeks ago. This isn’t really a low number and I would never think this isn’t “Enough” books. It’s just well below by average for the last couple of years. However, I’m trying to take it easy on myself and switch my way of thinking about THE NUMBER. My goal is to read fewer books more mindfully this year. My guess is that the goal will wax and wane like so many others.

All three of these books earn a We Need Diverse Books badge!! Whoot whoot! Here's what I've read:

Dewey's Readathon Fall 2016 - The Ready, The Set, and The Currently Reading

It’s Dewey’s time again!! Last year was my first one and I’m excited to do it again!!

This post is where I'll post updates throughout the day, assuming that the Blogger app on my phone doesn't keep shutting down.

I've decided that rather than really narrowing down my TBR for the day, I'm just going to have a pool of books to choose from based on my library books, my old eARCs, by clear a shelf books, and four new audiobooks.

Oubox Sept 10 - Reading, RAPA and Rocky Horror

This is a sad little Outbox post, reading wise. It’s already the 10^th and I’ve only finished three books! Of course, The Twelve is a massive tome, so it totally counts as two! Anyway this post is all about the books I've managed to read and the stuff that's been getting in the way of all the stuff I wanted to be reading.

[outbox post pic goes here!]

July 2016 Recap (Outbox)

I’m determined to do a July recap, because I totally missed doing one for June, it’s like the days were just flying by!

I did an Outbox post about 10 days ago (click). I’ve read 3 books since then, bringing my total for the month to a measly 9 books. Ok. It’s not that measly, but I like to end on an even number! I tried to finish the book I’m in the middle of before bed last night but it wasn’t worth it.

Book Recommendations and The Stories of Mental Illness

I had hoped to post a blog with BookBloggers International for their Mental Health awareness month series. But, I totally dropped the ball. Ain’t that the way? Anyway, here’s the post I would have posted for them.

I thought it would be easy to write a post about a book or two that I have recommended to my patients to read about depression or anxiety or whatever other things are going on for them. And I think it would be one way to go with a Mental Health-focused post. But, that’s not what I’m going to write about, exactly.

Books are a great way to learn about individuals and their stories as part of a way to increase awareness, understanding, and perspective taking. But this post is really more about how you don’t want to get too caught up in just one story.

Book Mini- Reviews: Three TBF YA Authors I'll be Fangirling Tomorrow (Talley, Hopkins, Anderson)

The problem with trying to read ALL THE BOOKS at one time is that I don’t have time to review them in a way that gives them justice. And I could say something ridiculous like, “oh, I will just review them later.” But when I say things like that, my psyche physically steps from my body (like Peter Pan’s shadow) and slaps me HARD across the face. She’s kind of a bitch, actually, but she’s right. It’s just not going to happen.

But I want to pause in my brain numbing readathon and post about the last three books I finished. Two were written by authors I had already read and one was an author discovery. They are all planning to be at the Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival tomorrow. [Click here for the last update on my RocTBF2016 challenge.]

Each tells the tale of a teen on the brink of adulthood who have to figure out what they believe about themselves after a life time of input from parents and peers. Many of whom have their own baggage and agendas.

Robin Talley's book, Lies We Tell Ourselves is set in 1959 during the forced integration of a white school in Virginia. The story the experience from the point of view of two characters: 1) Sarah, a talented Black senior whose family has moved to the South to be part of the movement, and 2) Linda, a White classmate who is the daughter of one of the most outspoken anti- integrationists in the land. Linda's been given a great deal of miseducation her whole life about Black people in general and learns a lot about race and about her self as she gets to know Sarah. And they both discover their feelings for each other are much more complicated than they expected they ever could be.

Smoke is the sequel to Ellen Hopkin's Burned, a book I read for last year's TBF challenge. Burned FLOORED me last year. It tells the tell of a teenager who is being raised in the Mormon tradition. She's the oldest and has taken the brunt of her father's drunken abuse over the years. When she is sent away to live with her Aunt, she discovers love and her own strengths. The book's ending was... well... I still can't talk about it. Smoke was a great book of redemption and a wonderful wrap up. The feels just keep coming with this book set and I will definitely be checking out more of Ms. Hopkins shenanigans.

Twisted was written by Laurie Halse Anderson, an author I already love based on several other books I've read. I also met her in person last year at Book Riot Live, which made me love her all the more. We hugged. I'm just saying... Anyway. Twisted is about Tyler, a 17- year-old nerd boy who is on probation for a stupid prank he pulled last year. He's getting some new attention this year as a senior from the most popular girl in school, and the girl's brother who has been Tyler's bully since middle school. Tyler goes through the year trying to figure out how to handle his new attention, his new stronger body (built from doing community service), and his ever- present hard on in the context of an emotionally abusive father. For a while, Tyler isn't sure that he can cope and he struggles with a serious decision. I loved the ending of this book for many reasons. But I don't want to give it away.

What I've Been Reading (Outbox 4/20/2016)

Super super super busy month. The show I'm in (Charlotte's Web) opened last weekend, so last week was tech week. It's been fun but time consuming.

There are no real highlights of this outbox because I've really liked everything I've read this month so far. Here are a couple of thoughts about each:

The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer: I bet this is meant to be for middle grade. It is a wonderful fairy tale mingled adventure ride that follows twins who have fallen into their grandmother's story book.

I plan to give Razorhurst it's own review post, though the farther out I get from that, the less and less likely it becomes. Razorhurst is the story of many people living the rough life of mob affiliation in 1932. Guns are outlawed and straight razors are king. And, the ghosts are noisy as hell. I love gritty young adult.

The Raven Boys was a reread so I can be fully immersed in the sensations when I read the final book of this series which drops next week. I'm on the waiting list for the audiobook for the second one right now. Luckily, my mind is full of other crap so I can't obsess about it right now.

Reviews already posted for April:
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt
Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

 

Currently Reading: 

I've got three books in progress right now, which feels kind of like a lie. But go with it, okay? I'm doing a review post for the blog tour for The Double by Alison Brodie. Whoot! Being more involved with other blogs, bloggers, and the book community was one of my #BlogGoals for 2016. So there ya go. My date to post is April 29th. Plenty of time.

  

I'm also reading One Plus One for my book club which meets on April 30th. My current audiobook for commute is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I've also got several books that I need to read before they are due to the library!!!! AAAAHHH!!