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 It actually has begun to feel like summer this weekend. The last two times I spent the summer in England, it never got there for me. This is probably because by the time I got here, it had already warmed up at home and it very, very rarely goes above 80 degrees in England. Today it’s a gorgeous 72. This time, I’ve been living here since October, so I’m a little more accustomed to English weather. To me, it’s a beautiful day, and I was motivated enough to get a lot done on my work this morning so that I could sit outside and read.
I’ve been working on a couple of more difficult books. The first of these, which is actually really fascinating, is The Last Witch of Langenburg by Thomas Robisheaux. I received this as a review copy an embarrassingly long time ago; I had no idea that I would have such trouble picking up a review copy of a history book. It feels like all I do is history; I didn’t really want more outside of what I have to do. This book is what’s called microhistory. The author focuses on a single witch trial, that of Anna Schmieg and her family in the 17th century Holy Roman Empire, while using it as a base to explore the broader history around the small town, pulling in external facts and creating a much larger picture than it would initially seem. Witch trials are always out of the ordinary, he says, but I feel like I’ve learned a ton about small town life in Langenburg. It’s going slowly simply because I have way too many facts bouncing about in my head, but it’s very interesting and I’m sorry I didn’t pick it up sooner. I love what I called “people history”, history that focuses on a single person to explore wider issues, and it’s what I’m doing in my own work right now, so this book really couldn’t appeal to me more.
My second “difficult” read is Songs My Mother Never Taught Me by Selcuk Altun. This one should not be as hard as it is. It’s meant to be a thriller, but I’m not finding it particularly exciting. It’s only just over 200 pages long and I’m at around 100, so I hope to read 50 pages a day and get it done on Tuesday.
The third book I was reading today, which I have completed, is Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. I loved this book. It went in a completely different direction than I was expecting it to somewhere around the middle and that is around when I fell in love with it. I spent entirely too long sitting outside to finish it and now my nose is itchy, so I suspect I’ll be blaming the author for a sunburn soon!
I’m not sure what’s next. Since I’ve read my 50 pages in my difficult books for the day, I’ll probably start another book a little later. I have to read Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn before Tuesday, when it’s due back at the library, but Lady of the Roses by Sandra Worth has been calling to me. I guess we will see which book can call the loudest!
This week, I read:
- Shanghai Girls – Lisa See
- Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict – Laurie Viera Rigler
- Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
- The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane – Katherine Howe
- Tethered – Amy MacKinnon
- Simply Love – Mary Balogh
- Beauty – Robin McKinley
- Love Walked In – Marisa de los Santos
I reviewed:
I also participated in Weekly Geeks and posted about my “No BEA? Books Anyway!” purchases.
For all of those who attended Book Expo America in New York City this weekend, I hope you all had a blast and have a safe trip home. I’ll be looking forward to your posts!
 Since I have an interview this morning, I’m a little nervous and thought I’d focus on something happier: summer! And so we have my first Weekly Geeks post. I read so much that I have trouble fitting memes in and have decided to go ahead and do the more flexible ones, so I can fit them in between book reviews. Here’s this week’s task:
Again with Memorial Day Weekend here in the U.S. starting traditionally on Friday evening, it also is unofficially the start of summer. You’ve probably been asked this in other meme groups in which you participate, but do your reading habits change over the summer? Do you choose lighter fare? What do you enjoy to take to the beach, for example? What is the ultimate summer book? OR what are your favorite travel guides — official or unofficial guides? Again, an example, I think of Holidays In Hell by P.J. O’Rourke, of places I’d rather not vacation. Along those lines, where do you vacation? Any places you recommend or even don’t recommend?
My reading habits barely ever change. Maybe it’s because I almost never go to the beach, either! Despite living only about an hour away from the Jersey shore while with my parents, I can’t swim. We moved around a lot when I was a kid and I was very shy, so somehow I never got signed up. By the time it became weird, I was already scared of water from an altercation with a floating device attached to my back at a friend’s pool party. I’ve heard they’re no longer sold because of this very problem. I don’t feel the lack much, to be honest. Keith and I want to honeymoon in a very warm place with beaches this fall, but we’re not sure if we can afford that yet, so right now my next few months are very likely beach-free.
Were I to choose some ideal beach reads, though, I’d go with lighter fiction. Inevitably, going to a beach involves traveling, unless you’re lucky, and I know that’s stressful. So who wants to read something angsty or thoughtful when they’ve got their mind on where they’re going? And once arrived, relaxation is surely in order. For me, this means romance, YA, or perhaps some of the urban fantasy genre I’m just discovering. Sometimes regular fantasy works too, as there’s nothing like a great chunkster when you have nothing but time, but I’d prefer to find one that wasn’t too deep. I’d like to calm down, not spend 800 pages worrying over whether my favorite character in the book is going to make it to the end.
I’m not sure if I could choose the perfect summer read. What do you think? Is there a book that I really should read this summer?
First things first: I have been remiss in announcing the winner of Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales. The lucky winner is Claire, lucky commenter number 5 (but lucky entrant number 4), thanks to random.org. Claire, I will be emailing you shortly, but if you happen to see this post before I do, please send me an email. Thanks!
I just spent a somewhat interesting day in Leeds, a bigger city which is only a 20 minute train ride away. My initial purpose was to copy a couple of articles from a journal to which that university subscribes, but since I was paying train fare, I also decided to stop by the Royal Armouries Museum. I was disappointed that they weren’t holding a joust today since it’s “Wild West Week”, but otherwise I thought it was awesome. Keith preferred the modern guns, but I was all about the medieval armour. Who would have guessed?
Here’s a picture from the museum, full body 15th century armour:
 They also had a clever display where you could stick your head into a helmet and try to see what was going on in a virtual battle. It was nearly impossible; I can’t say I’d want to face someone with nearly all of my vision blocked!
As for reading, I’m about halfway into Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. For all that it isn’t as good as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I’m loving it. These days I feel that I love fewer and fewer books, although I like almost all that I read; maybe I just read too many of them these days and I’m learning to separate the wheat from the chaff a little better. With this book, however, I would have preferred knowing a bit less about the plot. I’m at the middle of the book and the last event that the back cover promised has just happened, albeit with a surprise in between. I try to give away as little as possible in my reviews and this is why; I dislike feeling impatient to get to a part I don’t expect. I’m now excited to see what happens next and hope to finish the book either later today or early tomorrow. Next up is Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, a library book which is due back on Thursday, and then I’ve got to get to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe.
I’m quite pleased with my reading since last Sunday. I completed:
- Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James
- The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
- Undead and Unwelcome by MaryJanice Davidson
- Starfinder by John Marco
- The Bridge of the Golden Horn by Emine Sevgi Ozdamar
- Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
- Warrior Daughter by Janet Paisley
As a result, my TBR mountain has dropped below 350. I’m very pleased with myself, although I’m going to a library sale on Friday and will probably undo all the good work I’ve done. Oh well. It’s worth it for a bag of books for £3.50.
This week, I reviewed:
All in all, a very good week! How is everyone else doing? Anything exciting planned for the week?
 What book would you love to be able to read again for the first time?
This is actually a bit of a tough question. I love re-reading so I don’t mind if I know what happens in a book. I have a bad memory anyway, so I forget little details and sometimes big ones if it’s been a few years. I would say, probably, that I’d like to read one of my ultimate favorites again for the first time, Jane Eyre or The Age of Innocence, just because I’ve read them so many times I don’t remember what it was like the first time I read them.
I think I’d also like to start over with two big fantasy series that I love. The first would be George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Ideally this is because he’s ruthless with his characters and I’d like to forget who dies, who lives, and who comes back from dead, so I can be surprised again. I’d also probably wait several years until he’d finished. I’ve forgotten enough of the story that I’m going to have to reread all 4 chunksters in preparation for each new books. While I love them, it’s going to be time consuming and my TBR pile will not thank me.
The second fantasy series I’d choose would be the Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey. I love this series to little tiny bits. It’s one of the few fantasy series I have made time to reread. It was very interesting to see what caught me the second time through as opposed to the first and I was glad that I knew what to expect from the third book, but I would love to experience them without preconceptions once again. I remembered quite a bit once I’d started reading. I’m glad that I have Naamah’s Kiss waiting so that I can happily experience a new story in the world I love so much, though!
What book would you like to read for the first time again?
As many of you who follow me on twitter know, I had a fabulous week last week. I did very well on my second essay, I got notified that I have a job interview at a library (a job which I would LOVE), my dissertation is progressing very well, and I was contacted by new publishers here in the UK for reviews. I’ve been quite pleased with myself and thrilled that things are going at least a little bit in the direction that I would like. A few roadblocks have presented themselves in the past couple of days, but I’m hoping to surmount them anyway.
Not much time for this post today as my lovely fiance is currently making us lunch! I’m very lucky.  I’m reading Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James, an absolutely fabulous book about an Indian girl who uses her sister’s talent to get a visa for the USA, only to get caught in a huge web of her own lies and struggle with who she is and what she wants to get out of her life. I anticipate finishing it a little later today, and then I plan on starting The Bridge of the Golden Horn by Emile Sevgi Ozdamar. That one appears to be a memoir about a sixteen-year-old girl who flees Istanbul to work on an assembly line in a factory in Germany. I think it sounds interesting, and I know I need to read more books set outside the USA and the UK, so I’m looking forward to it.
I’m also looking forward to watching more of Season 2 of LOST, courtesy of Amy, who is certainly an amazing friend! We are loving this show. Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading back to York to work on my dissertation; I’m digging deep into the primary sources for the next two weeks in search of useful mentions of Anthony Woodville.
What’s ahead for you this week? Anything exciting?
Book Gluttony! Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?
If there is a controlled buyer out there, I would really like to meet them! I’m certainly not one. I can’t hold back. That’s why my TBR pile is 350 books strong, mostly books that my mom is generous enough to buy me from our favorite charity shop. I buy new books, too, in alarming quantities. I should curb my book buying habits. I’m much better when I’m poor, as now. I’ve told Keith that I’ll certainly catch up because we’re too poor to buy many books, but he thinks that as soon as I get a job and have an income that I’ll be using the extra to get more and more books. Heh. Heh. We’ll see. I do have so many books these days that it takes me a half hour just to choose what I want to read next if I haven’t decided it already. I’ve started pulling out two or three books at once and reading them in a row to avoid these choices. A little like my read-a-thon pile, only smaller!
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Secondly, I have a very special announcement to make. We are all book bloggers but we also have lives outside these blogs. When special events happen, we want to celebrate together, because we are a community. With this in mind, Amy, Michele, and I have put together the Book Blog Social Club so that we can celebrate virtually, the same way we all know each other. We’re kicking off with a baby shower for Jen at Devourer of Books tomorrow.
Of course, the website was designed for all of us to take part and host our own parties and celebrations. We invite you to make use of it in the future, on a first come first served basis. All you have to do is send an email to bookblogsocialclub at gmail dot com and we’ll be happy to discuss it with you!
 I have been wanting to do a library loot post (hosted by Eva and Alessandra) for a really long time! I’m a big fan of my local public library. They don’t always have the best selection when it comes to new and upcoming books or YA (they don’t have ANY of Melissa Marr’s books or John Scalzi’s books or the rest of the Uglies series or even all of the Sookie Stackhouse series), but I can usually find plenty of exciting books. I’m a grad student so I don’t have much money to spare, but I really like to bring new books home every so often. The library is the perfect solution, especially because I don’t feel guilty if I stock up on the romance novels.
Here’s what I found today:
In case you can’t see the titles, those are from the top:
Silk, Alessandro Baricco
Love Walked In, Marisa de los Santos
Across the Nightingale Floor, Lian Hearn
I had a couple that I actually put back. I’ve been tempted by The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory two weeks running now. I know I’m not going to read it soon, but I want to at some point. I also put down Hand of Isis by Jo Graham, mostly because it was long and I’m not really in the mood for a chunkster. When I am, I have a few very large ARCs that need to go first.
Then, since I’ve never done one of these before, I thought I’d show you all how many books I already have. I just realized now that I also have a crochet book that’s not in this picture, but I’m not too enamored with it so that’s okay.
 From the top:
Empress, Karen Miller
Uglies, Scott Westerfeld
Everything and the Moon, Julia Quinn
Simply Magic, Mary Balogh
Dead Witch Walking, Kim Harrison
When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Laurie Viera Rigler
Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue
The Road Home, Rose Tremain
Katherine Swynford, Alison Weir
The Tainted Relic, The Medieval Murderers is on its side there. I have a large print edition because that’s all the library had.
What should I read first?
(Quick reminder: giveaway for Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales ends tomorrow! You don’t want to miss this fabulous collection of short stories, especially when you might get it for free!)
As of Friday, my time has been freed up quite a bit. My exams are over, my papers and my full dissertation proposal are in, and now I am full speed ahead towards research. My dissertation is officially focusing on Anthony Woodville as a chivalric case study. Since I wrote my BA thesis on Richard III, I am finding this quietly amusing. For those who are not similarly obsessed with the fifteenth century, Richard III ordered Anthony Woodville’s execution. They are accused of feeling a great deal of animosity towards each other, although I personally don’t think it was quite as severe as some historians would like to imagine. At least not on Anthony’s side.
I have never decided whether or not I am a Ricardian. It seems to me that to go one way or the other would require ignoring a great deal of historical opinion and I can’t say I know enough yet to ignore all the options and interpretations. Since I’m looking at Anthony Woodville in a chivalric rather than political light (although as ever, everything in history is connected and divisions are obviously made by the historian), I don’t have to decide just yet. I do have to pin down just where he was, what he was doing, and when, which is a harder task than you’d imagine, before I can consider the whys of it all. Today, I’m consulting Edward IV by Charles Ross and Richard III: A Study in Service by Rosemary Horrox (which I love and highly recommend), as well as several minor sources. I’m secretly hoping that I will have to go to London and look at original documents. There are a few which I can track down that involve him and I really, really want to try my hand at reading more fifteenth century handwriting.
Today, I’m starting The Founding by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. This book has been languishing in my library pile for months. Finally, someone has requested it, so I must get it read by the 14th. I’ve been somewhat wary about it. I need to stop reading fiction set in the late fifteenth century because I know too much. I’m also planning on making a little bit of progress on my review pile with A Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer. My review pile is actually diminishing. I’m lingering under this pleasant delusion because all of my post-late-June review copies are collecting in my parents’ house. I’m also excited to start The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose today. This book is featured for By The Chapter this week with Marcia and Amy. I was a very lucky winner of Amy’s contest to read along with them. Thank you!
This week, I finished:
The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C.M. Mayo
Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
The World in Half by Cristina Henriquez
The Vampire of Ropraz by Jacques Chessex
I reviewed:
Duchess By Night by Eloisa James
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
The Wonder Singer by George Rabasa
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
And I participated in Booking Through Thursday about comic books.
Finally and most importantly, Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there, and especially to my own, whom I love very much. I regret that I can’t spend this day with her.
Last Saturday (May 2nd) is Free Comic Book Day! In celebration of comics and graphic novels, some suggestions:
– Do you read graphic novels/comics? Why do/don’t you enjoy them?
– How would you describe the difference between “graphic novel” and “comic”? Is there a difference at all?
– Say you have a friend who’s never encountered graphic novels. Recommend some titles you consider landmark/”canonical”.
I don’t really. I did read Watchmen and I enjoyed it, though, so I’m open to reading more. I’ve just started reading Elfquest online. I have a book, Letters To Jenny, by Piers Anthony, and in his letters to this poor girl, Jenny Gildwarg, who has been hit by a drunk driver and seriously brain damaged, he mentions Richard and Wendy Pini a lot, so I’ve always wanted to read their series. I think it stuck in my head because I really liked Letters to Jenny. I was a kid, and I thought Piers Anthony was funny and I was glad he was nice enough to keep up such a correspondence with her and help her recover. I always wondered what happened to her after the end of the letters in the book, although after some quick online searching it appears she was in college in 2006.
Anyway, that’s not what the question is about, is it? Heh. I’d also really like to read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, but have mostly been waiting to have a decent enough library so I can see if I like it before I start to pay for it. I have a couple of friends who read comics and I’ve had peeks at theirs and in the comic book store, but I’ve always strayed to the lone shelf of science fiction books when there, so I can’t really say too much. I know there is also a Firefly series continuation of some sort and I can’t say I’d be opposed to that either, so I guess I would be willing to read them. I just haven’t for some reason!
I guess to me, the difference between comics and graphic novels is probably very small these days and I’m not the person to judge. If I had to, I’d say comics are short, always a series, and possibly lighter than graphic novels, which I would envision at least as being a shorter series if not a contained work dealing with bigger consequences. Is that anywhere near right?
Remember how I said I was overwhelmed with exams/essays/wrapping up my foreseeable academic career, aside from my dissertation, this month? It certainly felt that way, but you’d never know from my reading! Numbers correspond to total books read in 2009.
65. Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer
66. The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen
67. Thirteen Reasons Why – Jay Asher
68. The Red Siren – M.L. Tyndall
69. The Love We Share Without Knowing – Christopher Barzak
70. Palace Circle – Rebecca Dean
71. Briar Rose – Jane Yolen
72. Wicked Lovely – Melissa Marr
73. The Traitor’s Wife – Susan Higginbotham
74. Queen’s Cross – Lawrence Schoonover
75. Simply Perfect – Mary Balogh
76. What Would Jane Austen Do? – Laurie Brown
77. Frenchman’s Creek – Daphne du Maurier
78. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
79. Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris
80. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever – Julia Quinn
81. Living Dead in Dallas – Charlaine Harris
82. Oakleaf Bearers – John Flanagan
83. And Only to Deceive – Tasha Alexander
84. Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales – Eleanor Bluestein
85. Hotel du Lac – Anita Brookner
86. The Wonder Singer – George Rabasa
87. Follow Me – Joanna Scott
88. How to Marry a Marquis – Julia Quinn
89. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet – Reif Larsen
90. The Host – Stephenie Meyer
91. The Last Queen – C.W. Gortner
I completely outdid myself this month. I read 27 books, which is the most ever. You’d think I’d stop reading when I had stressful things to get done. Nope, I just read more. Although I had reason, considering I had a flight on which I read maybe four books and during the 24 hour read-a-thon I finished 5 and later completed a 6th. The funniest part is that I was truly shocked. For most of this month, I felt I had no time to read, and while I do keep a list, I didn’t look at it much until composing this post today. It’s very strange how my perception of reality did not tally at all with actual reality.
I’m also absurdly pleased with myself because in the month of April, I added just 8 books to my TBR pile and managed to clear a massive 22 from it. That’s a net loss of 14, which for someone like me is awesome! I guess I had time to read but not any time to visit the bookstore.
It’s also virtually impossible to pick a favorite. I’d probably recommend anything on that list up there, with perhaps the exception of The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, Breaking Dawn, or Palace Circle. I enjoyed everything else. I’ve gotten really good at picking out what I like and sticking to it.
Today, I’m going to start The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C.M. Mayo. I’m also really looking forward to discussing The English Patient with my online book club later on. Keith and I are also going to watch more of LOST. We’re 6 episodes away from the end of season 1 and avoiding spoilers has gotten much more difficult now that I know who many of the characters are and actually have an interest!
First, though, time to get some work done.
How was your reading month?
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