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 It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon around here, but before I get into what I’m reading, I’d like to direct you over to Love Romance Passion, one of my favorite romance novel blogs. Keira has an interview with me up!
I have just finished Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and I’m feeling surprisingly triumphant about it. Heidenkind and I are reading it this month together, and I thought I’d have the whole month to work leisurely through this 950 page book. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case – someone else requested it almost the minute I took it out of the library, so I only had until this Tuesday. I decided to read it last week, but it went incredibly slowly up to the 300 page mark. I definitely despaired of finishing it this weekend, but when I finally had a chance to read it steadily I found it flew by. Expect a joint review towards the end of month – I’m glad my half won’t be negative at all!
I’m discovering that I’m even more of a money hoarder than I am a book hoarder. At present I have an Amazon cart all set up with 10 books in it, but I think I like the money in my bank account more than I like the books in my hands! I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m not used to working, so it hasn’t hit me that I will earn more, if I’m guilty about the books I haven’t read yet, or if I’m just cheap. Only time will tell – but most of the books in there are preorders anyway, so I’m sure I’ll loosen my fist when they’re released and everyone else starts buying and reading them.
For the moment, though, I’ve been enjoying my local library. All four books I read last week were library books. I have one review copy that I should get read this month and my mom has sent me a box of review copies, but otherwise I’m indulging in choosing whatever I feel like reading. Now that Lonesome Dove is out of the way, I’m planning on racing through at least one book later this afternoon, Kitty’s House of Horrors by Carrie Vaughn. I read through the entirety of the series last summer in a couple of days, so I’m anticipating that this one will be just as quick and enjoyable. I have some work to do but I’m hoping that won’t take too long.
I had a genuine bookish question that I wanted to ask this week in my Salon post, but I’ve forgotten it between Friday and today – I’ve been letting the weekend stupor take over my mind! So I’ll just leave you with an ordinary question – what are you reading today?
I’ve had the strangest experience this year in terms of what genres I’m enjoying. When I started this blog, my clear favorite was historical fiction (hence the title). It’s the largest section of my personal library by a fair stretch and goes even further if you include historical romance. And I love history; I find myself drooling over the history section in the library much more these days though I don’t always have the mental stamina to read non-fiction as often as I’d like. But fiction? I don’t think I’ve loved a single title this year.
Then there’s fantasy. Epic fantasy has long been one of my absolute favorite genres. Am I feeling it this year? Not at all. I’m reading a book now, Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov, which just isn’t working for me. I’ve been reading it for a week (I’m sensing a trend in now reading difficult books for a week!) and I haven’t finished yet. I’m still not thrilled by it. To be fair, I have reasons, but I’m not even interested in their quest. I haven’t picked up a truly epic fantasy of my own free will since January, and even that one wasn’t one of my favorites. I intend to test this out by reading one of my favorite authors, Brandon Sanderson, and seeing what happens there, but it’s a little dismaying to realize my favorites might not actually be my favorites.
So what do I like now? I still love speculative fiction, and I love that epic feel, but I’m more into urban fantasy or YA fantasy these days. Maybe because it’s shorter, maybe because I’m more demanding – I don’t know. And I’ve loved more books set in modern day or relatively recent eras this year than possibly ever before. But I still feel like I’m looking for the next historical or fantasy epic that will astonish and delight me and make me fall in love with my two favorite genres all over again.
Has a total shift in genre taste ever happened to you? And did it ever switch back?
March was a crazy month for me – pretty much my whole life changed in the space of it! I had an interview, got a job, found a flat in the space of a week (actually my husband mostly did this but it stressed me out too!), started the job, moved, and have been adjusting ever since. It’s been overwhelming at times, but the end of moving may be in sight now and we’re settling in nicely. I can already tell that working is making me happier and I’m actually less stressed. So far I’m pretty good at my job, I have more of a purpose, and I am relieved knowing that I can finally cover my half of the bills, and now I don’t have to spend my savings to pay my student loan debt.
 I still managed to read 19 books, too, which I think is pretty good, and they’re not even all concentrated at the beginning of the month. Considering I spent almost the entire month trying to motivate myself to read Lorna Doone, I think that’s pretty good! This was Classics Month for me and Tasha and I admit I dropped the ball a little. I still read classics, but I didn’t really say much on my blog about them like I had planned to simply because I haven’t spent any time at all on my blog in the past three weeks. All those reviews you’ve been seeing were written before my job even started. And it turns out I’m not very good at theme months. I love classics, but after I’d read three I was ready to read modern fiction. I’m actually still working on Villette. I did read/post about five classics this month, though:
Tasha also wrote a guest post for me on Gawain and the Green Knight and I featured a guest post from Nicole at Linus’s Blanket on her top three classics.
I also read a lot of other stuff.
Historical Romance
- Reese’s Bride, Kat Martin
- The Duke of Shadows, Meredith Duran
- Bound by Your Touch, Meredith Duran
Mystery/Women’s Fiction
Historical Fiction
Contemporary Romance
Literary Fiction
- The Uninvited, Geling Yan
- The Boat to Redemption, Su Tong
- Hector and the Search for Happiness, Francois Lelord (actually a modern fable – best fits here I think)
Science Fiction/Fantasy
- The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
- The Bookman, Lavie Tidhar
As you can see I still have a bunch of reviews to write. I’m hoping to catch up today, but we’ll see how that goes.
My plans for April mostly include catching up on review copies. I seem to have had a semi-storm of them lately and I want to get them read and reviewed ASAP. I don’t mind too much, I just have limited time with the job and constantly being in the car on the weekends moving stuff. I’m also joining Carl’s Once Upon a Time IV challenge, so I hope to start reading some fantasy soon! I’ll have a pool up in a few days. I’m also signed up for the Read-a-thon next weekend and just can’t wait! I’ll be putting together a pool for that as well, but might not post about it until the day. I have a few books I’m hoping arrive this week that will pretty much be the planned reading. And I REALLY want to read Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran this month. I absolutely loved her first two and I’ve just heard that I’m getting the fourth for review. You could have heard my squee across the street!
Lastly, I have mostly given up reducing my TBR pile. It’s going to grow and I think maybe I should be happy to be surrounded by books instead of feeling guilty about them!
Oh, and of course, happy Easter to all those who celebrate!
It’s been another busy week over here, with lots of working, packing, and moving stuff around. Internet in the new place got turned on Friday, so I should finally be around the blogosphere more, especially in a couple of weeks when we’ll have moved the majority of our stuff. And now I know I can participate in the upcoming Read-a-thon and my online book club, so I’m very happy about both of those things. My GR has been over 1000 for more than a week, so I think I’ll be marking those as read at some point – I don’t see myself finding time to catch totally up!
Yesterday I finally finished Lorna Doone, the book that Tasha and I are reading together for our Classics Month. I really need to apologize to Tasha because I haven’t at all been reading the classics I was supposed to read, mostly because I’ve been stuck on this book. And it puts me to sleep almost every time I try to read it! You’ll hear more about it when we review it together after she’s finished. In the next few days, before March is over, I’d like to read both The Wizard of Oz, which is going at a speedy pace even though I’m reading it on my brand new phone, and Villette by Charlotte Bronte. I really wanted to read related books and watched related movies – I have been really slowly working through Hermione Lee’s biography of Virginia Woolf and I recorded East of Eden to watch after I’d read the book – but I see no way I’ll manage to finish those things in the next three days. It’s disappointing, but I do plan to do all these things eventually, so I hope you’ll stick around.
I have still been reading, but I’ve been choosing very light relaxation reads. I’m finishing about three books a week. This week, it was Lorna Doone, Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord, and The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar. I haven’t decided if this is my new normal yet but all things considered it still isn’t too bad! Not quite the same as the book a day I was managing before but I really don’t know if that’s possible or desirable at the moment. I do like other things besides working and reading.
Also wanted to ask if any knew about really great ereader apps for an Android phone. I have one on there at the moment but it’s mostly free classics. Of course I love that, but I’d also appreciate the option to buy ebooks should I really love reading on my phone!
I hope everyone has a great week!
Tomorrow I want to leave my Georgette Heyer Classics Circuit review up, so I hope no one minds that I’m spending time in the Salon a bit early.
As you’ll know if you’ve been hanging around my blog or twitter, I started a new job this past week. We successfully rented a flat in a week as well. I advise you not to do this, actually. It was incredibly stressful, and most of the stress landed on hubby who had a hard time getting me on the phone the first day while he was looking at places and then had some bad news. We ended up taking a six hour round trip to get some items the estate agents had neglected to tell us we needed right after my first day of work, which was fun. They told us it would take two weeks to be approved, but after some discussion discovered that it only actually needed to take three days if our employers were quick with our references. They were, and yesterday we got the keys. Now we’re in the process of moving and buying furniture, as this flat is bigger than our last one and we don’t own a lot of newly necessary stuff. We also have to decide whether to sell or rent out that last one.
My first week of work was interesting. I’m an SEO/social media analyst, but the copywriter half, so I mostly write things that search engines like, and then promote them on various social media sites. I am now in charge of maintaining and updating a good number of blogs. I fully intend to continue blogging here, but I was warned that I might get burned out on blogging if I do it at work all day and still have to do it at night. Still, this blog is for fun, not for selling stuff, and I think that different mindset will help encourage me. I’ve been enjoying my job to a degree so far. I like writing and I think I’m pretty good at it when I try, but getting used to doing it constantly is a bit intimidating and leaves my mind totally wiped out by the end of the day. Luckily this last week I’ve been working with the employee leaving this position, and he’s been very helpful. So I know what I’m doing, I just have to get on doing it. Everyone at work is very friendly and has made me feel really welcome, so I think I’ll enjoy working there eventually.
I’m also already reading vastly less. The only book I finished this week was The Sparrow, and seriously, if I hadn’t been so into that book I probably wouldn’t have finished anything at all. Our hotel room for the week was simply terrible – they lost my reservation on the first night, the lightbulb went out one evening and no one could find a replacement so I sat in the bathroom for a while, the bed had a peculiar plastic sheet on it and was uncomfortable anyway, the walls were so thin we could hear all our neighbors talking, and to top it off they began doing construction on the other rooms at 6 every morning. Oh, and they didn’t actually have internet, which made all of our arrangements much harder. I obviously have the internet at work, but I’ve been staying away from my personal sites during work hours.
I hope to do a lot of reading in the next two weeks while waiting for the internet to be connected in my new flat; it just depends how braindead I am! We haven’t had our TV hooked up yet either, so there isn’t much else we can do. I have reviews scheduled for the next couple of weeks, but I really have no time to comment on blogs at work. I tried briefly today but my GR was intimidating and I’m amazingly exhausted. Instead, I read some of Lorna Doone, which I WILL finish this month, and began The Boat to Redemption by Su Tong in my effort to complete all of my library books before maybe next weekend. By my return to steady blogging and commenting, I hope to have a routine in place so you won’t even notice that I’m working!
I had some big news this week. Namely, I actually got a full-time job! I know, it’s a little crazy to think about, and apologies to those who follow me on twitter because they know all this already. I didn’t mention the interview because I didn’t want to jinx anything this time. I’m starting on Monday, but because we’re relocating, I’ll be in a hotel all week while we attempt to find and rent a place for the foreseeable future. Things will still be a little tight while we are paying for two places (we own the place we live in and we still have to put it up for sale) but not nearly as bad as they’ve been. We might actually be able to save money in a few months. Hard to believe, isn’t it?
What does this mean for you, the person who reads this blog? (Thank you so much for that, by the way!) I hope not too much in the long run. I expect I’ll have far fewer reviews going up, since I can’t imagine I’ll keep up my reading pace in full-time employment. This is my first full-time job so I genuinely have no idea how it’s going to go, how stressed I’ll be, etc. But I’ll certainly be reading. Since we’re moving, we are probably not going to have internet for a few weeks, so I don’t think I’ll be able to comment much after this week until we have it at home. I expect I’ll still be getting blog posts up (especially since I have most of the next two weeks scheduled except for classics reviews), since my job involves the internet and I do have breaks, but I won’t have time to go through GR every day like I try to do now.
This week (and next week) I’ll be attempting to finish all of my current library books and also continue with my last two weeks of classics, so I’ll be reading:
- Virginia Woolf, by Hermione Lee
- Woman, by Natalie Angier
- Germinal, by Emile Zola (for a Classics Circuit tour in April)
- The Boat to Redemption, by Su Tong
- The Uninvited, by Geling Yan
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon
- East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
- Villette, by Charlotte Bronte
- Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore
- Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope
And now I see how overambitious I am – hah! Can I still read five books a week while working full-time? I doubt it. I remember how stressed and tired all of my already-working friends were when they started, and I’ve had months of virtually no responsibility. I know it will be hard to get used to. Luckily three of these books are already in progress and I have a couple of lengthy car rides coming up. So wish me luck!
I read more books than there are days in February. Things have not been great recently, so of course I’ve sunk into my version of comfort, which means reading pretty much all the time. Plus, hubby works from home now, so I can’t really watch TV or play games because it’s too distracting for him, and thus all I do is read and apply for jobs. It’s exciting, let me tell you (not really).
On the brighter side, we have a new kitchen floor, and our flat is almost ready to go up for sale. Just some cleaning and exiling a lot of our miscellaneous stuff to my MIL’s loft before we go to see the real estate agents. We’ve been doing a little research into locations around hubby’s job and have found some reasonably cheap renting options, so we’re probably not going to be desperately poor again, and since he got paid yesterday, I can breathe a little (and finally spend the last of my birthday money on my book club books). Still can’t afford BEA, but at least I know we can pay the bills and eat without cutting into our tiny amount of savings. That should mean I’ll get some motivation back and be a more active blogger, rather than just a reviewer, but I’ll see where life takes me.
So, February’s reading:
Literary Fiction
Historical Fiction
- The Stolen Crown, Susan Higginbotham
- Shadow of the King, Helen Hollick
- The Highest Stakes, Emery Lee
- Pearl of China, Anchee Min
Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
- The Ivory and the Horn, Charles de Lint (short stories)
- Frostbite, Richelle Mead (YA)
- Shadow Kiss, Richelle Mead (YA)
- Blood Promise, Richelle Mead (YA)
- Slave to Sensation, Nalini Singh
- Soulless, Gail Carriger (actually this book is about a million genres)
- Angels’ Blood, Nalini Singh
- Magic Burns, Ilona Andrews
- Magic Strikes, Ilona Andrews
- Dead and Gone, Charlaine Harris
Historical Romance
Women’s Fiction
- The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Sarah Addison Allen
Fantasy
Non-fiction
- The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, David Grann
- The Long March, Sun Shuyun
- Cherries in Winter, Suzan Colon
- The Computer, Mark Freuenfelder
- Mr. Langshaw’s Square Piano, Madeline Goold
Classics
There are definitely a few continuing trends this month. All the historical fiction I read was for review; I haven’t been at all inclined to read it for myself even though I enjoyed all the books that I read. In contrast, my biggest genre this month was urban fantasy (and I counted the paranormal romances in there for simplicity), and I had none of those for review. Clearly, publishers should start sending me more urban fantasy! I read a lot more non-fiction, which I’m pleased with, but I’ve been holding back on my classics, saving them for classics month. I’m almost finished with The Warden by Anthony Trollope, so I’ll have three more left to read in March to hit my target of four. I still have space for guest posts if any classics lovers are planning on joining Tasha and me!
For once, a favorite book popped right out at me, and that would be The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. This book is known as Little Bee in the US and I read it yesterday – my online book club is discussing it next weekend. It was just amazing, deep and meaningful and heartbreaking even as it was beautiful. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about various aspects, but it’s my favorite book all year already, and I’m really looking forward to our discussion.
How was your reading month?
I think it’s been weeks since I did a Sunday Salon post! I have gotten out of the habit of blogging on weekends; usually there is a lot more going on in my life on those days than during the week. Overall, though, I don’t have anything new to report, which is part of why I haven’t done many chatty posts lately. I’m back in the UK after a few weeks at home. Still no news for me on the job front, but hubby has started his new job and is working from home most of the time. It’s weird to have him around but busy, although I have to say it’s inspired me to new diligence in my job search. I’m not necessarily finding more jobs, but my applications are getting done a lot faster when someone else is around working. The lack of success is getting me down, which I know is one of the reasons I’m reading more than blogging.
I have other reasons for reading a lot, too. As usual when I go home to the US, I picked up my ARCs and review copies, many of which were owed a review a while back because I expected to be home sooner than I was. So I frantically got through a lot of my backlog and packed an astonishing 71 books to bring back to the UK with me, without going over the weight limit! About 50 are my own books and I’m happy to have a much wider selection. I don’t have space for them, so a bunch of them are adorning the floor in front of the bookshelf, but I’m not going to worry about that until our flat goes on the market. I culled quite a few before I left and donated them to my favorite charity bookstore, so I’m actually not feeling very guilty for having more unread books.
I spent this morning reading a coffee table size illustrated history of computers. I have a bunch of non-fiction I want to get read this week before Classics Month starts up and since this had a lot of pictures, I decided to start it first. And now I’m indulging in some urban fantasy with Magic Burns, the second in the Kate Daniels series. And I’m leaving the rest of the week unscheduled, subject to whim, which is my favorite way to read.
If you like classics, don’t forget to tune in during March for Tasha’s and my Classics Month (her post, my post). I’d love it if you read a few classics along with us!
That’s about all going on over here; anything exciting happening in your lives, reading or otherwise?
J.D. Salinger’s death this week has saddened me. He was 91, and I know we’d all be fortunate to live that long, but it’s still sad to know that a powerful voice has gone out. I’ve only ever read The Catcher in the Rye of his works, though I’d like to read more (and always have, but somehow haven’t yet). The rest of this post may contain spoilers, so if you haven’t read it yet, skip down to the questions in bold.
I first read Catcher in my junior year of high school, when I was a pretty good example of a teenager convinced that everyone in the world is a phony. My best friend at the time was studying abroad in Germany for the year, my first boyfriend had got together with someone else, and in general I felt sort of emotionless, trapped in this world I didn’t really want. I hated high school. Holden Caulfield didn’t save me, that took college, but he brought a new perspective into my life, and as a result I loved the book. I got a copy of my own, intending to reread it.
It took four years and a children’s lit class for me to read it again, and I was worried about my reaction. I was older and I’d been through a lot. In fact, my entire life changed in those four years, so much so that it was virtually unrecognizable. My brother had died in the most horrific six month period of any of our lives, I had a steady boyfriend and spent summers in England, and I lived in a different state with different friends and different needs. I wasn’t a teenager and certainly not one that wanted to rage against the world. And it was from that perspective I read the book, and I still loved it even when almost everyone in the class couldn’t stand Holden and his complaining. Why? Because his brother died too. His brother died, and it messed with him, and I could understand him in a totally different way. I could see how it could change his life and make him a cynic and a whiner, because I could have slid that way myself. I could see why he wanted so badly to protect his sister – and all children – more than ever. I would bet that no one else in that class had ever lost a sibling and they couldn’t put themselves in the book as easily as I could then. It astonished me that the class didn’t get it. Of course, every book is different for every reader, but no one picked up on what a difference that death made. The book didn’t change, but I did, and the entire book became much, much more than it was.
I also wanted to say here that maybe I was wrong, but honestly, I still really believe that was the drive behind Holden’s behavior, and so I can’t bring myself to.
Has a book ever changed for you as your perspectives on life changed? Have you ever felt radically different about a book than everyone else?
I’ve had some inspiring success with my reading this week. I’ve been diligently reading A Suitable Boy, which I’m really enjoying. There are a few political parts that are slightly boring, but it’s such a small fraction of such a huge book, and I’ve found myself feeling like I’m living in India with all the characters. I’m discovering that I really like books about changing cultures; they’re exposing the cracks and trying to figure out who they are. In this book, the British have fairly recently pulled out of India, many of the families were partitioned away from their homes thanks to the creation of Pakistan, and the countryside hierarchy is about to change completely thanks to new legislation. And, of course, there is Lata’s (and her mother’s) struggle to find “a suitable boy” in a changing India. It’s so interesting and enjoyable, but I’m going through it slowly. I figure I’ll get frustrated if I go days without finishing any books, so I’ve been reading lighter books alongside it. It is nice to live in a book for a while though. and I’m thrilled that I have another of Vikram Seth’s books hanging around for when I’ve finished.
I also have had some lovely book acquisitions this weekend. My mother-in-law gave me a bookstore gift card for my birthday, so I had a lovely time selecting 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, Arthur & George by Julian Barnes, Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. I’ve already read the first one and should have a review this week. I also was inspired by The House of the Mosque and Dawn at She Is Too Fond of Books to read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and get another perspective on the Islamic Revolution in Iran. I really enjoyed that, too. So this week I read my first non-fiction of the year, my first graphic novel of the year, and my first classic of the year, which was The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. In short, I am accomplishing my goals to diversify my reading so far, and I hope I can keep it up!
I hope to get a lot read this week, as Keith is headed off for 3 days away to start his new job, and I’ve finished the game I was playing on my Xbox 360. I’ve been thinking of reviewing the games when I finish them – if others can review film and TV, I don’t see why I can’t review games, and I will probably complete less than one a month – but I haven’t decided yet. I haven’t worked out how to knit and read at the same time, but we still watch enough TV and movies to give me plenty of time for both. Next Sunday I will be in the air heading home for a couple of weeks, so posting may be slightly more sporadic as I haven’t as many scheduled posts these days. In any case, I hope you all have a lovely week and a good book to keep you company!
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