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It’s been a slow day here after an exciting week, both personally and in the blogging world. It was Book Blogger Appreciation Week, and I won Best History/Historical Fiction blog! In addition, I received my visa and reviewed some great books:
In case you hadn’t noticed, I have started posting fewer reviews. I made it my goal for a little while to post a review a day, when I was backlogged, but I know that isn’t going to be realistic soon, so I’m going to stop posting reviews on meme days – Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I’m still thinking about a fourth meme, but I’m not sure if I’m actually going to pick one up. Three might just be enough for me. I’ve got four or five reviews in my queue right now and I’m making good progress towards getting ahead for my adjustment period in England.
 As for what I’m reading, I took a couple of days off from ARCs to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Wow. I’m not done yet, but it’s making its way towards being as amazing as The Kite Runner . My expectations were high and I’m pleased that they are being fulfilled. Hosseini is going to have a lot to live up to if/when he writes another novel.
Back to ARCs; today I made two piles of them. Books that have already been released and should be read ASAP, and books that will come with me to England. There are 8 in the first pile. There’s no way I’m reading 8 books in one week – maybe if I did nothing but read – so I’ve decided instead to read the hardcovers from both piles and then see what I can squeeze in before I go. That means this week I’ll be reading The Dracula Dossier by James Reese (I am so excited for this book, it’s up next!), Stalin’s Children by Owen Matthews, and The Popes of Avignon by Edwin Mullins. If I have time left, I’ll read my two little ARCs, The Other Side of the Horizon by K. Lynch and A Civil General by David Stinebeck and Scannell Gill. Realistically, I suspect that will be it for me this week, leaving me three immediate ARCs to take and seven to be reviewed in October. Oh, and I will finish Passions and Tempers. It’s getting slowly but surely read.
And then I have to par down the rest of my 250 strong TBR pile to a measly 10 or 15 books to bring with me! What a difficult choice this is going to be …
Have a great week, everyone! Next Sunday, you will find me in the UK!
Finally, it is time for me to sit down and read! After a morning and early afternoon full of errands, I am relieved.
 Last night, I finished Circus Queen and Tinker Bell: The Memoir of Tiny Kline . Circus history is one of those fascinating side notes that I’m always compelled to read, so of course I was thrilled to receive this book from the University of Illinois Press, and the memoir doesn’t disappoint. It’s actually a combination of two memoirs written by Tiny Kline. One was full of personal anecdotes about her experience and the other circus history, so the editor, Janet M. Davis, combined the two, and came up with a very compelling book. I’ll have a review coming later this week.
Of course, I’ve been continuing with two other books too. I can feel the pressure from my growing ARC pile as it’s causing me to read more books at once! I’m still working on Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours by Noga Arikha, which, while interesting, doesn’t pull at me to come back to it when I’m not reading. So it’s going slower than I’d like, but I’ll get it read and reviewed before my move. My goal is to have all on-going books finished by my flight on the 27th. I’m hoping that I can actually make that flight; the British embassy still hasn’t issued my visa and I’m getting nervous! They must be busy given that m any Americans are heading over around now, but that doesn’t change the fees I’ll have to pay if my flight needs to be changed.
I’ve also got two fiction reads going, Immortal by Traci Slatton (for The Literate Housewife‘s book club) and The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea by Christopher Meeks. I’m enjoying these a lot and I’ll have them finished very soon. Again, expect reviews! I’m trying to get ahead with reviews so that I have a little cushion when I get to England in case I don’t have much time to read.
Have a great week, everyone!
Well, it’s more work for me today, unfortunately. In lieu of posting a detailed history of this week’s reading, I’ll post this short meme, which is derived from the questions asked of authors on Shelf Awareness.
On your nightstand now: Passions and Tempers by Noga Arikha, An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer.
Book you’ve “faked” reading: Twice for school – Billy Budd by Herman Melville and The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. These are the only two books I’ve ever failed to read for school.
Book you’ve bought for the cover: I don’t think I’ve ever bought any book solely based on its cover.
Favorite book when you were a child: Anne of Green Gables, Princess Nevermore, For the Love of Pete by Jan Marino, and the Dear America series.
Book that changed your life: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Favorite line from a book: Don’t exactly have one … what springs to mind is, “Reader, I married him”, from Jane Eyre, though that line isn’t particularly beautiful or anything.
Top five favorite authors: Guy Gavriel Kay, Kazuo Ishiguro, Robin Hobb, Sharon Kay Penman, Edith Wharton.
Books you recommend as regeneration when people say, “I’m bored by almost all contemporary American writers.”: I’d probably recommend Sharon Kay Penman or Stephen King, as I think genre fiction helps a lot. In all honesty, I can’t recommend any literary fiction here, because I usually prefer British authors myself. (I don’t know why; it just happens)
Book you can’t believe that everyone has not read and loved: Harry Potter, to be honest. I think they’re very charming and engaging, and even though they don’t have much literary value, Rowling knows how to tell a story. I guess I can believe it if you don’t like fantasy in general, but if you do, I really can’t. Maybe someone could tell me?
Book you are an “evangelist” for: Definitely The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. If you have not read it, go read it now. Seriously. I have coerced many, many friends into buying and reading this book.
Book you most want to read again for the first time: Same as my last answer – The Remains of the Day. I’d also love to read for the first time again The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, and most of the rest of my favorite books.
Books you wanted to begin again immediately after finishing them: Those last ones again. After finishing Guernsey, which I delayed because I loved it so much, I actually told my fiance that I just wanted to read the book over again. He said my TBR pile was too big to justify rereading a book I had just finished. *sigh* My voice of reason.
I’m not reading much today – mainly cheering my dad on his half marathon here in Virginia Beach, which he has now finished. He got recognized as the second top fundraiser for Team in Training this year and number one for this event, the Rock ‘n Roll half marathon. Pretty exciting – he also won a ticket to any Team in Training marathon, travel and hotel included, whenever he wants. Tonight we have VIP passes to the concert and I should be meeting the B-52’s of “Love Shack” fame, although no guarantees there!
On this trip, I finished Midwife of the Blue Ridge by Christine Blevins, which I really enjoyed! I should have a review coming up on that this week. I have plenty of other reviews to write as well. I’m reading Passions and Tempers by Noga Arikha, which The Literate Housewife so kindly sent me to review. It’s a history of the humours, the basis of medicine from approximately the 5th century BCE to the 19th CE! I’m not very far in, but it’s very interesting. I also picked up Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen to carry in my purse, as it’s small and light. I’ve only just started, but it seems enchanting so far.
This post has no links or pictures, for which I apologize. The internet in this hotel is slow and unreliable, so by the time I went out and linked to other sites and put in pictures, it would probably lose my draft. I also can’t get Google Reader to work here, so I’m sorry for not commenting on your latest posts. I’ll be back tomorrow and up to my normal posting and commenting speed. Have a great rest of the Labor Day Weekend, everyone (and just a great rest of Sunday for those not in the USA)!
I haven’t been able to read much today because I’ve spent most of the day at work! On the bright side, I got paid, so it’s not all bad, and I can read tomorrow. I’ll be finishing up The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart tomorrow I think. It’s the third book in her Merlin trilogy, which moves a little too slowly for me, but I’m still enjoying it. I have no idea what’s on the agenda for me this week. I acquired 19 books this weekend, so I have a lot to choose from! Most of them are from my favorite used bookstore, about which I’m writing a guest post for She Is Too Fond of Books. Dawn is hosting a new feature over there spotlighting our favorite independent bookstores. I’m actually so ashamed of my nearly 200-strong TBR pile that I’ve yet to enter these new ones into LT. I probably shouldn’t be, considering I did buy/receive them in the mail, but there it is. I’ve never had so many unread books before!
Coming up this week: reviews of Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks, Guernica by Dave Boling, and The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff. I’ll also be posting six quirky things about me, a meme that I was tagged for a little while ago. On top of all that, I will be announcing another contest! Have a great week, Saloners! I may not get to your posts until tomorrow, but I’ll be making the rounds.
Since last Sunday, I have:
- announced a contest for Marie-Therese, Child of Terror by Susan Nagel. If you’ve ever wondered what happened to Marie Antoinette’s daughter, stop by my blog post here and enter to win!
- reviewed The Sea by John Banville, which was the first of my Book Awards Challenge II books.
- completed the Book Buzz meme, Tuesday Thingers, and Booking Through Thursday.
- also reviewed Enemy of God and Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell, Erotomania by Francis Levy, and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.
- finished reading The Queen’s Tale
 by D.J. Birmingham, Schooled by Anisha Lakhani, When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale, and Devil’s Brood by Sharon Kay Penman. I’ll be reviewing the first three very soon, but it will be a while for Devil’s Brood as it isn’t released until October (thanks to Kathleen of Kathleen’s Book Reviews for lending it to me!)
I’m not sure what I’ll be reading this week. I bought both The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, and they’ve mysteriously managed to push their way to the top of the TBR piles. I guess LT Early Reviewers does work, doesn’t it? I requested both and wasn’t lucky enough to get them, and the reviews there and on quite a few of the blogs I read convinced me that they were worth reading soon. I also have several September-release ARCs to get through before even more of them come in the mail. It’s going to be a busy week! I hope yours is a good one.
Well, I started my job last Monday and as expected, my reading went way down, as did my blogging. I went from reading about a book a day to reading only two complete books this week and I skipped several days of blogging because I was just so tired. I also finished a leftover book from last week. I read:
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller (review here)
Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
The good thing is that I really enjoyed all three. I read Sunshine by Robin McKinley last year and failed to jump on the McKinley bandwagon. The Hero and the Crown was only fifty cents in the store, so I figured I would give it a try, and I adored it. I only wish I’d discovered it when I was actually a child/young adult, because I’m sure I would have loved it even more. It reminded me of my childhood favorite, Princess Nevermore by Dian Curtis Regan, but probably only because they’re both fantasy and have the same “feel” to them. I didn’t read enough fantasy when I was younger, but that’s okay, I can make up for it now. I’ve got The Blue Sword waiting.
Of course, I’m discovering that I always love Cornwell, and this trilogy is no exception. I’m not sure how I feel about it as an addition to the Arthurian canon, but the Warlord trilogy was great and Cornwell used the Arthurian myths in new and interesting ways. I’ll be reviewing the second two books of the trilogy in one shot soon.
I’m reading three books so far this week, two of which I’ve already started and have half-finished.
- I’m working on Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette’s Daughter
 by Susan Nagel most of the time. This book is really interesting because usually, we hear about Marie Antoinette, but very little about her children. I’m close to halfway through this one.
- I’m also reading Erotomania: A Romance
 by Francis Levy for review. What a strange book, but at the same time compelling. It’s about a couple that starts having sex and becomes addicted to it (so the book is full of dirty words, of which I am not exactly fond), but then attempts to develop a relationship together. The book is thus attempting to trace an evolution from animal sexuality to human sexuality. It’s strange and I’m not entirely enthusiastic about it, but that depends on how it all turns out. Also halfway through this one, it’s short so I might finish it today!
- Lastly, I have just started The Queen’s Tale by D. J. Birmingham. It’s set in medieval Ireland and focuses around a golden brooch that is imbued with the spirit of an Irish queen. So far, so good.
- I have a lot more ARCs to get to soon! I’ve got a line-up of books to be released in September and I’d like to have reviews ready for all of them before they hit the shelves.
Here’s hoping for a better reading and blogging week for me, and a good one for all of you as well!
It has been a busy reading month for me. I originally set my goal for the July book blowout, hosted by The Blue Archipelago, at 20 books. I actually read 25 books this month, and most of them were pretty good! I’m pleased with myself, as that’s the largest number of books I’ve read in a single month since I started keeping track in 2006. The list, with links to reviews:
Memoir
- The Heartbreak Diet by Thorina Rose
- Surviving Ben’s Suicide by C. Comfort Shields
Literary/Contemporary Fiction
- When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster
- The Leper Compound by Paula Nangle
- The Hours by Michael Cunningham
- American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
- So Long at the Fair by Christina Schwarz
- The Pools by Bethan Roberts
- The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden
- The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
Fantasy
- Inda by Sherwood Smith
- The Gunslinger by Stephen King
- The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart
- The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell
- Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell
Historical fiction
- The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent
- The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig
- Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
- The Streets of Babylon by Carina Burman
- Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
Non-fiction
- Bottomfeeder by Taras Grescoe
- The Watercooler Effect by Nicholas DiFonzo
Thriller/Mystery
- First Daughter by Eric Van Lustbader
Classics
- My Antonia by Willa Cather
To be honest, I struggled a lot with choosing a favorite from this list. There are just too many! So, instead, I’ve chosen a few:
    
I highly recommend all these books! If you’ve got them on your TBR pile, read them soon, and if you haven’t, you should!
The Blue Archipelago has provided some questions for a brief survey of the challenge’s reading:
1. Did you discover a new author?
Several – I really liked books by Michelle Moran, Rhyll McMaster, Karen Essex, and Michael Cunningham this month, and I’ll be looking out for future releases of their work.
2. Where was the most unusual place you found yourself reading?
Nowhere unusual, though I did finish The Winter King somewhere in between Connecticut and New York on a train.
3. Did you read more than usual?
Yes, a lot more! I had a lot of time and I was happy to have a goal to complete.
4. Did you give up anything in order to read more?
Not really. I haven’t been playing any video games this month, but it seems to be my natural trend away now, rather than a specific exclusion in favor of reading.
5. If you won the Amazon voucher what would you spend it on?
More books, of course! I have a huge wishlist. I’d love to get The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig, The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell in particular.
6. Would you like to see a 2009 Book Blowout?
Sure, why not? I enjoy challenges like this one. Thanks for hosting it, Mrs. S!
As you can see, I’m still behind on reviews, probably about 5 or 6 left to write. I should have a review for The Richest Season up later, though. I enjoyed it quite a lot. As for today, I finished The Sea by John Banville, my unexpected first book of my Book Awards Challenge II. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by it. For the rest of the day, I’ll be reading Sweetsmoke by David Fuller, my LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. I’m not far in enough to say whether or not I’m enjoying it, but I’ve read some good reviews and I am looking forward to getting further in. No idea what’s up for the rest of the week, I’m just going to see where my random choices take me.
 I haven’t been reading much this weekend because I spent it visiting friends instead. I did, however, manage to finish off the last part of The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell, a re-inventing of the Arthurian myth. Well, it’s sort of that. I’ve read a great deal of the older Arthurian legends available and some of the new, but this one is totally different. It places Arthur in a historical context – as a warlord, not as a king, which is probably what he was if he did exist – but also adds in some of the later characters, the most prominent example being Lancelot. This makes sense, as if he was going off only the contemporary Welsh poems, he’d be confined to Arthur, Guinevere, and Mordred. Even Merlin didn’t exist in those originals. I liked this book because Cornwell knows his history and can really portray the period as we think it was, but with added in Arthurian elements. His books are the best for making me feel like I’ve actually found myself in early medieval England. Since I’m obsessed with the time period, I love them! Anyway, I will have a proper review up within a few days, once I get along with the others I have waiting.
 The other book I’ve started today since arriving home is The Pools by Bethan Roberts. This is an unexpected surprise, because I’m really enjoying it. It was part of a group of review copies sent to me by a publicist, and since I didn’t have any input regarding just what was in there, I’ve been a little wary of this one since it has very little description on the back, only praise. Silly me, as it’s absolutely excellent and striking so far. The book starts out with the death of a boy named Robert in the prologue, and then seems to be going back to examine his effect on the lives of others and then I would imagine the effect of his death on those same people. I’m about a third through and it doesn’t even matter that there isn’t much plot or that the “ending” has been revealed. It’s very much a character study and I love that. Again, review will be coming up this week once I’ve finished, but so far, I think I may have found a hidden gem.
This week, I expect I’ll be reading The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell, The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden, and I’d like start with Marie-Therese, Child of Terror by Susan Nagel.
Lastly, don’t forget to enter my contest to win a free copy of The Streets of Babylon by Carina Burman!
With my reading time this Sunday I’ll be attempting to finish American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, a novel based very loosely on the life of Laura Bush, in the guise of Alice Lindgren. I believe Sittenfeld’s goal is to work out what the First Lady may be feeling at this critical juncture, when her husband is almost universally despised. It’s a good read so far – I am slightly more than halfway through and have heard that it falls off around this point. I haven’t yet found that to be the case, although the skipping about in time does get distracting. All of a sudden, Alice’s daughter Ella is 9! It would have helped to have some brief passages about the time in between, because now it feels like a 20-something is already in her forties and she shouldn’t be, if that makes any sense!
I’ll also be writing reviews today. I’m working on four of them and I’d really like to catch up so that I can post reviews sooner after reading the books. I read too fast for my reviewing speed a couple of weeks ago and got behind. My goal for the week is to get back up to speed before my hopeful weekend away visiting some friends.
Up this week:
– Finishing The Power Makers by Maury Klein, or at least I hope so. I feel like I’ve been reading this book forever. There’s just too much technical detail and it goes so slowly. I’m tempted to kick it to the curb, but parts of it are interesting, so I haven’t done so yet.
– The Watercooler Effect by Nicholas DiFonzo. This one promises to be interesting, though you can never really tell. I’ve heard positive reactions, so I am hopeful.
– Any fiction title! I will need it with those two non-fiction books. I’m not sure what it will be yet. I’ve acquired several slim award winners, like The English Patient and Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner, so I suspect I’ll be sneaking those in between selections from my ARC pile.
Have a good week everyone, and see you next Sunday (and on your blogs earlier)!
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