Wordless Wednesday 409
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Reading, Thinking, Photographing
Can
you envision a future in which California must be evacuated because of
drought? Would you stay or go? How would you cope with the encroaching
desert sands? Luz and Ray live in that future and must decide how best
to survive.
Punting the prairie dog into the library was a mistake. Luz Dunn knew that now, but it had been a long time since she'd seen a little live thing, and the beast had startled her. She'd woke near noon having dreamed a grand plan and intending to enact it: she would try on every dress in the house. They hung like plumage in the master closet, in every luscious color, each one unspeakably expensive--imagine the ones the starlet had taken with her!—Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins (Riverhead, 2015, p. 3)
You
know what makes me happy? Just a few more days left in August and the
promise (I hope) of cooler weather. I'm so ready for the crisp mornings
and comfortable evenings of fall.
Book Organizing Progress Report:
I have finally gotten all my print books organized. I have stacks of
books to give to my neighbors or to the senior center, and I've entered
my entire print reading list into Libib.
I am glad I made the switch and have found only one flaw so far. The
Libib database trails new books by about a month, so I won't be able to
scan my October books for another week or so. I can, however, enter the data by hand, if I want.
I've
decided to just accept this annoyance and add new books around the 15th
of the month before they're published. Truth is, I rarely read ahead,
so I think this will work. We'll see.
Next up are adding and culling my eBooks and audiobooks, which I'll tackle a little at time.
Yet Another App: Yeah, yeah, no one needs more social media sites for getting more book information. Or, well, do we? I've signed up for the Reco app,
which is another way to record books and share the books I'm reading,
have read, and want to read. This app doesn't allow you to upload your
own creative photos (like Litsy), but there is a very cool list feature, which I'm going to play around with. Fits right into my "Reading on Topic" posts, which I really love to put together.
Hey,
guess what? I'm @BethFishReads on the Reco app (surprised, aren't
you?), so follow me there if you're so inclined. I'm still getting the
hang of it, but I do know how to follow you back.
What I'm Reading and Listening To
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.
Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris -- Despite knowing pretty much what was going to happen (though not how it was going to happen), I really liked this creepy book about the seemingly perfect couple. As I said on Litsy: Narrator Georgia Macguire did an excellent job with the slow-building tension. Sucked me right in and had me by the earbuds until the end. (Macmillian Audio)
Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joana Cannon -- I loved this book! A great quote on every page. This is a combo mystery / coming-of-age story set in England in the mid-1970s. Ten-year-old Grace and Tilly are determined to find out what happened to the neighbor lady, who disappeared without a trace. This is one of my favorites of the year. (Scribner)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead -- here's basically all I have to say: This book. It slayed me. Read it . . . now. Bahni Turpin was an amazing narrator; see my review in AudioFile. (Random House Audio)
Deadline by Mira Grant -- Book 2 in the Newsflesh series wasn't quite as good as the first one (Feed), mostly because it had a slow buildup. Nonetheless, I still got caught up in the conspiracy theory aspects of this zombie story and I love the way the 2040s aren't really all that different from today. Well, except, of course, for the zombies. The ending! Now I have to read Book 3. Narrators Chris Patton and Nell Geisslinger make a good team; kicking up the action and the emotions. (Hachette Audio)
Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon -- This Prohibition Era story of two women who love and want to mother the same young girl just didn't do it for me. I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters. If I hadn't been listening for a freelance assignment, I would have bailed. Basically, I was bored. Narrator Rebecca Lowman was unable to keep my attention. (Penguin Audio)
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena -- A good twisty thriller that I easily got caught up in, despite there being no one to really root for. I give this a solid 3 stars; worth the read. Kirsten Potter did a nice job keeping me invested and setting the pace. (Penguin Audio)
Still listening to: Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson and read by multiple narrators -- Not as good as the first book in the Remnant Chronicles (Kiss of Deception) because there isn't much going on. I'm just more than halfway done and no real progress has been made. Plus there's the issue of a lingering love triangle. ARGH. (Listening Library)
Still reading: I Will Send Rain by Rae Meadows -- I have only a few chapters left but life got in the way. Hope to finish this excellent novel tonight. Love the story of a family trying to survive the Depression and Dust Bowl summer of 1934. Beautifully written with vivid characters and easy-to-visualize setting. (Henry Holt)
What's with reading this summer?
Judging
from my Twitter feed I am not alone in lamenting the slowdown in
reading over the last few weeks. First we had week-long, back-to-back
political conventions. Then, before we even had time to take a breath,
it was time for the Summer Olympics.What's a reader to do?
My
normal reading habits are to listen to an audiobook from the end of
work until we sit down to eat dinner. Then I typically have a couple of
hours for print/eReading until we cap off the evening with about an hour
of TV.
Because we've just had about four weeks of
nightly viewing, pretty much all my reading has been via audiobooks. I
am soooo freakin behind in my print reading!
I plan to spend
the next two weeks trying to make up some ground, but after Labor Day, I
think I'll just move on to fall. Discouraging, I know.
Here's what's left on my eReader for August. Not sure what I'll tackle first.
The Book by Keith Houston: The subtitle says it all: "A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time." (nonficiton; Norton).
Carousel Court by Joe McGinniss Jr.:
A much-praised story about a young couple who moves to southern
California only to find themselves struggling in the economic downturn.
Each secretly schemes to reverse their fortunes. (fiction; Simon
& Schuster)
How to Party with an Infant by Kaui Hart Hemmings:
This novel focuses on a single mother who tries to find her footing in
San Francisco by writing a cookbook and pretending she isn't upset that
the father of her child is about to marry another woman. (fiction; Simon
& Schuster)
Tell me Something Real by Calla Devlin:
This new adult novel is about three very different sisters who are
juggling college and early careers with caring for their gravely ill
mother. (fiction; Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
The French War Bride by Robin Wells:
Set in contemporary Louisiana with flashbacks to occupied France, this
book is about how two women, now elderly and once rivals, fared in the
postwar years. (historical fiction; Berkley)
The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe:
An exploration of the importance of speech as a driving force in human
cultural evolution. This is supposed to be controversial. (nonfiction;
Little, Brown)
Seven Skeletons by Lydia Pyne: A
look the evolution of humankind through the exploration of what we know
about the lifestyles of seven significant fossil hominids. Apparently
I'm reliving my former academic life. (nonfiction; Viking)
The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin by Stephanie Knipper:
Set in Kentucky, this is the story of two sisters and a young girl with
autism who has a special gift for healing. The book explores family,
being different, and making sacrifices. (fiction; Algonquin)
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.
I don't really want to think about the fact that two weeks from today it will already be September. How did that happen? On the other hand, I don't count summer over until after Labor Day so that means there's still plenty of time to get to the summer books I haven't read yet. Here are six that remain on my list. Have you read any of them and can you recommend them? Which ones call to you?
Contemporary Life Around the World
Could
you picture yourself as a pioneer woman? In 1884, at the age of
eighteen, Mary Mann Hamilton moved with her new husband to the muddy
wilderness of the Mississippi Delta to start a new life.
In the early 1880s my father brought his family from Missouri down into the wild country of Arkansas that was just beginning to settle up. The Kansas City and Memphis [Railway] was just being graded through, and trains were running only as far as the little sawmill town of Sedgwick, so there we stopped to wait until the road was completed into the prairie country near Jonesboro, where my father expected to buy a home. Within a week he took pneumonia and three days later died, leaving my mother and six children stranded and helpless in a strange country.—Trials of the Earth by Mary Mann Hamilton (Little, Brown, 2016, p. 3)
It's
the Olympics! What does that have to do with reading? It means that
instead of reading I've been watching sports. On the other hand, it
doesn't mean that books aren't top-most on my mind.
I've
been taking advantage of Olympics coverage to take a journey through my
bookshelves. I've talked about culling books a couple of times before (the pain, the hows), and I've also talked about book database apps (check this out).
Here's what I did last week and what I'll be doing this coming week: Culling books and changing my book database to Libib.
For several years, my dream has been to have my unread
print books, eBooks, and audiobooks in a single, searchable place. (I'm not
concerned about the books I've read because I have a record here on Beth
Fish Reads, over on Litsy, and via various freelance reviewing gigs.) My
trouble has always been that when it comes time to pick my next book, I
have to check too many places to see my available choices.
Although
it sounds incredibly painful, I've decided to give up on LibaryThing
and GoodReads and commit to Libib. Yes, I'm going to rescan all my unread print books and enter all my unread eBooks and unlistened to audiobooks into a single private database.
Why
do I like Libib? Two things: I can see the publisher's summary without a
zillion mouse clicks and I can perform easy searches. It's all in the
custom tags, which I can create based on the way I choose my next read:
genre, audience, and medium (as well as publishing date and diversity
issues). I love that Libib allows me to easily search my entire TBR
based on my current mood, whether that's a contemporary YA audiobook, a
middle grade fantasy print book, or an adult thriller eBook.
I
plan to be done entering all my print books by the end of the Olympics.
It'll take me another couple of weeks to add my eBooks to Libib, and by
the end of September I should be done with my audiobooks. I hope all my
book stack dreams will come true just as the weather changes, the nights
become longer, and I'm ready to tackle my TBR with a vengeance.
Wish me luck.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.
Being sick, it turns out, is an education in the art of guesting. I didn't see it that way at the time, likely because I didn't know that there were important things still to learn. . . .Published by Avery, 2015
A good guest allows herself to be hosted. That means saying, "yes, please," when you're offered a cup of tea instead of rushing to get it yourself. It means staying in your chair, enjoying good company and your first glass of wine while your host ladles soup into bowls. . . . To allow her to take care of you is to allow your host her generosity. I'd always been too distracted by my own desire to be useful to understand this. I got it now.
Catching up with some short reviews today, all in my current summer favorites of fantasy and thriller.
Parents, Watch Your Children
What
if you joined a much-too-large college women's club, becoming one of thousands of rape
victims? Emily, daughter of the university's president, isn't
sure what to do after she has been sexually assaulted after attending a
frat party.
The guy had beautiful white teeth and a dimple that appeared when she made him laugh, but all Emily could think of was, College is where romance goes to die.—The Last Good Girl by Allison Leotta (Touchstone, 2016, opening page)
They stood on prime real estate, belly-up to the bar at Lucky's, pressed together by the swell of bodies around them.
How can it be August already? Time to pack the bags and head off on
vacation to escape the summer heat. Along with your bathing suit, sun
block, and beach chair, don't forget a stash of books. Here are a half
dozen new thrillers; look for them at a bookstore near you.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.
Every
time I think about getting a handle on the books that live in my house,
I also think about my relationship with books and reading. I find the
thinking about books to be way easier than the culling, organizing, and
prioritizing.
In fact, I had planned on going through
my bookshelves a few days ago because I need to get the stacks of books
off the floor. Instead, I put on an audiobook and did something else.
Right before I started that audiobook, I had the following random bookish thoughts.
1. I used to save every book I read, whether
I liked the story or not. Over the years, I've become very selective
about what I keep. Granted, I still have piles of books all over the
house plus overstuffed bookshelves. For some odd reason, though, I
perceive myself as being ruthless about culling books.
2. I'm a polygamous reader.
As a foundation, I always have a print book, an audiobook, and an eBook
in my rotation. In addition, I likely have a science book, a fat book,
and an "Oh look it's shiny and new" book in progress. More often than
not I finish all the books I start, but I don't worry about it too much.
3. I used to finish every book
I started, even if I didn't like it. Now I have no problem whatsoever
abandoning books that don't call me. This is different from those books
that somehow get pushed to the side for the new and shiny (see point 2).
4. I go through years-long stages of being yea or nay about writing in books. This summer, I've suddenly begun to write directly in my books again. It's kind of fun.
5. I used to never read a mystery series out of order. Now I'm not so picky and will read anything in the crime / thriller / mystery genre regardless of series installment.
6. That said, for almost every other genre, I'm a strict in-order reader. Curses to all those damn trilogies.
7. I love surprises. I've read books based on the title or cover or author alone. It's exciting to go into a book totally blind. What's more, I never
read the author's note or the foreword until I've finished the book. I
really don't understand people who read the end first (these people, I
am told, actually exist).
8. My eyes/ears are always bigger than the time
I actually have to read/listen. I buy books and accept review books
with all the sincerest intentions in the world. Reality sinks in every
day, but I still remain full of hope.
9. I was quick to adapt to electronic editing, but I've struggled with eReading. I can't figure out why. Still, I make sure an eBook is always in my rotation (see point 2).
10. I used to write thoughtful, insightful, long book reviews of every book I read. Now I post a few thoughts on Litsy and do quick reviews here. I'm hoping my mojo returns.
11. On the other hand, I have no trouble writing reviews for freelance assignments. Perhaps the deadlines or money is a motivator.
12. On the third hand, I find I love writing round-ups and spotlights and features. Which is great because . . . well, see point 8.
13. I have mixed feelings about book acquisition. A day without new books makes me very sad, but a day with new books can be a little stressful--where to store them, when to read them, how to write about them.
14. I still buy books (see point 13). No matter how many review copies I get there will always be other books I just have to own.
15. I still use the library (see point 13). No matter how many books I own, there will always be books I want to read but don't want to save.
16. My books are basically not organized--not by genre, or series, or author, or color. Yet I can (almost) always find what I want when I want it.
17. Sometimes I question my sanity.
What
would you do if the mother who abandoned you decades ago made national
news after being arrested for protesting at a political rally? Would you
come to her rescue? Samuel Anderson, English professor and online gamer
decides to help his mother, which leads him to uncover family secrets.
If Samuel had known his mother was leaving, he might have paid more attention. He might have listened more carefully to her, observed her more closely, written certain crucial things down. Maybe could have acted differently, spoken differently been a different person.—The Nix by Nathan Hill (Penguin Random House, Knopf, 2016, p. 3)
Maybe he could have been a child worth sticking around for.
Most of you know that I'm a big book to movie fan, thus I'm really looking forward to Indignation (James Schamus, screenwriter and director), which opened in select theaters over the weekend. It's based on a Philip Roth book of the same name (published in 2008) and is set in 1951.
In an attempt to escape his kosher butcher father and getting drafted to serve in Korea, Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman) accepts a scholarship to a small conservative college in Ohio. There he is harassed by the dean (Tracy Letts) and falls for a girl with a troubled past (Sarah Gadon).
Themes are religion and anti-Semitism, sexuality, standing up for what you believe in, facing the consequences of adulthood, family and -- of course -- young love.
I haven't read the book yet, but it's been on my radar since it was published, and the excellent cast has put the movie on my must-see list. Lerman also starred in Perks of Being a Wallflower and Gadon was in the Hulu miniseries 11.22.63. Letts is a Tony Award winner, and Danny Burstein and Linda Emond were both nominated for Tonys.
The New York Times called the movie "tremendous," and it garnered positive reviews at Sundance. When I look at the stills and the trailer, my guess is that the period details and costumes are going to be great. Plus I'm curious about how the Korean War plays into the plot; it's a war that doesn't often appear in American movies and novels.
Take a look at the official trailer:
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