Category / want to read

by Sharlene

My Readathon Stack!

dewey

Oh it is coming up so quick! With all the ruckus about the house and the doings of usual things I nearly forgot. Dewey’s Readathon is almost here! 

I’ve managed to put together a bit of a pile. Unfortunately it is largely a digital pile of e-books so no photos of towering stacks of bookish deliciousness here. Still, I think some of these covers are drool-worthy.
Well thanks to my free trial at Scribd, plenty of comics!

One of the first things I started reading was Ms Marvel by Brian Reed. I loved Ms Marvel by G Willow Wilson – confusing right? Essentially Reed’s Ms Marvel is Carol Danvers, a blondie who has Tony Starks on speed dial and has people like Captain America drop in. Her superpower is the ability to absorb energy and project it as photons. Wilson’s Ms Marvel is Kamala Khan, a teenage Pakistani American with shapeshifting abilities. Also Danvers’ costume is pretty much a very high cut swimsuit with a ridiculous red sash that doesn’t do anything. Oh and thigh high boots. Khan’s costume is far less scanty and looks more practical. Just look at the difference between those two covers. They are very different reads. Unfortunately, Kamala Khan isn’t available on Scribd so I’m still on hold for the next issue at my library!

Other comics I’ve added to my Readathon virtual stack

Everything by Jeff Lemire that’s available. Because I’ve heard good stuff and my library doesn’t have it.

lumberjanes4

Lumberjanes #4 to #7. My library’s Overdrive collection had #1 – 3 so I’m determined to read the rest

Some interesting looking graphic novels by European artists
abelard
Abelard – Renaud Dillies, Régis Hautière
enchantment
An Enchantment – Christian Durieux
Then I saw Spike! I love the Buffy series – and the comics were fun to read. I never quite finished watching Angel though… one day! But Spike! Oh he is so much fun. Hopefully the comics are too.
spike
Spike: Asylum – Brian Lynch, Franco Urru

Some new-to-me graphic novels that had interesting covers

dearbelovedstranger
Dear Beloved Stranger – Dino Pai

lovecapes
Love and Capes series – Thomas F. Zahler

blue

Blue – Pat Grant

woods
The Woods series – James Tynion IV, Michael Dialynas

And there are still many more. Too many to list!

 

And because I can’t just read comics all day- ok so I really can but just in case I’m in the mood for something else, I have two fun (non-comic) reads. Also e-books, from the library. Did I mention that I really like e-books? I love visiting the library but it’s not quite so easy to browse the adult section when there’s a 4-year-old and an almost-2 in tow…!

 

cress

Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3) – Marisa Meyer

 

somedaysomeday

Someday, Someday, Maybe – Lauren Graham

I’m guessing that is plenty, plenty, plenty.

Are you readathon-ing? What have you got on your readathon pile? 

Oh hey if you’re interested in checking out Scribd, here’s a link to a free two-month trial. If you use my link to sign up, I get a free month myself. It’s a win-win!

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by Sharlene

Top ten books on my spring TBR list

toptentuesThis week’s Top Ten Tuesday from The Broke and the Bookish is:

Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR List

 

 

On my list are some books that are currently on my bookshelf – hopefully this list will propel me to actually read them soon:

 

Inheritance by Balli Kaur Jaswal
My sister gave this to me for Christmas. It’s set in Singapore between the 1970s and 1990s.

The Making of a Marchioness (Emily Fox-Seton #1) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
My sister-in-law gave me this two Christmases ago! I really ought to get to this one soon.

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
I bought this at a library book sale a couple of years ago. This is hopefully the year that it will get read!

Then, some new comics:

 

Edward Scissorhands #1 – Kate Leth, Drew Rausch (Artist)
First saw this on Andi’s blog. I was so excited to hear about a comic sequel to the movie!

March Book Two by John Robert Lewis, Andrew Aydin (Goodreads Author), Nate Powell (Artist)
I loved the first book and can’t wait to read this second one about Congressman John Lewis

The Sculptor – Scott McCloud
I keep hearing good things about this one!

 

And last, a mix of books old(ish) and new:

 

The Rice Mother – Rani Manicka
Set in Ceylon and Malaysia. One book I’ve been meaning to read for a few years. I’ve just requested it from the library so I’m definitely going to read it this spring!

The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell
I feel like I’ve been on hold for this book for ages! I’m almost there I can feel it! (Ok so it’s more like the Overdrive app is telling me I’m Hold Number 2 now)

We are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
Also something I’ve been waiting to read for a while. Finally got my copy!

The Life of a Banana – P.P. Wong
On the Women’s Prize for Fiction long list. Plus she’s from Singapore, or rather, her parents were and she was born in London.

What’s on your TBR list this spring?

by Sharlene

Reading the Tournament of Books long list in January

The Morning News’ Tournament of Books long list was released sometime last month. I’ve always enjoyed following along with the tournament brackets, commentary and results, although with little idea of what most of the books are like because, well, I usually haven’t read any of the contenders.

This year, though, I’m hoping to read some of them, and I realized that somehow I’ve already read some on the long long list. Of course they’re not all going to make it to the tournament brackets but I’m going to try as best as I can to spend the month of January reading from this list.

So here’s the list, I’ve crossed out the books I’ve already read and have bolded in maroon the ones I’ve already requested from my library or its e-book catalogue. Those in green are those I hope to get to in January as well and are kind of my guesses for the shortlist. 

Which ones have you read or hope to read?

  • The Fever by Megan Abbott
  • Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya
  • The Intimidator Still Lives in Our Hearts by Gary Amdahl
  • Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball
  • Ruby by Cynthia Bond (my thoughts)
  • Women by Chloe Caldwell
  • A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall by Will Chancellor
  • Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle
  • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (currently reading)
  • The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck
  • The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
  • Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
  • The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
  • Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford
  • The Secret Place by Tana French
  • American Innovations by Rivka Galchen
  • Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
  • An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
  • The Peripheral by William Gibson
  • Friendship by Emily Gould
  • Tigerman by Nick Harkaway
  • The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez
  • Wittgenstein Jr by Lars Iyer
  • A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
  • The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson
  • The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit by Graham Joyce
  • Euphoria by Lily King
  • Redeployment by Phil Klay
  • My Struggle: Book Three by Karl Ove Knausgård
  • Nobody Is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey
  • California by Edan Lepucki
  • 10:04 by Ben Lerner
  • People Park by Pasha Malla
  • Bedrock Faith by Eric Charles May
  • The Children Act by Ian McEwan
  • Our Secret Life in the Movies by Michael McGriff and J.M. Tyree
  • The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi
  • The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
  • Florence Gordon by Brian Morton
  • Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
  • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
  • Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
  • Alphabet by Kathy Page
  • Reunion by Hannah Pittard
  • Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell
  • Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
  • Lila by Marilynne Robinson
  • Dan by Joanna Ruocco
  • Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn
  • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
  • Adam by Ariel Schrag
  • Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
  • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer
  • Some Luck by Jane Smiley
  • The Vacationers by Emma Straub
  • Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel by Anya Ulinich
  • Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance) by Jeff VanderMeer
  • The Free by Willy Vlautin (my thoughts)
  • The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (my thoughts)
  • Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
  • All the Birds Singing by Evie Wyld
  • The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink
by Sharlene

List of Lists

December brings a bit of panic. The year is ending! How is that possible! Christmas is coming! What am I going to get this person and that person? Order presents for my family in Singapore! Send Christmas cards! Quick! We have Christmas stockings but nowhere to hang them!

And more importantly, all these book lists that keep appearing every day! I want to read them all! But I haven’t even read ALL THE BOOKS from 2013 yet. Let alone 2012 and the years before!

But I am a sucker for lists and I keep opening the links and going through the books mentioned anyway.

So I’m going to add links here in case you’re into that sort of thing too…

Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2014

Goodreads Choice Awards winners

NPR’s Best Books (some 250 titles!)

Amazon Best Books (100 titles)

Huffington Post Best Books

Wall Street Journal’s list

Slate’s underrated books

Kirkus Review’s list

Library Journal

From the UK:

The Telegraph’s best fiction

The Guardian’s best fiction ; best SF;

Also from The Guardian, writers like Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood pick their favourite reads of the year  (part two is here)

The Independent’s list

 

Children’s books
Association for Library Service to Children’s notable books

SF and Fantasy

Not a ‘best of’ list but a pretty good one: Tor.com’s standalone fantasy/SF novels

 

 

 

by Sharlene

My Readathon stack

dewey

Wow how did we get to another Readathon already?

This time though, I’ve signed up early and am getting my stack ready.

My goal for the readathon is to get one book read. And to visit some blogs and see what everyone is up to. I’m keeping my expectations low as I’ll be by myself with the littles for most of the morning.  I might try to do some picture- and board-book readathon-ing if they’ll let me. The 3-year-old would be happy to read with me, especially if he’s got his pile of Cars (as in yes, the Pixar movie) books and various other vehicles books. The 17-month-old likes certain books, like those with babies or cats, and some that have trains and airplanes. But he won’t sit still for long so it’s harder with him!

I have way too many books to read! But it’s just so much fun thinking up all those possibilities for my readathon stack.

ironring

The Iron Ring – Lloyd Alexander (kidlit)
Strangers in Paradise #2 – #6 – Terry Moore (Graphic novels)

Plus I’m still far far from the halfway point in Drood!

Some e-books

Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins (YA)
The Lady Astronaut of Mars – Mary Robinette Kowai (a novelette – SF)
The Dead in their Vaulted Arches (Flavia de Luce #6) – Alan Bradley (Crime/mystery/YA)
My year of meats – Ruth Ozeki (fiction)
And GAAHHH! my hold on the library e-book of Sarah Waters’ Paying Guests just came in! Ok I don’t really know which one to read now….What would you read first?

Are you taking part in the readathon? What are you looking forward to most?

 

 

by Sharlene

Man Booker 2014 Longlist

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, Joshua Ferris (Viking)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan (Chatto & Windus)
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Serpent’s Tail)
The Blazing World, Siri Hustvedt (Sceptre)
J, Howard Jacobson (Jonathan Cape)
The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth (Unbound)
The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell (Sceptre)
The Lives of Others, Neel Mukherjee (Chatto & Windus)
Us, David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Dog, Joseph O’Neill (Fourth Estate)
Orfeo, Richard Powers (Atlantic Books)
How to be Both, Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
History of the Rain, Niall Williams (Bloomsbury)

As usual, I have yet to read any of these books. But I have had quite a few of them on my TBR list, like those by Richard Flanagan, Karen Joy Fowler, David Mitchell.

How about you?

by Sharlene

Things to love this Wednesday

Now how did most of the day go by already?

It’s Wednesday! The weekend’s going to be here soon, or perhaps not soon enough!. Wee Reader’s preschool lets out tomorrow and this marks the end of his first ever preschool year! He’s grown from that overly cautious, unsure 2.5-year-old who was still being potty trained (SO many days in which he came out of school with a bag of wet clothes!!) to being completely diaper-free, more confident, happy to go to school (most days) 3.5-year-old! He’s learnt all sorts of important things like how to hold a pencil/crayon properly, put on his shoes, jackets, pants and underwear (the tops are a bit trickier), songs and rhymes, and things that surprise me like how he nods and says ‘yes’ when he’s listening to a story and peeing standing up (!). I put him in school last year mostly because I wasn’t sure if I could handle two kids under three by myself so I’ve been pleasantly surprised by all these little changes I see in him.

Anyhow, here’s what I’ve been loving lately:

populaire-deborah-francois
Populaire – a 2012 French film that’s currently streaming on Netflix. It’s set in the 1950s and features speed typing!

This very summery snap pea, watermelon and edamame salad! from Joy the Baker

I am so craving a milkshake right now, thanks to these ice-cream-sandwich milkshakes from Bake at 350

The Millions’ post on the most anticipated releases for the second half of 2014. These kinds of posts just make me sigh and wish I had more time to read. Because I so want to read SO MANY of these books. David Mitchell! Sarah Waters! Hilary Mantel! Christos Tsiolkas!

Added to my TBR list: On Black Sister Street by Chika Unigwe thanks to Me, You and Books

An article on the art of the opening sentence from The Millions

Ok all that talk about food is making me hungry. Plus the house smells great thanks to the beef stew that is in the slow cooker. It’s currently got beef, onions, cabbage, garlic, tomato paste, star anise, cloves, cinnamon bark, coriander roots, a bit of soy sauce and fish sauce in it. I’ll be adding carrots and potatoes a little later. But meanwhile I’m hungry! I think I’ll go for some crackers and brie.

What are you snacking on today?