Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Words/Topics That Make Me Run For The Hills

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week.

This week’s theme is Top Ten Words/Topics That Will Make You NOT pick up a book. I can’t necessarily say that there are ten words that are absolute no-nos for me, but here are a few words and general concepts that will pretty much guarantee that a book isn’t for me. (And of course, I absolutely reserve the right to change my mind at a moment’s notice!)

1) Legal thriller/courtroom drama: Mostly, these just put me to sleep. I’ve read some Scott Turow and John Grisham, but I’m done now, thanks.

2) Shopping/”shopoholic”: I just can’t stand fiction that makes me feel like I’m reading an issue of Vogue or W. No name dropping of designer brands, please! No catwalks, no models, no fashion. Not for me, especially not in my reading.

3) Baking/Cupcakes: What’s with all those books with cutesie dessert themes? I love to eat (especially desserts!), but I’m not a foodie. I don’t want to read about people’s cooking and baking habits in my fiction.

4) Angels: First it was vampires, then werewolves, then a host of other supernatural beings, but it seems that angels have been getting more and more popular in YA fiction over the last several years… and I have no interest at all.

5) Brides: Nope, I don’t want to read fiction where the sole focus is on wedding planning, getting engaged, or landing Mr. Right.

6) Academia: Novels set in universities, dealing with interdepartmental struggles, fights for tenure, etc just don’t appeal to me. Unless there’s a twist, as in A Discovery of Witches or The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane — in which case, scholarly research totally works!

7) “My year of”: It seem like half the non-fiction titles that get lots of attention are versions of “My Year Of…” — my year of following the Bible, my year of reading self-help books, my year of not spending money, on and on.

8) “The Next”: This is really more a complaint about marketing than about the books themselves, but I wish publishers would stop blurbing new books with the phrase “the next” — as in “the next Harry Potter!” or “the next Twilight!” or “the next Hunger Games!”. When I see those words on a book cover, I just think that the publisher/marketer must be kind of desperate. Let it stand on its own! Books billed this way almost never live up to the hype, and it’s not fair to expect them to.

9) Heinous crimes/serial killers/grisly murders: My tolerance for reading about hideous, violent crime has shrunken to almost nil. It’s not that I need everything neat and rose-colored, and I don’t mind reading about awful events if it’s in the service of an amazing plot. But I will just never be drawn to a book that’s strictly a police procedural plotline.

10) Covers like these:

Kiss of Snow (Psy-Changeling, #10) Changing the Game (Play by Play, #2) The Duke of Shadows To Tame A Highland Warrior (Highlander #2)

No bare chests on my books. ‘Nuff said.

I realize that this list makes me sound like a big curmudgeon. But truthfully, it was a lot easier putting together a list of words/topics that are my “yesses”! Are any of my turn-offs on your list this week? Or do you love any of the ones that I hate? Share your thoughts in the comments!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

22Jul2013

The Monday Agenda 7/22/2013

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Not a lofty, ambitious to-be-read list consisting of 100+ book titles. Just a simple plan for the upcoming week — what I’m reading now, what I plan to read next, and what I’m hoping to squeeze in among the nooks and crannies.

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway or became a new follower this week! It’s been so much fun celebrating my 1st blogoversary with you!

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Mist (Mist, #1) Gorgeous

Mist by Susan Krinard: Done! My review is here.

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick: Done! My review is here.

Reading with the kiddo: Sailing ahead with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis. We have about four chapters to go. Excellent!

Fresh Catch:

A few new ARCs this week:

… plus I ended up buying myself a copy of this book, after missing the archive date for the review copy:

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

I’m just past the halfway point of The Book of Secrets by Elizabeth Joy Arnold — and loving it. In fact, I’m having to force myself to put it down to work on this post and take on other mundane tasks like paying the bills. 🙂

Next up, a review copy of If I Ever Get Out Of Here by Eric Gansworth, a YA book that sounds great!

And, ever ambitious, I hope to find time for one more book from my shelves– most likely Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys.

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

And don’t forget: Read what makes you happy! That’s my mantra these days… so:

21Jul2013

Book Review: Mist by Susan Krinard

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: Mist by Susan Krinard

Mist (Mist, #1)

Mist is a mix of urban fantasy and Norse mythology. For me, the combination — at least as presented here — just doesn’t work.

After a promising prologue set in a snowy wasteland along a Norwegian border during World War II, the action jumps to modern day San Francisco — and the story falls apart from there.

Main character Mist is a Valkyrie, who after the final great battle of the gods is left to wander Earth protecting one of Odin’s treasures. She’s beautiful (of course!), can kick butt, and is burdened with a tremendous sense of both guilt and responsibility. After keeping a low profile for decades, Mist starts noticing odd signs and portents, as well as bizarrely cold weather, and soon discovers that Midgard (Earth) is under assault by frost giants, the Jotunar. Perhaps the old world isn’t quite as dead as Mist believed, but there’s no time to sit and ponder. Attacks on Mist and her associates begin to multiply, and before long Mist realizes that Midgard may well become little more than the next battleground for a mighty confrontation of the Aesir, the Norse pantheon of gods and goddesses.

Mist lives in San Francisco, training with swords and working on her fighting skills, until all hell breaks loose when the frost giant Hrimgrimir and an unexpected elf show up in her world. From this point forward, Mist spends most of her time racing around the city, getting into fights, assembling a team of allies, and figuring out who she can count on — and which people are not as trustworthy as they seem. There’s tons of action, confrontations, emotional scenes of betrayal and alliances… but I don’t know, it was incredibly difficult to follow.

So why didn’t I enjoy this book? Several obvious problems, for starters.

Problem 1: The first several chapters read like one gigantic info-dump. The exposition is jam-packed with names and details, and if you’re not already familiar with Odin, Freya, Valkyries, Einherjar, Aesir, Ragnarok — and on and on — you may find your eyes glazing over, as mine did. Meanwhile, I couldn’t stop my thoughts from straying to these guys:

Note: Thor does not make an appearance in Mist, although he does get name-dropped. Still, talk to me about Norse mythology and Odin, and this is where my brain goes. And Loki? Yes, he’s quite important in Mist — and despite the author’s descriptions that seem to indicate otherwise, every time I read about Loki, I picture Tom Hiddleston.

Problem 2: So what exactly are Mist’s powers? What are the rules? She can guard the Treasures, but not use them? She can be hurt, but she can heal, so is she immortal? She’s strong, but can be defeated in battle — can she be killed? She can use runes, and apparently has access to all sorts of magic, but she’s less powerful than some and more powerful than others. And what about the rest of the Norse mythological characters who show up? Same questions apply, and not all answers are clear. In order for me to get behind Mist as the hero of the story and really care about her struggles and her fate, I have to feel that I understand her… and I don’t. Magical worlds are great, but it’s important to get a sense of the rules of the magic involved if the world is to be convincing. It was practically impossible to tell what each character’s limits and powers are, so that their stories seemed a bit arbitrary to me, changing or discovering new magical talents as the need arose in the story.

Problem 3: One thing that drove (ha! you’ll see) me batty was that the author seemed to be trying to prove that she really knows San Francisco by constantly providing a turn-by-turn set of directions every time Mist had to get from place A to place B:

Without really thinking about her destination, Mist turned north on Third Street and left on Sixteenth Street toward Golden Gate Park on the other side of the city… She parked along Lincoln Way, got out of the car, and entered the park from Nineteenth Avenue.

And a few chapters later:

She pressed the Volvo to its limits, reaching eighty as the car crossed over Highway 101. She flew along the Embarcadero Freeway and raced down the Twentieth Street exit ramp. She screeched right on Twentieth, crossed Third on a yellow light, and made a hard right on Illinois.

Thanks, but I have a GPS for that.

Mist is supposedly the first book in a series, and so it doesn’t end with a definitive conclusion. Instead, the final section of the book mostly deals with team-building, as Mist assembles allies to join her in the coming fight against Loki and whatever array of baddies will join him in the fight to take over Midgard.

Overall, the book felt like all plot with no strong underpinnings of character or context. I generally enjoy urban fantasy, but didn’t feel that I had enough to go on with Mist. The characters seemed too vaguely defined, and therefore unknowable. Interestingly, Loki was the only character I felt I could get a handle on; he’s a trickster, he’s scheming and manipulative, and that’s something that remains consistent throughout the book. Without the ability to really understand Mist herself or her allies, it was hard to invest in the story.

I’m sure that there are readers who will have a very different opinion of Mist than I did. People already conversant with the names and terminology pertaining to Norse mythology may not mind the unwieldy exposition and info-dumping — and may not need to refer back to Wikipedia and D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths as often as I did. Plus, fans of urban fantasy may enjoy the many fight scenes and chase scenes that compose much of the plot.

For me, the truth is that I had to struggle to finish reading Mist, and if not for the fact that I’d received this as a review copy, I might have walked away after the first few chapters. I stuck with it to see if it would get any better — sadly, I never felt that the story really built into anything I could connect with or invest in, and by the end I was just reading it for the sake of finishing.

Disclaimer: Review copy courtesy of Macmillan-Tor/Forge via NetGalley. I received this review copy in exchange for an honest review.

20Jul2013

Book Review: Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

I’ll be honest: When I first heard about Gorgeous, I was quite skeptical about the chances that I’d actually like it. I mean — magical dresses? The fashion world? Um, no.

Fortunately, I decided to check it out anyway, and to see for myself what all the buzz was about. And I’m happy that I did. Gorgeous is definitely about inner beauty, the traps that fame can bring, and finding out who you are and what you want. It’s sweet and funny all at the same time, and never drags for a second.

So what’s it all about? In a nutshell:

Becky Randle, age 18, grew up in a trailer park in Missouri. As Gorgeous opens, Becky’s reclusive, morbidly obese mother has just died, and Becky is left on her own. Becky has never had what you’d call confidence — she’s self-conscious about her looks and her economic status, and mostly moves through life with her head down, trying not to be noticed. Becky considers herself plain and mousy, and nobody really disagrees with her on that. Her one true friend, Rocher (yes, named for the chocolates!) is her biggest supporter, but Becky is absolutely adrift after her mother’s death…

…until she finds a mysterious phone number hidden away amongst her mother’s belongings, calls it, and is invited to New York, all expenses paid, where some sort of secret — or perhaps an opportunity — will be revealed. Before her death, Becky’s mother made her make a promise:

“[S]omething is going to happen to you. And it’s going to be magical.”

She was gripping my hand very tightly and looking right into my eyes. “And it might be scary and you might not know what it means, not at first. But it’s going to change your life, forever. And Becky, I want you to swear to me, because I love you so much, and because you deserve everything, you deserve the whole world, so Becky, when the magic shows up — I want you to say yes.”

So Becky says yes, and finds herself in New York in the secret compound of mysterious superstar designer Tom Kelly, who offers Becky a deal: He’ll make her three dresses, which she’ll wear when and where he dictates, and in return, he’ll make her the most beautiful woman in the world. Becky decides to take a chance — it’s that or go back to Missouri and spend her time as a supermarket cashier — and thanks to a magnificent red dress and some killer shoes, is in fact tranformed into Rebecca Randle. Rebecca really is the most beautiful woman in the world, and becomes an instant superstar. One catch? She’s still Becky on the inside. So long as other people are with her, Becky sees Rebecca when she looks in the mirror — but alone, she sees plain old Becky, who still has lank, uncooperative hair and gains weight when Rebecca overindulges on sweets.

But wait! There’s a final condition to be met. Becky’s glamorous life as Rebecca will end after one year unless she manages to fall in love and get married before the year is up. Becky is, of course, a little angry about this requirement — really, marry at age 18? But life as Rebecca is a non-stop whirlwind full of celebrities, special treatment, and all the attention she could ever want. Everything is possible, and after a chance encounter, Becky decides to aim high: She decides that she’ll marry Prince Gregory, heir to the British throne — and a nice, funny, adorable guy to boot.

Needless to say, complications upon complications ensue. Can Rebecca really be accepted by the royal family and the British people? Can she pull this off before the year is up? And wait — it’s not enough to just get married. Can Rebecca really have fallen in love with Prince Gregory, or is this just the next natural step on her meteoric rise to fame and fortune?

Enough with the plot details! I won’t give anything else away. Gorgeous is a delight to read, in so many ways. Author Paul Rudnick is a deft writer, putting words in Becky’s mouth that actually feel right for an 18-year-old girl. Becky has a terrific sense of humor, and even as beautiful Rebecca, it’s when she lets her inner Becky out — full of snark and wit — that she’s most likeable and captivating.

I won’t say how the royal pursuit turns out… but much of it hinges on Becky’s dilemma. If Prince Gregory does in fact fall for her, how can she ever know if it’s really the true Becky he loves? Would he love her if she didn’t look like Rebecca? And if she can get everything she dreams of, will it really make her happy if it’s all based on a false face and body?

Becky is a fabulous character. She’s a daughter who loves and cherishes her mother, and it’s her commitment to her mother’s memory — as well as the promise of answers to the mystery of her mother’s life — that drives Becky forward and motivates her to stick with the crazy life offered by Tom Kelly. Becky is smart and wickedly funny, and sees Rebecca’s instant power and influence as a means to an end, hoping to model herself after her mother’s idol, the late Princess Alicia (this novel’s stand-in for Princess Diana) and use her worldwide celebrity to advance the causes of those who need help.

I loved Becky’s friendship with Rocher, who is crass, brash, and a constant supporter of Becky — despite her tendency to gush over celebrities and cause minor and major uproars at the nicest of events. Prince Gregory is a prince of a guy, and I could understand how Becky would fall — not just for his royalty and status but for his self-deprecating humor, compassion and caring.

Gorgeous is a lovely modern-day fairy tale. Yes, it does require quite a suspension of disbelief. (Magical dresses!!!) I’m not sure that the revelation of the hows and whys makes a whole lot of sense — but from an emotional point of view, it’s actually very sweet and moving. Ultimately, Becky has to decide for herself what kind of person she wants to be, and whether having outer beauty is worth the sacrifice of being herself. There’s a strong message in Gorgeous about the downside of celebrity and the rewards of honesty, without every being trite or hokey. And as a parent myself, I appreciated how central the role of family is in this story. Ultimately, it’s Becky’s mother’s love for her that drives the action of this story, and Becky finds her own answers and acceptance by understanding who her mother was and what she really wanted for her.

Gorgeous is aimed at the young adult market, but I’d have no hesitation in recommending this smart, funny book to teens and adults. Check it out! It’ll definitely make you laugh… and you might even find yourself a little teary-eyed along the way.

18Jul2013

Flashback Friday: A Town Like Alice

Posted in Flashback Friday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Flashback Friday is my own little weekly tradition, in which I pick a book from my reading past to highlight — and you’re invited to join in!

Here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

Has to be something you’ve read yourself
Has to still be available, preferably still in print
Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Join me, please, and let us all know: what are the books you’ve read that you always rave about? What books from your past do you wish EVERYONE would read? Pick something from five years ago, or go all the way back to the Canterbury Tales if you want. It’s Flashback Friday time!

My pick for this week’s Flashback Friday:

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

(first published 1950)

From Goodreads:

Nevil Shute’s most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.

Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. But it turns out that they have a gift for her as well: the news that the young Australian soldier, Joe Harmon, who had risked his life to help the women, had miraculously survived. Jean’s search for Joe leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals.

It’s hard to neatly sum up A Town Like Alice. Part of it is a moving, horrifying account of a death march during World War II, in which civilians women and children suffered and died. Great courage and sacrifice move the story forward, and this segment of the book concludes with terrible events and a tragic outcome. From there, the narrative moves into the story of a woman rebuilding her life, determined to make a difference, and not fitting the mold of a complacent, wealthy Englishwoman. The remainder of the book is filled with adventure, and is part frontier drama and part romance. That’s a lot to fit into a not particularly long book (the mass market paperback version is under 300 pages), but gifted author Nevil Shute pulls it off.

A Town Like Alice takes place in gorgeous, rough, wild settings include Malayan jungles and the Australian Outback. The characters are heroic and steely, and Jean herself is a delight. Nevil Shute’s writing conveys the terror of war and the triumph of human spirit. This is just a lovely, lovely book, and although it’s been many years since I read it, I remember certain parts of it quite vividly, and always list it among my favorites.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that way back when there was a TV mini-series of A Town Like Alice, with a very photogenic cast:

I have no idea if the TV series itself would be worth watching today or if it would feel tremendously dated, but I’m willing to bet that the book holds up quite nicely. If you’ve read it, let me know what you think!

Note from your friendly Bookshelf Fantasies host: To join the Flashback Friday fun, write a blog post about a book you love (please mention Bookshelf Fantasies as the Flashback Friday host!) and share your link below. Don’t have a blog post to share? Then share your favorite oldie-but-goodie in the comments section. Jump in!

17Jul2013

Thursday Quotables: Gorgeous

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

If you’d like to participate, it’s really simple:

Follow Bookshelf Fantasies, if you please!
Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now.
Link up via the linky below (look for the cute froggy face).
Make sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com).
Have fun!

This week’s Thursday Quotable:

By now I’d met tons of celebrities and almost none of them came even close to matching their magazine covers or baseball cards or ads for vitamin-infused bottled water. Queen Catherine, however, looked exactly and only like herself and I wanted to pull out a five-pound note and hold it up to her face just to check, and marvel at, the similarity and the Queen’s lack of vanity. She’d refused to have her nation’s money Photoshopped.

And one more, because I just can’t resist:

“The Crown Jewels,” said the prince, “and I don’t know why, but every time I say that I feel I should be unzipping my fly.”

LOL. This book cracks me up.

Source: Gorgeous
Author: Paul Rudnick
Scholastic Press, 2013

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

Link up, or share your quote of the week in the comments.

16Jul2013

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Wishlist Wednesday!

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Do a post about one book from your wishlist and why you want to read it.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My wishlist book this week is:

The Incrementalists by Steven Brust and Skyler White

From Goodreads:

The Incrementalists—a secret society of two hundred people with an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations, races, and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, just a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about how to do this is older than most of their individual memories.

Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else’s, has loved Celeste—and argued with her—for most of the last four hundred years. But now Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules—not incrementally, and not for the better. Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world.

Why do I want to read this?

Why wouldn’t I? It sounds like a blast. People who can trace their heritage back 40,000 years — plus, a love story! This book sounds odd and quirky and wonderful, all at the same time. The Incrementalists will be published by Tor Books in September.

I think this blurb by sci-fi writer John Scalzi (author of the hilarious Redshirts) sums it up better than I ever could:

Secret societies, immortality, murder mysteries and Las Vegas all in one book? Shut up and take my money.

What’s on your wishlist this week?

So what are you doing on Thursdays and Fridays? Come join me for my regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday! You can find out more here — come share the book love!

And don’t miss out on my blogoversary giveaway — open for a few more days…

15Jul2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Authors Who Deserve More Recognition

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week.

This week’s theme is Top Ten Authors Who Deserve More Recognition. My top ten are:

1) Mary Doria Russell: I love everything she’s written, but my absolute favorite is and always will be her first novel, The Sparrow. I can never refrain from gushing about this book — so don’t get me started!

2) Nicole Peeler: If you enjoy urban fantasy, love feisty female lead characters, and a great sense of humor, check out this author’s recently completed Jane True series.

3) Lev AC Rosen: His first novel, All Men of Genius, was published in 2011, and has been on my list of favorites ever since I read it. The funny, complicated plot zooms along, filled with a steampunk sensibility and shades of Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde. Just delightful.

4) Octavia Butler: This amazing science fiction writer is no longer with us, but her impact on the genre and on literature in general should get much more attention than I think it does. Her work is often hard to take. Nothing is sugar-coated, nothing is prettied up. In books like Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, she presents a terribly bleak vision of a not-too-distant future. Still, I’ve read very little that matches the power of her writing, and I recommend Octavia Butler’s books to just about everyone.

5) Bee Ridgway: Debut author Bee Ridgway published one of my favorite books of 2013, The River of No Return, and I’ve been raving about it to anyone who’ll listen. If you enjoy historical fiction, time travel, and unforgettable characters, check it out!

6) Nancy Werlin: This author has written two of my favorite young adult books about faerie magic and curses, Impossible and Extraordinary. I’m eagerly awaiting the publication of her new book, Unthinkable, this fall.

7) Bill Willingham: Okay, Bill Willingham’s Fables series is wildly popular in the comics/graphic novels world, but people who don’t normally gravitate to that genre are missing out! Seriously, even if you don’t normally read graphic novels, give the Fables series a try. I know I was immediately hooked. With amazing depth, character development, and suspense, these books are truly remarkable.

8) Graham Joyce: I’m not sure how well known Graham Joyce is in the US, although I believe he’s quite successful in the UK. I fell in love with his 2010 novel, The Silent Land, and have been slowly working my way through more of his books since then.

9) Siobhan Fallon: As far as I know, this author has one book to her name, an incredibly powerful short story collection called You Know When The Men Are Gone. I don’t usually care for short stories at all, but I loved this book and recommend it every chance I get.

10) Robert Galbraith: LOL. If I’d written this list a week ago, you’d be justified in asking, “Robert who?” But in light of this week’s big reveal, I doubt that Robert Galbraith will lack for attention in the slightest!

Have you read any books by the authors on my list? If so, do you agree that he or she deserves more attention?

Thanks for stopping by! And don’t forget, it’s not too late to enter my blogoversary giveaway!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

15Jul2013

The Monday Agenda 7/15/2013

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This past week marked my 1st anniversary as a blogger! It’s been a blast! Don’t forget to enter my giveaway.

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Joyland by Stephen King: Done! My review is here.

Mist by Susan Krinard. Still working on it. To be honest, it feel likes a bit of a struggle not to “DNF” it, but I’m hoping I’ll feel differently if I just give it a bit more time.

Reading with the kiddo: We started The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis this week. Our Narnia adventure continues!

Fresh Catch:

Two new books this week, one from the library and one to keep:

Gorgeous Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

I hope to finish Mist by Susan Krinard shortly. I’m ready to move on!

I was looking forward to reading my review copy of The Book of Secrets by Elizabeth Joy Arnold — but due to either human error (blushing) or a technical problem (sure, blame the other guy!), it didn’t get “sent to Kindle” when I thought it did… and now it’s archived and unavailable. Le sigh. Trying to figure out how to get my hands on a copy.

Meanwhile, if that doesn’t work, I’ll dive into some YA fiction, starting with Gorgeous, and if there’s time, one of my summer TBR books — most likely Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys.

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

What I did on my summer vacation

Warning: A non-bookish post!

I took time away from Bookshelf Fantasies at the end of June to go on a 10-day vacation to Costa Rica. I had mentioned my plans here in the context of picking out my vacation reading (thanks for your help with that!), but since then I’ve had several blog readers ask me how the trip was and asking to see pictures. So, begging your indulgence, here’s a smattering of my favorite Costa Rica pictures. Bottom line: Big iguanas, lots of rain, howler monkeys in trees, terrific scenery, beautiful plants and growing things, plenty o’ birds, and even some crocodiles!