2015

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

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

What did I read last week?

After You by Jojo Moyes: Done! My review is here.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London: I listened to the audiobook this week. My review is here.

A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders: Sigh. Another week, another DNF. I read about 120 pages, but quit once I realized that I just wasn’t at all invested in the story. It wasn’t bad — just didn’t work for me.

Fresh Catch:

This week’s new arrivals:

All sorts of goodies! I’m so excited for the new Robert Galbraith book, even though it may be a few weeks before I actually sit down to read it.

I also received this:

I guess it’s time for me to join the adult coloring book craze! Although I’m almost scared to touch it. What if I color outside the lines? Kidding…

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

I’ve just started Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins, an upcoming young adult book with a time-slip plot device. I’m really liking it so far!

Now playing via audiobook:

Revisiting my childhood! Growing up in Connecticut, The Witch of Blackbird Pond was a must-read. It’s been many years since I first read this story, and I’m having a good time listening to the audiobook.

Ongoing reads:

My book group has been reading and discussing two chapters of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell per week since the early spring… and this week, we’ll be done. It’s been a wonderful read, thanks to the smart and insightful women I’ve had the pleasure of sharing it with. Stay tuned — I’ll be posting some wrap-up thoughts in the next week or so.

We’ve also been doing two chapters per week of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and will be done in early December. Not too shabby, for a book that’s over 1,400 pages in length!

So many book, so little time…

1Nov2015

Counting up the books: November update

Posted in The Reading Life by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Another month, another opportunity to take stock of my overflowing shelves!

In early September, I wrote a post called Counting Up the Books, in which I combined two things I love: BOOKS and NUMBERS.

I tallied up just how many unread books there are in my house, which gave me a rather scary number. My September book count looked like this:

$Book Math 1$

As of October, I’d made a smidge of progress, thanks in large part to culling and donating… and also, making the executive decision to leave the non-fiction books out of the count. Because, let’s face it, those non-fiction books are probably permanent fixtures on my shelves — nice to have, and maybe I’ll read them eventually, but for now — give me fiction! Here’s where I stood as of the beginning of October:

And here we are in November! I mostly added (shame on me!), but that’s okay. I had a busy month with not a lot of time to read, and I solemnly swear that I absolutely intend to read all of my new acquisitions!

Sigh. I added more than I subtracted… but I guess that’s the life of a book lover! Still, I’m excited to be focusing a bit more on my shelves, and I love that I’m finally getting to books that I’ve owned for a good long time already.

How are your shelves doing this month?

Don’t forget to join me for Shelf Control on Wednesdays, where we highlight books from our shelves that we really want to read!

31Oct2015

Thumbs Down: Generic Book Titles

Posted in The Reading Life by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Someone recently asked me what I was reading, and I was completely stuck for an answer. Not because I wasn’t reading anything at all, or because I wasn’t enjoying the book… I just couldn’t get the name right.

Title… title… I know I know it… argh…

There seems to be a plague of generic, repetitive-sounding book titles right now. Just looking back at my own books from my Goodreads shelves, I see:

What You Left Behind
The Girl You Left Behind
Those Left Behind
The Secrets We Left Behind
The Secrets We Keep

Plus a bunch about meeting, leaving, separating, missing…

When You Were Here
After I’m Gone
Before I Met You
Far From You
Until We Meet Again
Since You’ve Been Gone
The Last Time They Met
The Day We Met
The Next Time You See Me

To tell the truth, there’s:

The Truth About Us
All the Truth That’s In Me
The Truth About You and Me

More repetitions, patterns, and just general general-ness:

The Moment of Everything
The Theory of Everything
Maybe in Another Life
The Opposite of Maybe
Then and Always
The Here and Now

It’s not that these aren’t good books. Most are! But so many books have these bland, could-mean-anything titles — so when I look back at a list of book that I’ve read, I have a really hard time connecting these generic titles to a particular plot. Which is a shame, because in a real-life conversation without Google or Goodreads right in front of me, I’m stuck saying things like “that book I read about the boy with the dead parent” or “the one about the twin sisters” or some other unhelpful nonsense.

Do you have any book titles that you constantly mix up? Have you come across books with switchable, forgettable titles? Please tell me I’m not the only one who gets tripped up by interchangeable titles!

So. Much. Confusion.

31Oct2015

Audiobook Review: The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I’m so glad Audible featured The Call of the Wild as a daily deal recently; otherwise, I might have gone through life never having read this powerful, beautifully written book.

Shocking, I know, but I’d never read anything by Jack London, except for the short story “To Build A Fire” which I think pops up in pretty much everyone’s high school English anthology sooner or later.

The Call of the Wild is the story of Buck, a huge dog of Saint Bernard mixed descent. When we first meet Buck, he’s literally the top dog on a farm in Santa Clara, California. But a deceitful farm hand out for money steals Buck and sells him one night, and Buck ends up passed from hand to hand until he ends up in the snowy north. With his size and strength, Buck is sought after as a sled dog by the adventurous men heading off to the Yukon during the gold rush. Buck’s domesticity is left far behind, as he learns to heed his instincts and allow his inner fearless predator to take over.

The use of language in The Call of the Wild is outstanding. The descriptions of the rugged land, the struggles of men to survive without resources, and their foolhearty, often fatal journeys are intensely vivid. Best of all is Buck’s inner life. It’s not at all cutesy, and it’s not presented as though Buck himself is telling his story.

Instead, the omniscient narrator takes us through the evolving thought processes and emerging instincts that transform Buck over time from a tame farm animal into a true beast of the wild.

The narration of the audiobook is slow and steady, giving the words a stately, dignified feeling. There’s not much dialogue, and yet the narrator’s use of tone and inflection keeps the narrative from sagging or bogging down.

I found The Call of the Wild to be an engaging, enjoyable listen, and would like to either read or listen to some of London’s other adventure tales in the future.

A final word: Those who find animals-in-peril stories too painful to read should be warned that you may have a hard time with this book. Bad things do happen to Buck and many of the other dogs in the story, and it’s not pretty. I’m glad to have read it, but it won’t be for everyone.

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: The Call of the Wild
Author: Jack London
Narrator: John Lee
Publisher: Varied (many different editions in print)
Publication date: 1903
Audiobook length: 3 hours, 28 minutes
Printed book length: 208 pages
Genre: Fiction
Source: Audible

30Oct2015

Book Review: After You by Jojo Moyes

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I’m normally really diligent about keeping my reviews spoiler-free, but this one will be an exception.

After You is the sequel to the author’s huge bestseller, Me Before You. I don’t think I can talk about After You without referring to the events of the first book.

So — fair warning. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE SPOILERS FOR ME BEFORE YOU, DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW!

Seriously.

Walk away now.

You’ve been warned.

… end of psychotic spoiler warnings…

Moving on –

After You picks up the story of Louisa Clark two years after the tragic events which conclude Me Before You. In Me Before You, Louisa takes a job as a caregiver/companion to a quadriplegic man named Will Traynor, basically for the sake of a steady paycheck. Will is an angry young man, stuck in a wheelchair after a devastating accident, and he initially treats Louisa abominably.

Eventually, the two crack each others’ tough shells. Will delights in teaching Louisa about life outside the confines of her small town and in showing her how smart and talented she really can be. Louisa is horrified to learn that Will intends to take his own life rather than continue to live as a quadriplegic, and makes it her mission to convince him that life can still be wonderful. The two fall in love — but sadly, it’s just not enough to keep Will from the path he’s determined to take.

(See, I said there’d be spoilers.)

Two years later, Louisa is aimless, sad, and just going through the motions. Thanks to a bequest from Will, she traveled all across Europe, but came home when she realized it all meant nothing to her. Now she lives in a flat in London (also thanks to Will’s generosity), attends a grief support group, and works in a depressingly awful Irish-themed bar (complete with a ringlet-y wig) at the airport.

Louisa’s life takes a surprising turn when one night, in a drunken funk, she slips off the roof of her building, surviving the fall with broken bones and other injuries, none permanent. Two unexpected people enter Louisa’s life due to the fall — a hunky paramedic named Sam and a difficult, prickly teen girl named Lily… who announces to Louisa that she’s Will’s daughter.

Turns out that Will’s college girlfriend never told him she was pregnant, so he never had the chance to be a part of Lily’s life. Would Will have made different decisions if he knew about Lily?

Louisa takes Lily under her wing out of love for Will, both wanting to protect her for Will’s sake and, for her own sake, to hold onto the last little bit of Will left in the world. Lily’s entry into Louisa’s tightly controlled, dull, unfulfilling life basically rocks her world, and changes begin, slowly at first, until Louisa’s outlook and future are completely transformed.

Okay, enough synopsis. That’s the gist of After You. The real question readers will want to have answered is: Does After You live up to Me Before You?

In my opinion, the answer is yes… but adjust your expectations.

After You is a much quieter book than Me Before You. Me Before You was intensely dramatic, with life and death on the line, passionate love with everything at stake, and characters in absolutely extreme circumstances. I don’t know anyone who walked away from Me Before You with dry eyes.

After You is not that book. Instead, it’s thoughtful and serious, examining the life that’s left after the drama and tragedy have already gone by. Will’s dying wish was for Louisa to go out and live life to the fullest, and she really did try. But as we see in After You, the intention isn’t enough. Louisa took off for Paris to escape her grief, but life and grieving don’t work that way. She carried the pain with her wherever she went, so eventually there was no point in continuing to run.

What we see in After You is what loneliness and sorrow look like. There’s nothing sexy or glamorous about it. Louisa is living a very sad life when we first meet her in this book, and her lack of hope and disconnect from anyone who might actually care about her is distressing to see. And yet, I felt like it was all so real. Grief takes time. There’s no magic cure. Even meeting someone new doesn’t fix everything. It was so sad to see vibrant, rambunctious Louisa dressed in dull grey clothing and going through the motions, day after day.

Just as Louisa’s life picks up when Lily and Sam make their entrances, so too the tone of the novel picks up as well. The energy of the narrative reflects the slow return to life and purpose that Louisa goes through, building up steam and gaining more ups and downs, breaking out of the sad sameness of a depressed existence.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a big fan of Jojo Moyes’s books. I’m happy to find that After You is quite as good as some of her strongest works. It won’t “wow” people the way Me Before You did, but it does carry true emotion within its pages. This is the story of picking up the pieces, and that’s never going to be as stunning as the story of how the pieces broke in the first place (if that makes any sense).

People responded very, very strongly to Me Before You, and rightly so. Many readers cherished the idea of Louisa’s life being enriched by her short time with Will and being able to imagine her going on from there to having a life full of amazing experiences. For some, the realities of Louisa’s life in After You will be a letdown, bursting the bubble of a tragically romantic illusion. Before reading After You, I probably would have had the same vision of Louisa’s life, but I’m so pleased that After You set me straight.

Grief isn’t easy. Money and adventure can’t fix it. Recovery takes time, and a lost love can never be forgotten or replaced. In After You, Louisa gets the time to grieve, to rediscover her inner self and strength, and to finally start moving forward again. I’m so glad that I read this lovely book.

After reading After You, I felt such a strong connection to Louisa and to Lily, and I walked away feeling good, knowing that they’d found not only each other, but also a path pointing the way toward future happiness and hope.

✻✻✻✻✻

Interested in this author? Check out my reviews of other books by Jojo Moyes:
The Girl You Left Behind
One Plus One
The Ship of Brides
The Last Letter From Your Lover
Me Before You
Silver Bay

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: After You
Author: Jojo Moyes
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication date: September 29, 2015
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Adult contemporary fiction
Source: Library

28Oct2015

Thursday Quotables: The Call of the Wild

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!

NEW! Thursday Quotables is now using a Linky tool! Be sure to add your link if you have a Thursday Quotables post to share.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London
(originally published 1903)

I’m on a classics roll! I needed a new audiobook this week, and The Call of the Wild happened to be an Audible daily special. I can’t believe I’ve never read a Jack London book before. Simply listening to his story makes me feel all rugged and outdoorsy! It’s a quick listen, but I’m really enjoying the descriptions of life in the Yukon, as seen through the doggy eyes of Buck.

Buck’s feet sank into a white mushy something very like mud. He sprang back with a snort. More of this white stuff was falling through the air. He shook himself, but more of it fell upon him. He sniffed it curiously, then licked some up on his tongue. It bit like fire, and the next instant was gone. This puzzled him. He tried it again, with the same result. The onlookers laughed uproariously, and he felt ashamed, he knew not why, for it was his first snow.

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

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

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Click on the linky button (look for the cute froggie face) below to add your link.
After you link up, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

27Oct2015

Shelf Control #7: Small Damages

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Shelf Control is all about the books we want to read — and already own! Consider this a variation of a Wishing & Waiting post… but looking at books already available, and in most cases, sitting right there on our shelves and e-readers.

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: Small Damages
Author: Beth Kephart
Published: 2012
Length: 304 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

It’s senior year, and while Kenzie should be looking forward to prom and starting college in the fall, she is mourning the loss of her father. She finds solace in the one person she trusts, her boyfriend, and she soon finds herself pregnant. Kenzie’s boyfriend and mother do not understand her determination to keep the baby. She is sent to southern Spain for the summer, where she will live out her pregnancy as a cook’s assistant on a bull ranch, and her baby will be adopted by a Spanish couple.

Alone and resentful in a foreign country, Kenzie is at first sullen and difficult. She begins to open her eyes and her heart to the beauty that is all around her and inside of her.

How I got it:

I bought it!

When I got it:

Back in 2012, right when it was released.

Why I want to read it:

I read a review of this book in my local newspaper when it was first published. The review was glowing, and I thought this sounded like a terrific, sensitive take on teen pregnancy. I’m not sure why I’ve let it just sit on my shelf for this long, but I do want to make a point of reading it soon!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

26Oct2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Weird, Wild, Wonderful Witchy Books

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, leading up to Halloween, I’m focusing on ten books about witches… some cute, some not so much, some the real deal, and some the wrongly accused. What do they have in common? They’re all about witches… and they’re all pretty awesome.

Witches for kids:

1) Old Black Witch by Wende and Harry Devlin

2) The Witches by Roald Dahl

3) The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

4) The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (Hi, Hermione!!)

Falsely accused witches:

5) The Crucible by Arthur Miller

6) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: Yes, there’s a witch trial! And no, Claire may be a time traveler with special healing powers, but a witch, she ain’t.

Talented witches:

7) A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

8) The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Fairy tale witches:

9) Wicked by Gregory Maguire

10) Fables, volume 10: The Witches by Bill Willingham

And an extra one, just for fun..

Whether on TV or in comic book form, there’s no denying that Willow is one awesome witch!

Are you ready for Halloween yet?

Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

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

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

26Oct2015

The Monday Check-In ~ 10/26/2015

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

Life:

I’m back! I took last week off from blogging, reading, and pretty much everything else except my son’s bar mitzvah. It was a wonderful experience, and we were all so proud of our lovely young man. But, whew! Between the event itself and the whirlwind arrivals and departures of various visiting relatives and friends, it was all pretty exhausting. I’m happy to have had a quiet weekend to read in the sun, do laundry, go for a couple of walks, and just chill.

On a related note, earlier this week I shared a beautiful poem that really resonated with me as I thought about my son, his big milestone, and my hopes for his future. Check it out here.

What did I read last week?

I’m finally reading again! I managed to finish just one book:

Sense & Sensibility by Joanne Trollope: Check out my review, here.

Fresh Catch:

This week’s new arrivals:

One purchased and two from the library… quite a fun mix!

I also received an ARC of a gender-bended twist on a classic, which fits right in with my year of Austen:

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

I’m starting with After You by Jojo Moyes, since it’s a library book with a wait list. Can’t keep folks waiting too long!

Now playing via audiobook:

I’m on a classics roll! I just finished listening to Pride and Prejudice (outstanding!), and decided to listen to The Call of the Wild next. This should be fun! I’ve never read the book.

Ongoing reads:

My book group is getting so close to the end of both of these — only two weeks to go for North and South, and we’ll finish A Breath of Snow and Ashes in early December.

So many book, so little time…

24Oct2015

Book Review: Sense & Sensibility by Joanne Trollope

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Another Austen Project book… read!

As I discussed in my review of Val McDermid’s Northanger Abbey, The Austen Project is a publishing concept that pairs up bestselling contemporary authors with the works of Jane Austen, with the goal of creating six reimagined versions of the classic novels. So far, three have been published, with the next projected for release in 2016.

This new version of Sense and Sensibility is written by bestselling author Joanna Trollope, who imagines the Dashwood family in almost familiar terms — finding themselves displaced from their lovely home by their half-brother and his money-hungry wife, having to rely on the kindness of distant relatives to start fresh, and figuring out the ups and downs of love, infatuation, and everything in between.

But this Sense & Sensibility is set in the 21st century, and of course, there are changes from the original. Elinor, practical as ever, is an architecture student. Marianne, frail and subject to the whims of passionate feeling, is severely asthmatic and must always be looked after. The often overlooked youngest, Margaret (or here, Mags), petulant and whiny, always plugged into her headphones, appreciates any cute boyfriend of her sisters’ — so long as he drives an awesome car.

The cast of characters is much the same as in the Austen version, with Marianne’s love interest Willoughby portrayed here as gorgeous but shiftless Wills, all too ready to throw Marianne over for the sake of romancing a millionaire’s daughter. We also have Bill Brandon, an utterly good guy running a non-profit home for mentally challenged individuals at his Delaford estate, and hapless Edward Ferrars, whose controlling mother has bullied him into utter dependence. The awful characters — especially Fanny Dashwood and the Steele sisters — are every bit as awful here. After all, selfishness, emotional manipulation, and obsessions with money are timeless!

The essential storyline follows the familiar path, but with elements changed to make more sense in the modern setting. There are hospital visits and interior decorators, school carpools and even a job for Elinor. But the sisters’ defining characteristics are what we know from Austen: Elinor is steady and logical, steering the family through hard times through her practical management when everyone else in her family is busy feeling all the feels — and Marianne, throwing herself headlong into love with no regard for anything but listening to her heart and relying 100% on her emotions to lead the way.

Start to finish, I was pretty charmed by this version of Sense & Sensibility. It’s no replacement for the classic Austen novel, and I’m not convinced that it would work as a stand-alone. But as a companion piece to the classic, it’s quite endearing. While the rush to marriage may feel a bit forced at times in a modern setting, as framed in the context of status-hungry social climbers and defiantly old school, old money families, it makes a sad sort of sense. Throw in social media, and you have Marianne devastated not just by a broken heart, but by public humiliation via YouTube.

The writing is light in tone, with just enough winking acknowledgement that this is a retelling:

“Hasn’t she got a boyfriend yet? She’s old enough.”

“She’s fourteen. Honestly, Abi, it’s all you ever think about. You’re like those nineteenth-century novels where marriage is the only career option for a middle class girl.”

Joanna Trollope’s Sense & Sensibility is a fun read that’s sure to amuse anyone who loves the Jane Austen classic and is open to seeing the story retold with a modernized twist. It doesn’t require a whole lot of concentration, but it should at least make you smile!

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Sense & Sensibility
Author: Joanne Trollope
Publisher: Harper
Publication date: January 1, 2013
Length: 362 pages
Genre: Fiction
Source: Purchased