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.

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler: Done! My review is here.

Spellbinding by Maya Gold: Started, but still have about half-way to go.

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

I hope to finish Spellbinding in the next day or two. And this is important, because it’s time to clear the decks for this week’s new arrival:

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs, book #7 in the Mercy Thompson series, comes out this week! I absolutely cannot wait, and want to be able to start reading it the second it arrives. I just discovered this series last year, and fell head-over-heels in love with it.

After Frost Burned, I really should try to make a dent in the TBR shelf — but what exactly I’ll read is TBD.

The kiddo and I are making steady progress with Down The Mysterly River by Bill Willingham, although it just took a big turn for the weird –which is probably a very good thing. So far, so good. Onward we go.

And yes, I’m still inching my way through Philip Pullman’s collection of Grimm fairy tales. Emphasis on inching. Forward motion is happening in very small increments, but it is indeed happening.

So many book, so little time…

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

26Feb2013

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 Wednesday book is:

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

From Amazon:

It’s 1950 and the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie Moraine wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve come across a few reviews of this new YA release recently — all raves. The New Orleans setting sounds wonderful. I like that the book is set in 1950; so much of the New Orleans fiction that I’ve read has been set in the 18th or 19th century. I’m interested in seeing what life in mid-20th century New Orleans would have been like for a young woman, particularly one growing up in such difficult circumstances. Out of the Easy sounds like a terrific mix of mystery, scandal, and coming-of-age tale. Yet another book that I can’t wait to read!

Quick note to Wishlist Wednesday bloggers: Come on back to Bookshelf Fantasies for Flashback Friday! Join me in celebrating the older gems hidden away on our bookshelves. See the introductory post for more details, and come back this Friday to add your flashback favorites!

25Feb2013

The Monday agenda 2/25/2013

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

Happy Monday! Scanning the reading horizon for turbulence… and here we go.

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Wild by Cheryl Strayed: Done! My review is here. This was a tremendously inspiring and involving read, to the point that it was hard to settle on just one thing to read next. I started two different books for me, plus a new one with my son. I haven’t made more than a dent in any, so…

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

Digging into the books I’ve just begun:

First up is Spellbinding, a not-yet-released YA novel by Maya Gold that I received as a digital ARC. I enjoyed the first several chapters, but had to take an ill-timed break when my Kindle battery died unexpectedly. I’ll dive back in within the next couple of days.

I’ve also just started The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler, described on Amazon as “an unforgettable novel about a mysterious mail-order bride in the wake of WWII, whose sudden decision ripples through time to deeply impact the daughter she never knew”. Great opening chapter — can’t wait to read more.

My son and I have just started Down The Mysterly River, a middle grade novel written by Bill Willingham, author of the amazing Fables graphic novel series. ‘Nuff said. I’m in.

I’m still moving forward, tiny bit by tiny bit, in my quest to get through my book of fairy tales. Some are weird, some are totally familiar, all are quite fun. Onward!

So many book, so little time…

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

19Feb2013

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 Wednesday book is:

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

From Amazon:

Seven stories of passion and love separated by centuries but mysteriously intertwined—this is a tale of horror and beauty, tenderness and sacrifice.

An archaeologist who unearths a mysterious artifact, an airman who finds himself far from home, a painter, a ghost, a vampire, and a Viking: the seven stories in this compelling novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed where a curiously powerful plant that resembles a dragon grows. What binds these stories together? What secrets lurk beneath the surface of this idyllic countryside? And what might be powerful enough to break the cycle of midwinterblood? From award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick comes a book about passion and preservation and ultimately an exploration of the bounds of love.

And from Goodreads, with more specifics:

Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar, even though you’ve never been there before, or felt that you know someone well, even though you are meeting them for the first time? It happens. In 2073 on the remote and secretive island of Blessed, where rumour has it that no one ages and no children are born, a visiting journalist, Eric Seven, and a young local woman known as Merle are ritually slain. Their deaths echo a moment ten centuries before, when, in the dark of the moon, a king was slain, tragically torn from his queen. Their souls search to be reunited, and as mother and son, artist and child, forbidden lovers, victims of a vampire they come close to finding what they’ve lost. In a novel comprising seven parts, each influenced by a moon – the flower moon, the harvest moon, the hunter’s moon, the blood moon – this is the story of Eric and Merle whose souls have been searching for each other since their untimely parting.

Why do I want to read this?

First of all, this got a rave review in my local paper last week! I’d never heard of it before, but this new YA novel sounds fascinating — dark, mysterious, a little creepy, tragically romantic. I love the idea of the seven connected stories, and can’t wait to see how they all come together. The Amazon and Goodreads summaries are really different, but between the two, I’m fairly certain that Midwinterblood is a book that I’ll love.

18Feb2013

The Monday agenda 2/18/2013

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

Happy Monday! Three day weekend = more time to read!

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Y: The Last Man (graphic novel series) by Brian K. Vaughan: Done! My review is here. I could not put these books down. Highly recommended.

Fairy Tales From The Brother Grimm by Philip Pullman. Making progress, bit by tiny bit.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Have only read the first few chapters, but I’m hooked.

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

First up will be to finish Wild. The first chapter was incredibly sad, but I’m looking forward to learning more about the author’s journey.

I’ll be continuing in my quest to get through my book of fairy tales, a few stories each week, until I’ve read the entire collection. Onward!

If I manage to finish Wild by the end of the week, I’ll have to make a hard choice between some of my latest arrivals. The “fresh catch” this week included two new young adult novels that I’m very eager to read: Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick and Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys. Both are sitting within easy reach as I write this — I’m hoping one will make it to the top of my reading pile by week’s end!

So many book, so little time…

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

12Feb2013

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 Wednesday book is:

Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee

From Amazon:

Anjali Bose’s prospects don’t look great. Born into a traditional lower-middle‑class family, she lives in a backwater town with only an arranged marriage on the horizon. But her ambition, charm, and fluency in language do not go unnoticed by her charismatic and influential expat teacher, Peter Champion. And champion her he does, both to powerful people who can help her along the way and to Anjali herself, stirring in her a desire to take charge of her own destiny. So she sets off to Bangalore, India’s fastest‑growing metropolis, and soon falls in with an audacious and ambitious crowd of young people, who have learned how to sound American by watching shows like Seinfeld in order to get jobs in call centers, where they quickly out‑earn their parents. And it is in this high‑tech city where Anjali — suddenly free of the confines of class, caste, and gender — is able to confront her past and reinvent herself. Of course, the seductive pull of life in the New India does not come without a dark side . . .

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve had this book on my wish list since I first heard about it last year. Americans tend to make fun of the concept of US companies that outsource call centers to India — but what is the experience like for the people who actually work for one of these call centers? I really liked the sound of this book, with its focus on a girl from a traditional upbringing finding freedom in the big city, plus I always enjoy reading about new places and cultures, and I haven’t read much fiction set in modern-day India. I’m really looking forward to reading this one… and luckily, I won’t have to wait long! I snatched up a copy of Miss New India at a book swap I attended last week, and as soon as my reading pile shrinks a bit, I’ll be diving in.

11Feb2013

The Monday agenda 2/11/2013

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

Happy Monday! Looking back and looking forward…

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan: Done! My review is here.

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger: Done! My review is here.

I finally cracked open my copy of Fairy Tales From The Brother Grimm by Philip Pullman. I’ve only read the introduction thus far, but hey, it’s a start!

Lastly, I re-read volume one and started volume two of the graphic novel series Y: The Last Man. I’m planning a Last Man read-a-thon for the coming week.

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

First on my agenda will be getting through the entire Y: The Last Man series. The first volume is amazing — can’t wait to see what happens next!

One of my reading resolutions for 2013 was “Attack the Fairies!”, meaning, I need to force myself to actually read the book of fairy tales that I was so excited to receive back in November. I’m a terrible short story reader, and usually get impatient and walk away, no matter how good the individual stories are or how much I like the author. But in the case of Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman, I’m determined to actually read the entire collection. My strategy, at least for starters, is to read one story a night, rather than trying to read the whole book straight through. We’ll see how it works, and if I can overcome my deeply ingrained aversion toward all short stories.

Finally, a coworker lent me her copy of Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a book that’s been on my “must read eventually” list. I have tickets to hear the author speak in April, so now is the time to read it. Plus, this will be my first non-fiction read of 2013, and I did vow to break out of my fiction world once in a while during the current year.

So many book, so little time…

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

5Feb2013

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 Wednesday book is:

The House Girl by Tara Conklin

From Amazon:

Two remarkable women, separated by more than a century, whose lives unexpectedly intertwine . . .

2004: Lina Sparrow is an ambitious young lawyer working on a historic class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves.

1852: Josephine is a seventeen-year-old house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco farm—an aspiring artist named Lu Anne Bell.

It is through her father, renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers a controversy rocking the art world: art historians now suspect that the revered paintings of Lu Anne Bell, an antebellum artist known for her humanizing portraits of the slaves who worked her Virginia tobacco farm, were actually the work of her house slave, Josephine.

A descendant of Josephine’s would be the perfect face for the lawsuit—if Lina can find one. But nothing is known about Josephine’s fate following Lu Anne Bell’s death in 1852. In piecing together Josephine’s story, Lina embarks on a journey that will lead her to question her own life, including the full story of her mother’s mysterious death twenty years before.

Alternating between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing tale of art and history, love and secrets explores what it means to repair a wrong, and asks whether truth can be more important than justice.

Why do I want to read this?

I seem to be drawn to novels with historical settings lately, and I love these type of stories-within-stories, in which the past is brought to life by someone in the present. I’m really looking forward to reading this one, and hope to get my hands on a copy soon!

4Feb2013

The Monday agenda 2/4/2013

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

Happy Monday! Looking back and looking forward…

From last week:

The Round House by Louise Erdrich: Done! A beautiful book that I can’t get out of my mind. My review is here.

I received an ARC of Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield. Very moving story. My review is here.

Finally, I managed to crack open Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan while the rest of the world was busy watching the Super Bowl.

And this week’s new agenda:

I’ve read about 50 pages of Nick and Norah, and I can’t say I’m won over yet. Perhaps it’ll just take a bit more time; I’ve read and loved these authors’ other two collaborations, so I still have high hopes for this one.

I can’t wait to get my hands on Etiquette & Espionage, the first book in Gail Carriger’s new Finishing School series. It’s due to arrive on Tuesday, and I’ll be diving in the second it arrives.

I plan to devote some time to reading the graphic novel series Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan.

If I manage to find time for anything else, I’ll most likely start Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, which has been at the top of my to-read pile for two weeks now, although I’d also like to check out more of Sophie Littlefield’s books.

So many book, so little time…

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

30Jan2013

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 Wednesday book is:

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

From Amazon:

1878 Paris. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventeen francs a week, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir.

Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modeling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. There she meets a wealthy male patron of the ballet, but might the assistance he offers come with strings attached? Meanwhile Antoinette, derailed by her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie, must choose between honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde.

Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural, and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.” In the end, each will come to realize that her salvation, if not survival, lies with the other.

Why do I want to read this?

Paris. Ballet. Sisters. What more do I need to convince me?

The combination of historical figures with fictional characters, the setting in 19th century Paris in the art world, and the drama of two girls struggling to survive sounds fascinating to me. This is one new novel that I’m definitely eager to read.