Tag Archives: to read

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by

And now, for this week’s 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.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes

From Goodreads:

Lenk can barely keep control of his mismatched adventurer band at the best of times (Gariath the dragon man sees humans as little more than prey, Kataria the Shict despises most humans, and the humans in the band are little better). When they’re not insulting each other’s religions they’re arguing about pay and conditions. So when the ship they are travelling on is attacked by pirates things don’t go very well.

They go a whole lot worse when an invincible demon joins the fray. The demon steals the Tome of the Undergates – a manuscript that contains all you need to open the undergates. And whichever god you believe in you don’t want the undergates open. On the other side are countless more invincible demons, the manifestation of all the evil of the gods, and they want out.

Full of razor-sharp wit, characters who leap off the page (and into trouble) and plunging the reader into a vivid world of adventure this is a fantasy that kicks off a series that could dominate the second decade of the century.

Why do I want to read this?

At first blush, this seems like an unusual choice for me. I like fantasy just fine (quite a bit, in fact), but this one seems a bit bloodier and rougher than the books I normally enjoy best. Still, it sounds intriguing, plus I was able to score copies of all three books in the series at a used book sale recently. Now I just have to find time to read them!

Big confession time! I was not drawn to this book (and the rest of the trilogy) initially based on the description or from reading press releases, reader reviews, or anything else of the sort. No, what first got me interested was discovering that the author, Sam Sykes, is the 20-something-year-old son of one of my all-time favorite authors. Is that a silly fan-girl reason for choosing a book or what?

Despite that true confession, I will say that I wouldn’t read Tome of the Undergate if the plot itself didn’t appeal to me. Hopefully, when I do read it, I’ll find it exciting and engaging… while keeping my reading “in the family”, so to speak.

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!

The Monday agenda

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

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.

Monday, Monday… another week, another stack of books to plow through.

From last week:

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling: Done! My review is here.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller: About 40 pages to go. Lovely writing. I’ll share my thoughts in the next day or so.

In the world of children’s books, my son and I finished Chomp by Carl Hiaasen, which was fun and funny. My review is here. We’ve started a new book called Merits of Mischief, which I’m mostly finding odd and a bit disturbing, but the kid is enjoying it, so onward we go.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Loving it.

And this week’s new agenda:

My stack of library books keeps growing, as all of my long-term requests seem to have arrived at the same time. Unfortunately, I doubt I’ll get through them all before they’re due back.

Once I finish The Dog Stars, I have quite a bit to choose from. For my next book, I plan to read The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison. Despite the title, this is not a how-to guide for nannies, but a novel that sounded quite good from the early descriptions I’ve seen so far.

After that, it will be either The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli (unless I have to return it before I get a chance to read it) or possibly The Red House by Mark Haddon. We’ll see how the mood strikes me when the time comes.

Meanwhile, my library pile still includes a couple of YA novels I’ve been wanting to read (The Diviners by Libba Bray and Seraphina by Rachel Hartman), and — miracle of miracles — I’ve just received notice that a copy of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is now available for pick-up (and I started at #682 on the waiting list for this one).

As always, I’ll be looking forward to this week’s chapters in my group re-read of  Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Chapters 54 and 55 on deck for this week. Lots of danger. Lives are at risk. It’s hard to stop at just two chapters.

So many book, so little time…

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

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by

And now, for this week’s 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.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

From Amazon:

I threw my neck out in the middle of Swan Lake last night.

So begins the tale of Kate Crane, a soloist in a celebrated New York City ballet company who is struggling to keep her place in a very demanding world. At every turn she is haunted by her close relationship with her younger sister, Gwen, a fellow company dancer whose career quickly surpassed Kate’s, but who has recently suffered a breakdown and returned home.

Alone for the first time in her life, Kate is anxious and full of guilt about the role she may have played in her sister’s collapse.  As we follow her on an insider tour of rehearsals, performances, and partners onstage and off, she confronts the tangle of love, jealousy, pride, and obsession that are beginning to fracture her own sanity. Funny, dark, intimate, and unflinchingly honest, The Cranes Dance is a book that pulls back the curtains to reveal the private lives of dancers and explores the complicated bond between sisters.

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve always loved a peek behind the scenes, and this look at the highly competitive world of professional ballet dancers sounds fascinating. There have been a lot of great ballet movies over the years — Center Stage, The Turning Point (an oldie with a very young Barishnikov – wow!), Black Swan, and even the new Bunheads series on TV — but I haven’t come across that many ballet novels that I’ve loved.

This one sounds intriguing, and I like that the story focuses on the relationship between two sisters as well. I hope to read The Cranes Dance as soon as my library branch gets a copy.

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!

The Monday agenda

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

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.

The weekend is over, and now the sun comes out! Here’s hoping that I can squeeze in some outdoor time while the sunshine lasts. And… onward with the Monday agenda:

From last week:

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan: Finished! I was swept away by the harsh beauty of the writing. You can check out my review here.

I made no progress with my library books, and it’s all J. K. Rowling’s fault! More on that below.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Need I say it? This book is fascinating, even the 2nd time around.

And this week’s new agenda:

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling! It finally arrived on Friday (a day later than expected, thanks to an Amazon screw-up). Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to read over the weekend, but now it’s full steam ahead. After the initial shock of seeing JKR use language that would never pass muster at Hogwarts, I’m enjoying the book.

Assuming I finish the Rowling book within the next few days, I’ll dive back into my stack of library books. Next up: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller.

My son and I are only a couple of chapters away from finishing Chomp by Carl Hiaasen, so we’ll be scouting out our next bed-time read.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Chapters 51 and 52 on deck for this week. Drama. Betrayal. Adventure. Danger. Yup, this book has it all.

So many book, so little time…

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

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by

And now, for this week’s 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.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson
(published 2011)

From Amazon:

For over half a century, Richard Matheson has enthralled and terrified readers with such timeless classics as I Am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Duel, Somewhere in Time, and What Dreams May Come. Now the Grand Master returns with a bewitching tale of erotic suspense and enchantment.…

1918. A young American soldier, recently wounded in the Great War, Alex White comes to Gatford to escape his troubled past. The pastoral English village seems the perfect spot to heal his wounded body and soul. True, the neighboring woods are said to be haunted by capricious, even malevolent spirits, but surely those are just old wives’ tales.

Aren’t they?

A frightening encounter in the forest leads Alex into the arms of Magda Variel, an alluring red-haired widow rumored to be a witch. She warns him to steer clear of the wood and the perilous faerie kingdom it borders, but Alex cannot help himself. Drawn to its verdant mysteries, he finds love, danger…and wonders that will forever change his view of the world.

Other Kingdoms casts a magical spell, as conjured by a truly legendary storyteller.

Why do I want to read this?

First off, it’s Richard Matheson! Not only is he responsible for some remarkable works of fiction, he is also the creator of fiction that inspired some remarkable movie achievements as well. Somewhere In Time has to be one of the most romantic movies of all time (Christopher Reeve! Jane Seymour!), and when I finally discovered the book, I loved it as well. Based only on Somewhere In Time, you might assume that Richard Matheson writes mainly in the romance/fantasy genre… until you encounter pieces as diverse as the scary I Am Legend and short story Steel, the basis for last year’s boxing robot movie Real Steel.

Other Kingdoms sounds right up my alley. Post-WWI historical setting, mysterious woods, a dangerous faerie kingdom — too intriguing to pass up! Mortals inadvertently crossing a border into faerie have cropped up in several novels I’ve read over the past few years: Graham Joyce’s Some Kind of Fairy Tale and Susanna Clarke’s masterpiece Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, among others. Done well, these stories can be chilling in their mix of the ordinary and the magical, as they take the sparkly fairy worlds of our collective childhoods and reinvent them as strange universes full of menace and wonder. I have a feeling that Other Kingdoms, in the hands of Richard Matheson, will fit right in with the best of the best.

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!

The Monday agenda

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

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.

Back to work, back to real life… but there’s always time to talk about reading! Onward with the Monday agenda:

From last week:

Hmm, how’d I do?

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter: I finished this over the weekend (my review is here). Loved this book! I’d been aching for some good fiction, after a week of non-fiction reading, and this one definitely fit the bill. Highly recommended.

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan: Just started!

I got pretty bogged down with playing with my new bookshelves and hitting the public library’s big used book sale ( you can see my recap here), both of which kept me thinking about books a lot (fun!) but reading a bit less than usual (not so fun).

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Intense. Amazing.

And this week’s new agenda:

I just started The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan last night, and it’s pretty much love at first sight. Magical, ominous, unique… it was hard to tear myself away so I could get some sleep.

Why is it that all of my library requests seem to arrive at once? Now checked out and waiting to be read: The Diviners by Libba Bray, The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, and The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli. I’ll be luck to get to any of these this week, because…

The Casual Vacancy is coming! I’ve had J. K. Rowling’s new book (for grown-ups!) on pre-order for months, and it’s finally being released later this week. While the subject matter doesn’t sound all that thrilling to me, I’m certainly willing to give a try to anything JKR writes. Who else is planning to read The Casual Vacancy right away?

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Chapters 50 and 51 on deck for this week. Chapter 50 is essential — big reveals, big confrontations. Can’t wait.

So many book, so little time…

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

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by

And now, for this week’s 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.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
(originally published 1997; new edition to be released October 2012)

From Amazon:

The invincible Ninth Roman Legion marches from York to fight the northern tribes. And then vanishes from the pages of history.

Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea.

Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he’s finally found it—not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has “seen” a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades.

Here on the windswept shores, Verity may find the answer to one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Or she may uncover secrets someone buried for a reason.

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve recently read two other books by Susanna Kearsley: The Winter Sea and The Rose Garden. Both were exceptionally well-crafted novels which combined a contemporary story with an historical twist — they’ve been described as “time slip” novels, where the main character finds herself displaced into another time period and must struggle to fit in, solve a mystery, or both. The author has a lovely flair for describing settings such as Scottish castles and Welsh countrysides, and her characters are fully developed with rich inner lives and deeply-felt emotions.

Based on my previous experiences with her work, I’d be happy to give The Shadowy Horses a try. The description really appeals to me as well: I’m grown quite fond of stories set in and around Scotland, I love good historical fiction, and I find the story of the disappearance of the Ninth Roman Legion quite fascinating. I know the fate of the legion has inspired other works of fiction and, most recently, the movie “The Eagle” (with Channing Tatum), and I’m sure Ms. Kearsley is more than up to the task of giving us a fresh take on one of history’s great unsolved mysteries.

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!

The Monday agenda

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

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.

No work this Monday morning, but the start of a reading week nonetheless… Here’s the latest:

From last week:

Hmm, how’d I do?

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard: Done. I couldn’t quite bring myself to write a review. Suffice it to say, this is a powerful, sad, painful book; one that’s important to read but hard to enjoy. I admire the author’s courage and strength very much, and give her a lot of credit for coming forward and sharing her story.

Stiff by Mary Roach: Finally! I’ve had this one on my to-read list for years, glad to have finally tackled it. Not for the faint of heart (or stomach), but truly fascinating and surprisingly funny. My review is here.

In graphic novels, I read Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol. Delightful. From my Goodreads review:

Fabulous graphic novel about a lonely teen-aged girl who makes a new best friend – who happens to be a ghost. When loner Anya — an outsider who has conquered her Russian accent but not her low self-esteem or poor body image — falls down an abandoned well, she meets the ghost of Emily, who just wants to help. Or does she? Emily’s “help” soon takes on a more sinister tone, until Anya is forced to make a decision about her own life and what she stands for.

Crisply told and nicely illustrated, with a keen eye toward teen emotions and struggles, Anya’s Ghost is charming and funny, and at the same time manages to be sensitive and perceptive. Definitely a winner.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Onward we go. We’re finally at what is probably the most critical set of chapters in the book, and the discussion is fascinating.

And this week’s new agenda:

My brain cells are practically screaming for fiction.

First up: I finally got my copy of Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter from the library. Really looking forward to this one.

Next: Looks like I’ll get to another of my Wishlist Wednesday books without much of a wait. I plan to dig into The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan later this week.

And then: I’m feeling non-committal, but I’ll try to get to one of the pending titles on my Kindle, probably Jane by Robin Maxwell.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Chapters 48 and 49 on deck for this week. I think my favorite characters need some lessons in healthy communication skills.

And furthermore:

My new bookshelves are calling! Playing with books may take time away from the actual reading of books this week, but it’s just so much fun that I don’t mind at all. One side effect of my shelving project: Discovering all the books I bought last year and forgot about, as they sat hidden in bags and piles. Hello, old friends! What a happy reunion we’re all having!

So many book, so little time…

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

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by

And now, for this week’s 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.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan
(published September 2012)

From Amazon:

On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings—and to catch their wives.

The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she. He will be equally ensnared. And the witch will have her true payment.

Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire, despair, and transformation. With devastatingly beautiful prose, she reveals characters capable of unspeakable cruelty, but also unspoken love.

 

Why do I want to read this?

Well, just look at that description! Selkies, witches, love… windswept, sea-battered islands… sounds like the perfect mixture of mythology and otherworldly romance, with a very dark undercurrent.

I read Margo Lanagan’s story collection Black Juice a couple of years ago, and — unusual for me with my bad attitude toward short stories — I just couldn’t look away until I’d read the whole thing. “Singing My Sister Down” immediately became one of my favorite short stories ever — it’s crisp, creepy, tragic, and unforgettable.

Since I’m trying to curtail my hardcover book buying, I haven’t given into temptation yet on The Brides of Rollrock Island… but if my local library doesn’t get it PRETTY DARN QUICK, I have a feeling this will be my next purchase.

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 last week’s introductory post for more details, and come back this Friday to add your flashback favorites!

The Monday agenda

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

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.

Another Monday morning, another workweek underway… another opportunity to make grandiose, pie-in-the-sky plans to read everything I can get my paws on. Here’s the latest:

From last week:

Hmm, how’d I do?

Frozen by Mary Casanova: Done! My review is here. Short version: Okay, some nice elements, but not a must-read.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker: Done! Here’s my review. Overall, I’d say nicely written but flawed. Still, I’m glad to have read it.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin: Finished late last night, review to follow. Highly readable and hard to put down.

In graphic novels, I finished up the Jack of Fables series. A fun additional to the world of Fables, but not essential reading.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Need I keep saying it? Terrific book, terrific chapter discussions!

And this week’s new agenda:

I may veer off the fiction path (shocking, for me) and delve into a few books I’ve been wanting to try:

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard. Just picked this one up at the library. As a parent, I approach reading this with some trepidation, but I do so admire this young woman’s courage and want to see how she portrays her own experiences.

I really should read one of the Mary Roach books that were my Wishlist Wednesday selections last week, either Stiff or Spook.

In sci-fi/fantasy, I have Jane by Robin Maxwell all queued up on my e-reader. That’s Jane, as in “me, Tarzan”. Sounds like fun!

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Chapters 46 and 47 on deck for this week. We’re getting up to some parts that are emotionally difficult. It’s hard when bad things happen to characters you’re so invested in!

So many book, so little time…

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