Top Ten Tuesday: The top 10 places I love to read

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 topic is a freebie, so I thought I’d go with something simple and fun — it’s all about going to my happy place. Because my happy place always involves books!

Here are ten places I love, love, love to read:

1) In a big, cozy chair

2) On my back porch, on a sunny day

3) IN BED!

4) On an airplane

5) In a park

6) In a room full of books

7) At the beach

8) In a coffee shop

9) Any beautiful outdoor location

and, obviously…

10) Wherever I happen to be!

What’s your TTT topic this week? Please share your link!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I host 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!

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22Feb2017

Thursday Quotables: Dreamers of the Day

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome 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!

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
(published 2008)

I was feeling a little uninspired regarding this week’s Thursday Quotables post, not because I’m not reading good books, but just because no particular quotes or passages have really jumped out at me in the last few days.

So pardon my break from the usual, but for this week, I thought I’d revisit an old favorite. Mary Doria Russell writes incredibly beautiful and thought-provoking books, whether the subject matter is Jesuits in space (I kid you not) or the larger-than-life historical figures of the Old West. Dreamers of the Day was published in 2008, but I didn’t read it until 2013. It’s a wonderful book set in Egypt after World War I, featuring a lonely midwestern spinster who ends up rubbing shoulders with the political luminaries of the time, including T. E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill.

The book is full of amazing insights, but for some reason, as I was skimming through my newsfeed this week, this book came particularly to mind. There are so many wonderful snippets, but I think I’ll just share this simple closing sentiment, so relevant today (and always):

When it comes down to it, I don’t have much in the way of advice to offer you, but here it is:

Read to children.

Vote.

And never buy anything from a man who’s selling fear.

I really can’t say enough wonderful things about this book. Check out my review from 2013 here, if you want to know more. (And really, read the book!)

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!
Add your Thursday Quotables post link in the comments section below… and I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week too.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

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15Feb2017

Thursday Quotables: Devil’s Cub

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome 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!

Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer
(published 1932)

I’ve jumped on the Georgette Heyer bandwagon! I finally read one of her books (thank you, awesome book club of mine!), and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can check out my mini-review here, but meanwhile, here’s one of the many amusing little dialogues from the book:

Miss Challoner rose from her chair, and curtsied. “You are extremely obliging, my lord, but I must humbly decline the honour of becoming your wife.”

“You will marry me,” said his lordship, “if I have to force you to the altar.”

She blinked at him. “Are you mad, sir? You cannot possibly wish to marry me.”

“Of course I don’t wish to marry you!” he said impatiently. “I scarcely know you. But I play my cards in accordance with the rules. I have a number of vices, but abducting innocent damsels and casting them adrift on the world is not one of the them. Pray have a little sense, ma’am! You eloped with me, leaving word of it with your mother; if I let you go you could not reach your home again until tomorrow night at the earliest. By that time — if I know your mother and sister at all — the whole of your acquaintance will be apprised of your conduct. Your reputation will be so smirched not a soul will receive you. And this, ma’am, is to go down to my account! I tell you plainly, I’ve no mind to become an object of infamy.’

I find this character’s definition of infamy rather amusing, as earlier in the book he shot a highwayman, and later got drunk and shot a man in a duel over a card game. So shooting folks is okay, but ruining a girl’s reputation isn’t? I guess you had to be there.

(But really, it’s a very enjoyable book!)

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!
Add your Thursday Quotables post link in the comments section below… and I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week too.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

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8Feb2017

Thursday Quotables: First Grave on the Right

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome 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!

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones
(published 2011)

I’m about a third of the way into this book, and I mostly think it’s weird and silly — but I’ve been assured that the series gets better and better as it goes along. We’ll see. Meanwhile, the main character, Charley Davidson (ha!) is super sarcastic and quippy, which is a big plus.

My stepmother was never big on the whole nurturing thing. I think she used up all the good stuff on my older sister, and by the time she got to me, she was fresh out of nurture. She did, however, give me one pertinent bit of 411. She was the one who informed me that I had the attention span of a gnat; only, she said I had the attention span of a gnat with selective listening. At least I think that’s what she said. I wasn’t listening.

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!
Add your Thursday Quotables post link in the comments section below… and I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week too.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

1Feb2017

Thursday Quotables: Manners & Mutiny

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome 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!

Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger
(published 2015)

One more from the Finishing School series! I’m on book #4 — the last one!! — and I’m really loving it. I’m so glad I took the time to listen to the audiobooks. The narrator does a perfect job at conveying the silliness and adventure of it all. The whole book is just so enjoyable. I’ll just share a random paragraph that I came across today, which is odd and quirky and funny… in other words, a great example of what these books are like!

Nothing could be more confusing to the poor man than Sophronia at that moment. He fell back on etiquette. What else was an Englishman to do when confronted with a wicker-chicken-wearing leather-clad tremulous smile? He drew the only ready weapon he had — manners. “Good evening, miss…” He trailed off.

And from earlier in the book, as main character Sophronia, chaperoned by her older (and newly married) sister, prepares for a dinner party:

“Oh, Sophronia, please behave yourself. I know finishing school saw you turn over a new leaf, and you have been golden this past week, but don’t hurl any food at anyone? Please?”

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!
Add your Thursday Quotables post link in the comments section below… and I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week too.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

30Jan2017

Top Ten Tuesday: My top 10 favorites in graphic novels, comics, & illustrated 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’s topic is All about the visuals: Top Ten Favorite Graphic Novels/Comics or Ten Comics on My TBR or Top Ten Favorite Picture Books.

That’s a pretty broad range of choices, but I think I’ll stick with my favorites in graphic novels (some of which might more properly be called comics, but I don’t mind lumping them all together, as people tend to do). I needed to expand the topic to include other types of illustrated books as well. You’ll see why.

Starting with the serious and historically important:

1) Maus by Art Spiegelman: This modern classic is a must-read.

2) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi: The story of a girl’s adolescence and young adulthood in Iran is moving and beautifully drawn.

Moving on to more fantastical fare:

3) Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan (review): One of my favorites ever! I love this “saga” of a worldwide mysterious event that leaves exactly one human male left on Earth. Brilliant.

And speaking of sagas by Brian K. Vaughan…

4) Saga by Brian K. Vaughan: Such a wonderful bit of storytelling — war, love, child-raising, plus wings and horns and TV monitors for heads.

5) Fables by Bill Willingham: I love everything about Fables, except the fact that it ended.

6) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 8, 9, 10) by Joss Whedon et. al.: No such thing as too much Buffy! The TV series may have ended after 7 seasons, but the official Buffy storyline lives on in comic book format. And don’t miss the spin-offs about Angel, Faith, Spike, and Willow.

7) Alex + Ada by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn (review): I stumbled across this trilogy purely by accident at the library one day. The drawing are spare, but the storytelling (about a human and a robot who fall in love, and explore what it means to be a real person) is really terrific.

8) Through the Woods by Emily Carroll: Spooky, eerie stories and illustrations make this one a must (and a great gift for anyone who enjoys the darker side of life).

Ack! I’m running out of room! So tied for number 9 (cheating!) are two different works that scare the pants off me:

9a) N by Stephen King: Oh my sweet heavens. This is a terrifying book. Nightmares, nightmares, nightmares. But read it anyway!

9b) The Locke & Key series by Joe Hill: I’m ashamed to admit that I STILL haven’t read the final volume in the incredibly creative and horribly creepy Locke & Key series. Mainly, I haven’t finished because it’s been too long since I’ve read volumes 1 – 5, and I think I need to do a re-read. But the books are so scary that I’m not sure I want to do a re-read! Seriously, I love Locke & Key, but they make me want to lock all the doors and windows and never, ever go near wells or keys.

And finally, an illustrated novel:

10) Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick: Really, I’d pick just about any of this author’s three wonderful illustrated books (the others being The Invention of Hugo Cabret and The Marvels). I love how the drawings are part of the narrative itself, rather than simply decoration. Wonderstruck made me cry, so it deserves a spot on my top 10 list!

What books made your list this week? Please share your link!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

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25Jan2017

Thursday Quotables: Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome 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!

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire
(published 2017)

This novella about ghosts and time includes some simply stellar writing:

Patty died far away, in the big city where Jenna begged her not to go, the victim of the sadness that grew in her own body, in her own bones, until she picked up a knife as sharp as the end of the world.

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!
Add your Thursday Quotables post link in the comments section below… and I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week too.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

23Jan2017

Top Ten Tuesday: The next 10 ARCs I plan to read

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 topic is a FREEBIE. I love freebie weeks — it’s such fun to see all the unique top 10 lists everyone comes up with.

My top 10 topic? It’s all about the ARCs.

I’m working hard on getting my reading life organized, keeping track of my pending review copies, and making time for all the other books I want to read too. I’d taken a rather big pause in terms of requesting ARCs last year, but somehow I’ve ended up with quite a few for the first half of 2017. So, without further ado, here are 10 upcoming books, to be published between February and July, that I plan to read on or about their respective release dates. The ARCs are just sitting there on my Kindle, calling my name…

Going by release date:

1) Always by Sarah Jio (2/7/2017)

2) The Gilded Cage by Vic James (2/14/2017)

3) The Mother’s Promise by Sally Hepworth (2/21/2017)

4) Next Year For Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson (3/7/2017)

5) Mister Memory by Marcus Sedgwick (3/7/2017)

6) The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See (3/21/2017)

7) Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel (4/4/2017)

8) The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion (5/2/2017)

9) Coming Up For Air by Miranda Kenneally (7/1/2017)

10) South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby (7/4/2017)

Are you planning to read (or have you already read) any of the ARCs on my list?

What’s your freebie topic this week? Please share your link!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

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18Jan2017

Thursday Quotables: Waistcoats & Weaponry

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome 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!

Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger
(published 2014)

I’ve finally returned to Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series, and I’m finding it absolutely delicious. After all, what’s not to love about a floating finishing school that specializes in the arts of spying, seduction, and assassination? All this, and proper deployment of handkerchiefs and eyelashes too.

It was a drizzly January evening, 1853, the sun recently set, and Professor Braithwope was currently twirling back and forth along the thin plank that stretched from the forward-most squeak deck’s railing to the pilot’s bubble. He was leagues up in the air.

Sophronia had watched the professor run that particular plank with deadly grace the very first day she came aboard Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. She’d never anticipated watching him dance along it. Admittedly, he danced with no less grace than he ran, performing some sedate quadrille with an imaginary partner. However, he was doing so while balancing a flowerpot on his head, one that contained Sister Mattie’s prize foxglove. Before his troubles, Professor Braithwope would never leave his room without a top hat occupying that sacred spot on his glossy brown coiffure. But for months his behavior had become increasingly erratic; witness the fact that he also wore an old-fashioned black satin cape with a high collar and scarlet lining. His fangs were extended, causing him to lisp slightly, and he punctuated his quadrille with a maniacal laugh that, if inscribed for posterity, might have been written as “Mua ha ha.”

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!
Add your Thursday Quotables post link in the comments section below… and I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week too.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

28Dec2016

Thursday Quotables: RIP, Carrie Fisher

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome 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!

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
(published 2008)

I happened to read Wishful Drinking last week, finishing just a couple of days before the news of Carrie Fisher’s medical crisis. Having just read her new book, The Princess Diarist, I definitely had her on my mind, and I’m one of the millions of fans worldwide just heartbroken by her death. Here’s a lovely bit from Wishful Drinking, which includes her thoughts about her obituary, which I’ve seen repeated multiple places on social media since yesterday.

Anyway, George comes up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, ‘You can’t wear a bra under that dress.’

So, I say, ‘Okay, I’ll bite. Why?’

And he says, ‘Because… there’s no underwear in space.’

I promise you this is true, and he says it with such conviction too! Like he had been to space and looked around and he didn’t see any bras or panties or briefs anywhere.

Now, George came to my show when it was in Berkeley. He came backstage and explained why you can’t wear your brassiere in other galaxies, and I have a sense you will be going to outer space very soon, so here’s why you cannot wear your brassiere, per George. So, what happens is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands??? But your bra doesn’t- so you get strangled by your own bra. Now I think that this would make a fantastic obit- so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.

With gratitude for Carrie Fisher’s ability to make us laugh, think, and feel. What an amazing woman, gone too soon.

2016, are you done yet? Go away.

Updated to add: Just as I was about to post this, I saw the sad news about Debbie Reynolds. No words.

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!
Add your Thursday Quotables post link in the comments section below… and I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week too.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

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