It's Monday! What are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Share what you (are, have been, are about to, hope to be) reading or reviewing this week. Sign Mr Linky at Book Journey and visit other Monday reading roundups.

Now that my August participation in Camp NaNoWriMo and Write Fifteen Minutes a Day is over I'm hoping to read more and write more reviews over the next two months.  November is NaNo again and December is holiday prep so the next 8 weeks are my chance to wallow in words on the page that I didn't put there myself

The bulk of my reading over the last couple of weeks has been in my own files or online as I continue to work my way through my fiction files-drafts, notes, and research and follow the links dropped in them to figure out why I wanted them, see if they are even still alive.  This is part of the work I'm doing for my ROW80 challenge goals. Many of the links are reference resources like thinkbabynames.com, searchable Shakespeare and various dictionaries and encyclopedia but sooe of them are to articles and books that can be read online and I went ahead and read some of the shorter pieces and dipped into some books.

Say You're One of Them
Uwem Akpan
pub: Little, Brown & Company.

I posted my review for this one Thursday

I'd hoped to be starting Ann Pattchet's Bel Canto this past week for the September 13 Read-a-Long party at Bookjourney but when I noticed I might actually have a chance to win Camp NaNo my efforts went there instead.

And yep I made it.  But I would no more share it with others than I would share my morning breath.  Nasty nasty mess.

One of the books I read entire online last weekend was Aryan Sun Myths the Origin of Religions by Sarah Elizabeth Titcomb.  It wasn't that long.  More of a long essay actually.  Well under 200 pages discounting footnotes and front and end sections. Published in 1890, it is a comparative mythology study of the similar motifs in the myths of Europe, Africa, India, Persia, China, and the Americas.

I have continued reading the ebook I was reading aloud to my Mom while staying there in March and April: At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon.  The short little chapters are almost like stand-alone short stories with beloved characters.  This tends to be my bedtime read which is why I seldom read more than one chapter at a time and that not every day as my eyes are usually already fried by the time I am laying down.

I continue plugging away at the same several NF as I have for weeks or months now.  I'm creeping through most of them tho for a couple I'm closing on the finish line.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Go by Les Edgerton
Get Your Loved One Sober by Robert Meyers
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Leher.   I finished this one and am working on a review.
What to Do When There's Too Much to Do by Laura Stack

All of those are research for the writing side of my life.  The third one for a character tho I won't deny there are potential real life application for the info.

I am taking all five slow as that is my preferred way to read non-fic.  It sticks with me longer.

These two NF which I began last winter and have posted a kind of reading journal for but need to get back to before I have to start over:


And So It Goes by Charles J. Sheilds a bio of Kurt Vonnegut.  Part of the fun I'm having reading this is in stopping to read the stories he wrote as the narrative reaches the point where he writes them.

This Mobius Strip of Ifs by Mathias Freese a collection of personal essays

And these nine ARC novels some of which I've had for weeks and in a few cases months:

The Land of Decoration by Grace McClean  I actually read this once already, months ago, but am in the midst of a careful reread.

The Variations by John Donatich

The Inquisitor by Mark Allen Smith

The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller  Nobel winner!!

Skios by Michael Frayn

How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti

The Sadness of the Samurai by Victor del Arbo

Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World by Sabina Berman

Winter Journal by Paul Auster a memoir from an American literary figure that really excites me.  This one arrived earlier this month or late in July

We Sinners by Hanna Pylvaine.  This one arrived about ten days ago.  It's another story exploring the impact on family life of a fundamentalist religion.  One of the themes I'm drawn to like Pooh to honey.

If anyone reading this states a preference I may let it weigh my decision as to what I begin next from the above list.

Then there are four blog tour books in the pipes:

Sulan a Cyberpunk YA which I've finished but the blog tour isn't until September when I'll be posting my review.

Primal by Deborah Serra  A thriller about a mother defending the lives of her children from escaped convicts who invaded their camping site.  I'm doing a review for the tour in October

What Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know by Hy Conrad and Jeff Johnson.  I'll be doing a review with giveaway in September.

My copy is signed by both authors!  I've dipped into it several times since it arrived by snail mail and find it hilarious.  Did you know dogs actually love the leash because it makes it safe for them to bark and growl and pasture at the other dog on a leash in the comfort of knowing there can't really be any consequences such as having their throat ripped out or ear bitten off.

Hellfire & Damnation II by Connie Corcoran Wilson  a collection of short stories in the horror genre.  I'll be doing a review and giveaway with author interview for this one in October