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.

The sections of this template:

• Intro (here)
• Musings
• My Week (or two) in Review -- list of books begun or finished and links to recent reviews and bookish posts
• Reading Now -- my current reading list broken up into categories
• Upcoming -- scheduled reviews and blog tours and list of finished books awaiting reviews)
• New Arrivals -- lists of recently acquired books: bought, borrowed, ARC [broken up into snail mail, email and Net Gallery]

Quote: Flannery O'Connor

Mystery and Manners:

Occasional Prose

Musings

It's been over eight months since my last IMWAYR?.  A couple of weeks after that our furbaby, Merlin died.  Which began the mood roller coaster I've been riding ever since.  My mood tanked hard when Merlin got sick but I thought I was making a comeback when another event sent me into a tailspin.  Then I lost my counselor.  Then I learned my new counselor was revisiting the bi-polar diagnosis after I thought that had been ruled out a year previously.

My mood had taken too many blows in too short a time and I couldn't seem to recover my equilibrium.  I lost my joy.  Pun totally intended.  I lost joy in reading, in writing, in fiber art, in blogging, in social media, in running, in friends, in family, in me.  I lost myself.  Again.

I think I'm pulling out of it.  I've been working hard at it.  My new counselor has me practicing mindfulness.  I'm returning to personal journaling.

I returned to daily blogging at the first of the year.  I joined One Word 365 an alternative to New Year's resolutions in which you choose a word to make the theme of your year and try to do something to incorporate it into every day.

I'm still having mood meltdowns at least once a week but I began to find enjoyment in favorite activities again mid January, including reading. I requested three NetGalley ARC last week.  The first in over a year.  I finished a book today.

So here's hoping this is the first of a string of regular IMWAYR?

To prep this post I completely revamped the IMWAYR? template I'd been using. I eliminated or consolidated sections and removed from all the lists any book I'd not opened in over 6 months.  I can put them back if/when I start reading them again.  Most I'll likely have to restart.

Then I added all the books begun since mid summer and made sure each list section had a book image to reflect one of its books.  I will occasionally change out those images.

Thomas Covenant Trilogies

Finished this week:

• Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson [Book 1 of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever] reread  -- OWN -- EBOOK

Started this week:

• The Glittering World by Robert Levy -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]
• Victorian Fairy Tales Edited by Michael Newton [short stories]   -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]
• The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]

Advanced Bookmarks [neither begun or finished this past week]:

• Complexity and the Arrow of Time by (multiple authors)  --ARC -- EBOOK
• All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• The Thunderbird Conspiracy by R. K. Price -- ARC -- EBOOK
• A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson-- OWN -- TREE
• A Course in Miracles [the text] -- OWN -- TREE
• A Course in Miracles [the workbook] -- OWN -- TREE
• Tao of Chaos: DNA & the I-Ching by Katya Walter --LIBRARY --EBOOK [Open Library]
• Coming Out Asperger: Diagnosis, Disclosure, and Self-Confidence Edited by Dinah Murray -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson [Book 1 of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever] reread  -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Metamorphosis: Transforming Your Body, Mind & Life! by Charles Webb  -- OWN -- TREE [came with the nutrition program my sister and I bought]
• Why Isn't My Brain Working? by Datis Kharrazian -- LOAN -- TREE [from the library of the nutritionist]

Recent Weeks in Review:

~Reviews:

• [no recent reviews]

~Recent Bookish Posts:

• My Brain on Books XV -- Dewey's 24hr Read-a-Thon
• Library Lament -- re racking up a HUGE fine
• Joy's Reading -- re regaining joy in reading after last fall's mood tank took it away
• Friday Forays in Fiction: The Influence of Reading on Our Stories -- and a snippet -- musing on the relationship between a writer's reading and their writing with a snippet from my structural rewrite of Blow Me a Candy Kiss showing how my rereading of Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series is affecting it.

~Finished reading recently:

• Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson [Book 1 of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever] reread  -- OWN -- EBOOK
• All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base1 by Annie Jacobsen -- LIBRARY -- AUDIO
• From Where You Dream by Robert Olen -- LIBRARY -- TREE
• The Nano Experiment by Richard Brawer -- OWN -- EBOOK
• 420 Characters by Lou Beach  -- LIBRARY -- TREE
• Rough Draft by Michael Robertson Jr. and Dan Dawkins -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Autism Goes to School by Sharon A. Mitchell -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Silver Lake by Peter Gadol -- OWN -- EBOOK

~Began reading recently:

• All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot  -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson-- OWN -- TREE
• A Course in Miracles [the text] -- OWN -- TREE
• A Course in Miracles [the workbook] -- OWN -- TREE
• The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu by Dan Jurafsky -- LIBRARY -- TREE
• The Tao of Chaos: DNA & the I-Ching by Katya Walter --LIBRARY --EBOOK [Open Library]
• The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor [short stories]   -- OWN -- EBOOK
• World Famous Cults and Fanatics by Colin Wilson   -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Coming Out Asperger: Diagnosis, Disclosure, and Self-Confidence Edited by Dinah Murray -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• Discovering Your Soul Signature by Panache Desai -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Water: For Health, For Healing, For Life by F. Batmangheildj -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Metamorphosis: Transforming Your Body, Mind & Life! by Charles Webb  -- OWN -- TREE [came with the nutrition program my sister and I bought]
• Why Isn't My Brain Working? by Datis Kharrazian -- LOAN -- TREE [from the library of the nutritionist]
• You Are a Writer So Start Acting Like One by Jeff Goins -- OWN -- EBOOK
• If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This by Robin Black [short stories]  -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• The Fierce and Unforgiving Muse by Gregory L. Norris [short stories]   -- OWN -- EBOOK
• The Glittering World by Robert Levy -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]
• Victorian Fairy Tales Edited by Michael Newton [short stories]   -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]
• The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]

Reading Now (Some Intermittently):

__Non-Fiction:

• Complexity and the Arrow of Time by (multiple authors)  --ARC -- EBOOK
• Star Trek As Myth: Essays on Symbol and Archetype at the Final Frontier edited by Matthew Kapell -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Discovering Your Soul Signature by Panache Desai -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Water: For Health, For Healing, For Life by F. Batmangheildj -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Metamorphosis: Transforming Your Body, Mind & Life! by Charles Webb  -- OWN -- TREE [came with the nutrition program my sister and I bought]
• Why Isn't My Brain Working? by Datis Kharrazian -- LOAN -- TREE [from the library of the nutritionist]
• The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu by Dan Jurafsky -- LIBRARY -- TREE
• A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson-- OWN -- TREE
• A Course in Miracles [the text] -- OWN -- TREE
• A Course in Miracles [the workbook] -- OWN -- TREE
• World Famous Cults and Fanatics by Colin Wilso   -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Tao of Chaos: DNA & the I-Ching by Katya Walter --LIBRARY --EBOOK [Open Library]

  ~ROW80 Writing Craft

• No Plot, No Problem by Chris Baty -- OWN -- EBOOK
• The Fiction Writer's Handbook by Shelly Lowenkopf  --ARC -- EBOOK ROW80 reading list
• What to Do When There's Too Much to Do by Laura Stack -- OWN -- EBOOK (Part of my attempt to organize my life around my priorities. So part of my ROW80 reading list)
• 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley -- LIBRARY -- TREE
• You Are a Writer So Start Acting Like One by Jeff Goins -- OWN -- EBOOK

__Fiction:

• The Fierce and Unforgiving Muse by Gregory L. Norris [short stories]   -- OWN -- EBOOK
• If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This by Robin Black [short stories]  -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor [short stories] -- OWN -- EBOOK
• The Glittering World by Robert Levy -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]
• Victorian Fairy Tales Edited by Michael Newton  [short stories]  -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]
• The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker -- ARC [NetGalley Kindle]

 ~Blog Tour books still unfinished

•  Arctic Fire by Paul Byers. -- ARC -- TREE
• The Thunderbird Conspiracy by R. K. Price -- ARC -- EBOOK
• The Three Sisters by Bryan Taylor -- ARC -- EBOOK
• Head Games by Erika Rummel -- ARC -- EBOOK 

Upcoming:

___Blog Tours:


___Books I've Finished Awaiting Reviews (non blog tours):

Whenever I'm not pinned to a date like with the blog tours I do very poorly at getting reviews written in a timely way after finishing books and the longer I wait the harder it gets.  This is an issue I'm working on and hope to get a system in place to smooth the track from beginning book to posting review.

Series:

Jan Karon's Mitford series. 
The short lighthearted chapters of these books are almost like stand-alone short stories with beloved characters and make great bedtime reading for adults wanting pleasant dreams.  

Read them aloud to my Mom  

Feb 10 2014: We just finished the last one, In the Company of Others but have heard there is a new one and need to check on that.

• At Home in Mitford 
• A Light in the Window by Jan Karon  
• These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon  .
• Out to Caanan by Jan Karon 
• A New Song by Jan Karon.  
• A Common Life: The Wedding Story by Jan Karon
• Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon 
• In This Mountain by Jan Karon
• A Light From Heaven by Jan Karon  --   the final book in the Mitford series.
• At Home in Holly Springs by Jan Karon  --  Father Tim series first of two.  Features Father Tim from the Mitford series having adventures beyond Mitford after his retirement from Episcopal priest duty. In this one he returns to the town he grew up in. 
• In the Company of Others by Jan Karon  --  Father Tim series second of two.  In this one he and Cynthia have a several week vacation in Ireland from where his father and grandfather had immigrated

Grace Chapel Inn series published by Guidepost which I'm now reading to Mom. New volumes will come in the mail monthly. We are loving it.  Maybe even more than the last half of the Mitford and Father Tim volumes.  Three sisters ages 50, 62 and 70 inherit jointly their family home after their father's death.  A Victorian in a very small town situated next door to the church their father pastored.  They decide to turn it into a Bed and Breakfast so they can afford to keep it and live in it.  We finished the tenth one the second week of January.

• Back Home Again by Melody Carlson 
• Going to the Chapel by by Rebecca Kelly
• Recipes and Wooden Spoons
• Hidden History
• Winter Wonders
• Portraits of the Past
• All in the Timing
• Promises to Keep
• Slices of Life
• Home for the Holidays

Herriot's All Creatures: another series I'm reading to Mom.  We are reading these while we wait for the next Grace Chapel book to arrive in the mail.

• All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot -- LOAN -- EBOOK

Wicked Another series for which I'll probably do a single review. I think there is a 5th book out now so I may wait until I can get my hands on it.  These four were loaners from my niece.

• Witch by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie -- LOAN -- TREE
• Curse by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie -- LOAN -- TREE
• Legacy by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie -- LOAN -- TREE
• Spellbound by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie -- LOAN -- TREE

Thomas Covenant Trilogies

Thomas Covenant

• Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson [Book 1 of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever] reread  -- OWN -- EBOOK

Fiction:

• The Land of Decoration by Grace McClean -- ARC-- OWN -- TREE
• The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff  -- LIBRARY -- TREE
• Losses by Robert Wexelblatt an -- ARC-- OWN -- EBOOK
• After: The Shock by Scott Nicholson -- ARC-- OWN -- EBOOK  This is post apocalyptic horror with zombies.    I anticipated enjoying this even tho zombies are not my favorite horror theme because I really enjoyed his The Red Church and I did but probably not to the same degree.  And its continued.
• Pie Town by Lynne Hinton -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• Good in Bed by Jennifer Wiener -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• Certain Girls by Jennifer Wiener (sequel to Good in Bed) -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• Joyland by Stephen King -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• Rose Fire by Mercedes Lackey -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• The Nano Experiment by Richard Brawer -- OWN -- EBOOK
• 420 Characters by Lou Beach  -- LIBRARY -- TREE
• Rough Draft by Michael Robertson Jr. and Dan Dawkins -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Autism Goes to School by Sharon A. Mitchell -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Silver Lake by Peter Gadol -- OWN -- EBOOK

Non-Fiction:

• Boys Will Be Joys by Dave Meurer -- OWN -- TREE
• Write Good or Die! edited by Scott Nicholson  -- OWN -- EBOOK -- a collection of essays by inde authors -- ROW80 reading list 
• Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by Rust Hills onetime fiction editor at Esquire -- OWN -- TREE
•  Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Leher -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhi -- LOAN -- EBOOK
• Get Your Loved One Sober by Robert Meyers  -- OWN -- EBOOK (Research for a fiction WIP)
• The Road to Success in NaNoWriMo: Your Guide to a Month of High Speed Writing by Terri Main  -- OWN -- EBOOK
• 50 ways to get Ideas for Blog Posts by Dylan Varian  -- OWN -- EBOOK
• Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen -- LIBRARY -- AUDIO
• From Where You Dream by Robert Olen -- LIBRARY -- TREE

Memoir/Biography

• Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living by by Bailey White -- OWN -- TREE -- a memoir.  It's short little vignette chapters and easy to read font made it ideal for taking with me to doctor appointments.  Which is how I managed to finally finish it.
• Never Give in to Fear by Marti MacGibbon   -- ARC-- OWN -- EBOOK This was a memoir of an addict's decent into the abyss and rise back out again and was quite engrossing.

New Arrivals:

__ARC

~snail mail

• 
  

~email

• 
  

~NetGalley

• The Glittering World by Robert Levy
• Victorian Fairy Tales Edited by Michael Newton
• The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker

__Bought

• Metamorphosis: Transforming Your Body, Mind & Life! by Charles Webb  -- OWN -- TREE [came with the nutrition program my sister and I bought]

__Borrowed

The Tao of Chaos: DNA & the I-Ching by Katya Walter --LIBRARY --EBOOK [Open Library]

Why Isn't My Brain Working? by Datis Kharrazian -- LOAN -- TREE [from the library of the nutritionist]