Showing posts with label It's Monday What Are You Reading?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label It's Monday What Are You Reading?. Show all posts

Monday, February 02, 2015

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:



~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


      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


      __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]

      • Read more...

        Monday, May 19, 2014

        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)

        My Week (or two) in Review (list of books finished and links to bookish posts in the previous week or two)
        Reading Now (my current reading list broken up into NF and Fiction)
        Upcoming (scheduled reviews and blog tours and list of finished books awaiting reviews)
        Recently (links to bookish posts in the last few weeks)
        New Arrivals: (lists of recently acquired ARC broken up into snail mail, email and Net Gallery)
        ARC in waiting (a list that is getting shamefully long)

        Note:  I'm beginning to implement a new scheme for indicating the source and the format of the books I list but I can't afford the time to do the whole list all at once.  They follow the authors name and look like this: --ARC -- EBOOK; -- OWN -- TREE; --LIBRARY -- AUDIO

        Flannery O'Connor
        Mystery and Manners:
        Occasional Prose
        My main focus continues to be the rewrite of my short story Blow Me a Candy Kiss. But I also keep snatching those those snippets of found time for reading, advancing bookmarks in several this week, re-starting a novel and finishing two.  It's amazing how much reading time you total by end of day when you accumulate in packets of 3, 5, 15 minutes.

        The amount of time I spend reading now is triple what it was a year ago and all the credit goes to the routines suggested by my husband in our coaching sessions.  It began with putting all the ebooks on my currently reading list onto my devices and the several treebooks I've targeted for finishing within arms reach of my desk chair, my pillow and the porcelain throne.

        Then I was able to establish the habit of reaching for one when unexpected snippets of time were available. This creates a feedback loop for the more I read, the more I want to read.

        Now if only I can get the same results for book reviews!


        Finished this week:

        • Rough Draft by Michael Robertson Jr. and Dan Dawkins -- OWN -- EBOOK -- in my Kindle library. Got free during a promo.  It's a thriller about three famous horror writer's forced to collaborate on a novel while isolated in a mountain cabin surrounded by haunted wilderness.  It has a lot of potential but I have bones to pick with it.  The female character is poorly drawn and irritatingly cliche.  The rest of my bones all relate to the fact that Rough Draft is still a very rough draft.
        • 50 Ways to Get Ideas for Blog Posts by Dylan Varian -- OWN -- EBOOK

        Started this week:

        • Woman On Top by Deborah Schwartz -- ARC -- EBOOK -- blog tour [restarted]
        • 50 Ways to Get Ideas for Blog Posts by Dylan Varian -- OWN -- EBOOK -- I found this in my Kindle library within hours after writing my last ROW80 check-in on the theme of needing to cut the average time spent on a post down from 4 hours to under 2.  Coming up with topics is one of the time consumers.  I read this in one sitting as it is really more of a pamphlet than a book.  In fact it may have been a blog post on Varian's blog
        Advanced Bookmarks:

        • The Fiction Writer's Handbook by Shelly Lowenkopf  --ARC -- EBOOK ROW80 reading list 
        • Complexity and the Arrow of Time by (multiple authors)  --ARC -- EBOOK
        • 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)


        Recent Weeks in Review:

        ~Reviews:

        Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Go by Les Edgerton  -- OWN -- EBOOK -- ROW80 reading list

        ~Recent Bookish Posts:

        Friday Forays in Fiction: Quote -- a Stephen King quote on revision with a Witty Kitty's editing suggestions
        My Brain on Books XIV My thon post.  A blog inside a blog.
        Friday Forays in Fiction: Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Go by Les Edgerton  ROW80 reading list
        An Ode to Dewey, Founder of Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon
        Workstation Wazillion and Won  on the surface not a bookish post but it is the latest revamp of the area where most of my reading and writing happen.
        Friday Forays in Fiction: Story on the Ropes? Get Tropes  I found a new playground for lovers of story.  Writers or Readers or Watchers
        National Library Week 2014

        Finished reading recently:

        Going to the Chapel by by Rebecca Kelly -- MOM'S -- TREE second in the Grace Chapel Inn series I'm reading to Mom.
        The Korean Word For Butterfly by James Zerndt -- OWN/ARC -- EBOOK  I had already downloaded this off Amazon when it was offered free before I signed up for the blog tour 
        Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Go by Les Edgerton -- OWN -- EBOOK  ROW80 reading list
        420 Characters by Lou Beach -- LIBRARY -- TREE  A beautifully made book physically.  With beautifully wrought prose composing several dozen flash fictions told in 420 characters or less counting spaces and punctuation that were originally published as status updates on fb.  One of six fiction books I checked out in late February.  Spent a lot of time with this one during the thon
        Tinseltown Riff by Shelly Frome -- ARC -- EBOOK  Reviewed for blog tour before I finished then had to restart

        Rough Draft by Michael Robertson Jr. and Dan Dawkins -- OWN -- EBOOK
        50 ways to get Ideas for Blog Posts by Dylan Varian

        Began reading recently:

        Organic Beauty With Essential Oil by Rebecca Park Totilo  --  ARC -- EBOOK January 23 blog tour
        Hospice Voices: Lessons for Living at the End of Life by Eric Lindner  --  ARC -- TREE January 29 blog tour -- am reading aloud to Mom
        Complexity and the Arrow of Time by (multiple authors) -- ARC -- EBOOK
        The Book of Heaven, by Patricia Storace -- LIBRARY -- TREE  Had to return the library books Saturday.  Had not finished this so will have to get it back or possibly pay for an EBOOK so it will be easier for me to read and to read for longer stretches.
        Rough Draft by Michael Robertson Jr. and Dan Dawkins -- OWN -- EBOOK

        Reading Now (Some Intermittently):

        __Non-Fiction:

        Most of these I plug away in at a snail's pace--a couple pages or chapters per week or even every other week as that is my preferred way to read non-fic.  It sticks with me longer. I'm closing in on the finish line for several but as I get close on one I tend to add two or three more. There are some not listed here because I read in them so infrequently.

        This is getting to be too much even for me. So a few weeks ago I decided to prioritize five and grey out the rest and add one back for every one I finish.  

        The top two are elevated above the 5 because they are commitments with different parameters--AWAI will be swapped out with the next installment 12 times and Hospice Voices, the current evening read-aloud, will take between two and three months to finish.
        Feb 23 -- Will be keeping library books separate between the priority 5+2 and the inactive section showing as active when checked out and inactive when returned unfinished.

        My AWAI Copywriting course Installment 1 (of 13)  -- OWN -- EBOOK
        Hospice Voices: Lessons for Living at the End of Life
        by Eric Lindner  --  ARC -- TREE  January 29 blog tour (February 10 have started over, reading aloud to Mom)

        It's Not About You by Max Lucado. -- OWN -- TREE   I found this on my own shelves while packing up my personal library.  It was one of the last gifts I received from my Dad in 2005 the year he died of cancer.  Spent time with this during the read-a-thon and nearly finished it.
        This Mobius Strip of Ifs by Mathias Freese --  ARC -- TREE (I've posted a reading journal post for this collection of personal essays also.  It is past time for another.) Spent time with this during the thon and am closing in on the finish.
        The Fiction Writer's Handbook by Shelly Lowenkopf -- ARC -- EBOOK --   ROW80 reading list  posted review for blog tour in March 2013  but still not finished.  It's more of a reference book than a read straight thru book.  It's digital and arranged alphabetical like a dictionary with every article referenced inside another linked so you can follow a related thread.
        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)
        Complexity and the Arrow of Time by (multiple authors) -- ARC -- EBOOK -- a collaboration of scientists, philosophers and theologians exploring the concepts of Complexity Theory. Was a NetGalley ARC.  Spent time with this during the thon Saturday (April 26) but had to restart it as I got interrupted at the start of NaNo last fall.  Of course the Net Galley timed out but in November I was contacted by the publisher asking about my review and I explained I'd lost the Net Galley copy so they sent me a PDF that won't timeout.  I'm really finding it interesting.  It is one of my topics of interest in what I think of as the junction where science, philosophy and spirituality meet.  I didn't spend much time with it after receiving another ARC last fall because I've not bein able to keep good focus on books of that difficulty level since my mood disorder went into the chaos realm a couple years ago.  It is a mark of hope that I'm now reading books at the college and college grad level and comprehending and enjoying them again.  Happy Dance!!!

        ~Library Books (returned 5/10)
        Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights
        by Marina Warner -- LIBRARY -- TREE --  have had it out of the library for the third time in a year and it had to go back Saturday.  far from finished so will want it back.  actually I want it on my own reference shelf so may have to buy it.  besides I think it would help to have it in ebook.  The print is just so small my eyes tire too fast.  Frustrating.
        The Golden Thread: A History of Writing by Ewan Clayton -- LIBRARY -- TREE -- This is the story of the alphabets and writing tools from the early stone tablets to the digital age.
        American Heretics: Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and the History of Religious Intolerance by Peter Gottschalk -- LIBRARY -- TREE The history of conflict between the major religions since the inception of America, the country whose constitution guaranteed freedom of religion.
        Think: Why You Should Question Everything by Guy P. Harrison -- LIBRARY -- TREE -- An apologia for skepticism and the scientific method.

        ~Blog Tour books still unfinished
        The Fiction Writer's Handbook by Shelly Lowenkopf -- ARC -- EBOOK --   ROW80 reading list  posted review for blog tour in March 2013  but still not finished
        Before You Say I Do Again by Benjamin Berkley  --  ARC -- TREE for Blog Tour Review Feb 8 2013.  The review is up but I'm not finished.
        Organic Beauty With Essential Oil  -- ARC -- TREE --  January 23 blog tour

        ROW80 Writing Craft
        The Marshall Plan by Evan Marshal -- OWN -- EBOOK --  -- this is a re-read.
        The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Erotic Romance by Alison Kent. -- OWN-- TREE --   Also found on my shelves.  I won this in a drawing during the Sweating for Sven writing challenge in 2007.  It made me blush and I kept it hidden in the recesses of my bookshelves but I think I've gotten over that.  Tho I admit it is hard to pull it out and read in it now that I'm back at Mom's
        The Right to Write by Julia Cameron -- LIBRARY -- TREE  ROW80 reading list
        Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go by Shaun McNiff -- OWN-- TREE --   on ROW80 reading list.
        Jung and the Tarot: An Archetypal Journey by Sallie Nichols -- OWN-- TREE --     On ROW80 reading list as I'm reading this for an understanding of archetype, character type and the language of symbol.
        Mystery and Manners by Flannery O'Connor  -- LIBRARY -- TREE -- ROW80 reading list  This is a reread
        What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Muller -- ARC -- EBOOK -- NetGalley    ROW80 reading list  Net Galley ARC a NF that purports to answer many puzzles in the Austen novels. The ARC timed out long ago so I'm waiting to find a library copy
        The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler -- OWN-- EBOOK --    ROW80 reading list
        And So It Goes by Charles J. Sheilds -- ARC -- TREE --  a bio of Kurt Vonnegut.  (I've posted about this biography of Kurt Vonnegut several time in a kind of reading journal. Part of the fun is in stopping to read the stories as the narrative reaches the point he writes them. An author bio thus on my ROW80 reading list )
        13 Ways of Looking at a Novel by Jane Smiley  -- LIBRARY -- TREE  ROW80 reading list
        The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick -- LIBRARY -- TREE   ROW80 reading list  Who knew.  Dick was a mystic.  I've only read one of his novels and a few short stories but now I've got to try to find and read everything!


        Psychology:

        The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin -- OWN-- EBOOK --  
        How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer -- SISTER'S/OWN-- TREE/EBOOK --
        Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon -- LIBRARY -- TREE-- one of the new library books and also a NetGalley ARC that timed out on me
        Choice Theory: A Psychology of Personal Freedom by William Glasser M.D. -- LIBRARY -- TREE

        Philosophy:

        Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson -- OWN-- TREE/EBOOK --  

        History:

        Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch -- SISTER'S/OWN-- TREE/EBOOK --  I pulled this off my sister's bookshelf awhile back.  It is over a thousand pages in smallish font.  So it will be on this list for a long time. I now have it in digital as well but I still like opening and holding that big book.  The way that is becoming rarer and rarer is one of the sadnesses of loosing my eyesight

        __Fiction:

        A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness -- LIBRARY -- AUDIO --  Was listening to this while working on this Xmas crochet project in 2012 and have had to restart it several times and get pulled away again and again and again.
        The Civilized World by Susi Wyss -- ARC -- TREE this is a collection of interlocking short stories set in South Africa and I remember I was quite enjoying it.  I've had to start it over...and over...and over
        A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon  -- ARC -- EBOOK -- NetGalley  Was reading last fall (2013) when the blog tour schedule took over and of course now I need to find a library copy


        ~Library Books

        The Book of Heaven
        by Patricia Storace
        The Book of Heaven, by Patricia Storace.  I was just loving it.  But I didn't finish before it had to go back to the library Saturday.  Wish it was digital-- text or audio.  Or at least large print. The fonts in regular tree books wear me out too soon anymore.

        Myth and legend. is one of my pet themes for both fiction and non-fiction and Patricia Storace who is a poet has here written a novel that is a retelling of old, familiar stories with the POV shifted from the male to the female and this reimagining has put several new twists on them.

        The language is lyrical and needs to be savored as one would expect from a poet.  I think I'm going to need my own copy of this one someday as I don't think I can get everything out of it on a first read thru.



        ~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 --
        Woman On Top by Deborah Schwartz -- ARC -- EBOOK -- currently targeted.  one novel at a time is best



        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.

        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.  

        I was reading them aloud to my Mom during my visits here for nearly two years and I decided some time back to wait until we finished them all and do one review for the entire series.  We began the first one spring of 2012 but had not finished before I went home after my November visit.  My sister had taken over in December and had finished book 1 and started book 2.  As soon as I caught up to where they were last January (2013) I took over mid book 2.  

        Feb 10 2014: We just finished the last one, In the Company of Others, 
        • 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.
        • Back Home Again by Melody Carlson 
        • Going to the Chapel by by Rebecca Kelly

        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
        • Curse by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie
        • Legacy by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie
        • Spellbound by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie
        Fiction:

        • The Land of Decoration by Grace McClean an ARC
        • The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff  a library book
        • Losses by Robert Wexelblatt an ARC
        • After: The Shock by Scott Nicholson  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
        • Good in Bed by Jennifer Wiener
        • Certain Girls by Jennifer Wiener (sequel to Good in Bed)
        • Joyland by Stephen King
        • Rose Fire by Mercedes Lackey
        • The Nano Experiment by Richard Brawer
        • 420 Characters by Lou Beach  -- library book
        • Rough Draft by Michael Robertson Jr. and Dan Dawkins -- OWN -- EBOOK
        Non-Fiction:

        • Boys Will Be Joys by Dave Meurer.
        • Write Good or Die! edited by Scott Nicholson   ROW80 reading list (a collection of essays by inde authors.  many of them self-published)
        • Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by Rust Hills onetime fiction editor at Esquire.
        •  Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Leher.
        • The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg   Part of my attempt to organize my life around my priorities. So part of my ROW80 reading list.   I discussed this in such detail in this ROW80 check-in post which was practically a review and I'll probably copy/paste much of what I said there into the review.
        • Never Give in to Fear by Marti MacGibbon  This was a NetGalley ARC but later I picked it up for Kindle when it was free on Amazon.  I began it in Adobe Digital Editions and when that timed out on me switched to the Kindle for PC.  This was a memoir of an addict's decent into the abyss and rise back out again and was quite engrossing.
        • Get Your Loved One Sober by Robert Meyers (Research for a fiction WIP)
        • The Road to Success in NaNoWriMo: Your Guide to a Month of High Speed Writing by Terri Main
        • 50 ways to get Ideas for Blog Posts by Dylan Varian



        Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living by by Bailey White I thought this was a novel and getting set to put it in the fiction list below when I thought to check out its page on Goodreads and discovered it is 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.







        Recently:

        ___Reviews and Bookish Posts:

        ADDlepated not exactly bookish but it explains the impact of the recently diagnosed ADD on my life and reading has been a big part of my life so you can imagine how the things I describe can mess with reading and reviewing.  ADD is probably the explanation for my long list of books begun and not yet finished.  Then there is the issue of spending more time collecting free ebooks and fussing with their metadata than actually reading them. *sigh*
        Fallen In
        Engulped by a Book
        Enspelled By Story

        April 7 -- I started a book in my Kindle library by impulse on Wednesday and scarfed it down in three days.  Several three to five hour reading sessions were involved along with more than a few of those small slices of in between times.

        It wasn't even on any of my lists!  Spontaneity!  Typically so unlike me.

        I was combing through my Kindle library with my Nexus 7 looking for all the books I had begun on the computer to get them downloaded onto the device when I noticed one of the NaNoWriMo advice titles and decided to add all of them as well.

        One of the books I swept up was called The Nano Experiment.  I was surprised when I opened it to see it was fiction.  I thought it must be a NaNo participant sharing his NaNo project.  But it was awfully good writing for a raw rough draft.

        I soon realized it was a thriller and I was sucked in to ten hours of reading over three days.  I was halfway through the story before it hit me that it had absolutely nothing to do with NaNoWriMo.  The story premise was about unauthorized human experiments with NaNo technology created drugs.  Such a doh!

        Fallen In
        Engulped by a Book
        Enspelled By Story


        John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars by Roland Hughes -- March 11 blog tour

        John Smith is in his 80s and has lived in the bunker built and supplied by his family since he was eleven and the World that Was ended.  As he puts it, the Universe decided it was time to reboot.

        It's been over 60 years and he has been discovered by scouts from one of the organized enclaves who have now sent one of their twenty-something female reporters to interview him about the the Microsoft Wars and the end of the World that Was.


        Library Loot from today's visit--Fiction
        Friday Forays in Fiction -- author quote on LOLcat with kittehs 2 cents worth

        Friday Forays in Fiction

        Looting the Library Brought home ten books.

        Nexus 7 in Keyboard Case


        Friday Forays in Fiction: Reading Hungers  -- it's mine now. No more schlepping back and forth to the library and restarting it 3-5 times a year.
        A Nexus of Aspirations -- Another one has fallen off my Lust List
        Friday Forays in Fiction: Quote -- a quote, a poem, a LOLcat
        Sometimes You Just Gotta --  Did you hear the clatter as this 25 year resident of the top notch of my Lust List fell off?
        This Is Just Wrong!  A lit cat LOL

        Author Interview with James Zerndt for his, The Korean Word For Butterfly blog tour. Feb 11


        The Korean Word For Butterfly by James Zerndt --  February 4 blog tour

        I was in my late twenties when I was first introduced to novels featuring the interplay between two or more cultures.  It was the late eighties and one of my Literature and Creative Writing professors (Lawson Inada, later Poet Laureate for Oregon) assigned us a book by an Amer-Indian woman.  Silko?  I was entranced and began to seek them out and have continued to favor them ever since.  Trust me when I say, James Zerndt compares favorably with some of the best I encountered with his The Korean Word for Butterfly.  I am grateful to him for introducing me to the Korean/American relationship.

        Hospice Voices: Lessons for Living at the End of Life by Eric Lindner  --  January 29 blog tour


        Eric Linder has given us a treasure in Hospice Voices.  He has taught us how to see beyond the visible evidence of physical degeneration and grief over imminent loss to the beauty of the souls preparing to pass on.  He has tapped into the power of storytelling to show us those souls as they sort through their memories and emotions in their attempt to find meaning in their life and share their insights or define the essence of their 'I' and see recognition and validation in the eyes of those, like Eric, with the patience, compassion and courage to bear witness--to listen and observe with neither prejudice nor prescription.






        Small town Georgia, 1960. Passions and secrets marinate in a simmering summer heat.  Instead of a single protagonist like Sassy in The Story of Sassy Sweetwater to get attached to and to view the events through, Cook has given us a large cast of at least a dozen well drawn and differentiated characters (The Cassidy family of four and all those caught in their gravity well) whose secrets entwine their many lives like bindweed with some of the most insidious vines being those secrets individuals keep from themselves until they've gained a choke hold on their hope and happiness, their very lives and those of their nearest and dearest.


        Organic Beauty With Essential Oil by Rebecca Park Totilo  --  January 23 blog tour

        With several personal experiences behind me I needed no further proof that essential oils were essential to health and happiness when the blog tour invite for this book landed in my email.  I was excited by the blurb description and this book, unlike some, totally lived up to its blurb.  It is jammed packed with recipes for personal hygiene whose names are drool worthy.

        I suggest not reading this book while hungry.

        My Friday Forays in Fiction featured another one of my LOLcats displaying a literary quote along with a kitteh's spin on it.

        New Arrivals:

        By snail mail:

        By email:

        from NetGalley


        ARC in waiting:

        Tree Books:

        The Variations by John Donatich
        The Inquisitor by Mark Allen Smith   My husband read this and loved it and is after me to read it so he can talk about it.
        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.
        We Sinners by Hanna Pylvaine.   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.
        Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010 compiled by The Organization Breaking the Silence
        A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks
        Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an american Metropolis by Mark Binelli
        The Autobiography of Us
        The Abundance by Amit Majmudar
        Here Comes Mrs. Kugelman by Minka Pradelski

        Ebooks:

        ____By email:


        Troubled by Scott Nicholson

        ____From Net Galley:


        A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee
        What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Muller
        The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
        Unloched by Candace Lemon-Scott
        Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon  [the  55 day NetGalley digital edition timed out before I finished but I have just nabbed a library copy]
        APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur: How to Publish a Book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch
        With or Without You A Memoir by Domenica Ruta   [the  55 day NetGalley digital edition timed out before I finished but I am watching for a library copy]
        The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron
        The Book of Why by Nicholas Montemarano  [the  55 day NetGalley digital edition timed out before I finished but I am watching for a library copy]
        Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself by Lissa Rankin, M.D.
        Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence by David Samuel Levinson
        Kinslow System Your Path to Proven Success in Health, Love, and Life by Frank J Kinslow
        Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One by Joe Dispenza
        Women, Sex, Power, And Pleasure Getting the Life (and Sex) You Want by Evelyn Resh
        All Is Well: Heal Your Body with Medicine, Affirmations, and Intuition by Louise Hay & Mona Lisa Schulz
        The Honeymoon Effect: The Science of Creating Heaven on Earth by Bruce H. Lipton,
        The Science of Creating Heaven on Earth by Bruce H. Lipton,
        A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon
        Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani
        Directing Your Destiny by Jennifer Grace
        Hiding in Sunshine by John Stuart and Caitlin Stuart
        I Am: Renewal from Within the Garden by Lucie K Lewis
        The Book Publisher's Toolkit by Independent Book Publishers Association
        The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino
        Why Priests? by Garry Wills
        Why we Write by by Meredith Maran (Editor)
        A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon
        Complexity and the Arrow of Time by (multiple authors) --  a collaboration of scientists, philosophers and theologians exploring the concepts of Complexity Theory.

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

        Read more...

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