It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading? #8

Good Monday afternoon! Let me tell you, I was not this chipper this morning. I didn't sleep very much last night, my brain was running on high speed, so I was groggy and grumpy this morning, and it was something like -23*C. Yuck. Anyway... feeling a little less murderous this afternoon...

 

I have been working on some new book reviews, but they're not quite ready yet, but I thought I should post something for you guys... You know, all two of you, waiting with bated breath... *insert massive eye roll*

 

So, what am I reading this week? Well that's kind of a long story, that starts before Christmas... If you want the long-story-short version, please skip over the blue text...

 

Right, so I like to try to give my nephews each a book and something else for Christmas/birthdays. I've been gifting my younger nephew the Harry Potter series, so he was taken care of for Christmas, but I needed to find something for my older nephew, plus his birthday is January 1st, so I actually had to find two books for him.

 

I did a little consulting on the Facebook groups, and got lots of great ideas! The most suggested, and the one I thought would be the best-received was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, especially with the movie coming out in March! So I ordered that one, and then I couldn't decide between two other suggestions. One was the Alfred Kropp series, the other was the Alex Rider series. They both looked pretty interesting, but I thought I had settled on Alex Rider because it seemed a little more his style (these are spy books with a lot of extreme sports, which he loves). As it turns out, I accidentally ordered both books, The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp (Alfred Kropp #1) and Stormbreaker (Alex Rider #1).

 

I kept hearing good things about Ready Player One, and I really wanted to read it myself, so I considered keeping it, (I mean, I really struggled with this...), and just giving him the other two, since I had them. But I knew he would like Ready Player One, and I had bought it for him, so what to do? Well I knew that I wasn't interested in reading Alex Rider myself, and that it would be more his thing, so I gave him that book for Christmas, leaving myself a few days to decide what to do with the others.

 

What I ended up deciding was just to give him Ready Player One, but start reading it myself. I started reading it, mistakenly thinking I would have enough time to read the whole thing before his party on the 1st, but I only got about halfway through before the party rolled around and I had to give it away! So I put my name in right away for an interlibrary loan copy, thinking I would probably get it this past week. No dice. I only got the call last Friday that it was delivered, but the library is closed on Monday, so I have to wait until tomorrow! Then I will finally be able to finish Ready Player One!

 

So, long-story-short, I am "currently reading" Ready Player One, even though it has not been in my possession for two weeks, and I will only be able to resume reading it tomorrow. In the meantime, I am also reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I won't have time to finish it before I get my hands back on Ready Player One, but I just might possibly finish both of them this week - we'll have to see! :)

What are you guys reading this week? Have you read Ready Player One yet? I was loving it, what I've read so far, and really can't wait to finish it, and then for the movie to come out in a couple months!!

 

 

It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading? #7

So I will be writing a Year in Review type post next week, most likely, but I just felt like I haven't been super active in the last couple weeks, so I thought I would write a quick Monday post!

One of the Facebook groups I'm in, called Life & Lit, has been doing different challenges and activities all month long, under the theme of Yule Ball (from the Harry Potter books/movies). One of the biggest challenges is the Yule Bingo. The bingo card is divided into 16 squares, with one column for each of the four houses (Griffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff), and each square is a character or major element from the Harry Potter stories, which represents a theme of a possible book (ex: Butterbeer is a for a sweet book, and Harry is for a book with the "chosen one" trope). You get one point for your house per square you block off, and if you block off the whole column for your house, you get a bingo, which means 5 points! It's a lot of fun!

So, I've been working away at the Yule Bingo. I have read five books so far this month for that. I need to read two more from the Ravenclaw column to get bingo, and then if I read just one more book after that, I will have reached my unofficial goal of 75 books! I think it's totally achievable! At the end of November I wasn't so sure I'd be able to make it, but I've been doing really well. Admittedly, a couple of the books I've read this month were shorter/kids' stories, but still!

I got into a bit of a slump over the weekend, but my current read is The Glass Spare by Lauren Destefano, which came in the November OwlCrate box. It sounds good, and what I've read so far has been good, but I just haven't felt like reading that much lately, and I had other stuff going on this weekend.

After I finish The Glass Spare, I intend to read Matchless: A Christmas Story by Gregory Maguire. It's a shorter one, so I should be able to finish it in a day, depending on what else is going on. And then I think I'd like to try to read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, before I give it to my nephew for his birthday on January first!

What are you guys reading this week? How have you done with your reading goals this year?

It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading? #6

Good evening Bookish Friends!

Welcome back for another It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading? post, as hosted by The Book Date! Here's what I was reading last week:

• the audiobook of The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
• the ebook of Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
• Glass Houses by Louise Penny

I started and finished the first two around the same time, so it took me approximately two weeks to read both of them. The audiobook would've taken that long anyway, because I only listen to them in the car to/from work, so a total of about an hour a day. Stalking Jack the Ripper I would have normally finished faster, but I was trying to read Glass Houses at the same time, which wasn't working very well, so it was a slow beginning for me. Also, I find that I am distracted much easier from ebooks than physical. With a physical book, once I crack it open and start reading, I am pretty well absorbed in it. With the ebook, especially on my phone, I find it so much easier to do anything else except open the book, plus I would be getting notifications and messenger messages, so just very distracting for me. But handier than carrying around a physical book.

I eventually set aside Glass Houses last week, because Stalking Jack the Ripper was for a book club discussion so I wanted to be sure I finished it and the other book club book, which is Warcross by Marie Lu. So, this week I am reading Warcross. I also started the eversion of Where'd You Go, Bernadette? last night, but I most likely won't get much more into that until I have finished both Warcross and Glass Houses. I don't even know why I started it? I guess I was just flipping through my tablet (which I haven't touched in months, and which has a bunch of books in a different program that I can't access from my phone), found it and thought, "Oh that looks good!" so I read a couple chapters. *shrug*

Everyone says Warcross is a really quick read, and the discussion for it is this Saturday, so I'm hoping I'll be able to finish it by then, and then I'd like to finish Glass Houses. After that, I don't really have much of a plan for November. I had added a couple Harlequin's to my month's TBR pile initially, just because they were at the top of a pile that keeps judging me staring at me, and I just want to say I've read them so I can pass them along or whatever. They were gifted to me by a friend, so I do want to actually read them before getting rid of them, if possible. However, if I don't read them by the end of January, I might just have to let them go. The book piles around here are out of hand, and the rest of my family is getting fed up with me.

Anyway! That's what's up this Monday!

It's Monday! What are YOU reading? #5

Good morning, Internet Land!

 

I felt like it was time for another Monday reading update post. I haven't been reviewing books, or being particularly faithful at blogging lately, so this is my (mediocre) attempt at keeping the blog alive for another week.

 

 

It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by The Book Date, and is meant to be a place and time to share what you've been reading, what you are currently reading, what you are planning on reading next... Just a good time to gather your wits and organize yourself for the week ahead!

So, this Monday, I am still reading the books I was reading last week, which I started two weeks ago. I didn't read at all over the weekend, which I am terribly ashamed of. I meant to read both Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, but darn it, YouTube sucked me in! Anyway...

 

 

The first book I started was an audiobook, which I borrowed from the library, that being The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, which is book #2 of the Cormoran Strike series. If you were not aware, Robert Galbraith is a penname of our beloved J.K. Rowling. This is a contemporary murder mystery series following Private Detective Cormoran Strike. I also listened to the first book, The Cuckoo's Calling, and really enjoyed it! So far, I am loving the series. J.K. is a masterful writer. I wasn't too sure after reading The Casual Vacancy earlier this year - barf - if she was meant to write contemporary adult books, but I really do love this series so far. Funny side note, I picked up a paperback copy of this very book at a used book sale the same day that I borrowed the audiobook from the library. It just jumped out at me, and I thought, Why not? Because it's audio CD's, I really only listen to it in the car on my way to and from work, which means I am only listening for about an hour a day, so it is somewhat slow going. But it's a great way to make use of that otherwise "wasted" driving time!

 

Next, I started reading Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. I had bought an eversion on sale a couple months back, because I had heard some pretty good reviews and the cover is gorgeous and had me lusting. :) But I tend to give a much higher priority to physical books over ebooks, so it kind of got pushed aside. But this month, it was the November book of the month pick for the Facebook "book club" group I'm in, Life and Lit (you should come join us!), so of course, I jumped on the opportunity to read it. It's very interesting, but I haven't made much progress over the last couple weeks. It's on my phone, and I thought that that would make it a lot easier to read at work, and it is, but... that's basically the only time I'm reading it, is 30 minutes at lunch... So I'm hoping to get a really significant amount read this week, just to sort of get caught up. The protagonist is Audrey Rose Wadsworth, a young woman who is "secretly" learning her uncle's trade of medical examiner, in Victorian England: a time when such acts are considered evil, and well-bred women are meant to attend dinner parties and discuss trivial things and find husbands, not touch dead bodies or skulk around the city after dark. It is obviously set during the time of the Jack the Ripper murders, and Audry Rose, her uncle, and a "damnably handsome" colleague work to solve the mystery of who is committing these savage murders. I particularly appreciate the inclusion of related photos and drawings from the time period.

Lastly, I started reading my physical copy of Glass Houses, Louise Penny's newest work. I received it at the end of August (when it was published) as a late birthday gift, and haven't taken the chance to read it yet, so it was just time. It has been so lovely to get reacquainted with these old friends from Three Pines, from whom I haven't heard for a year. But, again, it has been a slow process. I haven't made much progress with this one over the last two weeks, either. Because it is a hardcover, and I'm also reading an ebook that is on my phone which I can read anywhere, I decided I wouldn't take this one out with me. So that leaves evenings and weekends to read it, and I just haven't been doing much of that. I've been spending a lot of time on YouTube lately, mostly looking up DIY Christmas gift ideas, if I'm being completely honest. *shrug*

So, that is my current reading situation!

It's Monday! What are YOU reading? #4

Yeah, yeah. I know we're Tuesday, not Monday. Things happen. I had put off posting it because I thought I might add some photos, and then I forgot... but I still wanted to post it... so I am.

I think it's just about time for another It's Monday! post, don't you? (Hosted by The Book Date) It's been a while...

 

This Monday I am still reading the same two books I have been reading for a little over a week. I guess probably because I'm reading two books, it's taking a little longer. That, and I've been trying to get a bunch of cleaning and reorganizing done, so between actually doing that and procrastinating from doing that, I haven't been reading as much as I want.

 

So, the first book I am reading is The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (book #2 in the Raven Boys series). I borrowed it from the library, through the interlibrary exchange program, so I'm trying to make sure I finish it before the deadline, as I can't renew an interlibrary loan. It's pretty good! I'm actually finding it more interesting and easier to read than the other book I'm reading...

 

Which is Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst. This one came in an OwlCrate box several months back, and at the time my best friend and I decided that when we got around to reading it, we would read it together (as we did with another OwlCrate book last year, and each wrote a review for the other's blog). It's kind of fun to be reading a book at the same time. We read at different paces, so we're not doing discussions along the way or anything, but just vague check-ins, and we will compare notes at the end! It's an ok read, so far. As I mentioned, The Dream Thieves is more interesting to me, which is kind of unfortunate. Of Fire and Stars was a book that I almost picked up on my own, so it did interest me. I wonder if I would have found it more interesting if I weren't reading something else at the same time? Guess I'll never know...

 

Anyway, so that's what I'm currently reading. I'm hoping to finish both of these this week. If I do, I think I'm going to jump right into One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake. I've been looking forward to this one for quite a few months, since I finished Three Dark Crowns.

 

Oh, and last week I finished the audiobook of The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling. I didn't particularly like it. I had tried reading the physical copy a year or more ago and couldn't get into it. When I saw the audiobook at the library, I thought I would give that a try. I liked the actor who read it, and there were parts of the story I liked, but overall... well I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads...

It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading? #3

It's Monday! What are YOU Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by The Book Date.

Good morning, friends! How was everyone's weekend? Mine was pretty good. I always finish work early on Fridays, so I headed straight home to finish reading Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller, enjoy the lovely weather, and more or less waste the afternoon. Saturday I had a completely lazy day, but I did get a few things done in the late afternoon. Yesterday was pretty quiet - had a typical Sunday morning and then spent most of the afternoon/evening alone reading, watching TV, and doing laundry. So it was a semi-productive weekend!

 

As I mentioned, I finished Daughter of the Pirate King on Friday, for a reading challenge I was doing with a Facebook group. It was a great read and I really didn't know what I wanted to read after that! I was on such a high!

 

So today  I am reading (which I started over the weekend) Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I don't really make a habit of reading several books at once, I tend to get the storylines confused. But Saturday morning I saw the first official trailer for the new A Wrinkle in Time  movie (which looks amazing, by the way!!) so I decided it couldn't wait. Both books were on my original summer TBR list, and I am loving both so far. They are definitely different enough that there's no real danger of getting the stories mixed up.

I have also been poking away at a book I picked up at Winners-HomeSense a week or so ago, called The Tricky Art of Co-existing: How to Behave Decently No Matter What Life Throws Your Way by Sandi Toksvig. It's an etiquette book, which is kind of my guilty reading pleasure, even though non-fiction is really my least favourite genre. I own several etiquette books, from different time periods. I just find it really interesting to see what is considered the "proper" way to conduct oneself, through the ages. I especially like the wedding etiquette book (the one that started it all) I have from the 1920's.

 

So, what are YOU reading this fine Monday? Let me know in the comments below! Have you read any of these books, if so what were your thoughts (without spoilers)? What are your book-related guilty pleasures?

 

Well, that's all for now! I'll be in touch again soon.



It's Monday! What are YOU reading? #2

Hey guys! I'm here with another It's Monday! What are YOU reading? post, hosted by The Book Date! I also just published a summary of the progress I made in February toward my 2017 reading goal, which you can check out here!


So, last week I finished Ever the Hunted (so awesome, I really liked it and can't wait for the sequel!), and this week I am reading Caraval by Stephanie Garber, and still working away at Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery.


Caraval is amazing, I am so in love with the world of the game! It is so strange, marvellous, magical, mysterious...! And, up to this point, I am enjoying the characters and the pace of the story (I'm a little over halfway through).


Anne of Avonlea is just way less interesting and adventurous so I am not as into it, but I am trying to make an effort to bring this book with me when I go places (not difficult since it is pocket-size paperback - I find it awkward to haul around hardcover books, do you?), and to read during my lunch hour (not that I often do read over lunch - we are a small staff who eats together so I feel rude to get up in the middle of lunch to go read alone at my desk...).


Anyway, so that's what I'm reading this week! I'm not sure what will be up next. I did prepare a TBR list for March, but I try to keep it small to give myself freedom for my whims. Do you find that sometimes when you finish a certain type of book, you either want to immediately jump into another book just like it, or else you want to read something completely different? Both happen to me, so we'll see how Caraval leaves me feeling...

It's Monday! What are YOU reading? #1

Hey guys! I've decided to join in on this week's It's Monday! What are YOU reading meme, hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

I'll be sharing a "month in review" post next week, so I won't go too in depth, but I was feeling a little bored and decided to jump in on this really quick. :)

So, what I'm currently reading this week...

Well, last week I decided to participate in OwlCrate's new OwlCrate-a-thon reading challenge. They started a new YouTube channel last week (if you haven't check it out yet, you definitely should, right now!), and with it they started this new reading challenge. This month's challenge was to get caught up on at least three OwlCrate books we haven't read yet: one contemporary, one fantasy, and the one we've had the longest.

So, as part of that challenge, this week I will be finishing up P.S. I Like You by Kasie West (my contemporary pick...) It took me quite a few chapters to get into the book, but now I've only got about five chapters left and I'm dying to finish it!! I stayed up last night too late reading it. And though it was very frustrating, I just couldn't let myself stay up any longer, what with work today and all (ugh!). But I'm hoping to get it finished during my breaks today! I had hoped I would finish it over the weekend, but I had an impromptu shopping adventure on Saturday that took up most of the day. Oh well!

I'm also still participating in an online book club which plans to read the Anne of Green Gables series over the course of the year. I'm desperately behind in reading this month's Anne of Avonlea, but getting P.S. I Like You out of the way today should give me a chance to get caught up a bit, but there is still no way I'll be finishing it before the end of the month. :(

And last but not least, I am listening to All the Light We Cannot See, which I borrowed from the library. It's due back this week, and I think I should be able to finish it. I have about a 40 minute commute, each way, to work and back, so I get a solid hour of "reading" in every day. I think I had it confused with The Light Between Oceans, so it hasn't quite been what I thought it was, but it's really good.

Anyway, it's Monday and that's what I'm reading. How about you?