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bookgazing) wrote2011-12-11 06:07 pm
bookgazing) wrote2011-12-11 06:07 pm
Read ALL the Books? Read ALL the Books!
November is the time for frantically writing novels, but December seems just as capable of bringing out the achiever in all of us. There’s only a month left. We need to finish all our outstanding projects and most importantly for book bloggers, read all the things! I’ve seen some pretty epic lists, showing which books people are considering finishing the year with. Other people’s lists remind me how clean, orderly and pretty list making can be, nothing like the disorder of charging round the shops on last minute gift getting errands and I thought I’d join in.
I typically read 5 books in a month, increasing to around 8 if I have a really big reading month and read smaller novels. So I’m going to pick 6 novels that I want to read before the New Year rolls in and hope that I’ll get some reading in over the Christmas holidays (ten whole days off this year, yes!).
‘The Broken Kingdoms’ – N K Jemisin: I’m reading the second book in the Inheritance trilogy with Meghan from Medieval Bookworm, who got me into this series. This is the book I’m currently reading and I love it. I thought I’d miss the cast of ‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’ terribly, but I was easily won over by Jemisin’s new characters.
‘The Map of My Dead Pilots’ – Coleen Mondor: Coleen blogs at Chasing Ray and omg you guys, her first book is sooo beautiful, just look at that cover. It’s really well balanced if that makes sense in relation to a book. It feels slightly more slender than the typical book, but more substantial than a novella sized package. This will be my first non-fiction read of the year, so I sneaked a few sentences yesterday to see whether the easy, informative writing style I’m used to from Chasing Ray had been carried across into her book (December brain needs smart things to be related in an easily understandable way). All the signs are good.
‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ – John Le Carre: Time to bite the bullet and sob my heart out over a spy book. Maree you have to toss all the fic my way once I’ve finished.
‘Spirit Walker’ – Michelle Paver: Reading ‘Dark Matter’ reminded me that I need to get back into Paver’s children’s series. So many scenes from ‘Wolf Brother’ are still so vivid in my mind and I want to find out what happens to the characters.
‘One Crazy Summer’ – Rita Williams-Garcia: I’d been eying ‘One Crazy Summer’ for a while, but kept putting it off because unlike everyone else I’m not a fan of that colourful cover and then Ana from The Book Smugglers gave this to me when we met in London as a random ‘I think you’ll really like this’ present, which – awww : ) This novel is about the American civil rights group The Black Panthers, but also about the relationship between a girl and the mother who left her. The combination of the personal and the political appeals to me.
‘Knights of Villjamur’ – Mark Charan Newton: Another author whose blog I read, but whose books are going dusty on my shelves. Self, why do you do this? I hear there’s some genre cross over content inside these covers.
That’s what I’ll be trying to read before the end of the year and I’m really excited that this year I’m just going to read what I like, rather than what I feel I should be reading. What is everyone else planning to fit in before 2012 (or as I’m calling it from now on OLYMPICS ARE HERE year) jumps us from the shadows?
I typically read 5 books in a month, increasing to around 8 if I have a really big reading month and read smaller novels. So I’m going to pick 6 novels that I want to read before the New Year rolls in and hope that I’ll get some reading in over the Christmas holidays (ten whole days off this year, yes!).
‘The Broken Kingdoms’ – N K Jemisin: I’m reading the second book in the Inheritance trilogy with Meghan from Medieval Bookworm, who got me into this series. This is the book I’m currently reading and I love it. I thought I’d miss the cast of ‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’ terribly, but I was easily won over by Jemisin’s new characters.
‘The Map of My Dead Pilots’ – Coleen Mondor: Coleen blogs at Chasing Ray and omg you guys, her first book is sooo beautiful, just look at that cover. It’s really well balanced if that makes sense in relation to a book. It feels slightly more slender than the typical book, but more substantial than a novella sized package. This will be my first non-fiction read of the year, so I sneaked a few sentences yesterday to see whether the easy, informative writing style I’m used to from Chasing Ray had been carried across into her book (December brain needs smart things to be related in an easily understandable way). All the signs are good.
‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ – John Le Carre: Time to bite the bullet and sob my heart out over a spy book. Maree you have to toss all the fic my way once I’ve finished.
‘Spirit Walker’ – Michelle Paver: Reading ‘Dark Matter’ reminded me that I need to get back into Paver’s children’s series. So many scenes from ‘Wolf Brother’ are still so vivid in my mind and I want to find out what happens to the characters.
‘One Crazy Summer’ – Rita Williams-Garcia: I’d been eying ‘One Crazy Summer’ for a while, but kept putting it off because unlike everyone else I’m not a fan of that colourful cover and then Ana from The Book Smugglers gave this to me when we met in London as a random ‘I think you’ll really like this’ present, which – awww : ) This novel is about the American civil rights group The Black Panthers, but also about the relationship between a girl and the mother who left her. The combination of the personal and the political appeals to me.
‘Knights of Villjamur’ – Mark Charan Newton: Another author whose blog I read, but whose books are going dusty on my shelves. Self, why do you do this? I hear there’s some genre cross over content inside these covers.
That’s what I’ll be trying to read before the end of the year and I’m really excited that this year I’m just going to read what I like, rather than what I feel I should be reading. What is everyone else planning to fit in before 2012 (or as I’m calling it from now on OLYMPICS ARE HERE year) jumps us from the shadows?
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I'm trying not to make too many goals for before the end of the year I'd just like to keep reading books. I'm reading The Talented Mr. Ripley at the moment and I hope to maybe get to Mariette in Ecstasy before the end of the year.
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Oh 'The Talented Mr Ripley'! I've been wanting to read that for ages, so I hope you talk about it if you've got time.
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The goal I do here: ZOMBIES VERSUS UNICORNS.
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Zombie vs Unicorns will happen! I just found a new author whose blog is so team unicorn and I must include a mention of it in our week somehow.
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Well, we're still doing the party post mid-week! I know we were using the comments for book recs, but we should include other media recs, too. Blogs count!
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I think Map is great post-finals reading, because it's emotions are intense but its prose is simple and easy to absorb.
Oh and no I haven't read Le Carre before, but maybe someone else who pops up here will have and they can suggest what to start with.
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(Anonymous) 2011-12-17 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)**Eva
http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com
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I had exactly the same reaction, in fact I wasn't even sure I wanted to read it for a while, but surprisingly I didn't miss Yeine and all being a bigger part of the story.