Newest Purchase

I had a pretty great book haul in September. Some new books, some used ones. Even a free one, thanks to a Twitter contest! Here’s what I picked up:

 

I’ve blogged about most of these already, so I’ll keep this short. But LOOK at that gorgeous purple Drop Caps from Penguin Books! Sorry if you follow me on Twitter and get annoyed by my constant retweets, but it was well worth it. Even the pages are purple on the outside!

The bottom green book I threw in to the picture because technically…I own it. But, that’s definitely a husband book. I may read it, eventually, when it makes it way into my TBR rotation. We’ll see if I even understand it. It’ll be awhile before that happens though.

And of course, I finally have a Sherlock book. I’ve read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but I haven’t yet read this one. I couldn’t resist it, when I saw it on the clearance rack!

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WWW Wednesday 10/1/2014

 

Welcome to the first day of October! For those of you that missed it on Tumblr, I completely revamped my TBR list and filled it with all things thriller, fantasy or fall-themed (with the exception of a few books I that have a deadline). We’ll see how many I can get through before the clock strikes midnight on Halloween!

What are you currently reading?

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling

 

 

What did you just finish reading?

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

 

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

Dorothy Must Die  by Danielle Paige

Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Read This Month

I can’t believe tomorrow is already October. We’ve been in Dallas a month and a half, and things are finally starting to cool down. Or…at least as much as Texas cools. The State Fair just opened up, and my lucky husband gets to take a work trip over there today. I’m so jealous! Hopefully we can make it over there soon.

I read a ton of books great books this month. Now that I’ve set a schedule for myself, I’m getting quite a variety again. And I’m allowing myself to ditch books if they aren’t up to par, which I had stopped doing at one point. Gotta stop wasting time. Some books just aren’t blog-worthy.

(Which, on that point. Aaron’s Rod is on the list below, but I’m not going to do a post about it. I got about 65% through it before I had to give it up. Far enough to count it as “read” but I’m not going to bore you guys with a terrible post. Not DH Lawrence’s best work, let’s leave it at that.)

And now, the books!

 

Read this month:

Throne of Glass by Sarah Mass

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

Justine by Lawrence Durrell

The Innocent Man by John Grisham

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling

Atlantia by Ally Condie

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (which didn’t make it onto the list in the picture…oops!)

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Aaron’s Rod by DH Lawrence

Trees of Reverie Readathon Wrapup

Welp, it’s been a fun two weeks. The September Readathon was a success in my opinion!

Here’s what I came out with:

2997 pages total

6 total books read + a few partials

Atlantia by Ally Condie

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Bird Box  by Josh Malerman

Winter’s Tale by Mark Hellprin

The Protector by Gennita Low

Short Fiction Classic and Contemporary: Sixth Edition

Aaron’s Rod by DH Lawrence

 

I also finished quite a few of the challenges! You can check those out HERE.

 

 

Chapter

I love when books have fun chapter titles. Not too many do anymore, it’s all just “Chapter 1…Chapter 2…”

But, every once in awhile, you’ll come across a creative author who will actually name their sections and they are super fun to read if you pay attention to them.

A Man Called Ove was such a book. He had titles such as:

 

 

Chapter titles like this let you know what the book is going to be about.

You also might run into books like The Name of the Rose, where the author actually does tell you what is going to happen. Which is SUPER helpful when the book is extremely complicated and hard to read. I probably would have had absolutely no idea what was going on without those chapter headings!

 

 

I never used to pay attention to stuff like that, but, as part of my “educate myself” project, I’m learning that Chapter Headings actually do matter, and there IS a reason for them. Authors really do have points to things they do. Go figure!

WWW Wednesday 9/24/2014

 

What are you currently reading?

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

 

 

What did you just finish reading?

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

 

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

No Goodbye by Georgie Marie

Aaron’s Rod by DH Lawrence

Harry Potter 5 by JK Rowling

A Man Called Ove

“Loving someone is like moving into a house. At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake has been made, you weren’t actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of its perfection, but rather for its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it’s cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without them creaking. There are the little secrets that make it your home.”

 

When I saw A Man Called Ove on the list for my new book club, I was a little concerned. It was not a book I had heard of, which is rare because I’m obsessive about book lists and reviews. And when I started asking around, no one else had heard about it either.

But then I started reading this very simple, Swedish novel. Fredrick Backman has written a masterpiece of a man’s life. This is not a epic, or a fantasy. This is not even a “Save the World” kind of story. But Ove will quickly become your hero. This is the story of a grumpy, lonely old man who just wants to die. He even has a plan. Multiple ones. And the universe is absolutely against him.

This is a story about love. And organization. And how love completely tears organization apart in a beautiful, magical way. How love adds color into a life that is black and white.

You absolutely want to read this book. I already want to reread it. The emotions in this story are very real, even as simple as it is. Everything is just so relatable and human.

From looking at Goodreads, it doesn’t look like any other of Backman’s works are translated into English, but I really hope they are soon! I would love to read more of his writing.

Teaser Tuesday 9/23/2014

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 

 

I’m getting ready to finish A Man Called Ove, so I’ll have a post up on that later today. Instead of using that for my Teaser Tuesday, I’m posting from The Name of the Rose, since I started that and took a break for book club. I’ll be resuming that book now.

 

“I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly.”

“When I talk with Ubertino I have the impression that hell is heaven seen from the other side.”

 

–Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

Banned Books Week

It’s Banned Books Week!

This is the week where we celebrate the most important thing for those of us who are addicted to the written word:  Freedom to write and express ideas, even if they are unpopular.

Here are the most challenged titles from 2013 (from bannedbooksweek.org):

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
   Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

In total there were 307 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2013!

I had to take a break from it because I needed to read A Man Called Ove for book club, but I’m in the middle of reading The Name of the Rose, and of course Harry Potter is constantly being reported because of the magic elements.  I’m also still trekking through Anna Karenina.

What banned books are you reading this week?

 

 

People on the Cover

The next meetup (and my first) for the Books & Brews book club I just joined is on Wednesday, so I’m rushing to get the books read in time. Middlesex was easy to find, but the second book was newer, and one I hadn’t heard of before. Neither had any of the people at the used bookstores I had gone into…which is how I found out it was a new book! Oops.

Then…kismet. The benefit of being a Barnes & Noble Member, a perfectly timed 20% off coupon. Yay! So, while I’d have rather spent it on something I actually wanted to add to my collection, at least I didn’t have to pay full price for one I haven’t read yet. And how terrible…I had to buy a new book (a little heavy on the sarcasm there, if you couldn’t tell!). At least the cover looks interesting. I’ll let you know what I think!

 

 

Have any of you read this one yet? What did you think?