Seven Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic from The Broke and the Bookish is Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed. This can mean I love it more, or less, or that I have complicated feelings about it.  I decided to join into the meme at the last minute and for the life of me can not come up with ten, so here's SEVEN books I feel differently about after time has passed.

1. Boy's Life by Robert McCammon. This one was recommended to me by Trish many years ago. I read it during my drive to Alabama that summer. At the time, I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. I find myself thinking about two of the scenes from the book a lot and remembering the general feel of it. My affection for it has grown simply based on it's sticking power.

2. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Like many people, I felt all the feels for this one in college. For many years it was the first book I read at the beginning of the year. I have a mug, and a fancy boxed edition, and I can recognize any quote from the book. However, the older I get, the more pretentious I find it.

3. Love Story by Erich Segal. On how I loved to read this and cry in college. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Bleh. So overdone.

4. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I haven't reread this one (Ain't nobody got time for that) but I can see the problems with the depiction of slavery.  That said, I'd love to reread it and see if my love of the book overcomes those issues for me.

5. Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I am firmly in the "Love it!" camp, but so many of my fellow bloggers and friends hated it. I can't help but wonder if I missed something.

6. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Just call it fiction from the beginning.

7. Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught.  My romance loving friends will know the problems with this one, and I can't bring myself to ever read it again, but in college I absolutely loved it.  This is one of the shining examples of how awful a romance can be, while also being very well loved.

Have you read any of these? Do you agree? What book do you feel differently about?

2015 Year End Reading Plans

Here we are barreling down to the end of 2015 already! How are you all doing on whatever reading resolutions and challenges you set for yourself? My only reading goal was to read 52 books, and that seems completely possible with 5 weeks left in the year. My list says I'm at 47, though I think I might be missing one or two and need to double check. So five books in five weeks, of which I have a lot of vacation time? Seems doable. (Unless this distracts me.)

Here's the list of what I'm hoping to read from, though it's entirely possible that I'll distract myself.

I have a ton of NetGalley books that I haven't reviewed, but I'd like to try not to get farther behind. These are the titles I have that have release dates between now and the end of January, plus the Christmas titles:

Home for Christmas by Lily Everett

Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince by Ella Quinn

Steal Me by Lauren Layne (Due out today!)

Proposal At the Winter Ball by Jessica Gilmore

Anything for You by Kristan Higgins

  

The Dirt on the Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones 

(and since I've only read the first two in the series, the six titles in between?)

Keep On Loving You by Christine Ridgway

And then there's the library holds that keep showing up in my Kindle:

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

 (reading this right now. It's both fascinating and depressing.)

Only a Kiss by Mary Balogh

When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare

The Martian by Andy Weir

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

Clearly, I will not read all of these. The library titles are all titles that I've waited through very long hold lists on, and since they are e-books I don't have any flexibility (ie, I can't hold them past my due date and just pay a fine, however rude that is to the next person.)  I'm fairly determined NOT to get more behind on NetGalley, and in fact I'd love to squeeze in a couple older titles.  What do you guys think? 12 books in 5 weeks? Plus the other six Darynda Jones? Totally doable, right?

What's on your holiday reading list?

The Ones That Got Away

Every year there are a handful of books that I just keep meaning to read but never quite get around to. They sit in the back of my brain and pester me until I do something about them.  I'm going to make a list of them and see if that makes them hush, and if not, maybe it will spur me to read them.  This list is only ordered by how loudly they are clamouring in my head as I write the list, and for handy reference tells me where I can find a copy of the book without spending anything.

There are four unfinished books that I really hope to finish one day, the first two before the end of the year:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (personal copy)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Nook)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Rawlins library and SD Titles to Go)
Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (Rawlins library)

Then these are the ones that are still waiting to bre read:

The Firebird by Susanna Kingsley (SD Titles to Go), which requires me to read-
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kingsley (SD Titles to Go).
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (personal copy)
Alleigant by Veronica Roth (SD Titles to Go AND Rawlins Library) I KNOW!! How have I not?
Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (SFPL)
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (personal copy, SD Titles to Go)
More backlist by Edith Layton (Scribd)
The Rule of Scoundrels series by Sarah MacLean (SD Titles to Go)
Courtney Milan's first series (SD Titles to Go)
When She Was Wicked by Anne Barton (Nook)
The Proposal and The Arraingement by Mary Balough (SD Titles to Go)
Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss (SD Titles to Go)
Anything by Sherry Thomas (some on SD Titles to Go)
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes (Rawlins library)
11/22/63 by Stephen King (Nook)

And then there are the series that I will never finish, but I'm sure just putting them on the list jinxes them....
In Death by JD Robb
Harry Dresden by Jim Butcher
Weather Wardens by Rachel Caine
The Hollows by Kim Harrison
The Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward
....to name a few.

And I'm sure if I looked at my Goodreads list or my Nook library or my library hold list or any one of the many "Best of 2013" lists that are popping up that I could make this even longer. 

What book is yelling at you to get read right now?

Book Report 1

I haven't blogged much lately, and honestly I don't mind. I'm not writing a post to apologize. Life is crazy busy these days as we try to figure out our new routines. Mike seems to be out of town more than he is IN town, and even on their best days three kids are a lot of work. But I do miss being able to go back and look at what I've been reading week to week. In an effort to help myself remember, I’m instituting a new recurring blog post- the Book Report. I’d like to do it weekly, but honestly, it may be less often. It’ll be pretty fluid, depending on what happened in my reading life, but I do love to go back and look at what I was reading, so I don’t forget.

Currently Reading:

A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare. I’m totally reading this series out of order, but I have it on good authority it won’t matter. Dare’s style is witty and humorous without being completely slapstick. Minerva is smart and not afraid to be different.

Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts. I wasn’t expecting to be reading this chunkster just now, but it came up at the library and of course it has a wait list, so I am. I am nearly done, and enjoying it tremendously.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J K Rowling. The boys and I are reading this at bedtime. They both know the story fairly well, thanks to the movies and the Wii games, but this is the first time we’ve attempted the books. 

American Savage by Dan Savage. This one is about sex, faith, and politics. I'm reading it on the Nook during my work breaks and it's a bit of a disconnect to read about s-e-x at work! Thankfully, it's not a how-to!

Recently Finished:

All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacey- review here

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson. Another unrenewable library book. Didn't enjoy it quite as much as book one, but can't wait to see where she goes with the ending.

Coming up next!

 By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. For the Read-a-long, which I think is dying a slow, quiet death, but I feel like I should read the South Dakota ones! This one should have already been read, but it didn't happen.  See: Currently Reading.

I have a ton of other interesting NetGalley books waiting in the wings, but I just ran out of time before I could decide what might be next, whoops! Sorry for the lack of pictures, but at least you go links!

What are you reading? Have you read any of these? What are you reading next?

Reading for the rest of the year

You may recall that at the beginning of the year I set a handful of reading challenges for myself. I had two friends pick a list of books for me to read, and then I committed to reading all of Janssen's favorites from last year. Well it suddenly occurred to me that we're looking at about 10 weeks til the end of the year and I have quite a few books left on those lists!

Here's where I am on the personal challenge-
From Shawna's list:

• A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson- I own a copy, but have not read it.
• Ishmael by Daniel Quinn- gonna have to ILL this one
• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum- I have read this
• 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult- I've checked this out several times, but haven't opened it.
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood- I currently have the book and the ebook but am only a couple chapters in.

From Lisa's list:

• The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
• Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
• Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer- I have read part of this, and it is really really not my style. I'll try again.
• Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham
• Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath- I've read this one.

And from Janssen's Top 12 (I'm doing much better on this list!)-

• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt - Read and reviewed, bits of this one keep coming back to me
• What Alice Forgot by Liana Moriarty- Read for BlogHer
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor- Read and reviewed
• Falling For Hamlet by Michelle Ray- read and reviewed
• Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese- read and reviewed (kinda)
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - downloaded to my Nook
• Room by Emma Donoghue- this one still scares me
• Split by Swati Avasthi- read and reviewed, can't stop thinking about this one
• After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick
• Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vandenpool
• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Ok, so that's only 14 books to finish up, I can do that if I try, right?

Oh, but wait. There's a few books on my Nook from Net Galley. I should read those before they expire too.

• Just a Wish Away by Barbara Freethy
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• Erebos by Ursula Poznanski 

And I promised to write a review for The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman. (I started it, I swear, but the very first page is a stillbirth and I didn't get past that.)

And I hate to leave a book unfinished over the new year, so I should finish the ones I have half read too.

• Death Masks by Jim Butcher
• Sullivan's Woman by Nora Roberts
• Married by Mistake by Abby Gaines 
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - Finished this up last night

That's only 22  21 books. I have 10 weeks. That's two books a week. If I up my pace just a tiny bit I should make it, right? Plus, those last four are almost done (if you define almost as "has already started") and half of Janssen's list are young adult (of course, those are the ones I've already read, but who's counting?) (oh, wait, I'm counting.) Still. I can do this. (If I don't do anything else, maybe. Anything else like sew. Or cook. Or clean or eat or breathe.)

What's that? I can't hear you. You'll have to speak up. Oh. That. Yeah. That one might push me over the edge. And speaking of chunksters, there's this one too. So 23 books total. Once I read them all I"ll have read about twice the number of books I read last year.  I don't see any reason why this won't happen.

Nah, I got all the time in the world to sit around and read.


PS. At the time of writing this post I had 21 library books checked out. Books that do not appear anywhere on this list.  I carefully wrote them all down and returned them. Oh, well, except for one or two. And I can't very well not read the two ILL books I just requested last week, I can't renew those.

If you need me, I'll be over there with my nose in a book.

Top Ten Tuesday: Series I really should finish

There are a lot of really great series of books out there, and like many of you, plenty of series I've started but never made it to the end. I thought that I'd join up with The Broke and the Bookish this week and list a few for you.  In no particular order...

1. The Black Dagger Brotherhoodby J. R. Ward. A local friend even loaned me her copies and I never made it to the end! They were really good though, and I really want to get back to them.
2. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I was flying through these until we moved, and then I seem to have lost the one I was in the middle of and never bothered checking the library for it.
3. The Hollows by Kim Harrison. I love these while I'm reading them, but as soon as I put them down I forget about them.
4. Weather Wardens by Rachel Caine. Are we seeing an urban fantasy theme here? Mike loved these.
5. In Death by J.D. Robb. I'm making real headway on this series. I think I'm somewhere around book 36 with only a handful left. I don't read the novellas.
6. Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn . I have no explanation for all these urban fantasy series, except there are just SO MANY of them!
7. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter by Laurel Hamilton. And honestly, I won't finish this one, too many characters and too much going on to reacquaint myself with.
8. I gave up on the Stephanie Plum Novels by Janet Evanovich. The one good thing about them was the humor, but even that was getting stale and repetitive.
9. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Ok. I never finished the first one. BUT I WILL. (I'm looking at you, Andi.)
10. The The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. No, I never read 2 and 3, and I want to! Somehow they are never the most compelling books on my shelves.

What about you? What series are you stalled on? Is it because it's boring or outdated or because there just isn't enough time? Should I be jumping back into one of these?

All links go to the first title in the series.