It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [July 11, 2016]

Well, this week a childhood dream of mine came true and it kept me a little bit from reading. You can now catch Pokemon in real life. Augmented real life. Pokemon Go is maybe the best app that's ever happened to me. I get to go hiking AND catch Pokemon at the same time. WHAT. Also I'm a gym leader. My life is pretty much complete.

damn it feels good to be a gangster

At the moment, this game is fostering such a sense of community. I live in a city and I'm literally always running into people playing the game and I've only had good experiences. Lots of helping each other find rare Pokemon and take down gyms together. And it's caused me to walk 23.66 km in the past three days or so. I hope it all stays positive and the enthusiasm lasts for a good while, because living in a world where people are running around catching Pokemon and talking to each other about it was literally my dream. I'm having so much fun.

street horsea. makes sense.

I've been doing more reading in Japanese than reading in English lately, because my trip is fast approaching. I leave in two weeks. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? But I did finish up The Last One (review up this week).

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

CURRENTLY READING: 

I'm returning now to The Girls by Emma Cline. I started it a couple weeks ago, because I couldn't help myself. Because cults. But I put it down in an effort to be reasonable and finish other books I needed to finish. But I'm BACK and ready for more cult stuff. I hadn't even really gotten to the cult stuff. Here's hoping I love it, because everybody else does.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [July 4, 2016]

Hello! I am back now from an anniversary camping trip I took. I hope you like photos, because I've got photos.

The park we visited was absolutely beautiful. I bum out a lot about how flat and boring Minnesota is, but Southern Minnesota almost completely makes up for it. I climbed up to a lot of very high places and my legs were always sore. It was GREAT. Until a raccoon ate all of our food and stole our tupperware. Oh well.

While camping, I finished up The Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay (review coming this week) and started The Last One by Alexandra Oliva. It's a thriller of sorts about reality tv, so obviously I'm there.

One more thing we need to talk about... The Gamification of My Life. It's a full blown thing at this point. To Shaina's recommendation, I started using Habitica with a bunch of other bookish ladies. Habitica is an amazing app/website that helps you form habits and get shit done, and it's also an RPG. You level up and collect virtual pets (my fave, of course) and complete quests, etc. It's really helping me figure out what's important and actually do those things. One of my goals for this week is figuring out consistent days to blog so I'll actually have regular posts again. YES!

A photo posted by Julianne :: Outlandish Lit (@_ulianne) on Jul 4, 2016 at 8:38am PDT

The gamification doesn't stop there, however. From a friend, I heard about the MN DNR Passport Club. I resisted for a while, but I finally had to sign up. For $15 I got a passport and a travel log. At each MN state park I visit, I get my shit stamped and eventually once I have enough stamps I get a free night of camping and a pin! If I hit like 70+ parks, I get a plaque or something. It's wildly dorky, but I'm so so charmed. Of course, my immediate reaction is to feel overwhelming regret about each specific park I could've gotten stamped had I gotten the passport earlier. It's like a video montage in my head of my great adventures in nature and what a waste they were. And it won't stop. Typical.

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• The Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay

CURRENTLY READING: 

I've been trying to catch up on books that were published very recently or that are coming out very soon, but I couldn't help myself from bringing a mid-July release, The Last One by Alexandra Oliva, on my camping trip. Again, it's about a woman named Zoo on a survival reality TV show. There are a bunch of challenges set up for them as they're pretty much alone trying to survive in a forest. Little do they know, some sort of apocalyptic something is happening in the real world. And nobody is around to tell them. I'M OBSESSED WITH THIS CONCEPT. I'm already hooked. #WelcomeToTheWoods

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [June 27, 2016]

My schedule is fixed!!! You don't have to hear me talking about schedules anymore!! I put out a request to my boss to potentially work less if it meant having a two day weekend. And she hooked me up! What a nice person. I'll still be teaching every morning until noon, but I'll only work after on two weekdays, then I'll work on Saturday too. So I'll have Thursday afternoon/evening and all of Friday for camping trips! And Sunday off randomly! I'm pretty thrilled.

This week I sort of got my reading groove back in the form of ultra-readable novellas and fun horror. I liked all the books I read well enough. Gotta keep this trend going. I've also been spending a lot of my time hosting travelers on the site Couchsurfing, where you can offer your couch up for free to people. I initially did it so I'd have references and potentially be able to couchsurf when I'm in Japan next month. But I actually really enjoy it. You meet such interesting people! I've hosted a man who made his own tiny house, a woman who was here for a wildlife biology conference, and two filmmaker/musician/coder/photographer/fighter/ridiculously spontaneous and delightful dudes originally from England and Sweden with so many stories to tell from their lives. It's a great way to make friends that you'll probably never see again.

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal
• So Much for That Winter by Dorthe Nors
• My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

CURRENTLY READING: 

Despite having started and really wanting to continue The Girls by Emma Cline, I've switched to The Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay. I really enjoyed what I read when I first picked it up and now I'm getting back into it. This month kind of happened so quickly to me that I did notice books coming out. Or I'd see them in the bookstore then be like "weird, they changed what week they're being published." They didn't change what week they were published, I just lost track of time. Going to dig more into this creepy read this week while I'm waiting 45+ minutes for rides! Honestly, I love waiting/commutes. Perfect reading time.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [June 13, 2016]

This past week was my first week with my new schedule. And I have to say, I'm not sure how it's going to work out. I'm teaching in the mornings then working 5 or 7 hours at the bookstore right after most days. Working until 10 then waking up at 7 to work is a bummer. And I have like one day off a week. Hence the relative quiet on the blog. I haven't had many chances to read at all!!

I may have to make some difficult decisions in order to protect my mental health. But, anyway, I took my one day off to go camping! It was so so good. I hiked to a double waterfall, tried star photography, saw a herd of bison, and even read outside!! I need many many more days like this before summer is over.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

CURRENTLY READING: 

I'm actually almost done with this one! My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix is a super readable horror novel set in the 80s. When I first picked it up a few days ago, I accidentally read 100 pages, looked up, and was like "where am I?" Has it broken the slump? It's hard to say at this point, but things are looking better. There's one thing about the plot that has me sort of nervous (in a troubled way, not a scared way) and I'm not sure how I'm going to feel by the end of this. But I will LET YOU KNOW how it goes. Don't worry.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [May 30, 2016]

I'm cured! For the most part. I think. I feel a whole lot better and can function and do things such as "my job." I have very little else to report, because that's pretty much just been my life.  I swear, I'm working on being an interesting person again. I am.

A photo posted by Magers & Quinn Booksellers (@magersandquinn) on May 26, 2016 at 7:14am PDT

Oh wait! In the past couple weeks I met Joe Hill and Moby! I guess that's kind of interesting. I got to photograph them as they were doing events at the bookstore. Joe Hill was an absolute gem. I also helped at that event with taking photos of people with Joe Hill on their phones. He was down for any kind of weird request. He and I eventually came up with a way to quickly communicate that a photo was to take place. Each time I would yell "CODE FOUR" and he'd jump up and be ready for action. Great guy. Moby was a little less fun. Cool, but not super friendly. Which is fine. We can't all be Joe Hill.

A photo posted by Magers & Quinn Booksellers (@magersandquinn) on May 23, 2016 at 5:16pm PDT

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips

CURRENTLY READING: 

Yup, I've started another new book. I have no self-control. I'm maybe 50 pages into HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt and it's kind of unsettling. But the thing is he updated it for the English translation to be like super contemporary, so the writing is kind of killing me. There's so much talk of YouTube channels and GoPros and apps -- and it's written so awkwardly, it ALREADY sounds dated. So that's a struggle. I giggle or groan every other page. Am I too picky? I'm trying to give it a chance, though, and stick with it. Because I like the creepy witch. We'll see how it goes.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [May 23, 2016]

Still sick. I'm back at work now, but I'd hardly say I'm functional. Just gotta pay that rent, you know what I'm saying?!?! But yeah anyway I'm on 5 prescriptions now and I'm getting better, it is just not happening as swiftly as I'd like.

I generally can't read at all when I'm sick, which was the case for the first four or so days of my illness. But I reached a point where listening to Dance Moms with my eyes closed just wasn't doing it for me anymore and I was sort of able to focus long enough to read comfortably. So I grabbed a pile of upcoming and recently published books and just allowed myself to jump around. Which was super liberating, but also nothing has completely grabbed me yet.

So this is where you come in! Do you know any books that came out in the last couple months or are coming out soon that will grab my fickle attention entirely?? The Girls maybe? Homegoing? I probably need something relatively easy, because I constantly have a headache and my brain is foggy. But not too easy, because I'm picky. Just riveting. TELL ME THE NAME OF ANY RIVETING BOOK PLEASE.


THIS WEEK I READ:

• Nothing

CURRENTLY READING: 

I'm like 20 pages into The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz, but it's grabbing me very slightly more than most of the others. So I'll feature this one. It's about a weird, mysterious authoritarian rule going on in an unnamed Middle Eastern city. Citizens keep lining up in front of "The Gate" to get permission for shit, but it never opens. ANNOYING, right? Here's the list of other books I'm "currently reading": Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips (Good! But it's not published until next week, so I'm letting myself savor the stories), Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn, The Dark Will End The Dark by Darrin Doyle, Zero K by Don DeLillo, The Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay, and there are probably more I'm forgetting. I have a serious problem.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [May 9, 2016]

Oh, hey. So I've been working pretty much every moment of every day for the past week, because I'm going out of town this week. Know why I'm going out of town? Because it's BookExpo America, bitches!! And I'm so unprepared. Everybody has spreadsheets of where they need to be and when, and I'm just over here like I've got my megabus ticket to Chicago, so maybe I'll show up the day I intend to??

I'm thinking about doing some coverage of this very large and supposedly very important book conference, if anybody's interested in hearing about it from the point of view of a very unprepared and very boisterous girl who doesn't have time for any sort of bullshit like "lines" or "maps." Let me know. Otherwise I'll be snapchatting (uulianne) and tweeting about it surely.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Tender by Belinda McKeon

CURRENTLY READING: 

Does it really count as currently reading if you're just 3 chapters into a book? Let's say yes, just for the sake of this post. Zero K by Don DeLillo is good so far I guess, but it's been 20 pages or so. I imagine I'll read more on the bus tomorrow and maybe I'll actually have something to say about it at that point. You are all really good sports for allowing me to call this an "It's Monday, What Are You Reading?" post.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [May 2, 2016]

I just got back home from my weekend writing retreat! Jenna from JMill Wanders organized a glorious Camp NaNoWriMo retreat at a cabin in northwestern Minnesota. It was a really good time. I may not have written an enormous amount, but I was in a good place to reconsider what I was doing, read a little bit, and just be out of the city for a bit.

More photos on my Instagram

Right after getting back, I went to the spring publishers rep night for booksellers in Minnesota. And I may or may not have come home with 12 ARCs. Oops. I was super convinced that I'd be able to control myself, but that didn't happen. So now I'm a bit more nervous about how I'll behave at BookExpo America this month.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• This Census-Taker by China Miéville

CURRENTLY READING:

 

Yeah, I'm book hopping again. But I'm 160 pages into Tender by Belinda McKeon now, so I think we're in it for the long haul. I normally struggle with books that are really heavy on relationships, but this book is absolutely blowing me away. It feels so, so real and complicated. The weird changes you go through in college are spot on. Everything is great. I was hiding from people at the writing retreat to read this, because it was so engrossing (sorry, Jenna).

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [April 25, 2016]

Slow, slow, slow reading going on over here. Between my weird work schedule, studying, and working out, it doesn't feel like I have a whole lot of time to read. Or do anything really. Even though I want to read all the books I have, I don't currently feel into any of them. Life is so hard, you guys!! During the 24 Hour Readathon, my disenchantment with my books really hit me and I floundered like a mother fucker. So at the very end I went with my gut and picked up some horror I was trying to save for later. It was a good choice. Why don't I just trust myself??

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel - Review up tomorrow!
• Genius, Vol. 1 by Marc Bernardin

CURRENTLY READING:

 

I recently read A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay and I fucking LOVED it. Tremblay is really, really good at horror, everybody. Disappearance at Devil's Rock is Paul Tremblay's upcoming June horror release and so far I'm digging it. A young teen boy goes out with his friends in the middle of the night and they decide to hang out at a state park. Then he vanishes without a trace. And, AS YOU CAN IMAGINE, things get spooky and there are secrets and whatnot (I'm not very far yet, but I've been promised these things). This book started right in the middle of the action and my sleepy readathon brain was SO happy for that.

What are you reading this week?

 

Thrifty Thursday #5: The Border of Paradise

Thrifty Thursday is a meme started by my friend Sal over at Motion Sick Lit, which is a great book blog.

The idea of Thrifty Thursday: each week you link up a used book you get for (preferably) under $5. Grabbing a book you've never heard of is encouraged. It's a cool way to support local shops and maybe find a new favorite book. Since I love judging books by their covers, this is just the activity for me.


THE BOOKSTORE: Magers & Quinn

© LitHub

Prepare yourself, for I already felt like I was cheating by talking about Magers & Quinn (the bookstore where I work). I'm about to cheat even harder.


THE BOOK: 

The Border of Paradise by Esmé Weijun Wang

Check out my Instagram for more book photos

In booming postwar Brooklyn, the Nowak Piano Company is an American success story. There is just one problem: the Nowak’s only son, David. A handsome kid and shy like his mother, David struggles with neuroses. If not for his only friend, Marianne, David’s life would be intolerable. When David inherits the piano company at just 18 and Marianne breaks things off, David sells the company and travels around the world. In Taiwan, his life changes when he meets the daughter of a local madame — beautiful, sharp-tongued Daisy. Returning to the United States, the couple (and newborn son) buy an isolated country house in Northern California’s Polk Valley.

As David's mental health deteriorates, he has a brief affair with Marianne, producing a daughter. When Marianne appears at their doorstep, the couple's fateful decision to take the child as their own determines a tragic course of events for the entire family. Told from multiple perspectives, The Border of Paradise culminates in heartrending fashion, as the young heirs to the Nowak fortune must confront their past and the tragic reality of their future.

This is an ARC that I totally didn't buy! I've been SO thrifty lately, that I'm not even buying books. Not for any reason (or potential trip) in particular, though............

Anyway, bookstores get sent a lot of advanced review copies for booksellers to read, and I snatched this one immediately when I saw the cover. Normally I'd run the opposite direction when I see the word "multigenerational," but I physically felt ill at the thought of leaving this book behind. @jjoongie, one of my favorite Bookstagrammers, told me she read it and loved it. So I have faith. And I'm super curious to read my first Unnamed Press book.

TOTAL PRICE: $0

Because it's illegal to sell ARCs.

Thanks for hosting this, Sal!

Would you have picked this book up?
What cheap books have you found recently?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [April 11, 2016]

It does not even feel like an entire week has passed since last Monday. Does anybody else feel that?? I've been working a lot, either at the bookstore or at my other job doing a lot of printing flyers at the moment. It's super mundane, but I get to listen to audiobooks, so that's nice. What else has been going on? Obviously Stardew Valley. And I've been spending hours a day studying and trying to relearn Japanese for no reason in particular.........

The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts proved to be really really good and managed to break my reading slump. Not that I was really slumping, but I just wasn't psyched about sitting down to read. Review of that coming up this week. GET YOUR HANDS ON IT IF YOU LIKE MURDER. Or, you know, looks at poverty and class in America. Or both!

Oh, one more thing! Be on the look out for a new kind of post that I'm going to start to do on Saturdays!

THIS WEEK I READ:

• The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts by Laura Tillman

CURRENTLY READING:

 

I'm about 50 pages into Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel and it's a lot of fun to read. It's written almost entirely in interview format so it's very quick. In this book about a girl who falls into a glowing hole onto a giant, buried metal hand, it seems as if my favorite kind of aliens might make an appearance: ancient aliens. It definitely has some The Sentinel by Arthur C Clarke vibes (a short story that I already told you to read). But some of the dialogue (which is basically the entire book) is kind of dorky. So we'll see if the good outweighs the bad. I'LL LET YOU KNOW. Comes out April 26.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [April 4, 2016]

I almost wasn't going to post anything today, because I just hadn't been reading. I haven't even tried to read anything since A Guide to Being Born. I'm still at a point where my virtual farming tasks in Stardew Valley are very very important (really struggling to catch a pufferfish right now, IF YOU WERE WONDERING). And it doesn't help that I have a little bit of a weirdathon hangover. But last night I decided to try a little something called "reading before bed" and it went really really well!

Oh, and Camp Nanowrimo started! I haven't actually written anything yet (I'm writing more of a novel I started in November), but I've been listening to a bunch of paranormal podcasts as research. So yeah I'm in a weird state of mind right now. Do not even start with me about conspiracies. If you're doing Camp Nanowrimo too and don't have a cabin, there's some room in mine! So let me know if you want to join!

THIS WEEK I READ:

• A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel

CURRENTLY READING:

I knew I needed something a little different, so I decided to try out some nonfiction I was curious about. Post-Making a Murderer, I'm a little interested in true crime again. The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts by Laura Tillman is about a man and woman who murdered their three children in Texas. But more than that, it's about a town in poverty, class in America, and the other conditions that could've lead to this horrible act. It has a blurb from Jesmyn Ward on the back, so I'm pretty confident that this book won't be typical true crime. I'm fascinated already. This book comes out tomorrow from Scribner.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [March 28, 2016]

Your girl is back on that book hopping train. This week I had three days off and somehow found like no time to sit and finish a book. It's mostly because something happened to me. A little something called Stardew Valley.

I haven't played video games in a while, because I know what they do to me. I think yesterday my roommates and I actually played for twelve hours. Or close to it, because we started at 2 PM, took a break somewhere in there, then suddenly it was 2 again. AM. Oops. If you like Harvest Moon, you 100% have to try this.

But anyway, I've mostly settled into reading A Guide to Being Born and I love it. And it's very pretty.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail by Kelly Luce

CURRENTLY READING:

Check out my instagram for more bookish photos

I'm 75 pages into A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel and I've already ugly cried twice. It is so beautiful and startling and strange. Very very affecting and I'd already highly recommend it. Can't wait to finish it probably today.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [March 21, 2016]

Oh no, the weather is horrible again. I haven't gone out much except for work. But I did have a chance to meet Elle from Erratic Project Junkie a few days ago!! That was a lot of fun and she's just as cool as she seems on the internet, if not cooler. Look how cute we are.

Have I mentioned how much I love meeting book bloggers?

I've been doing some spring cleaning, so most of my reading was listening to the audiobook of The Ice Twins which was a pretty good, mildly creepy thriller. The representation of mental illness was maybe not the best, but SPOOKY TWINS!! Then I spent most of a day reading The Passion According to G.H. uninterrupted, which was a very bizarre, hypnotic experience. I'm still not entirely sure what I read, but I'm glad I read it. Can we talk about how good this line is?

"Hope, for me, was a postponement."

 
Damn, Clarice.
 

THIS WEEK I READ:

• The Ice Twins by S. K. Tremayne
• The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector
  

CURRENTLY READING:

 

After The Passion According to G.H., I'm not sure if I can handle reading any other novel for a little bit. So I'm investing some time in short stories. Last night I started Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail by Kelly Luce and I'm already halfway through it. These stories are super weird and often creepy. All are related to or set in Japan, often from an outsider's point of view. So far, so good! I'll probably finish it tonight.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [March 14, 2016]

The weather has been amazing this past week and it has had a HUGE impact on my mood. It's like it's spring! There's warmth! Even though I'm not going to let myself fall for March's tricks, all of a sudden I want to do things. What am I feeling?? Despite having a really busy work week, I've managed to go places to do activities. I took a miniature trip to Hudson, Wisconsin. It was gloomy and wonderfully creepy. I ate at a restaurant that used to be a post office (and still looks like one on the outside). And I went to a horrifying bookstore/antique shop.

Because of all this doing stuff, I haven't had a lot of time to actually sit and read. I started some stuff. Lots of stuff. On Monday I finished the very short Mislaid by Nell Zink. And as of Sunday night, I finished up a couple books that I have low-key been reading forever. The Three was an interesting, unsettling thriller. Songs of a Dead Dreamer is one of the best collections of supernatural horror stories I've ever read.

 

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Mislaid by Nell Zink
• The Woods, Vol. 3 by James Tynion IV
• The Three by Sarah Lotz
• Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti

CURRENTLY READING:

 

At this point I'm not really deep into any book. I just have a stack of books barely started. But the one that I'm most likely going to continue reading immediately is What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi. I didn't even finish the first story, that's how bad I was at reading this past week. But so far so good! She's a great writer.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [March 7, 2016]

I think my cold is finally starting to go away. So that means I'll be a normal human again soon. I finished up those socks I was complaining about, and I've already decided to design my own pattern for a pair. I just really want some intricate fair isle socks, you know what I'm saying??

This week Karen Abbott was in town talking about Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, which was a really great audiobook read for me. She knew who I was from my blog (swoon) and allowed me to take a selfie with her. She wasn't happy with any of them. After taking eight, she told me to just go with the first one. I laid on the filters to satisfy her. She was an absolute gem and her talk was fascinating.

Anyway, as I said in my Weirdathon Week One Update, One Day Soon still has me thinking and The Vegetarian wasn't nearly as disturbing as I had expected or hoped. But it was still pretty good. I'm on the fence about these weird reads!!

 

THIS WEEK I READ:

• One Day Soon Time Will Have No Place Left To Hide by Christian Kiefer
• Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang

CURRENTLY READING:

 

I was nervous about listening to a Nell Zink book on audio, but Mislaid is surprisingly narrative-y for her. So far I'm really enjoying it. Her social commentary is on point, but we'll see if all the nonsense comes together in the end or if it just... ends.

I'm giving Travelers Rest by Keith Lee Morris a try, because I wanted something creepy. And this basically sounds like The Shining, so ok. I'll take it. So far nothing creepy has really happened and the majority of the Goodreads reviews has me nervous, so we'll see if it's worth sticking with. I won't be too hard on myself if I want to drop it for something else.

 

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Feb 29, 2016]

Happy Leap Day and Weirdathon Eve!! That's kind of fitting, isn't it? Things have been a little crazy for me this week. I've been working a lot of late shifts, which completely throws me off. And I've been working on a lot of Weirdathon related posts and planning, which is obviously time consuming. I've even managed to neglect my love, Instagram. I've been funneling my excess nervous energy instead into knitting and reknitting a specific part of a very complicated sock. I feel like I'm going crazy. I forget to drink water while I'm messing with it. I'm anxious right now, because I'm typing instead of figuring out how to fix the sock and I can see it from where I'm sitting. Ok, maybe this is getting too personal.

Really, though, that's how I've spent my week when I haven't been selling books or teaching the youth of America important Minecraft skills. I listened to TWO audiobooks this week while doing blog/sock stuff. The Argonauts was short and smart. I really liked it. The Winter People was longer and less smart, but it was definitely creepy and entertaining. I wanted to know what was going on, but some of the characters and plot didn't make a whole lot of sense. That's fine, though. I was spooked by it. Version Control was a paper book about time travel, and it was a total slump-buster, despite being 500+ pages.

Oh, also I got retweeted by Joyce Carol Oates. That was crazy and pretty much guaranteed to never happen again.

 

 

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Version Control by Dexter Palmer
• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
• The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

CURRENTLY READING:

 

I totally lied in my Febraury Rundown and said I had finished One Day Soon Time Will Have No Place Left to Hide by Christian Kiefer. What I meant was that it's super short and I have today off, so it will be finished by the time February is over. I'm like ten pages in and like it so far, though I'm also confused by it. But in a delighted, I want to know what the deal is kind of way. And holding the tiny book is genuinely suck a pleasure.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Feb 22, 2016]

What a whirlwind week it's been! Book Bloggers Appreciation Week was a lot of fun. I only posted about it twice, but I visited SO MANY new blogs because of it. And I hosted the second twitter chat, which was a very intense, very good time. You guys have no idea how much I was sweating by the end of the hour. NO IDEA.

Oh! Also, Jenna from JMill Wanders and I got together for a second time and had a glorious evening eating Indian food, discussing the intricacies of the book blogging world, and forcing each other into buying books. Ok, I was the one doing the forcing. But I did buy The Unfinished World by Amber Sparks and The Vegetarian by Han Kang the day after. So there's my IRL book blogger appreciation for you.

All I finished this week was an audiobook I had started a while ago, as per Lauren of Malcolm Avenue Review's recommendation: Iréne by Pierre Lemaitre. The best part of it may or may not have been hearing all the French names and places pronounced correctly. I haven't looked up how these names are written down, because I don't want to know how badly I would've mispronounced them in my head. But anyway crime fiction is soooo out of my comfort zone, but I really liked this! It was all sorts of dark and had some delightful literary references. I'm definitely going to check out the next book in the series, Alex.

Reminder: The sign up page for March's Month-long Weirdathon is HERE. If you want to push your reading a little bit out of your comfort zone, there are SO MANY ways to win book money while doing it.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Iréne by Pierre Lemaitre

CURRENTLY READING:

 

Ok, so I didn't really read very much of Version Control by Dexter Palmer this past week, but I read like 120 pages of it Sunday night. I just couldn't stop. The main character works at an online dating site and the commentary on online dating/the general digital life is so good. I just keep laughing. It reminds me of Mr. Splitfoot and You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine a little bit in how on point it is about our society. And the stuff about physics/time travel is just fascinating so far. Who knew there was a book that combined these two loves of mine?? This book comes out tomorrow, so be on the look out for my review!

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Feb 15, 2016]

Happy day after Valentine's Day, book lovers! My day was pretty great. I wore a sparkly dress and everything. I also met Marlon James by surprise, so it was all around a pretty exciting Sunday.

Shaina and I had a really good time making an excuse to video chat and creating an in depth, highly analytical video about Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt. If you haven't seen it and you like that book or are curious about that book, you should probably check it out. Mostly so you can answer all of the questions that we have and couldn't figure out. TELL US WHAT YOU THINK.

I finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne in like two days this week and I REALLY wanted to like it. But wow. Yikes yikes yikes. It was borderline offensive. And mostly nonsense all the time, and not in easily ignorable ways. Oh well. That's one less library book I have out forever now.

Another reminder: Sign ups for March's Month-long Weirdathon are HERE. If you want to push your reading a little bit out of your comfort zone, there are SO MANY ways to win book money while doing it. And I'm still looking for some writers to enter the weird book debate!

THIS WEEK I READ:

• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

CURRENTLY READING:

 

Though I'm still reading Wuthering Heights (and enjoying it) among a couple others, one of note that I just started is Version Control by Dexter Palmer. I'm only at the very beginning of it, so I can't really judge it in any way. But it promises to be an interesting and very intelligent look at time travel and how we live now.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Feb 8, 2016]

Kind of amazed that we're a week into February already. That doesn't seem quite right. And right now anything that I did this past week feels kind of completely overshadowed by Beyonce's Formation video. I'm not even a Beyonce fan, but this video is incredible and the song is so good. So excuse me while I go listen to that again.

Shaina and I finished our buddy read of Mr. Splitfoot yesterday. I won't say much, but it was SO GOOD. Expect a chatlog review in your future. I also finished The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson on audiobook early in the week and it was pretty ok. Not a lot to say about it. Other than that I've just been starting books and making no real progress in them, nbd.

In case you missed it: Sign ups for March's Month-long Weirdathon are HERE. Don't forget to sign up! It's going to be a good time.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson
• Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt

CURRENTLY READING:

 

Technically I'm reading like 5 books right now, so I'll only mention my main focus. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte! I'm reading it with T from Bookpiles and Blanketforts. I literally had no idea what to expect from it. I don't know anything about the plot. But so far it's really good. And I'm blown away by how funny/clever it is. That I did not see coming.

What are you reading this week?