It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Feb 1, 2016]

Oh no, the book hopping has commenced again. This week I felt intense and opposing forces; one part of me wanting to focus and finish up books I've started, the other part wanting to mood read HARD. So I'm like 40 pages into a whole lot of books, which is not exactly where I wanted to be. But that's fine.

I haven't done much this week, because I've been working really weird hours that also happen to be pretty nonstop. I did manage to go hiking two days ago, which was so good. But I'm amazed I found the time. Finishing the dainty book of short stories, Spectacle, was even difficult for me to do in a timely fashion. The stories were interesting and I really liked Steinberg's writing style at first, but both the writing and the topics got tiresome after a while. So overall, it was an ok collection.

Don't forget!! TOMORROW I'm posting the official announcement of my March event. Any guesses as to what it could be?

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Spectacle by Susan Steinberg

CURRENTLY READING:

 

I had been dipping very lightly into I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir in December, but I'm fully into it now and it is SOOOO SPOOKY. Like I want to be reading it right now, but it's nighttime and I don't know if I can deal with the levels of discomfort I'd experience. I'm really feeling this Icelandic, wintry ghost story.

Last night, Shaina of Shaina Reads and I started our buddy read of Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt. We're 40 pages in at this point and it's already all sorts of weird and cult-y and excited. It was hard to put the book down at the point we agreed to stop, but I'm a good friend so I did. It didn't hurt that this facilitated some book hopping before bed.

What are you reading this week?

 

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

This was a pretty good week for books. I mean it feels like it's been a pretty good start to the year. Haven't hated anything, yes!!! A Head Full of Ghosts is probably my new favorite horror book of all time. Just sayin. And Eileen was weird as hell and I have many thoughts.

In other news, if you missed it on Twitter, I made a makeup video! All products listed in the description. Check it out if you're looking for some wildly unorthodox tips, and remember: death comes for us all!!

THIS WEEK I READ:

• A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
• Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

CURRENTLY READING:

 

I literally just finished Eileen and haven't even started a new book, but this is the one that is sitting next to my foot. It seems like it's about time I get on the Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist train. I want something enthralling and completely different, so this seems like the right choice. And the title is SO GOOD ugh.

What are you reading this week?

 

Thrifty Thursday #4: The Children of Llyr

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

Is this cheating? It feels like cheating talking about the bookstore where I work. But it's where I found the book!! And where I find most of my books at this point, considering I get to look at them as they come in before civilians do. Lately I've been cutting way way back on how many books I bring home with me, but every once in a while I see a weird little mass market paperback I need to use my employee discount on.

If you've never been to Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis, it's SO BIG. The picture above is only the back half of the store. It's pretty glorious and I'm still charmed by it.


THE BOOK: 

The Children of Llyr by Evangeline Walton

In stark, gaunt prose, it chronicles the years of Bran the Blessed - he who was so vast a man that no house could hold him nor ship bear his bulk - and of the tale of his beloved sister Branwen, his brother Manawyddan, and of his half-brothers Nissyen and the ghastly Evnissten. It is a tale of change and storm, of love beyond death, of high courage, of the end of an era - and the beginning of another. It is epic fantasy in its purest form - marvellous in its compass and power.

Technically, this book is the second in a series of four. But it sounds like the books are only related in that they're retelling stories from Welsh book of mythology, Mabinogion. I've never heard of this. I don't know aaaanything about Welsh mythology/folklore. All of the reviews on Goodreads that I've read, but one, are 4 or 5 stars. They praise her writing, several referred to it as a feminist retelling, and someone called it "disturbing." So I'm pretty much sold. Plus it looks like a ship is coming out of the big guy's butt, which is kind of funny.

TOTAL PRICE: $1.80

It was already cheap, but my employee discount definitely helped.

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? [Jan 18, 2016]

Well, the #24in48 readathon is over and I'm probably going to be asleep for all of Monday (sorry for breaking illusions here). Check out my final updates here. I'm happy to have gotten 700 something pages of reading done considering I had to work this weekend. I finished a good amount of books and started a bunch more (good or bad thing? you decide). My stack of comics is steadily decreasing. Not Dark Yet was interesting and beautiful in places, but ultimately a little bit of a let down. City of Clowns was an interesting graphic novel recommended by someone who may be swayed too easily by fiction. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank was amazing, and so was The Library at Mount Char. SUCH GOOD BOOKS.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcón
• Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
• The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
• Some single issue comics

CURRENTLY READING:

 

I'm reading a bunch of books right now by accident. But this is the one that has its grip on my mind. I'm anxious that I'm not reading it right now as I type this. A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay is a combo of possession horror and reality TV which is LITERALLY MY DREAM. Has there ever been a plot more perfect for me? Throw in some ancient aliens and an experimental format and I actually won't have to read books ever again. Anyway, it's wonderfully creepy and clever and TWISTS and oh man, I missed horror.

What are you reading this week?

 

13 2015 Books I MEANT To Read

The Broke and the Bookish runs this business.

I tried to narrow this down to ten. I really really tried. It just didn't happen. I started at 25 and every tab that I closed was a miniature heartbreak. Other 2015 books, I still want to read you!! And I will!! It just might take me a while. My reading sort of came to a screeching halt at the second half of the year, so I feel like I missed out on a lot of new releases. Thankfully, I own most of these books or I already have them on hold at the library. Get your TBR list ready, because there was a lot going on in 2015.

Hold Still by Sally Mann

"A revealing and beautifully written memoir and family history from acclaimed photographer Sally Mann.

In this groundbreaking book, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her.

Sorting through boxes of family papers and yellowed photographs she finds more than she bargained for: "deceit and scandal, alcohol, domestic abuse, car crashes, bogeymen, clandestine affairs, dearly loved and disputed family land . . . racial complications, vast sums of money made and lost, the return of the prodigal son, and maybe even bloody murder.""

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

"The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.

To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil."

In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar

"These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere—and, sometimes, turning back again.

A pharmacist living in New York smuggles drugs to his ailing father in Manila, only to discover alarming truths about his family and his past. In Bahrain, a Filipina teacher drawn to a special pupil finds, to her surprise, that she is questioning her own marriage. A college student leans on her brother, a laborer in Saudi Arabia, to support her writing ambitions, without realizing that his is the life truly made for fiction. And in the title story, a journalist and a nurse face an unspeakable trauma amidst the political turmoil of the Philippines in the 1970s and ’80s."

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

"THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT is an epic geopolitical fantasy about one woman's mission to tear down an empire by learning how to rule it.

Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up from the sand of her home and see red sails on the horizon.

The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free."

Girl at War by Sara Nović

"Zagreb, summer of 1991. Ten-year-old Ana Jurić is a carefree tomboy who runs the streets of Croatia's capital with her best friend, Luka, takes care of her baby sister, Rahela, and idolizes her father. But as civil war breaks out across Yugoslavia, soccer games and school lessons are supplanted by sniper fire and air raid drills. When tragedy suddenly strikes, Ana is lost to a world of guerilla warfare and child soldiers; a daring escape plan to America becomes her only chance for survival.

Ten years later Ana is a college student in New York. She's been hiding her past from her boyfriend, her friends, and most especially herself. Haunted by the events that forever changed her family, she returns alone to Croatia, where she must rediscover the place that was once her home and search for the ghosts of those she's lost."

Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson

"Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring, Skin Folk) has been widely hailed as a highly significant voice in Caribbean and American fiction. She has been dubbed “one of our most important writers,” (Junot Diaz), with “an imagination that most of us would kill for” (Los Angeles Times), and her work has been called “stunning,” (New York Times) “rich in voice, humor, and dazzling imagery” (Kirkus), and “simply triumphant” (Dorothy Allison).

Falling in Love with Hominids presents over a dozen years of Hopkinson’s new, uncollected fiction, much of which has been unavailable in print. Her singular, vivid tales, which mix the modern with Afro-Carribean folklore, are occupied by creatures unpredictable and strange: chickens that breathe fire, adults who eat children, and spirits that haunt shopping malls."

Haints Stay by Colin Winnette

"An imaginative, acid western from a rising star in the indie lit world.

Brooke and Sugar are killers. Bird is the boy who mysteriously woke beside them while between towns. For miles, there is only desert and wilderness, and along the fringes, people.

The story follows the middling bounty hunters after they've been chased from town, and Bird, each in pursuit of their own sense of belonging and justice. It features gunfights, cannibalism, barroom piano, a transgender birth, a wagon train, a stampede, and the tenuous rise of the West's first one-armed gunslinger."

Speak by Louisa Hall

"In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive.

A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friend's mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley Wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls.

Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gaps — to estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hall explores how the chasm between computer and human — shrinking rapidly with today's technological advances — echoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard, or understood."

Not on Fire, but Burning by Greg Hrbek

"Twenty-year-old Skyler saw the incident out her window: Some sort of metalic object hovering over the Golden Gate Bridge just before it collapsed and a mushroom cloud lifted above the city. Like everyone, she ran, but she couldn't outrun the radiation, with her last thoughts being of her beloved baby brother, Dorian, safe in her distant family home.

Flash forward to a post-incident America, where the country has been broken up into territories and Muslims have been herded onto the old Indian reservations in the west, even though no one has determined who set off the explosion that destroyed San Francisco. Twelve-year old Dorian dreams about killing Muslims and about his sister—even though Dorian's parents insist Skyler never existed. Are they still shell-shocked, trying to put the past behind them . . . or is something more sinister going on?

Meanwhile, across the street, Dorian's neighbor adopts a Muslim orphan from the territories. It will set off a series of increasingly terrifying incidents that will lead to either tragedy or redemption for Dorian, as he struggles to prove that his sister existed—and was killed by a terrorist attack."

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

"The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighborhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys’ prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors. Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at Moorehead, Eileen is enchanted and proves unable to resist what appears at first to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.

Played out against the snowy landscape of coastal New England in the days leading up to Christmas, young Eileen’s story is told from the gimlet-eyed perspective of the now much older narrator. Creepy, mesmerizing, and sublimely funny, in the tradition of Shirley Jackson and early Vladimir Nabokov, this powerful debut novel enthralls and shocks, and introduces one of the most original new voices in contemporary literature."

The Dead Ladies Project by Jessa Crispin

"When Jessa Crispin was thirty, she burned her settled Chicago life to the ground and took off for Berlin with a pair of suitcases and no plan beyond leaving. Half a decade later, she’s still on the road, in search not so much of a home as of understanding, a way of being in the world that demands neither constant struggle nor complete surrender.

The Dead Ladies Project is an account of that journey—but it’s also much, much more. Fascinated by exile, Crispin travels an itinerary of key locations in its literary map, of places that have drawn writers who needed to break free from their origins and start afresh. As she reflects on William James struggling through despair in Berlin, Nora Barnacle dependant on and dependable for James Joyce in Trieste, Maud Gonne fomenting revolution and fostering myth in Dublin, or Igor Stravinsky starting over from nothing in Switzerland, Crispin interweaves biography, incisive literary analysis, and personal experience into a rich meditation on the complicated interactions of place, personality, and society that can make escape and reinvention such an attractive, even intoxicating proposition."

Counternarratives by John Keene

"Conjuring slavery and witchcraft, and with bewitching powers all its own, Counternarratives continually spins history—and storytelling—on its head

Ranging from the 17th century to the present and crossing multiple continents, Counternarrative’s novellas and stories draw upon memoirs, newspaper accounts, detective stories, interrogation transcripts, and speculative fiction to create new and strange perspectives on our past and present. In “Rivers,” a free Jim meets up decades later with his former raftmate Huckleberry Finn; “An Outtake” chronicles an escaped slave’s fate in the American Revolution; “On Brazil, or Dénouement” burrows deep into slavery and sorcery in early colonial South America; and in “Blues” the great poets Langston Hughes and Xavier Villaurrutia meet in Depression-era New York and share more than secrets."

The Boys by Toni Sala

"In the once-bucolic village of Vidreres, already decimated by a harsh recession, two young men have just died in a horrible car crash. As the town attends the funeral, a banker named Ernest heads to the tree where the boys died to try and make sense of what happened. There he meets a brutish trucker who has taken a liking to Iona, the fiancée of one of the dead boys. But Iona is already, only the day after the accident, being pursued by a failed, perhaps psychotic, artist. These four characters, their lives and voices intertwined, grapple with their own guilt over the unfathomable loss of the boys, and perhaps their whole town.

Long known as one of Spain’s most powerful Catalan authors, Toni Sala is at his mischievous best in The Boys, delivering a sinister, fast-moving tale laced with intricate meditations on everything from Internet hookups to Spain’s economic collapse to the incomprehensibility of death. Sala offers us a startlingly honest vision of how alone we are in an age of unparalleled connectivity."

Have you read any of these books already? What books did you mean to read in 2015?

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

Very late last night David Bowie passed away. I wrote this post before this took place, and it will greatly shape my week. David Bowie was a huge inspiration to me; my favorite musician of all time. David Bowie was also one of few living things in common I had with my deceased father, as Bowie was also one of his favorites. I'm feeling enormous loss, as I'm sure the rest of the world is. Bowie will forever be a legend.

This past week I participated in another Bout of Books! It's a great, low-key week-long readathon that I can never resist participating in. Read about my comic reading party, my Lucia Berlin hangover, and ~more~ on my Bout of Books update post. Overall it was pretty successful! A Manual for Cleaning Women is now one of my favorite books of all time and it was my first read of 2016, so THAT'S pretty exciting.

In other completely unrelated news, I finally finally finally got a DSLR! I've been interested in photography for around 10 years, but I'd never had the funds to purchase a nice camera. I went with the Canon EOS Rebel T5, because I wasn't about to drop a thousand dollars on anything. I'm currently awaiting a new lens for my new baby (a 24mm f/2.8 STM lens, if you were curious) and I'm SO PUMPED. (It should get here today!!) So basically all this means is I'm super happy right now and also you will be graced with prettier pictures from me.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
• Moonshot edited by Hope Nicholson
• Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• A bunch of single issue comics

CURRENTLY READING:

(not taken by my DSLR)

I'm not going to lie, I got Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen because of the cover. But I also got it because of the Jeff VanderMeer blurb on the back. I'm only like 25 pages into it and nothing's really happened yet, so I can't say if I like it or not. I just put it down during Bout of Books, because I was doing a whole lot of book hopping (and finishing due library books). But I'm going to pick it up again and see if it's as dark and moving as people say it is!

What are you reading this week?

 

Top Ten Books I Want for Christmas

The Broke and the Bookish runs this business.

Because I'm a difficult person, I give my family a very specific list of books that I will accept as gifts during the holiday/birthday season. I just don't trust like that, you know?

Also, this year I'm implementing the Icelandic "Christmas book flood" tradition and exchanging books on Christmas Eve. Then we'll spend the entire day/night reading! Except for when we're watching Blair Witch Project. Can't break that tradition. Anyway. Here are the books that I'll allow my loved ones to buy for me this year!!

Side note: Be on the look out for a few "best of" posts coming out from me soon! Best books of 2015 will be posted Christmas Eve. GET HYPED.

Moonshot by Hope Nicholson

MOONSHOT brings together dozens of creators from across North America to contribute comic book stories showcasing the rich heritage and identity of indigenous storytelling.

From traditional stories to exciting new visions of the future, this collection presents some of the finest comic book and graphic novel work in North America. The traditional stories presented in the book are with the permission from the elders in their respective communities, making this a truly genuine, never-before-seen publication. MOONSHOT is an incredible collection that is sure to amaze, intrigue and entertain!"

The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector

"The recent publication by New Directions of five Lispector novels revealed to legions of new readers her darkness and dazzle.

Now, for the first time in English, are all the stories that made her a Brazilian legend: from teenagers coming into awareness of their sexual and artistic powers to humdrum housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies to old people who don’t know what to do with themselves. Lispector’s stories take us through their lives—and ours. From one of the greatest modern writers, these stories, gathered from the nine collections published during her lifetime, follow an unbroken time line of success as a writer, from her adolescence to her death bed."

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

"In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient African tongue.

Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny--to end the genocide of her people. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture-and eventually death itself."

Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti

Women in Clothes is a book unlike any other. It is essentially a conversation among hundreds of women of all nationalities—famous, anonymous, religious, secular, married, single, young, old—on the subject of clothing, and how the garments we put on every day define and shape our lives.

Even our most basic clothing choices can give us confidence, show the connection between our appearance and our habits of mind, express our values and our politics, bond us with our friends, or function as armor or disguise. They are the tools we use to reinvent ourselves and to transform how others see us. Women in Clothes embraces the complexity of women’s style decisions, revealing the sometimes funny, sometimes strange, always thoughtful impulses that influence our daily ritual of getting dressed."

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

"Jevick, the pepper merchant's son, has been raised on stories of Olondria, a distant land where books are as common as they are rare in his home. When his father dies and Jevick takes his place on the yearly selling trip to Olondria, Jevick's life is as close to perfect as he can imagine. But just as he revels in Olondria's Rabelaisian Feast of Birds, he is pulled drastically off course and becomes haunted by the ghost of an illiterate young girl.

In desperation, Jevick seeks the aid of Olondrian priests and quickly becomes a pawn in the struggle between the empire's two most powerful cults. Yet even as the country shimmers on the cusp of war, he must face his ghost and learn her story before he has any chance of becoming free by setting her free: an ordeal that challenges his understanding of art and life, home and exile, and the limits of that seductive necromancy, reading."

The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

"Ruth is widowed, her sons are grown, and she lives in an isolated beach house outside of town. Her routines are few and small. One day a stranger arrives at her door, looking as if she has been blown in from the sea. This woman—Frida—claims to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth lets her in.

Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat? Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems to carry with her her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?"

North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud

"Nathan Ballingrud's Shirley Jackson Award winning debut collection is a shattering and luminous experience not to be missed by those who love to explore the darker parts of the human psyche. Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud's intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.

These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are monsters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape."

Justine by Lawrence Durrell

"The time is the eve of the World War II. The place is Alexandria, an Egyptian city that once housed the world's greatest library and whose inhabitants are dedicated to knowledge. But for the obsessed characters in this mesmerizing novel, their pursuits lead only to bedrooms in which each seeks to know—and possess—the other. Since its publication in 1957, Justine has inspired an almost religious devotion among readers and critics alike."

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

"Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail is a debut collection of stories from Kelly Luce. Hana Sasaki will introduce you to many things—among them, an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and an extraordinary sex-change operation. Set in Japan, these stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love."

A Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek The Next Generation: Season 2 by Joshua Chapman

"A new project from Joshua Chapman, 8th grader. He really doesn't like Counselor Troi, humans who get too cocky, bullies, or living with his mom. "

What books are you hoping you find under the tree?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Dec 14, 2015]

Ok, it's clear that I'm still easing my way back into internet-ing. I'm trying my best, ok? My instagram book challenge game is strong, but I'm still trying to find time during my weird holiday retail schedule to actually sit down and blog. Good news, though: While listening to audiobooks, I finally finished my forever blanket! And it's glorious. Almost as glorious as crossing that off my to do list after so many years.

Sweet Pooks wouldn't stop rolling around on it when I tried to take the photo, TYPICAL

I now have 6 books down in Shaina's 12 Books of Christmas, so maybe I won't fail this challenge after all! This week I finished The Alchemist audiobook. It definitely got me in the heart a little bit and I liked some of what it said, but overall it was definitely too life lesson-y and spiritual for me. But I really miss hearing Jeremy Irons pronounce the word "omens" really strangely on a regular basis. I would listen again just for him. I also read the first volume of the comic ODY-C which was super weird and beautiful. If you like Homer and gender bending, check it out. Then I read Slade House by David Mitchell, which was a fun read and a little spooky, but not amazing.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
• Slade House by David Mitchell
• ODY-C, Vol. 1 by Matt Fraction

CURRENTLY READING:

So The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth is SUPER overdue at my library (sorry, Minneapolis), but I really really want to finish it. It's a very slow read, because the author created an old English-style language that it's written in for all 345 pages. At first it felt like I was constantly translating texts from my mom, but after 20 pages I pretty much got the hang of it. I'm way too invested now to just return it, so here's hoping it's as excellent as people say.

What are you reading this week?

 

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors of 2015

The Broke and the Bookish runs this business.

I've read more books this year than I have ever read before, and a lot of those books were either debuts or authors I had meant to get around to for a while. It's pretty exciting to have a million of the new authors you read become some of your favorite authors of all time. I didn't count authors of comics/graphic novels only because I'm going to talk about those later. If you haven't checked out any of these amazing women yet (which is ok, they were new to me too), get on it immediately please.

Hanya Yanagihara

I'm sure nobody needs me to tell them to read Hanya Yanagihara. You already know. A Little Life was everybody's most devastating book of the year/lifetime. I stupidly went out and read her only other book and I think I loved it even more than A Little Life and now I have nothing left of hers to read. I'll try to be patient, because she is a master of her craft.

Review: The People in the Trees

Cheryl Strayed

I'm not going to call Cheryl Strayed my mom, because I don't know if my real birth mother is going to read this. But Strayed has definitely mothered me in the past year whether she realizes it or not. Tiny Beautiful Things is a book I'm going to return to for the rest of my life, and I can't wait to start Wild.

Review: Tiny Beautiful Things




Helen Phillips

New queen of weirdness here, everybody make way!! Phillips' short debut The Beautiful Bureaucrat absolutely blew me away. It was pretty much every kind of weird I love. Any time I see Phillips' name attached to a short story in a lit magazine, I buy it. I just can't help myself.

Review: The Beautiful Bureaucrat

Evie Wyld

I still can't explain why I haven't talked about All the Birds, Singing on this blog, because it has and continues to influence me a lot. I never want to reread books (excluding Lord of the Rings), but I'm dying to get my hands on this again. It's creepy and beautifully written and Evie Wyld is just so good, you guys. Be sure to look out for her graphic memoir, Everything is Teeth.

Shaina's Review & Chatlog (feat. me): All the Birds, Singing

Sara Taylor

Despite her most used author photo being a selfie, Taylor's writing and debut novel are both wildly professional and impressive. The Shore gave women a voice in grit lit and I can't recommend it highly enough. The writing is stunning, the stories are intense, and I am so so interested in reading more from her.

Review: The Shore

Claire Fuller

Claire Fuller's debut novel is STUNNING. I don't even know what else to say. She also wrote a super helpful article for Nanowrimo, which helped me push through to finish my novel. So basically she is my other mom. Thanks, Claire.

Review: Our Endless Numbered Days

N.K. Jemisin

If you're wary about fantasy, read N.K. Jemisin. She will win you over entirely. If you're tired of white boys and elves, read N.K. Jemisin. The Killing Moon is flawless and fascinating. It's inspired by Egypt and her world building will not disappoint.

The Book Smugglers' Review: The Killing Moon

Alexandra Kleeman

I just finished Kleeman's debut novel like two days ago, but I know that this is love. Sometimes you just know, you know? Every page was delightful and disturbing. I absolutely love how she thinks and how she writes, so I will just sit here quietly in this room and wait for her collection of stories to come out.

Review of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine to come!!

Ursula K. Le Guin

Le Guin is my sci-fi queen. Everything that she does is right. If a book has a blurb by her on it, I'm getting it. End of story. If you're looking for a powerful force in science fiction AND feminism, look no further.

Review & Chatlog: The Lathe of Heaven

Jenny Offill

I'm sort of convinced that Offill's brain is also my brain, and nobody yet has proven me wrong scientifically so... If you haven't read Dept. of Speculation, it will take you maybe two hours and then you will be in love. Everything that she writes is on point. This novel is both funny and heart breaking. What is there to lose??

Shannon's Review: Dept. of Speculation

Who are your new favorites from 2015? What qualities do you look for?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Dec 7, 2015]

How is it a week into December already? I sort of took care of some shit this week. I have one tiny ball of yarn left in the forever blanket I'm knitting (I've said that I started it to years ago for at least a year). All of my holiday shopping is taken care of, I just have to knit a few things. I met a book blogger (my second ever)!! Jenna Miller from JMill Wanders is so hilarious and great, you guys. Oh, and I actually did some dishes WOW!!!

I've got 3 books down in Shaina's 12 Books of Christmas already, so that doesn't feel half bad. I read the first volumes of the comics Bitch Planet and Descender, both of which I LOVED. Then I read You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman and oh my god is it great. It's like a much weirder White Noise by Don DeLillo. I'm so glad I read it, it's both delightful and disturbing. Definitely looking forward to anything else Alexandra Kleeman writes. Slowly but surely my library pile is being whittled down.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Bitch Planet, Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick
• Descender, Vol. 1 by Jeff Lemire
• You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman

CURRENTLY READING:

The next library book that I have to finish by tomorrow is Slade House by David Mitchell. I'm like 19 pages in, so I can't say what I think of it quite yet, but I am intrigued.

I was bullied into listening to The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho on audiobook, but I don't really mind because it's so short and it's not horrible. Doesn't hurt that Jeremy Irons is narrating. I like some of what it's saying, I'm a little "oh boy" at the rest of what it's saying, and overall as a book it might be a bit too life lesson-y for me. But, again, I actually am enjoying listening to it.

What are you reading this week?