It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Oct 31, 2016]

Happy Halloween, everybody! I've had a very spooky week of "being too sick to do anything" and "stepping on nails." I did no Halloween things this October, oops. I got some reading done during my sickness, but only through forcing myself because Hex was 10 days overdue and I was determined to finish it. Am I glad I did? Not particularly.

This is one of the imperfect iterations. It looks even better now!!

 Also I've been working on designing a knitted object for the first time. I decided to make a pair of socks despite having only made two pairs of socks in my life. I just love a challenge I guess. It's been a very humbling experience. I've had to undo it entirely three times. There are just so many different things to factor in and so much math to do. Good knitting takes supreme hesitancy, for real.

In other news, Nanowrimo starts tomorrow! I've participated in National Novel Writing Month 5 years now and won each time. I almost wasn't going to participate for a sixth year, but I can't help myself. I'm going to be working on the novel I started last year, which will admittedly mostly be rewriting it from scratch. I haven't done any creative writing in probably a year actually, so I'm pretty excited/horrified. Anybody else participating?? My username is ulianne if you want to add me as a writing buddy. I love word wars.

In case you missed it, I did a post last week that I loved and I want more people to read. It's 8 interesting new & upcoming books from Minnesota presses. I PROMISE you will want to read one, if not all, of them! Check out the list here.

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• Zero K by Don DeLillo (during the 24 hour readathon)
• Saga Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan (24 hour readathon)
• The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky (24 hour readathon)
• Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

CURRENTLY READING: 

I'm at the beginning of Stony River by Tricia Dower, a novel set in the 50's, and it's VERY unsettling. I am not 100% clear what is going on with these strange characters, but I kind of like it.

Kelly Luce!! Her first novel, Pull Me Under, is coming out tomorrow. I meant to read it this week, but being sick kind of destroyed my schedule for reading and for work. So I'm starting it tonight and I CANNOT WAIT. I'm still not over how good the cover is.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Oct. 10, 2016]

I just got back from camping this weekend! It was absolutely freezing, but I'm still glad I did it. I need to try to prioritize going out into the woods every week or two, because it's really something that I love. Each time I do it, I'm devastated to leave. I did some knitting (until my fingers got too cold), did some reading, started nature journaling, and also ruined some shoes when we got a little too confident on a flooded trail. We had fun. And I finished the first page of my state park passport!

Last night I went to a publisher rep night for booksellers in Minnesota. It was great fun seeing other booksellers and talking to the publisher reps. And, of course, I learned about a ton of amazing, upcoming books. Below is a photo of what I brought home. I think very soon I might do a post about the great books from local publishers I grabbed. They sound AMAZING.

One more thing: I have an excited bookish project in the works that I can't announce just yet, but I should be able to in a week or two. I wish I could say more, but I cannot. PATIENCE, FRIENDS!!

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson - one of the best books I've read this year

CURRENTLY READING: 

I started Scratch by Steve Himmer while I was in the woods. At night. Which is the best and the worst decision. This one's about a man who's trying to settle down, so he moves out to a rural area. He lives near a forest where - surprise - a shapeshifter also lives. It's fun so far, right now the story is being narrated by the shapeshifter. I have no idea where this one is going to go. It comes out tomorrow!

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Sept. 26, 2016]

I'm at it again with spending more time crafting than reading. My crystal embroidery is done (well, I could add black outlines, but I'm not sure if they need it). I'm now more than halfway finished with crocheting a yoga mat holder, which is perhaps the most white girl thing I've ever said in my life dear god. But anyway, I hate crocheting, and each time I do it I have to basically reteach myself everything. It took me a ton of brain power to figure out this pattern, because I had to modify it. I don't know if people realize how much knitting and crocheting is math, it's ridiculous. But I'm now able to do it without thinking, so I can enjoy an audiobook while working. Life is good.

These colors worked together 100x better than I imagined. I was fully prepared for a hideous yoga fiesta.

ALSO, Litsy just came out for Android users! Now everyone can get in on the fun! You can follow me at @OutlandishLit to see casual reading updates in real time. If you follow me on Goodreads, you may have noticed that I'm now enormously bad at updating my reading status. And that's because I do soooo much book hopping and not finishing books. On Litsy, you'll actually hear about the books I start.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• zip

CURRENTLY READING: 

This audiobook is still amazing. I'm already recommending  The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson to everybody and I've got like four hours left of it.

Right now I'm really really enjoying Shelter in Place by Alexander Maksik. I've never read anything by him before, but I LOVE his writing style. I keep finding myself marking passages, which is a good sign. And his representation of bipolar disorder is pretty interesting.

I literally just read the first essay in this collection last night (it was titled "Against Exercise" and it was great). Against Everything by Mark Greif is proving to be a very smart collection of critical essays already. And Mark Greif is the co-founder of n+1, who knew? I think I'm going to do an essay before bed kind of situation, which I've never really done before. Depending on how long the essays are.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Sept 19, 2016]

I really didn't mean to disappear for a week. I'm still getting used to my new schedule. And I've been spending a lot of time crafting. God, I'm so autumnal. I hadn't weaved before or embroidered, but I just started and WOW I love these crafts. What soothing ways to spend time while listening to audiobooks/watching reality television. And weaving's an amazing way to use up cheap, scratchy yarn you were trying to get rid of.

ALSO, I just got into the Litsy Android beta!! If you don't know, Litsy is a great app like Instagram and Goodreads combined. It's a huge amount of fun and the community's great. If you have an iPhone, you can get in on it right this moment. If you have an Android, you'll have to wait a bit longer, but it's coming soon! You can follow me at @OutlandishLit to see casual reading updates in real time (mostly).

Shout out to Jenna of JMill Wanders for visiting me this weekend and cheering me up, despite doing no amount of reading. You're a doll!! Book blogger friends are the best.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein (review this week)

CURRENTLY READING: 

I've been really digging The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson on audiobook. Who would've thought I'd be so riveted by the politics and economics of a fantasy world?? This is such a brilliant book with so many interesting things going on in it. I'm so delighted to be listening to it, that I'm only playing the audio like 25% faster than it's read. Normally I'd double that shit.

I'm trying to devote time to this short story collection, Intimations, because I love Alexandra Kleeman so much. At the moment, though, I haven't hit a short story that I've really liked. So it's slow going. But I want to finish it this week! I'm really not that far into it, so here's hoping it gets better.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Sept. 12, 2016]

Who knew, routine might just be one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Even though I'm not quite in one yet, I have myself set up for it and I feel better about life in general already. And I suddenly have so much more time to read when I'm not working 12 hours a day three days in a row randomly! Oh, some bad news: Our car got totaled. The day after I finally scheduled a driving test for myself (yes, I only have a permit, it doesn't matter, let's not talk about it). So, admittedly, a lot of life/finances are really tough at the moment. But I'm working on not getting too down about it.

A couple days ago I finished two novellas in one day. I liked one of them quite a bit and I was ok with the other, but that kind of propelled me to keep reading. So later on I took myself on a foodless picnic in the park with a huge bag of books to peruse. It was so lovely! Except I also learned that I probably have allergies, because I had such a bad headache afterwards. GOD I'M SUCH A BUMMER. Ok, let me tell you about the book I fell in love with at the park below.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun
• The Subsidiary by Matias Celedon

CURRENTLY READING: 

As expected, I'm still jumping around quite a bit in my reading. Though, yesterday, I landed on this mother fucking gem. I was really excited about it when I first got it at BEA, but as my reading has sucked in the past few months, I've told myself to temper my enthusiasm. But this is JUST AS GOOD AS I HOPED. Reading The Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein is basically like reading the show Black Mirror. Except, maybe even better?? I'm almost halfway through this collection of short stories and I can't put it down. This feels so so good.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Sept. 5, 2016]

Happy Labor Day, American readers! I worked Saturday, Sunday, and I'm working today, so I hate you all for your grilling and get-togethers. Regardless, I have some mildly exciting news (for me) that I've mentioned elsewhere on social media. I've officially been trained into a new role at the bookstore where I help deal with online book orders! Not packing/shipping, but essentially some online customer service along with some bookstore sleuthing. Which can be fun/aggravating. BUT the important part of this is that I'm about to have a fixed schedule for the first time in a year! And it's not a fixed weird schedule. It's just a typical 9 to 5 with a few specific days off. I'm beyond excited to have a routine. I never thought I'd say that, but I really am. I'm going to blog on specific days! And read at regular times! I'll always be able to fit it in! And I'm going to go to the gym regularly! And be able to cook for myself! I'm hyped. It starts this week and I can't wait.

Oh, also, I had a couchsurfer stay over last night - Su-Yee Lin. She won me over in her request by immediately mentioning that she likes Shirley Jackson, Karen Russell, Kelly Link, and Neil Gaiman. Hellooooooo potential book soul mate. And she WRITES THINGS. Right now she's working on a collection of short stories based on Chinese folklore that I really want to read. Here's on of her stories that she wrote in college that got published on Tor a few years back: Thirteen Steps in the Underworld. As self declared princess of the underworld, I really liked it.

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
• Vertigo by Joanna Walsh
• Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu (review this week)

CURRENTLY READING: 

I finally got it!! Alexandra Kleeman, author of one of my favorite novels - You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine - has a short story collection coming out this month. Her writing continues to delight me/creep me out so far. Expect a review of Intimations by Alexandra Kleeman soon!

If you didn't know, my grandpa and I are best friends. We get along unbelievably well. We just get each other. So, as you'd expect, we both love books. And we both love lobotomies. Ok, we don't love the procedure, we just love the history of lobotomies. So I told him about Patient H.M. by Luke Dittrich after I heard Liberty talk about it on the All the Books podcast, and realized we had a few ARCs of it at the bookstore. Grandpa and I have now initiated our very first temporary two person book club where we're reading this together. It's too bad that he's much faster than I am. Hopefully I can keep up.

What are you reading this week?

 

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

Getting back into the swing of things with a normal old It's Monday post! I guess I haven't technically checked in with what I've been reading in weeks, and that is partially because I haven't been reading. But I did finish 2 books while I was traveling! Sadly, they both continued the streak of 3.5 star books, though I guess maybe I gave The Girls 4 stars. I don't even remember. Just looked at Goodreads, and literally the last 8 books I've read have been 3.5s. And within the last 27 books I've read, there have only been seven 4s to break up the 3s and 3.5s. That means 75% of the books I've read since March have been just ok. No wonder I hate reading!!

I'm participating in the Bout of Books readathon this week and you can track my progress here and on Twitter. I'm starting with some heavy hitters in the hopes that we'll find a five star this week.

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• The Girls by Emma Cline (finished in Japan)
• Confessions by Kanae Minato (finished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean)

CURRENTLY READING: 

I'm around 50 pages, maybe more, into The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood. I had been looking forward to this Australian novel for what felt like forever and right now I'm kind of hesitant about it. Right now I'm kind of pessimistic about books (see above), so I'm worried the feminist horror plot might be a little too obvious. But so many bookish people I love and trust threw five stars at this bad boy, so I'm hopeful.

I'm similarly around 50 pages into The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. I thought I would be on top of this one and read it well before publication, but then Oprah happened. I'm not sure if I've read a slave narrative since high school, so I'm really excited to continue reading this one. I'm pretty enthralled at this point and, again, everybody is throwing out the full 5 stars. Can't wait to cry!!!

What are you reading this week?

 

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?

 

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?