bell7's (Mary's) First Thread of 2014

Hello all! Welcome new & old friends to my first 2014 thread. Feel free to join in with bookish and other chatter. I tend to lurk rather than post and find it difficult to keep up with everyone, but I will at least try to follow your thread if I see you on mine. :)

By way of introduction, I am a librarian from western Massachusetts. I read an eclectic bunch of fiction and nonfiction; paper, e-book, and audio; adult, teen, and kids' books; fantasy; historical fiction; mystery; contemporary fiction; and more. My "go to" genre when I'm tired or stressed or just want a quick read is young adult fantasy. I enjoy books with great characters and inventive world-building, whether in an imaginative world or this one. Now that I'm working full-time, I tend to read just over a hundred books a year (not counting graphic novels or picture books, of which I tend to read a smattering). In the past, approximately 10-20% of my reading has been rereads, and I expect that trend to continue.

Aside from reading, I enjoy watching sports and am especially a huge NY Giants fan and love watching tennis. I also knit in my spare (ha!) time, and have become rather proficient at baby blankets for friends. I'll try to remember to post pictures this year of some of my projects.

As part of my job, I facilitate a monthly book discussion so twelve of my books read this year will be for that. This year we're reading:

January - The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
February - The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
March - Quiet by Susan Cain
April - Plainsong by Kent Haruf
May - Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
June - The Round House by Louise Erdrich
July - Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
August - Home Town by Tracy Kidder
September - The Night Swimmer by Matt Bondurant
October - My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
November - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
December - Midnight in Peking by Paul French

Last year, I made it a goal to read as many of my own books as library books. That didn't happen, and a couple of months I was forcing myself to read some books I didn't really feel like finishing just 'cause they were from my shelf... This year, I'm entirely letting myself off the hook and apart from the books I've listed above, I'm reading whatever I feel like.

*smooch* Hi Mary! Happy 2014.

Welcome back!

Mary - Great to see you have finally found your way over here. Happy new year, my dear.

Happy New Years, Mary!

Happy New Year, Mary!

Happy New Year, Mary! Dropping a star.

Hi Mary! So pleased to see you back again this year. :)

Happy New Year to you, Mary!

#1, Mary I always enjoy seeing people put Quiet on their reading lists. I'll be very interested to read what you have to say about it once you've read it.

Happy New Year, Mary!

Hi there, Mary! I'm afraid I fell behind last year, but I hope to keep up with you a bit more this time around. :)

Happy New Year! You've got some great titles lined up for your book discussions. I'd love to be close enough to join in!

>2 richardderus: *smooch* back, Richard. Hope 2014 is both good and memorable for you!

>3 drneutron: Thanks for the welcome, Jim!

>4 PaulCranswick: Paul, thanks for your warm words and a happy New Year to you too!

>5 RosyLibrarian: Thanks, Marie, Happy New Year!

>6 LauraBrook: Happy New Year, Laura!

>7 Crazymamie: Mamie, I'm going to try to keep up with your threads a bit better this year! Happy New Year to you too.

>8 MickyFine: Thanks Micky! I'm looking forward to following your reading again this year.

>9 rosalita: Happy New Year to you too, Julia!

>10 AuntieClio: Nice to see you, Stephanie! Quiet has been on my list for awhile, so I'm really excited it ended up on our list of book discussions picks because now I have to read it this year haha. I think some of our regulars are extroverts and some are introverts, so I think it will make for an interesting discussion.

>11 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori, a very happy 2014 to you too!

>12 Ape: Glad to see you back, Stephen... and don't worry, I got behind quite a bit myself on your thread and others'.

>13 cbl_tn: Thanks, Carrie! I'm really looking forward to most of them, and even the one I think will be a difficult read for me (The Round House) will probably turn into a great discussion. I wish you could join in too! We get about 6-8 and they're a pretty thoughtful bunch who - as you can tell from the list - really don't mind tackling nonfiction, in contrast to the other library book discussion group that isn't reading any nonfiction this year!

Hi Mary, and Happy New Year to you! Great book club list. I bought Quiet earlier this year (actually, I think I bought it at the Tattered Cover when I was there with Joanne, May, and Donna). I think you will LOVE Plainsong. It's one of my favorites.

Hi Mary!

Happy New Year, Mary!

>15 AMQS: Happy New Year to you too, Anne! Plainsong is one I'm very much looking forward too - I hope I like it as much as you and others on LT have!

>16 wilkiec: Hi, Diana, thanks for stopping by!

>17 norabelle414: Hey Nora, a very happy new year to you too. Hope everything's going well getting ready for your Iceland trip!

Here's a list of my favorite reads from 2013 (there are 12 rather than 10, but who's counting?):

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
The Perilous Gard by Marie Elizabeth Pope
I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays by Elinor Lipman
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny
Unwind by Neal Shusterman

*BAM!* Starred, Mary! :D Looking forward to your reads this year!

>20 dk_phoenix: Thanks, Faith! I'll be following your reads as well :)

I have How to Read Literature Like a Professor and Home in my TBR stash. I really must make an effort to get to them sooner rather than later.

>22 cbl_tn: I hope you do, and I hope you enjoy them both, Carrie! I'm reading another book by Foster, How to Read Novels Like a Professor, and find it equally engaging. I love that he's an English professor but never talks down to you, and is of the opinion that a book has to work on its most basic level - telling a story - but getting the themes, motifs, etc. out of it just adds to the enjoyment.

So I know I haven't talked about my job much on here other than mentioning which reads are our book discussion books, but for nearly a year now I've been the full-time reference and adult programming librarian at a small public library (my official title, which I mention here to make Nora laugh is Adult Services Librarian, but it's not very descriptive of what I actually do on a day-to-day basis while "reference" is). Though it's not a huge part of my job time-wise, I also have become the local history guru by default and while I'm very much learning as I go, it's one of the aspects of my job I enjoy most. I can't answer in-depth research questions, but I basically know what resources to check for town history related questions and genealogy searches.

The last few days, I've been reading and transcribing a small diary or record book that has been in our collection for years. I discovered it in a box labeled "Local History - to be processed" a few years back when I was compiling an inventory of everything in our local collection. It was a handwritten old thing from 1802-1808, and was mostly a list of people coming and going from Enfield. I didn't have time to research it fully at the time, but it was a little piece of the collection that stayed in my mind.

Well, a few days ago it was quiet enough that I thought, I'll take out that diary and transcribe it. As I started going through, I did a little bit of Googling - was this Enfield, Connecticut or Enfield, Massachusetts (one of the towns that was disestablished and flooded in the creation of Quabbin Reservoir nearly 100 years ago)? What might the towns of Tyringham, Hancock, and New Lebanon have in common that there's all this visiting between them? A few searches later, I had a working hypothesis. Enfield, Connecticut, as well as all the other towns listed in the record book were Shaker settlements. Information on the Shakers indicated that the houses were generally set up into "families," and you'd have the North Family, South Family, etc. like points on a compass. This matched perfectly with the terminology in the book, and what had started out as an apparently boring list of names became much more rich when viewed through that light: these people were Shakers, many of whom traveled between Hancock and Enfield, but also from the town of Harvard (often written "Harward" in the diary) and Alford, Maine.

Some entries became a little more newsy, with one mentioning that a group from Harvard brought cod fish, a group of people "Apointed to go to Ohio" visited Enfield and were going to leave for Ohio before May 1, 1806, and finally "Sabath the 13 there were a Very Quickening Powerful Gift Administered to us of the mighty power of God and Gifts of the holy Gost And mightly shakeing This Gift Continued four weeks and then closed and took the former maner of labor". Turns out to be an interesting piece of history after all, and with a little bit of research I have a couple of possibilities for archival collections who may just be happy to have this little record.

24: Fascinating! What an awesome job title. I just took a class on genealogy and it made me itch to do more research, which I'm hoping I'll get to do in my next job. Do you use a lot of online resources?

Heehee!

24: How exciting! I bet some of those names mean something to somebody.

>25 RosyLibrarian: Marie, I wish I had the time and energy it really takes to do some great genealogical research, but I settle for fitting it in when I can! I use our Ancestry Library Edition database and www.familysearch.org (the free site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), as well as more traditional physical places like the Town Clerk's office for birth/marriage/death certificates, Registry of Deeds for land records, and Probate for wills (fortunately my dad is an attorney so once on a weekday off I just hitched a ride to the local registry and had him show me how to get records!).

>26 norabelle414: you're welcome :)

>27 qebo: I do believe so! I may have an update soon regarding the archive I contacted about the diary/record book; I just don't want to say for sure before I talk with the library director.

Hi, Mary! The Russell and the Taylor from your Best Reads list are a couple of my favorites - so glad you liked them, too. Also, thanks so much for sharing the story of the little book. How fascinating! A little bit of history right in your own hands. I love that sort of thing.

Love your job! How fascinating to be able to handle and transcribe a wonderful piece of history like that diary!

Going back up to your list of favorite reads in 2013 I saw Gilead listed, which I absolutely loved when I read it. Very happy to see Home was also in that list as I still need to get around to reading that one.

>23 bell7: I have that one, too! Clearly I need to get to work on my TBRs.

I love the story about your exciting discovery! It will make a nice addition to an archival collection.

Adult services! I can see why Nora would titter - the mind boggles. Fascinating though in all seriousness- it would be great to work with books everyday rather than have to try to smuggle them into the home like I do.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mary, I enjoyed your story of the local history book and your sleuthing to find out more about it. Are you transcribing it in order to post it online? I bet local folks would be able to contribute lots of information about all the people mentioned in the book.

>24 bell7: Signs you're a librarian: job titles like Adult Services Librarian don't seem at all titter-worthy. ;) As for your historical item, that is undeniably cool!

"Adult Services Librarian" pretty much sounds like the girl of my dreams. :P

>29 scaifea: Amber, I'm hoping to read more by Mary Doria Russell this year - I have a copy of Thread of Grace now, so have no excuse! Glad you enjoyed the story. I wish I had more time for that kind of thing; if it hadn't been for some bad weather and quiet days at the library, I don't know when I might've gotten around to it.

>30 lkernagh: I love my job, too, Lori :D Discovering pieces of history like this is only a very small part of it but one of my favorite aspects. I hope you enjoy Home when you get to it. Have you seen that she's working on a new book called Lila about the Reverend Ames' wife?

>31 cbl_tn: Ooh, do it's a lot of fun!

>32 PaulCranswick: Paul, it is an odd name when "Reference Librarian" pretty much covers what I do - I wonder if most people today don't really know what "reference" refers to anymore either?

>33 rosalita: Hi Julia! I transcribed it mostly for myself to be able to make sense out of it and to keep a record because I was interested. I also wanted to be able to have it in case it turned out to be connected to our small town - it's not, as far as I can tell. I think the archive I've contacted would be the best place for it to be researched and kept, as they would be familiar with some of the names and in a good position to make family and historical connections that the book itself doesn't make clear.

>34 MickyFine: Very true, Micky! Though in my defense, I first heard the job title when I was about 16 and was, er, unfamiliar with what other inferences could be made from the name.

>35 Ape: Hahahahaha Stephen, I'm pretty sure you gave me the best laugh I'll have all week with that response. Is that why you started following my thread last year? :P

Nonsense! What am I, some shallow hornball who goes about following women just because they have job titles infused with sexual innuendo? No way, not me! I would never do such a thing. I am a man of substance, and class! I'll have you know that I started following your thread after I saw your pictures at one fo the DC meetups, and I knew immediately that I simply HAD to chase down your thread immediately!

...oh...wait a second... *ahem*

:P

Hi, Mary! Long time, no chat. I've done a spectacularly poor job of keeping up with anyone, and I don't expect it to be getting any better, but I stop when I can. I love your story about the little book you found! Great fun! Have a wonderful 2014!

> 36 - No, I didn't know she was working on a new book based on the characters from Gilead and Home.... that would be worth checking out!

Hi Mary--just stopping by to check out your 2014 thread. I hope I'll be back before long.

>37 Ape: Yeah... I asked for that lol

>38 tloeffler: Hi Terri! I found it impossible to keep up last year myself but I do try to pop in to your thread from time to time. Thanks for stopping by!

>39 lkernagh: Well, glad I could pass on the information, then :) I've forgotten when it's supposed to come out, but I'm looking forward to reading it when it does.

>40 AnneDC: Thanks for checking in, Anne! Hope your 2014 has been good so far.

Update on the little book in our local history collection:

The Hancock Shaker Village (in a little town in western Massachusetts near the Berkshires) is interested in having it for their collection, so I'll be passing it along to them! They have a database online already of many names of Shakers in various communities; I used it to look up some of the names in the journal, but not all the names in that are recorded on the online database. Still, they should be able to put it with other related resources to give it context that I simply wouldn't be able to do. I'm happy it found a good home!

Mary, that's great that the book is going to someone who will really appreciate it. Well done!

Thanks, Julia! I was glad to be able to send it to a good home. The main reason I did a little research (beyond my own curiosity, which was considerable, I admit) was to be able to identify the best place to send it. I think it will be well appreciated where it ended up!

Have a wonderful weekend, Mary!

Thanks, Diana, to you as well!

As far as I can remember, this is the latest in the year I have gone without finishing a book. It's not exactly been a reading funk, as I am reading an enjoying books, but my time spent reading does seem to have shrunk enormously. In the absence of true book reviews, here's a short summary of what I'm reading now:

The Paladins DuBois by Patricia Williford - a fantasy novel by a self-published author from my town. I read a manuscript for her in 2012 and enjoyed her story very much, particularly the way the family interacted in the second half of the book. It's been a slightly slow reread, primarily because I already know what happens so there's not as much tension and anticipation as there was the first time. Started reading 12/19/13.

How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster - a thoughtful and fun look at the novel by the English professor who wrote How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I really enjoy his take on literature and only wish these books existed when I was an undergrad; I would've understood what my teachers meant so much better! Started reading 12/26/13.

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe - a reread and my book club read, so it's been on the one hand getting first dibs and on the other very hard to read. Don't get me wrong, I love this book which is equal parts an homage to Will's mother, Mary Anne, and to reading and its importance. It's just that the timing is very difficult: Mary Anne was dying from pancreatic cancer, and my grandmother is dying from lung cancer (she's had it for years, but only lately has she really begun to go downhill with metastasized, growing tumors). Started reading 1/2/14 - will finish soon.

Mary - Hope you finish a book soon my dear. Have a lovely weekend.

>48 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul, hope you have a good weekend too! And I will finish The End of Your Life Book Club soon (tomorrow, if not tonight).

Just for fun, here's my version of the meme going around with books read in 2013:

Describe yourself: The Hobbit

Describe what you feel like: Lost in Shangri-La

Describe where you currently live: And the Mountains Echoed

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Surprise Island

Your favorite form of transportation: Travels with Charley

Your best friend is: Crazy Beautiful

You and your friends are: The Fellowship of the Ring

What’s the weather like: Extreme Measures

You fear: The Bitter Kingdom

What is the best advice you have to give: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Thought for the day: I Can't Complain

How I would like to die: Crossing to Safety

My soul’s present condition: Home

1. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

WOOHOO! I finished the first book of the year! Granted, it was a reread and a "have to" read for book club, but I'm still somewhat relieved not to have that hanging over my head anymore...

Here's what I initially said after reading it in late 2012:

"Will Schwalbe's memoir is a unique tribute to his mother, Mary Anne, a strong woman who worked tirelessly to help others, and who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. One day during her chemo treatment, Will asked, "What are you reading?" So the two-person book club was born, as Will and his mother discuss books they both read over the course of Mary Anne's treatments.

The books are just a starting point for larger discussions of life, courage, love, and so much more. Each chapter is the title of a book, whether the book they're discussing or one that thematically ties into the subject of the chapter. Will intersperses memories of past days with the treatments and his mother's decline, painting a picture of a really wonderful woman I feel like I got to know just a little bit through his eyes. The book is sweet but not saccharine, sad but hopeful. I may very well give it to my own mother to read and discuss with her."

The experience of rereading this book was very bittersweet to me. The first time around, it made me think about the close relationship I have with my mother and the ways her coming to the library book discussion I facilitate has caused us to share reads, sometimes having our own small discussions before the slightly larger one with the group. This time around, though, the aspects of Will's mother dying from cancer really hit me hard, as my grandmother is going through a lot of the same things (albeit with a different type of cancer). In fact, I learned yesterday that she's ending her chemo treatments and will be in hospice care starting next week. Needless to say, that made reading the end of Will's book much more heartbreaking, and I actually went to bed last night with only about 20 pages left (almost unheard of for me) because I just couldn't deal with reading about his mother's death then. Still, I'm glad I reread the whole thing. I just love the way talking about books springboards them into talking about so many topics, the deep questions and aspects of life that sometimes we just don't broach. I've done that not only with my mother but also with friends, and not always with titles that you'd expect. Though reading isn't one of the shared passions I've often talked about with my grandma, it did make me think of the interests we share (knitting, genealogy) and how much she enjoys passing on her loves to the younger generation. I think it was a great choice for the first book club book of the year, and (as always, really) I'm looking forward to Wednesday's discussion.

Glad you found the re-read rewarding even if it was tough, Mary.

Hi Mary! Love your best-of list for 2013 and your meme (and your job!) I've loved a few of your best-of titles, and have a few others in the pile somewhere. I knew you had good taste:)

Your answers to the book meme are great, Mary! :)

I have both of Thomas C. Foster's books on reading like a professor on my TBR list. I think I have a print or Kindle version of one of them waiting on me. The other will likely be a library book.

>52 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky!

>53 AMQS: Hey Anne, thanks for stopping by! It's always fun seeing how reading tastes overlap (or not!), isn't it?

>54 Ape: Thanks, Stephen!

>55 thornton37814: Lori, I hope you enjoy them when you get to them. I've found them insightful and fun reading.

2. S. by Doug Dorst, conceived by J.J. Abrams

When a student working at a college library stumbles on a book that a grad student accidentally left behind - The Ship of Theseus by V.S. Straka - she starts writing back to his marginalia. Their correspondence in the margins of the book begins an investigation into who the elusive "V.S. Straka" may be, a mystery that grows all the more menacing as they realize the long arms of the people who worked against the mysterious "S."

The whole conceit of this book is, I have to admit, the most fascinating thing about it. The book is a thing of beauty, an old-fashioned grey hardcover with "The Ship of Theseus" on the spine (the box it came in says the actual book title), aged papers and a sewn spine. The design is perfectly in line with the idea that this is an old book, a title from an old high school library, and the second story - of the two students, Jen and Eric - unfolds in the margins in multicolored pen to give readers insight into the order of events. There's a decoder wheel and codes and inserts in between pages of the book. Really, you could spend so much time just trying to pick it apart that I would recommend buying it instead of borrowing it from the library, as I did. Then too, the story is a fun one and the reader does have to do some work as there are some things that Jen and Eric never explicitly spell out in their marginalia. Definitely worth checking out, and I'd read it again just to see if I understood the beginning better now that I know the end. 4.5 stars.

I was reading your description going, "huh, that sounds pretty cool" and then went back to the title and author information and went "Oh! J.J. Abrams!" Now I'm truly intrigued. Are the giant red spheres anywhere in the book?

From what I understand, Micky, it was J.J. Abrams' idea, but the actual author of the book was Dorst (doesn't hurt to have the name recognition, of course!). I did not see any giant red spheres, but I confess I was not exactly looking. I only really recognized his name from LOST (still the show by which I measure all the rest) and am not really familiar with his other work. I do hope you enjoy it if you get to it. I noted from one of the other LT reviews that Eric and Jen each have a Twitter account (@EricHusch and @JenTheUndergrad) and there's a website whoisstraka.com - but I haven't had a chance to look into any of that yet... :)

>57 bell7: That sounds like a fascinating book. I may have to buy it just so I can see how it's constructed! It might be a good book for my Thingaversary shopping spree.

Hoping the book group meeting tonight is going well, and *huggles* for the sadness of grandma's leaving.

>60 cbl_tn: Carrie, I hope you do! It was interesting to see it when we got it in the library, and it took us forever to decide how to catalog it... (I made a list of everything that had been in the book and at what page #, put it all in a bag to circulate with the book and scanned everything to have a copy when a piece goes missing).

>61 richardderus: Thanks, Richard, on both counts. The meeting went incredibly well, the first 20 minutes taken up just by asking "What did you think of the book?" and a lot of what we had to say was about books & reading and what that's meant in our own relationships. It was really neat to hear a couple of people talk about reading as a way of connecting with grandkids and how it had made them read books outside of their comfort zones. On the grandma front, we're just starting on the incredibly difficult waiting game and have in the back of our minds that it won't be long - she's got pneumonia, blood clots, and kidney failure not to mention the cancer, so yeah. Even though we've known this day was coming for years, it doesn't make it any easier, does it?

Good Morning Mary

Thanks for posting your favorite reads of 2013. I look forward to visiting your thread this year, always lots to add to the tbr pile.

>63 Whisper1: Hello, Linda, thanks so much for popping by - you brighten my day! I've been visiting but not posting much on other threads this year, but I'm very much looking forward to following your reads as well.

Real life does get in the way of our desire to visit all the threads on a regular basis.

I hope your day is a good one. We are experiencing yet another grey, grey day here in NE PA. This winter is not a sunny one as yet.

>65 Whisper1: Real life does get in the way of our desire to visit all the threads on a regular basis.
Very true! I try to stay thankful for this, remembering that the reason I can't be as active on LT as I once was is because I have a full-time job and other RL responsibilities. But I am a little sad not to stay as caught up as I once could! We seem to have rather foggy weather this morning, and warmer than usual after a crazy-cold snap, but I will take 40s and rain over a foot of snow any day!

I have the day off, so I'm hoping to get a little caught up on errands that have been piling up the last few weeks, visit my grandparents for a bit, and maybe get together with my sister for a little late birthday (hers) shopping. I've started another series by Neal Shusterman (I was reading Unwind at the end of last year), Everlost, which is a quick read and totally addicting... I read all but about 60 pages yesterday, so I'm planning on finishing that today too. (The only question is - will I read it before I get my errands done or after... hmm... decisions)

Thanks for the heads up regarding Everlost. On the tbr pile since 2010, it is time to read it, especially after your positive comments.

S. sounds... fascinating. I'll definitely look out for it. Abrams often annoys me, but he has good ideas, and it's interesting that he's passed the concept off to another writer. Makes me think I might enjoy it without tearing out pages (ala throwing things at the TV during LOST).

Thanks for sharing the details with us!!!

>67 Whisper1: Oh good, I hope you enjoy it! It's younger in some ways than the Unwind series, but I thought it was a really interesting concept.

>68 dk_phoenix: I hope you do enjoy it if/when you get to it, Faith. Though I am sorry to hear you got so frustrated with LOST that you threw things at the TV! Did you watch it through to the end or stop somewhere? My youngest brother and I started watching together partway through Season 3 (I caught up on DVD prior to that), and we had such fun picking it apart... he's getting my youngest sister to watch it now.

S. sounds like such an interesting book, and an intriguing concept. I may have to check it our. Thanks for the review!

>59 bell7: I've been an Abrams fan since his Alias days. Of course, I also love new Star Trek which he's directed. :)

Oh boy, S needs to be on my wishlist, I think. Thanks for the great review!

>69 bell7:: No, I watched it all the way through... El Husbando was a fan and he wanted me to try it, so we could watch the final few seasons together... it did nothing but make me very, very angry. Haha. But I stuck with it, because -- stupid me -- I wanted to see a few of the storylines resolved. At the time, I didn't realized that Abrams doesn't "resolve" anything... which El Husbando already knew, because he'd watched all of Alias, but conveniently neglect to mention. *AUUGHRRAGH* I have some Very Strong Opinions about LOST that mostly boil down to me ranting about lazy writing and broken promises to viewers. LOL!!!

I didn't mind the new Star Trek, but then I think Abrams is a better creative hand in things that give him more defined parameters to work in (so he has to be less conceptual).

>70 AMQS: You're welcome! Hope you enjoy it, Anne.

>71 MickyFine: I... haven't watched any of that lol. But one of my friends just got me hooked on Dr. Who sooooo I don't think I'll be catching up on many other TV shows just yet (though I am following Downton Abbey and ohhh my goodness, SHERLOCK starts Sunday!).

>72 scaifea: You're welcome, Amber... and geesh, the pressure of recommending a new book - I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations now!

>73 dk_phoenix: Ah, I see. I was mostly happy with the way things were resolved, though of course there were many things not completely explained. I really enjoyed the complicatedness (I don't care if that's not a word, it should be) of it, and how much books factored into it. I read more than a few just because of the show, including The Third Policeman and even the amazingly terrible Bad Twin.

3. Everlost by Neal Shusterman

Two teens die in a car crash and are headed toward the bright light when they bump into each other and spin off course... into an afterlife that they never expected. Everlost is a place that contains all the objects that have somehow "died" in our world and no longer exist, but which have such memories or love tied to them that they can't entirely not exist. In this land, several children and teens find themselves when their souls go off course, and Allie and Nick are both determined to find their way out to whatever place they were meant to be.

After reading and loving the Unwind series and seeing the author speak at a local middle school, just about all of his books made it onto my to be read list. Everlost suffers a little for being the second series I tried: it's a little bit younger and doesn't have the thematic depth of Unwind. I could guess some twists without trying too hard. But it's a really creative concept, as you never know exactly what's going to turn up in Everlost as Allie and Nick continue to explore it. I ate up this fast-paced, creepy book in two days (in the middle of the work week, no less), and I have the sequel ready to go soon. 4 stars.

Hint hint, nudge nudge
http://www.librarything.com/topic/167560

Short story: "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
(not a proper review to follow)

From one creepy story to another...

I've seen some reviews of Shirley Jackson's work and have decided it's not for me. I can handle slightly creepy or classic horror, but let's face it, it's just not my thing most of the time. So why on earth did I read this? Um... one of my friends was in a play, and they live far enough away that while I could never see him act in it, I could at least read the story it was based on. Oh, and did I mention he pretty much told me the ending? I have to say, knowing the ending doesn't take away at all from the sense of foreboding; if anything, I could focus on the details and see how the story builds to its conclusion. It's really a perfect example of its form, and though I didn't personally love it I can certainly see why so many people do.

>76 norabelle414: Oooh, thank you! I've starred the thread and really hope I can do it again!

Well at least the Jackson one was only a short story.

Books with only one letter to their title are easy to remember aren't they? The letter after r but before tea certainly seems likely to be memorable.

Have a lovely weekend, Mary.

>79 PaulCranswick: Yeah, I probably wouldn't have if it were a full novel, Paul. But I wanted to know enough to read a short story. I could admire the craftsmanship of "The Lottery" even if I didn't quite enjoy it, and it's quite memorable. I've found myself thinking about it long after I finished reading. S. was also quite a memorable story; I didn't love it quite as much as one of my co-workers, but we were still plotting a potential joint reread of trying to go through some of the codes ourselves, especially since we noticed things never explained in the narratives.

>74 bell7: The new series of Sherlock is excellent, Mary. I'm having issues with waiting until February to get my own hard copy of it.

>77 bell7: I'm pretty sure I read The Lottery in high school English. It is absolutely memorable as I couldn't tell you many of the short stories I read during that time.

Mary, I enjoyed the anecdote about the Shaker handbook.

>74 bell7:: Ha! I know the feeling - I'm always nervous when someone decides to read a book based on my assessment of it. What if they hate it and blame me?!

>75 bell7:: I've never read any of Shusterman's stuff, but that one sounds interesting...

>77 bell7:: I'm sorry that you didn't like the Jackson story - I loved it, and The Haunting of Hill House is the best horror story ever written, for me. But I completely understand people who really don't like her stuff - you have to want to be creeped out to like her, I think, because she's really good at inducing the heebie-geebies.

74/83: I totally agree about book recommendations. The idea that the person might hate the book I recommend makes me really nervous about making the recommendation in the first place. I even get nervous when I post a review and someone says they are going to read it based on how much I liked it. So much pressure!

>81 MickyFine: Ooh, good to know, Micky! I enjoyed watching the first episode on Sunday but it makes me sad that there are only 3 episodes to a season.

>82 ronincats: Good to see you, Roni! It was a neat little book I was really happy to pass it on to somewhere it could be appreciated and used for research.

>83 scaifea: Amber, fortunately most people I interact with on LT would be too nice to "blame" me but there is that pressure of getting a recommendation "right," so to speak, isn't there? "The Lottery" was really hard to review because I knew going into it that it wasn't for me - speaking of right reader/right book, hm? - but I wanted to know what the play my friend in was about. It's perfect for the people who like to be creeped out, however.

>84 Ape: Hahaha exactly :) On the flip side, though, it's fun to be in on the beginning of a trend if everyone loves it.

>85 bell7: Believe me, the corners of the internet I frequent are forever lamenting that we only get 3 episodes at a time. You're not alone. :)

77: "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
Required reading in high school, and I’m still creeped out 40 years later.

>86 MickyFine: Indeed... it really didn't help that I'd watched the first two season on DVD so I was able to watch six episodes as fast as I wanted. I'm keeping myself from watching them on YouTube, however.

>87 qebo: I understand completely!

Sorry to be MIA for a couple of days, but as I shared earlier my grandmother has not been doing well after a long battle with lung cancer.

She went to her final home on Tuesday, January 21 late at night with her family around her. She was the loving mother of six, grandmother of 21, and great-grandmother of 19. An avid knitter, gardener, reader, and genealogist, she loved spending time with her family and passing on her loves to the next generation. We'll miss her a lot, even while we celebrate that she's no longer in pain. Her passing was peaceful and I'm so grateful for the time I had with her.

89: So sorry to hear about your loss Mary. Grandmothers are very special people and I miss mine greatly too. :(

My condolences to you, Mary, for the loss of your grandmother. She sounds like a lovely and loving woman.

Adding my condolences for your loss. I'm glad for the time you were able to spend with her during her final illness. The love and support of her family must have been a comfort to her.

I'm sorry Mary.

Oh, Mary, I'm so sorry. I'll be keeping you and your family in my thoughts.

Praying for you and your family...

Oh, Mary, I'm so sorry for your loss.

I'm sorry for your loss, Mary.

Mary, will be keeping you and your family close to my heart and in my thoughts and prayers today. Your Grandmother sounds like a wonderful lady!

I'm sorry to hear of your loss, Mary. I will also be praying for you and your family.

>88 bell7: I discovered Sherlock during a rebroadcast of the first series on BBC Canada. So I've always gotten them spaced out a week at a time, in 3 week chunks. This time around I used an extension in Chrome to watch the episodes from the BBC website (I don't have real TV so I watch all my shows on the internet). Still spread out, of course, but I'm a bit ahead of the curve for everyone watching it on PBS now. :)

Getting caught up here and sorry to learn about your loss, Mary.

Sorry to be so tardy Mary.

Your eulogy to your Grandmother was both eloquent and moving. My own Gran passed away just before I made the move to Malaysia in 1994 and I still think of the old girl constantly with fondness and gratitude in my heart for all that she imparted.

Big hugs to you and yours at this difficult time. xx

Thanks Marie, Julia, Carrie, Stephanie, Andrea, Jim, Anne, Diana, Laura, Mickey, Lori and Paul (I think I got everyone and have the right names, my apologies if I missed anyone!). Your thoughts and prayers mean much to me. While her death wasn't unexpected after a long illness, it still manages to take us by surprise and this past week has felt rather long.

I'm working today and getting back into the regular routine. I should have some reviews on a couple of recently finished titles soon.

4. Breathe by Sarah Crossan

In the future, three teens living in a pod with controlled oxygen find their lives changed forever after a chance meeting. Alina is a revolutionary who may get in trouble for taking cuttings of plants. Bea, like Alina, is an "auxiliary," one of the poorer people in this society whose smarts may just get her higher status. Her best friend, Quinn, is a "premium" who has never lacked for anything because his father is a higher up in Breathe, the company that provides the pod's energy - but is that all they do?

This first book in a series will appeal to voracious readers of the teen dystopias that have been popular lately. The chapters switch among the three main characters' perspectives, and the fast pace keeps you turning pages. The idea that the very air you breathe could be controlled in a world without trees and plants - or those in very limited supply - could be rather a frightening prospect but I thought it was rather simplistically explored here. There's also the requisite love triangle which, honestly, is getting annoying in regular as well as dystopian fiction. 4 stars because I liked it enough to read it fast and to get the next book in the series. But if you're sick of the genre (and I'm getting there), it doesn't really stand out above the pack.

5. Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton

Photographer Brandon Stanton got his start a few years back when he lost his job and decided to pursue his hobby of photography full time. I won't steal his thunder in the introduction if you're not familiar with his story. Though there's a wildly successful Tumblr and Facebook page, and you can visit the website/blog (http://www.humansofnewyork.com/), I'd never heard of it until we got some copies in the library because the book was on the bestseller lists. The time I spent perusing and poring over pictures, and reading the captions was well worth it.

If you enjoy people watching, you will love this book. Here you will see the wild, the wacky, and just everyday folk of every size and color. Many of the photos have a short story along with them that will make you laugh, cry, or be inspired. I can see this appealing to a wide readership, and I highly recommend it. 5 stars.

Well, I think I'm all caught up on what I've read now. I've got a handful of books going, including Everwild which is the sequel to Everlost. Unfortunately, they're all kind of slow going and I'm not sure I'll manage to finish them this week.

Though come to think of it, the fact that one of my friends got me hooked on Doctor Who might have something to do with it. Yes, I finally caved and started watching with the new series... I'm about halfway through Series 3 with David Tennant and have the next one requested from the library to watch soon.

>104 bell7: Hmm, the concept reminds me a teensy bit of the Underground New York Public Library project.

>105 bell7: Welcome to the club, Mary. I became a new Who addict two years ago. :)

YAY DOCTOR WHO!

>106 MickyFine: Ooh thanks for the link, Micky, that looks interesting too. And thanks for the welcome to the Doctor Who club lol.

>107 norabelle414: hehehe :)

6. Everwild by Neal Shusterman

At the end of Everlost, Nick learned that the coins every soul - or Afterlight - has when they arrive into the in-between place of Everlost will take them on to their final resting place. He's made it his mission to give the children back their coins, even while Mary Hightower has made it hers to rescue the children from Nick, whom she calls the Chocolate Ogre for the stain on his face that spreads the more he forgets who he really is. Meanwhile, Allie the Outcast is traveling Everlost learning more about her talent for skinjacking while she and Mikey, the former monster and Mary's brother, head towards her home.

The whole concept of Everlost is really unique as places that have strong memories in our world that are destroyed - such as the Twin Towers - still exist in this sort of holding place. Children who get bumped out of the pathway to the light also find themselves here, at least until they take their coin and move on. I found this story not quite as compelling as the first book, dragging in the middle and finally picking up again near the end. Those cliffhanger-averse readers should beware - this one has a doozy. 3.5 stars.

I will most likely read the third book to be completist, but not as quickly as I read this one after Everlost. I'm not sure whether to blame the slowness of the middle on the book or my own dragged out reading of it; I think both fed on each other.

Mary - Just a fly-by wish for a wonderful weekend.

Wow, 46 descendants in her lifetime--quite a legacy for your grandmother! She sounds like she was quite a kindred spirit. Happy as you all are that she is at peace, that doesn't fill the hole left in your lives at her passing. My thoughts and condolences are with you and yours, Mary.

>110 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul! I had a busy but good weekend and got to visit with family a bit.

>111 ronincats: Thank you, Roni. The last few weeks have been quite a mix of emotions. We've known the lung cancer couldn't be cured for some time, but even having years to say goodbye doesn't really make it easier when she's always been there.

I saved the book lists she had in her pocketbook to maybe read some books in her memory. As much as we had in common, we didn't talk about books as much. She tended to read mysteries and I tend towards fantasy, and I guess I never realized how much common ground we had 'til I looked over the lists of books/authors she had planned to read or look into - mysteries, historical fiction, award winners, of all sorts.

My cousin and I were given the genealogy books and notes that she had gathered over the decades. She'd done extensive research on both her family and my grandfather's - back in the '70s, she typed up hundreds of pages of lineage charts going back in some cases to the 17 and 1600s. She was still interested years later when I started poking around in the family tree and would reel off story after story if I asked her questions. It's both daunting and amazing to go through some of this material, which as I type is partially still in my car and on the floor in my apartment. One of my planned tasks for today - in addition to finally taking down my Christmas tree - is going through the books, cataloging them into LT, and fitting them onto my bookshelves.

January in review -

1. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe - mine and a reread
2. S. by Doug Dorst
3. Everlost by Neal Shusterman
4. Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton
5. Breathe by Sarah Crossan
6. Everwild by Neal Shusterman

Books read: 6
Audiobooks listened to: 0
Graphic novels/Manga: 0
Picture books: 2 - Iggy Peck, Architect and What Does the Fox Say? - comments by request :)
Adult/Teen/Children's: 3/3/0
Fiction/Nonfiction/Poetry/Plays: 4/2/0/0
Library/Mine/Borrowed: 5/1/0

Standouts: S. and Humans of New York, both unique reads in their own ways.

Thoughts: Maybe because of the end of the month, it felt like I was reading only teen dystopias all month, which isn't strictly true as I read as many adult titles as teen (as long as you count Humans of New York, which I will). I have found myself drawn to more teen titles lately, in part because a friend of mine has been recommending a bunch that look good and further because I've needed the escapism. But the great adventure of reading: who knows when my mood will change? On to February!

Book publication dates read year-to-date:

2014 - 1
2013 - 1
2012 - 2
2009 - 1
2006 - 1

First book of February!

7. Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Nick lives with his single mom, a dancer in New Orleans. He's smart and smart-mouthed, but he's always been the odd kid out, a scholarship student at a prep school. Nick's friends turn on him when he refuses to mug some tourists, and a mysterious man named Kyrian rescues him and offers to give Nick a job; meanwhile, at the school, something seriously messed up is going on when the kids start attacking each other.

The story is a bit more complicated than that, but it unfolds carefully enough that I don't want to spoil the fun. This is basically the teen introduction to Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, and I probably wouldn't have bothered to try it if a friend hadn't recommended it as good escapist fun when I was feeling particularly stressed out. Nick and some of the other characters are quick with quips and banter and made me laugh. Sometimes I found the writing awkward and a bit grating on the ear when something was particularly ungrammatical, but the truth is its main purpose is to move the story along and the more conversational sound of it keeps you reading fast. Indeed, once it got going it was hard to put the book down. 4 stars.

Yeah so it won't win any awards, but it was entertaining fluff. I'll continue reading the teen series; not sure I'll read the adult books, as even this one had moments I couldn't read while I ate.

8. Resist by Sarah Crossan

Sequel to Breathe and ****spoilers**** for that title.

Imagine a world in which the very air you breathe is regulated. This is the society in which Alina, Quinn, and Bea survive, where a corporation called Breathe regulates the oxygen levels inside the pod, and the haves and have nots are divided into zones, taxed for extra air. A major pocket of resistance had been growing trees Outside, but has been destroyed by the military; the three teens are on the run again, trying to make their way to another group, Sequoia, where they hope to find sanctuary. Meanwhile, a young recruit, Ronan, is sent by the military general Jude Caffrey to find his son, Quinn.

Like Breathe, Resist switches narrators: in addition to Alina, Quinn, and Bea, we now have a fourth perspective in Ronan, the son of the former pod minister and sister of Naimh, the girl Quinn's parents wanted him with instead of Bea. The short chapters and multiple perspectives add to the quick pace of the story, as all four teens struggle to determine what is right and how to survive in a society full of corruption and greed. 4 stars.

This one had no love triangle, which gives it extra points in my book. It's an interesting premise, and I love the fact that it's set in England (I'd either missed it or it wasn't as clear in the first book), though I wish the spellings had been retained in the U.S. edition.

9. How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

I read How to Read Literature Like a Professor early last year, and was pleasantly entertained and informed by his conversational introduction to symbols and motifs common in literature. In this book, he specifically looks at the novel including how the beginning teaches you to read the novel (and grabs or fails to grab the reader), chapter breaks, ambiguity, and how the history of the novel informs its form - and how authors have been playing with this ever since.

I found this book every bit as entertaining as the first, if more loosely structured. I really like Foster's approach in encouraging a variety of readers and interpretations. I greatly appreciate that he doesn't expect everyone to read like him or enjoy the same things that he does; in fact, I'm almost positive that he and I are very different readers, as I still like my novels to have less ambiguity and more finality in their endings than he clearly does. When I was an English major as an undergraduate, my experience was much less an "Aha!" and much more a "Where do professors come up with this stuff?" If, like me, you tend to take literature at its more literal level and don't get the postmodern or even just the symbolism that your English teacher said was there, you may get a lot of out these titles too. 4.5 stars.

Delurking to mention how wonderful I think it is that you got the genealogy materials!

How to Read Novels Like a Professor has hit the wishlist. Darn you anyway.

>117 richardderus: Thanks, Richard (on both counts, even if I did add to your wishlist, ha!). I'd be willing to lend you How to Read Novels Like a Professor if you PM me your address. :)

So sweet! I've already, and how impulsive am I, ordered it. *smooch*

116: I think I'd find these useful. I'm kind of at sea in novels.

You got me, too, with the Foster books, Mary.

>119 richardderus: Well, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it, then! *smooch* back

>120 qebo: Katherine, I enjoy reading novels but I'd be the first to admit that I'm far to literal to pick up on the more literary things that authors are doing, so I found the books really useful. Foster's explanations made sense to me, and I really liked that he was perfectly fine with readers taking a book at its most literal level - after all, it has to work that way too, it can't just be fancy symbolism.

>121 rosalita: I hope you enjoy them, Julia!

10. The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

In the early 1900s, many Japanese women traveled from their villages to California as "picture brides," the intended of men already in America who sent them letters and pictures and the money to come to the U.S. to marry them and work with them. Told in a collective "we," this is the story of many of those women from their time on the boat to the internment during World War 2.

This slight book is at once a potentially quick read and one that you want to take your time reading. The unique narrative structure seldom focuses on one individual - though there are moments when an individual speaks or otherwise stands out from the crowd - but gives a panorama of a collective experience. A fascinating, challenging read that would be perfect for a book club willing to read more experimental, literary fiction. 4.5 stars.

My co-worker recommended the book to me, and I am indeed reading it for book club (Wednesday). This was a really interesting book to read alongside How to Read Novels Like a Professor. In one of those chapters, Foster talked about how novels take the story of one individual to make some points about the universal. I kept wondering what he'd make of The Buddha in the Attic, which took the story of many and made me wonder about the individual. It's a little outside my reading comfort zone, but I really enjoyed it and felt like I could reread it a few times and still get something new from it, it's so layered.

It felt gimmicky to me, the nature of the novel was interesting but I was distracted by the "hive mind" feeling it gave me. But a really interesting subject, and perfect for a book club. Have a great discussion!

11. Inhuman by Kat Falls

After a devastating virus known as Ferae infects much of humanity and the animal world in the United States, a wall has been put up dividing West from East, healthy from infected. Delaney Park McEvoy, known as Lane, lives in the West with her art-dealer father on the healthy side of the wall. When biohazard agents suddenly take her from a party with her friends to Director Spurling, she suddenly finds her whole conception of the world shifting when she learns that her father is a "fetch" - a person who goes on the other side of the wall to get things, like paintings, for people in the West - and in danger of facing a firing squad of Lane doesn't give him a message from the Director herself.

Of all the teen dystopias out there, this one rises above the pack for its unique premise. The idea of the Ferae virus and its genetic affects, the separation of East and West, the way information is disseminated and controlled, and the way Lane slowly sees the darker side of her society make for a compelling story. My one complaint is that she's annoying blind to seeing the love triangle that everyone and their brother could've spotted as soon as the boys are introduced. Still, I'll look for sequels and would read it again in a heartbeat. 4.5 stars.

>124 richardderus: Richard, yeah, I can see how that would be distracting. It may have been gimmicky, though I thought it was an interesting way of exploring the subject since the whites (in the novel and in real life) clearly lumped together "the Japanese" and didn't see them as individual - by doing that in the novel from the outset and suddenly using names much more frequently when everyone was leaving, sort of regaining her own individuality, I thought it was a really unique approach to examining how we treat the "other." It will definitely make an interesting book discussion, and it made me want to read some of the books that she lists in the acknowledgements as well.

12. A Boy's Will by Robert Frost

I'm reading The Poetry of Robert Frost edited by Edward Connery Lathem, and I know I won't be able to finish it so I'm counting each of the collections separately as I finish them. I can't properly review poetry or rate a book in the same way I can novels or nonfiction or even plays, so what follows are a few random thoughts:

This is the first of Frost's published poetry collections, and had a lot of poems that I had not read before. Most of my poetry reading has been for school and, well, a bit frustrating as I always felt like my textbook and teachers could see soooo much more than I could.

Frost's poetry is often about nature, but it's also about life and how bittersweet or fleeting it can be. I find I enjoy reading it now that I don't have to worry about picking it apart, but I do often still feel like I'm missing the "deeper meaning." Oh well... on to North of Boston, which I've peeked to see that it has "Mending Wall," a poem I'm sure I've read before.

I like Frost, and North of Boston has "After Apple Picking" and "The Death of the Hired Man" too. I like them.

I see what you mean re: Otsuka, but for me the intent outmeasured the technique. All a matter of taste, and the effort was very laudable.

#128 Richard,
Wait. Did you just say you like "poultry?"

>129 AuntieClio: SSSSSSHHHHHHHHH I have a rep to maintain....

>128 richardderus:-130 Interestingly, we seem to overlap so far on the poultry we both like ;)

I'm so sorry for the loss of your Grandmother. And I agree with Richard, very glad you got some great genealogical info too! I'm envious, I have to say.

>132 LauraBrook: Thanks, Laura. Genealogy was one of her passions, and it's literally going to take me a lifetime to amass the knowledge she had about her (and my grandfather's) family tree. The majority of the research she did was before any of this stuff was digitized, and she had tons of distant cousins she corresponded with, so her papers are quite something.

I can't seem to concentrate on a book today after finishing Inhuman, but I've now watched through the 5th series of Doctor Who and I've been dipping in and out of Robert Frost's poetry all day between checking on Facebook and the Olympics. I did start Longbourn and I'm looking forward to getting into that.

Tomorrow I don't work in the morning, and will probably be driving in through the snow (3-6 inches due tomorrow, ugh). Hopefully I can get some quality reading done in the a.m.

Inhuman sounds really good - adding it to the wishlist and thanks for the review!

>128 richardderus: Richard, before getting distracted by the "poultry" discussion, I also meant to say that I think that's what makes The Buddha in the Attic a good book discussion read, because it is going to provoke a variety of responses like that.

>135 scaifea: You're welcome, and I hope you enjoy it, Amber!

I really have been reading, but it's been a hectic week and I find it easier to give an update than a book report at the moment!

I've been dog sitting this week, had a couple of short days early in the week for comp time, culminating with book discussion on Wednesday. We had a good discussion, some of which centered on our reactions to the writing style on The Buddha in the Attic, though it was a bit of a downer in the end as we talked about the Japanese internment, times in history that humans have been cruel or leery of others different from themselves, and wondering if anything's changed.

Well, then I went home - er, back to dog sitting. Except on the way to the house, I realized I didn't have my pocketbook, which also meant I didn't have the house keys (which were on another key chain I keep separate from my car keys) or my cell phone, and the keys to the library were - you guessed it - also in my pocketbook. Oh well, I thought, I'll look for a spare when I get there. I did, hunting around in the snow all outside and completely striking out finding either an open door or a spare key hidden around (meanwhile, this is in a decent neighborhood in a super-nice town and I really did not want to look like I was breaking in). So I went down the street to the neighbors' that I've met before to see if perhaps they had a spare key. They did not. However, the husband offered to help me shovel off the hatchway to see if I could get in through the cellar. Fortunately, that worked, but it was now nearly 9 o'clock and I was exhausted.

On Thursday, I was the only one on the reference desk for the day, which is doable but tiring, and a couple of co-workers' vacations meant I was the only one on Friday as well. I was also scheduled to work Saturday.

On Friday night, I got myself stuck in the slushy slick driveway that I hadn't shoveled in a 1-2 inch squall because i figured it would all melt in the rain. Oops. I managed to get the car past the sidewalk and figured I'd deal with it Saturday morning. So on Saturday, I got myself ready early and went outside to shovel some more. I couldn't find salt, but I thought "How hard can it be to get my car out of the driveway?" Very, apparently, especially when I'm working on it by myself and don't have someone to push the car while I put it in neutral. I called AAA to basically yank my car out of the ice far enough that I could drive to work, and showed up an hour late.

I had to laugh, really, though it was stressful at the time. Yesterday and today have been busy, but after tonight I'm done my dog sitting gig and will be basically back to a normal schedule (though I'm going to work an hour later than usual tomorrow to make up my time from Saturday). I am planning on taking a nap on Monday afternoon.

13. Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon

The second book in Kenyon's young adult series "The Chronicles of Nick" starts exactly where the first left off, with Nick suddenly noticing that his new boss, Kyrian, has elongated teeth. Is he a vampire? Something worse? If that wasn't enough to worry about, Nick finds out that there's a new principal, a new coach, his new powers unleashed but unschooled, and a rash of thefts at school for which he is the prime suspect as the poor scholarship student.

These books are the sort of fluffy fun I enjoy when life is hectic. Nick is fourteen and a smart-talking, sarcastic New Orleans native. The story is fantasy - involving demons, zombies, and the world of the Dark Hunters - but set in our world rather than a magical one. This is a quick read and funny and not too complicated, and essentially fit the bill for what I was in the mood for in the moment. 4 stars.

14. North of Boston by Robert Frost

The second book in the collection The Poetry of Robert Frost is North of Boston, which opens with a familiar poems "Mending Wall" and "Death of a Hired Man." I was really surprised to discover that most of these poems were narratives, almost stories, many involving two characters having a conversation. If I read them aloud, I could follow along without a problem (verse can daunt me just because of the form). Besides the poems I knew, I was especially struck by "The Black Cottage," where two walkers stop by an abandoned house, and "The Fear" which turned out to be very atmospheric and captures that common fear of the dark/unknown telling the story of a woman and her husband who come home in the dark and see a face in the bushes.

I'm really enjoying the poems, and am thinking I'll return and re-check out the book when it comes due because I won't have had time to finish them all.

>137 bell7: Sounds like it was bit too much of an exciting week. Glad you had two enjoyable reads to balance it out.

What a week! I'm plumb wore out just a-readin' it. *smooch* for being such a good-humored maharincess of mucking through.

Micky and Richard, well, it was lively to say the least! Guess that's why the only novel I finished was another YA fantasy instead of Longbourn. Ah well, I'm hoping to make progress in that this week. :)

Wow, that was quite a week! I'm hoping this one has been a lot less stressful.

Catching up: Both of Foster's books are already on my list. I think one is already in my possession.

>143 ronincats: Thanks, Roni, it was busy but much less stressful!

>144 thornton37814: Oh good, Lori, I hope you enjoy them when you get to them.

Now I'm off to the library - not to work, but to do research for my chapter in the new history book for the town in which I'm working and grew up and participated in the 250th anniversary celebration last year. I get to dig in the archives and put together information on the library in the last fifty years. I've been concentrating on the building of the current building, which hasn't been addressed in previous histories of the town because it hadn't existed when they were written. Fun, but soooo much work! After that, going to a friend's house and getting my Doctor Who fix - I'm up to series six and I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm all caught up...

Oh, and happy March, everyone!

The book research sounds like fun! My grandmother was the president of her county's library board when they built their current building. I was in middle school at the time and I was most impressed by my grandmother's attention to the project details. That was when I first started thinking about becoming a librarian.

>145 bell7: Nice. Series six has my favourite of Matt Smith's episodes. Written by Neil Gaiman too. :D

>139 bell7: I will read something by Robert Frost this year I think Mary but probably the collection recently kindly sent to me by Stephanie.

>130 richardderus: By the way I did hear that!

>146 cbl_tn: Thanks, it is! I "studied" for a pretty solid 2 hours yesterday and made some photocopies of things to read more thoroughly and incorporate in my writing later. Though 1968 wasn't all that long ago, it's still before my time and I'm one of the few people writing part of the book that hasn't lived through most of what I'll be writing about. It makes for a different perspective when I think of it that way...

>147 MickyFine: OH MY GOODNESS yes, Micky, was that "The Doctor's Wife"? I saw it twice because it was the last one I watched on Friday, and my friend's DVD player didn't want us to select an episode... she hadn't seen it, so we watched it before moving on to the episodes I hadn't seen yet.

>148 PaulCranswick: Paul, I'm trying to make my way through the Collected Works that my library owns, but I'm moving so slowly I'll never have it back on time. I'm kind of counting on the fact that I'm staff and can renew the book an extra time or two as long as no one's waiting for it :). I hope you enjoy the collection you have! I really have been enjoying Frost's poetry, even if I can be so dense about verse that I had to read aloud even the most conversational poems to follow what was happening because it "sounded" like prose then.

Yup, "The Doctor's Wife" is definitely my favourite of all of Eleven's episodes. Glad you enjoyed it too, Mary. :)

>150 MickyFine: It was an excellent one! Though I'm not entirely sure I can confidently pick absolute favorites unless I have a complete re-watch ;). So far, I'll say that one and the two about the Library stand out quite a lot for me.

February in review -

7. Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon
8. Resist by Sarah Crossan
9. How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster - mine
10. The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
11. Inhuman by Kat Falls
12. A Boy's Will by Robert Frost - mine
13. Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon - mine
14. North of Boston by Robert Frost - mine

Books read: 8
Audiobooks listened to: 0
Graphic novels/Manga: 0
Picture books: 1 or 2 and sadly I've forgotten the titles... I really should be more deliberate about this one or stop counting it altogether
Adult/Teen/Children's: 4/4/0
Fiction/Nonfiction/Poetry/Plays: 5/1/2/0
Library/Mine/Borrowed: 4/4/0

Standouts: All of these were solid reads, but nothing really stands head and shoulders about the rest in my memory or in the "I must recommend this to everyone, right away" sense either.

Thoughts: My escapist reads are pretty clear in the teen title selections, and I've also read a surprising amount of poetry. The Robert Frost titles didn't start out being mine, but with the due date approaching I bought myself a copy of the Complete Poems of Robert Frost, so I own the titles now and anyway Robert Frost is a good addition to any library, no? So I'm counting them.

Original book publication dates read year-to-date:

2014 - 1
2013 - 3
2012 - 2
2011 - 2
2010 - 1
2009 - 1
2008 - 1
2006 - 1

1914 - 1
1913 - 1

>151 bell7: I'm a Doctor and Rose shipper so there are several Tennant episodes I adore for that reason. Actually, I love all of the Tennant episodes, even the ones with squidgy plots. He's a fantastic actor, that man.

>153 MickyFine: Yeah, I really liked the David Tennant series too. I'm afraid my brain is so focused on what I'm watching presently that I can't really go back and remember best moments of the earlier ones (watching six series in two months isn't helping any). But watching them again is definitely in order!

15. Longbourn by Jo Baker

Remember the servants in Pride and Prejudice? You'd be forgiven if you didn't, because they're barely mentioned. Longbourn takes the story and re-imagines what the servants' lives were like, giving us the tale of the housemaid, Sarah, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Hill; the footman James; and another housemaid, Polly.

Author Jo Baker clearly loves Pride and Prejudice, and her story both made me want to revisit the original and marvel at how she was able to say something new about it. This book is so well done as to seem almost effortless; everything from mapping elements of the original story to what the servants are doing to the ways in which the Bennets, Wickham, and other characters interact with the new ones. Shifting the perspective to Sarah gives a true homage and new spin on the tale without trying and failing to mimic Austen's narrative style. I loved the way in which this story could mention things that weren't or couldn't be in Pride and Prejudice - like the grossness of emptying the chamber pots and the Napoleonic Wars. Each of the servants are wonderfully fleshed out, realistic and memorable characters. Though there were a few plot points I thought rather too neat, I truly enjoyed and highly recommend this story. 4.5 stars.

Wonderful review of Longbourn, Mary! I have that one waiting for me to get around to it.

>155 bell7: I've just reread Pride and Prejudice (last read 30+ years ago) so I could read Longbourn and recognize the references. Glad you've added to the positive reviews.

>156 lkernagh: and >157 qebo: Thanks, and I hope you both enjoy it when you read it! I was a little nervous reading through the reviews afterward and seeing the mixed responses, but I really thought it was excellent.

>154 bell7: I'm nearing the end of my most recent rewatch so depending on the series, I've seen them all 2-4 times. :)

>155 bell7: I'm very hesitant to pick up Austen continuations, spin-offs, etc., but that one seems sufficiently different I might be willing to try it. It's on the mental TBR for now.

>159 MickyFine: Ha, yeah, when I've reached that many viewings of the series, I'll be able to more coherently talk of favorites ;). Glad to see I could crack your mental TBR with a potential then - I haven't read many spin-offs or continuations myself, though I did enjoy the Pamela Aidan series that begins with An Assembly Such as This telling it all from Darcy's perspective. In comparison, since we're presented with a whole new set of characters, I found Longbourn quite different.

My semi-regular post on what I'm reading now (ie., I'm not finishing a book any time soon, and here's why). Actually, this isn't so much a report on what I'm reading as what I'm bringing with me for a long weekend.

The Odyssey - yes I am reading this even though I managed not to in high school and it scares me senseless to read poetry let alone classic, epic poetry. A friend in high school is reading it and talked me into a joint read. Go figure. I have the edition translated by Robert Fagles and it's quite accessible so far.

The Poetry of Robert Frost - I was taking so long with the library copy I went ahead and bought my own, but it's a nice addition to my personal library so I'm not sorry. Also a friend's recommendation, and nice to dip into and out of as a bit of a palate cleanser between books or when I don't have time for getting into, well, The Odyssey.

Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon - would you believe these three books were all recommended by the same friend? Just saying. Anyway, I haven't started it yet, but I needed to bring a fun book along to balance out the classics.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - this month's book discussion selection which I may or may not start over the weekend, but the library e-book is on my Kindle, so it's coming.

Hounded by Kevin Hearne - after multiple recommendations from LT folks, I went to put a hold on and thought, "Well, it'll be good reading after I get back." Lo and behold, the library e-book was available... so I downloaded it, and it's coming too. Also, since I've only read Sherrilyn Kenyon's young adult books, I have something fun to fall back on if I don't like the other one.

Can't tell you how many of these will actually be finished (possibly one). But I'm fairly sure I have a good selection.

Great reading as always here Mary. Frost as a palate cleanser is a good idea. Have a lovely weekend.

>161 bell7: *quiet, self-satisfied squee*

I enjoyed longbourn too, and suspect you will enjoy Hounded!

>162 PaulCranswick: thanks, Paul, I've certainly been enjoying my reading so far this year! I hope you're having a wonderful weekend. Field hockey tournaments can be a lot of hurry up and wait so I've been getting a fair amount of reading done.

>163 richardderus: you'll be glad to know, Richard, I'll most likely be dipping into it today, having finished Born of night yesterday.

>164 ronincats: glad to see another fan of Longbourn, Roni. I suspect I will enjoy Hounded as well. I'm looking forward to it :)

Edited to add... I think I may have forgot to mention that the long weekend involved a trip to my sister's national field hockey tournament. We took a bus down to Virginia beach, they play three days and we go back on Sunday. I can't sleep well in the car and there's often time to kill between games so it means a decent amount of reading time.

Good luck to your sister's team!

>166 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! They went 1-4-1, and a couple of games could've gone differently with a little luck so it wasn't bad. The team didn't make it to nationals at all last year, so this was a pretty cool experience for them.

I did manage to finish a couple of books and got more than halfway through my book discussion book, so I'll be reporting on those probably sometime later today after work.

Now, to catch up on what I read over the weekend:

16. Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Nykyrian has quit the League, a sort of justice-serving group that is above the law, and is on the run. He was the best of the best, however, and knows that he can keep his enemies at bay. His team of outlaw assassins travel the universe delivering their own sort of justice, mercenary but with their own codes of honor. When Kiara, the daughter of a political leader, has contracts taken out on her life, Nykyrian agrees to protect her. But what started out as a job soon becomes personal.

One of my friends started recommending Sherrilyn Kenyon's books when I needed to read something on the lighter side. I started with her young adult series, and this is the first of her adult books I tried. I really liked Nykyrian and his backstory, and seeing how his relationship with Kiara developed as she refused to be afraid of him and he started to trust her. I don't generally read books with as much sex as this has, but at the same time it made sense within the story and didn't feel gratuitous. I sometimes found the writing overly conversational to the point of being grammatically incorrect and grating. Overall, though, I enjoyed the story and may read others in the series in the future. 4 stars.

I was rather relieved that the cover of the book was fairly innocuous. It would've been extremely embarrassing to read on the bus with my dad and a bunch of teenage girls around otherwise.

17. Mountain Interval by Robert Frost

Continuing my read through The Poetry of Robert Frost, I've finished the next book in the collection. This one I dipped in and out of between field hockey games, and I was kind of surprised when I found myself near the end. There's a mix of the longer, narrative/conversation poems and shorter ones, familiar and new. It starts off with the familiar "The Road Not Taken," but I had two favorites that were new to me. One was "Birches," which just had a way with imagery and the feeling of being young and playing among the trees that I loved. The other was "Bond and Free" which set me to thinking quite a bit after reading it:

Bond and Free

Love has earth to which she clings
With hills and circling arms about--
Wall within wall to shut fear out.
But Thought has need of no such things,
For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings.

On snow and sand and turf, I see
Where Love has left a printed trace
With straining in the world's embrace.
And such is Love and glad to be.
But Thought has shaken his ankles free.

Thought cleaves the interstellar gloom
And sits in Sirius' disc all night,
Till day makes him retrace his flight,
With smell of burning on every plume,
Back past the sun to an earthly room.

His gains in heaven are what they are.
Yet some say Love by being thrall
And simply staying possesses all
In several beauty that Thought fares far
To find fused in another star.

And an update on the other books:

The Odyssey is picking up speed; I got to the 9th book during the trip, amazingly enough, even though I had to find odd times to read it (generally not between games) because I needed to concentrate. I'm not exactly speeding along, but I'm making my way through and finding it interesting reading.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - well, I'm going to have to slow myself down this week because I read nearly half of it on Saturday alone. Our book discussion is reading it a week from tomorrow, and I generally like to finish my book discussion books the Monday before the group meets - recent enough that the book is fresh in my mind, and enough time to look over the questions and think (yes, I'm a total introvert myself). The book fascinates me, but as an introvert myself I felt like the book - especially the beginning - was speaking to me, so it will be interesting to see the perspectives on the extroverts in our group.

Hounded by Kevin Hearne - I was soooo glad I brought this book along! I didn't read much, but I did start it on Sunday on the ride back home. This is going to be my fun book this week along with the heavier and nonfiction reading.

Just realized I haven't visited your thread yet this year, so hello! I really enjoy Robert Frost's poetry, and the poem in post #169 was new to me. "Thought has a pair of dauntless wings" -- I love that.

>170 bell7: *self-satisfied smirk*

>171 foggidawn: Hello back! I've been lurking and not posting on your thread, so don't feel bad for not visiting earlier. Your library is the one LT weights as most like mine, so I always get a kick out of seeing what you're reading. Glad you enjoyed the poem! I love that line too :)

>172 richardderus: *smooch* Thanks for the push, even if my TBR pile is being weighed down as we speak and it's partly your fault! (I told one of my friends once that the books I was reading were all her fault and another friends, and she rolled her eyes and responded, "Sorry for enriching your life...". So much for the weight behind my complaints.)

>170 bell7:
Mary, I'm so glad you're liking Quiet. It was a real eye opener for me too! Have you read Laurie Helgoe's Introvert Power?

>174 AuntieClio: Hi, Stephanie! Yeah, Quiet has been really interesting, especially in the ways it's talked about elements of my personality that I know but never connected with being an introvert. This article did much the same thing (I identified with all 23 points). I'll have to add Introvert Power to the ever-growing TBR list, though the one book I put a hold on right away was Flow, so I'll probably wait 'til I've made it through that before trying Laurie Helgoe's book.

>175 bell7: From the article you linked to: "To me, a ringing phone is like having somebody jump out of a closet and go 'BOO!,'" -- that's me, exactly.

>176 foggidawn: Yes, me too! Even though I have a cell phone, I don't particularly like being constantly available and will turn my ringer off or screen calls regularly. I used to be the one at home who would answer the phone if my mom were out (my dad hates the phone even more than I do), but now that I live on my own, I answer for the people in my contacts and will let everything else go to voicemail.

>175 bell7: That article is me all over! #9 is the one that really jumped out at me. I always pick an aisle seat if one is available at meetings, church, etc.

>175 bell7:
Mary, I hadn't seen that list but as I was reading it, I kept saying "yep ... yep ... yep ..."

Maybe I will put Flow on my wishlist.

>178 cbl_tn: Yeah, that one is situational for me, but definitely true in classrooms, meetings, etc. I always sat on the end, preferably where I could see most of the classroom and the door.

>179 AuntieClio: Flow was the book Susan Cain referred to regularly in the chapter called "Why Did Warren Buffett Prosper," and she comments on the author's point that some behavior and activities of getting into a flow involve getting into something for its own sake, rather than purely rewards-seeking or threat-avoiding behavior. It was only tangentially related to the introvert/extrovert discussion, but since Flow was already on my list and I found the point intriguing, I went ahead and put a hold on it.

I see the Satanic Long Island Warbler has racked up another victim--but you'll have a lot of fun with the Iron Druid books. I'm in the middle of the fourth one myself.

>180 bell7:
Mary,
Okay. I probably made a note of it in my reading journal and just haven't gone back to look at the list. I do that a lot, take notes while reading, including suggested books and then don't go back to look.

>181 ronincats: Indeed, though I think I first saw a review on your thread, Roni :)

>182 AuntieClio: I can understand that... part of the reason I started keeping an Excel spreadsheet was my notebook of books to read was getting long and I found myself accidentally writing in titles more than once.

>181 ronincats:, >183 bell7: HA!! Take THAT o Greater Western Satanic Book Warbler! Ha!!!

>170 bell7: Quiet has long been on my list... one day... I imagine it makes a really good book club selection.

>184 richardderus: Oh please, it was your fault too. How many people were pushing the series on Julia? I was collateral damage. ;)

>185 RosyLibrarian: I really think it will. I'm planning on finishing it over the weekend and am really looking forward to Wednesday! I almost always say this... but's it's true! We've read a couple books I hated and a couple that were really hard to find enough to talk about, though that list doesn't overlap much come to think of it. Quiet will make the longer "great reading, great discussion" list, I do believe.

Oh, right, so I finished this book last night and forgot to post...

18. Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Atticus O'Sullivan is the last living Druid, and he's been around for a few centuries because he knows how to keep out of trouble. Lately, he's been hiding out in Tempe, Arizona, but the Irish god of love is out to get him and the magical sword that Atticus took many years ago in battle and the local coven of witches are up to something. It's going to take all his ingenuity to get out of this one alive.

Alright, so the plot summary sounds over the top no matter how you slice it. However, if you enjoy fantasy, mythology, Ireland, or just really funny banter, it's absolutely worth giving this story a try. I promise it won't take long to read, and you'll figure out pretty quickly if the story works for you or not. I enjoyed Atticus's humor, and his anachronistic way of speaking - from Shakespeare quotes to the way today's college kid would speak. The Irish mythology is incorporated in such a way that more knowledge than I have would probably have added to my enjoyment, but didn't really hinder me from following or having fun reading. 4 stars.

I'll probably wait a little bit to read the next book just to give myself time to read something a little less light and wisecracking, because my reading has tended that way quite a bit lately. It reminded me a lot of the humor in the Chronicles of Nick.

>187 bell7: I'm going to have to read this, then, aren't I? I keep hearing about it everywhere lately.

>188 foggidawn: You may as well give into the peer pressure ;). It's a quick read, though.

>189 bell7: I went ahead and placed a hold on it. Light and funny is about all I have the attention span for, lately -- I'm in not exactly a reading slump, but something like one. Maybe indulging in fun, fast reads is just what I need to get through it.

19. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

The American culture lives by what Susan Cain terms the Extrovert Ideal, where we are expected to brainstorm, work in open office plans, and collaborate with peers on school projects. For the third to half of the population that are introverts, however, these scenarios can be difficult. Cain uses both personal stories and scientific studies to argue that introverts are simply wired differently and can bring a unique set of strengths if given the ability to work in their own way.

For an introvert like me, I found Quiet a really rewarding and validating experience. I fortunately have not dealt with the stigma that sometimes comes from being quiet and introspective and have learned to adapt in environments where I temporarily need to act more extroverted, as well as allowing myself downtime. I appreciated her approach in never claiming that extroverts or introverts are inherently better, just different, and we each have something to learn from the other. Some of the studies had really surprising outcomes, including aspects of my personality that I never connected to being an introvert. Highly recommended reading for introverts and extroverts alike. 4.5 stars.

This may actually turn out to be a five star read upon further review (I've grown much more stingy with them over the years, I find). I read it for my book discussion, and I believe we're about equally divided between introverts and extroverts so this should be a really fun conversation.

>190 foggidawn: Yeah, January and February I was in the same boat so I've been reading a lot on the lighter side myself. Hope this one does the trick for you!

Speaking of giving in to peer pressure, I've finally started Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers after several recommendations. It took me to about page 80, but I'm completely sucked in now in the must-stop-everything-and-read-this-book sense (which is bad, because I'm working today). Ah well, I'm looking forward to diving in tonight!

>193 bell7: I keep meaning to read Dark Triumph because I did enjoy Grave Mercy back when I read it. And your review of Quiet may have pushed it onto my TBR list, as well. So many books, so little time...

>194 foggidawn: So many books, so little time...
My library card, personal library, and ever-growing TBR list entirely agree with you. Though I do hope you enjoy Quiet if you were to add it to your list, and Dark Triumph is as good as Grave Mercy when you get to it. :) (ooh, Amazon says the third book in the trilogy is due out in November if I spread my reads out just right I won't have to wait more than a few months to read it...)

>191 bell7:
Mary, that's what I got out of Quiet as well, a lot of validation.

I had a friend tell me she wanted to help "fix" me because of my aversion to big groups of people. Her heart was in the right place, we just didn't realize at the time there was nothing to fix.

I really need to read Quiet at some point, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

You've reminded me that I began Quiet last year but didn't finish it... I think it must have been moved around when cleaning up for Christmas. Dangit! I'd really like to finish it.

So many books so little time is the ethos I live by. With 2,400+ on my physical TBR and heaven knows how many on the Kindle, I'll never complete what I have already and I am still adding to that pile like a whirling dervish.

Have a lovely Sunday. xx

>191 bell7: I tend to be on the introverted side of things too, so I'm glad to see this book got a good review from you.

>196 AuntieClio: Yeah, I have a decent number of people tell me it's nice to see me "come out of my shell," but what they don't realize is that they've seen me in a small group setting with people I trust, a scenario in which I behave totally differently. And, of course, that hanging out at the edge of a big group and talk to only one or two people makes me much happier than being in the thick of it.

>197 Ape: You should! I hope you like it, Stephen!

>198 dk_phoenix: Uhoh... hope you can find it, Faith. When I lived with my parents a book going missing was usually my mother's fault, tidying and putting it "away" under a pile of other things instead of wherever I'd left it... now a missing book is all on me. :)

>199 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul, hope you had a good Sunday too! I haven't bothered to count e-books towards my TBR pile either... since my physical TBR pile of *only* 150-160 books counts for a year and a half of reading, I do find it daunting some days.

>200 RosyLibrarian: Thanks, Marie! I bet a lot of librarians are, even though many of us have to deal with the public. As I was telling a friend the other day, it's both the best and worst part of my job. :)