Category: Ruminations

Year to Date…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations1 Comment

I went looking for a bookish topic for this Friday’s post, and found that Top Ten Tuesday‘s last post (before a summer break) was about the best books you’ve read so far in 2017.  And I thought…I’m reading some really cool books and I haven’t reviewed them all.  So let’s do a brief look-in on some of them.

In backwards chronological order of reading, just because…

1) How to Be a Normal Person by TJ Klune – Hysterical, brilliant writing, exceptional characters, adorable romance.  Some content advisory required though, so read the full review.

2) The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Choksi – A beautiful fantasy with Indian influences.  There’s a powerful heroine, a mysterious hero, and fascinating fantasy landscapes.  Also, gorgeous imagery!

3) Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik – A biography of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, it’s inspiring and enlightening.  Great writing that made even legal briefs interesting, and a powerful commentary on the struggle for gender equality.

4) Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance – Deeply compelling and engaging, this memoir brought me into a part of American culture I don’t know at all.  I read it to try to understand certain…recent events.  Not quite as conclusive as I hoped, but fascinating.

5) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson – Masterful, creepy, terrifying.  Wonderfully done.

6) The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig – Maps to sail through time.  Need I say more?

7) Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven – Still two of my favorite characters met this year, each with an unusual perspective to bring.

8) I’d Say Yes, God, If I Knew What You Wanted by Nancy Reeves – One of the best, most enlightening, spiritual books I’ve probably ever read.

9) The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon – If a book can be real-time, this one is.  It’s a brief, compelling romance, that also provides a lot of social commentary in a natural, non-heavy-handed way.  Made me think, while having compelling characters and plot.

10) The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt – This book really, really helped me understand some things about how we as a society view right and wrong, and why we keep stumbling into problems communicating.  So, so helpful, and I keep recommending it to friends.

So it appears that when looking for the best books of the year, I have managed to review many of them after all.  Kind of reassuring!  And intriguing, how many of the best have been nonfiction.  That is a new trend in my reading.  I don’t feel sure it will continue (fiction and I go way back, after all) but that seems to be where I am now.

How has your reading been so far this year?  Any trends or favorites emerging?

Blog Hop: Passion in a Sentence

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog HopLeave a comment

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: In one sentence, describe your passion for reading.

I read to learn–to escape–to relax–to meet people and journey to places I could never otherwise encounter–to have an adventure I know I can return home from safely.

(That was really hard and I think I cheated with the dashes. Also–your turn 🙂 )

2017 Reading Challenges: Halfway Update

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations2 Comments

With six months of the year come and gone, it’s time to see how Reading Challenges are going.  I’ve felt like I wasn’t really focusing my reading lately, and that plays out in the books I’ve read–plenty of good books, but not targeted ones, so challenges haven’t moved very much.  Here’s what we have though!

PictureNewbery Medal Winners
Goal: 20 Newbery Medal Winners, halving the number remaining
Host: Smiling Shelves

Only a few new ones here, though since I read so many in the first quarter I’m still good overall.  It’s been harder lately to find audiobooks (I’m running through the ones the library has!) so that’s slowed me down.  These are mostly shorter reads though, so I should be able to do better in the next six months with a little focus.

  1. Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
  2. The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
  3. Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena
  4. Good Masters, Sweet Ladies by Laura Amy Schlitz
  5. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by AVI
  6. King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
  7. Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman
  8. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
  9. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson
  10. The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong
  11. A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard

Continue reading “2017 Reading Challenges: Halfway Update” →

Blog Hop: Interruptions?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop3 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: If you are at a really good point in a book and the phone rings or the door bell rings, do you stop reading or let the phone or door bell go unanswered?

 

I am not positive this has ever come up.  I’m an introvert with largely introvert friends, so–no one ever rings my doorbell unexpectedly, and even phone calls are rare (texts are a different story, but they also come with a different expectation about urgency of responding).  However!  I think the real question here is how easy it is to interrupt my reading, and the answer is–extremely!

I’m used to reading in snatches.  Ten minutes here, fifteen there, two minutes in line at the grocery store.  So really, that means I’m used to putting books down.  My brain stores where I was in the story quite effectively, and I can pick books up again and resume (I even have an instinct for where to look at the page to resume–if I fight it and try to consciously look for the spot where I stopped, I end up hunting around on the page only to finally realize it was very close to where my eyes initially landed.  Truth!)

That doesn’t mean I’m always happy to set a book down, especially if things are getting intense, or something is about to be revealed.  But generally I’ll do it if something comes up that means I need to stop reading for now.

Except for the last two hundred pages of almost any Juliet Marillier book.  Those things are intense!!!

Blog Hop: Luncheon for Two

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: If you could have lunch with any living authors and/or book bloggers, who would you choose and why?

Meeting with authors is always an intriguing question, and slightly complicated when I try to be realistic about who I would really enjoy meeting over lunch, and who I would be terribly intimidated by.  I’d love to have lunch with Geraldine McCaughrean, who seems especially friendly and who I could talk with about Peter Pan and Kensington Gardens.  I’d love to meet Tamora Pierce, but I’m not sure if I wouldn’t be a bit terrified to actually have lunch–and I know I’d be terrified of Robin McKinley, who is amazing but also distinctly intimidating. Gail Carson Levine, on the other hand, seems very approachable and I’d love to chat with her–but I probably wouldn’t work up the nerve to ask what she really thought of the movie version of Ella Enchanted.

Technically Michael Crawford is an author by way of an autobiography, but I never wanted to meet him, just to hear him sing live (accomplished!)  I think I’d have a wonderful time with Gretchen Rubin, my happiness guru who I so often identify with.  I’d be pretty intimidated to meet with Brene Brown–but if ever there was an author I could just outright say, “sorry, I’m feeling really vulnerable right now” and expect her to understand–well, that’s the one.

As for book bloggers…of course I’d love to meet all you lovely people who read my blog and write your own, who welcome me into your online homes to promote my books and who leave such nice comments here.  I think we’d have a delightful lunch, and none of you seem too frightening! 😉

Who would you like to have lunch with, among favorite authors and bloggers?