Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday (spring 2017 reading)



This week the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish are asking for our top ten books on my spring TBR . Well, I have a long list of books I want to read this spring, but I'll list ten that are going to be published in March and April.

Link your post up here.

Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In, and Adam Grant, author of Originals, have teamed up to write Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, inspired, I think by Sandberg's recent loss of her husband. I plan to read it for my "Read a book about personal growth" mini-challenge.

Years ago I enjoyed Amy Dickinson's The Mighty Queens of Freeville. She's back with another book this spring called Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things. I've never read her "Ask Amy" advice column or heard her on NPR, but I plan to pick up her newest memoir when it's released.

By now you know I love the Calpurnia Tate books, set at the turn of the last century, about a girl who is interested in the natural sciences. There are two longer books (Newbery Honor winner The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate) and then there are chapter books, Skunked!, and this one, Counting Sheep, with another, Who Gives a Hoot?, due out in October. While I probably prefer the longer novels, I plan to read them all.

I'm woefully behind in reading my Fredrik Backman books. I plan to read Britt-Marie Was Here this month, and I still have his earlier My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry to read. But his newest, out in April, is one I'm especially looking forward to. Though I loathe playing or watching sports, I love movies and books about sports, and Beartown is about a small town hockey team. I'm all in. (Backman is the author of A Man Called Ove.)

I am looking forward to Eat This Poem very much. I love poetry, as you know, and I love books about food, and this one blends the two. It's a poetry anthology with recipes. I wish I'd thought of that.

Anne Lamott is about to release another book this spring. In recent years, she's released a number of slim volumes of essays that deal with life and faith: Help, Thanks, Wow; Stitches; Small Victories. Her newest, Hallelujah Anyway, looks to be another in that unofficial series. She's been a favorite of mine for decades, ever since I introduced her at a reading she gave in Eau Claire in the mid 1990s. Her humor alone is enough to make her books delightful, but I do find her unbearable to read when there's a republican in office. We'll see how this one goes.

This year I've discovered the wonderful No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. He has a stand-alone book coming out this spring that sounds wonderful called My Italian Bulldozer about a man at loose ends whose car rental reservation leaves him stranded in Italy until an alternative comes up: a bulldozer.

And because I'll read anything by Bill O'Reilly, I hope to be reading his newest, Old School, this spring. I'm not even exactly sure what it's about.

A couple years back I read Sally Bedell Smith's biography of the Queen, Elizabeth the Queen, and I ADORED it. This spring she's releasing a hefty follow-up volume, Prince Charles.

Around the time my father passed on, I happened to be listening to Tom Ryan's fabulous story of his little dog, Following Atticus. In a weird way, it helped me through the mourning process. Ryan is back with another dog memoir, Will's Red Coat, about an old dog who finds a new lease on life.


What's on your spring reading list?



6 comments:

  1. I've heard good things about Fredrik Backman writing, but I have yet to try it. Kind of hope to this year

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    1. I'm in the middle of his "Britt-Marie Was Here," and it's wonderful. And of course, I love "A Man Called Ove." I don't think you could go wrong with either. He's a wonderful writer, and I'm so glad he's prolific!

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  2. Bear Town I have been hearing a lot about, I cannot wait to read your review! Enjoy your books.

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    1. I'm SO excited for his new one. So many great books coming out this spring. It's hard to prioritize!

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  3. this is such a great list. I would love to check out that Prince Charles bio too.

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    1. I'm really looking forward to that one. I hope it's as good as her bio of the queen. I just adore that book.

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