Top Ten Tuesday (2015 releases)

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This week's topic: Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For the Rest of 2015

 

 

In the second half of 2015, there are only six books I plan to snap up the moment they're released. I could have added another four to this list, but those four would have just taken away from my eagerness for these six.  

 

To be released: June 23

I have a feeling the only way I'll read Gone with the Wind is via audio, but there currently isn't an audio version that I can use (being the luddite I am) on the market. So, yay!

 

To be released: July 14

I have a feeling this will be on most TTT lists this week, and mine is no exception.

Can't wait to read it.

 

To be released: September 22

Well, I'm a fan of the Killing... series, and I'm eternally devoted to President Reagan, so this one is a no brainer. (My geek-out is even bigger than when Killing Patton was announced!)

 

To be released: October 13

I loved Humans of New York, but I wished every photo included a story. Thank you, Brandon Stanton, for listening--even though I never said a word to you.

To be released: October 20

I love, love, love The Pioneer Woman. Cannot wait for this book!

To be released: October 20

I'm surprised at the quick succession this trilogy has been released. The first book in the series was released last October, the second this April, and the final installment will be released in October! I don't read a lot of series, but isn't that unusual?

 

 

What 2015 releases are you waiting for?

It's Monday! (6/8/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

 

Well, that weekend went way too fast. We spent Saturday in the Twin Cities--Guitar Center for my husband and Half Price Books for me. I took in four boxes of books and got $35. They must pay a penny a pound or something.

 

Finished The Know-It-All yesterday. I was actually reading outside, keeping hubby company while he cleaned out the gutters. The book was as good as I remembered. And I'll have to tell you about the serendipitous thing that happened while I was reading it.

 

I'm continuing with Billy Collins's Horoscope for the Dead. So far, I've found three great poems in it.

 

I'm thoroughly enjoying Anne of Green Gables. I missed out on it as a child, so I'm listening to the audio now. I actually find myself getting kind of worked up on Anne's behalf. She can't go to the Sunday School picnic? No fair!

 

 

I'd planned to begin P.D. James's Death Comes to Pemberley this week, but when I read the first page, I thought: If I want to read something in the style of Jane Austen right now, why wouldn't I just read Jane Austen? So I tried Mansfield Park again and decided I needed something lighter. Since half of my June reading list is "in the mail," my only option was Girl in the Dark, a true story about a woman who seems unable to tolerate any light on her skin.

 

What are you reading this summer?

 

Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love

 

Elizabeth Gilbert                                              

Category: Memoir

Synopsis: In an attempt to heal after a bitter divorce, Gilbert travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia, for pleasure and spiritual devotion, and ends up finding love.

Date finished: 2 May 2015

Rating: *****

Comments:

I read Eat, Pray, Love when it came out in 2006, and I loved it then. Now I can say I love it still. I know a lot of people have issues with this book, saying it’s a middle-class white woman having a self-indulgent breakdown that she heals by running away and living abroad for a year, indulging in a lot of pasta, prayer, and sex. And at face value, you can’t really argue with that. My stance is: I’d never deal with heartbreak this way, but if you can, if you feel you need to, and if you come away with a book as gorgeously written as this one, have at it, sister!

Here’s a secret. In real life, I cannot suffer Elizabeth Gilbert. I can’t get through her TED talk, and I regrettably watched a home video of her selling her house in which she almost certainly was “altered” (or else she’s a stranger form of bird than I knew). I don’t identify with her spiritual practices nor her romantic decisions, but here’s the thing: the woman can spin a yarn. She’s capable of great depth, and she doesn’t take anything (love affairs, neuroses, spirituality) at face value. She examines everything, and then she writes from the center of the experience. She’s a generous writer, a wordily precise writer.

I made myself re-read this one without taking notes or marking passages, forced myself to just be present in the prose and let the words and experiences wash over me. It was a wonderful experience.

I also listened to a bit of the audio, narrated by Elizabeth Gilbert herself, and hearing some of those passages I remembered so well, in her voice, with her inflictions, sometimes gave me goosebumps. So, I’d recommend the audiobook as well.

Also, it must be said, although I came of age with Julia Roberts movies so that she’s a part of my identity as a woman…she’s no Elizabeth Gilbert. The movie is just wrong, wrong, wrong. It left out all the wrong things [that stateside road trip in which she sends her petition out to the world and people “sign it”], altered some of the best things [did they really have to make her Brazilian lover—now husband—20 years younger and a whole lot hotter?], and just generally squeezed the passion out of the book and discarded it. If your only experience is with the movie, I beg of you, give the book a read.

 

Would you recommend this to a friend?
Yes, most every woman should read this one.

You might also enjoy:

Committed, her follow-up to this book, about marrying the man she met in Indonesia.

 

June 2015 Reading List

 

I had a devil of a time choosing books for my June reading list. I'd intended to read a Jane Austen book this month, but I started both Mansfield Park and Emma, and neither caught my attention. June isn't the right time for me to be reading a long English-y book, I think.

 

So I choose a couple re-reads (Shauna Niequist's Cold Tangerines and A.J. Jacobs's The Know-It-All) to start things off.

 

I added some poetry with Billy Collin's Horoscopes for the Dead. I don't seem to be able to go long all of a sudden without a book of poetry on my stack.

 

I added three new celebrity books, Jen Arnold and Bill Klein's (from TLC's "The Little Couple") Life is Short, Candice Bergen's A Fine Romance, and Trisha Yearwood's Trisha's Table.

 

 I decided to "read" a photography book I've been saving for awhile (Andrew Zuckerman's Flowers). Gorgeous! 

 

Then I tacked on P.D. James's Death Comes to Pemberley and Anna Lyndsey's Girl in the Dark.

 

And I chose Anne of Green Gables for my morning audiobook.

 

Looks like quite a mishmash, and most of it is light reading. Perfect for summer!

 

 

What are you planning for June?

May 2015 Recap

May was another good reading month, full of range and with a couple of real gems. It rained practically all month, and although I'm not really an outdoors person, the rain made me even more content to read, guiltlessly. As in April, I read ten books in May. Though more than half were just average, the rest were stellar.

 

Inspiring

Captivating

 

Academic

 

Gentle

Conservative

 

Well-done

Unspectacular

 

Average

Uninspiring

Eclectic

I'll post my June reading list tomorrow.

What was your favorite May read?

It's Monday! (6/1/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

Well. I've been on vacation for basically a whole week, but it wasn't restful or relaxing. I don't remember garage sales being this much work. And I've never spent one day of the sale staring at a downpour and the next freezing under a blanket. Still, the sale went well. I sold about 100 books, but I still have a lot left.

 

Since I spent all my time off getting ready, I did almost no reading, which has me feeling very off-kilter. And moody. And just the tiniest bit resentful.

 

So, I'm excited to start June off with some good reading. I'm starting off with two re-reads because nothing else sounded good to me. I'll finish Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist today, and I'll begin The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs immediately afterward. I've really been looking forward to this re-read. I've also just begun Billy Collins's Horoscopes for the Dead, a book of poems.

 

 

 

I'm still working on putting together my June reading list. I seem to be having trouble finding books that really interest me. Have any recommendations?

 

 

It's Monday-ish! (5/25/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

I had a Monday post ready to publish, but then I finished three books over the weekend and forgot to edit and post this anyway. So, it's Tuesday, but we'll pretend it's Monday.

 

 

 

Last week I finished four books, Ellen Bass's poetry collection, Like a Beggar; David McCullough's The Wright Brothers, a biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright; Deborah Garrison's poetry collection, The Second Child; and Novel Interiors, home decorating inspired by classic novels. All were good; all had strong points and weak points, none were stellar.

 

 

I would have finished the audio of Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw, a collection of his essays, this morning, but my batteries ran out. Just had a few minutes left, too.

 

 

 

Last night I began a re-read of Shauna Niequist's Cold Tangerines. I really had trouble settling on a book at all, so I decided to read one I was sure I'd like.

 

I'm off work for the rest of the week. Taking time off to have a book/garage sale this Friday and Saturday. All the books are priced. I still have to sort them. And I have to price everything else, get the tables, get money for the money box, pay for the ad, embellish the signs, etc. And rain is predicted for Friday. So, we'll see if this sale is a success or bust.

 

At any rate, I hope to get  some reading done in the next couple days, too, between tasks.  

 

 

What are you reading this week?