September's First Read choices

 (This new Blogger layout has odd colours in the post-writing page - very hard to see the text entry area. )

Amazon's First Read options for September:

• Thriller - The Unspoken
• Book club fiction - Millicent Glenn's Last Wish
• Domestic Suspense - This Secret Thing (how is "domestic suspense" different?)
• Literary Fiction - A Single Swallow
  
• Humorous Nonfiction - Welcome to the United States of Anxiety
• Romantic Comedy - Room-maid
• Supernatural thriller - the Haunting of H. G. Wells
• Picture book - The Monster on the Block

Not interested in Thrillers or Suspense, although the H.G. Wells looks closer to SF/Fantasy, and the library has a copy of United States of Anxiety, Roommaid, and The Haunting of H.G. Wells, so those are out of contention.  Millicent Glenn's Last Wish looks kind of interesting, but I think A Single Swallow is the winner this month. 

Also - the extension for Chrome and Firefox called "Library Extension" is very handy.  If you're on an Amazon or Goodreads listing page for a book, it'll check your local library catalog to see if it's available there. 

July First Reads

July is a 2-book month again. 

1. Suspense - Trust No One by Debra Web
2. Contemporary Fiction - Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing
3. Thriller - Her Final Words
4. Historical Fiction - Across the Winding River
5. Book club fiction - Last of the Moon Girls
6. Memoir - The Son and Heir
7. Crime thriller - White Out
8. Children's picture book - Clover Kitty Goes to Kittygarten
9. Essays - Tomboyland

Okay.  Skip the suspense, thrillers, and picture book, and that cuts it down to five.  "Cleo" is about a single-mom politician, and the essays don't sound interesting to me right now.  Across the Winding River sounds interesting enough, so do Moon Girls, and Son and Heir.  The memoir might be a little too dark, so I think I'll go for the other two, even if "book club fiction" sounds like a healthy dose of romance is involved, from the reviews.

Books about Africa

A book list from a recent National Geographic post on Facebook

1. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, by Alexandra Fuller
2. Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen
3. Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
5. In Arabian Nights, by Tahir Shah
6. Down the Nile, by Rosemary Mahoney
7. West with the Night, by Beryl Markham
8. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba
9. Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
10. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

So far, I've read 10, 8, and 4.  Own 1, 2, 3, and 7.  I think this may be my reading list for after I'm finished with the No. 1 Ladies' Detective series.

The plan continues

The big cassette conversion plan is continuing.  I managed to find and borrow a working cassette player, although it doesn't have an AC power cord and I hope it doesn't eat batteries like popcorn.  The Nerilka's Story cassettes both work.  The other audiobooks on cassette are sorted - quite a few are available at the library, so I can borrow those, which cuts down on the stack that needs to be converted.  And I ordered the cable gizmo from Amazon, which surprisingly came with free next-day shipping.  Now I just need to download Audacity and figure out how to work it.

So, not tomorrow (because I have a dentist appointment, a volunteer shift at school, and three estate sales to possibly shop at) but this weekend, I can get started converting these things to a more stable format.

February Prime Reads

Prime Reads for February

1. Contemporary Fiction - In An Instant - Dead teen's ghost lingers with her family
2. Psychological suspense - The Silence
3. Memoir - A Drop of Midnight - Not interested in the hip-hop artist, so meh
4. Thriller - A Killer's Wife - meh
5. Historical Fiction - This Terrible Beauty- Post WWII
6. Mystery - Hide Away - Called a "thriller" in the subtitle
7. Fantasy - The Killing Fog
8. Picture Book - World So Wide

So.  Once again, not a big thriller/psych suspense fan, and picture books don't do well as e-books for me.   That knocks 4 off the possiblilites.  The memoir by someone I've never heard of doesn't sound interesting, neither does the fantasy or the contemporary fiction.  Hist Fict is the most interesting one, and even it isn't high on my list.  Oh well.

Amazon First Reads - September

September is another month when Prime members get two First Reads books instead of 1. This month's choices:

1. Thriller - Patricia Cornwell
2. Contemporary Fiction - Every Thing You Are
3. Historical Fiction The Dressmaker's Gift
4. Psychological Thriller
5. True Crime- The Man Who Played with Fire
6. Suspense
7. Fantasy - The Vine Witch
8. Childrens

So, I don't do thrillers/suspense/true crime, which means I'm down to 3 choices anyway. Although, that true-crime from Steig Larssen sounds interesting.  Maybe the library will get it later.  So, historical fiction looks like a yes, which leaves the second choice the contemporary fiction, or fantasy. 

I suggested a couple of these for the library to consider purchasing, and they're actually going to get the contemporary fiction and fantasy, so I guess I can get the true-crime as my e-book.  

August First Reads

Choices for August:

• Psychological Thriller - Here to Stay by Mark Edwards
• Contemporary Fiction - The Secrets of Lost Stones by Melissa Payne
• Historical Fiction - The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory
• Thriller - Black Nowhere by Reece Hirsch
• War Fiction - The First Stone by Carsten Jensen
• Non-fiction - Those Who Wander: America's Street Kids by Vivian Ho
• Literary Fiction - The Man With No Borders by Richard Morais
• Picture Book - A Tiger Like Me by Michael Engler

So, thrillers aren't my thing, and picture books are better on paper.  That takes three out of the running.  War fiction is something I'll read, but don't want to own, so two more are out (the historical fiction is also WWII related fiction).  The contemporary fiction selection doesn't sound interesting to me, either.  So now I'm down to the non-fic and lit-fic choices.  And the non-fic sounds kind of depressing, so I guess it's the lit fic this month.  

Amazon First Reads for July

We get a bonus in July, so 2 free books instead of 1.  This month's choices:

• A Fire Sparkling, Julianne Maclean (WWII fiction)
• What You Did (Psychological suspense)
• Forgotten Bones, by Vivian Barz (mystery)
• Relative Fortunes (Historical Fiction)
• The Boy Between Worlds (Biography)
• Pirates Don't Go To Kindergarten (picture book)
• They Could Have Named Her Anything (Literary fiction)
• Prognosis: A Memoir of My Brain (Memoir)

Picture books are out, they don't look well on the screen (to me).  Psychological suspense isn't my thing.  WWII fiction, Historical fiction (those overlap, IMO), mystery (especally cozies) and biography/memoir are all things I read a lot.  The mystery looks a little dark, and the memoir doesn't grab me, so that cuts it down to 4, and two of those look like ones I might read, but not want to own.  So, off to the library website to see if they have any of these pre-ordered. A Fire Sparkling is one of the iffy ones, and the library has it pre-ordered.  Relative Fortunes is a definite - I like Jazz Age, and the cover is neat.  Reviews on They Could Have Named Her Anything are all over the place, while Boy Between Worlds has consistently high reviews.  So, there it is. 

This month, I'm getting Relative Fortunes, and A Boy Between Worlds as e-books. 

Amazon First Reads for June

So, this month's choices:

1. False Step (domestic suspense)
2. Along the Broken Bay (historical fiction)
3. Trance (psych thriller)
4. Stars in his Eyes (Biog fiction)
5. the Blue Period (literary fiction)
6. The Lie (memoir)
7. Spiky (kids)
8. Still I Miss You (world lit)

So, mark off the psychological thriller, domestic suspense, and picture book.  After reading the reviews already on Amazon and Goodreads, I seem to be down to Broken Bay and The Blue Period.   Not a big Picasso fan, so Along the Broken Bay it is. 

Book jackpot

I worked on my project of putting clear Mylar covers on the more-fragile dust jackets I've got, over the weekend.  That included my set of the Wrinkle in Time trilogy, which I finally found in hardback, with matching jackets.  And as I was covering things, I noticed this:

Knock me over with a feather! That looks like a legit signature, based on the E and the g. 

That gives me, at rough count, one signed L'Engle, 1 Beverly Cleary, 2 Anne McCaffrey books (thanks to winning a trivia contest and having a friend with a sister who took her to conferences), three Marguerite Henry books, plus Tamora Pierce and multiple Doranna Durgin books.  That would be the kid-book Holy Trinity and a fantasy Trinity.

Amazon Prime First Reads - March - and Goodreads

For March, it was a toss-up between Zoo Nebraska and I'm Fine and Neither are You.  I ended up going with the second after reading reviews of Zoo Nebraska about the length.  I may save it for a print book from the library.  I did suggest Beyond the Shadow of Night to the library.

1. A Lily in the Light - kidnapping, missing kid, ballet.  Sounds depressing
2. I'm Fine and Neither are You - contemporary fiction 
3. Wholly Unraveled - memoir about child abuse and religion. Ugh
4. Beyond the Shadow of Night - WWII fiction
5. The Rescue - thriller, not my thing
6. Zoo Nebraska - could be interesting

In other news, I've discovered a bonus to Goodreads giveaways.  For some reason, the Kindle giveaways (or at least the two I've won so far) come with ebook credit at Amazon.  I don't know why, but I've got a few dollars to spend on ebooks now, so I'm okay with that.

Amazon Prime - First Reads for February

Trying to decide which book to go for this month on the First Reads list (a Prime benefit that I missed out on for years, stupidly).  The library, at the moment, doesn't have any of these on the pre-order list.  I may have to fix that.

1.  Where the Forest Meets the Stars, by Glendy Vanderah - Contemporary Fiction.
2. The Perfect Child, by Lucinda Berry - Domestic Suspense.  Looks interesting, but more along the lines of a train wreck you can't look away from.
3. The Broken Circle, by Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller - Memoir.  Probably going to go with this one.
4. The Fever King, by Victoria Lee - Young Adult.  Also looks interesting, but I'm still over the whole post-apocalyptic thing.  Too depressing, the way things are these days.
5. What the Wind Knows, by Amy Harmon - historical Fiction.  Ireland in 1916.  Might have to suggest this one to the library too.
5.  It's Not Hansel and Gretel - picture book. 

For future reference - a test of the library's book system

After sitting on the hold list for a couple of books forEVER, I'm running a little test.  The library seems to have a bog-down somewhere in the cataloging and processing part of the system, since we can sit on the hold list for weeks, for a book that's sitting on the shelves at B&N or the local indie bookstore.

1. I put a hold on the Elon Musk bio on November 19th, I think.  Book released to stores November 27th.  I was first on the hold list, and just got the pickup notice today.  That's 3 weeks, plus 3 days.

2.  Just ordered 2 more books, one released last April, one in 2015.  One is The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip (2018), the other is The Cassini-Huygens Visit to Saturn: An Historic Mission to the Ringed Planet (2015)  I would be able to order either of these online from a dozen sites and have them inside a week.  Could maybe walk into Barnes & Noble and find the Hip book in the store, depending.  (More likely in a Canadian store, for sure.) 

Assuming the library orders either of them, I'll automatically be put on the hold list for them.  Now it's just time to wait and see how long it takes. 

Reading List 2018 updated

Presenting, the reading list for 2018.  A work in progress. . .

I'm attempting the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, so it should be a fun ride.

1. A Bollywood Affair, by Sonali Dev
2. knitting book (find picture)
3. model railroad book
4. Aunty Lee's Delights
5. Maigret - Pietr the Latvian (1/10/18)
6. Street Magic - Tamora Pierce (1/21/18)
7. The Dark is Rising (1/30/18)
8. Ranma 1/2, books 1 & 2 (1/31/18)
9.  Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (2/2/18)
10.  Pegasus in Flight, by Anne McCaffrey (2/3/18)
11. The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan - Magnus Chase series #1 (2/3/18)
12. Slightly Chipped, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
13. My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell (2/5/18)
14. Firefly: Those Left Behind (graphic novel) (2/6/18)
15. Firefly: Better Days graphic novel #2
16. Tempests & Slaughter, by Tamora Pierce (2/9/18)
17. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (2/14/18)
18. Hail to the Chin, by Bruce Campbell (2/19)
19. The Revolution was Televised, by Alan Sepinwall (2/21/18)
20. Squire, by Tamora Pierce
21. Page, by Tamora Pierce
22. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith (e-book) 
23. Excuse Me, but I was Next. . . : how to handle the top 100 manners dilemmas, by Peggy Post
24. Who Knew? 10,001 Easy Solutions to Everyday Problems (lots of bogus ideas)
25. Crazy like a Fox, by Rita Mae Brown 
26. The War that Saved My Life
27. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith (3/9/18)
28. Slayers & Vampires: the Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Buffy & Angel, by Edward Gross (3/9/18)
29. Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier (3/10/18) 
30. Murder on the Orient Express (3/13/18) 
31. New Minimalism (3/15/18)
32.  The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (3/15/18)
33. The War I Finally Won
34. The Darling Dahlias and the Unlucky Clover, by Susan Wittig Albert (3/21/18) 
35. Life Below Stairs: true lives of Edwardian Servants (3/25/18)
36. Confessions of a Shopaholic
37.  
38. Queen Anne's Lace, by Susan Wittig Albert (4/5/18)
39. Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (4/9/18)
40. Warmly Inscribed: the New England forger and Other Book Tales, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (4/9/18) 
41.  
42. The Life I've Picked, by John McEuen (4/10/18)
43. Best Food Writing 2011 (4/23/18)
44. Death of a Gossip, by M. C. Beaton (4/15/18)
45. The Missing Kennedy, by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff (5/3/18)
46. Soviet Daughter, a Graphic Revolution - by Julia Alekseyeva (5/3/18)
47. Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi (5/3/18)
48. Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi (5/8/18)
49. Emperor Mage, by Tamora Pierce (5/8/18) 
50. What do You Care What Other People Think, by Richard Feynman (5/14/18)
51. I am Not a Number, by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer (5/15/18)
52. Arctic Adventure, by Dana Meachem Rau (5/15/18)
53. Great, by Glen Gretzky and Lauri HOlomis (5/15/18)
54.  Chu's Day, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
55. Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
56. The Day the Crayons Came Home (5/15/18)
57. The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (5/19/18)
58. Death Need Not Be Fatal, by Malachy McCourt (5/23/18)
59.  
60. Hannah's Mill, by Rhoda Wooldridge (5/26/18)
61. Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America (5/2x/18)
62. News of the World (5/29/18)
63. The Invitation-Only Zone (5/29/18) - about North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens.  Interesting, but I wish there were more details and follow-up.
64.  The Help (6/2/18)
65.  
66. Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese (6/4/18) Heard about on the CBC Q podcast
67. Death of a Cad, by M.C. Beaton  (6/5/18) 
68. Jason Priestly: A Memoir (6/6/18) - Interesting, fluffy, he doesn't seem to be the airhead I expected. 
69. Ready Player One (6/9/18)
70. Death of an Outsider (6/9/18)
71.  

Read Harder challenge - January update

After one month, I've completed 8 of the items for the Read Harder challenge.  So far, most of my books have fulfilled more than one item.

1. A Bollywood Affair - for #5 (a book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries).  I'm not a big romance fan, but this one was pretty good.  Fairly quick read, sort of a beach book.  Also, lots of descriptions of food.
2. RanMa 1/2 - for #4 (a comic written and illustrated by the same person), #15 (a one-sitting book), #16 (first book in a new-to-you YA or Middle grade series), and #18 (comic not published by Marvel, DC, or Image).  I actually read the first two books in the series.  My first manga, this one is about Ranma, a boy who fell into a cursed pool while training with his father.  Now, when he's splashed with cold water, he turns into a girl.  His father, who fell into a different cursed pool (it was the Area of 1,000 pools, and apparently they were all cursed), now turns into a panda when he gets splashed.  A splash of the other temperature water turns them back to their original form, so it's all good.
3. Firefly: Those Left Behind - #15 (a one-sitting book), and #18 (comic not published by Marvel, DC, or Image).  The first in the Firefly graphic novel series.  I've had it for years, but never read it yet.  And I still miss Firefly.
4. Magnus Chase: The Sword of Summer - #16 (first book in a new-to-you YA or Middle grade series).  First book in Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase series.  This time, instead of descending from Greek gods as in Percy Jackson, Magnus is the son of the Norse god Frey.  But his cousin Annabel is the daughter of a Greek god, so I guess the pantheons intermingle.
5. Pietr the Latvian  - #19 (a book of genre fiction in translation). The first of the Maigret novels, translated from French.  This was a fairly recent translation, so I wonder how an older translation done closer to the original date would be different.
6. Aunty Lee's Delights - #21 (mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author).  First in another series, this one set in Singapore, where an older-but-not-elderly widow cooks food, owns a restaurant, and solves crimes accidentally.

Estate sales 2/2/18 and other shopping this week

Only one estate sale in town this weekend.  It was in an older neighborhood, where the streets were definitely not laid out in any sort of grid.  One street name actually jumped streets here and there - three sections of street, not connected to each other directly, with one name.  Very confusing.

I bought a carroms board set for my mother.  Missing some of the game pieces, but vintage.


A neat pair of crocheted Christmas ornaments, similar to the trio of pandas I found a few months ago.  These have "Made in China" stickers.

A handful of china animal figures.  There were more the first day, but I missed seeing them and they sold before I went back on day 2.  I did buy a horse (marked Germany), a trio of bone china swans made in Japan, a Hagen-Renaker dragon with a missing tail tip, and a Hagen-Renaker Canada goose.  Wish I'd bought the frog and pair of chickens.

Earlier this week, I checked out the local Goodwill.  It was a good day - a full-size tripod for $6 (although I may return that, since we have one tripod already), a large-ish Joby Gorillapod for $3 (score!), two like-new manga books for the Burrito, and a French copy of The Little Prince.  Oh, and two sets of battery-powered "sno lites" that won't be used for snow around here. 

In illogical Goodwill fashion, the manga were $1 each because they apparently aren't "comics" or "childrens books" (I'd dispute both of those, although realizing that manga aren't always for kids), but Le Petit Prince was considered a 50-cent kiddie book. 

Estate saling

This week's haul at the thrift and estate shopping:


Goodwill:

• Wrebbit lighthouse puzzle
• Pippi Longstocking, early HB from Oxford Univ Press
• The Silver Gryphon
• neat Japanese/Chinese picture of a bird, half price

Upscale

• 3 shot glasses
• Jacqueline Cochran autobio from the 1950s
• something else
•  
•  

Estate sale #1

• 2 nail polish ($1, .50)
• 2 crochet booklets .50 each
•  

Estate Sale #2

• 2 boxes of staples $1 each
• ceramic origami crane ornament $1
• beaded bird ornament $1 
• mustard can .25
• woven basket with lid $1

The 2018 Reading List

Presenting, the reading list for 2018.  A work in progress. . .

I'm attempting the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, so it should be a fun ride.

1. A Bollywood Affair, by Sonali Dev
2. knitting book (find picture)
3. model railroad book
4. Aunty Lee's Delights
5. Maigret - Pietr the Latvian (1/10/18)
6. Street Magic - Tamora Pierce (1/21/18)
7. The Dark is Rising (1/30/18)
8. Ranma 1/2, books 1 & 2 (1/31/18)
9.  Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (2/2/18)
10.  Pegasus in Flight, by Anne McCaffrey (2/3/18)
11. The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan - Magnus Chase series #1 (2/3/18)
12. Slightly Chipped, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
13. My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell (2/5/18)
14. Firefly: Those Left Behind (graphic novel) (2/6/18)
15. Firefly graphic novel #2
16. Tempests & Slaughter, by Tamora Pierce (2/9/18)
17. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (2/14/18)
18. Hail to the Chin, by Bruce Campbell (2/19)
19. The Revolution was Televised, by Alan Sepinwall (2/21/18)
20. Squire, by Tamora Pierce
21. Page, by Tamora Pierce
22. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith (e-book) 
23. Excuse Me, but I was Next. . . : how to handle the top 100 manners dilemmas, by Peggy Post
24. Who Knew? 10,001 Easy Solutions to Everyday Problems (lots of bogus ideas)
25. Crazy like a Fox, by Rita Mae Brown 
26. The War that Saved My Life
27. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith (3/9/18)
28. Slayers & Vampires: the Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Buffy & Angel, by Edward Gross (3/9/18)
29. Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier (3/10/18) 
30. Murder on the Orient Express (3/13/18) 
31. New Minimalism (3/15/18)
32.  The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (3/15/18)
33. The War I Finally Won
34. The Darling Dahlias and the Unlucky Clover, by Susan Wittig Albert (3/21/18) 
35. Life Below Stairs: true lives of Edwardian Servants (3/25/18)
36. Confessions of a Shopaholic
37.  
38. Queen Anne's Lace, by Susan Wittig Albert (4/5/18)
39. Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (4/9/18)
40. Warmly Inscribed: the New England forger and Other Book Tales, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (4/9/18) 
41.  
42. The Life I've Picked, by John McEuen (4/10/18)
43. Best Food Writing 2011 (4/23/18)
44. Death of a Gossip, by M. C. Beaton (4/15/18)
45. The Missing Kennedy, by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff (5/3/18)
46. Soviet Daughter, a Graphic Revolution - by Julia Alekseyeva (5/3/18)
47. Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi (5/3/18)
48. Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi (5/8/18)
49. Emperor Mage, by Tamora Pierce (5/8/18) 
50. What do You Care What Other People Think, by Richard Feynman (5/14/18)
51. I am Not a Number, by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer (5/15/18)
52. Arctic Adventure, by Dana Meachem Rau (5/15/18)
53. Great, by Glen Gretzky and Lauri HOlomis (5/15/18)
54.  Chu's Day, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
55. Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
56. The Day the Crayons Came Home (5/15/18)
57. The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (5/19/18)
58. Death Need Not Be Fatal, by Malachy McCourt (5/23/18)
59. 
    

2017 Reading List

Just realized I hadn't started this yet.

1. x
2. x
3. x
4. x
5. x
6. x
7. x
8. x
9. Stargate: Atlantis - Mirror, Mirror, by Sabine C. Bauer.  (3/15/17)  Not bad, could have been a good episode.  Hippie Radek could have been fun.
10. 
    

Reading fun

Brought home a pile of books from the library today.  It should be most of the rest of the Phryne Fisher mystery series.  I just finished Death Before Wicket today (although I still know absolutely nothing about cricket, and I put the rest of the series on hold at the library a few days ago.  These books are fun, but a fairly fast read (about 2 days per book).

Next, I need to read the Tesla biography, and then re-check the Gertrude Bell book and see if I can finish it this time.