The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Title: The Reading List

Author: Sara Nisha Adams

Publisher: William Morrow 2021

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 380

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again. 

CW: Suicide

A lovely concept, poorly executed. The first few chapters were slightly confusing and not very engaging. Once we settled into the story, I expected to really connect to a few of the characters. Unfortunately things just seem to be drawn out and slow with mostly unlikeable characters. The exception was only Mukesh. He was the most fleshed out character, but even he could not redeem the rest of this story. Aleisha only become someone to root for in the last 20% of the novel. Way too late to really redeem this book. And then we get to the discussions of the books themselves. Mostly I was okay with them. The author didn’t go into enough detail about the various book and I was very disappointed by the dismissal of Pride and Prejudice. In the end, I just was very bored with the whole book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence

Title: Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life

Author: Annie Spence

Publisher: Flatiron Books 2017

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 248

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Seasonal TBR

If you love to read, and presumably you do since you’ve picked up this book (!), you know that some books affect you so profoundly they forever change the way you think about the world. Some books, on the other hand, disappoint you so much you want to throw them against the wall. Either way, it’s clear that a book can be your new soul mate or the bad relationship you need to end.

In Dear Fahrenheit 451, librarian Annie Spence has crafted love letters and breakup notes to the iconic and eclectic books she has encountered over the years. From breaking up with The Giving Tree (a dysfunctional relationship book if ever there was one), to her love letter to The Time Traveler’s Wife (a novel less about time travel and more about the life of a marriage, with all of its ups and downs), Spence will make you think of old favorites in a new way. Filled with suggested reading lists, Spence’s take on classic and contemporary books is very much like the best of literature―sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes surprisingly poignant, and filled with universal truths.

Finally! I grabbed this slim volume off the library shelves and read these delightful letters to various books. I really enjoyed Spence’s irreverent take on various books of classic literature as well as random surprise books from the stacks. Some of the letters made me laugh out loud. My least favorite section was the book recommendations at the end, but even those were interesting to see what she paired together. Overall, this is a book for book lovers. A delightful day’s reading.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Bibliophile by Jane Mount

Title: Bibliophile

Author: Jane Mount

Publisher: Chronicle Books 2018

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 224

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library

Searching for perfect book lovers gifts? Rejoice! Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany, is a love letter to all things bookish. Author Jane Mount brings literary people, places, and things to life through her signature and vibrant illustrations. It's a must have for every book collection, and makes a wonderful literary gift for book lovers, writers, and more.

Such a fun collection of lists and pretty pictures. This was a nice afternoon’s worth of diving into my love of books. A lovely pick-me-up for the week. And I added a ton of my books to my out-of-control TBR list!

Next up on the TBR pile:

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 12

Continuing the meme, here's Day 12...

Day 12: How do you fight blogger fatigue?

I tend to blog in spurts, so sometimes I get a bit of blogger fatigue.  It happens to us all.  But, I always try and make myself relax and take a bit of a break if I need to.  I would think that anyone who actually reads my blog would understand if I need to take a small break.  And sometimes I keep blogging, but scale back on memes and weekly routine posts.  I try and focus on personal posts and book reviews.  All of this helps me get my blogging energy back.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 10

Continuing the meme, here's Day 10...

Day 10: How do you choose what book to read next?

Every December I start to lay out my next year's reads.  I find reading challenges that look interesting, or just pull from previous challenges.  I make lists of potential books for those challenges out of my overflowing TBR stacks.  I might also throw in a few new releases I know I want to read.  Once I have my master list fairly complete, it goes into the new year's reading challenge page on my blog.  I also keep a paper spreadsheet in my reading folder.  This is my master list of books to read during the year.

Then, I try to break my master list down into monthly lists.  I usually try and space out my genres throughout the year.  Sometimes I have reading challenges that are month specific (like this year's Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge).  Usually I just try and divide my reads across the month.  Once I get these monthly lists set, I then grab January's stack and put it into my ottoman in the living room.  These are my go to reads.  The upcoming months are taken from the boxes and put into my short bookcase.

When I need a new read, I dig into the ottoman and find something that strikes my fancy.  On the crazy off chance that none of those books sounds good, I go to the short bookcase and grab something off there.

This sounds like a very methodical process to approach my next read.  And in most cases, I follow it.  Of course, there is always the chance that I stop by the library for some unexpected read, or grab one at a book sale, or snag one from an Amazon free deal.  But for the most part, I go into the year knowing what I want to read in the coming year.  To help keep me on track, I have also started doing a Monthly TBR post.

Looking at changes in my life this year (work and baby), I am thinking about scrapping this entire process for 2014 and just reading whatever I feel like.  No challenges, no monthly TBR pile, no big plans.  But there's a little part of me that loves the structure of my big plans.  We'll see how I feel come December.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has a huge reading choice process...

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 9

Continuing the meme, here's Day 9...

Day 9: Why do you blog about books?

I started this blog as a way to keep track of my reading.  I read a ton of books, but often can't recall the titles or if I liked some of them.  I wanted a good place to track all of that.  Once I began, I started branching out to personal posts, other media, and bookish events (readathons, challenges).  I'd still say that this blog is primarily a journal for my record, but it's always nice to have visitors.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 8

Continuing the meme, here's Day 8...

Day 8: Quick!  Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs!

1. A witty voice (or sarcastic, or just unusual)
2. Fun graphics
3. Good blog design -- not too cluttered or cutsy
4. Posts other than WOW, In My Mailbox, or Book Tours
5. Personal posts -- they don't have to be about your personal life, but I tire of reading something that sounds like a publishing house put it together
6. Interesting memes -- Top Ten Tuesday participants, for example
7. Fun challenges (personal or web wide reading challenges)
8. Good grammar
9. Fun gifs (I'm a sucker for animal ones)
10. At least some books in common with me -- they don't have to agree with my thoughts, but I like some overlap with reading interests

I can't think of any other good ones, so 10 will have to suffice.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 7

Continuing the meme, here's Day 7...

Day 7: Talk about your blogging quirks.

Blogging quirks?  I have to think about this one...  I guess I tend to blog in spurts, but my readers won't really know it.  I tend to go through cycles of blogging ahead 2-3 months for my weekly meme posts (Music Monday, Quote Wednesday, Top Ten Tuesday).  And then I let them publish when scheduled.  If let up to a weekly basis, I would probably let those memes fall behind.  This way I guarantee myself to finish them.  That's really the only quirk I can think of.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 6

Continuing the meme, here's Day 6...

Day 6: Describe how you shop for books.

Well, I'm currently on a book buying ban because of my closet of towering unread book boxes.  But usually I do have a routine.  I don't normally buy books full price.  Clearance racks are my weakness.  If I'm actually trying, I bring my list of books I'm looking for.  It's old school; a handwritten list of books to finish series I've started buying and a few stand alones.  The list is 10 pages.  I try to remember to bring my list so I can avoid rebuying books (done that a few times, oops!).  Other than the list, I sometimes grab things that look interesting.  But like I said, I'm not buying books right now.  Surprisingly it's going well.  I've stuck to my ban and read a ton of books in my owned stacks.  Feels good to weed out the stacks.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 5

Continuing the meme, here's Day 5...

Day 5: Recommend a tear jerker.

There have been many books in the last few months that left me in tears.  I can't quite tell if it's the quality of the book or just my crazy pregnancy hormones.  At any rate, I'm going to go with Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand.  It's the true story of a WWII survivor.  I knew he survived his ordeals at sea and as a Japanese POW, but at every devastating event, I broke down in tears.  It's a great inspiring true story.  Pick it up, but make sure to have some kleenex handy.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 4

Continuing the meme, here's Day 4...

Day 4: What's the last book you flung across the room?

I didn't actually fling it across the room, but I came close with our last book club book The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  It's a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson.  I can't stand Hemingway, so of course his character irked me.  But I found that Hadley's weak nature made me even angrier.  There were a few times when I felt like throwing the book across the room.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 3

Continuing the meme, here's Day 3...

Day 3: Who are your blogging BFFs?

I'll admit to being a very insular blogger.  I don't reach out to others as much as I would like. My schedule often gets in the way of reading and commenting on other blogs.  Sometimes I can't even get my blog posts written.  So, I guess I really don't have any blogging BFFs.  A little sad, but I started this blog for my personal benefit.  I didn't give any thought to reaching others in the beginning.  It's only becoming more appealing to reach out a few years into this experiment.  Possibly in the future...

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 2

Continuing the meme, here's Day 2...

Day 2: What's your bedtime reading ritual?

Back when I was younger, I would consistently read a few chapters from my books before bed.  But now, my life is not so routine.   If the boys are here, I try to read them a chapter or two of whatever book we're reading at the time (right now it's The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan).  If the boys aren't here, I'm much more sporadic about reading nightly.  I try to go to bed at a decent hour (usually 11pm) and settle in for a chapter or two.  Some nights I really get into the books I'm reading and find myself only stopping hours later, utterly exhausted.  Some nights J and I get into a tv show and end up watching until I am too exhausted to read.  I want to get more consistent about my reading, but with baby Arthur coming in October, that's not likely to happen.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 1

I am so far behind on my blogroll, but I ran across this one and wanted to join up.  Beyond my weekly meme posts, I haven't been very creative with my blog posts.  This is a great chance to change things up.  So here we go...

Day 1: Make 15 book related confessions.

1. I am a cover snob. I'll fully admit to being drawn in by pretty covers.  And if I don't like the cover, I won't read the book.  It takes a lot to get me to read books I don't like the cover.  
2. I love fluffy romances. I read just about everything, but my go to for sheer entertainment is fluffy romances.  They're predictable and unrealistic, but I love them just the same.
3. I give myself 50 pages to love a book. If I'm not immersed in 50 pages, I DNF the book.  I used to finish books no matter what, but I've realized that there are just too many books out there to waste my time reading things I don't like.
4. I often disagree with the populace about what books I like. My book ratings often don't agree with averages on Goodreads and I'm perfectly okay with that.
5. I abhor writing in books. I just can't see how people can destroy books my writing in them.  No way, not for me.
6. I have put myself on a book ban because boxes of unread books in my closet. I went on a bit of a book buying spree over the last three years and now I have at least 7 boxes of unread books taking up tons of space in the closet.  And don't even get me started on the unread ebooks cluttering my iPad.  Therefore, I have put myself on a book buying ban for the entire year.  I can only buy books for book club or if it's one to finish up a series I've been wanting.  So far, I've only bought 4 books this entire year.  I am doing very well...
7. I love and hate young adult books. Overall, I can't get into young adult books.  However I do read them occasionally.  I got back and forth.
8. I was a classics snob from late middle school to my mid-20s. I went through a phase lasting over 10 years where I thought you had to read only classics if you were to be a serious reader.  Thankfully I have grown out of that idea.  I now read almost anything and I'm much happier about it.
9. I hate all of Charles Dickens. Speaking of classics, I learned a long time ago that I cannot stand Dickens' writing.  I've tried and tried and I just can't read him.
10. I love Jane Austen, but hate the Brontes. J doesn't understand how I can like one but not the others.  To me, Austen and the Brontes are worlds apart.  Don't confuse the two.
11. I have to buy all the books in a series before I start reading said series.  This may have contributed to my boxes of unread books cluttering my closet.
12. I love browsing the stacks of the library. I could spend hours in a library just browsing.  I tend to find interesting reads picking a shelf in a random aisle and looking at all the books.  This is why I prefer to go to libraries alone.  I don't like to be rushed.
13. My Goodreads TBR shelf is absolutely out of control. At last count, it had 1884 books.  I'll never get to all those, especially when I constantly add more.  I really need to stop...
14. I'd rather read a book than go to any social gathering. I'm not anti-social, but I'd really rather curl up with a cup of tea and a good book.
15. Even though I own an iPad, I still resist ebooks. Another thing that J just doesn't understand.  I still prefer the feel of a book over the iPad.  I am slowly and reluctantly reading ebooks, but it's more because I hate lugging around pounds of books during travel.