#TBR Shelf Shaming

[roseunspindle]

Books with “F” Authors I Own and and Need to Read Part 3

#Authors #Booklr #TBR Shelf Shaming #Pat Frank #Paula J. Freedman #David Freidel #James Frey #C.S. Friedman #Monica Furlong

[joelslegalwhre]

! this isn't sorted by character, sorry I'm lazy.. :')!

istg I'm the most confused girlie out there and I forget about my #want to read tag all the time, so this tbr shelf can be not only mine but your place to find new fics if you see anything you think sounds good!👀

If you decide to read a fic (any fic) don't forget to leave the author a reblog or comment! Supporting the creators is to show them love!💜

your heart, a sonnet - Author!Joel Miller x F!Reader by @kedsandtubesocks

incomplete - Ezra x gn!reader by @alwaysmicado

butterscotch orange - frankie morales x f!reader by @undercoverpena

waiting game - dbf!Joel x Reader by @gutsby

hating game - dbf!Joel x Reader by @gutsby

chamomile - Dieter Bravo x f!reader by @tightjeansjavi

i wonder if you stopped his world like you did mine - frankie morales x f!reader by @chronically-ghosted

meet me in the back - sleazy gas station clerk!joel x fem!reader by @atticrissfinch

i didn’t know you smoked - steven grant x reader by @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction

best of both worlds - mando x f!reader by @thefrogdalorian

do the right thing - Postoutbreak! Joel Miller x Pregnant! Female Reader by @joelsgreys

the sweepstakes series - porn star!pedro boys x f!reader by @katareyoudrilling (her whole masterlist tbh)

sex on fire - ceo!joel x f!reader by @macfrog

are you ever dreaming of me - dave york x f!reader by bestie @janaispunk

From Eden - AU Pirate!Joel Miller x Mermaid f!Reader by @tightjeansjavi (her whole masterlist bc Gi's writing is amazing😭)

know better - daddy!marcus pike x fem!reader by @ezrasbirdie

Divide my legs like a mathematician - Dbf!Joel x virgin!reader by @joelmillerisapunk

You wanted this masterlist - fwb!Joel Miller x f!reader by @alwaysmicado

iron and charcoal - pero tovar x f!reader by @chronically-ghosted

The Outlaws - Outlaw!Joel Miller x f!reader by @mothandpidgeon

buckles and barley (masterlist) - Rancher! Jack Daniels x Ranchhand! Reader by @penvisions

For The Love Of Horror - Dieter Bravo x Horror Lover by @coulsons-fullmetal-cellist

Daddy Travel Diaries (masterlist) - Soft daddy!Joel Miller x f!reader by @joelmillerisapunk

Moving Day - dbf!joel x f!reader by @medellintangerine

Light The Flame - mbf! Joel Miller x F! Reader by @yeollie-plz

I'll update this list as I find new fics I want to read, and remove fics I've already read. But don't worry, I'll post a monthly fic rec list starting in february, where you can find all my "already read" fics from this list! <3

main masterlist

#em's tbr shelf #joelslegalwhre’s want to read list🫶🏼 #pedro pascal #tbr list #oscar isaac

[wri0thesley]

(hope its ok to send u asks but just ignore if u want!) but im glad u feel better and i hope you enjoy all your new books ^^ this is me gently encouraging you to post a review on them i love fantasy novels ;w;

it is more than fine always!!! <3 I realised when they arrived i already had one of them and it was languishing on my to be read pile (shame!!! shame on me!!!)! but i finished one of my tbr today! this anthology of patricia a mckillip books, so technically three books? I only wanted to buy a copy of in the forests of serre but the anthology was cheaper so who am i to deny Free Books!

actually as it turned out in the forests of serre was my least favourite of them (the bell at sealey head was my favourite) but they were all extremely good! my preferred flavour of fantasy is lyrical and fable-like, like it could be a fairytale in a different world, and mckillip is really good at that. I haven’t read anything else of hers but i also have winter rose on my tbr shelf and i am looking forward to it much more now!!!

anyway! that is my review sgddgdg i am glad at least one person does not mind my silly book posting!

#books talk #nat.txt

[firstdegreefangirl]

January 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

I'm trying something new this year, where I make little mini-reviews for the books I read and share them at the end of the month. There might be a few spoilers, but I'm not dissecting plots here, and it's all for good fun and games. Summaries will be up here, breakdowns by book will be under the drop.

Let me know if there's anything that caught your eye/that you enjoyed too/that made your TBR!

Here we go!

Total books read: 10 

Total pages read: 3,103 

Days read: 29/31 

Average star rating: 3.93 

Challenge Prompts Filled: 5 total. Popsugar: 2/40. Romanceopoly: 2/36. CRAD: 1/12. 

How to Keep House While Drowning by K.C. Davis  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  I don’t want to be the person who’s all “this self-help book changed my life,” but … this self-help book changed my life. For the first time since I moved out, I wouldn’t be mortified if someone dropped by unannounced, and it feels like keeping my house functional is actually something I can achieve. This book helped me break down tasks and changed the rhetoric I use for household upkeep to break the shame cycles that people have around disorganization. It wasn’t really the plan to make this the first book I read, but I knocked it out in like three hours on New Year’s Day, and it’s left me convinced that this is the year I might finally be able to make my space something that works for me. Biggest takeaway: My space should work for me, I should not work for my space. 

Built to Last by Erin Hahn  ⭐⭐⭐(¾)  This was cute! I picked it up from the new additions shelf at my local library because the cover was cute (sue me, I judge books by their covers, blame the Legally Blonde Musical, but I digress). It’s second-chance friends to lovers, but I loved learning how Shelby and Cameron find their ways back to each other. The only reason I didn’t rate it higher is because I don’t think I’d read it again. It was fun, I liked it a lot, but it’s not something that’s going to stick with me forever and ever, y’know? 

Challenge Prompt: Romanceopoly Amour Avenue (read a contemporary romance with an illustrated cover) 

Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick  ⭐⭐⭐(¼)  I found this at my favorite Salvation Army store while I was Christmas shopping last month (and no, the irony of finding a gay romance novel at SA is not lost on me) and left it at a Little Free Library after I finished reading. The writing was good, the story checked out, but it didn’t hook me quite as well as some of the other books I’ve read in a similar vein. Prince Edgar was delightful, the Queen was by FAR my favorite part of the book, but Carter grated on my nerves in a few places. Overall, glad to have knocked it off my TBR, and I hope that whoever picks it up next loves it more than I did.  

 The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  I’m so glad that I finally got through to reading this book! Given that I pre-ordered for release day last year, it’s been a hot minute, but here we are. I read and adored the prequel (The Worst Best Man) and was excited to hear there’d be another book in the series, but I kept putting it off because I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to the hype I’d created for myself. I was wrong; it absolutely did. This was laugh-out-loud funny in places, and sure made a few night shifts go by faster. I read close to half of it in the first sitting, right after I finished PtP, and surprised both my trainee and my GM by the fact that I can actually read overnight without falling asleep, especially for hours at a time. I dunno, it’s hard to fall asleep when the books are this riveting.  

Challenge Prompt: Chantel Reads All Day January (a book with ‘a’ or ‘the’ in the title) 

Straightforward by Martin Parnell  ⭐⭐(¾)  Honestly I’m still not sure if I liked this one or not, so I know I didn’t like it well enough to be any more than three stars. I got the eBook for free, because I was intrigued by the overarching question: Can a straight country cowboy and an effervescent gay man be friends? The first third-ish dragged on, then I read the last 2/3 in a single sitting, finishing at 5 a.m. curled up in bed because all of a sudden I was dying to know how it ended. I … didn’t love the ending, at least at first (unrequited love isn’t usually my thing, but the ending wasn’t inherently unhappy), but I keep thinking about if I liked it or not, so maybe I do? I don’t know. It wasn’t what I expected, and the writing style wasn't remarkable. It felt like the story might have been building toward a plot twist that never came, but the ending did feel tied down and well rounded. I loved that Cowboy Ty’s first sentence was “Goddammit! Shit piss motherfucker hell goddammit!” if only because that feels so relatable for many days in my own life.  

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade  ⭐⭐(½)  I didn’t enjoy this. You might, but it wasn’t for me. I wanted to like it, but I didn’t. The writing style is fine, the story was … alright, I suppose, but I didn’t like the characters. Again, to each their own, but I was irritated with both MC’s by the middle of the story, and almost DNF’d 60 pages from the end.  

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu  ⭐⭐⭐⭐(½)  I wanted a break from contemp romance after the last two books, so I turned to the nonfic section on my shelf, and I’ve been meaning to read this for literally over a year. It was one of the books I put in my “$5 for anything that fits in this bag” library sale bag in fall of 2021, and sounded like an interesting take on immigration policies. This book made me cry, openly, at work, in front of my trainee, at 5 a.m.. It’s that good, that moving. There were definitely some parts that changed my perspective on policy issues, and I’m wholeheartedly recommending it to anyone looking for firsthand accounts of the government side of border policies. Even if it’s a little outdated, it definitely gave me some things to think about. 

Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  23 ½ hour read time. I was hooked by the first page, and spent most of the first sitting trying to decide if I should keep reading to find out what happens next or slow down so I could savor it all. Ended up reading over half of it the first time, and finishing it on my shift the next night. This was the first I’ve read by Christina Lauren, but if it’s all this good, I’ll definitely be back for more. Hands down the funniest book I’ve read all year. Toward the end, we brushed up a little bit against one of the tropes I generally don’t much care for, but CL handled it beautifully and it ended up making a beautiful, heartfelt wrap-up. This year, the goal is to unshelf books I own if I don’t see myself reading them a second time, but I’d made up my mind on keeping this one before I finished the prologue. There’s no WAY I won’t be rereading!  

Challenge Prompt: Popsugar – A book that you think your best friend would like 

The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery  ⭐⭐⭐⭐(½)  Honestly, I’m not even sure why I picked this one up when I did. I ordered it from BookDepository AGES ago (the UK cover is prettier than the US one, and I’ll die on this hill), but then it got put on my shelf and left to ferment. But like a fine wine (a theme in the book), it was fantastic when I finally cracked it open. I wasn’t sure how I’d like a story balancing three romances across one plot, but everyone’s story was riveting in its own way and they fit together so well! 40 pages from the end, I said out loud “there’s no way they’ll be able to resolve everything,” but I was so wrong. Three for three on the HAE, which is exactly how I take my romance novels, with a hearty dose of friendship and family dynamics along the way. Susan Mallery has long been one of my favorite authors, and this was a friendly reminder of exactly why.  

No Mercy (A Valerie Law FBI Suspense Thriller - Book One) by Blake Pierce  ⭐⭐⭐  Thrillers aren’t usually so much my thing, but I like reading outside of my usual taste, and I was looking for something short to round out the month. This is under 200 pages, and the FBI element sparked my fancy, since I am a huge fan of crime dramas. It was … alright? Not painful to read, by any means, but it fell a little flat for me in places. Maybe the rest of the series will pick up, but I don’t think I’m curious enough to find out. That said, there are worse things I could have spent three days reading. 

Challenge Prompts: Popsugar – The shorted book (by pages) on your TBR); Romanceopoly Slueth Street (read a thriller or mystery where one of the main characters are a detective or private investigator) 

DNF: Our First Puck by Kat Obie 

#katie reads #kr23 #january wrap up #books #bookblr

[peachyteabuck]

It’s NYE!! We’re hosting a few of our friends tn so this is what I need to do before they arrive:

take out trash, as much as possible

clean off coffee table

clean off regular table

find a cute lil fit!

put away clean laundry

put cowboys new med schedule in discord + write for cabinet

update storygraph TBR to match shelf TBR

clean up bedroom

make bed

clean up/organize bathroom shelves

grab Amazon package from yesterday

spend 20 mins cutting out white

make to do list for tomorrow

organize under coffee table

read a little to keep up momentum

clean up shame corner in bathroom

#lukis says things #i keep saying I’ll put these on my studyblr and then I just don’t LOL

[adornesibley]

I used to feel guilty for not having read every book on my shelves and having a never-ending, always expanding TBR. But I have come to realize that I buy books like I buy food. With the intent to consume but always too much and more than I can afford. Books and stories are sustenance. They give me life and are here to be savored and enjoyed at leisure. Sometimes I binge, sometimes I fast, but it’s never a race or a competition. 

I’m, nowadays, looking at books more like pieces of art. I keep them on a shelf, I look at them and love them. Sometimes I take them down and read a few pages, sometimes I devour them whole. And this is okay. There is no shame here. 

I think it’s important to realize, accept, and embrace that there will never be enough time to read all of the things you planned on reading. Or seeing. Or hearing. We can only go with our guts, and consume what brings us joy (or fear, or sadness, ya know as art does). 

Sustainability in books is a topic that is entwined with this and I wish to come back to. So, this is a pin in this conversation. I do not currently have the spoons and my four cats need to eat XD

The absolutely stunning cover illustration is by the amazingly talented Peter Andrew Jones

#Bookblr #bookworm #bookwyrm #tbrpile #oldbooks #scifi #IsaacAsimov #shortstories #dragonhorde #Iwillnotfeelguilty #bookcollector #Peter Andrew Jones

[madlovenovelist]

#bookporn #coverlove

These have been sitting on my TBR shelf for way too long. The Timeloopers quartet. Dan Rix always manages to write quick easy reads with an interesting sci-fi premise. I’ve heard Dan Rix removed his titles because he was going to rebrand, and then release his books under a pseudonym, but I haven’t seen either happen yet. So I don’t know if you can still buy his books. Such a shame.

View On WordPress

#A Strange Machine #amreading #An Infinite Loop #book #book covers #bookporn #Casey Carlisle #coverlove #Dan Rx #Fiction #Novel #photograghy #quartet #reading #science fiction #TBR #The Ghost at Retreat Lake #The Man With Two Pasts #Timeloopers #Writing #YA Fiction #YA Writing

[tragiccomicgypsymoon]

2023 Reading Challenges

October flew by and we now have 2 months to speed read our TBR. I like to create reading challenges for myself each year. Will I stick to them? Who is to say? I am here for the *experience*.

I create a yearly TBR and within that list I include small challenges. Little surprises that force me to tackle the books I have been avoiding like an ex at a party.

2023 Reading Challenge:

A Little Life

Moby Dick

A Suitable Boy

Les Miserables

Ozma of Oz

Bridge of Clay

Life of Pi (re read and annotate)

East of Eden (re read and annotate)

I have a hard time reading books for a second time. That is just time spent I could be reading book I haven't read yet! However, I do have some favorites that I would like to revisit and annotate.

I have put off reading A Little Life and Bridge of Clay for an embarrassingly long time. I got them when they were first released and they have been collecting dust. Shameful. I know. You can judge me, I won't cry.

Do not get me started on continuing a series. It takes 2-3 years for me to get to the next book in a series. Let's not mention the series that have been abandoned throughout the years. A moment of silence for the Throne of Glass Series. GoT? Idk her. Sorrynotsorry. However, I have always adored The Wizard of Oz (books and movie). It's just that I am not really looking for a commitment right now. I need to explore other options. That is not to say I do not value our time together...

Anyways, 2023 is lurking right around the corner. My TBR keeps growing, but that doesn't mean I should avoid certain books forever. Sometimes the book you needed was sitting on your shelf the entire time.

[giraffesonjupiter]

accidentally bought too many books and now I can’t decide what to read next

#also i’m back to having a full shelf of tbr’s which feels nice #only after boxing a bunch of other books including some unreads i’ve given up on for now though.... #thinking about buying another bookcase #also i gotta stop buying ya stuff (i was good about this this time) #i’ve liked most of the ya i’ve read in the past year but when i get done reading it and it’s time to put it on the shelf #i just have this feeling of.... dissatisfaction. almost regret. i know i’m never gonna revisit those ones #vs pretty much all of the adult stuff i’ve read i’m glad to have on the shelf #either bc i know i’ll want to reread or at the revisit the experience of having read it #like the ya i’ve read is good it’s just not..... stuff i feel the need to revisit after having read it once #tbf i guess i didn’t really read much ya when i was a kid ig #i read stuff like warriors & hp. read twilight too bc i was... 14? at the height of the twilight book craze #but i was also reading asoiaf & wheel of time & stuff by the time i was 13/14 #so i guess ya just.... isn’t really for me too much #which is a damn shame bc there’s so many interesting premises in ya!! it’s just when i read them #i find myself wishing for what they could’ve been if they’d been written for an adult audience instead #oh also happy endings.... i’ve had good luck so far with the adult books i’ve read but sometimes they can be a bit too bittersweet for me #gonna keep trying but i have to keep reminding myself to get ya books from the library rather than buying them #anyway. w/e #goj personal #goj tag talks #books

[djservo]

hullo bobbert! what have u been reading? do u have a TBR for April?

HIYA!!! i've been reading 'how to survive a plague' by david france since january but i'm only on like page 200 out of 500ish ugh SHAMEFUL PACE!! 🐌 i don't usually read historical non-fiction & (obviously) the subject is heavy so it's hard to binge-read for a long period, but i Trust i'll have it done by next week 🤞 as for my TBR, i finally got my hands on 'crying in H mart' by michelle zauner which i've had on hold at my library for months now smh realistically i should've just bought when it first released to #Support but i don't have shelf space (like genuinely i have 2 stacks of books on my Floor now rip🪫) after that will be 'when we are no more' by abby smith rumsey, then maybe another joyce carol oates short story collection bc i like what i've read by her so far!

#what about u!!! i wanna hear abt what ur all reading!! 👩‍🏫 #also ty for checking in ur a sweetie 🧁 #asks #c speak #bobby book club

[riceball1759]

Reading Tips from your Hyper Librarian

"So many books, so little time", right? If anyone understands this, it's us bibliophiles and librarians (and publishers) -especially someone like me! My interests are super varied and many times, I'll start reading a few chapters in a book that REALLY REALLY interests me...but then, I have that ADHD SHINY moment and the poor thing is forgotten. Seriously, this is a constant struggle. Being a librarian makes this even more important that I know what I'm recommending. And I do! I just can't get the focus to actually read them>< I'm part of a committee that is assigned reading every year for 3 months (give or take) and -you guessed it- I get that done. Why? It's got a deadline and I churn through them like nobody's business. It also helps that I didn't choose them and they aren't always what I normally like to read. It gives me an edge when helping certain patrons look for something I normally don't read. Not that I don't have an idea already -it's just more cemented than usual since I actually read that particular book. Though I kinda gave you one of my tips in this blurb, I'll rehash later!

A little more on my SHINY moments and then we'll get to my tips! Like I said before, SHINY really takes a toll sometimes on my goals, but it also helps. How? Situation: I hear all this buzz about this upcoming book (debut author/fresh voice/intriguing plotline/etc.). I either miraculously get an ARC or I'm waiting with bated breath, for the dang thing to get shipped to my library so that I can "steal" it for the weekend before it gets catalogued (I tell everyone I'm borrowing it, so don't judge me!). If all goes according to plan, I DEVOUR it within a day and come back exclaiming all the virtues of reading said book. I might even write a glowing review (if I had the capacity at the time). This has happened with a few books in the past years: Stay Gold, Wicked Fox & Vicious Spirits, Ember in the Ashes, Invisible Differences, and a few others, but I can't remember right now. Point: it's super hard for me to get the reading I want done, actually done.

AND NOW, for the star of our show: The Hyper Librarian's Reading Tips!

Please remember, these are things I remind myself of when I'm having a hard time getting through my TBR (the library-books-out-that-are-due TBR). Some lead into or are extensions of others, but being specific is necessary for me. You can adapt them to your needs or or just copy/paste them into your life :)

1) It's ok to DNF. So you gave this book the 'old college try' and just can't do it -it's becoming torturous and you're at risk of going into the dreaded slump... Just stop already and save yourself more grief. Another reason is that you're just not in the mood to finish, so don't. Why torture yourself (again -I seem to like using this word, but it's so accurate at times!) by seeing a book lying close by that you wish was anywhere but? Some of us (incl. moi) have a shelf on Goodreads just for those pesky things. Let's cut the drama and move on! I find it therapeutic as well as final.

2) You are your own censorship committee. We all have that verbal content line where ~once toed/crossed~ our tolerance, belief, comfort level, etc., is compromised to the point where there's no enjoyment because of that one or more 'tidbits' giving you grief. Sometimes, I'll scan several reviews before starting because I want to make sure I don't get any 'surprises'. Most times, I get to that proverbial part that has me slamming the book closed, never to be opened again (dramatic, yes, but sometimes very true!). {{Point}}: you are the only person keeping you from reading something you don't like!

3) Be picky! You are as unique as your fingerprint. Why wouldn't your reading habits follow? If you get a rec that is absolutely not your thing, say no (thank you). It's not fair to you if you're just going to trudge through it anyway for the sake of being polite to friends/family/librarians/coworkers/etc (publishers, I'm sorry). If you like vampires, werewolves, and all things paranormal (like me) don't despair of the current books coming out -look back to the '90s and '00s! Reading is one of the most personal things we experience in our lives. {{Please, for the sake of your sanity}}: read reviews, look for trigger warnings (if that applies to you), verify that historically under-represented voices are portrayed correctly (misinformation is our greatest threat). For example: I won't buy a book about LGBT+ characters without verifying the plot as authentic (i.e. all fluff and no real problems vs real problems with a happy ending). I need to know that the book about that Transgender girl is written by someone who is either also Transgender or very well-informed.

4) Own your reading preferences. Just own it. I read somewhere in a journal interview that the concept of "guilty pleasure" shouldn't exist. So you like SJM's ACOTAR and are all about that fan community life, but are afraid to talk about it even though it's basically a mainstream subculture now? {{Point}}: Stop feeling guilty for what makes you happy! If people judge, that's their problem. I read romance for stress relief and because I just happen to like happy endings. Seriously, people need to stop shaming romance readers and self-shame is a huge part! Don't shame yourself, "SHUN THE NON-BELIEVERS"! (Charlie the Unicorn, RIP in Youtube history)

5) It's ok to read more than one book at a time. If you're anything like me (the Attention Deficit part), you probably have up to 5 books going at the same time: that paperback at home, the ebook on your phone, audiobook in the car, hardcover in your office, etc. (I know that's not 5 -I ran out of ideas!). Point: it's only natural you're in the mood for something different at certain periods of the day, week, or whatever. They'll get finished eventually. Just spare a thought for the 1 or 2 that are a little extra "dusty" cuz that might mean you need to DNF...just a thought.

6) Book clubs are your friend! They can be your enemy, too; but here's what you do: choose one that reads almost everything you want to in a specific genre. I'm not talking the next bestseller (unless that's you). I'm talking genre-specific and something you researched before joining. Online or in-person, this is has the potential for changing your reading habits for the better because you'll actually want to interact and read the books! I decided to join a book club so I could finally talk about a niche genre that is one of my favorites: Christian fiction. No one around me reads this (anymore) and I have no one to talk to (regularly) and trade recs with, so I joined a Facebook group and it's really nice to chat about all these great books and authors I've recently read with others who do the same:)

7) Book journaling. Yes, you may have heard of these things. There are so many ways to journal about your reading: bullet journals, the blank ones where you can let loose your creativity, the ones like from Moleskin where you just fill in the pre-determined spaces (aka: reading log), lined journals for writing your heart out, themed reading planners and TBR journals... Just look it up, the interwebs has you covered. The key is to use them as a tool for expanding and enriching your enjoyment or education (nonfic). I don't journal for everything, but I do like to do it for the ones I know I'm going to review later or for general reflections as I read. I started doing it by chapters, but that doesn't cut it when something jumps out at me from a random page and I NEED to write about it immediately. So, I make note of the page # and we good! I'm very personal in my writing (if you can't tell) and it can turn into tangents, but that's how I roll. I don't do that artsy stuff because that takes away from the reason I'm doing this in the first place. I write about anything regarding my reading -incl my reading slumps. I love it.

Wishing you Happy Reading! Thank you for reading:)

#reading #reading tips #books #reading is life #booksarelife #happy reading #reading problems #reading slump #book journal #booklr #reading blog #book blog #book club #reading advice #bookblr #adhd

[roseunspindle]

Books with “F” Authors I Own and and Need to Read Part 2

#Authors #Booklr #TBR Shelf Shaming #becca fitzpatrick #Fannie Flagg #C. A. Fletcher #Lynn Flewelling #Gillian Flynn #Ken Follett #Amanda Foody #Gayle Forman #Alan Dean Foster #Namina Forna

[beautifulpaxielreads]

October Wrap-Up

Books Completed (ratings out of five stars)

A sky painted gold by Laura Wood (reread, begun in September, ★★★★1/2)

Popular (a memoir): vintage wisdom for a modern geek by Maya Van Wagenen (begun in September, ★★★1/2)

Firekeeper’s daughter by Angeline Boulley (★★★★)

It’s not you, it’s me by Gabrielle Williams* (★★★)

The winner’s kiss (The Winner’s Trilogy #3) by Marie Rutkoski (★★★1/2)

Books currently in progress

The library book by Susan Orlean

The inheritance games (The inheritance games #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Defy the night (Defy the night #1) by Brigid Kemmerer

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie

Lives between the lines: a journey in search of the lost Levant by Michael Vatikiotis

*Australian author/s

Reflections on October and Goals for November

October was a mixed month for me in terms of reading. The last two books you see on my “in progress” list, I actually only started reading yesterday. The ones I was reading before that (A brief history of capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis and After Story by Larissa Behrendt) I DNF’d. Which was a shame, because the subject matter of both – I felt – were incredibly worthy and necessary.

I DNF’d Varoufakis’ book because despite its enlightening content, it was taking me far too long a time to read it, given it was only about 200 pages. And with After Story, I could tell was an important read by First Nations Australian woman Larissa Behrendt, but the diary-entry style format made it a chore to get through. And given that I have many books on my ever-growing TBR, I was pretty keen to get to them. So that’s how the cookie crumbled, I’m afraid to say.

· I went on a bit of a book-buying spree in October, so much so that I have promised myself not to buy any more until I have got through a decent chunk of the unread ones I have on my shelf already. And I’m going to stick to that promise. Hopefully.

My favourite book this month – aside from my reread of A Sky Painted Gold (as brilliant as ever, btw) – had to be Firekeeper’s Daughter. It was a great insight into a culture I know so little about (First Nations Americans). Least favourite was probably It’s Not You, It’s Me. I read it really quickly and the concept was great, but I think it was too fast-paced for me to take much in.

My chief goal for November is to finish the books on my “in progress” list. If I can do that before the end of the month, then I’ll be tantalisingly close to hitting my goal of 65 books read this year. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Other than the above, I’ll just keep making my way through my TBR.

That will do for now, I’ll see you in December for my November wrap-up. Until then, stay safe and happy reading!

#beautifulpaxiel reads #monthly wrap ups #october #my reading

[skyeisproductive]

I own the Silmarillion and much to my *deep* shame have never actually cracked it open, but you're really making me want to pull it down off the shelf and have a look. It's terrible. My TBR stack is so big already.

Oh no I'm sorry! Admittedly, I haven't finished it.. I have every intention to! I have a problem with sitting down to read books, it's hard. I can spend the whole day reading fanfiction no problem, but a book? No.

But I love what the silm fandom creates! That's kinda the main reason I was interested in it. I got into a Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit kick early last year and found out about the other books that Tolkien wrote. Then, like any other thing I'm interested in, I looked into it on tumblr and fell in love with the fanart!

Maybe we can start a silm reading club, read it together?

#at least id be more inclined to finish it #silmarillion #tolkien

[atamascolily]

After Ursula K. Le Guin died, I made an agreement with myself I would read anything and everything she'd written as the chance arose. That said, Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand probably would have been the last on my list, had I not stumbled across a paperback copy in a library booksale (in pre-pandemic times) in a "fill a paper bag for $10" sale and it languished in my TBR pile for months before I finally got around to it.

The reason? Genre snobbery, in reverse of the usual direction. Searoad is a collection of short stories published in magazines like The New Yorker, and fancy-sounding publications with Review in their names. Serious publications publishing so-called "literary" fiction, or maybe "realistic fiction" or just plain fiction--fiction that's supposed to tell-it-like-it-is, lay bare the inadequacies of modern life, and leave you feeling empty and unfulfilled after watching empty and unfulfilled people make poor decisions in futile attempts to fill the emptiness and inadequacies of their lives. Because that’s the whole point of literature, right?

Oh. Perhaps I'm generalizing. But so it feels to me whenever I dip into one of these publications. They are "literature", everything else is "genre": romance, science-fiction, fantasy, action, adventure, thriller, mystery, crime. "Literary" fiction is usually just plain old "fiction" in the library classification systems and in common parlance: it is assumed to be the norm, the default, from which everything else is a deviation. And I hate this. I've always hated this.

To write about petty modern people with their petty modern lives is one thing--we all have our kinks--but to disdain others for imagining different things, for epics and grandeur and you-could-have-anything-so-why-not-go-for-it always struck me as a deep failure of, and disdain for, imagination. Genres, like so much else in our lives, are social constructs: us and them, the have and the have-nots. Literary fiction are the "haves", everything else is the "have-nots". That's changing, obviously, and the boundaries aren't as rigid as they once were, but I still see that divide reflected in so-called "serious" publications, and I generally avoid them.

Ursula K. Le Guin has always hugged the boundaries between "pure" genre (aka trashy, flashy, unfit for serious folk in the eyes of the pedants) and "literary merit". She's been accepted and respected by both camps, although the "literary" folks speak of the sci-fi rather patronizingly in their reviews of her works. Le Guin, however, never disdained the sci-fi labels in the same way that Margaret Atwood--another boundary-spanning writer--has always done.

For this reason, I've retained infinitely more respect for Le Guin than Atwood, despite Atwood's considerable talents as a writer. Atwood wants to play with sci-fi tropes, but she doesn't have the backbone to stand up and be proud of it. Atwood wants to write science fiction but not be judged for it, and the easiest way to do that (since genres are a social construct) is just to firmly insist that it's not sci-fi at all--move along, nothing to see here.

Here's a blurb on the back of my copy of Searoad by Carolyn Kizer, a Pulitzer-prize winning poet from the Pacific Northwest:

"For a number of years, the only science-fiction I read was that of Ursula K. Le Guin. I don't read science-fiction any more, thought I wouldn't think of missing a book of Le Guin's. She has transcended the genre..."

How very generous and open-minded of you to only read science-fiction so elevated it “transcends” its genre entirely, thereby becoming worthy of notice. And this is supposed to make me like literary fiction? 

That said, the irony is that Kizer’s statement sums up my approach to non-genre stuff as well, although I would not have phrased it quite so baldly. More like “Okay, not usually my cup of tea--but if it’s you, it’s okay....” The genre transcending thing, as much as I despise the phrasing, works both ways here.

All this is to say I finally read Searoad, even though I had to coax myself into it by pretending that this was an alien society that Le Guin and I were exploring together in order to tell us stuff about our own, and that helped. It also helped because the stories were so damn good, and I got carried away, even though they are very literary stories, with ambiguous endings, the usual focus on unexpressed and/or self-destructive emotions of love, birth, and death, and no magic or wizards or dragons whatsoever.

(To repeat: I am a genre snob who has never understood why writing without dragons was inherently better than writing with dragons in it. I have always operated under the principle that dragons made everything better. And I have never understood why depicting the world as it is was a stroke of literary genius, if all you were going to do with it it is show people being unhappy in the usual old ways instead of unusual ways. Or even imagine something new and different!)

Searoad reminds me of Lake Wobegon a little, but that's only because it's a small town, with characters from one story popping up in others in the most unexpected places--just like small town life. After a while, it feels like we're constantly running into old friends, a shared world--real, but in a good way. The stories were published across a wide range of outlets from 1987-1991, yet flow into each other astonishingly well when read in rapid succession, or indeed, in any order at all.

My favorite is "True Love," which is all about ditching unsatisfying conventional relationships to focus on one's true passion instead:

For me, sex is sublimation. Left to itself, in its raw, primitive state, my libido would have expend itself inexhaustibly in reading.

And since I have been a librarian ever since I was twenty, I can truly compare my life to that of some pasha luxuriating in his harem--and what a harem! Half a million mistresses, when I was at the Central Library in Portland! A decade-long orgy! And during the school year, since I teach now at the Library School, I have access to the University Library. Here in Klatsand where I spend the summers, the harem is very small and a good many of the houris are rather out of date, but then so am I. My lust has lessened somewhat with the years. Sometimes I imagine I could be contented with a mere shelf of tried, true, and highly selected Scheherazades, with only now and then a pretty little novel to flirt with, or a volume of new poetry to make me cry out with excess of pleasure in the heart of the night.

And in the same story, Le Guin makes it clear she's one of us:

"Do you like science fiction" I asked her, because all I can really talk about is books. And of course, she couldn't talk about books. That had been knocked out of her years ago. We compromised on "Star Trek," new and old. She liked the new series as well as the old one. I liked the old one better. Antal stared, not at Rosemarie, only at me. "You watch it?" he said. "You watch television?"

I didn't answer. ... I was not going to let him try to shame us for our commonness.

"The one I liked best was the one where Mr. Spock had to go home because he was in heat," I said to her.

"Except, he never, you know," she said. "They just had a fight over the girl, him and Captain Kirk, and then they left."

"That's his pride," I said, obscurely. I was thinking how Mr. Spock was never unbuttoned, never lolled, kept himself shadowy, unfulfilled, and so we loved him. And poor Captain Kirk, going from blonde to blonde, would never understand that he himself loved Mr. Spock truly, hopelessly, forever.

Reader, I LOLed. Because it's true. You know it, I know it, and so does Le Guin. And she had the guts to say so in the Indiana Review, and the editors published it. LEGEND.

Like all of Le Guin's writing, the stories in Searoad are lyrical, elegant, soaring, and moving--sympathetic, yet unafraid to call out bad behavior and terrible things when she sees it. My other favorite story, "Sleepwalkers," is a brilliant example of this: it starts with a complaint by a privileged male playwright about the housekeeper at his summer cabin, only for us to quickly learn (if his tone and phrasing didn't give it away) that he's an arrogant asshole who sees only what he wants to see and misses what's actually in front of him. We then pivot to a number of other people at the little resort, and their views of the housekeeper, and we're left with an open question at the end: which view is more accurate? Which story do we believe? What is actually going on? Can any of us really know or understand the hidden depths within another person? It's so deep and lush and well-written, and even funny on occasions.

And there's also a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives and scenarios enough to keep me interested: a lesbian grieves the death of her long-time partner, a war veteran deals with PTSD, a college student runs off into the woods to secretly map illegal old-growth logging stands, a ghost appears in a late-night diner to a sexual-abuse victim. The ghost thing seems like it ought to fall under genre conventions, but doesn’t because of the framing, and yet it still works for me--another example of Le Guin’s skill.

Anyway, so Le Guin actually made me enjoy so-called "literary" fiction and that was unexpected and delightful. Regardless of my feelings about most "realistic" fiction, I'm glad I read this collection.  

#book reviews #Ursula K. Le Guin #searoad #fandom life #writing life

[takemetobogman]

Nerd culture is watching crash course literature videos while ignoring the ever increasing tbr pile of literature that is spilling out of your shelf and then cussing yourself for being such a pathetic loser only to repeat the same cycle of shame and despair over and over again.

#Nerdfighteria #nerdfighters #nerdy memes #nerdshit #Light academia