Category Archives: Blogging

Wrapping Up Graphic Novels February, Hello to March Food & Gardening!

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books, comic Tagged , , 6 Replies

Thanks to Debi, I spent February reading a lot of comics. You see, Debi is picking a theme for each month of reading and I liked the plan so much that I’m joining her. I know that Chris and Heather are reading, too. February was such a success, that I’m going to be participating in March’s theme, too, but more on that later.

Here are the comics I read in February:

  1. Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks
  2. Blue by Pat Grant
  3. Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks
  4. Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  5. Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes by Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot
  6. The Secret of the Stone Frog by David Nytra
  7. The Silence of Our Friends by Mark Long, Jim Deomakos, & Nate Powell
  8. Locke & Key Vol 1 by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
  9. The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
  10. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle and Hope Larson
  11. Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canals and Juanjo Guarnido (finished in March)

I also read these other books:

  1. January First by Michael Schofield
  2. The Raven Boys  by Maggie Stiefvater
  3. One & The Same by Abigail Pogrebin
  4. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

So of all the comics I read, which ones do I wholeheartedly recommend? Well, certainly Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks, Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire, and Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, which I just finished today and adored.

It was one of the best reading months I’ve had in a long time! As you can see, I did still read quite a few non-graphic novels during the month and I’d really like to start balancing out my reading a bit more. This has been a great year for me and non-fiction, and now comics, and I’d like to keep it that way.

Speaking of non-fiction, March is all about reading about nature and gardening. Michael and I are doing our first balcony garden this year and we’ve already started planting our seeds in starters in the apartment. We’re going to try and grow broccoli, hot peppers, tomatoes, and a lot of herbs. I also got a strawberry kit that goes in your windowsill. I have high hopes for all of them!

All of that is to say that I’m very interested in this month’s theme, too, so I’m going to keep on reading with Debi, Chris, and Heather! Here’s my list for this month:

march reading

 

  1. The Blueberry Years by Jim Minick
  2. Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
  3. Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan
  4. The Quarter-Acre Farm by Spring Warren

I have been meaning to read Animal Vegetable Miracle for a long time and I found the rest of these books by browsing the “books like” Animal Vegetable Miracle category on a few different sites. All but the Pollan will be available for me on Monday, so I’m excited to dig in (pun intended).

Thank you again, Debi, for coming up with such awesome themes and getting me to read things that normally would have taken a back burner! 2013 is already turning into one of my best reading years.

March Reading – Possession Readalong #readbyatt

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books, readalong Tagged , , 9 Replies

byattIt’s officially March, which means two things: spring is almost here and the Possession readalong is here. Kim and I have been chatting about doing a readalong for Possession by AS Byatt for a few weeks now, because we have both tried to read this book on our own, but never made it through. I even convinced my book club to read it, but then I couldn’t go to the meeting that month!

This isn’t a very stressful readalong. You can feel free to join in on your blog or Twitter, using the hashtag  #readbyatt. (It was surprisingly difficult to come up with a short enough hashtag that made sense!) We’ll also post once week about the book. Here’s the schedule we came up with:

March 11: Chapters 1-6
March 18: Chapters 7-13
March 25: Chapters 14-19
April 1: Chapter 20-End

I know March 11 is soon, but we made the first section a little bit shorter, so you can hopefully  join in. As Kim mentioned in her post, we’re not doing official sign ups for this one, but we hope you’ll let us know in the comments (or on Twitter!) if you’re joining in.  If you’re like Kim and I and you’ve had Possession on your TBR for as long as we have, I hope you’ll be able to read along with us!

This week in…

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books, comic, Life Tagged , , 2 Replies
reading.

You know what I needed after finally finishing Game of Thrones? Graphic Novels/Comics February! There is nothing like reading comics to boost your numbers self-esteem. It’s also just nice to give into the medium. I’ve two very long, involved fantasy novels the last two months and comics are the perfect change of pace. It’s also hard not to devour them. I try to savor each panel and make sure that I’m really paying attention. So far, my favorite comic has been Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks and Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples.

Fair warning: don’t read Saga on a crowded subway train. People always read over your shoulder when you read comics, and occasionally remark on said comics, and that would have been an interesting conversation. I am going to do a full review of Saga, but I really loved it. I can’t wait until July for the next full installment. Anyone know where I can buy the monthly installments?

television. 


Starting sometime in the middle of 2012, I decided to start watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I didn’t really get into it, but would watch an episode here and there. Then something happened about halfway through season one (just like you said it would) and suddenly I was head-over-heels in love. Now I am halfway through season four and still so happy with the show. I just watched one of the best episodes, and possibly one of my favorite hours of television, ”Hush” (S4, E10). The episode is almost completely silent, except for some excellent, atmospheric music, because the monster of the week has taken everyone’s voices. It’s perfect and funny and genuinely creepy. It’s an episode that I can see myself rewatching.

food.

It’s the superbowl! But not I’m not even sure I could tell you who is playing. (The Ravens? Right? But I couldn’t tell you who the other team is. I looked it up on Wikipedia and promptly forgot.) Superbowl Sunday is, for me, an eating holiday. I don’t watch the game and right now don’t host or attend any parties, but Michael and I cook yummy finger foods to snack on all day. On the menu for tomorrow? Homemade chex mix, which made our apartment smell like Christmas all day, How Sweet Eats blue cheese potato skins, and spinach artichoke dip.

family.

My sister is in town for the Fun. concert. I’m pretty jealous! We are getting lunch today before she heads home and I’m pretty excited about that! We’re trying a new restaurant near my office, which will hopefully be a possible new lunch place.

misc.

I feel like this week was really busy, but I can’t remember what I did. I worked for 6 days straight, but other than that, I can’t really remember what I did in the evenings. I guess it wasn’t very memorable! I have had a bad flair up of migraines lately, so I think I did a lot of going to bed early and relaxing, waiting for them to pass. I get aura migraines, which make it hard to see much of anything. They’re very inconvenient.

I’m excited to get home this afternoon and relax with a comic, a beer, and some delicious Superbowl food. It’s going to be a perfect afternoon, I can feel it. Enjoy your Sunday!

January 26 – Oh, my God! It’s January 26!

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books, Life Tagged , , , 12 Replies

I’m not exactly sure how six days passed between my bookshelf post and this post, but do know that I was working on blog posts, just not ones that I wanted to publish immediately. I wanted them to sit. And that feels in the spirit of this project, so I am moving on. And I promise to never ever promise to write every day, because all I do is apologize a lot.

Until next month when I promise to write a review of a comic a day!

So, I thought I’d catch you up on what I’ve been doing this week.

1) I went to the Macy’s on 34th St. Holy crap that place is big. I asked a friend to go with me and she said, “No, that place is huge and people walk slow.” And I pffed a little bit and said suuuuuure, but yes, it is huge and people walk really slow. It’s bright and overwhelming, but also kind of pretty to look at. I don’t know that I would want to spend more than an hour there, which is what I did, but I looked for some shoes, picked something up for Michael, and went on home. If you’re ever at the Macy’s on 34th St and you need something to eat, Koreatown is literally right around the corner and there are some great, cheap Korean places that you should check out.

2) I want flat black slouchy ankle boots, but they aren’t in style anymore. I have looked everywhere. It used to be that you couldn’t go into a shoe store without seeing a dozen pairs of the same black slouchy flat boot, but apparently they aren’t in style anymore. If I had known this would happen, I would have bought a dozen pair. I had a pair and wore them out, then I bought another, but they are pretty much unwearable at this point too. I found a pair from Target that are somewhat similar, but they have a heel and they are fake leather. So, hopefully they work. I have to walk a mile to work (in the snow! uphill both ways!) and about half the time I have to stand on the subway for 40 minutes. So my shoes have to be comfortable and work appropriate, because I am the laziest and I don’t like walking to work in one pair of shoes and wearing another pair once I get there. This is why I wore my snow boots around the office every day this week. It was cold.

3) I read Game of Thrones. I have been slowly plugging through this. I like reading long books, but I have to take breaks and read other books, which makes it go even slower. I just like to feel accomplished. I really like Game of Thrones and I am excited to start watching the show. I think I’ll be done before January is over at which point I’ll start reading comics!

4) I picked up a lot of comics at the library and I have more coming in on Monday! Ah! I’m so excited about this. I don’t know if I am going to be able to wait until February to start reading. I’ve started picking my way through Hark! A Vagrant, which is much larger than I thought it would be. I’m also ridiculously excited about Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples.

5) I discovered that I’m really interested in neo-noir as a genre. I’ve always known that I enjoyed it, but while I was writing up my review for The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (coming on Monday!), I realized just how much I want to go deeper into the genre. Anything that even has the tiniest of noir sensibilities is something that I am immediately drawn to. I mean, I grew up watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit – the genre has been part of my cultural landscape since I was a kid. This idea of a hardboiled detective, with his femme fatale, his cynicism and shady city streets has been familiar to me all along. An idea for a project is forming. I want to know more about the genre, I want to know more about the origins of the genre. I have to come up with a more detailed plan, but I want to be a noir expert.

6) I have one audiobook credit before I cancel my Audible membership. Suggestions??? I am horribly indecisive when it comes to this thing.

January 15 – Blog about someone else’s blog

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books, Life Tagged , , 11 Replies

There are a lot of things running through my head lately, but one of them recently was how much I miss being in school. I miss a lot of things about school and learning (NOT homework), but the thing I miss most is taking a topic and becoming something of an “expert” on it. Obviously not a real expert, but more knowledgeable than your average person because you’ve read dozens of articles and several books on the topic.

College made me this type of expert on the beat generation, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and environmental poetry in Latin America. I learned about psycholinguistics and the History of the Spanish Language and phonology. And I miss it.

So when Debi blogged about her year of themed reading, it immediately reminded me of this hyper focus that you get when you take a class in something. I absolutely love the idea of focusing all your reading energy into one goal for a short amount of time. The possibilities are endless! You can focus on an author and read their entire oeuvre. You could focus on a topic and get a lot of different opinions about it. You could focus on a genre or a theme or a time period. Endless.

I don’t know if I’m ready for a year of themed reading, but I’d like to take at least two months this year to focus on something that I want to know more about, whether it’s a time period in literature (I’m thinking 1920s-30s) or a specific author or linguistics. I’m going to think about this for a bit, but for now I’m going to cheer Debi on. Thank you for the wonderful idea!

(The more I think about it, though, the more I think I might have to join in Graphic Novels Month in February. Yes, Debi it does sound absolutely heavenly!)

January 14 – Reflect

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Life Tagged , , , 1 Reply

We’re almost to the mid point of the month and I’ve realized that I’m running out of “new” things to do and post about. Today is Monday, for example, and I’ve gone to Masala Bhangra like I promised, but I already posted about that. I cooked some dinner. I read a little bit. I watched TV. I talked to a friend. There’s not much time left in the day after dance, dinner, and writing to add something else and I don’t want to this month to get overwhelming, right?

For today, I thought I would reflect on how this month has gone so far. You see, I started this project as a way to fight the post-holiday-blues. January, February and March are long, cold months when I often find myself frustrated and sad for reasons that seem to be purely seasonal. Spring helps and summer is wonderful and fall is my favorite and then it’s the holidays and afterward we do it all again.

So far, though, I haven’t felt those blues. I’ve had rough days, sure, but not that constant feeling of blah. I think it is at least partially because I have been doing things and I refuse to slow down, but I also think it is because I’ve been writing about my day at the end of it. I’m not even doing too many things that are different. They are mostly things that I did inconsistently, but making a commitment to be consistent. I went to the gym before this month, but I’m determined to make a schedule of it and keep it. I wrote before this month, but not regularly. So I can’t even really point to the addition of these things as the source.

Reflecting on what I’ve done during the day is helping me feel calm about it all. It’s helping me remember that I am making an effort to make each day matter. Even on the days I am lazy and don’t do much other than watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer or catch up on Downton Abbey, I do it because it’s what I need to recharge. Writing each day helps me figure out what exactly I did that day that was meaningful, what helped me stay on this road, and for that I’m grateful. Sometimes it also helps me figure out what didn’t work.

I used to journal quite regularly, but stopped after a while. I just lived through the day, why did I need to hash out the details again? Once I started blogging, I didn’t feel the need for that journal. My early days of blogging, though, read more like a personal journal for a public space. It’s clear that I should incorporate more of that into my blogging once I’m not blogging every day, but I don’t think this will become a purely personal blog. It’s still about the words: books, poems, stories, writing. But I want there to be a place for this in my life, whether it is a handwritten journal or a digital one.

The motto for this month has really been do anything, but do it meaningfully. Writing it down at the end of the day puts it into perspective. For that, I’m happy.

January 2 – Write 500 words every day

By Lu Posted in Blogging Tagged , , , 6 Replies

Right now, as you read this, I’m driving up the east coast back home from my Christmas vacation. This vacation felt like a whirlwind and I’m disappointed that it’s over. I could use another day of reading by the Christmas tree in my pajamas. Of course, since I’m going to spend 8 hours today in the car, I’m not entirely sure I’m going to complete this goal today, but it’s an important one.

I keep saying to myself that I want to write. I want to be able to call myself a writer. Without some consistent writing, though, I don’t feel like I deserve that label. 500 words is a manageable number. It’s a number I know I can accomplish. Unlike previous failed attempts, see every NaNoWriMo ever, I’m not going to be working on a specific project. Hopefully this will kick start some ideas!

So, the big question: do my daily blog posts count? They are comparably short blog posts, and I’m working on them in chunks. I’m going to try and reach the 500 words without counting blog posts, but in the spirit of keeping this a relatively stress-free endeavor, let’s say the blog posts can count if I need them to.

I have a few other writing goals, all of which will be helped out by writing 500 words a day. Like the every day blog post, the idea of this one is to make writing a habit. You see, I know that I want to write. I talk about writing all the time. But actually sitting down and doing it? I read and read advice on writing and they all say mostly the same thing: write even when you haven’t been hit by inspiration.

So, that’s what I’m going to do!

January 1 – Post Every Day

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Life Tagged , , 7 Replies

Happy New Year!

When I was coming up with goals for this month of doing things (clever name, I know), I wanted to come up with things that are simple, but meaningful. The goal isn’t to start something that I won’t finish, but instead to come up with things that will have a positive impact on my day to day life.

This blog means a lot to me and posting quality posts with some regularity is something that I need to work on. After a month of posting every day, I doubt I’ll be able to continue that kind of schedule, but hopefully it will become more like a habit than it is now.

Beyond making blogging a habit, I also want to reflect on all the things I do this month to see what works. It’s kind of like my own Happiness Project, without the research. I’m just blindly picking random things that I think will be fulfilling, stress-relieving, and happy-making.

 

 

4 years later

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Life Tagged , , 9 Replies

On December 28, 2008, I sat down at my computer and started this blog. I was home on winter break without a thing to read and, in my search for something new, I found a book blog. I knew that I had found my people.

It has been a whirlwind of a four years. You have been my companion through my college graduation, graduate school, a change in plans to work in publishing, and more moves than I can count. My life changed in a lot of ways over the last four years, but you have been there every step of the way. You’ve been there for me, even when I wasn’t the best blogger (like now). You’ve motivated me, you’ve encouraged me, and most of all, you’ve recommended books.

There are more books in my life because of you. There are more books that I might never have considered reading if it weren’t for you: every single of one of you who wakes up every day and thinks, “What book can I share with the world today?” There have been a lot of changes over the years, in my life and within book blogging as a whole, but I wouldn’t change anything about you.

Really, truly, thank you for listening. You have made me a better reader and a better writer. You’ve opened my eyes to new ways of thinking. But, most of all, you’ve been my friend. Thank you.

[image credit: flickr user Joccay, creative commons license]

Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Books Published in 2012 That I Want to Read

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books Tagged , , , 14 Replies

This was a freebie month, so I thought I’d do a little reminder for myself that there were a lot of books published in 2012 that I’d really like to read, maybe before the end of the year. I don’t read a ton of new releases, so I don’t want these to fall under my radar this year:

1. Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth – This one came out in paperback in 2012 (totally counts!) and I love books about language, so of course this one made the list.

2. Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway - There was a lot of praise for this one when it came out, but I never quite got around to reading it. The premise sounds so odd and interesting and indescribable. I like that.

3. The Cove by Ron Rash - This book sounds so good. Set in the Appalachian Mountains during WWI with mythical, larger than life characters. Plus the author is known for his poetic language, something I adore.

4. The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling - Of course I’m going to read this book, but I want to wait until all the noise has died down about it. I want to go in with a totally open mind.

5. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman - A lot of bloggers I trust have read and loved this book. On the list it goes!

6. Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony - I think Vasilly read this and reviewed it and intrigued me. I love stories with unconventional narrative styles and it sounds like this one has it.

7. Seven Houses in France by Bernardo Atxaga - This book is originally published in Euskadi, the Basque language, and while that doesn’t exactly make it necessary to read, it does really intrigue me. The dark humor and satire that the summary promises, though, really does make me want to read it right away.

8. Ghosting by Kirby Gann - I’m obsessed with this cover/title/premise combo. Hopefully the book can live up to it all.

9. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain - I bought this one a while back on a whim. The title and plot sound interesting and I want to compare it with the other Iraq War novel I read this year, The Yellow Birds. 

10. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt - One person to blame for this one making the list: Chris! He’s been reading it lately and saying how much he loved it.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. It’s a weekly meme of bookish lists, because who doesn’t love a list?! For more information about participating in Top Ten Tuesday, take a look at this list of future topics!

#readathon updates!

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books Tagged , , 20 Replies

I’m not doing a full readathon today, but I did wake up around 8:30 and started reading then. I finished one book and started another, before it was time to get out of bed, get some lunch, and do the weekly shopping. Now that’s behind me and I can readathon a little bit more traditionally. I’m on the couch, I’m going to make myself some tea, and we have dinner cooking in the oven, ready to go in a few hours. You can follow along with all my updates on this post. I’ll be adding to it throughout the day!

First, the introductory meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

My apartment in New York!

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Hmm, I don’t actually have a stack. Just my shelves! But I am looking forward to pulling out a comic or two, like Radioactive by Lauren Redniss.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

We’re making nachos with shredded beef for dinner! SO excited for that!

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

Hmm, let’s see. I’ve been blogging for almost four years. I really want to write a book at some point in my life. I crochet things.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

Well, last time I was helping out with the hosting, but this time I’m just taking it easy. I don’t plan on staying up the whole 24 hours, because I have an oyster festival to go to tomorrow, but I do plan on reading as much as I can for the next, oh, 10 hours.

Hours 1-7:

This is the book that has been consuming me the past few days. In fact, I did little else but read it during my free time. I had about 50 pages left and I finished them all this morning.

Ate for lunch: pho!
Groceries purchased! Now:

I’m on page 159 out of 277 of this one, so I hope to have it finished in the next hour or so. I’ll keep you updated!

Hour 8:

I finished Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone. Man, the last part of that book was intense and heartbreaking. I don’t think this book is going to be on my top books of 2012 or anything, but I’m glad I read it. It’s well-written.

I also ate some potato chips and onion dip. Yum! Next up I think I’ll read a comic. Maybe Radioactive or Empire State. 

Hour 9 & 10:

These were a productive two hours!

I really loved this comic. It’s short and bittersweet, with a main character who journeys across the country to be with the girl he loves. Except he’s never told her. I loved the art, love the way color was used to help the story progress back and forth in time, loved it all, pretty much. Excuse me while I go look up everything Shiga has ever written/drawn, so I can read it all.

It was nice to take a break with poetry. I think this is the perfect kind of poetry to read during the readathon. These poems are easy to read, like snapshots and character studies. The language is beautiful, but not overly complex. I adored these poems, which is really no surprise since Natasha Trethewey is an amazing poet.

Now, onto Radioactive, as Vasilly requested!

9:15PM: I’m halfway through Radioactive after taking a few breaks here and there, but I wanted to do the midevent survey!

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?

Not feeling tired and I still have one more diet coke in the fridge, so I think I’ll be fine!

2) What have you finished reading?

As mentioned above, Columbine by Dave Cullen, Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield, Empire State by Jason Shiga, and Domestic Work by Natasha Trethewey.

3) What is your favorite read so far?

I think the best book is Columbine, but I only read the last 50 pages of that today. Empire State was the one that surprised me the most. Domestic Work was just as good as I thought it would be. And Amelia Anne was good, but my favorite.

4) What about your favorite snacks?

Hmm, I ate more chips than I should and then proceeded to have nachos for dinner. So all of them?

5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!

I haven’t been traveling around blogs a lot tonight, though I’ll probably do some of that when I need a break later in the evening. Instead I’d like to thank the 2 new-to-me blogs that have commented on my blog today: Buried in Print and Scraptherapy!

This week in…

By Lu Posted in Blogging, Books, Life, Poetry Project Tagged , , , , 7 Replies

not bloggiestia-ing.

I had every intention of participating in Bloggiesta this weekend, but there were just too many fun things going on this weekend. I was going to work on it this evening, but a friend of ours invited us to go see Looper tonight. Since I’ve been super excited about seeing this movie ever since I saw the trailer, I couldn’t turn him down.

There are a lot of things that need updating here, but I did a huge overhaul last Bloggiesta, so they’re basic housekeeping things that I really should be doing weekly anyway. One of them includes figuring out what to do with my “currently reading” sidebar! The truth is that it’s too difficult to maintain. I either switch books to quickly or end up not finishing the book and it just sits there and stares at me. I’ve decided to change it to some of my favorite reads of the year, something I’ve seen on other blogs.

Another thing I want to work on is making crafting a more prominent part of my blog. When I started Regular Rumination, my intention was to have this be a crafting and book blog, but crafting sort of took a back seat to school and reading and reviewing. I haven’t been doing much reviewing lately, I just don’t seem to have an interest in it, and I’m no longer in school, so I have a lot more time for crafty pursuits in the evenings. I have a few ideas that I hinted at last week, and I hope to roll them out in the next week or two.

new phone purchasing!

Tomorrow I’m getting a new phone! Which I guess means that it should really go in next week’s “This Week In” post, but I’m so very excited! I’ve had this slow, clunky phone that is a smart phone, but it’s a smart phone that only runs two apps at a time. I downloaded Hootsuite when I first got it and a Sudoku app. That in addition to the standard apps, like Maps (which works about half the time), is about all it can handle. I’m excited to have a phone that actually functions, including a camera with better pixels than my current digital camera.

reading.

I finished Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch, which was nice, if a bit disjointed. There were certainly parts that really resonated with me.

I also read 13, edited by James Howe. It was good, but like most story collections, had strong stories and weaker stories. Fortunately some of the stronger stories came toward the end.

I finished Ask the Passengers by AS King, which I adored, even though it felt a little heavy handed at times. I think AS King is definitely one of my favorite YA authors, though my favorite book of hers so far is Everybody Sees the Ants. if you haven’t read it, get thee to a bookstore or library and read it! I only have one book of AS King’s left to read, The Dust of 100 Dogs, and this makes me sad. I hope she puts out another book next year! I was trying to describe her books to a friend of mine and I said they are all a little bit sad, very funny, and a bit weird. It’s a perfect combination.

I started reading In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner. So far, it’s a terrifying and moving story, though I haven’t necessarily connected with the story yet. That being said, it is making me realize how much I miss reading books that are set in different countries during different time periods. My reading for the last year or so has been very US/UK-centric, with little translated fiction or fiction about other places. This novel is not translated, but I miss exploring with the books I read. Once I have read most of the books I have in my apartment and I start going to the library more, I’m definitely going to be more conscious about where authors are from and which languages books are originally published in.

blogging.

I participated in the More Diverse Universe Blog Tour, which was amazing! I want to go around and comment on all the blogs that participated this week. I really loved the book I read for this tour and from the comments it seems like I convinced a few people to add it to their TBR.

I also talked about my plans for Books In and Books Out. I’m purchasing 3 books this month, but I have 5 on my desk to get rid of! Once I finish Under the Shadow of the Banyan, that one can leave too, so I’m doing very well. I’ve only been reading books I already own and, so far, I’m not bored. The books I’m purchasing are The Night Circus, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Getting Things Done. 

readalongs.

Speaking of The Night Circus and Something Wicked This Way Comes… won’t you join me in reading these two books this October? I know that fall is a busy time for blogging and readalongs, but I’ve wanted to reread Something Wicked and The Night Circus for some time now and this seems like the perfect time to do it.

I’m calling this event The Wicked Circus Read and I have a whole post about it here.

This month for The Poetry Project, we’re also celebrating Halloween and the spookiest season by reading Halloween poems. This would be the perfect time to catch up on all your Edgar Allen Poe poetry or check out this resource of Halloween poetry and scary poetry from the Poetry Foundation.

Have a lovely week!