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Seriously Saturday Series Catch-Up

01 Feb

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If you’re anything like me, you probably have first-book-series syndrome. Where you read the first book (or first couple) of a series, really like it then forget about it completely because there are so many new and shiny books out there (otherwise known as bight-shiny-new or BSN disease).

That’s why Cassi from Galavanting Girl and I teamed up to do a series challenge, the Seriously Saturday Series Catch-Up. And you are more than welcome to join us! Just pick which series you want to catch up on, make a goal and post how you’re doing once a month.

Create a list of series you want to complete during 2014. Share it on your blog, then join us the first Saturday of the month as we share about our successes (or failures) in this series finishing adventure.

My series (and this was much harder than I thought, I have at least 20 in progress):
1. Rizzoli and Isles – Tess Gerritsen (Book 10)
2. Temperance Brennan – Kathy Reichs (Books 13, 14, 15, 16)
3. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon (Book 8 – to be released in June)
4. Kari Vaara – James Thompson (Books 3 and 4)
5. Unwind – Neal Schusterman (Book 3 and 4 – book 4 due out in October)
6. Night Huntress – Jeanine Frost (Books 5, 6 and 7)
7. Chicagoland Vampires – Chloe Neill (Book 9)
8. Whiskey Creek – Brenda Novak (Book 6)
9. Lunar Chronicles – Melissa Marr (Book 3)
10. The Agency – Y.S. Lee (Book 2, 3, and 4 – book 4 due out in June)
11. Highland Pleasures – Jennifer Ashley (Books 5 and 6)
12. Barefoot Bay – Roxanne St Claire (Book 4)
13. Fast Track – Erin McCarthy (Book 7)
14. Dark Swan – Richelle Mead (Book 3 and 4)
15. Club Shadowlands – Cherise Sinclair (Books 7 and 8)
16. In Death – J.D. Robb (Books 19 and 20 – ok, so not really getting caught up, but attempting making a dent…and I have the entire series waiting for me, so who knows)

That gives me a grand total of 29 books that I’m aiming for in 2014.

What about you?

 
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Posted by on February 1, 2014 in Reading Events, Reading Plans

 

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It’s time to party like its 1815 (Jane Austen style) – aka Classics Retold

10 Sep

classics retold

Ok, so I’ll admit that I’m a bit behind getting my first classics retold post up, but better late than never right? I’m also a bit behind in getting all of my books read (umm…no excuse there…just my normal too many books, too little time). But that being said, I’m finished my classic and watched one of the movie versions so far (a modern take on Emma). I still have a graphic novel that is in progress, 2 more movie versions (if I can get them from the library again) and 4 re-tellings…so plenty of books to go and hopefully, i’ll be able to fit them in.

I’m looking forward to this month and hope that others are too 😉

 
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Posted by on September 10, 2013 in Reading Events

 

Classics Retold – Emma

22 May

classics retold
A few months ago, I was supposed to participate in a month celebrating the re-tellings of various fairy tales with Project Fairy-Tale. Unfortunately, I managed to choose a really hard one and struck out finding books to read, so I had to withdraw. Luckily for me, the organizers of that are back with another challenge – this time, classics re-tellings. Five different bloggers have gotten together to come up with their fabulous plan for the celebration. Each blogger is responsible for a different time period of classics and for me, Charlene from The Bookish Whimsey is organizing my chosen classics time period – 19th century and gothic classics.

When I was scrolling through the various classics I could chose from, I realized my decision was easy – since there was one book on the list, that is also on my 50 classics in 5 years challenge – Emma by Jane Austen. So I signed up for it. The goal is simple – in the lead-up to and during the month of September, the goal is to read the chosen classic, as well as at least 2 adaptations/re-tellings/spin-offs or sequels – and this could include movies (which since I have never seen the movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow – I’m set on at least one choice…

When I started looking for other options, I was surprised how many there actually were – I knew that a lot of re-tellings had been done for Pride and Prejudice, but there are also quite a few for Emma. I’m not exactly sure which ones I am going to read yet (so if you have any ideas, comment below). A few that i’m considering:

Mr Knightley’s Diary – Amanda Grange – from her Jane Austen’s Hero’s series
Jane Fairfax – Joan Aiken
A Visit to Highbury – Joan Austen-Leigh – i’m really hoping I can find this, it is cool that it was written by Austen’s great great niece
The Importance of Being Emma (Darcy & Friends) – Juliet Archer – a contemporary re-telling
Perfect Happiness – Rachel Billington – which picks up a year after Emma finishes
The Intrigue at Highbury: Or, Emma’s Match (Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mysteries) – Carrie Bebris – this looks to be a mash-up of P&P and Emma with both couples solving mysteries together…

I’m sure that there are many more out there, and I am looking forward to exploring various websites over the next few months and finding a good range of books to read and review.

Is it September yet?

 
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Posted by on May 22, 2013 in Reading Events

 

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Moby Dick Big Read

01 Jan

Moby Dick Moby Dick is one of those books that I have been scared to read. I don’t know why, but I think mainly the size of it and what I have heard about it, have made me not want to read it. But then I read The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach which used Melville’s works as a basis for the symbology in the book. It made me intrigued…

Then in late 2012, I saw the Moby Dick Big Read advertised – this was a program that saw each chapter of Moby Dick recorded by a different narrator and made available online for free (yes, free…). While the initial big read started in October 2012, I didn’t find out about it until after then, so decided to start my own read/listen of it on January 1, 2013.

If anyone is interested in reading/listening along, feel free to join in. We are going to use the study guide found HERE for discussion points, so the break down will be as follows:

Part 1 – Chapters 1-21 – Discussion questions to be posted around 20/21 January
Part 2 – Chapters 22-42 – Discussion questions to be posted around 10/11 February
Part 3 – Chapters 43-65 – Discussion questions to be posted around 5/6 March
Part 4 – Chapters 66-86 – Discussion questions to be posted around 26/27 March
Part 5 – Chapters 87-135 (end) – Discussion questions to be posted around 14/15 April

Hope to see you here – you are in for a whale of a tale (yes, a very bad pun, I know!) – sign-up below if you want to join in – I’m not savvy enough to figure out how to do a linky widget 😉

 
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Posted by on January 1, 2013 in classics challenge, Read-Along

 

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GRL2012 – Day 0.5 – Albuquerque, New Mexico #GRL2012

18 Oct

So I’ve been doing a count-down to New Mexico since I registered for the conference back in March/April (I think). And its finally here!!!

I arrived in Albuquerque on Tuesday night – and wow – it is nice and warm (no more crappy DC weather for a few days!), although the elevation made me feel a bit funky for a little while (much better now though). I’m all checking in at the Hard Rock Cafe here – awesome hotel rooms – although, there are no refrigerators and coffee pots in the room (this could be dangerous…).

Myself and a few online friends spent yesterday in Santa Fe. There was a group of people who went via the train, but I decided to be sane and not get up at 6am on vacation, so we drove. Had a fun day seeing some of the old churches, went to the Georgina O’Keefe Museum (lots of pretty pictures) and then had this mouth watering, drool inspiring Beef Chimichunga for lunch with a cheese sauce (with lots of green chili’s) that I want to bottle and sell!!

Back to the hotel time and it was time to mingle with lots of the authors who are here. I was totally trying to not go all fan-girl on some of them – but I have no doubt that will happen before the weekend is over. Or sooner, if they keep providing me with Cake flavored Vodka (whoever came up with that needs to be Sainted!). Of course, there was also gambling involved last night at the blackjack tables – and the casino won as is the norm when I try…but hey, its all in fun right!

I took some pretty good pictures while we were in Santa Fe, that I will try to get up soon, but in the mean here…here is a picture of something the hotel put on the floor for us – awesome right?

 
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Posted by on October 18, 2012 in GayRomLit12

 

Mini-Review – Les Miserables – Volume I (Fantine)

09 Oct

Thanks to Tien of Tien’s Blurb for hosting the above read-along.

So originally this post was supposed to go up over a week ago and I could have sworn that I finished it and hit post – but apparently not. I blame it on…umm, my ability to be a complete and utter scatterbrain at times…anyways, here we go. This review is my thoughts on the volume I of Les Miserables (Fantine), along with some discussion questions posed by Tien. This review has the potential to be completely and utterly SPOILERIFIC!! so you have been warned 😉

General Thoughts on Volume I
I have to admit that when I started reading, I was pleasantly surprised with how well the translation (by Denny) flowed. I was very easily sucked in and reaching my page goal each night (about 15-20 pages) was easy to do. I even found myself reading just a little bit more (which is always a bad idea when you had to be up at 4am for work)…I do have to admit that if I hadn’t had no only Tien, but other friends reading this, I might have gotten distracted but having that buddy support system for reading is great.

My other main thought so far is that I was surprised how well the first part of the musical mirrored what had happened in the book up until the end of the volume. And yes, I was singing various songs from the musical as I was reading.

Discussion Questions
1.What do you think of Bishop Myriel? He’s definitely described as being truly saintly; I’m wondering if there’s any pessimistic reader out there?
I have to admit that the beginning I was that pessimistic reader – I couldn’t believe that anyone was as perfect, as truely righteous and saintly as Bishop Myriel. But as his story progressed, he started to grow on me and Hugo’s writing style was persuasive in such a way that by the time Valjean’s path crossed with Myriel’s, I was convinced that he was that true saint. The kind of permission that you would expect have been made a Saint in the Catholic church 100 years or so post book setting.

2. For those of you who are reading this for the first time, was there any assumptions you have made previously from whatever source which was just incorrect? Was there anything which surprises you from the past week’s readings?
As I alluded to above, I’m a huge fan of the musical, although I have never seen it live (and yes, I’m still mad at my mom for not taking me to see it because I was too young…) I was pleasantly surprised with how well the musical mirrors (albeit reduced in time and descriptive). Personally, I can’t wait to see the new movie to see how well it has been adapted from the book.

3. What do you think of the contrast between Javert & Valjean?
The dichotomy between Javert and Valjean is intriguing, although I don’t think we have necessarily seen all there is to see yet since overall there was fairly limited interaction between the two. I have to wonder, whether in part, Javert’s pursuit of Valjean is in part jealously of his success – you have Javert who was born in a jail to a convict and made a life for himself that was moderately successful as a police inspector, but comparatively, then you have ValJean, a convict who served nearly 20 years, who is released, doesn’t finish his parole, and turns into a huge success – a rich business owner in a time, when many were struggling to just survive.

4. What has been the high point for you this week? Any quote/s which bowled you over this week?
As I was reading through this section and found a particularly interesting quote, I was bookmarking the page – unfortunately, I forgot to go back and highlight several of them…whoops.
But looking at the pages that I marked, there were several that I thought were significant:

“I mean that the man is ruled by a tyrant whose name is Ignorance, and that is the tyrant I sought to overthrow. That is the tyrant which gave birth to monarchy, and monarchy is authority based on falsehood, whereas knowledge is based on truth. Man should be ruled by knowledge.” – conversation between the Bishop and the old man (pg 52)

“There are men who dig for gold; he dug for compassion. Poverty was his goldmine; and the universality of suffering a reason for the universality of charity.” (pg 69)

“Do not forget, do not ever forget, that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man” – this quote epitomizes the book – the choices that we as individuals must make, how many of them are based on promises made to other people. How you choose to live your life is affected by those promises

 
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Posted by on October 9, 2012 in Book Review, Read-Along

 

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Guest Post – Mrs. Missive on Banned Books Week

04 Oct

As I was making plans to celebrate Banned Books Week, I put out a call to several of my reading groups to see if anyone would be interested on writing a guest post for the week (or even providing some quotes). But apparently no one loved me enough 😦 So I asked one of my good Goodreads friends, Mrs. Missive, if she would be interested in providing a post and I’m happy to say that she said YES! lol! We have been online friends for several years (and yet have never met).

Mrs. Missive is the Moderator and Founder of the Kindle Smut group on Goodreads.com. She has an addiction to coffee and books she can get lost in. Smut lover and author advocate, she hopes that one day her world will resemble a romance novel.

Mrs. Missive on Banned Book Week:
Banned Books Week is more than a celebration of our right to read. It is an outright battle cry for the first amendment. As a society, our “normal” is always changing. We have new values and new acceptable practices every day. Human rights have advanced through the written word.
Sometimes when people were afraid to speak, they could write. Many of the roadblocks for human rights began to crumble simply because someone was brave enough to ask why they were there in the first place. Putting these whys to paper or computer in an increasingly literate society, can make them spread like wildfire.

Fiction books play an important role in our society, as well. Escaping into a world or character created by these imaginative authors let us see things from a point of view that we could never imagine on our own. This ultimate immersion helps us put our own prejudices aside for a few hundred pages and look outside ourselves.

But aside from all that, for me, banned books is about supporting authors who have had to fight to have their voices heard. Buying a book, requesting it at the library, or posting a review are all ways we can put the names of the authors out there. I don’t want to read books I won’t enjoy. I’m not about reading something because it’s a classic and I should.

I want to read something that pushed someone during my Banned Books Week. Every protest over a book means the book affected the reader emotionally. Those words put them in motion, even if the motion is one of protest, which is entirely their right. Those are words that hold power and should not be kept hidden. Or the person didn’t read the book at all and is acting on supreme ignorance. I will keep my vulgarly worded opinion of that to myself.

You may call these big words for someone who reads primarily erotic romance, a genre with a severe negative connotation. I say there is no difference in what I read and what you read. Sex is not evil. Sex is emotional. Sex is powerful. Sex is empowering. When an author pulls me in, and shows me the couple’s emotional connection when they make love, I understand how those two characters relate to one another in the most intimate way in existence. When two people have sex, when a person lets go and becomes overtaken with an orgasm, that, right there, is when a person is the most honest. That is where that character’s truth lies. So I am not embarrassed to read “smut”. I am empowered. By uncovering the truth for the characters I read, I also find another clue about my own truth. Every book I read, I find out a little bit more about myself. Love it or hate it, a book helps you uncover something.

Banned books week lets us celebrate those authors who were willing to help us discover something that no other person has before. I am reading 1984, which was challenged in 1981 in Florida schools. I am also waiting on The Perks of Being a Wallflower from the library. I won’t list all those challenges or bans for that one. There are too dang many. Then I am picking up some of my Selena Kitt books that were pulled from Amazon for content that occurs in a fictional world. Not all of these will be my taste. Not all of these will leave me with warm fuzzy feelings. But by reading something someone was told they shouldn’t, I am gaining knowledge that at least one person missed.

Celebrate Banned Books Week with me. Find a new piece of your truth.

 
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Posted by on October 4, 2012 in Guest Post, Reading Events

 

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Banned Books Week – Mid-Week Update

03 Oct

So, I had this huge list of posts that I wanted to do this week…but as the saying goes, c’est la vie…

I am currently reading 1984 in support of Banned Books Week, but also because it fits my classics challenge. However, I am trying to savor it, because I have a feeling that once I read it, I don’t know if I will ever read it again, and if I do, it won’t be the same as my first time…

So in addition to that, I also picked up Places I Never Meant to Be which is a series of short stories written by various authors that have been on the banned and challenges lists over the last few years – and edited by the brilliant Judy Blume (yes, I do believe that my gushing qualifies me for the JB fan club).

How are you doing on your plans for Banned Book Week?

 
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Posted by on October 3, 2012 in Musings, Reading Events

 

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Deja Vu Review (4) – Childhood Favorites and Banned Books

30 Sep

The Deja Vu Review is a weekly meme hosted by Brittany at The Book Addicts Guide. Its an opportunity to revisit old books you might have read before you launched your blog, but that you think should maybe still be highlighted.

A book that reminds you of your childhood

With this week being Banned Books Week and many books from my childhood showing up on the list I thought I would take the opportunity to post a few of them. Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a mother that let me read pretty much anything I could get my hands on (even romances), and I remember all the trips we used to take to the local library when I was growing up and moving from the children’s section, to what at the time was a very limited YA section, to the adult section (I still remember discovering Danielle Steele when I was in my early teens…lol!).

1. Anything Judy Blume

When I hit my teenage years, I pretty much devoured all the Judy Blume books that I could get my hands on. Are you there God, It’s Me Margaret, Deenie, Tiger Eyes, Blubber – I found something in these books that I could relate to. It was surprising to me, when I looked not only at the Banned Book list from 1990-1999, but also 2000-2009, that books by Judy Blume still appeared. Many of her books have been out 30+ years now, but there must be something scary in think (snerk) to make them still show up. It will be interesting to see, now that Tiger Eyes (one of my favorite books by her) has been made into a movie, whether it makes it back onto the list.

Judy Blume’s books have also stood the test of time. Just last year, in one of the various reading challenges I do, we were asked to read some childhood favorites, so I took it as an opportunity to listen to Tiger Eyes and Are You There God, Its Me, Margaret. And I still found myself laughing hysterically hard at the “we must, we must, we must increase our bust” section.

2. Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
Katherine Paterson’s classic about two friends and the world that they create for themselves – I had a place that I used to go and hang out with, luckily none of my friends ever died like in the book. But there was something so innocent about Jess and Leslie’s relationship. I didn’t realize that this was on the banned/challenges list until last year when I was doing some reading on Banned Books week – cited reasons include the promotion of the use of vulgar language (because damn and hell is said); the showing disrespect to adults and then the ultimate death of a main character. Here is a link to a really good blog detailing some of the challenges to the book – Bridge to Terabithia

3. The Witches – Roald Dahl
I loved pretty much all of Dahl’s books growing up – prior to discovering Judy Blume, he was one of my favorite authors (and I just recently discovered that he has several books of short stories for adults available – heaven!). While not exactly one of my favorites, I remember the enjoyment of reading the Witches and just a few years ago, watching the movie that was released. The following journal article takes a look at some of the controversy surrounding The Witches – it is a bit dense, but an interesting read

There are so many other books that I would love to mention here, but my blog post would then go on and on and on, and no one wants that right?

What about you guys – What books remind you of your childhood (banned/challenged or not)?

As a bonus at the end of the week, I’m going to collect all the names of people who have commented and throw them in the drawing for some kind of prize (yet to be determined).

 
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Posted by on September 30, 2012 in Deja Vu Review, Reading Events

 

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Banned Book Week – 30 September – 6 October

30 Sep

September 30th sees the launch of the 30th anniversary of celebrating Banned Books. Banned Books Week started in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Since then more than 11,300 books have been challenged.(1) Books may be challenged for a variety of reasons, according to the top 10 list compiled by the American Library Association (ALA), in 2011, the most challenged books and reasons were:

1.ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series) – Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

2.The Color of Earth (series) – Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

3.The Hunger Games trilogy – Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

4.My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy – Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

5.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

6.Alice (series) – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

7.Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit

8.What My Mother Doesn’t Know – Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

9.Gossip Girl (series) – Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

10.To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism

I can’t say that I have read all of the books on this top 10 list, but since I’ve read The Hunger Games, I am going to use that as my example. According to the reasons cited above, it has been banned because of anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence.
Anti-ethnic – I’m guessing this is because there is really not much description of various ethnicities through-out the book, unless it has to do with the movie and the controversy regarding the selection of the actress that played Rue
Anti-Family – hmm, so Katniss volunteering to enter the games in lieu of her younger sister is anti-family? or the fact that she and Gale routinely had their names entered into the drawing more than others in order to provide for their family…
Insensitivity – not sure how to categorize this – maybe the fact that many of the tributes didn’t react when they killed one and other – except for Katniss mourning Rue’s death – or maybe later on in the books when people are fighting in the Civil War and there is no time to stop and mourn the dead – I don’t know
Offensive Language – I’m blanking on any specific instances of this, but if anyone knows of any feel free to let me know
Occult/Satanic – ditto to my above comment – from what I remember from reading all 3, there is no mention religion in any form, in fact, I wondered if that was one of the things that disappeared during the initial revolution
Violence – so this is maybe the only objection that I see worthy from all 3 books – there is lots of killing, some of it gruesome – but as most of it is told through the eyes of Katniss, you see the perspective of a teenager. But at the same time, war is violent – there is really no such thing as a peaceful war…so I don’t know how else Collins could have portrayed the actions of what occurred in the world that she built.

Either way, yes, there are various reasons why this book has been banned, do I agree with the banning, hell no! I believe that it is up to the parents of the children to decide what their (and only their) kids should read. No parent other than me will tell me what my (non-existant) kids can read – until they start feeding them and clothing them.

What books on the banned book list are you planning on reading this year?

I have 2 planned – 1984 (George Orwell) and The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

 
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Posted by on September 30, 2012 in Reading Events

 

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