I‘m very excited about February‘s reading plans!

My Christmas book haul! I sent my parents a list of books that I had been meaning to read for a long time and they bought me some of them! I‘m always trying to prioritize my owned unread books, so I figured if they BECAME owned unread books, I‘d get to them quicker. I can‘t wait to read them!

I started rereading Anne of Avonlea today, which means I'm reading my final 3 books of 2020! Once I finish these 3, I'll be at my goal of 95 books for the year. My original goal was 90, so I'm pleased. It's been a great mix of getting stuff that's been lingering on my TBR done and picking up books on a whim this year. I intend to keep up a similar pattern in 2021. If I finish these 3 quickly, I'll start a big book that'll last me to 2021.

Tonight‘s vibe is pure Christmas! This is a quick read—I started it yesterday morning before work & now I‘m nearly finished with it. It‘s a “modernization” of A Christmas Carol with the 17-year-old Holly Chase working for Project Scrooge as the Ghost of Christmas Past. She‘s fallen in love with this year‘s Scrooge & is struggling to balance her feelings with the role she must play. I‘m enjoying the book & looking forward to seeing how things end.

I really enjoyed this—it was a fun, easy read. I will say it‘s about half about the author and her journey to discover details about Milicent Patrick‘s life and then half about MP herself. The writing is also very simplistic and there are too many superfluous footnotes. BUT it was entertaining, interesting, and made great connections between MP‘s career and how little progress the film industry has made between now and then.

I treated myself to this beautiful UK edition of a favorite book that I think about a lot and even more so in recent months. I also preordered the UK paperback edition of The Glass Hotel because it‘s gorgeous and I heard that characters from SE appear in it. That was all the motivation I needed to get this one and do a long-anticipated reread. Maybe not the best choice, but I‘m thinking I may find it even more moving in the current climate.

I‘m posting this to keep myself accountable. I read the first 50 pages of this in June and then never picked it back up. I reread the first 50 pages a few days ago, and once again I haven‘t read any since. What I‘ve read so far has been good and I know I will enjoy and learn a lot from the rest. Everybody I know who has read it thinks it‘s great. I‘m planning to read a big chunk tomorrow and hopefully that will give me the momentum to keep going.

It‘s been a long time since I posted. These days, I mostly use Litsy to keep track of the books I want to read. I really like how the app doesn‘t show you the number of books on your to read list—it lets me be in denial! But I just wanted to gush that I‘m absolutely loving my current read—so cute! I just started it tonight and I‘m already up to page 80! The premise is totally silly of course, but I‘m hooked! Haven‘t read a good rom-com in awhile.

I‘ve been putting this off for awhile due to intimidation & I finally read it! Unfortunately, I felt like it was slow-going & way too detailed for my level of interest. PG is LIW‘s adult memoir that she tried to get published. Nobody would take it so she & her daughter reformatted some of it into the first Little House book. That series of course was a success & this one was not published until 2014. This is a beautiful & well-researched book!

Not the greatest picture, but I had to make a post to say I am absolutely LOVING this book. I started it this morning, then went to work for 9 hours, then promptly came home and have been bingeing all night! I‘m on page 169 already. There‘s just been an arrest made, but I think it‘s pretty obvious it‘s not the killer since we‘re not even to the 50% mark yet. Each Dublin Murder Squad book gets progressively better in my opinion and I‘m here for it!

I finished my reread of Little Women for #louisamay2020 and I really enjoyed it. This was at least my 3rd time to read the book. I did notice a few instances where characters got on my nerves—the male characters particularly. But I love the family dynamics, the charming aesthetic, and the emphasis on reading & writing. In the middle of my reread, my family saw the new LW movie and I really loved it and can‘t wait to see it again on DVD.

This is a cute little epistolary book that shows what it would be like if you were actually the person receiving all the gifts of the 12 Days of Christmas. A young woman named Emily is writing thank you notes to her beloved—each day she gets less and less thankful. The illustrations are charming! Not something I would rush out to buy, but if you come across it, definitely worth a few minutes if your time.

I finished this Christmas Eve and unfortunately I found it to be a disappointment. The premise was silly. The book dragged significantly in the middle. The characters were mostly unsympathetic. This is a 276-page book and it took me a full week to read because I never felt compelled to pick it up. I would say watch The Man Who Invented Christmas and call it good. They cover the exact same topic and the movie‘s explanation is much more plausible.

My Goodreads goal for the year is 95 books, but once I finish all the books on my December TBR, I would be at 98 for the year. So I decided to try to read 2 extra books to reach 100. Of course, I‘m making it easy on myself & choosing small books. The 1st one I picked as my extra book was Displacement, which I read tonight. It put me at 95 books for the year! Woot! Now let‘s see if I can finish 5 more books with all the holiday stuff going on!

I finished this a few days ago, but I waited for a sunny day so that I could show off how shiny the cover is. This was my #cloakanddaggerchristmas2019 read and I really loved it! Perveen is a wonderful heroine who has an interesting backstory and an entertaining group of people around her. I also found the mystery compelling and I didn‘t guess the murderer. I‘m already planning to pick up the second book in January.

Tonight I finished Sapphira and thus I finished my year-long challenge of reading all of Willa Cather‘s novels and novellas! She wrote exactly 12 of them so it was perfect. There weren‘t any surprises—her most well-known works are her best—but it was still interesting. This was my first time to deliberately read an author‘s full oeuvre & I enjoyed doing it. However, next year my main reading goal is to make a sizable dent in my owned unread books.

Read this over my Thanksgiving trip and finished it on the way home. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it had just been Eve‘s story. Charlie‘s storyline seemed unnecessary and the jump between them had those forced cliffhangers that I hate. But it kept my interest and I learned a lot of new WWI history. This is my book club‘s pick for December so it‘ll be interesting to see what the other ladies think of it.

I feel bad because I know this is a Booktube darling, but I didn‘t connect with this book. It was beautifully written and is obviously a product of a lot of deep thinking. However, I don‘t have much interest in falconry and I never really understood why the author wanted to take on the challenge of training a goshawk while grieving. I would still say to check it out if you‘ve been wanting to—a lot of people clearly adore it. Just not my thing.

This has been a slow read for me—it‘s predominantly concerned with evangelical churches rather than a general picture of the introverted experience in Western Christianity. I had hoped to finish this in August, but it was not to be. I still intend to finish because it does has some good insights and I‘ve had it on my shelf since 2014 to read. Milo just happened to sit on the book so I figured I better get a picture of the cuteness!

A very quick read—only 206 pages. The authors run a parent-child book club at their local library. This is a beginner‘s guide to doing the same. They go through character, setting, plot, etc. using examples from famous children‘s books that they‘ve used in their club. I was surprised how few of the books referenced I had actually read. I do think the subtitle doesn‘t describe what the book is about. Overall, very interesting and a good reference.

This is Jahren‘s memoir of becoming a scientist and what goes on in a typical university lab. It is also a memoir of her life, touching on motherhood, falling in love, finding a family, and finding herself. It is very much a “science book” in that she discusses the nuances of paleobotany (her field), yet it‘s extremely readable and engaging.

It‘s the first day of #marchmysterymadness so here is my TBR. 4 mysteries, 1 true crime, and my Willa Cather for the month. Lethal White is what I picked up today—it was my day off so I read the first 150 pages of it! We had our opening livestream on YouTube this evening and it was great! If you want more info on MMM, search for the hashtag on YouTube and announcement and TBR videos galore will pop up.

I read the first book of Chadwick‘s Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy, The Summer Queen, last July, so I figured I better continue the seasonally-appropriate trend. This one wasn‘t quite as exciting as the first one as Eleanor spends much of the book pregnant or having just birthed a child and thus isn‘t quite as involved in the political intrigue. I still enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the third book in the fall.

Already getting started on my #marchmysterymadness preparation! This is a history of murder as entertainment in England and also discusses the prominence of English-style murder mysteries in pop culture. I‘m also partially reading this for #SHreads19 since it mentions Sherlock Holmes in the subtitle but my plan to write a script and then film a review for posting in March. I‘m on page 40 of this and enjoying it so far.

I read the last 100 pages of this in one sitting—it was extremely compelling! I didn‘t guess the ending at all and was completely surprised. I will say that this is definitely a privileged world and at times the schoolyard politics got on my nerves. But on the whole, I was invested in the story. This was a good book to read during Christmas vacay as it is fast-paced and has short chapters. This is my 105th book of the year.

After Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, we went out to the Little Free Library near my brother‘s house. I first went there last Thanksgiving weekend and now I always bring a book to trade at it when I visit my brother. It‘s always got awesome stuff. This time, I traded my copy of Bossypants for this beauty! It was already on my to read list and I have heard great things about it.

I bought this today because I was on my way to a doctor appointment and I realized I had forgotten to bring my current read. So I made a pit stop at Target and got this for $13. That‘s expensive for a book for me, but I hate having nothing to read during a wait. Of course because I bought it I didn‘t have to wait at the doctor at all! Oh well, I‘ll save it for 2019 and then watch the movie after I finish it.

My favorite kitty with a book about a very special kitty. Dewey was a library cat from Spencer, Iowa, who became famous. The book is only fair—I love kitties and of course I love libraries, but the writing is a bit saccharine for me. But there are a lot of cute Dewey pictures! This is my 3rd book for #NonfictionNovember and it‘s a quick read. Definitely should have it done by tomorrow.

Very excited about today‘s #littlefreelibrary find!

My plan for #deweysreadathon is simple: read the last 70 pages of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, read the entire Giant Days Extra Credit graphic novel, and read the intro and first essay in Reflections on the Psalms. After that (and for the rest of October), I will focus on my magazine reading. My mom is always bringing me magazines and I have an enormous stack of them on my nightstand at the moment.

So lately whenever I see a book I want to read, I‘ve only been adding it to my Litsy To Read list and not to Goodreads. Seeing the actual number of books on my TBR has been stressing me out and I like how Litsy doesn‘t give you the exact number. Well tonight I couldn‘t resist the urge to count up my Litsy books and i‘ve added 57 books to Litsy since starting my new practice. Yikes!! Does anybody else‘s TBR number stress them out?

I have 19 books left on my 2018 TBR after finishing this. It seems crazy that the year is winding down so quickly. My goal is 100 books & if I finish all 19 I‘ll be at 102. That number includes graphic novels—including all the volumes of Giant Days. I fell in love with this series in 2018! Esther, Daisy, & Susan are great characters individually & their relationship is friendship goals! I have vol. 8 & the extra credit volume saved for Dewey‘s!

I posted about this book a few weeks ago when I was in the middle of reading it, but I‘m still thinking about it now that I‘m finished. It was so engaging and a different kind of look into the Chronicles of Narnia. She made me think about so many aspects of the story: the characters, the setting, the influences from Lewis‘s life, and all kinds of little details. It was a accessible literary criticism, which I find to be rare. Highly recommend!

I‘ve been trying to make some friends in my new town and I found a cozy mystery book club on meetup.com. They were reading this for the August meeting. I read it and unfortunately I didn‘t find it very good. It was fast-moving and engaging, but the resolution of the mystery happened in the last 2 pages and the motive was weak. I ended up not going to the meeting because the book was so frustrating to me. I prefer more realistic mysteries I guess.

#7in7readathon reading for the day: I finished Age of License, started and finished Giant Days vol. 2, and then started both Lovelace‘s book and French Milk. I read the first part of four in Lovelace‘s book and I‘m planning to read one part a day until the end of the readathon. I plan to finish French Milk tomorrow. So 3 down, 4 to go! 1 tomorrow, 2 Saturday during #reversereadathon, and finish Lovelace on Sunday. Totally doable!

This is a self-help guide that details Chris Hadfield‘s journey to becoming an astronaut and then his training & trips to space. I found the first part of the book slow and rather misleading in a way—Chris kind of glosses over his challenges. But the 2nd part of the book is his 2012 ISS trip and I found that really engaging. I read the last 100 pages in one night. I think this might be great on audio so you can speed through the boring bits.

I decided to start participating in #7in7readathon 2 days after it started. I‘m joining in because I plan to read several books on Saturday for #reversereadathon & I figured I could read 7 things between now & Sunday. Tonight I completed Astronaut, started & finished Giant Days Vol. 1, & began Age of License. I may not count Astronaut for 7in7 since I technically started it before the readathon began. It‘ll depend on what I‘ve finished by Sunday.

I enjoyed the 1st part of this a lot—a fictional country wakes up on Jan. 1 to find that nobody dies. Various different death-related entities are explored: impact on funeral & nursing homes, religion, & the government. We then shift to the POV of Death and a rather convoluted story about her wanting to be human. Saramago has a very strange writing style that I found hard to read. I would have liked it to be more of an actual novel vs. a treatise.

I started this on a lazy Sunday afternoon and before I got to work on Monday I had finished the whole book. A really engaging story with a different format than a traditional mystery—everyone is stuck in a train so Poirot is analyzing the passengers versus stomping around looking for clues. I‘m so glad I finally read this! It goes so quickly because it‘s really a series of conversations. I definitely recommend this if you‘re looking for a mystery.

A really immersive historical fiction novel that follows Eleanor of Aquitaine from age 12 to 30. We see her marriage to Louis, future king of France, their travels to Jerusalem for the Crusade, their divorce, and finally Eleanor‘s marriage to Henry, future king of England. The descriptions are lovely and Eleanor is a fascinating character. This is the first in a trilogy and I‘m definitely looking forward to the next 2 books.

Yesterday the light was really good for pictures in my apartment so I photographed all the books I‘ve read recently. This is the Jane Austen mystery I finished last week. I actually think it‘s one of my new faves—it was the 2nd book to take place in Southampton, so we got to see recurring townspeople. It also was more dealing with intrigue than murder. Also it set up a continuing storyline which seems very exciting. Can‘t wait to read book 8!

I finished my Bible study today wooo! I started this in September with a 32-week class at my church. I kept up until we took a month off for Christmas. By January, I was out of the habit of doing our daily lesson and basically ended up being 2 months behind in the book by the time the class ended in May (although I still went to our weekly meeting). But I vowed I would finish the book by the end of the summer and I did it! Yea!

I‘m very excited about my July TBR & the books I‘m reading are:

Jane and the Ghosts of Netley by Stephanie Barron

Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago

The Society for Useful Knowledge by Jonathon Lyons

The Magician‘s Book: A Skeptic‘s Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller

A Storied Life by Leigh Kramer (ebook)

An Astronaut‘s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield

The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick

It‘s been a hot minute since I posted, but I‘m absolutely loving this book & had to share. This is a literary criticism of the Chronicles of Narnia, with bits of C. S. Lewis biography & the author‘s own experiences reading the books thrown in. It‘s just so interesting—so far we‘ve discussed such topics as autonomy, gender, the importance of friendship, language, and morality. I‘m not even halfway done. This book is a treat! Also, I love the cover!

I haven‘t posted on here in a month nor have I filmed any Booktube videos lately, but I have finished 4 books in April. None of them were spectacular, but I enjoyed Going Solo and Secrets. Bibliotech and Today Will Be Different were only fair. I‘ve been busy working, commuting, and now fixing up my apartment. But it looks like I will finish at least 6 books this month, which isn‘t bad at all!

I‘m excited to say that I‘m officially a full-time librarian! I‘m going to be doing Adult Services at a public library about 15 miles from where I currently live & I‘m so pumped! I‘m a total newbie librarian as I only completed my MLS in December so I‘d love any tips from fellow librarians on Litsy. I‘ve been stalking various hashtags on Twitter to see where the cool librarians hang out. But look! My name followed by the title of librarian eek!

This is a mystery-within-a-mystery with one set in the 1950s & one set in the 2010s. The 1950s mystery is definitely an homage to Agatha Christie while the modern mystery is pretty standard. It took me awhile to get into the story—the 1950s one is slow-going. I sped through the modern mystery, but I found the modern murderer‘s motive to be rather weak. The 1950s murderer had more of a motive, yet the ending was a bit convoluted. I liked it though.

My coworker was telling me that her polling station had Cat in the Hat-themed I Voted stickers for Dr. Seuss Day. I thought they sounded so cute and was jealous. Well today she brought me one! Wasn‘t that so sweet? I had early voted, but I wore it all day to promote voting to the patrons. Promoting literacy and the democratic process—my two passions—all in one go!

The 3rd installment of this series is set at Christmas time, but it‘s not a Christmas mystery. It‘s more of a theatre mystery as the manager of the Royal Theater in Bath is murdered at a party. Jane and her friend Harold Trowbridge are again on the case to figure out whodunnit. And what does the pendant with a picture of an eye found on the victim‘s body have to do with it? This was fun, but a fairly average mystery.

It‘s the first day of #MarchMysteryMadness yea! There‘s a 31-day photo challenge going on over at Instagram, so I‘ll be posting over there every day. But I figured I‘d come cross-post my TBR! 7 books to read plus 2 non pictured bonus books if needed. I‘m so pumped for the month!