Tag: reading

TBR – February 2021

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So, new month, new stack of books pulled out of my overflowing shelves. Well, half-way new. About half of them are holdovers from last month, because I didn’t get through a lot in terms of actual books.

Now do I have any intention of reading this whole stack? Good grief no. But it’s nice to narrow down my choices all in one go, rather than staring at my shelves intermittently throughout the month. Makes the choice paralysis a lot less of a thing. And if I end up just not feeling one of these it’s easier to put it aside if I have something else on hand to pick up.

Now, on to the stack.

The Fellowship of the Ring – J. R. R. Tolkien/
I’m slowly making my way through this sucker. I got a little over a hundred pages in last month, so we’ll see how far I get this time around.

Clues in the Shadows: A Molly Mystery – Kathleen Ernst
I’m admittedly a bit of an AG fangirl. I’ve read most of the original stories (minus the newer characters and the GOTY characters) but I only have a few of the mysteries, so when I see one out in the wild I tend to pick them up. I’ve had this one sitting around for a bit, but evidently I have WWII on the brain at the moment. A quick read that should work pretty good as a breather in between other books.

It Can’t Happen Here – Sinclair Lewis
I’ve tried reading this one before, but the language was kind of stilted and I just wasn’t feeling it. Figured with everything going on in the world it might be a good time to pick it up again.

Guts – Raina Telgemeier
Telgemeier is one of my favorite authors when it comes to middle grade graphic novels, so I was thrilled when I ran across another one of her books at my local thrift store.

A Darker Shade of Magic – V. E. Schwab
So, I’ve heard of this one, but I’m really walking in blind. All I know, really, is that it’s fantasy and it’s the beginning of a trilogy.

Look Who’s Back – Timur Vernes
Finishing this one up from last month. Well, technically I’ve already finished it as of last night, but I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it…

The Case for God – Karen Armstrong
I’ve been trying to read this book for a few months now, though that doesn’t surprise me. I’m always rather slow with informational texts and I got bogged down in the early Christian theology. Gonna try to chisel away at it this month.

January 2021 Wrap-up

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Well, my reading ambitions this month kind of fell flat. Between spreading my reading out in a few different places, and the tiredness that seemed to dog me all month, I just didn’t find myself picking up books as often. I did plenty of reading, between fic and prepping for classes, but not as much from this month’s TBR stack.

Crank – Ellen Hopkins
I don’t normally lean towards gritty stuff. There’s nothing wrong with it; it’s just not my thing, personally. I’m more of an escapist literature sort of person. As usual, however, a novel written in poetry form drew my attention. What can I say, I have a weakness for story-written-in-verse. It still wasn’t as much my thing, but it was a pretty solid read and I enjoyed Hopkins’ use of free verse and concrete poems.

Full Review

The Fool’s Girl – Celia Rees
Eh… another one that wasn’t as much my thing, but for a different reason. I had a discussion with my husband the other day about sequels that do horrible things to the original story, and that’s essentially what this book did to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It had flaws, but it wasn’t bad. I just don’t care much for those sort of retellings. It did end up making me search out Twelfth Night for a refresher, so there’s that at least.

Full Review

Critical Role Vox Machina Origins Vol 1
So this was my third or fourth re-read of this volume, probably. It actually surprised me how long it took me to pick it up again, considering I’ve been hanging on to volume 2 since Christmas. I suppose there’s only so much time my brain can devote to the world of Exandria at a time, even if this is Vox Machina and not The Mighty Nein. Plus, I always find the first volume of anything to be a little slower to get through for some reason.

Full Review

Critical Role Vox Machina Origins Vol 2
This was a much easier read, I found, than volume one. I think it’s because the character relationships have kind of developed since the first volume. It was nice to see Vox Machina actually together, solidly, as a group, rather than going through the introductions (with the exception of Percy, who I had completely forgotten was in this volume and thus burst out with a surprised squeak/shriek at seeing his gun). I’m already thinking about pulling it back out for a reread, if that says anything.

Still reading…
I kind of spread my reading attention out a little bit through the month, so I’m partially in to about three different books right now. I’ve made it through a bit over a hundred pages of The Fellowship of the Ring, and it’s… going slow. Tolkien, I’ve found, is not an author I can read in heavy doses.

I’ve gotten half-way through Look Who’s Back and… there’s a lot that my brain’s trying to unpack with that one. Had to set it aside this weekend and tell myself I’d get back to it in a few days.

And lastly, I Haven’t made much progress in The Case For God – been spending a bit much time on non-fiction stuff for work to be able to indulge myself in reading-for-pleasure comparative religion. Hopefully, next month will be better for that.

What I’m reading in January 2021

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So, it’s probably a little late for a TBR post. Honestly, I thought it was late when I’d initially decided to post it, back on the 6th. It was just sitting there in my drafts, ready to publish and… well, you may be able to guess why the post slipped my mind. Be that as it may, here’s the books I picked out as maybes for this month.

Lord of the Rings Part one – The Fellowship of the Ring – J. R. R. Tolkien
So, I’ve read the Hobbit. I’ve watched the Peter Jackson films and the Rankin/Bass films. I’ve never, however, actually read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and it’s about time I fix that. 

Crank- Ellen Hopkins
I have a small collection of this author’s work, thanks to a local thrift store, but this will be the first I’ll get to if it gets pulled out of the pile this month. It deals with some pretty heavy subject matter, but I love stories told through poetry, which is this author’s thing. 

The Fool’s Girl by Celia Rees
So I had intended on picking this one up last month, but it got pushed off a bit. So far I’m really liking the writing style. It veers between first and third person narration, which I don’t see very often.

Looks Who’s Back-  Timur Vermes
A few years ago I saw the film adaption of this book and found it… well, a story about Hitler, without explanation, winding up in present-day Germany? I like weird stuff like that sometimes, especially when it’s trying to make a point rather than being absurd simply to be absurd.

Honestly starting to rethink this one at this point…

The Case for God – Karen Armstrong
Afraid I didn’t make it very far in the book in December. Got a bit bogged down by the early Christian theologians and the creation of the trinity. Hitting slow spots is pretty normal for me in regards to nonfiction works though. I’ve found I just have to read a bit of them at a time. We’ll see how it goes in January.

Critical Role Vox Machina origins Vol 1
So I’ve already read this one once, but I received Vol 2 for Christmas which means it’s time for a reread!

Critical Role Vox Machina origins Vol 2
I love Critical Role. Seriously, it was my main obsession for over half a year at one point- the second campaign at least. If you’re familiar with it you’ll know how much of a time-sink the show is, so campaign one… well, I’m slowly getting there. Very slowly, so I’m looking forward to getting a more manageable chunk of Vox Machina this month.

Hello there

LenadyLeave a comment

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m awful at introductions. I struggle with them as much online, I feel, as i do in real-life, because I’ve been trying to do this for years, and I still don’t feel like I’ve gotten much better at it. Those awkward first words just always seem stilted, and forced, and not really myself at all.

Be that as it may, it’s kind of necessary, because you don’t really know me yet and I’m not the sort of person to just plop down in front of you and start talking, either. So, yeah…

Hi, I love words. Funny, considering how bad I am at putting them together verbally. And how abysmal I am at a lot of word games… but that’s beside the point. I love reading and writing… and a lot of other stuff too (music, holidays, vintage cookbooks, insert-geeky-show-or-movie-here) but my go-to favorite thing is always going to to be a good story.

It’s what keeps me sane.

This isn’t news to me. I’ve known this I was a kid when, even if I was feeling awkward or I said the wrong thing, I could retreat to the handy emergency paperback I kept stowed in my backpack. And then later, when I started putting my own words onto the page – the ones I could never say out loud- letting my characters and poems say them for me.

Words are my lifeline.

And then I became a teacher.

The thing is, teaching will literally consume you if you let it. There’s always something to do, and if you’re not doing it then there’s the sense that you’re not enough, that you’re failing. Ugh. Teacher guilt.

I think you can guess what happened.

A couple of months into the first semester I found myself ready to break, because, since the start of the school year, I hadn’t written anything. I hadn’t picked up a single book that my students weren’t reading. The amount of jealousy I felt while my they were journaling was maddening. And I thought… what in the heck am I doing to myself?

So yeah, this blog was born. Because hopefully this will make sure I try to maintain my mental health. In truth, I have no idea what it’ll actually end up looking like. I have some ideas- books, obviously, as well as some other stuff (none of which have anything to do with teaching) but I’m kind of looking forward to just seeing where it goes. Letting the journey take me where it will. You’re free to come along if you’d like. The company would be nice.