My Life According to Books

Welcome to today's Thankfully Reading Weekend mini-challenge. This is a meme I have done for the past several years, thanks to my friend Pop Culture Nerd. This year I collaborated with her to come up with the sentence starters and we're sharing it with you for this mini-challenge.

For those who haven't heard of this fun activity before, I'm going to give you the beginnings to ten sentences. You complete the sentences with book titles from books you've read this year. They don't have to be books that were published this year, just books you read this year.

You can see Pop Culture Nerd's responses here. And the responses I gave for previous years include last year, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009 (yes, I obviously enjoy this--I hope you do, too).

So now on to this year's feature:

1. Black Friday makes me: Roosevelt's Beast (Louis Bayard)

2. If you post racists comments on Facebook, I: (flip) The Kill Switch (James Rollins & Grant Blackwood)

3. In my ID photo, I look like: (I belong in) Morgue Drawer 4 (Jutta Profijt)

4. If someone interrupts my reading, I: Think Like a Freak (Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner)

5. When I read/watch the news I: (become an) Angry Optimist (Lisa Rogak)

6. The last time I (we) visited the zoo, I (we): (were) The Happiest People in the World (Brock Clarke)

7. If I were a Supreme Court justice, I would: (dole out) Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson)

8. Absolutely nothing compares to: Adventures in the Anthropocene (Gaia Vince)

9. Best advice my mom gave me was: Don't Look Back (Gregg Hurwitz)

10. My hope for 2015 is: A Better World (Marcus Sakey)

O.k. what do you think? Ready to take a shot at it? You can post to your blog or leave a comment with your responses. If you post to your blog, be sure to come back and leave us a link so we can come see your responses! It's so much fun to see what everyone comes up with for these.

Thankfully Reading Weekend!

Happy Friday and I hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving had a wonderful day yesterday. I don't think my day could have been much better. I started out with a few hours of audiobook--listening to Craig Johnson's WAIT FOR SIGNS--and working on a Christmas present. Then my puppies and I went to my parents' house for a lovely dinner with them and the puppies got to play with their dog. And we wrapped up the day with several hours of reading THINGS HALF IN SHADOW on the sofa--I always have plenty of cuddling company when I read on the sofa.

As most of you know, because I mentioned this in an earlier post, I'm participating in Jenn's Bookshelves annual Thankfully Reading Weekend. I'll be hosting a challenge tomorrow, but today I'm responding to Jenn's challenge: What Book Are You Most Thankful For This Year? 

This is actually a rather easy question for me to answer and I really don't have to go back and look at my list of 2014 reads. A MAN CALLED OVE has been my stand out book this year. I've recommended it to more people than any other book and it will be my favorite for the year. It is so beautifully written with the most spectacular characters. I laughed and cried, got angry and rejoiced. For me, it was simply everything a book should be. I still think about it regularly even though I read it months ago--now that's a book that stays with you. This is one I'll keep in my collection for a long, long time as I'll definitely re-read it and luxuriate in its wonderfulness over and over.

I'm thankful for the experience of reading this book AND I have to say I'm thankful to everyone who wrote me to tell me they read it after reading my review. It makes me so happy to pass along the joy of a book like this. It's why I write this blog.

I'll be back a little later today to share with you the first of a series I'm doing this holiday season. I wanted to share some books and extras that may make nice gifts this year for people on your holiday lists. Next week I'll be back with some all new Five on Fridays and the gift idea post will be on Thursday, but today kicks off the official gift ideas post. Check back! In the mean time, pop over to Jenn's Bookshelves and check out the challenge for yourself. She has a very nice prize you can win if you participate, and you don't need a blog to join in!

Happy Reading! 

The Mini Challenge Recommendations

My apologies all. I had intended to put this post together earlier, but after taking most of the weekend off from everything else, the last couple days got a little crazy. So, let's tend to my Thankfully Reading Mini Challenge.

The idea was to suggest alternate authors for people who really enjoy the more well-known writers. One thing I absolutely hate is when a comparison is made between authors but it's never explained. For example, if I said, "fans of Craig Johnson will love Newby Smith." Well why? Does Newby Smith write about American Indians? Is Newby's book set in the West? Does Newby have rich characters with great relationships? Any of those factors could be why a fan loves Craig Johnson's work. So a flat statement is not helpful if the stater is thinking "people who read Craig Johnson like American Indians in their book." But reader is thinking, "Craig Johnson has such a rich sense of place in his writing, so Newby MUST write that same way." So, I asked people to offer a small explanation to try to overcome this communication breakdown and make their recommendations a lot more useful. Here are the results of what people recommended:

Kai at A Fiction State of Mind recommends Joe Hill for fans of Stephen King's horror writing. You can read more about her recommendation here.

Erin at Paperback Stash says she thinks you'll like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum Series, Candace Haven's Standalone books, and the Austin Carr series by Jack Getze if you like Sue Grafton. She gives you more information about her choices here.

Jennifer Smeth chose Jodi Picoult for her recommendation and she says, "If you really like Jodi Picoult, then you will like the new Kristina Riggle (THE WHOLE GOLDEN WORLD), the new Kristina McMorris (THE PIECES WE KEEP), and Jason Mott (THE RETURNED). All 3 books and authors take an issue, a circumstance, a world and show you that it's not just black and white. There is grey and there's beauty in the grey."

Another recommendation for Jodi Picoult readers came from Page-O-Meter:  If your reader really likes Jodi Picoult, I recommend: Nichole Bernier (The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.) or Elizabeth Silver (The Execution of Noa P. Singleton) - both authors write interesting mysteries nice twists at the end.

From the Editor's View we received:

 "If you really like James Patterson, LeCarre, et al, you'll like Douglas Richards' Wired, Amped, and his latest The Cure. Richards' plots take us to the cutting edge of technology and geo-political intrigue while making us care about his characters.

An author I read for the first time this year and want to see what's next is Ellen Ullman. Her By Blood is one of the most unusual novels of recent years, featuring a protagonist you won't like, and a story you can't put down."

And last but not least, I offer you my long-time friend and fellow blogger George Lichman who has a wee problem following directions. ;-) But since his recommendation was for Lou Berney, I'm going to give him a little leeway. (I introduced him to Lou Berney.) Check out who he thinks will like Lou Berney's books here. 

And since I created the challenge, I guess I should share a couple of my own.

If you have readers that enjoy John Grisham's legal thrillers, I would like to offer up the suggestions of David Ellis and debut author James DuPont. Both authors do a great job of blending the legal practice with a thrilling plot. DuPont also weaves in the military as his legal twist is from the JAG angle. While some legal thrillers tend to be nothing more than a lawyer in the protagonists seat, I walk away from both Ellis and DuPont's work feeling like I know a little more about the legal system itself.

And if your reader is piqued by the idea of legal systems outside the U.S. Lisa Ballantyne's THE GUILTY ONE and Liad Shoham's LINEUP both offer gripping tales. Ballantyne's in the UK and Shoham in Israel.

I'll also offer up a couple recommendations for Sue Grafton readers. If the person you're shopping for likes strong female protagonists in investigative-type roles my go-to gal is Alafair Burke. Ellie Hatcher remains my favorite female protagonist. A debut author who introduced a great new addition to the club this year is Ingrid Thoft with her debut LOYALTY.

And if it's Sue Grafton's humor that your reader connects with, both Burke and Thoft employ humor but a little heavier on the humor would be Lisa Lutz with her Spellmen Files series or Sophie Littlefield with her Stella Hardesty series.

Thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions for the mini challenge. If you are looking for suggestions for a specific author, drop me an email, I'll be happy to try and help you out.

As for the prize winners in this challenge. Jennifer and Erin are my lucky winners. I'll be contacting them to get their book and audiobook preferences from the prize closet so I can send those out ASAP. But they will both also get a Jen's Book Thoughts tote bag.

Happy Reading!

Thankfully Reading - The Final Mini-Challenge

I'm rather sad to see this wonderful weekend come to an end today. I've had such a good time putting the regular craziness of life aside in order to read. It's been such a treat. I'm especially thankful to Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves for hosting the weekend. I wouldn't have made the extra effort to do this otherwise.

I'll finish up Book #2 and start on #3 today. I may be able to finish up my October List audiobook as well. I'm nearing the end there too, but we'll see on that front I have to write a few reviews today so that may put a crimp on the total pages read. :-)

Jenn is hosting the final mini-challenge for the weekend and it's a good one. She wants to know which book from this year I'm most thankful for. And I have to say that's a hard one because I think it's a 3-way tie between all non-crime fiction books. The contenders are:

Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies (Chris Kluwe)
The American Way of Poverty (Sasha Abramsky)
The Upcycle (William McDonough & Michael Braungart)

I'm most thankful for these books because they reminded me what's important to me and that it isn't o.k. to just be quiet about things that are important because they may offend some people's sensibilities. That it's important to have empathy for others, to be educated about the facts, to not let others control us with fear and most importantly to treat others the way that we would want to be treated.

I was reading an email from my state senator this weekend and in it he says:

A Mississippi civil rights leader in the 1960s said: "Don't tell me what you believe. Show me what you do, and I will tell you what you believe." 

These three books have motivated me to not only believe in the right thing but DO the right thing. I want it to be abundantly obvious what I believe. I'm so very thankful to be reminded of that.

And as an all-around comment, I'm so thankful for books in general because they provide me with entertainment, stress relief, thought-provoking ideas, trips to exotic locales...they are a precious gift. And I'm thankful to the people who share them with us.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend, if you're celebrating in the U.S. I hope you had a wonderful holiday, and Happy December everyone!

The Sneak-a-Read Challenge - Thankfully Reading

Jennifer at Literate Housewife has today's mini-challenge for the Thankfully Reading Weekend. She wants to know three to five books that make good choices for reading on the run--for the occasions when you have to snatch short reading times when you can fit them in--and why they work well.

I think the best kind of reading choices for these situations fall into three categories. The first is short works (short stories, novellas, essays, etc.). With the onset of the ereader, these are more widely accessible in single formats now.

Craig Johnson had both a short story and a novella this year: "The Messenger" and Spirit of Steamboat. While Spirit of Steamboat is a novella and requires more time than the short story, it's also broken up into chapters so stopping points are built in.

Both are classic Craig Johnson and everything I love about his full-length novels are packed into these little gems as well: strong sense of place, rich characters, snappy dialogue and a sense that you're right there with the Absaroka gang.

The next category would be the collections of these works. These you're more likely to find in print if you prefer a print version. Where it isn't especially cost efficient to do a print run of short stories, a collection is a better way to make it affordable. And a collection of short stories can work in a variety of ways. I see it like a bag of candy. You can buy a bag full of mini Snickers and get the same candy (a collection of one author's short stories) or you can buy the variety pack and get different flavors (a collection of different authors with a similar theme to each story).

When I'm looking for a good laugh, I turn to Steve Hockensmith's short story collections. I've enjoyed both his collection of Christmas themed stories, Naughty, and his collection of Holmes on the Range stories Dear Mr. Holmes. Dear Mr. Holmes is even available on audio!

Also within this category is a type of book I've been reading more often and thoroughly enjoying: humorous essays. Some that I've read this year include Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies (will be on my 2013 favorites list), Self-Inflicted Wounds and The Potty Mouth at the Table.

The last category is books with short chapters, ones that lend themselves to frequent stopping points. The content would need to be such that you aren't trying to remember a lot of complex detail between readings as well.

I've added some YA and Middle Grade books to the mix this year and those tend to be written exactly that way. So if there are some of those you've been wanting to pick up, when you have short snippets of time might be the perfect opportunity. Two of my favorites in this realm this year have been Chris Grabenstein's Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and John Connolly's The Creeps.

O.k. I guess I kind of made this a little more than a mini-challenge, right? The topic just sparked the ideas for me. How about you? Would you add any categories to mine? How about suggestions for books within these categories?

In the mean time, I'm headed back to my own reading. Have a great night! Happy Reading!

Thankfully Reading - The Day 3 Update

Oh what a glorious weekend this is! I have finished reading THE QUALITIES OF WOOD, which was great and you'll hear about later. I've started reading SACRIFICIAL MAN, which is creepy-wonderfulness so far. I'm sure you'll hear more later. And I got several hours of THE OCTOBER LIST finished yesterday while I did some work on the blog.

I'm sure you'll notice some changes in the sidebar and the biggest update I want to bring your attention to is my Review Archive. Instead of listing out all the books I read in the present year and the past year in the sidebar (it was just starting to look so cluttered to me), I created an archive page. I have almost three years of book reviews added so far, there's still quite a bit to link up yet, but I'll keep plugging away. I started with this year and last year's so I could take those lists down out of the sidebar, but then I moved back to the first year of the blog. Oh my goodness those reviews are atrocious. So if you stumble on one, please forgive my amateur attempts at reviews. Not that I'm any kind of professional now, but those were just terrible. One I found didn't even mention the author's name. Good Lord! I hope to work on that some more and ultimately have all my reviews from the blog linked here. So if you're wondering about a specific book you can check on the archive page now.

I have some more pictures to add to the Most Wanted Wall which is making me wonder if I can organize that a little different. It's obviously much longer than the column beside it now. Not that I'm complaining. It's a great display of wonderful authors.

Don't forget to offer up your suggestions for alternative authors in yesterday's mini-challenge. I've gotten a handful of great suggestions so far and I'm looking forward to more!

Now I'm going to go think about my on-the-go titles for Literate Housewife's, aka's Jennifer's mini challenge today (yes it's a Thankfully Reading weekend full of Jen/Jenn/Jennifers).  Be sure to pop over and check it out!

And let me know what you're reading today? Are you fitting some reading in between turkey leftovers? I hope so!

A Thankfully Reading Black Friday Mini-Challenge

How's your Thankfully Reading going? I feel so spoiled putting everything aside for my books! But, boy, is it fun. I'm on course to exceed my reading goal, so that's an added bonus.

As part of today's festivities I'm hosting a mini-challenge. Since it's Black Friday, let's talk about gifts for the holidays. After my one attempt at shopping on Black Friday and experiencing the worst humanity had to dish out in a so-called "civilized society," I vowed never to set foot in a store on this day again. But that doesn't mean we can't plan!

One of the most common questions I get as a blogger is for book recommendations based on what someone already likes. "If my dad really likes [fill in the blank] what other books would you recommend for him?"

I also hear a lot about people who read the books they can easily get at Costco or Walmart (a.k.a. the NYT bestsellers) but don't know about all the other wonderful authors out there who aren't stocked in bulk at these stores or faced out at the local Barnes & Noble.

So here's the challenge for today:

1.) Choose one or more of the authors listed below.
2.) Pick two to three other authors that share common characteristics with this author to complete the statement: "If your reader really likes [fill in the blank], I recommend: [fill in the blank]." Now here's the important part: include a short reason why. It doesn't have to be elaborate but you want whoever you're making the recommendation to to understand what connection YOU are making between the writers.
3.) Try to include at least one new-to-you in 2013 author or one 2013 debut author in your recommendations.
4.) Mention your favorite indie bookstore where people can go to buy your recommendations. Include the URL for their website. Since Saturday is "Small Business Saturday" we want to give an added plug for our favorite book-and-mortar stores.

If you don't have a blog, you can leave your responses in the comments or send me an email. If you post the challenge at your blog, please make sure to leave a comment here so I count you in the challenge. Also, I'll collect up everyone's responses and make a complete list in a post on Monday, so you can check back for recommendations from others you may have missed.

Everyone who participates and communicates their response to the challenge in one of the three ways mentioned above will be entered in a contest to win a Thankfully Reading Prize Pack. Two winners will each receive a Jen's Book Thoughts tote, two print books, and an audio book. You could win a gift for someone on your holiday list or simply win a gift for yourself!

Here are the authors to choose from. I tried to give you as much variety as possible, so hopefully there's something here for everyone. 

1.) James Patterson (any age level, but please specify)
2.) Sue Grafton
3.) Janet Evanovich
4.) Jodi Picoult
5.) Stephen King
6.) Nicholas Sparks
7.) Nora Roberts
8.) Dan Brown
9.) John Grisham
10.) Michael Chabon
11.) Neil Gaiman
12.) Philippa Gregory
13.) Danielle Steele
14.) George R. R. Martin
15.) J.K. Rowling (as the MG author)
16.) Stephanie Meyer (YA)
17.) John Green (YA)
18.) Rick Riordan (MG)
19.) Jeff Kinney (MG)
20.) Suzanne Collins (YA)

O.k. let's put together a great list of recommendations so that everyone can do the bonus challenge: buy someone on your holiday list a new-to-them author this year. Let's get the word out about great books and great writers!

I'm Thankfully Reading this Weekend!

I can NOT believe it's Thanksgiving of 2013. Where has this year gone? It seems like it just started. And then it seemed like summer just started and now...*sob*...there's snow on the ground. But, that's even more reason for me to stay home and read this weekend!

Jenn, from Jenn's Bookshelves, is a blogging and real-life friend that I'm supremely thankful for. And this weekend she's hosting the Thankfully-Reading-rules-free weekend. It's just an encouragement to put aside all the busy-ness of our normal lives and enjoy some quality reading time. I'm going to be doing just that.

Last night I finished up DEAD MAN'S FANCY by Keith McCafferty so I could start the weekend fresh with a brand new book. I have both print and ebooks in my potential read stack for this weekend. I also have Jeffery Deaver's THE OCTOBER LIST geared up on my iPod so I can spend a little time crocheting this weekend as well.

Here's a look at the print books I'm considering for the weekend:

What do you think? My goal is to finish two--possibly three since a couple titles are middle grade books. So obviously I've got more than enough (not to mention the few on my ereader as well). That's always better than too little!

I'm going to do a little blog work, participate in--and host--some mini challenges for the weekend, and just all-around enjoy myself.

Please feel free to let me know how your reading is going this weekend. If you stop by, let me know in the comments what you're reading and how you're enjoying it.

You can check out what Jenn and other bloggers are doing by visiting Jenn's Bookshelves. And goodness gracious, by all means, join in. No pre-registration was required...jump in whenever you like.

I'm off now to start my first book, which is actually on my ereader. It's a book I've been wanting to read for awhile but has been neglected because of so many obligations. This weekend is for pure enjoyment! I'm starting with THE QUALITIES OF WOOD by Mary Vensel White.

I'll check back in later with an update, but until then, Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. Happy Thursday to all my friends outside the U.S. And thank you to everyone. It's a joy sharing books with you.