August 2015 | The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness

August 30, 2015 • reading •

Picturing My September Reading ARC(s)

halloween%20decor%20grocery%20store%20August%202015

I think it’s too early yet for Halloween decorations, but apparently not for Halloween-ish reading. That’s one of the hazards of freelance book reviewing, though. I need to get reviews for October releases submitted during September, and that’s why I started reading Stacy Schiff’s The Witches: Salem, 1692 (out October 27) this weekend. Between Gods: A Memoir by Alison Pick (pub date October 20) is the second of the two October ARCs I plan to review for Shelf Awareness.

books%2520October%25202015%2520Between%2520Gods%2520Alison%2520Pick%2520The%2520Witches%2520Stacy%2520Schiff

Despite (because of?) my years of Catholic schooling, I’m not religious, but I have an abiding interest in religious studies, and memoirs about struggles with faith and spirituality are one of my “Kryptonite” genres.

books%2520Sisters%2520in%2520Law%2520Only%2520Woman%2520on%2520the%2520Room

I intended to review these two September ARCs for the Shelf, but they both publish before mid-month and I couldn’t get to them before the editorial deadline. I’m still going to read them both–I got through one-third of Sisters in Law before setting it aside for the October galleys.

I got these two ARCs just because I wanted them. Memoir is my most-read nonfiction genre; as I learn more about it, I become a more discerning reader of it, and Mary Karr is one of the pros. Anna Lefler is a friend, and I’m very excited to be a first reader of her first novel!

books%20September%202015%20Art%20of%20Memoir%20Mary%20Katr%20Preschooled%20Anna%20Lefler

And during my commute this week, I’ll be one of the last to read an audiobook that’s been out for nearly a year–my library hold just came in!

screencap%20Station%20Eleven%20Emily%20St%20John%20Mandel%20via%20Overdrive

What’s in your TBR for this week? Do you plan it out any further than that?

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Join 2,318 other subscribers

August 23, 2015 'riting

The Survey for August 23, 2015: Quiet Times

It’s a lazy weekend around here. That seems totally appropriate for these hot late-August days, but by one important measure summer is already over–the new school year started a week ago. (There’s not much homework yet, though.) I’m here a few hours late and probably a few paragraphs short, because I don’t have a whole lot to tell this weekend. Reading I’m on a nonfiction streak right now. I was reading What Stands in a […]

August 20, 2015 randomness

Four Favorite Podcasts: TV On My (Car) Radio

Images via Pixabay, edited and mixed with Enlight If you haven’t heard me gripe about my daily commute–two hours round-trip on a good day–you’re new around here, and/or you don’t know I live and work in the Greater Los Angeles area. Sad to say, commutes like mine are not uncommon here. My commute is what made me an audiobook reader. But I like breaks between my books (and occasionally, during them), and that’s when I […]

August 16, 2015 'riting

When Do You Read It? On Pub Dates, Priorities, and Book Discovery

In which a question posted in the Book Bloggers Do It Better Facebook group last week sent me hunting for a post I’d saved to my “Blognotes” notebook in Evernote almost two years ago The question was “When we have several books that are releasing around the same time to review- do we tend to try to read the debut first (knowing they are really counting on reviews to come in) or the more established […]

August 13, 2015 book reviews, reading

A Reader’s Journal: GO SET A WATCHMAN, by Harper Lee

Go Set a Watchman: A Novel Harper Lee Audiobook read by Reese Witherspoon Harper Books (July 2015), hardcover (ISBN 0062409859 / 9780062409850) Fiction, 288 pages Source: Public library/audiobook download via Overdrive (Harper Audio, July 2015, ISBN 9780062409898, ASIN B00TABW9Y0) NOTE: The following contains potential spoilers for Go Set a Watchman. The story of Go Set a Watchman’s publication has almost overshadowed the story it tells. It may or may not be the first draft of what, after […]

August 11, 2015 book reviews, reading

Book Talk: ANCHOR AND FLARES: A MEMOIR OF MOTHERHOOD, HOPE, AND SERVICE by Kate Braestrup

Anchor and Flares: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hope, and Service Kate Braestrup Little, Brown and Company (July 14, 2015), Hardcover (ISBN 0316373788 / 9780316373784) Nonfiction: memoir, 336 pages Shelf Awareness for Readers provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, but it was not submitted, published, or compensated by them because it was not completed by deadline. Kate Braestrup’s Anchor and Flares is subtitled “A Memoir of Motherhood, Hope, and Service.” I’d suggest that “hope” and […]

August 9, 2015 'riting

The Survey–Reading on Borrowed Time; or, Getting Reacquainted With the Library

Reading and Listening Remember when I was contemplating a free-range-reading summer? The book stack I made in anticipation of that is still assembled, and I actually did read one book out of it…and then my August and September packages from Shelf Awareness showed up. They brought me so many interesting options that I may exceed my review quota for those two months (but since I didn’t get any reviews to them for July, going over […]

August 6, 2015 randomness

It’s HOW You Read It: A Reading-Habits Q&A

This short survey asks about reading habits–not what you read, but where, when, and how you read it. I lifted the questions from a recent post on Suey’s blog. 1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading? Never good to begin with, my middle-aged eyes seriously need a well-lit place for reading, and my house has three of them. My favorite is my old green armchair in our second-story loft. It has a […]

August 4, 2015 book reviews, reading

(Audio)Book Talk: LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME by Alexandra Fuller

Leaving Before the Rains Come Alexandra Fuller Audiobook read by the author Penguin Press (January 2015), Hardcover (ISBN 1594205868 / 9781594205866) Nonfiction: memoir, 272 pages Source: Purchased audiobook (Recorded Books, Jan. 2015, ISBN 9781490654881, ASIN B00QVWQVSQ) ——————————————————————————————————————— As a daughter of White colonists in southern Africa during a time when those colonies were at war for the independence of their native Black populations, Alexandra Fuller’s youth would have been unsettled enough by virtue of the […]

August 4, 2015 'riting

Discovering my "Genre Kryptonite": 6 Types of Books I Can't Resist

Because I don’t see myself as a “genre” reader, I honestly didn’t think that I was vulnerable to any particular form of “genre kryptonite,” which is defined by Book Riot as “that Radioactive Genre Element that drains (someone) of all their powers and compels that person to read and read and read and read”. I’ve recently learned that I have been mistaken, probably because I’ve been thinking of “genre” much too narrowly. Apparently I’m rather a […]