Tag: books

Pop Update: culture consumed week of 2 January 2017

~ EMM

Last week I kicked off what I’m hoping will end up being a weekly blog post on what I’m reading, watching, and listening to — in other words, my “culture consumed” for the week. Here’s a link to last week’s post, if you missed it. And below is a (slightly more organized than last week) summary of this week’s culture consumed.

  • Books read:
    • Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (Kindle) — My first book read in 2017! I’ve had this one for a while, but have been saving it because it’s about ballet, and I’m a sucker for a good dance book. If you are also a sucker for a good book set in that intense and somewhat insane world of professional dance, I highly recommend this book.
  • Podcast episodes:
    • I listened to a bunch of Code Switch episodes, starting with the first episode from 31 May, “Can We Talk About Whiteness?” I also listened to the post-election episode, the one about the crowd-sourced letter from the younger generation of Asian Americans to their parents about race and #BlackLivesMatter, and I listened to the “What’s So Funny About The Indian Accent?” episode. This is quickly becoming my new favorite non-writing podcast.
    • The first episode of the new season of Writing Excuses promised another excellent year of craft talk. I am very excited about their plans for this year.
    • I listened to the 2016 wrap-up and 2017 resolutions / predictions podcasts from Reading the End, Pop Culture Happy Hour, and Smart Bitches.
    • And, I listened to the second half of the Sub Pop podcast’s season 2 finale interview with Father John Misty.
  • Magazines and other news:
    • Teen Vogue article on the problematic treatment of consent at the core of the new sci-fi movie Passengers — sounds like I can skip that one… nice reporting, again, Teen Vogue!
    • The latest in the “Women of Harry Potter” series at Tor is on Minerva McGonagall
    • I started reading The Economist Holiday Double-Issue. There are SO MANY good articles in there, I think it’s going to take me a while to get through this one…
    • I saw this article on Book Riot’s blog, and it had a link to a template for tracking your books read. After going through the hassle of having to export my data from Goodreads in order to run stats on what I read last year, I thought I might adopt this tracker for my purposes and see how it goes. I’ll probably still log and review books on Goodreads, but this spreadsheet will make it so much easier to calculate all my various reading stats.
  • Movies and TV:
    • Miss Representation documentary about how women are portrayed in the media and how this effects them socially, economically, and politically. (available via Netflix streaming)
    • I didn’t get around to watching Sherlock season 4, episode 1 until yesterday. This is especially frustrating because we actually bought the season on Amazon streaming because we weren’t sure if we’d be able to stream for free (we don’t have a TV/Cable). But, now it looks like you can watch the full episodes on PBS online. So, I sort of feel like an idiot. Well… at least I didn’t have to watch any ads, and I can feel good about paying artists for their art. Right?
  • YouTube:
    • Thoughts on Tomes “gush” review of The Magician King and spoiler free review of The Magician’s Land — making me consider reading the third book after all…
    • Boho Berry’s bullet journal set-up video for Jan 2017 — I’m still not sure I’m doing this whole “BuJo” thing right, but I’ve been messing around with it for a couple months now and it seems to be something that’s working for me (sort of? I’m not entirely sure?). Every once in a while I watch one of these videos on YouTube to get some ideas or to try to figure out if I’m “doing it right.” Inevitably, I walk away shaking my head, half-convinced that people are taking a concept that seemed pretty straight forward and making it WAY more complicated than it needs to be… BUT… The “spreads” are just so pretty…. After watching videos like this, I end up with “BuJo envy” (is there a cute internet term for that yet?) and my creative brain wants to get crafty with my mostly utilitarian version of this trend. But, as it is, I struggle to find enough time to update the bare-bones version I’ve developed.

Queued up next…

  • From my TBR: My library hold came up for Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski. So, I think I’ll be reading that next. In case you are one of the few people who hasn’t yet heard of this book (it made the rounds as highly recommended on so many blogs I read and podcasts that I listen to, I can hardly believe anyone hasn’t heard of it yet), this is not a book about Nirvana. It’s a pop-science book about the science of female sexuality. So far, I’ve only read the introduction, and I’m fascinated. If you are curious about the content but not sure if you want to buy/borrow the book, I recommend listening to the “Smart Podcast, Trashy Books” episodes #186 and #201. The first features an interview with the author and the second is an encore, follow-up with listener questions. So. Good. These are what initially got me interested in reading the book.
  • On my podcast app: Monday is Writing Excuses day! Can’t wait to listen to the second episode of the season!
  • In the news: Got this week’s issue of The Economist yesterday (the first issue of 2017), and I’m looking forward to catching up on the news in long form.

If you have thoughts on any of the above, or recommendations for me, please leave them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!

Reading List: Powell’s staff’s best books of 2016

~ EMM ~ 2 Comments

Powell’s just released their Staff Top 5 Picks of 2016 yesterday. I crunched the numbers* and calculated their “consensus” Top Ten. Presented in order of most to least total points, they are (links take you to Powell’s, because that seemed appropriate):

PowellsBestOf2016

  1. The Lonely City by Olivia Laing (20 points)
  2. The Girls by Emma Cline (17 points)
  3. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh (12 points)
  4. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (12 points)
  5. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (11 points)
  6. What Is Obscenity? by Rokudenashiko (10 points)
  7. The Fireman by Joe Hill (10 points)
  8. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (10 points)
  9. LaRose by Louise Erdrich (10 points)
  10. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (10 points)

What I love about this list is that there are so many books on here that I’d not heard of before. Sure, I knew that The Girls and The Fireman were getting a lot of buzz. I’ve also been hearing great things about Commonwealth. I’ve already started Homegoing and the first few chapters are great. But, other than that, the rest are completely new to me.

As I’ve mentioned before, I trust Powell’s staff recommendations. So, I’ve added these to my to-read shelf and created a separate PowellsBestof2016 Goodreads shelf to keep track of them. I’ve already started Homegoing, but if you’ve read anything else on this list, or are planning to read anything else here, let me know what you think/recommend in the comments.

 

* In case you’re interested, here’s how I came up with the total points… I did some good old “copying and pasting” of all the lists into a spreadsheet. Then I assigned points to each mention of each book based on where it appeared in each list (5 points for first place, 4 points for second place, etc.). Then I made a pivot table and sorted the results by total number of points in descending order. There was an obvious cut-off after the first ten books. After that, there were a bunch with 9 points each. So I capped the list at ten books.

I did this same analysis last year for the Powell’s Staff Top 5 Picks of 2015. You can check out that post here if you missed it. You can also check out my shelf for those books on Goodreads, where I’m keeping track of what I’m reading.

Pop Update: What I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to this week

~ EMM ~ 3 Comments

I’ve been keeping a list of what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to this week and making note, especially, of the stuff that makes me happy and feeds my creative soul. I’m going to try to post on this weekly. We’ll see how it goes.

Here’s what pop culture I was consuming in the final week of 2016:

  • On the way home from Christmas in Portland, I listened to the final Writing Excuses episode of the year. I loved their Elemental Genre podcasts this year, and I have to say, this is possibly my favorite podcast.
  • I also been loving the second season of the Sub Pop Podcast. On that same trip, I listened to the first of the final two episodes, featuring the first half of a two-part interview with Sub Pop artist Father John Misty.
  • I tried a few episodes of a new-to-me swimming podcast, and it’s okay. Not a ringing endorsement, I know, but for a podcast called “Swimming Science,” I don’t feel like there’s enough science or data driven info in these episodes to make it worth it a listen.
  • I am, however, finding a ton of useful, educative content in the pages of SWIMMER Magazine (free with membership to USMS, but also available online if you can deal with the crummy website design…). While cleaning up, I found a stack of these laying around that I hadn’t read. So, I caught up on all my back issues this week.
  • I’ve also been catching up on my back issues of the RWR (Romance Writers Report) magazine (free with RWA membership). If you write romance, you should really join the Romance Writers of America. The community is fantastic, and this magazine is chock full of useful and encouraging content.
  • As for other news, Alyssa Rosenberg’s article about all the celebrity deaths this year really resonated with me. It put into words a lot of the feelings I’d been having about all the great entertainers we lost this year.
  • I caught up on TOR’s “Women of Harry Potter” series and was reminded of Luna Lovegood’s relentless optimism and awesomeness. She really is possibly the best underrated character in the series… I highly recommend this post and all the other posts in Sarah Gailey’s series: the evil Dolores Umbridge, the fierce Molly Weasley, my hero Hermione Granger, and my favorite Ginny Weasley. They posts make me want to re-read the entire series with fresh (older) eyes.
  • After that, I finally got around to reading an article by Anil Dash that I’d had open in my browser for a couple weeks. The title pretty much sums up what it’s about: “It’s time for Asian American men to stop being the “Model Minority” in tech.” He makes some very interesting points that I hadn’t previously considered, or even realized, but that make a lot of sense to me based on some things I’ve experienced working in the tech community. If you’re at all interested in diversity in the technology industry, I highly recommend this read.
  • Because I had some extra time on my hands this week, I caught up on some of the YouTube channels I subscribe to… my two favorite videos this week were 1) this Vlogbrothers guest post from Tessa Violet on fear in art, and 2) Jenna Moreci’s “10 Worst Female Character Pet Peeves.” Note: I also liked Jenna Moreci’s “holiday writing tag” video, but I’ll save that one because I might respond to her question prompts as a separate post.
  • I finished two books and two comics trades this week. Here’s what I read (links take you to my Goodreads reviews):
    • Alterations by Stephanie Scott (Kindle, pre-order) — This book was so fun! I really enjoyed seeing how the author adapted the original (and re-make) movie, Sabrina, into this modern-day romance. Definitely recommend.
    • The Magician King by Lev Grossman (Kindle, library) — This book was a slog. I really enjoy the world building in this series, which is why I keep trying to enjoy these books. But, I hate the characters and the plot is way too predictable. There’s just too much snark and not enough sincerity for me in this series.
    • Saga, volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (trade paper) — I am so late to the party on this one, but I LOVED this so much. If this has been on your list for a while and you haven’t read it yet, go check it out immediately. It hits the trifecta of excellent world-building, characters you care about, and compelling story/plot. Highly recommend.
    • Monstress #1 by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (trade paper) — The art in this is stunning. The story was a little hard to follow at times. However, you definitely get the sense that there is depth to the plot and complexity to the characters, and that pulls you through the narrative until you start getting more of the backstory. I’m still unclear on a few points, but otherwise very much enjoyed this. Definitely recommend.
  • My first issue of my new Teen Vogue subscription arrived while I was in Portland. No, I am not regressing to my teenage years. I have a lot of respect for teenage girls (having been one myself and knowing how tough it can be), and I think Teen Vogue and Rookie Magazine are providing the quality journalism that their audience (and really everyone) deserves. I love the December issue just as much as I thought I would. An annual subscription is only $5 and well worth the money.
  • And, finally, I watched two documentaries. The first was a graphic, disturbing, but ultimately important documentary about the US policy on torture called Taxi to the Dark Side. The other, called Grizzly Man, was about a guy who spent 13 summers living out in the Alaskan wilderness with grizzly bears, before finally being eaten by one at the end of his final summer. Both were fascinating, thought provoking, and probably not films I would have selected if left to my own devices, but I’m glad I watched them.

This list is a little longer than usual because I had more time on my hands this week than I usually do… I definitely don’t expect every week to have this much content.

As for what I’m looking forward to diving into… Queued up next:

Year in Review: 2016 Goals Recap

~ EMM

I didn’t accomplish all my goals this year. But, in Googley thinking (external perspective on what I mean by that here), that’s actually a good thing. It means I’m pushing myself. I feel pretty good about everything I accomplished this year. Not great. But pretty good. This sort of felt like one of those years where you work your butt off and don’t really see very much progress, but it’s all really important work that will pay off later. At least, that’s how I hope this turns out…

These were my 2016 (non-work-related) goals:

  • Swimming <– Total Score: 67%
    • swim at least 215 days out of the year (compared to 207 days in 2015) <– Score: 86%… I only swam 184 days out of the year
    • swim at least 400 miles (660k yards) total (compared to ~386 miles in 2015) <–Score: 94%… I ended the year with 374 miles total
    • drop time in my top five events, ideally trying for the following SCY goal times: <– Score: 20%…  I didn’t really race SCY this year, but I did race LCM Nationals and placed 9th in the Nation in 200m breast
      • 2:47.59 in 200 breast (current best = 2:51.65)
      • 1:17.89 in 100 breast (current best = 1:18.62)
      • 36.9 in 50 breast (current best = 37.75)
      • 2:55.36 in 200 fly (current best = 3:03.87)
      • 5:43.8 in 400 IM (current best = 5:59.11)
  • Writing <– Total Score: 83%
    • Finish my 2013 and 2014 NaNoWriMo drafts (both currently just over 50k words and about 60% done) <– Score: 50%… I should have revised this because plans changed when I got in to P2P and spent the first 4 months of this year working on “TLE” instead
    • Polish my 2015 NaNoWriMo first draft <– Score: 100%
    • Participate in NaNoWriMo 2016 as Marin County Municipal Liaison and write 50k new words in Nov <– Score: 100%
  • Reading <– Total Score: 70%
    • 50 books total (~1 per week) <– Score: 100%
    • Keep track of how many books I’m reading against the 2016 “Read Harder” challenge list <– Score: 100%… note how this does not say I needed to finish the challenge… 🙂
    • Read mostly books I already own and try to get my  to-read shelf (books I own but haven’t read yet) on Goodreads to less than 60 books (this list currently contains more than 100 books… ) <–Score: 0… Massive fail. I added at least as many books as I read this year… 
    • Write at least one blog post per week about what I’m reading and why (with photos) <– Score: 80%… I posted nearly 60 posts this year, which is more than one per week, on average. Not all of them were about what I was reading, but the vast majority of them were, and I did at least do a monthly review post through September.

Overall Score = 73%

I’m still working on goals for 2017. I am trying to make sure that I’m making them flexible, but specific enough that they keep me focused on what’s most important. For example, it’s unlikely you’ll see another “swim 400 miles” or specific goal times for races in 2017. I already know that competing isn’t going to be my priority next year, and not just because I’m now at the top of my age bracket. But more on that in a future post… For now, I’m just going to celebrate all I managed to accomplish this year, on top of working a pretty intense and demanding job with a ridiculous commute.

New books I’ve pre-ordered for January and February 2017

~ EMM

Now that 2016 is (nearly) over, I’m running stats on all the things I measure (books read, books bought, novel drafts completed, miles swam, etc.) and starting to think about goals for 2017. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve decided to put a temporary hold on purchasing backlist ebooks just because they’re on sale. However, I’m not entirely eliminating my book buying budget. I’m just reallocating it.

I believe strongly in supporting authors/artists by buying their books (and especially in pre-ordering if it’s a new release). I also feel strongly about supporting my local library. And, most of all, I am passionate about supporting diverse books written by #OwnVoices authors.

So, my book buying rule for 2017 is going to be: no buying new books unless they are 1) pre-orders of new releases that I plan to read right away, or they are 2) written by #OwnVoices authors and I can’t get them from the library.

Just for fun (and to keep me honest), every few months I’m going to try to do a summary post where I share the books I’ve pre-ordered.

Below are the books I’ve pre-ordered that are coming out in January and February:

PreOrders-JanFeb2017

  • Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire (Kindle) — This is a novella and priced accordingly, plus the author also wrote one of my favorite novellas read in 2016 (Every Heart a Doorway). So it’s kind of a no-brainer in terms of purchasing. This one is not in that series. It’s either a stand-alone or a new series, not sure which. But, I heard the Galactic Suburbia ladies talking on their podcast about reading a review copy this and it sounds great!
  • Bitch Planet Vol 2 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro (trade paper) — It feels like I’ve been waiting FOREVER for this next volume to be available. But it looks like my wait will be over at the end of January. Hooray!
  • Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor (Kindle) — This is a follow-up to my favorite novella read in 2016 (Binti), and it looks like it will be another novella (and priced accordingly). So, another no-brainer, one-click buy.
  • Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (tbd) — Okay, I haven’t technically pre-ordered this yet… I’m still trying to decide if I want a hard copy or if I want to just get it on Kindle.
  • A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab (Kindle) — Final book in this series! I can’t wait to see how she wraps this up!
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Kindle) — This book has been the talk of “book Twitter” for probably a year now. It’s possibly one of the best “how I got my agent” and acquisition success stories I’ve read recently, and I’m super excited to finally get a chance to read this book!

Between these, the books I got for Christmas, my library holds, and my massive backlog of unread ebooks, I should have plenty of books to keep me entertained for the foreseeable future. There are just so many good books and never enough time to read them all!

Year in Review: Reading stats on genre and format

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

I just finished my analysis of what I read this year (yay! more book-related data!), and I thought I’d share some fun facts about my reading habits this year…

Total “books” read: 53 <– projected total… I still have a couple I plan to finish before tomorrow night…

Total Fiction vs. Non-Fiction: 77% fiction (41 books) and 23% non-fiction (12 books)

Total YA vs. Adult: 19% YA (10 books) and 81% adult (43 books) <– bet you didn’t anticipate that, huh? I certainly didn’t.

Total books read by diverse authors (non-white and/or non-American): 12 (23%)

Total books from library: 14 (26%)

Total books by format:

  • Kindle: 66% (35 books)
  • Audiobook: 13% (7 books)
  • Paperback: 13% (7 books)
  • Hardcover: 8% (4 books)

Of the 41 fiction books I read, here’s how they broke down by genre:

  • Sci-fi and fantasy: 25% (13 books)
  • Romance: 17% (9 books)
  • Comic trade volumes: 13% (7 books)
  • Novellas and other short fiction: 13% (7 books)
  • Literary fiction: 8% (4 books)
  • Mystery: 2% (1 book, which I nearly could have almost classified as romance…)

Beside the fact that I read a lot more “adult” books than “YA” books, which was the first stat to jump out at me, it seemed like my percentage of short fiction and comics was higher than in years past. These data points seemed unusual, so I went back and checked last year’s stats. Turns out, last year I read 75 books total and 26% of those were YA (vs. 19% this year). So, this year was definitely a lighter YA year for me, but my percentage of short fiction and comics was about the same (24% vs. this year’s 26%).

Overall, I’m pleased with the diversity of what I’m reading. I have a pretty wide range of taste in books, and it’s nice to see that verified by the numbers.

Does anyone else track stats like this for what they’re reading? Is there anything else I should add? A different slice you’d like to know? Just let me know in the comments (or on Twitter).

Year in Review: Book buying stats for 2016

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

I keep track of the ebooks I purchase in a spreadsheet, because of course I do. My spreadsheet doesn’t account for ebooks I receive as gifts, only ones that I purchase for myself. However, just to make things slightly more confusing, the books I buy for myself are usually purchased with gift cards. Technically that makes them gifts. So, I really don’t have any idea why I even bother with this exercise except that at some point I realized that I buy a lot of ebooks and wanted to know how much money I was spending.

For the past three years, I’ve averaged about $235 spent on ebooks per year and purchased about 60 books on average. This puts my average cost per book at just under $4.

Actual stats:

BookBuyingStats_2014-2016

As you can see from the table above, my book buying has been steadily increasing over the past few years, but I am doing a decent job of keeping my average cost per book under $4. So, basically, my ebook buying habit roughly equates to just over one Starbucks cappuccino a week.

I feel pretty good about that. I mean, ebooks last a lot longer than a cappuccino, right?

The part about all this that makes me a little uncomfortable is another metric I keep track of… How many of these books that I’ve purchased have I read? And what’s the average cost of those books that remain unread?

The answer to that question is that I have 85 unread books of the 181 that I’ve purchased (~46% unread). That’s not terrible, but it’s not great either. I feel a bit better when I consider that the average cost of those unread books is only $2.90. But, assuming I read about 50 books per year, that’s still nearly 2 years worth of reading without me buying any more books at all.

This is why I’m going to put a temporary hold on purchasing any more sale ebooks, unless it’s something I really want to read and can’t get on ebook from my library. When I started buying ebooks, I don’t think you could even get books for Kindle from the library, or at least, if you could the options were very limited. These days, almost anything I’d want to read is available. The only catch is that I might have to wait a bit if it’s an extremely popular book, but that’s something I can plan around.

Next year (2017), my only reading goal is to put a dent in this backlog of ebooks and maybe also lower my average cost per unread book. There’s really nothing on that list that I don’t want to read. So, I should be able to find something on my tbr-Kindle shelf to fit whatever reading mood I’m in. If not, there’s always the library.

So, what I want to know is, am I the only one buying this many ebooks? Does anyone else keep stats like this? I’m curious to see where I fall in the book buying continuum.

Reading: Best of 2016

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

The year isn’t quite over yet, but I think I’m going to go ahead and call it. Of the ~50 books I read in 2016 (not counting all the manuscripts I read for critique partners) these were my favorites (links take you to my Goodreads reviews)…

Top 5 non-fiction:

  1. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert — I didn’t really write a review for this one, but it’s hands-down the best book I’ve read on how to deal with being a creative person in the world.
  2. Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground by Kevin Poulsen — This had been on my TBR for a while, and I was inspired to finally pick it up and read it based on my love for the first season of Mr. Robot… it didn’t disappoint.
  3. Yes Please by Amy Poehler — I never watched any of her shows, even SNL when she was on it, but this book really resonated with me.
  4. Making It Right: Product Management For A Startup World by Rian Van Der Merwe — I read this to learn more about Product Management and it turned out to be a great book, filled with tons of useful info. I took a lot of notes.
  5. Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman — Similar to Amy Poehler’s book, I never watched any of his shows, but I’ve seen him in bit parts on other TV shows. Months later, I’m still quoting life advice I picked up from this book.

Top 5 fiction:

  1. The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) by N. K. Jemisin — Easily the best book I read overall this year, this book has everything I want in a novel: unique world-building, excellent characters, compelling plot, politics, magic, relationships… I could gush about this all day, but you should really just read it.
  2. This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity, #1) by Victoria Schwab — While not my favorite of her books (that award still goes to Vicious), I love the world she built here, and I can’t wait for more in this series.
  3. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) by Becky Chambers — I had some quibbles with the narrative here (felt more like a collection of short stories than a full-length novel), but the characters, writing, and the world-building are top notch.
  4. Trade Me (Cyclone, # 1) by Courtney Milan — Easily the best romance book I read this year — complex, nuanced characters, and a unique take on the poor girl / rich boy trope.
  5. A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2) by Sarah J. Maas — I’d nearly written this series off after reading the first book, but this book more than made up for everything that bugged me about the first one. The romance is hot, and the Night Court is possibly my favorite ensemble of any book I’ve read in recent memory.

Top 5 short fiction (comic trades and novellas):

  1. Binti (Binti, #1) by Nnedi Okorafor — I think this won the Hugo and the Nebula for best novella this year. I read it before the short lists for the awards were announced and knew it would be a big hit. One of the reasons I like this is the Meduse (the alien species). Another reason is the perspective it’s told from. The story is surprising and creative and you should really just read it already. It’s less than 100 pages. You can finish it in an afternoon. So, get on it because there’s a sequel coming out in January.
  2. Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1) by Seanan McGuire — This was a surprise hit for me. I loved the premise (what became of the children who had been thru a portal to a strange world and returned?) and the execution (there’s also a mystery to be solved). I’m very excited that there are going to be more books set in this world.
  3. Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, Robert Wilson IV — I read this earlier in the year, and it just became more and more relevant the further we got into 2016. I’m (not so) patiently waiting for vol 2.
  4. Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book 1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze — This is not your typical Marvel super hero comic. It’s way more complex and sticks with you longer.
  5. The Book Smugglers’ Quarterly Almanac: June 2016 by various authors, edited by The Book Smugglers — This little speculative fiction journal contains a few essays and a few short stories, all of them very smart and very enjoyable.

If you’re curious about what else I read, that link at the very top will take you to my “read in 2016” shelf on Goodreads. If you’re too lazy to click through, here’s a snapshot of what you’ll find there (minus the few books I am still finishing up)…

Read2016-part2 Read2016-part1

That’s (nearly) a wrap for my 2016 reading! Just planning to finish up the three more books I’m in the middle of, then I’m looking forward to 2017 and diving into all the really great stuff I still have in my TBR… Especially the awesome books I got for Christmas this year! More on that soon… 🙂

Books on my Christmas wish list

~ EMM

So, yes, I did just post about having too many books to read and not enough time. But, really… is it even possible to have too many books? I don’t think so.

Of course I asked for books for Christmas. Some were included on my “Santa Mom” wish list. Some I put on my TBTB Secret Santa wish list. Most I don’t really *need* right now, but I there are just so many books I want to read. I can’t help it! These are the books I wished for this year:

ChristmasWishlist2016

Comics…

  • Saga vol 1 comic trade — Everyone loves this series and I want to see what all the fuss is about…
  • Monstress Volume 1: Awakening — This art-deco/steam punk art looks so gorgeous, and the story sounds intriguing…

Sequels or companion books…

  • One Was a Solider and Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer Fleming — The final two books (I think) in this Adirondak mystery series that I’ve been enjoying during my summer vacations at Camp for several years now.
  • A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers — The follow up to Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet, which I really enjoyed and might even make it into my top five books read in 2016…
  • The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 2: Fandemonium vol 2 comic trade — I enjoyed the first volume and want to know what happens next…
  • Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen — I haven’t even read the first two books yet, but I will definitely be binge-reading them before the movie comes out…
  • Book Smugglers Quarterly Almanac vol 2 — I really enjoyed their first Quarterly Almanac. So, I plan on continuing to pick these up as they are released.

New releases…

  • Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith — This book about the “alien consciousness” of the octopus looks absolutely fascinating and is possibly the non-fiction book I am most looking forward to reading
  • Revenger by Alastair Reynolds — I am really excited about this new book by one of my favorite sci-fi authors!
  • Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake — I’ve heard such great things about this book, I can’t wait to read it!
  • Frantumaglia by Elena Ferrante — Because I write and I am enjoying her Neapolitan series, I thought I might enjoy this “behind the scenes” book about her writing.
  • The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst — This book looks so good.
  • The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi — This has been getting great reviews…

Not-so-new fiction…

  • Escape from Baghdad! by Saad Hossain — Looks good, can’t get it on Kindle from the library…
  • Slade House by David Mitchell — Really enjoyed Bone Clocks and this is a companion to that book…
  • The Anatomy of Curiosity by Brenna Yovanoff, Tessa Gratton, and Maggie Stiefvater — I’ve wanted this one for a LONG time, but keep forgetting to put it on my wish list… stories by these authors, plus commentary on the creative process!
  • Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson — This looks awesome, even though I don’t often read books of short stories, a review of this caught my eye, and the blurb that says the author has “an imagination that most of us would kill for” sold me on it…
  • Kraken by China Miéville — This looks awesome… and I’ve not read anything by him yet…

And some non-fiction…

  • Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott — A classic book on writing that’s been recommended to me multiple times, but I still haven’t read it yet…
  • Automate the Boring Stuff by Al Sweigart — I’ve been trying to learn to code in Python and this combines that plus the fact that, in my day job, I spend way too much time in spreadsheets doing stuff that really should be automated…
  • Song for the Blue Ocean by Carl Safina — Another one that I’ve been wanting to read for a LONG time because I’m fascinated with the ocean…
  • The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson — Same as above… I really don’t *need* either of these, yet… but I don’t want to lose track of them, either…
  • Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg — Something about this made me want to read it… maybe the fact that it was a husband/wife team doing a business together… something that my husband and I talk about a lot.

So, there you go. Way more books than I’d ever get around to reading in the next year. Some new, some really old. Some comics, some short stories. A little bit of everything.

Anything on here that you’ve already read and think I should move to the top of my list? Anything you also put on your list? Let me know in the comments! 🙂