Wednesday, November 30, 2016

New Books In, November 2016

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
milk and honey by Rupi Kaur
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
The Unknown Bridesmaid by Margaret Foster
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
A Gambler's Anatomy by Jonathan Lethem
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit (eBook; not pictured)

I have read half these books already! I bought the Marra and Macintyre from the tiny used book section at a local independent book store because I had read both of these and wanted to own them. I had read the Wharton and Kaur lately, so when I went to Book Depository to order the Chambers (since it doesn't come out in the USA until March plus I wanted the UK cover), I snagged these other two on a good discount. The Gaiman is a review copy, the Lethem is the November Book of the Month pick (guest selected by Anthony Bourdain!!), and the Forster was a used book with a cool cover and an indie press, so I'm a sucker. For a few days post-election, the Solnit was free from the publisher as an eBook, so I jumped. I have already finished that one as well.


Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Reading Envy Podcast 073: Buried Under the Beets

Jason Roland is back, this time in person, and we discuss some of our best recent reads. Also southern wisdom and natural disasters, which always seem to happen around the time we record an episode. Is it the books?

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 073: Buried Under the Beets.


Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: Subscribe
Or listen through TuneIn
Or listen on Google Play
Listen via Stitcher

Books discussed:



Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke
The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies
My Struggle, Book One by Karl Ove Knaussgard
The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner
Deep Run Roots: Stories and Recipes from My Corner of the South by Vivian Howard
Twilight by William Gay

Other mentions:

The Risen by Ron Rash
The Hottest State by Ethan Hawke
Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke
Before Sunrise (film)
Magnificent Seven (film)
Indeh by Ethan Hawke and Greg Ruth
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
VICE - Knaussgard interview
Autumn by Ali Smith

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
A Chef's Life (PBS show)
The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz
Sean Brock
Anson Mills
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Related podcast episodes:
Reading Envy Episode 014: Flannery O'Connor with Zombies
Reading Envy Episode 025: Mule and Plow
Reading Envy Episode 042 - It Begins with Rain
Reading Envy Episode 046 - Books for Your Kitty Party (The Best of 2015) 
Reading Envy Episode 054 - Retired Pirates

Stalk us online:
Jason on Twitter
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Be on the podcast: tell me the best book you read in 2016!

I am currently working toward a Best of 2016 Reading Envy Podcast episode that will post on December 20, and I need your help!

I am asking for submissions for the best book you read in 2016.  Your best read from 2016 does not have to have been published this year, just something you read since January 1.

To be included in the end of the year podcast, please do one of the following by the 16th of December at 11:59 pm EST.

1. Submit an audio file that includes:
-Your name
-Your location (if you desire)
-Your best read from 2016 and anything you'd like to say about it

2. Schedule a time with me to have me record you in Skype, maybe you don't have a way to create your own audio file?

3. Email me or tweet me what you want me to read out on the podcast on your behalf.

Contact info:
email: readingenvy [at] gmail
Twitter: @readingenvy

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Library Books Mid-November 2016

I had to take two photos because I had a big pile of books on my desk at work that hadn't made it home yet, in fact some are work-related.


The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz
The Mindful Librarian: Connecting the Practice of Mindfulness to Librarianship by Richard Moniz et al
The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men's Prison by Mikita Brottman
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndezes
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel J. Levitin
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi


Felicity: Poems by Mary Oliver
The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz (guess I brought this one home by the time I took a picture!)
Killing Rage: Ending Racism by Bell Hooks
Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón
Letter to a Future Lover: Marginalia, Errata, Secrets, Inscriptions, and Other Ephemera Found in Libraries by Ander Monson
Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge

Well, what can I say. These are not cheery piles. Some of them are reactions to the election, some were on the short or long list for the National Book Award for non-fiction, and are just now coming into the library. The Kendi took that particular award, so that might be a good place to start. The Oliver and Limón have already been consumed, as poetry can sometimes carry me through.

How are you holding up, post-election? Are you finding reads to carry you through? I'm hesitant to start many of these quiet yet, although I have already abandoned the Monson and Brottman.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Reading Envy 072: Books are my Bag

Jenny sits down in the Reading Envy pub with another new guest she recruited from Litsy - Sarah K. We discuss medicine, Man Booker Prize runners up, book swaps, and genres people don't read all that often. (But we think they should!)

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 072: Books are my Bag.


Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: Subscribe
Or listen through TuneIn
Or listen on Google Play
Listen via Stitcher

Books discussed:



Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Now You See Me by Sharon Bolton
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
My Misspent Youth: Essays by Meghan Daum
The Sea of Light by Jennifer Levin

Other mentions:

Karin Slaughter
Mo Yan
Nobel Prize for literature
The Blackhouse by Peter May
Fringe Festival (Edinburgh)
International Book Festival (Edinburgh)
Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories by Terrence Holt
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Man Booker Prize
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman
The Americans (tv show)
Dr. Who (tv show)
The Troop by Nick Cutter
The Many by WYl Menmuir 
Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids edited by Meghan Daum
Unspeakable by Meghan Daum
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Books on the Nightstand podcast
Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Frasier
Orphans at the Carnival by Carol Birch
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin

Related episodes:

Episode 063 - Desolation Road (book speed dating and books on grief)


Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter

Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy too
Sarah on Facebook
Sarah is @SJTedford on Instagram and @SarahK on Litsy

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Books Finished in October 2016 (242-270)



242. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things that Happened by Allie Brosh (borrowed from friend; my review)
243. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien (library book; my review)
244. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin (library book; my review)
245. Blackacre: Poems by Monica Youn (library book; my review)
246. The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick (review copy from Edelweiss; my review)
247. Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver (review copy from NetGalley; my review)
248. The Heart of Henry Quantum by Pepper Harding (review copy from NetGalley; my review)
249. Bird Box by Josh Malerman (Audible audiobook; my review)
250. I Fired God: My Life Inside - and Escape from - the Secret World of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Cult by Jocelyn R. Zichterman (interlibrary loan; my review)
251. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (interlibrary loan; my review)
252. Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems by James Baldwin (library eBook; my review)
253. Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting by Kevin Powers (library eBook; my review)
254. Jack of Spades by Joyce Carol Oates (library eBook; my review)
255. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr (library eBook; my review)
256. The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa (a book from my shelves; my review)
257. Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce María Loynaz (gift from publisher; my review)
258. bodys by Vanessa Roveto (review copy from NetGalley; my review)
259. Forever Words by Johnny Cash (review copy from NetGalley; my review)
260. Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain (review copy from Edelweiss; my review)
261. The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison (review copy from NetGalley; my review)
262. Take Nothing With You by Sarah V. Schweig (review copy from NetGalley; my review)
263. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur (library book; my review)
264. Murder in the Stacks by Marion Havighurst (book from my shelves; my review)
265. Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford (review copy from NetGalley; my review)
266. The Velvet Hours by Alyson Richman (review copy from NetGalley; my review)
267. The Girl Who Stole My Holocaust: A Memoir by Noam Chayut (book from my shelves; my review)
268. The Sea of Light by Jennifer Levin (book swap; my review)
269. Twilight by William Gay (library book; my review)
270. Blue Laws: Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015 by Kevin Young (interlibrary loan; my review)

Saturday, November 5, 2016

New Books in October 2016


This was a lighter book buying month, and really the only two new books to arrive were from subscriptions (one from Malaprops, one from Book of the Month.) That's how busy my October was, no time to even buy books! Luckily there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska
The Fall Guy by James Lasdun

I don't know much about either of these so stay tuned to hear what I think!