Reading Envy 119: Bread and Butter Writing

Paula, known as Centique in Litsy, joins me from New Zealand to talk books. Paula tends to read backlisted titles, because she is devoted to her TBR list. We talk translations, gloomy books, and cuteness.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 119: Bread and Butter Writing.

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


Books Discussed:



Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Land of Love and Ruins by Oddny Eir
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz

Other Mentions: 

Blackout by Connie Willis
All Clear by Connie Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Hugo Awards
Nebula Awards
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Top Chef (tv show)
The Mind of a Chef (tv show)
Smoke and Pickles by Edward Lee
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Tournament of Books
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Paula is @centique on Litsy

Read in September: Books 234 - 256 of 2017

Pictured: 5-star reads for September 2017

234. Ember by Brock Adams *** (eARC from publisher through Edelweiss; my review)
235. Eat Only When You're Hungry by Lindsay Hunter **** (BOTM selection; my review)
236. Love Her Wild: Poems by Atticus ** (audioARC from publisher; my review)
237. The Glass Eye: A Memoir by Jeannie Vanasco **** (ARC from publisher; my review)
238. The Mountain by Paul Yoon **** (eARC from publisher through NetGalley; my review)
239. Out on the Wire by Jessica Abel ***** (library book; my review)
240. Sea Girl by Ethel Johnston Phelps **** (HOOPLA eBook through library; my review)
241. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons *** (eARC from publisher through NetGalley; my review)
242. Solar Bones by Mike McCormack *** (eARC from publisher through Edelweiss; my review)
243. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart **** (interlibrary loan; my review)
244. When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen ***** (library eBook; my review)
245. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead *** (library eBook; my review)
246. Ties by Domenico Starnone **** (eBook; my review)
247. Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua **** (personal copy; my review)
248. New People by Danzy Senna **** (eARC from publisher through Edelweiss; my review)
249. Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta **** (audioARC from publisher; my review)
250. The Secret History by Donna Tartt ***** (personal copy; my review)
251. After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones ***** (interlibrary loan; my review)
252. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson **** (personal copy audiobook; my review)
253. From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty **** (ARC from publisher; my review)
254. Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander **** (eARC from publisher; my review)
255. Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak *** (eARC from publisher through NetGalley; my review)
256. I Will Love You for the Rest of My Life: Breakup Stories by Michael Czyzniejewski **** (interlibrary loan; my review)

For the Man Booker Prize - McCormack, Whitehead.
For the National Book Award - Chen (also I bailed on the Jennifer Egan which is not represented in this list)
For the Newest Literary Fiction buddy reads - Hunter, Clemmons, Starnone
For the Reading Envy Readalong - Tartt

Reading Envy 070: Words Like Weapons

Jenny is joined by a new guest for Episode 070. Jenny put out a call out for guests in Litsy and Yanira is one of the people to jump in. I'm so glad she did!

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 070: Words Like Weapons.


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:


Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education by Mychal Denzel Smith
The North Water by Ian McGuire
Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey
The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
Guapa by Salim Haddad
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen


Other mentions:

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race edited by Jesmyn Ward
Man Booker Prize
Clarice Lispector
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Beyonce - Lemonade
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
Junot Diaz
Roxane Gay
Drown by Junot Diaz
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
Twilight by William Gay
Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Ed Tarkington

Stalk us online:
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy too
Yanira on Wordpress
Yanira is @notafraidofwords on Litsy

New Books In, August 2016

I brought home SO MAN BOOKS in August that they will have to be represented by three photos of book stacks.  Bear with, bear with.

Much of the fault goes to The Really Good, Really Big, Really Cheap Book Sale put on every summer by the Greenville Literacy Association. This year I volunteered as a book sorter, pulling a few shifts throughout the month of July to sort donations that came in. I haven't heard yet how many books were sold, but I know we sorted over 126,000 books, if you can imagine. I was a minor player compared to some people who seemed to be full-time volunteers.

Child of All Nations by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Footsteps by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
House of Glass by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 by Annie Proulx
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Your Face Tomorrow: Fever and Spear by Javier Marías
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

I read the first book of the Toer (This Earth of Mankind) and was pleased to find books 2-4 for $1 each.  I have meant to read some of L'Engle's adult fiction, and the others were all authors I had on my list. Yes, I do bring a list. It helps keep me focused. The Finney was an earlier pick this year for the Sword and Laser book club, one I didn't get to, but hey, for $1, I might still.

I went to that book sale twice - once on the Saturday, where you pay per book, and once on the Sunday, where you pay $10 for every grocery bag. I went earlier on the Saturday than I usually do, so there were more people. This meant I didn't get to look deeply at the non-fiction, which is where I headed on the Sunday! Richardson-Moore is a minister in my town, Nahmad wrote the book I wish I'd lived, and the Kabat-Zinn was to give away!

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
The Weight of Mercy by Deb Richardson-Moore
Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Pilgrimage to Iona by Claire Nahmad
My Sergei: A Love Story by Ekaterina Gordeeva
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Otherwise, I had birthday money that I of course spent on books. Many of the books I ended up with in August are in preparation for my in-person book club. (You can hear more about this book club on Episode 049 of the Reading Envy Podcast.) There are some other random books in this pile - one from a Misfit Reader which I purchased in a weak moment, one Goodreads Giveaway win (the McInerney) and two audiobook review copies from Brilliance Audio.

Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton
The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages by Sophie Hardach
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Skylark Farm by Antonia Arslan
The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman
The Seventh Elephant by Alexis Stamatis
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney

Now that I have finally taken photos of these piles, I can try to find space for them on my shelves.

Books Added July 2015

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
The Big Sea: An Autobiography by Langston Hughes
Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman
The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

The Dornenburg and Ruhlman were birthday gifts. I have already made pancakes out of the Ruhlman!

I knew I would be seeing the VanderMeers when they were in South Carolina for Shared Worlds, and was very fortunate to interview Ann VanderMeer for the next episode of the podcast. I really enjoyed talking to her and hope you will enjoy that episode, posting next Tuesday.

Reiss is for my in-person book club, and the Hughes was near the Reiss on the shelf in the "African American" section of the used book store.  Mental note: check out all these divisional groupings of history and literature because they are taking books away from the "literature" and "history" sections where I might expect to find them.