New Books In, May 2016

The Visible Filth by Nathan Ballingrud
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
The Likeness by Tana French
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Leaving the Fold by Marlene Winell

I purchased the Ballingrud, French, and Winell from Amazon, for entirely different reasons! I had recently acquired French #3 and #4 at a used book sale, previously read #1, and wanted to remedy missing a volume, so just bought a random used copy that I could use Amazon Prime to ship. Ballingrud of course has been on my podcast and I would have ended up reading this one, but then he was nominated for an award, and I wanted to read it sooner rather than later! The Winell is for my own personal journey, about dealing with a past laden with fundamentalism.

I staged a readathon for my Reading Class and one of the things we did was have a book swap. I snagged the Eggers and Lindbergh from the table - I actually don't want to read the Eggers but it was on the nomination list for my book club, and I thought if it ended up on the list I might as well have a copy! I know I've heard about the Lindbergh but can't exactly remember in what context. Probably a quick read.

The Brooks-Dalton is a review copy from a publisher, a post-apocalyptic novel featuring an astronaut and a scientist. It sounded kind of like a less funny version of that tv show, Last Man on Earth. I was up for it!

Jenny's Books Added April and May 2015

Somehow I forgot to do this in April but here I am, talking about the books I've added in April and May.

• The Wilds : Stories by Julia Elliott
• Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile
• Serpent in Paradise by Dia Birkett
• The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne
• Minnow by James E. McTeer II
• The Wet Collection: A Field Guide to Iridescence and Memory by Joni Tevis
• The World Is on Fire: Scrap, Treasure, and Songs of Apocalypse by Joni Tevis
• Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League by Jonathan Odell
• Bake Happy: 100 Playful Desserts by Judith Fertig
• The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May by Mark Z. Danielewski
• Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
• Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy
• Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Elliott, Baszile, McTeer, Odell, and Joy are purchased and signed during the SC Book Festival. I should probably still post about that day.

When I went to Powells in March, I bought two books - the Byrne and the Birkett. The Birkett is for my Oceania reading project and the Byrne I always intended to buy. After I bought it I found out that my review is quoted inside.

The two Tevis books are books I'd read already but wanted to own, and I went to her signing last month.  This is the same Joni Tevis from the podcast, episode 029.

I got the Laura Ingalls Wilder book as a gift from my step-mother-in-law. She had intended to get it for me for Christmas but the first print run sold out and it was hard to find for a while. It is gorgeous and I'm looking forward to reading it, because Little House on the Prairie was a major part of my chidhood.

The Danielewski and Stephenson were purchased on the same day; I'm currently 200 pages into the Danielewski.  Another gorgeous, beautiful book. I've heard the audio makes for an immersive experience along with the print, so I need to check it out.

The cookbook was sent to me because of my JennyBakes blog presence.

I also went on a few galley/ARC request sprees after finishing most of what I had previously been approved to review. There are a lot of great books coming out in the next year and I always appreciate the opportunity to read them early.

• The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler (Netgalley)
• The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald (Netgalley)
• Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal(Netgalley)
• Music for Wartime: Stories by Rebecca Makkai (Netgalley)
• Dark Wine by Beth Tashery Shannon (Netgalley)
• The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson (NetGalley)
• Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen (NetGalley)
• Words Without Music: A Memoir by Philip Glass(Edelweiss)
• The New and Improved Romie Futch by Julia Elliott (Edelweiss)
• The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth) by N.K. Jemisin (Edelweiss)
• Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: A Memoir of Humor and Healing by Reba Riley (Edelweiss)
• We Dream of Water by Srdjan Smajić (Edelweiss)
• Sea Lovers: Selected Stories by Valerie Martin (Edelweiss)
• You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir by Felicia Day (Edelweiss)
• Fates and Furies by Lauren Goff (Edelweiss)
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert (Edelweiss)
• Writing Across the Landscape: Travel Journals 1950-2013 by Lawrence Ferlinghett (Edelweiss)
• Insomnia: Poems by Linda Pastan (Edelweiss)
• Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg (Edelweiss)
• Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books by Michael Dirda (Edelweiss)
• The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman (Edelweiss)
• Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way through Great Books by Cara Nicoletti (Edelweiss)
• The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr (Edelweiss)

I have some reading to do! I won't comment on all of these but I will point out that I met Julia Elliott at the SC Book Festival, so she is on this post twice! I used to work with Srdjan Smajić , and this is his first novel, published by Underland Press and mentioned in Episode 21 of the Reading Envy podcast. Three of the books - Karr, Pastan, and Jemisin - are by authors I have read before. One of my work-related reading goals this summer is to read about creativity, and the Gilbert is coming along just in time.

Jenny's Library Books Mid-May 2015

Life has been crazy since the beginning of April. New dogs (yes, that's plural), the end of the semester, the start of the May term (where I teach a storytelling class) - I'm surprised I've read anything at all! I brought home a few more books from the library and think it's fun to talk about.

 

I took this first picture when I had to return some books I had borrowed through interlibrary loan. One duplicates April's list, and another appears on both piles. Did I mention I'm not sleeping much with the yelping puppy?

 

Library Wars: Love & War #1 by Kiiro Yumi

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris

Southern by the Grace of God by Lewis Grizzard

The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

Your Face Tomorrow v. 1: Fever and Spear by Javier Marías

Back in the Day Bakery Made With Love by Cheryl and Griffith Day

The Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden

The Marías and Yumi were recommended to me, the Forna was for my International book club and the Grizzard was the moderator pick for my Southern literature book club. The rest I either came across in my reading or on the shelf at the library. The Keegan will be discussed on an upcoming episode of the podcast, and I hope to meet the Days tomorrow at the SC Book Festival. 

Doyle the boxer mix puppy

Jenny's Library Books Mid-April 2015

Ghost Moth by Michèle Forbes
Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
They Don't Kill You Because They're Hungry, They Kill You Because They're Full by Mark Bibbins
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Even though I was in Oregon for two of the last four weeks, I still managed to bring a bunch of books home from the library. This isn't even counting the rather steep pile of new recordings of storytelling that were ordered for my upcoming Storytelling class, all waiting for me in my office.

Of these six books, I have already read three! The Bibbins was my first poetry read of National Poetry month (and will be discussed on the next podcast episode). I read the Robinson for the SFF Audio podcast readalong episode. We will record our discussion on Sunday but I think it won't post for a few weeks after that. I read the Forbes in planes, trains, and hotel rooms during my conference (you can read my review in Goodreads) - it was lighter than I expected, both in content and weight!

The Forna was a replacement selection for my in-person book club, and looks to be a recent book set in Croatia. The Keegan got a lot of attention, a book of essays and stories by a new promising author who died in a car accident a few days after graduation. The Kabat-Zinn was the result of doing a search on mindfulness and grief after my dog died. I probably will return it to the library unread but it might be a better idea to read it!

What did you bring home from the library this month? Give me more to envy.

Jenny's Library Books Mid-March 2015

True confession: I had returned three of these books to the local public library, forgetting I would need them for a photo shoot. By the time I realized my mistake, they were already routed to their original branches and rather than do the rational thing and just put cover images in this post, I re-requested them and took their picture right outside the public library. I got a few weird looks but that's okay! Anything for my devoted readers.

This pile represents three book club books, one recommended book, and two kismet books!

Us Conductors by Sean Michaels
How to Train a Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness by Jan Chozen Bays
The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle
The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch by Anne Enright
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman

Book club picks included the Beagle (for Misfit Readers, and I am reading at the very slow pace set out for us by the discussion leader), the Enright (for League of Extraordinary Dorks), and the Addison (for Sword and Laser, and most recently named as a Nebula Prize nominee.) The Enright was a huge miss for everyone but we still enjoyed discussing the book, as the historical character of Eliza Lynch is fascinating, the mistress of one of the worst dictators ever known. One of the people in that book club is Paraguayan so of course that added to the discussion.

I came across the Gaiman when I picked up the Addison at the library. It was one of those books I was sure to read eventually but it beckoned me and I followed the call! The Michaels was a book I should have known about for many reasons but I don't remember reading about it, but once I read the description I knew I'd love it.  I will discuss it on a future podcast, so keep an eye out.

The elephant book is a practical, hands-on book to help give ideas for being more mindful. I tried a few of them and then returned the book; this is one it would be better to own.

Not pictured, because I always forget something:

Told: the Art of Story by Simon Aboud
Marketing Today's Academic Library: A Bold New Approach to Communicating with Students by Brian Mathews