The Reader's Room

Apr 22

City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

Happy Earth day to all our lovely readers. Those of you who have been following our blog know that my partner and I have been doing a monthly themed read this year. We alternate picking books that fit the listed themes in the photo above and we read, discuss, and review them in our book journals. This month it was my partner’s turn to pick for April (either comedy or earth day related books).

I fully admit that I was judgmental about his book selection from the start and thought he was trying to play an April Fool’s joke on me. The kitschy cover and description of both the book and the author (“her work on Halo, Gears of War, Batman, G.I. Joe, and other major franchises has earned her a broad range of fans”) did nothing to make me feel better about the prospect of reading it. My initial reaction was to question how a science fiction book about aliens had even the remotest connection to an earth day theme. Science fiction is my least favorite genre, well maybe second to romance novels. After a few weeks of silent pouting and self-pitying, I pulled myself together and read the book.

Did I survive it? Keep reading to find out.

Apr 3

6 Comments

Earth Day Inspired Books

April is the month for a number of celebrations related to the our earth and the natural world. National wildlife week is from April 4-9, Earth Day is on April 22, Arbor day is on April 29, and the whole month is National Garden Month.

Those of you who have been following the blog, know that my partner and I are doing a joint monthly theme read where we alternate picking a book (for each of the 12 pre-determined themes we selected), read said book together, and discuss the book. This month it was his turn to pick a novel for our earth day/natural world theme. It was not a choice about which I was overly enthusiastic (more to come on that later) although it was certainly a creative pick. While he was busy trying to kill me with his book choices, I was browsing my shelves and gathering inspiration from the Litsy community. Here are some selections we recommend to get you in the mood for earth day celebrations.

Mar 25

Parade by Rachel Cusk

I’ve been trying to be proactive this year in my selection of novels in preparation for a more informed Booker prediction list. So, I requested, and received, an ARC of Cusk’s latest novel Parade (thank you to Farrer,Straus, and Gioux and net galley).

I have a love-hate relationship with Cusk’s novels. They are brilliant but they also often make me feel like I need an advanced literary degree in order to make it through them. So how did this latest novel stack up for me?

Mar 20

James by Percival Everett

If you have yet to read a novel by Percival Everett, then you are missing out. While Everett has written 19 books over the last 20+ years, I didn’t discover his works until reading The Trees, which was shortlisted (it should have won) for the Booker in 2022. His latest novel, James, came out yesterday and will undoubtedly make its way onto at least one literary award list. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy and here is what I thought…

Mar 11

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Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

Acclaimed short story writer, Colin Barrett, is coming out with his debut novel, Wild Houses and I was fortunate enough to snag an Advanced copy (thank you to Grove Press). This book has been getting quite a lot of buzz in literary circles. Here is my review…

Mar 7

3 Comments

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Life has forced me into a reading slump for the last several years and outside of the Booker challenge, I’ve found it increasingly more challenging to find the time or mental energy to read (which is why you’ve mostly seen Book worm post on the blog). Luckily for me, my partner is supporting my effort to read more. For the last several years we have been alternating book picks, reading together, and discussing books. The one upside of long distance relationships is that you need to be creative in finding ways to connect and share things that are important to each of you. For me, that’s reading.

This year we have decided to pick books based on monthly themes (that are pretty broad) to push us to read more widely and diversely. To be clear, we are very different readers. He prefers non-fiction and preferably history and I read mostly literary fiction. In February, it was his turn to pick for black history month and to my surprise he picked a fantasy novel. As a non-fiction reader, fantasy is pretty much on the other extreme of the spectrum from his usual genres. His choice was Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf. So how did this pick pan out?

Mar 5

2024 Women’s Prize Longlist

The 2024 Women’s Prize longlist was announced today and this year the list includes many debut novels. You can read more about the longlist on the Women’s Prize website. The full lists includes the following 16 books (click on the book link to purchase a copy from Amazon):

Mar 3

2 Comments

Goodbye

Thank you to everyone who has read, liked and commented on my posts over the years, I have loved sharing bookish updates with you and hearing your thoughts.

Due to a change in my life in the offline world I will be leaving social media, including WordPress, for the foreseeable future.

I will miss interacting with you all but this is the best choice for me at this point in my life.

To reassure you all I will be continuing to read I will just not be sharing my updates anymore.

I am sure the other admins for this blog will keep you updated with what is happening in the world of books.

I wanted to say goodbye rather than disappear with no comment so this is my goodbye. I hope you continue to find books you love and books that challenge you I know I will.

Feb 29