The Sunday Salon

The Sunday Salon – Do you listen when the universe tries to tell you something?

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One day last week I attempted to make coffee and the machine broke.  I decided it was the universe’s way of telling me to curtail my caffeine intake.  I had herbal tea instead.

I walk to work, and while I usually don’t notice anyone on the street, (I once walked past my own husband.  True story.) I keep seeing this person walking and reading.  This person has been reading George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.  It started a few months ago with A Game of Thrones, moved on to A Clash of Kings, then A Storm of Swords, and now A Feast for Crows.  At first I didn’t think much of it other than to marvel at this person’s ability to walk and read at the same time.  I could get so much more reading in if I was able to do this!  Sadly, I would probably end up covered in bruises and a regular in the emergency room for minor injuries from not watching where I’m going.  I’m the face of clumsy if you must know.  The reason I mention this is that I’m trying to hold off on finishing the last two books available to me.  Knowing it takes Martin years to finish a book, I don’t want to be left waiting longer than necessary for all seven books in the series.

Later that same day I go to pick up lunch and after ordering, I move off to the side to wait and what do I see but the same person sitting at a table once more reading A Feast for Crows.

I think this is the universe’s way of telling me A Feast for Crows should be my next book.  We’ll see how it goes.

Reading anything good this holiday weekend?

Happy Sunday.

The Sunday Salon – Weird Week

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This has been a strange week.  We emerged from our vacation cocoon to be hit with an earthquake, told a hurricane would be heading our way, and to prepare for high winds and flooding.  Run, run away…preferably waving hands in air for dramatic flair.  My sister called me when she heard about the hurricane and my response, “Yea, someone hates DC right now.”

And the veggies even got in on the weirdness.  We belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture) program and each week we get fruits and veggies delivered to my husband’s office.  He sent me this photo.

Him: “What is this?”

Me: “I think it’s a pattypan squash.  Usually they’re smaller than that though.”

Him: “IT’S HUGE!”

Me: “Apocalypse zombie squash.”

Him: “Nice.”

I’m hoping the squash is the end of the weirdness.  The winds and rain are gone and it’s now a beautiful day in DC.  We went for a walk this morning, and with the exception of a few tree limbs down, our neighborhood weathered Irene well.  Our power and water stayed on the entire night and no major problems to report.

Anyway…books!  No, I didn’t forget that’s usually what I talk about here.

On vacation last week I finished A Storm of Swords and holy crap George RR Martin.  You. Are. The. Master.  If I can get butt in chair for more than 10 minutes, I’ll get a review done.  I’m suffering from laziness on the writing front.

I also read A Long-Forgotten Truth by Rachel Ballard.  Not bad for a first time author.  I finished it in one sitting; very readable.

Started 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and finished it up this weekend.  I’m not sure what possessed me to pick up a 1,089 page book shortly after finishing a 1,074 page book!?  I’m book crazy, I know it.

Link love time…

In case my praise of Mr. Martin above was not trustworthy, The New York Times thinks the same thing.

Happy Sunday.

The Sunday Salon

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In our building we have a small community room with a TV, couches, and tables for parties.  It’s also a small library.  People take and leave books all the time so it always has an interesting assortment.

After pruning my shelves and parceling out what would go to family and friends, I still had several books left so off they went to the little library downstairs.  Since I left about 12 books, I thought borrowing three was a good trade off.

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran

I started After Dark yesterday and will probably finish it this morning.  It’s so absolutely fantastic.  Set in Tokyo between midnight and dawn, it follows different encounters taking place across the city.  After struggling through Austen’s Mansfield Park this week, it’s exactly what I needed.  The Devil in the White City has been on my list for a while and while I’m not a mystery person, I’ve been seeing Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead everywhere so I guess I’m meant to read it.

Link love:

Can’t get enough Harry Potter?  How about PottedPotter?  Of course, it only applies if you live in the UK.

Books with a missing letter.  This provided me with several minutes of entertainment the other day.  OK, probably more than that but I don’t care to admit how long I spent reading this.

Unconventional bookstores that I want to go to.

Now, back to my reading.  Happy Sunday.

The Sunday Salon – Sharing Books

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Every so often, I exchange books with some of my co-workers.  This week, I shared a few new favorites (The Girl Who Chased the Moon and The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen) and an old favorite (Good Omens by Neil Gaiman).  The person I loaned Good Omens to had never heard of Neil Gaiman.  It took every last bit of restraint I had to not say what was in my head — “What?!  How have you never heard of the most wonderful writer who goes by the name of Neil Gaiman?  What?!”  I thought everyone knew of Neil Gaiman.  Ah, the book bubble I live in some days.

My mother will also be the recipient of several books I liked and re-discovered while doing my semi-regular clean of the shelves.  She cracked me up when I was telling her about the books though and as it turns out, a good friend of her’s will also be getting some books because she said, “Ooo, that sounds like something Peggy would read.”  Guess what Peggy, you’re getting’ some books!

I know some of these books may not make it back to me, some many take months before I see them again, and I’m good with that.  I’ve read them all and enjoyed them and it makes me happy to be able to share with friends and family stories I liked.  I’m also interested to hear what people think of the books.  A small part of me wonders if they will love them as much as I do.  That’s what sharing is all about and I’m sure my mom is glad to hear I’ve retained my skills.  🙂

And now for some link love…

Want to read reviews of the worst book ever?  This made me giggle it was so strange.

Fictional character quiz.

I don’t belong to a book club but this profile has me intrigued. I think one of the reasons I never enjoyed book clubs was because they always turned to gossip, nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to talk about the book and that never happened.  Do you belong to any book clubs?  How does it work for your group?

This is completely unrelated to books but I can’t help sharing.  SHARK WEEK starts today! I can’t tell you how excited I am.

Happy Sunday.  I’m off to spend another day indoors hiding from the heat.

The Sunday Salon – Truth Test for Historical Fiction

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Historical fiction makes up a good portion of my reading lists (TBR and read) and I’ve been thinking about something lately — when I’m reading historical fiction, do I have a truth test?  Do I want it to be historically accurate or am I all right with some vague historical descriptions and or the lives of real individuals trifled with?  In answer to that last part of the question, the answer is obviously yes or I wouldn’t be reading any historical fiction at all.

While I’m familiar with general facts about history (I’m not a history buff but I would like to think I could pass an 8th grade history test, hopefully… J), one of the major reasons I read this genre is my interest in time periods I don’t know anything about.  Don’t worry, I’m not implying I get my historical facts from fiction; it’s the people and places driving a story I find interesting.  Usually after finishing a book I’ll look up all the people, places, and time period, mostly to put a face to a person and place.  I’ve never felt betrayed on finding out an author took liberties with his/her characters’ lives.  I’m reading fiction after all!  Standards have to be set low on the historical bar when that’s the case.

For some, and I would imagine history buffs mostly, I can see this genre being a problem.  In some ways, I think my interest in historical fiction fills a craving of mine to learn about different places and times.  I hungrily devour facts after finishing a story but prior to reading many books, I don’t think I would have researched information about the time, not to say my historical fiction reading drives my historical interests, but sometimes I do find I have a curiosity about certain subjects after reading about a time period I’m unfamiliar with.  I may not have learned a load of facts from the actual reading but after I do.

I also think this drives my non-fiction reading.  Many non-fiction books get added to my list thanks to a historical fiction read and some research after.

Thoughts on this: Do you prefer your historical fiction to be accurate or are you OK with minor changes for the sake of fiction/entertainment?

Happy Sunday.  I’m off to, well, let’s face it, to stay in the air conditioning all day.  I think it’s supposed to be another three digit degree day here…

The Sunday Salon – Summer Books to Read or Not to Read

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My local newspaper (although I should admit we no longer have a subscription for a number of reasons even though that has nothing to do with anything but I felt I should mention it) puts out each summer a best of list.  About two years ago, they canned the books section.  It wasn’t something new; a lot of papers were doing it for budget reasons and I guess they mistakenly believed people had stopped reading.  Anyway, rant for another time…  In the last few months, the paper has brought back a semi-book section which is published several times a year.  I read the book section online and found this year’s summer recommendations list and thought it would be fun to take a look and possibly add more books to my list.  Because, let’s face it, that’s what it’s really about it — it’s the books.

I found that once again I still don’t have much in common with my local paper’s picks.  There are a few on here which are on my TBR and I’m looking forward to reading, but I also feel as if the paper has to always pick something that feels DC-like as if we all sit around thinking, breathing, and eating policy.  I can assure you that’s not the case.  At least I do not and I only speak for myself.  There may be some individuals that do — I’m just not one of those individuals.  Anyway, the list isn’t too policy heavy this year but still not enough to fully impress me.

Here’s the list of new summer arrivals.

A zombie book (Zone One by Colson Whitehead) sounds somewhat interesting but I’ve had a bit too much of these characters this year which means there will be a wait to read this one. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman is one that will make it on my list though.  She’s an author I’ve been meaning to read.

The editorial picks are here.

The Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler does sound interesting and I feel I am lacking in my knowledge about the arctic and it would fulfill my non-fiction reading craving.  Unfortunately, that’s probably it for me.

It’s not as if I need to add more to the already crowded and overwhelming list of books but sometimes I want to feel as if I’m getting something out of the paper.  Guess that’s why I’m reading blogs for book recommendations instead.  Although, maybe I need to explore this thought in another post someday…

Before I leave off for the day, a few links for your enjoyment:

Top 10 fairy tales picked by the author of the Inkheart trilogy, Cornelia Fluke.  I will admit to not recognizing any of these stories.

Need a summer adventure but don’t want to leave the house? Travel by book! Turn Right at Machu Picchu is on my list.

The Telegraph has literary home tours.

Happy Sunday.

The Sunday Salon – My Books

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I thought I’d take a moment today to talk about my books.  More specifically, where the books I review on this blog come from.

There are several sources to draw from:

  • Personal books I’ve bought (this category does include ebooks).  This is how I acquire most of the books I read and review here.
  • Personal books that have been bought for me.
  • Library books.  Although, thanks to a little tiff with the library and its amazing ability to constantly misplace books and sometimes misplace them permanently so as to make them lost, I haven’t taken any books out in a while but it might be time to get over it on my part.
  • I do also, from time to time but not on a regular basis, request advanced review copies of books I’d like to read.  These books, for the most part, make up a relatively small portion of my reading since I don’t ask for many.
  • I’m also a reviewer for The BookReporter website.  I reviewed books for this website before starting my own blog and usually read two or three books for the group every two months.  I do include some of these reviews here and tag them as BookReporter reviews.
  • Finally, NetGalley.  I joined a while back and then did nothing with it.  I decided to take another look and have downloaded about four books.  Not many I know.  It’s not that the book selections aren’t interesting, they are, but considering the stack of books already leaning precariously to the right on the small table I consider my TBR pile, I’m trying not to add a virtual stack as well.
  • Books that authors and publicists pitch me.  I get these emails every once in a while and in most cases, I do not accept the books mostly because the books are not the type I read and I don’t feel I can do them justice.  In some cases, I have accepted the books.  It’s rare but it happens.

Why bring this up?  A person who sees me often, and almost always with a book, asked me where I get my books from.  If he wondered, then maybe some of the people reading my ramblings here might also wonder and I thought it might be a good time to mention it.  So there you have it.

Some links this week —

Bookshelf Porn has this lovely beauty to share this week.

On Flavorwire, you can learn how to drink like a famous author.

The Los Angeles Times Book Blog, Jacket Copy, has some French reading for the summer.

The Guardian has a list of the best 100 non-fiction books.  I’ve read about five books on the list.

Happy Sunday.

The Sunday Salon – Got Nothing

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I had several ideas this week all of which had potential for a Sunday Salon post.  All of which I didn’t write down since they mostly popped up while I was in meetings which means that I spent a large amount of time staring at the screen this morning attempting to resurrect one of the ideas into something workable.  It didn’t work.  My husband walked by a few moments ago…

“Sunday Salon time?” he asks.

“I don’t know what to write about today.”

“Write about the heat,” he says.

“What does that have to do with books?”

“Nothing,” he replies as he walks into the kitchen.  “I think your tea is done.”

“Yep.”

I’m still sitting here with nothing to write about but now I have a cup of tea.  Lesson learned about writing things down.

This week was stellar in terms of reading even if I still feel as though I’m not back mentally from my vacation, especially since it’s been about 100+ this week in the city which makes it hard to think.  (There, a weather reference.)

This week’s books:

Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV by Karleen Koen — Entertaining historical fiction and the French setting was perfect for me.  It started out slowly but once I settled in, it fulfilled the promise of court intrigue and kingly affairs that I adore in books about the French monarchy.

The Dark Enquiry (A Lady Julia Grey Novel) by Deanna Raybourn — It’s book five in the series and I don’t read books out of order but I went with it this time and all worked out.  I loved it and will definitely be reading the four previous books.

The Postmortal by Drew Magary — I started this yesterday and so far it’s phenomenal.  It’s told through blog posts, stories, and articles.  It’s amusing but also believable in a way I didn’t think it would be.  It’s set in a future US were aging has been stopped by gene therapy and the consequences are just beginning.

Well, happy Sunday.  Hopefully, I’ll manage to get in a little blog reading later today along with finishing up The Postmortal.