Bout of Books 39

It's hard to believe, but 2024's reading activities begin on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day! Yes, the 39th Bout of Books read-a-thon runs from Monday, 1 January through 7 January. And I will be participating. I will be posting here in the blog and also on Instagram. If you want to join us, you can sign up on the Bout of Books blog.

For those of you aren't avid readers and haven't participated in read-a-thons, here's an explanation of the Bout of Books read-a-thon:

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 1st and runs through Sunday, January 7th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, daily Discord questions, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For all Bout of Books 39 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

If you like to read and talk about what you're reading, join me. You need to sign up right away.

Bout of Books 27: A progress report

Today I finished reading the first of what I hope will be several books during the read-a-thon. The Girl with Braided Hair by Margaret Coel is a mystery novel set in the Wind River Indian Reservation and surrounding area in Wyoming.

Bout of Books #27; 6-12 January

Once again I'm participating in the Bout of Books readathon. I'll be posting updates here in the blog (well, if I remember), in Facebook, in Instagram, and maybe in Twitter.

For those of you aren't avid readers and haven't participated in read-a-thons, here's an explanation of the Bout of Books read-a-thon:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner at Love Found on the Edge and Kelly Rubidoux Apple at Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, Twitter chats, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 27 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

If you like to read and talk about what you're reading, join me. You need to sign up by midnight CDT on Tuesday, 7 January.

Bout of Books 26: 19-25 August 2019

Today, when I opened Facebook, I saw the post I made on 18 August 2014, announcing my TBR list for Bout of Books 11. That was a good reminder that I intend to participate this year in Bout of Books 26 and I still needed to sign up. I'll be posting updates here in the blog, in Facebook, in Instagram, and maybe in Twitter.

For those of you aren't avid readers and haven't participated in read-a-thons, here's an explanation of the Bout of Books read-a-thon:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner at Love Found on the Edge and Kelly Rubidoux Apple at Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, Twitter chats, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 26 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

If you like to read and talk about what you're reading, join me. You need to sign up by midnight CDT on Tuesday, 20 August.

Not dead ... just away

Yes, there were no posts to this blog in 2016 or 2017. I'm sure that some who followed the blog thought that it had been abandoned. It felt like that to me as well. Rather than enjoying the blogging and the reading, it had become a chore what with the challenges, memes, and the ARC reviews. In 2017, I didn't sign up for any challenges at all, and I didn't participate in any read-a-thons. And now I'm relaxed enough that I'm resurrecting the blog and have plans to post regularly. I'm hoping at least weekly, but I'm not going to be stressed if more time elapses between posts.

So, other than challenges, what's changed? Well, I've bought no books printed on paper in the past two years. And, the only electronic books that I've bought were with gift cards. Of the 182 books that I read in 2017, 156 of them were borrowed—either from the library or from Kindle Unlimited. Most of the books I read were in series. Lots of the books I read were pure fluff—which made the reading of them so relaxing.

Currently Reading

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier
A Clash of Kings by James R. R. Martin
To Cache a Killer by Karen Musser Nortman

My Brother Sam is Dead was selected as a Newbery Honor book in 1975. I try to read the Newbery Medal book each year shortly after the awards are announced in the Spring. Then, I read a few of that year's Honor books or Medal and Honor books from previous years. I borrowed My Brother Sam is Dead in electronic format from my local library. Another borrowed book—but this time from Amazon's Kindle Unlimited subscription—is To Cache a Killer. This is the fifth book in Karen Nortman's Camping Can Be Murder series. They're cozy mysteries that I'm thoroughly enjoying.

The last “in progress” book is A Clash of Kings, second in James R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. Having watched all the episodes on television, I decided that I'd read the books to fill in the details that simply get left out when they translate the book to video. And, I'm reading this book with my ears instead of my eyes. I'm listening to the unabridged audiobook. With 33 hours remaining (of the 37.25 hours total length), I figure it will be July or later before I finish it. You see, I only listen to books when I'm driving and I'm alone in the car. So unless I find other times when I can listen, it's going to be a long time until I reach the end of this book.

Sunday Summary: 27 December 2015

Good morning all. I hope your Winter holidays have been fabulous. We celebrated Christmas at my son's house. I cooked a morning brunch of sausages, biscuits, scrambled eggs, ham, and sweet rolls. After breakfast, we sat around to exchange presents. Weeks ago, my daughter asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I told her I didn't have any particular wishes—just lots of boxes to open. So that's what I got. And every box I opened contained a wrapped gift for someone else. It quickly became a contest to guess whose present might be in my box. But I wasn't left out; my kids know my weakness for books, so I received gift cards to buy books with.

Where I've been reading

Since I had taken the entire week as vacation time, I was at home here in Texas. Well, here in Texas, but not necessarily “at home”. The two five-year-old grandchildren were out of school, so I drove down to my sons' house a couple of days to spend the day with them. It was so warm here in Texas that we went to the park with just t-shirts and jeans. Driving back and forth from my house to where my sons live gave me lots of time to listen to my current audio book, The Guilty by David Baldacci.

 

Stacking the Shelves (60)

This week's new books are all from the library. I picked up a couple of short books in the hopes that they'd help me complete my objective of reading 200 books in 2015. In fact, I've already read two of the four books which I borrowed.

From the library:

I was attracted to the description of Illuminae, written in an unusual style. Instead of the usual narrative, the book is composed of transcripts of interviews, medical reports, e-mails, etc. The setting is a planet which has been attacked by the powers of a large corporation. Two teens—who have just broken up—are among those who have escaped and are fighting for their lives. Ezra is recruited as a fighter pilot and Kady becomes a hacker as the survivors struggle to expose the treachery of the attacking forces and win back their freedom.

I don't remember where I heard about Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Perhaps it was even at the library's website. At any rate, I saw that it was listed as a “coming soon” copy and I put my name on the Holds list. Now I have downloaded it into my Kindle and will be starting it soon—probably tomorrow.

Sunday Summary: 20 December 2015

This week I'm combining my Sunday Post and Stacking the Shelves. I've been ignoring my online presence—forums, blog, Facebook, even e-mail—for a couple of weeks as I focus on taking care of things at work. Now that I have a couple of weeks of vacation at the end of the year, I hope to be a bit more visible.

With Christmas coming up, I'm lucky to have two grandchildren nearby to share the holiday with. Yesterday, I flew to Las Vegas to pick up grand-daughter Victoria for a two-week visit with her Daddy. Since he had to work yesterday, I had the honor of escorting her to Texas. He'll take her back just in time for school to start up again.

Where I've been reading

A week ago I was returning from New York City. Everything was brightly decorated and I was fortunate that the weather was quite mild. In fact, I kept wishing I had left my coat at home and just taken a light-weight jacket to keep the wind at bay. I read on the plane both directions and then read in my hotel room each evening instead of turning on the television.

This week just past, I was blessed to be at home. I tried to make plenty of time for reading as I really would like to make my goal of 200 books for 2015. I knew it was a stretch goal when I set it, and I'm running out of time!

 

Review: Cards of Grief

Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen
Originally published 1984; republished 2012 by Open Road Media
Source: borrowed from the library

Jane Yolen's award-winning story about an alien civilization forever changed by the incursion of human social scientists and a mysterious ancient prophecy

The year is 2132 when members of the Anthropologist's Guild set down on the planet Henderson's IV, or L'Lal'lor as it is known to the native population. Charged with the nonintrusive study of alien cultures, the crew discovers a society containing no love or laughter. It is, instead, centered around death—a world of aristocratic and common folk in which grieving is an art and the cornerstone of life. But the alien civilization stands on the brink of astonishing change, heralded by the discovery of Linni, the Gray Wanderer, a young woman from the countryside whose arrival has been foretold for centuries. And for Anthropologist First Class Aaron Spenser, L'Lal'lor is a place of destructive temptations, seducing him with its mysterious, sad beauty, and leading him into an unthinkable criminal act.

Told from the shifting viewpoints of characters both alien and human, and through records of local lore and transcripts of court martial proceedings, Cards of Grief is a thoughtful, lyrical, and spellbinding tale of first contact. It is a true masterwork of world building from Jane Yolen, a premier crafter of speculative fiction and fantasy.

Stacking the Shelves (58)

After the long list of new books I posted this week, I don't have quite as many to talk about. I did receive a new review book courtesy of the Library Early Reviewers program. And I took a couple of more Mid-grade and Young Adult books from the library hoping that I could read them fairly fast and hit my goal of 200 books for 2015.

Month in Review: November 2015

I had hoped to catch up a bit during November, what with the holiday weekend and all. But I wound up reading only 15 books for the 3^rd month in a row. All of which means that I'm really going to have to push like crazy in December if I have any hopes of completed my goal of 200 books for the year.

I've made a bit more progress so far in December by selecting books that “read fast”. That's generally a factor of the vocabulary and writing style of the author as well as my reading mood. I feel like a teacher trying to locate “high interest” books for a reluctant reader.

I've blown out my secondary goal of 50,000 pages. At the end of November I had read 52,086 pages. I expect to finish up the year at roughly 56,000 pages, even if I don't quite make the entire 200 book objective.

Sunday Summary: 6 December 2015

As I wrote yesterday, I was offline for a couple of weeks. Life suddenly got very complicated and blogging was the thing that had to go. I'm back, but just barely. I need to write and post three reviews for ARCs that I've read, and I want to keep up the two weekly posts of new books received and what's been going on in my reading life. Maybe during the holidays I'll blog ahead a little bit.

Where I've been reading

This past week I was working in Montreal. Such a lovely city and even more so with the Holiday decorations everywhere you look. It was cold—especially to this Texan—so I didn't spend any time out of doors. And, because I'm so conscious of how far behind I am in reading toward my goal of 200 books in 2015, I never turned on the television. Instead, I read from suppertime until bedtime. Wish I could make myself do this while I'm at home, but the hubby is a TV fan and I give in to the attraction.

 

Stacking the Shelves (57)

Yeah, I was offline for a couple of weeks. Sorry about that—life simply got in the way. Between a challenging travel schedule for work, the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, and the failure of our heating system on the first really cold day of the season, I had a lot of other things on my mind. I also didn't read as many books in November as I had hoped, but that's the subject of a completely different post.

However, now that everything is under control (including a brand new heat pump and furnace) I think I'm pretty much back on track. On December 2, I gave myself the gift of Kindle Unlimited for 2016, starting with the 30-day free trial right now. I've already downloaded four high-interest books. I've also gone through several library books since the last time I shared a Stacking the Shelves post. The list of “new-to-me” books is pretty long. That's what I get for not posting for a couple of weeks.

Sci-Fi Online: Daily Science Fiction

As the name says, Daily Science Fiction publishes a new science fiction/fantasy story every weekday.

You can subscribe to the site and receive a new story via e-mail each day. Or, visit the website and read from the archives. And, if that isn't flexible enough, you can purchase the annual anthologies from the first two years.

The site describes their content this way:

“Science Fiction” means—to us—everything found in the science fiction section of a bookstore, or at a science fiction convention, or amongst the winners of the Hugo awards given by the World Science Fiction Society. This includes the genres of science fiction (or sci-fi), fantasy, slipstream, alternative history, and even stories with lighter speculative elements. We hope you enjoy the broad range that SF has to offer.

Sci-Fi Online: Galaxy's Edge Magazine

If you're looking for a source of short stories or articles for Sci-Fi Month, check out Galaxy's Edge Magazine. Published six times a year, the magazine is available in paper/printed and electronic editions.

The November 2015 issue contains short fiction by David Drake, Mercedes Lackey, Eric Cline and others. You can read an interview with Terry Brooks and columns by Barry Malzbert and Gregory Benford. And if that weren't enough, there are book reviews by Bill Fawcett and Jody Lynn Nye.

The current issue can be read online for free and past issues are also available for purchase.

Stacking the Shelves (56)

While there are a couple of new books at my place this week, all of them are from the library. I do like “shopping” at the library, especially for books that I want to read but that I'm not particularly interested in keeping. I do, however, need to speed up my reading or exercise a little bit more discipline so that I read these borrowed books before they are due to be returned. I'm lucky that one of the libraries I frequent has a 3-week check-out period. I rarely have to ask for an extension.

From the library:

I decided to fill in a couple of series by getting the short stories and novellas that are set between the novels, so I borrowed the eBooks from my local library. I'm planning on squeezing these in between the science fiction books I'm reading for Sci-Fi Month. The Shell Game is a short story that introduces con man Nick Fox and FBI agent Kate O'Hare. Time of Death contains three In Death novellas, one of which I read several years ago. Along with Possession in Death, that will leave me with five novels and three novellas to catch up with the series so far!

Sci-Fi Online: Unlikely Story

Unlikely Story is the home of Journal of Unlikely Entomology, Journal of Unlikely Cryptography, and assorted “Unlikely” journals. Publishing three issues a year, with archives online, Unlikely Story is a magazine consisting entirely of fiction—about bugs, about information technology, and more.

If you're looking for some short fiction, how about How to Recover a Relative Lost During Transmatter Shipping, In Five Easy Steps by Carrie Cuinn in The Journal of Unlikely Cartography. Or Coping With Common Garden Pests by Will Kaufmann in the November 2014 issue of Journal of Unlikely Entomology.

The latest issue is Unlikely Story #12: The Journal of Unlikely Academia. Eight short works explore the pursuit of knowledge through formal instruction, fieldwork, and even the library. I recommend The Librarian's Dilemma by E. Saxey.

Sunday Summary: 8 November 2015

Another slow week of reading. I only completed three books, so I'm sliding just a wee bit more behind when it comes to my goal of reading 200 books in 2015. So far, I've completed 165 books and with 7 weeks left in the year, I need to complete an average of five books each week to meet my target of 200. Whew! That's a lot of reading. Guess I need to stop watching TV and Netflix until I've caught up.

Where I've been reading

I was at home all week long. It was the second week in a row that I've been able to sleep in my own bed. However, I had to commute to the office in Dallas instead of working from the house. The good thing about commuting is that I get to “read” by listening to an audio book as I'm driving the hour and a quarter each way. I listened to an entire book in three and a half days and got started on another one.

 

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Sci-Fi Online: Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Beneath Ceaseless Skies publishes “literary adventure fantasy”: stories with a secondary-world setting and some traditional or classic fantasy feel, but written with a literary approach.

So, even though the editors say that Beneath Ceaseless Skies is a vehicle for fantasy stories, most of those that take place in a “secondary-world setting” meet my personal criteria for science fiction.

In addition to the current issue, past issues are available from the web site, and annual “best of” anthologies are sold through various online book stores.

Issue #184 just went online on October 15. It features a podcast of short story A Careful Fier by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, which is also available in traditional text format for those who want to read instead of listen. The second short story is Unearthly Landscape by a Lady by Rebecca Campbell, and from the Archives, We, As One, Trailing Embers by E. Catherine Tobler.