It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Didn't finish any books last week. I was involved in a poetry-reading get together this weekend, and I ended up spending a great deal of last week tracking down some poems to read. It was fun, but unfortunately cut into my overall reading time a bit more than I'd expected. By the way, if you're looking for poetry to read aloud, a couple of good online resources are:

• The Poetry Foundation
• Poetry Out Loud

So this week I'm pretty much still reading what I had going last week....mainly:

Recursion, by Blake Crouch

The Patience of a Dead Man, by Michael Clark

The Last Romantics, by Tara Conklin

Three very different books — a nice variety. That's probably more than I'll likely get through, but it's good to have goals. Right?

Happy reading, everyone! And have a lovely week.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. If you want to let the world know what you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

So here we are at the beginning of another month. June!!!  2019 is almost half over, and I'm nowhere near halfway through all the books I'm hoping to read this year. Which is pretty normal around here, actually.

May wasn't a terrible month for me, reading-wise — but it wasn't stellar. I managed to finish three books....

Light from Other Stars, by Erika Swyler

Little Darlings, by Melanie Golding

The Invited, by Jennifer McMahon

and almost finish one more:

The Vicious Vet (Agatha Raisin #2), by M.C. Beaton

My goal for this week is to get those reviewed, and then start on my June list which includes all of these:

We Were Killers Once (Brigid Quinn #4), by Becky Masterman

The Patience of a Dead Man, by Michael Clark

Mrs. Everything, by Jennifer Weiner

Recursion, by Blake Crouch

So I've definitely got enough to keep me busy for a while. And now I'm gonna go see what everybody else is reading — and probably add a few more books to my already ridiculously-huge "MUST READ" list.

Happy reading, everyone! And have a lovely week.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. If you want to let the world know what you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Summer Reading Events

I really should not be looking at new reading challenges, since I haven't been doing all that well with the ones I've already signed up for this year. But a few interesting challenges/events have shown up on my radar recently. Don't know if I'll be joining in, but these look like fun....

The Sci-Fi Summer Readathon is hosted by Michelle @ Seasons of Reading, and runs from June 1st (hey, that's today!) through the 14th. Two whole weeks of reading devoted to sci-fi or fantasy. Click here for guidelines and sign-ups.

20 Books of Summer, 2019 edition — hosted by Cathy @ 746Books — runs from June 3rd to September 3rd. This sounds like a great way to knock off some of those books you've been meaning to get to all year, but just haven't managed yet. And it doesn't have to be 20 books — could be 15 or even 10, and you can change your target list at any time. Click here to read all about it.

Then there's also a summer version of the COYER challenge — the COYER Summer Hunt, hosted by Michelle @ Because Reading is Better Than Real Life. The regular COYER challenges are usually a little more structured than I like, but this one is much looser, as Michelle says: "Normally you’re only allowed to read eBooks that were less than $5 for COYER, but since this is Summer Vacation you can read whatever you want!"

Summer COYER begins June 1st and runs until August 31st, and sign-ups will be open until Saturday, July 6th. Click here for more guidelines and sign-ups.

Book Beginnings: The Vicious Vet

The Vicious Vet (Agatha Raisin series, Book 2), by M.C. Beaton (first published 1993). These are the book's opening lines:

Agatha Raisin arrived at London's Heathrow Airport with a tan outside and a blush of shame inside. She felt an utter fool as she pushed her load of luggage towards the exit.

About the Book:

Feisty Agatha Raisin, former London PR exec, has retired to a quiet Cotswold village. After handsome vet Paul Bladen accidentally kills himself while attending Lord Pendlebury's horse, Agatha and her attractive neighbor James Lacey investigate the curious lack of sorrow shown by Bladen's divorced wife. Meanwhile, a killer plans another "accident."

Initial Thoughts:

Well, that first paragraph seems perfectly plausible — Agatha Raisin generally spends a lot of time feeling foolish.

I read the first Agatha Raisin book (The Quiche of Death) earlier this year and loved it, so I thought I'd get on with another in the series. It's unusual for me to read cozies in the proper order — for some reason, I usually start with the most recent and then work my way back. But I think the Agatha series would be fun in any order you choose.

Hope you're enjoying all your current reading. Happy Friday, everyone! And have a lovely weekend.

Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Friday.  As she says, the idea is to post the first sentence (or so) of the book you're currently reading, along with any first impressions or thoughts you have about the book, the author, etc.  It's a wonderful way of adding new books to your must-read list, and a chance to connect with other readers and bloggers.

Book Beginnings: Light from Other Stars

Light from Other Stars, by Erika Swyler (Bloomsbury Publishing, May 2019). Here's how it starts:

Aboard Chawla 

Nedda Papas rose to birdsong, the sharp, rasping call of a dusky seaside sparrow against a backdrop of waves — a reminder of home and things she'd never see again.

About the Book:

Swyler's new novel is "at once a wistfully nostalgic coming-of-age tale and a profound work of horror-tinged science fiction." (Kirkus Review)

Initial Thoughts:

I don't read as much sci-fi as I once did, but the sound of this one appealed to me. I read Swyler's earlier novel, The Book of Speculation, and didn't like it as much as most other readers seemed to. But so far, this one is definitely holding my attention.

Hope you're enjoying all your current reading. Happy Friday, everyone! And have a lovely weekend.

Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Friday.  As she says, the idea is to post the first sentence (or so) of the book you're currently reading, along with any first impressions or thoughts you have about the book, the author, etc.  It's a wonderful way of adding new books to your must-read list, and a chance to connect with other readers and bloggers.

Book Beginnings: The Invited

The Invited, by Jennifer McMahon (Doubleday, April 2019). This is the book's first sentence:

It had started when Hattie was a little girl.

About the Book:

The Invited is the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house, they start building one from scratch, without knowing it, until it's too late . . . (from GoodReads)

Initial Thoughts:

Well, of course I'm wondering who Hattie is, and WHAT started when Hattie was a little girl. And since this story is all about a haunted house, I'm thinking whatever it was is going to be nice and spooky.

Also thinking it's a little weird that I just got finished with a book called The Uninvited. Which was also a ghost story. Something of a pattern going on here, hmmm?

This is one of the books I was planning to read in April, so I'm a little late getting started. So far, I seem to be running late on just about everything this year. Just like last year!

Hope you're enjoying all your current reading. Happy Friday, everyone! And have a lovely weekend.

Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Friday.  As she says, the idea is to post the first sentence (or so) of the book you're currently reading, along with any first impressions or thoughts you have about the book, the author, etc.  It's a wonderful way of adding new books to your must-read list, and a chance to connect with other readers and bloggers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

OK, it's Monday! But also — it's APRIL!!!! This year is movin' along much too fast, and my reading is going much too slow. Yeah — what else is new, right?

So this week I'm trying to get myself back into the reading groove, and I'm doing it with something I'm almost certain to love — one of Rex Stout's classic Nero Wolfe mysteries from the 1950s:

Murder by the Book (1951)

I've read quite a few of the Nero Wolfe series, but this is one I've missed up to now. I'm only a few pages in, but enjoying it so far.

If I manage to finish that one quickly, I've got several books I need to read and review this month. Three likely candidates:

Little Darlings, the debut novel by Melanie Golding

The Invited, a suspense novel by Jennifer McMahon

We Were Killers Once, the latest Brigid Quinn mystery, by Becky Masterman

Hmmm. Just noticed how those covers for The Invited and We Were Killers Once sort of echo each other. Odd. Well, anyway....

Certainly enough to keep me busy. Now if I can just keep all that pesky real-life stuff from sneaking up on my reading, I'll be fine.

Happy reading, everyone! And have a lovely week.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. If you want to let the world know what you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.