Total Books Read: 13
Audio: 11
Print: 2
Ebooks: 0
Fiction — 6
- When She Woke by Hillary Jordan: I’ve had really bad luck with books that tell me they are going to be a cross between BOOK I REALLY LIKE and OTHER BOOK/THEME THAT SOUNDS INTERESTING. I may be alone on this in the book blogger world though.
- Damned by Chuck Palahniuk (print): Shorter Palahniuk: I need money! I should write a book really quick! Shorter Publisher: Oh, thanks buddy! Lets market this as being like an 80s movie everyone loves, even though the book is really not like the movie at all! (Note: I don’t think this was the actual convo. But close.)
- Ed King by David Guterson: The exception to my previous rule regarding my dislike of adaptations of popular books/stories/movies. I quite liked Ed King, even though none of the characters are likeable at all. It’s kind of the charm of it, I think.
- Darkest Fear (Myron Bolitar #7) by Harlan Coben: Oh Myron. I feel like I read this ages ago, I don’t remember it at all.
- Needful Things by Stephen King: This audio book is narrated by King, and his perfect use of a Maine accent for some of the characters was basically worth listening to the entire book. A joy, really.
- Dreamcatcher by Stephen King: The narrator for this one, on the other hand, did a Maine accent like a Boston townie who has been drinking for a couple days straight.
Non-Fiction – 7
- Zombie Spaceship Wasteland by Patton Oswalt (print): I am not saying anything about this book as I imagine internet trolls will suddenly appear and leave terrifying comments.
- The Times of Our Lives: A Conversation About America by Tom Brokaw: Listening to books written and narrated by news anchors/broadcast journalists is one of my very favorite things.
- The Hellhound of Wall Street: How Ferdinand Pecora’s Investigation of the Great Crash Forever Changed American Finance by Michael Perino: Two words: so good.
- The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman: Quite a bit more serious than I expected.
- Money Culture by Michael Lewis: A collection of essays about Wall Street/the financial sector written in the 80s-90s. My first experience reading Lewis’s writing; I really need to read more of his books.
- Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion by Janet Reitman: This book doesn’t really go into what Scientologists believe, but other than that it’s a really good work of journalism.
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling: If you have a best friend, you need to read the essay in here about best friends because it’s perfect. I want to frame it and give it to my bestie, but I think that might be a little odd. DEAL WITH IT, JENNIFER.
Other Notes, re: mid-December fun
I would like to thank my mysterious Book Blogger Holiday Swap secret Santa for sending me these two books from my wishlist, The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman and Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, two books I’m super excited to read. Getting a copy of Half-Blood Blues was particularly pleasing since it isn’t out here in the US yet. Thank you, mysterious BBHS Santa! If you’re reading this, please let me know who you are by leaving a comment!
(A special thanks to Nicole for letting me participate in the swap despite my waiting until the very last minute to sign up.)
Also, you may have noticed on my dear pal Amy‘s blog that somehow I was able to be her BBHS Secret Santa. This is the first Secret Santa I’ve ever done with bloggers where I actually knew OF the blogger, let alone traveled all of NYC with her and had her as a guest in my house. (Side note: talk about high pressure shopping!) I’m happy to see that she was excited about her gifts, especially since I kind of had to give away my Secret Santa-ness by begging her to stay home on Monday for “mysterious reasons” (or to sign for the FedEx package, you know) and acting like a general creep. (My first IM to her on Monday morning was “ARE YOU AT HOME?” Totally creepy. She was like “ARE YOU COMING TO MY HOUSE?”)
This was my first year participating in the Broke and Bookish Secret Santa, and okay I have to squeal about this, bear with me, OMG YOU GUYS MY SECRET SANTA WORKS FOR BEACON PRESS, ONE OF MY FAVORITE PUBLISHERS! Broche, who blogs at Wildly Read, kiiind of nailed it, you guys. If you can’t quite see the titles in the picture, they are:
- Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg
- Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue by Leslie Feinberg
- Queer Quotes edited by Teresa Theophano
- Jo’s Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure, True Grit, and Real Life edited by Christian McEwan
- A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski
Broche also included that lovely (homemade!) card with really amusing details about how she chose the books and mentioned that Beacon will be publishing a book by J. Halberstam next year–news (very exciting news!) to me. Thank you so much!
Last night I went to my first ever Boston Bloggers event (local bloggers, not book bloggers, which was DIFFERENT). Everyone I spoke with was really nice, the food was quite tasty, and I got some lip gloss advice, so all in all I’d say it was a successful evening.
