#20 Books of Summer Book Pile

I like lists, especially book lists, so I thought I'd make one for the #20BooksOfSummer challenge! Ideally I'd like to read a lot more than 20 books this summer, but this is my starting point anyway.

Middlemarch for Bex's read-along!

1. First and foremost, George Eliot's Middlemarch! If I read one book this summer, it has to be this, right? I picked up the cute Penguin English Library edition at my local library, because while I have it on my kindle I needed something prettier to get excited about, and discovered that it has 920 pages which is at least 200 pages more than I remember it having. Oh well, I also remember it being awesome, so it's all good :)

Books I've read already/am in the middle of

   

2. White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
I've already read this, but since the challenge started at the start of the month it totally counts, woo! Anyway, I loved this. Sort of neo-gothic not-quite-sure-what's-going-on house-might-be-trying-to-kill-you stuff.

3. Possession by A S Byatt
I've been reading this for what seems like forever, and I'm very near the end. I'm enjoying it, but perhaps a little underwhelmed after all the rave reviews that built my expectations so high. Still, it's about Victorian academics and that's a win for me. I'm looking forward to seeing how things end up.

4. The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
Fun fact: when this movie was in the cinemas I was in the middle of a complicated essay about gender transgressions in the 1920s including talking about Lili Elbe. So that's why I didn't see it, as I was sick to my back teeth with her by the time I was done, lol. I'm better now. This is a fictionalised account of the life of Lili Elbe, who is generally considered the first person to medically transition gender. After this I can finally watch the movie, yay!

5. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
I'm going into this more or less blind, as I'm being guided purely by positive reviews and because it kept appearing in recommended lists. It's about Chechnya, and that's about all I know. I've only just started this.



Library books
(some of which are due back at the library soon and are non-renewable and therefore must be read ASAP!)

6. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach- Another one I'm going into blind. Library books are good for that! Something about college baseball and coming of age. I've heard good things about it!

7. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson- Really looking forward to this one. It's about twins and there's LGBT themes and apparently it will make me cry.

8. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven- YA about mental illness is my crack. Will possibly also make me cry.

9. Ghost Story by Peter Straub- I'm trying to read more horror, as it was my favourite genre once upon a time. This is supposed to be a classic of the genre and I'm hoping it'll scare my pants off.

10. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins- Unashamedly jumping on the bandwagon. I'm not sure what to expect with this- I've heard very mixed things. My girlfriend recently read it and loved it though. So we'll see!

Books I own, some of which have been on my shelves, unread, for an embarrassingly long time:

 

11. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James- I just picked this up on a whim in my university's book swap- it's one of those classics I've always been meaning to read. Allegedly there's England vs. America stuff and ladies doing their own things and that's basically all I know. I love Turn of the Screw, but I have no idea how this will compare.

12. The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica by various- Look, I'm a pervert. I read porn! I admit it! I actually started this a couple of years ago and kind of forgot I was reading it. But I'm going to finally finish it off. As with most compilations, the stories vary a lot in quality. I'm hoping there's a few good ones left.

13. Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson- In this case not unread but unreread. I haven't read this since I was in school. I keep saying I need to reread it soon but I never do! So this time, it's serious.

14. Nimona by Noelle Stevenson- I read Lumberjanes recently and absolutely loved it, so I'm excited to read more Noelle Stevenson. This is a fantasy graphic novel that has wonderful reviews- definitely need to get to this soon!

15. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd- This is another book my girlfriend loves. It's about 1960s and the Black civil rights movement, which I'm into, so I'm hoping this will be a good read.

16. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton- I have literally been on the verge of starting this book so many times when I get distracted by something shinier. I have no idea why! This is about high society New York at the turn of the century, which sounds intriguing.

17. Armada by Ernest Cline- I got this for my birthday not long after it came out (hardback and everything!) but I've been a little alarmed by some scathing reviews I've read- having loved Ready Player One, I'm worried this won't live up to expectations. Only one way to find out!

18. Valencia by Michelle Tea- I'm somewhat embarrassed that I've never read any Michelle Tea. So, this is my attempt to remedy that! This is her quasi-memoir about being a punk queer sex worker in San Francisco. So, pretty much ticking all my boxes there.

19. Brick Lane by Monica Ali- I know this was huge when it came out (um, about a decade ago...) so it'll be good to finally read it! It's about a Bangladeshi girl who comes to London through an arranged marriage in the 1980s and 1990s.

20. Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill- I mostly picked this up because the blurb on the cover describes it as 'Mean Girls meets The Handmaid's Tale.' Come on, who could resist?! This looks to be a dystopia with a feminist slant, so that's right up my street.


So that's my list! I may not get to all of these. I may have already deviated from the list quite a bit. Have you read any of these? Which ones should I definitely get to? :)

On summer plans and how to get out of a reading slump

Why, hello there. Things have been a bit quiet around here lately, mostly because my reading has really fallen by the wayside! I had such a good start to the year, and then by March things just sort of... stopped.

I'm blaming my Master's. It's pretty common for literature students to find themselves stop reading during term time because when you spend all day every day reading books for your course, you're much less likely to want to do it in your free time. I managed to avoid this for three years of a degree... but I think it's hitting me hard at Master's level. I have so much less free time as well, so when I do manage to scrape an hour or thirty minutes or less at the end of the day... well, a book isn't the first thing I grab.

But! Last Tuesday was my last day of uni and now I'm free until the end of September! Summer is here! I'm free!

Well, relatively. As I keep joking to everyone, it's so good to be only be working a full-time job! (As opposed to a full time job and 20-30 hours of studying a week). Said job is the reason that I've been stuck inside for the past week or so of good weather. I never thought I'd actually be jealous of people with sunburn, but there I am.

Anyway. When I'm not working, I've got big plans, like every summer. But this summer I'm determined to get some of this done!

So here's what I'm planning:

1. Moving out on my own
Yep, I'm finally going to be living on my own. No family, no roommates, just me. I can't wait to have my own space! I've had the keys for just under a week now and don't have to move in until my current lease ends at the end of the month, so in theory this should be plenty of time to gradually move stuff over, redecorate and basically make the place a home before I have to move in. In theory.

2. Read. Read. Read
Yep, this is a big one. I'm gradually reading my way out of the slump that I've been in for the past few months. I already had vague plans to go for twelve books a month until I go back to uni (which is my usual/former reading pace) but then I heard about the 20 Books of Summer challenge and I guess that's a good place to start! Plus with the added motivation of it being a group activity and that. I'd still love to hit my twelve books a month goal but we'll see how it goes! I might make a separate post with my big massive book pile, because those are always good.

3. Participate in Bex's Middlemarch read-along
I read Middlemarch about... four years ago? And I loved it and have been meaning to read it again, so it's so good that Bex is hosting this! Read-alongs are always great fun, and I can't wait for this.

4. Write more
Yeah, that's a bit vague, but purposely so. More blogging! More fiction writing! More poetry and songwriting!

5. Play more music
Vague again, but same idea. I want to spend more time playing the various musical instruments I have lying around. And maaaaaybe edge myself closer to finally getting the courage to busk?

6. Go somewhere
Haha, totally realising I fail in the idea of goal-setting as something that should be specific (Anyone else talk about SMART goals in uni? Specific, Measured, Achievable... I totally forget the rest. No wonder I suck at making goals.) I have very vague plans to maybe go over to England or Wales or take a roadtrip around Ireland or even just spend a night in Dublin. You know, something I can consider a holiday. It all depends on who I can get to come with me and what time I can get off work and that, but I really want it to happen!

7. Run/do yoga more
Look, I'm a nerdy girl. And like many nerdy girls, I've been exercise-phobic for pretty much my entire life. We were ranked in PE at my school as with every subject, and I was literally bottom of the year group due to my inability to run or catch a ball or understand netball. But I started running a few months back, and then I did a little yoga from tutorials online, and to my great surprise, I actually really enjoy it. I've been neglecting it a bit lately due to assignment craziness, but hopefully I should have more time now! (And I just bought a yoga mat, so, added incentive.)

8. Keep a bullet journal
I'm a massive time management/organisation freak. I kind of have to be, otherwise I'd never fit everything into my crazy life! I use Google Calendar and Habitica religiously, but I've got sucked into bullet journaling and I've actually found it more useful than I thought I would. My journal is nowhere near as pretty as the ones you see on tumblr, but I'm enjoying decorating my pages and getting a wee bit more in touch with my visual side.

9. Watch more Doctor Who
Remember that 50 years 50 stories project I have? The one I haven't updated in bloody forever? It's still very much a thing, even though I've stalled a bit. So I want to push ahead and keep watching, continuing my ongoing terrifying project of watching every single episode of Doctor Who since 1963. (For the uninitiated, there are currently 826 episodes of Doctor Who. I've watched maybe half.)

10. Be more social!
Last but definitely not least. Being a big introvert with lots of interests and hobbies and studying and working hours... my social life has really, really took a beating in the past few months. I want to use my new found freedom to hang out with friends even if it's just for a quick coffee once a week or so.

Bonus:
Dye my hair. I haven't done it in six months, since I shaved my head and let my natural colour grow back in. Teenage me is appalled. But never fear, I've got some purple dye ready to go ;)

So those are my summer plans! Hopefully I'll at least attempt some of these. What are your summer goals? :)

Bout of Books 16

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I'm late to the party because I totally forgot this was happening. But hey, I'm in essay hell and it's been a bit quiet around the blog lately so I might as well take part!

I'm hoping to finish four books, including the two I'm currently reading. That might be optimistic, but we'll see how the week goes! I'll try to update this every day with my progress, work schedule and essay deadlines permitting.


Monday and Tuesday

 

Reading: Women Who Did: Stories by Men and Women, 1890-1914; The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee
Pages read; 142

Thoughts: Not a bad start! Monday I was in work and doing uni work, but managed to squeeze in some reading in the park as the weather was glorious. Tuesday was a bit less productive as my girlfriend was over, but I still got a good chunk read.

Women Who Did is pretty self-explanatory from the title- it's a collection of stories about women at turn of the century. It's actually some belated uni reading that I'm doing after the semester has finished, whoops. There's big names like Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf as well as lesser known ones, including (so far) an African American and a Native American, which is unusual given the time period and nice to see.

The Expatriates is one of the books I won from Bex during the last re-readathon, and even though it's something I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own accord, I'm really enjoying it. It's about a group of- you guessed it- expatriates living in Hong Kong, with their lives intermingling and some interesting stuff about local vs. expat dynamics.


Wednesday

 

Reading: Women Who Did: Stories by Men and Women, 1890-1914; The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee
Pages read; 182
Books finished: Women Who Did
Total pages read: 324

Thoughts: I was off work today so as usual I tried to get as much uni work done as physically possible. And mostly succeeded! I finished Women Who Did, meaning I've finally finished my assigned reading for the year. All in all a pretty good book to finish the academic year with. As with all collections, some stories are better than others- but I've finally read some Kate Chopin and some Charlotte Perkins Gilman and enjoyed them just as much as everybody told me I would, so it's all good.

The Expatriates is also going swimmingly. You know sometimes you read a book about something you've never thought much about before but the author just makes it seem so interesting? Yeah, expat life in Hong Kong is surprisingly interesting. There's all this stuff about how everyone sticks together in groups by nationality and the underlying sexism where so many of the wives become stay at home mothers because they've followed their husbands half way around the world. So, yeah. I'm enjoying it a lot, and should finish it tomorrow if I keep going at this rate.


Thursday

 

Reading: The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee, Possession by A. S. Byatt
Pages read; 165
Books finished: The Expatriates
Total pages read: 489
Total books finished: 2

Thoughts: Work was long and exhausting today, so when I came home I basically decided to skip the uni work and relax with a book all night instead. I was successful for the most part, though I ended up falling asleep about two hours before my usual time. Like I said, exhausted!

I finished The Expatriates! I'm feeling satisfied in the way that happens when a book you didn't have any expectations about turned out to be actually really good.

I've stared Possession now, which has probably sabotaged my vague goals of finishing four books this week- it's pretty chunky- but I'm not that bothered. I've heard amazing things about this book and so far so good!


Friday and Saturday

Aaaaand then it all went to hell. I won't bother with stats for these two days, because I read two pages. Total. I had a family emergency on Friday night and had to go home, missing work and everything. Everyone's alive and more or less well, don't worry- but yeah. One of those rubbish complicated family drama things. So, I basically spent two days flicking about on Reddit and Tumblr, not really able to focus on anything. Bit of a wash out, really.

Things have mostly resolved themselves now though (as much as they can...) so fingers crossed I'll read more than one page on Sunday!


Sunday

Reading: Possession by A. S. Byatt
Pages read; 20
Total pages read: 511
Total books finished: 2

Thoughts: Hey look, I read more than one page! Seriously though, today I was really busy with uni work. It's that time of year. I had a deadline for something that really should not have taken as long as it did, so there's that. Honestly, it's a miracle I read 20 pages.

I'm enjoying Possession. As a lit student there's an awful lot to relate to... though perhaps not the best book to dip into when I'm trying to take a break from all that!


Round up
Well, I didn't reach my admittedly ambitious goal of four books finished, but I did finish two and start another, so that's not too bad. I was doing pretty well at the start of the week, but personal issues got in the way and I wasn't really able to recover that. Still, I don't think I did too badly!

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon: Update post

Hours 1-13 (1pm-2am)
Reading: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Pages read: 76
Total pages read: 76
Snacks: Quorn bacon and egg sandwich, Special K bar, gum and Wham bars

I'm late to the party, but I'm finally here! I stayed at my parents' house last night so with driving back up to Belfast and stopping for groceries (and the requisite read-a-thon snacks) on the way I only got home at about 2, squeezed in an hour of reading and then headed to work. Got home from work at 1 am, made some food and now I'm hoping to get in an hour or two of reading before I fall asleep :)


Hours 14-22 (2am-11am)
Reading: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Pages read: 38
Total pages read: 114
Snacks: Nothing, just blissful sleep...

You know how some nights you make an actual effort to go to sleep, and then on others sleep just comes for you?

Actual footage of me around 3 am last night

I think I was exhausted from work. But there's two hours left of the readathon and I'm determined to make them count! The plan is to stay in bed with my book and some breakfast until the end- hopefully I'll get some serious pages in before then!

Hours 23-24 (11am-1pm)
Reading: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Pages read: 88
Total pages read: 202
Snacks: Coffee and disappointing cornflakes (Asda Price ones literally taste like paper. Weird and annoying because Tesco Value ones are the same price and are delicious!)

Well, that's it folks! I wish I could have read for longer but with work and sleep and all that I only managed a bit less than four hours out of 24. Even so, I succeeded in making a fairly decent dent in The Goldfinch- I'm past the halfway point!- and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Thank you to the hosts for giving me an excuse to do nothing but read for an evening and a morning, and congratulations to everyone on some seriously impressive page counts I've seen! :)

Did someone say read-a-thon?

I love the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon. There's something about the sheer scale of the thing and the number of people participating that really motivates me. That said, I'm participating slightly... oddly this year.

1. Every single year, I tell myself "Oh, Dewey's read-a-thon is coming up, better book it off work!" Every single year I fail to do so. This year is no different. I'm working Saturday evening, but that still leaves me a couple of hours before work and all Sunday morning!

2. I will not be sacrificing sleep. As someone who balances working nights with morning classes, I never miss out on an opportunity for eight hours of sleep in a row.

3. I love seeing the book piles everyone makes. Love them! I love making book piles myself! But this year there's no book pile, as I'm just planning on reading as much of my current read as possible- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I'm less than halfway through so I doubt I'll get it finished- it's quite the doorstopper- but if I can make a good dent in it that'd be awesome!

4. I'm aware that conventional readathon wisdom advises against reading just one book for the whole 'thon, so I might pick up Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure at some point, as I'm only about a quarter way through it and I need to have it finished for class on Thursday. Actually, considering that, I probably should pick it up at some point.

Weirdness aside, I can't wait! See y'all tomorrow!

March in books

March was a weird month in terms of reading. Remember how I was reading like crazy in January and February? Yeah, that sort of fizzled out for the whole of March. Even the Re-Readalong couldn't save me. I read nine books in March... five of those were for uni and one was my read-a-long of The Crimson Petal and the White, which I've already talked about so much that I won't repeat myself here. Out of the three books that are left, two of them are strong candidates for my top ten of the year, so it's definitely not all bad :)

Alexander Hamilton, American by Richard Brookhiser

Like most of the internet, I'm pretty obsessed with the musical Hamilton and I fancied finding out more about the man himself and his ridiculous life. This looked to be the best biography my university library had. It's only about 200 pages- so much more manageable than the famous Ron Chernow biography- and it's a pretty straight-forward read. It was interesting to read something that's not my usual fare- I don't go in for political biographies, or American history, all that much. But, yeah. I learned things. So this was decent.





Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

I've talked before about how I love YA that deals with mental health issues. I picked this up randomly in Waterstones one day and read the blurb and the main character is on the same medication as me, so that was kind of... not nice exactly but new and interesting and reassuring? And then I went away and read up on this a bit more and found out that it's feministy as well as dealing with mental health problems, so I knew then I just had to read it. I'm happy to say it was just as good, if not even better than I'd hoped! So, Evie's just started college and is hoping to make a fresh start away from being 'the girl who went crazy'. She's struggled with OCD but is doing well in recovery. That's another thing I love that we definitely don't see enough- characters living with mental health problems, not just the drama of when they first manifest or particularly low points. The only other book I can think of that does this is Will Grayson Will Grayson and it's not something we see anywhere nearly enough. Anyway, Evie doesn't want her friends to know but at the same time feels bad about it, and worries that maybe she's getting worse again. And yes, there's feministy bits with the issues the main characters face as teenage girls, and yeah, I'm pretty much in love with this book. It's first in a series- I think the others follow Evie's friends, Lottie and Amber- so I can't wait to get my hands on those as well. Highly recommended.


The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan

Oooh, now this was a strange wee one. It's going to be difficult to describe. So, it's set in a possibly-future world where the earth is flooded and people are divided into 'landlockers' and 'damplings' (people who live on land and people who live on the sea) and there's all sorts of complicated stuff going on between them. North and her bear are performers in a sort of floating circus, and through one thing and another she meets and befriends a landlocker called Callanish, who's a Gracekeeper- someone who attends to the dead. Honestly, the whole world is so well developed- the whole thing is just really magical and watery and slightly melancholy. I loved this.

Much belated February round-up: Part 2

Okay, yeah, this is beyond late. To the point where I seriously began to wonder if it was even worth posting. But, hey, I had it mostly written and I like the idea of having a little something to say about everything I read this year, so here it is, my mini-reviews/talky bits for books I read in the second half of February!

Volpone by Ben Jonson

My degree was English/French combined, which was great in some ways- I got to pick the best modules and didn't have to settle for any filler, but it also meant I missed out on some things that I really ought to have read by now. So I've kind of been making an effort to read those books, push into different eras/styles and all that. And I have to say, my initial foray into that experiment was not... particularly successful. It's Renaissance era, which is something I basically never read, and it's drama, which I don't read enough of... but yeah, this wasn't really for me. As a comedy I didn't find it particularly funny- not in the way Shakespeare can make me laugh, and the misogyny kind of turned me off- yeah, yeah, part of the time and place and that, but even taking that into consideration. So, not my thing. But, I'm still glad I read it and I'm not going to give up this weird project of mine.

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
So, there was a lot of hype about this book a while back and I was intrigued, but also a little cautious because of natural distrust for hype and a few negative reviews I read (nevermind all the positive ones- apparently I only remember the bad ones...) Also, come to think of it, because even though I love the epidemic-apocalyptic in theory, there are an awful lot of well-loved books on the topic that I just couldn't get into- The Stand, The Passage, World War Z...

But I eventually picked it up and I really enjoyed it, so yay! In case you've somehow managed to avoid this, it's set in the aftermath of a deadly virus that killed most of the world population. The protagonist travels the desolate US in an orchestra/Shakespearean theatre group, which is kind of awesome. There's shifting point of views and flashbacks to the outbreak itself and everything just kind of worked- the world building, the writing, the characterisation. One of my favourites of this year so far!

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue is one of my absolute favourite writers, and it breaks my heart that I'm getting towards the end of her back catalogue. She is still writing though, so there's that. Anyway! This interestingly titled book is a collection of short stories based on anecdotes and oddities in old newspapers that Donoghue encountered while researching other things. Including, yep, a woman in the 18th century who apparently gave birth to rabbits. This is a pretty great little collection- some stories are funny, some are downright horrifying. All are really quirky and interesting.




Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity, ed by Mattilda AKA Matthew Bernstein Sycamore

Passing is a topic close to my heart. I've been gender non-conforming for pretty much my whole life. Basically, I only identify as a woman some of the time- the rest I'm a boy or, just, neither. I've struggled with trying to 'pass' as a boy for as long as I can remember- and, since about the age of eight, with little success. I'm small and slight and have 'feminine features' and yeah, sometimes that's bothered me a lot. But I also know that the whole idea of 'passing' is pretty much bullshit and leads to all sorts of dangerous and problematic ideas. Which is something that's pretty relevant these days, because while there's a lot of talk about trans acceptance, if anything there's even more pressure on trans people to look 'feminine' or 'masculine' enough.

So anyway! I picked up this book in the hope of exploring these ideas and I was not disappointed. The essays are incredibly diverse, dealing not only with sexuality and gender but also 'passing' with regard to race and religion and other things. So, I really enjoyed this and it made me feel good about being the girly boyish girl mess that I am. Really good stuff, definitely best of 2016 material.