Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish People You Should Follow On Social!

Top Ten Tuesday, here we are again. I've been woefully absent, I know, but when I saw this prompt, I was ON IT.

Since I'm a social (media) butterfly, I couldn't wait to share some favorite people on the Bookternet. You're probably familiar with all of these, but just in case you don't follow them on THESE platforms...

Instagram (@estellasrevenge)

Image cred to Liberty! 

Liberty Hardy (@franzencomesalive) from Book Riot and Book of the Month is a SERIOUS reader, to the tune of 500 books per year. I love following her on Instagram because we get a sneak peek into what she's reading on a daily (four times daily?) basis. She also has tons of cute pics of her cat, Steinbeck, and as cats go, he's pretty amazing.

I haven't the foggiest idea who is behind BestBookGrams, but they really are the prettiest book pics around!

Jennifer (@The Tireless Reader) is great! Lots of pics of books, tea, and plants, and more books and tea!

Snapchat (@estellasnaps)

Amanda Snappin'.

Amanda from Fig and Thistle (@nerdybookgirl80) is the best! Her Snapchat is full of books, coffee, art, great music, and quirk. It really doesn't get any better. 

Janani from The Shrinkette (@jananivaidya) snaps about lots of things...books, makeup, life. I just love the peek inside people's everyday that Snapchat provides! 

Jamie from The Broke and the Bookish (@brokeandbookish) needs no introduction of course, since she runs this whole thing. But she's also sooooo funny on Snapchat, and random and wonderful. Books, beer, silly faces, singing. Yaaaas! 

YouTube (estellasrevenge)

Erikaraeable! Erika is awesome, and she's also on Twitter. She reads great books and her reviews are fantastic. Most recently, she really made me want to (finally) read The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber.

Brittany from Under the Radar Books is lovely! Her channel is so great, and we have a lot of reading tastes in common, so I really like to see what she's reading.

And while I haven't quite hit 10, it's past my bedtime! That sounds lame, but this lady is exhausted. 

Ten Books I Loved Five Years Ago (and Still Do)

A freebie day! A freebie day! Today's Top Ten Tuesday is our choice, and as I started pondering I thought to myself, "But what about all those books that I read years ago that I still adore but forgot about? Don't give enough love anymore? Don't shove into people's hands and onto their library request lists enough?"

Well ding-dong, I went back five years to cull a list of books I loved that still deserve your attention. Straight from 2011...

Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex by Erica Jong

First, let's just get this right out of the way -- it's not sensational, it's not grodey (much), it's thoughtful, provocative essays, short stories, and there's even an illustrated comic and dramatic dialogey thing thrown in (waves at Eve Ensler). If sex makes you uncomfortable, you may squirm a little (lot) reading it, and if you're not uncomfortable, it might still make you squirm from time to time. But it'll also make you think, ponder, and take a minute to reflect on your own experiences, attitudes, and how they came to be what they are.

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

Set in Athens, Henry is a genius, drunkard, American, in love with Rebecca. Rebecca is a French ex-flight attendant, artist, in love with Henry. Henry is a British archaeologist, hottie, tortured soul. They're all tortured souls in some way-- haunted by death, betrayal, and crappy family. They find each other in a twisted love triangle heightened by the unlikely friendship that grows between George and Henry. Going into this novel, and from reading the blurbs, I really thought it would be about the love triangle. And that's not new! But it really isn't so much. A REALLY BIG EVENT changes the trajectory of this novel in a big, big way. All of a sudden it was no longer about a triangle, and it morphed into more of a story of triumph and overcoming grief and insurmountable psychological trauma.

You Know When the Men Are Gone: Stories by Siobhan Fallon

You Know When the Men Are Gone is a collection of interrelated short stories about military families and the struggles that come along with service and deployment. Set in Killeen, TX (a few hours from where I live in Texas), the stories explore multiple facets of the military life. Some of the stories deal with the soldiers' feelings in combat, their longing for a normal life at home, and the struggles their wives and families experience stateside, waiting. Other stories tackle the problems soldiers encounter accepting a civilian life and a return to "normal." There's fidelity and infidelity, heartbreak, disappointment, triumph -- and inevitably -- death.

Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory

The stories are short. Some are less than a page long while others max out between five and ten pages. The characters are vague with names like "A boy" or "A girl." While the characters are Everyman and Everywoman, the stories are anything but bland or nondescript. They're crazy, odd, gross, troubling, affecting, sad, joyful, stunning. Given the average length of the story, I would venture to guess there are nearly 50 stories in this book. I don't have it with me or I'd start counting. It's a huge number, though, in comparison to run-of-the-mill story collections.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

This is the story of the Ayres family and their formerly palatial estate, Hundreds Hall. England is changing as the middle class is no longer interested in being servants, tracks of homes are popping up everywhere, and the Gentry can't afford their way of lives any longer. Told by family friend, Dr. Faraday, it's really a novel about the Ayres family's undoing. Are they haunted by the disintegration of the upper crust or is the book's "little stranger" a real ghost?

Sherry and Narcotics by Nina-Marie Gardner

Gardner's strength is in writing the addict's life and conveying it as perfectly normal. At first, as I was reading through Mary's adventures with wine, I thought she was probably drinking a bit much, but she seemed to keep it indoors and function pretty well. But by the end of this book, she's a sad sack. She wears rose-colored (wine-colored?) glasses throughout her relationship with the poet and leaves the reader wondering how in heckfire she ever thought THIS and THAT were good ideas! I'll say it again -- train wreck!

Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt

Keep in mind that the tales aren't really overtly scary so much as twisty, and some of them are delightful, and one or two are a gruesome in parts. It's a mixed bag, and every story truly kept me guessing. Byatt has some wily tricks up her sleeve, and I was never, ever bored. I was never unfulfilled. Each one of these short story gems was perfectly formed on its own -- none of this wishing for a novel business!

Atonement by Ian McEwan

What I love most about McEwan's writing, this novel and On Chesil Beach, is his grasp of the intangible. He manages to put thoughts, emotions, and nuance into words in such a way that it takes my breath away. There were times reading Atonement that I literally caught myself holding my breath because the words on the page were so effortlessly effective. So evocative of the characters' internal lives. The atmosphere and expectations in this book just soar!

My Reading Life by Pat Conroy

A favorite passage from this book about Conroy's life as a reader: "Here is what I want from a  book, what I demand, what I pray for when I take up a novel and begin to read the first sentence: I want everything and nothing less, the full measure of a writer's heart. I want a novel so poetic that I do not have to turn to the standby anthologies of poetry to satisfy that itch for music, for perfection and economy of phrasing, for exactness of tone. Then, too, I want a book so filled with story and character that I read page after page without thinking of food and drink, because a writer has possessed me, crazed me with an unappeasable thirst to know what happens next. Again, I know that story is suspect in the high precincts of American fiction, but only because it brings entertainment and pleasure, the same responses that have always driven puritanical spirits at the dinner table wild when the talk turns to sexual intercourse and incontinence."

The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna

The Birth of Love is a good book because the time periods are varied but cohesive, the experiences seem honest, and the writing is fabulous. There's something for the historical fiction lovers, the sf crowd, and those who just love a great book. Everything seemed nicely integrated and expertly planned. All the pieces fit, and letting them unfold was a joyous reading experience.

What are some of your favorite books from years ago? It's way too easy for these gems to fall off the map!

Top Ten Tuesday (on Thursday): My Fall TBR

I'm late! I'm late! But this Top Ten Tuesday was too much fun to ignore. I never follow these lists once I make them, but here we go anywayyyyy...

A Piece of Mine by J. California Cooper is a book I requested after Didi from Brown Girl Reading recommended it. I also read and loved Cooper's novel, Family, at Didi's recommendation.

After sucking down This Is How You Lose Her, I am game for more Diaz any moment. Let's go with Drown!

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff is irresistible in light of Sara Taylor's recommendation during #30Authors.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal seeeems like it's been on my TBR forever, when it's actually only been a few months. This one sounds like it might be a good Dewey's Readathon book. 

I need to hurry up and start the beast that is The Quick by Lauren Owen! RIP-readalong!

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez is a book I've wanted, and I recently received it in a swap! What luck! 

 

No surprise here. I'm completely enamored of the Tiffany Aching series, so I can't wait to read the final two books: I Shall Wear Midnight and The Shepherd's Crown.  

Finally, I ordered Scott McCloud's graphic novel, The Sculptor, shortly after it came out, and atop my entertainment center it sits. It's time! 

Ten New Books on my TBR!

It grows and grows and growwwws, this TBR. I swear! You'd think I keep buying books or something. Ahem!

Check out TTT at The Broke and the Bookish!

Some of these books are on my physical TBR, some are on my digital TBR, and some are just lounging on my wishlist until the point at which I cave and purchase them. Let's go!

I was soliciting recommendations on Twitter for a book that's something akin to Jonathan Tropper or Where'd You Go, Bernadette?  in the quirk department, and Shannon suggested Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia. High school music festival, strange disappearance, smart, giddy, pop culture? Yes! 

I've wanted to pick up one of Jonathan Tropper's novels ever since I watched the film adaptation of This is Where I Leave You. I'm one of those people who can't read the book after I've seen the movie, so I'll just have to taste test from his other books. Atop the recs: Everything Changes and One Last Thing Before I Go.

True Confections, by Katharine Weber, came out of that same Twitter convo. Derek Attig was kind enough to toss this rec my way, and between the cover and the blurb, I know it's only a matter of time! 

 

These didn't emerge from the Twitterverse, but you knew there would be food books somewhere, right??? It seems to be my thing. Life from Scratch, by Sasha Martin, is a book I've seen good things about in the blogosphere. Yes, Chef, by Marcus Samuelsson, is another one! 

While I assume there's a deficit of actual wedding cake in this book, I still want to get my paws on Wedding Cake for Breakfast: Essays on the Unforgettable First Year of Marriage, by Kim Perel and Wendy Sherman. From surprise pregnancies, to exes, and second thoughts, it sounds like this book runs the gamut. 

Heather sent me a copy of Bone, vol. 1, Out from Boneville, by Jeff Smith, for birthday-slash-Christmas, and I am HOOKED! I ordered the next two volumes, because Greyson is already stealing these. I know when he can read-read he'll really be sucked in. The next two volumes are The Great Cow Race and Eyes of the Storm. 

And because who can resist...I caved and pre-ordered Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee. I don't think I really need to expound on why. 

What's new on your TBR? 

Top Ten 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To

Sooooo many books, so little time. A phrase uttered by all of us at some point, especially in the turn from one year to another. I had good intentions to read all of these books in 2014, but aren't the intentions always good?

Bad Feminist, by Roxane Gay - Own it! This collection of essays is great to dip into when you feel the mood on ya. I need to dip back in and finish it. 

Belzhar, by Meg Wolitzer - Own it! I'm not the biggest YA reader, but I'll read anything Wolitzer writes. 

All the Birds, Singing, by Evie Wyld - Downloaded the sample, and I'm sold! Will be downloading this one for realz. 

The Blazing World, by Siri Hustvedt - I received a digital ARC of this one, but it fell prey to my slump. I love her, so I'll definitely get back to it. 

An Age of License, by Lucy Knisley - I should just pre-order all of Knisley's stuff. I always read her work, but sometimes not in a timely manner. 

Redeployment, by Phil Klay - Came to my attention late in the year and it's been on my radar ever since. Even moreso now that it's a Tournament of Books contender. 

Sweetness #9, by Stephan Eirik Clark -  Own it! It's sitting on my ereader. I've talked about wanting to read this one endlessly. I'm starting to annoy myself. 

How to Be a Victorian, by Ruth Goodman - Own it! I've also talked about this one out the wahoo. I have a beautiful hardcover from the Panels holiday armadillo exchange. 

The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore - Own it! Chilling on the e-reader one tenth read. Hmmphf. 

The Wrenchies, by Farel Dalrymple - I will own it!

Which 2014 books are still tempting you? 

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

#AMonthofFaves: Top 10 (or 12) Books that Blew My Mind in 2014!

As "off" as I felt in 2014 at times, looking back over the year, there were some books that impacted me in big ways. Whether it was a heartrending story or a tome so full of fun I wanted to shout from the rooftops. Without further ado...the best of 2014. 

Today we're linking up with Top Ten Tuesday!

• Ruby, by Cynthia Bond
• Beloved, by Toni Morrison
• Bastard Out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison
• The Enchanted, by Rene Denfeld
• The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
• The Diviners, by Libba Bray
• The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Spoiled Brats: Stories, by Simon Rich
• Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory, by Caitlin Doughty
• The Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel)
• Seconds, by Bryan Lee O'Malley (graphic novel)
• Cinnamon and Gunpowder, by Eli Brown

I know. I'm a cheater. This is 12 books. Now, let's move on. ;) 

Looking over the list, it is noteworthy that nearly half of my favorites this year were written by authors of color. I did make it a goal to read more diversely in 2014, and while I felt adrift at times, unable to do anything but read in a "free range" manner, I still managed to increase the number of POC authors on my list. It was a fantastic experience. It was an enriching experience. It's one I hope to duplicate, and even increase, in 2015. 

It seems this was also the year of opposites. On the one hand, books like Ruby and Beloved were damn near physically painful to read. They broke my heart and made me bawl like a baby. On the other side, there were books like Cinnamon and Gunpowder and Seconds that were so much fun I ate them up like candy and couldn't wait to share them with anyone who would listen. 

As much as I've complained about not feeling like my readerly self this year, it was a damn good year of reading. I hope you're finding the same as you look back over your own list. 

#AMonthofFaves: Fave New-to-Me Author Discoveries!

Learn more and find the schedule HERE!

Today we're talking about new-to-you (and me) authors! I've read quite a few new-to-me authors this year, and many of them may pop up on my end-of-year faves list! For now, though, I want to run through some of my faves who may not have gotten quite as much attention here as they deserve. Let's check 'em out..

Today we're linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for Top Ten Tuesday! 

Libba Bray is new to probably no one except me! I read my first Bray book back in January, and that was The Diviners. It was a fun, 20s-era supernatural thriller, and I do so have a soft spot for those! I also read A Great and Terrible Beauty later in the year and enjoyed it, too, though maybe not as much as The Diviners.

Don't even ask me why I haven't read the second in Patrick Rothfuss's The Kingkiller Chronicles. I loved the first book, The Name of the Wind, immediately. I know The Wise Man's Fear will thrill me, too!

I'm always down for a foodie memoir, and Molly Wizenberg delivers with her book, Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage. It's an honest look at the scary parts of a new restaurant venture. So conversational and charming!

While he's most famous for Essex County, I fell for comics writer Jeff Lemire thanks to Sweet Tooth. No matter your taste in comics, Lemire will humanize every story and pull at your heartstrings.

And I'm technically cheating now, but I couldn't split the writers of Lumberjanes! Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis are so damn funny and smart. You try decoding all of the references in Lumberjanes. These brainy gals are favorites.

Can't wait to see your faves!

Top Ten Authors of Whose Books I Own the Most

How's that for an awkward title? There's just no good way to say it! Anywho, I've admitted here before that I'm terrible at reading multiple books by one author. Or I used to be. I've improved dramatically over the last few years. So which authors own my shelves? These right here!

Hosted by the lovely ladies of The Broke and the Bookish!

Paul Auster is, by far, the king of my shelves. My love affair with this Postmodern papa began with his memoir, Hand To Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure and skated right on through to The New York Trilogy, Man in the Dark, Oracle Night and others. He's incredibly prolific, so I still have lots of books to go!

Siri Hustvedt, Paul Auster's wife, is also quite voluminous on my shelves. I think I own all of her books except one. Two of my favorites are What I Loved, a novel, and her collection of essays, A Plea for Eros. 

I own all of Jane Austen's novels and I've read half. She didn't write a ton in her life, but my owning them all is a testament to my love of her work. 

I shall own all of the Flavia books! I'm more than halfway there now, my dearest Alan Bradley.

I was introduced to Willa Cather, and The Professor's House, in graduate school, and there's been no stopping me since. I love her writing hard. 

Charles Dickens is my main man. There ain't no denying it. I don't quite own all of his books, but I will! I have a good chunk already.

Since revisiting Beloved earlier in the year, I'm making some headway on collecting all of Toni Morrison's work. So far, so good! 

Bill Willingham has been one of my favorite graphic novel/comics authors since I first tried the Fables series. I don't own all of this overwhelmingly large collection either, but still quite a few for me! 

I own all but one of Gene Luen Yang's graphic novels. He owns my comics heart! 

Before there was A.J. Fikry, there was still my author crush on Gabrielle Zevin. She's amazing, y'all! Buy all the books.