Castle in the Clouds

Main Reading Goals: If you will recall, I have a few reading goals I'd like to meet this year.  Among the 75 books total that I'd like to read, there should be at least five classics, five Christmas-themed books, and five Halloween-themed books.  Additionally, in an effort to knock down the TBR piles, I'd like to make sure that at least 30 of those 75 books come from my physical TBR and 20 come from my Kindle TBR. At the end of February, here's what I've accomplished so far in 2019: -A total of 24 books read. -Of those 24 books, only one was a classic. -Six of those books were from my physical TBR and eight of them were from my Kindle TBR. -I've not yet picked up any holiday themed titles, but that's okay. February Overview: Another great reading month! I read a total of eleven books, which broke down into ten novels and one comic book (not pictured thanks to the collage software being a pain - it would only let me select ten photos for inc...

When I was putting that collage together I was surprised by the fact that I had somehow gotten through five books and one comic book (not pictured!) this month.  Two of these books took forever for me to finish, so I really expected the overall tally to be fewer in number. I had started February with Lincoln in the Bardo , which was such a fast, enjoyable read I borrowed through Overdrive.  I picked this up on the recommendation of a friend because he thought I would enjoy it for it's focus on Abraham Lincoln as well as it's somewhat experimental storytelling style.  He was right.  I did.  I found the juxtaposition of quoted material and pure fancy to be intriguing.  I didn't check the quoted material, though, so I have no way of knowing how much of it was factual.  Those passages are presented in order to situate Willie's tragic passing in a time and place.  They give the reader an idea of how the war was going, what distractions the presiden...

Reading is many things to me.  It's entertainment and education.  It's the broadening of mind and spirit.  It's escapism.  Looking the books I read in January, I can see how each of those elements is represented in my reading choices. Harry Potter was pure escapism.  Reading it was a chance to get reacquainted with old friends, to ride alongside in an adventure I could fully anticipate because it was well known and comfortable, even in its saddest moments.  And that last book is so very sad! Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We Should All Be Feminists was meant to broaden the mind and spirit by exploring the challenges faced by women around the world.  I discovered that while we still have a ways to go here in America, Nigeria seems to have an even longer road ahead of it when it comes to equality for all.  Little slights or outright abuses need to be addressed and rectified whenever necessary. What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypot...

I read 76 books in 2017.  Not bad!  In fact, it was one more than I had hoped to read.  Of course, as I read a wide variety of things, some of those books were rather small and some were rather lengthy.  For a more thorough breakdown of all the books I read, you can go visit my Goodread's Year in Review . This blog post will be dedicated to the books that stick out most in my memory and that either touched my heart or made me really stop and think. Starting at #10.... This was pretty funny, as in I literally laughed out loud more than once as I was reading.  It was ridiculous, perhaps even ludicrous.  Every year an angel is sent down to earth to grant one special child a Christmas miracle.  When Archangel Raziel is sent to tend to this duty someone Upstairs should have known things were about to go sideways.  Raziel really is the stupidest angel.   He has little understanding of humans or the world in which they live, so ...

Over on Facebook, I'm part of the Fantasy Faction Book Group .  Today someone asked what our top ten favorite books of all time were.  The author of the post encouraged us to post our favorites even if they weren't necessarily in the science fiction and fantasy genres.  I was going to simply post mine but then I realized this is a bigger task than just providing a list.  I want to explain why these are my favorites, why they stick with me in ways other books have not. That makes this blog the perfect place to blather on about this subject. Oh, I've decided that trilogies and series are going to count as one. Also, I'm not sure I can truly order them so this list isn't necessarily moving from least favorite to most favorite even if it appears that way.  These books appear in the order they occur to me, nothing more.  10.  The Handmaid's Tale.   I've read other Margaret Atwood books that I enjoy but this one holds a special place i...

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love books.  I am never without one.  At home, I have shelves of to-be-read titles.  On my Kindle I have an ever-growing multitude - so many freebies! With the Kindle Cloud Reader, I can access my e-books from my phone or iPad, which are always within arms reach. To say I read a lot is not an exaggeration.  If I had to provide a very unscientific average of the number of books I read in a year, I'd say it's somewhere around 50.  That's something like four books a month.  And that's in a slow year.  There have been years when I've read closer to 75 books.   Imagine how many books would be read if I'd give up television! Last night, for example, I might have caught up to my co-readers of the MaddAddam trilogy if I hadn't decided to watch the X-Files and then Castle with the family.  My decision to veg on the couch for those two hours seriously cut into my reading, which left me conflicted b...