Late summer reading update

It’s the last day of July and it’s Friday, so happy Friday everyone! This also means that it’s almost the end of summer (schedule-wise), which excites and terrifies me. Yay sweaters and boots and classes, boo stress! Mostly I’m excited though.

So far this summer (beginning in June) I have read 26 books. I thought that my July TBR was going to hell because I kept buying books that went towards the top of my general TBR list, and I also received some ARCs that I wanted/needed to review first, and also the library having a limit on interlibrary loan really puts me in a spot. But I ended up not doing too badly on it; in July I read 9 of the 12 books from my original July TBR, and I read 9 additional books that weren’t on that list.

You and Me and Him – Kris Dinnison

Publication date: July 7, 2015
Format: eARC
Genre: Young adult fiction

You and Me and Him surprised me a bit. It was rough reading sometimes because I felt the characters’ struggles so keenly, and especially that of the narrator, Maggie.

And the nominees are…

Super excited today (in a book nerd way) because the longlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced. I didn’t try to make predictions because I felt like I am in no way qualified to do that, but I should have given it a shot because I already own 3 of the 13 books that made the cut, and considering that they were chosen from 156 books I think that’s pretty good, for an amateur.

5 of the 13 books were written by Americans, so I think those who were worried about letting Americans become eligible can give sigh of relief because we didn’t completely take over their award. 🙂

So here are the 13 books that are nominated:
Bill Clegg (US) – Did You Ever Have a Family
Anne Enright (Ireland) – The Green Road
Marlon James (Jamaica) – A Brief History of Seven Killings
Laila Lalami (US) – The Moor’s Account
Tom McCarthy (UK) – Satin Island
Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria) – The Fishermen
Andrew O’Hagan (UK) – The Illuminations
Marilynne Robinson (US) – Lila
Anuradha Roy (India) – Sleeping on Jupiter
Sunjeev Sahota (UK) – The Year of the Runaways
Anna Smaill (New Zealand) – The Chimes
Anne Tyler (US) – A Spool of Blue Thread
Hanya Yanagihara (US) – A Little Life

I already own A Little Life, The Fishermen, and A Spool of Blue Thread; the first two I knew I was going to read in the next two weeks, and now the third just got put on that list as well. I’ll also put The Green Road on my TBR, and maybe A Brief History of Seven Killings and A Moor’s Account (which was also a nominee for the Pulitzer).

Congratulations to all the authors!

Has anyone read any of these, or plan to?

P.S. today is my blog’s five-week-iversary! I forgot its one month birthday so this notice will have to substitue.

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Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Days – Salman Rushdie

Publication date: September 8, 2015
Format: eARC
Genre: literary fiction/magic realism

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Days (aka 1,001 days) is about a war between worlds, between humans and the dark jinn, or Ifrits, who come to destroy our world. However, humans have a jinnia, Dunia, on their side. This was my third book in the TBR Takedown read-a-thon.

Top ten characters who are fellow book nerds

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday by Broke and Bookish is on the top ten characters who are book nerds, and so this one was pretty fun. It can also include characters who are writers, which made it a little bit easier.

The Enchanted – Rene Denfeld

Publication date: March 1, 2014
Format: Paperback
Genre: Literary fiction

Well, this book. Wow. This was my second book this weekend for the TBR Takedown readathon. I finished Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children this morning and it was ok, and I don’t feel like I have much to say about it so I don’t know if I will do a review. This book, however…

The Casualties – Nick Holdstock

Publication date: August 5th, 2015
Format: eARC
Genre: literary fiction

I have really mixed feelings about this book. When I started reading it I immediately thought I would love it because the prose is lovely, and you get to know the characters very well. Or at least most of them.

TBR takedown

This read-a-thon is hosted by Shannon @ Leaning Lights.

I have no idea how well I will do with this read-a-thon, I have never set myself any goals between “finish this book in the next day or two” and “read these 150 books sometime before I die”. So this should be interesting. This begins tomorrow, July 25th, and goes through Friday the 31st. I really need to finish reading The Casualties today! I really feel like slacking off today though so it might not happen.

1) First book in a series: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

2) Sequel in a series: Hollow City, Ransom Riggs

3) Over a year on my TBR: The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

4) Outside of my comfort zone: The Enchanted, Rene Denfield

5) Most recent haul: Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie

I had a really hard time picking which book from my recent haul to chose, because I’ve received some books in the last couple of days that either need to go back to the library soon or need to be reviewed soon, but I’ve also bought some books which I sort-of want to read more. All of the other categories were fairly easy though.

P.S. – the longlist for the Man Booker Prize will be announced this coming Wednesday, July 29th!

5 classics you should never read

Hey guys, I’m going to do you a favor today and instead of telling you which classics or which authors or which whatever you should read, I’m going to tell you which ones to avoid, in my humble opinion. I have read quite a few classics, and I generally enjoy them and understand why they are classics; heck, I even love some of them. But they can be scary and there are so many that I thought I’d help take a few off your list. I also provided what I feel are good substitutes based on the genre or plot of the book that sucks is not worth your time.

Camp NaNo update & other miscellanea

My goal for this Camp NaNoWriMo (20,000 words) was less than the suggested number (50,000 words) because my projects are very different. I’m not writing a novel, but 10 essays in preparation for this coming semester. Yep, 10 essays. Hence why it feels like the semester never ended for me.

I’m not doing so hot on my word count, but technically, in the real world I have until August 7th to get all of this done. I just made it over my half way point today (10,482) but I have been really productive this week so far.

I think I should add my word count from this blog to my Camp NaNo numbers. Yep, that’s totally not cheating.