The Zen Leaf

Sunday Coffee – To Investigate

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Thistle

A couple of people remarked on my last few posts that they didn’t know how I keep my TBR so under control. The truth is, I didn’t always. Years ago, I had a huge TBR, both physical and virtual. I’d throw book recommendations onto Goodreads from the hundreds of book bloggers I followed in those days. I acquired books everywhere – book stores new and used, library sales, book swap sites, gifts, Amazon deals, blog contests, etc. I had an entire bookshelf devoted to unread books. I was drowning in them.

Honestly, I didn’t mind so much in the beginning. I was reading around 200 books per year, so if I had 400 unread books on my shelf, that didn’t seem too unreasonable. Periodically I’d put myself on a book-buying-ban and proceed to completely ignore said ban. I wanted ALL THE BOOKS. Then one day, I reached a tipping point. The piles became overwhelming. I had too many books, and I suddenly didn’t want any of them. Books that had once sounded so interesting now bored me when I tried to read them. The waste of money, time, and space weighed on me. When I realized I had several books on the shelf that I didn’t even recognize, that was the final straw. This is when I decided to get my TBR down as close to zero as possible.

How I achieved this:
The process was daunting at first. I started work on both physical and virtual TBR piles simultaneously. First, I divided each into three categories: books by authors I loved and would likely want to read; books that sounded exciting when I first heard of them but I really knew nothing about; and books that I didn’t even recognize. In the following process, I began with the third category and worked my way in.

(my TBR shelf, after I’d culled and donated over half my unread books)

For the virtual pile, I put 15-20 books on hold from my library at a time. I also pulled 15-20 books off my shelves. With these piles of 30-40 books at my feet, I picked up books one by one, and read the first five pages of each one. From there, they went into three more divisions: books I definitely want to read, books I definitely don’t want to read, and books I need to investigate further. In the latter division, I read a further five pages before putting them in the yes or no pile. In hundreds of books, there were only a handful that I had to read a further five pages to make a decision, and none that needed more than ten. (As a writer, this really reinforced for me how important those opening pages are, not just for future readers, but to get the attention of agents/editors in the submission process!)

The whole process took about two years, but I whittled my pile from the too-many-hundreds-to-count to a much more reasonable number made up entirely of books I’d previewed and verified that I wanted to read. Notably, not all of those books ended up being great. Some, after the initial pages, ended up being real duds, and I’m sure some of the books I culled would have ended up being wonderful. I have no regrets, though. Sure, there’s always the what-if: what if I missed something truly wonderful by culling? But honestly, if I still had hundreds of books on my shelves, I probably never would have gotten to them anyway, and I’d’ve missed other wonderful books because I’d feel obligated to read from my TBR. Plus, I know my tastes very well, and I can guess pretty quickly if a book is going to appeal to me.

(yesterday’s library pile)

These days, I have protocols in place to prevent my TBR from growing out of hand again. With few exceptions, I read books from the library before buying them. When a book catches my eye, I add it to a “to investigate” list on Goodreads instead of to my TBR. I then follow the same procedure to decide if those books should be deleted or moved to my TBR. Finally, when I begin a book that previously survived the process, I have no qualms about giving it up the moment it no longer appeals to me. This system works well for me, and actually, I went through the process yesterday. My to-investigate list had grown to about 40 (way too high!), so I spent several hours at the library. I gathered the books pictured here and previewed each one. Only four survived the process, and I feel good knowing that the books waiting on my TBR are ones I know I want to read.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 5 Comments

Meeting Ceri

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Thistle

I’ve been blogging since early 2008, and in the years that have followed, I’ve been fortunate to meet quite a large number of fellow bloggers. The majority of them, I met at BEA in 2010, but outside of that, I’ve met a dozen or so others. I love the modern world of technology, where you can get to know someone over years and years even if you’ve never met in person. There are some people who are afraid of the idea of meeting someone in real life that you’ve only known online, but I’ve never been afraid, and I’ve never once had a bad experience. Sure, there are some get-togethers that are more awkward than others, when you run out of things to say or don’t have the same conversational style. But it’s never once been unpleasant.

Ceri from Not in the Pink is a blogger from Wales whom I’ve known since my early days of blogging. I believe we first got to know each other back when I was still with the group blog 5-Squared, though neither of us remember exactly how we found each other. We’ve read each others’ blogs, watched each others’ vlogs, and generally chatted over a whole variety of social media over the years. This summer, we both started the 100 Happy Days project within days of each other, without knowing the other was planning it. Ceri is teaching in Korea right now, and I was so excited when I found out she was coming to this part of the States on vacation. Boston was one of the stops on her list and we quickly planned a meetup.

This was not one of those meetups with awkward pauses and trying to fill in conversation. No. From the moment we met up in the cafe we’d chosen, it was all hugs and smiles and fast-flowing talk. (Note: The guy sitting next to us at the cafe was eyeing us like there was something wrong with us because we were so excited and kept saying how unreal this was to finally see each other.) We had drinks, and later went to lunch, and just generally hung out and chatted for about 4.5 hours before I dropped her back off at the subway station when my kids were due home from school. It was such a short time, and even so, I was nearly in tears when we said goodbye. I think we hugged about five times before separating.

I love my blogger friends so much. You people were here for me in a time when I desperately needed social interaction (unlike most book bloggers, I’m fairly extroverted) and couldn’t leave my house because I had three small children at home. I hope I get to meet all of you one day!

PS – To Ceri: Ash looked for you when I got back to the house, and looked up at me with a questioning mew. 🙂

Posted in Personal | 15 Comments

Virtual TBR Priorities in 2015

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Thistle

Last week, I talked about the physical owned-and-unread books on my bookshelf. This week, I want to talk about my virtual TBR, audio queue, and to-investigate list. I have way too many books in these piles. The following will be my top virtual priorities in 2015!

Virtual TBR:
The following are the three already-published books on my virtual TBR (aka I don’t own them).

Nekropolis by Maureen McHugh – Back in the summer of 2013, Jason read a chapter of this out loud to me and the boys, and it was fascinating. The boys ended up choosing a different book for our group read, but this has been on my virtual TBR ever since.

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters – I love Peters and knew immediately when I heard this book was coming out that I wanted to read it. I added it to my TBR six months before it was published. Then the publication date came and went, and I still haven’t picked it up…

Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris – This is another of those books that I learned about six months before the release date, and still haven’t picked up.

Top three from the audio queue:
I usually keep quite a few books in my audio queue (roughly a dozen, except when I get overloaded!). That’s about how many books I have right now, but some of these books have been there for a very long time, so they’re taking precedence in 2015.

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill – I actually have several audios in queue that came from SyncYA’s program this summer, but this is the oldest. They will all be priorities this year!

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – I’ve put this one off, and off, and off. The author really makes me angry and so I never wanted to read any of his books, but I feel that this book is such a vital part of SF/F history that I need to read it. So I need to stop putting it off.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke – I tried to read this back in 2009 and didn’t make it very far. I just wasn’t interested. This past fall, I got the audio on a whim, thinking the same would happen. Instead, I was hooked immediately. I don’t know if it’s the media change or just a change in my reading interests, but hey, I’ll take it!

Most pressing from the to-investigate pile:
My to-investigate pile is by far the largest of all my potential reading pools. There are currently 30+ published books on the list. Of course, I don’t plan to read all of them. Really, what a number this high says to me is that I need to order great handfuls of books from my library and then preview each of them. Then I can decide if I’m not interested or if I want to move them to my virtual TBR. The following list includes published books that first got my attention as far back as December 2013 and as recently as November 2014.

– The Enchanted by Rene Denfield
– Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhode
– My Real Children by Jo Walton
– Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
– Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk
– Child of the Light by Janet Berliner
– The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby
– King’s Dragon by Kate Elliott
– Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
– The Book of Illumination by Mary Ann Winkowski
– The Tragedy of Mr. Morn by Vladimir Nabokov
– A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch
– The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
– The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin

I asked last week and I’ll ask again – do any of you know any of these books? Which would you recommend first?

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 8 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Reading Mood Swings

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Thistle

So many book bloggers – and readers in general – are very specific about their tastes. They read mostly YA, or mostly romance, or mostly SF/F, or mostly classics, etc. I, on the other hand, have what I like to call extended reading mood swings. Sometimes these swings last for a long time (possibly years), but eventually, my reading mood and interests will change.

Pre-blogging, the only kind of books I read on a regular basis were classics. I hadn’t yet found any modern fiction that I liked, and I’ve never been a huge nonfiction reader. In those years, when my mood swung away from classics, I simply went for long periods of time without reading anything at all. This didn’t bother me much – probably because I had three children in the infant-to-toddler stage for much of that time – and I didn’t really recognize the pattern as “reading mood swings” then. At the time, I just thought of it as periods where I wanted to read and didn’t want to read.

Since I began blogging in early 2008 and discovered a plethora of modern books I enjoy, I’ve come to understand these swings a bit more. I’ve gone from reading mostly classics (early 2008), to middle grade fiction (late 2008), to mostly YA and dystopia (2009 and early 2010), back to classics (late 2010 to early 2011), to modern adult fiction (late 2011), to various kinds of fantasy (2012 onwards). Even within the very long fantasy period, I’ve gone from reading adult high fantasy to children’s fantasy to YA contemporary fantasy etc. And over the last few months, I’ve started moving away from that, into what will surely be a very brief swing toward nonfiction. There’s no doubt that one day, I’ll swing back to my first love of classics again.

I don’t find it unnatural to enjoy one kind of book for a year or two before moving to an entirely different kind of book. My tastes are very broad, even if they’re also picky, and there are times when I’m just in the mood for something light, or from another culture, or emotionally engaging, or for escape, and so on. I admit, it does make blogging awkward from time to time, when people start coming for books of a certain sort and then I suddenly switch to an entirely new audience, heh. Regardless of the awkwardness, however, this is what I do.

You’d think, with liking all these different kinds of books, I could just read a balanced variety all the time, right? But that’s not how my brain works. Sometimes my brain can’t tolerate anything but old literature, and sometimes I want to read nothing but Harry-Potter-on-repeat for nine months straight (yes, that has happened before, back in 2005/2006). In 2009/2010, I fought against my brain, trying to force it to read a balance, and all I got for my trouble were dozens of books that I might have enjoyed at another time and instead found distasteful in the moment. Not good.

So I’ve stopped fighting. I’ve enjoyed my three years of fantasy, and if I want to read nothing but nonfiction for the next month, then that’s what I’ll read. Maybe after that, it’ll be something completely new for me, or a return to an old favorite. I never know where my mood swings will take me next, and these days, I’m just happy to go with the flow.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 17 Comments

All Joy and No Fun, by Jennifer Senior (audio)

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Thistle

Subtitled: The Paradox of Modern Parenting.

This book is a sociological look at the ways parenting has changed over the last hundred or so years. It is not a how-to or advice book about parenting, and it focuses on the effects of parenting on parents rather than children. Using her own on-the-ground research, as well as others’ scientific, psychological, sociological, and philosophical publications, Senior puts together a fairly comprehensive look at the nuances of modern parenting from infancy through adolescence. She discusses everything from gender splits with regards to time and technique, to marital struggles, to modern expectations of parental roles. If I recall correctly (as I can’t exactly look back in audio form to check), Senior states in her introduction that her research is focused primarily on the middle class.

I want to first say that I rarely read nonfiction, and therefore don’t have a good grasp of what is good and not-good in this area. Furthermore, I haven’t read much on family psychology or sociology since my days as a psych major in college, so I cannot say how this book compares to others on similar topics. My opinions on this book will be fairly uninformed because of those things, and will come from my personal view as a mid-30s stay at home mom of three boys aged 10 to 14.

And that uninformed opinion is: This book is brilliant.

I cannot say just how much this book made me feel like I wasn’t alone. Everyone I know talks about the joys of motherhood, how much they love spending time with their kids, how easy and rewarding parenting is (especially of young children). They’ll complain about something difficult, and then smile and say that those difficult moments are few and far between, and outweighed by all the easy, happy moments. I always felt like I was wrong somehow, because I didn’t feel like this. I didn’t enjoy pregnancy or have an instant bond with my children at birth. I found infancy and toddlerhood the most difficult time of childhood (far more so than their current adolescence). Sometimes I felt like getting in my car and driving away. I never learned to cope with lack of or broken sleep (to the point where Jason pretty much got up with the kids at night, because I was sick all the time). Being a stay at home mom for the last decade has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, and I sometimes feel like I have no identity beyond that. I’m constantly questioning myself and my role as a parent.

The very first thing I learned from this book is that I’m not alone. It seems that all of these feelings I have are very common, when people are honest about them. Senior discusses the title paradox, how parenting can leave us feeling not very happy on a moment-to-moment basis, but simultaneously bring us joy in the longer view. She discusses the difficulties of parenthood – as a parent, as a spouse, as an individual – with no sugar-coating. My kids are in the adolescent stage, and it’s amazing how much of the trials for every stage of childhood that she discussed were familiar to me. The most difficult times for parents individually, for marriages, for parents together, for the children themselves, etc, reflected back exactly on the things I’ve experienced in my own fifteen years as a parent. I loved the contrast of happy vs joyous, because I’ve often felt like this: day to day trudging along, and as I look back, those wonderful moments. A child’s comment that has everyone laughing for fifteen minutes. The day a child completes – all by himself – a task he was struggling with. Long hugs. A child standing up for the rights of another person. Playing board games together. Silly family traditions. And more.

The look at the sociological history of parenting was fascinating as well. I could not say whether the conclusions Senior draws about why parenting feels so different today as opposed to a century ago are accurate, but they make a lot of sense, and helped me to understand a lot more about parenting in general. Same thing for the sociological history of childhood itself (in terms of how it was viewed/treated, and how long it lasted, etc). I just felt like I learned so much from this book, both about myself and about the modern-day family structure. I wish I could better express just how much I feel my mind has been opened by this book. Furthermore, I felt Senior did a great job at staying very neutral. This is a research-based book, and there was no bias towards one kind of parenting versus another. It was simply a look at the way things were then compared to the way they are now, and no judgement about either.

The audio performance was fantastic as well. Senior read the book herself. I don’t usually like books read by the author, to be honest, but this one was different. It was if – and I know this sounds stupid – Senior knew her own inflections in voice/writing and was therefore able to read the book exactly how she would have spoken it aloud if she hadn’t written it down first. Very few people can match their vocal voice to their writing voice, which is why I don’t tend to like author-read audios. Senior did it very well, and it’s especially impressive given the vast amount of statistics, quotes, and references in this book.

So yes. I highly recommend both the book and the audiobook, especially for parents.

Posted in 2015, Adult, Prose, Wellness | Tagged audio, favorite, gender studies, nonfiction, psychology | 14 Comments

Shelf TBR Priorities in 2015

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Thistle

Every year, I consider joining Adam’s TBR Pile Challenge, and every year, I realize that I can’t. I don’t qualify for it, and haven’t in many years. Back in spring 2011, I whittled both my virtual and physical TBR pile down to zero. Yes, zero. As in absolutely no books on my to-be-read list. I owned no books I hadn’t read. My goodreads to-read list was 100% empty.

In the years since, I have of course added books, but the thing is, I like my TBR to be as near to zero as possible. With the exception of a few authors I trust implicitly, I no longer buy books I haven’t read, choosing to read them from the library first. When a book gets my attention, I preview it before adding it to a virtual TBR. Once a book is on the TBR, I get to it pretty quickly, because I no longer have a huge backlog of books vying for attention. I love this, and have no intentions to change going forward. However, this means that I can’t join Adam’s challenge, because I literally only have three books on my physical shelf that I’ve owned longer than a year (all acquired in December 2013) and only one additional published-before-2014 book that has been on my virtual shelf for longer than a year (also since December 2013).

In 2015, however, my TBR pile (both physical and virtual) is going to be top priority. Going into 2014, I had three unread books on my shelves (the same three I mentioned above), and other than them, no published books on my virtual TBR. I have been slacking this year! There are currently nine unread books on my shelves, eight new audiobooks in my queue, four published books on my virtual TBR, and another 31 published books on my to-investigate list (only half of which were on there prior to December 2014). This is unacceptably high! I don’t want to end up with a huge TBR pile again, so whittling down both my virtual, physical, and investigatory backlog takes precedence this year.

Physical:
Below are the nine owned-and-unread books on my physical bookshelves, in the order that I acquired them:

1 & 2. A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons by George RR Martin – Jason gave me this series in mid-Dec 2013. I’d planned on reading all five books in 2014. Then I got to the third one and didn’t enjoy it very much, so I’ve avoided the next two. I may or may not decide to abandon the series and just donate them…

3. Cold Magic by Kate Elliott – This was a random grab when Jason and I visited a bookstore on our anniversary in December 2013. I previewed the first chapter or two at the store and enjoyed it, and so broke my rule of reading from the library before buying. Hopefully I end up liking it!

4. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson – I don’t know what’s wrong with me! This came out in early 2014. I acquired it in the spring – Sanderson is one author I trust implicitly – but I just never got around to reading it. Probably because it’s gigantic.

5. The Naming by Alison Croggon – This summer I went to a new-to-me used bookstore with my friend Stephanie. I don’t mind so much picking up cheap used books to try before reading from the library, and this one looked interesting.

6. Shelley’s Poetry and Prose – Technically, this one has been on my shelves for several years, but it was Jason’s, a book I gave him several years back. He was going to donate it this summer when we were streamlining to move cross-country, so I decided to keep it. We might try reading from it together.

7. Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor – This is another one I don’t blame myself for. It literally cost me fifty cents at a library sale, and I’ve loved some of the author’s other books.

8. The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories by Rae Carson – My sister gave me this collection of novellas for Christmas! It goes along with one of my favorite trilogies of last year. I can’t wait to read it!

9. S by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst – My friend Stephanie (referenced above) sent me this one for Christmas! It’s a multi-layered, interactive book that looks fascinating – and once I read it, it will become the second single-letter book title on my read-and-reviewed list. 😀

Have you read any of these? Which do you recommend me tackling first?

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 13 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Christmas Books!

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Thistle

Welcome 2015!

How did everyone’s holiday season go? I hope you all had a wonderful time. I certainly did. Even though I’m so very far away from home right now, technology let me have a virtual Christmas with my parents, siblings, nephew, and some extended family. Yay FaceTime! It’s not the same as actually being there, but so much better than not seeing anyone at all.

Christmas was also very generous to me in the book department. I received six books and a gift card that allowed me to buy four more. Because yes, I spent the entire gift card on books, what else?? 😀

Jason gave me the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy by Rae Carson. This was one of my two favorite series in 2014 and I was dying to get my own copies. My sister Becky sent me the companion book, which includes several novellas set in that world. I hadn’t even known that existed! So excited to dive into it. My other sister, Aaren, sent me a wine journal (yay!), and my good friend Stephanie gave me a fascinating interactive book called S by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst.

With my gift card, I bought the Raven Cycle. Of course. It was my other favorite series of 2014 and I’m obsessed with these books at the moment. I love seeing them on my shelf! Last, I bought The Paleo Cookbook. I discovered back in September/October that this way of eating really improves my health in multiple areas. For months now, I’ve been recycling a handful of meals, and am so looking forward to trying out some new recipes!

In addition to the books – I have to mention these because they’re so frickin’ cool – my dad and stepmom sent me these fantastic literary mugs. One is full of Shakespearean insults. The other is covered in great first lines in literature. Funny story: I already owned a mug identical to this second one, and it was one of my favorites. The day after Christmas, its handle cracked, making the duplicate mug a perfect gift at the perfect time!

So that was my Christmas. How was yours? What great books did you receive?

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 14 Comments

2014 in Books

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Thistle

It’s that time of year! The books are read, and it’s time for reflection. This has been a very difficult and sad year for me in my personal life, so I’m glad to say that in reading, it’s been a really wonderful year. I’ve read so many fantastic books this year, which was a relief after last year’s dud-reading year!

As per usual, this post will include the end-of-year survey from The Perpetual Page-Turner, followed by my book/reading stats. Apologies in advance for the very long post!

1. Best Book(s) You Read In 2014?
These will be patently obvious by the end of the survey, but my best books of 2014 are:

– The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, and Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater – Character, friendship, humor, tension, everything… And considering I read each of these three times apiece, these definitely top my list in 2014.

– The Girl of Fire and Thorns, The Crown of Embers, and The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson – Amazing world-building, fantastic plotting, and I love the character growth over the series.

– Landline by Rainbow Rowell – Heart-wrenching and painful and profound all at once.

– Runner-up: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – Such a sweet comfort-read kind of love story.

– Runner-up: Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor – Perfect end to this trilogy!

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo. This was my most-anticipated book of 2014, and while I loved 95% of it, one little thing turned it all sour for me. 😦

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read in 2014?
The Diviners by Libba Bray. This…um…had so many of the exact same detailed elements as a manuscript I’ve written that I was very surprised. They were used in completely different ways than I used them, but still.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2014?
I pushed so many books this year. The Girl of Fire and Thorns series, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, the Raven Cycle, many of Rainbow Rowell’s books, The Supernatural Enhancements…

5. Best series you started in 2014? Best Sequel of 2014? Best Series Ender of 2014?
Ah! Too many! Best started: Girl of Fire and Thorns series and the Raven Cycle both. Best sequel: other than the two I just mentioned, A Clash of Kings. Best series ender: Dreams of Gods and Monsters.

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?
Oh oh oh…um…Maggie Stiefvater, Rae Carson, and Rainbow Rowell.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
All three of the Raven Cycle books. They were my only multi-read books this year. There were several weeks when these were the only books I could read. Over and over.

9. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
The Raven Cycle books. I’m nothing if not predictable.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014?

11. Most memorable character of 2014?
Cath from Fangirl, Elisa from The Girl of Fire and Thorns, aaaaand pretty much the entire cast from the Raven Cycle.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014?
Ninepins by Rosy Thornton

13. Most Thought-Provoking/Life-Changing Book of 2014?
Landline by Rainbow Rowell

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read?
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014?
I could pull dozens of quotes I love from Maggie Stiefvater, but as this is the first one that made me laugh uncontrollably, I’ll say, “Blue was a fanciful, but sensible thing. Like a platypus, or one of those sandwiches that had been cut into circles for a fancy tea party.”

Also, I have to mention a favorite quote from my other favorite series this year, from The Bitter Kingdom (book three of The Girl of Fire and Thorns series), because it also cracked me up: More arrows spear the brightening sky. Storm’s voice booms across the tiny valley, menacing and curselike. He’s intoning something in the Lengua Classica. Then a giggle bubbles from my throat when I realize it’s a silly rhyme about poppy fields and drunk sheep.

16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2014?
Longest Book: A Storm of Swords (1128 pgs)
Shortest Book: An Age of License (189 pgs)
Longest Audio: A Discovery of Witches (24 hrs)
Shortest Audio: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (3 hrs)

17. Book That Shocked You The Most (Because of a plot twist, character death, left you hanging with your mouth wide open, etc.)?
The Supernatural Enhancements. What a wild, unpredictable ride.

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!) (OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)?
Um, Blue and Gansey. No doubt.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year?
Blue and the other raven boys (Adam, Ronan, Noah), plus all the boys’ friendships with each other. The group as a whole.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously?
If I don’t count sequels (which would make the answer automatically Dreams of Gods and Monsters), it would be Ninepins by Rosy Thornton.

21. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure?
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. I’d tried reading it in the past and didn’t get far. Memory, Jenny, and several others on Twitter bugged me to give it a second chance.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014?
Um…Blue, Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah from the Raven Cycle. God I’m predictable. And yes, I mean I’m a little in love with all of them. Levi from Fangirl was pretty awesome too.

23. Best 2014 debut you read?
I think I only read three debuts this year. The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero tops that small list.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
The fictional world of Rae Carson’s Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
Definitely the Raven Cycle again, though especially The Dream Thieves, which had the most one-liners that made me laugh.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2014?
Landline by Rainbow Rowell

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
Honestly I’m not sure I understand this question. If it means “book that is generally unknown or underappreciated,” then I’ll have to go with Rae Carson’s Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy again.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
No real soul-crushers this year to be honest.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2014?
The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2014 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2015?
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2015 (non-debut)?
The fourth Raven Cycle book, assuming it actually releases in 2015. Otherwise, Shadow Scale (Rachel Hartman), The Shadow Cabinet (Maureen Johnson), and Winter (Marissa Meyer).

3. 2015 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?
I don’t know any…

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2015?
All four of the answers I mentioned two questions back.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2015?
Keep posting regularly despite stress and other upcoming major life changes.

6. A 2015 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:
I haven’t read any 2015 releases.

My stats are a bit more extensive than the ones listed on Jamie’s survey. Here goes:

Total books: 53
New reads: 46
Rereads: 7

My goal was to read less than 75 books this year, though preferably no more than 52 (one per week). Far exceeded my first goal, and only read one more than my preferable goal, so I think I did pretty well this year!

Novels/Novellas: 47
–Speculative: 34
–Realistic: 13
Nonfiction: 5
Collections/Anthologies: 1

Definitely read more fantasy than any other genre this year. And I didn’t even bother to include plays or poetry in my count, as both were big fat zeroes.

Text/e-text: 36
Graphic/Photo/Art: 5
Audio: 12

My audio percentage held steady around a quarter of my reading this year. Normally it’s a bit higher. I would guess this is because I didn’t do nearly as much walking/running this year as in previous years!

Classics: 2
Contemporary: 51

It’s been quite a long time since I felt like reading classics. About three years now. I kinda wonder when my mood will switch back to them again.

Adult: 24
YA: 23
Children’s: 6

My YA percentage is MUCH higher than usual this year! Most years I generally read twice as many adult books as YA. I suppose a lot of my favorite YA authors did have books come out this year, plus I discovered a few YA authors I really loved.

By men: 13
By women: 38
By both: 2
New to me authors: 23 of 39 (59%)

No surprises here. This is about standard for me. I probably ought to try to read more books written by men, but honestly I don’t care enough to make that conscious effort.

Chunksters (450+ pages): 12
By/About POC: 13
In translation: 2
Languages: Japanese, Korean

I am really embarrassed by how few translations I read this year… My POC numbers are rotten, too.

Most read authors: If I count her pseudonym, JK Rowling comes out on top with four books this year. If I count multi-reads, Maggie Stiefvater comes out on top (three books, read three times each). Other authors with three reads each: George R.R. Martin, Rae Carson, Laini Taylor, Rainbow Rowell

Best Book-related Discovery: This year’s best discoveries were purely new-to-me authors. I am so excited and happy to have discovered Rae Carson, who I’d never heard of before and found through a random library grab; Rainbow Rowell, who I was really reluctant to try due to all the hype; and Maggie Stiefvater, who I’d given up on in the past. It’s incredibly rare for me to find so many new favorite authors in a year, so I am very grateful for these discoveries!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged end of year | 8 Comments

Top Ten Goals for 2015

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Thistle

Today’s topic is about goals or resolutions for the new year. Normally, I make extensive goals for myself going into each new year. Because I know I have some major life changes coming up in 2015, however, I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. The goals I’m making this year are a lot looser and more general.

The bookish:

1. Read fewer than 75 books. Yes, fewer. I’m one of the weird book bloggers who is trying to decrease my reading pace, to slow down and enjoy books rather than rushing through to get to the next. This year is the first year I’ve read less than 75 books since I began blogging, and it’s been wonderful. I want to continue that.

2. Read more transgender-related fiction/nonfiction. While I’ve read a lot of LGBTQ lit in general, the T part of that acronym is much less represented than the other letters. I would like to read more, but also, I’m not sure where to start. Any suggestions?

3. Diversify my reading in general. I don’t mean just reading more books by/about people of color, from around the world, translations, etc. Yes, I’d like to do these things – my reading in the last few years hasn’t been terribly diverse – but I’d also like to vary genre, time period, type of work, author, etc.

4. Attend BEA if possible. I don’t know if it will be possible, given aforementioned life changes, but I would love to do this. I went in 2010 and haven’t been back since then. I would really like to do this while I’m still living a lot closer to NYC than when I have been/will be in Texas. Do any of my blogger friends still go to BEA?

5. Keeping blogging even through all these life changes. That seems a simple one, but for me, it’s not that simple. I’ve tried and failed at many blogs since deleting the original Zen Leaf, and I don’t want to do that again. I like it here!

The non-bookish:

6. Work on second drafts of specific manuscripts. I have three that are first-draft stage, and I would like to get to some rewrites. Not necessarily of all three, of course.

7. Work on submissions. I’m really terrible about submitting my finished manuscripts to agents, and I need to be better about that. I currently have two that are submission-condition, and I need to do the post-writing post-editing work.

8. Get two specific tattoos. When I got my first tattoo in 2013, it represented both something important to me, and my one fully finished-and-polished manuscript. Jason suggested I get a small tattoo like this for each fully finished-and-polished manuscript, and I loved the idea. In 2014, I finished up two manuscripts that I’d been working on for eight years. They both need their pictorial representations etched onto me. 🙂

9. Finish specific coursework related to future job stuff. I know this is vague. I don’t want to get any more detailed at this time.

10. Improve my strength and my relationship with food. Those of you who have known me for a long time know I have lost a lot of weight over the last five years. I’m trying to shift away from that weight-loss mentality to focus more on strength and healthy mental habits (ie not hyper-focusing on food/calories/numbers/etc).

So that’s it for me this year. What goals or resolutions are you making?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Book Talk, Personal, Wellness, Writing | Tagged goals, lists | 13 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Bringing 2014 to a Close

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Thistle

Last Sunday of 2014. It’s been a wild year, one I’m ready to wrap up. I’m going to be putting up my end-of-year survey later this week, so I don’t want to say too much today about specific books. Instead, I want to bring this year to a close by looking at the general trends of 2014.

This was a very different year for me, not least because I re-awakened The Zen Leaf. It’s been interesting writing public reviews again, and having a blog dedicated to that. I was worried, when I first began, that I would very easily get drawn into that pressure of having to post all the time again, and my reading pace would increase drastically. Other than my normal bump up during RIP season – something that happened even when I wasn’t blogging publicly – I’ve stayed very relaxed, which is comforting.

It’s not just in reading pace that I’ve stayed relaxed, but in what I read. Since mid-2011, I’ve adopted a philosophy of reading whatever feels good at the time, rather than for any obligation. While that has led to a less diverse book list (both in terms of social issues, and in terms of genre/time period/etc), it has also led to a lot of personal enjoyment for the most part. This year, over 40% of the authors I read were ones I already knew and loved. Nearly 3/4ths of my fiction was speculative, and for the first time since 2009, half of the novels I read were young adult (normally my adult percentage is twice as high as young adult).

I no longer believe that reading “whatever you want, whenever you want” is a recipe for 100% book satisfaction. No matter if you’re reading for fun, reading to challenge yourself, or reading to expand your knowledge, you’re going to come across books you love and books you don’t really enjoy. Some of the best books I’ve ever read were books I didn’t want to read in the first place, and some of the worst have been books I was dying to read. I’ve had years of reading-for-pleasure that produced no noteworthy books, and others, like this year, that has produced a myriad of them. I’ve learned to be grateful for the wonderful books that come along, because they sometimes strike in very random moments.

It’s been a really good book year for me. I discovered several new authors/series to love, revisited some old favorites (books and authors), and (for the latter half of the year) had a public place to share all these loved-books with other book-lovers. The Zen Leaf has its history of six years of reviews fully rebuilt, and 2015 will start with a completely clean slate. Here’s to more wonderful reading in the new year!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 10 Comments