Mid-year updates

I feel like a broken record since I keep saying "wow, I can't believe it's been x months since I last updated..."

Or "I'm still reading... but nothing really jumped out, so dodn't feel like blogging."

Except both are still true.

So far I'd read 12 fiction and 12 non-fiction plus a bunch of books in Chinese. So not to bad for effort now that I have an almost 3 years-old (about half of what I used to read prior to kid). If you want to see what I'd read so far, see here, and if you are interested in any of those books, I'd write about them more.

All the fiction were just okay. Three memoirs I read were more interesting as I learned something new (The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson, My Brief History by Stephen Hawking, and The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida).

  

The most thought provoking is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, Cathy Hirano. If you haven't heard about this, just goggle this book or Konmari. It's not your typical decluttering book. After I read it, it just makes so much more sense. My friends thought she sounds hokey after I told them about it, but completely changed their mind once they read it. It explains why other traditional decluttering doesn't work for me (may stay clean for a week, then back to its original mess... sigh.) I'm almost done with my closet (and have donated 8 full bags of clothes and I wasn't even that ruthless about it!!) I really can't wait till I'm done with the whole house (she said it may take 6 months... I can see why.)



I think I'll also use her approach when it comes to this blog:

Blog when it sparks joy.*

I'm also on a book tour on August 24th about Hurricane Katrina - can you believe it was 10 YEARS AGO??? It's called Aftermath Lounge: A Novel in Stories by Margaret McMullan. Haven't started reading it yet, but will do so closer to the date so it's fresh in my mind. I've become quite picky about tours nowadays because I want to give it my 100%. Given my schedule and sporadic blogging, I just don't think it's fair to accept the books and not deliver.

Oh and for fun, I'd bought these 3 writing books. Sometimes it may be more fun to write on paper than type on a keyboard...

1. 712 More Things to Write About
2. My Future Listography: All I Hope to Do in Lists
3. The Line-A-Day 10 Year Journal: Blue Jacket

  

I am going to start the 10 Year Journal on my son's 3rd birthday. I'll jot down something I want to remember about him or say to him that day, and give it to him on his 13th birthday. I have started a couple of entries in 712. Sometimes it's hard to write it in a fictitious way rather than a memoir sort of way... or I suppose it doesn't really matter one way or another as long as I write. I already have lists of things I want to do or read or experience in my head, so it'd be nice to finally write it down, and then look back later on to see how many I'd done.


* There is more to her methodology that that, but this is the essence of it.




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Funny - 19 Problems Only Book Nerds Understand

Okay, maybe not #19...

19 Problems Only Book Nerds Understand

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Updates

Wow I haven't updated in forever.

I have been reading (you can see my 2014 list here). I'd been busy with work and family still, and this year my guilty pleasure had been novels written in Chinese (as opposed to YA in the past), mostly by the same author who wrote about relationships. I don't know if there is any point in doing reviews of them since her books aren't translated.

Most of the English books were just average. There were some fun reads, but none of them made me felt like shouting "GO READ THIS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" so I didn't feel motivated to blog.

So I am wondering what I should do with my blog... only blog when I found something that falls into the "recommend to everyone" category? Just blog random thoughts? Is there anyone who is even interested in reading my boring random thoughts - I don't even have a twitter account because well, my life isn't that interest to update every 2 minutes.

Any "GO READ THIS NOW" books you've come across lately?! I'm so out of the whole new books world...



All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

In the end, we'll all become stories.

Saw this on facebook... isn't it the truth.


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2013... onto 2014

Happy New Year!!

45.

I am surprised that I actually read 45 books this year (I thought I read less). 32 Fiction and 13 Non-Fiction (including 2 graphic non-fiction). In 2012, I read 29 books. I am still way behind to my usual 100 books a year. Hey, if I count all the kid books I'd read...

5 Did Not Finish (all fiction).

To be honest, even though I'd marked a few books as 4 Stars or 4.5 Stars, none of them really jumped out to me so much that made me wanted to recommend it to everyone (remember Still Alice? The Help? Human Bobby?)

Don't get me wrong, i enjoyed them, but they were not that life-changing. I suppose the two 4.5 Stars books - my two top rated ones - did have a bit of an impact. But they just didn't make me go wow.

For 2014, I decided that I need to read more books that'd INSPIRE me. Be they fiction or non-fiction. I guess I just didn't quite feel inspired this year. I have already borrowed a bunch of books from the library (oops, I wasn't supposed to!) so hopefully they'd be a good start! And really, I'd just keep on being a mood reader, and pick whatever that strikes my mood.

The book I'm reading right now is The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty. I didn't mean to pick this as my first book (I had another book in mind), but this was actually the last book I started in 2013, and hope I'd finish before the new year...

I did manage to blog every book I read in 2013, so I am happy about that! I want to keep this goal in 2014. Hopefully I can be a bit more active in blogging non-book related posts too, but I just feel a bit weird posting more personal stuff here since this is primarily a book blog. And being an introvert, I just didn't think my life is that interesting that others would want to read about it (no twitter here) :p

Want to know what books I'd read in 2013 and how they were rated? Click here. You can see links to each review there too.

How about you? Do you have any plans on what you wish to read this year?

By the way, if you have any books that inspire you, I'd love to hear about them. Please! :)



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What would you rather be?

I saw this question from the Books, so many books' facebook page:

Which would you rather be:
1. an author
2. librarian
3. journalist
4. publicist 
5. proof-reader
6. owner of a book store
7. writer of reviews
8. poet
9. editor
10. if something else, what?

For me, 1, 2, 3, 6 appeal to me. Though I guess I am pseudo-7 (I don't write formal reviews, just share my thoughts here). I guess 4 or 9 could be fun. Definitely don't want to be 5, or 8.

I wish I could shadow all these positions though to really know what it takes to do their job.

How about you?


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No more borrowing from the library?

We had to re-do our basement flooring. That means, I had to move all my books out from the basement.

(Exercise time! That's about 30 boxes of books! Well We have the Ikea Expedit 5x5 bookcase, and some shelves are 2 books deep. And you know books aren't light, especially the hardcover textbooks!)

Which reminded me that t I still have so many un-read books! I really need to stop borrowing more books from the library, so that I can read what I have first (and usually after I read them, I give them away, unless it is something I really love).

Sigh. Not visiting other blogs mean I borrow less books from the library already since I don't know what is new out there, but I do miss visiting your blogs.

Maybe after reading what I'd borrowed from the library (and what I have on reserve), I will stop borrowing from the library until the end of the year, to see how many books I can go through. I can't buy more bookcases!






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"Spare the Reader, "Spoil the Book"

Sometimes, when I don't want to finish a book but still want to find out what happened, I'd google to read the spoilers. I can't always find what I am looking for, but when I was looking for some discussion about the book I'd just reviewed (The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult) - I came across this site, which I think is great! It's like, you can read the book in 2 minutes! :)

http://spoilthebook.com/






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Just how behind am I?

Not reading much nowadays make it much easier for me to blog reviews... since I actually don't read everyday... that means there is no fallen behind since I am not under the pressure/thrill to start a new book right after I finish one! So that makes blogging a bit more enjoyable but it also means blogging less since I am reading way less...

Thought I'd take a lot to see how many books I am still behind though, since this year is almost done you know?

8 Fiction and 2 Non-Fiction from 2011 (yep you read that right!!)

11 Fiction and 8 Non-Fiction and 2 DNF in 2012.

Total = 31.

Sigh.


I'd list them all here, maybe it'd motivate me to catch up. Or do mini-reviews...

Fiction

1. The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston (3 Stars)
2. I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder (3 Stars)
3. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (3.5 Stars)
4. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach  (2 Stars)
5. Q: A Novel by Evan Mandery  (3.5 Stars)
6. Paper Angels by Jimmy Wayne and Travis Thrasher (3.5 Stars) 
7. The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar  (3.25 Stars)
8. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys  (4.75 Stars)
9. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (2 Stars)
10. Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu (4 Stars) 
11. The Restorer (Graveyard Queen #1) by Amanda Stevens  (3.5 Stars)
12. 1222 (Hanne Wilhelmsen #8) by Anne Holt (3.5 Stars) 
13. Half-Past Dawn by Richard Doetsch (3 Stars) 
14. The Devotion of Suspect X 容疑者Xの献身 by Keigo Higashino 東野圭吾(4.5 Stars) 
15. The Three Coffins (Dr. Gideon Fell, #6) / The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr (3.5 Stars)
16. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (4 Stars)
17. Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1) by Marissa Meyer (4 Stars) 
18. Legend by Marie Lu (4 Stars) 
19. Delaney's Shadow by Ingrid Weaver (3.5 Stars)

Non-Fiction

1. Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found by Sophie Blackhall (3.5 Stars) 
2. The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers by Caroll Spinney and J. Milligan  (3.5 Stars)
3. A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (3.5 Stars)
4. How to Avoid Making Art (or Anything Else You Enjoy) by Julia Cameron (2 Stars)
5. Helicopters, Drill Sergent and Consultants: Parenting Styles and the Messages They Send (Love and Logic series) by Jim Fay (4 Stars)
6. What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir by Alice Eve Cohen (3.5 Stars)
7. French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters by Karen Le Billon  (4 Stars)
8. Bringing the Baby Home: An Owner's Manual for First Time Parents by Laura Zahn (4 Stars) 
9. HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method by Marie F. Mongan  
10. The First Eight Days of Being a Mom by Gea Meijering

DNF

1. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
2. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

And of course there are still a bunch of ARC I was supposed to review... well I'd need to read them first wouldn't I. I have stopped taking in ARC since I don't think it'd be fair... will I ever read up to 100 books a year again? Not including children's books of course :) So far I'd read 28 this year (19 Fiction and 9 NF, and 4 DNF).



All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

Updates

So, in preparation to become a first time mum, I thought I'd borrow some baby related books to learn about what will happen, what to do, etc etc etc.

But why, oh why, these books have so many words?!

There, I said it. And this is coming from a book lover. Someone who loves to read non-fiction even.

One doesn't usually read baby-related books until you need to. Like, when you are pregnant. And when you are pregnant, you really just don't have any energy or attention span to read a book with many, many words... yes I know you want to back up what you said with history, background, research and all that. Usually I appreciate that, and in fact, would be leery if you don't.

But right now, I just want a summary. Just tell me what to do in bullet points. If it doesn't work then I'd move on to another method to see which one will suit the baby.

What happens to writing to your target audience?!

(Granted, not all books like like that, some are very THIN and CONCISE and SIMPLE and has PICTURES. But I admit I put a lot of books back on the shelves when the many, many words in it gave me a headache. Scared me even.)

I hope my reading will return to normal after baby is here. I know, I probably won't have as much time to read. But at least I hope I won't be too put off by books full of beautiful words anymore...






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I am I am pregnant when...

I was reading The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters by Jeffrey Zaslow while waiting for the bus this morning on my way to work.

One of the brides mentioned in the book (non-fiction) had a car accident, and her right hand/fingers was severely damaged. The description was no where near graphic - and for those of you who have followed my blog for a while, you know I read a lot of murder/mystery books, and watch a lot of TV shows in this genre and usually the more gore the better.... I like CSI, Bones etc... and we can talk about diseases and medical procedures at dinner table... or watch these shows while we eat hamburgers. You get the drill.

Well, while I was reading about this poor bride this morning, I started feeling nauseous. I had to stop reading and took some deep breaths. If I didn't see the bus was coming, I probably would've walked back home and have hubby take me to work a bit later or something...

Sigh. I guess baby is telling me to read happier stuff instead. Or baby books. Who would have thought, food didn't make me puke, books did :p I hope after the baby is born I can be back to normal!

(No, I didn't have a problem while watching the Hunger Games. The violence was really a minimum - it was really more implied than shown - after all, it was rated PG13, and I saw a lot of younger kids there. Though my friend who lived overseas, she had to leave half way through... she said not to go in with a full stomach and sit too close to the screen. There were some jerky camera movements, but it was done for a reason and I was fine with that even if I was not a fan of the Blair Witch.)




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RIP - Jeffrey Zaslow

I just found out that Jeffrey Zaslow had passed away in a car accident a few days ago.

I first heard of him when I read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow back in 2008. I watched Pausch's Last Lecture youtube video first (if you haven't, I hardly recommend you watch it - with some Kleenex!) And this book was written for his children as he knew he won't live long due to his pancreatic cancer. I used to follow his blog to get updates on his progress, but sometimes was afraid to check it in case of bad news...

Anyway, I was saddened to hear Zaslow had also passed... it reminded me that I had his latest book, The Magic Room: A Story about the Love We Wish for Our Daughters, but haven't gotten around to read it yet... in fact, I found that I was supposed to be doing a blog tour on this book on 1/29, but I had totally forgotten!!! This was a first... but I guess I blamed it on pregnancy forgetfulness and fatigue!! At least I remember I have the book... now that I will be (hopefully) a mother, I think this book will become even more meaningful. Zaslow had 3 daughters, so this book was dedicated to them about his hopes for them :(

I read a very heartwarming tribute to him - even if you haven't read any of Zaslow's books, at least read this tribute and you'd find that not only we lost a fine writer, but we lost a fine person too (and a husband/father).  

RIP Jeff.

PS - Yes I totally plan to read the Magic Room!! I remember how fun it was to try on wedding dresses... I had a 4 years engagement, I probably tried on 100+ dresses... but in the end I chose a very simple bias dress instead. Still it was fun to try on puffy, princessy dresses that totally weren't me.




All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

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All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

Updates

I am once again behind on my reviews. But I guess I do have an excuse this time.

I have been feeling very tired, and just had no energy to read, let alone blog.

Because I am with child :) Due in mid-August.

I shouldn't complain too much as I don't have much morning sickness. Apart from fatigue, I just have hunger attacks (first time it happened, I was sweating, shaking and almost passed out). We were going to go out for dinner at 7pm, and it happened at 6pm. I told husband to just get me some food so I ate some leftovers quickly. Needless to say, we didn't end up going out since I was full.

I am also getting forgetful... I forgot to renew a library book oops. Luckily the fine is only 75 cents. Usually I am on top of this since it's all done online and they send you reminder! I don't even recall seeing the reminder...

Something book related - I was reading 1222 by Anne Holt, a locked-room Scandinavian mystery/thriller. In the middle of this book, I was enjoying this sub-genre (locked-room) I went to search for other books. I found a few classics that had been voted as the best in this category. My library doesn't have them, so I am having other libraries in the network to send them over! For those of you who have read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, that's an example of this sub-genre. I like that you have to use logic to deduce who the killer is.

So these are the ones I am going to read (hopefully I'd have more energy soon!)

The Three Coffins / The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr, 1935 (supposedly the best there is)
The Judas Window by Carter Dickson, 1938 (aka John Dickson Carr)

Rim of the Pit by Henning Nelms, 1944
The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux, 1907 (John Dickson Carr's favorite)

These are all old books, and I usually prefer contemporary books (after 2000?) so we'll see how I like them!

Has anyone read any of them?





All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

Updates

Yay I am only 13 books behind in my review (9 fiction and 4 non-fiction). Well for the 2011 books I read anyway. I have another 4 (including 1 NDF) to review yet for 2012. But at least I am catching up, as it had been over 20 books behind for a long time!

Part of the reason was probably because I am reading rather slow this year, so I am not as many books behind. So far in January, I'd only finished 3 books, and had another 2 DNF. I am about half way through my current book, A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan. So I will finish at least 4 books this month (and if I read something fast/short after that, I may be able to squeeze in another one). This is far less than my usual 8 books on average. Ah well, quality over quantity.

It's also Chinese New Year today! Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate it! There is not much atmosphere here though. I do miss the food... maybe next year I'd make more of an effort to celebrate it. I was thinking of going to the Asian grocery store for something, but it had been cold / road conditions hadn't been the best, so we abandoned that idea.

Kitties are doing well. Sometimes I wondered if Sesame should have been called Sesa-you instead of Sesa-me since he is quite "me-centered" :) He doesn't like you petting him if he doesn't want you to, but you'd better pet him when he wants it! Though I should learn from him - everything is a toy to him. The whole house is like Disneyland according to him. Empty boxes? Yay! Plastic pen? Yay! Toilet paper roll? Yay! If we could only have such an optimistic outlook and find fun in everything.



All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

What a great start...

What a great start in 2012 - my first book is a Did Not Finish! :)  It is The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson, which is for one of my two book clubs. I'll share my thoughts about it in a separate post.

But true to my word, I am not wasting time on books I don't enjoy. So 2012 will probably be a year of book abandonment!

I hope you had a better start than I did :)

Note - I am enjoying this graphic novel series in Chinese (originally from Japan) called Black Jack 怪醫秦博士/ 怪醫黑傑克 by Tezuka Osamu 手塚治虫. I am not sure if it comes in English, but they are short stories about this talented unlicensed doctor practicing on patients... (ummm looks like they DO come in English? See this link).

It seems like I like graphic novels in Chinese better than in English (they are mostly translated from Japanese manga). The other graphic novel author I liked from last year was Fumi Saimon, again, I don't know if her books are translated into English... I guess these books have become my guilty pleasure when I am in a slump.

Yes it'd be here...

Yes I'd do a best-of / end-of-year-recap post... but it is not ready yet because I am still trying to squeeze one last book in! I'm hoping I can finish tonight or tomorrow, but since we have a family event to go to tomorrow, I won't have time to post until later, or in 2012! :)

It has been interesting to read everyone's top list and stats! 

Here were my reading goals for 2011 - come back later to see how I did!

1. Quality over quantity. If I can reach 100 books again for the 4th year in a row - fine. If not, I won't stress out much about it.
   
2. Read approximately half fiction and half non-fiction
   
3. Continue to blog every book, hopefully within a week
   
4. Let's see if I can stick to doing BTT every week!
   
5. Keep recommending books to others and encourage non-readers to discover the magic of books!
   
6. As much as I love my local library, I should at least read 10 of my own books... there are 170+ waiting...
   
7. Give audio books a try, while trying to exercise (bought an elliptical and have hardly used it... because I'd rather use the time to read instead... and I can't read it and use it at the same time. Perhaps audio books will help lower the opportunity cost)
   
8. Read 5 books with husband - he prefers audio books and I prefer reading. So to spend more quality time together, maybe we'll pick a book and I'll read to him instead. We did one book together last year and it seemed to work quite well. Since English is not my first language, he can correct my pronunciation too. Kill multiple birds with one stone :)
   
9. Read 5 books I won't normally choose. Even if I can't finish, at least give it a try.
   
10. Just enjoy reading... it shouldn't be a chore

Argh!

My old computer had a virus (plus it was an old computer), so I got a new computer not long ago, and finally everything was set up the way I liked it (esp since the new one has Window7, the old one had XP, so was still learning the differences).

Then my computer acted up last night and my techy husband had to reformat the hard drive and reinstall window because he couldn't fix whatever the problem was. So now I have to re-set everything and it's frustrating! It'd prob be a while before I can have it set up the way I like it again sigh.

I was also in Florida for 3 days for a conference earlier and was I sad to leave the perfect weather to come back to the cold! I did manage to finish one full book this week (instead of graphic novel, verse YA book, "scrapbook", Chinese books...) so that's an improvement as the last full length book I read was 3 weeks ago!

Will be posting a book review tomorrow as it's a blog tour...

Books... That Is Exactly How They Work

Saw this on Facebook. Not sure of the source (though there is a URL at the lower right hand corner).

Liberated... abadoning books

I abandoned 7 books in the first six months of 2011, and abandoned another 7 books in the last 4 months... in a way it's quite liberating because I am trying not to feel guilty about it - "it is me, not you (or your book)". By all means, these are not bad books. In fact, you will find A LOT of positive reviews on them (more so than negative reviews). Regardless, it's just not the right time, or the right mind set or mood, for me.

How come people usually don't feel guilty when they stop watching a movie or a TV show when it's not to their liking, yet we feel bad when we stop reading a book? Or feel like we're obliged to finish them? I know it takes an author A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT to write a book, but the same can be said for movies and TV shows?

Anyway... by stopping to read what doesn't engage me, free me to explore more books. Here are the list of DNF (Did Not Finish) from July onwards. Review will come soon to explain why I stopped. (for the ones I abandoned earlier this year, see here at the bottom - click on the book title for "reviews").

1. Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (July)
2. Joy For Beginners by Erica Bauermeister (July)
3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (September)
4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (September) 
5. Mirror Image (Daniel Rinaldi Mystery) by Dennis Palumbo (October)
6. The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta (October
7. Best Kept Secret: A Novel by Amy Hatvany (October)