What I Hope to Read This Summer

Here's what I'm planning to read this summer:

 

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

A Golf Story, Mental Illness, Street of Eternal Happiness, and Another Sad Cancer Tale

What I Finished Last Week   Happily, I'm still knocking 'em out of the park. Lots of great reads this week. Reviews to come soon. Here are the books I finished this week: Waiting for Augusta Side Effects May Vary Imagine Me Gone The Happiness of Pursuit Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat Street of Eternal Happiness Diana's White House Garden

What Arrived Last Week  Once again, it was a busy week for my mail carrier. Here's what arrived: With Any Luck, I'll Drive a Truck The Summer Before the War Still a Work in Progress Journey Quest The Midadventures of Max Crumbly: Locker Hero

           

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.

3 Scary Things I Saw at BookExpo in Chicago

#1

I almost got my head ripped off when I ventured too near the Magic Tree House.

#2

I barely escaped from an angry Stormtrooper.

#3

Scariest of all, I ran into you-know-who. Oh my!

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Funny, How Time Changes Things

I'm probably more fickle than most, but as time goes on, my reading tastes have changed dramatically....

The Age of Childhood Mysteries: Age 2-9 
If you are my age, you probably read some of these, too. The Bobbsey Twins. Trixie Belden. Phyllis Whitney mysteries for children. My mom was my chief reading advisor at the time and she loved mysteries as a child, so this genre was no surprise.

The Age of Gothic Novels: Age 10-14 
Does anyone read these any more? Do you even know what a gothic novel is? A young-ish woman goes to live in a scary place with a handsome but mysterious man. Dorothy Eden. Victoria Holt. Mary Stewart. Phyllis Whitney gothics for adults. Again, my mom guided most of my reading. She liked gothics, so I liked gothics. 

The Age of Classics: Age 14-17 
My wonderful high school English teachers put me onto classics. With a few exceptions (boo, Heart of Darkness), I got easily hooked after reading Animal Farm, It Can't Happen Here, Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Death of a Salesman, The Bell Jar, Metamorphosis, and Magister Ludi. 

The Age of Poetry: Age 18 
I became obsessed with The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry when I was eighteen. I read it over and over. And over. 

The Age of Science Fiction: Age 19-27
Then I met my husband and discovered science fiction. Please don't think I'm talking about fantasy; this was real science fiction. Nothing contemporary either. Old science fiction writers like Ray Bradbury, Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon. 

The Age of Children's Picture Books: Ages 28-35 
I bet you can guess why my focus changed. Yep, it's all my Jonathan and Benjamin's fault. 

I will never stop reading picture books.

The Age of Literary Fiction and Nonfiction: Ages 35-Now 
This happened serendipitously. I did some work in League City, a town near me, and I stopped one day at the League City Library. I wish I could write the librarian from back then a letter and thank her. She knew how to pick some amazing literary fiction and nonfiction, and it completely upped my game.

That's my movement through the genres. How about you? Have you changed what you read over the years? Or have you pretty much stuck with one genre as the years have passed?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

So, How Many Books Did I Bring Home from BEA?

So, how many books did I bring home from BEA?

158 books. 

(A pause to allow time to take this in.)

How in the world did I drag all those books home from Chicago to Houston, you ask?

Shipped home 88 pounds of books and crammed the rest into corners of our suitcases.

What are the fiction books from BEA I can't wait to read?

Faithful by Alice Hoffman; El Paso by Winston Groom; The Book that Matters Most by Ann Hood; Invincible Summer by Alice Adams; and The Wonder by Emma Donaghue.

What about nonfiction books from BEA?

Pancakes in Paris; Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal; Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-First Year; At the Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell; and Not My Mother's Kitchen

What graphic novels from BEA look promising?

Ghosts; The Best We Could Do; and Gemina

How about children's picture books? 

Let's Play by Herve Tullet; Duck on a Tractor by David Shannon; Good Morning Yoga; and Nanette's Baguette by Mo Willems (all autographed)

What do you think? Did I do well?

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.

Chicago Breakfast

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

88 Pounds of Books

Well, eighty-eight pounds plus one suitcase of books.

That's what I brought home from BEA this week.

It was quite a week. I'll have a full update later, but for now I'll say that the hype is all true: BEA is amazing.

Best of all, BEA was in Chicago, and we got to visit with our wonderful son and daughter-in-law who live there. We ate at the Signature Room one night. Look at this view. 

And then our daughter-in-law's ma (one of the many Chicago words I've learned this week) made us one of the most fantastic meals of my life: lobster tails, steak, shrimp cocktails, potatoes au gratin, and asparagus. Oh my! Lisa's mom is a fabulous cook.

We got home yesterday but the eighty-eight pounds of books haven't yet arrived. Luckily, the postman brought lots of books to tide me over until the BEA books arrive:

I didn't actually finish anything this week. I guess I was too busy hauling books around and painting up the town.

How'd your week go? Did you make it to BEA? Or did you participate in Armchair BEA? I'd love to hear.

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.