The Virtual TBR Pile

I can't give you a photo of my TBR pile. I mean, physically, I could, it just wouldn't be very interesting as it's 100% my Kindle. Boat living. Paper doesn't much like it. Breaks my heart because while I love my Kindle, it isn't the same as an actual hold it in your hand, smell the ink and paper, book. Also. No dead batteries. :(

Truthfully, my TBR pile is currently a little sparse. We go through cycles at my house - we buy books like mad and the TBR pile gets totally overwhelming. We call a halt - a mutually agreed upon book buying moratorium - until we read through at least 2/3 of the existing list. I do my darnedest to clear my pile before I go on another buying spree. The good news is that my TBR is down pretty far and I can start piling up the wish list again. Such a timely topic this week. :D

Dead Mountain: The Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar - this is an infamous event that has never been explained all that well. Hikers all die in a spot called Dead Mountain. Searchers find their bodies bear inexplicable signs of violence, signs they cut open and fled their shelter without clothes or shoes, elevated levels of radiation - and no explanations. The 1959 incident is fodder for conspiracy theorists. So naturally, I have to have a look.

The World Until Yesterday: What We Can Learn from Traditional Societies by Jared Diamond - I've read everything Jared Diamond has produced and thoroughly enjoyed it all. Guns, Germs, and Steel, and then the subsequent book, Collapse, both taught me to question every single one of my assumptions about world building. You bet I'm going to read this one.

Inner Harbor - Nora Roberts
Born in Fire - Nora Roberts - I picked up the first books in each of these trilogies because I was researching writing a contemporary. I'd actually read the second book of the Inner Harbor series first. I've since put aside the notion of writing a contemporary - the genre just bores me (to write! not to read) so I can now be appreciative audience and enjoy the stories.

The first book I'm going to buy? A bit of hard scifi just coming out as a movie - The Martin by Andy Weir

What else should get stacked up on my digital shelf? I'm open to anything except Oprah books. No offense, literary novels of the world. You're great. But I can depress myself plenty without help from my reading material.

Linda's TBR Pile

Despite the fact that I have had the paperback THIEFTAKER, by D.B. Jackson since DragonCon 2014, it only had it's spine broken a few days ago. It's been in my hands practically ever since, and while I could have finished it last night, the lure of a major lightning storm made me turn the light out so I could just listen to the thunder and the rain.    

 

Set in Colonial America, this book gave me enough detail to "see" Boston as it was, yet the descriptions weren't intrusive. D.B. Jackson's take on magic isn't one I've see before and I have especially enjoyed the concept and manner in which he used a spirit guide for his main character. Speaking of the MC, Ethan Kaille is fascinating. His past, his present, his friends, his enemies...I've enjoyed it all. Layered and complex, it felt real. I'm not sure I've seen an author hurt his main character so often or in so many different ways in one novel. Jackson skillfully kept me turning pages. 

 

 

I'd picked up the second installment, titled THIEVE'S QUARRY recently at ConCarolina's from the author--who is friendly, funny, and a rather nice fellow himself. Having it sparked me to read the first, and now I know that while other books are chronologically closer to the top on my TBR pile, this one is next. (I'm kicking myself for having waited so long to start this series.) 

 

After that I'm hoping to read some Faith Hunter, Kat Richardson, Jeanne C. Stein, oh and of course, CITY OF WONDERS by our Monday Man-Whore James A. Moore because I dig his SEVEN FORGES series.  

KAK's Current Reads & TBR

First Confession: I haven't read nearly as many books as I'd hoped this year. "Lama Lama Red Pajama" read over and over and over and over doesn't actually count.  Or does it?

Hmmm...

Anyway, what am I reading right now?

I've 50 pages left of our own James Moore's SEVEN FORGES. I'm totally #TeamSwech btw, so I'm very happy she's earned the cover of the third book in this series.

THE COMPLETE FIRST EDITION of THE ORIGINAL FOLK & FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM -- My excitement for this book is boundless. Why? These are the stories as first transcribed by the brothers Grimm, before they (Wilhelm in particular) heavily edited the tales to align with their Christian mores. Comparing the stories I grew up with versus these original tellings is amazing, edifying, and heartbreaking.

I've just started Gail Z. Martin's THE SUMMONER: Book 1 of the Chronicles of the Necromancer. I haven't read enough to have an opinion of it yet. The good news is: I'm past the third chapter and I want to keep reading it. That is HUGE for me.

Second Confession: I am a complete bitch as a reader. Certain styles of storytelling are like Emergency Broadcast Signals urging me to flee, and flee I do...leaving the book in a donation bin. Let's just say the Goodwill guy recognizes me.

TBR Shelves: The Least Traumatizing

Now, my TBR pile. ~cringe~ The stuff on my kindle and the stuff on bookshelves. I've taken a photo of only one of the TBR bookshelves. Admittedly, the top shelf there contains some of my resource books which have been read and concept notebooks. There are quite a few books I've started but haven't finished -- I don't hate the style; I simply haven't been compelled to resume reading. I've everything from hysterical romances to erotica; from urban fantasies to epic and grimdark fantasies. Historical fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and a seemingly endless supply of classics bestowed unto me by both my grandmothers are in another room. My kindle (and cloud) functions as the holder of the Available Only in eBook stories of friends and as the Great Audition Hall for series I think I might like. If it turns out I like them, I'll buy the paperback. Yes. I'm one of those readers who loves the whisper of the turning page and the ink on my thumbs.

So, by year's end I want to have put a big dent in those piles. Of course, by year's end, I need to have finished the two books I'm writing as well.

A Peek at Jeffe's TBR List

I'm in Denver this weekend, spending some time with family. Got to do shopping and wine-y lunch with my mom - something we haven't gotten do do in forever - and saw my stepdaughter, son-in-law and grandkids. Lovely weekend!
This week's topic is taking stock of those Mid-Year Milestones, in particular what are we reading right now and what's still in the TBR (To Be Read queue).

That last bit makes me laugh because - seriously? - my TBR is SO long I have no idea how many books are in it. Literally. I'd be afraid to total it up. I even have phases of the TBR. There's the books that I definitely want to read as soon as I can. There's the stuff I "have" to read - friends' books, stuff for critique, books for contests. There are books that I probably want to read, when the time is right. Books in this queue can have lingered there for years, even a decade or more. (My assistant Carien calls these TBR orphans and makes a concerted effort to pick up one at least once a month.) In between, is a more nebulous group of books that are ones that people have recommended to or outright given me. I really want a system of denoting WHY I have a certain book on my Kindle or stacked in my office. Or in my TBR armoire.

(The latter is a real thing. Were I at home, I'd take a photo of it and show you. But it's kind of scary, so maybe this is all for the best.)

My most-active TBR list is best encapsulated by the list on my "device," as opposed to the cloud, on my eReader. I just counted and there are 90 books there.

That should say something about the lower-priority piles.

eep.

All that said, I do keep a list of books read. I started doing that in 2013, as part of a concerted effort to get back into reading regularly and consistently. Writing tends to overtake my reading life, so I'm working to tip that balance back again. In 2013, I read 74 books and in 2014, I upped that to 130 books. So I set the more ambitious goal of 150 books for 2015, which means that now, at 45% through the year, I should be at 67 books read.

I'm at 51. Alas.

I can totally catch up though, right??

So, what am I reading? I'm 26% into The Faery Bride by Lisa Ann Verge, a recommendation from the lovely and talented Grace Draven. I'm kind of on a theme of researching Fantasy Romances and this is an old school one (originally published in the...80s? I can't tell. Maybe 90s. And now republished by the author). I think that next up will be Intisar Khanani's Thorn, which has triggered some talk in my circles that she brings a different take to princesses and fantasy. I'm also tempted to catch up with Nalini Singh's Psy/Changeling series, because the newest book, Shards of Hope, is getting such rave reviews. However, I trailed off on that series about... 3 books ago? So none of them are in my queue, which means I'd need to buy them.

You can no doubt detect the problem there!

 Most recently I read Amanda Palmer's The Art of Asking. Really loved it. I think all creative types - maybe everyone - should read it, too. My Goodreads review is here, if you're interested. If you've read it, you'll get this. If not, go read it.

Take the donuts, people!