Little Thoughts About Books and Stuff

Book Blogger Hop How many books did you read last year? Will your goal be to match that number or surpass it? Last year my Goodreads goal was 150 and I finished 140 books/short stories.  I'll be aiming for 150 again this year. I started using Goodreads to set my reading goals in 2012, here's how I've stacked up 2012 Goal: 100 books Read: 147 books 2013 Goal: 200 books Read: 170 books 2014 Goal: 200 books Read: 189 books 2015 Goal: 200 books Read: 187 books 2016 Goal: 150 books Read: 149 books 2017 Goal: 150 books Read: 142 books

Book Blogger Hop Is there anything that drives you bonkers when you're reading a book and it makes you want to tell the author a thing or two? Being a librarian, I HATE when authors fall on the stereotypical librarian tropes.  Really it's any tropes about profession, but that one really bugs me, because to me it means they don't go into libraries. They haven't taken some time to see what's changed and what is really going on in these buildings. 

When I was deciding to come back to the blog I was looking through all the blogging memes that the blogs I read follow. I had done Book Beginnings and The Friday 56 a handful of times, but over at  Mixed Book Bag , JC merged them together and I really like that idea.  So borrowing from her I'm going to start linking up to both Book Beginnings on Friday from  Rose City Reader  and The Friday 56 with  Freda's Voice . Clock Dance by Anne Tyler It Begins:   Willa Drake and Sonya Bailey were selling candy bars door-to-door. On Page 56: There were tumbling green hills resembling bunches of fresh parsley, and mysterious hollows already darkening in the late-afternoon shadows, and nearer to the highway little cabins sat surrounded by rickrack fences and ramshackle sheds, washing machines on their front porches, hound dogs splayed in the dirt yards, tractors rusting out back.  Verdict: My rating:  3 of 5 stars I recently le...

Book Blogger Hop The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry by David L. Carlson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Summary: In order to prevent his son from going down the same dark path he did, a blind poet must tell his son about his secret life as a mobster.  "The Hunting Accident" is the true life story of a Chicago gangster who is blinded during a shootout and is sent to Stateville Prison where he learns to navigate life under the tutelage of real life thrill killer Nathan Leopold. Review: Beautiful artwork. Interesting story, loved the insights into Leopold and his life in prison. View my Goodreads

A friend messaged me asking for help selecting books for this A to Z challenge she was trying to do in 2018.  I helped her pick a few books and then kind of forgot about the challenge.  Then in November we were having dinner and she mentioned the challenge again and I wondered how many books/short stories did I read or listen to that fulfilled letters.  So I took a look and realized there were only a few letters that I didn't have and knew I could finish the alphabet before the end of the year. Here's the list - you can also find it on Goodreads As Good as New by Charlie Jane Anders* The Blacksmith's Son by Rebecca Thomas Cowboy SEAL Homecoming by Nicole Helm Different Kinds of Darkness by David Langford* Eight Simple Rules for Dating A Dragon by Kerrelyn Sparks Force of Nature by Jane Harper The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah Harley and Ivy by Paul Dini I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly Kaleidoscope by Alisa Kr...