Reading on the couch behind the porch...

It is cold outside here in the Upper Peninsula. I wear a wool plaid scarf in the house.
I am finishing up my reading challenges. Read Harder, Pop Sugar and Advanced Pop Sugar. These challenges have really opened up my reading horizons. I have read amazing books this year that I might not have chosen without the prompts. #netgalley too. I have three books left. A book of social science~We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, A western~News of the World by Paulette Jules, A book published in the year you graduated high school~I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I’m reading all three right now. These are some of the best I’ve read. So, 2018 has been a good year in the books.

Sheets...

I just finished reading the delightful graphic novel, Sheets by Brenna Thummler. Beautiful
art. Lush coloring. Sensitive portrayal of a teen girl dealing with the loss of her mother.
She tries to save the family laundry with some help from other worldly friends. I have a connection with freshly laundered sheets. Reminds me of the smell of line dried laundry. #netgalley #Sheets #BrennaThummler

I am currently reading Ohio. Disturbing how current this story is. (netgalley)
Reading The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. (Library) I don’t want to love Nordic Noir
but I do...

Saw Crazy Rich Asians movie with my daughter. 5 stars! Too much fun. I got up and danced
during end credits. My daughter might not go to the movies with me anymore.

No TV is interesting me at all. Not even preseason NFL.

Beach reads...

Summer 2018 has been booked solid. Company, camping, The Lion King at MSU, a friend’s 50th wedding anniversary, a cross country moving van drive (our daughter’s family), the beach and good books!
I read Love Letters to Jane’s World by Paige Braddock. A delightful revisit to a great comic. Jane and her friends are quirky and flawed. Stumbling through life with humor and a little angst.  #Love LetterstoJane’sWorld #netgalley

Reading on the porch...

                                          Barn and Silo near Texarkana,TX

I am reading to fulfill my book challenges for Pop Sugar and Read Harder. These book lists diversify
my reading. This month I have listened to Artemis by Andy Weir. An amazing future fic on the moon. Crime, an anti-hero with good friends and tension. Not quite The Martian but so very good.
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson satisfied the challenge, a book listed by a celebrity book club (Emma Watson). I loved how much she cared for her children and her partner. Extraordinary.
So #netgally in May.  Five Stars to Fredrik Backman’s sequel to Beartown. Us Against Them. The tender moments of love in ordinary lives. The kids suffer devastating violence and heartbreak. Kira and Peter grow apart in their grief. Hockey is central to this story but it is the people I will not forget. Bang. Bang. Bang. #fredrikbackman #usagainstthem

Saw Book Club with Dani and Joanie. We screamed and laughed out loud. 5 stars for fun!

So I am a little worried I am a book snob. I can’t read some authors. Just not enough content after reading Chris Cleave, Jesmyn Ward, Louise Erdrich, Annie Proulx, Anthony Doerr. You get my drift.
Then as I smugly scroll through Goodreads I get my comeuppance. I have read fifteen of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. The Raven Cycle Trilogy. Yeah. No snobbery here. I am actually blushing. My guiltiest pleasure. So. No.

Looking forward to reading on the porch in 2018..:

Looking over book challenges for the upcoming year I simply must get a few things off my chest. A few books, I guess.
I do not like or read self help books. No true crime. I’m not in love with murder mysteries. I am done with WWII. You have to admit WWII was very popular in 2017. So hopeless. The outcome is always the same. Politics, ugh, just ugh. I have yet to read a zombie apocalypse book. No mindless drivel, either.
 I am consciously choosing to read more books by women, people of color and different ethnicities than my own. I am choosing authentic voices. I have to work at not choosing vampires. Wait, what? (Nobody is perfect) Classics, memoirs, National Book Award winners, Pulitzer’s. I want to read all the good books. (Thoreau)
Last year was a good year for reading. Sing, Unburied, Sing. The Hate U Give.
But the  Princess Bride, ugh.
I am off to a good start. When Breath Becomes Air is very good. I did not want to read it because DEATH but it is brilliant. Rereading Oscar Wao. I hope I get over my fan fiction addiction.
No movies this week. Ice skating qualifiers for the olympics are fun to watch. I love French pair skaters Vanessa James/ Morgan Cipres.
There I feel better now.