I actually haven’t been reading much lately. I moved recently and got a new job, which was hugely stressful (as I’m sure many of you know), and when I’m stressed, I find it really difficult to get focused enough to take in a story. Audiobooks are a lot easier, but print books, something I have to stay still for…not so much. Thankfully, over the past few days, I’ve started feeling more “at home,” and I’ve started back up reading at a more usual pace for me.

And here’s what I’ve been reading lately. Longer reviews will come later, but for those of you with short attention spans – this post is for you.

Sekret by Lindsay Smith
Yulia is a teenager in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. She’s psychic – she can read people’s thoughts and see memories via touch – which makes her a prime target for the KGB. When she slips one day, the KGB gets her and forces her to work for them as a spy, threatening her family if she doesn’t comply. I actually really dig the combination of historical fiction and supernatural powers. The writing is good, and Smith is very skilled at stringing the reader along – giving us just enough information at just the right time to ensure we need to read just one more page. It’s clear there are a lot of secrets here (please forgive my pun), and I hope the final revelations don’t disappoint.

Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci
Aliens! Space stations! Attempted murder! This book has nearly everything I love. Tula Bane is preparing with her family and other members of the Children of Earth to head toward their new colony, the planet Beta Granade, when she notices something amiss: the grain they are supposed to take with them isn’t on the ship. When she points this out to the leader, he tries to kill her. She’s left for dead, the ship takes off without her, and she has to find a way to survive on the space station where she’s been stranded, the only human among hundreds of aliens who all regard her species as less than desirable at best and unworthy of life at worst. It reminds me a bit of Babylon 5, complete with a version of “Down Below” where Tula scrapes by, except Tula’s space station has nothing to do with diplomacy. I always love seeing what writers envision for the future, particularly when the future involves aliens, but I found this future world a bit too sketchy for my tastes (albeit fascinating nonetheless).

Will in Scarlet by Matthew Cody
Cody re-imagines the story of Will Scarlet, one of Robin Hood’s merry men. Will is 13 years old, and his story reads as older middle grade or younger YA. It’s great on audio, which is how I’m consuming it. It feels like a bit of a throwback to the stories I listened to a lot as a kid myself: lots of adventure, a little (light-handed) moralizing, plus a kid who acts like a kid and has kid thoughts. (For example, Will is more concerned with Christmas presents than learning about diplomacy.) The only thing that isn’t working for me are the excerpts at the beginning of each chapter. There’s a brief quotation taken from somewhere in the middle of the chapter, placed at the beginning of the chapter, and attributed to the character who says it. Then we hear it again in context later on. I know it’s meant to serve as a teaser, an enticement to read on, but the choice of quotations so far hasn’t made me think “Oh, I simply must figure out how that fits into everything.” Instead it just seems repetitive.

 
The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas
This is one of those books that I already love so much, I’m deliberately reading it slowly. Iolanthe is an elemental mage living in an area called the Domain. It’s ruled by Atlantis, which is in turn ruled by the Bane. Iolanthe thinks she has pretty pedestrian talents, but when experimenting with lightning one day, she’s spotted by Prince Titus, and he recognizes her for what she is: the mage prophesied to bring down the Bane.

I generally dislike books that center on prophecies. Usually, the prophecy is a cheat, a shortcut for a plot point. Here, I don’t mind it so much (though I’m still not sold on it). And part of the reason I don’t mind is because this book has so many other amazing things: a unique magical system, an interesting political situation that I’m eager to learn more about, instantly dynamic characters in the two leads, a girl passing as a boy in a boys’ school…I could go on. Love high fantasy? Pick this up.

The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman
This is my next audiobook read, after the merely OK Strands of Bronze and Gold. The town of Oleander, Kansas experiences a horrific event they later term the Killing Day. Five people murder a dozen people around them, for no apparent reason. Then four them kill themselves. The fifth, Cass, doesn’t – and she has no explanation for why she and the others killed that day.

It’s a very dark but intriguing concept. Wasserman’s previous novel, The Book of Blood and Shadow, was also quite dark, although not as overtly violent (at least initially). Narrator Mark Deakins sets a nicely grim tone right off the bat. I’m not too far in yet, but I’m certainly interested enough to keep going.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Out of all the Gaiman novels I’ve tried, I think this is by far the most broadly appealing. I actually first saw the movie several years ago (and loved it) and finally gave the book a try this year. It’s close in tone to the movie, I think, though it has adult elements that would have pushed the movie beyond its PG rating (mainly fairly detailed descriptions of sex).

Gaiman’s writing style is very well suited to a fairy tale-type story, great at communicating whimsy as well as darkness. It’s funny and interesting and I enjoy picking out the parts that were changed for the movie. I gave up on all other Gaiman novels I’ve tried, but this one is a winner for me.

Since it appears everyone is sharing their unedited bookshelves, I thought I’d participate. Remember when I actually organized all of my books before? I would say that flew out the window pretty much immediately after it happened. I do have a system to my madness, so let me give you a tour of my bookshelves. They are completely unedited and thus a disaster. And some of these photos leave something to be desired.

This is the living room book case, and this is where new books I pick up or receive end up. There are library books shoved among ARCs shoved among finished books. There are also a ton of other non-book things on the shelf. I will say this — I’m mostly a neat person, and this is the only part of my house as messy as this. On the left on the floor, you can see audiobooks, too. Here are is a close up of the middle shelves of this case:

To the right of this book case, a pile of books. Same story: they’re ones I haven’t read yet, just came into the house, or I have other action to take. That box also has books in it. 

So the room behind the living room is the guest room are four boxes of books. They’re all older, antique, maybe-but-probably-not rare books that my husband’s parents shipped to us when they moved. In January. Yep, those boxes are still doing a great job holding those books:

My bedroom has become the official landing place for all of the committee-received books. I don’t want to do a closeup for a number of reasons, but if you were wondering what sort of commitment being on a selection committee is, here’s an idea of the staggering amount of material received: 

There’s a small pile in my office/library room, and these are books I picked up at ALA that I’ve been slowly working through: 

Then there’s a pile and a box in the same room. Same story: working through these books, figuring out what to read, what to review, and what to pass on. 

I’m not a huge book purchaser. If I’m going to buy a book, it’ll be something I plan on rereading or revisiting or lending out personally. A number of the books on these shelves have been in my life for a long time, and some of them are galleys of books I still need to do something with (read or pass on). Let’s start with the adult books:

I love Bill Bryson, Haruki Murakami, Franz Kafka, along with my maybe not-so-secret loves of Don DeLillo and Douglas Coupland. My favorite book in the world — Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant — sits on these shelves, as does my favorite collection of short stories, Aimee Bender’s The Girl in the Flammable Skirt. The very bottom shelf on the right hand side are my poetry collections. I used to be so into that. Maybe someday I’ll return. And yes, I own Snooki’s book. I couldn’t even get through it. I got it on sale, for what it’s worth. 

This is the middle set of stacks in my library/office. The top shelf are mass markets. Judge away, but I keep that copy of Atlas Shrugged there because I got through the damn book.

The shelf below — starting with Deadly and ending with The Girl of Fire and Thorns — are all my signed books. Some are finished copies and some are ARCs. It’s one of my favorite shelves. 

Just above the mass markets on the top of that book case are my comics. I don’t own too many. 

The very bottom of that book case are my series books. Obviously, there are some holes.

The next book case in the library/office are my YA books. This is a mix of finished, must-keep copies of books nearer the top and mostly ARCs I still need to read or pass along lower down. 

The top shelf are a combination of my favorite YA books and authors, along with books I really liked and a couple of books I still need to read. And on the far right are some classic Babysitter’s Club titles.

And there are my shelves unedited. Be kind. I think maybe the titles on my shelves and the way I keep them around the house share way more about me than I would share otherwise.