STACKED

books

Halfway

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At the beginning of each year, I set myself a Goodreads goal to read 100 books that year. I’m not super strict about the goal (I think regulating your pleasure reading too much can suck the pleasure out of it), but it’s a good way to gauge how much reading I’ve been doing in the year and how it compares to previous years. I’ve found that 100 books as a goal causes me to read just a touch more than I would otherwise, without making me feel pressured to read when I’d really rather do something else.

I just hit the halfway point at 50 books earlier this week, so I thought it would be interesting to take more formal stock of how my reading year has gone and what the trends are in my reading thus far. Here are a few pertinent stats.

 

 

Star Ratings

I really enjoy rating the books I read. I fully understand why some people (like Kelly) choose not to – comments on reviews deemed “bad” by authors or their fans can be really aggravating (to put mildly), and the stars don’t really give a nuanced perspective on a book. But it helps me to identify the real standouts at the end of the year. The breakdown for me so far is:

★★★★★     1 book

★★★★☆     20 books

★★★☆☆     24 books

★★☆☆☆     5 books

★☆☆☆☆     0 books

I think this breakdown gives some insight into the way I perceive ratings. I had a discussion with some friends the other day about when and why we give five stars to products and services, beyond just books on places like Goodreads. Two of us were very free with five-star ratings, giving them to anything that didn’t have a marked flaw, and the other two (myself included), were a lot more conservative. To me, a five-star book (or movie, or other product ) is one that is exceptional in some way, as you can see by the fact that I only gave one book out of fifty that rating. (For the curious, it’s Birthday by Meredith Russo). On the other hand, when rating people (like a rideshare driver), I default to five stars unless something went pretty wrong. I’m also hesitant to give anything below a three star rating, though I will do it occasionally for books that I finished but didn’t particularly care for. I reserve my one star rating for books that were so bad they upset me; this is much rarer than even a five star rating.

 

Audience

Adult     11 books

Young Adult     35 books

Middle Grade     4 books

Most of my reading still centers around books for young adults/teens, but I’ve definitely expanded my reading for adults compared to previous years. I’ve also been picking up more middle grade, though I know four doesn’t seem like a lot. I used to read at most four for the year, so I’m on track to double previous years. I find myself reaching for a middle grade novel when I want something a bit quicker that I can finish in a single sitting.

 

Format

Audio     36 books

Print     14 books

My love for audiobooks continues unabated. Lately I’ve had a really frustrating experience where every time I sit on my couch and start to read a print book, I’ll fall asleep. It has nothing to do with the quality of the book – I only pick up books that interest me – nor the time of day. I fear I’ve trained some sort of Pavlovian response in myself to fall asleep whenever I read, and it tends to happen within just a few minutes. The only surefire time I can stay awake while reading a print book is in the morning, right after waking up after the night’s sleep. While this is fine on the weekends, it doesn’t really work during the week. I work early already, so setting an alarm to wake up even earlier just to read is not really practical. This simply means the majority of my reading is done on audio, and the majority of my print reading consists of pretty short books (all four of the middle grade books) or graphic novels (six so far).

 

Genre

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror     24 books

Mystery/Thriller     15 books

Contemporary Realistic     6 books

Nonfiction     4 books

Historical Fiction     2 books

As expected, my reading focuses on genre fiction. Most of the contemporary realistic books I read were Mock Printz finalists at my workplace. My mystery and thriller reading has really picked up compared to previous years, though, especially with adult titles. I just can’t get enough of the twisty plots, especially on audio – I can’t cheat and flip to the end that way! You might have noticed that the total for this category is 51, because I classified Lovely War by Julie Berry as both historical fiction and science fiction/fantasy. (By the way, if you haven’t picked that one up yet, I highly recommend it.)

 

Gender

Female     37 authors

Male     11 authors

Nonbinary     3 authors

I tend to read more books by women each year, so this is no surprise. The total adds up to more than 50 in this category as well because one book, Once & Future, is co-authored by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy, who are both nonbinary. Included in the female total is one trans author, Meredith Russo. I’d definitely like to increase the trans and non-binary representation in my future reading.

Fly Season: 5 Book Covers Featuring The Bug

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This summer is the summer of flies in my neck of the woods. It doesn’t matter where I am. The flies are legion. They’re inside, they’re outside, and they’re becoming a delicious snack for my youngest cat (who is, fortunately, very good at and very interested in catching them). It got me thinking about how many books out there feature the little creature on the cover. Find below a fun roundup of book covers featuring flies that aren’t books about insects. I’ve got YA and adult here, and if you know of any other ones, drop them in the comments.

I’ve pulled descriptions from Goodreads, too, since I haven’t read all of these.

Let’s begin with the obvious one…

 

 

Lord Of The Flies by William Golding

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies is perhaps our most memorable novel about “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.”

 

 

Fly On The Wall by e. lockhart

At the Manhattan School for Art and Music, where everyone is “different” and everyone is “special,” Gretchen Yee feels ordinary. She’s the kind of girl who sits alone at lunch, drawing pictures of Spider-Man, so she won’t have to talk to anyone; who has a crush on Titus but won’t do anything about it; who has no one to hang out with when her best (and only real) friend Katya is busy.

One day, Gretchen wishes that she could be a fly on the wall in the boys’ locker room–just to learn more about guys. What are they really like? What do they really talk about? Are they really cretins most of the time?

Fly on the Wall is the story of how that wish comes true.

 

 

The New Me by Halle Butler

I’m still trying to make the dream possible: still might finish my cleaning project, still might sign up for that yoga class, still might, still might. I step into the shower and almost faint, an image of taking the day by the throat and bashing its head against the wall floating in my mind.

Thirty-year-old Millie just can’t pull it together. Misanthropic and morose, she spends her days killing time at a thankless temp job until she can return home to her empty apartment, where she oscillates wildly between self-recrimination and mild delusion, fixating on all the little ways she might change her life. Then she watches TV until she drops off to sleep, and the cycle begins again.

When the possibility of a full-time job offer arises, it seems to bring the better life she’s envisioning – one that involves nicer clothes, fresh produce, maybe even financial independence – within reach. But with it also comes the paralyzing realization, lurking just beneath the surface, of just how hollow that vision has become.

Darkly hilarious and devastating, The New Me is a dizzying descent into the mind of a young woman trapped in the funhouse of American consumer culture.

 

 

 

Bad Girls With Perfect Faces by Lynn Weingarten

When I looked up, his smile was wide and real. “Ready?” he said.

I faked a smile back. I had gotten so good at faking things.

I thought: You brought this on yourself, Sasha. You will have to pretend forever now.
He squeezed my hand again. He couldn’t begin to imagine what this actually was. He had no idea what I’d done. What any of us had.

When Sasha’s best friend Xavier gets back together with his cheating ex, Ivy, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. So she poses as a guy online to lure Ivy away.

But Sasha’s plan goes sickeningly wrong. And she soon learns to be careful of who you pretend to be because you might be surprised by who you become…

 

 

We Were Promised Spotlights by Lindsay Sproul (March 24, 2020)

The Miseducation of Cameron Post meets Everything Leads to You in this queer young adult novel. 

Taylor Garland’s good looks have earned her the admiration of everyone in her small town. She’s homecoming queen, the life of every party, and she’s on every boy’s most-wanted list.

People think Taylor is living the dream, and assume she’ll stay in town and have kids with the homecoming king–maybe even be a dental hygienist if she’s super ambitious. But Taylor is actually desperate to leave home, and she hates the smell of dentists’ offices. Also? She’s completely in love with her best friend, Susan.

Senior year is almost over, and everything seems perfect. Now Taylor just has to figure out how to throw it all away.

Lindsay Sproul’s debut is full of compelling introspection and painfully honest commentary on what it’s like to be harnessed to a destiny you never wanted.

 

 

 

Can you think of any other YA or adult books featuring the mighty fly? I’d love to see ’em in the comments!

This Week at Book Riot

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Over on Book Riot this week…

 

 

Podcasts this week…

 

 

Fall Short Story Collections for Teens

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Short story collections are hit and miss at my library. Sometimes readers can’t get enough, like the completists clamoring for every last bit of writing about a particular author-created world. Other times, despite the quality of the stories within, they languish on the shelf. I’m optimistic about this fall’s crop, though, which would have definitely intrigued teenage me. Three out of the five consist entirely of genre fiction stories, and it seems like fantasy and science fiction also make guest appearances in at least one of the others. The librarian in me is happy to see a collection of stories about Jewish kids by Jewish writers (we need more of these in teen lit), as well as the romance collection edited by Sangu Mandanna, which is deliberately diverse in its mission and curation.

I wonder if short story collections for teens are having a bit of a renaissance lately – I noticed these five titles because three of them all publish within a week of each other. Normally I see maybe one per month in my librarian duties. I’ve always felt short story collections are great as inspiration for budding teen writers. They can be a good way to get past a reading block, too: getting through one short story is much less daunting a task than reading an entire novel. Do you plan to pick any of these up for your library or personal reading?

 

Life is Short and Then You Die: Mystery Writers of America Presents First Encounters With Murder edited by Kelley Armstrong (September 10)

Mystery Writers of America’s first teen anthology, edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

Adolescence is a time of “firsts.” First kiss. First love. First loss. First job. The first taste of adult responsibilities, and the first look at an independent life away from both the restrictions and the security of home. And in this case, a very different type of “first”: murder. This short story collection of murder mysteries adds a sinister spin to the joy and pain of firsts that have always been a major part of life, whether it be high school cliques who take the term “backstabbing” too seriously, stumbling upon a body on the way home from school, or receiving a Snapchat message that promises something deadly. Contributors include Barry Lyga, Caleb Roehrig, Emmy Laybourne, Jonathan Maberry, R.L. Stine, Rachel Vincent, Steven Hockensmith, Y.S. Lee, and more!

 

His Hideous Heart: 13 of Edgar Allan Poe’s Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined edited by Dahlia Adler (September 10)

Thirteen of YA’s most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe’s most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation.

Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and how they’ve been brought to life in 13 unique and unforgettable ways. Contributors include Kendare Blake (reimagining “Metzengerstein”), Rin Chupeco (“The Murders in the Rue Morge”), Lamar Giles (“The Oval Portrait”), Tessa Gratton (“Annabel Lee”), Tiffany D. Jackson (“The Cask of Amontillado”), Stephanie Kuehn (“The Tell-Tale Heart”), Emily Lloyd-Jones (“The Purloined Letter”), Hillary Monahan (“The Masque of the Red Death”), Marieke Nijkamp (“Hop-Frog”), Caleb Roehrig (“The Pit and the Pendulum”), and Fran Wilde (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).

 

It’s a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories edited by Katherine Lock and Laura Silverman (September 17)

Get ready to fall in love, experience heartbreak, and discover the true meaning of identity in this poignant collection of short stories about Jewish teens, including entries by David Levithan, Nova Ren Suma, and more!

A Jewish boy falls in love with a fellow counselor at summer camp. A group of Jewish friends take the trip of a lifetime. A girl meets her new boyfriend’s family over Shabbat dinner. Two best friends put their friendship to the test over the course of a Friday night. A Jewish girl feels pressure to date the only Jewish boy in her grade. Hilarious pranks and disaster ensue at a crush’s Hanukkah party. From stories of confronting their relationships with Judaism to rom-coms with a side of bagels and lox, It’s a Whole Spiel features one story after another that says yes, we are Jewish, but we are also queer, and disabled, and creative, and political, and adventurous, and anything we want to be. You will fall in love with this insightful, funny, and romantic Jewish anthology from a collection of diverse Jewish authors.

 

The End and Other Beginnings: Stories From the Future by Veronica Roth (October 1)

Bestselling Divergent and Carve the Mark author Veronica Roth delivers a stunning collection of novella-length stories set in the future, illustrated with startling black-and-white artwork.

No world is like the other. Within this masterful collection, each setting is more strange and wonderful than the last, brimming with new technologies and beings. And yet, for all the advances in these futuristic lands, the people still must confront deeply human problems. In these six stories, Veronica Roth reaches into the unknown and draws forth something startlingly familiar and profoundly beautiful. With tales of friendship and revenge, plus two new stories from the Carve the Mark universe, this collection has something for new and old fans alike. Each story begins with a hope for a better end, but always end with a better understanding of the beginning.

 

Color Outside the Lines: Stories About Love edited by Sangu Mandanna (November 12)

This modern, groundbreaking YA anthology explores the complexity and beauty of interracial and LGBTQ+ relationships where differences are front and center.

“When people ask me what this anthology is about, I’m often tempted to give them the complicated answer: it’s about race, and about how being different from the person you love can matter but how it can also not matter, and it’s about Chinese pirate ghosts, black girl vigilantes, colonial India, a flower festival, a garden of poisons, and so, so much else. Honestly, though? I think the answer’s much simpler than that. Color Outside the Lines is a collection of stories about young, fierce, brilliantly hopeful people in love.” – Sangu Mandanna

A Day In The Life, Summer Edition

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I really love reading when people share a day in their life. It’s fascinating to get a peek behind the curtain of the things they do, as well as how they do it. Since last month Kimberly and I took time off the blog and I began really focusing on my time and energy management, I’ve gotten smart about taking solid notes about what I do and how I do it during any given day. It felt right to share one of my days.

Often, I get asked how I manage to get work done or how I stay disciplined since I work from home. It’s natural to me now, but it took a lot of creating blocks of time and parceling out my energy in appropriate ways. I know I get worn out by late morning and see another surge of energy if I leave the house for a bit or do something entirely unrelated to editing or writing or books. That’s reflected here. I’ve found that using some of the tools Kara Lowentheil offers up for how to get things done has been unbelievably useful for how I work, and it’s what allows me to get as much into a day as I do. I sprung for a fancy paper planner and that, combined with using the digital task management system Things, is how I do it.

Without further ado, here’s how my Thursday, July 11, 2019 played out. This was one of the first lighter days work-wise I’ve had in a while, and I let myself enjoy that quiet thinking time.

A Day In The Life

4:45 AM: My alarm usually goes off at this time, and usually, I hit snooze. But not today! I’m up and getting ready for the day.

5:30-6:45 AM: I need to enjoy two slow cups of tea while I wake up, plot out the day in my agenda, then catch up on my internetting. I typically read the local news, scroll social media, schedule out Twitter, and respond to any quick emails.

6:45 – 8:15 AM: Every other week, I teach a mother and daughter duo a private yoga lesson on Thursday mornings. They are both such a delight and getting to teach them at their home is a real joy. This week, we did some hip openers, and I talked a lot about inversions and the value of doing legs up the wall pose.

8:30 – 10 AM: I ate breakfast (two hardboiled eggs and fruit) while updating Book Riot’s Pinterest account with the content from the prior day. I also drafted the “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter for the following Monday.

10 – 11 AM: I had a phone interview with someone doing an episode of the Annotated podcast with me for September. This guest is a special collections librarian and we nerded out about her job and about how her job is connected to the topic of the podcast.  Once we finish the recording, I had the files uploaded and transcribed so I could use them in the script.

11 – 11:30 AM: I have an interview for the same podcast for Saturday morning, so I made sure everything was ready for it — including drafting the questions so the guest would have them in advance.

11:30 – 12:30 PM: I enjoyed lunch, along with catching up on YA book news. I spend time every day seeing what news has hit to collect for sharing with newsletter readers, Book Riot contributors, and, of course, my own edification.

12:30 – 1:30 PM: My best friend calls and we chat for about an hour. She lives in Utah and we used to have regular phone dates when I drove for yoga teaching, but when my schedule changed we found lunch time calls worked well for both of us.

1:30 – 2:30 PM: I used this time to do some thinking about what I want to write and about my job more broadly. I also had the chance to catch up on work emails, to assign out content for some of the Book Riot contributors, and to draft some of my own posts for work.

2:30 – 3:30 PM: This was the time I used to do some script planning for my Annotated episode, as well as plan out the books I want to make sure I request and read in anticipation of recording August’s All The Books podcast with Liberty. I also scheduled the next episode of Hey YA: Extra Credit, which posts the next Wednesday (but I’d gotten the file early so decided to do it right then, rather than wait).

3:45 – 5:45 PM: Every week, on Thursdays, my pal Alyssa and I have dedicated writing dates at a local cafe. My goal is 2,000 words on this day, and I did a little bit more than that. We ended up at a cafe that did not have air conditioning, so it was hot (it was high 90s that day) and we decided to pick a place we knew had air for our date the next week.

6:00 PM: The benefit of where we worked, though, was it was across the street from my new salon, so I got to walk over and get my hair colored. I’ve been so overwhelmed with work stuff up until this week that the break to get my hair done was so wonderful. My stylist and I talked about horror movies, since we both love them, and I walked out feeling like a brand new person.

7:00 PM: I got home and my husband had made dinner. We caught up with each other’s day, and we talked about how my stylist did such a good job with my hair it looked like I’d gotten it cut and not just colored. We watched some episodes of “Shark Tank,” now that it’s streaming on Hulu.

9:00 PM: I get up early, which also means I go to bed early. Add to that the social interaction and creative work accomplished, I was bushed. I tend to crawl into bed with a book for a bit before shutting off the light, feeling the cats climb on me, and fall asleep.