Where Is Your Bookmark? (02/03/2015)

After a not so good week last week, I was ready for the weekend. A trip to the San Diego Safari Park (not to be confused with the San Diego Zoo) was just what we needed. It has been years since my husband and I were last there, and it was Mouse's first time.  She's been wanting to go back to a zoo for about a month now, and the weather and timing were just right.

After my dismal showing in audiobooks last year, I was reluctant to start something new. I had to drive across town to another office within my agency one day a couple weeks ago, however, and the radio just wasn't doing it for me. I am not a big audiobook listener. I am lucky to get in 20 minutes a day of listening on average during the work week--and that's if I am in the mood. So, it takes me a very long time to get through even a short audiobook.  Still, last Tuesday I was in the mood, and I began listening to Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park.

Blurb from Goodreads:

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

I am still reading Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall.  It is easy to get lost in the pages when I do sit down to read it. I hope to finish it by the end of the week.

What are you reading this week?  

Every Tuesday Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea hosts 

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where  

participants share the first paragraph (or a few) of a 

book they are reading or thinking about reading soon.

Last week I began listening to Rainbow Rowell's young adult novel Eleanor and Park. I picked it partly because it was on the shorter side, but mostly because the audiobook came highly recommended by fellow book bloggers. I could relate to the first sentence--only instead of music, my nose was more likely to be stuck in a book.

XTC was no good for drowning out the morons at the back of the bus.

Park pressed his headphones into his ears. 

Tomorrow he was going to bring Skinny Puppy or The Misfits. Or maybe he'd make a special bus tape with as much screaming and wailing on it as possible. 

I admit the introduction didn't grab me right away. This is definitely one of those cases where continuing on is in your best interest even if the opening doesn't grab you--at least so far than I can tell.  I am about half way into the audiobook and enjoying it quite a bit. It's a beautiful story about friendship and young love.

Would you continue reading?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies at Broke and Bookish.

This weeks' Top Ten Tuesday theme is Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't Read From  the Mystery/Crime Fiction and Fantasy Genres. I chose crime fiction and fantasy because they are two of my favorite genres. While I could list books a couple miles (at least) long in either genre, I decided to split it down the middle and list five in each genre I can't believe I have yet to read. I tried to stay away from authors I have already read at least one book by--although that could make an entirely different list!

Crime Fiction (Mystery) Genre

1. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith ~ I have had a copy of this pre-announcement that J.K. Rowling penned it, but have yet to read it. I have no other excuse than I was scared off by all the hype.

2. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #1) by Laurie R. King ~ I have heard nothing but great things about this series and have had this first book on my book shelf waiting to be read forever.  Well, it feels like forever. I don't know what's stopping me from reading it. I really don't.

3. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear ~ I made my husband read the first book in this series set in post-World War I, featuring Maisie Dobbs, private investigator, but I have yet to. He says I will like it, and I am sure I will. I love the time period--and a female private eye to book?  Sounds like my kind of book.

4. The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen ~ Set in Copenhagen, this book, the first in a series, is described as being "Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric." Not to mention it comes highly recommended.

5. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith ~ For years I have wanted to give Patricia Highsmith a try.  She seems like one of those authors a crime fiction lover must read.  Where better than to start with her debut novel about two strangers who meet on a train?

Fantasy Genre

6. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brenanen - I want to read quite a few books by this author, admittedly, but this is the first book to make it onto my TBR shelves. Set in Elizabethan England and mix in the fae . . . Well, it's a wonder I haven't read this yet!

7. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss ~ the first in the Kingkiller Chronicles, The Name of the Wind is the first fantasy novel in a long while my husband fell in love with. Just at the word wizard, I was sold.

8. Fledgling by Octavia E. Bulter ~ This is yet another book which has been languishing on my shelf for too long.  It is about an amnesiac "genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire."

9. The City & the City by China Miéville ~ A mystery and fantasy novel rolled into one. I can't wait to read this one. I've heard much about the world building in this one.

10. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett ~ The size of this series is what intimidates me, and one of the reasons I have yet to read The Color of Magic. I hear it's a fun book and series, however, and do want to give it a try.

Have you read any of these books? Would you recommend them?  What books would make your lists of books you cannot believe you haven't read yet?

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