Weekly Mews: A Rainy Start to January

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon (TSS) hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz  where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking It's Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date where readers talk about what they have been, are and will be reading.

I am linking up Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality a meme in which participants share what new books came their way recently.  

Rain! I am loving all this rain. There's a little reprieve this weekend, but another storm is on it's way. All this rain will not get rid of the drought, but it will help. My uncle up in Northern California posted photos on Facebook of the damage in his part of the state. As much as I like the rain, I do not like the destruction it is causing or the lives the flooding has taken. I feel for all of you who are dealing with inclement weather and hope you are staying safe and warm. 

The first week of the new year was fairly uneventful. Mouse started back to school last Monday (it made the local news even--ours was evidently the only district in the area to send kids back to school on a national holiday--there were quite a few disgruntled parents). Work picked up towards the end of the week. I have a feeling it will be back to being crazy busy this coming week. 

I finally have a new desk! I still don't have my own desk in the office (I desk share with other supervisors), but at least when I am working from home, I will have a desk that will hopefully not require me to use a TV tray on the side. Mouse, Anjin and I plan to dedicate time tomorrow to putting the desk together and getting it in place. 

At the moment, my house is filled with the sound of giggles and chatter. Mouse has a couple of friends over to play. We took them out for lunch earlier and put them to work helping carry boxes of book donations to the local library. We couldn't fit all the boxes in the car this trip and so will have to make another trip next weekend. 

I am experimenting with my weekend post format, trying to decide what content I want to include and where. In my dream blogging world, I would have full monthly features for Poetry Corner, Mouse's Corner, and On the Spinner Rack, but, truth be told, that isn't my reality right now. Family, work, and other commitments and interests all get a share of my time. I know many, if not all of you, can relate. Besides, I am not sure I want to review all the manga and graphic novels (On the Spinner Rack) or poetry (Poetry Corner) I read.  If I decide a full review is in order, I will do a separate post. My darling husband, Anjin, created the headers for me. He is way more tech savvy than I am! 

I lean more toward being a monogamous reader, but sometimes I take on more than one book at a time. What I am not: a fast or prolific reader--at least not compared to many of you. My confidence though was given a boost recently when I came across this on Google (because random information that pops up on my phone when I'm doing a search about which big books would make good year long reads is so noteworthy): 

The average number of books read is much less than 33, at least in the U.S. The number 33 is based on the average speed a person reads per Lenstore's online reading quiz (Lenstore is a British contact lens company with which I have no affiliation). It isn't based on how many books a person actually reads, but literally how much you can read. According to last year's Gallup Poll, American adult readers are averaging about 12.6 books (in all formats: print, e-books, and audio books) a year. Evidently the number of non-readers hasn't changed much over the years, but the amount of books readers read has gone down. Ultimately though, it is not about how much we read, but how much we get out of it what we are hoping to. 

Anyway, I went off on a tangent, didn't I? Back to being a monogamous reader. Or not, as the case may be at the moment. 

What I am reading: 

A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab (Fantasy)

Exes & O's by Amy Lea (Romance)

Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer (Nonfiction)

My TBR List is hosted by the awesome Michelle  at Because Reading. It’s a fun way to choose a book from your TBR pile to read. The 1st Saturday of every month, I will list 3 books I am considering reading and let you vote for my next read during that month. My review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise). 

I could use your help deciding which book to read next! Which of these three books do you think I should read next? Have you read any of them? If so, what did you think? 

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (2021)

An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list… hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again. [Goodreads Summary]

Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence (2017)

A Gen-X librarian's snarky, laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving collection of love letters and break-up notes to the books in her life.

Librarians spend their lives weeding--not weeds but books! Books that have reached the end of their shelf life, both literally and figuratively. They remove the books that patrons no longer check out. And they put back the books they treasure. Annie Spence, who has a decade of experience as a Midwestern librarian, does this not only at her Michigan library but also at home, for her neighbors, at cocktail parties—everywhere. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, she addresses those books directly. We read her love letters to The Goldfinch and Matilda, as well as her snarky break-ups with Fifty Shades of Grey and Dear John. Her notes to The Virgin Suicides and The Time Traveler’s Wife feel like classics, sure to strike a powerful chord with readers. Through the lens of the books in her life, Annie comments on everything from women’s psychology to gay culture to health to poverty to childhood aspirations. Hilarious, compassionate, and wise, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is the consummate book-lover's birthday present, stocking stuffer, holiday gift, and all-purpose humor book. [Goodreads Summary]

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan (2017)

When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind. Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs.....the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.

But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?

As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. [Goodreads Summary]

Thank you for voting!

Iliana of Bookgirl's Nightstand mentioned having read A Nature Poem for Every Night of the Year edited by Jane McMorland Hunter this past year, and I liked the idea enough to get my own copy. It is one of those books that I can read through every year if I want to. The book is described as a "calming collection of nature poems to help you relax and unwind at the end of every day."

I almost think Sara Coleridge's poem, "The Months", which is the January 2nd poem, would have been a good one to start off the collection given it is sort of an ode to all the months:

January brings the snow,

Make our feet and fingers glow.

But ultimately, I agree with the editor's choice to begin with "Tapestry Trees" by William Morris. It sets the perfect tone for the start of the year: 

Oak.

I am the Roof-tree and the Keel;

I bridge the seas for woe and weal.

I like to read poetry out loud and this one reads well with its rhyming couplets, each of which opens with a different type of tree and touches on the different seasons within some of the descriptions. Perhaps my favorite from the Morris's poem:

Pear-tree.

High o're the mead-flowers' hidden feet

I bear aloft my burden sweet.

So far I have enjoyed all the poems. I read about the four seasons of life in "Sonnet: The Human Seasons" by John Keets, which is a moving poem. There is also John Greenleaf's Whittier's "A Dream of Summer" which I imagine many of you in colder climates would appreciate right about now. Shakespeare makes an appearance with "Sonnet 60".  I may not be a fan of his plays, but I do enjoy his poetry.

I will leave you with an excerpt from Friday's poem, "Not so Far as the Forest" by Edna St. Vincent Millay:

The sun sets in a cloud 

And is not seen.  

Beauty, that spoke aloud, 

Addresses now only the remembering ear. 

The heart begins here 

To feed on what has been.

I am in between graphic novels and manga at the moment. Next up on my TBR are Guts by Reina Telgemeiger (which my daughter handed me last month and told me I needed to read) and Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 10 by Kamome Shirahama (my daughter's already read it because she called first dibs). Will I get to them this coming week? I am not sure, but I will try. 

For Christmas this year, I accidentally got Mouse the second and third light novel versions of My Happy Marriage, thinking I was getting the manga versions. Anjin recommended I get the first light novel for her because sometimes the telling of a story doesn't line up exactly between the two book types. And so she ended up with the first three light novel versions (and I've pre-ordered the 2nd volume of the manga version which comes out next week). Mouse recently finished the first volume of of the light novel, My Happy Marriage by Akumi Agitogi, illustrated by Tsukiho Tsukioka. Mouse said it was more detailed than the manga version, just as exciting, and she liked them both about the same. 

Mouse is currently reading the 8th book in Shannon Messenger's Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Legacy. She described the series as "dramatic and intense". I told her I was thinking of giving the series a try and she warned me it is filled with drama, which I might not like. Anjin's response was, "Have you seen the types of books your mom reads?" I think there is some fear on her part that I won't like her favorite series if I do read it. 

Mouse recently found a gift card from her birthday last year she didn't realize she had. She went crazy spending it on manga she wasn't able to find at our local bookstores. She's anxiously awaiting that package to arrive next week. 

New to my shelves:

Bad Girls Drink Blood (Blood Fae Druid #1) by S.L. Choi (because of Carole)

A Nature Poem for Every Night of the Year edited by Jane McMorland Hunter (because of Iliana)

What new books made it onto your shelf recently? 

I have been watching lots of Grey's Anatomy. I just finished season 8. It's a good show to have on in the background as I blog and respond to comments. I have long passed the season where I stopped watching the show when it initially aired, although I know parts of what happens in later seasons thanks to various news and gossip sources. Avoiding the spoilers was not possible. As a family, we watched the last episode of the first season of Spy x Family. I like the anime, but I much prefer it in its original manga form. 

What have you watched recently?

This Past Week In Reading Mews

• A Year in Review: 2022 (And Looking Ahead)
• Top Ten Tuesday: My Top Ten Books Favorite Books of 2022
• Can't Wait to Read Wednesday: The Game is a Footnote / Independence / Dreyer's English

I hope you have a great week! Let me know what you have been reading!

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