Space Station Mir

Happy (late) Top Ten Tuesday! 1. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer 2. Fire and Thorns series by Rae Carson 3. The Magicians series by Lev Grossman 4. Eternal Sky trilogy by Elizabeth Bear 5. The Circuit series by Rhett Bruno 6. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini 7. The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante Series I Don't Intend to Finish (not like I would never finish, but just wouldn't go out of my way to do so) 1. The Divergent series by Veronica Roth 2. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld 3. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

My novel is finished. 77, 704 words. 190 pages. Just under three months. It's not good. It's not edited. It will likely never see the light of day. But it is finished. Thank you, Snowzilla, Snowpocalypse 2016, or Snowmageddon 2: Snow Mercy, whatever you are. Now if you could just please melt and let my car out. Thanks.

Recently checked out of the library: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson I've been meaning to read this series forever. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (audiobook) Giving it a shot now that the furor has faded. Peony in Love by Lisa See (audiobook) Back to my go-to audiobooks on fictional China.

I don't really do reading challenges, but at the beginning of 2015, I decided to see if I completed the Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge. Later, I saw BookRiot's Read Harder challenge, and decided to see how my reading measured up with that too. I did not intentionally try to follow either challenge, and so did not entirely complete either, but I am impressed with how close I came! Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge 1. A book with more than 500 pages: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore 2. A classic romance: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 3. A book that became a movie: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith 4. A book published this year: Against the Country by Ben Metcalf 5. A book with a number in the title: Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone 6. A book written by someone under 30: Dispatch from the Future by Leigh Stein (she was 29 when it was published) 7. A book with nonhuman characters: The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord 8. A funny book: hypocrite in a pouffy white dress by...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at the Broke and the Bookish ! 1. You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik (read about this somewhere, can't remember where) 2. The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich (because of Wild ). 3. Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner (I read about it in an article, but an Fb friend from college highly praised it, so it's high on my TBR.) 4. Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose (my boyfriend and I have been watching Turn , the TV show based on it; from what I've heard, most of what happens in the show is true!) 5. Clash of Eagles by Alan Small (I met him at the Baltimore BookFest) 6. The Butler Speaks by Charles MacPherson (read about it somewhere) 7. Hotels of North America by Rick Moody  (read an article by the author in Conde Nast Traveler magazine) 8. Our Spoons Came from Woolworth's by Barbara Comyns Car...

I took a day trip to Annapolis the other day, and we ran across this magical bookstore. It's primarily a used bookstore, but new releases were on the shelves next to old classics. It's not the cheapest used bookstore around, but it's well-organized and fairly large. There are some antique books, and older hardback versions of classics, like the 1918 edition of Louisa May Alcott's Rose in Bloom , which I bought. The primary focus is fiction. There were some whimsical displays, and friends "lion" around too. Highly recommended if you find yourself in the area. I can't wait to go back and explore some more! Me in the Mirror of Erised. MD socks bought in different Annapolis store.

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at the Broke and the Bookish! I had to go back to my anticipated books of 2015 to remember this! Looks like the winners are: 1. The Mechanical by Ian Tregellis 2. Get in Trouble by Kelly Link 3. The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente 4. Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear 5. Armada by Ernest Cline 6. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

#Readwomen, #weneeddiversebooks, #diversifYA, #WITmonth--these are all hashtags I have used and supported. But while I am highly in favor of reading more women, more minorities, more books in translation, and more books by and about representatives of any marginalized or underrepresented group, lifestyle, or experience, I am not in favor of excluding any group . Any group . And, yes, that includes white, straight cisgender men. I'm writing about this now because I've cared about and noticed this issue for a long while, but I did not feel that I was qualified to speak up. Why? Because my skin is as pale as paper. I benefit from white privilege. I also benefit from being a young, thin, feminine-looking woman. My Jewish religion and ancestry, LGBT sympathies, and other more controversial opinions are not written on my white, green-eyed face nor evident in my long brown hair or the clothes tailored to my thin-to-average female body. So while I have experienced discrimination and ...

1. Read more books by minority authors, but also look into new ways of viewing and categorizing diverse books. 2. Read more books in translation. Let's see if I can beat 2015's six and a half! 3. Read more poetry. Now that I've gotten a taste for it! 4. Read more literary magazines. This should also help with reading more poetry and short stories. Also, if I want to be published in literary magazines, I should be reading more! 5. Post to the blog 6 times a month!

69. Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan I liked this novel about a group of American travelers lost in Burma. It fits with the trend of liking each Amy Tan novel I read more than the last, which Valley of Amazement broke. Not because it wasn't an interesting story, but some of it just seemed too awful to be believed. Saving Fish from Drowning , despite a dead narrator, isn't too awful for me to believe, or at least, to suspend disbelief. I read this after a long streak of non-fiction, and I enjoyed getting in the heads of fictional characters again, and following a clear narrative structure. Recommended to fans of weird, somewhat creepy character-driven fiction and those interested in travel along the Burmese Road. 70. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey This ended up in my boyfriend's book discard pile and caught my eye (he never read it; it was a gift). It's a book I never thought I would read. It's a book I've probably snick...

Reading Statistics 2015 How many books read in 2015? 70. How many books read by female authors? 45/70 or 64%. How many books by minority authors? 17/70 or 24%. How many books from other countries? 10. How many translated books? 6 and a half (The half was Beirut Noir , a book of short stories, some of which were translated from either French or Arabic). How many non-fiction books? 15. How many short story anthologies? 4. How many books of poetry? 4. How many SFF books? 15. Book Goals 2015 As you can see above, I met many of my 2015 reading (and other) goals. Bookish and Non Bookish Goals for 2015 1. Post to the blog at least 6 times a month.   - For the most part, yes! There were only four months where I made fewer than 6 posts.  2. Read even more short stories--and do a better job of keeping track of them. Plan a "Best Short Stories" and/or "Best SFF Short Stories" post for the end of this year. -I read more short stories this y...