Dear author, I will read anything you write.

Posted by Jenna Pirrie

I didn’t mean it to be, but I ignored this draft long enough it’s now perfect for The Broke and The Bookish‘s Top Ten Tuesday weekly linkup, this week’s being top ten favorite authors!. Except I only have a top six. Forgive me?

I’ve considered the idea of listing my “favorite authors” for a while, but here’s a secret about me: I hate favorites. I’m bad at picking favorites, I’m bad at sticking to favorites. I know my favorite color is yellow, but I clam up at questions about favorite music, foods, memories, etc. I know what I like, but I still never have an answer. (And when I get really stuck on something, I often get sick of it before it’s been around enough for the high status of “favorite.” Like the ampanada place across the street: loved them, but right now, can’t stand them. (The empanada place way down the street it a totally different story. I’m too lazy to walk there enough to get sick of those!))

Anyways.

Books are easier for one reason, and only one: Goodreads. Using Goodreads means I’m consistently tracking what I’ve read and what I like and what I would recommend. I still could never answer, ‘What’s your ONE favorite book?”, but I can go on lenthy schpeals about a bunch of my favorites from a genre or whatnot.

Authors is trickier. I just haven’t read enough! I’m only 24! But I’ve also read too much. How could I possibly have a favorite?

But it’s like I said: I know what I like. And I know the authors whose books I have finished and thought, I will read the next thing you write, no matter what.

I know which authors I like enough to find their blogs and check their Goodreads and hunt for hints and reassurances that they are, in fact, working on something new. These are those authors.

I will read anything you write

Rainbow Rowell // Rowell’s books suck me in and spit me out at the end ready to start the next. I read Fangirl right at the end of 2014 and immediately found and devoured E&P. Landline didn’t leave me quite as in love as the others, but I’m still so ready for Carry On and anything she creates afterwards. @rainbowrowell
My reviews: Attachments, Fangirl, Eleanor & Park, Landline, 2014 Favorites

Neil Gaiman // Gaiman definitely falls into that same category, where everything I’ve read, I have loved. Weirdly, I still have one of his books on my shelf, unread, but it’s not a question that I’ll get to it (just when). I made the mistake of buying his latest, a short stories collection, on audiobook, and while I will finish it, I keep forgetting I have it. But his next novel, whenever it happens? I’m all over that.
My reviews: Neverwhere (Ocean at the End of the Lane is my favorite so far, but I never reviewed it.) also, Fortunately, the Milk.

Margaret Atwood // …Actually, how legitimately can I claim I’ll read anything someone writes if I haven’t even read a fraction of their backlist? Atwood has written so much that it will take me years to get through even half. She’s on this list because I plan to. (And because Handmaid’s Tale sold me for life.
My reviews: The Tent

Helene Wecker // Thankfully, not every author I’ve fallen hard for has an impossible backlist to make me feel inadaquate about how much I’ve read. The Golem and the Jinni, Wecker’s debut novel, was such a stunner that she would have to seriously screw up the next one to lose my heart. @helenewecker
My reviews: The Golem and the Jinni, Favorites 2014

Liane Moriarty // Moriarty is a bit different than the above for me: I may never bother to read the rest of her backlist. But her last three books have been lovely additions to the women’s fiction genre, and I anything she writes in the future will go straight on my Library holds.
My reviews: The Husband’s Secret, Big Little Lies

Jojo Moyes // Moyes, on the other hand, will go straight on my pre-order list.
My reviews: The Girl You Left Behind, One Plus One, Honeymoon in Paris, Favorites 2014

Wait, those were all…

Fiction, yes. This post is pretty predominently about fiction. I’ve been trying to read more non-fic the last few years, but haven’t really gotten to an “I have favorites!” place yet. But there are a couple of non-fic authors I will possibly always read, not because they are favorites, per se, but because I want to learn from them. Sarah Bessey and Rachel Held Evans (Year of Biblical Womanhood review) and Shauna Niequist (Bread & Wine review) are three whose next books I will preorder—or have already done so.

What readers would you follow to the moon—or, let’s get crazy, to something outside their usual genre?

Books, Lately [April]

Posted by Jenna Pirrie

Welcome to Quick Lit! This is where I partake in Modern Mrs. Darcy’s link-up and share short (sometimes) and sweet (cavities not included) reviews of what I’ve been reading lately.

I realize that this is about where I say things about the month’s books that are basically some variation of, “I didn’t read much” or “Wow, got a lot of reading done.”

I mean, if I didn’t say those things, I would just be going on every post about how “I love books!” and “Isn’t Goodreads grand?” I already go on about those things sometimes, so it’s quite tricky to come up with something clever. I could update you on my life! But I should save that for those posts that mostly just say, “Hmmm. Adulting is hard.”

Actually, I think I just summed up my blog.

Being an adult is hard, but at least there’s a lot of books.

15749186 TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE
Jenny Han

I was expecting some relaxing fluff, and I got it—& I really liked this piece of relaxing fluff YA . Lara Jean’s distinct personality is nothing like my own, but I could relate to her position of the edges of high school high society (but not, thank goodness, the particular bit of scandal she finds herself in.) I’m looking forward to the sequel, and have another Han series on library hold for the next time I need a light YA fix (which is relatively often).

BAD FEMINIST
Roxane Gay

This book was so good, halfway through it I stopped reading my library e-copy and ordered a paperback off Amazon.

And then took over a month to get around to finishing it.

Gay’s essays on her life, feminism, race, and entertainment were great. Enjoyable, but challanging. I find myself wanting to understand more what intersectional feminism means, and this was a good place to start.

RELUCTANTLY CHARMED
Ellie O’Neill

I recieved an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I requested Reluctantly Charmed completely at random. I don’t remember doing this, but it’s obviously true because I never would have picked this based on the cover or title. From a reader standpoint, frankly it’s a bit boring.

But the book is not! It wasn’t five-star worthy, but I would have given it a 3.5 if I could have. I liked the protaganist, Kate, though she wasn’t highly memorable (I barely remembered her name just now.)The faerie premise could have been quite cheesy, but I felt it worked well. Come to think of it, it reminded me of the fairies on Torchwood: seemingly innocent, friendly, etc, but quite creepy and awful in reality.

FAIREST
Marissa Meyer

I’m not sure if Fairest should really be called 3.5, as it’s 100% a prequel. There’s only on barely-there mention of Cress to neccesitate reading it in that order, but to be fair, it definitely needs to be read after at least the 1st book.

Fairest gives us a peek at Levana’s past, her adolesence specifically. She’s never been exactly likeable, so this isn’t your typical make-them-sympathetic villain backstory. No, she’s always a bit out of her mind, and never really understands the purpose of empathy. But it’s well constructed, and while I didn’t love reading about someone I didn’t really like at first, once I got into it the shortish book flew by quickly. And while Levana is hardly a sympathetic character, Meyers brought me this close to sympathizing anyways.

THE THOUSAND-DOLLAR TAN LINE [Veronica Mars #1]
Rob Thomas

Listening to this was the result of the convergence of my addiction to Veronica Mars and my new-found desire to give audiobooks a real shot. When I saw on blog post elsewhere that Kristen Bell (who plays Veronica in the show) was the narrator, and that she was fabulous at it, I went for it—and was not disappointed. So good. Bell’s narration was a great bridge moving from show to book, and I’m disappointed that she doesn’t narrate #2. I’ll be checking that one out on ebook!

A PEEK AT WHAT’S UP NEXT:

Is it nerdy that, in addition to being particularly excited to read all of these next books, I’m also pretty thrilled at how I inadvertendly am reading a bunch of books that look great together?

What are you reading?

#bookwormproblems [one]

Posted by Jenna Pirrie

Being a bookworm has never been something I’ve minded. How could I? I loved reading too much to care if I was teased for it, and I really wasn’t. (Unless I blocked it out. This is always an unnerving idea.)

I did get in trouble for reading under the covers past bedtime as a kid. This happened most nights. However, I was never (or almost never) called for reading other books in school, which, in retrospect, is kind of suprising.

But being a chronic reader does have some other problems.

1. I will always discover words that I technically know and may even have used in writing, but apparently have never heard outloud, and therefore cannot fathom the correct pronunciation. Or think I have it right, but just don’t. (As I’ve learned, it’s sub-se-quent, not sub-seee-quent).

2. I get anxious when I think about how many books I want to read as soon as possible. Then I look at goodreads and see that I’m currently “reading” (which sometimes means “have been neglecting to finish for two months”) anywhere from 3 to 8 books, and despair that I will never read enough books to feel like I have read enough books. I anticipate this will be a problem for me till I die or books stop being published. Although, I expect vast libraries in heaven, and there are plenty of books for me to stress about without new releases, so, I have to deal with the fact that I will never read enough books.

3. The temptation to buy books when I haven’t read 3/4 of what I already own. Thank the stars my commute changed and I no longer walk past Open Books happy window displays every day. So. Much. Temptation.

& 4. Waiting for these releases.