New on the Stack: The Books I'm Reading (or Will Be Soon)

Can I just tell you that I've read a RIDICULOUS amount this year? I'm at 48 books already. And that includes a 10 day span in February where I read zero books, because I was burned out. So I'm averaging better than 1 book every two days. Nuts.

Anyway, here are the things I'm planning to read soon, or have just started in the last day or two.


The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Where I got it: The library
Why: As I mentioned previously, I've been meaning to read it for years. So far, I'm really enjoying it. I've actually found myself highlighting passages quite a bit, I'll have to share my full review soon.








Ruined Abbey by Anne Emery

Where I got it: Shelf Awareness
Why: For review. I loved Gun Street Girl, a different mystery set during the Troubles, which I read earlier this year, so I'm hoping that I will also enjoy Ruined Abbey.








A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

Where I got it: as a gift
Why: I was really looking forward to reading this one after hearing Jacqueline Winspear talk about it at the TFOB. I'm excited for the change in setting (Gibraltar), and can't wait to find out what has happened to Maisie Dobbs in the intervening four years since the last book. And then, to my delight, a friend surprised me with a signed copy as a gift! Woohoo!






The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Where I got it: the library
Why: This FINALLY came in at the library! I feel like I'm really late to the game now - everyone was talking about it six months ago, but I was on the holdlist for so long.










The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

Where I got it: Bought it on Audible
Why: I think I got the recommendation from BookRiot a few months ago? The details are sketchy in my mind. It's a bit needlessly informative (Do I really need to know if the suspect was driven away in a brougham or a whiskey or a phaeton? Nope.) but I'm still finding it really interesting, and I always love Simon Vance's narration.



Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Where I got it: Well, I don't quite have it yet. But I'm hold #1 on the library's audio edition.
Why: We're going to San Francisco in a few weeks, and I wanted to read a book set there before we go.

What's new on YOUR stack?

 

Linking up with The Deliberate Reader's New on the Stack link-up! This post contains some of my affiliate links, thanks for supporting Quirky Bookworm.

Judging Books by Their Covers: A Lesson Learned

You all know I like to judge books by their covers. A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo on Facebook, "Judging Books by Their Covers: Garage Sale Edition" (hand modeling work done by my friend Meghan, who alas does not have a hyperbaric chamber.)

But then last week I had an experience where I nearly judged a book by its cover, and I'm so glad that I didn't!

Based on the cover I never would have picked up The Ladies of Managua. Frankly, I only started it because after Shelf Awareness sent me the ARC, I checked, and it was available on Netgalley. So since it's easier for me to read e-books these days, I gave it a chance, and I REALLY enjoyed it! It's a family saga set in Nicaragua, telling the story of three women.
 
The first is Isabela, the grandmother and high society lady. Next, her daughter Ninexin, former Sandinista revolutionary, current government minister. And finally Maria, Ninexin's daughter, a would-be artist who has escaped her family's tangled history to live in NYC, until her grandfather's death calls her back to Managua. ‪The book alternates between the perspectives of these three very different women, making for an engaging read, with an awesomely lush background. I'll post my full review later, once it's run in Shelf Awareness.
  

Have you ever regretted judging a book by its cover?

Feeling Smarter: Links and Things

• Liking Grammarly on Facebook means that my news feed is now full of awesomeness like the above picture.
• I'm fascinated by this article about how speaking a second language can change your brain.
• This podcast episode is making me think hard about some of the tech choices in my life, especially with regard to the kids.
• Daily French practice on DuoLingo is making me feel smarter. (I think you can connect with people you know? I'm JessAHow if you want to try to find me.)
• I'm officially 23 books ahead of schedule on my 2015 reading challenge, ha!
• We broke out the wading pool today, because it's practically summer here.
• Don't forget, the giveaway is still open!
• I thought Fuck You, Clean Reader: Authorial Consent Matters was funny and very profane, and pretty accurate. (I almost edited that to F*** You... but since the whole article is about the use of profanity in literature, I feel like I can't censor it!)
• And leaving you with the awesomeness of this video where Tom Hanks reenacts all of his movies in less than 7 minutes. If you haven't seen it yet, go watch it now!

(Update: in the comments Missy G pointed out that I linked to the wrong article for the F--- You one, it's fixed now! Thanks Missy.)

Book Review: Who Buries the Dead by C.S. Harris (and a GIVEAWAY!)

I love the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series so very much. You're probably well aware, since I've raved here and here and here about previous books in the series. So I was very excited when the publisher sent me a copy of the latest title, Who Buries the Dead, for review.

In 1813, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is rather enjoying domesticity and his new son. But he's called to help the Bow Street magistrates yet again, when the body of a socially ambitious man is found on a bridge, with his head stuck atop a spike. The victim, Stanley Preston, is best known for three things: his cousin is the Home Secretary, he owns a large plantation in Jamaica and he's an obsessive collector of historical artifacts (and isn't too picky about their provenance)--which perhaps explains the coffin strap, reading "King Charles, 1648," found nearby.

Investigating Preston's life draws Devlin into the scary, hidden world of grave robbers and smugglers, as well as high-society events where government officials, debutantes, lords and plantation owners mingle. Using his own contacts, and those of his father-in-law, who is close to the Prince Regent, Devlin will stop at nothing to find Preston's murderer. Unfortunately for the safety of Devlin and his family, the killer is equally determined to keep his identity hidden.

With excellent historical detail, Harris again brings the Regency era to life in Who Buries the Dead, the 10th thriller starring Devlin. Who Buries the Dead also includes sly, tongue-in-cheek references to Jane Austen's books, since Jane herself is a close friend of Stanley Preston's daughter. Those who enjoy historical mysteries, Jane Austen and Regency fiction will enjoy Who Buries the Dead on its own. And longtime fans of the series will be happy to see intriguing developments in Sebastian's unduly complicated personal life. (I don't want to spoil anything for you, if you're new to the series, but wow is Sebastian's life really tangled. Siblings, half-siblings, mistresses, enemies, and constantly shifting allegiances make this series so much fun.)

Want to win a copy of Who Buries the Dead for yourself? Luckily the publisher agreed to provide a second copy of the book for one of you! Just fill out the form below (you may have to click through to see the embedded form if you're reading via a feed-reader). I'll choose a winner by March 31st, and notify you accordingly. US/Canada only please.







Notes: I received a copy of the book from NAL, but my opinions are all my own. The main part of this review was originally published in Shelf Awareness.

Currently // What I'm Eating / Watching / Scheming / Loving

Time // 10:37 am
Scheming // We've been taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class through our church. Tomorrow is the last class, so we spent some time this morning budgeting and planning our order of attack for the next few months. I'm hoping we can have our van paid off by the end of the year! 
Eating // Noel and I are going to Olive Garden for lunch, thanks to Gma inviting the girls over for a tea party, and a giftcard that someone else gave us. Since we're on a strict budget (because of FPU), the goal is to keep our date within the $25 giftcard! So I'm going to scope out the menu in a minute, to maximize the number of cheesy calories per dollar, heehee.
Reading // On audio I'm listening to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which I loved for the first two thirds. It's in a bit of an annoying part now, but I'm only 2 hours from the end, so I'm going to stick it out, and hopefully it'll get better again. I'm also reading The Ladies of Managua, and really enjoying it. (It's for Shelf Awareness - it'll be out in May.) Plus, it's set in Nicaragua, so it'll add a little diversity to my book map!
Watching // Basketball (see above). Noel's so excited about March Madness, and I've been watching some too, because of the fun of filling out a bracket. I really could care less about the actual basketball games, but I love the competition of trying to guess right ahead of time! We've also been watching the Easter bunnies race - we have two like in the pic, and if you pull their tails they shoot across the table, much to Juliet's delight.

Loving // the books that Eleanor has been writing. They're so dang cute. This one, about a princess who had a bed made of flower petals, was from about 3 weeks ago. She's progressed to writing chapter books - her latest was about a girl named Ella who hunted for Easter eggs, then got a pink nose, then went to the doctor and discovered she had a "nose infecshun". It was like 42 sticky-note pages long!
Enjoying // that Juliet is finally sleeping better. She's slept through the night 3 out of the last 4 nights! Just in time too, since in only a month we'll be traveling, and all of us will be sleeping in one hotel room. 
Wishing // I was better at scheduling holds in Overdrive. I have several review books to hurry and finish in the next two weeks, plus from the library I just got All the Light You Cannot See AND The Goldfinch. I've been on hold for those two for about 4 months, so I can't skip them. So I'm reading rather frenziedly whenever I get a minute.
Time // 10:57 am. My twenty minutes is up. Time to all of us dressed and out the door for the tea party and date. Have a great weekend!

Spring Break Reading

It's spring break! We've been doing lots of outdoorsy stuff before it gets too hot to go outside in the daytime - I think we've had 8 picnics in the last week? We went to the zoo and the TFOB, and we have done a ton of bike-riding and walking.

We also have been at the library a lot. I shared the photo below on the Quirky Bookworm Facebook page last week, and I took the video (embedded at the top of the post) at story time this week. Juliet is a BIG fan of the turnaround song - I can't handle how cute her dancing is.

Post by Quirky Bookworm.

[Sidenote: I have around 400 Quirky Bookworm fans on Facebook, but only 80-100 of you see most of my posts because of the algorithms Facebook uses. Plus, this week FB's changing things so that unengaged fans will be automatically removed from pages. So if you want to see more of my posts, make sure that you 'like' or comment on things that show up in your feed! That way FB will show you more of them, and they won't un-like the page on your behalf.]

We scored some fun library books, including Hop! Hop! from my Easter requests, and a book about the San Francisco earthquake that has fascinated Eleanor. I want to find more books about San Francisco for her to read up on before we go, but the library branch we were at for story time had a sadly limited selection. I'm going to reserve a bunch of stuff from other locations to pick up in a week or two.

I blew threw Susanna Kearsley's Firebird on audio, and I finally got the e-book of All the Light We Cannot See I've been waiting for! Next up, I want to hurry and read a few to-review books, like The Ladies of Managua and The Alchemist's Daughter, before I let myself indulge in more fun reads.

And since it's spring break, I'll probably keep posting at somewhat random times this week. So stay tuned! Eleanor and I are having a mommy-daughter date to go see Cinderella on Friday, maybe I'll post a movie review for a change of pace.

What are YOU doing for Spring Break?

The Gloriousness and Frustrations of the Tucson Festival of Books

As always, we had a great time at the Tucson Festival of Books. On Saturday we went all as a family and enjoyed face-painting, bongo-playing, book-listening, and character-greeting.

This shot makes me laugh, because Noel took it. Apparently crowds are much less crowded when you're 6'4'' and can see over people's heads.

On Sunday I attended a panel with Katherine Paterson and met up with my friend Meghan to go see a Jacqueline Winspear interview. I got there too late for the Luis Alberto Urrea and William Kent Krueger panel I'd hoped to attend first thing, and then of course three women near me in the Paterson panel were raving about how great Urrea and Krueger had been. Sigh. Hopefully next year!

I also had really wanted to go to the Longmire panel - because Craig Johnson was there with Lou Diamond Phillips, but I chose to spend my 11:30 hour waiting in this ridiculously long line for Noam Chomsky tickets instead.

And goodness, was he brilliant. I overheard, right as we were lining up for the 4:00 entry, that there were overflow rooms, where the interview was projected, and you didn't need tickets for those. And I was like "ARGH, I could've gone to the Longmire panel after all!" But oh well, I did read for 45 minutes while I was in line, and now I can say I was in the same room as Noam Chomsky!

I do think the lines are one of the downfalls of the TFOB the last two years. They tried out a new ticketing system this year, so it was a little better, but they either need to spread out the big names a little more, or open some bigger venues. Because with 120,000 book lovers attending... it's a big and crowded event! I love how much it's grown - this was my fifth year attending, but a part of me selfishly wishes that it was still a little smaller!

Have you ever attended a book festival?

What I'm Planning to Read Soon

Here are some of the books I have queued up to read soon. I think that's partly why I fell into a reading rut - I didn't have my "next book" ready to go! So I'm hoping that making a list will keep me reading in a speedier fashion. (In addition to planning to read these, I'm planning to link up with Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit for March. Maybe. I've been so spacey on linkups these last few months.)

Fallout by Paul Thomas. I really enjoyed Death on Demand, and I'm looking to immerse myself in the Kiwi world again. They're gritty mysteries with a profane, likable Maori detective.

A June of Ordinary Murders by Conor Brady. This is a Victorian Irish mystery, which sounds intriguing. I'm planning to review it for Shelf Awareness.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. I started this on audio in February, but quickly got sidetracked by Red Rising. So I'm going to try to get back to it soon!

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I've been meaning to read this one for literally years. I saw that her new book comes out next week, so I finally put in a request at the library for this one!

Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale. This finally came in at the library! Now I have about 2 weeks to find time for it, because I'm not going to wait 3 months again.

And ....? I'm leaving an empty spot! Because I'm going to the Tucson Festival of Books this weekend, and I know that I'll find a book (or two, or three) to add to this list!

What are YOU planning to read?

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Favorite Easter Books

Easter is a little less than a month away! So if you're wanting some cute Easter books for your kids - go reserve them right this second. If your library is like ours, once you put in a reserve, no one else can renew them. And since the loan period is 3 weeks, if you reserve right now, you're guaranteed a book or two before Easter.

I'm dividing my recommendations into two lists: Bunnies and Christian. Which may get me some super funny google search results, ha! 

Bunnies

Duck and Goose: Here Comes the Easter Bunny! is as adorable as most Duck & Goose books are. They try to stay awake to see the Easter bunny, but alas, they fall asleep. Maybe next year!

Happy Easter Maisy! isn't particularly new or exciting, but it's a sweet story of friendship, and we always love Maisy's bright colors around here. I swear Juliet tries to say Maisy sometimes.

The Easter Bunny's Assistant is silly fun, guaranteed to make small children giggle. I particularly enjoy the cranky looks on the bunny's face. The poor bunny could only get a skunk to help him, and when the skunk gets excited, well... you can guess what happens.

Happy Easter, Curious George is a perennial favorite in our house. Not only is it a nice little Easter egg hunting story (George mistakenly thinks that someone has lost his eggs... when he was just hiding them for children to find), but also a lesson in mixing colors! And monkey-tastic egg-juggling!

Pete the Cat: Big Easter Adventure is kind of random. For no explicable reason, Pete the Cat has to sub in for the Easter Bunny, who left him a note tell him to decorate and hide eggs. But in typical cool cat style, Pete gets everything done.

10 Easter Egg Hunters is one we haven't actually read yet, but we liked 10 Valentine Friends by the same author, and it was only $2 in the Scholastic catalog this month, so I'm just waiting for Eleanor's book order to come in.

Hop Hop! is another we haven't read, but I'm really, really hoping we get the library hold in time. I love Leslie Patricelli's books - we own a couple of others starring 'Baby', and I'm sure this one is super cute too.


Christian

The Story of Easter is basic Christian theology, explaining Jesus's death and resurrection, and why we celebrate Easter. The illustrations in our version are a bit dated -- the dad has a pretty spectacular mustache -- but I see there's an updated edition.

What is Easter? has rhyming text and friendly illustrations to explain that while bunnies and jelly beans and new Easter clothes are fun, the real meaning of Easter is Jesus.

Emma's Easter is a fun story about a little girl who hunts for Easter eggs, and learns that the Easter bunny started as a German tradition. Then Emma goes to church to learn about the Resurrection, and finally enjoys kulich, a sweet Russian Easter bread afterward with her family. I like that the family is biracial too (without any commentary on that fact...).

Easter Babies is a charming little counting book full of baby animals. It starts with one wobbly foal and ends with twelve church bells ringing.

These are some of our Easter favorites! What are yours?

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