my books. my life.

January ended up being a pretty good reading month for me. Probably because I did all of those mini-reviews in December so I had to keep reading in order to keep blogging. Nothing like a little pressure to get me going. I read a pretty diverse pile of books as well (and look, Ben, only two YA books!).

In January I read:

1. The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar
2. Out of Breath by Blair Richmond
3. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling (audio)
4. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
5. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (audio)
6. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
7. When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey (audio)
8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
9. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

In addition to the links above, I reviewed The Poisonwood Bible, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I also shared the authors whose next book I am anxiously awaiting, Ingrid Michaelson’s new album, and I posted my 2011 wrap-ups: reading stats and new goals; my favorite albums; my husband’s top ten of 2011; and my favorites of the year.

My favorite book this month was The Fault in Our Stars. Naturally.

I must go now and continue my weekend of doing grown-up things like going to the theater and buying houses and naming babies. But leave me a comment and let me know how 2012 started out for you!

 I missed my Sunday Salon last week when I was in St. Augustine without a computer and I almost missed posting one today since I’m out being a music video star. Well, not really. But I am out participating in my town’s lip dub music video. If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out this video from Grand Rapids. My town is doing its video to REM’s Shiny Happy People. Seemed like a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. Then, this afternoon, we are starting the house hunting process. I am totally growing up this year, huh?

My reading life is progressing pretty well. I finished three books this week: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey on audio, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

 I am currently reading The Sisters Brothers by  with Jennifer and Cassandra and listening to Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Anyone else up to anything fun today? Or reading anything interesting? Or just generally want to leave a comment of some sort?

Happy Sunday everyone. I think I am finally settled into the new year and I can just give you a regular old Sunday Salon today.

My big news this week is that I found out I am having a boy. Also, I already think he’s adorable and funny. If only we could come up with a name for him (boys’ names are hard). This whole pregnancy is kind of flying by and makes me think we should probably start thinking about things like “where are we going to live?”

In my book life, I’m back to reading pretty slowly, making my way through The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and listening to Packing for Mars (finally).

This week I reviewed The World We Found, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and told you which authors I desperately want another book from.

And now I need to get ready for some kids’ birthday parties today. Isn’t it a bit early for this to be starting already?

It’s been awhile since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday, but I am a little in love with this week’s topic. There are the authors (not quite ten…) whose next novel I am very much anticipating. Which authors are you waiting on pins and needles for?

JK Rowling

Marisha Pessl

Justin Kramon

Eleanor Brown

Diane Setterfield

Jonathan Safran Foer

Trenton Lee Stewart

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by the fabulous The Broke and the Bookish.

I know everyone loves the end of year lists, but I personally like this post the best. I like looking back and seeing what my reading year looked like. So maybe this post is mostly for me, but I hope a few of you enjoy it as well. You can skip to the bottom if you just want to see my goals for 2012.

Some Numbers

Books Read: 93 (up from 76 last year)

100 books wasn’t really my goal, but when I saw it in reach, it unofficially became one. However, the pregnancy threw my reading for a loop and my numbers fell drastically the last three months of 2011 (it’s a sad day when reading makes you nauseous). All in all, I am happy with 93 and it is still my best year ever.

Print: 60
Audio: 33

Pages Read: 20,264
Average Pages per Book: 337.7
Average Pages Read per Day: 55.5
Longest Book: Habibi (672 pages)
Shortest Book: Our Town by Thornton Wilder (114 pages)

Audio Hours: 354.9 (almost 15 days!)
Average Length of Audiobook: 10.2 hours
Average Time Spent Listening to Audiobooks per Day: 55 minutes
Longest Audio: The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukerjee (20.8 hours)
Shortest Audio: Earth, the Audiobook by Jon Stewart (3.6 hours)

Fiction: 79
Nonfiction: 14

Rereads: 12

Female Authors: 67
Male Authors: 30 (2 books had both a male and female author)
New (to me) Authors: 57
Most Read Author: Jasper Fforde (6)

Target Age

Adult: 58
Young Adult: 33
Middle Grade: 2

Genre

Contemporary Fiction: 29
Paranormal: 14
Dystopian: 10
Other Fantasy: 9
Classics: 5
Memoirs: 4
Science: 4
Verse: 4
Gothic: 4
Short Story Collection: 3
Biography: 3
Other Nonfiction: 3
Graphic Novel: 2

Library books: 38
Review Copies: 23
Books from my existing collection: 22
Purchased in 2011: 10

Average Rating: 4.06 out of 5

Published in:
2011: 41
2010: 18
2009: 5
2008: 6
2007: 1
2006: 4
2005: 1
2004: 1
2003: 1
2002: 2
2001: 1
2000: 1
1900s: 11
1800s: 1

2011 Goals – How’d I do?

1. Read more during the week. I do most of my reading on the weekend but there is no reason that I can’t read for 30 minutes or an hour every day. [I did alright at this one in early 2011. Not so great the second half.]
2. Keep up with Goodreads. I’m going to just start from this point on and really try to use it. [Done!]
3. Read more of my own books. I read a lot of library books this year. I’d like to balance this out a little. [Fail. Fewer library book but more review copies.]
4. Along those lines, limit myself to two books on hold at once at the library. I hate when all 10 of the books I have on hold come in on the same day. [I did pretty good with this one.]
5. Use audio mostly for nonfiction and rereads. I enjoy these audiobooks the most and I really want to focus a little more on nonfiction and rereads in general. [All of my rereads were audio and I read a lot more nonfiction.]

Just checking in this morning to say hello. I had a wildly unproductive reading week and finished nothing I am reading so I have little to share.

I’ve been thinking about my old, unreviewed books. Some of these go all the way back to June. In an effort to start 2012 with a cleaner slate, I will likely be doing a series of mini-reviews over the holidays. Following this, I will post a few Best of 2011 lists (probably in the new year). Then it will be (fingers crossed) blogging as normal (whatever that is).

Anyway, that’s the plan here for the next few weeks. I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of their weekend.

Sunday again. I am enjoying a lazy weekend which has been full of more Felicity on Netflix than reading but hopefully today will be a little more productive. I finished Habibi in print and Their Eyes Were Watching God in audio. I’ve actually really started Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close now and returned to the audio of The Poisonwood Bible.

My biggest blogging achievement this week was finally creating a Facebook page. You can now “like” my book. my life. on Facebook here.

That’s about it for me this week. Oh, and I also basically finished my Christmas shopping which I’m feeling pretty good about (did you know Christmas is in two weeks?). How is YOUR shopping coming?

It’s hard to believe but December is here and it’s time to recap November (and soon 2011 – yikes!). Considering how little time I had to spend reading (due to a busy schedule and feeling pretty awful), I was pleasantly surprised to see I finished 5 books in November. Not only that, but I reviewed every print book I finished. I am definitely not on par to hit 100 for the year  anymore (which really wasn’t ever my actual goal anyway) but there is always next year.

In November, I read:

• The Radleys by Matt Haig
• Fallen by Lauren Kate (audio)
• Leisl & Po by Lauren Oliver (audio)
• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
• Saving June by Hannah Harrington

November Favorite: Saving June (but many of these were really very good). What was yours?

Now I am off to do a million things, which includes decorating for Christmas (yay!). Have a wonderful Sunday.

Well here we are. The last day of this wonderful little Thanksgiving break. My dad is still visiting until tomorrow and it’s been very nice having him around (and not traveling myself). Despite my guests, I still managed to finish two books this week, which – let’s face it – is kind of amazing. I finally finished Shatter Me and I read Saving June. I’m currently reading Habibi and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close in print. In audio I’m taking a little break from The Poisonwood Bible to read Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Yesterday’s excitement was The Game. Michigan finally beat Ohio State for the first time since 2003. Ben thought it would be fun for me to explain everything I’ve done since that time, but it turns out it’s just a little bit sad. In between wins over OSU, I…got engaged…graduated from college (at Michigan)…got married…went to law school (at Michigan)…watched my husband move to Florida…spent a summer in California…graduated from law school…moved to Florida myself…passed the bar…elected a president…got my first job as a lawyer…started a book blog and met all of you…tweeted 30,000 times…traveled to DC, NYC, Vegas, Europe, Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh (some of these more than once) and many other places….and, finally, decided to start a family. Let’s just hope the time between now and the next win is a bit shorter.

Today we are going to the Salvador Dali museum in St. Pete. How are you spending the last day of your vacation (or weekend)?

Good morning, all. It is Sunday once again and I have nothing to show for my week reading-wise. But at least you all know why now. I do plan on attempting to finish Shatter Me today as I have now been reading it for over two weeks.

I am also hoping to get some reading done over Thanksgiving. My dad and his girlfriend will be staying with us for a week so this might not happen but I will try. Once again, I will be lazily participating in the Thankfully Reading Weekend. For more information, click here. So if you see the #thankfullyreading hashtag show up, that’s why.

I’m not usually a big readalong participant. I tend not to finish the book as soon as I sign up for one. But when I saw that Erin Blakemore, author of The Heroine’s Bookshelf, was hosting a readalong for Their Eyes Are Watching God, I couldn’t resist. I read this book in high school so a rereading is definitely due. This time, I am going to try the audio edition (which I think will be fantastic with all of the dialect in the book).

Are you participating in either of these events? Or is there something else coming up in the bookish world you are excited about?