MAY 2013 Mostly things are back to BIP-as-usual soon. So many books to talk about!
In May, I am reading for Once Upon a Time (my list of possibilities is here, chat of my beginnings here, my readalong post for Neil Gaiman’s Stardust here), and I will begin my first read for the Global Women of Colour Challenge, (yes, I know, I said this last month, too).
The next installment of the Alice Munro reading project has resumed with Friend of My Youth, beginning May 1, 2013. Join me for a single story — or for the collection — throughout this month.
I am still trying to follow the guidelines that I referred to in my Peeking Out of the Burrow post, but I am also making time to read whimsically.
Looking forward to catching up with all the bookishness as I am able in the coming weeks. Meantime, good reading to you!
(First time here? Please don’t be shy: there’s no such thing as too much bookchat!)
Welcome to the world of book blogging! I just came across your site via Thomas at My Porch. A glance at your blog and your list of favourites…..and I notice we seem to like a lot of the same books. There are quite a number you’ve also mentioned that I’ve never heard of. I’m definitely going to look them up. Looking forward to reading more from you!
Thanks muchly, Mrs. B. We do seem to have quite a few shared favourites; I’m looking forward to adding to my TBR list based on the new-to-me names on your blog as well!
Great site. It’ll take me a while to wade through it, but I’m looking forward to reuniting a bit with my Canadian literary roots.
And I love the Carol Shields quote!
Thanks for stopping by! And right back atcha re: your Robertson Davies quote: cats and books, timeless combo.
Hey welcome – its a fun world. Came here because I was looking at the Pat Barker reviews, I brought Regeneration a few days ago.
Thanks, Jessica. I hope reading Regeneration is a good experience for you: I really do feel that reading the trilogy changed the way in which I approach fiction with sad, serious subjects.
I think the lit-blogging world will be all the richer for having you in it. I just spent the last hour browsing past posts when I absolutely should have been working on coursework instead. What is most impressive though are all your book-lists! I’m a sucker for a list too and I can see I’m going to spend hours trawling them for new reading ideas.
Thank you for commenting at Alexandria, by the way, I’m going to go back through your Orange Prize posts and comment when I have a bit more time to devote.
Thanks, Victoria: I’ll try to port over some more of my booklists to interfere with your coursework to the maximum degree. It does seem as though our reading tastes align more often than not, which is dangerous for our TBR lists indeed.
I have similar aspiration to read some of the Orange Prize fiction. I do have to chime in that you have breathed some reading ideas in me.
Thanks, Matt: I’m learning about some other longlists that are tempting as well, but what was set the Orange Prize reading apart for me, so far, is that I haven’t yet been disappointed by a book put forward for it. I’m sure I’ll be adding to my list of prize-winning obsessions in no time!
I’d like to ask if you receive books for review. I’m the publicist for Goose Lane Editions, and we have a few fall books I think you’d like.
Let me know at credekop[at]gooselane[dot]com.
Hello! Looking forward to the big happenings over here!
Woo, readathon! I can’t wait!
Read-A-Thon –I am pumped to be in doing it this year! ::is it too book-geeky to say things like that?::
I will be paying homage to all things graphic novel
I have yet to read any Margaret Laurence but she’s on my reading list for the Canadian Book Challenge. I’ve heard such wonderful things about her. Your site is fabulous by the way.
I hope you have a great Readathon this weekend. I get to read for part of it, which I’m looking forward to, since normally I miss most of it.
Yeah for the readathon! I’m doing a mini-challenge for the first time this year and I’m very excited. Best of luck!
Congratulations on your readathon success!
I’m impressed at all of the Orange reading! All the best with it!
I loved all the Ramona books (Henry Huggins too) but admit to not reading them until four years ago with my youngest daughter. Her Runaway Ralph series was also a big hit with all three of my children.
I remember reading and enjoying books from both The Littles and The Rescuers series when I was a child.
It sounds like you’re having a blast re-visiting your childhood series favourites!
I was terribly biased against books about boys when I was a girl, so I always preferred Ramona, but I did read HH too. And, yes, Runaway Ralph! I have Margery Sharp’s books at hand, but didn’t read them as a girl and oh, I don’t know The Littles at all: I’m off to investigate!
Here’s to a great start to the Read-A-Thon!
Thanks, Rayna!
I’m here to cheer! I hope your Read-a-Thon experience is going great!
Thanks, Joy: much appreciated indeed!
How are you doing with the Read-a-Thon? I hope you are having fun and still awake!!
I’m still awake, Wendy, but not for long: you’ve definitely covered more pages than I. Good on you!
Thank you for the note of support! I appreciated it – this was my first Readathon!
Love your site!
My pleasure, Teri: the best part of read-a-thon-ing, I think!
Thanks for stopping by to cheer me on during the read-a-thon. It’s a great even and a fun way to meet new bloggers. Hope you had a great day also.
I am still surprised I’ve not read any book or short story by Alice Munro though I’ve heard many good things about her. I lool forward to your reviews of her stories. A great blog you have here. All best.
Thanks for stopping by, Geosi: I’m sure you’ll enjoy Munro’s stories when you do get around to reading them.
What sort of dystopian fiction are you planning to read? I love that stuff.
Ryan, my loose reading plans are here, and there’s a list of some of the classic stuff that I’ve already read there, too; I’d love to hear any suggestions you might have (either for what I’ve got listed there or something else entirely). I think I’ll aim for a couple of classics for this year, but I’m primarily concerned with more contemporary works, say from the past 10 years or so, though I can be swayed with the tiniest amount of enthusiasm!
After watching Kim’s Australian reading month come and pass without managing to turn a page, I am determined to read a new (to me) Madeleine St John novel. I read her many years ago and really liked her style. I suppose the other author I know of isn’t Australian by birth but she lives there, so does that count? I read Drusilla Modjeska’s unclassifiable book, The Orchard, a couple of years ago and was blown away by it. I then bought up everything by her I could find but (of course) haven’t read another of hers since. Hmm, time to dig them out again, I think.
OOohhh, The Orchard is on my shortlist; good to know that you had such a strong response to it! I saw the author at a literary festival a few years ago and was very impressed. The more that I think about Australian women writers, the longer that my list becomes; just this week I realized that I have Marjorie Barnard and Ada Cambridge on my shelves, too, and I hadn’t even thought of them (yet). Sometimes missing an event/challenge is a surprisingly strong incentive to change habits/plans for me too.
Dystopia is so popular because, in a corporate-controlled culture, we’re living it.
Have you read F.S. Michael’s Monoculture; I think you might find it fits rather well on your bookshelves!
I love the Odyssey! One of my favorites!
It’s far more entertaining than I expected; I think I was imagining something like Milton’s Paradise Lost or Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, with different deities, but no! Have you read Atwood’s The Penelopiad?
Thanks for stopping by my blog! I hope you enjoy The Elephant Mountains more than I did, the writing was too simplistic and predictable for me, but I loved the premise of the plot before I began reading it!
I have read only three of her stories. I have to start in on her seriously soon.
It is my first time here…and well, I think I’m in love.
Heheh: I’m so happy! I had a similar feeling when I saw the post you had of your potential read-a-thon books. *swoon*
Your post about libraries and the experiences of your daughter makes me sad as there are no public library in the megacity of 20 million in which I reside. We have huge malls and huge slums. My daughters have never had the experiences of going to a library and coming home with books. For my family it is not so bad as we are blessed with being able to buy books but there are millions for whom a book is an out of reach luxury. Once we took some children’s books to an orphanage and gave about 50 kids there own books. many walked off hugging the books.
That’s a lovely image, of those children walking off with their new books in their arms. I hope those children, too, are lucky enough to be able to buy books someday, or be able to access a public library. It’s easy to forget that whatever our version of “everyday life” is, it’d be perceived as a luxury by someone who is longing for just that. Thanks very much for your comment.
Hello. We’re new visitors to your blog and thoroughly enjoyed what we’ve read so far! We’ll be sticking around…
Thanks so much for stopping by: very kind!
So glad to see that you are coming back! I am looking forward to the Alice Munro on March 6th. Hope the rest has been a good one. Canada Reads was exciting this year: perhaps you will be posting about it soon. I am reading Two Solitudes and really enjoying it.
Thanks, Sandra! I don’t think I will be posting about Canada Reads this year, but I do agree it was terrific, much more enjoyable overall and throughout than the past couple of years (IMO). I haven’t yet finished re-reading Two Solitudes but I am enjoying it too, and I do plan to read a couple of other HMacL novels as well.