For What It's Worth


Monday, April 10, 2017

monday musings…



I know I’ve been doing Monday Mini’s for a few weeks now and I was proud that I had finally gotten some kind of blogging groove going. But me being me and all… I didn’t even read enough for mini’s this week. Why am I so schedule/planning resistant?? lol

So for today we have Monday Musings. Hey, it’s my blog just go with it! It still has the two M's thing going on. lol

It gives me a chance to declare my April TBR pile. I've been doing this the past few months hoping it would keep me on track and so far so good. We’ll see if I can continue the TBR reading streak. It’s not looking good. It’s April 10th and I still haven’t started any of these. But I read fast so there’s hope!

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*Title links lead to Goodreads
*Quoted summaries from Goodreads
*All books were either provided by the publisher/via ALA

Alex & Eliza: A Love Story by Melissa de la Cruz – “the love story of a young Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler”
With the Hamilton craze still in full force the publisher is really pushing this one. I have yet to find a de la Cruz book that struck a chord with me but I’m willing to give it a try.

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven “Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is.”
I posted a pic of my TBR pile on Instagram and asked people to help me pick what to read – this book was recommended by several people so here it is!

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli – “Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess.”
This is the book I’m most excited to read. I loved Albertalli’s adorable and poingant Simon vs the Homo Sapien Agenda and hoping for the same squishy feelings twith this one.

What Light by Jay Asher – “Sierra's family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon—it's a bucolic setting for a girl to grow up in, except that every year, they pack up and move to California to set up their Christmas tree lot for the season. So Sierra lives two lives: her life in Oregon and her life at Christmas. And leaving one always means missing the other. 
Until this particular Christmas, when Sierra meets Caleb, and one life eclipses the other.”
I’ve had this one on my pile for a long time and I know it’s April but the Christmas theme is calling to me right now.

Black Widow: Red Vengeance (Black Widow #1) by Margaret Stohl – “The Avengers’ iconic master spy is back, and she’s seeing red.”
It appears that I might need to read book #1 first so this one is a might read for now until I look into it a bit more.

Bought:

20170408_105558I don’t know if I’m about to go through another huge reading genre shift – before blogging I mostly read biographies and travel books – but I’m really getting drawn to non-fiction. The only reason I haven’t dove in is because of how many books I have on my TBR pile. I REALLY need to make a dent before buying dozens of new books. But I did cave and pick this one up.

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama XIV, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Abrams (translator) 

“Two great spiritual masters share their own hard-won wisdom about living with joy even in the face of adversity."

I was flipping through this book at Target and was struck by the humor between the two men and how their religions and approach to life may be different but they so easily saw each others perspectives and did so respectfully. There’s so little of that in our world right now that I want to absorb as much of it as I can wherever I can.



On a non bookish note:

I have a horrible attention span but want to try audio books one day so I started with shorter podcasts.

I’ve been listening to Presidential by The Washington Post and I’m almost done with all 54 presidents! Woo-hoo!

It’s been very illuminating. I remember very little about history and thought I would be bored to death but it’s been fun! It’s not a super heavy history lesson but more a glimpse at the men’s lives so that you understand why they led the way they did or better understand some of the decisions they made. Even my husband, who does know his history, found it interesting. I found the lesser known presidents to be the most interesting which was a surprise.

I also thought by listening to this, I could maybe understand how we got to our current political climate. On that front it gave me conflicted feelings. I’ve learned that we have always been a volatile democracy. So in that sense I felt less worried. America has been through a lot of awful things in the past and we've always come out the other side. On the other hand – we’re always volatile. There’s always been partisanship, corruption and media bias. And now we have the internet to amplify it all. 

That leaves me wondering if we will ever come together. But I digress – it was a good podcast to brush up on the presidency AND yes! I have expanded my attention span so win-win.

Hopefully, I will have read enough to get back to my mini reviews next week.

25 comments:

  1. Christmas at Easter LOL. You're a true rebel! ;)

    Interesting thoughts about your podcast...you DID post a mini after all! :)

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    1. I guess so! The podcast was really interesting - more as a look at our democracy (and how fragile it is) than abut the individual men.

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  2. I have yet to read Holding Up the UNiverse by JEnnifer Niven. I so loved her debut novel. Yet again, I'm scared to start because her books tend to hit you where it would hurt the most.

    Enjoy your reads this month, Karen!

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    1. That's why I think I'm having trouble starting this months books. they look emotional and I'm not ready lol

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  3. Hope you enjoy and I have to agree those socks are cute! :D

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  4. Oh these all look good. And... wait... there is a Dali Lama/ Desmond Tutu book and I didn't know about it? Seriously, I want that one.

    I totally get about the political book and perhaps I should start it as well. My worry isn't that we won't overcome, but what we will have to overcome when it shifts. The environment is one I worry the most that we won't be able to fix. I hope that I just didn't bum you out now. :(

    Gah! I'm behind on all the blogging business myself. I've only scheduled a small amount ahead and I used to have at least a couple of weeks (3 days a week) all ready to go. *sigh*

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    1. The environment is the one that scares me the most. It can't speak up for itself and it's the one that we can't go back and easily fix. If we screw it up it's game over.

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  5. ooh I really like the idea of this podcast, and I love history so I am going to look that one up. It is interesting how divided this country seems at times right? I do wonder what will happen, but I also have faith that things will turn out alright.

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    1. Let's hope so!

      When you look back though - all this partisanship was there right from the start. I think the internet makes it easier to go to what reinforces your opinion and also amplify wackier theories.

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  6. Black Widow sounds really good. Interesting. I'm looking forward to your review. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these books and have a great week. Happy reading. :)

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    1. I need to see if I HAVE to read the first one.

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  7. The Upside of Unrequited sounds good to me. And I love Black Widow but haven't read the books.

    The Presidential podcast sounds very timely and I can see where it might be a little reassuring that we have, indeed, been through tumultuous periods like this before. Let's hope we survive this one lol. Seriously though it looks interesting. :)

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    1. Yeah, I'm really not sure. We could go either way lol

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  8. Oo hope you enjoy your April reading :D And, yes, cute socks :D

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  9. Curious to see what you think of Alex and Eliza (prob not reading) and Upside of Unrequited (wasn't sure about it at first but it got better). Also, I'm only up to Andrew Jackson on Presidential. I'm finding these early presidents pretty interesting and impressing my family with my trivia...
    Jen @ YA Romantics

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    1. I'm not that interested int hat one TBH but willing to give it a try and maybe be surprised.

      I'm on G.W. right now. Almost done! I really enjoyed the earlier presidents more. Maybe because the democracy itself was so new.But also, I was alive during these later guys and I know all their skipping lol

      I did really like Clinton's though.

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  10. I really enjoyed Holding Up The Universe, but really curious as to what you'll think of the male MC. He irked me like a motherfluffer but Libby is FABULOUS!

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    1. Oh noooo that doesn't bode well for me lol I'm reading it soon.

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  11. Ohhh great arcs! I really want to read Alex & Eliza.

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  12. I’m in love with your socks, Karen. Lol. Sorry I haven’t been around much lately, my PhD program takes all my free time. When it comes to blogging I’m schedule/planning resistant too. I’m trying to schedule posts for a couple of months, so far it’s working, though your statement that “it’s my blog just go with it!” resonate with me at all. And this post definitely still has the two M's thing going on.

    I’m really looking toward The Upside of Unrequited, my reading time was limited recently, but hopefully I’ll find some time for this book. I’m not sure about What Light by Jay Asher, I’ve seen some mixed reviews. I loved his Thirteen Reasons Why though. You know the Christmas theme is not calling to me right now at all. We have awfully cold spring in Moscow. We had snow on Easter, can you imagine that? I’m sick of snow, wind and cold. Give me sunny warm days.

    As an audiobook fan I really hope you will start to listen to audiobooks. Maybe you should start with books you’ve already read. This way even if you got distracted you still would be able to catch the plot.

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