Top Ten Tuesday: Springing Forward

March 12, 2013 Humor, Top Ten Tuesday 34

Howdy Bookworms!

If you’re in an area that gleefully flouts Daylight Savings Time, everyone else in the world is mad at you right now. We are all still recovering from the hour of “lost” sleep due to the time shift. Truth be told, most of the time I look forward to springing forward because I LOVE having excess daylight after work. Unfortunately, this spring has started off with a whiny whimper and nary a ray of sunshine has been seen. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic (thanks to The Broke and the Bookish) is our Top Ten 2013 Spring TBR (to be read, in case you don’t speak fluent Book Blogger.) I’m not great about paying attention to new releases unless it’s something that I’ve been really looking forward to (cough cough OUTLANDER) so, I’m just going to list off stuff I’m planning to read next-ish, because I’m still waiting for a burst of springtime energy.

toptentuesday

1. Every Last One by Anna Quindlen. I’m in the middle of this right now. TECHNICALLY it is Wine and Whining’s (one of the two In-Real-Life book clubs I belong to) selection for May, but it was only swapped to that position after I’d acquired it digitally from the library. If your library is anything like mine, the good downloadable titles are hard to come by- I wasn’t going to return it and hope it came available again. I figured I’d just read it early. And so I am.

2. The Round House by Louise Erdrich. This is the March selection for the My Neighbors Are Better Than Your Neighbors Book Club. Sadly (or not sadly, because I totally have awesome plans) the March meeting falls on the 22nd, and if you didn’t know already, THAT’S MY BIRTHDAY! Now, if it were any old birthday, I’d probably consider an evening at book club a great way to spend it, but it’s a banner year y’all. 30. (After much internal debate I’ve decided to embrace my oldness and not refer to myself as perpetually 29..) Anyway. Just because I won’t be at this meeting doesn’t mean I want to be out of the book loop. So. I’ll be reading it anyway.

3. The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani. This was meant to be the Wine and Whining selection for May, but we swapped it out for April, and I totally got it for a song during an Amazon sale. It’s historical fiction (wahoo!)

4. Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. Perhaps I should have titled this post “Spring Cleaning,” because I’ve got several titles waiting around on my kindle that I bought when prices were good knowing I’d get around to them. Now is the time to be getting around to them, yes?

odd-and-the-frost-giants

Who doesn’t want to ride a bear into battle? I mean, that’s significantly more awesome than a horse. Less awesome than a unicorn, though…

5. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I bought these in December when I was making New Year’s Resolutions and I’m STILL procrastinating. I need to just get to Middle Earth and read them already. This is getting ridiculous.

6. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel has been chilling on my kindle for a while now too. I started it, but it was slow going. I just haven’t had the attention span for something so meaty in a while. It’s really meaty, y’all. Not in a bad way. Just in an “I need all of my neurons to be firing so I don’t lose track of what’s going on” sort of way. My neurons are pissed right now and hibernating. Still.

7. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have a confession to make. I quit the Little House books after they hit the prairie. As much as I dug the pioneer girl thing, there were all kinds of dramatized serials about ballerinas and girls at summer camp filling the library shelves distracting my childish attention… Anyway, I’ve been told that I must read this book in particular to revel in the greatest love story of our time. Or, uh, pioneer time. The turn of phrase “you will die of happiness” was involved in me getting this recommendation- I really cannot be expected to ignore that. (Side note: this is apparently set in South Dakota. Remember back a few Top Ten Tuesdays ago when I claimed North Dakota was an under represented setting? It still is. But we’re getting closer, aren’t we?)

Dude. North Dakota cannot win. It's even got a boring shape.

Dude. North Dakota cannot win. It’s even got a boring shape.

8. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue. I haven’t bought this yet, but yeah. Emma Donoghue writing about historical prostitution is the sort of thing I need to be reading. For real.

That’s it. Technically I’m including the entire LOTR trilogy in #5, so that makes 10 books. I might be a cutting corners, but I’m blaming the LOST HOUR OF SLEEP. And the abysmal grayness that’s refused to lift for the last couple of weeks. Shoo, winter! Get on out of here! Katie needs some SUNSHINE if she’s going to cope with her advancing age!

So. Bookworms. What have you got in the hopper? Big plans for reading? Spring cleaning your bookshelves? Angry at Daylight Savings Time? Let’s chat.

34 Responses to “Top Ten Tuesday: Springing Forward”

  1. Kelly

    “I quit the Little House books after they hit the prairie.” HILAR.
    I heart your list. I want to read so many of these novels as well. And for the record, I think Montana could give North Dakota run for its money in the “ignorable setting” department.

    Reply

    • Words for Worms

      Thanks Kelly! 🙂 Alright, you can champion Montana, I’ll take North Dakota. We can write novels about states we’ve never been to, right? Maybe I’ll write North Dakota a sonnet…

      Reply

  2. therelentlessreader

    I started doing some spring cleaning of my bookshelves. I need to GET RID OF SOME BOOKS! If I know I won’t be re-reading it, it’s gone.

    Daylight savings can suck it.

    I hope you totally love Wolf Hall when you get to it. It does take concentration because there is something goofy about the pronouns. (You’ll see what I mean) Bring up the Bodies is even better.

    I’m reading Dangerous Liaisons right now. That one takes all of my brain power as well. Fancy 18th century language ya know?

    Reply

    • Words for Worms

      Oh yeah, the 18th Century language definitely needs lots of spare brain cells. I can’t see myself NOT liking Wolf Hall, I mean, the Tudors are one of my favorite subjects. I just have to get my flighty brain back on board. As far as bookshelf purging, I’m HORRIBLE about it, so I buy everything electronically. That way I can indulge my appetites without using every available inch of storage space in my house.

      Reply

      • didibooksenglish

        Forgot to put Wolf Hall on my TBR soon list too. I do like historical fiction. Dangerous Liaisons is excellent though. Hope the translation is a good one. It’s the old 18th century version of sex, lies, and video tape. Great read!

        Reply

  5. June

    Maybe I should write a book that is set in North Dakota so that everyone can see how awesome it is! It can include people being super nice to each other and talking in extreme northern accents. Everyone likes a good northern accent, right?

    Reply

  6. Cindy

    I hate Daylight Savings Time with a fiery passion right now. My poor 9-year old started crying when I woke her up yesterday morning. Thank goodness it is spring break for her so she could go sleep some more at my parents. I will like it much better when we’re on vacation starting tomorrow, I do love having more daylight in the afternoon. So maybe I won’t wish a painful death upon it.

    I’m looking forward to the new Sookie Stackhouse novel – how can I wait until May? Why can’t I just have it now? I was so happy for about a minute when I was online this weekend and thought the release date was March 7th, and then I realized I read it wrong, it is May 7th.

    I’m also waiting for the next novel in the Divergent series.

    I think I need to add books on historical prostitution to my list too. Those are sounding interesting.

    Reply

    • Words for Worms

      Oh the new Sookie will also be the LAST Sookie, so I’m rather anxious to hear how it all works out. I haven’t started the Divergent series, in part because I know the last book won’t be out until October and I like to read trilogies all in a row. Sorry about your kiddo and the DST- I feel her pain! I woke up crying too! (That was the result of a weird dream, but still.)

      Reply

      • didibooksenglish

        Divergent was really good but Insurgent was a bust. Sorry didn’t like it. It felt like a filler. However, I am interested to see how she ties everything up.

        Reply

  7. lostinliterature108

    I love the idea of Spring cleaning on the Kindle! I just hoard, I mean, collect books on my Kindle all the time thinking one day, when I’ve finished reading other things I’ll get to it. Right.

    This gray of winter is actually better for my reading. When it’s all sunny and gorgeous I’m distracted by other things….like grilling and longing for the beach. Which, by the way, I CAN’T read on the beach!! I try. I take my book out there but all I can do is listen to the waves and watch people. Once, I took a long walk on the beach and did my own survey of what the people were reading. Just walked up to total strangers and asked them. (This is so humiliating to my teenaged children…. oh well.) That summer it was mostly The Help and The Hunger Games but there were lots of other titles and one person, (who must have been taking a dip, or a walk), had left a copy of The Grapes of Wrath in his chair. Big props to him!

    Reply

  9. Megan M.

    Right now I’m reading Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (and LOVING it!) I’m also in the middle of Far From the Tree, which is a NF about parenting children with special needs, and although it is very interesting, some of it is very sad. I got Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book from the library and I always feel I should read library books first, but I can’t say for sure I’ll read it next because I work completely on whims.

    Reply

  11. Chanin

    I’m a total sucker for erdrich but this is one I don’t think I’ve read. I’ll have to go searching for it!

    Reply

  13. didibooksenglish

    Love The Little house on the Prairie series and as a matter of fact am dying to reread it. The Lord of the Rings I want to read to but I’m not motivated for the moment and that goes for A Game of Thrones. It will come. As for what’s in the works, finishing Sister Citizen and Paper Cover Rock. Then on to Where’d you go Bernadette, Gone Girl, NW, and Kindred, but not necessarily in that order. I want to have a better reading month than February, which was pathetic.

    Reply

  14. Jenny

    I always think I’m going to be mad at Daylight Savings Time because I forget about the extra hour of light that shows up in the evenings. And then I experience the extra hour of light and feel so, so grateful. :p

    Reply

  15. Sarah Says Read

    I must be the only person that kind of digs DST because with the way my schedule is, it means I work an 11-hour shift instead of a 12-hour one. Although when DST comes around again in the fall, then my shift turns into a 13-hour one, and that sucks a bit.

    ANYWAYS yay for your list and I need to finish the LOTR series. There’s a lot of walking in that first one, just to warn you.

    Reply

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