Ten On TuesdayBooks

The last ten books I have read. You might know that I listen to books a bit more than I read them, but I recently got a kindle and it has increased my reading time. Audible and amazon have a service they named Whispersync for Voice and for me it is pretty great. I purchase a kindle version of a book and have the opportunity to purchase the audiobook, or specifically the audible version of the book, at a discount. The book automatically syncs to where I last left off over all my devices, these being the streaming content at audible online, my audible app on my phone, my kindle and the kindle app on my phone. I've also found that when there is a sale or even sometimes when there isn't a sale that I can get the audible/kindle combination of a book for less than just the audio from audible (thus saving my credit for another great book). It has me taking a little more time investigating to get the best price or make sure that the narrator is one I want to listen to (some books have been recorded a bunch of times), but it is worth it for me in the end. And here is where I put it out there: my goal is 52 books this year. I know that for some that isn't really many at all, but listening to a narrated version of a book takes a lot more time than reading and I think that is true even if I take into account the time I can be doing other things (driving, knitting, sewing, cooking, cleaning.....) while listening.

Carole said reviews would be nice too and I think that this post will never actually happen if I start reviewing every book or it will be really long because once I get started things keep coming to me and then again, this post would probably never happen. Feel free to go look for me on Goodreads, my user name is 'mum'. I know it, why? Short story, but I'm not typing it now. You will find that some of the books I have read I have said something about and some I haven't. Some I start to talk about and think I'll come back so there is an incomplete documentation on my feelings of a book. I could still get back there, who knows. I am no gifted reviewer of books. What I am more likely to put down is a stream of consciousness emotional and somewhat critical impression of a book that has no direction or possibly less sentence structure than one who loves the written word as much as I do should probably click the save button on, but there you have it. Blabbering on and on and getting practically nowhere because of the circles I've spun on is one of my gifts. I have evidence of my highly developed prowess every time I am rewarded by Pete's blank expression at the end of one of my monologues and I consider that my version of a gold medal. Or maybe he hasn't listened at all, in which case I have much experience with the soliloquy.

Totally unrelated photo, but look! Books!
(More on the knitting later....)

Ten Books in reverse order. I'll include my 'star rating' based on a 5 star system, but keep in mind that I am sometimes hard on books and other times not and tend to rate a book based on my expectation of that book in regards to many things including the genre, the subject matter, previous books I may have read by the author, the purpose it was to serve in my life at the moment, etc. and not necessarily in relation to other books in general. And sometimes, as in the case of these ten books, I just hit upon a stretch of good ones, at least for me. So when a book like The Golfinch is awarded 4 stars from me and so is Bloody Jack, well..... throw in your grain of salt, because if I were to compare the two books side by side they would each be found better and lacking depending on the expectation of the book was at that time or the mood I was in at the time of the reading. Not at all objective, but this is all about me anyway, right?

1. The Sense of an Ending. Julian Barnes (audible) ****
2. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (audible and kindle)****
3. Bloody Jack. L. A. Meyer (audible)****
4. Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck (audible)*****
5. The Grapes of Wrath. John Steinbeck (audible)*****
6. The Golem and the Jinni. Helene Wecker (audible)*****
7. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (audible and kindle)***
8. The Goldfinch. Donna Tartt (audible)****
9. The Book of Tea. Kakuko Okakura (hard copy)****
10. The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches. Alan Bradley (audible) ****
11. The Boy in the Suitcase. Lene Kaaberbol (audible) ****

I can never just stick to ten, can I? This represents the books I have finished since the beginning of 2014. I am currently reading a few more, a couple of fiction and the rest not. So many books, so little time....

Fifteen. That thing about the gold medal and all? Seriously, I am so good at going on and on and on about what I think is really something, and it is or I wouldn't be going on about it, that I earn that gold medal when I'm not even TRYING! Knowing one's strengths, even if others may not see them the same way, it is important.

 

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Comments

[Beverly]

I've been hearing a lot about The Goldfinch. I'm going to add it to my list! For what it is worth, I suspect The Grapes of Wrath MAY be the elusive Great American Novel!

[Dianne]

The Goldfinch is my book club pick for next month. I'm looking forward to it!

[Carole]

I'm glad we got a chance to chat about The Goldfinch at SPA. I know the reaction to it has been mixed but I genuinely enjoyed it although I didn't like Boris as much as you did.

[Laurie]

Bought goldfinch last week after reading a sample. And I do love your gold medal concept.

[margene]

Smith is good at that blank expression, too. You've quite a collection of books under your belt for the year. Being able to listen to a book gives me much more flexibility as to time and place for reading, which translates to more books read. Of the books I've read, I agree with your star ratings and I love reading your reviews on Goodreads.