Weekend Reads #31: Wishes for My TBR Pile #11

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

This time, I’m doing a Wishes for My TBR Pile post, which is a monthly post where I list and sometimes discuss the books I’ve discovered and would like to get.

Beneath Claire’s House by Corey J. Popp (September 26, 2015)

From debut author Corey J. Popp comes a young adult, supernatural thriller that will keep readers guessing until its shocking conclusion.

Sixteen-year-old Claire Young is tormented by a recurring, prophetic nightmare and visitations from gruesome, mutilated ghosts. She’s convinced the apparitions intend to harm her widowed father, but there’s little she can do locked away in Saint Thomas Psychiatric Hospital. Her situation is hopeless until a mysterious priest delivers the name of a man who may be the only one willing to help. Claire launches a daring scheme that leads her and her best friend to a former paranormal investigator.

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Wishes for My TBR Pile #10: Discovery, Curiosity, and Convincing Gave Me These

Wishes for My TBR Pile is a monthly post where I list and sometimes discuss the books I’ve discovered and would like to get.

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes

With three hit shows on television and three children at home, the uber-talented Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say NO when an unexpected invitation arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No.

And there was the side-benefit of saying No for an introvert like Shonda: nothing new to fear.

Then Shonda’s sister laid down a challenge: just for one year, try to say YES to the unexpected invitations that come your way. Shonda reluctantly agreed ― and the result was nothing short of transformative. In Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes chronicles the powerful impact saying yes had on every aspect of her life ― and how we can all change our lives with one little word. Yes. (Goodreads)

I don’t consider myself a Shonda Rhimes fan. I’ve watched some of her shows and liked some episodes (Grey’s Anatomy is my comfort food) but I don’t consider myself a fan since I’m not dedicated to them. So when I first heard of this book, I didn’t intend to pick it up. However, after reading a review of it over at Brown Girl Reading, it seems like a book I should read and now I’d like to give it a try.

Wishes for My TBR Pile #9: Fantasy and Folklore

Wishes for My TBR Pile is a monthly post where I list and sometimes discuss the books I’ve discovered and would like to get.

Note: Since changing my web address, I realized that my posts weren’t showing in Reader. I had to re-add myself to fix that glitch so if you use Reader, please let me know if you’re able to see my posts in there. I submitted a query in the WordPress forum but haven’t received any replies on how to fix it.

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (September 1, 2015)

At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, freed slave, eminently proficient magician, and Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers—one of the most respected organizations throughout all of Britain—ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England’s magical stocks are drying up.

But when his adventure brings him in contact with a most unusual comrade, a woman with immense power and an unfathomable gift, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery in all of Britain—and the world at large… (Goodreads)

I first watched a review of this book in a YouTube video but after reading a review over at Lady Geek Girl and Friends, I added it to my TBR list. The story seems to be a hit or miss with readers but I’d like to read it and see for myself. It explores a variety of issues that I’m curious about.

Top Ten Tuesday #13: Fall 2015 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic:

Top Ten Books On My Fall TBR

I do not follow TBR lists, though I sometimes make them, so don’t expect that I will strictly adhere to this one. A few of the books below are from my summer TBR list, which I posted only because it was a TTT topic.

Top Ten Tuesday #12: Wishes for My TBR Pile #8

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic:

Freebie — your choice

Since this one is a freebie, I’ve decided to use it to do a Wishes for My TBR Pile post. Wishes for My TBR Pile is a monthly post where I list and sometimes discuss the books I’ve discovered and would like to purchase.

Book Cover Guessing Challenge: Wishes for My TBR Pile #7

I’ve been tagged twice to do this challenge by Tasha at Head in the Clouds, Heart in the Books and Dimple at enthrallingdimple. Thanks ladies! Since it’s the end of the month and I haven’t yet done a Wishes for My TBR post, I thought it best to combine the two.

This challenge was originally created by Trey at Trey Schnarr Books. His instructions:

It  is  pretty  simple  to  play  this  game,  all  you  have  to  do  is  find  some  books  that  you  don’t  know  anything  about  but  are  pretty  hyped  either  on  booktube  or  bookblogs  and  guess  what  they  are  about  based  on  their  covers.  Then  read  what  it  is  actually  about  and  compare  your  guess  to  the  actual  synopsis.

I’ll deviate a little from his rules since I’m combining this post with another so some of these books might not be very popular.

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

My guess:

I’d like to read a Terry Pratchett novel but I don’t know where to start. Shortly after his death, this infograph was posted to help newbies navigate his books if they didn’t want to just jump in randomly. I’ve decided to start with this one. All I know is that it’s from the Witches Novels series. I don’t think I read the synopsis when I added it to my TBR list on Goodreads. I guess it’s about witches battling about whether their rites should be equal or not.

Wishes for My TBR Pile #6: A Mixture of Contemporary and Classic

I am mighty overdue for a Wishes for My TBR post. I wasn’t going to do one at first because I’ve acquired many books due to discovering Book Outlet, but I’ve changed my mind.

My TBR pile is ever growing and I hardly place limits on it. Some people have bookshelves dedicated to their TBR piles, others, like me, have a digital list. I simply add books to my Goodreads “to-read” list and name it TBR pile. There are currently over 500 books on that list, some of which I’ve already read but have forgotten what they’re about. Will I ever whittle it down? I doubt it. Will I stop adding books to catch up? Nope. If I’m at a bookstore with a coupon in hand intent on purchasing a book, that’s the list I refer to. So it will stay as it is, growing larger and larger until it hits Goodread’s limit, whatever that is. The only pruning I’ll probably ever do is to remove a book that I’m no longer interested in reading. Anyways, let’s move on to the recent additions.

— Well, some aren’t recently added so let’s just describe them as recent mental additions. Hehe.

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes (February 23, 2016)

Charmingly murderous antihero Joe continues his twisted quest for the perfect love in this thrilling follow-up to the “deeply dark yet mesmerizing” You (Booklist). When Joe follows the woman he wants to marry to the West Coast, he never imagines that his obsession will lead him to such tragedy…

Top Ten Tuesday #3: Wishes for My TBR Pile #5

I’m back this week with another Top Ten Tuesday post. Last week was so hectic, I couldn’t participate. By the time I got home, my brain was too mushy from the busy workday to think up answers to the question. But not so this week!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic:

Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For the Rest of 2015

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness (Aug. 27, 2015)

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshiped by mountain lions.

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.

Wishes for My TBR Pile: Booktubers Got Me Pumped; 9 Books Added

As you can tell from the title of this post, I’ve discovered booktube and I’m hooked. I even went ahead and created a YouTube channel though I haven’t posted anything and probably never will because I am just that shy. But I’ve been watching many videos and commenting on them. I just love to see people excited about books and reading. It’s infectious!

Most of the books on this list are recommendations from booktubers. They were so excited about these reads that I got excited too and immediately added them to my list. I think I’m forgetting a few, though, because I sometimes get caught up in the video and forget to hop over to Goodreads to update my to-read list. Anyways, the books:

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch (October 14, 2014)

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior — and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics — and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

Book Haul: Dragons and an Assassination

It’s a semi-peaceful, boring Sunday. I’m inundated by work but thought to take a break to do something fun hence this post on books! I recently started doing posts called Wishes for My TBR Pile in which I share the top books I’ve discovered and added to my Goodreads “to be read” list. I frequently add books to my TBR list so “top” here refers to those I’m most likely to purchase and read.

While working, I realized that I’ve never shared whether I’ve actually gotten any of the books I wished for so I thought it would be a great idea to take a break and do a post on the ones I received. Here they are:

The first TBR pile book I bought is The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones. It’s from my October TBR pile round-up. I’ve already started reading it, but am doing so at a leisurely pace. To me it is written like an history book, which makes sense (duh!) but the pacing bores me a bit so I allow myself to be easily interrupted while reading. But so far I enjoy the back story it provides on the Targaryens and how they came to be in Westeros. The artwork is great as well.

Next I got an audiobook of Marlon James’ recent story on the attempted assassination of Bob Marley, A Brief History of Seven Killings: A Novel, from Goodreads. This one is from the October TBR pile round-up as well. I would have started it already if it was a novel. I have to work myself up to listen to an audiobook since I don’t retain much when I simply listen. My mind tends to drift. I’ll have to work out a routine for this one: either drawing while listening or purchasing the book and reading along while I listen.