Every year I say I’m not going to do reading challenges and then I do. Why? I like a list. I like a reason to look through lists. I like discovering books that I might have otherwise overlooked.
I participated in five reading challenges this year and completed all of them. Continue reading
Today marks the end of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. After a slow start, I romped it in with days to spare, although haven’t written detailed reviews of my final two books – Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller and Whiskey and Charlie by Annabel Smith. It was a strong finish. Continue reading
There are some books that are self-indulgent and boring – such as Eat, Pray, Love – and some that are self-indulgent and really interesting – such as The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison.
The book is a collection of essays around the topic of empathy (how we feel and express it). It’s been marked as a ‘get out the violins’-privileged-well-educated-white-person moans about aspects of their life. And yes, the title essay, The Empathy Exams, could stray into that territory. But that’s not all there is to the book.
“Empathy isn’t just listening, it’s asking the questions whose answers need to be listened to. Empathy requires inquiry as much as imagination. Empathy requires knowing you know nothing. Empathy means acknowledging a horizon of context that extends perpetually beyond what you can see. Empathy means realizing no trauma has discrete edges.” Continue reading
It’s six degrees of separation for books. Created by Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith. Check out the rules if you want to play along.
This month the chain begins with The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. It appeared in my round-up of the best books for 2014, as did The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison. Continue reading
In light of my post about my Netgalley habit and the fact that after June 19th I’ll have oodles of reading time (because exams will be over), I’ve decided to join Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. Except that it’s winter here. And therein lies the really ace thing about reading – it’s suited to #ALLTHESEASONS. Yes, there’s nothing better than having sand in the crack of your paperback (you thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you?) but it’s equally lovely to burrow under the doona, warm and toasty, and kill an hour with a book. Continue reading
Top 10 Tuesday (this week I’ve done a bad-ass top 15) is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke & the Bookish and featuring a different book-related theme each week. I was a bit of a TTT-slacker last year, even though I generally love a list. Anyways, this week’s topic is ‘2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn’t Get To’. Continue reading
So before someone yells at me “Enough with the lists!”, I took that list of Best Books of 2014 – A List of Lists and I made another list – the books that appear most frequently on all of those lists.
Trawl through all the lists or save time by simply adding the 2014 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2014-Book-Lists-in-November top 22 books to your To-Be-Read stack. Continue reading
1. I’m a bit sick of my self-imposed-book-buying-ban now. But I’m holding out until at least the end of June.
2. NetGalley win – got an ARC copy of Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia (which I wanted to read after Rory’s great review. Obviously I couldn’t race out to buy it – see above).
3. NetGalley fail – ARC of Bellweather Rhapsody available to read on all devices except Kindle *cries* Continue reading