LShelby's First Attempt

Hi, all!

I'm a Canadian living in the USA, the mother of six (ages 12-22), and I read a wide variety of books including fantasy & science fiction, YA romances, and non-fiction. I've also been re-reading quite a few of the books on my classics shelf lately, trying to find good snippets for the Hobnob With Authors group Snippet Game. (New players always welcome.)

When I'm not reading, I'm usually writing, painting, songwriting, building my website... and sometimes I manage to fit in some crafty stuff too.

I've been an LT member since 2006, and I've done the 75 Group Challenge a few times, but 2013 started out really busy for me, and I never got around to signing up. For 2014 I wanted to try again, but I thought maybe I would feel more at home in a smaller group. Attempting to stretch seemed like the best thing to do, so...

Here I am. 100 Books.

I can do this, right?

Here's my progress bars:


81 books read in 2014

Sub-goals:
25 New Authors (adefghijklmnoprstuvwyabcdefghjklmnopqrstvwxzabhmsw)

14 new authors in 2014

25 Old Favorites (SFF->RR->C/YA->O)

11 rereads in 2014

25 Non-Fiction Books (Largely to prevent me from counting these as new authors)

11 non-fiction in 2014

50 Manga/Graphic Novels (More of a disclosure, than an actual goal)

44 graphic novels in 2014

Bingo Cards:

Welcome to the group! I think that the 100 books group is much easier to manage than the 75. So many people over there!

>3 LShelby: Thanks for the welcome, jfetting. I look forward to giving this a try. :)

I've noticed that a lot of people here have a series of sub-goals. At first I thought... "It's my first try for 100, keep it simple!" but then I began to wonder if organizing my reading with some smaller goals might actually make it easier for me to achieve my main goal.

Anyone here have any insights to share on that?

I find it easier to divide up my reading. Does not seem so daunting. And if I don't make a hundred I still feel good about the strides I did make.

Hi LShelby! And welcome to the group! I personally don't do sub challenges, but that's because I read on a whim, and can't ever seem to tailor my reading to a particular theme. Good luck if you choose to do one though.

I find that I tend to read the same small circle of books and authors unless I make a conscious effort to drag myself out of my comfortable zone. So I have 2 additional goals, to read non-fiction and to read a new author every month.

I think subgoals are helpful if you tend to avoid a certain area, or are not very adventurous - and want to be. But they don't suit everyone. It depends what your tendency as a reader is and what you want to achieve in this year's reading.

Good luck on making 100. I thought it a daunting total last year, but it's fun seeing quite how quickly they rack up.

Thanks for your comments everyone!

In general, I tend to consider myself adventurous. I read a wide variety of genres, and I'm usually willing to pick up and try unfamiliar books (as long as I don't have to pay for them first).

I have two related problems when it comes to reading goals. The first is consistency. I have many interests besides reading, and sometimes go for over a month without reading anything. The second is that I no longer read for the sake of having something to read. If I'm not enjoying a book I put it down.

Unfortunately the current publishing trends in my favorite genre don't much appeal to me. This leads to me walking into the library, and instead of seeing many old and welcomed friends, I see book after book after book that I'd decided wasn't worth the time. I find that experience discouraging, and I stop having any desire to browse. I do better at used book stores, but there really aren't any within the range of my usual "stomping grounds", (I live in a very small town), and besides, I have limited shelf space and an even more limited budget.

So, my goals are to not allow myself to get discouraged and to continue to look for new authors at the library, and also to reread my own books more often.

I think it might be helpful to me to formulate some specific sub-challenges that will help me achieve those goals -- if I can come up with something that is structured enough to prod me into action, without also being too constraining to be tolerated. :)

I've found this group to be really expensive helpful in finding new authors/books/genres to read.

As long as it's expensive, I guess that's a good thing. :)

Okay, I have added some sub-goals and associated progress bars. Now I need it to hurry up and be 2014 already, so I can start counting!

1. Vampire Crush by A. M. Robinson

YA paranormal. Recommended to me by my daughter. As the title indicates, it's got vampires. I forgave it. It has a sense of humor, the heroine was sympathetic, and it spent NO time in the pov of the villain. (Can anyone tell that I came to this one after putting down some other book because I wasn't enjoying it?) Heroine also has a life, and goals, and spends more time dealing with actual real problems than in mooning over anyone, or having pointless misunderstandings with the male lead. :)

2. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson

My kids didn't want to keep this one, and although I had a vague notion I had read it once upon a time, that's all I could remember. So I read it today, and verified that the kids didn't want it for the same reason they usually don't want books that English teachers foist upon them. Yet another book about someone dying. The English departments of the world should expand their horizons a little more. I did like the characters, FWIW. But I don't really see any reason to keep it for my own benefit, so it goes in my box of books that I intend to give away.

Starring you :D
I also have added some subgoals this year to step outside of my comfort zone...

12 > It would certainly be nice is kids were given more humorous books to read in middle school and high school! Granting, I was an odd duck who spent my grade school reading years focused on the Holocaust.

This group definitely brings it with exposure to interesting and excellent books, both in fiction and non-fiction. I find it easier to find non-fiction that I can almost guarantee I'll enjoy, so I read more of that. Reading too many mediocre books in a row burns me out.

3: A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson

Every word Shakespeare wrote was a true and faithful rendering of history: a clock did strike the hour in Julius Ceasar's time, and lords and ladies really do speak in iambic pentameter. At least, such is the premise of the alternate earth in which this story takes place. As for the story itself, it's roundheads versus cavaliers, with the roundheads having steam engines, and faerie siding with the cavaliers. It's got a heroic prince, a loyal and resourceful heroine, more Shakespearian references than you can load in a good sized frieghter plus a few other literary references for good measure and lots of very flowery language. (Not always a plus with me, but with such a delightful reason to exist...)

This one's a reread. I'm starting with the A's, although I might jump about later. :)

I also read the short story The Demon Pope by Richard Garnett from out of my Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories. A delightfully cynical piece, that nonetheless celebrates the power of goodness -- or, at the very least, demonstrates why it doesn't pay to be evil.

Welcome to the 100 book gig. I likewise moved over from the 75 book gig. I did enjoy the people and the banter over there but I got so lost that I literally could never find my own thread to post without doing a search. So many readers.........
I find this group suits & fulfills my needs & desires much better. I find that I do not focus on the count so much as just track my reading. If I meet goat, great. If not, I have had a great year of reading anyway.
Good luck with your reading challenges this year and again, welcome.
belva

Oh, I liked Poul Anderson many years ago, I should chase that one up, sounds interesting.

Congratulations on delivering my first book bullet for 2014!

I was a part of the 75 book group last year as well and leveled up at the end of the summer. It is a very large group and so very easy to get lost in it! I think the smaller group size helps inculcate a friendlier environment over all (not that the 75ers weren't nice! I just don't know if anyone there knew I was there/left!)

I set up a series of mini-goals with the 2014 Category Challenge. It serves as a very loose framework for my reading year. There will be plenty of titles though that will appear on my 100 list that don't have a place in my cat list!

Basically I'm saying that the sub-groups help outline my reading schedule, but it's not a strict/restricting list! :-)

Welcome to the group. Hope you enjoy yourself over here. We are a friendly bunch of readers. I have tried the sub-groups and the mini challenges and organising my reading, but I found that I just got overwhelmed when I read according to what appealed at the time instead of what was on the list, so I stopped. Now I read whatever I want. I still get overwhelmed, but for different reasons now :-)

Thanks for all your welcome messages everyone!

Right now my subgoals are very vague and open-ended. More to give me direction than to limit me in what I can do. The "Read new authors" listing, for example, has an alphabetic jumble next to it. That's a letter of the alphabet for me to look for new authors in, for every week of the year. It doesn't mean I'm only allowed to read new authors from that list.

But I'm afraid I spent most of the past two days coding additions to my online jewelwyrm (finger-sized dragons) breeding game, instead of reading.
< -- Random Jewelwyrm Image   :)

4: Star Born by Andre Norton

I don't know what to say about this one. It's an Andre Norton science fiction story, and it reads like an Andre Norton Science fiction story: adventure on an alien world, mystic artifacts from a by-gone age, telepathic aliens and all. It does happen to be one I hadn't read before though. Those are rare. :)

I also read The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth by Lord Dunsany from out of my Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories. If this is a fair sample of Dunsany's work, then I don't think I'll seek any more out. I didn't dislike it exactly... but it was too mythic for my tastes: there were more details than what felt like actual story, and I never really got pulled into it. I just sat there on the outside observing it. And my observations were mostly that for the entire length of the whole story only at the climax did anything happen that didn't feel like it was entirely foreordained. And at the moment the hero had a bright idea. And I just sat there wishing that more of the story had involved difficulties that were solved by bright ideas instead of having difficulties that were solve by following the instructions of some wise magician, and more things that looked like they were difficulties but which ran away at the merest mention of some legendary sword.

Love the Jewelwyrms, but am thinking I really shouldn't look too deep into them, or I'd be spending reading time breeding them as well. :)

Found the Poul Anderson second hand (is out of print, apparently!). Now just adding a couple more books to my basket to qualify for free shipping... Good thing I didn't make any resolutions about buying fewer books this year.

>23 wookiebender: Programming a game takes MUCH longer than playing it does. :D The jewelwyrms are designed to my tastes, and so use up only a tiny bit of time per visit, but require a great deal of persistence in order to develop a good breeding program. I'd be absolutely delighted to set up an account for anyone who is interested.

And now back to the books...

5: An Awkward Arrangement by Rebecca Ashley

This is a re-read of one of my reasonably large collection of regency romances. The principals absolutely detesting each other practically on sight may be a staple of the genre, but it's really beginning to get old as far as I'm concerned. But other than that, this one does have enough unique touches to make it memorable.

I also read Through the Dragon Glass by Abraham Merritt from my Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories. It has a nice sense of foreign mysticism that contrasts beautifully with the very prosaic narrator. I liked it better than the Dunsany but not as well as I liked the Garnett.

ETA: I am now officially behind in non-fiction. :( Not my fault, there's nothing around the house, and the library was closed on my usual library day... something to do with it being New Year's Day, apparently.

6: I Want to Go Home by Gordon Korman

A reread, Canadian author Gordon Korman has long been one of my favorite children's authors because he does funny in just the way I like it. This classic Korman has a gifted but unenthused camper and his equally un-enused friend trying to run away from camp, to the bewilderment and horror of their camp counselors... but of course, they must be stopped!

I tried to get my kids interested in this author, but the only one of his books I actually owned (this one is on loan from my sister) was about a drummer (Who is Bugs Potter), and my kids didn't think it sounded like their kind of thing. Then one day one of them came home raving about this hilarious book that their teacher had introduced them to called No More Dead Dogs about a boy who refuses to say nice things about his teacher's favorite story in a book report.

Heh. They should have listened to me.
They know better now. :)

7: An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo

By the same author as War Horse, which someone else here just finished, but I can't for the life of me remember who right now. Sorry -- I'm new to the group and still getting folks sorted out in my head.

Anyway, a family living in Dresden in WWII, adopt an elephant to keep her safe should the city be bombed. A very touching story. I was most especially delighted that... the elephant does not die!

I was fixing my website's jigsaw puzzles yesterday, and today I was busy coding bingo cards.

But I did get The Nameless City by H. P. Lovecraft from my Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories read. I guess I see why Lovecraft is an icon and all that... there is an awareness of general creepiness and the recognition of a little shiver moment at the end, but mostly I just kind of roll my eyes. That's how I react to most stories that are supposed to scare me. ::shrug::

8: Secrets of the Savanna: Twenty-three years in the African Wilderness Unraveling the Mysteries of Elephants and People by Mark and Delia Owens

I almost didn't get this one, because it said elephants in the subtitle, and I had already read a few elephant books... but the reference to unraveling the mysteries of people intrigued me, and so I got it after all, and I'm glad I did. There's lots of wildlife in this one, but it's really a story about people making a difference. A true story about people making a real difference, even. Total awesome.

9: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

10: Dengeki Daisy by Kyousuke Motomi

>29 LShelby::
Shannon Hale is also the author of Austenland, which I found to be a fun read. I think I will give The Goose Girl series a try. I want to incorporate more Y/A into my reading this year and these sound fun.
Thanx for the reck!

>30 rainpebble: I didn't exactly recommend it. I didn't say anything at all. That doesn't mean it isn't worth recommending though, it's just that I wasn't feeling very well that day, so I just listed the books and then went away and nursed my head-ache. :/

That was actually my first novel by Shannon Hale... but I was familiar with her via the Graphic Novels Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack, which I enjoyed.

And speaking of graphic novels....

11. Dengeki Daisy, Vol 2 by Kyousuke Motomi
When the heroine's brother died he promised that a mysterious "Daisy" would look out for her. She communicates with "Daisy" via cell-phone, assuming that he's a stranger, when in actual fact...
That there is some mystery behind what happened to the brother, and that is the source of the true barrier between the principals, is a nice additional element to keep this from feeling generic. But I've only read the first two volumes, and I don't usually get bored with these things until volume three or four, so we'll see.

Y'know I've never actually counted graphic novels towards my numbers of books read before. But it was a spot on the bingo card, so...

12: Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce
The story has a case of "check-in syndrome", although it carries it out in an unusual way: the heroine gets visions of her family back home. Other than to serve as a connection to the characters from the author's other books they don't seem to serve much purpose, and I would have preferred not to have them. But my daughter's favorite character, who shows up about a third of the book in, is also my favorite character, and I think the book may be worth it for him in and of himself. :)

When I saw you had read that particular title I looked it up on the book page and read the reviews & tags for it. It just seemed something I would enjoy.

> 32 I hope you do! It seems likely. :)

I hope so too Shelby. Thanks. :-)

13: Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith
14: Blood Spirits by Sherwood Smith

Books one and two in what I think is a trilogy. The third one is waiting for me at the library.
These are a Ruritanian Romance crossed with paranormal: secret family background, mistaken identity, handsome counts of dubious trustworthiness, plus vampires and magic and so on. The second book ends MUCH better than the first one did. I read the first one years ago when it was still newish. My library didn't have any sequels, and no sequels showed up. I later learned that there really were sequels, but it took me so long to get around to requesting them through interlibrary loan, that I figured I'd better read the first one again. I enjoyed it except for the end the first time, and I hoped the second book would redeem the ending of the first, and I guess it did. :)

15: Revenant Eve by Sherwood Smith

The second book was required to make the story in the first book complete. This one's just an add-on. It's got time travel though, so if the Napoleonic Era has any attraction...

It's also a little slower, with the supposed main character not doing much but watch someone else have adventures for a huge chunk of the book, and the action covering ten years, not a couple weeks. In spite of essentially switching heroines to someone new, I doubt it stands alone well, the original heroine's background being too much a factor at the end of the book.

16: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 3 by Kyousuke Motomi
The series hasn't started repeating itself yet, so I'm still reading. :)

17: Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

I enjoyed this one. It was fun. I prefer my murder mysteries to have a healthy dose of humor. :)

I prefer my murder mysteries to have a healthy dose of humor. :)

Me too!

>38 judylou: Have you tried Meg Cabot, judylou? I'd read the first three or four of The Princess Diaries, and enjoyed them (but thought the series had gone on long enough... I'm not one of these people who wants a series to last forever).

I'm not sure that everyone will be as amused by having the heroine distracted from the fact that someone is trying to kill her, by her crush on her totally hot landlord as I am. Most of the "humorous" mysteries I've indulged in are more on the order of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion books, or Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey.

18: A Concise History of China by J. A. G. Roberts

Well it was certainly concise. China has a lot of history, so condensing it down to only 300 pages requires an amazing economy of detail. It seemed like the author did a good job of it, but although it's probably helpful to see history condensed down to the basics like that (much like looking at the skeletons of various animals that you are trying to draw so you can better understand how they are structured) I think on the whole I prefer history books with less scope and more elaboration. :)

19: Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan

Never read this author before. I didn't like it as much as the Meg Cabot book, but it was okay, and I might pick up another one later. I'm not too into the "cliff-hanger ending" though. It didn't give me shivers, it just made me go: yes, I knew that was coming, d'uh. I'm not stupid. You didn't have to make a big deal of it here, you could have just saved it for the next book. Really.

20: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 4 by Kyousuke Motomi
I'm still with it, but apparently there are at least 11 Volumes, and I find that worrisome given the progress so far.

21: Fealty's Shore by L. Shelby

Third book in a series about Batiya the only female engineer on her world's first diesel powered passenger-liner, and the foreigner she helped rescue when his ship got sunk, only to end up the target of the same assassins who were trying to kill him.
... It's a reread. ;)

22: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 5 by Kyousuke Motomi

Is there any coincidence between your LT name, and the author of #21 above...?

>43 wookiebender: Nope, no coincidence. ... I did list writing as the first of the long list of things I do besides read up there in my introduction. :)

Oooh yeah, found your LT author page!!

> 45 Half of the books on it I just added to LT so I could combine my pen name with my legal name, having been published as a "Contributor" under both. Only 3 of the Books are actually published, and they all came out last year. Fealty's Tide will be coming out soon. That's why I was re-reading it. Last chance to catch any typos. :)

23: JQuery Novice to Ninja by Earle Castledine and Craig Sharkie
According to the authors, the philosophy of JQuery is "If nothing's broke, add bells and whistles". I don't think that attitude is quite in line with my own webdesign philosophy. But the level of enthusiasm for doing things just because they were awesome did give me a certain amount of amusement as I read. And JQuery is actually useful for things besides "bells and whistles".

I also read The Wind in the Portico by John Buchan from out of my Oxford Book of Fantasy stories. It reminded me a lot of the Lovecraft piece.

24: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 6 by Kyousuke Motomi

John Buchan does Lovecraft? The mind boggles.

>47 wookiebender: The writing styles and approaches to the subject matter were different, but ultimately they were both "and yes, the mythic evils that were spoke of in ancient times were real, and.... they're still here" stories.

Of the two approaches to saying pretty much the same thing, I did prefer John Buchan's. At least he gave me a protagonist I found sympathetic, so I felt like I had a reason to hang around, even though the apparent purpose of the story doesn't do much for me at all.

I've been having one of those weeks, and haven't been getting much reading time. But I did finally finish:

25: The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
I really liked this one. History, one of the greatest Engineering achievements in the world, and lots of interesting characters. And I found it via this group, too. Thank you! :)

But my favorite part of the book was the last bit, where the politicking and the financeering and all that stuff was done and settled, and the guys whose specialty was to get things done could just get on with the doing, and be amazing at it. Apparently, that makes me happy.

I also read:
26: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 7 by Kyousuke Motomi

27: Skip Beat!, Vol. 32 by Yoshiki Nakamura

Skip Beat! is my favorite manga series to date. I have never before read this many volumes of anything without getting bored and quitting. I would have finished it ages ago, except that it's still being written, so I can't.

28: Big Boned, by Meg Cabot
I enjoyed the first in the series, so I thought I'd try the next one, only it wasn't on the shelf. So I got the one they did have, and I think I'm just as glad that I skipped the one before it, because watching the heroine hook up with some guy she was not really in love with wouldn't have been very fun for me. Besides the heroines relationship issues, there was also a murder, of course, but I'm very sure I was not given enough clues to figure it out on my own, so what was there to do except grin and do a little 'shipping'?

I didn't find this one as amusing as the first one, but the shipping turned out well. I'd be willing to give the sequel a go, but apparently I'll have to grab it from some other library.

29: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 8

Found you, Lynn! I like your subgoals, but don't know if I'll get myself organized enough to do any.

>51 ronincats: I don't know that it takes any organization. I just decided on the goals, set up the progress bars, and now every time I go to update my first post I get reminded... oh yeah, I need to try find some more new authors. :)

But my name isn't Lynn.

You are not the only person on LT who thinks I'm a Lynn. I do not know how this happened. I'm very sure I never said that I was a Lynn. I think maybe after the first person got confused and said it, other people picked it up and glommed onto it.

I didn't mean to confuse anyone. I guess I just didn't realize that me having a first name would be so important to anyone. :(

I use my pen name as my user name, and it doesn't HAVE a first name. Just an initial.
My first name is actually Michelle, but I prefer people to use the short forms: Shelby or Shel. Or even L. (If you say it aloud, it makes perfect sense.)

Sorry for the confusion.

Sorry, Shel! I like to use a person's name, if I know it, when writing a message to them. You've got a message from someone on your profile page that calls you Lynn, and so I lifted it. You might archive or delete that message.

I haven't even pulled it together enough to decide on specific goals other than my default ones of 150 books and 50000 pages for the year. Last year I set a goal of 40 books off my shelves and just barely squeaked it out--not sure I'm feeling that ambitious this year, even though I want to reduce my BonTS. I do read a fair number of nonfiction each year, although it's 10% of my total usually.

>53 ronincats: "You've got a message from someone on your profile page that calls you Lynn"
I'll go hide that as soon as I post this.

One thing I did mostly because I was having trouble deciding what a good number for each goal would be, is I made all the numbers the same. Pure laziness. But I discovered I LIKE it. It makes it really obvious at a glance how all my sub-goals are stacking up against each other.

Ah, I always thought of you as a Shelby, but that's because I've got a mate called Shelby, so it made absolute sense. I just have to remember that you're not *that* Shelby. :)

>55 wookiebender:, See, that's what the L is for. I'm not *that* Shelby, I'm *L* Shelby. Or maybe it's "Oh 'ell, Shelby, will ya shuddap already!" Something like that. >:)

LOL!

Speaking of Shelbys, I taught in a class years ago with two little terrors named Shelby, a girl and a boy, are Shelbys always terrors ?

>58 bryanoz: I'm told I was a total terror as a toddler: climbing on everything, into everything, always demanding attention. My mother didn't dare isolate herself for even twenty minutes so she could have a nice relaxing bath, without calling in one of the neighborhood girls to keep an eye on me. But then I learned to read, and after that all anyone had to do to keep me quiet and entertained was hand me book. :)

I hope nobody minds if I mention that I'm giving away ebook versions of one of my books Serendipity's Tide in Member Giveaway. (There doesn't seem to be any way to link directly to a specific book. Sorry! Just search for "Shelby".) No reviews requested -- no strings attached.

And to get back to what this thread is supposed to be about:

30: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 9
I am delighted that this series has actually managed to have a plot that didn't just stall and go in circles. I do think that some of the recent developments feel rather jerky. Big build up -> abruptly back to normal -> Wait something's still going on after all! ...It would have worked better if there had been no "back to normal" in the middle, IMNSHO.

31: One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich

This doesn't count as a new author for me, although it was picked up in much that sort of speculative way, because I've read one book by this author before... although it was in a slightly different genre, and I believe it was originally published under a different name. It was a bit interesting reading this later work (and I think maybe the one that made it big?), because I think she was a better writer when she wrote this one, and that by most considerations this was a better book, but if I had to choose one to reread, it would probably be the earlier, less polished work. I just don't particularly want to visit the place this one takes me to.

Just exploring your profile and your thread -- very impressed that you're up to 31 already this year! I'm having a slow time of it this year for some reason.

We have so many little tidbits in common! You're Canadian living in the US; my husband is a Canadian living here -- he just became an American citizen a few years ago although we've been married for 17 years.

I saw you have Martha Wells listed as a favorite author. She's not quite a neighbor, living about an hour and a half away, I guess -- I'm in Houston and she's in College Station, but in a state as big as Texas, that's almost neighbors, right? :-) In any case, the Texas "convention scene" is pretty small so we see her a few times a year, and when she was Guest of Honor at our local Houston convention a few years ago, my husband Paul and I hosted her on a tour of NASA Johnson Space Center, which is where Paul works.

May I ask what general area of the country you live in? Just curious! No worries if you prefer not to say.

Obviously we've got some reading tastes in common too. After science fiction and fantasy, I usually mostly read young adult fiction, although we have no children.

I look forward to getting to know you a little better here on LT!

A belated Happy Birthday here, Shelby!

>63 ronincats:, Thanks Roni!

>62 amysisson: Hi, Amy, nice to have you drop by. :)

I live in southwestern Ohio, right in the middle between Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton. It's a pretty interesting location and I love all the trees, but I grew up within view of the Canadian Rockies, and I do get homesick sometimes for my mountains.

My sister lived in Huston for a few years. There's a very, very good chance you've been at the same conventions as her and her husband. But, alas, our timing is off. She is now back in Canada, so I can't have you look each-other up. :(

Shelby, and for one more connection, I was born in Ohio! Only lived there the first six weeks of my life. But I have lots of relatives in Ohio. Cousins in Columbus, and other cousins and aunt/uncle in a little town called Wellston.

I bet you're homesick for mountains! My husband grew up in Manitoba, so he's homesick for the prairies and the winters. (He actually really loves those brutal winters.) I have to say, Houston unfortunately does not have a lot of natural beauty.

We've been here 10 years exactly. I wonder if we overlapped with your sister?

>65 amysisson: "I wonder if we overlapped with your sister?"
Yep. She left... three years ago? Something like that, and was there for about four years previously? I'm really bad with dates, I can never remember when anything happened. But they were definitely there at the same time you were. And... her husband is also from Manitoba.

Sometimes the world astounds you with how big it is, and at other times it seems surprisingly small. :)

OMG, I think I know them. Edward or Edwin or Edmund W. Is that right? If that's them, we actually knew them years before we even moved here -- I'm sure we met them at the World Science Fiction Convention in Winnipeg way back in the 1990s.

If this is them....... too funny!

And I think I can see from your profile photo that the woman I'm thinking of is your sister! I apologize but am blanking on her first name.

I don't know how it could possibly NOT be them. Ed and Karen, (who looks a lot like me but her hair is shorter and curlier.) :D

Yes! After I posted last night, I remembered her name was Karen. :-)

Tell them I said hello, and that I'll see them at Worldcon in London later this year if they're going!

Amazing!

>70 amysisson: I'm not sure if they're going to be able to get to London this year or not. But I'll give them your message.

>71 judylou: And you saw it happen here, live! :)

32: Cantata in Coral and Ivory by L. Shelby
(Yep, yet another one by me. Its not published yet, I was just prepping the manuscript for something my husband wanted it for, and so of course I had to read through it again and check for typos.)

33: By Starlight by Dorothy Garlock
This was an experiment. I pulled it almost at random off the library shelves, and I didn't actually finish it, but I'm going to count it anyway, because I came so close to finishing that it just doesn't seem fair that it shouldn't count.

It's a historical romance, set in the prohibition era, and although I thought the historical aspect of it was very well done, I wasn't quite as happy with the romance part -- the "love" the characters had for each other felt too mystical and sentimental and not enough grounded in who the characters were for me to quite believe in it. But it wasn't a bad story and I kept reading right up until our hero needs to find out what the bad guys are doing, and the heroine insists on going with him even if its dangerous. Together they find out that the bad guys are about to make their getaway.

He says "We can let them get away, I'll stay and keep an eye on them, you run and get the sheriff". And she says "No, I won't leave you!" And he says "There are very good reasons why you should go and get the sherrif, and they are x, y and z." and she says, "Okay, you're right, I will go and get the sheriff." But no sooner does she head off than she begins thinking (if thinking we can call it) "I just left my man in a dangerous situation! I can't leave my man in a dangerous situation, I have to be with him!" And instead of getting the sheriff like she had said she would, she turns around and goes back and... duh! ...promptly gets discovered by the bad guys.

At this point my family heard a cry of outrage and looked up to see me holding this book gingerly between my fingertips and as far away from my person as is possible. They decided that it would be wise to whisk the book away to somewhere safely out of sight, and promptly did so.

LOL!

It is a small world! Also, good review, I particularly liked your cry of outrage. :)

Great review! I will avoid that book in the future - thanks!

34: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
There was a discussion of this book in this group earlier, and it reminded me that of this series I had somehow only read as a child, We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea. Clearly it was long past time I corrected this horrendous oversight. :)

This is an excellently adventure, an education in the art of sailing a very small vessel, and entirely deserves the accolade of "children's classic".

35: Pavane in Pearl and Emerald by L. Shelby
Yes, another one by me. Again, already. ::sigh:: What happened was that my husband wanted to enter my story Cantata (see message 72) in some contest for me, and although I was dubious I agreed to prepare a copy for him to submit. When he got the copy, he said "Oops, this is a little too long for their word count limit" I was all for just not submitting anything, but he sulked about it until I agreed to prepare a different, slightly shorter book for him to submit.

36: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 10
37: Dengeki Daisy, Vol 11
We expected this series to end at 11. It was looking like it would arrive at an ending. The library hadn't picked up any new volumes in over a year... but no, apparently it isn't done yet. I'm okay with continuing, but I don't want to buy it, so I guess it'll all depend on whether or not my library gets the rest of it in or not.

And...
Fella Down a Hole by Amy Sisson
I read this short story for the Hobnob Group Read. And interesting little read, that makes you wonder whether it's a fantasy piece, or not. I'm enjoying the discussion.

Well, at least your husband is interested in your career! :)

I must read Swallows and Amazons too.

>76 LShelby: So glad you enjoyed Swallows and Amazons! I only read it last year for the first time and was so incredibly impressed. I think I enjoyed the second book in the series, Swallowdale, even more.

>78 mabith:
The second one is better? Awesome! It's going on my list, but unfortunately there are no books by Arthur Ransome in my entire library system, and I have to get them all via inter-library loan. :(

I was shocked they weren't at least a little more well-known in the US in general to the extent of more libraries having copies (my dad was a children's librarian for a long time, tended to grab every classic English children's books he could find for his libraries but he'd never heard of them). Though my mom says it's all the sailing terminology to blame for that.

I'm told the whole series is just as solid as the beginning, and I'm sort of rationing it out to myself. It has become my current "most perfect children's novels ever written" selection (with Understood Betsy, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Walter R. Brooks' Freddy books in close contention).

>80 mabith: "I was shocked they weren't at least a little more well-known in the US in general to the extent of more libraries having copies (my dad was a children's librarian for a long time, tended to grab every classic English children's books he could find for his libraries but he'd never heard of them). Though my mom says it's all the sailing terminology to blame for that."

Pthbtbt! Getting to learn sailing terminology is part of the fun.

I suspect they are easier to get your hands on in Canada. Enid Blyton certainly was. I really should have read them all before I moved to the States. :(

38: Crystal Soldier by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Space adventure with a solider, a "pirate/smuggler" and a telepathic tree. I'm a fan of the Liaden series, and had been meaning to get to the prequel duology for a while, but procrastination is my middle name, or something.

I also tried and put down a couple other books that everyone else in the world seems to love except me. ::sigh:: But at least I tried them!

39: Cress by Marissa Meyer
Third in the Lunar Chronicles, this is a series of fairytale retellings set in a plague ridden future where earth is threatened by mind-controlling mutants from the moon. (Or as my daugther deems them "magic space fairies".) The death count is pretty high, but there's plenty enough fun stuff to keep me enjoying the series. Looking forward to book four.

40: The City in the Lake by Rachel Neumeier

This is a very prettily written "fairytale" like story that a friend of mine compared to McKillip, and I think probably deservedly so. I really, really want to be able to be enthusiastic about it, but alas, that particular writing style and I do not get along. So instead of being able to say "I loved it!" I can only say "I'm sure lots and lots other people would really love this!" Lacks a little oomph. :(

Love the "magic space fairies". :) Looking forward to dipping my toes into the particular world.

41: Macrame pattern book
42: 200 braids to twist, knot, loop, or weave by Jacqui Carey
43: Paracord Crafts by Leisure Arts

Paracord Crafts is a slim volume, possibly intended for young teens, with excellent photographs and very clear instructions for making seven different knotted bracelets (plus a few ideas for other possible crafts that can be done the same way using the same materials.)

200 braids is one of those books that I love even though I don't intend to replicate as single specific thing shown in the book... but it expands my horizons as to the range possibilities out there.

The Macrame pattern book seems to be mostly useful for people who intend to pursue macrame as a major hobby: both as a reference for techniques, as as a source of interesting projects both to do and to jumpstart other ideas. I don't think I would really recommend it for casual consumption.

44: The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier

Yay, a book by this author that is not written in McKillip-ian prose, and which I therefore have an easier time appreciating fully. Our young hero, his family having been killed in a volcano eruption, is forced to seek shelter with his mother's family who live on... an island that floats in the sky.
Good world-building, solid characters, interesting story. :)

45: Decorative Knot craft by Kim Song Lan
This looks to me to be an excellent introduction to the Korean art of decorative knots (maedup). It has excellent explanations of how to make some of the common knots (I hate to say "basic knots", compared to macrame, none of them are at all simple), and then shows you how to combine them into various more complex projects.

I wouldn't be surprised to find myself trying to track down a copy of this one for me, since I had to get it on inter-library loan, and so just checking it out again is a bit more problematic than usual. :(

46: Purses and Poison by Dorothy Howell

I have in the past been able to be amused by air-head chick-lit "detectives" who don't actually manage to detect much, but this one was not only really, really stupid, she also had no redeeming characteristics that I could discover. So I think I'll pass on the rest of the series.

I have gotten a little behind on these, but also I haven't been reading much. My eyes just seem to get tired very quickly. I have an appointment with my optometrist next week -- hopefully I just need new glasses.

47: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
One of the blurbs described this as deliciously dark, but unfortunately I don't find dark all that delicious. I did think the combination of greek philosophy/magic and a Beauty and the Beast retelling was interesting.

48: Easy Tatting by Rozella F. Linden
49: Tatting Jewellery by Lyn Morton
The last time I posted tatting books to LibraryThing, someone asked if I tatted, and I had to admit that I was just reading them for research. This time I can say: "Yes, I tat." I started last month. :)

As usual, I'm not reading these so I can make the patterns in them, I just use them for inspiration, and make my own patterns.

50: The Mirk and Midnight Hour by Jane Nickerson
This is a Tam Lin retelling set in the American Civil War. Oddly, although I am a fantasy fan, I didn't feel that the fantasy elements added all that much. I think I would have preferred it to have been a straight up historical. The historical aspects seemed to overwhelm the fairytale aspects for most of the book anyway.

51: All-American Girl by Meg Cabot
Apparently I can count on Meg Cabot for light and amusing. This time instead of the heroine being a princess, she's the teen ambassador to the UN.

Manga
52: Strobe Edge, Vol. 1 by Io Sakisaka
Looks like a fairly typical teeny-bopper romance of the sort that usually stop amusing me within a couple volumes, but my daughter has made it to volume 5 or 6, so we'll see.

53: Skip Beat!, Vol. 1 by Yoshiki Nakamura
Yes, I am reading Skip Beat, yet again. It's because I've never got to the end of it, there not being an end yet. I keep wanting the read the rest and it isn't there, so after months of waiting and still not being able to finisht it, I start over at the beginning instead.

Looks like I crossed the halfway point in plenty of time, but I'm going to have to pick up the pace a little if I'm going to make the rest of the year.

Typically for me, I fell behind in recording, and maybe lost track of a few titles during the summer.

54: Shardik by Richard Adams
Described in the forward as "brutal" I read this because it's a fantasy without magic, like my own Across a Jade Sea, and because someone was raving about how wonderful it was, and because I thought Watership Down was a pretty good book. I guess this is a pretty good book also, but seriously I didn't need all that "brutal" stuff to convince me of what seemed to be the point of the story, and I certainly wasn't enjoying any of it, and so, er... Whatever. I finished it. It doesn't have anything in common with Across a Jade Sea except for the lack of magic.

55: Airhead by Meg Cabot
56: Being Nikki by Meg Cabot
57: Runaway by Meg Cabot
Teen romance trilogy by the author of the Princess Diaries, with a premise that sounded a bit over-the-top, but I enjoyed it.

58: Teen Idol by Meg Cabot
I enjoyed this one also.

59: The Selection by Kiera Cass
Post apocalpic teen fiction, America has a caste system. I had trouble swallowing the worldbuilding, but the romance was working for me, even though I am not really into triangles.

60: How to Start a Home-Based Craft Business by Kenn Oberrecht
One of my daughters got this out because she was interested in crafts, but didn't read it because it was mostly about business. And not even a fun read about business. Although it is a very thorough book about business with solid information. Maybe starting to get a bit dated though?

61: Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams
Teen romance about a girl in a reality cooking show. The reality show was pulled off better than the romance, imho, but it was cute.

62: How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot
Stand alone teen romance by author of many teen romances above. It was okay.

63: Ready or Not: An All-American Girl Novel by Meg Cabot
This sequel to All-American Girl, however, I did not enjoy.

64: How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer
This teen romance set in a fairytale theme park I enjoyed. But I confess to disappointment about the totally boring and generic teen-romance cover. :(

65: Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike
Um... I suppose technically it was a teen romance, but mostly it was er... something about morals or something? I dunno. It was quite readable, though.

66: Pulling Princes by Tyne O'Connell
I didn't like this one enough to look for the sequels in spite of the fencing heroine. Mostly it just convinced me that I didn't really want any of my daughters to go to a Brittish boarding school. Not that I needed convincing of that.

67: The Elite by Kiera Cass
I didn't like this sequel to the Selection as much as I did the first book. The triangle aspect was stronger, not much seemed to actually happen, and the heroine did something hideously stupid (and I really hate watching people be stupid) so I'm a bit torn on whether or not to go on to the third. In theory, she's learned her lesson, figured out who she really likes and the third book will get us somewhere worth going. In theory.

68: Death in the stocks by Georgette Heyer (reread)
A mystery novel by one of my favorite romance authors. As a general rule, I do not lie her mysteries as much as her romances, , but I find them entirely readable.

69: The Rubber Band by Rex Stout (reread)
One of the handful of Nero Wolfe stories I actually own. I should get myself more --sometimes I'm just in that sort of a mood.

70: Making Money by Terry Pratchett, (reread)
Found a used hardcover copy at the library for 50 cents. Score!

71: Shadows by Robin McKinley
I think that in general I prefer her less urban and less contemporary stuff, but that's just my preferences showing. This was good. Interesting and solid worldbuilding, good plot, fun characters. I didn't really "get" the algebra textbook though.
The book felt like it could use a sequel or two.

72: Love by the Morning Star by Laura L. Sullivan
This had the sort of mixed up identities plot you would expect from a romantic comedy, but I never really found myself laughing at any of it. Or even smiling much.

And I believe I have now read enough Skip Beat Volumes to push my total for the year past 100, if I continue to count those.

That feels... way too easy.

Good to have you check in, Shel.

It's nice to be back! :)

73: A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar by Francis Mæs
Um... I know a great deal more about the subject than when I started? I found this one a bit of a chore to read, but that may have been because I was only particularly interested in the stuff right at the beginning. The rest was informative, but I didn't know what I wanted/needed the information for.

74: Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs edited by Robert T. Garcia
An anthology of short stories/novellas by current authors. My son grabbed this from the library for me, because he knows I'm a Burroughs fan. Some of them were seriously "What the?" But some were a lot of fun.

75: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (reread)
Because, well, I was in the mood. :)

76: Listen to the Nightingale by Rumer Godden
Young Ballet Dancer at School story.

77: The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss (reread)
It's been a loooong time since I read this one, and the mix of animal life from all over the globe all on the same island was a bit eye-roll inducing this time. Also, the father's intimate knowledge of the appearance and uses of every single one of the plants and animals they met up with would have seemed less implausible if they had unpacked the library with its books on natural history first, instead of waiting until the tail end of the book to do it.

Shel, I enjoyed reading your books this year. It's Chrismas Eve's eve, and so I am starting the rounds of wishing my 75er friends the merriest of Christmases or whatever the solstice celebration of their choice is.

Thanks for the card, Roni! Very sparkly. :)

This batch has quite a few that were read for research purposes:

78: The Thirty Years War : Europe's tragedy by Peter H. Wilson
Big thick history book. Very informative. My one complaint: It had maps of all the little battles, but it didn't have maps of the bigger political picture. I guess the author assumed that if we were interested at all we would of course know where all those places he was talking about were.

79: The history of Lady Sophia Sternheim by Sophie von La Roche
A sentimental novel written in the 1700s by a german author. It, um, reads like a sentimental novel written in the 1700s. You can't go a single page without getting a little moralizing message. Fortunately these amuse me more than they irritate me.

80: The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
In which we discover how it is possible to propound a moral lesson without actually preaching at the reader. :)
Seriously, I was ready to take a break from research and this was one of my favorite "Classics" as a kid. Thought I'd give it another go. Still liked it, although Twain is usually quite a bit funnier than this.

81: Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel
82: Golden Girl by Sarah Zettel
83: Bad Luck Girl by Sarah Zettel
And for a distinct change of pace, a Great Depression era historical fantasy series with elves that are of the "distinctly creeepy" celtic mode, rather than the etherial and wize Tolkien variety. I liked it.

84: The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
This historical mystery was a bit darker than I'm usually interested in. I was reading it because of where and when it was set, rather than for the story, or I probably wouldn't have finished.

85: The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Another sentimental novel written in the 1700s by a german author. It was less preachy, but I found it hard to believe this is considered a classic of the genre. Werther was a twit. Didn't bother me a bit that he committed suicide in the end. I guess I'm just insensitive like that.

86: Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This one being a classic was, if anything, even more mind boggling. I don't get it.

87: Examined Lives : from Socrates to Nietzsche by Jim Miller
This was a very interesting look at the lives of a number of philosophers. The author appeared to be trying to find some commonality between them, some insight into "a philosophical life" but appears to have ended up at the end of all his research and writing, with no real insights to proffer. Since I was more interested in the times and places in which many of his targets lived, the lack of a greater insight into what it means to live an "Examined Life" didn't really bother me.

88: Velvet Lies by L. Shelby
It's only a novella so maybe I shouldn't include it, but I had to read it four or five times, because I was getting it ready for publication. (It's out now) Plus I ended up reading Cantata in Coral and Ivory (also out) and Pavane in Pearl and Emerald (not quite out) again too. Same reason.

89: An Early Engagement by Barbara Metzger
90: My Lady Innkeeper by Barbara Metzger
Two regency romances. Having caught a cold, I am returning yet again to my collection of fluff to console me in my misery. :)

Hmm...
10 more books and I make my 100. I can read ten books in week if I try.

Except that about 11 of those are Graphic Novels, and if I'm really going to count my graphic novels, I'm actually already at:

91-122: Skip Beat! Volumes 2-31, 33
(I think that's right. I read 1-33 but I'd already counted 1 and 32, so that's thirty one additional books.)

If I don't count the graphic novels, then I'm back at 79.

I read the first book of the Zettel trilogy earlier this year--I really need to get back to the other books. Fortunately, our library has them.

Metzger is one of the better regency writers. She had a story in the volume of Regency Christmas stories I reread for Christmas, A Regency Christmas IX.

Sounds like the writing is going well!

>96 ronincats: "She had a story in the volume of Regency Christmas stories I reread for Christmas, A Regency Christmas IX."

Looking over at my Regency shelves (I still do not have all my books entered into LT) I see I've got a regency Christmas anthology called A Regency Christmas Present with a story by her, and it looks like about three other Christmas themed books by her that aren't collections.

That seems a little odd, though. I'm sure I should have at least one more book of Christmas short stories. One of my daughters must have made off with it. (Three of my four daughters also read Regencies.) :)

Side note: I ended up writing Cantata in Coral and Ivory because I was in the mood to write a Regency, but I wanted to stay "in genre" as a Fantasy and Science Fiction author. The resulting story was... unexpected.

"Sounds like the writing is going well!"
I don't know... I haven't gotten to actually do any writing other than edits and glossary entries for months. But once Pavane is out, I will supposedly be taking a nice long break from publishing while I write another book. I'm looking forward to that.

()/123:The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

This was the graphic novel version. So, er, I'm not sure I'm counting it.

80/124: The Dragonet Prophecy, by Tui T. Sutherland
This is the first of a series, I think it's marketed as Children's rather than YA. It was... okay.

81/125: Stray, by Andrea K Höst
I got this one as being by a self-published author recommended by an author who also recommends me. :)

It was pretty alright, a bit slow at the beginning.

It led me to the following thought however:

If Physics, Chemistry and Biology are "hard" science...
And Anthropology and Sociology are "soft" science...
... Does that make Psionics "squishy" science?

But I don't really mind fantasy dressed up as science fiction myself, as long as it's a good story. :)

I like the idea of a squishy science. :)

Happy New Year!

I'm making my final swing through the 2014 threads--see you on the other side!