The Fierce Reads Anthology

The Fierce Reads Anthology is a free ebook from Tor books.  It contains five short stories and the first chapter or two of the authors’ respective novels.  Do these free short stories entice readers to buy the novels?  For the most part, I think so.  I’m going to say a bit on each story (which I'm going to write before starting then next story).  It’s going to be longer than my last few short story reviews because, there are only five stories/authors.  Plus, there are more than just five short stories in this anthology.

Legacy Lost, by Anna Banks

I reviewed Legacy Lost a few weeks ago as part of Short Story Monday.  See review here.  In sum, I liked it and the sample of Banks' novel, Of Poseidon

The Witch of Duva, by Leigh Bardugo

Poor Karina. She was trying so hard to save the girls.  I wonder if Nadya's mother knew... Or her brother. I wonder if he’ll turn out like his father... Because there are supernatural elements to the story, you think it's about a monster, when the monster of the story is more real than we like to think.  It was a fantastic story.  I already wanted to read Shadow And Bone, but now I want to read it even more.

Prophet, by Jennifer Bosworth

Maybe it’s because I don’t like overly religious stories, or people who proclaim themselves to be a prophet (cult leader), but Prophet didn’t appeal to me.  It also felt entirely too short*, like a set up or a flashback in a novel, instead of a story on its own.  The writing itself wasn’t bad, but the story didn’t grab me the way the first two did.  I’m sure Bosworth’s fans would enjoy it, but it’s not for me.  I also don’t really have an interest in reading Struck, Bosworth’s novel.  Prophet seems more like a prologue to the novel.  I suppose all the stories in this collection are, but at least the others had more defined beginnings middles and end.

Dress Your Marines In White, by Emmy Laybourne

Crazy!  Do people not know they’re creating the end of the world when they’re creating the end of the world?  I guess not.  Otherwise, we would have so many post-apocalyptic stories.  Dress Your Marines In White kept me tense all the way through to the end.  I knew the ending was going be bad.  The narrator, one of the lab assistants, is drinking and clearly traumatized by the events that are the subject of the report he has to write.  I want it to work out, but the looks on his bosses face make sure you know it won’t.  Emmy Layborne is the author of Monument 14, which I’ve heard lots of good things about.  Before reading the story and the excerpt from the beginning of the book, I had already decided that I didn’t want to read it.  Not because I thought it would be bad, but because of the subject matter.  The idea of those kids trapped in the grocery store had me thinking about Under the Dome and Lord of the Flies.  I haven’t even read Lord of the Flies, but I’ve heard so much about it, that the idea of the children trapped together gave me way too many creeps.  Now, I’m on the fence about Monument 14  The beginning seems really good and I thoroughly enjoyed the short story, but I don’t know if I could handle the novel.  They’re children.  If it was just teens, maybe, but there are little kids there too….**

Glitches, by Marissa Meyer

I want to give Cinder a hug!  Glitches is Marissa Meyer’s prequel short story to Cinder.  I already wanted to read Cinder.  I enjoyed the story, but I don’t know if it stands well enough on its own.  I felt that in order to appreciate the story fully, I would have to read the novel.  The story felt like part of a series.  Also, Meyer was the only author not to have the first chapter or two of her novel available to read.  That was disappointing.  I was confused when I reached the end of the ebook, that there was no more book (if it was a physical book, I might have noticed this sooner and maybe been less disappointed).  It seemed odd or maybe because Cinder is already popular Tor didn’t feel the need to include a bit of Meyer’s novel.

In Conclusion:

I think the Fierce Reads Anthology was very enjoyable.  It’s nice to get fun, entertaining short stories for free!  If you’re a fan of short stories, fantasy, sci-fi and young adult, I’d definitely download the Fierce Reads Anthology or read it online on the publisher’s website, Tor.com.  There’s a second installment of Fierce Reads that I’ve already downloaded, (though I’ve read a lot of short stories lately and I’m in the mood for something else.)  If you’re a fan of Anna Banks, Leigh Bardugo, Jennifer Bosworth, Emmy Laybourne or Marissa Meyer, I would definitely get this ebook.

*Odd to say for a story I didn’t really like, I know.

**Definitely longer than I intended.

Ahh! Top Ten Most Frustrating Characters

I had a bit of a difficult time with this week's Top Ten from The Broke and The Bookish.  In fact, I spent quite a few days thinking about who were my Top Ten Most Frustrating Characters.  Eventually, this is what I came up with.

1. Every "heroine" written in the Bella Swan vein.  Every girl and woman that swoons over some guy who is basically stalking her.  Be strong!  This is the 21st Century.  You don't need a man to save you.  Save yourself.

I will admit to enjoying the Twilight books.  Meyer wrote an addictive series, but I really did spend a lot of the time being frustrated with the main character.  I also don't mean to say that Bella is the only heroine that does this.  She's just the most obvious, well-known example.

So, ladies, in the future, please stand up for yourselves.  Your whole life should not revolve around a man.

That's all I have.  I couldn't get past number one.  I'm looking forward to reading the characters on other lists.

Who do you find frustrating?  Do you agree with my opinion of Bella and the swoony female lead?

My Pages

There they are, right up there...

I have two additions I wanted to point out.  My Classics page.  It's all about my journey through a list of  60 classics with the Classics Club.  I'll be linking reviews to that page as I complete each title.

The other is my Opinions/Thoughts/Rants... page.  (I can't think of a more succinct title.  Suggestions are welcome.)  This page is a list of my thoughts on various subjects, including gender, racism and parenthood.  Why do I talk about those things?  Because they interest me, affect my life and this is my blog.  It's not finished yet.  I've been blogging since 2006.  That's a lot of posts to sift through.

I've thought about getting rid of my Coming Soon page, since it is as right as it is wrong.  I'm such a moody reader.  However, I do feel like it helps guide me when I'm not sure what to do next.

I also wanted to mention that the Index page has more than the books I've blogged about.  It also has all of the movies and television shows and theatre productions that I've posted about.

That's it.  My pages and what they do.

Everything's Eventual

Everything’s Eventual is an amazing and varied collection.  I’m a fan of Stephen King (I might be obsessed with the Dark Tower), so I was confident that I would enjoy the collection of his short stories.  I more than enjoyed Everything’s Eventual.  I thought these were some amazing [not so short] short stories.  I have actually owned the collection for ages, picking it up during a sale, but some other book always drew my attention away, even other books by King (did I mention my possible Dark Tower obsession?)  I’m sorry I waited so long; though these stories were just what I needed to read right now. So maybe there was a purpose in waiting.

I’m going to do what I started doing with short story collections a few months ago.  As I read the stories, I wrote a few sentences, essentially containing my initial reaction.  I have, in the past done “Twitter sized” reviews, but since there are only 14 stories, I’m allowing myself more than 140 characters, but not too much.  An entire paragraph on each of 14 stories would make this one long post… though it’s not exactly shaping up to be a short one.

Autopsy Room Four

Autopsy Room Four is a great beginning to the collection.  It had me tense and feeling the main character's fear.  The ending was awesome.  

The Man in the Black Suit

I like the tone of the story.  It wasn’t as tense or evoked as much fear as the first story did for me.  It did have a “tale told” sort of quality to it, if you know what I mean.

There’s a note* from King at the end of the story about where the inspiration for it came from.  There was a similar note at the end of Autopsy Room Four.  Am I going to find these notes at the end of each story?

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away

Great story.  Not a typical horror story, or a horror story at all, unless all you need for horror is potential suicide.  I really liked the ending and, according to the note at the end, it was a change suggested to King.  It definitely worked.

The Death Of Jack Hamilton

It's a sad story. You know how it's going to end; it's in the title, but hope for the best anyway.

In The Deathroom

I was rooting for Fletcher.  I thought King was going to go one way with the ending, but then he surprised me.  I liked being surprised.

The Little Sisters of Eluria

The Little Sisters of Eluria is not a short story.  It is 66 pages of Everything’s Eventual.  It is worth reading every page.  Maybe twice.  This story takes place in the world of King’s Dark Tower, before the first novel, The Gunslinger.  It was fantastic.  I believe I mentioned how much I love The Dark Tower series.  It was great getting to revisit that world.  If you’re a fan of that series, this story is worth the whole book.

Everything’s Eventual

The title story was exciting.  What struck me first was how much it reminded me of a place in the final Dark Tower book that the main characters travel too.  Dinky could have easily been one of the people there.  I liked Dink as a character, though he agreed to a lot of things I wouldn’t have.  I also like his final act at the end of the story.

L.T.’s Theory of Pets

This story is just sad.  Also, creepy because of the narrator’s tone towards the end. 

The Road Virus Heads North

The Road Virus Heads North is the type of story I think of when I think “Stephen King”.  It was scary, creepy and not to be read right before you go to bed!

Lunch At The Gotham Café

I wonder what Diane meant when she said he didn't save her life.  This was a crazy story.  I loved and hated the main characters (in a good way). Though, the story didn't leave me freaked out the way Road Virus did.

Also, the cover is from Lunch At The Gotham Café.  I didn’t realize until after I had finished the collection.  I was looking at the cover and in my head it clicked.  I was very excite.

That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French

Awkward title, amazing story. I'd like to think that the wife is making progress and they (she?) won't be stuck forever.  With every trip, she seems to be a bit more aware.

1408

1408 might be the star of the whole collection**. It is scarier than all the other stories though there are still two more!)  Don't read it before going to sleep.  See full review for Short Story Monday here.

Riding The Bullet

Another amazing story. It was tense and frightening. In the end, it was also sad. I could see Al's choice before he made it and I knew he would regret it. At least they had a few good years together.

Lucky Quarter

This story had hope. It wasn't a scary story, like the last two.  It had cynicism and sweetness.  I really liked it.

In Conclusion:

I really enjoyed Everything's Eventual.  I think it's exciting that King could write something scary, yet humourous, like Autopsy Room Four, then produce something nightmarish, like The Road Virus Heads North.  While reading Everything’s Eventual, I didn’t know what kind of story I was getting.  Is it going to scare or is it going to mess with your head?  I enjoy the unexpected, most of the time, and definitely when I’m reading something by Stephen King.  

*At first, the notes are at the end of the stories, then notes start showing up at the beginning.  I don’t think I like when the note is at the beginning of the story.  I don’t mind / gotten used to the explanations, but when it comes before, I feel like it tells me too much about what is going to happen.

**The other star, for me, is The Little Sisters of Eluria.  I’m not sure if I could pick a favourite between the two.

Where Are We? Top Ten Settings I’d Like To See More

I was very interested by this week's topic at The Broke and The Bookish.  They are asking what are the top ten settings we'd like to see more.  I think I'd have an easier time answering the top ten settings I never want to see again.  I've read some pretty sad, tragic, amazing, I-would-never-want-to-go-there books.  Too much dystopian maybe?

In no particular order:

1.  Narnia – I know it’s never going to happen, but I can wish, right?

2.  Saskatchewan – Seriously.  Richard Ford did a great job (in my opinion) at portraying life in rural Saskatchewan and I found it really interesting.

3.  Montreal – I have always loved visiting Montreal, but I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book set there.  Any recommendations?

4.  The Universe of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – I know Eoin Coffer wrote a book continuing the series.  I have that book, but I’m nervous about reading it since I loved Douglas Adams’ series so much.

5.  Tropical Islands – Again, any recommendations?  I read a lot of books set in cities and the country, but nothing on an island in recent memory.

6.  An Office – Does nothing interesting ever happen in an office?

7.  The North Pole – Just because.  It would be different from anything I've read.

8.  The Desert - See # 7.

9.  Alternate Realities - I like the "What if?" question.  What if some big, significant event didn't happen, how would that affect the world we live in now?

10.  Hotel Rooms - Maybe this is because I just read 1408.

What settings would you like to see more?  Anywhere you've never read about?

1408, by Stephen King

I wasn't sure I was going to write about 1408 for this week's Short Story Monday.  I planned on writing about it when I wrote about the collection it is in, Everything's Eventual. (I'm almost done, just a couple more days.)  But then I thought, what if 1408 was published online somewhere? (I like my Short Story Monday posts to be available online so anyone interested can read them.  It isn't a necessity, just a preference.)  After all, I wrote about Herman Wouk Is Still Alive and it was published in The Atlantic.  Since 1408 is a popular story and was made into a movie, it seemed possible.  I came across this site which has the full text of 1408.  However, this is not a literary publication, as far as I can tell.  I also can't seem to access the main site, so it definitely seems questionable.  But I'm going to write about 1408 anyway (because it was awesome).

1408 is a fantastic story.  It is frightening and tense.  The imagery sticks inside your head. 1408 is yet another of King's stories that has been turned into a movie and I can see why.  I haven't seen the movie yet, but now I can't wait.  The fluidity of what is happening in that hotel room is appealingly scary.  Mike Enslin is so determined.  For what he writes about, he mind is closed when entering room 1408.  The time he spends in that room radically changes his mind.  Olin is a fantastic creepy innkeeper, though, he's really not creepy.  He seems genuinely concerned for Enslin.  Though I do question Olin's motives and past behaviour.  He sends maids into that room to give it a "light turn", even though he knows the dangers.  I understand in the beginning maybe doing that, but after seeing the repercussions, why would he continue to send people into that room?  Why not do the cleaning himself?  Why does he seem not to have any health issues?  I didn't really think about Olin in this light until much after I finished the story.

I'm considering re-reading 1408 around Halloween. I should have, perhaps, read this entire collection at Halloween.  It's a fantastic group of work and I will have more to say on that soon.

Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.

Seal, by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

I'm not sure what I think of Seal, by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer. A first I thought it was a literary/general fiction type of story, full of metaphor and a young boy's imaginings. Then something happened and now I don't know what to think. It wasn't a bad story, I definitely I liked it.  The elements that made it "strange" were introduced at the end, making my perspective on the entire story change.  I did like that the ending was unexpected.  The characters were interesting and multidimensional.  I appreciated the depth given them in such a short piece.  I'd actually really like someone to read this story so I can get another perspective.  Thoughts?

I have to say, I really like the image that The Walrus paired with this story.  I don't know whose decision that was, but they did a good job.  Selena Wong's illustration is lovely and flows well with the story.

Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.

The Last Battle

I'm so sad!  The ending.... I could see it coming. The way they talked about the train... They're going on a great adventure, but we won't get to read it because the books are over!!  C.S. Lewis wrote an amazing ending to his series.  The Last Battle had me eager to see how the story ended, but also hesitant, because I knew it was the final book of The Chronicles of Narnia.

It makes me sad that Susan doesn’t love Narnia anymore, or doesn’t believe in it.  She lived there like her brothers and sister, why did it have to be over for her?  I always felt a negativity around Susan, even in the first book (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe).  Though it was Edmund who first sided with the White Witch, the way Lewis wrote about her… I don’t know how to explain it, but it was the impression I got and in subsequent books too.  Lewis turned her into a silly woman only interested in fashion and being an adult of a "certain age", then fighting to be that age forever.  I wonder why Lewis chose to make her this way.  In The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, I felt that Lewis was not seeing women as equals or capable.  Then I felt that maybe his views changed as he wrote more about Narnia, but maybe it was Susan's character all along.  Lucy, Polly and Jill grew and loved Narnia until the end.  Will she join them eventually?  I'd like to believe so.

I hesitate to say this, but I’m a little offended by Lewis using the term “darkies” in The Last Battle.  I understand that Lewis was writing in a different time.  It didn't influence how I felt about the story (I honestly loved it), but every time someone called a Calormen that, I cringed a little.  It's not like none of the Calormen are redeemed/redeemable (Emeth being a great example) and it's only one group of individuals who use the term, but it still bothered me a little.

I have to mention how excited I was that Lewis used Plato's Allegory of the Cave.  It is one of the first things you learn when studying Philosophy.  That it's included in children's literature is amazing.  I think it really speaks to what Lewis believed children could understand.  I'm hoping that when my children are older, we'll read The Chronicles of Narnia together... and I can also teach them the Allegory of the Cave.

I'm sad that the series is over.  I loved it.  I still can't believe I didn't read this twenty years ago (am I aging myself?).  It was brilliant and wonderful.  I can see why it has endured and that children continue to read it and adults read and re-read it.  Yes, there are some controversial issues, many call Lewis racist and sexist, but I don't really think so.  Not if you look at when he was writing and what he was writing.  After all, a Calormen and an Archenlander get married and have a child.  Technically an interracial couple with a biracial baby!  That's a big deal for the 1950s  [This point has a BIG SPOILER!]  Even in this final story, The Last Battle ends with Aslan accepting all who were virtuous, no matter where they came from.  That's an ending I like. [I hope that SPOILER WARNING was big enough.]  I know that one day I'll re-read these books, whether with my children or on my own.  I think that I'll likely devour them one after the other, instead of stretching out the series like I've just finished doing.  I'm having a difficult time saying goodbye to Narnia.  It was a wonderful world to visit.

Same Cover, Different Books

I noticed this today on Goodreads while taking a break (goofing off) at work.  They're the same!  They were right beside each other in the new releases.  Opal and Allusive Aftershock are two different books, by two different authors, with two different plots.  How did they end up with basically the same cover?  Seriously though, how does this happen?  Both books are released in the same month and they're in the same category, so I see them beside each other and I have to do a double-take.

Here's their info:

Opal
Published - December 1, 2012 - Entangled Teen
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13362536-opal

Allusive Aftershock
Published - December 18, 2012 - Amber Glow Books
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15796396-allusive-aftershock

Legacy Lost, by Anna Banks

What just happened?  That was not the ending I expected….  I downloaded Legacy Lost as part of the The Fierce Reads Anthology (available to read online here).  It is a collection of free short stories from “up and coming” Young Adult authors.  The short story collection is likely designed to lure in new readers by giving us a sample of the authors’ work.  So far, it’s worked.  I now find myself really wanting to read Of Poseidon.  The first story in the anthology is Legacy Lost, by Anna Banks.  The story takes place in the world of Banks’ novel Of Poseidon.  Legacy Lost began to build a world of mermaids (the Syrena).  It weaves in the details of their underwater life, while creating a tragic love story.  Even in a short story, Banks let me see the underwater world where the Syrena live.  She built a mythology and a history for these people.  Legacy Lost is a short adventure tale.  It has love, loss, tension and violence.  I look forward to reading more by Banks.

Short Story Monday is hosted by John Mutford at The Book Mine Set.

Word of the Week!

Dante and Virgil

From “The Man In The Black Suit” in Everything’s Eventual, by Stephen King:

Propitiate (pg 69) - (transitive, dated) To conciliate, appease or make peace with someone, particularly a god or spirit.
(I guess that’s what you do when you think the devil is going to eat you.)

From The Book Mine Set:

Asymtote - In analytic geometry, an asymptote of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as they tend to infinity. Some sources include the requirement that the curve may not cross the line infinitely often, but this is unusual for modern authors.[1] In some contexts, such as algebraic geometry, an asymptote is defined as a line which is tangent to a curve at infinity.
1. (analysis) A straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely, as they go to infinity. The limit of the curve, its tangent "at infinity".
2. (by extension, figuratively) Anything which comes near to but never meets something else.
(I knew it was some sort of math thing, I just didn’t know what exactly.)

From here

So… a PDF program taught me a word (Win2PDF):

Prepend - (computing, linguistics, transitive) To attach (an expression, phrase, etc.) to another, as a prefix.
(The PDF program asked me if I wanted to Append, Prepend, Replace or Cancel; I had to figure out what Prepend was.)

Thanks for joining me.  Learn anything new this past month (or even year!)?

The Velveteen Rabbit

A children's book almost made my cry. It definitely made me sad and concerned. I was so worried for the Rabbit. I had never read The Velveteen Rabbit as a child. I didn't know what to expect. I always heard positive things about the story, I thought it was some happy tale with a typical children's moral at the end or something. That is not The Velveteen Rabbit that Margery Williams wrote. She wrote a children's story that had some tension.  It actually made me glad that I read it privately first before I read it to my daughter.  I would have had to answer some difficult questions or my three-and-a-half-year-old would not have understood certain plot points.  I think in another year or two, she's going to love this story because of the magic.  It's magic made out of love. What's better than that?!

A quick comment on the illustrations... I expected there to be more.  There were a few and they were lovely.  I really liked William Nicholson's style.  They matched the story beautifully, classic, just like Williams' tale.  I suppose it's not a short book, so maybe more illustrations would have made it seem too long?

The Velveteen Rabbit is the first of many books I plan on reading for The Classics Club.  It was a great start.  It's made me look forward to reading all the books on that intimidating list.

Classics Club

I’m a moody reader.  I read a variety of books, at different levels, in different genres.  Because of this, I don’t join challenges.  If I feel forced to read a book, I’ll avoid it and continue to avoid it, until I grudgingly pick it up.  Joining the Classics Club, however, has been something I’ve thought about for a while.  I wasn’t sure about joining because of the pertinent question: what constitutes a classic?  I follow several bloggers who are part of the Classics Club and after reading their reviews, I think I have a good idea of what the Club considers classic.

My list consists of “Modern Classics” and “Old Classics”.  There are some genre books, some short stories, some children’s books and some poetry.  There are even a couple books that can be debated about whether they are actually classics.  There will be a few re-reads, but it will be mostly new.  These are all books I already own.  On the Classics Club website, they describe the list we submit as a living list.  While I’ve put 60 titles on this list (to make it a little more challenging, since I'm including children’s stories, short stories and novellas), I’m not guaranteeing that I’ll read all these particular books.  Like I mentioned previously, I’m a moody reader.  If I can’t finish something or another classic catches my fancy, I’ll change the list.  The only thing I plan on guaranteeing is that I’ll finish this list in five years - January 3, 2018 (I'll be so old!).

In alphabetical order, 60 classics I plan on reading by January 3, 2018:

1. Stories from Hans Christian Andersen, by Hans Christian Andersen

2. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

3. Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood

4. The Big and The Little, by Isaac Asimov

5. Emma, by Jane Austen

6. Lady Susan, by Jane Austen

7. Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen

8. Northhanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

9. The Watsons, by Jane Austen

10. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

11. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë

12. Villette, by Charlotte Brontë

13. Sonnets from the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

14. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

15. Appointment with Death, by Agatha Christie

16. Lyrical Ballads, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth

17. The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

18. Discourse on Method, by Rene Descartes

19. A Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens

20. Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens

21. A Selection of Poems (1. Life), by Emily Dickinson

22. Sherlock Holmes #1: A Study In Scarlett, by Arthur Conan Doyle

23. Sherlock Holmes #2: The Sign of Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle

24. Medea, by Euripides

25. Middlemarch, by George Eliot

26. Grimm's Fairy Stories, by Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm

27. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

28. Daisy Miller, by Henry James

29. The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James

30. The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence

31. The Man Who Loved Islands, by D.H. Lawrence

32. Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller

33. Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery

34. Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery

35. Anne of the Island, by L.M. Montgomery

36. Anne of the Windy Poplars, by L.M. Montgomery

37. Anne’s House of Dreams, by L.M. Montgomery

38. Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery

39. Rainbow Valley, by L.M. Montgomery

40. Rilla of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery

41. Lives of Girls and Women, by Alice Munro

42. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

43. Lady Lazarus, by Sylvia Plath

44. The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

45. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

46. The Cat In The Hat, by Dr. Seuss

47. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare

48. Queen Mab/The Daemon of the World, by Percy Bysshe Shelley

49. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

50. Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker

51. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

52. Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

53. From the Earth to the Moon, by Jules Verne

54. The Weapons Shop, by A.E. van Vogt

55. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

56. Under The Knife, by H.G. Wells

57. The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams

58. Kew Gardens, by Virginia Woolf

59. Solid Objects, by Virginia Woolf

60. The Waves, by Virginia Woolf

I will have a page listing each of these books, with links to reviews once I finish them.

*SIDE NOTE: I’ve been considering creating some reading projects for myself.  For example, I want to read every Margaret Atwood and Stephen King book.  I also want to read more Canadian authors and more immigrant literature.  Should I create these self-imposed projects, or will my moodiness negate my success?  Thoughts?

I Will Read You! Top Ten Books I Resolve To Read In 2013

The Broke and The Bookish want to know what we resolve to read this coming year.  There have been quite a few books I've been pushing aside.  I WANT to read them, other things just get in the way.  I might have mentioned this before, but I am a moody reader.  Even if it told you I planned on reading The Golden Compass, you might  find me reading some Stephen King instead.  I'm restricting muskeg to books I ahead own, no 2013 new releases... In no particular order, my top ten books to read in 2013.

1. Everything's Eventual, by Stephen King

2. The Thousand Orcs, by R.A. Salvatore

3. The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson

4. Bodily Harm, by Margaret Atwood

5. Carrie, by Stephen King

6. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

7. The Flying Troutmans, by Miriam Toews

8. Jpod, by Douglas Coupland

9. Emma, by Jane Austen

10. Dead and Loving It, by MaryJanice Davidson

It's a mix of literary and genre books, just how I like it.  So hopefully I get to all of them this year!  What books do you resolve to read in 2013.