Kelly's Reads

Hi, it's been a while.  I deleted my last few booktube videos.  I plan on redoing the two tag videos, but I wasn't happy with the quality or my answers.  I don't mind recording on my Chromebook, it's just that I need to do it on days with good natural light. I have several books going (as usual), and am happy to say I will accomplish my GoodReads goal this year. I was looking back at my past reading challenges.   Some of these books I remember reading, but remember almost nothing about them.  Apparently, I didn't participate in 2011-12-13-16... * 2014 18/35 (Hey, I made it halfway at least.) * 2015  6/26 (It's not about the quantity, but the quality.) * 2017 48/52 (So close!) * 2018 48/48 ;-) (Ok not yet, but only 5 to go!) It's snowing today, so a perfect day for reading...

I got a few books from the library a couple weeks ago.  I *might* do a review on one called  Who Will Catch Us As We Fall  by Iman Verjee.  I've been taking notes in preparation. *EDIT* Review not happening.  I DNFd at pg 51.  The vague "building up to some  dramatic revelation" writing style was annoying me.  It's like the news repeatedly telling you such and such story is coming up.  I. don't. care. anymore. Coincidentally, this particular book is set in Kenya and another one I'm finishing, which I mentioned in my Library Lovers Tag video, is set in South Africa ( Bad Seeds  by Jassy Mackenzie.)  This wasn't planned, but I do like reading books set in foreign countries.  Anyway,  I think from now on, I'll pick a couple of books to review each month - maybe one here on this blog, and the other on my YouTube channel.

This morning, I read about 30 pages in The Man Who Broke into Aushwitz  by Denis Avey, so I'm finally at the halfway mark.  I bought that one around three years ago at Barnes & Noble as a bargain book.  It's actually really good, but I have this bad habit of ignoring my own books (including those on my Kindle) to pile up on library books. With this particular book, there is some controversy surrounding the author's account of "breaking in" to Auschwitz, but it's still a gripping story and hard to put down when I'm actually reading it.  BTW, he's a POW at the camp, but is housed with other soldiers in a different section from the Jewish prisoners, so it's not as if he just krept in from the outside. On another note, since I hadn't started them yet, I decided to return Independent People by Halldór Laxness and Dark Town by Thomas Mullen to the library for now, and pick them up some other time.

I put up a new video (finally - so relieved!)  I started my channel in November of 2017 and have only uploaded a small handful of videos since then, but plan on being much less sporadic about it now that I've moved back home.  I was pretty self-conscious about recording in my apartment, which I know is silly. I'm using a video recorder I added to my Chromebook - it's not the best quality, but it's not terrible either.  Maybe I'm odd, but I kind of prefer not to be too crystal clear and vivid.  Anyway, so far I've read a little on Peter and Wendy today.  Got a bunch of reading to do... Just realized I forgot to include Goebbels by Peter Londerich.  I'm reading that one on CloudLibrary, which is similar to OverDrive.   Wow, I really do have way too many books going, because I actually forgot a few more. xD ~ Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase to Catch Lincoln's Killer  by James L. Swanson ~ Bad Seeds  by Jassy Mackenzie ~ My Sweet Aud...

So much for my plan to make a video over the weekend, but cameras don't want to cooperate.  Oh well.   I finished A Perfect Crime  by A Yi last night.  I walked to the library to return it.  It was a nice little stroll around the block - I'll have to do that more often.   I'm usually a pretty slow reader, even with short books, but I flew through this one in three days.  It doesn't have a very high rating on Goodreads, but it definitely kept me turning the pages. The main character is a psychopath with zero redeeming qualities.  He lures and murders his female classmate, because he has made up his mind he wants to kill someone.  The rest of the book follows the aftermath from him being on the run, to being caught, interrogated, tried... These aren't spoilers, because the chapter titles pretty much lay it all out.  There's not much more to say than that without giving everything away - that's how quick and simple the p...

I changed my Goodreads goal from 96 to 48.  As usual, I had fallen way behind and really want to complete my goal this year for once, so I changed it to something more reasonable with three months to go.   I started the year planning on reading at least eight books per month (12 x 8 = 96), which is ambitious for me, but I was determined...didn't last long.  Now I'm going with four books per month. I had also planned on alternating months between library books and my own books, but nope, didn't happen.  I'm a library addict.  Nothing wrong with that, I love libraries, but I need to work on reading the books I own too, including Kindle books.   I also planned on doing the Random Travel Challenge with the Goodreads Group "Around the World in 80 Books," but failed there too.  I asked for 12 countries (one for each month.)  Here's what I was randomly given... -AFRICA: Cameroon, Gabon, Madagascar, Tunisia -ASIA: Cambodia, Chin...

I forgot to post these here.  They're several months old, but that's ok.  I want to start making videos again - maybe I'll put one up this weekend.

I started this post at 10:30 this morning... It's really nice outside (73F), so I'm sitting out here reading my library books.  I ended up getting nine altogether, even though my plan was to get four.  At least 4/9 were from my to-read shelf, while the other five were random picks. The four from my to-read shelf are... ~ How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez *DNF'd it - even added it to my DNF shelf on GoodReads, then not long after, decided to give it another chance.  I've only done this with three other novels: The Martian by Andy Weir; The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, and I ended up giving all three 4 or 5 stars, so... **EDIT: I stopped the Garcia Girls book for good.  I was put off by the weird birthday party kissing scene and the behavior of the youngest daughter.  Sorry, but no thanks. ~ Darktown by Thomas Mullen *Haven't started it yet.  It's a long one ...

I finally put up another video.  It's a library haul and it's a big one (20 books.)

**I started this entry over a week ago, so it's a little outdated, but posting it anyway.  I've also added a ton of library books - reading 20 total!  Yep, I had a relapse.** :) About time I updated.  I've just been lazy (my usual excuse), but I have been reading.  I'm currently working on... - The Blind Assassin  by Margaret Atwood (I started this one last fall; quit after less than 20 pages, but something in me told me to try it again.  I'm glad I did.  After my renewals ran out, I returned it to the library at just under 200 pages - the hardcover edition is 521 pages - and about a month ago, finally checked it out again.  I need to get it done within the next 5 days, and although I have to read it in small chunks, I do like it a lot.  My first Margaret Atwood book.  I really like her writing style.  That said, I did recently remove The Handmaid's Tale  from my to-read shelf.  It just didn't appeal to me upon re...

I am on a mission to shrink my ridiculously long to-read shelf on Goodreads, and I'm doing that by reading the first page of as many books as possible to decide whether or not I want to continue.  Yep, you heard right: the first page; not the first chapter.  Oh yes, I am that strict.  I usually know right off the bat if I'm gonna like a book, and I've removed quite a few so far.   For instance, I just removed all of Rainbow Rowell's books.  I've heard so much about her through booktube over the last year+, so I added her books.  I finally went on Amazon to use the 'Look Inside' feature and ended up deleting all of them.  Go ahead and hate me. :) I have to admit, it's kind of freeing to clean up the clutter of all these books I've blindly added simply because they've been mentioned a lot or because I took a quick glance at the synopsis without actually sampling the book. I'm sure most people are aware of these, but a couple ways y...