5 most popular posts from this year

Tanya, Andi and T are doing a fun December activity and I will be participating occasionally. Might be a nice change from the usual.

Today's is to highlight your 5 most popular posts from the year! As a scale for "popular" I did the most views.

5. Book Review: The Secret of Raven Point  (A girl becomes a nurse to try to find her brother who is missing on the Italian Front. Also people having sex in a minefield. Not a good idea!)

4.Book Review: The Bone Church (A couple on the run from the Nazis. Set in Prague. Super nice author.)

3.Bloggiesta Challenge: Pinterest for your book blog (Confession: I can't remember my login for this so I haven't updated in a long time. Don't be like me!)

2. Social Media Etiquette Challenge (Don't be a jerk to anyone ever. Full stop)

1.Book Review: The Great Divide (A family tries to get to South Africa out of Europe. There is also jewelry in pastries. And another nice author).

I love that Great Divide is the most popular one and it's so early on in the blog life that it's basically a wreck. We've come a long way baby! (I think, I hope! haha) Also, it's not a surprise to me that a lot of them are associated with Bloggiestas or book tours but I think it's interesting that the one review that isn't is just kind of random. And all the books are WWII related which helps explain why I have WWII book burnout. I have no idea what that means but I'll go with it!

Reading Totals for 2014

Here's (I think) all the books that I read in 2014. To be honest I got sick of it so I'm probably short some. If you're so so so interested look at my goodreads :) I took out travel books and cookbooks.I started to put the goodreads links in all of them but it was taking a really long time and making me hate my life so I stopped (sorry!) Ones I really enjoyed I highlighted! Botticelli's Bastard

Prayers for the Stolen

Sinful Folk

Love: The Saint and the Seeker

Becoming Un-Orthodox: Stories of Ex-Hasidic Jews

A Field Guide to Happiness: What I Learned in Bhutan about Living, Loving, and Waking Up

A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France

The Sea House

Hold the Dark

October Sky

While Beauty Slept

Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1 - 0.4)

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen

In the Shadow of No Towers

Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout

Stevenson's Treasure

The Wet and the Dry: A Drinker's Journey

Jackaby

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography #1)

The House on Dream Street: Memoir of an American Woman in Vietnam

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus

Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love

The Life of Corgnelius and Stumphrey: The Cutest Corgis in the World

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

The Undertaking

The Supernatural Enhancements

Entwined

Beyond the Pasta; Recipes, Language and Life with an Italian Family

Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite

How To Be a Heroine

Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness

100 Places in France Every Woman Should Go

Station Eleven

Chateau of Secrets

The Pilgrim's Regress

Rumble Yell: Discovering America's Biggest Bike Ride

The Butterfly and the Violin (Hidden Masterpiece, #1)

Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of a Friendship

A Year in the Merde

Wintergirls

Laika

Past Encounters

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

The Golem's Mighty Swing

300

The Giant's House

Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough: The Medical Lives of Famous Writers

Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home

As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling

The String Diaries

Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It

The Accidental Time Machine

A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley

Snowpiercer, Vol. 2: The Explorers, (Snow Piercer, #2)

The Escape (Snowpiercer, #1)

Alias Hook

Hope Runs: An American Tourist, a Kenyan Boy, a Journey of Redemption

The Ghost of Hannah Mendes

The Duel for Consuelo

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Ordinary Grace

The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate

Room

Breakfast at Tiffany's

The World Without Us

Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories

O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy, #1)

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa

Annihilation (Southern Reach Trilogy, #1)

Defiance (Resistance, #2)

Victory (Resistance, #3)

The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body

A Bag of Marbles

The Bone Church

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

My Hands Came Away Red

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

The Martian

Resistance (Resistance, #1)

The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War

A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope, and a Restaurant in Rwanda

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

Hospital of the Transfiguration

American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning

All the Light We Cannot See

All That Is Solid Melts into Air The Uninvited Crazy Love

Isolation

Secret Lives of the Tsars: Three Centuries of Autocracy, Debauchery, Betrayal, Murder, and Madness from Romanov Russia

The Children of Hurin (Middle-Earth Universe)

Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy, #1)

Flowers for Algernon

Zone One

The Night Bookmobile

Ms. Understood: Rebuilding the Feminine Equation

Unravelling Oliver

24 Hours Dublin

The Harlem Hellfighters

The Museum of Extraordinary Things

Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2)

Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3)

Solaris

Worst Seat in the House: Henry Rathbone's Front Row View of the Lincoln Assassination

All the Birds, Singing

The End of Plagues: The Global Battle Against Infectious Disease

The Fever

I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids

Allegiant (Divergent, #3)

Insurgent (Divergent, #2)

Divergent (Divergent, #1)

The Quick

The Long Walk

The Enchanted

Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God

Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone

Jesus: A Pilgrimage

Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience

A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain

Previously Loved Treasures (Serendipity #2)

Trapped

Bald New World

Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Moving Castle, #1)

The Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris

World of Trouble (The Last Policeman, #3)

Bricks & Mortals: Ten Great Buildings and the People They Made

Making the Case for Christianity: Responding to Modern Objections

Burial Rites

The Wolves in the Walls

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel

Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze

Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count

Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Once Upon a River

Mississippi River Tragedies: A Century of Unnatural Disaster

The Cartographer of No Man's Land

Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Rebecca

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)

The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe

Russian Roulette: A Deadly Game: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin's Global Plot

French Ghosts, Russian Nights, and American Outlaws: Souvenirs of a Professional Vagabond

Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times

Sea Change

The Astronaut Wives Club

Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #2)

The Dog Stars

The Paris Architect

American Saint: The Life of Elizabeth Seton

The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery

Lenin Lives Next Door: Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow

At Least You're in Tuscany: A Somewhat Disastrous Quest for the Sweet Life

A Natural History of Dragons (Memoir by Lady Trent, #1)

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

The Taste of Apple Seeds: A Novel

Bring the Jubilee

The Secret of Raven Point

I Shall be Near to You

Shovel Ready (Spademan, #1)

Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterline: Where the Crew Lives, Eats, Wars, and Parties: One Crazy Year Working on Cruise Ships

The Northern Lights: The True Story of the Man Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aurora Borealis

Never Cry Wolf

My Ãntonia

The Joy Luck Club

Zen in the Art of Writing

Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community

My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes)

Gibbin House

Mistaken Enemy

I'm Off Then

The Master and Margarita

Mr. Chartwell

Practical Classics: 50 Reasons to Reread Fifty Books You Haven't Touched Since High School

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Eastern Europe!: Everything You Need to Know About the History (and More) of a Region that Shaped Our World and Still Does

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

The Returned

The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo

The Things They Carried

Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings

Burn (Pure, #3)

The Circle

Dear Girls Above Me: Inspired by a True Story

A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman

Under the Tuscan Sun

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales

Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters

Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo

The Alteration

The Bolter: Edwardian Heartbreak and High Society Scandal in Kenya

Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure

People of the Book

The Absence of Nectar

The Paintings That Revolutionized Art

The One (Selection #3)

Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)

Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid

Dancing With the Enemy: My Family's Holocaust Secret

The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake (The Sandman #10)

A Voyage for Madmen

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

The Worlds We Make (Fallen World, #3)

Watermark: A Novel of the Middle Ages

The Visible World

A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary

The Beach

St Lucys Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan

Unnatural Selection Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans Hotel Heart of Darkness The Resurrectionist What if? Your Life Still Counts Four Seasons in Rome Evil Under the Sun The Langoliers Jurassic Park The Silent Sister The Undertaking of Lily Chen The Oblate's Confession Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Girl with the Flammable Skirt Wicked Plants

Quirk Book Reviews

My dear friends at Quirk Books have sent me a couple of books recently, and having read them all I thought I'd group all the reviews into one handy little post. Thanks Eric and company at Quirk!


 "Stars and Swipes:30 Awkward Postcards of Awkward Americana" and "Hugs and Misses: 30 Postcards of Awkward Romance". These aren't really books though. They're hilarious postcards in a cute, self contained package. They're by Wilhelm Staehle, and they are funny. Like laughing by yourself funny.

(The day I got these I was supposed to be making dinner,but when I saw these had come in the mail I started reading them and then time kind of got away from me and I kind of had to lie to my husband about why there was only a half finished dinner even though I'd been home for like an hour...yeah never mind that.)

You can check out his website with even more hilarity here.  Jack the Tripper? Caspar the friend zone ghost?

I've already pulled certain postcards out of the romance book to be sent as Valentine's Day cards. Because Valentine's Day should be about snark between friends and loved ones.

I really don't want to spoil any of them for you, because they are all hilarious so I'm only posting one:

I'd like to be in this gang.

That's all you're getting! Go to the website for more!

Check out Quirk's website for more information about the books!

The other book is going in a completely opposite direction, so brace yourself!

"The Resurrectionist: The Lost Works of Dr Spencer Black" by E.B. Hudspeth is a book unlike anything I'd ever read. The book is broken down into 2 different parts.The first is the story of Dr Spencer Black. He had a childhood that included nocturnal graveyard robbing with his dad and brother. (The family that plays together...) He is incredibly smart and becomes a gifted doctor in the Philadelphia area. He takes on hard cases, like amputating the limbs off of kids who have extra ones for whatever reason. The kids are often neglected or hidden away by their families, but Dr Black things they are special. He thinks that these people don't have genetic mutations, they are descendants of creatures of myth like mermaids or centaurs This becomes his life's work. Thiiiiings don't necessarily go well.

The second part of the book is part of Spencer's life work. Incredibly detailed anatomical drawings of creatures that he claims to have found and studied. The illustrations are beautiful and incredibly creepy at the same time. (I think the creepiest ones are the muscle layer ones. Eek!). Did you know that there are mermaids that only live in fresh, shallow water? They're actually called "nereids". I actually think the mermaid section was my favorite.

It's creepy and sad and awesome. The book itself is wonderful and weighty. I was sent the hardcover and I can't imagine reading it in any other format, especially with the detailed drawings.I mean, just check out the cover, it pretty much tells you what you're getting!

Don't worry, just a harpy skeleton!

Merry Christmas and Happy All the Things!

Merry Christmas or Happy Whatever You Celebrate if You Celebrate!

I hope that your 2014 was wonderful and that your 2015 has all good things waiting for you.

Graphic Novel Review: "Relish: My Life in the Kitchen" by Lucy Knisley

Relish was exactly what I needed and didn't even know I needed it . My experience with graphic novels to this point basically dealt with some combination of " violence, death, flawed superheroes or masked vigilantes, or really strange illustrations that were borderline too creepy a lot of the time" (I'm looking at you Neil's Sandmans!). So even though I knew the content matter of this graphic novel I was basically waiting for the other )weird/violent/scary) shoe to drop and it never did. Turns out this is just a funny, informative, relaxing read!

It's the story of Lucy, growing up in New York City with super foodie parents. Food was at the center of nearly everything that they did. Lucy tried more exotic, high brow food by the age of 8 than I have at 29. (But it''s okay, because she knows there is a time and place for hot, salty, golden McDonald's French fries....*pauses to wipe drool off keyboard and continues*)

After her parents split up she moves with her mom to a farm not terribly far outside of New York City. There they grow vegetables and raise chickens. (Though there is some initial problems with too many roosters in the hen house, as the saying goes...) Lucy's mom starts a catering business that caters super fancy parties and even a celebrity photo shoot.

Lucy misses the hustle and bustle of a city so she ends up going to art school in Chicago. Even though food is still a big part of her life.

There is more to this GN than just Lucy's story. There's also recipes, many of which look surprisingly uncomplicated and delicious. One is for her oft made, crafted to perfection chocolate chip cookies. There's also a (surprisingly interesting) cheese cheat sheet!

I'm in no way a high class foodie but I do love to eat and I think it's interesting the way that food brings people together. It's really all about the relationship between food and people in a pretentious funny way. The illustration are fun and casual too! 3.5 out of 5 stars!

Roommate Jen- You'll be getting this for a birthday present at some point in our lives. That's your warning! :)

Still Shopping for Your Book Lover?

I hope that you're almost done with your holiday shopping for the book fiend in your life, but just in case you're not....(I know I'm not reinventing the wheel with this post, but they are fun so there we go! All ideas are from Etsy, love to support the crafters!)

Want some warmth while reading but still want to have unhindered fingers? How about some fingerless gloves? (This shop has tons of pretty options!)

Who doesn't need bookmarks? I always need more bookmarks. This shop is all silhouettes in city skylines, favorite characters and more. So fun!

I use tabs to mark all my spots in books so I can go back to the things I found interesting. This shop has no shortage of adorable notes for use!

Do you have a comic book fan in your life? Can we talk about how totally awesome these prints are? Typography and heroes! They also have a bunch of movie ones, including my boy, Indiana Jones. I think this shop is my new obsession.

Do you have a Narnian in your life? Just in case they get lost on the way back through the wardrobe you can label their far away land of "Spare Oom". (I.Love.This.)

And if you're looking for something electronic...

Are you looking to buy a new Kindle? Jamie at Books and Beverages has a lot of experience with them, and she wrote up a little helpful guide. Check it out here!

5 Favorite Reads of Last Winter

Tanya, Andi and T are doing a fun December activity and I will be participating occasionally. Might be a nice change from the usual. Today's blogpost: 5 favorite reads of last winter!


Last winter was particularly brutal. But luckily good books and a warm apartment helped keep me sane. Here are my five favorite books that I read last winter (summaries and pictures from goodreads):

"HHhH" by Laurent Binet.

"HHhH: “Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich”, or “Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich”. The most dangerous man in Hitler’s cabinet, Reinhard Heydrich was known as the “Butcher of Prague.” He was feared by all and loathed by most. With his cold Aryan features and implacable cruelty, Heydrich seemed indestructible—until two men, a Slovak and a Czech recruited by the British secret service, killed him in broad daylight on a bustling street in Prague, and thus changed the course of History.

Who were these men, arguably two of the most discreet heroes of the twentieth century? In Laurent Binet’s captivating debut novel, we follow Jozef Gabćik and Jan Kubiš from their dramatic escape of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England; from their recruitment to their harrowing parachute drop into a war zone, from their stealth attack on Heydrich’s car to their own brutal death in the basement of a Prague church.

A seemingly effortlessly blend of historical truth, personal memory, and Laurent Binet’s remarkable imagination, HHhH—an international bestseller and winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman—is a work at once thrilling and intellectually engrossing, a fast-paced novel of the Second World War that is also a profound meditation on the nature of writing and the debt we owe to history.

HHhH is one of The New York Times' Notable Books of 2012. "

This book was incredible. It was even funny sometimes, quite a feat considering the subject matter. After reading this book (though it was a little bit fiction) I felt like an expert on this event. When I'm in Prague I will be seeking out all of these places!

"Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach

(You can check out my review here)

"Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers some willingly, some unwittingly have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them."

Ah the book that introduced me to Mary Roach. And my favorite Mary Roach book still! Death is a taboo and touchy subject and I appreciate Mary's humorous but respectful approach. I highly highly recommend this book, even if you aren't generally a science person.

"Havisham" by Ronald Frame

(You can check out my review here)

"HAVISHAM IS THE ASTONISHING PRELUDE TO CHARLES DICKENS'S GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

Before she became the immortal and haunting Miss Havisham of Great Expectations, she was Catherine, a young woman with all of her dreams ahead of her. Spry, imperious, she is the daughter of a wealthy brewer. But she is never far from the smell of hops and the arresting letters on the brewhouse wall—HAVISHAM—a reminder of all she owes to the family name and the family business.

Sent by her father to stay with the Chadwycks, Catherine discovers elegant pastimes to remove the taint of her family's new money. But for all her growing sophistication, Catherine is anything but worldly, and when a charismatic stranger pays her attention, everything—her heart, her future, the very Havisham name—is vulnerable.

In Havisham, Ronald Frame unfurls the psychological trauma that made young Catherine into Miss Havisham and cursed her to a life alone, roaming the halls of the mansion in the tatters of the dress she wore for the wedding she was never to have.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013"

You know how I know this book is good? I don't like Great Expectations, and I still really liked this book. I think Miss Havisham is such an interesting character and I was so curious to hear about her backstory. Didn't disappoint!

"The Circle" by Dave Eggers

(You can check out my review here)

"The Circle is the exhilarating new novel from Dave Eggers, best-selling author of A Hologram for the King, a finalist for the National Book Award.

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in America—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge."

This book is great but also very scary because I can see it happening in the not too distant future. Put your electronics down occasionally before it all takes over!

"Burn" by Julianna Baggott

"The fate of the world is more fragile than ever as Pures battle Wretches and former allies become potential enemies.

Inside the Dome Patridge has taken his father's place as leader of the Pures. His intent had been to bring down the Dome from the inside with the help of the secret resistance force led by Partridge's former teacher Glassings. But from his new position of power, things don't seem quite as clear. Perhaps his father had been right. Perhaps if the world is to survive it needs the Dome--and Partridge--to rule it.

Outside the Dome Pressia and Bradwell continue piecing together the clues left to them by their parents from the time before the detonations. Soon they will be able to help heal the Wretches, freeing them from their monstrous fusings and the Dome's oppression once and for all. But their success also depends on Partridge. Can they still trust their friend and ally to see their plan through? Or will a new war begin?"

I don't generally get over the moon excited about trilogies but this one I was bananas for. It was agonizing waiting for the third book and when it came out I gobbled it up. Love this series because it takes a really harsh look at people and realities after a cataclysmic event.