Soggy Books, New Books, TBRs, and Books in Progress

Last week I posed a picture of my damp copy of Health at Every Size. How bad did it look after drying off?

I went online to order a replacement copy, and a couple of more items. One particular book titled Cinnamon and Gunpowder shapes up as my next read. It tells the story of a ship’s chef taken prisoner by a female pirate named Mad Hannah Mabbot. My friend V told me about the book, and the premise basically said READ ME! Owen, the chef, has to make dinner with the supplies on hand. Female pirate + food+reversal of roles=READ ME!

At the moment two books occupy my time. On the bus I continue with Too Far Gone; Before bed I read Aziz Ansari’s (Parks and Rec) new book Modern Romance on e-book, courtesy of the library’s Overdrive app. How do I love Overdrive, let me count the ways. The wait time is shorter. The physical book has 75 people waiting with me as the 75th person. I can discover new authors, take my book-laden Galaxy tab to places, and read smutty books to my heart’s content.

I still love the feel of a physical book in my hands. The problem with physical books? Did I just mention the book-laden tablet? I only have so much room in my condo, something both a blessing and a curse. I have to take stock of the TBR (To Be Read) pile to form some sort of queue. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, the ‘Song of and Fire’ series for re-reading before Dances with Dragons, When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid (2014 Governor General winner for Children’s Literature, but really YA), and this list goes on.

Last year I revisited The Crucible for the first time since high school. Why? I had a reason and he’s 6’2, British, blue-eyed, and my kind of nerd. No essays to write, just the pure joy of reading the play. Enough time has passed to reach for the classics, something done in earnest for a few years. I read Pride and Prejudice, and feel the need to have a look at Tess of the d’Urbervilles again. On the other hand, I have not read enough Aboriginal authors, and particularly. Aboriginal women. I do recommend Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway and Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden. One deals with the fall-out of residential schools, the other has a female character carrying on traditional trapping. Boyden’s The Orenda remains firmly rooted in the top 10 of the TBR pile.

What’s on your list? My TBR pile can always use some ideas. Sound off below.