creatively deciding what bookish advent plans i will make

One of my life mottos is, "Let it be simple". 

That applies to my reading life as well. In that vein, I have been thinking of what I can do that's bookish for advent. 

My daughter is creating a poetry advent plan for me. I gave her a few poets and she chose some as well. I will read one per day with tea at night. 

I bought a few Penguin Black Mini Classics on kobo and will read one per day as well. 

these were only a few dollars each!

definitely looking forward to these

I am sitting surrounded by a stack of books (typical night time activity) and pondering what I will do to end my reading year.

I'm not a huge fan of rushing to read a certain number of works before the end of the year. I don't have judgment about those who do these sort of challenges. I think it's quite fun to watch videos of people doing this! I demand a lot from my literature, so that normally doesn't work for me, but these new additions are a way for me to engage with something similar.

I will definitely make posts for the books I intend to read before the year's end, as well as, what coffee I will be consuming.

I'm blogging myself reading Crime and Punishment and Lolita as a re-read and it's so crazy how much I have loved re-reading this season.

I am wishing you a calm and peaceful weekend filled with coffee and warm socks. 

library digital books i've downloaded

I love my library. I love the library. I love free books.

This time of year calls for slowing down. 

Candles.

Extra cups of coffee.

Reflection.

I still watch a decent amount of BookTube, but I have always (and continue to struggle) with videos where people spoil books in their reviews. Unless I've already read the book, I have stopped watching reviews unless it's a trusted source who I know to be someone who discusses the themes and not the entire plot- if there is a plot.

I only get a few hoopla credits each month from my library, and of course Libby still reigns supreme; however, the 6 month wait on any worthy novel pushes me into the arms of the kobo.com store. 

I am definitely someone who feels comforted while scrolling through book titles and making lists of potential books to read. 

Autumn Simplicity

As a re-reading expert (self proclaimed of course), this time of year with it's rustling leaves and dark days, just calls me back to my physical and digital bookshelves to re-read my favorites of all time. 

My melancholic INFJ personality calls to the deep experience of a complex read that contains universal themes of human nature that are timeless.

My Autumn simple plans include evening with soy-wax candles, my kobo color, kindle (but don't get new books on this), and a stack of my favorite novels. All these and a physical stack of books.

Some may say this is a bit much, but it doesn't matter. It works for my soul. I have to read what calls to me. 

Recent Library Digital Acquisitions

really enjoying this so far

looking forward to this one next

I got this one as text from hoopla

I have this on audio from libby

literally forgot this was on hold

Tea and Slow Nights

This week I will be cutting off working on the computer, caregiving duties as best I can, and all house chores at an early hour.

There's always something else to be done. With that knowledge I will be sitting in my reading chair with my favorite tea, or decaf coffee, my stock of books and ereaders and tuning out this insane world. 

I invite you to join me. 

acquisiton: on a woman's madness:: Astrid Roemer

 

Summary:

On a Woman’s Madness tells the story of Noenka, a courageous Black woman trying to live a life of her own choosing. When her abusive husband of just nine days refuses her request for divorce, Noenka flees her hometown in Suriname, on South America’s tropical northeastern coast, for the capital city of Paramaribo. Unsettled and unsupported, her life in this new place is illuminated by romance and new freedoms, but also forever haunted by her past and society’s expectations.

Strikingly translated by Lucy Scott, Astrid Roemer’s classic queer novel is a tentpole of European and post-colonial literature. And amid tales of plantation-dwelling snakes, rare orchids, and star-crossed lovers, it is also a blistering meditation on the cruelties we inflict on those who disobey. Roemer, the first Surinamese winner of the prestigious Dutch Literature Prize, carves out postcolonial Suriname in barbed, resonant fragments. Who is Noenka? Roemer asks us. “I’m Noenka,” she responds resolutely, “which means Never Again.”

Excerpt

The echo that’s been resounding in my stomach for days makes my mood unstable. I can neither sleep nor wake up completely. I can’t concentrate. As if my hormones were at war with each other, my body burns in its most vulnerable strongholds: breast, navel, neck. Everything else is out of whack. I get dressed to go for a walk. When I get outside, I realize I’d rather wash my hair. For fun, I snip an old lock of hair off, burst into tears when I see it there on the bed and decide never again to straighten my hair, never again to wax my armpits, to let my mustache grow.

The author: Astrid Roemer

I can't help but be intrigued by this novel and this author. I am really looking forward to this one.

Happy reading ☕️ 

new book acquisition digitally - sayaka murata

I am a huge Sayaka Murata fan and this novel sounds like something I am really going to enjoy. 

sayaka murata

This Japanese dystopian novel promises to entrance and captivate me in a way that only Murata can do. I am not a big science fiction reader, but somehow she gives depth to her layered stories that speak to something quite deep inside.

Here is the novel's summary:

As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable. As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage—sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest—Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?

I love looking at covers on my tablet and I am being very cautious of the physical books that I am bringing into my library. If I don't think I will read it immediately, I won't buy the physical edition.

I also just decluttered 58 novels. I only want to keep physical copies of books that I will re-read and want to take a super slow time with.

I've always been a digital e-reading person, and as my life has become more stressful, just the clutter of a huge bookshelves brings on a certain anxiety.

I'll report back on what I think about this novel, but either way, I highly recommend you pick this one up or anything by this author.

Happy reading ☕️ 

one book book haul: ghost mountain by Rónán Hession

Only purchasing what I feel most called to, and novels that I feel will change me or my life.

I am so excited for this novel. Rónán Hession is an author to watch for sure.