It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)

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Hey there!  Welcome to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Fair warning… this meme tends to add to your reading list!

What a Crazy Awesome week!  First I worked two 12 hour days Monday and Tuesday to have the rest of the week off.  And thank goodness I did as I spent Wednesday, Christmas Day projectile vomiting (think Exorcist)…. yeah, sorry to be so graphic but i was SICK.  And I was sick Thursday.  AND I was sick Friday… and Saturday I ran a fever but was moving around.  Today was my first solid food since Christmas, BUT I did get to have both my kids here AND I am feeling much better today except for a headache (yes yes I am pounding the liquids). 

SO… despite my disgusting intro.. here is what I posted this week:

Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt  (powerful read!)

My 2013 blog review year with best books and audio

Highlights of 2013 in picture collage (the trips, the rides, the snow, the mud….)

Parkland by Vincent Bugliosi ( the 4 days surrounding the Kennedy assassination)

Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple  (what a funny quirky book!)

and shameless plugs for two fun challenges coming up….

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It’s not even really a challenge its more of a “join in!” – I am inviting everyone to pick out that awesome first book that will be in your hands on January 1st and join in on welcoming in the new Year together bookish style.  Check out the post here, 58 people are already signed up… I hope you will consider as well 🙂

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Its my 4th year hosting the WHERE Are You Reading Challenge and this one is fun and easy!  You just keep track of what states/countries your books are mainly set in and try to hit all the states in a year.  It really is fun!  Here’s the link with details 🙂

as for this week this is what is on tap going into the New Year:

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Kate’s in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. And for Kate.

An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.

Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it’s the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn’t save.

EEP!  Right???  This may be the one I choose to be my first read of the year.  It is also our Book Club choice for January.

 

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If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.
 
In this irresistibly imagined below stairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.

Mmm hmmm… right?  You know you want to read it!  Thanks to Candice’s review at Beth Fish Reads for this one hitting the TBR.

 

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It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don’t know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love – and at the center of a narrowing, ever-more-dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a novel of shocking narrative energy and power. It combines unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and breathtaking suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher’s calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is a beautiful, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.

Another one I have heard the raves about… I cautiously approach this one it.  It is 32 hours on audio.  32 hours.  Yikes.

 

I suppose that is all… at least as far as I know 😉  I am anxious to see what you will be reading into the New Year.  Please add your link to your Its Monday post below where it says click here.  I am going to try to get around to everyone this week to check in.

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For those of you that read mainly middle grade and children’s books, be sure to also link to the younger version of It’s Monday by using the link below!

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95 thoughts on “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?”

  1. You still managed to post all week even though you were so sick. That’s impressive. I hope you’re all better. I HATE stomach flus! Looking forward to your first book of the year post.

    Reply

  2. The Goldfinch is one my most memorable reads in 2013. I’ve heard fabulous things about Longbourn. I’ll let your review decide for me whether I read it or not. I was only so-so on Reconstructing Amelia. I’m looking forward to participating in My First Book, but first I must get a shower and at least try to make my hair presentable for my picture – ha!

    Reply

  3. So sorry to hear you had a rotten Christmas sickness wise. So sorry to hear that. Yep stomach flu is my pet hate of sickness!
    Thanks for running this meme, it is really good to get so many others reading recommendations (or not!)
    Take care.

    Reply

  8. I hope you’re feeling better, Sheila.

    I’m signed up for the Where are you Reading Challenge. I love that one even though I never seem to finish it. LOL

    I’m thinking about the January 1st one.

    Have a great week!

    Reply

  12. Glad to hear you are feeling better and that you got to have your boys home for Christmas.
    All of your new listings are new to me.
    I am running out of time for a Wrap up Best of 2013 and I have to check out your First Book of the Year. I think I know which it will be. 🙂
    Best wishes for a great New Year!

    Reply

  14. I was very interested in Reconstructing Amelia – and then you have Longbourn as well as the Goldfinch. Happy reading and all good wishes for the New Year.

    Reply

  16. Well, you made me feel like a weenie! I got off with terrible nausea a couple of weekends before Christmas and then a terrible cold that I’ve been dealing with for a week and a half. I’ll take that over the vomiting (projectile, no less!) any day. I needed some perspective there. Thanks! 🙂 I hope you continue to improve quickly.

    Reply

  19. I’ll be finishing Labor Day so I can pass it off to someone else then starting Reconstructing Amelia but that’s all I’ll get in this week. I loved Pride & Prejudice (one of my favorite books ever!) but really have no desire to read Longbourn and I really, really want(ed) to read Goldfinch but the audio is 32 hours long?? Maybe I’ll pass on it!!

    Reply

  21. Happy Monday! Hope you’re feeling better and have a great New Year’s week. I’ll be checking out your year end post… looking forward to your review of Longbourn too.

    Reply
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  31. Adding Reconstructing Amelia to my list!

    So sorry to hear that you were sick on Christmas. 1999 our son was so sick that we had to cancel Christmas, he didn’t even want to open a gift (that’s sick). So I know how tough it is any day but Christmas somehow makes it worse. I hope you are feeling better Sheila.

    I’m ready for 2014, feel the excitement to focus on me, reading, blogging, knitting, etc. I bought a blog template from Etsy last week… just a little change but she accomplished everything I wanted with a ready to use from her shop. {love}

    I hope you have a wonderful New Years!

    Reply

  34. I got sick over Thanksgiving break. I was so looking forward to Thanksgiving break. I have great empathy for you.

    I’m thinking about Goldfinch, too. I’m a Secret History fan from way back but I wasn’t crazy in the same way about My Little Friend. And Goldfinch is long.

    Reply

  35. Ugh my stomach just rolled in sympathy lol, glad you’re doing better now!! Both Longbourn and Reconstructing Amelia are on my TBR list. Have a good week into an exciting new year and happy reading of course 🙂

    Reply

  37. I have heard good things about The Goldfinch and it is showing up on lots of “best” lists. I’ll be eager to hear what you think about it. I’m still thinking about my first book of the year. I have so many choices on my TBR mountain. Happy New Year!

    Reply

  38. Reconstructing Amelia is really good – I read it this past summer for a book club – it’s got so much going on and has lots of great discussion points. I hope you enjoy it!

    Longbourn and The Goldfinch both sound intriguing…will be looking forward to hearing your thoughts on them.

    Glad to hear you are finally feeling better. Hope you have a great New Years!!! Just signed up for First Book of the New Year – now just need to figure out what I’ll read!

    Reply

  39. Oh, no! So sorry to hear you were so sick for Christmas. I have spent a few Christmases in bed, so I know it is no fun to miss out on everything. Glad to hear you are feeling better now and got to spend some time with your sons.

    I have no idea how you managed to post so much while sick! Looks like you have some good books coming up for the new year. Enjoy them this week and stay healthy!

    Sue

    Book By Book

    Book by Book is now on Facebook!

    Reply

  40. I am seeing Longbourn everywhere! I enjoy Austen although I am not a super fan like some people. I’m still considering picking this one up though!

    I hope you feel back to 100% soon. 🙂

    Reply

  41. Awww, what a bummer that you were sick on Christmas! I hope you’re feeling much better! I have heard so many great things about The Goldfinch, but my TBR list is so long already. I can’t wait to hear your review of it!

    Reply
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  45. I was sick the last time I had a few days off, but so far so good for me this time around. Glad you’re feeling better! I really wanted to read Longbourn, but had to return my overdue copy to the library. Read The Goldfinch in print and hated to put it down!

    Reply
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