Nonfiction November 2020

Nonfiction November is a month dedicated to celebrating nonfiction and runs from 1st November to 30th November 2020. 

    I do read a reasonable amount of non-fiction throughout the year anyway, but it’s great to have a month where I focus on reading more non-fiction than fiction. I know about Nonfiction November from Olive's channel 'A Book Olive'. This is the first time I am taking part, thought I followed this initiation from the beginning.
 
     I’ve really struggled to pick my TBR, as I have so many other books that I want to read. So I’ve decided to pick one book for each challenge and hope to finish each of them in every week of the month.
 

So without further ado, here is my TBR

TIME
I am going to read When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, who unfortunately died before he finished the book, he ran out of time.

MOVEMENT
 Here I choose Развивающие занятия "ленивой мамы" by Anna Bykova. Educational games for children from "lazy mum". This book aims to develop and educate children in a less intrusive manner. And children are in constant movement as you all know))

 

 

BUZZ
For this prompt I am reading Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch. I know about Jane Lynch from TV show Glee and I loved her character and how she made it shine. She also played in one of my favorite middle grade movie Sleep over, and thought her character is not that prominent I loved her in it. So I look forward to reading about her life and her way to success. And Glee was quite a buzz in its time. 

 

 

DISCOVERY
The last book I am going to read is French Women Don't Sleep Alone: Pleasurable Secrets to Finding Love by Jamie Cat Callan. I do not know much of it as it was a present, but I hope to discover some new secrets and ways to enjoy life.

Middle Grade March Announcement and TBR 2019

Middle Grade March is a month long readathon happening March 1-31. It will be hosted by Katie @ Life Between Words  and Krista from BooksAndJams.
Katie's Announcement Video
Krista's Announcement Video
Don't forget to use the hashtag #middlegrademarch so we can follow your reading!

CHALLENGES (optional, of course):
In order to help you choose books for the month we have five challenges or guides.
1. A nonfiction or book based on true events
2. Book with a nonhuman main character
3. A fantasy
4. Book written in verse
5. A diverse read

    I do not read too many so I put up quite a big TBR list I can choose from depending on the mood.

1. I want to check Jo Nesbo's series about Doctor Proctor. Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder, Bubble in the Bathtub, Doctor Proctor Who Cut the Cheese?, The Great Gold Robbery are the four books so far and quite chunky, so it will be good to start and see if it any good.

2. For challenge #2 I have a book sitting on my TBR for some years The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

3. For challenge #3 I have Inkspell by Cornelia Funke. It is sitting on my shelves for more then a year.

4. Additionally I have 6 books by Michael Bond about bear called Paddington. I guess it does not fall under middle grade rules, but I need to read it someday, so why not during March.

Challenges #1,3,5 are quite difficult for me as do not read much children books, so I will wait for recommendations from the hosts.

June 2018 TBR

    My May TBR did not work out completely as I pictured it, but still I am optimistic and will continue with publishing TBRs. Even if I will read two books out of the whole list it still be a success.
    This month I want to concentrate on books which will help me to cover as many PopSugar Reading Challenge prompts as possible.

    So...
1. Number 4. A book involving a heist - Headhunters by Jo Nesbø
2. Number 5. Nordic noir - Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbø  
3. Number 11. A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym - The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
4. Number 12. A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
5. Number 13. A book that is also a stage play or musical - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
6. Number 21. A book with your favorite color in the title - Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
7. Number 28. A book with song lyrics in the title - The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (Tim Burton's Corpse Bride main song - Remains of the Day)

Of course I will not be able read all those books, but I can at least start some and see maybe I will find my new favorite.

May 2018 TBR

 It seems I urgently need TBR to sort my debts out. First of all, my aim is to finish all the books I have started. Secondly, read the books I obtained for book clubs and did not manage to read in time. So this is going to be a big list, so I announce May to be a month of covered debts. I hope at least this will motivate me enough to finish the books.

So my list for this month is

The books to be finished: 

1. The Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian
2. The Hidden Light of Objects by Mai Al-Nakib
3. Naïve. Super by Erlend Loe

The books for book clubs and my projects:
1. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
2. Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
3. Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
5. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Middle Grade March Announcement and TBR 2017

Middle Grade March is a month long readathon happening March 1-31. It will be hosted by Katie @ Life Between Words  and Krista from BooksAndJams.
Katie's Announcement Video / Instagram 
Krista's Announcement Video /  Instagram

CHALLENGES (optional, of course):
1. Read an award winner
2. Read a book to movie adaptation
3. Read a children's classic
4. Read a childhood favorite
5. Read a diverse book

Instagram Lives:
February 28 @ 8:30 pm (CST) - What is Middle Grade
March 7 @ 8:30 pm (CST) - Our TBRs and Book Recommendations
March 28 @ 8:30pm (CST) - Girl Who Drank the Moon discussion

    I do not read too many so I put up quite a big TBR list so I can choose from depending on the mood.
1. First of all I would like to read The School for Good and Evil and A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani. I will start with the first book in the series and see if I like it enough to pick up the second one. I do not think I will read more the two books from this series, even if I would love it.

2. I want to check Jo Nesbo's series about Doctor Proctor. Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder, Bubble in the Bathtub, Doctor Proctor Who Cut the Cheese?, The Great Gold Robbery are the four books so far and quite chunky, so it will be good to start and see if it any good.

3.  I would like to start A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I have heard so much about the series but never read it, so it is a big opportunity to begin. This books will also be a reply to challenge #2

4. For challenge #3 I will read a book by Frances Hodgson Burnett:  A Little Princess, The Secret Garden or Little Lord Fauntleroy

5.  For childhood favorite (challenge #4) I will re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling and for an award winner (challenge #1) I will most probably read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in this gorgeous Illustrated Edition.

I have not decided on last challenge and see what recommendations others will have.

Cosy Reading Night #2

This Wednesday I am joining Cosy Reading Night hosted by lovely Lauren from Lauren And The Books, which is basically 3 hours dedicated to reading in cosy atmosphere with snacks, tea, blankets, candles and so on. This time it is Femmeuary Cosy Reading Night combined together with the Femmeuary, book and movies celebrating women.

I decided not only read but watch a movies as well:
I will start with We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  and The Beautifull Cassandra by Jane Austen
Then I am hoping to finish The Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian
and as desert I will watch  Hidden Figures  (2016), I never found time to go to the cinema, so it is high time to do it.
    As for snack I will stick to green tea and my favorite Raffaellos and dark chocolate biscuits.

February 2018 TBR

 I was inspired to do a TBR for February by Lauren from Lauren And The Books channel who announced Femmeuary: books written by women or celebrate women should be read through the month of February. So I decided to join and read only books written by female authors this month.

So my list for this month is
1. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
2. The Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian
3. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
4. The Accidental by Ali Smith 
5. I Was Here by Gayle Forman

T5W December 7, Books You Want to Finally Read in 2017

This weekly book meme officiated in November 2013. Every week there is a new topic and your list of 5 nominates will be based off this topic. For further information check out the Goodreads Page.

The theme this week is: Books You Want to Finally Read in 2017

I have recently wrote a post on books added to my "to-read" list in Goodreads for Top Ten Tuesday, but these mostly short TBR. There are stories I want to read for ages and still do not when I will get my hand on them.

1. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 

David Copperfield is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy & impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist.  

2. Ulysses by James Joyce

 It seems everybody is talking about this book and every respected book lover should read it, but judging by the description I might never cope with it. Joyce divided Ulysses into 18 episodes.Every episode of Ulysses has a theme, technique and correspondence between its characters and those of the Odyssey. The original text did not include these episode titles and the correspondences.

 3. Shōgun by James Clavell.  

 This is a known book about a bold English adventurer, an invincible Japanese warlord and a beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in an extraordinary saga of a time and a place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust, and the struggle for power. There is a very good mini-series adaptation (1980) Richard Chamberlain and John Rhys-Davies but I've always wanted to read a book.

4. 1984 by George Orwell

The dystopian novel is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, and public manipulation, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or Ingsoc in the government's invented language, Newspeak) under the control of a privileged elite of the Inner Party, that persecutes individualism and independent thinking as "thoughtcrime."

5. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys   

Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 postcolonial novel by Jean Rhys.The novel is written as a prequel and response to Charlotte Brontë's noted novel Jane Eyre (1847), describing the background to the marriage that Jane learns about after going to work for Mr. Rochester. It is the story of Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress, from the time of her youth in Jamaica, and of her unhappy marriage to a certain English gentleman—he is never named by the author.  

November 29, Top Ten Tuesday

        Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Visit their blog for more details on how to participate. Each week they will post a new Top Ten list on specific topic. 

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide freebie - 10 books to buy for your dad

 

      My father is a huge fan of detective stories, mysteries and action books. At the same time he likes politic memoirs and philosophical works. But I also try to keep him up to date and provide new contemporary books and new authors. So this is going to be the mixture of everything.

1. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith 

2. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

3. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

4. In Search of Lost Time/Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust

5. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

6. The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst 

7. The Hours by Michael Cunningham 

8. The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie

9. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

10. The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

Actually this is quite a nice list and I would like to read all the books myself.