50 Book Pledge discussion

What are you reading this month? Do you already have books planned for June? Or do you just see what appeals at the time?

How is your 50 Book Pledge coming along? I hope everyone is hang fun with their reading, and discovering some wonderful books and authors!!

at the moment, i am reading Kim Thúy's upcoming new book, Mãn. i loved - so much - Ru, so i was excited to receive an early copy of this new one. it's lovely!

another group here on GR is reading A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki. i hope to get to that this month, but that's the only planning i have done for my reading.

I'm reading Corrag while finishing up some from May. I've more than 60% of my goal met, so I'm thinking that if the summer goes well, I'll be able to up my pledge.

that's great, darcy!! i am ahead with my goal too, and only need 10 more books to reach the 50 mark. this is an unusual pace for me. though last year was unusual too. normally, i read between 60 and 70 books in a year. and i always thought that was pretty good. but last year, due to some down time for health issues, i read 120 books. i don't think i will hit that crazy (for me) number again...but i seem to be on pace for 90ish. maybe? :/

(actually -- until i joined goodreads, i thought i read a lot, and quickly. i am continually amazed by how many books people manage in one year. hundreds. plural. i mean...WOW!! i know of one person who seems to clear 300+ books in one year - and it's challenging reading too, not lightweight, fluffy stuff. i have no idea how he does it!!)

There are no less than 5 or 6 books coming out this month that I want to read! First is Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King and That Night by Chevy Stevens. Also a couple of others, like Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich and All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner. Right now I am finishing up The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I also read Bird Box by Josh Malerman and I highly recommend it.

wow!! you are going to have a great, and busy, month - sandra!! have fun! have you read chevy stevens before? i have her book Still Missing - and really should have read it by now. i have heard such great things! i am also keen for the new one from jonasson! i really enjoyed The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared so much! :)

I have read other books by Chevy Stevens and I've liked them all. I am really having difficulty with The Hundred Yr Old Man, find it very silly and unrealistic. Which is why they call it fiction I guess! I forgot to say that I have read 44 books on my way to my goal of 100.

heh!! the 'silly' nature of the book (100-year-old man...) was what i liked about it. :) i think it was the right book at the right time for me, but i have heard from others who also weren't quite as enamoured with it as i was. i hope his new one works better for you!!

I'm currently reading Tangled by Emma Chase with plans to finish Gone Girl, Christmas at Carrington's and The Interestings as those three have been languishing in my "Currently Reading" list - started but not finished. Then I have plans to read Sixth Grave on the Edge and start the Night Huntress series with Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. Also hoping to squeeze in The Rosie Project, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared and possibly The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden before some anticipated July reads are released. I've just reached the 100 books read mark for my goal of 200! So many books so little time!

Reading All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Towes, then will probably read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry .... And after that, I don't know, so many choices!

And I'm only on book #15, so I'll probably get to around last year's number of 33 at least, but probably not 50, though I read as much as I can in my time off!

Christina wrote: "Reading All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Towes, then will probably read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry .... And after that, I don't know, so many choices!"

Those are two of my favourite books! All My Puny Sorrows is just so good, I still think about it...

Sandra wrote: "Those are two of my favourite books! All My Puny Sorrows is just so good, I still think about it... "

i really enjoyed both too, sandra! and yes - 'all my puny sorrows' is still with me as well, more than 2 months after i finished reading. so far, it's my favourite read of 2014, and i feel it will sustain through to the end of the year. it was just that amazing of a read for me!!

christina - i hope you will really love both books!

Sweet, I'm excited! Goldfinch has been my favourite read of 2014 so far. Thanks :)

Part of the reason I love Miriam Toews so much is that I live in the province where she sets many of her books. I know the small Mennonite town she is talking about and I grew up in Winnipeg. Also, I have a signed copy of All My Puny Sorrows! The book is just so amazing and sad and funny, I don't see how it could not be a favourite of many readers. As for A J Fikry, that book was just so good also. I love books about books and bookstores and this one was exceptional. I also loved Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore.

I didn't love Mr. Penumbra's - I liked the writing style, but I kind of felt like I was reading a bookstore version of Da Vinci Code, but to each her/his own! Started Puny Sorrows today, now I'm about to go dive right in again! I can't keep up with your monthly book list, I'm jealous!

Finished Power Down by Ben Coes and starting A Passage to India by E. M. Forster. On going probably for the next couple of months will be Middlemarch by George Eliot.

@ sandra - how great to have so much you can relate to with toews' stories. that really must add another layer of enjoyment!!

@ christina - i enjoyed 'mr. penumbra' as an easy, fun read - entertainment. but the in-person book group i belonged had selected it, and it was the discussion with the group that actually increased my appreciation of the story.

last night i began reading some sherlock holmes!! i am enjoying The Sign of Four a lot! :)

Started A Game of Thrones. Obsessed. It's ridiculous. I love it.

Started the Brethren: An Epic Adventure of the Knights Templar trilogy by Robyn Young. Just finished the 1st and starting on Crusade today.

Just reading

Just started The Ludwig Conspiracy. Enjoying so far but early days yet

Just started Far from the Madding Crowd.
Hardy always gets me to think of things I haven't before.

I just finished V-S Day by Allen Steele (alt-history with a Nazi-US space race), and now I'm reading one of Carolyn Coulter's FBI Thrillers. After that is 172 Hours on the Moon, a ya sf thriller.

Summer, for me, is fluffy read time. The winter is when I settle down with the deep, serious stuff.

I'm on page 143 of 424 of The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin and I'm hooked. I hadn't realized that she is the same author who wrote The Aviator's Wife, which I read and enjoyed not so long ago, until I settled in with Mrs. Tom Thumb - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...

I'm doing fine time for the 50 book pledge!

I've got a huge TBR list, gravitating strongly towards historical fiction. Frog Music by Emma Donoghue from Harper Collins Canada is one of my must-read-soons. I'm also looking forward to Harper Collins Canada's summer release of The Visitors by Sally Beauman,
(see: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... I've really enjoyed others of her books like The Sisters Mortland and Rebecca's Tale.

Scott wrote: "Just started Far from the Madding Crowd.
Hardy always gets me to think of things I haven't before. "

That's one of my favourite Hardy books, next to Tess.

Nice. When I read Tess it stayed with me for a long time. Ever read Jude the Obscur?

There was also a great job done of a film or TV adaptation of Tess out of UK that I watched about 13 yrs ago. I've not read Jude yet.

If you liked Tess you'll like Jude the Obscur. It's a great book:) Hardy stays with me like George Eliot.

I just finished "Dreams of Joy" by Lisa See. It was my favourite of her novels so far. I just love her!!!

I'm just starting "The Winter Guest" by Pam Jenoff which I recently won on goodreads.

I'm currently reading Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah, but then I'll be starting Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky trilogy. I keep hearing awesome things about it!

I'm sure this will be replaced by a July thread soon, but in June I read 419 by Will Ferguson (didn't like), The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (loved), Chocolat (good but not my favourite by Joanne Harris) and Origin of the Species by Nino Ricci (nearly killed me).

Currently reading . Really enjoying this psychological thriller.

Sandra wrote: "There are no less than 5 or 6 books coming out this month that I want to read! First is Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King and That Night by [author:Chevy S..."

Sandra, it looks like we read a lot of the same authors. I have not read Bird Box, so maybe I will try that one. .

Carla,
Bird box is very good! You won't be able to stop reading.

Currently re-reading The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald then inspired by Bill The Case of Exploding Mangoes

Bring Up the BodiesHilary Mantel

Borrowed it in Hard Cover from my Brother-in-Law after buying him Wolf Hall.

There's a July and August thread up now!