Wishlist January

Every day I add books to my wish list based on blogger reviews. While I certainly don't want to waste your time by listing every single one, I do want to highlight a few books and reviews which really sparked my interest.

Heather at Raging Bibliomania reviewed Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Connor Grennan, and I immediately added it to the wish list. The book follows Grennan as he travels to Nepal and becomes involved with rescuing children from human trafficking. Heather says: "This was a very interesting book not only in the story it told, but in the way it was presented and the feelings that it evoked in me. It was funny, sad and timely, and had the added benefit of starring the enigma that is Conor Grennan."


The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett caught my eye when Heather of Age 30+...A Lifetime of Books reviewed it. Heather summarizes the book and its appeal: "In this unlikely story the aging Queen of England picks up a sudden interest in reading, an interest in which her family and advisers do not approve.  The fun part of this book is seeing how this slight interest turns into a burning desire and then into a passion, a progression which a book lover like me can easily identify with." I can identify as well, and I just love books like this as they seem to validate my own obsession with reading.

Book Crush by Nancy Pearl is a different kind of wish list book. It's like a book full of wish lists. Lenore of Presenting Lenore reviewed this book and got me thinking about how awesome it would be to own a book which included a bunch of lists of books especially when it focuses on YAL. Lenore explains: "A "celebrated librarian" Pearl offers up over 1000 titles organized into 118 lists.  The titles cover the entire spectrum of children's books - from board books to YA - and even include some adult titles of interest to teens." While the children's books aren't that exciting for me, I like the idea of exploring non-contemporary YAL.

A graphic novel called The Walking Dead: Book 1? Love it. Stephanie over at Laughing Stars reviewed this book by Robert Kirkman says: "There are intense, often brutal, action scenes and grotesque images of the walking dead. Honestly, you’d be disappointed if you didn’t get to see pictures of decomposing zombies, wouldn’t you?" Why yes, yes I would. Typically I am not in to zombie stories, but there is something about this one that just appeals to me for whatever reason.

When I saw Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys on Nicole's blog, Linus's Blanket, I knew it had to go on the wish list immediately. Nicole explains that one can read this book in two ways: "most famously it is known as the novel which explores the life of Bertha Mason before she meets Edward Rochester, the brief life they had together, and then her tenure as crazy woman in the attic in Jane Eyre. It is also an insightful work of Caribbean literature addressing the attitudes that former slaves had toward their masters, and the way those from the continent looked down upon the creole inhabitants and colonizers of the islands – especially the women.  Wide Sargasso Sea works well as a stand alone novel, and can be understood whether you factor in Jane Eyre or not."

If I had to guess, I would say that Ana from things mean a lot adds to my wish list more than anyone else. She reads such fascinating books and writes these intellectual and entertaining reviews. She really caught my interest with Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine when she said: "If I were rich, I would purchase a couple of hundred copies of Delusions of Gender and then stand in a street corner handing them out to random passer-bys: that’s how much I loved this book, and how important I believe it to be." Couple that with the fascinating subject matter and I am really jonesing for this book.

Nicole from Linus's Blanket writes so cleverly that she had me adding A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness to the wish list without her even writing a review. She just mentioned it in her Sunday Salon post! But what can I say? Her description really got me excited: "It’s a savory read as it is, so it’s almost ritual like when I can look forward into curling up on the couch or sprawling across the bed and reading a few pages, well, more like several chapters. What made it so hard to resist?  Oh my, the list is long.  History, witches, vampires, Oxford College, wine.  I love this book!" That list appeals to me too.

 I first saw Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin on Stephanie's blog, Reviews by Lola, then at Jill's Rhapsody in Books, and finally came across it again at Heather's Raging Bibliomania. Stephanie's note of the gender issues portrayed in the book and Jill's comments about the supporting cast of characters got me interested. But how could I resist when Heather describes the book in this way: "What I noticed first about this book as I was reading, was the unremitting darkness that surrounded the plot and characters. One could argue that the medieval age was one of particular darkness, but I think this book strove deeply for a real feeling of foreboding and ominousness." The book sounds deliciously creepy.

I had been toying around with starting the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, but middle grade fiction is sort of hit or miss with me and I worried it would be a miss. Then Kathy at Bermuda Onion featured the book for her Kid Konnection, and she made up my mind for me. The stories follow Greg, a middle child who is stuck in that 'life isn't fair attitude' for one year of his life. Kathy said: "I just loved Greg – he wants so hard to fit in and comes up with some crazy schemes to do so. Sometimes it seems as if nothing ever goes his way. The thing is, he thinks he’s got everything figured out yet he’s so clueless in some ways."

Generally speaking, math and I are not great friends. We are more like frenemies: each trying to prove she is better than the other. I took higher level calculus courses just to prove I could (couldn't let math beat me). This books looks like it will bring the interesting back to math. Here's Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos "consists of a series of not very closely related mathematical topics, lucidly presented" according to the husband of Jill from Rhapsody in Books. He told a short anecdote about "a chimpanzee who can count up to nine and can identify the appropriate symbol for each of the first nine digits and put them in the correct order. She has significant problems with where the number zero fits in the order, however, even though she seems to know that zero mean no objects." Apparently this is one of the tidbits in the book, and since I find the concept so freaking intriguing, I am hopefully that I will enjoy the rest of the book as well.

Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai first caught my eye because I have The Zig Zag Way by the same author sitting on my shelves but still haven't read it. Then reading Swapna's review over at S. Krishna's Books, I got really intrigued. The story of one girl's sacrifices for her brother, Fasting, Feasting is, according to Swapna, "a quiet, contemplative novel about the love and injustices in one Indian family.  This family isn’t necessarily typical of those in India, but it’s still a brilliant depiction, one that Desai accomplishes masterfully.  Her prose is beautiful and easy to read, and the book has a universal message of acceptance that will appeal to any reader.  I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in cultural, character-driven stories."

The Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull is completely released, and that combined with the awesome review by Sheila of Book Journey has me fiending for the first in the series. Sheila says she "enjoyed the storyline and of course what's not to love about fairies?" There is absolutely nothing to not like about fairies. I love YAL SFF series, and I really really love it when I can read the entire series back to back in one horrifyingly obsessive week. I'm going to wait until after the TBR Dare is over, but then I fully intend on buying the box set in paperback!

Slob by Ellen Potter was completely unheard of by me until seeing a stellar review by James of Ready When You Are, C.B. I won't even summarize the book for you as I'm thinking it's one which knowing less is better. But James does say that "Slob is a gentle sort of book.  While the issues it deals with are heavy--grief, bullying, gender identity, body issues-- the resolution is entirely hopeful and even the book's worst villains aren't all that bad in the end...Slob is an entertaining book that will probably satisfy most young readers."