Average Girl Reads

I thought I would try something new with the blog. I will do a few short posts each week on books that I've added to my TBR list. This will keep me in the habit of updating more often and help me remember where I heard about the books. Hopefully, you will find something to spark your interest. If you've already read some of the books, feel free to warn me away from the bad ones!

The Happiness Project: I found out about this book from the author's recent Huffington Post article. As I've mentioned before, I'm a fan of stunt books and this is another one. The author takes a year and follows advice from several different sources on how to be happy.

Yes, it is the last Sunday of 2009, and the Sunday Salon will probably be full of year-end reflections. Since I've been stuck on the same book for the past two weeks (Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture), I don't have much to write about. I might as well join the throng and do a year-end wrap-up :-).

Books read in 2009: 93
How many were audiobooks?: 17
How many were cookbooks?: 5
How many were part of a series?: 39
How many were graphic novels?: 10

OTHER THOUGHTS

--My TBR list was at 119 titles this time last year. Right now I have 96 titles on my list. That is a far cry from my goal of 50, but at least the actual titles have changed over the year.

--I must have been in the mood for pretty pictures during the first quarter because 8 of the 10 graphic novels I read were read between January and March.

--My love of TV seems to be spilling over into my reading. Almost half of the books I read this year were part of a series. I like stories and situations that stretch out over more than one book.

--I only abandoned 11 books this year. I'm not sure whether that is good or not, because I have a bad habit of sticking with books even if I'm not enjoying them. There are several more books that I probably should have abandoned rather than taking a month to slog through them. However, there are a few books on the abandoned list that are there not because they were bad, but because I wasn't in the right frame of mind to enjoy them. I put them on the list so I could remember them and check them out another time.


GOALS FOR 2010

I don't set many goals for my reading because it is a hobby. However, there are about 25 books that have been on my TBR list for over a year. If you take a look at my book montage in the sidebar, you'll see some of the titles. I'd like to read or eliminate anything that has been on my list since 2008.

Another bit of housekeeping I'd like to do involves my TBR "bench". I don't talk about it much but I have two other lists besides my official TBR list. One is a "not at my library" shelf on Goodreads. The other is Wowbrary list of books that are coming soon to my library's collection. I need to compare the two so I can update my official TBR list. Don't be surprised if you see my list total jump in the next few weeks!

Let me start with the disclaimer: I got an email from Bag Ladies Tea asking me if I, as the author of the Average Girl Reads blog, would like a sample of their new tea aimed at book lovers. I gave up on making my blogs a paying proposition a long time ago, but I do like a good cup of tea so I said yes. They didn't explicitly ask me to review the tea, but we all know the score :-).

Novel Teas is an English Breakfast tea from Bag Ladies Tea. I like tea but I am not a connoisseur, so I can't comment authoritatively on the quality. All I can say is that it was fresh enough for me to be able to tell that it was English Breakfast and not oolong or some other blend.

What sets the teas from Bag Ladies Teas apart is the packaging. With Novel Teas, each tea bag is tagged with a different literary quote. Some are funny and some are serious. I haven't looked at all the bags in my 25-bag box, but so far I've gotten quotes by Dr. Seuss and J. W. Eagan. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the quotes as I brew my daily cuppa.

If you are putting together a gift basket for your mom or someone in your book club, you should take a look at Novel Teas. They come in two sizes, a 25-bag box and a 5-bag mini box. The small size would fit perfectly into a new mug and make a great gift for a coworker.

If you aren't a reader of my other blog, then you may not know that I broke my foot. I wish I could say that it happened while I was doing something exciting like snowboarding, but I was just walking down the hall at work when my ankle turned. This has happened to me before and I've always recovered quickly, so imagine my surprise when I found out that I actually broke something!

Anyway, I have to stay off my feet for a while, which means good news for my blog readers. I didn't do much reading this weekend because I took that time to clear off my DVR. There won't be any new episodes of my favorite shows over the holidays and I've got a stack of library books waiting for my attention. So don't be surprised if you see a flurry of activity on this blog over the next week or so.

With Christmas falling on Friday and my current employer's generous holiday policy, I have five days off for the holiday this year. My family doesn't participate in a lot of Christmas activities, so that translates into about 4.5 days of boredom. Grown-ups don't get toys under the tree to keep them occupied, and the kids don't always share with me :-). That's why I make sure to do a library run before Christmas Eve. Sitting at home without entertainment is a guaranteed path to Christmas sadness for me.

QUESTION: Do you line up books to read for the holidays?

Cartoon Marriage: Adventures in Love and Matrimony by The New Yorker's Cartooning Couple by Liza Donnelly

Genre: comics compilation
On my TBR list?: Yes

This is a cute collection of single-panel cartoons about marriage. At the beginning of each section, there is a multi-panel cartoon about something in the cartoonists' own relationship. None of the cartoons are particularly edgy; I've laughed harder at webcomics like xkcd. The ones in this book remind me more of the ones I would see in Reader's Digest as a kid. Still, reading this book was a mildly amusing way to wile away an hour.

View all my reviews >>

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out by Neta Jackson

Genre: Christian fiction
On my TBR list? Yes

Book 7 of 7


I read this final book in the Yada Yada Prayer Group series only because I have trouble dropping a series in the middle. The book wasn't bad, but it wasn't really necessary since there weren't any unfinished plot lines. This installment felt like a reunion special with the cast of your favorite childhood show; you want to spend more time with your favorite characters, but it isn't the best writing of the series.

The reunion vibe was especially strong in the beginning of the book. In the other books, only a month or so had elapsed between the end of the action in one book and the start of the next book. This last book jumps ahead a couple years, and not in the most graceful manner. I kept thinking that I had accidentally skipped a book because one of the 16-year-old characters was suddenly in college, among other changes.

Ultimately, this is a book for people who are already in love with the series and its characters. Unlike the other books, there is no real suspense or danger in the story. If you are able to quit in the middle of a series and dropped this one around book four, then this final volume is not a reason to jump back in.

View all my reviews >>

I've been reading more than writing lately, which is why I haven't participated in the Sunday Salon for the past two weeks. With the recent holiday, I gave myself permission to read books back-to-back without worrying about posting my impressions of them here on the blog. I don't usually do it that way because my memory of a book fades quickly; however, many of the books I had on my stack were light reading so I knew that I could wait a few days to review them.

TBR LIST: With all this reading, I thought it would be a good idea to check my progress in taming my TBR list. I was prepared to see a dip in the total, and I did. From a high of 114 titles, I am down to 96. However, what I didn't remember is that when I started this I was only at 80 titles. Getting down to 50 titles by the end of the year is looking more and more like an impossible goal. The good thing is that the attempt to meet that goal has me reading more books instead of just reading about books.

HOLIDAY BOOKS: Although I was thinking about checking out some holiday books, I decided I'd rather make a dent in my TBR list. Funny coincidence: the next two books I picked to read, The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out and Dead Until Dark, turned out to take place around the holidays. I actually started the Yada Yada Prayer Group book a couple days before Thanksgiving which is exactly when the action started in the book! I still may try a full-on holiday book, but it will have to be closer to Christmas. That is when my defenses are down and I can handle all the sentimentalism without making fun of it :-).

QUESTION: What is your favorite book set at Christmas time?