I have been trying to clear the decks and not buy new books in order to prepare for the Great Christmas and Birthday Influx and I don’t feel I’ve really succeeded at either! I did finish 12 books in November, six of which were off the physical TBR (the others were a mix of review books and Kindle ones). I set out to read one book for Australia Reading Month, which I read (“The Three Miss Kings“) and I took part enthusiastically in Non-Fiction November – I set out five books to read, finished three and started one, and read a bit more non-fiction through the month, and posted my four themed posts and enjoyed linking up with more non-fiction readers.
So this is how the TBR stands, at least it’s not two full shelves, I suppose, and has moved along. The pile to the side is Christmas books which will be read between Christmas and New Year (apart from one of them, see more below) and the ones on top are my remaining Thirkell war novels and three lovely British Library books I haven’t been able to get to yet.
I’m currently reading these three. Reni Eddo-Lodge’s “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race” has been a thought- and discussion-provoking readalong with my best friend Emma – we took to reading books together during lockdown and enjoy a bit of time on a Thursday evening. We’re quite slow with these as we sometimes have a chat rather than a read, but it’s a lovely thing to do. We have one chapter and the afterword left of this. I just started “The Good Immigrant USA” to go with my read of the UK version, and am learning new things with this one, too, and Jonathan Gornall’s “How to Build a Boat” is just getting started. The first two will be contributing to the DiverseDecember reading challenge hosted by The Writes of Womxn (thank you to Ali for alerting me to this one) – they will be blogging about Black Brown and Indigenous writers who identify as women but we’re free to read anything and use the hashtag. More on that below – including not pushing myself to read loads and feeling I’ve failed!
Up next, Emma and my next read together will be Isabella Tree’s “Wilding” which was discussed in “On the Marsh” which I’ve just finished and I’ve been looking forward to reading for ages. Of course those BL books will be devoured, too. For my LAST BOOK in my Paul Magrsathon I was going to re-read his lovely “Stardust and Snow” which I read on Christmas Day last year, but then he brought out this “Christmassy Tales” volume which includes that one and a host of other short stories. I have already dipped into it to read his Fester Cat story (from the book he wrote by his late lovely pet) and I am not going to be able to resist it now we’ve got into December – there’s a story about a Christmas Trilobite! I will be reading the four light Christmas novels I bought in October between Christmas and New Year, and I have assigned myself Ayisha Malik’s Sofia Khan novels to read for DiverseDecember. Yes, I have “Brit(ish)” and “Black and British” and various other books but I don’t want to force the issue or read all my BLM books in a rush, so I will enjoy these and see what else I can add in.
New books in
The aforementioned “Christmassy Tales” arrived last week and I also bought my friend Katharine D’Souza’s new novella “Friend Indeed” on the day of publication. I wish I’d got it read for Novellas in November but it will be a Novella in December instead. Bizarrely, Past Me decided to do some Amazon pre-orders in August and September and I was somewhat surprised to receive Jane Linfoot’s “Love at the Little Wedding Shop by the Sea” (book five in her series) and Sairish Hussain’s “The Family Tree” (shortlisted now for the Costa First Novel Award” following the fortunes of a family emigrating to the UK. Both obviously “me” but do I recall ordering them? I do not.
Did you have a good reading month in November? Tempted to join DiverseDecember? Bought anything new or holding off? Is there room on your shelves for Christmas incomings???
Dec 01, 2020 @ 13:51:51
Where do your books go after they’ve left the TBR shelf? Suddenly occurred to me! Do you try to get rid of/rehome them? Or are they moved to another shelf? I have now everywhere, all mixed together in piles and I do try to reduce the stacks of both read and unread books but I just end up with more and more
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Dec 01, 2020 @ 15:21:55
Good question! First of all, they go into piles on my desk, as I do all my reviewing here. Then I decide if they’re being kept, going to someone else or going generally. I do keep some but am careful how many and I weed regularly on the main shelves too to keep the collection down. Books go on to people quite regularly if I think they will appeal. And I used to BookCross the rest but there are limited opportunities to do that now, obviously so they are piling up in a BookCrossing area in my study! There is a Little Free Library nearby so I need to check if I can put some there.
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Dec 03, 2020 @ 10:11:41
I give the books I can’t keep to my local library. Then I can get them back again if I ever need them. It’s like having extra bookshelves!
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Dec 03, 2020 @ 11:15:33
It’s a shame that’s not possible here, but we’re a big population with a small library that doesn’t have the resources to take donations like that.
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Dec 01, 2020 @ 15:49:20
My daughter goes riding on Saturdays, or did, and they had a little charity book sale area in reception where I could dump loads of books! But that opportunity has gone this year so yes I’m interested to hear your tactics!
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Dec 01, 2020 @ 16:05:45
I’ll be joining in with Diverse December and reading a few off the 746!
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Dec 02, 2020 @ 06:38:55
Excellent, I’ll look out for those!
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Dec 01, 2020 @ 16:19:13
Diverse December sounds great – I must try to get involved…. And nice new arrivals! My November reading wasn’t brilliant but I have more hopes for December!
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Dec 02, 2020 @ 06:39:23
It looks like a good one and I’m sure you have something suitable in that TBR of yours!
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Dec 01, 2020 @ 22:17:10
You had a good reading month there, I love the sound of your virtual reading sessions with Emma, such a lovely thing to do. I have started my first book for #diverseDecember, Plum Bun by Jessie Fauset.
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Dec 02, 2020 @ 06:40:13
It’s been a lovely connection to have and I think we’ll continue it even when All This is over. And that sounds like a really interesting one, esp in comparison with Passing and The Vanishing Half.
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Dec 02, 2020 @ 09:58:24
I hadn’t heard of Diverse December but will have a look on the shelves and see if I have anything that may be suitable. With the shops reopening, it may be that I have to get out more, which is no bad thing with books. Although there is the Christmas shopping that still needs starting too…
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Dec 02, 2020 @ 10:48:53
I think our local charity shops are reopening today and it’s always good to support them, right? I have loads of books by diverse authors but trying not to push myself too hard on this challenge!
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Dec 05, 2020 @ 14:30:14
Yesss love reading about you reading Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race as well as both versions of the Good Immigrant! As you know I loved WINLTWPAR (using first letters because I don’t want to type out the whole title again lol) and I’d be curious about how the UK and US versions of the Good Immigrant compare. My November reading has been okay, lots of 3 star books but that’s alright b/c I read several five star books earlier in the year, and I think 2021 will be great year for releases.
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Dec 08, 2020 @ 09:16:54
I got a lot out of WINL and need to review it, I didn’t feel as defensive as some people seem to have, maybe because I’ve not been part of the organised women’s movement, having fallen between two waves. It gave me an awful lot to think about. I’ve finished Good Immigrant USA and reviewed it, it was really interesting and I learned a lot. Oh, did I tell you I found the reason I can’t find many books by people of Vietnamese heritage in the UK – there are only about 27,000 total in our population! I’m still keeping an eye out, though.
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