I took a few weeks off from blogging due to a business trip. So this is the 5th week (although not consecutive).
Current Books on “Want to Read” Bookshelf: 246
I am following several book bloggers. Sometimes the books sound so good that I have to add them to my “Want to Read” shelf. This seems to be a recurring problem, so this week I will take a look at the oldest 10 books. If I delete one of the books, I will take a look at the next one until I have 10 that I will read.
Sadly, I was only able to read one book (see below), so my want to read shelf remains largely unchanged.
Books I’ve read off the WTR Shelf:
Book Title: The Shadow Throne
Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Added to WTR Shelf: June, 2013
Finished Reading February 22, 2019
Goodreads Summary: “War has come to Carthya. It knocks at every door and window in the land. And when Jaron learns that King Vargan of Avenia has kidnapped Imogen in a plot to bring Carthya to its knees, Jaron knows it is up to him to embark on a daring rescue mission. But everything that can go wrong does.
His friends are flung far and wide across Carthya and its neighbouring lands. In a last-ditch effort to stave off what looks to be a devastating loss for the kingdom, Jaron undertakes what may be his last journey to save everything and everyone he loves. But even with his lightning-quick wit, Jaron cannot forestall the terrible danger that descends on him and his country. Along the way, will he lose what matters most? And in the end, who will sit on Carthya’s throne?”
The link to my review is here.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 3
The oldest 10 books that I have decided to read:
Book #1.
Book Title: The Dream Thieves
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Added to WTR Shelf: December, 2012
Goodreads Summary: “Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after…”
Reason for Keeping: Same comment as above for the Runaway King.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 4
Book #2
Book Title: NYPD Red #2
Author: James Patterson
Added to WTR Shelf: September, 2013
Goodreads Summary: “When NYPD Red arrives at a crime scene, everyone takes notice. Known as the protectors of the rich, famous, and connected, NYPD Red is the elite task force called in only for New York City’s most high-profile crimes. And Detective Zach Jordan is the best of the best, a brilliant and relentless pursuer of justice. He puts professionalism above all, ignoring his feelings for his partner, Detective Kylie MacDonald, the woman who broke his heart when they first met in the academy.
But even with their top-notch training, Zach and Kylie aren’t prepared for what they see when they’re called to a crime scene in the heart of Central Park. They arrive to find a carousel spinning round and round, its painted horses grinning eerily in the early morning dark. There is only one rider: a brutally slaughtered woman, her body tied up and dressed in a Hazmat suit, on display for the world to see.
The victim, a woman of vast wealth and even greater connections, is the fourth in a string of shocking murders that have hit the city. As the public pressure mounts, and political and personal secrets of the highest order hang in the balance, Zach and Kylie must find out what’s really behind the murderer’s rampage. But Kylie has been acting strange recently–and Zach knows whatever she’s hiding could threaten the biggest case of their careers.”
Reason for Keeping: I’ve read other books in the NYPD Red series and they are always entertaining.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 3
Book #3
Book Title: Nothing to Envy
Author: Barbara Demick
Added to WTR Shelf: November, 2013
Goodreads Summary: “Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.
Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.
Nothing to Envy is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a closed world that is of increasing global importance.”
Reason for Keeping: The description of this book is really intriguing, which is probably why I put it on the WTR shelf in the first place. Even though the library doesn’t have a copy, I think that it is worth the $12 investment anyway.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 2
Book #4
Book Title: Mudwoman
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Added to WTR Shelf: January, 2014
Goodreads Summary: “Mudgirl is a child abandoned by her mother in the silty flats of the Black Snake River. Cast aside, Mudgirl survives by an accident of fate—or destiny. After her rescue, the well-meaning couple who adopt Mudgirl quarantine her poisonous history behind the barrier of their middle-class values, seemingly sealing it off forever. But the bulwark of the present proves surprisingly vulnerable to the agents of the past.
Meredith “M.R.” Neukirchen is the first woman president of an Ivy League university. Her commitment to her career and moral fervor for her role are all-consuming. Involved with a secret lover whose feelings for her are teasingly undefined, and concerned with the intensifying crisis of the American political climate as the United States edges toward war with Iraq, M.R. is confronted with challenges to her leadership that test her in ways she could not have anticipated. The fierce idealism and intelligence that delivered her from a more conventional life in her upstate New York hometown now threaten to undo her.
A reckless trip upstate thrusts M.R. Neukirchen into an unexpected psychic collision with Mudgirl and the life M.R. believes she has left behind. A powerful exploration of the enduring claims of the past, Mudwoman is at once a psychic ghost story and an intimate portrait of a woman cracking the glass ceiling at enormous personal cost, which explores the tension between childhood and adulthood, the real and the imagined, and the “public” and “private” in the life of a highly complex contemporary woman.”
Reason for Keeping: The description of the book sounds really good, and I can get the book free from the library.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 2
Book #5
Book Title: Northanger Abbey
Author: Jane Austen
Added to WTR Shelf: September, 2014
Goodreads Summary: “Jane Austen’s first novel—published posthumously in 1818—tells the story of Catherine Morland and her dangerously sweet nature, innocence, and sometime self-delusion. Though Austen’s fallible heroine is repeatedly drawn into scrapes while vacationing at Bath and during her subsequent visit to Northanger Abbey, Catherine eventually triumphs, blossoming into a discerning woman who learns truths about love, life, and the heady power of literature. The satirical novel pokes fun at the gothic novel while earnestly emphasizing caution to the female sex.”
Reason for Keeping: I have read other Jane Austen books and I always like them, so why not give this one a try also?
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 2
Book #6
Book Title: Ender’s Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Added to WTR Shelf: May, 2015
Goodreads Summary: “Andrew “Ender” Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast.
But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military’s purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine’s abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails.”
Reason for Keeping: I am a big fan of Orson Scott Card and I have been meaning to read this book for a very long time.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 2
Book #7
Book Title: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Author: Jack Finney
Added to WTR Shelf: July, 2015
Goodreads Summary: “On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved—the world as he knew it. First published in 1955, this classic thriller of the ultimate alien invasion and the triumph of the human spirit over an invisible enemy inspired three major motion pictures.”
Reason for Keeping: This is a classic sci-fi book, and one that I have been meaning to read for a very long time.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 2
Book #8
Book Title: Troublemaker
Author: Leah Remini
Added to WTR Shelf: November, 2015
Goodreads Summary: “The outspoken actress, talk show host, and reality television star offers up a no-holds-barred memoir, including an eye-opening insider account of her tumultuous and heart-wrenching thirty-year-plus association with the Church of Scientology. Leah Remini has never been the type to hold her tongue. That willingness to speak her mind, stand her ground, and rattle the occasional cage has enabled this tough-talking girl from Brooklyn to forge an enduring and successful career in Hollywood. But being a troublemaker has come at a cost.
That was never more evident than in 2013, when Remini loudly and publicly broke with the Church of Scientology. Now, in this frank, funny, poignant memoir, the former King of Queens star opens up about that experience for the first time, revealing the in-depth details of her painful split with the church and its controversial practices.
Indoctrinated into the church as a child while living with her mother and sister in New York, Remini eventually moved to Los Angeles, where her dreams of becoming an actress and advancing Scientology’s causes grew increasingly intertwined. As an adult, she found the success she’d worked so hard for, and with it a prominent place in the hierarchy of celebrity Scientologists alongside people such as Tom Cruise, Scientology’s most high-profile adherent. Remini spent time directly with Cruise and was included among the guests at his 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes.
But when she began to raise questions about some of the church’s actions, she found herself a target. In the end, she was declared by the church to be a threat to their organization and therefore a “Suppressive Person,” and as a result, all of her fellow parishioners—including members of her own family—were told to disconnect from her. Forever.
Bold, brash, and bravely confessional, Troublemaker chronicles Leah Remini’s remarkable journey toward emotional and spiritual freedom, both for herself and for her family. This is a memoir designed to reveal the hard-won truths of a life lived honestly—from an author unafraid of the consequences.”
Reason for Keeping: I originally added this book to the WTR shelf because I was intrigued by the inner workings of scientology. I am still intrigued and feel that this book might be similar to Educated by Tara Westover, which I really liked.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 2
Book #9
Book Title: The Soul of an Octopus
Author: Sy Montgomery
Added to WTR Shelf: November, 2015
Goodreads Summary: “In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple “sleights of hand” to get food.
Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal’s color-changing techniques. With her “joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures” (Library Journal Editors’ Spring Pick), Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopusreveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.”
Reason for Keeping: I purchased this book back in 2015 because I was going to write a book with a main character as an octopus. I read about half of it before I got into other books, and didn’t have time anymore. I never picked it up again. However, since I own this book, and because the book was good, I will finish reading it.
Weeks on the Clean Up List: 1
Book #10
Book Title: Go Set a Watchman
Author: Harper Lee
Added to WTR Shelf: December, 2015
Goodreads Summary: “From Harper Lee comes a landmark new novel set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch–“Scout”–returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her.
Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past–a journey that can be guided only by one’s conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision–a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.”
Reason for Keeping: To Kill a Mockingbird is such a classic, must-read book. I really want to read this 2nd book as well. I have been meaning to read this for a few years now, but always get distracted by other books.
Title: The Cabin at the End of the World
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to travel to Japan on a business trip (it was my first time being there). My company has offices in Hiroshima, and we were there for one week giving a training on legal issues. We spent the weekend in Kyoto, since we were giving the same training at our office in China the following week, and we didn’t want to fly all the way back to Austria on Friday, only to have to return to Asia two days later again on Monday.
Title: The Madman’s Daughter
Title: Parasite
Title: Origin
As per 
The Legal Alien 