Listening to Trees

Morning All,

Ready for my second #BoutOfBooks Day 2 challenge? This prompt was fun and a smidge challenging. We were challenged to share a book cover wiere the illustrations are part of the typography of the title. (i.e. The Water Knife or Mamita). When looking at the book cover, you just instantly know that the letters cannot be recreated by downloading a font.

I chose....drumroll please.......

Something cool....

Something different...

A book my husband would love...

Listening to Trees by A.K. Hellium!

The title and author name are in a sense carved into the tree rings that make up the cover image. While you can get close to the font, there would be no way to recreate it without doing the whole thing.

If you want to know more about the book, Click Here!

Until Tomorrow!

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Bout of Books: The Readers Readathon

Morning All,

The time has come for Bout of Books 19!! (You still have time to sign up! Just click HERE!!)

While all readathons are for readers this one is low key, designed for you to simply read as much as you can in a week with no torturous goals in mind. Unless you set them for yourself. Do you boo.
I love using readathons as an excuse to tidy up my TBR, to actually start a book or get off the shelf, and to maybe tackle a different genre. After working all day it's nice to just go home and lose my brain to whatever I'm reading, like every other reader. Yet the motivation of readathons is great. I've been derailed as a reader for the past couple months so trying to get back to that place I'd been in for the first bit of this year is going to be hard won.

Bout of Books also has daily challenges. Today's was to introduce ourselves in six words, nothing more, nothing less. My introduction is simple. "Reading and Grieving and Living and..." I tweeted this and immediately felt like a moron, but it's true. At the moment this is me. Who are you? What would you read this week?

Until next time! (Which happens to be later today!)

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Read This

Hello All,

Sorry for the month of nothingness. My father died last month and to be honest I haven't processed that yet. It's slowly hitting in stages and at awkward times, which means the mourning and grief of his loss are an ever constant presence; just like he was.

I've been trying to keep up with my reading challenges but right now that feels impossible. Maybe I'll come back to them, maybe I'll try again next year. Right now I really just need to get back into reading.

After he died I the first line of America's First Daughter came to my mind. "Sons of a revolution fight for liberty. They give blood, flesh, limbs, their very lives. But daughters... we sacrifice our eternal souls. This I am sure of, as I stand in the quiet emptiness of my father's private chambers. I'm here now because my father is dead and buried. And I'm left to make sense of it all." And well, that's what I'm trying to do.

As a reader selecting the books to read while grieving is harder than you'd think. Not every book fits and most of the ones for women who lost their fathers don't apply to my life or my relationship with him. Below is the list I've begun to cultivate to read my way through this; and I'm still looking to add to it.

Dune by Frank Herbert
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
Smoke Gets in your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
Lincoln in the Bardo by Geroge Saunders
The Nix by Nathan Hill

Until next time,

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Viva La Geek Girl Revolution!

Morning All,

Today we're discussing The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley, a self dubbed Intellectual Badass who has truly earned the title. Known for her incredible Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels this collection of essays is something else and more and a wonderful stand alone to her other work.

I am a bad feminist, not in the same vein as Roxanne Gay, but still I don't find myself to be a good feminist. I believe in women having every single opportunity, I believe in women making equal wages, and I think that having a vagina doesn't mean you have to be separated from a person with a penis unless literally it is for a porno casting. Women are every bit as smart, as strong, as capable as our male counterparts. Yet we're valued as less because somehow, somewhere, that became okay; and women have spent centuries trying to stop that bullshit.

Kameron Hurley's collection of geekish essay's lets me be okay calling myself a feminist. She doesn't blame men for the current plight of the females of our species, and she doesn't rally females into violent assault either. What she does is spend plenty of time building the reader up, and reminding them that regardless of gender we have a world we need to create, a world we need to support and embrace, a world that we need to be held responsible for and for what we put into it. As writers, consumers, citizens we have the immense responsibility for what we pour out of ourselves and into this world.

My copy of The Geek Feminist Revolution is now struck through and looks as though it is bleeding with the portions I have underlined, the notes I have added, the questions I have asked it knowing I won't get the answers from the pages; but rather from what I do after I read this book. TGFR contains real world advice on writing, the importance of ownership, and the surprising look into how much of geek culture is made up of women who aren't accepted into it. Hurley also spends a portion of the book explaining the culture of geekdom, how mainstream media dissects and perpetuates certain tropes and archetypes, and what makes her brand of geeky feminism so personal to her.

I can't explain what it is exactly that makes me love this book, and honestly I don't think I loved it for any specific reason. Finding something that helps you explore and understand a part of your identity as a woman and a geek in 2017 isn't easy, and I wasn't really looking for it. When I decided to read this book I needed to fulfill my Litsy A to Z "G" challenge, and find something that wasn't fiction. A collection of non-fiction essays certainly fit that bill, but gave me something more. I'm more fueled now to keep reading everything, to pick books that I normally wouldn't, to accept the fact that I love to read books that make most people think I'm a psychopath. I found utter acceptance in Hurley's essays, and I can't be the only one who did.

Challenge Met:
#LitsyAtoZ

Publishing Info:
287 pages (including notes and annotations!)
Originally Published on 5/31/2016 by Tor Books in English
ISBN 13: 9780765386243

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Geek-Feminist-Revolution-Kameron-Hurley/dp/0765386240/

Author Page: http://www.kameronhurley.com/

TBR because of this book:

Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and Other Misfits Are Taking Over the World by Leslie Simon

February is a Fickle Month

Happy Sunday All,

February, month two of 2017, 28 days of wintery bliss that somehow always goes by far to fast. February, the month where I don't feel like I accomplished as much as I wanted to regarding my reading goals. February, the month that distracted me like no other this year! Oh February, by Tuesday you will end, March will begin, and I have a plan; yes I have a plan to March straight into these reading challenges with vigor and coffee. So much coffee.

To date I've completed the following challenges:

BOOK RIOT READ HARDER
Read a book about books	The Book Jumper	Mechthild Glaser	384
Read a book published between 1900 and 1950	The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald	156
Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location	Tulip Fever (Amsterdam)	Deborah Moggach	288
Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey	Norwegian Wood	Haruki Murakami	296
Read a book published by a micro-press	Margaret The First	Danielle Dutton	176
POP SUGAR
A book of letters	The Private Letters of Countess Erzesbet Bathory	Kimberly Craft	142
An audio book	Caraval	Stephanie Garber	416
A book that's a story within a story	The Miniaturist	Jessie Burton	416
An espionage thriller	Bad Monkey	Matt Ruff	241
A book by an author who uses a pseudonym	The Silent Wife	A.S.A Harrison	326
A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read	How to fight presidents	Daniel O'Brien	272
A book involving travel	Passenger/Wayfarer (Time travel)	Alexandra Bracken	1018
A book that's published in 2017	The Possessions	Sarah Flannery Murphy	368
A book involving a mythical creature	The Bear and the Nightengale	Katherine Arden	336
A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile
A book with career advice	Getting an Academic Job in History	Dana Polanichka	112
A book with pictures	Vlad the Impaler: The Real Count Dracula	Enid A. Goldber & Norman Itzkowitz	128
The first in a series you haven't read before	Under Different Stars	Amy A Bartol	297
A book with an eccentric character	The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared	Jonas Jonasson & Rod Bradbury	396
A book you got from a used book sale	The Last Lecture	Randy Pausch & Jeffrey Zaslow	206
#LitsyAtoZ
Book A	All The Ugly and Wonderful Things	Bryn Greenwood	352
Book Z	Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald	Therese Ann Fowler	375

Moving on into March I'm realizing that I need to get focused again; books can be distracting, who would have known?

Since it seems that the area I'm lacking in the most at present is my #LitsyAtoZ books they're going to be my March focus. My plan is to read at least five books slated out for that challenge and one for each of the others. Seven challenge slated books, and then whatever else I want to read. Gotta love having that goal right? 

Until next time, 

XoXo 

BrainyHeroine

Catching Up and Checking In

Happy President's Day!

And on this celebratory day, (where it should be mandatory that the government give us free cake) I am thrilled to say I've completed my challenge list. No, I haven't completed my challenges, well not all of them at least, but I've finished the list for Popsugar and Read Harder so that I'll stop getting distracted with other books and then hope I can fit them in somewhere. Book distraction is a real thing, and it is a real issue for me. I'm a hopper, so at any given time I'm reading/listening to about four or five books. Truly, this is madness.

Since I've been off the last few days this has been my only goal. Now that I've reached said goal I can go through the process of crossing off the books I've read, updating my Goodreads page (which I suck at on a good day sometimes) and tallying up reading challenges. This will also let me move forward with written reviews of the book, more in-depth blog posts about reading, and hopefully I won't lose my damn mind along the way. February is almost over and I feel that in the shortest month of the year I've truly come up short on my reading goals, mainly due to life and reading distractions.

If you're interested, below is the master list I've come up with. I'm not posting what challenge they fit since I don't want complete and utter spoilers haha, but I think I've come up with a pretty impressive list. (NO REPEATS! That deserves a cake on merit alone!)

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Title of Book	Author	Page Count
A Moment on the Edge	Elizabeth George	560
Accidental Empress	Alison Pataki	512
All The Bright Places	Jennifer Niven	378
All The Ugly and Wonderful Things	Bryn Greenwood	352
Almost a Woman	Esmeralda Santiago	336
Americanah	Chimamanda Mgozi Adichie	477
Antarctica	Claire Keegan	224
Bad Monkey	Matt Ruff	241
Bear, Otter & The Kid	T.J Klune	350
Behold the Dreamers	Imbolo Mbue	400
Bird Box	Josh Malerman	262
Boy Meets Boy	David Leviathan	226
Bridge of Spies: A True Story of the Cold War	Giles Whittell	303
Broken Monsters	Lauren Beukes	464
Caraval	Stephanie Garber	416
Catcher in the Rye	J.D. Salinger	288
City of Light City of Poison	Holly Tucker	336
Count of Monte Cristo (mentioned in Butterfly Garden)	Alexander Dumas	1276
Dark Matter	Blake Crouch	354
Eligible	Curtis Sittenfeld	512
Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr	Nancy Isenberg	560
Frankenstein	Mary Shelley	166
Getting an Academic Job in History	Dana Polanichka	112
Hard Luck: Harvey Haddix and the Greatest Game Ever Lost	Lew Freedman	210
Hidden Figures	Margot Lee Shetterly	373
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents	Julia Alvarez	304
How to fight presidents	Daniel O'Brien	272
I Let You Go	Clare Mackintosh	384
January 1973: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month that Changed America Forever	James Robenalt	420
Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norell	Susannah Clarke	1006
Julie & Julia	Julie Powell	310
Katherine	Anya Seton	500
Life After Life	Kate Atkinson	531
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk	Kathleen Rooney	287
Margaret The First	Danielle Dutton	176
Matilda	Roald Dahl	240
Missing, Presumed	Susie Steiner	369
Monstress	Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda, Rus Wooton	202
Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur #1	Brandon Monclare, Amy Reeder, Natacha Bustos (illustrator)	24
My Lady Jane	Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows	512
My Name is Red	Orhan Pamuk & Erdag M. Goknar	417
Norwegian Wood	Haruki Murakami	296
Orange is the New Black	Piper Kerman	298
Passengar/Wayfarer	Alexandra Bracken	1018
Personal History	Katherine Grahm	642
Pleasantville	Attica Locke	433
Queen of the Night	Alexander Chee	576
Ready Player One	Ernest Cline	374
Rebecca	Daphne du Maurier	393
Rise of the Rocket Girls	Nathalia Holt	352
Saffron Skies	Lesley Loko	613
Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils	Lynda Pryne	288
Sisi: Empress On Her Own	Alison Pataki	464
Sisters In Law	Linda Hirshman	390
Swing Time	Zadie Smith	453
Tales of a Severed Head	Rachida Madani, Marilyn Hacker	176
The 19th Wife	David Ebershoff	530
The Bear and the Nightegale	Katherine Arden	336
The Book Jumper	Mechthild Glaser	384
The Case of Jack the Nipper	H.L. Stephens	328
The Couple Next Door	Shari Lapena	313
The Eyre Affair: Thursday Next #1	Jasper Fforde	374
The Geek Feminist Revolution	Kameron Hurley	288
The Ghost Bride	Yangsze Choo	368
The Girls	Emma Cline	368
The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald	156
The History of Wolves	Emily Fridlund	288
The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared	Jonas Jonasson & Rod Bradbury	396
The Inheritance Trilogy	N. K. Jemsin	1453
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution	Walter Issacson	528
The Invisible Man	Ralph Ellison	610
The Last Lecture	Randy Pausch & Jeffrey Zaslow	206
The Lonely Hearts Hotel	Heather O'Neill	400
The Lost Sisterhood	Anne Fortier	608
The Luckiest Girl Alive	Jessica Knoll	352
The Mercer Girls	Libbie Hawker	430
The Mermaids Daughter	Ann Claycomb	448
The Miniaturist	Jessie Burton	416
The Mists of Avalon	Marion Zimmer Bradley	1737
The Muse	Jessie Burton	416
The Nest	Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney	368
The Ocean at the End of the Lane	Neil Gaiman	256
The Possessions	Sarah Flannery Murphy	368
The Private Letters of Countess Erzesbet Bathory	Kimberly Craft	142
The Rooms	Lauren Oliver	320
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific	J. Maarten Troost	272
The Shining Girls	Lauren Beukes	375
The Silent WIfe	A.S.A Harrison	326
The Star Touched Queen	Roshani Chokshi	342
THe Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet	David Mitchell	479
The Trespasser	Tana French	449
The Unraveling of Mercy Louis	Keija Parssinen	336
The Verdict	Nick Stone	512
The Virgin Cure	Ami McKay	356
Tulip Fever	Deborah Moggach	288
Under Different Stars	Amy A Bartol	297
Underground Railroad	Colson Whitehead	306
Vlad the Impaler: The Real Count Dracula	Enid A. Goldber & Norman Itzkowitz	128
What She Knew	Gilly McMillian	699
Xanadu	John Man	352
You Will Know Me	Meg Abbot	352
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald	Therese Anne Fowler	384

The Crisis of X and the Curse of Netflix

Hello Internet,

As you may know I am participating in the #LitsyAtoZ book challenge in 2017, (to learn more about it check out some other posts like this one or this one.) The gist is 26 books, with the titles corresponding with a letter of the alphabet, and our English alphabet has some pretty weird letters; namely the letter X. X is weird and random and sounds like an E or a Z depending on how you say it or how something is spelled. However! I proved successful in my endeavor to find a book beginning with X, the lucky winner was/is Xanadu by John Mann. I was able to find a high quality copy for only a few bucks off of Thrift Books (which is amazeballs) and waited to receive my holy grail. First I got a Spanish edition of "Prisoner of Heaven" by Carlos Zafron, a truly fantastic novel I already own in English. After they corrected their error I did in fact get the book I'd ordered. With one very small exception, the title had changed. When ordered it was a lovely gold cover that bore the name XANADU by John Mann, and this is not what I got.

Turns out that Xanadu became the source material for the show on Netflix about Marco Polo and his adventures. Yay for the author, but it has left me in a pickle. Can I continue using this book because it can be found under the right letter? Do I find a new X book because the new title doesn't match? Silly as it seems I'm quite flustered by this. I feel like I could get away with it, in the manner that Starbucks gets away with having you pay for $5 worth of coffee, but giving you a cup that wasn't quite full because of "foam" or "whipped cream". Technically it was what you asked for and wanted, but you somehow still wound up gypped.

Thankfully I have time before I'll read my Marco Polo book, and maybe I'll replace it with a different X book, maybe this one will fit in somewhere else in the midst of all these challenges. Maybe I'll let it stay where X marked its spot in the first place.

Who really knows? The Shadow?

-BrainyHeroine