Day 67: a general update

Nothing new to report really.  Same old, same old.  Just a reminder, I'm still going to ALA Annual in Washington, DC this year.  I am looking to meet and greet people and pimp out my blog.  Good times will be had.  Also, from May 31st-June 8th I'll be in the Kent, Ohio area visiting my sweetheart, so posts might be kind of on the short and/or disjointed side.  Can't be helped.

I've decided that I need another reduction in the Amount of Stuff I Have.  So I'm gonna tear through the pile of books I picked up from my someday-to-be-mother-in-law, plus two Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) that I picked up from the Wood County District Library.  For some reason they get a ton of ARCs and they hand them out like delicious literary candy to us kiddies.  I'll talk a little bit about the ARCs first since I actually chose those rather than having reads foisted (however willingly) upon me.

A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron.
I like a good pet story.  I like the idea of having animal souls reincarnate.  I'm not sure how I feel about this story being written from the dog's point of view, but then again there's probably no other way to tell this particular story.  I'll tell you a little secret, I mostly picked this one up for the cover...  Oh, and it was free.  It's due out in July, so consider this a super special sneak peak.

A Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok.
I've actually already seen some pretty positive press about this one.  I originally entered this as a First Reads Giveaway, but withdrew when I saw they had it for grabs at the library.  Since this is one I would actually pick for myself I was more than happy to snag the copy.  It'll probably end back up at the library when I'm finished unless someone else wants it.  I think this might be an interesting look at immigrant life, however fictionalized it is.    

Half Broken Things by Morag Joss.
I have no idea why I accepted this one from my mother-in-law.  I sort of hate most crime novels, and this one involves a very pregnant woman.  I have the feeling this one will lead to some angry and/or ranty posts.  Maybe we'll get some amusing metaphors at least. 

Afternoon with Emily by Rose McMurray.
Oooh, it's a novelization about Emily Dickinson and her relationship with long-time friend Miranda Chase.  Should be a good read.  It's highly rated on Goodreads, so I'm holding out hope.


Deepwater by Matthew F. Jones.
More rage fodder.  This one involves an affair between Our Dashing Hero and His Boss's Wife.  It's very lowly rated, so at least I'll be doing some good by adding my humble opinion on whether or not people should read it.

The Night Bus by Janice Law.
Woman loses memory, gets on night bus, returns home, can't figure out why she left but has a feeling she's in deep doo-doo.  Man, I'm going to have to find some more smut to read after this.  Why isn't Blameless out until September?

Sweet and Vicious by David Schickler.
Star-crossed lovers with some crime thrown in, supposedly a modern day Bonnie and Clyde.  Looks like there might be some mobster going on with this.  Not sure it'll be my thing.  I'll read it anyway.

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen.
I mostly picked this up because I've never read any of Quindlen's stuff before.  This seems like a big problem to me since she's one of those authors that libraries have problems keeping stocked.  This is one of those sister-stories that I'm sure will drive me slightly nuts.  I might have to splice in some Gaiman here and there to keep myself sane through all this "required" reading.

The Collected What If? Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been edited by Robert Cowley.
Any writers interested in writing recreative historical fiction should probably take a look at this.  I haven't done so much as cracked open the covers, but I'm kind of excited about it.  This will more or less replace Smoke and Mirrors as my filler book, so you'll be seeing a lot of it once I run through Mr. Gaiman's work.