Sorry, old photos, but you get the idea. I will have to share some that are more up to date. I think I have my piles down to what I want to finish before the year runs out and what to carry over and already in mind I have a few books I will start with (in relation to the Read Harder Challenge mostly). Don't be impressed (or shocked) when I say six books to finish out the year. One will be finished tonight, and most of the others are very close to being finished (save for one book). It is mostly, at this point, all tidying up and clearing out for the year in the hopes that 2019 can have a fresh-ish sort of pile.
I'll be finishing Celia Dale's wonderfully plotted and executed crime novel, Sheep's Clothing. Oh so very good. Now I want to read all of her books and already have another thanks to interlibrary loan to pick up soon. I'm going to have to write about that one this week, I hope.
Almost finished with my last prompt of the year, Emma Newman's very good Before Mars. It is just a tad outside my comfort zone, but not too far. A good choice for something along the lines of science fiction, but not too far out there in the galaxy. A definite tinge of paranoia and uncertainty with the storyteller. I am not sure I like any of the characters (though the same actually can be said of the Dale), but that has not lessened in the least my enjoyment.
Finally am getting into G is for Gumshoe and Kinsey is as wonderfully irreverent and wry as ever. As if the woman does not have enough problems getting entangled in danger, now she literally has a hit man after her. Sheesh. What a way to celebrate a birthday, even if she did get a new living space from Henry. I am totally relying on this book to read as fast as all the others since technically I am closer to the front of the book than the back.
I am rescuing one book from the languishing pile. I keep meaning to get back to Balli Kaur Jaswal's Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, which I read the first half of very eagerly. I kind of got bogged down in the erotic stories the widows made up which just sounded mostly silly to me. But I like the backstory of the real characters and am getting back to that aspect of the book. Isn't this one of the books Reese Witherspoon is making a movie out of? I know she chose it as one of her book club reads? It would make a fun film.
Now is when it maybe get a little tricky. I was planning on making the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan Quartet one of my 2019 projects, but then my sister raved about the HBO adaptation and I could not resist. I want to watch it, too, but I want to read the book. What ever was I waiting for? I am very much enjoying this first book, My Brilliant Friend. It reads much faster than I thought it would. It is just a matter of time and having enough of it to squeeze this in with the others (most notably the Grafton). I will definitely be reading the other three books, adaptation or no. But those will follow next year.
The last book, number six is the trickiest. Do I finish one of my in progress books, which is made up basically of really long books or a nonfiction I love but have been reading really slowly. Or. Pick up something fairly short. I have been wanting to read a Maigret novel and mostly Georges Simenon's books are pretty short (though always really good). Or, a book I am passing on to my sister, but could I read it quickly first? Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries has gotten many rave reviews and I wanted to read it before giving it back to her.
I suppose it is better to finish something in progress than pick up a new book, however short it is? But you know the lure of a new read, right? Still, lots of other tidying up to do with the books and the space here. But now I sort of have a plan! And if I don't finish them all, that's okay too. There is always next year...