TBR - New Additions to My List

I am taking the 2013 Goodreads Reading challenge and, just like last year, I am trying to challenge myself to only 60 books.  I learned in December that a short (very short -- only 400 words) that I had submitted for the Virginia Dehn Poetry and Prose Contest was chosen for publication (thank you Sherry Scot for telling us about it, and reminding us and reminding us).  That will be coming out sometime in 2013 through a Connecticut publisher Grayson Books; it was evidently a national contest but we knew about it through the Bonham Creative Art's Center where Sherry is currently facilitating The Artists Way.

Anyway, I really loved what I had written about one particular piece of art, so I submitted it then I promptly forgot about it and had such a pleasant surprise in the notification email.  It's an edgy stream of consciousness bit written from the view point of a young war widow (what can I say, it was November (see blogging here) and I was reading war book after war book after war book, so war was on the brain).   

But that reminded me that I had been spending more and more time reading/blogging in 2012 and less and less time writing, which has always been a love of mine, enough so that I still fondly remember my time as a briefing attorney at the Fort Worth Court of Appeals -- a one year writing job (can you say read and write all day, and opinionize and get PAID for it?!).  So I am TRYING to write more (and not just social blogging) which means I need to read less and I just don't know how I can do that.  My goal for 2013 is only 60, as it has started out being every year that I have done this, but I always overshoot; last year I read more than 100 books. 

I'm afraid I will overshoot this year, too, especially because I had to refill my TBR list (to be read) and after searching through every venue, I have substantially added to my long reading queue.   Here are the hardcover books I bought to read (may the odds be ever in your favor, authors!):



 
Shadow of Night -- Deborah Harkness  (2012 -- sequel to Discovery of Witches, which I liked but didn't love, still I want to give this one a shot because they time travel back to Elizabethan England and I love that period.  And, it won the Goodreads Choice 2012 Award.  The audio voice got on my nerves which is the kiss of death for me, so thought I would just read it rather than listen).










Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker -- Jennifer Chiaverini (2013 Because I loved Lincoln so much and because I was intrigued by the relationship of Mrs. Lincoln and her personal servant in the movie.  This author has written a number of the fun quilting fiction books, so I suspect she knows her sewing and her history).




 

The Last Runaway -- Tracy Chevalier (2013 A brand new subject from the author of Girl with A Pearl Earring,  this one really calls out to me, about a Quaker who gets involved with the Underground Railway). 






 


1356 --   Bernard Cornwell (2012 -- Historical War book master -- how the search for a holy relic set Europe on fire.  What war novel nut could pass up this hook:  "Go with God and Fight Like the Devil").  






The Aviator's Wife -- Melanie Benjamin  (2013 -- married to famous pilot Charles Lindbergh, but an aviator of her own right, this sounds a little bit like The Paris Wife, except different people/situation). 






On the Road -- Jack Kerouac -- Of course I have a classic, I must have a classic because they keep me happy when I get frustrated with all these other books that don't live up to the hype.  How have I never read this??!   I think it is un-American that I haven't read this, so I will definitely remedy that failing ASAP.  Plus, it's being made into a movie.