December 25th-December 31st, 2022

  The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly or for a monthly wrap up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

#13 A Solution for Gifts

Last few years, I honest to gods miss getting presents on New years, especially opening them and wondering what books I'll find inside. Thus this week I decided to do something interesting. Normally I get sent books that aren't out yet, sometimes therefore instead of opening up the envelope, I open them up as gifts instead? Its certainly made it a bit more exciting.

My son is enjoying the Eight Night festivities, like saying prayers and listening to music as well as lighting up candles. Also, much to mine surprise, someone who vanished back in June reappeared. 

Last Week On The Blog:

N/A

This Week On The Blog: The Autodidacts By Thomas Kendall, The Bronze Drum By Phong Nguyen,Margot By Wendell Steavenson (Coming In January 2023) One Dark Window By Rachel Gillig, The Oleander Sword By Tasha Suri The Ghost Season By Fatin Abbas (January 2023)

New Arrivals At Svetlana's reads and views:

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 

(From The Book Date)

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

So I am continuing to read Light Perpetual by Andrzej Sapkowski as well as All That We Are by Mariah Stewart, which I am enjoying. I am almost done with both books and am hoping I can start reading the next two.  Oye, I really need to start reviewing books I have already read...did I mention there are six of them? 

Reading:

 
     475/634                                 237/392

Plans:

  

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

How it works:

I assign each Tuesday a topic and then post my top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join me and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

You’ll find the schedule of upcoming TTT topics below so you can plan ahead. I’ll post a Linky here on the blog each week so you can link up your post (if you want). If you don’t have a blog, post your picks in the comment section below! Have tons of fun talking books and getting to know your fellow bloggers!

NOTE: If a weekly topic is listed as a “freebie”, you are invited to come up with your own topic. Sometimes I will give your topic a theme, such as “love”, a season, or an upcoming holiday. That just means that you can come up with any topic you want that fits under that umbrella.

You’re more than welcome to use the Top Ten Tuesday image I designed above (or any of my older/seasonal ones), or make your own that fits your site’s theme.

December 27th: Jewish WWII Fiction 

For the curious readers, I come from a former Soviet Union, and as I said it to someone, the christmas traditions of giving gifts, getting together as family, putting up a tree transferred over to December 31st-January 1st, which means the gifts will be mentioned next week or perhaps on Freebie on Jan 9th. Without further ado, as promised, here is Jewish fiction featuring WWII, or else novels where WWII plays heavily in background.  Note: This features FICTION, therefore Night by Elie Wiesel or Anne Frank's Diary will not be featured here. 

1. Heavy Sand by Anatoly Rybakov: To be honest I hadn't read this book, but I do want to because my grandparents, G-d rest their souls, lived through WWII in Russia by either serving (my grandfather G-d rest his soul) or by running away (my two grandmothers and my other grandfather, G-d rest their souls.) 

2. Jacob the Liar by Juerk Becker: I had to read this for a class, Holocaust and media representation, and its definitely a story I won't forget anytime soon. Its written, well, a bit humorously, but eventually the darkness underneath becomes exposed. 

3. The Color of Light by Helen Maryles Shankman: I read this for a book tour many years ago and boy I loved it! While the story takes place in 1990s, the Holocaust and WWII featured very heavily in this story and there is definitely heartbreak. Also, vampires and Holocaust for the curious. 

4. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer: While I did read this novel, I hadn't had a chance to review it, but this describes life before Holocaust and life during Holocaust and the characters are painted, well, beautifully. 

5. The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel: Although the author isn't Jewish, she did write an amazing story featuring a sort of star crossed lovers between a wealthy Chinese woman and a penninless Jewish man refuge. I was shocked to learn some facts from it. 

6. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman: this is perhaps one of the classics of Holocaust literature. Quite soon before I know it, I will have to explain WWII in more detail to my American Chinese-Russian  J. six year old son in just a few short years, and because he loves art and pictures, this will be a perfect way to explain and introduce him to WWII. 

7. Kommandant's GIrl by Pam Jenoff: Another novel I hadn't read yet, but it definitely sounds interesting and something I'll want to read in the near future. 

8. No Woman's Land by Ellie Midwood: Yes I hadn't read it yet but I often like novels of star crossed lovers, especially if they feature Jewish women and men they shouldn't love. 

9. A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman: If I'm not mistaken the story takes place in 2000s or 1990s, I forget, but WWII of Russian as well as who owes what to whom features heavily in the story. 

10. Wunderland by Jennifer Cody Epstein: Strangely enough, the novel glosses over WWII, so what gives? Why is it on the list? Lest we forget, this is what led up to WWII. Holocaust didn't start with camps, but started with words, actions and hatred. 

Shelf Control

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title:  The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings 

Author: Oscar Wilde 

Published:  1890-1898

Length: 487 pages 

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Flamboyant and controversial, Oscar Wilde was a dazzling personality, a master of wit, and a dramatic genius whose sparkling comedies contain some of the most brilliant dialogue ever written for the English stage. Here in one volume are his immensely popular novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray; his last literary work, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” a product of his own prison experience; and four complete plays: Lady Windermere’s Fan, his first dramatic success, An Ideal Husband, which pokes fun at conventional morality, The Importance of Being Earnest, his finest comedy, and Salomé, a portrait of uncontrollable love originally written in French and faithfully translated by Richard Ellmann.

Every selection appears in its entirety–a marvelous collection of outstanding works by the incomparable Oscar Wilde, who’s been aptly called “a lord of language” by Max Beerbohm.

Contents:

Introduction by Richard Ellmann

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Lady Windermere's Fan

Salome

An Ideal Husband

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

How and when I got it: I I got it on December 7th, 2012. A classmate at a university kept talking about it, and I became excited and bought it. 

Why I want to read it: Let's say the premise is pretty fascinating. I should really make time to read it, shouldn't I? 

What do you think? Would you read this book? And if you’ve read it, do you recommend it?

Please share your thoughts!

Books from Backlog

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks.

If you would like to join in, please feel free to enter your link, link back to this post, and then spend some time visiting some of the other posts.

This week’s neglected book 

Book Title: The Middle Ages Vol I Sources of Medieval History 

Series: None

Publisher: McGraw Hill

Genres: Non-fiction. Medieval Ages, 400s-1400s, primary sources 

Pages: 359

Format: Print 

Source: I had to have it for college class. I got it on January 10th, 2011

Summary:

Why did I add The Middle Ages Vol I Sources of Medieval History  to my bookshelf? I think simply because its there and I find Medieval Ages to be extremely fascinating 

What are your thoughts? Have you read this book?  Would you recommend it?

Let's Talk Bookish 

December 30: 2022 Reading & Blogging Reflections

Prompts: Happy almost New Year’s Eve! How many books did you read in 2022? 

According to Goodreads website, about 74 or so. 

Did you meet your reading goals? 

I don't think I had any reading goals. Possibly keeping up with the demand, would that count? 

What were some of your favorites? 

A whole lot. A Bend the in the Stars and Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum, Nazare by J.J. Amaworo Wilson, Antoinette's Sister by Diana Giovinazzo, The Hostage Empire trilogy by S.C. Emmett, The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara, The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade, The Wilderwood Duology by Hannah Whitten, THe German Wife by Kelly Rimmer, The Martyr by Anthony Ryan, Ruination by Anthony Reynolds, Tasha Suri's Burning Empire, and plenty of others. 

What were your least favorite books you read this year? 

Honor by Thrity Umrigar, A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker, The Shore by Katie Runde, and Empire of Exiles by Erin M Evans. 

How did you feel about your blogging in 2022? 

I feel proud that I began to do these type posts because they capture my history and it will be something I can look at. 

What are your favorite posts you wrote in 2022? 

Perhaps these posts? 

What are some of your favorite posts from the community that you read this year?

Not sure yet. 

Stacking the Shelves 

Book Titles I got this week: (if available):

 

Planned Reviews: (If available. Use pictures)