Hey book nerds. Welcome back to F is for Friday. It’s been a week around the world. As I said on Monday I can’t really talk about the politics of the matter, BUT I can and will amplify voices. I addressed this in my latest video, which is at the bottom of this post, and on both my personal and bookstagram, which I’ll put down below.
Let’s start with the rules for this meme.
How to participate in the meme: 1. Credit the creator of this tag (Lyn from Nomadic worlds ) and link back. 2. Answer the four questions to the best of your ability. 3. Most important of all, enjoy yourself!
Questions: F – Feature your latest book obsession (it doesn’t have to be your current read) I – Indicate which book/s you are looking forward to reading this weekend. F – Favorite quote of the week/day F – Five things you’re happy or grateful for this week
F – Feature Your Latest Book Obsession.
The March trilogy by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell is the auto-biographical story of John Lewis, a leader of the Civil Rights movement in the United States in the 1960s. He is now a House Representative. This was a very enlightening, but very hard read. I recommend reading it if you’re looking for a place to start understanding what is going on in the United States.
I – Indicate which books you are excited to read this weekend.
Two books. The print book I’m reading this weekend is Blind Man’s Bluff by Sherry Sontag, which is a nonfiction on American submarine espionage.
The audiobook I’m listening to is Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas by Ibram X. Kendi. This was on several reading lists I have seen floating around Instagram and Facebook. I’m only on Chapter 3 and only just over an hour in, but am listening as I’m writing this and wow. Please pick this up.
F – Favorite Quote of the Week/Day
Ethiopian Proverb
F – Five things you are grateful or happy for this week.
Being given resources to find amazing creators, BookTubers, and books that should have been readily available before everything kicked off.
Amplifying as much as I can.
Being given the opportunity to fix my gaps in knowledge and become a better person.
My amazing fiance who has the patience of a saint with my anxiety and weird mood swings.
The world demanding change.
That wraps up F is for Friday this week. PLEASE check out all the resources and Lyn at Nomadic Worlds. Let me know if you did the meme too.
To be honest, this post is late up because I’m struggling today. I have very few spoons left , but here we are. I can’t make a post about what is on my mind, or the state of the world, due to my job. But I can say this. You are loved, you are valued, and I am always here to talk. I may not be able to understand what you are going through, but I can empathize and I can be angry and hurt for you. Do whatever it is you want to do. Personally, I’m going to start making a conscious attempt to diversify my reading. If you have any recommendations, please leave them in the comments. Feel free to comment or message me at any times. I’ll leave my info down below.
On to the books.
TBRNIUM explanation
I love watching TBR games on BookTube. Love them. Being a new BookTuber I thought this was a prime time to get my own TBR game up and running. I decide to take some inspiration to create a virtual game known as TBRNIUM.
TBRNIUM Board in TableTop Simulator
I created the board and the cards, so please excuse the bad graphics. Each color represents a different prompt category.
Red: Non-Fiction
Yellow: TBR Jar
Blue: Recommended
Green: Star ratings
Purple Brain/Cloud things: My choice.
In the middle, there are four reading challenges pulled from various points around the internet. When I reach the middle, I have to pull a card from whichever reading challenge I fall on. Then I continue around the board from the beginning of my next roll.
Modern Mrs. Darcy 2020 Reading Challenge found here.
Book Riot’s 2020 Read Harder Challenge found here.
The Uncorked Librarian’s Uncorked 2020 Reading Challenge found here.
RULES:
I have to roll 6 times per month.
If I get two of the same number, I roll an extra time. This resets the counter. (Less likely that I’ll have to roll a bajillion times because the dice hate me….)
If I fail to read a book on my TBR for that month, then I have to read one of the books on my Been There Done That Novelogue’s Posture. Most of which I don’t want to read. Consequences are important.
Now that the super long explanation of the board is over. Let’s get to the TBR.
TBR
The first thing I rolled was boyfriend pick. My boyfriend, lets call him The Boy from now on, chose Blind Man’s Bluff by Sherry Sontag. This is a nonfiction about submarine espionage during the Cold War. I just started reading this today and the writing style seems pretty engaging, so fingers crossed it won’t take long. 497 pages, published 1998.
The next thing I rolled was a nonfiction and I got the card “Disaster/Event.” I picked In Harm’s Way by Douglas Stanton. This tells the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in World War II. While returning from a top secret mission, the Indianapolis was struck by a Japanese torpedo and began to sink. 300 men died immediately, hurling 900 men into the middle of the Pacific with no help in sight. By the time, help arrived only 317 men were left alive. One of the largest tragedies in Naval history, but one of the most important lessons. I’m expecting my soul to be ripped out and handed to me. 384 pages, published 2003.
My third roll was a TBR jar pick. I reached into tin that has some of the books off of my TBR shelves. I pulled The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. This is the first book in the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan, and is my dad’s favorite book series. I don’t know much more about it. It is an epic fantasy series. 814 pages, published in 1990.
My fourth roll was also a TBR jar pick. This time I pulled A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans. No, not that Chris Evans. This is another high fantasy. Konowa Swiftdragon and his regiment are outcast from their own kind, the Elves, for bearing the mark of the Shadow Empress, so they give their services to Calahrian Empire. Konowa Swiftdragon is disgraced and his Iron Elves are disbanded, until the Empire needs them to fight the Shadow Empress again. 416 pages, published in 2008.
Fifth pick was a star pick. The card was “Highest rated on GoodReads.” The highest rated on my GoodReads list was actually Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. After doing a LOT of research, I found out the Way of Kings was not the ideal introduction to the Cosmere. Which meant moving on to the next book which was Muhammed by Martin Lings. This is a biography about Muhammed based on early sources. 362, published by 1983.
The sixth roll put us into the middle of the board and pulled a card from the Modern Mrs. Darcy deck. I pulled the prompt “A book published in the decade.” For this, I picked Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowki. This is the second book in The Witcher series. Its kind of a cheat, but it was published in 1990 in Poland and I was born in the 1990s. However, it was published in 2013 in English. My challenge. My cheat. 347 pages, published in 2013 in English.
Finally, my seventh roll was non-fiction with the prompt Memoir. I chose Make Your Bed by Admiral (Ret) William McRaven. This started as a commencement speech in 2014 at the University of Texas. It went viral and Admiral McRaven wrote a book with this story and several other from his life and those around him. 125 pgs, 2017.
That’s my TBR for June. 7 books, Total pages: 2800 pages. Its fine. I’m sure it’ll all be fine. That’s only…..99 pages a day. Every day. Literally all 30 days. I’m sure I can do that. Probably. Its not like I have an essay or a final…or work…or uploading. It’ll be fine.
If you want to see the video with how the rolls and everything worked. Check out my video below.
For some masochist reason, I decided to start my blog experience with a public shaming. I got this idea from The Book Nut and it shall be the first in my monthly book tags or challenges. The point of the tag is to list every single book on my physical, digital, or audiobook TBRs. These are all books that I own. Let the Shame begin.
Physical TBR (Books that I own a physical copy of)
Part of Secret TBR (will be revealed as Secret TBR is revealed).
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
Peter and the Starcatcher by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
The Overton Window by Glenn Beck
Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon
Mrs. Jeffries and the Three Wise Women by Emily Brightwell
Krampus by Brom
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Inferno
Charmed: The Queen’s Curse by Constance M. Burge
Blood & Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism by Michael Burleigh
Cowboy Deputy & The Cowboy’s Secret Twins by Carla Cassidy
Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass
Five Classic Murder Mysteries by Agatha Christie
Five Complete Miss Marple Novels
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Lady Midnight
A Humanitarian Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq by Thomas Cushman
World Mythology in Bite Sized Chunks by Mark Daniels
House of Leaves by Mark. Z. Danielewski
Mirage by Somaiya Daud
Tolkien A Dictionary by David Day
Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
A Darkness Forged in Iron by Chris Evans
We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
Constantine: The Spark and the Flame by Jeff Lemiere
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
American Monsters by Linda Godfrey
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins – May TBR
Eight Will Fall by Sarah Harian
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
History’s Mysteries by Brian Haughton
Johannes Cabal The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
Les Miserables by Victory Hugo
Behold the Mighty Dinosaur edited by David Jablonski
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kegan
A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
Frankenstein: Prodigial Son by Dean Koontz
Web of Deceit by Barry M. Lando
Shadows of the Dark Crystal by J.M. Lee
Just a Cowboy by Rachel Lee
Secret TBR
The Middle East by Bernard Lewis
Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
Muhammad by Martin Lings
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd Jones – May TBR
Break Your Glass Slippers by Amanda Lovelace
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu.
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, and The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald
Fangirl’s Guide to the Glaxy by Sam Maggs
Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire
Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven
The Soul of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
Uprooted by Naomi Novak
11th Hour by James Patterson
Zero Repeat Forever by G.S. Prendergast
Crown of Feathers by Pau Preto
The Lost Spring by Walid Phares
The Persian Puzzle by Kenneth M. Pollack
Bone Crier’s Moon by Kathryn Purdie
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
Fiasco by Thomas Ricks
Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb
Iraq by John Robertson
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
Common Wealth by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Trailer Park Fae by Lilith Saintcrow
The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Witches by Stacy Shiff
Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Amber and Dusk by Lyra Selene.
Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon
Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim
Blind Man’s Bluff by Sherry Sontag
History of Food in 100 Recipes by William Sitwell
In Harm’s Way by Dough Stanton
Power Play by Danielle Steel
A Perfect Life
Bungalow 2
The Spirit Line by David Thurlo
Beren and Luthien by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Fall of Gondolin
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Crier’s War by Nina Varela
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Shadow’s Edge by Brent Weeks
Beyond the Shadows
Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler
The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White
Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers Vol. 4 by Bill Willingham
Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) Vol. 7
Fairest: Wide Awake Vol. 1
Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard
The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
Total Book Count: 103 – not counting missing books for series, my GoodReads, or Been There Done That’s 100 Epic Reads of A Lifetime.
Digital TBR
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Zubi!: The Real Hebrew You Were Never Taught in School by Danny Ben Israel
Insanity (Mad in Wonderland) by Cameron Jace
Fledgling by Natasha Brown
Dark Realms by Kristen Middleton
Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea by Kennedy Warne
The Witch Hunter (Book One of the Witch Hunter Saga) by Nicole R. Taylor
Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
Tin God by Stacy Green
Waking Hours by Lis Wiehl
The Crowns of Croswald by D.E. Night
The Essential Rumi by Jalal Al-Din Rumi
A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings by Coleman Barks
Blood for Blood by Victoria Selman
Smoke and Summons by Charlie N. Holmberg
On War – Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
Daughter of Feathers by J.E. Karner
Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men by Harold Schechter
The Night of Moths by Riccardo Bruni
Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King
The Original Dream by Nukila Amal
Total e-book number: 23, not counting the over 1400 books my fiance just gave me….
Audio Books
It by Stephen King
Artifact: A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery, Book 1 by Gigi Pandian
Halfway to the Grave: Night Huntress, Book 1 by Jeaniene Frost
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Thud! by Terry Pratchett
The Conception of Terror: Tales Inspired by M.R. James Volume 1
Mariah's Nerdy Notes 