Welcome to The-eLPy Dimension

Hello again all you fine people. I am here as promised to bring you my February TBR Additions 2020. Perhaps you’ve already read my January TBR Additions list also posted this week (well Sunday). That was a really long list and I thank you for reading it. If you haven’t, know that even though it’s very long it’s also really interesting because the books are quite varied, in my humble opinion that is. This list is not short – there’s 16 books – but it’s not as long as that one (26 books). ***It’s not 20 books because I added four just before midnight. Here I thought it was the 1st already. 😉

As always, I thank you for riding along and sharing any thoughts you might have of this list. Do not be afraid – do be kind and respectful – to tell me if you think a book is bad or yuck it doesn’t appeal to you. You will not hurt my feelings. In fact I’d be interested in picking your brain about the matter assuming such a discussion can be done without spoilers. 😉 That said, let’s get to it!

• The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood – fiction, dystopia
  • I love the podcast The Garrett, hosted by Astrid Edwards. It’s an Australian based podcast. She interviews so many interesting authors, diverse authors, and they’re really good interviews. Astrid, you’re great. I recommend this podcast for sure. Recently I heard the interview with Charlotte Wood and actually made a note, I believe I was waiting in line at the grocery store and added it on Goodreads right there. 😉 I think that’s a beautiful cover too.

• Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara – fiction, mystery
  • I discovered this book thanks to an NPR interview. The author, a journalist, was talking about the outrageous fact that in India 150 children go missing A DAY. The vast majority of these young people are forced into some kind of labor, like working in people’s homes and sex work among others. She said it’s not well reported on or managed so she decided to write a novel about it, her debut in fiction. Her protagonist is a young boy. She chose a child so as to take the edge off the story from time to time.

• Plot Versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction by Jeff Gerke – nonfiction, writing
  • This book, as well as the next three, I added thanks to Charli Mills at The Carrot Ranch: A Dynamic Literary Community. They look like they could be really helpful in assisting my writing process. I’ll keep you posted on whether or not they do should I pick one up.

• Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence by David Keirsey, forward by Ray Choiniere – nonfiction, psychology
  • From Carrotranch.com

• The Psychology Workbook for Writers by Darian Smith – nonfiction, writing, psychology
  • Thanks Charli Mills!

• A Writer’s Guide to Characterization: Archetypes, Heroic Journeys, and Other Elements of Dynamic Character Development by Victoria Lynn Schmidt – nonfiction, writing, reference
  • Last nonfiction, writing book thanks to Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch

• Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1) by Elizabeth Strout – fiction, short stories
  • I’m not sure why it’s not in my notes but I think I heard Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch talking about this book, I think I think.

• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides – mystery, thriller
  • I think this is the first in a long time for which I can say I heard of from another person in person! Lol. I was at a family member’s birthday party when I got to chatting with an older woman I’d just met. She told me her book club read this book (a debut novel) and loved it. She said they were split down the middle in terms of predicting how it ended.

• Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer, #2) by Laini Taylor – fantasy, YA
  • This is a beautiful cover first of all. (I do love some purple. 😉 ). This is the sequel to Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1, read my review HERE), so naturally it gets added. I do believe I’ll listen to this as Audible as well. I decided to put a little time between me and the first book before I start this one.

• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner – classics, fiction
  • I found that my grandmother and/or great-grandmother (don’t know whose copy it was) had an old copy of this book and well, it appeals to me so I think I’ll give it a shot, one day. 😉

• Mr. Sagittarius by M.J. Mallon – poetry, photography, fiction
  • I think it was thanks to Carrot Ranch and a blog tour? Oh shoot I’m sorry I didn’t put this information in my notes. But this is a new a poetry, prose and photography collection by Indie author M.J. Mallon. Interestingly enough my poetry has photography mixed throughout it but no prose, however we clearly have similar interests in that respect. Anywho, I’m excited to be able to support a fellow Indie Author.

• The Curse of Time (Bloodstone, #1) by M.J. Mallon – YA
  • While browsing M.J. Mallon’s page I discovered her novel, first in the series, published in 2018.

• Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman – contemporary, YA
  • Another beautiful cover and not just because it’s purple. 🙂 Here’s yet another book I thank SilverWolfReads for introducing me to. She wrote a post about 2018 books you may have missed but need to check out. This and the next are two of the books she listed that interested me.

• Empire of Sand (The Books of Ambha, #1) by Tasha Suri – fantasy
  • I really appreciate SilverWolfReads’ efforts to help authors she really likes. Word of mouth is everything to an author.

• Can You See Me? by Libby Scott & Rebecca Westcott – children’s middle grade, contemporary
  • C.G. Drews (author and blogger) over at Paper Fury talks about this book in one of her latest posts. The blurb on Goodreads says this book is for fans of Wonder by R.J. Palacio. While I haven’t read Wonder I’m interested in reading this “coming-of-age story about learning to celebrate yourself…”. Ann M. Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Rain Reign said, “This glimpse into the world of a young autistic girl is astonishingly insightful and honest. Tally’s struggles to ‘fit in’ are heart-wrenching, and her victories are glorious.” This is fiction but it is own-voice in that Libby Scott is a young autistic author and this story is inspired by her experiences.

• Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh – fiction, historical fiction
  • This is a book I found at Anne Goodwin’s blog while reading her flash fiction challenge for the Carrot Ranch challenge. Sounded interesting.

• The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) by Patrick Rothfuss, narrated by Nick Podehl – Audible Audio edition – fantasy
  • So this is kind of a funny story. I told you before that Audible just had a sale on many series; each book in the respective series was marked down. I saw this and believed it was one I’d added to my TBR this year. I know I’ve heard of this before and it’s hugely popular. This series has two books and they’re long, so good candidates for Audible books I thought.
  • Low and behold, this series was not already on my TBR; I was somehow confusing it with The Lies of Locke Lamora I’d heard of from Inside my Library Mind and SilverWolfReads in January. Lol, well they’re added now!

• The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2) by Patrick Rothfuss, narrated by Nick Podehl – Audible Audio edition – fantasy, epic fantasy
  • The sequel to the above book. The one downside and/or upside depending how you see it, to Audible editions is I wind up reading/listening to books I wouldn’t otherwise have picked up so soon. But hey this book has 392,856 ratings on Goodreads with a 4.57 star rating. It was published in 2011. Wow!
  • AND Nnedi Okorafor, an author I follow, the woman who wrote Binti, speaks highly of this series on Goodreads. 😉

• The Name of All Things (A Chorus of Dragons, #2) by Jenny Lyons – epic fantasy
  • Okay, so, I’m listening to this book on Audible right now and IT’S AWESOME. It’s really long, certainly an epic like Lord of the Rings but well worth the time. Here’s the thing, I did not know this was a series! Last night I was just browsing browsing, clicked on Jenn Lyons and there you go, there’s more! Then I saw there’s actually a third!!! Wow. So I don’t know that the Audible version is available for the 2nd as it just came out October 2019 but I’ll keep an eye out.

• Blood Chimera (Blood Chimera, #1) by Jenn Lyons – fantasy, paranormal/vampires
  • This is an earlier book of Jenn Lyons, only 30 ratings on Goodreads, published in 2014. I’m really digging The Ruin of Kings (A Chorus of Dragons, #1) so naturally I’m interested in seeing what else she’s got out there.

Wow, okay that’s it. Phew! Twenty-six books added in January and 20 added in February bringing my Goodreads’ TBR to 336! Holy moly, I think I need to slow down on adding books but then how will I remember new finds? Maybe I need to cull my list as many other bloggers have, at least review it to see if I’m really still interested in all these books. God knows I don’t have the time to get through all the books I want, especially not with my own novel on the fire! What do you think about this list?

And as I said in my January TBR Additions 2020 post:

It’s super important to me to give credit where credit’s due. So I try to make a point to take notes when I’m reading other people’s blogs or listening to podcasts (I’m not as good with the latter). Whenever I actually do take notes, be it NPR interviews, blogs, podcasts, talking to people, I will certainly mention it when I mention my interest in the book (assuming I find the notes 😉 ). It’s really a great practice to tip your hat to others and their efforts to spread the word about books they like. Not only does it help the authors of these books, but it also helps other bloggers and podcasters. So I ask humbly please, if you discover books thanks to my blog – lists like this one – that you give me a little shout out. Thanks in advance!