Johanna's 2016 ROOTS

I'm setting a pretty easy goal this year, since motherhood is going to put a serious dent in my reading time... I am going to try for 12 ROOTS- one each month.




2016 ROOTS:
1. Twixt Firelight and Water - Juliet Marillier
2. The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
4. Magic of Thieves - C. Greenwood
5. Magic Shifts - Ilona Andrews
6. The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
7. Grave Mercy - Robin LaFevers
8. Night Broken - Patricia Briggs
9. Rosemary & Rue - Seanan McGuire
10. Darkfever - Karen Marie Moning
11. Sweep in Peace - Ilona Andrews
12. A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness
13. Fray - Joss Whedon
14. When Beauty Tamed the Beast - Eloisa James

Welcome back, Johanna. Happy ROOTing.

Cute picture!

What a beautiful baby.

Finding reading time can be so tricky in new motherhood. Wishing you all the best and good luck with the ROOTs.

Welcome back and good luck with your challenge!

How lovely to see you're back! And with such a beautiful little boy to keep you company!

ETC

Beautiful baby! welcome to the group.

And no goal is too small.

What a cute baby! Glad to see you back!

Aw, is that your little one? So cute! I started ROOTing when my bundle of joy was just over a month old (she's 2 now! Still cute though).

Welcome back :)

Yes, that's my little one - Lane Anthony. He was born a few weeks early on 12/18, but is doing fabulously!

My current ROOTs are Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire and Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning. I'm enjoying both, but neither has completely drawn me in. That may be in part because I'm distracted by Lane and all his cuteness...

One month old!

How is he already a month old?? Wow! Congratulations!

Also, I love that onesie.

>9 johanna414: "Crazy Cat Baby", I love that! He looks a good size for being a few weeks early (my girl was 2.5 weeks early and didn't grow much for ages! She's made up for it since though!).

Happy 1 month birthday Mr Cuteness! :D

So very cute!

Lane is so very cute! Congratulations and enjoy!

Welcome back & Happy ROOTing!
And such a cute baby!

2016 Non-Roots

1. Neanderthal Seeks Human - Penny Reid
2. Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
3. Dark Witch - Nora Roberts
4. The Naturals - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
5. The Heir - Keira Cass
6. Terrible Typhoid Mary: a True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America - Susan Campbell Bartoletti
7. Wild Born - Brandon Mull
8. Everything Everything - Nicola Yoon
9. Fever Dream - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
10. The Martian - Andy Weir
11. The Menagerie - Tui T. Sutherland
12. Magic Tests - Ilona Andrews
13. The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron
14. The Winner's Curse - Marie Rutkoski
15. The Name of This Book is Secret - Pseudonymous Bosch
16. The Winner's Crime - Marie Rutkoski
17. Magic Stars - Ilona Andrews
18. River Marked - Patricia Briggs
19. The Wrath and the Dawn - Renee Ahdieh
20. Atlantia - Ally Condie
21. Winner's Kiss - Marie Rutkoski
22. The Wrath and the Dawn - Renee Ahdieh
23. Winter - Marissa Meyer
24. Frost Burned - Patricia Briggs
25. The Haunting of Sunshine Girl - Paige McKenzie
26. Innocence - Dean Koontz
27. Challenger Deep - Neal Shusterman
28. A Wrinkle in Time: A Graphic Novel - Hope Larson
29. Furiously Happy - Jenny Lawson
30. Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas
31. Crown of Midnight - Sarah J. Maas
32. The Crown - Kiera Cass
33. We Were Liars - E. Lockhart
34. The Rose and the Dagger - Renee Ahdieh
35. A Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay
36. Illuminae - Amie Kaufman
37. A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas
38. LumberJanes Vol. 1 - Noelle Stevenson
39. LumberJanes Vol. 2 - Noelle Stevenson
40. A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas
41. Heir of Fire - Sarah J. Maas
42. Colin Fischer - Ashley Edward Miller
43. Marked In Flesh - Anne Bishop
44. Eligible - Curtis Sittenfeld
45. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - J.K. Rowling
46. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
47. Fifty Shades Freed - EL James
48. The Bone Witch - Rin Chupeco
49. A Promise of Fire - Amanda Bouchet
50. The Women in the Walls - Amy Lukavics

Since my reading time is more limited these days, I've been trying to focus on reading for work. Middle grade fiction is not my favorite, but it is what I circulate the most in my library so I have a few titles going right now. I am really making an effort to read more of it this year.

>15 johanna414: I try to read some MS lit too, to keep up with my 6 grandkids!

Lane is getting so grown up - 3 1/2 months already!

Recently I finished Brandon Sanderson's The Well of Ascension and read The Ocean at the End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman.

My current book is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. My husband is also reading it, so I've been alternating between listening to the audiobook on my commute and trying to steal the paper book from him while Lane naps...

>17 johanna414: He looks gorgeous!

>17 johanna414: oh so cute! What a great picture! :)
& Congrats on more ROOTs pulled!

>17 johanna414: he's lovely! We had one of those bumbo seats too, it was really useful!

What a cutie!

Ohh, so cute! I can't wait for my first grandchild to be born. And seeing Lane looking so good makes me want to see her at last even more!

Connie, my mom has been waiting for a grandchild for a very long time (my siblings are much older than me, but show no sign of starting families...) and she would tell you that he was well worth the wait! Congratulations on the upcoming baby; I am sure you will just enjoy her so much!

Thanks, Johanna! 8 weeks to go!

Tony and I finished The Name of the Wind and we both really enjoyed it! This was the first time we had ever read a book together, and it was sort of fun! It ended up being a bit of a competition to see who finished it first, but we had really enjoyed talking about our favorite parts. He started the sequel right away but I have a few books I need to read for work first, so I probably won't get to it until summer.

One interesting thing I've found is that I'm reading more of my own books since I had Lane. I only get a few minutes here and there to read, and usually haven't finished a book by the time it's due back to the library... so motherhood has been good for my ROOTing!

>25 johanna414: Reading a book together - fun! That's one of my husband's favorite books, but I haven't yet read it... looking forward to it! We don't read books at the same time, generally, but we'll sometimes read them one after the other... :)

>26 johanna414: awesome! I hope when I get pregnant (or otherwise have kids), I have the same experience :D

>26 johanna414: I think that's been my experience too, but I'm not sure if I can attribute that to motherhood or to this group, as I joined it when my daughter was about a month old! Luckily I am still able to support the library because I get books out for her (and also they have a lovely weekly group there which does stories and songs and little craft activities (mainly gluing stuff!), we've been going since she was a baby but now she's 2 I think she's getting much more out of it).

>28 Jackie_K: So cool that your library has a weekly group that you and your daughter can enjoy! It's always nice to hear that stuff like that is not only out there, but good and fun... I look forward to taking advantage of those kinds of things :)

I'm turning Lane into a book nerd right away!


And my husband is turning him into a Star Wars nerd...


I am really looking forward to the time when Lane is old enough to go to the Lap Sit story times at our library, although he will probably have to go with my husband who works evenings or one of his grandmas... As it is, the library is on our regular walking route and he is very popular with the ladies who work there! ;)

As for ROOTs, I am about 600 pages into A Storm of Swords, but only about 80 of that is what I've read since having Lane... I'm almost done with Rosemary and Rue which I'm not loving but am going to make myself finish.

>30 johanna414: Excellent! Glad to see he is learning the joys of reading early :)

>30 johanna414: oooooh so cute!

>30 johanna414: Love it! And him! Adorable.

Well, it's been an absurdly long time since I last posted here... Starting a new job, buying and renovating a 125 year old house and raising an extremely busy 10 month old will do that I guess!

On the plus side, I finished 2 ROOTS this week - Darkfever which I didn't really care for, and Sweep in Peace which was fabulous. I have been reading a lot more than I thought I would be able to (mostly after the baby goes to sleep at night) but most of it has been books from my new library at work so they don't count...

Since I seem to be on a roll and only have 1 more ROOT to reach my goal, I think I'll start another today. I'm trying to decide between Siege and Storm (so that I can finish that trilogy and read her new book that I just bought) and Master of Crows. Although I may end up reading something entirely different...

My list of non-ROOTS was getting too long... I'm starting another

51. Dreamer's Pool - Juliet Marillier
52. Saga Vol. 1 - Brian K. Vaughn
53. Heartless - Gail Carriger
54. Shadow Spell - Nora Roberts
55. Uprooted - Naomi Novik
56. Magic Binds - Ilona Andrews
57. Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie Stiefvater
58. Toward a Secret Sky - Heather Maclean
59. The Truth About Alice - Jennifer Mathieu
60. Breath of Fire - Amanda Bouchet
61. Saga, Vol. 2 - Brian K. Vaughn
62. Boys Don't Knit - T. S. Easton
63. My Lady Jane - Cynthia Hand
64. Saga Vol. 3 - Brian K. Vaughn
65. Monstress - Marjorie M. Lui
66. Lincoln's Grave Robbers - Steve Sheinkin
67. Lumberjanes Volume 3 - Noelle Stevenson
68. White Crow - Marcus Sedgwick
69. Lumberjanes Volume 4 - Noelle Stevenson
70. A Kiss at Midnight - Eloisa James
71. Barbarian Lover - Ruby Dixon
72. The Duke is Mine - Eloisa James
73. Your Wicked Ways - Eloisa James
74. Barbarian Mine - Ruby Dixon
75. Ice Planet Holiday - Ruby Dixon
76. Barbarian's Prize - Ruby Dixon
77. Barbarian's Mate - Ruby Dixon
78. Only a Promise - Mary Balogh
79. When a Scot Ties the Knot - Tessa Dare
80. The Book Whisperer - Donalyn Miller
81. Authentic Aromatherapy - Sharon Falsetto
82. Saga Volume 4 - Brian K. Vaughn
83. Paper Girls - Brian K. Vaughn
84. Unbound - Ann E. Burg
85. The Thousandth Floor - Katharine McGee
86. Caraval - Stephanie Garber
87. A Tangle of Knots - Lisa Graff
88. Snow White - Matt Phelan
89. Snow Angel Cove - RaeAnne Thayne

>34 johanna414: Congratulations on the new house!

Congrats on both the home and the job!

Finished A Discovery of Witches the other night, which means I've met my goal of a dozen books! I can't believe I waited so long to read it - it was really good!

I'm about halfway through the graphic novel Fray by Joss Whedon and really loving that as well - I'll keep working on ROOTS for the group goal.

Congratulations on reaching your goal!

Congrats on reaching your goal!

Hurray for reaching your goal!

I have finished Fray and I can't believe I waited so long to read it! I love Joss Whedon and now all I want to do is go back and rewatch all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

I started reading Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo last night but after a couple chapters I realized it had been waaaay too long since I read the first 2 books. So I went back and read a plot synopsis for Shadow & Bone online and started to skim through Siege & Storm. Skimming didn't really work though since I got caught up in the story right away (it must have been awhile since I read them, because I have no memory of where the story is going!), so it looks like I'll be doing a reread before moving in to the 3rd book again.

This weekend I read a good chunk of The Shining (which is a ROOT) but it got a little too scary so I had to put it down for awhile... I picked up When Beauty Tamed the Beast (also a ROOT) instead and flew through that! It was a really fun, light romance - I'm definitely going to be looking for some more books by Eloisa James.

Sunday night my little guy dropped my kindle and now it won't turn on... so that was pretty devastating! I have the kindle app on my iPad for work, but I don't really like to read on that for long periods of time. I'm hoping my husband will get me a new paperwhite for Christmas!

On the plus side, he followed up breaking my kindle by snuggling with the cat - totally makes up for it!

They look adorable!

>34 johanna414: wow that's a lot that you've dealt with in the past several months!! Congrats on the new job and house!!

>38 johanna414: AND congrats on meeting your ROOTs goal!


>44 johanna414: oh no! Sorry to hear about your kindle... :( Hope your husband comes through w/ a paperwhite!

>45 johanna414: lol yes it does - so cute!

>45 johanna414: What a darling picture!

>45 johanna414: Very cute picture! Maybe one for one of Amazon's big kindle sales and drop a zillions hints. Notes around the house, post-its in your husband's car. Ha! ;)