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Books in My Bag: Thanksgiving Edition

books in my bag thanksgiving

Later this afternoon, as soon as we can both get off work, the boyfriend and I heading back to my parents’ house in the Twin Cities for Thanksgiving. My family has a pretty average Thanksgiving celebration — turkey and all the fixings, plus football on tv and long afternoon naps. My sister and I might head out to do some shopping on Friday afternoon, and we have a surprise planned for my mom on Saturday, but otherwise I think it’ll be a long, relaxing weekend.

If I’m lucky, I’ll also be able to squeeze in a bit of reading time. I brought home a bunch of books, so I’ll at least have options to choose from. Here’s what’s in my bag:

  • The News Sorority by Sheila Weller (nonfiction) — I’ve been making steady progress through this book about Diane Sawyer, Christiane Amanpour, and Katie Couric that also looks at the state of women in journalism. It’s good, but a little dry.
  • Minneapolis Madams by Penny Petersen (nonfiction) — I am going to eventually get around to reading this book, all about the secret history of Minneapolis’ red light district, soon. I promise.
  • The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion by Meghan Daum (essays) — I don’t know a ton about this collection, I can’t even remember how I heard about it, but the jacket copy says Daum “pushes back against the false sentimentality and shrink-wrapped platitudes that surround so much of contemporary American experience” — sounds perfect for the holidays, right?
  • The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (fiction) — This book is the November Riot Read and I’m super psyched to read it. I’m a few chapters in and it’s really amazing so far.
  • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (fiction) — I splurged and bought this one early last week… the buzz got to be too much. Fingers crossed I can make some time for it.

While that’s still more books that I can possibly read, I like to have options. Have a wonderful holiday, for those celebrating, and see you on the other side!

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Bryan G. Robinson November 26, 2014, 7:33 am

    Is that all? 😉

    I actually have about 12 books that I picked up from the library to choose from for this weekend, and two others that I’m waiting to come in from on hold on ebook at the library. No, I don’t know where I’m going to start. Several are parts of series so I have a feeling if I commit to one, I’ll be committing to them all. Hmmm, choices, choices.

    Your average Thanksgiving celebration sounds good to me, all of it. We’ll be doing most of that here, minus the football, but definitely the naps. Those are a must. Hope you, your boyfriend, and your family enjoy everything with your Thanksgiving.

    • Kim December 3, 2014, 9:00 pm

      Right? I brought all those books and only managed to finish one — story of my life 🙂

  • Vasilly November 26, 2014, 9:16 am

    Your weekend sounds relaxing. What’s better than family, food, and naps. 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving!

  • Aarti November 26, 2014, 10:42 am

    I’ve got some books I am hoping to get through this weekend, too! Not sure if it will happen with so many people all over the place, but obviously, I need to take enough in case there is opportunity!

  • Lory @ Emerald City Book Review November 26, 2014, 12:20 pm

    Great choices in your bag! I’m not going anywhere (which is good, because it’s snowing like crazy here in NH) but things will be busy enough. I still hope to get in some reading time; I have Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend waiting for me. Happy Thanksgiving!

  • Anita November 26, 2014, 10:23 pm

    I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I just finished Everything I Never Told You in audio, and honestly it was amazing and broke my heart. Happy Thanksgiving.

    • Kim December 3, 2014, 9:01 pm

      I’ve heard a bunch of people say how amazing it is in the last few weeks. I’m really excited (and kind of nervous — it’s hard to read books that everyone loves!)

  • Jess - A Book Hoarder November 27, 2014, 2:39 am

    I will be curious to see what you think about Everything I Never Told You. It looks like you have a great stack of books prepared. Have fun!

  • Ann @ Books on the Table November 27, 2014, 8:13 am

    Have a great weekend! I’m concentrating on reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie, because my book group is discussing it next week. I just picked up the Megan Daum essay book and am looking forward to reading it. My book group discussed Everything I Never Told You last month — we had a great discussion — one of our best. I read the book in a day — it’s that kind of a book.

    • Kim December 3, 2014, 9:01 pm

      I just skimmed some of those essays this week and got really excited about the book. They look really interesting.

  • Sarah @ Sarah's Book Shelves November 27, 2014, 3:25 pm

    Enjoy your holiday! I thought Everything I Never Told You was a really good…maybe not “best book of the year” like Amazon says, but definitely one of the best debuts of the year!

  • Trisha November 28, 2014, 8:06 am

    Thanksgiving is a one-day, two-party hoopla for me with no napping and no reading. I am jealous.

    • Kim December 3, 2014, 9:01 pm

      You are hard core!

  • Jenny @ Reading the End November 29, 2014, 6:57 pm

    Hope you had a smashing holiday! Mine was lovely, but tiring — I’m happy to be back home again. And I did get at least some reading time in, so I read one highly anticipated ARC (Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel) and a bunch of random stuff I was trying to knock off my list by 2014.

  • Leila @ Readers' Oasis December 1, 2014, 9:36 am

    I recently read Everything I Never Told You–yes, too much buzz, had to read! I’m on a mission to read some of the stand-out fiction releases of 2014 that I somehow missed.

    • Kim December 3, 2014, 9:02 pm

      I’m sure I missed a lot of fiction, but I managed to read at least a few of the ones I was most hyped about. Station Eleven was probably the book I saw the most love for that totally lived up to the raves. Fingers crossed on Everything I Never Told You.

  • susan December 9, 2014, 7:38 pm

    I got to check out that Celeste Ng book! Much hype. Does it live up to it???

    • Kim December 21, 2014, 9:15 am

      Totally did! It snuck on to my best books of the year list.