I usually wait until mid to late January before posting my reading plans or goals. Mainly because I'm very optimistic about my superhuman capabilities during the start of a new year but much of that enthusiasm fades over the next couple of weeks. I tend to believe I can read more than ever but reality is usually closer to how much I averaged in previous years. So, to allow myself the opportunity to dream big and then plan well, I take the ambitious goals for a road test during the first couple of weeks of the year. If they still look achievable, great! If not, I will part ways with those that are a stretch. The numbers I have an arbitrary number set in Goodreads for this year but it's not a number I will quote as I tend to change it often and it is intended to factor in the many picture books I read with my kids. But that said, there are three numbers I would like to improve this year (last year's stats in parentheses) - total number of pages read (approx. 11k), average n

I love doing this meme every week. Among the many books that sneakily jump into my TBR every week, I try to feature the ones that really caught my eye. In a way, it's like choosing a weekly top three. I wonder how many of these books I would rate high after reading. But considering that most, if not all, are recommendations, I would guess, many.

I recently came across this book in Wendy's blog. She had reviewed it last year, but I'm just seeing it.
When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing and is found drowned in the
desert outside Jeddah, Nayira, the desert guide hired by her prominent
family to search for her, feels compelled to find out what really
happened.
Gentle, hulking, conscientious Nayir soon finds himself delving into the interior life of a wealthy, protected teenage girl in one of the most rigidly segregated of Middle Eastern societies. To gain access to the world of women, Nayir realizes he will have to join forces with Katya Hijazi, a lab technician at the coroner's office and the fiancée of Nouf's brother. In the course of working with Katya and uncovering the mysteries of the dead girl's mind, Nayir must confront his own desire for female companionship and the limitations imposed by his beliefs.
Operation Mincemeat by
Ben MacIntyre
I hadn't heard of Operation Mincemeat (the real operation not the book) before. It definitely seems an interesting tactic to use, with an complete conniving feel to it. Using a dead body to divert the Nazis into a different battlefield, during World War 2, allowed the Allied armies to invade Sicily.

I believe I have come across this book previously, but for some reason, was hooked by it only last week. A friend of mine in Goodreads recommended this book, and its synopsis does sound very promising.
When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn
squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl
during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising
the more difficult truths of her life-like the staggering degree of her
poverty, the weight of her family's future resting on her shoulders, or
her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or
ambition-Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language
but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.
Did you sign-up for the Glorious giveaway?

Comments
My finds are here.
definitely seems like it could be :)
I've been seeing The Girl In Translation all over the place...and I am always drawn to that cover!!