New Reading Project: Blogger Recommends

Couple of months back, I was staring at the state of the TBR and feeling that necessity to cull my virtual bookshelves all over again. And while going through those shelves, I came across many that I remembered adding after reading some gushing review (though I didn't remember who exactly gushed about those books.) Since at that point, I didn't have the memory of that gushing review anymore, I found myself less inclined to want to read them. This is a classic tale among many book bloggers. Every time we go on a trip through bloggerland, we come out with a ton of new recommendations that.... eventually get buried deep under the massive Mt. TBR that we each have and absolutely fear. And then, days or months later, we probably come across the same book, forget why it is even there, and remove from our wishlists. So there goes all our noble intentions to listen to our most trusted book-recommenders.

Which is why, I've decided to start this project. One of many that I am doing, but isn't that fun? Every month, I bookmark some of the strongest recommendations that I come across. Most are books I hear about for the first time, others are books I've previously not been interested in, but this particular blogger has managed to convince me otherwise.

Giving this a swing last month, I found that I ended up bookmarking 15+ links in total. I know I was not too liberal, but I didn't want to leaf through a 100 links later. I found some wonderful new titles among these and other return-to-the-tbr titles. I thought I will spotlight some of those titles here, while I decide which one(s) to read.

 1. One of the very first reviews that I booklisted this month was Ti's review of Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I had heard of Murakami many times, but he was one of those authors I was absolutely scared of reading. Ti's review convinced me that I'm definitely missing out on something - this was her first Murakami as well and since then, she has already read another one.

 2. Gayle wrote a fabulous review of City of Thieves by David Benioff. This book is set in St. Petersburg, a city in a country that I have not bookisited yet! City of Thieves has a very interesting story - two men captured during the Seige of Leningrad are told that their lives will be spared if they can come a week later with a dozen eggs. I am definitely curious about what happens!

 3. Another of my favorite bloggers, Helen, who always gives me these wonderful recommendations on YA books without fangs, gave me yet another one through Funny in Farsi (which is actually non-YA). For one thing, Iran is one of my favorite places to read about. I've read and loved several books set in Iran. For another, this book is laugh-out-loud funny in Helen's opinion. That would be an interesting combo!

 4. Swapna reviewed a book of short stories last month, called Quarantine by Rahul Mehta. Although I don't ordinarily read short stories, this one fascinated me because it's about homosexuality in India - it's such a scandalous topic there, that I'm really eager to see the author's perspective on this subject.

 5. One of my recent blogger discoveries - Heather - reads and likes pretty much the same books as I, which often makes me wonder how it took so long for me to find her blog! She reviewed Displaced Persons (among a ton of other books that I've shamelessly wishlisted) and that has got me excited to check it out. Set in post-WW2, it follows a few survivors and the lives they lead. I especially like the title of this book - so many things come to mind.

The other titles that caught my fancy last month are:

 6. Rules of Tunnel by Ned Zeman - Raging Bibliomania. Mental illness is something I read about a lot.
 7. The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam - S. Krishna's Books. A literary trilogy about a serious issue? I'm all for it.
 8. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - Man of la Book particularly talked about X-Men when reviewing it. That was enough for me.
 9. The Arrogant Years by Lucette Lagnado - Beth Fish Reads. This is one of the memoirs that sounds appealing to me from the synopsis itself.
 10. The Filter Bubble by Eli Paliser - Amy Reads. I am pretty obsessed with privacy online, which is why I am curious about this book.
 11. When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant - Nomadreader. Another book about embracing your Jewish identity in post-WW2.
 12. Q: A Novel by Evan Mandery - Iris on Books, addressing the question of "What if I had known about this? Would I have done it differently?"
 13. Stardust by Neil Gaiman - Always meaning to read this book but not terribly excited by it, but when Jen gushed about this book, I began to feel more interested in it.
 14. All over Coffee - At Shelf Love by Jenny. A graphic novel/book. Need I say more?

Which book are you most interested in?