Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

#24in48: Plans, Plans, Plans



IT'S 24IN48 WEEKEND, YA'LL. 


potential tbr for 24in48

I love books and I love bookish people, so a weekend of bookish people coming together across the world to read books is basically my favorite thing of all time. I'm excited to be joining Kristen in supporting Rachel with 24in48 activities again this go-'round, and I really really hope you all will come read along with us. (If a weekend of books with other bookish people isn't enough to sell you, will this amazing list of prizes tip your decision?)

My weekend is unfortunately slightly packed with non-reading activities (I'll be running most of the day Saturday, then attending a running club event Saturday evening), but I've got a stack of book set aside for Sunday nonetheless. As I mentioned on Instagram, the stack is born of indecision, not ambition; if I finish even one of these bad boys, I'll be a happy camper. Right now, Hearts Invisible Furies is at the top of my list, because SO many people have told me to read it now that I can't keep ignoring them all. But who knows; maybe something else will strike my fancy in the moment.

Are you participating? If so, let me know where you'll be updating and I'll do my best to stop on by as I am able. [It's not too late to sign up, either. Just head to 24in48.com to join in.] 

And I'd love to know which book from my stack you think I should start with!




Week in Reading, and in Life: Monday, December 5th

Hey, so, remember when I used to be a blogger? Yeah, me too, kind of. Let's see if we can get back to that version of me.

Between the election, work, end-of-year review deadlines, and a bunch of travel, I've been taking a much-needed step back from the internet. For the most part, it's been quite excellent. I'm starting to ease back into things, starting with this little corner of the internet. We shall see.

Am Reading

I now consume most of my news in print form (The Frederick News Post and The Washington Post), where I don't worry about accidentally reading the comments, and find myself drawn into stories I would otherwise have glossed over in online headlines. It's been a shift for this millennial, and proved a (mostly) welcome one.


A Day in the Life: March 22nd

Today is the second annual Day in the Life event, hosted by Trish at Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity the Blog. I had some issues with my blog eating my Day in the Life post last year, though I did manage to recover it (actually, Shaina was able to recover it... thanks Shaina!). It's amazing to me to see how much has changed and how much stayed the same in the past year...




I work from home, but attend a fair number of off-site conferences and meetings each week, so I don't have a truly "typical" day. Since last year, I recorded a day of work from home, I opted for a day of go-go-go this time around: specifically March 22, 2016, a conference day!

BBAW: Keeping it Fresh

It's the last day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Hosted by AnaJennyHeather, and Andi, the week is designed to "celebrate the hard work, dedication, and love we all put into this adventure we call book blogging." If you missed the rest of this week's content, you can see all the link-ups over at The Estella Society.


Guys, this week has been such a blast -- exactly the push I needed to reclaim some of my blogging oomph and reconnect with the greater community. There are so many of you out there doing incredible wonderful things, and talking about incredible wonderful books, and sometimes I forget that this little blog doesn't have to live in a vacuum.

Which brings us to today's prompt for BBAW -- the last prompt of the week!

One of the unfortunate side effects of reading and blogging like rockstars seems to be a tendency toward burnout. How do you keep things fresh on your blog and in your reading? 

BBAW: An Interview with April of Between the Pages

It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Hosted by AnaJennyHeather, and Andi, the week is designed to "celebrate the hard work, dedication, and love we all put into this adventure we call book blogging." Check back throughout the week for posts on the joys of blogging, discovering other bloggers, and more!



One of my favorite parts of BBAW is getting to know new-to-me bloggers. There's a biiiiig wide world of people out there talking about books and reading and everything in between, and I know my sad and cluttered Feedly stream only scratches the surface of that universe. So today I'm excited to have the chance to feature an interview with April of Between the Pages!

Book Blogger Appreciation Week: A Bookish Introduction

It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Hosted by Ana, Jenny, Heather, and Andi, the week is designed to "celebrate the hard work, dedication, and love we all put into this adventure we call book blogging." Check back throughout the week for posts on the joys of blogging, discovering other bloggers, and more!


Today's prompt asks BBAW participants to introduce themselves... using five books. In no particular order, here are five books I think could introduce me:


Goals, Goals, Goals: Reading, Blogging, and Personal


I'm not big on resolutions. I've made them in the past, but inevitably, they fall off my radar by the end of January and are replaced with the standard chaos of everyday life. So now instead of resolutions, I choose one word to focus my energy on over the course of a year, and in 2016, it's savor. The intent is to remind myself to enjoy the things I love--in part by letting go of the things that take up my time and energy and are not things I love.

#AMonthofFaves: The Top Ten Books That Blew My Mind This Year


I'll be hopping in and out of #AMonthofFaves this month with some book-related and not-so-book-related content. Today's prompt: The Top Ten Books That Blew Your Mind This Year.

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I've already written about my favorite non-fiction and fiction picks, but using some different criteria, here are the ten books that truly blew my mind this year (and the reasons they did so). Note: These are books read in 2015, not necessarily books published in 2015.


#AMonthofFaves: Year-End Updates on Reading Challenges, Resolutions, and Goals


I've been hopping in and out of #AMonthofFaves this month with some book-related and not-so-book-related content. Today's prompt: Year-End Updates on Reading Challenges, Resolutions and Goals.

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This was both a wonderful year and a terrible year for reading challenges for me. In a landmark move, I fully completed my first ever reading challenge that requires a set number of books (Book Riot's 2015 Read Harder Challenge). In every other challenge, I failed miserably:


  • Clean Your Reader (hosted by myself, even!): I read a mere 3 e-books over the course of a month.*
  • 2015 TBR Challenge: Miserable fail. Though I read plenty of books that technically were on my TBR pile before 2015, only of them were on my official TBR challenge list.
  • Classics Club: I read only two classics this year (and DNF-ed 2 more)

#AMonthofFaves | A Few of My Favorite (Christmas Tree) Things


I'll be hopping in and out of #AMonthofFaves this month with some book-related and not-so-book-related content. Today's prompt: Favorite Holiday Festivities -- or, in my case, favorite Christmas Tree decorations.

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I know many think that Christmas trees--particularly real, needle-dropping, sap-sticky trees--are a pain to put up (and break down) each year, but honestly, it's one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. Here are just a few of my most favorite ornaments, hanging besides more Patriots candy canes than I care to admit:


#WeekendReading: Picking Favorites from This Week's #AMonthofFaves


I'll be hopping in and out of #AMonthofFaves this month with some book-related and not-so-book-related content. Today's prompt: Weekend Reading -- Picking Favorites Shared through A Month of Favorites this week.

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I didn't participate in the "This is How I Blog" prompt this week, but I learned about a ton of new blogging resources from others' posts. In particular:

Andi also has me even more excited than I already was about the forthcoming The Lifechanging Magic of Not Giving a F**k, which is out from Little, Brown in December. Cannot. Wait.

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reading challenge, e-book challenge, ebook challenge, ereader challenge, tbr challenge


In non-Month of Faves news, it's not too late to sign up for the Clean Your Reader challenge this January-March. The premise is simple: focus on reading all those unread e-books lurking on your e-reader accounts somewhere. I hope you'll join us!

Nonfiction November Plans

nonfiction november

Nonfiction November is back again this year, and I'm excited to be emphasizing some non-fic selections in my November reading... just as soon as I wrap up my current reads. In an effort to continue to focus these precious few deadline-light weeks on backlist and wrapping up my annual reading challenges, here's what I'm eying for the month:

furiously happy, liar temptress soldier spy, when women were birds, wild, the reason i jump, how to live, h is for hawk, notorious rbg, at home, the skies belong to us,


From my 2015 TBR Challenge list:




And a few just-because alternatives:

I obviously won't get to all of these, but a girl can dream...

What are your favorite non-fiction picks? What should I have added to my stacks?

Oops, I Did It Again



Remember a few months ago when I wrote about not half-assing two things, instead choosing to focus on truly whole-assing one thing at a time? (It's a quote from Parks & Rec, and I've got it framed and hung on my office wall.)

Celebrating *AHEM* Seven (Not Eight) Years (and Pushing The Dead Ladies Project into As Many Hands as Possible)


Turns out the first lesson I'll be learning as I enter my eighth year of blogging is how to count... this little corner of the internet is SEVEN this year, not eight. Snow White has seven dwarves; a week has seven days; Voldemort had seven horcruxes; I've been blogging for seven years. All of the rest of my sentiments remain the same. Thank you for being here! Now excuse me while I go wipe this egg off my face.

Apparently I've been at this little blog thing for eight seven years. EIGHT SEVEN YEARS. As my five-year-old niece (who is three years younger than my blog, might I add) would say, "Whoa, nelly."

I've learned so much in this space: how to put books that don't work down; how much I value a chance to write about my favorite books (and in my favorite books); how incredible and supportive and lovely and intelligent the bookish community can be. Blogging has led to a few freelance writing gigs and connected me to people all over the world as well as people right here in my new-to-me hometown.

I wasn't planning on doing anything to celebrate here, but I've just finished the kind of book that makes me grateful all over again to be a blogger and have the opportunity to shout, loudly, about the lesser-known books I love. So I'm offering to pre-order a copy of The Dead Ladies Project for one lucky winner. Open to anyone in the world provided The Book Depository can ship to you. I'll pick a winner on Friday, September 4th.

A full, cohesive, "grown-up" review of The Dead Ladies Project will be forthcoming, but in short:

This book left me with a drying-up pen. It's already dog-eared on every other page; it's the kind of memoir that is introspective while also providing a way for us to process the lives of others and how our own connect to them. And connect to places, and moments in history, and moments in the future. As author Jessa Crispin travels the world, following in the footsteps of semi-famous figures (Maud Gonne, Igor Stravinsky, among others) who left behind convention and stability in favor of freedom and exploration, she explores that age-old question of how to live in a way that truly resonates.

Happy reading, and thanks, as always, for being here.

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A Refresh!



Though I've been slow to read and review and post lately, I did manage to find the energy to refresh the blog design this past week. It's now live and on the site, so if you're reading in a feed reader or via email subscription, come take a look and let me know what you think!

And thanks, as always, for reading.

BEA Bloggers Conference (#BEA2015 Recap, Part 1)

Last week was a whirlwind of bookish delight, which I'll be recapping as best I can over the coming days. Up first:


Wednesday: BEA Bloggers Conference

I haven't been to BEA Bloggers (formerly Blogger Con) since its very first year, and then I attended as publishing staff, not as a blogger (though I was technically blogging at that time). I've heard mixed things about the conference in years past from bloggers I know and trust: Florinda (The 3 R's Blog) had a great recap of the mixed success of the 2012 conference, and Shannon and Leah echoed similar thoughts on the 2014 conference. Still, I know that over the years, the conference organizers have tried to encourage more and more input from actual bloggers on the content and format of the conference, so I went into the day cautiously optimistic.

#Readathon: The Stack and the Cause

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon is coming up this weekend and I. Cannot. Wait. I love this event: it brings together bloggers around the world to celebrate reading. And it's always a perfect kick out of a slump, though luckily some incredible reads lately have been helping me with that problem (that and the sunshine, I think).

I always have far too many books on hand for this event; it's classic eyes-are-bigger-than-my-stomach syndrome, and I willfully refuse to learn from past readathons that I don't need twelve books lined up.

So, willfully ignoring my past learning experiences, here are the 12 14 books I've got lined up for this weekend:

Writing About Reading


A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get to see Ann Patchett and Maureen Corrigan in conversation about books and the reading life at a local Frederick Reads event. The two made several book recommendations, talked about the writing process, and discussed the role of reading and writing in shaping both of their lives. At one point, Corrigan, herself a book reviewer for NPR, mused aloud:

How do you write about your experience as a reader with authenticity, when one's experience as a reader is intensely personal?

I spend the large majority of my not-work, not-sleep time either reading or writing about reading (or thinking about reading or thinking about writing about reading). This question is personal to me, especially as one prone to question my right to review books and my place in this bookish community. When I talk about books, I am very conscious of the fact that reading is inherently personal; it is by looking at that personal experience in the context of the larger world--of readers, of writers, of stories--that my experience with a book feels valid and worth sharing.

#CloudAtlasAlong: Parts 1 & 2


It's here! The first of five posts on David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas for the #CloudAtlasAlong, hosted by S. This is my first foray into Mitchell's work (I know, I know, but I've always been oddly intimidated by his writing, for some reason?). I've since learned that Mitchell references his earlier works in each of his subsequent novels, so perhaps starting in the middle of his ouevre (Cloud Atlas is the third of his six published novels) isn't the best plan, but I'm sticking with it.

A little background on the book: Cloud Atlas was published in 2004, and was shortlisted that year for the Man Booker Prize (as well as the Nebula and an Arthur C. Clarke award in the same year). The novel was adapted for film--with, I think, limited success--in 2012.

[Spoilers follow, such as they are, so if you haven't read the book--look away.]

Day in the Life: Take Two

Blogger previously ate this post, but since the text was still displaying in Shaina's feedly, she was kind enough to send me the text of my own post so I could re-post it without having to start from scratch. THANK YOU!

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Trish at Love, Laughter and Insanity is asking bloggers to share a day in the life. See other bloggers' daily lives over at her master link-up!

This particular day was Wednesday: A weekday with no out-of-the-house meetings, in the middle of a week when my husband was traveling for work, so I had a pretty quiet, to-myself kind of routine going: