My first foray at the Armchair BEA conference has ended. It’s such a wonderful event that I only wish I had learned of it sooner. Mostly, I really enjoyed connecting with people and thinking and writing about my favorite obsession. Books. Now it’s time to announce the results of the drawing for my little giveaway. And the winners are: $20 Amazon gift card goes to Allison. Moonlight Dancer mug and postcard to Emma and Tanya. Moonlight Dancer ebook to…
Here’s today’s discussion prompt from the folks at Armchair BEA: Middle Grade/Young Adult Our final genre of discussion is one that we know is a popular one these days: books for the younger crowd, from middle grade to young adult. If you do not normally talk about this genre on your site, maybe you want to feature books that you remember impacting you during this stage in your life. If this is where you tend to gravitate, maybe you want to…
Good morning! (because yes, on the west coast, it is still morning). Today, I’m hosting a discussion and giveaway in celebration of Armchair BEA. I’m a newbie to Armchair BEA (my first foray, and I’m a little late to the party), but let’s get going anyway. I will choose six winners at the end of the conference. You will find details about entering the giveaway at the end of this post. First, the Armchair BEA official topic–diversity in books. Here…
Once Upon a Time Challenge: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson Reincarnation. It’s been around since the Iron Age. The Celts, Norse, Greeks, Indians all entertained beliefs in life after life. I wasn’t going to read this book. In fact, I probably would not have read it except that my book group chose it. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely adore Kate Atkinson’s writing. If you’ve never read her, I wholly recommend When Will There Be Good News? as your first…
Kimberly Faye Reads has issued an acrostic poem challenge for Bout of Books 10–to form a name or phrase using the first letter of words from book titles. Not one to do the ordinary (I know, I’m weird), I created my own quirky phrase. Hint: it has to do with my favorite novel topic! I did not include the articles “the” or “a” as first words since titles are not alphabetized with them. Without further ado, here goes. Girl Who…
Today, or tonight, really, as it’s growing late, I’m trying my hand at the challenge from My Overstuffed Shelves. The idea is to pair a book with another book or movie or meal, etc. I’m all about books, so two books it is. I tried to avoid obvious choices such as The Language of Flowers with White Oleander (aside from the horticultural influence, both novels deal with a teen’s struggle in the foster care system). Or The Curious Incident of…
Bout of books is finished! The End. Fini. It was great fun as always. I ended on a good note with another long drive and two hours of listening to Soulless plus an hour of reading Unholy Ghosts. Here are my results (pause while I pull out my calculator): Listening 8.5 hours + reading 7.75 hours = 16.25 hours. My goal was 12, so I’m pretty jazzed with the results. How about you? Updates: Monday I listened to 25 minutes of Saints…
The Wanderers by Cheryl Mahoney is the first book I read for the Once Upon a Time challenge. It was fun to wander trippingly through a novel by Cheryl from Tales of the Marvelous, one of the Once Upon a Time challenge participants. The Wanderers proved the perfect beginning for this challenge, and I put The Wanderers into the fairy tale category. The story opens in a magical land and features Jasper, an opportunistic fortune hunter, who puts himself in the right place at the…
Book lovers unite in a new bout! Actually, bout has two meanings 1. contest among antagonists 2. a period of time spent in a pursuit I’m going to go with the second definition and so should you. Here’s why: The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time…
Congratulations to the World Book Night givers of 2014! You are absolutely awesome! In a few weeks you will spread the love of reading. Yay, you! Now, ready for some tips to help you get the most out of your special night? Last year in celebration of World Book Night, daughter Manda and I, along with thousands of other “givers,” took to the streets and offered free books to strangers. I chose to hand out The Language of Flowers—a book loved by…
Hi Everyone, It’s that exciting time of year again! Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting Once Upon a Time VIII. Participants get in touch with their inner child and read fantasy, mythology, or folklore and chat about it. You can find the guidelines here. I enjoyed participating last year in the multi-genre category, so I think I’ll go for it again. Last year for fantasy, I read The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. For mythology, Lavinia by Ursula…
(image via Flickr) Grace from Books Without Any Pictures challenged readers to confess their dark reading secrets. Confession is good for the soul, right? Among Grace’s confessions were the fact that she despises The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and that she likes to dog-ear books. It took me a while, but I decided the time had come to confess. 1. I think I’m in the wrong book group. Sometimes I feel like a Victorian at a nudist colony. (image via…
image (via Flickr creative commons) “The mind of a writer can be a truly terrifying thing. Isolated, neurotic, caffeine-addled, crippled by procrastination and consumed by feelings of panic, self-loathing and soul-crushing inadequacy. And that’s on a good day.” —Robert De Niro If you watched the Oscars, you no doubt heard De Niro deliver this pronouncement on writers. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I decided to experiment (with myself as guinea pig) and test his hypothesis. I…