On our trip to London and Spain we saw a lot of cool things, especially in the areas of art, architecture, history, and wine. But here’s the bookish side of our travels: Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, is clearly Spain’s favorite literary son; I lost count of the times I saw a sculpture … Continue reading
Hello readers! I just got back from Spain a few days ago, and I can’t wait to tell you more about our trip. But as always when I travel, I’m full of ideas and no energy/time to actually write about them. So it’s a good thing it’s Tuesday! Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic, hosted by … Continue reading
August was a busy month, mostly spent planning for our trip to Spain. We are super-excited to finally be off on our adventure to London, Barcelona, Granada, Seville, and Madrid. But August was also a really upsetting month, due to the horrible deaths in Charlottesville and Barcelona and finishing up with the flooding in Texas. … Continue reading
I’ve seen this meme going around (started by Lost in a Story) as a way to edit a growing to-be-read list. You take your Goodreads TBR list, sort by ascending date added, and look at the oldest 5-10 items on your list. If I haven’t read them by now, am I likely to? Why or why not? I … Continue reading
This month I torpedoed my 20 Books of Summer list by signing up for a pile of NetGalleys and ARCs. I’m not saying I regret those reads, which were quite good; something just made me go “off-list” this month. Otherwise, my July was all about my sister – I got to visit her in Wisconsin … Continue reading
Those of you who write book reviews, and who care about reading fiction with well-developed female characters, may find this article in Literary Hub as fascinating as I did. Science fiction author Daniel Price writes about the response his book The Flight of the Silvers received on Goodreads. I’d braced myself for the worst with … Continue reading
June is always one of my favorite months. It’s the start of summer and the weather is usually perfect, right in between May which is too wet and July which gets pretty steamy. Plus it’s my birthday month. It was a good month, if a quiet one. Summer reading, seeing friends, and an outdoor concert … Continue reading
As we hit the year’s halfway point, I looked at my progress on blog resolutions and challenges. Last year I was really overwhelmed, and this year, with no grad school, I’ve been able to put the blog first. That makes me happy. But have I accomplished what I hoped? As a blogger, I tend to … Continue reading
Last month I read two fantastic books that were the authors’ debut novels (The Hate U Give and The Leavers). That got me thinking about other great first novels I’ve read, which got me to thinking: why are so many authors’ first novels their best ones? I think it’s because there’s a raw, emotional quality … Continue reading
May was an eventful month, beginning with a DC blogger happy hour, Zezee with Books, and Grace from Books without Any Pictures. It was awesome to meet them and I look forward to hearing more about their blogs — I’ve already thought of questions I want to follow up on. We met at local bookstore Kramerbooks, … Continue reading
I’m not sure how I managed to read so much in April, although two long flights including a three-hour delay certainly helped. We visited Seattle for a lovely weekend with my in-laws, where we tasted wine, enjoyed science fiction and fantasy exhibits in the Museum of Pop Culture, took a boat tour, and of course … Continue reading
This year, I’m focusing on reading more diverse books, which includes reading books about other countries. And so far this year I’ve made a good effort. Of the 30 books I’ve read this year, 8 are by authors of color. That may not sound like a great percentage but it’s a big increase for me. For … Continue reading
