This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is ten books I loved with fewer than 2,000 ratings on Goodreads. I like the idea of promoting books most people haven’t read, so I found it pretty easy to make this list. So many great books that people aren’t reading! In no…
My husband challenged me in January to explore the world of podcasts about books. I have one that I listen to regularly, Sword and Laser, which I definitely recommend for science fiction and fantasy books. But I thought it would be great to break out a little and see what else is out there. In…
January wasn’t a great month for me. It’s cold and dreary and my seasonal congestion is making me miserable. I was supposed to have sinus surgery this month, so I spent the first part of the month stressing about the procedure, and then my doctor had to postpone it for six weeks. I have friends…
This week’s topic, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is the Top Ten Books I Meant to Read in 2018. There’s a whole lot more than 10, but I’ve already written about backlist books I want to read and challenge books I want to read, so I focused here on the literary releases in 2018…
This year I’m going to avoid signing up for any new challenges, but will continue with the ones I enjoyed most last year. The TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by Roof Beam Reader, asks you to take 12 books, plus two alternates, that have been on your TBR list for over a year. I often find…
In 2018, I signed up for a number of challenges but didn’t set many reading or blogging goals for myself. I said I wanted to learn about designing graphics for my blog, I wanted to join a book club, and I wanted to learn more about blogging in general. I also said this: In 2018…
Merry Christmas readers! This month I took a look at my favorite books of the year, and I asked myself the question: why did I read each one? Did I choose them because of ARCs, challenges (and if so, which ones), because they received an award, or because of positive reviews? I wanted to identify…
November is a month to be thankful. This month one of my cats was seriously ill and we came close to losing her. Happily, she made a comeback. I know our time with her is limited, and I’m grateful she’s feeling better. I spent most of the month reading ARCs, because I requested way too…
October flew by, with a week-long work trip to Boston and preparing for our trip to Chile and Argentina next month. I discovered two new book clubs in my neighborhood. I learned I can apply for library cards across all the counties in DC and Northern Virginia, which means I get to triple the number…
As Halloween approached, I’ve been thinking about scary books and why we read them. With all the horror in the news, my work colleagues have been increasingly asking for “lighter” book recommendations (I’ve been recommending Less). I’ve written several posts with recommendations of good horror reading recommendations of good horror reading, but in this post…
I began the month with a first-time visit to the National Book Festival, and ended it with an old favorite, the Antiquarian Book Fair, where I picked up a new book for my Oz collection. I had a great visit with my sister, went to my first professional soccer game, and I signed up to participate…
The National Book Festival has been going on for 17 years in DC, and I’ve never been. Not because I didn’t know about it; some of my colleagues go every year and one proudly displays their posters (which are quite beautiful) around her office. I don’t go because I really don’t like big crowded events,…
The Book Stop 