Ah, August. My co-workers are freaking out about the heat and all I can think is, just a little longer please! I’m never ready for summer to end (and yet it does, every year). It was a great month, with a visit to my sister and nieces in Wisconsin, dinner with friends, and a last…
July was a busy, stormy month. It began in California where I visited Catalina for the first time and rode in a (small) July 4th parade. It ended with seeing Hamilton with friends. And in between there was rain. Lots of it. Here’s what I read in July: Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey Eleanor…
I never used to read nonfiction. I’ve always said I learn more from a memorable story and characters than from a recitation of facts. And that’s still true, but over the last two years I’ve really come to appreciate nonfiction. Last year I read a record (for me) 11 works of nonfiction, because of, well,…
June was a tough month nationally, but a good month for blogging. It was a much quieter month than May, except for the last week, which I spent at a conference in San Diego (not at bad place to be). It felt good to get back to blogging, and it was also my birthday month.…
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is about series you don’t think you’ll finish. I start series all the time but there are only a few I really keep up with. So first I’ll share the series I DO keep up with, and then I’ll give you the unfinished list. …
So far I’ve read 13 out of the 24 Read Harder 2018 Challenge. It’s my first time doing this challenge and I’m really enjoying it. But it’s the categories I haven’t read so far that are the real challenge. What I’d really like is to get YOUR suggestions about books that fall into these categories. …
May was a really busy month, with a trip to Northern California and another to nearby Williamsburg and Virginia Beach. Both trips were revitalizing – in California we visited Sonoma and my in-laws, tasted lots of wine, and fantasized about retiring there. In Virginia Beach, we got to tour a Navy carrier, visited friends, and…
April was a good reading month, and otherwise uneventful, unless you count our cat having to go to the vet twice and being put on blood pressure medication (she’s okay but getting older – sigh). What I read in April: The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms An American Marriage by Tayari Jones Burn Bright by…
With 2018 just over a quarter of the way through, I’ve decided to write about progress on my (too) many reading challenges. One of my favorite challenges this year is the Read Harder Challenge by Book Riot, which has 24 categories of books that you try and cover. These range from the easy (a book…
I decided in the beginning of the year to look for a book club, as a way to meet new people and talk to people in person about books. I’m not sure if the live interaction of a book club is something I’ve been missing; in fact, I started this blog after years of feeling…
I read a lot in March, although some of that was for work (I’ve counted the books here because they were interesting, and I’ll write about them soon). Also, because I picked up way too many ARCs in March. March was a good month for me personally, despite the craziness in the world. We celebrated…
Reading Advance Review Copies (ARCs) is one of the fun parts of being a book blogger. You get free books and you get to read things before everyone else. It’s also a nice way to discover new writers and support their work. But I know I’m not the only book blogger who gets bogged down…
The Book Stop 