Lately I’ve been thinking about onscreen violence versus book violence. I’ve read two books lately with way more torture in them than I could stand, and as I said in my Water Knife review, you can’t close your eyes and ears when you’re reading. And then came the second to last episode of Outlander (the…
My husband sent me this blog post from writer Brian McClellan, and I thought it was fascinating. He writes about how authors earn money from their books, and which types of formats support the author. (McClellan is an epic fantasy writer, but I should tell you I’m not familiar with his books.) We know so…
There’s been a lot of buzz about The Oyster Review’s 100 Best Books of the Decade So Far list. I think it’s a good list, with a fair amount of variety and books that are more “accessible” than many best-of lists, with popular non-fiction inclusions like Wild and Bossypants. I don’t know much about Oyster,…
It’s Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. It’s Monday, and I am knee-deep in papers and work stuff. At least I get to research things I’m interested in! I’m writing one paper on family literacy programs and another on how to motivate children to read. Sensing a theme here? If I’m not talking…
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Hooray for spring, it’s finally here! So it’s time for my Spring TBR List. Of course I have way too much on my reading list. Some days I feel like I’m racing through books, and sometimes I feel I’m not making a dent. Here’s…
This summer will mark my fifth anniversary of blogging. And one of the things I’ve really wanted to do is attend the Book Expo America Bloggers Conference. Have you been? What did you think? I read some good critical reviews of last year’s conference, and it sounds like the blogging sessions aren’t always terribly informative.…
I don’t have a lot of blogging resolutions for 2015, other than maintaining my reviews, not taking too many review requests, and keeping up with posting reviews on sites like Goodreads. I’ve got five classes to take this year and a full time job, after all. But one of my resolutions is to be a…
2014 was a good year for reading and blogging. It was also a good year for seeing family, for traveling, for getting the hang of being a student again (halfway through!) and for NOT working too hard. You’ll see below it was a good year for reading new authors and getting outside my usual genres. …
You’ve probably heard plenty about the wedding episode already, if you’re following the show. I just want to say thank you to the Outlander team for getting so much of this book right. Sorry to those of you in the U.K. who can’t watch the show, and for those of you who aren’t caught up,…
Outlander just keeps getting better. I’m amazed at how closely they are following the book; I’ve been reading after every episode to follow along (but not before, because I’d rather watch without knowing everything). Episode 3 was one of those yell-at-the-TV episodes. As in, “nooo, don’t go there”! Claire is so headstrong but you can…
Are you watching? What did you think? Episode 2 was clearly designed to impart a lot of story information. We meet a lot of new characters: Colum, Geillis, Laoghaire, Mrs. Fitz. But of course, this episode is really about Jamie, just as episode 1 was about Claire. I love this part of the book, because…
It’s possible I’m posting way too much about a TV show, and some of you think I’m a bit obsessed. I’m beginning to think so too. But here, until next week anyway, are my thoughts about Episode 1. For two excellent reviews, I recommend i09, and The AV Club. In a nutshell: it was glorious.…
The Book Stop 