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
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, readers! 2016 wasn’t great for a few reasons, and for me it wasn’t a particularly good year in blogging and reading. For the first part of the year I blamed it on finishing my degree (not a bad excuse, really). And the second half of the year? Work got complicated … Continue reading
As you’ve heard (just a few times), I’ve struggled this spring to keep up with the blog and finish my degree. The blog has been on the back-burner, so I’m way behind on reviews and I haven’t been keeping up with a lot of the bloggy things I love. It’s the 6th anniversary of my … Continue reading
For the next couple of months, you won’t see as many posts on this blog. I have two months to complete the research on my thesis and write my paper. It’s an interesting topic – I’m studying how a family literacy program in DC helps parents to support their children’s educational development. A mouthful, right? … Continue reading
We all have rules about how we blog, or at least guidelines. This month I’ve been thinking about what we don’t talk about on our blogs. Obviously, the scope of this blog is about books. So how much should I write about non-bookish things? I like to incorporate a few non-bookish things in my monthly … Continue reading
This month marks the five year anniversary of The Book Stop. I had a lot of ideas about ways to celebrate, but school and work intervened. So I’m settling for this reflection post, and I hope you’ll grab a virtual piece of cake with me to celebrate. I started this blog five years ago because … Continue reading
A few months ago, I read a post on BookerTalk about how some people think book bloggers shouldn’t write reviews. I was surprised by this idea, since writing and reading book reviews is why I got into blogging in the first place. Just to be clear, BookerTalk wasn’t suggesting this, just exploring the idea raised … Continue reading
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. … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
This is definitely not the kind of book I usually pick up, but 1) it was lent to me by a good friend and 2) it’s by a blogger and 3) it’s laugh-out-loud funny. Jenny Lawson is The Blogess and this is her “Mostly True” memoir. After I tried and failed horribly to describe this … Continue reading
Happy Friday everyone! I’ve been on a bit of a blog-hiatus lately, thanks to work. Last weekend I got a call Friday evening, just as the husband and I had settled into comfy clothes and opened up a bottle of win — my boss said “we’re working all weekend” and that was that. To add … Continue reading
There seems to be a lot of angst in the book blogging community these days. The Reading Ape has posted a series of discussions about book blogging, from “Whom Do We Review For,” to a criticism of the use of “I” in reviews, to the failure of most book bloggers to use literary vocabulary in … Continue reading
