Jan 15
Top Ten Books on My 2019 TBR

Top Ten Books on My 2019 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday 18

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s (actually, last week’s) Top Ten Tuesday is: Top Ten Eighteen Books on My 2019 TBR (First Half of the Year) I know everyone else already did this topic last week, but I… didn’t. And I felt like doing it now. I’m also not featuring ten, but instead I’m featuring three from each month. Because I want to. And there are no rules to blogging. So, yeah. January 1. Slayer by Kiersten White I’m such a HUGE Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan that I’m both excited and terrified to read this book. This is the only January pick I don’t already own, even though it’s already out. But I did request the graphic novels from my library so I can catch up on Season 8 and then read this. 2. Firestarter by Tara Sim I can’t begin to explain the love I have for… Read more »

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Jan 13
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 1/13/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 1/13/19

Sunday Post 21

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): I spent my blogging time this week mostly catching up on replying to comments and commenting back (“catching up” is a relative term here—I just checked and I’m back up to 65 un-replied comments. I’m trying, though!). I’ve also been reading some discussions and year-end wrap-ups. So, I didn’t have much time to actually write posts this week (but at least the one post I did put up was fun!). I’ve also STILL been updating my Master List of 2019 Reading Challenges because more keep popping up. Next year, I’m going to update it every Sunday and add red… Read more »

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Jan 08
Things I Learned About Fairy Tales By Reading the Grimm’s Versions

Things I Learned About Fairy Tales By Reading the Grimm’s Versions

Let's Discuss 29 ★★★★★

I have a collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales that I’ve owned for as long as I can remember, possibly even since birth. It was published in 1973, a year before I was born, and it seems like the type of book my eccentric dad or one of his eccentric friends would have thought was really funny to gift to a baby due to all the cannibalism and cutting off of body parts, etc. Anyway, I’m fairly certain I read the whole thing as a child, but apparently it didn’t scar me for life because I didn’t remember much except for the fact that they were sort of bloody and brutal. Since I’m currently plotting a fairy tale retelling (The Selfish Giant), I decided to go back and read some other original fairy tales to get more of a flavor of those stories. Thus, I picked up my copy of Grimm’s Fairy… Read more »

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Jan 06
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 1/6/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 1/6/19

Sunday Post 25

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): This was the last week of Christmas break for my kids, so I’ll be getting back to a normal schedule next week. It seems like time just keeps flying by! We’ve been doing some “winter break cleaning” around here. My husband and younger daughter are redoing the upstairs bathroom—new paint, trim, door and light fixture and a refresh to the cabinets. It’s been quite the project! Meanwhile I’ve been sorting through our monster-mess of a basement, cleaning out old craft stuff and general junk that gets carted down there. And then, of course, as soon as we’re in the… Read more »

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Jan 04
December 2018 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

December 2018 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

Monthly Recap 18

  It feels a little weird to do a December wrap-up after I’ve already done a yearly one, but somehow I have this incomplete feeling if I don’t talk about what went on in December! So, here it is… My Goings On in December: I finished my rough draft of my YA novel and started plotting a new MG. I’m setting the YA aside for a while to let it percolate. (It’s sure to get better on its own if I just ignore it, right?) The new book I’m plotting is … get this … a fantasy retelling of The Selfish Giant. In verse. Am I insane? Probably. (Definitely) I attended lots of gymnastics meets. I’m surprised at how much my daughter can still do after three years away from the sport. She’s never going to be a star varsity gymnast (she wasn’t at that high of a level when… Read more »

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Jan 02
2018 End of Year Book Survey (& Year in Graphs!)

2018 End of Year Book Survey (& Year in Graphs!)

Let's Discuss, Monthly Recap 39

This is a (very) modified version of Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner’s annual End of Year Book Survey. I’ve taken out quite a few questions and added some of my own, along with graphs (because everyone knows that pretty graphs make the world a better place). 2018 Reading Stats Number Of Books You Read: 153 Fun Pie Graphs: I thought it might be interesting to look at my reading in pie charts since I kept a spreadsheet this year and have really good stats. The first stat I compiled was how many books I read each month. As you can see, I read a lot more during the second half of the year. There are probably a few reasons for this. First off, I was still teaching at the homeschool co-op until May and then I really jumped headfirst into revising my MG manuscript. I sent it off on submission… Read more »

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Jan 01
January 2019 Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway

January 2019 Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway

Book Blog Discussion Challenge, Current Giveaways 0

Welcome to the January monthly link-up for the 2019 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight! It’s a new year and that means a brand new discussion challenge. Fell behind last year? No worries, now you have a fresh start! We’re looking forward to discussing books with all of you in 2019! The winner of our November discussion challenge giveaway was Tarissa @ In the Bookcase. She chose Diving Into the Deep by Lowell Lytel. Hope you love it, Tarissa! If you don’t know what this challenge is all about or haven’t signed up yet (but want to), head on over to the challenge sign-up page to learn more! Even if you’d rather not join, we hope you’ll stop by occasionally to check out the MANY discussion posts that are being linked up here – there are lots of great… Read more »

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Dec 30
Sunday Post: Book Pre-Order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 12/30/18

Sunday Post: Book Pre-Order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 12/30/18

Sunday Post 34

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): We’re almost there—almost to 2019! This week was all about holidays with the family for me. We all served at church on Christmas Eve (my husband played drums, my older daughter did lights, my younger daughter did graphics, and my mom and my youngest and I served in the children’s ministry—this is a pretty typical weekend for us, though sometimes my one daughter sings instead of doing graphics). Then my dad came over for Christmas day. Unfortunately my husband was sick with a fever and a sore throat (Possibly strep? He had leftover antibiotics and self-medicated. I know, not… Read more »

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Dec 29
2019 Reading Challenge Sign-Ups

2019 Reading Challenge Sign-Ups

Challenges 30

Because my focus for 2018 was on my writing, I completely gave up on all my challenges except for the Discussion Challenge about midway through the year. But I decided to try a few again this year. Hopefully I’ll do a better job keeping up with my reading challenges in 2019! My 2019 Reading/Blogging Challenges: Goal: 31-40 Discussions (Terrifically Talkative)  Of course I’m participating in this challenge since I’m hosting it! The goal of this challenge is to post book-related discussions (or getting to know you type discussions work too.) This challenge is one of my favorite aspects of blogging, and I’m excited to be continuing it (even if I did fail to hit my goal in 2018). I’m leaving my goal as Terrifically Talkative for 2019 because I really do want to post more discussions again. We shall see! HOST/SIGN-UP LINK – Feed Your Fiction Addiction & It Starts at… Read more »

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Dec 27
December (& Year-End) Wrap-Up Round-Up & Make Me Read It Giveaway

December (& Year-End) Wrap-Up Round-Up & Make Me Read It Giveaway

Current Giveaways, Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 16

It’s time for the December Wrap-Up Round-Up! Since this is the end of the year, also feel free to link up any of your year-end wrap-up posts as well! The November giveaway ends in a couple of days, so head over there for your last chance to enter! This is the link-up AND giveaway for our December/year-end wrap-up posts. If you don’t already know about the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, read the information below: Every month, at the end of the month, I’ll put up a monthly wrap-up link-up post where everyone can link up their month-end posts. There are no specific requirements for what needs to be in your post, as long as you have a book blog and your wrap-up summarizes your month in some way. The round-up will include a giveaway that encourages people to visit YOUR month end wrap-ups, giving entries for commenting and/or sharing.   Anyone… Read more »

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