Last week on FYFA (and in my life):
I went to my blog this morning and was accosted by music and party horns from a Kohls ad in my sidebar! YIKES!! I’m sorry if any of you experienced this. I took the ad completely down until I get it sorted out. I hate ads that have sound that turns on when you go to a site. I’ve had a Litbreaker ad in my sidebar for years, and it’s always been relatively unintrusive. Typically, the ads are book-related and they don’t overtake my blog or anything. I don’t make much from it (around $5 a month), but I figured it helps pay for a giveaway, so why not? But if the ads are now going to have sound, this ad spot will not be back. Again, sorry if you were blasted when you came to my blog!
Other than that, it’s been another pretty low-key week around here. I’m heading to a going away party today for one of my best friends today who’s moving across the country, so it’s going to be a sad day. Plus, unfortunately, I’ve had to attend two memorial services within the last two weeks—obviously not fun. The deaths weren’t sudden, but it makes you think about how fragile life is.
Here’s what you may have missed on the blog last week:
- Batgirl at Super Hero High by Lisa Yee: Review
- Top Ten Books I Loved More (or Less) Than I Expected
- Bite-Sized Reviews of The Impossible Fortress, Revenge of the Evil Librarian, Liberation, and The Anatomical Shape of a Heart
- #famous by Jilly Gagnon: A Disappointed (Slightly Ranty) Review
- A Book Blogger’s Guide to Acronyms, Terms and Slang
Next week on FYFA:
- The Burning World by Isaac Marion – Review
- Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop – Review
- February Wrap-Up Round Up Link-Up
- March Discussion Challenge Link-Up
- My February Wrap-Up
- Let’s Discuss: Something bookish! 🙂
Book Blogger Birthdays and Blogoversaries:
Lots of birthdays and blogoversaries again this week! I hope you’ll go wish these bloggers well on their special days! Make sure you check out the calendar to see what you might have just missed or what’s coming up. (If you want to be added to the calendar, you can always fill out the birthday/blogoversary form.)
- February 27th – Alyssa @ The Devil Orders Takeout‘s Birthday & Blogoversary!
- February 27th – Jess @ Princessica of Books‘ Birthday
- February 28th – Sue @ Crushing Cinders‘ Birthday
- March – Rebel Mommy Book Blog‘s Blogoversary
- March 1st – The Book Boulevard‘s Blogoversary
- March 1st – The Heart of a Book Blogger‘s Blogoversary
- March 2nd – Pink Polka Dot Books‘ Blogoversary
From NetGalley:
Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for Bang and The Unlikelies.
Great Discussions/Goings On Around the Blogosphere:
Here are a few posts I loved this week:
- Wendy @ Falconer’s Library talks about Growing Readers
- Tanya @ GirlXOXO asks Does Guessing the Plot Twist Affect How Much You Enjoy a Book?
- Pamela @ Reverie Society gives us 3 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Write
Pre-Order Deals:
- Pre-order DONE DIRT CHEAP by Sarah Nicole Lemon and get a signed bookplate with a quote from the book. (ends 3/7)
- Pre-order THE CROWN’S FATE by Evelyn Skye, and you can get a limited edition bookmark and a set of 3 stickers–Team Vika, Team Nikolai, and Team Pasha! Plus, there’s an additional giveaway if you order from Kepler’s. (ends 5/15)
- Pre-order THE LOST STAFF OF WONDERS by Raymond Arroyo and receive a signed bookplate for your book and a limited edition bookmark. (ends 3/6)
- Pre-order TRICKED by Jen Calonita and receive a Fairy Tale Reform School digital exclusive featuring Rapunzel! (ends 3/6)
- Pre-order THE BONE WITCH by Rin Chupeco and receive a signed bookmark and The Bone Witch sticker. You will also be entered to win a GRAND PRIZE Bone Witch themed crate. (ends 3/6)
- Pre-order THE SHIP BEYOND TIME by Heidi Heilig from an indie bookstore and get a gorgeous cloisonne pin of the black ship Temptation while supplies last! (ends 2/28)
- Pre-order THE SONG RISING by Samantha Shannon and receive exclusive badges and temporary tattoos to #JoinTheRevolution. (ends 3/6)
- Pre-order A CONJURING OF LIGHT by V.E. Schwab for a chance to receive a book hugger signed by V. E. Schwab. (ends 2/28)
Other Current Giveaways on FYFA:
(Besides the ones listed with this week’s posts)
- So You Say It’s Your Birthday? It’s My Birthday (and Blogoversary) Too! – Come enter the giveaway!
- January Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway – Anyone can enter, so head over to win a book from my giveaway/trade list!
- February Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway – Link up your February discussions and enter to win!
Even More Awesome Giveaways on Other Sites:
- It’s Book Briefs’ 6th blogoversary and Michelle is celebrating with a huge giveaway!
- Book Clubbish is giving away 10 sets of Advanced Reading Copies of 100 HOURS and SPECTACLE and a copy of MENAGERIE.
- It’s Crushing Cinders’ blogoversary and Sue is celebrating by giving away a book of your choice (INT)!
- And another blogoversary over at Girl in the Pages! Head over there to win a book Cristina has reviewed (INT)!
- Head over to Happily Ever Chapter to enter to win 50 YA Books in the YALit Giveaway (INT). (Note that you’ll be subscribed to the sponsoring authors’ mailing lists, and there are a lot of them!)
- Pure Imagination has a weekly Saturday Situation link-up for reviews and giveaways!
- Lots of blogs participating in the February New Release Giveaway Hop!
- And also the Romance is in the Air Giveaway Hop!
- Head over to Pure Imagination for a chance to win a February New Release of your choice.
- Jessica @ a GREAT read is celebrating eight years of blogging with a big giveaway!
- XPresso Book Tours is giving away a $50 gift card and more in honor of the new year!
- The Bookkeeper’s Secrets is doing a year-long giveaway!
Lots of good stuff! Have any giveaways or great discussions happening on your site right now? Feel free to share them in the comments!
I didn’t really notice the ad. Guess I’ve gotten used to them on the web. LOL I had a quiet week too but got in a lot of reading. The weather has been superb here and been outside working in the yard. Plan to spend some time out there today just reading and soaking up some sun. Have a lovely day.
I took it down as soon as I logged in this morning and I hadn’t heard it in the past, so hopefully it was just a fluke and no one else was blasted. I got a note back from my contact at Litbreaker that said it was a mistake and that ad shouldn’t have been in the lineup, so it shouldn’t happen again. (Those ads really bug me!)
Oh man, I hate when ads behave unexpectedly! That’s so annoying. And I’m sorry to hear about all the death. I feel like the winter is so hard on people. So many deaths occur in winter. 🙁
Yeah, it’s frustrating because I definitely don’t want the ads on my site to be obtrusive or obnoxious. There’s nothing worse than going to a site and feeling accosted by ads!
And I think you’re right about winter—this has been a particularly tough one for us. 🙁
Ohh looking forward to reading your thoughts on The Burning World. That was pretty amazing!
Have a great week, Nicole!
Very different from the first one, right?
That’s actually kind of funny about the ad- party horns! Although I’m sure you weren’t amused. 🙂 Sorry to hear your friend is moving away- that’s a bummer. And sorry too about the memorials- that’s how my 2016 started. 🙁
Loved the acronym post this week. And The Unlikelies looks fun!
Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled to be greeted by blaring party horns when I came to my blog—those types of ads frustrate the heck out of me!
Ugh noisy ads! I hate that! At least you caught it! Sorry about the memorials and the friend moving. That is a lot of sadness! Hopefully things get happier soon!
Yeah, it seems like things lately are just generally stressful and unpleasant in my personal life. I’m ready to be done with this stage.
Thanks for all the preorder deals. Ha, I always keep my sound on mute..as my heart jumps or I spew my coffee when I am caught unawares! It is tough when friends move, but perhaps you will get to visit which will be fun! Have a great week.
My computer is usually on mute too—that’s one of the reasons I was worried because I was thinking that maybe the ad has had sound at some point in the past and I just didn’t notice it! I’m really not a fan of those. My Litbreaker rep assures me it was a fluke mistake and that the ad should not have been in the lineup, so hopefully it’s been fixed. I haven’t put the ad back up yet, but I will get to it soon…
My computer is always on mute so I didn’t notice if the ad was playing! Sorry about the memorials and your friend going away. ENjoy your new books and have a great week!
I actually usually have mine on mute too—which made me worried that it had been that way before and I just hadn’t noticed!
Yeah I leave my computer on mute all the time as well! I have to remember to turn it on when I WANT to watch a video or something! I forget about it sometimes! LOL! Sorry about the memorials as well. And having your friend move away! Sounds like a tough week!
Your reads are totally new to me ones! Hope you enjoy them!
Here’s my STS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
It hasn’t been the best week. Both sad and frustrating. 🙁
I always have my computer on mute so I didn’t even notice the ad. I’m sorry about the memorials and your friend moving so far away.
I hope you have a wonderful week.
Hopefully I caught it before many people encountered the loud craziness. I really hate ads with sound that blast you when you go to a website!
I listen to music too much to have my computer on mute, but I’ve noticed in the last few weeks every time I would go to read a news article, they had some ad/ad video pop-up going, and there’s sometimes not an option to turn it off. Who does that? Jerks.
I hope the going-away party was a memorable and fun event. I can’t imagine any of my close friends moving across the country. While I don’t see any of them on a daily or weekly or even monthly basis anymore, that is still hard. I hope you get lots of Skype and Facetime!
It feels like a big loss since it seems like it takes me a while to build up strong friendships. It just seems to hard to truly connect with people. So, yeah, I’m sad. 🙁
I’m sorry to hear about the memorials. Even if the deaths aren’t sudden, it’s still very upsetting! I hope the going away party went well – I hate to imagine a good friend moving across the country.
-Lauren
Lately, I feel like I’ve been swimming uphill a lot emotionally. Between fights with my teenager (which seem to happen ALL the time nowadays) and losses of friends and family … it’s been a rough few months.
I didn’t see the ad, but I usually have my speakers turned off because I hate noisy ads. They’re distracting. Sorry about the deaths, but I hope you have fun at the party. Have a great week!
I agree that they’re definitely distracting and frustrating. I was sort of mortified when I discovered one on my site!
I didn’t even notice the ad so either I missed the days it was up or I had my volume so low that it didn’t bother me. That’s sad about two memorial services so close together. I’m sorry to hear that. Hope you enjoy the new reads and have a great week, Nicole!
Yeah, I feel like there’s been a lot of stress and sadness over the past few months. I’m hoping it all passes quickly …
Sending hugs your way for your friend moving away and for having to attend two memorial services. I’m so sorry. But on a positive note, hopefully that means you’ll be able to visit your friend and explore a new city! 🙂
Thanks, Jen. I am actually looking forward to a trip to Boston to visit her. I’ve never been there before, so this is a good opportunity!