Last week on FYFA (and in my life):
I managed to fix that error in the Book Blog Discussion Challenge Sign-Up post that I mentioned last week. I finally figured out that it was the form that you fill out if you want email reminders that was causing it, so I changed that to a link instead of having the form directly on the page. I still have no idea why I was able to update the post just fine for the first two months and then it suddenly stopped working. Ah, technology. Anyway, the link to the March link-up is now in its normal place on the sign-up post if you’re looking for it!
This week was fun—my daughter got to lead a song for worship team for our middle school/high school ministry on Tuesday (though there were some technical issues that threw her off a bit, she picked it up and rolled with it once she got past that). And then they also had a contest to see who could wear the most green for (an early) St. Patrick’s Day competition. She got totally into it—she knitted a scarf, a bracelet and a belt, and made a skirt (which we’re also going to use for our upcoming pioneer play for our homeschool co-op). She won a $25 prize and she was SO excited! It’s fun to see my kids enjoying life!
Plus, my son and I have had a good two weeks of no arguing and he’s actually letting me help him with some of his school stuff that he was struggling with (mainly memorizing Japanese vocabulary—we’ve come up with some very fun and crazy mnemonics!). I’m hoping the peace lasts …
Here’s what you may have missed on the blog last week:
- Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop: Review
- Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliott: An Enlightening Book with Some Problematic Elements – Review
- February Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway! – Come by and enter to win a book from my giveaway/trade list!
- Is There Such a Thing as a “Quick Post”? Let’s Discuss!
- Two #ownvoices Reads: The Hate U Give and The Education of Margot Sanchez – Reviews
Next week on FYFA:
- Books 2, 2.5 & 3 of the Daydreamer Detective Series by S.J. Pajonas: Review & Pajonas’s Top Ten Addictions (Once again, I meant to get this up last week, but didn’t manage it because I realized I had missed a review for Sad Perfect. This week for sure!)
- Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse – Review, giveaway and Vinesse’s Top Ten Addictions
- 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.)
- March 16th – Clare @ Dual Reads‘ Birthday
- March 18th – AJ @ Read All the Things‘ Birthday
From NetGalley/Edelweiss:
I know I said I’m already drowning in review books, but I couldn’t resist these—and most of them are sequels. First off, there’s Avenged by Amy Tintera. I have to confess that I’ve yet to read Ruined (even though I got it from Edelweiss AND have heard amazing things about it), but this is the push I need to read BOTH of them! Next is Redux by A.L. Davroe, which I already read because I was in the mood for some sci-fi (it was great!). London Bound is the latest from one of my favorite Aussie authors: C.J. Duggan. The Gauntlet is the final book in The Cage Trilogy. Woo hoo! The Crown’s Fate is Evelyn Skye’s 2nd in the duology and I am THRILLED to read it! And, finally, Coming Up for Air is Miranda Kenneally’s latest—and I have to read ALL of her books. Always.
So, see I have really good excuses.
Free:
I had somehow missed the first book in Duggan’s newest New Adult standalone series, but Paris Lights is free right now! You should go get it. I did. (The link will bring you to Amazon, in case you need a little extra push.)
Great Discussions/Goings On Around the Blogosphere:
Here are a few posts I loved this week:
- Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight gives us a fun take on Book Blogger Evolution
- Head over to Molly’s Booknook for great posts that list 5 Ways to Make Other Bloggers Smile and 9 Tips for Thinking Up Post Ideas
- Did you know that Please Feed the Bookworm is now Brittersweet Reads? I didn’t, and I was wondering where Brittany had disappeared to!
- Lory @ Emerald City Book Reviews asks What is Fiction For?
Pre-Order Deals:
- Pre-order STRANGE THE DREAMER by Laini Taylor to receive a FREE original signed bookplate (a decorative label hand-signed by Laini Taylor to place in your copy of the book) and an EXCLUSIVE character decal (the first in a collectible series!) (ends 3/27)
- Pre-order A CROWN OF WISHES by Roshani Chokshi and receive a free copy of her upcoming 100 page short story, “Death and Night.” (ends 3/14)
- Pre-order ALEX AND ELIZA: A LOVE STORY by Melissa de la Cruz to receive a custom pin and signed bookplate! (ends 4/10)
- Pre-order GIRL IN DISGUISE by Greer Macallister and you’ll receive a designed, autographed bookplate and an exclusive poster!
You’ll also be entered to the win a GRAND PRIZE! (ends 3/20), - Pre-order A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN by Sarah J. Maas and receive an exclusive color poster of the official map! (ends 5/1)
- Pre-order GIRL OUT OF WATER by Laura Silverman and receive a signed postcard and playlist. You will also be entered to win one of two prize packs and one grand prize prize pack containing a $25 B&N gift card. (ends 5/1)
- 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)
Other Current Giveaways on FYFA:
(Besides the ones listed with this week’s posts)
- March Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway – Link up your March discussions here and enter the giveaway!
- So You Say It’s Your Birthday? It’s My Birthday (and Blogoversary) Too! – Come enter the giveaway!
Even More Awesome Giveaways on Other Sites:
- Since I reminded Michelle @ Pink Polka Dot Books last week that it was her blogoversary, she decided to host a giveaway! LOL!
- With Love for Books always has a million giveaways going on. I’m not even going to try to list them all—just head over there and check them out!
- It’s Rebel Mommy Book Blog’s blogoversary, and she’s having a giveaway to celebrate!
- It’s Book Briefs’ 6th blogoversary and Michelle is celebrating with a huge giveaway!
- 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!)
- 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!
Free book you say? I’ve gone and got Paris Lights, hopefully it’s a good NA book (I’m always a bit wary when it’s an author I don’t know well). It sounds like you’ve had a good week. And cherish the peace on your household whilst it lasts inevitably something will happen to have yo and your son butting heads. I think it’s an inevitable part of growing up, there are a few points of contention with your parents, it’ll pass. Hope you have a good week.
I hope you enjoy the book! I haven’t read that one yet, but I can definitely vouch for the author!
I’m glad your kids had a good week. It probably takes some of the stress off you when they’re doing well. I hope you enjoy your new books!
It’s definitely less stressful around here when the kids are happy. LOL!
Nice to hear your kids are enjoying life! I hope you are too. So many great books coming out soon. Thanks for all the links!
Life is better for all of us when the kids are happy. 🙂
Technology at school has started revolting, too. All copiers AND scantron machines. “Dear Parent, I’m sorry your student doesn’t have a test grade. You see, the scantron machine shredded their scantron.” Can’t we all just get along? lol
Glad things are looking up for your kids! It’s so cool when they get invested in something and are excited about it. I hope the homework help continues to work out with your son. When I got my ESL certification, one of the games we played was vocabulary bingo. It was really fun. They get to put the vocab words wherever they want on their sheet of paper (we just folded it to create 25 squares).
Uh oh—guess we have a tech revolution on our hands!
Sounds like your daughter has a really great and successful week -that’s awesome. I’m glad to hear your son isn’t arguing lately and letting you help! 🙂 You have to come up with all sorts of crazy things to remember another language sometimes!
-Lauren
Our mnemonics are pretty crazy sometimes!
Oooh nice!!! I can’t wait to binge The Crown’s Fate duology! Hopefully soon too! LOL! And ooh The Gauntlet! that’s another series I can’t wait to binge! Sooo behind these days but I figure might as well wait out these duologies (and now some trilogies too) and binge read to finish them…or start and finish! LOL!
Hope you enjoy all the new reads!
Here’s my STS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
I love duologies—the perfect length!
Great to hear that things are going so well with both kids. How fun that your daughter won the prize! I am super excited for The Crown’s Fate. The first book was among my favorites last year. Hope you have a wonderful week, Nicole!
I’m really excited to read Crown’s Fate—I’ve been looking forward to it for the past year!
Glad you’re having a great time with your kids. I’ve just started learning Japanese on Memrise and it’s not easy T.T They have too many scripts!!!
I’ll have to check out Memrise. I hadn’t heard of that.
It’s very helpful for complete beginners like me 🙂 I’m not sure how good it can be for intermediate or advanced learners though
I’ve been trying to learn some of the basics so I can help my son a bit more, so Memrise seems great for me. I need to install a Japanese keyboard so I can get the best use out of it, though—haven’t had a chance to do that yet.
I loved Ruined! I am super jealous you have Avenged. Enjoy all your books!
All the more reason that I need to pick the series up!
Sounds like your daughter’s had a pretty great week! 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
She did! I’m glad she got so into the contest and then saw her hard work pay off.
Sounds like a pretty good week! I love that your son is learning kanji. There are a lot of good kanji flash cards on the market with mnemonics built in. And there’s a really cool kanji museum in Japan with all types of cool stuff about the history of kanji. Yeah, I love kanji. 🙂
Oooh, a kanji museum—that sounds really interesting! I’m really intrigued by how they came up with their writing system. My son has told me a little bit about it and it’s all very complicated. I’ll have to look for flashcards with mnemonics. Thanks for the advice!