Category: Let’s Discuss

I know I’m not alone when I say I’m behind on books I have for review. Sometimes it’s because my eyes were bigger than my … eyes? (Yeah, that metaphor doesn’t work for books the way it works for food.) Or sometimes it’s because a book that I really wanted to read somehow lost its luster along the way and I wasn’t excited about it anymore. For whatever reason, not every book I have for review has gotten read. But recently I’ve been making a concerted effort to read some of those older review titles that have been waiting for me. Some strategies I’ve used lately to catch up on those review books: Sign up for blog tours. Nowadays, when I sign up for a blog tour, it’s almost always for a book I already have for review. So, why bother signing up for a tour, you ask? Because then… Read more »

My husband just changed some administrative stuff on our email accounts to make things work more smoothly, and he noticed that I had over 10GB of email saved. He gently suggested that I might want to delete one or two (thousand) things. I wasn’t surprised. Especially when I considered the fact that I really don’t ever delete anything. I went and checked out my Feed Your Fiction Addiction email, which I assumed—correctly—was one of the main culprits. And here’s what I found: Hundreds of giveaway notifications—both from me and to me. I mean, these are really important to save for years, right? What if I one day I need to know which blog I won that one random book from in 2013? Or what if I want to count the number of times Danielle Hammelef has won a giveaway on my blog? (It’s a lot—she’s an awesome giveaway participator.) What… Read more »

I’ve only tried a few book box subscriptions, but determined that they’re not for me. There are a few reasons for this: I’m disappointed when I get books I already have. The first book box that I ever got was a Page Habit box, and I LOVE the idea behind this box! It includes an annotated book. What could be better right. When I got my first box, I was so excited. I opened the box … and it was a book I’d already read. Not even just a book I’d already read, but one I was only meh about (it wasn’t bad, but not fantastic either, and not a book I was interested in reading again.). My excitement deflated. I’m not all that excited about swag. I know this might make me like a bookish heretic, but I’m generally not crazy about swag. I do love pins and buttons, and I don’t mind bookmarks,… Read more »

The other day, I posted a random tweet about how I wished there was a synopsis at the beginning of new books in a series. Based on the response I got, I’d say quite a few people agreed with me. Why is it that TV producers don’t expect us to remember what happened last week without “Previously on” reminders, and yet book publishers expect us to remember the details of a story for a whole year or more? Can’t we have a “Previously in” in our books? Pretty please? — Nicole Hewitt (@NicoleMHewitt) August 25, 2018 First off, I was excited for the fact that my tweet went mini-viral (well, at least, it’s by far the most attention one of my tweets has ever gotten). But I was also both amused and educated by the responses. But what did I mean by these 280 little characters? Some people misunderstood my intent. There were… Read more »

We all have specific writing styles that we gravitate to. And it’s interesting how one style can resonate so strongly with one person and totally turn someone else off. I was reading a review of A Thousand Perfect Notes the other day and the blogger mentioned that while she didn’t dislike the book, she wasn’t a fan of the purple prose. My response: “WHAT? That’s my favorite part!” First off, I should give a little definition of purple prose, in case you’re not familiar. Wikipedia says: “In literary criticism, purple prose is prose text that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is characterized by the excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors.” Okay, well when you put it that way, it sounds pretty negative. But I guess everyone has a different threshold for when flowery language starts… Read more »

For their celebration of YA Week, Goodreads created a few lists specific to YA. I know I just did a post on Goodreads Mid-Year lists, but I couldn’t resist checking these out too. I was curious how many of the books I’d read. CLICK ON THE CATEGORY HEADINGS TO SEE THE LISTS ON GOODREADS. 100 Top YA Books: This is an all-time list that Goodreads came up with using books that are most often on shelves and their ratings. I’ve read 54. (And I’m reading The Book Thief now, so I’m almost at 55. Plus, I just got Crank from the library yesterday.) I had 19 of them on my Goodreads TBR. (10 of which I own but haven’t read yet.) 9 books weren’t technically on my TBR, but I probably plan to read them at some point. There were 18 books I either hadn’t heard of or had no real desire… Read more »

Annemieke over at A Dance with Books mentioned Goodreads’ mid-year book lists, and I thought it might be fun to do a quick post about them. The Best Books of the Year (So Far) Goodreads put together this list using a combination of popularity (on the most shelves) and rating. They listed a few books in each category: Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Young Adult, Nonfiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, and Fantasy & Science Fiction. Not surprisingly, I haven’t read any books on any of the lists except Young Adult. BUT I was surprised to see that there are some other books on the list I’m actually interested in. Fiction: I’ll probably read Still Me at some point. I read and enjoyed Me Before You, but I never did get around to After You. I’d like to finish the series. Mystery & Thriller: I don’t read mysteries OR thrillers, so imagine my… Read more »