Apr 30
Time for our April 2017 monthly recap. Find out which books were favorites and which were duds. We’ll end our wrap up with a a list of books due out this month and a glimpse of our upcoming content. We also want to hear from you so let us know what you read this month and what you look forward to reading in May.
Apr 27
Those of you who have been following our blog for a while are probably familiar with our Read Around the World posts when we pick a book from different countries around the world. We thought we’d mix things up a little and make it into an interactive activity for all of you to join in. Read more
While I’m away on vacation, Book Worm has been busy reading and reviewing books for all of us. We’ll be posting several of those reviews in the next few weeks. This week, Book Worm reviews The Evening Road by Laird Hunt. Keep reading to see what she thought. Read more
Apr 17
Susan Perabo, who is best known for her short story collection, recently released her breakout novel and I was lucky enough to receive a copy for review. If you enjoy contemporary fiction that centers on family functioning, this novel may be perfect for you. Keep reading to check out what I thought. Read more
Apr 6
Veronica of The Thousand Book Project nominated us for the Sunshine Blogger Award! To be perfectly honest, we don’t normally respond to these (although we appreciate the sentiment) because they can clutter up the blog and we have so many book reviews we try to squeeze in. However, we’re making a decision to respond to one of these per year (thanks in no small part to us both being consumed by Infinite Jest and having fewer book reviews to post in the last month). Thank you to Veronica for thinking of us. You should check out her blog if you aren’t following it already. We love her blog.
The rules of the award are: 1) Thank the person who nominated you, 2) answer 11 questions posed by the person who nominated you, and 3) nominate 11 bloggers to receive the award.
We love Veronica’s questions so without further ado here are the questions and our answers:
1. If you could meet one person, alive or dead, who would it be?
BW: Margaret Atwood the woman is a genius.
Jen: David Foster Wallace. I have s many questions.
2. Do you hoard books or do you buy/borrow, read, and then let them go?
BW: I am a buy, borrow and let them go type of reader. Only books I really love get to stay on the book shelf once read.
Jen: I buy/borrow too many books to hold on to all of them. Like Book Worm, I only keep the books I either envision rereading or that I want to save for my daughter when she grows up. The rest go into my Little Free Library.
3. Do your books look read when you’re done with them or do you keep them in pristine condition?
BW: My books definitely look read!
Jen: Pristine condition. I’m ridiculous with the books I read. I don’t bend the covers, don’t dog ear pages, and when I’m not reading them, I place them between heavy items so the covers don’t get wrinkles.
4. If you couldn’t use your phone for a day, would you panic or would you feel free?
BW: One day I would be fine…I think.
Jen: Free. I use my phone way too much but I’d like the freedom of leaving it behind for the day.
5. Could you live without social media?
BW: Yes
Jen: No. I am constantly on social media. I have instagram, Litsy, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads accounts. I grew up in both England and Costa Rica and my social media accounts are how I stay in touch with my international friends.
6. If you could recommend one tv show for people to watch, what would it be and why?
BW: Nashville. I love the stories and the music and Deacon Claybourne is sooo hot.
Jen: The Wire. It’s smart, realistic, and all-around the best tv show I have ever watched. I’ve heard it described by some as a visual novel due to its amazing dialogue and brilliantly written scripts.
7. If an author, or other artist, makes a comment you don’t agree with, does it change how you feel about their work?
BW: I would like to say no but have never encountered this situation.
Jen: I think it depends on the comment. I don’t have to agree with authors to enjoy their work but if they came out with something really sexist/racist/homophobic, it would probably change how much I would want to buy future novels.
8. Sweet or salty?
BW: both together I adore sweet and salty popcorn.
Jen: Sweet.
9. Romance or adventure?
BW: both.
Jen: Adventure. Romance is my least favorite genre.
10. Breakfast for breakfast or breakfast for dinner?
BW: breakfast for breakfast.
Jen: I’d rather have dinner or lunch for breakfast. I’m not a big breakfast person. I love coffee but I don’t love other traditional breakfast foods (eggs, cereal, pancakes, etc).
11. If you could pick one person to narrate every audiobook, who would it be?
BW: I have never listened to an audio book and don’t really intend to, so no comment.
Jen: Neil Gaiman. I’d listen to him narrate a phone book.
We are not going to officially nominate any other bloggers to answer questions but we would like to mention a few blogs that we think you should check out and deserve all the awards (in addition to Veronica’s blog mentioned above). We follow and love quite a few blogs but here are a few of our very favorites:
BookerTalk
Naomi from Consumed by Ink
The Book Stop
What I think about when I think about reading
Any blogger who would like to participate in answer questions, feel free to join with the following questions:
Apr 5
The basketball tournament is officially over but our reading period is still going strong so we won’t know who wins the reading challenge until April 30.
North Carolina won the whole tournament which means that Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is the official winner of the tournament. Homegoing was nominated by Leah A (spiderfelt on Litsy) who wins $25 Amazon gift card & your choice of 1 book from the stack below. Half are ARCs and Here I Am is a signed ARC. All books in the stack are brand new, never been read.
Final (pre-reading scores) are listed on our CBS page. Our current top 10 contenders are:
Rachel N.
Jan H
Diane S
Jody S
Julie R.
Tanya D.
Jennifer L.
Emma L.
Laura L.
Dan P.
However, we have a few participants outside of the top 10 who have read quite a few books already so they may stand a good shot of winning if our top ten contenders fail to read enough.
We will announce the grand prize winner on May 1. Participants have until April 30 to read and must submit their final score as a comment on our challenge page to be considered for the prize. I will confirm final scores to make sure they are correct.
Are you participating? Which books have you enjoyed? Which books have been a disappointment for you? How did you did in your bracket?
Apr 4
You may have noticed a decrease in the frequency of my posting lately. Yet, I haven’t been reading any less than usual. In fact, I’m currently up to date on my Good Reads goal, having read over 35 books so far this year. The truth is that I’ve been taken hold by book that refusing to let me go and is impacting all my other reading. Read more
Apr 3
We’re starting off the month with a book that gets a rare 5-star rating. Book Worm reviews White Tears by Hari Kunzru. Keep reading to see what she thought. Read more
jenp27
The Reader's Room 