LA LA IN THE LIBRARY: THE SUNDAY POST #14

THE SUNDAY POST is a weekly feature hosted by Kimba at the Caffinated Book Reviewer. It is a chance to recap the previous week, share news, showcase books and/or bookish things we have received, and tell about what is coming up on our blog in the next week. You can view the guidelines, HERE

I think my posts should start being called The Sunday Evening Post. Ha!

This week is going to be my monthly wrap up for May, although I usually don't do them, because I got a couple of good hauls and had some of the downside of blogging hit me.

※※※※※※※

I will start out with the bad occurrences so that I can end on a good note.

Before BEA last year I was very new to blogging and had no clue about this bookish convention until it was too late to make plans. I had a blogging buddy at that time, in fact she was my only blogging buddy back then, whom I had met in a Goodreads fan group. We had both just started blogging and had a lot in common (not being being young adults, but still loving YA, and being moms). The minute we knew BEA was being held in NYC again in 2015 we started making plans and we talked about it together nearly everyday. She knew I was on a strict budget when we planned on a two nights hotel stay, and she assured me that this was perfect because she was going to be stretched thin too, and also not being able to leave her son for too long. When it came time to nail down whether we were staying Tuesday and Wednesday, or Wednesday and Thursday nights for hotel reservations, she informed me that she had made plans with other people to go to events on all three days, so she needed to stay three nights. When I told her she was telling me this too late to save more money, she said she could pay for a single for the extra night, but then would not be able to afford to eat the entire time she was there, so I politely bowed out so she could room with the people she had made plans with (without telling me). I was miffed because I had already scheduled that week off from work with no vacation pay because it wasn't allowed during the month of May, but never mentioned it to her. After that she quit DMing with me on Twitter, stopped commenting on my blog, and unfriended me on Facebook, even though I never said anything about being mad. I was gutted because we had become close friends, so I just silently faded into the background. I found out she was telling people I had decided not to go because of not being able to afford it, and my new job! I thought I was going to be able to shrug it off, but this really made me angry. The least she could have done was tell people the truth and how understanding I was about it.

The second thing that happened was I mini-reviewed and rated an ARC I had read, on Goodreads like I always do, with my fresh from the read thoughts. I said that although I rated it 5 stars on GR, I was rating it 4.5 stars on my blog. The author sent me a PM on Facebook asking me why! I explained my thoughts and she messaged me telling me why I was wrong! I was on her street team, but I didn't think that meant an automatic 5 star blog review. Needless to say, I am no longer on that team, and I was a good member, too. Since when is 4.5 stars not a fabulous rating? I think this was bad behavior on her part, so I am not going to waste my time reviewing her two books here on the blog.

The third thing (I guess all bad things come in threes) was I did a guest post review and the blogger told me not to worry because she would be correcting my grammar! What? I felt a tad bit insulted. Then she actually "corrected" some things to the lesser common, like making Biochemistry Major into biochemistry major, and hardcover into hard cover. I guess she wasn't happy unless she found something to fix. She also told me I could include up to three gifs, but didn't include the beautiful tarot card gifs I took the time to find. Anyway, you can read my review of THE RAVEN BOYS, HERE.

The month of May made me question why I blog.

※※※※※※※

Now for the good stuff, BOOK MAIL...

BOOK OUTLET

The top book was an adorable science picture book for my Biochemistry Major son (ha ha). There were two ORLEANS paperbacks, but I had already posted one of them to Elizabeth at So Long... & Thanks For All the Fish, as a gift. The second one is for a giveaway, so be looking out for that. I love the dust jacket on RECKLESS, the first book in Cornelia Funke's series Mirror World.