THE WRAP #171 - Stacking the Shelves and Wrap-Up

THE WRAP

NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-ONE

STACKING THE SHELVES

THE WRAP
BI-MONTHLY WRAP-UP
BLOG - LIFE - MUSIC - WEB
STACKING THE SHELVES

TELL ME TUESDAY
LAST. NOW. NEXT.
TOP TEN
SERIES I WANT TO RE-READ

AS SEEN ON TV
TUBE TALK
ANIME! ANIME! ANIME!

TELL ME TUESDAY
LAST. NOW. NEXT.
READING WRAP-UP
JUNE EDITION

BOOK SPOTLIGHT AND GIVEAWAY
SUPER HEROES SUCK
$25 AMAZON GIFT CARD

I posted a new feature, AS SEEN ON TV, and my first subject was anime. It pulled in twice the usual post views, and garnered many more comments than I have been experiencing lately. Was it the anime, or the fact it was television related which seemed to click with my readers? I guess we'll see when I post the next one.
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Speaking of new features... I have a Facebook page about Harry Potter, and magical world news in general, called THE SNIDGET, and I also admin and co-admin several other HP fandom groups on Facebook, so I thought I would do a once a month post with some of the top liked links from these groups here on the blog.
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Well, my loving blogging on my 10.1" Kindle Fire (Marsha Marsha Marsha) came to an abrupt hault last week. When I first bought it I was having a few of the old keyboard, spellcheck and word prediction function problems I had with my first Kindle Fire (remember Fhkeindle the demon Kindle?), and it was loading browser links really slow (I found out it wasn't our router because the other Kindles were fine), but after a couple of Amazon updates it was doing great. Then, after the newest update all hell broke loose! Not only does it now exhibit all the problems Fhkeindle had, plus more, it's back to being as slow as a 1990s desktop computer on dial-up. What the hell did Amazon do? Thank goodness I have cut way back on posts, but it has made commenting a nightmare. I can hit the backspace once and the cursor will continue on until the entire comment is eaten up (or line of code when drafting a post). Somtimes I'll hit the spacebar and it will type the previous word six times. And don't even think about using spellcheck or the word predictor. Half the times I click on a word it replaces it with gibberish. I tapped the word "promotional" and it typed "promngthimal". I checked and it's not a word. It took me forever to draft this post.

It's been in the high 80s (32°C) mid 90s (35°C) and our apartment thermostat was pegged at the highest it goes, 91°, during the day for three days in a row. It's been better for sleeping at night the last couple of days, but daytime has still been hard to deal with, especially with the Upstate humidity. And no, random, argumentative, know it all British gentleman on Twitter, everyone in the US does not have AC! I hope you have all been able to keep cool.

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Our microwave decided to break. I never noticed how much we used it before to reheat things, which was needed even more because of the heatwave. The stove top has not been my friend the last several days. I finally found a vacuum that I liked online and Baz's bookshelf is back in stock, so adding a new microwave purchase to those means a BOOK BUYING BAN is in effect for the rest of the month! *wrings hands in dismay*

Remember the squishy purple bag I received as promotional swag from author MICHAEL OKON? The hot/cold pack I thought was a stress toy? Ha ha.

I ended up getting a second purple squishy in a prize pack I won during an indie author Facebook event, so I sent it to the YouTuber and beginning guitarist, RACHELF GUITAR. You may remember my featuring her on the blog before, and telling you how inspirational she's been for me as I have been working on re-entering the music biz. She had an injury to a finger on her fret hand which caused some nerve damage, and the hand doctor told her she needed to keep her hand warm to speed healing. I thought it would be the perfect thing for her to try. She filmed a little mailbag video, and I think you will understand why I thought it was a stress toy (for which I still use mine, heh heh) when you see her video.

See. What would you have thought it was? Ha!

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Here's a peek at one of her latest progress videos. I keep mentioning that picking up a guitar again has been one of the best things in my life lately, and I have been encouraging you all to start or rediscover a new passion; Rachelf's self-taught guitar progress videos are some of the best encouragement out there!

Talking SciFi books with musicians on my music Twitter...

You might recognize the name Vernon Reid as the guitarist for LIVING COLOUR. It's sad to think this song and video seem even more relevant today than 28 years ago. 

STACKING THE SHELVES IS HOSTED BY:

TYNGA'S REVIEWS

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BOUGHT EBOOKS

I saw Lizzy mention this on THE BENT BOOKWORM last year, and you know me and Friday night fancy cocktails. Ha ha. It was $1.99 so I nabbed it. It's back up to regular price now.

EDELWEISS

It's not an ARC, it's a backlist review book. As a book set in Africa it will also count towards my Better World Books reading challenge.

BOOK(ISH) MAIL

RUST AND STARDUST - from publisher review ARC
DELILAH, MY WOMAN - from author
THE LIGHTNING STENOGRAPHY DEVICE - from author
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The cute dog with headphones card is from Annemieke from A DANCE WITH BOOKS. It was cheer me up mail all the way from The Netherlands, from her and little Merijn, because I had had a couple of downer blogging weeks. I'm going to frame it for my music shelves!
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I won a little Kindle Fire from MONTH9 BOOKS in an Instagram promotional pool. They have the best promotional team perks and giveaways. I also recently received a $10 Target gift card for helping with a cover selection. If you are interested in joining the team, look for the group on Facebook.

Here's Atticus with some of the titles they have sent me.

I have a new favorite booktuber, Karen, from Runwright Reads. Booktubers can sometimes have a habit of droning on and on about a book without really saying that much about it, heh heh, but Karen's thoughts are always solidly directed and specific. She doesn't spend a great deal of time describing each book because she doesn't need to; she is skillful at choosing her thoughts and words to have the most impact in a short amount of time. Perfect. I love her casual conversational approach, too.

TELL ME TUESDAY

LAST. NOW. NEXT.

TOP TEN

BOOKSTAGRAM BOOST

JULY EDITION

THE MID-YEAR FREAKOUT TAG

READING STATS, LOVES, LOATHES, AND GOALS

THE SNIDGET

HARRY POTTER & OTHER MAGICAL NEWS

*There will always be a chance of a DOWN THE TBR HOLE, CONVERSATIONS, RAVE/RANT/REWIND REVIEW, AS SEEN ON TV, TAG - YOU'RE IT!, BOOKSTAGRAM BOOST, THE SNIDGET or PIN IT. HAUL IT. DO IT!

Have a  primo week, my friends!

And please don't forget my international $10 Amazon or Better World Books gift card GIVEAWAY! Only three days left!