Friday, July 31, 2015

TOP FIVE FRIDAY #FOUR


Seeing that I already have a TUESDAY feature, and always frown in a defeated manner about trying to come up with ten items for TOP TEN TUESDAY, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, I have decided to follow the TTT prompt on Fridays with FIVE answers.

BOOK NERD CHARACTERS
*click titles for links*


1. Meggie, from the INKHEART trilogy, is a major book nerd. She is an ultimate book nerd because she can read story characters into life! She comes from a book nerd family, too. Her father is an expert in repairing old books, and her aunt is a rare book collector.


THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY

There is so much book nerding going on in this story it will make your bookish heart EXPLODE! There is of course the bookstore owner Mr. Fikry, himself, plus: a publishing house rep, a picture book loving orphan, and a bookworm cop. I loved reading this Adult Fiction novel from one of my favorite YA authors.




Fellow book nerd? Just read this partial synopsis...

"Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father’s antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise — she doesn’t know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels.

Late one night while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer."




My heartlove, Jo March.







Thursday, July 30, 2015

THE WONDERLAND TAG


I was tagged by the lovely Library Luv from BEYOND THE BOOK REVIEWS. She is a fellow MADLING (Splintered series fan) and brand spanking new book blogger. 

1. A BOOK I FELL MADLY IN LOVE WITH?
.
 A Wrinkle in Time
It was the first chapter book I felt fiercely connected to, and it was also my gateway drug to Science Fiction.

2. THE BEST WONDERLAND CHARACTER?

The Cheshire Cat

3. TWO BOOK CHARACTERS FOR TEA?

Luna Lovegood and T.S. Garp


4. FAVORITE ALICE IN WONDERLAND QUOTE?

5. FAVORITE ALICE IN WONDERLAND SPIN-OFF?



6. SIX IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST?

#1 Conduct Vaughn William's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
#2 Pet a whale with J.K. Rowling.
#3 See my son wash dishes.
#4 Have coffee in Paris with Miles McMillan.
#5 Play guitar with Faith No More.
#6 Kiss a clean shaven Johnny Depp.
(I would have said "Kiss Miles McMillan", but I don"t want to be an old creeper)


7. A BOOK WITH TALKING ANIMALS?
 Watership Down

GOODREADS

 8. A BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY A POOL OF TEARS?

This was the very first story to ever make me full on snot cry.

9. A CHARACTER I LIKE WITH THE RED QUEEN TEMPER?

10. WHAT ONE ITEM WOULD I TAKE DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE?
My Kindle Fire.
I can email my son, play Words With Friends, take crappy Wonderland pictures (the Kindle camera sucks), and blog! Oh, and tweet! I hope they have free wifi.

AND HAVE ACCESS TO MY KINDLE LIBRARY! 

BONUS QUESTION

In Through the Looking Glass, what type of animal does the White Queen become in chapter five?
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

If you want to do this tag; have fun! Remember to link it back to the source, HERE.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

WHEN IT COMES TO... DISCUSSION #1

I had tried starting a monthly discussion post about a year ago called Second Thursday Debate Club, but... it failed MISERABLY. Every once in a while when I see more than one blog discussing a specific topic, the notion of a DISCUSSION feature rears its ferocious head again. So following the new trend in what some bloggers call RANDOM  FEATURES (posted on no set day or schedule and sometimes called a floating feature), I am going to randomly post WHEN IT COMES TO... (previously called It's Wednesday... Whatcha Thinkin' Bout) when I feel inspired/irked.

THESE ARE THE BLOG POSTS THAT INSPIRED ME
AMBER from THE MILE LONG BOOKSHELF's posted...
* Her number six was, if your cursor "shits glitter", I paused and thought hmm... how do they manage that magical effect, and then I woggled my head and remembered I am 58 years old, and do not post poems about baby unicorns on my blog in comic sans.


CAIT from PAPER FURY posted...
 When Do You Unfollow Blogs?
*You should go and peek at why this gif was used...

HERE ARE MY REASONS
♦ Things in common with Amber ♦
1. The font is too small.
I didn't unfollow this one major font offending blogger on Bloglovin' because she is such a sweetheart, but I NEVER go to her blog anymore. Not only was the font tiny, but it was neon green on a medium green back ground. I did take a look just now because I haven't been there in about a year, and she has changed it to lilac on white, but I am on my laptop right now and the font is still very small. I can imagine what it looks like on my Kindle Fire tablet.
Which leads me to this...
A few months ago a newer blogger asked me why the font on my blog was so large. I asked her if she was reading it on her laptop and she said yes. Most of the time I do my blogging on my Kindle tablet, in fact, when I first started blogging I used the tablet exclusively. The font size is set to a comfortable reading size for a tablet. You might want to have a look at what your blog looks like on a tablet. On some blogs that have margins with gadgets that are set too wide, their sidebar gadgets don't even show up on my tablet. I kept asking this one blogger where her Bloglovin' button was, and she kept telling me it was on her sidebar. I kept thinking, "What sidebar?"

2. Pop up ads
Especially the ones that cover a good portion of the page and need the X clicked several times for it to go away.  Also, ugh, the ones that stay visible and follow you around the blog as you read! With me this also includes lots of visually loud ads cluttering the page 

♦ Things in common with Cait ♦

3. When the blogger shows zero interest.
There are two levels to this:
A. When the blogger never, or hardly ever, replys to the comments on their blog.  On some blogs I have never seen a comment reply ever, and others sometimes manage to get to the first two or three comments and then...
This ultimately irritates me on DISCUSSION posts!
There are also the bloggers who only reply to their buddies,
B. When a blogger, no matter how many long and meaningful comments you leave on their posts, NEVER returns the favor!
Now, I am not talking about the popular blogs that have 30-40+ comments on a regular non-giveaway post,  ALTHOUGH CAIT, BLESS HER HEART, MANAGES TO VISIT ME QUITE OFTEN: despite the million billion comments on her blog. I am talking about the bloggers who normally receive less than ten comments. Sometimes I am the only regular commenter, and I still get no love. Even one return comment every four or so times would be appreciated.
RELEASE THE FLYING MONKEYS!
Next, to quote, Cait...
4. If the blog squishes into unpleasantness.
When I first started on TWITTER, I followed a lot of accounts that commented back and forth with this one particular high profile book blogger, who was good friends with one of my favorite YA authors. I would in turn follow their book blogs. One person's blog was almost constant negativity. Her posts were 75% of the time about authors who ignored her on Twitter, bloggers who spam on Tumblr (which was funny because she was one of the people who would get on once a month and reblog about 30 author posts in a row), ungrateful giveaway contestants and winners, etc. Another 20% of her posts were prepackaged blasts, blitzes and bashes, with the last five percent being reviews usually slamming a book in a genre she didn't like; reviewing based on this hatred and not on the merits of the book within it's genre.

HERE ARE A FEW OF MY OTHER PET PEEVES
5. The blog features a large percentage of prepackaged BLASTS, BLITZES, BASHES and spotlights.
I want to read original content, PLEASE. A lot of times it is obvious they haven't read the book being promoted, or intend to read, because I know it is totally not a sub-genre they read (cowboy love triangles with interpretive dance teachers and pastry chefs).
6. The blog hardly ever gives links
I will give them a break if it is just omitted book title links to Goodreads, and I love the blog otherwise, but when it is mentions of  blog posts, author pages, other blogs, or articles; that are not linked; buh-bye.
7. Not publishing comments that are different from the blogger's own opinion.
This includes turning off comments to DISCUSSION posts. If you disable the comment section it is not a discussion post; plain and simple. Returning to Miss Negative Nellie in #4 above; she once did a rant post about how most people who enter and/or win her giveaways are greedy and ungrateful LOSERS (if I am not mistaken I think she actually used that word). She was mad that people would do follows for the Rafflecopter entries and then unfollow when the contest was over (probably for reason #4 above). She had a problem with people sending emails when it had been six weeks and they still hadn't gotten their prize. This one got me especially because she would cry financial woes as the reason people hadn't received their winnings from her last two or three contests, but would put up another giveaway on her blog! She also seemed to want a thank you note signed in blood from the  cretin winners as well. Anyway, I wrote a comment that said if the giveaways were from the heart only and required no following, retweeting, adding to Goodreads TBRs , adding sidebar widgets, or visiting Facebook pages; then she had the right to complain, but after all the publicity we get from the giveaway entry activities, we should really be thanking them! Hmm... Maybe I will do a WTB on giveaways. To make my point here, she never published my comment.
8. I don't relate to your content.
You might question, then why did you follow in the first place? Well, sometimes blogs change for whatever reasons. A blogger I was buddies with, when we first started out, had similar reasons for blogging, as in getting the word out about mostly under the radar books. She also was as allergic to drippy romance as I am. Somewhere along the line her blogging goals changed and it was all about follower numbers and getting highly prized and hyped physical ARCs from the publishers. There started to be a lot of blitzes and bashes for books I knew she didn't read, or even want to read. The lethal blow came when she told me my blog was never going to go anywhere if I kept posting about, "books no one wants to know about." But, isn't that the point? They just don't know they want to know about them! This is my mission! Also, there are the bloggers who at one time had a mix of genres only to go almost genre specific. If  this exclusivity is Contemporary or Romance, you can bet I am out of there. And  then there are the blogs who start out as book blogs and end up being more about movies, television shows, or fashion.
(I have no idea who this person is)
♦♦♦
Ha ha,  I used more gifs than usual because people have unfollowed me because they thought I used too many gifs. Fair is fair. Cait is going to be doing a WHY I FOLLOWED YOUR BLOG post in the future and I think I will do one, too. I don't want to be a Miss Negative Nellie.

What would make you unfollow a blog?

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

TELL ME TUESDAY #54


TELL ME TUESDAY is a feature that oozed from my post Twitter party fried-brains. It is a weekly, or bi-weekly feature (depending on your reading style), where you tell us what you are reading now, and why, and what you will be reading in the future from your tbr pile, and why. I am oh so curious why people read what they read. So tell me!

JOINING US THIS WEEK

Shannon from REX ROBOT REVIEWS
&
Pili from IN LOVE WITH HANDMADE

Go have a peek at their newest book grabs and tell them yours.

※※※※※※※

READING SLUMP


I try to choose a book to read and I feel like this...


So what did I do instead?

I WENT TO EDELWEISS AND REQUESTED A MILLION BILLION ARCS!


And I was doing so well controlling myself this year.



What are you reading? Tell me!

Sunday, July 26, 2015

THE SUNDAY POST #20



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.



THIS LAST WEEK



Where I ranted and pulled my hair out about THE WOLF WILDER.

It was about DIVERSE books this week and I added a GIVEAWAY of my favorite Diverse YA book ORLEANS in paperback, and some random swag from other books on the list!



This was my second MONTHLY BOOK HAUL wrap-up linking up with this feature.

Also on SATURDAY I went over 30,000 blog views! This made me happy because last year I wanted to have at least 10,000 views for my first blogversary, and I missed it by about 600 look sees. I secretly wished for 30,000 by my second blogversary, which is September 5th, and I actually made it this time.


DEALS AND STEALS

My favorite vampire book is on special for 99 cents as an ebook right now. I know you will fall in love with Lenny the stuttering vampire Physics teacher, who has a thing for electric blankets.



&

This is still going until the end of the month.



and

Both ebooks $2.00 each.
.

NEXT WEEK

 Hopefully I will finally have THE INFINITE review up. I have been fighting with trying to get any one of the three different html codes to work for me to put images side by side.

I also was tagged for an Alice in Wonderland themed post, so that will be up on Thursday

Plus, I might have a new monthly feature on Saturday where my sister, Aurie, reviews a book or series because her reading tastes are usually much different than mine: Romance, Historical Fiction and Mystery. She reads the Outlander books, and has also read all the Sookie Stackhouse  (Trueblood) books. I don't know what to call it yet.

And, as usual, Tell me Tuesday and Top Five Friday.


Don't forget to checkout my Orleans paperback and assorted diversity swag giveaway, HERE

Also keep an eye out next month for the adult coloring book and colored pencil set giveaway!


Have a terrific week!