Sunday Post ~ You Get a Training, and You Get a Training!

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things received, and share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead. To get in on the Sunday funday, see the rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

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Remember, there are free audiobooks all summer long! Sign up for the text alerts to remember to grab them each week! All you need is an Overdrive account.

I cannot believe I survived this past week. Monday morning the man follows me out to my car to kiss me and see me off, and it wouldn’t start. Remember, he lives an hour and a half away from me and my workplace. He called AAA for a wrecker, and I had it taken to the closest dealership thinking that would be easiest. In some ways it was, because everything was still under warranty, so all I was out was about $70 for a rental and gas. I waited over an hour for my rental and saw some very interesting “business practices” while I waited. I’m pretty sure it’s policy that if you get a rental, it should be kept in better condition and nicer than your own vehicle. Just sayin’. Because of that I missed the entire first half of my training on Monday. I arrived in my district around lunchtime.

I was not very interested or pleased with our Mental Health First Aid training on Tuesday. I read the entire book they gave us before lunch. I have my own thoughts on my takeaway, and if we do what I believe the unsaid expectation is, there will be lawsuits left and right.

Wednesday and Thursdays trainings were fabulous. I also discovered the best place to work in the district is the technology department. They have an entire lab with brand new computers with extra-large monitors. And it’s so quiet. I want to go there to work on staff development days.

Baby has been moody this week because the man has been gone everyday. This went into effect the day following the Dallas police shootings. All Baby knows is he leaves every night and when he is home he’s sleeping. She doesn’t like it. Friday night he leaned over the couch and was whispering to her as he got ready. She was in a snit because he was leaving, so she sat up, gave him and “eat shit and die” look, and ran off to the beanbag. And then proceeded to give him the eyes. She is so sensitive.

What would you like to see in place of the “Around Town in the Spotlight” section? I want to add something else to my Sunday Posts, but I’m not sure what. Leave me a comment about something fun or interesting you’d like to see!

 

 ~ Last Week  on G1000W ~

• Sunda
  • Sunday Post ~ Release the Kraken
•  Monday
  • Cover Characteristics ~ Schools
  • Audiobook Review ~ The Reluctant Assassin
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ Things Books Have Made Me Want To Learn or Do
  • First Chapter First Paragraph ~ Regarding Anna
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
• Thursday
  • Famous Last Words #12
• Friday
  • Feature Follow Friday ~ My Stance on DNF

 

~ This Week on G1000W ~

• Monday
  • Cover Characteristic ~ Flags
  • July Chit Chat
  • Love & Other Disasters Contest
  • Audiobook Review ~ Anne of Green Gables
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ Books I’d Buy NOW
  • First Chapter First Paragraph ~ Dodger
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
• Thursday
  • Famous Last Words #13
  • Thoughts on Thursdays ~ Why I Read What I Read
•  Friday
  • Feature Follow Friday ~ Favorite Book Boyfriends

 

~ New Arrivals to Land of 1000 Wonders ~

I did select a few new free ebooks from Amazon. I had a specific criteria when reading the summaries. I ended up passing on most that I clicked on to view, so that’s a good thing! I also picked up a few earlier this week, too.

 ~ Open Giveaways ~

The SockKids Say NO to Bullying | Photo Contest by Author Christy Deveaux

Feature Follow Friday ~ July 29, 2016

Feature & Follow is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The goal of Feature & Follow is to meet new bloggers, make friends, and gain readers.

My Stance on DNF

What is your take on DNF books? Do you review them? Choose not to review them?

*UPDATE* 

I never stop before the 40% mark with a book. I am still a perfectionist with a Type A personality, so I try my best to finish reading books. After looking back at my data, I’ve DNFed 4 books since I started blogging (although I haven’t updated my DNF shelf on Goodreads). I also have one I have set aside and have in my Carousel waiting to be read. At the time, my life was too chaotic to dedicate to that book.

I feel there is a perception about DNF reviews. Those slimy 1 star reviews that focus on every single minute negative of the book. Where did this even come from? My reviews, whether DNF or a 5 star, are honest, fair and include elements I liked and those I didn’t. If it is a DNF review, I feel as a reviewer it is my duty to share why I couldn’t continue reading. This is helpful to readers like me, potential customers, and also the author.

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I don’t think I ever DNFed a book before I became a book blogger. I see so many of my students quit on books because they just don’t want to read, period. Very few actually don’t like the book or think it’s for them. I can’t ever remember either of those two scenarios growing up. If I checked it out, I read it.

So when I started blogging, I thought it was sacrilegious to DNF a book. So I didn’t…no matter how much I disliked the book.

About a year into this journey, the conversation about DNFing kept springing up around the blogosphere. I wasn’t an active participant, but I took note: a lot of bloggers were coming around to or okay with DNFing.

After stumbling across a few books that looked so promising and turned out to be such duds, I firmly believe in DNFing. I don’t do it very often, probably less than five times since I’ve been blogging, but why should we punish ourselves to finish a book that we do not enjoy? That will skew our reviews.

DNFing a book and reviewing a DNF are two different topics. Some are on board with DNFing, but would never write a review for that book.

I do. The longer I’ve been at this, and the more I say I’m not accepting review requests, the more that come in. It’s like our world no longer understands the meaning of the word “no.” It means yes, people think. And since so many bloggers clearly identify their review policies, I find more and more authors fudge their book description when pushing it to reviewers to cater to those individuals’ tastes.

I review my DNF books so that other readers who have the same reading interests as I or who had the same expectations as I know that the book might not be for them so they don’t waste their time. Although in the past year I have become quite lazy and have several books and audiobooks I haven’t written a review for…I haven’t DNFed a book in a long time, so I might just skip writing the review because I have better ways to spend my time. You know, reviewing other books. 🙂

There are just too many books out there to force myself to read things I am not enjoying.

 

How do you feel about DNF?

Famous Last Words #12

Famous Last Words is a new monthly feature here in Land of 1000 Wonders. I wanted to find a new way to share some fabulous quotations from reads old and new. The inspiration for this feature came from the character Pudge in John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

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It began at an ancient Scottish stone circle. There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past—or the grave. Dr. Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once but twice.

Her first trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an eighteenth-century Scot whose love for her became a legend—a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in the American colonies. But Claire had left someone behind in the twentieth century—their daughter, Brianna….

Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the circle of stones and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history … and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past … or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong in Drums of Autumn.

Thoughts on Thursday: Mid-Year Check-In

Mid-Year Check-In

I have fallen behind in a lot of things on the blog, particularly discussion posts. One month late isn’t too terrible, is it?

Currently I stand at 15 books for the Shelf Love Challenge. Up until now, I have been doing a lot of review tours with books that came out this year. I slowly weaned myself off of review tours like I had been doing. I did sign up for a few in August-October for series I want to finish reading, but I am being much more selective in tours. And I am grateful one of the tour companies I was very stingy with opted to shut down their operations. The reviewers were doing most of the legwork, so it was really frustrating and why I only signed up with them once in a blue moon.

Now I can read almost anything! Which means I really need to read my NetGalley backlog…

 

How have your challenges been going? 

WWW Wednesdays (July 27)

 

This is a weekly meme hosted hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. To join in answer the following three questions and hop over to Sam’s and leave your link.

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What are you currently reading? 

I started reading Regarding Anna in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I’m still not very far into the book, but the more I read, the more my curiosity is piqued.

Things that happen to you in the past can mold you into someone you’re not.

After recovering from the shock of her parents perishing in a tragic accident, Grace Lindroth discovers clues in their attic that cause her to believe the people she called Mom and Dad her whole life may not have been her real parents.

In her search for the truth, Grace encounters people whose actions cause her to be distrustful of just about everyone, making her mission that much more difficult but heightening her determination to uncover what she believes is essential for her to go on with her life.

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 What did you just finish reading?

I thought I was making such progress with this book after days of reading, only to find out I was at 16%. I almost DNFed right then just because. But I did like the story and wanted to see where it would go. I finished A Love that Never Tires late Friday night, basically Saturday morning. There were a few things at the very end that didn’t fit with the rest of the book, seemed out of place.

It is set in 1913, and I thought there were several things that were not historically accurate in terms of items they had on their archaeological trips and in certain behavior and phrases. I used Google BOoks Ngram Viewer to assist with a particular phrase, an entendre, but I believe what was represented was not the context of the phrase in the book.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m not positive these will be what I read next since I now am finished with review books, but these are likely choices.  I am free to pick anything!

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 How about you? What are you reading this week?

Leave a comment with your answers! Share the link to your WWW Wednesday post OR leave your answers in the comments if you don’t have a blog. Happy Reading! 🙂

Top Ten Tuesday: Things Books Have Made Me Want To Learn or Do

Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. We’d love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists. For the list of past topics and future schedule, click here.

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Things Books Have Made Me Want To Learn or Do

Did you ever want to learn to do something after reading a book? 

Upcoming Topics:

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros: Regarding Anna

Today I’m participating in First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, in which bloggers share a bit about a book they’re reading or planning to read soon.

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I have only one more pre-TBR Jar book to finish! Although I have already read a few of my TBR Jar reads, and at this point I’m scratching anything non-NetGalley…so really, the TBR Jar is kind of out the window at this point. My next read will be Regarding Anna by Florence Osmund. I really like the cover, and I hope the book lives up to the expectations the cover presents.

Chapter 1

The Kindness of Strangers

Under different circumstances I could have been a carefree twenty-two-year-old driving to Oak Street Beach for a much-needed reprieve from the sweltering heat instead of sitting on the No. 54 bus headed for a shady neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side in search of Erma Fincutter. I had no one but myself to blame for my discontent – I could have simply accepted my uncertain parentage four years ago and moved on with my life in a more conventional way. But if I was right about things, all the aggravation I would endure in search of the truth would pay off in the end. If I was right about things.

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Synopsis

Things that happen to you in the past can mold you into someone you’re not.

After recovering from the shock of her parents perishing in a tragic accident, Grace Lindroth discovers clues in their attic that cause her to believe the people she called Mom and Dad her whole life may not have been her real parents.

In her search for the truth, Grace encounters people whose actions cause her to be distrustful of just about everyone, making her mission that much more difficult but heightening her determination to uncover what she believes is essential for her to go on with her life.

Would you keep reading?