Book Blogger Hop ~ 4.20.18

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. Each week poses a book-related question. The hop starts on Friday and ends on Thursday. The purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers.

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How do you organize your books for review? Does it work for you or have you had to change it? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews)

 

I now organize my books in batches. I will choose 6-12 or so books at a time to focus on and work through. Sometimes I’ll have my own set order I want to work through, and sometimes I’ll just go through them however I’d like. When they’re all done or all nearly done, I’ll add new books to the batch. That system has seemed to work really well this past year, except when I got down to the end of the year after having my slump in September. I had to move on to Christmas reads, and then I had to cut my Christmas batch short, although I did have 20 books on the list.

My organization system has definitely changed since I first started. Back then I was extremely anal retentive about scheduling review dates ahead of time, which was before I’d finish a book. I was doing review tours like crazy thinking that was how I would build up my traffic (and it did help), but the longer I did that the shorter turn around I had to read books and I was cutting myself much too close to the review date too many times. So I now do things at my own pace in my own way. I choose if I want to join a review tour and plan for it, but they no longer consume my review organization.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved But Will Never Re-Read

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. For the list of past topics and future schedule, click here.

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Books I Loved But Will Never Re-Read

 

I loved all of these books, but I’m sure you can tell a few of them were just too emotional to ever read again. What are some of your beloved, one-time reads?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved But Will Never Re-Read

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. For the list of past topics and future schedule, click here.

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Books I Loved But Will Never Re-Read

 

What are some of your loved but single reading books?

Hiatusing

I’m sure this doesn’t come as a surprise, right?

I’ve decided to take a temporary hiatus. After the shit storm that was my life in March and adjusting to my new life (and dating – y’all – I’ve gone on DATES!…OK, two…two dates) and dealing with losing my grandfather and the maelstrom to come, I am struggling to find time to read, let alone work on the blog. When Baby gives me the “Seriously? Another screen?” face, it makes me feel like a horrible dog mom. I have to make time for her, too. She’s my Baby.

So…I will be slowly working on things behind the scenes while I’m hiatusing so that things are ready to roll when I come back…which I’m hoping is the end of May?? You can follow me afar from Instagram. @sissybearla

Book Blogger Hop ~ 4.6.18

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. Each week poses a book-related question. The hop starts on Friday and ends on Thursday. The purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers.

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Do you overextend yourself with too many reviews because you can’t pass up a book in hopes you will get them all done or do you carefully plan and be sure you can fulfill the deadlines for all the promised reviews? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews)

 

I definitely overextend myself, which is why I didn’t sign up for hardly any review tours last year. Probably less than five if memory serves. I still have review books from authors from my second year of blogging I still haven’t gotten back around to. During that time I was also doing review tours like a madman. My NetGalley backload is plain embarrassing, so all the evidence points to the fact that I overextend myself. I try to carefully plan, and back in the day I scheduled things like the most anal retentive person you could imagine…but sometimes things just don’t work out the way we want. I’m trying to catch up and clean out my Kindle and get better – promise!

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I Liked That Were In Non-Favorite/Disliked Books

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. For the list of past topics and future schedule, click here.

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Characters I Liked That Were In Non-Favorite/Disliked Books

Hester Prynne

She refuses to reveal the father of her child, which could lighten her sentence. Her husband, the aptly-named Roger Chillingworth, who Hester thought had died in a shipwreck but was actually being held captive by Native Americans, arrives at the exact moment of her deepest public shaming and vows to get revenge. Her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, remains safely unidentified, but is wracked with guilt.

 

Mrs. Frisby

Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death.

 

 

Jacob Black

Jacob’s character is used to help Bella emerge from her months-long depression, brought on by her distress over Edward’s departure. The friendship between the two characters grows strong, but Jacob also develops romantic feelings for Bella that she does not reciprocate. Jacob serves as a rescue for Bella and a foil to Edward on multiple occasions in the narrative. When Bella, who has taken increasingly dangerous risks to feel closer to Edward, impulsively jumps off a cliff and almost drowns, Jacob rescues her.

Will Stanton

Will Stanton discovers on his 11th birthday that he is no mere boy. He is the Sign-Seeker, last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to battle the powers of evil that trouble the land. His task is monumental: he must find and guard the six great Signs of the Light, which, when joined, will create a force strong enough to match and perhaps overcome that of the Dark. Embarking on this endeavor is dangerous as well as deeply rewarding; Will must work within a continuum of time and space much broader than he ever imagined.

Persephone Fury

Persephone Fury is the Dark daughter, the one they hide.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, and a good marriage for this frightening daughter is desperately needed. On the night of her debut, her world comes crumbling down around her when she is abducted from the man she loves by the man she most loathes.

 

Dinah

Dinah, unlike Sitis, was the ostracized character for the large majority of the book. She was the perfect scapegoat, as well: a beautiful woman with a kind spirit. Her first marriage ended in disaster, and the stories of her treacherous behavior (the viewpoint of pretty much the entire population) has followed her for over twenty years before Job seeks her out. She lived in shame for years, and continues to do so until Job makes a breakthrough with her.

Who were some likable characters even though you didn’t like the book? 

Sunday Post ~ The Ick Returns

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It is a weekly news post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase the books and other goodies you’ve received, and share news about upcoming events on your blog. Be creative and personalize it! To get in on the Sunday fun day, see the rules here: Suday Post Meme.

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Thank you for all the sweet wishes and encouragement these last couple weeks. Baby is back to her normal Eeyore self. She also thinks the new roommate is her boyfriend. She’s in love with him.

This was a short week with being out of the classroom Tuesday to write district assessments, my kids reviewing on Wednesday, our unit test on Thursday, and being off for Good Friday. Despite the short week, the ick has returned. I once again have an ear infection – if the one last month ever really went away. I have had a puffy, itchy face, runny and stuffy nose (how is that possible??), sore throat. Even my eyes hurt. I could barely keep awake on Thursday I felt so miserable. I have more meds and they had damn well better work because I can’t see the ENT until mid-June.

Thursday afternoon my grandfather passed away. If you haven’t been with me for a few years, he fell in 2013 and broke his femur. He was 75 then. He basically gave up on life and signed his power of attorney over to my mom’s youngest brother and his wife, who have been cashing in his 6K retirement checks each month. They completely brainwashed him and he legitimately believed they were the only ones in the family who would care for him. The two of them were extremely ugly and my mom and the other 4 siblings have had numerous appointments with attorneys over the years. My uncle stupidly thought that he could have my grandpa sign over my grandmother’s separate property to him and he was going to sell all the land and run off with the money. He learned that is not how it works and then became threatening and terroristic toward the rest of the family. It has been extremely strained and I haven’t seen my grandfather since about 2014 when they put him in a horrible nursing home and then weren’t happy with losing so much of his retirement checks. It hit my brothers hard, especially my oldest brother. He was the golden child and spent all his life alongside my grandpa. My aunt and uncle weren’t even going to notify the rest of the family. It just so happened that my brother went over to visit my grandpa and found out. My middle brother was sent home by the Red Cross to be here with us. My mom keeps asking me how I feel, and honestly, I don’t know. He is not the man she knew as a father, and he isn’t the man who I grew up with. It’s like he died a long time ago when he turned his back on the rest of our family. I don’t have anything to connect to him anymore, and that is the choice he made. I don’t know what the coming weeks and months will bring with him now gone in terms of what my aunt and uncle will do, but the groundwork is already in place to keep them from doing their stupid shenanigans and disappearing like thieves in the night.

I also did something totally out of character and extremely spontaneous. I went on my FIRST DATE in nearly FIVE years. On the day I was asked! I was nervous but excited but nervous. When I was in college I ended up with a sexually harassing stalker after a first date, so I try to feel out before going out with someone. I jumped in with both feet and it was a great date. He is German and has been in the US for over three years on a work visa. It was fun and no pressure.

I have done some more rearranging and pulled my jewelry out of storage. I set it up Friday night so the next project on my list is getting the printer up and running. Only problem is I can’t find any of the cords.

I still did absolutely no reading this week. I think I am in a slump but won’t admit it. I really want to read and like this book, but I think I just have too much LIFE going on right now. I also did absolutely nothing on the blog this week, and now I am down to only 3 scheduled posts. I have got to get things kick started or I’ll be going on hiatus for a little while.

• Sunday
  • The Sunday Post ~ Reinventing Life
• Monday
  • Review ~
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ Set in Another Country
  • Teaser Tuesday & Intro ~ 
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
  • My Favorite ~
  • Beyond the Books ~
• Friday
  • Book Blogger Hop ~ 3.30.18

• Monday
  • Review ~ TBD
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ TBD
  • Teaser Tuesday & Intro ~ TBD
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
  • My Favorite ~ TBD
• Thursday
  • Beyond the Books ~ TBD
• Friday
  • Book Blogger Hop ~ 4.6.18

Check back soon!

@sissybearla