Skip to main content

Week in Review

       aaa1

Good morning. I can't believe it's December today! I think my participation in National Blog Posting Month (#NaBloPoMo) during November made the month really fly by! We spent the weekend decorating for Christmas. It's starting to look very festive around here, although it still seems a bit surreal. I haven't gotten used to the fact that Christmas is only a few weeks away!

Because of #NaBloPoMo, I once again have several posts to share, including a GIVEAWAY that ends at midnight tonight!

Reviews and Blog Posts
Reading
I participated in the Christmas Spirit Readathon last week, but didn't read as much as I had hoped. I did finish First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen by Charlie Lovett. I absolutely loved it! And it prompted me to start Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, which I honestly didn't get into as much as I had hoped. I read about 25% of it and then moved on to Just in Time for Christmas by Kim Boykin, which I did finish and plan to review this week.

After that, I picked up a book at the library called The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto, which I'm enjoying so far. Next, I plan to read The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

Kids Reading
C still hasn't gone back to Mockingjay. I'm sure he will eventually. He did get a new book at the library, though, and he flew through it. It's Wonkenstein (The Creature from My Closet Book 1) by Obert Skye. He has the second book in the series to read next.

M read Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition on Thanksgiving so that Jolly, our elf could come back!

What are you reading this week? It's Monday! is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, so hop over there if you'd like to see what others are reading too. You can also check out the younger version of It's Monday!
Labels:

Comments

  1. TiaMariaDecember 1, 2014 at 1:42 PM

    I'm currently reading The Clash Of The Couples, in ebook format, because a few bloggers I "know" have stories in it. It's funny, but also touches on all the little bits of love in relationships. The real stuff that they don't tell you about until you're screaming at your husband because he ate your ice cream. Ya know, that kinda thing. I highly recommend it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieDecember 1, 2014 at 4:56 PM

      That sounds good! Thanks for the recommendation!

      Delete
  2. ElizabethDecember 1, 2014 at 8:45 PM

    Going to check out your post about tips for buying books.

    I loved The Invention of Wings. Good luck to all the entrants in your contest.

    Great on the Readathon...I can't participate in any kind of challenges. Too stressful for me. :)

    I am reading After The War Is Over

    ENJOY your week of reading.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My It's Monday, What Are You Reading

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieDecember 2, 2014 at 8:51 AM

      I'll have to check out After the War is Over. Sounds interesting. Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  3. Cheriee WeichelDecember 1, 2014 at 10:36 PM

    I don't blame C for not going back to Mockingjay. I read the Hunger Games and that was enough for me! Wokenstein is on sale at the Scholastic Book Fair that's taken over my library. I picked it up to check it out. It's great to read that it engages readers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieDecember 2, 2014 at 8:52 AM

      I wasn't all that thrilled with Mockingjay either, honestly. So I understand as well. He is definitely enjoying that other series. He wants the third book now but I'm not sure if it's out yet.

      Delete
  4. Tanya @ Moms Small VictoriesDecember 2, 2014 at 8:08 AM

    I had read the Hunger Games series and we just watched Catching Fire on Netflix on Sunday which I really liked. Have a great reading week. I am hoping there will be more reading time now that NaBloPoMo is done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieDecember 2, 2014 at 8:53 AM

      I agree on the reading! Although I am sitting here for the first day in over a month without a planned post, wondering if I should write something or take a day off!

      Delete
  5. Sheila (Bookjourney)December 2, 2014 at 9:45 AM

    Looks like some good reading!

    ReplyDelete
  6. GatheringBooksDecember 16, 2014 at 11:46 PM

    Wonkenstein looks like a lot of fun and one my 12 year old girl would enjoy as well! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieDecember 19, 2014 at 3:08 PM

      I bet she would! I'm always excited when we find random books like that and he likes them!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Popular posts from this blog

Getting back to blogging

It seems that blogging has dropped to the bottom of my list for the past year, and was pretty low for the year or two prior to that. I love to read, and am continuing to do so, but as my regular readers know I haven't been around much. My last blog post was almost a year ago!!

There are many things that have taken me away from blogging. Work has been much more challenging and interesting these past few years, but that means I really don't want to get back on the computer when I get home at night - or on the weekends.

Family life has been more busy with kids having multiple activities in the evenings, leaving little time to just hang out and write about the books that I read.

I will admit to a bit of a Facebook addiction, which means way too much time spent scrolling through my newsfeed instead of doing something more productive. This is one of the things I'm working on and hoping that this will free up some time for getting back to the blog.

Overall, life is good. Work is …
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review: The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

Peter Byerly is distraught over the loss of his wife nine months ago. He has retreated to their cottage in the English countryside, hoping to return to his love of collecting and restoring rare books. But when he opens a book about Shakespeare forgeries and finds a Victorian watercolor of a woman who looks just like his wife, Peter is soon on a search for the origin of the painting and the truth about Shakespeare's real identity.

The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett is a wonderful journey for anyone who loves books. It follows Peter's search in 1995, which turns into a bit of a thriller at times. But Lovett also takes the reader back in time a bit so we can learn the story of his relationship with his wife and how he came to be a bookseller. He does a beautiful job of expressing Peter's feelings about the rare books he encounters, and his feelings are contagious.

And then he takes us back even further to the history of one particular volume, whos…
3 comments
Read more

Banned Books Week: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

This is the end of Banned Books Week and unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to write about banned books this year. But I did want to include at least one post about it, so today I wanted to share one of the book series that it seems most people are surprised to find on the list: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park.

According to Wikipedia:
The Junie B. Jones series came in at #71 on the American Library Association's list of the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books from 2000-2009. Reasons cited are poor social values taught by the books and Junie B. Jones not being considered a good role model due to her mouthiness and bad spelling/grammar. This is an interesting example of a banned book. Many times there are serious, controversial topics featured in books that are challenged. Things like homosexuality, drugs, vulgar language, etc. You can actually understand why people may not want their children to read those books, and why they may challenge their inclusion in school libra…
10 comments
Read more