A New Starry-eyed Reviewer

Okay, so you guys probably remember back when I announced that my sister Mendy was going to start blogging with me.  And then she posted a few reviews and a slightly stalkerish post about Leo.  Good times. But real life has taken its toll on my dear sister and she just isn't able to find the time to read and review like she thought she'd be able to.  *cue the sad faces*

But, I've been chatting with April from Sim~Sational~Books for the last couple of days, and she was looking to co-blog with someone instead of spending all of her free time trying to keep up with her own blog.  I haven't been actively seeking a co-blogger, but I've wanted one for awhile.  One that would actually be able to help out and post every once in awhile. I'm just picky, and after Mendy didn't work out, and her being family and all, I thought I was doomed to wander the earth, er, blogosphere, alone.  (If you get that obscure reference, you are now my new best friend.)

When April indicated that she was totally serious about co-blogging AND that she wanted to do so on my blog, well, I was beyond ecstatic. I've known April for most of the three years that I've been blogging, and she just gets me.  We are so much alike that we could almost be the same person:  happily married, early 30s, parents of only children -- both 5yo's in Kindergarten, drama haters, and of course, booknerds. I told her that she and her hubby sound like the Pennsylvania versions of me and Jerrod, and it's funny but true. We'd all be besties if we lived nearer to each other.

Anyway, you may or may not have encountered April around the blogosphere, but either way, you're going to be seeing a lot more of her around here.  Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you guys to my new co-blogger:

Hi! My name is April.

I like books. Of course I do! Why else would I be here? I'm kind of at a loss when writing these things. I feel the same way sometimes when I sit down to review books. So I just wing it. Up until now, I was reviewing on my own blog. I was drowning, because the truth is, I don't have the time or motivation to run a blog myself. I didn't want to quit blogging because I love it, so when Jen offered for me to join her, I couldn't pass it up. I'm so excited to be here.

I've been an avid reader since I was in my early tweens. Back then I would sneak adult books off my mothers shelf and hide in my room to read them. Now as an adult, I'm more drawn to YA. I do read some Adult and New Adult occasionally, but YA is what I like best.

I'm that girl in the office at work who doesn't go out to lunch. I pack my lunch just so that I can have extra reading time. I've visited so many exotic places while sitting in that desk chair, it's unreal. My evenings are spent snuggling my 5 year old, kindle in hand, while she watches her shows. Life doesn't get much better than that! Books are awesome!

Besides blogging, April is responsible for some really awesome SIMS-based book trailers.  You should check out her YouTube channel, too.  Now that she's going to be doing her thing over here, I hope she has more time to work on those...I've really missed them and they are pretty great.  She always infuses her zany sense of humor in them, too. Seriously, the girl is FUNNY.  =)

We are both extremely excited about this joint venture, and we look forward to where it takes us.  I hope you'll all give April a warm welcome and treat her like family, 'cause she already feels like it to me.  Except that I actually talk to her and don't feel the need to be all passive-aggressive with her. :P  You'll see...she's totes good people.

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Labels: 2014, april, book bloggers, updates

Thoughtful Thursdays: Feeling Antisocial

**WARNING -- This post comes with a lot of whining...and not the good kind. **
***Also, there will be rambling.***

Lately, I've just been feeling a little antisocial.  I'm an introvert by nature, but it's gotten worse since the beginning of summer.  I can't really pinpoint what exactly triggered it, but I'm sure it has a lot to do with stress.  Work's been sucking a$$.  Like, I just cannot get motivated to care about my job at all.  I've been with the company for, well...March will be ten years, and I am so burnt out.  But I have a kid in school and we're trying to buy a house within the next year, and so now is so not the time for a career change.

And so I read to escape that stress and anxiety.  But that whole antisocial thing because I'm stressed out at work is now carrying over into my blogging world.  I want to visit everyone and comment and discuss books like usual, but I'm finding it difficult to interact with anybody these days.  In real life or in the blogosphere.  And I feel terrible about it...I owe so many of you some comment love!  And I know that you guys will have my back and understand.  I don't think I've lost any of you because of my self-imposed hermitage

Guys, I've been such a lurker lately.  I've been reading all of your wonderful posts and delighting in your comments here on my own blog, but I've just kind of been lurking in the background, not saying anything or doing anything to make it better.  I've just been so blah lately.  All I want to do is read...even the desire to write anything substantial has kind of waned, though I hope that urge hits me again soon because it's one of the few things that usually gets me out of a funk like this.  Well, besides a terrific reading streak.  Which I am not having, though I have read some fairly good books recently.  Or a really, really solid cry.  I think I'm about due for one of those.

Anyway, I want to come back is what I'm saying.  I want to catch up on everything you guys have been doing, see what's been going on in your lives.  Stop feeling sorry for myself and stop being such a shut in. I've always been a bit of a loner, at least until I started blogging and met all of you wonderful people.  And I want to repay you all for the friendship.  But I'm afraid I still don't have enough time to go back and catch every post I've missed.  :(  I'm going to try very hard to devote Saturday to visiting everyone.

But this whole experience has made me wonder, how do those bigger blogs do it?  They must get tons and tons of comments each day.  How do they respond to everyone, visit all of their own favorites, create new content AND still have time to read each day?  I just can't fathom it.  It's daunting to me when I just have a piddly 15 comments (not that I'm not appreciative of each and every single one...I totally am!) on a meme post that I need to return the favor for.  Used to, I had time during the day at work to do so, but my workload is kind of crazy right now, so it just keeps snowballing and I keep getting further and further behind.

I think I'll make this one of my blogging resolutions for 2014:  be a better blogging friend.  For every comment I get, I will return a comment.  I've always felt that's the way it should be, anyway, but well, life happens.  I've blogged about this before (earlier this summer, actually) and it seemed like maybe we all go through spells like this.  But you know it always helps to hear from others sometimes.  :)  Oh, and don't even get me started on all of the blogs I follow via Bloglovin' that I haven't visited in weeks.  I finally just started deleting that daily email until I could get caught up again.  Like I said, hopefully this Saturday...it's supposed to be rainy and we're going to the State Fair on Friday, so I'll probably be worn out from that and too tired to do anything else, anyway.  :D

Pretty much, this is a usual case of Jen putting too much pressure on Jen, of me being the perfectionist that I am.  I hate not doing something 100%, and it makes me like this.  Grrr!  But acceptance is the first step to recovery, right?  And, hey, if you guys do want to hold it against me, well....I can take it...


Hehe.  Sorry for the ramble.  I hate re-reading one of these posts and seeing just how much I rambled.  I did warn you at the beginning, though.  I don't know if this made a lot of sense, but I definitely feel better having gotten it off my chest.

You ever feel like this?  Do people frequently say, "Oh, it's just the weather that's got you down"?  Do you ever just say, "Screw everyone," and do your own thing for a little while?  If so, do you feel guilty about it later?  'Cause I do.  :(

Ever your antisocial basket-case,

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Labels: blogging community, blogging goals, book bloggers, thoughtful thursdays

The Sunday Symposium: No Comment

source

On this week's discussion, I'd like to a) apologize for that punny title (gawd, I love puns!) and b) apologize for the lack of commenting in recent weeks.  I have good weeks and I have bad weeks, and more often than not, I'm at least able to visit my most favoritest blogs.  But I always feel guilty when someone leaves a comment on a review or meme post and I fail to reply or visit them back.

I used to be really good about responding.  As soon as I got the email that I had a comment, I replied and/or visited the blog of the comment leaver, assuming they had one.  Or if not immediately, I did so as soon as I was near a computer again.  But these days, I find that some weeks I pretty much have to spend a day visiting every one who stopped by and forego everything else just to get caught up.  Some weeks, I don't even attempt to get caught up because I have so much other stuff going on.

But I started to wonder:  is it even as big of a deal as I'm making it?  I mean, how often have I thought, "I left a comment over at so and so's blog and they haven't responded or dropped by my blog.  The nerve!"  Um, probably never.  I do sometimes check back on blogs that I've left a meaningful (read:  not meme-related) comment on, especially if I asked a question, but I don't get upset if there's been no response.

As a book blogger, I agree to some extent that we need to network and put ourselves out there if we hope to make this a fruitful endeavor.  But this book blogging thing is supposed to be a hobby, which is something you make time for when you can.  It shouldn't be this stressful thing that weighs on us when we can't spare it as much time as we'd like, which I believe I vented enough about on the last Sunday Symposium post.

And that leads me to my questions.  Do you check back for responses? Do you notice when someone hasn't been by to visit after you've left several comments for them?  Do you resent that and maybe not visit as much then?  Are you more concerned with providing or seeing more new and unique content, as opposed to comments and responses?  If you're an established book blogger, do you, too, find it hard to keep up with this aspect of blogging?  Do you respond to every comment immediately, or do you find it easier to do it all at one time?

Any and all commentary, chastising, and public flogging is welcome, as per usual.  And thanks for stopping by! Also, be sure to check out Let's Discuss to find more bookish discussions all over the interwebz!

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Labels: blogging goals, book bloggers, the sunday symposium

Feature: Daughter of Smoke and Bone trailer

So, I have this friend who makes these amazing SIMS trailers for books. I've linked to them or tweeted about them in the past, but a little while back, I forced her to read Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.  And she ended up loving the book as much as I did!  Maybe even more because she was inspired to create the amazing SIMS trailer you see below.

Anyway, when I asked April if I could feature her DoSaB trailer on the blog, her only request was that I make sure to give full credit to Jessica, the artist behind the drawing of Brimstone.  Jessica's work can be found on deviantART.  I don't think I could have imagined a more perfect image of Brimstone than her representation.

Also, if you want to read a little more background on how April created the trailer and such, check out her post about it. I can't imagine the work she puts into these trailers, but they are full of awesome.  She also did one for Fifty Shades of Grey, which had me rolling on the floor.  April is currently working on a trailer for the sequel.

And, without further ado, here is the beautimous SIMS trailer for Daughter of Smoke and Bone, created by the wonderfully-talented April:




You can find April on Twitter, on her blog - Sim~Sational~Books, and on YouTube.  Please stop by and tell her how awesome her trailer is!

Also, when I was working on adding the links to this post, I noticed that the cover for the sequel to DoSaB was up on Goodreads.  When did that happen?!?  In case you, too, missed it, here's the cover for Days of Blood and Starlight:

What do you think? Awesome, right? Can't wait to get your hands on it, right? Yeah, me either!

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Labels: apes, book bloggers, book trailers, daughter of smoke and bone, favorites, features, laini taylor, must-read

TGIF #13 - Book Blogs That Make You Smile

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads!  In this weekly feature, Ginger poses a question to her followers and then asks everyone to link up at the end of the post, sharing their responses.

This Friday's Question:

Book Blogs That Make You Smile: Pick 5 book blogs you visit often & think others should, too.

Yay, this week's question is easy peasy!  Well, narrowing it down to just five isn't because there are a lot of blogs I frequent.  But here are my favorites:

1.  A Belle's Tales - Michele is my book soulmate.  I don't think I've ever met anyone who reads all the same books AND actually agrees with me on them.  Her blog is newish, but we've been friends for awhile, having discovered our mutual love of Four and all things Divergent earlier this year on Twitter.  Chele is a super-sweet Southern gal, and her blog could use some love.  I promise she'll love you right back.  :D

2.  Alice Marvels - This is the blog that started it all for me.  I used to just walk into the bookstore and hope something struck my fancy.  And then I saw a FB ad for this book blog, and my world was forever changed.  I blame Alice for my ridiculous TBR pile.  And for introducing me to so many great books and authors.

3.  The Mimosa Stimulus - Jenny's reviews are always spot-on.  She's always respectful and intelligent in her reviews, and I usually find that they make me anticipate reading a novel even more.  I'm not the biggest fan of contemporary novels, but her appraisal of these books has caused me to fall for the writing style of an author or two.

4.  Gone With the Words - Jess is a fellow audiobook lover.  Also, she has an awesome blog, and she reads the BEST books.  She's also great at interacting with her readership.  Jess's reviews are funny and entertaining, and she freely admits that her love of reading was re-ignited by Twilight.





5.  Cari's Book Blog - Cari's blog is not one of my favorites just because I won a boat-load of ARCs from her recently, thought that part is true.  Cari is a fellow Texas gal like myself, and she's been super friendly from the get-go.  Her blog is gorgeous and makes me jealous every time I see it, which is pretty much daily.  :0)  Oh, yeah...and she provides GREAT reviews.  And if you didn't pick up on it earlier, she has the most AWESOME giveaways!



I <3 all these ladies and their blogs from the very bottom of my lil blogger ♥.

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Labels: book bloggers, tgif