15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Days 14 & 15

I am both happy and sad to say that this is the last day of April's Book Blogger Challenge.  Happy because I feel so accomplished for finishing the 15 days, and sad because it's over.  For more info on the challenge, visit April's blog Good Books and Good Wine.  (I really wanted to get Day 14 posted yesterday, but for some reason, blogger was having issues and not letting me upload pictures.  Not sure if it was blogger or my computer that was the problem, but whichever one it was, it's why I'm posting the last two days of the challenge together.)

Day 14 -  Book Deal Breakers

When I hear the term "deal breaker" in reference to books, I think about all the things that I cannot stand in books, that ruin a book I'm reading, or that would keep me from ever reading a book at all.  Here are mine:

• Graphic violence/gore  -  I can't do graphic violence; it just grosses me out too much.  It's one of the reasons why I avoid rated-R action movies, because I spend most of the time watching from behind my fingers and feeling sick to my stomach.
• Erotica/graphic sex  -  Smut/romance novels/Fifty Shades of Grey - just not my thing.
• Bad/Gross things happening to children  -  I just can't handle this stuff.  I used to watch Law & Order: SVU with my friends, and the shows started having more and more terrible things happening to kids, and we stopped watching.  I don't need to read or watch that kind of stuff and have it stuck in my head.
• Rushed/Pointless endings  -  I can't stand books that have endings that feel rushed or thrown together at the last minute, like the author ran out of ideas and decided to just wrap it up.  It makes me wonder why I bothered reading the rest of the book if it's just going to have a blah ending.
• Disrespect for people's beliefs  -  I'm a Christian, so reading books that mock my faith always makes me uncomfortable.  But I also dislike books that mock other beliefs, no matter what they are.  I understand if you don't agree with a certain set of beliefs, but there's a huge difference between disagreeing and disrespecting.
• Grammatical errors/bad editing  -  Super pet peeve!  Since I was a writing major in college, people used to bring me their papers to edit, and I always noticed the grammatical errors first.  I mean, I don't expect people to be perfect (I know I'm not), but publishers pay copy-editors to catch these errors, and when there are a lot in a book, it makes me think they were just sloppy.
• Vampires/werewolves/angels/zombies  -  I'm so sick of the vampire & werewolf fad.  The fallen angels stories just feel... wrong.  And zombies are just too icky.  Yep, I said "icky".
• Horror  -  I like to sleep at night, so these books are just not for me.
• Whiny main characters  -  Probably my number one problem with the few chick-lit books I've read (and disliked) is that there's always a woe-is-me, my-life/relationship/job-sucks character who I can't stand.  She annoys me so much that I just don't care if her issues ever get resolved.
• Insta-love  -  Don't authors realize that insta-love makes a story both unbelievable and boring?  Where's the slow build and the tension that make a relationship so amazing?  It's funny how much I can't stand this in books, but don't mind it so much in movies.  After all, aren't most Disney princess movies centered around insta-love?

And those are my deal breakers.  What are some of yours?

Day 15 -  Blogging Mentors

So I don't have any blogging mentors in the traditional sense of the word "mentor."  But there are a couple of bloggers that I consider an inspiration.  I started following them last year, when I was coming out of a long blogging slump, and reading their blogs made me want to get more involved with my own and with the blogging community.

• Meghan,  Recreational Reading  -  This blog is one of the first I ever started reading.  I love the features she's created, as well as her blog's format.  She also regularly updates her blog (which I wish I was better at), so I always know that they'll be something fun to read.
• Jamie,  The Perpetual Page-Turner  -  Jamie's blog is so much fun to read.  Besides cool book reviews (I love the post-its at the end), she's also not afraid to share stuff about herself in fun, colorful posts.  My favorite is the post she did about how to recognize her at BEA, complete with pictures of all of her BEA faces.

How about you?  If you're a blogger, do you have a mentor?  Is there another blogger out there that inspires you?

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 13

It's day 13 of April's Book Blogger Challenge, which means... only 2 days left!  I can't believe it's almost over, because I've been having so much fun with this challenge.  For more info, visit April's blog Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 13 - Underappreciated Books

Ok, so today's challenge is really difficult.  "Describe one underappreciated book EVERYONE should read."  Only one???  I can think of so many books that people should read that aren't getting a lot of attention.  But I'll be good and only tell you about one of them.

Why you should read I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

• Goodreads description:  I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has "captured the castle"--and the heart of the reader--in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments.
• Opening sentence:  I write this sitting in the sink.
• The story:  This book is a beautifully written, bittersweet coming-of-age story.  I guess it's also a romance, but what I took from it was the narrator's growth from child to woman.  I really connected with Cassandra (the narrator).  She's a great complex character, and it's interesting and refreshing to "watch" her change, to see her shift from this pure romantic idealist to a realist who's still secretly holding on to and hoping for some of those ideals.
• The writing:  I love the way this book is written.  The story is told in journal form, as Cassandra chronicles everything happening around her.  As the book continues and Cassandra grows up, the writing becomes more mature and more beautiful.  And not only is the writing awesome, but it's so quotable too.  My favorite line is the opening sentence, but there are so many more.
• Personal reason:  I also have a great connection with this book, because it's one of the main books that made me realize I wanted to write.  I read this shortly before deciding on a college, and it helped me choose my major.  I just knew that I wanted to write a book like this someday.

So what about you?  Have you read I Capture the Castle?  Did you like/dislike it?  What is an underappreciated book you think everyone should read?

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 12

I can't believe the challenge is almost over.  It's day 12 of April's 15-Day Book Blogger Challenge.  For more info, visit her blog Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 12 -  Fighting blogger fatigue

This is something I struggle with A LOT.  When I first started blogging, I never thought that there would ever be a day where it would feel like a job, or that I'd ever feel tired of blogging.  But it happens.  Especially when you forget why you're doing what you're doing, or when you put yourself under too much pressure.

My blogging fatigue got so bad that from March 30, 2012 to September 27, 2012, I didn't post a single blog entry.  I was feeling blah about the whole thing.  (And sad to say, it wasn't just my blogging that suffered, but my reading too).  I'd put myself under all this pressure that my blog had to be a certain way, and I had to post x-number of times per week, and I needed to get so many page views.  I mean, I couldn't even get my family to read my blog; why would anyone else?  It lost all the joy, and I didn't get back into really blogging again until November 6, 2012.

So how did I get out of it?  Top Ten Tuesday.  The weekly meme over at The Broke and the Bookish was exactly what I needed.  It was something fun to do, it introduced me to the blogging community (aka the perfect support system), and it was a good foundation for me to build a schedule around.

Now that I'm "back in the swing of things," I still hit those moments of my blog feeling like a job.  But I also know, thanks to talking to lots of other bloggers, that it's normal to feel that way.  And I've come up with a list of things to do to combat it (which also helps with reading slumps too).

• Just remember - Life happens.  There are going to be days or weeks that I won't be able to blog.  Maybe I'm on vacation, maybe I'm sick, maybe my family comes first.  So I try not to pressure myself - it's okay to go off schedule, miss a day.
• Participate in a meme or challenge.  Things like Top Ten Tuesday or this Book Blogger Challenge are perfect for helping me get back to blogging.
• Binge a little.  When I'm feeling overwhelmed by something, whether it's my blog or my TBR pile, I turn on Netflix and allow myself some time to just relax and be a couch potato.  I usually feel refreshed and ready to get back to blogging afterwards.
• Re-read some favorites.  I've always found that grabbing a book or series that I love and re-reading it is an awesome way to fight fatigue.  Reading something I feel really passionate about helps me remember why I started blogging in the first place.
• Finally, talk to other bloggers.  The awesome part about being a blogger is that I'm part of a community, and they've all been through this or are going through it now.  I've personally found that everyone's really friendly and will have no problem giving advice or pep talks.

How about you?  How do you fight blogging fatigue?  Or if you're not a blogger, do you have a hobby that sometimes feels like a chore?  How do you get past those slumps?

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Days 10 & 11

It was my mom's birthday yesterday (Hi, Mom!), so I didn't get any reading or blogging accomplished.  Which means today's Book Blogger Challenge post is for both Day 10 & Day 11.  For more info about the challenge, or to participate, visit Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 10 -  What to Read Next

Once I've finished a book, and I need to choose something to read next, there's a couple of things that help me make my decision.

• The genre of the book I just read.  If I just read two dystopian novels in a row, I'm most likely not going to want to read another one.  I'm going to find a book in a genre that's not even similar, to keep things from getting too monotonous.
• The release date, if it's an ARC.  I'm trying to read and review ARCs around their release date, although that hasn't worked out too well so far.  But since I've only just gotten ARCs for the first time at BEA, I figure I just need to work on scheduling things better.
• How much I've been dying to read a book.  I just bought Raven Flight from Amazon, and I got Through the Ever Night at BEA, and I CANNOT WAIT to read them, so as soon as I finish my (overdue) library books, they are next up on the list.
• Deadlined books.  Obviously, books from the library or borrowed from friends/family get higher priority because I don't get to keep them.  I'm still not all that good at prioritizing though, which explains the fact that I'm always paying fees when I go to the library.
• Recommendations/Reviews/Word-of-Mouth.  If I'm stuck and can't decide what to read next, either because I'm torn between books or I just don't have the motivation, I'll visit people's blogs or talk to a friend and see what they have to say.  Sometimes one person's love of a book will make me want to read it next.

Day 11 -  My Top Five Blog Posts

My five best blog posts?  How do I decide what makes a post "the best"?  Are we talking most viewed or most commented on?  Or just the ones I enjoyed writing the most?  Too many possibilities!  Since there's no criteria for how to choose "the best" posts, I've decided to pick the top five posts I enjoyed writing the most.

• WWJAT? A Review of Lost in Austen.
• This was the first review I ever wrote, and I had so much fun doing it that I just knew that blogging was right for me.
• Top Ten Fictional Crushes.
• Who doesn't like talking about their book boyfriends?  Seriously?
• Top Ten Bookish Memories.
• I really loved this post, because I got to look back and see how my reading obsession got started, how it's shaped my life, and where it's been leading me.
• Random Thoughts - Books & Food.
• I love baking and cooking and tea, almost as much as I love reading.  So writing a post about how well the two of them mesh just seemed natural.  It was also a lot of fun to write.
• Blogger Confession - Binging.
• I confess that the main reason I love this post is simply because it's the first time I've ever used GIFs.  It was just so much fun looking through pages of GIFs to find the right ones, and then incorporating them into the post.

So there you have it.  How I choose what to read and which of my posts are my favorites.  How about you?  How do you pick what to read next?

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 9

It's day 9 of April's Book Blogger Challenge!  For more info or to participate, visit her blog, Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 9 -  Why I Do What I Do

I love introspective posts like these.

So why do I blog about books?  For two reasons - because I love to write and because I LOVE to read even more.

The Writing

When I graduated college with a degree in creative writing, I learned pretty quickly that I wasn't going to be writing a bestselling novel and retiring at an early age.  The jobs out there were your standard cashier/waitress jobs or desk jobs.  I worked the first for a while before landing the office job that I have been at for almost five-and-a-half years now.  With all the hours I was spending commuting, working, and commuting back home again, my writing took a back seat.  People would ask me if I'd written anything, was I using my degree, and I always had to say no.

One Sunday, I was talking to a woman in church who I'd known for years (she was a homeschool mom, just like mine), and she asked me if I was writing.  I gave her the usual "No, but I'd like to get back to it" answer that I gave to everyone, and she says, "Maybe you should try blogging.  It would be a good way to keep writing."  What a great idea!  It was one of those "Could've had a V-8" moments.

The Reading

So in May 2009, a whole two years after graduating college, I decided to start this blog simply as a way to keep writing.  But what to blog about?  I didn't really want to just write about my life.  It seemed pretty boring at the time, and besides, I'd already tried that back in high school using LiveJournal.  Then there was always the politics option.  I minored in political science and loved a good debate, but seriously, no one wants to read a blog that's nothing but me ranting at the corruption in our system.  (Well, some people might, but I certainly wouldn't have.)  That left two options - a blog containing my actual stories, poems, book chapters, etc.  Or a book review blog.  It wasn't that hard of a choice.

As much as I love writing, I love reading infinitely more.  Ever since fifth-grade, books have been such an integral part of my life.  I've traveled the world, fallen in love, been the damsel in distress, been the kick-ass heroine, flown on a dragon - all without leaving my home.  I love books for what they can give you, what they can show you about the world and about yourself.  And I've always wanted to share that with people.  It's why I was in a book club in high school with one of my BFFs, why I gave my brother a four-page reading list so we could discuss books, why I joined goodreads and went to BEA, and it's why I blog.

So I started blogging about books.  And it's been amazing.  I'm pretty much doing something I love and then telling you about it.  It has its ups and down; we all hit those slumps.  But it's also so much fun; it's so worth the time and the effort.  I mean, it would be nice if I could get paid for it too, but even though this blog doesn't come with a paycheck, I still feel like I get something great out of it.  I get to be part of a community of people that understand this crazy love of books, who get why someone would rather buy books than clothes.  People who see no problem with having double and triple-layered rows of books, or books piled on the floor, or crammed into every available space.

And I get to gush and rant and cry and laugh all I want about books.  That's probably the most rewarding part.  Until recently, I was really the biggest reader in my family.  My dad and brother both read, but not as much as I do, or the same genres.  My mom and my younger sister have both told me "Why read the book when you can watch the movie?"  Now, my youngest sister has become a rabid reader, just like I was at her age, but she's still too young to be reading the same books as me.  I can recommend books to her and see how she feels about them, but I can't discuss the books I'm reading with her.  And while my three BFFs all love to read, we are rarely reading the same thing.  So this blog is the perfect way for me to just share, to spill everything I'm feeling about a book.  Even if no one reads it, it's still an outlet to let out all the FEELS.

So yeah... all of that to say that I blog because I love my writing, but I really love my books.

What about you?  If you're a blogger, why do you blog about books (or whatever else you blog about)?  If you're not a blogger, what are you passionate about and why?

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 8

It's day 8 of April's Book Blogger Challenge.  If you're interesting in joining or just want to know more about it, visit her blog, Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 8 - Things that appeal to me on blogs

So I know some of this stuff is going to sound hypocritical, because I don't actually have some of these things that I've listed here (such as a search bar or video blogs).  But I do hope/plan to... someday.

1. A creative title and custom artwork  -  I love fun blog names and custom layouts and artwork.  It catches my attention immediately.
2. Lists, challenges, and surveys  -  Lists are my favorite!  They're just so much fun to read.  Challenges and surveys are great too, both to read and participate in.
3. Reviews with ratings  -  I prefer it when people include a rating with their reviews.  Sometimes a person's review can border between "Liked it" and "Loved it," so the rating just makes it clearer.
4. Pictures and GIFs  -  I just started using GIFs because they're so much fun.  You can learn a lot about someone based on which GIFs they choose, such as what TV shows or actors they prefer.  Also, I like blog posts with pictures, even if it's just a picture of the cover.
5. Videos/Vlogs  -  I only discovered vlogging recently, thanks to Hank and John Green (the Vlogbrothers).  Now I'm always on the lookout for posts that include videos.
6. Humor and sarcasm  -  I love sarcasm and witty humor.  I'm drawn to books and people that get sarcasm, so it's only natural that I like to read it in blogs too.
7. Quotes  -  Quotes are just awesome because they're another way of getting some insight into the blogger.  The quotes you love and post say something about you.
8. Non book-review posts  -  It's so much fun getting to know the person behind the blog, and personal posts or even bookish posts that aren't reviews are some of my favorites to read.
9. Themes  -  I think it's great when a blogger comes up with a theme and carries it through the whole blog.
10. Features, but not too many  -  It's fun to see features such as Top Ten Tuesday or Stacking the Shelves on people's blogs, but on the other hand, if a blog is nothing but memes & features, it gets kind of old.
11. Fun fonts and colors  -  I'm all about color.  I didn't used to be, but over the past year, I've really fallen in love with things that are bright and colorful.  And I also love fonts that are out of the ordinary.  I want them to be readable too, of course, but a fun font will always catch my interest.
12. Review indexes and/or search bar  -  I used to have a search bar, but it didn't always work, so now I have a review index.  It's really helpful for people to have some way to find your past posts.
13. Spoiler-Free reviews  -  This is such a pet peeve of mine.  I know I'm not perfect, but I do try to be really careful when writing my posts or at least including a warning, because I don't want to ruin the book for anyone.  So please don't ruin the book for me!
14. Full posts without "Read More Here" links  -  I know a lot of people are the opposite.  They'd rather have the posts shortened so they can scroll through more, but I'm not really a fan.  Maybe I'm just too lazy, but I prefer to see the whole post at once.
15. Links to goodreads.com  -  If I think a book sounds interesting, I want to be able to look up more info on goodreads.com, or add it to my To-Read list.  I know I'm constantly forgetting to do this myself, but this is just another thing that's on my blogging to-do list.

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 7

Today is day 7 of April's Book Blogger Challenge.  For more info or to participate, check out her website, Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 7 - Blogging Quirks

• I use the words "so" and "really" a lot.  That's how I tend to talk, and it comes across in my writing too.  I sometimes make the effort to not use them so much, or I'll even go back and edit them out once I've finished the post.
• I feel super guilty if more than one day goes by without posting in my blog... which means I feel guilty all the time.  I'm trying to get over this, because honestly, no one wants to read a crappy post that I just threw together in order to avoid feeling guilty.
• Procrastination and I have this love-hate relationship when it comes to review posts.  Sometimes I'll put off reviewing a book, and then I don't remember everything I liked or disliked about it.  And that ends up leading to a short, rather blah review.  But sometimes, I just don't care.
• I had to change my rating system because my original one was too confusing.  So now I rate things on a scale of 1 to 5 cupcakes.... yes, cupcakes.  Why?  Because besides reading, I love to bake.  Especially cupcakes.
• I used to hate coming up with a title for every post, but now I don't have a problem with it.  When I first started blogging, I felt like I needed to come up with a witty title for each post, and that just got old.  Then, I stopped using titles altogether, which actually made things more difficult.  Now I'm back to giving my posts titles, but they're all generic ones like "Book Review...".
• Recently, I've started discussing what I'm going to write in my reviews with my coworker.  And as I'm talking to him, occasionally my rating will change the more I talk about it, as I realize that there were more flaws or more awesome things than I originally thought.

And that's it.  Or at least, those are all the ones I can think of.  Do you have any blogging quirks?

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 6

It's day 6 of April's Book Blogger Challenge!  For more info on the challenge, or if you want to participate, visit her blog, Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 6 - Book-Buying Habits

As I was thinking about this day's challenge, I realized that my book-buying habits have changed a lot over just a few short years, not only in how I buy books but also in the where and how much.

First, I used to be an avid Barnes & Noble girl.  Almost every single book I bought came from their store or website.  My dad would say, "Who wants to go to B&N?"  And I was waiting by the door in minutes, and then coming home with a pile of books.  But after I came back from college and got a full time job, I started using Amazon more and more.  It was more convenient and less expensive, and I had been having less than satisfying dealings with B&N's customer service.  Now whenever I buy a book, it's through Amazon.  I honestly can't even remember the last time I walked into a physical book store.

Second, I used to buy books by the dozen.  There were packages arriving at my door once a week, sometimes more.  It got to the point where the UPS guy knew my name and my family member's names.  Of course, when I was doing this, I had all the money in the world (or at least it felt like it).  I'd just gotten a full-time job, I was using my parents' old car (still on their insurance), and I had no big expenses.  Well, a lot changes over a few years (new car, monthly expenses, unforeseen expenses, vacations, etc.), and now I'm way more careful with my money (cuz I'm broke).  So the Amazon boxes are more like once a month, and they only have one or two books in them.  Either they're books I REALLY, REALLY want and have wanted for a long time, or they're the next books in the different series I'm reading.

Third, how I shop for books has changed A LOT over the past few years.  I used to just buy books that looked good without knowing anything about the book itself or other people's opinions of it.  If it was fantasy, I just grabbed it up without a second thought.  Which meant I ended up with plenty of books I didn't end up enjoying.  That has completely changed.  Now I have a specific set of criteria that I follow.

• Genre  -  I admit that genre plays a big role in whether or not I bother to check out a book.  For example, if the book was in the horror section, it's an automatic turn-off.  If it's paranormal or romance, I might give it a second glance.  If it's fantasy, I'll probably grab it up in a second.
• Cover  -  They say "Don't judge a book by its cover," and I try really hard not to, because I know there are great books out there with boring covers.  But if I'm browsing through a list of books and it's a choice between the book with the plain cover and the one with the pretty/interesting cover, I'm going to look into the pretty one first.
• Author's name  -  I'm always looking to see if my favorite authors have written something new.  I'm way more likely to pick up their books than an unknown's.  And if it's an author I don't like, it's hard for me to get past my feelings for his other books to look at new ones.  Which isn't a good thing - I didn't want to read The Host at all because it was written by Stephenie Meyer, and I'm so glad I pushed past that because I loved the book.
• Book blurb  -  I do not like to go into a book blind anymore.  I've done it way too many times with blah results.  The book can be the right genre, have great cover, and be by an author I like, but if I read the blurb on the back and it doesn't interest me, I don't buy it.
• Buzz words  -  Certain buzz words make me want to buy a book immediately.  Mythlogy, fairy-tale retelling, mystery or detective, Jane Austen, dystopian, regency - those are examples of words that catch my interest and make me want to get the book.
• Goodreads rating  -  Since I only signed up for Goodreads around a year ago, this is a newer criteria for me.  But now, I'm always looking a book up to see if it got good ratings.  If I see that a lot of people really loved a book, it definitely sways my opinion in the book's favor.  It doesn't work out all the time of course (people have different tastes), but it's still helpful.
• Blogger recommendations  -  I have discovered so many new books and series thanks to other bloggers.  And there are a few who I know have similar tastes as me, so if they love a book, I'm pretty confident I will too.
• Sales/Used books  -  And then of course, all of these criteria go straight out the window if there's a sale or if they're used books.  If I can get a pile of books for the same cost as three full-price hardcovers, I'm being way more relaxed and just buying up the books.  That way I don't feel so bad if I don't like the book, because it won't have cost me that much anyway.

So those are habits.  They're mostly driven by a desire to save money and not go broke buying books.  If I ever again reach a comfortable place financially, who knows what will happen?  I could stay frugal, or I could go back to buying my books by the dozen.  We shall have to see.

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 5

It's day five of April's Book Blogger Challenge.  For more information on the challenge or if you want to participate, visit her blog - Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 5 - Recommend a tear jerker

Ok, so this one's kind of hard for me because I'm a crier.  I read something that's really happy - I cry.  Really sad - I cry.  I watch a movie, and I almost always tear up during an emotional part.  I cried my eyes out after Castle's third season finale.  I'm just an emotional person (I get it from my mom), so I try to avoid books that I know are going to make me bawl.  Pretty much all Nicholas Sparks books are on my Do-NOT-Read list.  But I still end up reading them anyway, so here are some of my favorites.

• Young Adult Fiction
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green  -  I'm pretty sure I've already recommended this book a thousand times, but I'm going to do it again.  My brother recommended this to me first, and a friend warned me - "It's a cry book."  I think if she hadn't warned me, I would have been a slobbery mess by the end of the book.  But since I was prepared for all the feels, I was able to keep the crying to a more dignified minimum.  It's an incredible, bittersweet love story that made my heart ache.
• Adult Fiction
• For One More Day by Mitch Albom  -  My aunt lent me this book, and it was amazing.  The main character, Charley, is a broken man who's life is falling apart, but when he has a car accident and stumbles back into his hometown, he discovers his mother waiting for him.  His mother who died eight years earlier.  For just one more day (hence the title), Charley gets to make things right with his mom, get the forgiveness he craves, and pull his life back together.  I definitely sobbed during this book.  Albom's writing is superb, which just added to how beautiful this story was.
• Non-Fiction
• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom  -  I read this in high school, along with The Diary of Anne Frank, and I cried my eyes out.  It's the biography of a woman in the Netherlands who becomes part of the Dutch Underground during WWII.  She and her family help Jews escape Nazi persecution, until they're found out and taken to a concentration camp.  It's an extremely powerful and heartbreaking story, but also inspiring.  Despite all of the terrible things that happen to Corrie - suffering in a concentration camp, watching her sister die, being the sole survivor of her family - she never loses faith, and even finds it in her to forgive her Nazi persecutors.

So what do you think?  Did you read any of these and cry?  Or maybe you didn't cry?  What tear jerkers would you recommend?

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 4

For more info on April's 15-Day Book Blogger Challenge, visit her site, Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 4 - Book Flinging

Honestly, I have never thrown a book across a room.  Across my bed maybe, but never across the room.  I've gotten really frustrated with books, but since I'm also super-careful about damaging them, I try not to fling them in a way that could hurt them.  Besides, there are even better ways to get out my frustration with my books; I've thrown them in the garbage, posted them immediately on PaperBackSwap.com, or simply shoved them back onto the shelf, never to be finished.  I'm going to share an example of each.

• Flung across the bed
• Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter -  Even though I liked this book, I got so frustrated with Kate's character and the introduction of Persephone, I "threw" this book across my bed multiple times.  Both characters whined way too much throughout, and Kate made so many stupid decisions that I just wanted to shake her.
• Thrown in the garbage
• Master of Many Treasures by Mary Brown -  It's rare for me to throw out a book, but this one was just too awful to keep or give away.  It started out fine, and then they introduced a new character who was perverse, and then the book itself got perverse.  So I stopped reading it and threw it in the garbage.
• PaperBackSwap.com
• Cinder & Sapphires by Leila Rasheed -  I understand that Downton Abbey is amazing, and therefore people want to make the most of its popularity.  But this book just felt like a YA copycat. It didn't have anything new or interesting to draw me in.  Plus, the writing was so-so, and the characters were stale.
• Doomed to be unfinished
• Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes -  Boring.  Boring.  Boring.  I started this book because I'd actually seen the movie first, and loved it.  So I brought it with me on vacation to read in the airport, and I just couldn't get through it.  The Polish workers who are the best characters in the movie make up a teeny chapter of her book, and another chapter was all about each place they found a well.  I gave up halfway through and decided that sitting in an airport with nothing to read would be way more exciting than reading this book.

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 3

It's day 3 of April's Book Blogger Challenge!  If you're a book blogger, I highly recommend participating in it.  And if you're not a book blogger, it's a fun way of getting the inside scoop on what book bloggers are all about.

Day 3 - Blogging BFFs

So I don't really have any blogging BFFs yet (unless family counts, in which case I have my brother, but I feel like that's cheating).  Even though I've been blogging for around four years now, it wasn't until about six or seven months ago that I became aware of the book blogging community.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much of a community it really is too.  But I still felt shy about putting myself out there and commenting, except for Top Ten Tuesdays.  Occasionally, I would comment on a post if I felt like I had something to say, but that was about it.

And then I went to BEA for the first time this year, and I met so many other bloggers, and everyone was so cool and friendly.  It definitely helped me get over the shyness factor.  Then I signed up for twitter, which has helped me meet/follow even more bloggers.  So as I get more involved with the blogging community, I expect I will make more and more friends, who will eventually become BFFs.  Until then, I will share which awesome bloggers I met at BEA, who made me feel like I'd always been a part of the group.  You guys are amazing!

• Kat & Jess from Books and Sensibility
• Kelly from Belle of the Literati
• Betty from Book Rock Betty
• Kassiah from Swoony Boys Podcast

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 2

It's day 2 of April's 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge.  It's a great challenge that I would definitely encourage my fellow book bloggers to participate in.

Day 2 - Bedtime Reading Ritual

I've never really thought about it, but I guess I do have a bit of a ritual when it comes to reading books in bed.

• First, I have to get everything else done and out of the way.  Brushing my teeth, washing my face, getting into my super-comfy PJs, checking email/twitter/facebook/bloglovin... I get all that stuff taken care of, so I don't fall asleep without it being done.
• Second, I make a ginormous pile of pillows for a backrest.  My bed's up against my wall lengthwise (like a daybed), and there's no headboard/sideboard(?) to lean against.  So I take every pillow I own, pile them on top of each other, and use them as a rather unstable backrest that usually has to be readjusted several times during the night.
• Third, I get under the covers... no matter what the temperature is.  My bedroom could be really warm, and I will still get under at least a sheet because I cannot read in bed without being under some form of cover.  (Even when it's the middle of the day, and I'm on the couch in the family room, I have to be under a throw blanket while reading.)
• Finally, I read and read and read until I either finish the book or force myself to put it down.  Whichever it is, it's usually super-late... or super-early, depending on how you look at it.  And then a few hours later, getting out of bed and going to work is like this...

And that's my bedtime reading ritual.  How about you?  Do you follow a pattern with your bedtime reading?

15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 1

April from Good Books and Good Wine has created a fun new challenge for all of us book bloggers.  It's the 15-Day Book Blogger Challenge (one challenge per day), and I'm participating because I totally relate to what she says about not having any energy to blog.  I've been following the same pattern as her, just turning on the TV when I get home and not reading or blogging.  So this challenge is something to do for fun and to get back in the swing of things.

Day 1 - Book Related Confessions

1. I'm kind of OCD when it comes to matching covers.  I need them to match, and when they don't, it bugs me SO much.  I will go out of my way to find the matching covers, even if it means paying a little more or having to visit several used book stores.
2. I hate book jackets.  They annoy me so much when I'm reading because they're always slipping off or ripping.  I usually just take them off when I'm reading so I don't have to deal with them.
3. I prefer paperback to hardcovers anyway.  Partially due to the problem with book jackets, and partially because I just love the way they feel.  They're so much lighter than hardcovers, and I can fit more of them in my shelves too.
4. I try to take super-good care of my books - no cracking the spine beyond repair or bending page corners.  If I get a used book, I don't usually care if it's been beat up.  But once it's in my hands, I try not to further the damage.
5. Even though I'm super careful when handling my books, I have no problem lending them out to people and expect them to have a little more wear & tear than they did before.  The only time I'll freak out is if I get the book back with the cover ripped or mangled, or if it was obvious that they spilled food or drink on the book.  Then you might see a meltdown.
6. I passionately hate e-readers!  I'm so in love with my print.  The only time you will ever see me use any form of e-reader is if a book is ONLY available via Kindle/Nook/whatever.  And then I'll use my iPod or one of my parent's Nooks, but it seriously affects my appreciation of the book.
7. I collect blank journals & notebooks.  I don't usually write in them, but I buy them as if I someday will.  And I'm really picky too, when it comes to buying them.  They have to be college-ruled or unlined (I hate wide-ruled notebooks/journals); there has to be something unique about each one like it has a beautiful cover or it's handmade; and I have to be able to see myself using it, even though that may never actually happen.  I know; it's weird, but it's become a habit.  Whenever I go into a bookstore or stationery store, I usually leave with at least one book and one journal.
8. I hate spoilers, BUT if I'm reading a book, and the suspense is driving me nuts, I'll peek ahead to see if someone dies or not, or who they end up with, just to ease my mind.  I usually end up hating myself afterwards, but sometimes the tension is just too much to handle. (My younger sister's the exact opposite.  She goes on wikipedia and sees everything that's going to happen in both books and TV shows to decide whether it's worth investing her time.)
9. I almost always fall for the bad guy or the guy no one else likes.  I usually love the main love interest too, but I also have a thing for the other guy.  I don't know why, but if there's a secondary character who doesn't get a girl, I end up liking him more than the main love interest.  Or if there's a bad boy/villain, I tend to like them too.  So long as they've got more to their personality than just being a jerk.  If they've got great emotional depth or layers, then I like them.  I just like to believe that they can be redeemed.
10. I rarely go outside of my comfort zone, and when I do, I tend to dislike the books for the very reasons I was afraid of.  Not always though - The Fault in Our Stars is an example of a book I thought would be outside of my comfort zone, and it's one of the best books I've read in the past few years.  But that tends to be a rare experience.  I think we all have our comfort zones for a reason.  We've tried lots of things, discovered what we liked best, and then just stick with those.
11. But to follow-up that point, I will also say that I have a pretty expansive comfort zone.  It's not really about liking certain genres over others; I like to read lots of different genres (although I do tend to read a lot of fantasy).  My comfort zone is more about what's in the books than what genre they are.  Graphic violence/sex, horror & gore, excessive profanity, blatant anti-religious sentiments - all of these would put a book outside of my comfort zone, no matter what genre they were in.
12. I try to always read the book first when they make a movie adaptation.  Some people think this is crazy because then I'm constantly comparing while watching the movie.  But I like to imagine the characters for myself without being influenced by the movie's interpretation.  And I'm also pretty understanding about them making changes for good reasons.  It's only the stupid changes that bother me, like when they completely change the ending for no apparent reason, or they add characters that don't fit anywhere in the story.
13. I have no organization scheme when it comes to my bookshelves.  It's pretty much just putting the books wherever they fit when I purchase them.  So I have series that are split up around the room because I bought them at different times.  And I also find it hard to have any sort of system set up because I've run out of room on my shelves.  The shelves are double-stacked with books in front of books or on top of books, and there are books inside my desk, in my wardrobe, in and on my TV stand, in a box in the corner, in stacks on the floor.. you get the idea.  It's kind of hard to organize all of that.
14. I have a love-hate relationship with fads.  I hate it when one book does really well, so then everyone feels the need to copy it.  After Twilight, there were vampire books everywhere, and since I don't like vampire books, I was not too thrilled with that.  But then The Hunger Games started a huge dystopian fad, and since I really enjoy that genre, I've been pretty happy about the amount of dystopian/post-apocalyptic books available.  So I both love & hate fads.
15. I do not utilize my library that much, because my library... is terrible.  Smaller towns than mine have way bigger and better libraries.  My grandmother's town (which is teeny) has a library so big that the first time I saw it, I asked my mom if it was a school.  I think my house has more books in it than our local library.  And while I can do inter-library loans, my county has it set up that you can't order a book that's just come out from a different library until they've had it for at least six months, in order to give the people from that town time to read it.  So I tend to buy most of my books, because I honestly don't have many other options.

And that completes day one of the 15-Day Book Blogging Challenge.  Now how about you?  What are some of your book-related confessions?