Sunday Post -- 6/09/13

The Sunday Post is a meme sponsored by the wonderful Kimba, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  It's a chance to share news.  A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.


Mea culpa, mea culpa... I had plans to get a bunch of reviews up this week, but somehow none of them quite materialized.  I think the pace of indexing over the last week left me mentally exhausted; I was able to read, but felt like I was in a major reviewing slump.  Anything I wrote came out flat and sounding bored, even if I enjoyed the book.  I finally started pulling out of it today.   I've got one review (so far) and another post all ready for the coming week, and another review set for the following week.  

It was nice to take that little break this week, but there was still plenty going on outside the blog.  We had car trouble, which has taken three trips to the mechanic to solve, but we think (we hope!) that they finally fixed it Saturday.  We had some friends over for tea Friday afternoon (my daughter made delicious scones) and everyone was having so much fun, they stayed until about 8:30 p.m.

We rehearsed for almost three hours on Saturday morning.  The instrumentalists and soloists sounded fantastic!  The choir sounded pretty solid too, so I'm looking forward to the concert tonight.  This is the community choir I've been singing with for the last... oh, it's probably 15 years by now.  I really love the director and the group as a whole; people come and go each season, but there's a core group that feels almost like a family.  I'm really blessed to be able to sing with such wonderful and supportive people.  There's something uniquely exhilarating about singing choral masterworks.  We're doing two pieces by Haydn this season, the Mass in G and the Missa Brevis in D minor -- fun pieces, both of them.  (Yes, I get as excited about good music as I do about good books!)

Finally, my daughter came up with a great Bookwyrm-ish name for a new feature, sort of like "Waiting on Wednesdays" and similar what-books-are-you-excited-about posts:  In the Dragon's Eye (for stuff I have my acquisitive eye on.)  What do you think?

The past week on the blog: 

• Tues. 6/04: Top Ten Tuesday: Books Featuring Travel in Some Way.  I had fun wandering around looking at other people's posts on this one! 
• Sat. 6/07: News & Notes - 6/07/13: The pricefixing lawsuit against Apple is underway; the Women's Prize for Fiction; winners of the IndieReader awards for self-published books; a huge kerfluffle over sexism in the Science Fiction Writer's Association bulletin; good tips for writers and bloggers; links to the SYNC free audiobooks; a Benedict Cumberbatch treat for poetry lovers; and more.  Check it out!

The coming week:

• Review: His Majesty's Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal
• Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Beach Reads
• In the Dragon's Eye (books I want to add to the hoard) 
• News & Notes - 6/15/13
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Challenges:

I'm still participating in the NetGalley Challenge sponsored by Red House Books.  I have two NetGalley ARC reviews scheduled to go up later this month, and several more in the works.

New treasures in my hoard:   

For Review: 

• Will in Scarlet (Matthew Cody).  Thank you, Random House, for the invite! This looks like great fun, and I've always loved the Robin Hood myth!

Bought or Downloaded Free for My E-reader:

• Leave the Grave Green (Deborah Crombie) (Kobo; also available on Kindle)
• Shoe Strings (Christy Hayes) (indie; Kindle freebie)
• Game, Set, Match (Nana Malone) (indie; Kindle freebie)
• Moonlit (Jadie Jones) (indie; Kindle freebie)
• I'll Follow the Moon (Stephanie Lisa Tara) (Kindle freebie)

From the library: 

 

• Close Knit Killer (Maggie Sefton)