Sunday Post - 9/08/13

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.

Hiking in the Jemez Mountains, NM.  Photo ©2013 K. Pekar

I'm back from our three-and-a-half week cross-country odyssey and trying to catch up on everything I have to do!  You can read a little about our trip in the post "The traveler returns"; the short version is that we took our daughter to Arizona to start her freshman year of college, stopping to visit family on the way there and back.

Now I am adjusting to life at home without 'Robin'; we probably won't see her until mid-December.  I miss her already, but at least I have plenty to keep me busy.  Between indexing, reading, blogging, singing, directing two choruses, and the myriad of projects I'd like to do (knitting and sewing, decluttering, cataloging my books, sorting and cataloging 20 years of photos... you get the gist), I will never run out of things to do!  The challenge will be finding time to do even half of them!

On the blogging front, there's a lot going on this week.  You've probably noticed the redesign.  I still plan to switch to WordPress eventually, but I decided it was time to update and personalize the blog design.  Please let me know whether you like it, and if there's anything that doesn't work or you think could be better.  I'm not a designer, just a tinkerer, and I'm still tweaking -- and I'm definitely open to constructive suggestions!  (By the way, in case you're wondering, the dragon in the header is my personal bookwyrm; he sits on my shelves and guards my books.)

To celebrate the redesign, I've also created a Facebook page.  If you're on Facebook, please stop by and say hello!  In addition, I quietly added Twitter shortly before we left on our trip.  And I've been pinning to Pinterest for quite a while -- check out my boards for Bookish Quotes, Books in Art/Art in Books, Book Confections, quotes On Writing, and more!  You can find links to all three, as well as Goodreads, in the sidebar -- look for the new social media icons under "Find me on"! 

My other exiting news is that The Bookwyrm's Hoard has reached a milestone: over 100 followers!  That's just counting the three sources I track -- Google Friends Connect, Bloglovin, and LinkyFollowers -- so there may be a few other people who follow via various RSS feeds.  On the other hand, there's also probably some crossover (people who follow through both GFC and Bloglovin, for instance), so the actual number of followers may be a little lower. . . but it's still very exciting!

The past week (9/01 - 9/07) on the blog: 

• The traveler returns -- a brief account of our recent vacation
• Sometimes a Rogue, by Mary Jo Putney (review)
• News & Notes - 8/7/13
• Deborah Harkness's New "Book of Life" in 2014

The previous two weeks (8/19 - 8/31): 

• Three Little Words (Fool's Gold #12), by Susan Mallery (review)
• Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make My Life Easier as a Reader/Blogger
• Review: Foyle's War (BBC series)
• Release Day Review: The Hero (Thunder Point #3) by Robyn Carr 
• Romance as a genre - thoughts on romance and how I became a romance reader
• Striding Folly, by Dorothy L. Sayers (review) - audiobook review 

 The coming week:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Would Love To See As A Movie/TV Show
• News & Notes - 8/14/13
• Reviews: Grapes of Death by Joni Folger; other reviews TBD

New additions to the hoard:   

For Review:   

Tamora Pierce is one of my favorite authors ever, so I was incredibly excited to be granted a review e-copy of Battle Magic, her new book set in the Winding Circle universe.  I was also honored and excited to be asked to review Charles Finch's An Old Betrayal.  I've been wanting to read this mystery series set in Victorian England for a while now, and this one sounds terrific!

These two look like lovely, light holiday reading -- many thanks to Harlequin!


Purchased or Free for My E-reader:

One of my must-buy authors.  I'm saving this for whenever I really, really need a break.

Challenges:

I signed up for the year-long Cruisin' thru the Cozies challenge hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews.  I've read and reviewed 8 books so far this year, but didn't read any cozies in August. (I did review one I read in July, though!)  My goal is at least 13 for the year.  I just finished reading a cozy mystery, so I'm almost on track.

I'm also participating in the year-long NetGalley Challenge sponsored by Red House Books. Unfortunately, even though I've certainly been reading them, I've been really forgetful about posting my NetGalley books to the challenge over the last few months.  Once again, I vow to do better next month!  Luckily, I think I can still count August's books:

• The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic, by Emily Croy Barker (8/04/13)
• Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern, edited by Todd McCaffrey (8/13/13)
• The Deepest Night (Sweetest Dark #2), by Shana Abe (8/14/13)
• Rose Harbor in Bloom (Rose Harbor #2), by Debbie McComber (8/16/13)
• Three Little Words (Fools Gold #12), by Susan Mallery (8/19/13)
• The Hero (Thunder Point #3), by Robyn Carr (8/27/13)

Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge:

 

   

      2013 Reading Challenge
   

       

         
       

     

        The Bookwyrm's Hoard has
             read 105 books toward her goal of 140 books.
     

     

       

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        105 of 140 (75%)
     

       

          view books