Sunday Post -- 10/06/13

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.

Whew! So much to catch you up on!

The National Book Festival was awesome!  I got books signed by Susan Cooper and Tamora Pierce,
two of my author idols, and I got to hear Tamora Pierce talk. I'll be blogging about it later this week.  I meant to get to it right after the Festival, but my computer woes meant I concentrated more on posts I had already committed to. But here's a photo from the festival -- that's less than half of the line waiting to get books signed by Tamora Pierce.  (The rest of the line is behind me and to my right.)

2013 National Book Festival.  Photo © K. Pekar

My computer woes haven't stopped, which is why I didn't get to last week's Sunday Post.  The laptop came back from the repair shop with a new hard drive, and it took several tries over the weekend to get the data and system image loaded.  It's no longer overheating, but Thursday evening, it crashed spectacularly, and now refuses to reboot all the way.  It won't even recharge.  So here we go again, mailing it back to the repair shop.  Thank goodness it's still under warranty!

Reading and blog-wise, I had a bad week followed by a better one.  The week of 9/23-28, I just felt bleh.  I couldn't even focus on the books I was supposed to be reading, and I didn't post a single review.  I finally gave up and just read a few old favorites to get back my joy of reading.  It helped, as did getting over whatever laid me low.  From now on I'm going to break up the ARCs occasionally with stuff I want to read just for me, so I don't lose my reading mojo.

Meanwhile, I have two indexing projects this month, so things may be a little quiet on the blog for the next few weeks.

The past two weeks (9/23 - 9/28 and 9/29 - 10/05) on the blog: 

• Tues. 9/24 - Top Ten Tuesday: Best Sequels Ever
• Fri. 9/27 - Book Blogger Hop - Weekly Memes
• Sat. 9/28 - News & Notes - 8/28/13.  Goodreads removing content focused on author behavior; news on the Apple ebook pricing case; Sony abandoning the U.S. e-reader market; Penguin allows library e-books again; defining YA; the Periodic Table of Storytelling; and a whole bunch of other interesting stuff.  This News & Notes was packed!
• Mon. 9/30 - A Seaside Christmas by Sherryl Woods (review)
• Tues. 10/01: Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Reading Turn-offs
  
• Wed. 10/02: Tour/Interview/Review/Giveaway: Larissa Reinhart's Still Life in Brunswick Stew (The giveaway is still open through Tues. 10/08, so check it out!) 
• Thur. 10/03: Book Blogger Survey link  
• Thurs. 10/03: The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason (review)
• Fri. 10/04: Starry Night by Deborah Macomber (review and giveaway)
• Sat. 10/05: News & Notes - 10/05/13.  Tom Clancy and Robert Barnard have died; Apple appealed the ebook price-fixing judgement; several authors won various prizes; the trailer for the Hobbit movie #2 is out; and lots of other goodies, including a cool video lecture on fantasy languages (like Elvish, Na'vi, and Klingon.)

 The coming week:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Best/Worst Series Enders
• The National Book Festival
• News & Notes - 10/12/13
• Reviews: Will in Scarlet by Matthew Cody; others TBD

New additions to the hoard:   

Purchased in print (used, from the Friends of the Library bookstore):

I've been wanting to read The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe for months.  The other two feed some of my non-book interests, knitting and musical theatre (I'm a big G&S fan, and have sung in most of the operettas at one time or another.)

Bargain or free for my E-reader:

Challenges:

I signed up for the year-long Cruisin' thru the Cozies challenge hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews.  I finished and reviewed one cozy mystery this week: Still Life in Brunswick Stew.

I'm also participating in the year-long NetGalley Challenge sponsored by Red House Books.  A Seaside Christmas and Will in Scarlet (review forthcoming) counted toward that challenge.