Weekly Recap #74: Week of 10/7 -10/13
/28 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
My apologies for being a bit scarce the past few days. Those deadlines I talked about last weekend are tomorrow so I’ve been been too busy and tired to put much effort into blogging. I should be around more this upcoming week but then I’ll be off to New York for 5 days after that and after getting so behind the last time I traveled, I’ve decided I won’t be posting anything from 10/21 through 10/25 so that I can just start fresh when I return from my trip. Once I get through my deadlines, I really need to get serious about planning some activities for my trip too. If anyone has any ideas that are beyond the obvious touristy stuff, most of which I’ve already done, I’d love to hear them.
Outside of work, life was mostly a blur this week, although we did have make-up three soccer games. The kids played well but we lost all three games, the end result of not being allowed to practice for fear of ruining the grass on the county’s sports field. Don’t even get me started on that one, haha. But we’re on to the playoffs now, so fingers crossed that they can get at least one more win and end the season on a more upbeat note than back-to-back losses.
Reading wise, I finished both Sea Witch and The Girl from Berlin last week. Sea Witch was okay. It started out strong but then fizzled a bit for me as I got closer to the end. The Girl from Berlin, however, was a great historical fiction. I devoured that one in about a day and a half. I’m now working my way through Good Luck with That. I’m enjoying it so far but have found myself skimming occasionally because it’s 480 pages, which just seems long for a contemporary. That or maybe I just have the attention span of a gnat this week, lol.
I also finally watched SOLO last night, after saying I was going to for 5 months. It was actually much better than I was expecting it to be based on the critic’s reviews. Both my husband and I really liked it and thought they did a great job making it plausibly fit into the rest of the Star Wars time line and I loved seeing the backstory for how Han and Chewy ended up partners. It was admittedly weird seeing someone who was not Harrison Ford play the part of Han but I was able to get past that and enjoy the film.
Oh well, that’s it for me. I hope everyone else has a great week!
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [7 Oct] Weekly Recap #73: Week of 9/30-10/6
- [8 Oct] Wildcard by Marie Lu ★★★½
- [9 Oct] Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves Waiting for Me to Read Them
- [10 Oct] Can’t Wait Wednesday – SLAYER by Kiersten White
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM
Can’t Wait Wednesday – SLAYER by Kiersten White
/23 Comments/by Suzanne
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll just be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.
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My selection for this week is SLAYER by Kiersten White. I’ve always had a thing for books that are set in boarding schools anyway, but couple the boarding school setting with the fact that this is also basically a Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off and I’m completely sold. It sounds amazing!!!
SLAYER by Kiersten White
Publication Date: January 8, 2019
From Goodreads
Into every generation a Slayer is born…
Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.
Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.
Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.
As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams…
But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.
One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard.
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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂
Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves Waiting for Me to Read Them
/46 Comments/by Suzanne
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is actually Top Ten Longest Books I’ve Ever Read, but I’ve already done a post like that recently and haven’t read any longer books since then, so I tweaked the topic a bit to focus on big books I own but haven’t read yet. Today I’m sharing a list of 10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves Waiting for Me to Read Them. Some of these, like IQ84, have been sitting on my shelves for years and I just keep bypassing them for shorter and less daunting reads. Others, like the Maas books, are newer additions that I’m excited to get to, but still tend to side eye and skip over in favor of shorter reads.
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10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves
Waiting for Me to Read Them
IQ84 by Haruki Murakami (1,157 pages)
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS by George R. R. Martin (1,051 pages)
THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON by Tom Clancy (1,028 pages)
A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara (814 pages)
EMPIRE OF STORMS by Sarah J. Maas (693 pages)
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL by Philppa Gregory (661 pages)
QUEEN OF SHADOWS by Sarah J. Maas (645 pages)
THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco (535 pages)
MUSE OF NIGHTMARES by Laini Taylor (514 pages)
THUNDERHEAD by Neal Shusterman (504 pages)
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