Space Station Mir

Books Read This Month Front Stoops in the Fifties: Baltimore Legends Come of Age by Michael Olesker Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day The 100 Most Jewish Foods, Ed. Alana Newhouse The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (reread) The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (reread) Thoughts  First, I want to highly, highly recommend Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day. I've been a fan of hers since watching the Guild and I also read her memoir, You're (Almost)Never Weird on the Internet. My husband is also a huge fan of hers and we used to watch a lot of Geek & Sundry, and that's how he got into Critical Role. My husband actually got this for me. I didn't even know she had a new book out. The promotion for this one has been much more low-key, but I want to shout it from the rooftops! This is such a fun book, or really, a guided journal. Although it's meant to help jumpstart creativity, which it definitely does, I pers

Join TCL's Eight Candles Book Tag over at The Chocolate Lady! TCL's Eight Candles Book Tag in Honor of Hanukkah Happy Hanukkah/Chanukah/Hannukah! The first night starts tonight! First Candle – All Alone  – A book you love, but one that no one else seems to know anything about.  Second Candle – Two of You  – A book both you, and someone special to you, have both really enjoyed.   When we first started dating, I got my husband to read this :-) Third Candle – Trifecta  – A book where there is either a love (or hate) triangle, or with three different points of view, or something else related to the number three.   There are three points of view in The Other Queen : the eponymous Mary, Queen of Scots; Bess of Hardwick; and Bess's husband, George Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury. The latter two are charged with holding the Queen of Scots under house imprisonment for Elizabeth I, but Mary may be trying to seduce the Earl to her side.  Fourth Candle – Fore

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl ! Top Ten Books On My 2019-2020 Winter TBR List 1. The Power by Naomi Alderman 2. I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Mr. Rogers by Tim Madigan 3. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 4. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman 5. Circe by Madeline Miller 6. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite 7. Know My Name by Chanel Miller 8. Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine 9. The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas 10. The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl ! Today's a TTT freebie, so since Hanukkah is in a couple weeks and I know some folks rely on this list to know what to get me, here's my wish list :-P Top Ten Books I'd Like for Hanukkah 1. Guided journals like Good Days Start with Gratitude I'm almost finished with Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day, and I am finally here for the guided journals! 2. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg This is the best guide to writing I've ever read, and I'd like to have my own copy so I can read it again and refer to it when needed. 3. The True Secret of Writing by Natalie Goldberg And I wouldn't say no to the sequel as well. 4. Man Fast by Natasha Scripture I read this earlier this year and really loved it (except for the title). I definitely want to read it again and again. 5. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour Such a perfect little book. I can't stop thinking about it. 6. Nothing Fancy by

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Holiday-themed books aren't a tradition in Judaism the way they have become in American Christianity, and they're far from a cultural phenomenon. Furthermore, December is definitely not my holiday season. Yes, we have the minor festival of Hanukkah, but if we're really talking about a season, that would have been back in September-October with the High Holidays, Sukkot etc. That said, with a bit of digging, I managed to find some Hanukkah and other Jewish holiday books! I'm excited because I've never seen those books before and I've certainly never read any (re: not a Jewish phenomenon). However, here are some of the awesome books I found for all of my fellow Jews who are hunkering down amid this month of Christian festivities in the States. Jewish Holiday Books and Stories Hanukkah Romances (I haven't read any of these, but I'm glad they exist) 1. Eight Kisses: Eight All-New Tales of Holida

Books I Read This Month Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio J. Mendez And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready by Meaghan O'Connell Favorite Book This Month Hardly a competition, obviously it was Call Down the Hawk . NaNoWriMo I won NaNoWriMo this year (writing 50k words of a novel in 30 days) for the second time in my life! I'm pretty proud of myself, since I haven't been able to finish in the past few years. This year, I'm even almost finished with the novel. Last time I did NaNoWriMo, it took me two more months and about 40k more words to finish the book, but this time, I think I have only 10k or so to wrap it up, so I'll probably be writing the first draft still for another week...and then time for a second draft!

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! I'm a little late to the party today after food poisoning over the weekend had me madly catching up on NaNoWriMo today  (I broke 30k! *happy tears*), but I wanted to reflect on this topic. Ten Changes in My Bookish Life Since 2010 1. I actually like/read some poetry 2. I read much more nonfiction, some of which isn't even biographies and memoirs! 3. I read a LOT more books by women 4. I read more books by POC (but still not enough) 5. I've changed how I conceptualize classics 6. I don't look down on people who read "lowbrow" novels anymore (and guess what, I am one of them!) 7. I don't feel like I need to HOARD ALL THE BOOKS, but instead just the ones that are special to me (which is still plenty). 8. I have my own dedicated space for books in my own home 9. For a while, I was making a lot better use of the library 10. I started listening to and enjoying audiobooks.

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl ! My Favorite Bookmarks Because everyone knows that I love to read, people are always getting me bookmarks. Lovely bookmarks--Harry Potter-themed, Little Women-themed, Anne of Green Gables-themed. Bookmarks with clever quotes like "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me" (C.S. Lewis) or "When I have a little money, I buy books; if I have any left over, I buy food and clothes" (Erasmus). Bookmarks that pin down the page you're on, or come with a built in booklight or even a piece of the Berlin Wall (true story). I adore all of these bookmarks. I never use them. It's a cliche, but it's true for me. I hoard a pristine collection of idiosyncratic bookmarks, while I use everything else around the house to hold my place in my books. Here are a few of my most commonly used favorites: 1. Post-It notes Yellow, pink, green, white--I keep several shades of neon Po

Well, I finished one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I have to say, it did not disappoint. I also appreciated the major fall vibes throughout the book. Stiefvater expels atmosphere like a dragon breathes fire; you appreciate the experience even as it consumes you. Our beloved Ronan and Adam of the Raven Cycle are back, and we learn much more about the other Lynch brothers, Declan and Matthew, particularly Declan. In addition, we meet a new cast of dreamers, dreams, and bystanders/victims thereof. I enjoyed meteing them and look forward to spending more time with them in the next two books of the Dreamers Trilogy,which cannot come quickly enough! I really do not enjoy these cliffhanger endings when the rest of the books are not out yet.