BBAW: Reading Meme

Today's BBAW post topic is a fun little meme about reading habits. I love answering these kind of things :) and I'll try to do so in as few words as possible.



Q: Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
A: I try not to, but I do love salty, crunchy stuff.

Q: Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea ofwriting in books horrify you?
A: Only when reading for a class.

Q: How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears?
A: Bookmarks, the magnet style ones.

Q: Laying the book flat open?
A: Only for a couple minutes.

Q: Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
A: 75%, 25% respectively.

Q: Hard copy or audiobooks?
A: Hard copy 99% of the time.

Q: Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are youable to put a book down at any point?
A: End of the chapter or after a page ending with a period.

Q: If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
A: Nope, I go on context.

Q: What are you currently reading?
A: Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen

Q: What is the last book you bought?
A: A book of short stories for my Grandma.

Q: Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
A: One at a time.

Q: Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
A: In bed, before going to sleep or on the back porch swing Saturday mornings.

Q: Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
A: Either

Q: Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
A: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Q: How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
A: Hahahaha...I'm suppose to organize them? Really?? I don't even have the read seperated from the unread.

So, I'm trying my best to keep up with BBAW but man! It's tough! I feel like next year I'm going to have to take days off work to keep up!!

Musing Monday: Reading Trends

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading trends…


Do you find yourself forming trends in your reading? Is this a conscious act, influenced by either your own interests or current publishing fads?

I guess that sometimes I do end up in reading trends. It's definitely not on purpose, but sometimes I'm just not ready to give up a subject at the end of just one book. I guess the whole vampire-supernatural topic has been big on my list in the past year. The Twilight books and Sookie books are some of my favorite quick, fluff reads to pick up. I also have some other Charlaine Harris and vampire-related novels sitting on my bookshelves waiting to be read. I would say that this trend has a little something to do with current publishing fads, considering the popularity of the Twilight books, but it's also just something that I find interesting and action-packed to read. So maybe I'm just influenced by the trends because I already have an interest in the subject!

BBAW: Day 1

Today (what little is left of it) is the first day of my first Book Blogger Appreciation Week! The plan is to post something everyday and discuss the topic listed on the BBAW website. Today's topic is:

What book blogs mean something to you? Who are your most trusted sources for recommendations, your greatest help, the blogger you turn to for a laugh or to vent? Whose writing do you admire or who introduced you to a whole new genre you didn’t know about? We want to hear all about them…because we want to know them too! Please share about the blogs we haven’t had a chance to meet via BBAW and let the party begin!

Well, since I began this book blogging adventure back in January, there have been many bloggers that I have started to visit on a regular basis. Some are on the BBAW Award shortlists, and some are not but all I love reading!

For informational reviews and recommendations, I usually turn to the Book Lady's Blog and Hey Lady, Whatcha Readin'? They both have a tendency to add a TON of books to my TBR pile, which I'm sure that my husband really appreciates...haha :)

For a good laugh, I definitely head over to Books I Done Read and A Reader's Respite. I love Raych's hilarious commentary like CTRL-Z!!!!, the use of CAPITALS!, and exclamation points!!!! And the fact that her rating system of catepillars makes me giggle a little. Then Reader's Respite fulfills her tag line by presenting us with "Book Reviews, Author News, and Hot Reads with Sassy Commentary."

Other blogs I like to frequent include Just One More Page..., Book, Line and Sinker, Great Books and Fresh Coffee, It's All About Books, and Pop Culture Junkie. These are just the start of my day! Of course there are many, many more that I like to keep up on. And hopefully this week will fill my reader with even more great book blogs!

In which I return to the interwebs...

Hello everyone! My, it's been a while...apologies all around! My reading time has been lacking lately due to some fun things (the return of football tailgate Saturdays, an OAR concert, and spending time at the lake cottage) and some not so fun (painting around the house, chores, and the like). But I have managed to finish one book and hopefully will finish A Prayer for Owen Meany this weekend since it has taken me WAY longer than I anticipated and I must start the September book club book ASAP. Anyway, on to the review.

Gifts of War

by Mackenzie Ford

350 pages (in ARC)

Isn't the cover of this book beautiful? It's really what first drew me to request this ARC. Then, I read the book description and I knew that I would be hooked.

Hal Montgomery is a British soldier on the front during WWI and on Christmas in 1914, there was a truce between the British and German soldiers for a whole day. They came out of the trenches, shared cigarettes and stories of home, and buried their dead. It was there that Hal met Wilhelm, a German soldier who had a fiancee in England who he was not even able to say goodbye to, due to the war. Wilhelm gave Hal a picture of himself in uniform and asked him that if he ever had the opportunity to please find her and give her this picture. A few weeks later, Hal is shot and discharged from the military. Once recovered, he goes to find Wilhelm's fiancee, Sam, to tell her about Wilhelm but of course, he falls in love with her.

So, since Hal is in love with Sam, he decides not to tell her about Wilhelm and his picture that he's carrying around with him. Even though, she continues to talk about him and HAS HAD WILHELM'S BABY! Seriously, this whole I'm-going-to-keep-this-secret-and-hope-that-it-goes-away thing NEVER works. Didn't work for Bill with Sookie in Southern Vampire Mysteries series, and didn't really work for Marcus in the Jessica Darling series, so it is definitely not going to work for Hal. Sorry buddy, but secrets don't make friends! (or lovers for that matter!) But, regardless of how much I really wanted to grab Hal by the shoulders and shake the living ba-jesus out of him, he really made up for it in the end and it was just so sad and so beautiful and I literally had just one little tear fall as I closed it...and I loved it. I clutched the book to my chest and wiped away the lone tear and just said "wow."

So 8.5 out of 10 stars.