Feature & Follow (October 19) – Branching Out

Welcome to the Feature & Follow Hop, hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read!

If you’re here for the first time, I’d love if you could follow via email, RSS, LinkyFollowers or Networked Blogs. Just let me know your follow method of choice in the comments, and I’ll be happy to return the favor.

And if you’re not new, welcome back! Repeat visitors are better than when the husband does the dishes.

Today’s question is: 

When you step out of your usual genre, what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

Um…I don’t…have…a usual genre? I was pretty eclectic before I started this blog. And nowadays, I lean YA and will always jump at fantasy and sci-fi before anything else, but I’ve still read books spanning all sorts of genres. BUT, if I had to pick a genre I read in MOST, it would be kind of a broad speculative fiction umbrella. Books where things happen that couldn’t (or would be extremely unlikely to) happen in real life. Bonus points for taking place in the future. Extra bonus points for relevant use of fantastic creatures. High five if there’s a dragon. Fist bump for space travel.

But outside of that, books I’ve read and loved include The Book Thief, Outlander, The Help, The Hiding Place, The Fault in Our Stars, Pushing the Limits, The Dark Unwindingand Anna and the French Kiss. And probably a whole bunch more that I’m forgetting.

Seriously, if it’s good, let me know. I don’t like to be pigeonholed.

Happy weekend! Anyone else’s kids on fall break? Mine are out of school for a WHOLE WEEK. Help.

Feature & Follow (October 5) – Purpose of Blogging?

Welcome to the Feature & Follow Hop, hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read!

If you’re here for the first time, I’d love if you could follow via email, RSS, LinkyFollowers or Networked Blogs. Just let me know your follow method of choice in the comments, and I’ll be happy to return the favor.

And if you’re not new, welcome back! Repeat visitors are better than the time when Sonic messed up my drink order enough that I asked for a replacement drink, but not enough that I couldn’t stomach the original, and therefore wound up with two drinks.

Today’s question is:

What do you hope to accomplish with your blog? Is it to one day become an author yourself, just for fun, maybe get some online attention, or maybe something very different?

Oh heavens. Besides embarrass myself by confessing shameful things for no apparent reason? (Like drinking two large Sonic drinks JUST BECAUSE I COULD?)

Well, if I became an author, that would be cool and I guess partially to do with this blog, because of all the awesome author and blogger contacts I’ve made, but that was definitely not the original purpose.

It is fun (and definitely a “just for me” thing, which is important when your main real-life job is raising tiny humans, which is decidedly not all about me). But I didn’t really start it for me.

It wasn’t to get online attention. At least that much, I can say for certain. It kind of baffles me that anyone I don’t know personally reads this blog.

Honestly, it was mostly for accountability. I thought I watched too much TV, played too much on Facebook, and was just generally not being as productive as I should be in life. I wanted to get back to the voracious reader I was in my pre-kids years, and I thought starting a blog about the books I read would be motivational. People would actually notice if I dropped off the face of the earth to go be a bum again.

And it’s worked! I’m definitely reading more, and watching less TV.

Let’s not talk about how much I’m on Facebook, and let’s really not even mention Twitter.

Oh, and I’m thinking of getting a Tumblr. Shh, don’t tell anyone.

P.S. If you’re new (or if you’re not), make sure to go enter my Six Month Celebration Giveaway, where you can win one of my favorite reads since I started blogging! What are you waiting for? Skedaddle! 

Feature & Follow (September 28): Balderdash!

Welcome to the Feature & Follow Hop, hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read!

If you’re here for the first time, I’d love if you could follow via email, RSS, LinkyFollowers or Networked Blogs. Just let me know your follow method of choice in the comments, and I’ll be happy to return the favor.

And if you’re not new, welcome back! Repeat visitors are better than having a friend show up unexpectedly at your door with a Dr. Pepper float from Sonic, JUST FOR YOU.

Just kidding. That happened a few weeks ago, and it was amazing. I don’t think it’s beatable.

Today’s question is:

What is the BIGGEST word you’ve seen used in a book lately – that made you stop and look it up?

Okay, this may come across as me being a little bit braggy, but honestly I think it’s more of a nerdy thing. When I got together with my friends in high school, we played Scrabble or Boggle (or Alternative Guess Who, which is amazing fun. “Does your person claim their favorite song is Freebird, but in reality, it’s Call Me Maybe? No?” *flips down Bill, Maria, and Richard* That has nothing to do with anything, except that I need to go buy a Guess Who set right now so I can play that with someone). When my family has game night, we play Balderdash (also great fun). I’ve always had a fairly extensive vocabulary. I’m that annoying person that other people tell to “stop using big words,” except that I don’t realize the words I’m using are big.

*sigh* You hate me now, don’t you?

Anyway, I’ve never had to stop and look up a big word. That’s not to say I’ve never come across a new word while reading, but I try to figure out the meaning from context clues (and sometimes I am wrong; I thought for the longest time that “nonplussed” meant “unconcerned,” when in fact it means the opposite). But I honestly can’t ever remember breaking out the dictionary or heading over to Wikipedia to figure out what a word meant.

That said, the book that most recently stumped me, not with vocabulary but with terminology, was The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent. I don’t have the book anymore, so I can’t give you an example, but I felt like I needed an advanced degree in the mythologies of several cultures to fully grasp everything in there. I understood enough to grasp what was going on, but some of the little things left me…nonplussed.*

I really want to go raid the Toys & Games section of Target now. Probably not the intended side effect of this topic.

P.S. If you’re going to follow anyway, you should go ahead and enter my Six Months of Blogging Giveaway. You can win your choice of any one of my favorite books I’ve read while blogging. Doesn’t that sound fun?

*Do you see what I did there? (And yes, I realize I used it kind of incorrectly AGAIN, but I couldn’t resist.)

Feature and Follow (September 21) – Book Worth the Hype

Welcome to the Feature & Follow Hop, hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read!

If you’re here for the first time, I’d love if you could follow via email, RSS, LinkyFollowers or Networked Blogs. Just let me know your follow method of choice in the comments, and I’ll be happy to return the favor.

And if you’re not new, welcome back! Repeat visitors are better than NOT PACKING. (Did I mention we’re in the middle of a move?)

Today’s question is:

What hyped-up book IS worth all the hype?

Did you even have to ask? Harry Potter. Hands down.

Honorable mentions to: The Hunger GamesThe Fault in Our Stars, The Help, Outlander

But Harry Potter wins. Harry Potter will ALWAYS win.

Feature & Follow (September 7) – Current Read

Welcome to the Feature & Follow Hop, hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read!

If you’re here for the first time, I’d love if you could follow via email, RSS, LinkyFollowers or Networked Blogs. Just let me know your follow method of choice in the comments, and I’ll be happy to return the favor.

And if you’re not new, welcome back! Repeat visitors are better than finding a pair of jeans that make you look two sizes smaller than you actually are, yet are still strangely comfortable. But not better than finding out that they are on sale for 75% off, because that would be ridiculous.

Today’s question is:

What are you reading right now? What do you think of it?

I am currently reading The City’s Son by Tom Pollock. I requested it on NetGalley because another blogger — and I can’t even remember who it was now — was raving about it a couple months ago. So far I’m only about 15% of the way through, and I honestly don’t know my thoughts. The world is fascinating, but I’m not completely connected to the characters yet. And I’m not sure if I’m a fan of stories told from two POVs where one is first person and one is third. I like consistency in multiple POV stories.

So I’m undecided. I’ll let you know my thoughts when I finish. At least I can say this for sure — the world-building is unique. Very unique. There are demon-esque trains. That fight. And a being made out of garbage scraps, who is, as far as I can tell, a good guy. That right there made it worth picking up.