Linking up with the usual crew for the Sunday meme at Kimba’s book blog, also with Stacking the Shelves at Tynga’s Reviews, Book Date for It’s Monday! What are you reading? and Mailbox Monday.
This week has been craaaazy… First of all, my sister was visiting from the US. Then after she left, three friends from the Netherlands and Germany arrived… I have had way too much beer, grandma’s food, restaurant food and just general frolic to be a normal human being this week. So you might gather that not a lot of reading has happened! But… There was bookmail!!!
~ Last Week On The Blog ~
I’m very happy with the discussion post I posted last week! Aside from that, I’ve also reviewed The Golden House which I didn’t quite like. As you can see, the discussion and the review *might* be related 😀
~ Coming Up Next Week~
Thank god I have scheduled so many posts in advance! Otherwise, my week would be really hard! But luckily, this next week is still taken care of. These are the posts I will be sharing with you, and this time they’re both reviews:
~ General Rambling ~
I am so happy State of the ARC took off last week – well, at least a little! I already can’t wait for the next issue that I should be posting on September 27. Although I feel like my progress won’t be too great, because so far? This month has been crazy. But I’m still excited!
And I have something else that’s exciting to share! I got bookmail – The Redemption Of Marvin Fuster by Patrick Sean Lee. The funny thing about this book is that Marvin is kind of a rare name, at least where I live. I only know one Marvin. And that Marvin is from another country. And yet! He happened to be visiting at the time the book arrived! What are the odds?
~ Little Book Haul ~
I have hauled a few great books this week. It’s Just Nerves is a selection of essays about disability, and I just couldn’t let it go! I have already read this book, and I think everyone should – just because we don’t know some things about disability and its struggles, and we should. I am participating in a blog tour, so I will be posting my review of It’s Just Nerves on October 20th.
I also got Morning Star from my sister – an actual physical copy! The annoying part about that though… Was that Golden Son didn’t arrive in time for my sister to pick it up for me. So I have read the first book… And I have the third book. Hmm. Bit of a dilemma 😀 Luckily, my sister should be sending me the second book soon. I just hope the post office doesn’t lose my copy. Cause I can’t wait to continue reading the Red Rising series!
As for the other two, The Feed is a review copy from Edelweiss that I’ve requested months ago and nearly forgot. It’s about a post-apocalypic, uh, sort of Facebook? Hah. It comes out in March. And Breaker and the Sun was temporarily free on Amazon, and it was highly recommended by a few bloggers, so I hurried to grab it too. It’s about a Vietnam vet and an Asian immigrant. Sounds interesting for sure.
~ In The Bookish Community ~
I know I saw some more great posts this week! But I think I’ve lost some of the link T_T So I’m sharing what I’ve got!
Deb @ The Book Stop shares a post about how negative reviews can be turned into positive feedback! Read about how one author responds to negative reviews by writing a better book
Cat @ Let The Pages Reign shares her pet peeve about how authors (and sometimes even bloggers) get annoying when trying to get you to read their content
Liz @ Janepedia shares a post about how to be (or not to be) an ally of autistic people
So what have you been reading and hauling? Has it been a good week?
I’m Evelina and I try to blog about books that matter, with a bit of fun there too! Disability and equality will be topics you see a lot, but there’s also a lot of scifi, fantasy and… GIFs. I’m also the proud founder of #ARCsAnonymous.
Glad you had a good week with lots of company and lots of beer! 🙂 Always a good combo.
The Feed- ooh I like the sound of that one!
Thanks Greg! Yeah, good combination, but I wish I was less tired xD tomorrow another hectic work week starts… I don’t feel like I’m ready 😀 oh well!
Yes, I think you might be interested in The Feed indeed 🙂
The Feed sounds interesting to me. I feel like I need to step back from social media, but, every time I do, I learn that there are more and more symbiotic cords connecting me to it. Scary.
https://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2017/09/life-after-hurricane.html
You’re right, I feel like that too!
All of the books from your haul sound like ones I’m going to need to add to my to-read list. 🙂
Thanks for the trackback! <3
Yay! I’m glad you found something for your own taste. Not a big haul this time 🙂 thanks for visiting, and I only share the best, so… 😀 looking forward to more of your articles.
How fun to have so many visitors! Sounds like you had a great time. I love the idea of state of the ARC, but my stats would be embarrassing (in all fairness, many of the ARCS are for 2018, so I have time)
Hm, why would they be embarrassing? Mine are embarrassing because nearly all of my ARCs are a year old! At least 😀 so that’s definitely embarrassing…
I can’t wait to read your thoughts on Practical Magic. That book/author has been on my wishlist for a while now so I am happy to see what someone I know thinks of her writing (yea, I KNOW you now, we are like friends in my imagination. does that seem creepy?). Also, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Red Rising series. I devoured Red Rising and Golden Son. I have Morning Star and it is just sitting on my shelf. Can you imagine? I pre-ordered it and then didn’t read it. I just can’t bear to have that series end for… Read more »
Hey, you totally know me now 🙂 I completely get what you mean! And after all… bookish people’s opinions on books matter more than real life people’s you know, quite often. Cause real life friends are usually not very bookish 😀 I liked Practical Magic, but… not as much as I’d hoped. But Alice Hoffman is definitely worth reading! But maybe a more recent book of hers 🙂 I can also understand that you don’t want to read the last one. That has happened to me! I also don’t want some series to end. Which is why I still haven’t… Read more »
Sounds like a fun week with all of those visitors! I adored Practical Magic! Hope that you did too!
I enjoyed it, but not as much as I’d hoped 🙂
Two summers ago, I had nonstop house guests, but we had so much fun and ate and drank too much…and stayed up late…for two months! I miss it…and them! It’s always too long between visits. That book The Redemption of Marvin Fuster (and that name) made me smile, as I had a brother named Marvin. Yes, had, as sadly he passed several years ago. But I agree that it is a very unusual name. I’ve been wanting to read the Maya Angelou book forever! Maybe I will. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your week, and thanks for visiting my blog.
But maybe you were already retired then xD cause it would be mostly fine if I didn’t have to do my job at the same time, AND blog 😀 but yes… still, two months of guests can be incredibly taxing. I bet you felt lonely after they left 🙂
Glad you had a good week and I hope this one is awesome too!! Enjoy your books!
Thanks!
Sounds like you had a fun week, Evelina! Yay for bookmail! Patrick Sean Lee’s book sounds like a good one. I don’t think I know any Marvin’s at all, not that I think about it. That’s too funny that your friend with the same name was visiting at the time you got the book. What a coincidence. Your other books sound good as well. I love the cover of Morning Star.
I hope you have a terrific week, Evelina!
Yeah, I’m hoping for the best for that book 🙂 thanks for dropping by!
He thinks to himself…well, who else can he thinks to, dummy? 🙂 He thinks, “Don’t reply. Just wait to see what happens…” Names of characters: I’ve always thought they were as important in their own rite as the characters themselves. The name in so many ways defines the character in one or two words. I’d recently read “Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin when I cast my book. Talk about names:) Pearly Soames, Jesse Honey, Craig Binky, Marko Chestnut, and of course, The Reverend Doctor Mootfowl. In my first draft I had Anton Stump, a lawyer of questionable moral character:) He… Read more »
I agree. Names are important. We just have to look to how much trouble parents go through to choose the right name for their child (or even our pets). There is almost always some reason behind it. It seems natural an author would do the same for a character, and, in many cases, I imagine the reasons behind the choice are even more nuanced.
I hope you book writing is going well!
You lurker 😀 those are some pretty interesting names too! At least one thing’s for sure – doubtfully would anyone ever forget those character names, especially Marsten Dick 😀
LURKER??? Omg! I was kinda’ hoping I’d be viewed as the shy, introverted guy at the party. lol.
Well, as a writer you must understand the rules of friendly banter 😀 haha
Oh you seem to have had such a wonderful week with your sister’s and friends’ visits. I hope you have another wonderful week. I had a quite but so exhausting week with the blog issues. I couldn’t concentrate on reading, hopefully this week is so much better. ❤️
Happy reading.
Exhausting indeed! And all that work that has piled up while I was away D: but yes, I’m sure I’ll only remember the good times 🙂 happy reading to you too!
Hope you have a great week. It’s nice to be busy but slow downs are nice as well. I hate having books out of order. The Patrick Sean Lee book does look good. I look forward to your thoughts.
Thanks Barb 🙂 have a great week!
Happy Sunday! Enjoyed the links you shared, thanks.
Thanks Rosie! Have a great week 🙂
Sounds like you’ve had a fun time with family and friends, which is always nice. Hope you have a wonderful week and that you enjoy reading all of your new books 🙂
Thank you Suzanne! You have a great week too 🙂
Oh your week sounds like it was wonderful and insanely busy! Good food, good drink, and good friends! The good life 🙂 Hopefully, things will return to normal for a spell.
Yeah, all the good stuff, minus the good sleep 😀 but I’m sure I’ll only remember the fun later! In the end, that’s probably what matters 🙂 have a great week too!
It sounds like you have been having some fun even if it does make life feel a little crazy! I love the Red Rising trilogy. Hopefully, you get the second book very soon. Enjoy all of your new books and have a great week!
I hope so too 🙂 have a great week!
Glad you got to have some visitors—even if it did make for a crazy week!! 🙂
Yeah, in the end it was fun 🙂 one of them even left us my favorite board game of his!
How fun to have a house full of visitors and food! 🙂
Yeah, although a little tiring 🙂
It sounds like you had a good week of visits which make up for struggling with a book. You had a good book haul. The Redemption of Marvin Fuster looks different/interesting. I recently finished Red Rising and am looking forward to Golden Son also.
Hope this is a good week for you. Happy Reading!
Happy reading to you too, Martha!
Aww yay 😀 It sounds like you had a fun week!
Also thank you about Breaker and the Sun being free, I clicked over to Amazon so fast to snap it up! I had heard such good things about Nora & Kettle and am planning on reading it soon, so it’s pretty convenient to have the second book by the author now. 🙂
Oh, so have I! I didn’t know it was the same writer 🙂 so glad you could grab it then. Luckily, the promotion was a longer one, I guess 🙂
ENJOY your books and your week.
Looks like it was a good one last week. Nice to have visitors.
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My Mailbox Monday
Thanks! You enjoy your week too 🙂
Your week sounds wonderful even if it didn’t involve a lot of reading.
Thanks 🙂
Ah, I hope you get Golden Son soon! Such an amazing, heart-pounding sequel! I forgot how stressful it was reading that series! The Feed sounds so interesting; I might check it out!
I have Warcross by Marie Lu arriving tomorrow. And many other books have caught my eye. It is a sickness for sure 🙂
Sounds like a great week. I did a bit too much beer and wine drinking myself this weekend – but sometimes you have to right?
A great week for you with loads of fun company. And beer! LOL Nice haul of books. Some of those covers beg me to check them out:)
Thanks Laura 🙂 I hope one of those books grabbed your attention! Have a great week 🙂
I spent my weekend with my phone attached to me tracking hurricane Irma by scanning the news and weather reports… I have many friends and family in Florida, some that were not able to evacuate, so I was a hot mess all weekend. Luckily, they all are ok!
I’ve been reading Wonder Woman: Warbringer & The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice & Virtue this week 🙂
Oh my gosh.. sounds like a tough weekend :0 I am glad everyone is alright!
I know both those books you mentioned, although I don’t plan to read them right now. How are you enjoying them? 🙂
That sounds like a pretty awesome week. Glad you had fun with all of your visitors!
Thanks 🙂
Sounds like you’ve been busy but in a fun way! All those visits definitely take away from reading time and I always need sometime to recover when I’ve been really social for a bit. Hopefully you’ll get all the series of the Pierce Brown soon. I haven’t read it yet but I’ve heard raves. Have a great week!
That series is definitely worth it 🙂 yes, I hope I can finally get all my sleep back 😀 have a great week too!
Sounds like you had fun! The Feed looks fascinating I’ll look out for your review ♥️ And now I need to check out a couple of those posts… they look intriguing! Happy Reading!
Thank you Dani ^_^ I hope you enjoyed the other posts 🙂 have a great reading week!
I am so glad that you read It’s Just Nerves. I hope you liked it. I cannot wait to see your review.
It was great! Also, Mailbox Monday featured it on their weekly post, after my haul post 🙂 (Update: that was YOU xD whoops! I actually just checked it out now, such a busy week)
I’ve written the review already, now just need to format it, wait for your info and schedule it 🙂 I am excited too, my first blog tour book!
It’s always nice to take a break from reading and come back strong! Hope you enjoyed the company and had a great time! 😉 As for that book haul of yours, I’m definitely curious about Feed! It sounds fun, and I think it might actually be too hahah I’ve also been curious about trying out the Red Rising series myself. It sounds interesting, but I don’t know, there’s something stopping me from picking it up hahah Hope you get the 2nd book in the series to finally be able to continue it though! Happy reading! 😉
Ohhhh you should totally read Red Rising, have you read my review? I was also feeling like that, and largely because I think the book was mismarketed, I thought it’s just typical YA. It’s totally not 😀 it’s raw, brutal and absolutely amazing.
GAH! Can’t wait to read your review of It’s Just Nerves, it sounds super interesting and relevant. I’m thinking about doing Reading Challenge Roundup and/or ARC TBR list soon but we’ll see. I drafted three weeks of posts back in August and haven’t written anything since. I’ve gotten lazy haha. I’m also impressed you can keep up with the discussion posts. Maybe it’s because you don’t waste as much time on IG and Twitter as I do lol
Thanks 🙂 yeah, it’s super relevant, worth a read. Just to inform people of the way some other people live and what they experience, cause people without disabilities, well, don’t really get it. They can’t relate. So I found that book very sobering.
I will be posting my State of the ARC on like 28th or 29th, so you can just join that and link up with your ARC TBR 🙂
You must have posts scheduled out for weeks! I’m super impressed. I hope that someday I can get ahead of it all. We shall see. Probably not… But, it’s worth considering! 🙂 I just CONSTANTLY feel behind when it comes to my blog! O_o Yay for visitors! Sad for less reading. Yay for delicious noms! Boo for no blog time. Yay for pre-schedule posts! HURRAY FOR BOOKMAIL! —basically, it sounds like your past week ROCKED. A lot happened, yes, and it might feel like you cannot human well, but it was totally worth it– wasn’t it? Your book hauls blow… Read more »
Hi Jackie, I can totally relate to just about everything you said there. I don’t need visitors to get behind on my reading, real life seems to have a habit of doing that for me and my paltry reading total will never even make a tiny dent in the massive TBR pile I already have and which gets higher and higher by the day, as more new review requests pour in. I just about keep my head above water with the regular memes and promotional posts, but my blog hopping is woefully remiss and I never seem to have the… Read more »
Oh my gosh, yes 😀 let’s not even bring the massive TBR pile into this because it severely drains the mood 😀 I actually don’t accept review requests all that often for the same reason. I like NetGalley or Edelweiss better because it just gives me a chance to be the chooser, instead of just accepting what comes my way. It gives you an.. illusion of choice and power xD haha. As for blog hopping, I don’t even know what I’d do without my phone. It’s the only way I get to blog hop at all. Yeah, I hope we… Read more »
Thank you, Yvonne! It feels so good to know that I’m not alone. The cycles of books coming and going and the TBR can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. I love your comment about the illusion of choice and power, Evelina! That’s so true. I used to be part of a bunch of lists to help authors find bloggers to read/review their works. I realized that while I want to support authors, I don’t want them to dictate my reading. So, now I’m like you and I only use NetGalley. Still struggling with my ARC pile, though. 😉 I struggle… Read more »
Have I answered this already? I hate the way WordPress lays the comments out. It’s the worst. And I read them and didn’t have time to comment, so now I feel like I don’t know if I answered or not, so I’m hoping I didn’t 😀
I actually just use the browser, because the WP app doesn’t work for blogspot blogs so well – you can’t comment on them. You can’t comment on your blog either, or mine, for that matter. At least on my end.
You’ve scheduled days off for the blog? Okay, now THAT’S impressive.
I *used to* have posts scheduled for weeks. Then this crazy September shit hit the fan and I almost ran out. By almost ran out I mean there are still posts for an entire week. However, I have appended two posts to the list now, and one of them, lo and behold, is the introduction of my co-blogger(-boyfriend)! I’m super excited because someone will help out now, and also he’s funny, and also – he’ll be reviewing fantasy! Which we have wayyyyyy too little of on this blog! Anyway, got carried away a little. But it’s just so exciting. You… Read more »
YAY FOR CO-BLOGGERS! That’s super exciting. I try to spend time on Sundays queuing up posts, but it doesn’t always work. I have to be in the right mood. Can I be a mood-blogger as well as a mood-reader? I’m going with yes. Wait. People haul 20+ books a week? That’s not a thing. It can’t be. How do you even LIVE? Are they drowning in books?! Wowza! You visit EVERYONE from that post?! That’s a big deal. It’s not a small link-up. I’m glad there is some share and share-alike going on, though. I try to do that when… Read more »
Yeah, I often do that on Sundays too, although the Sunday post and linkup take very long, so I have to put in another day during the week after work. At the least 😀 But it totally depends on the mood! If the mood isn’t right, it’s kind of just time wasted. I suppose the 20+ books a week are mostly e-books? But yes, yes – I’ve seen that. But then again, I just met a blogger who reads 300 books a year. I don’t even know what to make of that… No, I don’t JUST visit everyone from THAT… Read more »
[…] It’s Just Nerves by Kelly Davio at Avalinah Books […]
I don’t know any Marvins either, although my brother did have a best friend at school, called Mervyn. Neither are names which are much used these days, despite the return to more traditional baby names!
Whilst I only read non fiction once in a blue moon and science fiction and fantasy even less frequently, I did check out your vast collection of titles this week and found myself drawn to ‘The Redemption Of Marvin Fuster’.
See, I couldn’t leave your site without having found one new ‘must read’ title 🙂
Yvonne
Mervyn, huh 🙂 I think that’s an even rarer name! Oh, I didn’t know they were older. They just sound so fancy to me 😀
Yes, I’m actually also quite excited about reading that book! When the request came my way, I checked it out carefully and even previewed the first few pages on Amazon, but it seemed kind of easy to get into, so I said yes 🙂 hopefully you get to check it out too. Have the best reading week ever 🙂