Sunday Post – 9/08/13

September 8, 2013 Sunday Post, Sunday Salon 28

The Sunday Post is a meme sponsored by the wonderful Kimba, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  It’s a chance to share news.  A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

Hiking in the Jemez Mountains, NM.  Photo ©2013 K. Pekar

I’m back from our three-and-a-half week cross-country odyssey and trying to catch up on everything I have to do!  You can read a little about our trip in the post “The traveler returns”; the short version is that we took our daughter to Arizona to start her freshman year of college, stopping to visit family on the way there and back.

Now I am adjusting to life at home without ‘Robin’; we probably won’t see her until mid-December.  I miss her already, but at least I have plenty to keep me busy.  Between indexing, reading, blogging, singing, directing two choruses, and the myriad of projects I’d like to do (knitting and sewing, decluttering, cataloging my books, sorting and cataloging 20 years of photos… you get the gist), I will never run out of things to do!  The challenge will be finding time to do even half of them!

On the blogging front, there’s a lot going on this week.  You’ve probably noticed the redesign.  I still plan to switch to WordPress eventually, but I decided it was time to update and personalize the blog design.  Please let me know whether you like it, and if there’s anything that doesn’t work or you think could be better.  I’m not a designer, just a tinkerer, and I’m still tweaking — and I’m definitely open to constructive suggestions!  (By the way, in case you’re wondering, the dragon in the header is my personal bookwyrm; he sits on my shelves and guards my books.)

To celebrate the redesign, I’ve also created a Facebook page.  If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and say hello!  In addition, I quietly added Twitter shortly before we left on our trip.  And I’ve been pinning to Pinterest for quite a while — check out my boards for Bookish Quotes, Books in Art/Art in Books, Book Confections, quotes On Writing, and more!  You can find links to all three, as well as Goodreads, in the sidebar — look for the new social media icons under “Find me on”! 

My other exiting news is that The Bookwyrm’s Hoard has reached a milestone: over 100 followers!  That’s just counting the three sources I track — Google Friends Connect, Bloglovin, and LinkyFollowers — so there may be a few other people who follow via various RSS feeds.  On the other hand, there’s also probably some crossover (people who follow through both GFC and Bloglovin, for instance), so the actual number of followers may be a little lower. . . but it’s still very exciting!

The past week (9/01 – 9/07) on the blog: 

The previous two weeks (8/19 – 8/31): 

 The coming week:

  • Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Would Love To See As A Movie/TV Show
  • News & Notes – 8/14/13
  • Reviews: Grapes of Death by Joni Folger; other reviews TBD

      New additions to the hoard:   

      For Review:   

      Tamora Pierce is one of my favorite authors ever, so I was incredibly excited to be granted a review e-copy of Battle Magic, her new book set in the Winding Circle universe.  I was also honored and excited to be asked to review Charles Finch’s An Old Betrayal.  I’ve been wanting to read this mystery series set in Victorian England for a while now, and this one sounds terrific!


      These two look like lovely, light holiday reading — many thanks to Harlequin!

      Purchased or Free for My E-reader:

      One of my must-buy authors.  I’m saving this for whenever I really, really need a break.

      Challenges:

      I signed up for the year-long Cruisin’ thru the Cozies challenge hosted by Socrates’ Book Reviews.  I’ve read and reviewed 8 books so far this year, but didn’t read any cozies in August. (I did review one I read in July, though!)  My goal is at least 13 for the year.  I just finished reading a cozy mystery, so I’m almost on track.

      I’m also participating in the year-long NetGalley Challenge sponsored by Red House Books. Unfortunately, even though I’ve certainly been reading them, I’ve been really forgetful about posting my NetGalley books to the challenge over the last few months.  Once again, I vow to do better next month!  Luckily, I think I can still count August’s books:

      Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge:

       

         

            2013 Reading Challenge
         

             

                2013 Reading Challenge
             

           

              The Bookwyrm’s Hoard has
                   read 105 books toward her goal of 140 books.
           

           

             

      hide

           

           

              105 of 140 (75%)
           

             

                view books
             

       

         

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        28 Responses to “Sunday Post – 9/08/13”

        1. Tanya Patrice

          I have a hard time remembering to update the challenges I’m working on too. And what a fantastic sounding road trip – although bitter-sweet because of your daughter going off to college.

          And love the new design!!

        3. readerholicnotes

          It’s great to have you back, Lark! Battle Magic and An Old Betrayal both sound good. And I’m looking for Christmas books to read since I joined The Caffeinated Reviewer Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon!

          It does look like you’re going to stay busy! Have a great week.

          • Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard

            I need to sign up for the Ho-HO-Ho Readathon, I think — I have several Christmas books in the queue already. And yes, I’m looking forward to both those other books!

            You have a great week, too!

          • Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard

            Hi, Catherine! Glad you like the new design! Changing the blog look in Blogger wasn’t too hard. I’d be happy to tell you the steps I followed, if you like. Send me an email (my address is under the “About/Review policy/Contact tab) and I’ll write it up for you.

            Have a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

        6. Bea

          I’m rotten at posting my challenge reviews to the host site, sigh. I figure as long as I achieve my goals, I’m good. 😀

          I like your dragon, he’s handsome, and congrats on reaching 100 followers! There may be some overlap but so what? It’s still exciting. Heck, I still get excited when I get a new follower, regardless of the follow method. 😀

          Welcome back!

          • Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard

            I’m really bad about keeping up with my challenges. Hopefully I can get better. Glad you like the dragon! Yes, I get excited over every new follower, too. The one frustrating thing about Bloglovin is it doesn’t tell me who they are, so if they don’t TELL me they are now following, I can’t reciprocate!

        7. Creations by Laurel-Rain Snow

          Congrats on your followers…and I love the new blog look. Great dragon! I clicked to “like” your FB page.

          I’ve noticed that people mention going from Blogger to Word Press, and oftentimes it seems like a huge process. Probably they’re talking about the self-hosted version.

          I have two sites on Blogger and nine on Word Press (not self-hosted). When I moved a couple of sites to WP, though, I didn’t move everything.

          I’m curious about self-hosting…it sounds pretty complicated.

          Enjoy your week. Here’s MY WEEKLY SUNDAY/MONDAY UPDATES

          • Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard

            Thanks for the FB like and the compliments on the new design!

            I think the complicated bit comes in if you want to port the whole blog (archives and all) over to WordPress. And I’ll let you know about self-hosting once I tackle it — which may take a while!

            Thanks for stopping by!

        8. Adriana Garcia

          Wow! You have so much going on. I’m sure like it was for me, your daughter’s new life away from home will be an adventure too (:
          Congrats on the new design! A friend was able to do mine luckily. I always was messing around with the design and changing everything too.
          Good luck on your NetGalley challenge and have a great week (:

        9. kimbacaffeinate

          I loved Deception Cove but my review won’t post till mid October, of course I am stalking you on facebook, and pinterest and i added twitter to the list today. Enjoy your new books and adjusting to an empty nest!

          • Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard

            I’m really looking forward to reading it, but I have to plow through some of these ARCs first. (Not that that is unpleasant, especially given some of the titles and authors! But it does take time.) Thanks for the FB, Pinterest, and Twitter follows (and you know I’m stalking you, too!) Have a great week, Kimba!

        10. Sandy Farmer

          Welcome back!!!! I love the new design! I SO want to do an overhaul, but I just haven’t put the energy into it yet! And congrats on the 100 followers!!! Going to Like your FB page now!

          SP & STS
          Sandy @ Somewhere Only We Know

        12. Melissa (My World...in words and pages)

          Oh wow. You will get through. It’s hard, but you’ll have lots to keep yourself occupied. Its funny as I was just thinking that when my kiddo leaves for college, I’ll be without my buddy and partner in crime. Granted we have 4 more years, but it was a thought as he goes everywhere with me.

          Take care and have a great week. Oh, loving the new header as well! 🙂

          If you’d like to stop by I have a Sunday Post up as well…
          http://melissa-melsworld.blogspot.com/2013/09/sunday-post-26.html

          • Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard

            Thank you, Melissa! ‘Robin’ and I have spent a lot of time together, especially since we started homeschooling in 8th grade, so yes, life feels very different without her daily presence. One of the things I will really miss is talking about books with her and reading books to her (or having her read them to me.) We have pretty similar tastes, and she has put me onto some great books (and vice versa.) Of course, we can still some of that long-distance!

        13. Yvonne

          You had a great week! I should do the NetGalley challenge. Oh well, maybe next year 🙂 Have a great week!