Links I Loved This Week – 03/26/2017

I’m back in the swing of blogging this week! (though not back in the swing of responding to comments on my posts or reciprocating when people share my posts on Twitter, so bear with me on that).

This morning I took a trip with a friend to Antelope Valley just outside of Los Angeles to see the fields of orange poppies that bloom at this time of year in the area. I had so many errands and chores planned for this weekend, but when my friend texted me on Friday to invite me for this little excursion, I decided to hit pause on the must dos and do something instead just for the fun of it.

I took some gorgeous pictures of books laying in fields of hundreds of bright poppies that I’ll be sharing on my InstagramInstagram over the next several weeks (make sure to follow me if you haven’t already). But more importantly I had time to catch up with a friend, immersed myself in nature and took some time to ‘smell the roses’. Hope all of you are having a great weekend as well!

• This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme (hosted by The Broke And Bookish) was Top Ten Books You Read In One Sitting. My favorite posts for the topic were on Vivacious Reads, Wonderless Reviews, Book Bum, Dear Reader, Novel Visits and Sarah’s Book Shelves.

• Really enjoyed this list on Off The Shelf of 10 Royal Reads For Fans Of The Crown. I absolutely loved the show and also love royal memoirs or historical fiction novels based on actual royal figures. I’m particularly intrigued by Equal Of The Sun by Anita Amirrezvani, a historical fiction novel loosely based on the life of a historical Iranian princess.

• I’ve been having Blogger Guilt to the max almost since I started blogging in July of last year. It’s weird how fast you get sucked into this vortex of feeling that you should be reading more, posting more, commenting more, participating more. This is just a hobby for me and not something I’m even monetizing at present, so sometimes I need to take a step back and put things into perspective. It was so refreshing to read this post on Novel Gossip about how Blogger Guilt is a normal part of blogging we all have to let go of.

• I found it really interesting that reading The Magdalen Girls by V.S. Alexander led Caryl from Mrs. Blogg’s Books to consider whether her own grandmother may have been one of the women harshly judged by society for her situation and trapped in one of these convents. It must have been an intense experience to read the book while having a potential personal connection to it. You can read my review of The Magdalen Girls here.

• Here are the individual book reviews I read this week that inspired me to add the titles they covered to my ever-growing TBR pile:
  • The Abattoir Of Dreams by Mark Tilbury on Clues & Reviews
  • Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski on My Chestnut Reading Tree
  • Wasted by Elspeth Muir on Books Are My Favorite And Best
  • Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton on It’s Book Talk
  • Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein on Susan Loves Books

• On Monday I published my Winter 2017 Wrap-Up, including the tally of books I’ve read during the season and links to all the books I reviewed over the last three months, divided into categories and sorted by their ratings. The nonfiction pick I would most recommend from the list is Amanda Knox’s memoir Waiting To Be Heard and the fiction one is This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel.

• On Wednesday I posted a review of Dinah Jefferies’ new historical fiction novel Before The Rains. It follows photojournalist Eliza as she embarks on an assignment to record the lives of the royal family of the Indian kingdom of Rajputana in the 1930s. Romance and adventure follow. I didn’t love Jefferies’ latest book as much as her earlier novel The Tea Planter’s Wife, but it was still a transporting read that I would recommend to lovers of historical fiction.

• On Friday I posted a review of scientific nonfiction pick Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt. Though this may sound like a gory read, it actually stays away from sensational stories of cannibalism inspired murders and sticks to the biological imperatives that have driven the practice of cannibalism in humans and other animals through history. I found it completely captivating and would highly recommend it to any science buffs like me.

• For next week I’m planning to post my Spring TBR list and reviews of Worth It by Amanda Steinberg (a book for women on how to manage their finances) and A Piece Of The World by Christina Baker Kline (which is the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club pick for March 2017).

• I loved these ideas at With Love From Kat on how to unwind. I’m already pretty regular with the meditation and yoga, but I’ve been wanting to try acupuncture and float tanks for stress relief. The suggestion of doing Reiki sessions was less familiar to me but something I’d consider looking into. Have you ever had one done?

• It may sound like a weird thing to say but I’m bad at silence. I’m always listening to something, whether it’s a podcast in the morning while I get ready, an audiobook during my commute, or a TV series while I’m writing a blog post (like right now), I have a hard time just letting myself be in silence. Based on this article on The Harvard Business Review, scientists have determined that moments of silence are actually regenerative to the brain. In addition to meditation, I want to cultivate more silence in my day so I can be more present.

• I’m really excited to watch the BBC series on the life of the Brontë sisters To Walk Invisible. The photography from it looks simply amazing and since I pretty much watch any British drama, and this one is about famous authors, I feel that it’s essentially mandatory for me to watch it. I’m doing it for you guys! It premieres tonight on PBS Masterpiece.

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Any articles or blog posts from the book world that you really enjoyed this week? Share them in the comments!

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Please note this post includes affiliate links from Book Depository.