Overall, thanks to my decluttering and simplifying, I had a really organized, productive and calm week. I worked out every morning except for Saturday and brought all my own food to work again this week – hopefully will be reaping the benefits on the scale by Monday. My blog posting is still a bit more all over the place than I would like but I’m working on that.
I also got through a good amount of reading and got caught up with my Goodreads Challenge (yes!). I finished two books on minimalism (I’m working towards a book list to be published soon) – The More of Less by Joshua Becker and The Year Of Less by Cait Flanders. I also finished the audiobooks for The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende and Murder On The Orient Express by Agatha Christie.
But enough about me! Without further ado, here are this week’s links…
- Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic was Top Ten Characters I Liked That Were In Books I Didn’t Like (full list of links here). Most bloggers mentioned finding this to be a tricky topic, but they still came up with very interesting picks. My favorite posts included those on A Dance With Books, Curiouser And Curiouser, The Calico Books, Pace Amore Libri, Heather’s Reading Hideaway and Flipping Through Pages.
- There was another wave of March 2018 Wrap-Ups this week, as is understandable since it was still the first week of April. I continue to be impressed with how much everyone has been reading and really loved the posts on Midnight Book Girl, Sophisticated Dorkiness, The Bandar Blog, Pathologically Literate, Bookidote, Greenish Bookshelf, A Book A Thought, Little Blind Book Finds and Novel Gossip.
- There were several great reviews of recent book releases this week, including for Other People’s Houses by Abbi Waxman on The Reading Chick, The Sapphire Widow by Dinah Jefferies on She Reads Novels, The Manson Women And Me by Nikki Meredith and The Broken Girls by Simone St. James on Clues And Reviews, The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen on Bookidote and Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce on Jo’s Book Blog.
- I had to mention this review of Dear Mrs Bird on Bibliomaniac separately because Katherine very cleverly wrote her book review in the form of an advice letter, as a play on the subject of the novel. I love it!
- This discussion post on Mind Joggle about The Discomfort Of Enjoying Books Based On Real Life Tragedies was very thought-provoking, as, like many other readers, I do tend to gravitate towards tragic content in both fiction and nonfiction. There’s definitely a voyeuristic element to it, but also the desire to understand the extremes of life.
- I was not convinced by most of the picks on this list from Off The Shelf of Books To Read If You Loved Ready Player One (aside from The Terry Pratchett title). Are there any books you can think of that are similar to Ernest Cline’s novel and that you would recommend?
- And as always, if you’re looking for even more bookish links, The Secret Library Book Blog has her post up as well!
- Here are the individual book reviews I read this week that inspired me to consider reading the books they covered:
- The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport on Hopewell’s Public Library Of Life (historical nonfiction)
- The Beginning Of The World In The Middle Of The Night by Jen Campbell on Bibliobeth (fantasy short stories)
- The Runaways by Sonya Terjanian on Clues And Reviews (mystery)
- Under The Harrow by Flynn Berry on Pace Amore Libri (mystery)
- The Future Is History by Masha Gessen on Book Open (historical nonfiction)
- The Fear by C.L. Taylor on Keeper Of Pages and Love Books Group (thriller)
- The Lido by Libby Page on Jo’s Book Blog (contemporary fiction)
- Strange Secrets by Mike Russell on Always Trust In Books (short stories)
- Watching You by Lynda Renham on My Chestnut Reading Tree (thriller)
- Out Of Thin Air by Anthony Adeane on What’s Nonfiction? (true crime)
- Eden by Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg on Reading Ladies Book Club (historical fiction)
- On Wednesday I published my review of Jade Chang’s novel The Wangs Vs. The World (4 stars), combined with a write-up of what I learned about the author at a recent event I attended at which she was the featured speaker. I’m also holding a GIVEAWAY for one signed hardcover copy of the book, so make sure to enter here before Tuesday at midnight if you’re interested in participating.
- On Saturday I posted my Book To Screen comparison of novel Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and its movie version. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the movie but absolutely loved the novel (5 stars). You can read a full review of the book in my post and find out why I felt the movie did not live up to the novel’s high bar.
- I have a few different posts I’m thinking of for this week. I will definitely be posting reviews for my January 2018 Book Of The Month picks – As Bright As Heaven by Susan Meissner, The Woman In The Window by A.J. Finn and Red Clocks by Leni Zumas. I would also like to put up a review of recent true crime title A False Report by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong. The third thing I’ve been thinking about is creating a poll listing all the Net Galley ARCs I haven’t read yet to see which ones you guys thing I should be prioritizing. We’ll see if that happens!
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 contains affiliate links for Book Depository.
Thank you for including my review of Eden! Always look forward to your links!
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Thank you Carol!
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Thank you for the shout outs! 😊
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You’re welcome!
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This week it feels like it’s all about Reader Player One. I enjoyed the book, but must say that I am going to give the movie a miss.
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Yes it is a Ready Player One heavy week 🙂 lol You’re totally fine skipping the movie in my opinion.
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Thanks so much for the shout out! We’re glad you enjoyed our wrap-up! We think it’s so great that you acknowledge the work of other bloggers! You’re awesome and we love you blog! 😆❤️
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Well thank you as well! 🙂
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Fab links as always 😀
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I always love hearing about great reviews and am flattered that you included mine! Thanks!
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You’re welcome Deborah!
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Thanks for sharing my review and glad you liked it!
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You’re welcome!
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Thanks for the feature! And another great list of links for me to explore 😊
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Enjoy! 🙂
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Awwn man, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing my review here! ❤ Have a wonderful day!
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You’re welcome Lashaan!
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Nice roundup! Warcross definitely gave me some Ready Player One vibes and it was really entertaining!
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I’ll have to look Warcross up! Thanks for the suggestion.
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No problem! I hope you like it!
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Thanks so much for your
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Thank you for the link! And I loved the review of Dear Mrs. Bird that you included here. Thanks for pointing us to other great finds, and for so generously sharing the work of other bloggers!
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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Thank you so much for the shout out! ☺️ Really looking forward to seeing what you’ve made of Red Clocks, it’s on my TBR.
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So far I’m a bit puzzled by Red Clocks. It seems to be trying really hard to be original and quirky but it’s falling flat for me. I’m only 150 or so pages in though, who knows.
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Thanks for including my blog post!! 🙂
I can’t wait to read your reading list on minimalism. After fully realizing how much stuff I have, I’ve been really getting into learning more about it. I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up earlier this year, and I’ve been especially intrigued ever since.
What did you think of Murder on the Orient Express? I read it several years ago, and remember enjoying it, but it wasn’t my favorite Agatha Christie novel. I’m curious to hear your thoughts! 🙂
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Hey Theresa! I didn’t love Murder On The Orient Express. I liked the first half but it started to lose me in the second half, because it was basically just Poirot musing to himself about his theories. A lot of talking and not enough action – more telling than showing. I wonder if that’s typical of Poirot mysteries because it would make me want to skip the rest of them. My favorite Agatha Christie so far is And Then There Were None.
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I felt the exact same way! I’ve read other Agatha Christie books, but not any other of the Poirot mysteries. And Then There Were None is by far, my favorite that I’ve read so far, too. 🙂
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Thanks for the love (: You’re so kind that way!
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Of course!
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Thank you for including me!
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You’re welcome!
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Great links this week! Thanks for mentioning my Sapphire Widow review. 🙂
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You’re welcome!
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