May 28, 2019

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Who Are Some of Your Favourite Authors?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post on Rainy Day Ramblings, where the blog's owner Heidi discusses a wide range of topics from books to blogging. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog.
Here is what is on deck this week:

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHORS?

I have been known for reading any mystery Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson and Rex Stout ever wrote. Or, I'm still missing a few of them, but it's a goal of mine. (I do have the whole Christie collection though - I only need her Mary Westmacott books to make it complete). If we're talking about living and breathing authors though, I have three favourites - two of which I have discovered since I started blogging.

May 24, 2019

Rehabilitating YA: 20 Trope-Free Standalones/Series to Read if You've Given Up on It (Pt.4)

Hello sweeties!

I've been wanting to write a post like this for a while. Every now and then, I hear someone say they've given up on YA (or are reading much less of it lately) because they got fed up with the tropes that come with the "genre". Now, while of course it's not mandatory to read YA at any age, and while I'm not denying the existence of such tropes (though really, any literary genre/age range has got its share of them...), I made it my reader's life mission to discover YA books that stand out for any reason and employ as little of those overused plot devices as it's humanly possible (hence, of course, my blog's name). So I thought I'd put together a list of YA novels blissfully devoid of tropes (or employing them in minimal doses), hoping to prove those reluctant/jaded readers that there's so much more to YA than meets the eye. And I ultimately decided to make this post into a series, because my list was too long for a single one. Here goes Part 4 (broken down by genres/my blog's Reading Rooms)...
(Note: these are not necessarily my favourite books - though some of them are. I only choose them for their lack/minimal amount of tropes. Also, there are a few mature YA/NA/adult friendly books in this list).

May 19, 2019

What I Did Last Month: Silent Hiatus Recap & Back to Blogging

Hello sweeties! 💚

I'm here. I'm live. Well...as live as one can be when writing a post in advance LOL. But I mean, this is a new post, not one I scheduled a month or two ago. When I planned my hiatus, on my return I hoped to be able to post the review that started it all - the one that I couldn't seem to write, and that made me realise I needed some blogging-free space. But I finally decided to let it sit for a while longer, so I'm writing this post instead. I hold a grudge to that review LOL. It's not a good idea to force myself to write it now. But while I still have a couple of pre-hiatus posts waiting to go live (May 24th -> Rehabilitating YA: 20 Trope-Free Standalones/Series to Read if You've Given Up on It (Pt.4); May 28th -> TMST: Who Are Some of Your Favourite Authors?), I wanted to do a small recap of what I did last month and give you some heads-up about my future...

May 14, 2019

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Do You Prefer Action-Driven Books or Quiet Books?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post on Rainy Day Ramblings, where the blog's owner Heidi discusses a wide range of topics from books to blogging. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog.
Here is what is on deck this week:

DO YOU PREFER ACTION-DRIVEN BOOKS OR QUIET BOOKS?

I'm a little ambivalent about this. If I often find myself gravitating toward books where things happen (I mean, lots of things, and pretty fast), I love it when the action is balanced out by introspection/inner monologue. I'm going to post three lists - the first is comprised of some of my favourite books/series where a lot happens (though they still meet the introspection requirement), the second sports books that are part action-y, part quiet, while in the third you'll find equally engaging books where not much happens. (Note: these were all 5 or 4.5 star reads I wrote a full review for).

May 07, 2019

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Why Do You Like to Read Book Reviews?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post on Rainy Day Ramblings, where the blog's owner Heidi discusses a wide range of topics from books to blogging. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog.
Here is what is on deck this week:

WHY DO YOU LIKE TO READ BOOK REVIEWS?

...Because you do, don't you? 😉
I mean, I know of bloggers who review books but hardly read any reviews (which strikes me as odd at best LOL). While others usually read reviews only if they come from trusted buddies (which makes much more sense to me. What with unmarked spoilers coming out from nowhere, biased opinions and other incidents).

May 01, 2019

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #12 Lauren Karcz, Rin Chupeco, Amelinda Bérubé


Intro


Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL. But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random! So, here goes...