Taste the Books: Review Morsels #40 Chelsea Sedoti, Vincent Tirado, M.R. Carey

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 (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). 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!

Oh, just so you know...this is a DNF bunch. Or to be more precise, a bunch of ARCs I DNF 😱. Unprecedented for me, I know...

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Tell Me Something Tuesday: How Do You Measure Blogging Success? Followers, Page Views, Interactions, Etc.

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

HOW DO YOU MEASURE BLOGGING SUCCESS? FOLLOWERS, PAGE VIEWS, INTERACTIONS, ETC.

In a word (or, well, two)? Engagement level - as in, a mixture of many ACTIVE followers (we all know that sometimes people hop on follow-for-follow trains, or follow a blog because it offers giveaways on a regular basis, which doesn't mean its subscribers do read the posts) and authors/publishers willing to work with the blogger (that is, actually offering them review copies and involving them in the road to publication, not just giving them the random, if very appreciated, approval on NetGalley or Edelweiss). And to be precise...active followers who aren't necessarily your friends, though I'm personally beyond grateful for their support 💚. Ideally, as a successful blogger, you would have perfect strangers (AND friends) telling you that they picked up a book because you sold them on it, but let's face it, it rarely happens - also because we usually need a tad more than a single review to be sure we want to read a book 😉.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #39 Naomi Salman, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Courtney Gould

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 (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). 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!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Offbeat Offline: February 2023

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? A little back-and-forth for my husband's health, fresh medical drama for me and a scare about my dad's, and a couple of new ARC approvals. Also, two of my international friends offered to buy a copy of That Ain't Witchcraft for me (see my January recap), and it arrived three days ago...Thank you! 💚 (I only buy cash-on-delivery because I'm afraid to lose what little money I have on my debit card, and my usual sites didn't have the book - a while ago I was planning to get a second card and put a small amount of money on it for book purchases from sites like The Book Depository, but then I got laid off, so I suppose it's not a good idea to have to pay for two cards now...😭).

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Which Books Are You Looking Forward to Reading This Spring? (March-May)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHICH BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THIS SPRING? (MARCH-MAY)

I don't know if I'll ever get around to buying all these books or when, since 1) early reviews and excerpts might cause me to change my mind in the future, and 2) given my current situation (see: unemployment status), book money is scarce...also, my NG/EW requests for some of these have already been declined 😢, except for And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky (and the PDF is mine to keep!), This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde (funny how I got rejected for it right away on EW, but immediately approved on NG when the book was moved from the "Wish for it!" category to the "Request" one...) and Myriad by Joshua David Bellin. Anyhow, I wanted to give a bit of exposure to all the spring books that caught my eye, so here's my list (complete with pub dates)...

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #38 Seanan McGuire: "InCryptid" Series #1-4

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 (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). 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!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Would You Read a Book by Your Favourite Author if It Was in a Genre You Don’t Normally Enjoy? (+ Life Snippet)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WOULD YOU READ A BOOK BY YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR IF IT WAS IN A GENRE YOU DON’T NORMALLY ENJOY?

Before I answer this week's question, a brief life update, because hey! guess what? new chapter in my health issues and general misfortunes saga! 😭 My left eye problem ultimately evolved into a retinal hole, and I got a laser treatment on Friday. Now I have to be patient and wait for the outcome, vision-wise. My eye is full of floaters and everything looks blurred - only time will tell if I'll need a vitrectomy (but I'm afraid I will, because of course 😬). I'll tell you the whole story in my next Offbeat Offline installment at the beginning of March...Also, I have a ton of your posts bookmarked for commenting, and I swear I'll get to them. This new incident threw yet another wrench into my works, as if everything wasn't a mess already...😩 On top of that, due to the turn of events, my announced review for The Valley and the Flood has been postponed. The other posts for this month have already been written, so at least there's that. My next one is scheduled for Wed. 22nd.

Back to the topic at hand - would I read a book by one of my fave authors if they decided to write a story in a genre that I don't love?

I guess no. If you know me, the three genres that I really, really dislike (no shade to anyone reading them of course! 💚) are romance, historical fiction (I mean stuff from long before I was born) and fantasy (unless it's urban/contemporary). While I can make an exception for books that dance around last two genres if they're mysteries (historical fiction) or the premise is REALLY intriguing (low fantasy), I don't harbour any desire to read about worlds that are firmly rooted in those. So, for instance, though I love Seanan McGuire to bits, I'm fairly sure I'll never read her October Daye series...I mean, half-fae changelings? hardly my thing 😉.

Offbeat Offline: January 2023 (Back for Good?)

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? Some health drama leftovers for the hubs, then a change of pace (it seems like we're finally on the right track) - and a medical miscellanea for me. This wrap-up will also feature ARC approvals, book mail, hair issues (again) and utter tiredness...

Offbeat Offline: December 2022 (+ Announcing New...Short???...Hiatus)

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

Hello sweeties! and Happy New Year! 🎉

What happened last month to yours truly? More health drama for the hubs (same stuff, only lasting longer than we would hope) and a string of other problems. Christmas isn't my favourite holiday in the slightest (this being an understatement), but now I'm officially DONE with it. Everyone around us was (apparently) in a buying/eating/vacationing frenzy, while we were (still are) just trying to get by while drowning in misery 😓. BUT! I got book mail, and a surprise visit from my favourite Doctor! Yep, I mean the Doctor who travels in a blue police box of course. And no, he didn't propose that I would become his companion and sightsee the universe with him, but it was a nice visit 😉. Wait, no, I'm not being delusional...more of that below...