tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72223889606262198642024-03-12T20:15:50.635-05:00Read and RepeatA little corner of the internet where you can find book reviews, recommendations, and the assorted ravings of a grad student. Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.comBlogger170125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-36392858180611439842020-04-01T17:48:00.000-05:002020-04-03T13:59:38.323-05:00When my children ask about Covid-19 || A Poem<br />
In the far reaches of the future<br />
When all that is to happen has rushed past us<br />
My children will ask<br />
<i> Tell me</i><br />
<i> Tell us </i><br />
<i>Tell us about the pandemic </i><br />
Their eyes wide with the curiosity of a child who has only known good times<br />
<i>Tell us what it was like to be alive then</i><br />
I will pause, sit down, gather my thoughts around me<br />
And I will tell them of the spring the morels appeared<br />
Woody, craggy, wholly unexpected<br />
Pushing up against all odds through the green grass of our Southern backyard<br />
I will tell them of how the burning bushes put out their leaves<br />
In one wild rush<br />
As if spring were a sprint<br />
One burning week of life appearing from dormant life<br />
I will tell them of days spent wandering through the bushes and trees<br />
That the color of the redbuds was the color of hope<br />
That one could not watch the hopping blue jay and not smile in delight<br />
I will tell them of the sudden storm<br />
The tornado in all its fury forming before us<br />
The newscaster, the city, my mother and I all holding our breaths<br />
We watched the debris— houses, homes, buildings— flying up, away, gone<br />
I will them of the pounding rain and dark sky<br />
And I will tell them the miracle<br />
As the tornado tore apart our mall<br />
Taking our books, leaving them in another state<br />
I will tell them of the few people working<br />
Who emerged from the rubble, looking around in disbelief<br />
The cars strewn like toys one on top of another<br />
I will tell them that the entire city looked around in disbelief<br />
That not one person died<br />
I will tell them that the world was a vast and unknowable place<br />
That the quiet backroads and the city centers were given different fates<br />
I will tell them that the unknown was more frightening than any statistic could be<br />
For the unknown came wrapped up in every worst case scenario the scientists could fathom<br />
I will tell them that waiting<br />
Waiting<br />
Waiting<br />
Is a different kind of pain than knowing<br />
They will bore easily<br />
Their eyes will dart off looking for the next thing to do<br />
My story will not be in the history books that are to be written<br />
Far sadder fates are lived and far sadder stories will prevail<br />
But I will tell them the quiet story<br />
Of what it was like to be meAnnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-28837456740424555162020-03-22T18:21:00.000-05:002020-03-22T18:38:31.577-05:00Except it isn’t || Hello friends!<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; outline: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series.</i><br />
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<i>It’s just like Spring Break, </i>I told myself, grabbing a duffel bag off of the top shelf in my closet. Pulling out sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, dresses, stuffing them all inside.<br />
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Except, of course, it isn’t.<br />
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My craft supplies lined up next to my front door. Which ones would I need? How long before I tired of watercolor- should I also pack the acrylics? How much was too much? How could one fill time when the time was unknown?<br />
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<i>It’s just like Christmas Break, </i>I amended my thoughts as I grabbed my King Arthur flour and coffee grounds to take with me.<br />
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Except, of course, it isn’t.<br />
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Hello, friends! It has been a while. A lot has changed, how are you? How is the blogosphere faring?<br />
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Me? Oh, I graduated my program last May, received my PhD in Physics, took a life-changing graduation trip to Alaska, somehow managed to land my dream job close to family, moved states, and started working in an entirely new area of science (say hello to a developmental neurobiologist?!).<br />
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So. You know. A lot has changed for me. And this past week created a whole lot more of that change. I work at a research hospital for sick kids— kids who are particularly vulnerable right now. As a non-essential research scientist I’ve been told to work from home right now (well, as much as an experimental scientist can work from home. I might learn every coding language out there just for kicks). And, facing the prospect of sitting in my tiny apartment alone for, well, forever, I decided to move temporarily back home and work from there.<br />
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Can y’all blame me? Look at the gardens here.<br />
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Free time is sweeping the nation right now, for better or for worse. I’m one of the lucky ones— working from home means I still get my normal pay, in addition to the novel gift of every night and weekend with no plans.<br />
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I’m joking— my college friends and I have been hanging out digitally since we all graduated five years ago so I am no stranger to Skype parties and digital binge-watching escapades and remote game playing. For us, nothing will be changing.<br />
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But I have time on my hands and things to say, so I thought I would resurrect my little ole book blog for the time being. I’ll post about the books I’m reading (how I got out of my most recent, never ending reading slump), the art I am making (my friends all need hobby inspiration right about now), and the thoughts I am thinking.<br />
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It feels good to be back. :)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let me know: how are you doing? What’s changed the past year and a half I’ve been gone? </span><br />
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Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-42112554303645795592018-09-13T09:17:00.000-05:002018-09-13T09:17:03.279-05:00TTT: 5 Underrated 5 Star Books<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">That Artsy Reader Girl</a>! </i><br />
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This week's prompt is a good one, as it allows us book bloggers to shout about our favorite books that don't get the love that they deserve. So get ready for some shouting because these books are AMAZING and I think they should get a lot more love and attention.<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1305861910l/6186355.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="6186355" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1305861910l/6186355.jpg" width="130" /></a> <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6186355-a-madness-of-angels?ac=1&from_search=true">A Madness of Angels</a> by Kate Griffin</span><br />
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I will never not put this on a list of underrated books because this book I read in undergrad is still my favorite urban fantasy novel EVER. I have yet to read another book that captures my imagination like this one did.<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320487318l/3398625.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="3398625" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320487318l/3398625.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3398625-the-lost-city-of-z">The Lost City of Z</a> by David Grann || <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/05/getting-lost-in-amazon-review-lost-city.html">my review</a></span><br />
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This was a gem I found while doing my nonfiction reading challenge. The author really did his homework, the book is as well researched as a textbook and reads like a soap opera. What more could you want??<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7684354-52-loaves">52 Loaves</a> by William Alexander</span><br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1323235760l/7684354.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="7684354" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1323235760l/7684354.jpg" width="131" /></a>Okay. so. I found this book while on a bread-making forum researching how to get the perfect crumb (fancy word for texture). It was Christmas break and my dad was struggling to make the perfect loaf of homemade bread and this book popped up and I have never laughed so hard while reading a nonfiction book. This book is amazing and everyone should read it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1158967.Garden_Spells">Garden Spells</a> by Sarah Addison Allen || <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/03/beautiful-magical-realism-garden-spells.html">my review</a></span><br />
I bought this book for a couple of dollars at a thrift store a couple of years ago and only recently read it and my mind was BLOWN it was so LYRICAL and BEAUTIFUL and why aren't more people shouting about it??<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1517225907l/35574989.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="35574989" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1517225907l/35574989.jpg" width="132" /></a> <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35574989-song-of-a-captive-bird">Song of a Captive Bird</a> by Jasmin Dapznik || <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2017/12/5-reasons-to-read-song-of-captive-bird.html">my review </a></span><br />
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I got this book from Netgalley so I'm literally confused at the absence of glowing reviews because this fictionalized memoir was beautiful and touching and atmospheric and I thought it was really well done. It introduced me to a land and a people and a culture I know very little about.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me!</span> <span style="font-size: large;">What about you? Have you ever heard of/read these books? If so what did you think?</span><br />
Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-29658966409587600592018-09-11T09:00:00.001-05:002018-09-11T09:00:36.088-05:00Dear Sunday: Autumn Breezes <i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series. </i><i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with<a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/2012/05/staking-shelves-official-launch.html" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"> tyngas reviews</a>.</i><br />
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<span style="color: #242424; font-family: Noto Serif, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">It's a Dear Sunday on a <strike>Monday </strike>Tuesday! Sorry that my blogging here has been so inconsistent lately-- last year of grad school is really keeping me busy. </span></span><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: inherit;">But in lieu of complaining or ranting or </span><span style="color: #242424;">exalting</span><span style="color: #242424; font-family: inherit;"> my schedule I give you a glamor shot of my cat, Otto. I recently got a new phone </span><span style="color: #242424; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">(*remembers cost* *shudders*) </span><span style="color: #242424; font-family: inherit;">the go</span><span style="color: #242424; font-family: inherit;">ogle pixel 2 and let me tell you the camera has blown me away! </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #242424;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But onto the books!</span></span>
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500393999l/35499688.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="35499688" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500393999l/35499688.jpg" width="129" /></a><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529610868l/40605285.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="40605285" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529610868l/40605285.jpg" width="129" /></a> I picked up <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35499688-who-moved-my-goat-cheese">Who Moved My Goat Cheese?</a> via an ebook loan from my library. I was looking for a cute cozy mystery and while it was a cozy mystery it wasn't very good (review to come!).<br />
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I received this book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40605285-the-sweetness-at-the-bottom-of-the-pie?ac=1&from_search=true">Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie</a> in a surprise package my friend sent me last week! It looks just like my cup of tea.<br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/09/dear-sunday-mini-vacation.html">Dear Sunday: Mini-vacation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/09/ttt-5-foreign-netflix-shows-you-need-to.html">TTT: 5 Foreign Netflix shows you need to check out </a></li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">Top Ten Tuesday: Amazing books that you never hear about</li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">yeah no this one will also be a temporally confused post</li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">top ten thursday? yeah I should be able to write that post by Thursday?</li>
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<li style="text-align: left;"><i>right life?</i> *looks nervously at schedule* </li>
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Okkayyy that's it for me in this terribly late Sunday post! I hope you are in a less hectic time of your life. I hope I'll be in a less hectic time soon. Okay bye.Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-27440258162015725842018-09-04T09:31:00.000-05:002018-09-04T09:31:43.613-05:00TTT: 5 Foreign Netflix shows you need to see<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">That Artsy Reader Girl</a>! </i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></i>
When it comes to Netflix shows, I'm somewhat of an unintentional hipster.<br />
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Mention <i>Stranger Things</i> to me and I'll just stare blankly at you before telling you about this obscure Russian drama you just have. to. see. Somehow, without quite intending to, I manage to miss out on all the latest top shows that everyone and their mother are watching.<br />
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Instead of binging on Orange is the new black or Handmaid's Tale or really anything hip, I tend to watch obscure, mostly foreign, Netflix shows and let me tell you I have found some gems. So if you are trying to add a little diversity to your TV watching, read on!<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">The Ministry of Time</span></div>
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<a href="https://i0.wp.com/www.thereviewgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-ministry-of-time-season-1-e1520512131362.jpg?fit=600%2C358" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for the ministry of time" border="0" height="190" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.thereviewgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-ministry-of-time-season-1-e1520512131362.jpg?fit=600%2C358" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Country of Origin</b>: Spain </div>
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<b>Language</b>: Spanish with good English subtitles</div>
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<b>Genre</b>: Sci-fi/Fantasy</div>
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<b>Brief Summary</b>: What if there were doors that lead to the past? And what if a Spanish bureaucracy was created to manage those doors? This fast-paced beautifully-shot drama features the lives and adventures of several agents who travel through time to advert disasters. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Seyit ve Sura</span></div>
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/Kurtseyitvesura-poster.jpg/250px-Kurtseyitvesura-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for seyit ve sura russian drama" border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/Kurtseyitvesura-poster.jpg/250px-Kurtseyitvesura-poster.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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<b>Country of Origin</b>: Russia </div>
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<b>Language</b>: Russian? But also with random Turkish phrases? (with good English subtitles)</div>
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<b>Genre</b>: Historical Fiction, Romance [WWI]</div>
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<b>Brief Summary</b>: This romance, which takes place in Russia during WWI, is a star-crossed lovers affair between a Turkish Russian officer ((yeah wanna guess how long it took me to figure out nationalities? <i>aGeS</i>)) and a Russian noblewoman. There are things I LOVE about this series ((hello healthy representations of masculinity)) and things I don't ((hello unhealthy representations of obsessive love)) but overall: highly recommend. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries</span></div>
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<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVKYbjAU8AENWuD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Related image" border="0" height="180" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVKYbjAU8AENWuD.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Country of Origin</b>: Australia </div>
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<b>Language</b>: English</div>
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<b>Genre</b>: Historical Fiction, Murder Mystery [1920s]</div>
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<b>Brief Summary</b>: This is a fun murder mystery series featuring, well, Miss Fisher, a witty, brillant, English socialite. She somehow manages to come across dead bodies nearly everywhere she goes and forces her help upon the local police who want nothing to do with her. Overall it's a lot of fun! </div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">The Paradise</span></div>
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<a href="https://cdn-static.sidereel.com/tv_shows/53472/giant_2x/262585-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for the paradise tv show" border="0" height="320" src="https://cdn-static.sidereel.com/tv_shows/53472/giant_2x/262585-4.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
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<b>Country of Origin</b>: England ((still counts as diverse right?? kind of?))</div>
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<b>Language</b>: English</div>
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<b>Genre</b>: Historical Fiction</div>
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<b>Brief Summary</b>: This series follows one girl as she leaves the countryside to work for one of the world's first department stores-- The Paradise. ((it's actually a lot more interesting than that sentence might lead you to believe!))</div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Land Girls</span></div>
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<a href="https://occ-0-999-1001.1.nflxso.net/art/0fd92/48656062fdfe33359638f4c871aa83648980fd92.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for land girls tv show" border="0" height="320" src="https://occ-0-999-1001.1.nflxso.net/art/0fd92/48656062fdfe33359638f4c871aa83648980fd92.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
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<b>Country of Origin</b>: England </div>
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<b>Language</b>: English</div>
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<b>Genre</b>: Historical Fiction, WWII</div>
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<b>Brief Summary</b>: During WWII women could join the Land Army-- where they were shipped out to British farms to help raise crops for the war effort. This series follows several city girls as they adjust to life on the farm and life during the war. Highly recommend!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">HONORABLE MENTION</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Okay so I've only seen the first episode of this series so I can't really recommend it, but! I so rarely see Koren art/shows/books/etc I felt like I should tell y'all about it anyway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Secret Healer</span></div>
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<img alt="Image result for secret healer tv show" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/30/Mirror_Of_The_Witch_Poster.jpg/250px-Mirror_Of_The_Witch_Poster.jpg" /></div>
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<b>Country of Origin</b>: South Korea</div>
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<b>Language</b>: Korean but with decent subtitles</div>
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<b>Genre</b>: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, romance?</div>
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<b>Brief Summary</b>: From IMDB: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A barren queen seeks the help of shaman to give birth to a prince.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it from me! Five foreign netflix shows I love and one I just started. Have you heard of any of these? Any foreign shows I need to check out? </span></div>
Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-56688277090966979302018-09-02T08:35:00.000-05:002018-09-02T08:35:25.929-05:00Dear Sunday: Mini-Vacation<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series. </i><i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with<a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/2012/05/staking-shelves-official-launch.html" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"> tyngas reviews</a>.</i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ5rDQexsDrTsbzgvGkOo7tEn1QodX3C5WunsdW4fsW1tmlJXNYck39muWfXVYHU5F3ggzQBfJ1H_WZQVgh3dIxzs20IURj0JPuaFwQyMu0nyKBGJT0sP3TS7mphQT-d3XhaSNL_tGiSi-/s1600/flowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="913" data-original-width="684" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ5rDQexsDrTsbzgvGkOo7tEn1QodX3C5WunsdW4fsW1tmlJXNYck39muWfXVYHU5F3ggzQBfJ1H_WZQVgh3dIxzs20IURj0JPuaFwQyMu0nyKBGJT0sP3TS7mphQT-d3XhaSNL_tGiSi-/s320/flowers.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">sunset outside my apartment :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
These past few weeks have been rough. What with school starting, classes to take, labs to teach, research to do, organizations to help run (yes I'm the sucker who agreed to help run two different organizations my 'senior' year of grad school), my second job to do-- well, it's been busy. Add in the fact I haven't had a weekend off in like a month, and well, let's just say I'm happy that it's Labor Day Weekend!<br />
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Not that I have any big plans for the extra day off, besides lounging and reading and lounging some more.<br />
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Which sounds pretty grand to me, I gotta admit.<br />
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Oh! And I'm hoping to use the downtime to get ahead on my blog posts so that hopefully I can publish on some sort of a schedule again.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVpyo3phFcj5Z-E_K3q_is1RzVvn04TPTsLOZJs7AiZhUxxSX-bF2wy4knmWzS7T1j9pIhgGRodZ6ols89KcZNteMvb4CKMzYlDFPSl_ajHqhQLxUFvzvylP45MLIJnqzY3hD8VAX2K6v/s1600/STS.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; color: #72659e; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"><img border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVpyo3phFcj5Z-E_K3q_is1RzVvn04TPTsLOZJs7AiZhUxxSX-bF2wy4knmWzS7T1j9pIhgGRodZ6ols89KcZNteMvb4CKMzYlDFPSl_ajHqhQLxUFvzvylP45MLIJnqzY3hD8VAX2K6v/s320/STS.png" style="background-image: none; border: none; box-shadow: transparent 0px 0px 0px; color: #888888; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.4px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474695415l/30971685.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="30971685" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474695415l/30971685.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="140" /></a><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320419962l/763470.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="763470" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320419962l/763470.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="121" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/763470.O_Pioneers_">O Pioneers!</a> by Willia Cather<br />
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I was inspired to try this book by a contemporary of Laura Ingalls Wilder when it was mentioned in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33911349-prairie-fires?ac=1&from_search=true">Prairie Fires</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30971685-the-disappearances?ac=1&from_search=true">The Disappearances</a> by Emily Bain Murphy<br />
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So far I've been severely underwhelmed and disappointed by this lackluster YA novel but I'm tired of not finishing books so I'll try and read through it quickly.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZnjiKna0T3cYGIXXdnOOmHMLRE30eg6eCzCmMAIVJKj0l-gUag7ydsxS__m6E4dkNObtsxKCYmfeC2-ZpUvCnWdRfKiYItatkXVHYnNgaKxzc_bks5ARwTmPU_nVOGuy7dzmiU7ZT6DE/s1600/last+week.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="70" data-original-width="346" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZnjiKna0T3cYGIXXdnOOmHMLRE30eg6eCzCmMAIVJKj0l-gUag7ydsxS__m6E4dkNObtsxKCYmfeC2-ZpUvCnWdRfKiYItatkXVHYnNgaKxzc_bks5ARwTmPU_nVOGuy7dzmiU7ZT6DE/s320/last+week.png" style="border: none; color: #72659e; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: small; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; text-align: center;" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/08/ttt-5-books-i-read-in-school.html">Top Ten Tuesday: 5 books I read in school</a></li>
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<li>in which I reflect on the age old question: can you ever enjoy a book you are being forced to read?</li>
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<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/08/disliking-everyones-fav-ready-player.html">Disliking Everyone's Fav || Ready Player One DNF Review</a></li>
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<li>in which I admit to disliking a book I wanted to like SO MUCH </li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58_FpFJmJG7W-hxaDeorbDonKgdVyJE6pa76uS5Rw4st0ESxUJg7_VcFYIz3hpfuJQdKbj4Fg1g8ZDNgKMzKC429mkpNBJJOfqnbhYbV2kZz3yd8UTLLDmw6MsDH4ZWt7jbrslTchgbB4/s1600/next+week.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="70" data-original-width="346" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58_FpFJmJG7W-hxaDeorbDonKgdVyJE6pa76uS5Rw4st0ESxUJg7_VcFYIz3hpfuJQdKbj4Fg1g8ZDNgKMzKC429mkpNBJJOfqnbhYbV2kZz3yd8UTLLDmw6MsDH4ZWt7jbrslTchgbB4/s320/next+week.png" style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #72659e; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; text-align: center;" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul>
<li>Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Foreign Netflix shows you need to check out </li>
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<li>get excited</li>
<li>I have a knack for finding the weirdest shows on Netflix that causes my friends to pause, scratch their heads and go, <i>wait. that's on netflix?</i></li>
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<li>perhaps another post</li>
<ul>
<li>or perhaps not!</li>
<li>the universe we live in is a chaotic and unknowable place </li>
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<li>so. there. </li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me! For those in the US I hope you have a safe and relaxing Labor Day weekend :) </span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-64405326883696789412018-08-30T10:48:00.000-05:002018-08-30T10:48:11.726-05:00Disliking Everyone's Fav || Ready Player One DNF Review<br />
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I don't think I've ever written a review for a book that I did not finish.<br />
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After all I rarely give up on a book-- or if I do, often times my feelings are more apathetic than strong and I don't feel the need to write them down.<br />
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But, since I was /so excited/ for this book and waited /months/ to get a hold of my library's audiobook, I thought I would explain why <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969571-ready-player-one?ac=1&from_search=true">Ready Player One</a> did not live up to my expectations.<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500930947l/9969571.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="9969571" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500930947l/9969571.jpg" width="131" /></a>Ready Player One is set in the not-so-distant future where the world sucks, everyone's destitute, and there is only one escape from the horrible realities of life: the OASIS. The OASIS is a virtual reality world you log into and contains everything from malls to schools to brothels.<br />
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I love sci-fic and the premise of the book drew me in. That and the fact that Wil Wheaton was narrating it totally sealed the deal.<br />
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I was ready for a fast-paced innovative tale which featured futuristic technology. I was ready to marvel. I was ready for action.<br />
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I was not ready for complete and total boredom. However that is what Ready Player One delivered for the first seven chapters. <i>Something</i> finally happened in chapter 7 but we didn't have interesting conflict until later.<br />
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So. What happened during those first seven chapters, you might ask?<br />
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An entire expose of the 1980s. The plot was comprised almost entirely of a kid doing research on 1980s games, songs, fashion, etc. And what's more boring than doing that research?<br />
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Reading about it.<br />
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After seven chapters things picked up <i>a little</i> but the entire book remained listless and boring. When my loan ended and the audiobook disappeared off my phone I couldn't muster up any disappointment.<br />
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<i>Finally.</i> I thought. <i>don't have to keep listening to that</i>.<br />
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Let me say that Wil Wheaton is my fav and he did a great job at narrating-- the issue lies in the complete lack of an engaging plot. The author springboarded off other games and technology and the book features very little of his own originality.<br />
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All in all? Skip the lines and try another sci-fic book (such as <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25667918-binti?from_search=true">Binti</a> or <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17131859-conservation-of-shadows?from_search=true">Conservation of Shadows</a> or <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22733729-the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet?ac=1&from_search=true">Long Way to a Small Angry Planet</a>).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let me know-- have you read Ready Player One? Did you, like everyone else it seems, love it??</span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-20372427683082294842018-08-28T16:07:00.000-05:002018-08-28T16:07:40.976-05:00TTT: 5 books I read in school <i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">That Artsy Reader Girl</a>! </i><br />
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We all had to do it growing up.<br />
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Required reading. The mere words can elicit groans and eye rolling. Seriously, have you ever enjoyed being forced to read a book?<br />
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Well, as it turns out, yeah. But it was a pretty rare event for me to enjoy being told exactly what book I had to read in high school. Something about the lack of autonomy takes some of the joy out of reading. But here are some books I loved, some I hated, and some I have complicated feelings about that I read during 'school' (which I loosely define as everything before college TBH).<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327144697l/3744438.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="3744438" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327144697l/3744438.jpg" width="122" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961427-1984?from_search=true">1984</a> by George Orwell<br />
<br />
I'll be honest, I was not required to read this, but choose to pick up this novel when I was in 9th grade. The reason? I watched an episode of Star Trek that my parents said was heavily inspired by this book so of course I immediately got my hands on it because, hello, have you met me, I am a huge Trekkie.<br />
<br />
The result? Eh. It was alright? But hey, at least I choose to read it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463157317l/168668.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="168668" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463157317l/168668.jpg" width="130" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168668.Catch_22?ac=1&from_search=true">Catch-22</a> by Joseph Heller<br />
<br />
I have complicated feelings about this one. I was forced to read it in high school and the act of reading it was arduous. After every chapter I would read the SparkNotes to find out what in the world had just happened.<br />
<br />
Also the first sentence caused every student in my class to yell out "<i>hE's gAy?!?"</i> and my teacher to roll his eyes and sigh. [[The first line:<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">It was love at </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">first</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> sight. The </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">first</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">" </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">so can you really blame us??]]</span></span><br />
<br />
I actually had a dream last night that I was teaching an English class and dissecting my favorite scene of this novel so that's weird.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312066724l/21996.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="21996" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312066724l/21996.jpg" width="123" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21996.The_Devil_in_the_White_City?ac=1&from_search=true"> The Devil in the White City</a> by Erik Larson<br />
<br />
Anndd now we are on to a book I hated.<br />
<br />
I abhorred this book but, because it was required reading, I couldn't just put it down. My only memories of this book are how much I hated having to slough through it.<br />
<br />
Ahh public schools.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1345958969l/128029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="128029" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1345958969l/128029.jpg" width="132" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128029.A_Thousand_Splendid_Suns?ac=1&from_search=true">A Thousand Splendid Suns</a> by Khaled Hosseini<br />
<br />
This was required reading that my entire class, myself included, fell madly in love with (sort of like Yossarian and that chaplain).<br />
<br />
It was gritty and dark and all I really remember is how much I loved it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404577320l/7304461.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="7304461" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404577320l/7304461.jpg" width="133" /></a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7304461-in-the-time-of-the-butterflies"> In the Time of the Butterflies</a> by Julia Alvarez<br />
<br />
Spring Break was coming up my senior year of high school and I could feel the boredom beginning so I asked my English teacher for a good book to read and man did he deliver.<br />
<br />
Have you ever read a book that stunned you by how amazing it was-- the type of book you want to go down the streets yelling about, the book you want every friend to be forced to read? This might have been the first book that ever made me feel that way.<br />
<br />
And at the end of Spring Break I approached my teacher's desk book in hand-- I wondered how to fit my feelings into words, how to explain the world this story had opened my eyes to, how amazing it was, how everyone should read it, how glad I was he had loaned it to me. <i>just put it on my desk</i> the teacher said, not pausing to look up from his computer screen and so I quietly sat it down and walked away. <span style="font-size: x-small;">((today me would have stopped him from whatever he was doing and exclaimed the wonders of the novel but past me was a bit shyer))</span><br />
<br />
That's it for me! Five books, some loves some hates, that I read during school. <span style="font-size: large;">What about you? Does the burden of an assignment ruin your love for a book?</span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-8492547980491891432018-08-23T09:10:00.000-05:002018-08-23T09:10:11.856-05:00Nonfiction Reading Challenge || Halfway through<br />
Waaayy back in the snowy month of January, I decided to try something crazy.<br />
<br />
No, I didn't pack up and move to Florida even though I DESPERATELY wanted to because: snow. ice. temperatures that can cause frostbite in 15 minutes. ew.<br />
<br />
No, instead I<a href="https://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/01/nonfiction-reading-challenge.html"> started a challenge</a> to read a type of book that up till then I had avoided like the plague.<br />
<br />
Nonfiction. Say that word to January-me and I would have shuddered and pictured page after page of boring dry information trying to force itself into my brain. But, for some reason, I decided that I needed to stop avoiding nonfiction and fully embrace it. Around Christmas I had randomly read my first NF book in ages and-- to my eternel surprise-- it wasn't dull or boring or horrible but rather it was amazing and riveting and who knew NF books could be like that??<br />
<br />
I made a commitment to trying to read one NF book a month. To some that may not sound like anything arduous but to me it seemed like a hefty challenge.<br />
<br />
Here we are, more than halfway through 2018 (?!) and I thought I would comment on how the challenge is going!<br />
<br />
First off to the surprise of few I discovered that NF books can be utterly AMAZING and wildly interesting and not dull at all? This was a shock but to be honest I have yet to start a NF book that puts me to sleep. Back in January I <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/01/nonfiction-reading-challenge.html">made a quick list of NF books</a> I might try this year: I can safely say I have read only two of those twelve, which brings me to my next point.<br />
<br />
What have I read thus far?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY58nII-jTLbp9nB9NHSf_eu0leHqjeHH51sOXmjtmVo9B2PtupdeoWid-YPOpI713z5_83kg6pAdD4nMjZc2Fhubya0sK6oKktOfc_6bDAh_oZcCsoPGTtGkz3tL-Rb1C-05uSqEnnsIU/s1600/nf+chall+fin-01.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="757" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY58nII-jTLbp9nB9NHSf_eu0leHqjeHH51sOXmjtmVo9B2PtupdeoWid-YPOpI713z5_83kg6pAdD4nMjZc2Fhubya0sK6oKktOfc_6bDAh_oZcCsoPGTtGkz3tL-Rb1C-05uSqEnnsIU/s640/nf+chall+fin-01.png" width="302" /></a></div>
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<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9748332-abundant-beauty">Abundant Beauty</a> by Marianne North<br />
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<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3398625-the-lost-city-of-z?from_search=true">The Lost City of Z</a> by David Grann || <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/05/getting-lost-in-amazon-review-lost-city.html">My Review</a><br />
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<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7684354-52-loaves?ac=1&from_search=true">52 Loaves</a> by William Alexander<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11550559-the-kitchen-counter-cooking-school?ac=1&from_search=true">The Kitchen Counter Cooking School</a> by Kathleen Flinn || <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/04/review-kitchen-counter-cooking-school.html">My Review + Recipe Test</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5084.My_Life_in_France?ac=1&from_search=true">My Life in France</a> by Julia Child || <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/02/review-my-life-in-france-by-julia-child.html">My Review</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyBup9BSCRXbo3rgjqKGxmigY8B_DQHIjvU-fd2SQ9iHce4svztFdN_7tSKh47mL0sxXmoaaYn3Uo0g6u0OlQCKu_Xcw7jw_0idvIerxAZQVUUlX_MEUY8P9gVEwHByvg3bRUUVSxw6vzl/s1600/nf+chall+unfin-01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1479" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyBup9BSCRXbo3rgjqKGxmigY8B_DQHIjvU-fd2SQ9iHce4svztFdN_7tSKh47mL0sxXmoaaYn3Uo0g6u0OlQCKu_Xcw7jw_0idvIerxAZQVUUlX_MEUY8P9gVEwHByvg3bRUUVSxw6vzl/s400/nf+chall+unfin-01.png" width="368" /></a></div>
As you can see I am a couple of books behind my goal-- but considering how crazy my summer went I'm not surprised and nor am I discouraged. This challenge has been amazing, opening up an entirely new genre for me. I can't wait to see what NF books I discover between now and December!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What about you? Are you a NF lover? Have you read any of these books??</span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-30169907459972971402018-08-21T07:00:00.000-05:002018-08-21T09:44:33.330-05:00TTT: Books to get out of a slump <i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">That Artsy Reader Girl</a>! </i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></i>
We've all been there.<br />
<br />
You're sitting in the library (or bookshop) faced with an impossibly large number of choices to fill the slot of what you're going to read next. There's mystery. Fiction. Science Fiction. Romance. Amish romance. (side note: can you believe that's a thing? That genre has always made me feel vaguely uncomfortable because it is, by definition, a very voyerstic genre)<br />
<br />
Yet nothing sounds good. You can't put your finger on <i>why</i> exactly but every novel just seems...meh.<br />
<br />
You, my friend, are in a reading slump. A murky weird state of being where the thing you normally love-- reading amazing books-- just doesn't seem to be jiving for you anymore. I would be a special sort of witch if I could give you a sure-fire prescription to pull you out of this reading funk.<br />
<br />
After all, each slump is different and requires a different book to clear away the clouds and remind you how fun and amazing and awesome reading is. So I've thought up a couple of possible scenarios and my best suggestions to end your reading slump!<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">if you need a good laugh...</span><br />
<i>maybe you just binged on WWII novels and now feel like life is a sham and the only constant is the ever looming spectre of death and IF SO here are two hilarious novels to make you laugh </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-27Fep837tucy0xdyu_h8GynjdIhzX3wBx4c7DrT3tesXfd19SSn0j9VpMzAcO99Pto1ulLyJIN5QMDxJzpPqh_wOBuLfX2mZLathk2UtGszxOS6m-qczJDNJA-jQnr5aer30vtYXdMf/s1600/laughs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="608" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-27Fep837tucy0xdyu_h8GynjdIhzX3wBx4c7DrT3tesXfd19SSn0j9VpMzAcO99Pto1ulLyJIN5QMDxJzpPqh_wOBuLfX2mZLathk2UtGszxOS6m-qczJDNJA-jQnr5aer30vtYXdMf/s400/laughs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9418327-bossypants?ac=1&from_search=true"> Bossypants</a> by Tina Fey || <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7684354-52-loaves">52 Loaves</a> by William Alexander</div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">if you are tired of typical book format....</span><br />
<i>after all, linear narratives are SO TYPICAL. maybe you're craving something DIFFERENT than the masses something UNIQUE. if so try: </i><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459785141l/25733990.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="25733990" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459785141l/25733990.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25733990-sleeping-giants">Sleeping Giants </a>by Sylvain Neuvel</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Told almost exclusively through interviews and transcripts this non-standard format was somehow both interesting yet still engaging</div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">if you need some that is as beautiful as poetry...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>maybe you've been reading classic novels or something that was old and stuffy and DRY and you want something beautiful for your eyes to feast on BUT you also want a story. if so try:</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347309330l/1158967.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="1158967" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347309330l/1158967.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1158967.Garden_Spells">Garden Spells</a> by Sarah Addison Allen</div>
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*insert heart eye emoji*</div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">if you just need a cute romance...</span><br />
<i>maybe you just need a little cute romance novel to restore your faith in the world. maybe you've read too much ANGST and GRIT and you want something lighthearted and fun. if so try: </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1504361319l/36157754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="36157754" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1504361319l/36157754.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36157754-the-woolly-hat-knitting-club">the woolly hat knitting club </a>by Poppy Dolan</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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Hopefully if you currently find yourself quagmired in a reading funk then one of the above categories applies to you and maybe, just maybe, with a little bit of luck you can find an end to your reading slump!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What about you? Any sure-fire ways you get yourself out of a slump? </span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-50807895688890629172018-08-19T15:08:00.000-05:002018-08-19T15:08:59.208-05:00Dear Sunday: A New Semester<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series. </i><i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with<a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/2012/05/staking-shelves-official-launch.html" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"> tyngas reviews</a>.</i><br />
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<span style="color: #242424; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">It's been a while hasn't? </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #242424; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #242424; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">This summer has been the summer of blog-breaks for me, apparently! These past few weeks I have: </span></span><br />
<br />
<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfvesEyPE4aYM4eZtWF_e1qWkCEnA0cdyZD58nXZT4u8m7UUcso1MT_E1OpF1ZButxduAiRswncJJOIakHK3RVSX2hugtMASuVoVSlqClcMc3K0TQY9_MtOhjKy4PLzoEa3Rf2uc6wHni/s1600/2018-08-12_19-32-58_566.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfvesEyPE4aYM4eZtWF_e1qWkCEnA0cdyZD58nXZT4u8m7UUcso1MT_E1OpF1ZButxduAiRswncJJOIakHK3RVSX2hugtMASuVoVSlqClcMc3K0TQY9_MtOhjKy4PLzoEa3Rf2uc6wHni/s320/2018-08-12_19-32-58_566.jpeg" width="320" /></a>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">gone to a biophysics conference, given a talk over my research to a room full of scientist I didn't know and</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">survived!</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">and not only that, apparently no one could tell I was SUPER EXTREMELY nervous?</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">which is a win</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">and there were a lot of people interested in my research and had some great questions!</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">so yay</span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">flew out for a leadership summit for the Christian Graduate Fellowship group I'm a part of </span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">and it was A BLAST</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">and amazing</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">and I played board games until like 2 in the morning </span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">so yeah it was perfect</span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">ran a science booth at the state fair</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #242424;">the kids LOVED my physics demos and it was really a lot of fun watching them get so excited about electricity and magnetism </span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
Whew! This week school officially starts-- which is a tad bit arbitrary since I'm a grad student and work year round but I am taking a class and teaching a lab this semester (oh and JOB HUNTING) so it's gonna be a bit busy.<br />
<br />
So I wish I could promise that I'm officially back in action and that there will be no more unexpected absences here....but yeah. No promises.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33911349-prairie-fires?from_search=true">Prairie Fires </a>by Caroline Fraser<br />
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My library hold finally came in! Some of my friends who are massive Laura Ingalls Wilder fans recommended this historical nonfiction about Laura and everything that was going on in the country while she was alive. It's massive tome but it has been surprisingly riveting thus far.<br />
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I'm also 1000% happy that I'm living in the 21st century without, you know, devastating plagues of locust.<br />
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<li style="text-align: left;">Top Ten Tuesday: Books to get you out of a reading slump</li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">this will be an interesting post because recently I've been asking for books to get me out of a slump! </li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">Nonfiction Challenge : 6 month update </li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Okay that's it for me! I'm excited to be back in the book blogging world. I hope you are having a great week and if you're a student, welcome to a new semester! :) </span><br />
Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-75887625601890758622018-08-01T07:00:00.000-05:002018-08-01T07:00:10.684-05:003 Mini-Reviews || Historical Fiction<br />
It's time for another round of mini-reviews! I was combing through my Goodreads shelves recently, and found three historical fiction books that I never got around to reviewing here on my blog. Since none of these novels elicited strong long-review-worthy emotions, I thought I would write how I felt about them briefly:<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509154718l/36353414.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="36353414" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509154718l/36353414.jpg" width="128" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36353414-a-defense-of-honor?ac=1&from_search=true">A Defense of Honor</a> by Kristi Ann Hunter || Era: Late 1800s (?)<br />
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When Kit fled the high society of London she never thought she would return, and she never thought she would be able to bury her crushing regret. Instead she focused her life on helping those that society would cast out and trying to make amends for a careless mistake she made in her youth that had far reaching consequences. </div>
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<b>What I thought:</b> overall it was a cute story. The plot was, at times, a little cliche (<i>love at first sight? ew</i>) but even so it was an enjoyable story. I loved how the author wove in the characters' faith without feeling heavy-handed. It was a nice little read. Also can we talk about how gorgeous that cover is??<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442068843l/6093438.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="6093438" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442068843l/6093438.jpg" width="132" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6093438-a-duty-to-the-dead?ac=1&from_search=true">A Duty to the Dead</a> by Charles Todd || Era:WWI<br />
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After getting wounded, Bess has a brief respite from her duties as a nurse in WWI. However she feels driven to deliver the cryptic last words of a dying soldier to his family, and to uncover the true story of what happened years before. </div>
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<b>What I thought:</b> This story fell a little flat for me. The plot was mildly interesting but I never felt connected with the main character so it was hard to get too involved. There are far better historical fiction/mystery novels out there in my opinion.<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387739248l/18404804.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="18404804" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387739248l/18404804.jpg" width="126" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18404804-the-substitute-bride?from_search=true">The Substitute Bride</a> by Linda S. Glaz || Era: 1800s<br />
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When Becca arrives after a train accident in a little middle-of-nowhere frontier town she can't remember where she is, why she is there, or really even who she is. But Jake Callahan, who greets her as she steps off, knows exactly who she is: his mail-order bride. </div>
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<b>What I thought</b>: this is not a novel that will win awards; it's not a novel you would brag to your friends that you read. However! It is a cute little romance novel with a plot that is a bit predictable but nonetheless enjoyable. It was the perfect fluffy romance story to read over my vacation.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me! What about you? Have you read any great historical fiction novels recently? </span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-29670219840554909542018-07-29T08:58:00.001-05:002018-07-29T08:58:17.556-05:00Dear Sunday: The Conference <i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series. </i><i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with<a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/2012/05/staking-shelves-official-launch.html" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"> tyngas reviews</a>.</i><br />
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This past week was busy with:<br />
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<li>coffee shops, </li>
<li>having a group of friends over to my new place for the first time, </li>
<li>singing,</li>
<li> going out to my favorite local restaurant, a place that decided that adequate lighting is overrated and keeps the lights so dim it's hard to see the food,</li>
<li>drive-in movie theaters with friends, bundling up with a sleeping bag because it was cold in July what is this world we live in, </li>
<li>skyping with friends</li>
<li>and also look at those hot air balloons that were flying outside of my apartment!</li>
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Talk about a great and busy week! Perhaps that list is apology and explanation enough for my lack of posting? </div>
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This coming week will be no slower. I leave today for a biophysics conference-- it's a smaller, more local one than the one I flew out to San Francisco for. Tomorrow I will be giving my first talk at that conference-- I've only ever done poster presentations so fingers crossed my talk goes well! Then at the end of the week I'll be flying out for a leadership summit for the Christian Graduate Student Fellowship that I'm involved with at my university. </div>
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Whew. </div>
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Oh look! A rare photo of myself! </div>
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But more importantly look at my book! <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36220698-record-of-a-spaceborn-few">Record of a Spaceborn Few</a> came out last week and my preorder came in and I'm SO EXCITED. This is literally the first book I've ever preordered and it's so pretty I kind of understand this whole book buying thing that all the other bloggers do. </div>
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SO PRETTY</div>
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I'm not gonna lie not much went on last week:</div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/07/dear-sunday-settling-in.html">Dear Sunday: Settling In</a></li>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/07/top-ten-tuesday-5-book-reading-memories.html">Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Book reading memories </a></li>
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<li>featuring three AMAZING books and two so-so ones but all with MEMORIES</li>
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<li>sorry for all the shouting today</li>
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I'm not gonna lie there isn't going to be much here:</div>
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<li style="text-align: left;">Historical Fiction Mini-Reviews</li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">I'm only going to promise one post this week because I've basically already written this one and I haven't packed for my trip or for my other trip OH and also I need to grade exams because final grades are due OKAY I'll stop now </li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me! I hope you have an amazing week however calm or crazy your schedule is at the moment! </span></div>
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Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-51444180226418664882018-07-26T09:14:00.000-05:002018-07-26T09:14:21.939-05:00Top Ten Tuesday: 5 book-reading memories<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">That Artsy Reader Girl</a>! </i><br />
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Have you ever looked at a book you've read and the memory of where and when you read it is almost more vivid than the memory of the book itself? For this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt I scanned through my Goodreads bookshelf and picked out five books that I have distinct memories of reading. Bonus points, three of the five are AMAZING books that you need to read today.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13055971-pies-and-prejudice?from_search=true">Pies and Prejudice</a> by Ellery Adams || 3 stars </div>
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This was a so-so murder mystery which fell flat in a lot of ways BUT one afternoon while I was listening to the audio book I embroidered this piece so something good did come of it. </div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8788554-first-grave-on-the-right?ac=1&from_search=true">First Grave on the Right</a> by Darynda Jones || 2 Stars</div>
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Once again a not-so-great book. I heard about this through someone's blog and well...kind of hated it. The novel had some really problematic issues with consent and also the main character was super annoying BUT! One night while I was reading this I got a SOS call from my friend: her brand new car had stopped working in a parking lot and she needed help. I drove over mainly providing just moral support as, after turning it off and on again, her car worked, I kid you not. </div>
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<a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/03/beautiful-magical-realism-garden-spells.html">Garden Spells</a> by Sarah Addison Allen || 5 Stars</div>
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Ahhh now we are on to the AMAZING books. I'm the janitor for my church and one afternoon after cleaning I had a small break before praise team practice started so I snuck upstairs to one of the rooms that had a bunch of couches and read this book for a while. </div>
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<a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/01/ready-to-be-transported-into-world-of.html">The Witches of New York</a> by Ami McKay || 5 stars</div>
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Have you ever started a book and realized, within just a few pages, that you have stumbled upon something great? That's what happened to me with this book; I started it in a dark parking lot on New Year's Eve and knew immediately that I had found a new love. </div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2113260.Shades_of_Grey?ac=1&from_search=true">Shades of Grey</a> by Jasper Fforde || 5 stars</div>
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I had wanted to read this book for a while and so when I found in my local library's bookshop for 50 cents, I was pretty pumped. My family and I were about to go on a cruise and loaded up on ALL THE BOOKS. When I wasn't seasick, I read this amazing novel. Jasper Fforde is just brilliant, that's all there is to it. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me! What about you? What are some of your book reading memories? </span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-80957828078730274072018-07-22T07:00:00.000-05:002018-07-22T07:00:13.656-05:00Dear Sunday: settling in<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series.</i><br />
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I moved into my shiny new apartment last week and have spent this whirlwind week unpacking and settling in. This beautiful lake borders my new complex, and I've enjoyed walking around it.<br />
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Last week I mentioned I was in a little bit of a reading funk and I thought I had found the PERFECT book to get me out of it: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15839976-red-rising?from_search=true">Red Rising by Pierce Brown</a>.<br />
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Well. My current feels about that book are summed up by this xkcd comic:</div>
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<img height="240" src="https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/fiction_rule_of_thumb.png" width="400" />
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So it's not going well. Maybe I'll get into it the more I read? It's a really highly rated book but seriously I think the xkcd quote is a direct line from the book.<br />
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/07/dear-sunday-move.html">Dear Sunday: The Move</a></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/07/top-ten-tuesday-favorite-novellashort.html">Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite short stories/novellas</a></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/07/horror-or-rom-com-house-on-foster-hill.html">Horror or Rom-Com? || The House on Foster Hill : A review</a></li>
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<li>Top Ten Tuesday: I remember reading these books! </li>
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<li>yeah no I'm still brainstorming the title for this week's prompt</li>
<li>like the prompt is rather interesting-- books were you strongly remember where you were/what you were doing while you read them</li>
<li>but the title is still a work in progress</li>
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<li>Mini-Reviews</li>
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<li>turns out I have read some books recently (?) so here's a mish-mash recap of some of the historical fiction books I've been reading</li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me! Thanks for stopping by and let me know: are you reading any amazing books right now? This funk is starting to take hold...</span></div>
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Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-54350997574795226532018-07-20T09:02:00.001-05:002018-07-20T09:02:43.678-05:00Horror or Rom-Com? || The house on foster hill: Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34020199-the-house-on-foster-hill?from_search=true">The House on Foster Hill </a>by Jamie Jo Wright<br />
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<b>Genres</b>: Mystery, Lite-Horror, Romance, Historical Fiction<br />
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<strike>One </strike><b>Two sentence book summary</b>: After the death of her husband, Kane moves to the middle of nowhere to restore a dilapidated old house, but the ghost of her past refuse to die. A hundred years prior another woman, Ivy, is caught up in the mystery when a dead girl appears in a hollowed out tree outside of the house on Foster Hill.<br />
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<b>One sentence review</b>: The author tries to fit every genre into one story and fails at doing any of it justice; she goes for shock value over authenticity and there are better books out there.<br />
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Let me explain! ((Get ready for a lot of caps because I have ALL the FEELINGS))<br />
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The biggest fault I found with this book is its oscillating and unstable tone. The author can't figure out what type of book she wants to write. Romance? Horror? Murder mystery? She tries her hand at all of them at once and the result is a splattered mess with rom-com lines that follow horror scenes. The genres crash together like dissonant notes as she struggles to find her voice.<br />
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Instead of crafting a story it feels more like the author is throwing SUPER SAD things in to make it a SUPER SAD story because it's SAD couldn't you tell by the SAD THINGS? It felt like I was being hit over the head with the SADNESS and not actually getting to know the characters in an authentic manner.<br />
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The plot is a little sketchy and at times pretty unbelievable. Once again I felt like the author was going for shock value as opposed to something authentic. One thing that I did like was how seamlessly the author melded the character's faith into the story. Often times if a character is Christian then once they pray EVERYTHING works out PERFECTLY because GOD and while yes, that is a possibility, there is also the possibility that your prayers will go unanswered and that is where the true test of faith lies.<br />
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This romance iS ~pRoBlaMatIc~. The author wants it to be cute but it is NOT HEALTHY. Basically you have this super traumatized woman dating her therapist (who, by the way is a PERFECT character who does EVERYTHING RIGHT all the time and could we be more boring) and that's supposed to be okay? Also we're dealing with some <i>love at first sight</i> and personally that always bugs me. Like. No.<br />
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At this point you might be wondering "wait...why did you keep reading it?" and yes, this novel has its flaws, but that doesn't mean it was a horrible reading experience. The writing felt choppy and sometimes read like the first draft of my novel-- lots of telling with no showing, if you've ever received that writing advice it is the HARDEST and most important piece of advice ever.<br />
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And yes the romance was PROBLEMATIC but also like, it had its cute moments. And the plot was a bit eye-roll inducing, but hey, I did want to figure out what explanation she was going to pull at the end (even if I knew it wouldn't be satisfying).<br />
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Overall: This was an okay book. It wasn't a <i>bad</i> reading experience but...it wasn't a great one either. If you love murder mysteries or lite-horror then maybe give this a go? I hate to say don't read a book because this is just my opinion but honestly there are better books out there.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What about you? Have you read this book? Do you also hate it when the author tries to fit every genre into one story?</span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-4286392923214517312018-07-18T10:13:00.003-05:002018-07-18T10:13:59.846-05:00Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Novella/Short Stories<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">That Artsy Reader Girl</a>! </i><br />
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Happy Top Ten Tuesday on a Wednesday! This week's post will be full of little rebellions as I'm trying something new-- asking YOU about YOUR favorite novellas and short stories.<br />
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Weird right? You see I don't really read novellas and short stories-- but not because I carry some weird bias against them. I never hear about them, they never pop up on my Goodreads, they never make it onto my ever-growing TBR list and so...I never read them.<br />
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So let me start by mentioning my two favorite books that fit this week's category and then go on to plead you for your recommendations.<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1362960323l/17131859.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="17131859" border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1362960323l/17131859.jpg" width="213" /></a><img alt="25667918" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1433804020l/25667918.jpg" width="200" /><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25667918-binti?ac=1&from_search=true#">Binti by Nnedi Okorafor</a> || <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17131859-conservation-of-shadows?ac=1&from_search=true">Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee</a></span></div>
This books are <i>amazing </i>which is a stroke of luck for me because they also happen to be the only novellas/short-stories on my 'read' Goodreads bookshelf....<br />
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Which brings me to the next part of this post: <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">help </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">me add some diversity to the books I read by telling me about your favorite novella or short story/anthology. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I know with book blogs we tend to gleefully shout our opinion into the void of the internet but my goal for this post is to do less shouting and do more listening. <span style="font-size: large;">Did you write a whole post for this week's prompt? Comment below with the link! Do you have a favorite novella you want to recommend? Please do! Have you read Binti or Conservation and want to fangirl over how amazing they are? ME TOO.</span></span><br />
<br />Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-49920420063171085742018-07-15T07:00:00.000-05:002018-07-15T13:17:43.202-05:00Dear Sunday: The Move<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series.</i><br />
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It's (almost) happening! Logistical complications mean that I don't actually get to move into my new apartment today, as planned, but rather tomorrow. <span style="font-size: x-small;">Silly lady booking every silly trailer in the silly U-haul store... </span><br />
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But that's alright! What's one more day? I'm not gonna lie, the hotel life is pretty suite <span style="font-size: x-small;">(yeah no I regret writing that almost as much as you probably regret reading that). </span><br />
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I was at the library yesterday to get some grading done (oh the glamorous life of a grad student) and I wandered down the aisles looking for my next read but couldn't find it. Have you ever been in the mood where you want to read but then <i>nothing</i> sounds like what you want but then you don't know what you even want? That's currently my reading life. Any suggestions for a book to get me out of this funk?<br />
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I took things a little slow last week to ease myself back into the swing of things!</div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/07/dear-sunday-why-i-took-hiatus.html">Dear Sunday: Why I took a hiatus </a></li>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/07/top-5-books-in-2018-thus-far.html">Top 5 books in 2018 (thus far)</a></li>
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Hopefully this will all happen even with the move...*fingers crossed*</div>
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<li style="text-align: left;">Top Ten Tuesday: short stories/novellas</li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">I'm going to attempt a different spin on this topic this week.....stay tuned!</li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">Horror or Rom-com? || Review: House on Foster Hill</li>
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<li style="text-align: left;">yeah. get ready for this review. </li>
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</ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me! I hope you are having a great, relaxing weekend :) </span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-11482415973538794782018-07-11T07:00:00.000-05:002018-07-11T07:00:05.497-05:00Top 5 books in 2018 (thus far)<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">That Artsy Reader Girl</a>! </i><br />
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When I saw the prompt for this week I wasn't sure how many books I would be able to rummage up. My reading life took a huge dip recently and I wasn't sure if I had read that many <i>amazing </i>books in 2018. A quick trip through my Goodreads shelves showed me just how wrong I was! Here are five 5-star reads I discovered this year.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Lyrical Masterpieces</span></div>
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<a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/01/ready-to-be-transported-into-world-of.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1552" data-original-width="1600" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTnvoL3C_hkmU7-A5GndKpwktpYr64X1ZHtYz0cNn4A4jK_zCoUbMcG2e2s5grZ-SqjDX7JB8f0BVEtzQo-kG9BDVADTHJacJ71HIYGi6SaoEohXilN5KndFNxrn4Xf-9ovc-p-GM2Y2hh/s320/IMG_5274_crop-01.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/03/beautiful-magical-realism-garden-spells.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GDlOaknO-NCTCTrcM_t8QAEH0oiV81D-VWA8HI-Wobk7KZ0k6ALRsOOr03BKguVPJEwSWK7vY612yWVTGRS9-60qxtxh-32mT-RncUYnbUljfwFYujo4Ao4Z8GEBkzGWWxG7HdoqEDW0/s320/garden-01.png" width="256" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32855304-the-witches-of-new-york">The Witches of New York</a> by Ami Mckay || <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1158967.Garden_Spells">Garden Spells</a> by Sarah Addison Allen</div>
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<i>click on the images to go the reviews and read my ravings</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Innovative Sci-Fic</span></div>
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<img alt="25733990" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459785141l/25733990.jpg" width="210" /></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25733990-sleeping-giants">Sleeping Giants</a> by Sylvian Neuvel</div>
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I somehow forgot to write a review for this book?? Let's just say on page one I wanted to put it down because it has such an unusual format-- told almost exclusively in interviews and that's not really my thing. However I'm really glad I stuck with it, as it was a brilliantly thought out sci-fic novel. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">NONFICTION</span></div>
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<a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/05/getting-lost-in-amazon-review-lost-city.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGM0vLq9yym96s1JEx-DNLveL1RWhYOIN7JX9z5rnn5R7HZ6rE5Gl0wuKkqoJ_NjqxGBAL9zz46ltJr3SHv22LRYLwcnceg4quvisdARbpHlkcymXUa7TnmXH5q54JulzoFwbzRVkTsNBK/s320/lost+city+book.jpg" /></a> <img alt="7684354" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1323235760l/7684354.jpg" width="210" /></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3398625-the-lost-city-of-z">The Lost City of Z</a> by David Gramm || <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7684354-52-loaves">52 Loaves</a> by William Alexander</div>
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Can we take a second to appreciate the fact that two non-fiction books made it on my best reads list?!<br />
Who am I.<br />
I'm telling you, this <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/search/label/nonfiction%20reading%20challenge">nonfiction reading challenge</a> has completely changed my reading life. I started 2018 feeling like reading nonfiction books was this massive chore I never wanted to do. But then I discovered that nonfiction can actually be pretty great?!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Whew! That's it for me. What about you? What are some of your top 2018 reads thus far?</span></div>
Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-69766310407241555712018-07-08T07:00:00.000-05:002018-07-08T08:40:51.183-05:00Dear Sunday: Why I took a hiatus Dear friends:<br />
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It's been a while. How does this thing even work again? *taps on microphone*<br />
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Ah yes. Okay. So in case you haven't noticed, I took a little, ehm <b>long</b> break from blogging and the real surprise is that it had nothing to do with blogging. I didn't get tired or uninspired or anything like that.<br />
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In order to understand my absence let me tell you a bit about myself: I hate spiders. As in can't-stand-always-find-someone-else-to-kill-them, hate spiders. Small spiders I can deal with, but when the get to be the size of my palm (or a little smaller) well, then, <b>I'm out</b>.<br />
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In light of this fact let me tell you something else that happened: I had a (minor) brown recluse infestation in my apartment. They would appear on my living room wall, on the wall near my bed, on the other wall in my bedroom-- well, you get the picture.<br />
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Twelve giant poisonous spiders in 4-5 weeks. Did I mention that brown recluses are poisonous spiders that are really hard to spray for? Ah, well, yes.<br />
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After a few weeks it became apparent that this spider issue was going to be an ongoing issue until winter and after trying to just live with it for a few weeks I made the decision to move apartments. It became impossible to enjoy my apartment knowing that it wasn't a question <i>if</i> I would have to kill another giant spider but <i>when </i>and <i>where</i>.<br />
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And while some people could totally live with that situation, I decided discretion was indeed the better part of valor, and made the decision to move.<br />
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So that move has been consuming most of my time-- I forgot all the annoying laundry list of tasks moving entails. Renter's insurance, forwarding addresses, utilities-- it's been busy over here. Add to that the yearly family reunion which takes place around July 4th and I have not had a spare moment to devote to blogging.<br />
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But all of that is about to change! Well, I mean, I still am dealing with the minutia of moving, that won't change. But the lack of time<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (will hopefully)</span> change soon. The new complex I'm moving into is, well, actually certifiably new in that they aren't finished building it yet. While I'm waiting for the construction to be done, the complex is putting me up in the hotel they own. It's a super fancy <span style="font-size: x-small;">(to me) </span>long-stay hotel with a little kitchenette and maid service and free breakfast and I may never want to leave.<br />
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Being stuck in a hotel should give me ample time to get back into the swing of things around here! I'm really excited to blog again-- not only did my blogging suffer during the anxiety-filled-spider-filled-time my reading life also took a huge hit. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(I didn't finish one book the entire month of June??)</span><br />
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Anyway that is my<strike> short </strike> explanation of my sudden, rather long complete absence from the blogging world. I hope you all are well and I hope you don't have spiders ;)<br />
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:Thanks for reading!<br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series</i>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-32828121647800223692018-05-29T07:00:00.000-05:002018-05-29T07:00:10.510-05:00TTT: 5 Atmospheric Books with Rich Worlds <i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">That Artsy Reader Girl</a>! </i><br />
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The prompt for this week was '<i>bookish worlds you would want/hate to live in</i>'. After browsing my Goodreads bookshelf for inspiration I realized that there weren't many book worlds that I wanted to live in, or didn't want to live in. And lukewarm list posts are never any fun, so I keep digging.<br />
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As I searched, I started to compile a list of books that created rich, detailed worlds within their pages. Worlds vastly different from ours; worlds just a little bit skewed from ours-- these books do a beautiful job painting a massive canvas of a world, and then showing you a tiny corner of it.<br />
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Let's get to the books!<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1158967.Garden_Spells" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="1158967" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347309330l/1158967.jpg" width="131" /></a><br />
<a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/03/beautiful-magical-realism-garden-spells.html">Garden Spells</a> by Sarah Addison Allen<br />
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Ahhh this beautiful magical realism novel excels at creating a magical, mirror-image of our world and does so effortlessly.<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22396077-the-darkest-part-of-the-forest" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="22396077" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430971252l/22396077.jpg" width="133" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2017/08/review-darkest-part-of-forest.html">Darkest Part of the Forest</a> by Holly Black<br />
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The world in this book isn't /too/ different from our own, but the writing in this book is so atmospheric and lyrical I had to put it on the list.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22733729-the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="22733729" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405532474l/22733729.jpg" width="128" /></a><br />
<a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2017/07/review-long-way-to-small-angry-planet.html">The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet</a> by Becky Chambers<br />
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What list would be complete without at least one Becky Chambers reference?? This sci-fi novel creates such a detailed world and really thinks about all the nitty-gritty realities of cross-species interactions.<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25667918-binti" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="25667918" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1433804020l/25667918.jpg" width="125" /></a><br />
<a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2017/06/top-ten-tuesday-best-books-in-2017.html">Binti</a> by Nnedi Okorafor<br />
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Beautiful. Innovative. Imaginative. And under 100 pages. Literally there is no reason why you shouldn't be reading this book right now.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2113260.Shades_of_Grey" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="2113260" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327563734l/2113260.jpg" width="133" /></a><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2017/06/top-ten-tuesday-best-books-in-2017.html">Shades of Grey</a> by Jasper Fforde<br />
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Jasper Fforde is a wizard with words and the ideas that pop out of his head are so interesting and unique it borders on the absurd. And so does this dystopian novel! Absurd and dark, he weaves together an alternate world no one would want to visit.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me! What about you? What are your favorite bookish worlds? </span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-53493813387056065022018-05-27T15:26:00.001-05:002018-05-27T15:26:02.222-05:00Dear Sunday: Summer Heat<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series.This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with<a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/2012/05/staking-shelves-official-launch.html" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"> tyngas reviews</a>.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBEHpsCMCOVfEUJfD-wL96sBdz3ty6zjCR42PSTmYbTzVQzuYrazZOrC-vWeexY9jmOEJHzn0a_Q5uQ4dkB5MpCFgxEbZThyakIJWAGU30jv9S56fXieloaG8-puhocr6axSpTpGH7-Fkb/s1600/2018-05-25_18-40-52_375.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBEHpsCMCOVfEUJfD-wL96sBdz3ty6zjCR42PSTmYbTzVQzuYrazZOrC-vWeexY9jmOEJHzn0a_Q5uQ4dkB5MpCFgxEbZThyakIJWAGU30jv9S56fXieloaG8-puhocr6axSpTpGH7-Fkb/s320/2018-05-25_18-40-52_375.jpeg" width="240" /></a><br />
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Ah yes, the summer heat. Nevermind that it is merely May; the high for today is a whooping 95 degrees. Not that I am in any way complaining! I much prefer this heat to the cold never-ending winter we saw.<br />
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This past week I've gotten back into playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild which is a game I started /months/ ago (a year ago? more?) but then didn't have time for it until recently! So that has been nice.<br />
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Onto the books!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVpyo3phFcj5Z-E_K3q_is1RzVvn04TPTsLOZJs7AiZhUxxSX-bF2wy4knmWzS7T1j9pIhgGRodZ6ols89KcZNteMvb4CKMzYlDFPSl_ajHqhQLxUFvzvylP45MLIJnqzY3hD8VAX2K6v/s1600/STS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVpyo3phFcj5Z-E_K3q_is1RzVvn04TPTsLOZJs7AiZhUxxSX-bF2wy4knmWzS7T1j9pIhgGRodZ6ols89KcZNteMvb4CKMzYlDFPSl_ajHqhQLxUFvzvylP45MLIJnqzY3hD8VAX2K6v/s320/STS.png" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; border: none; box-shadow: transparent 0px 0px 0px; color: #888888; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.4px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center;" /></a></div>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: center;"> click on the covers to check the books out on Goodreads!</i><br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35133922-educated?from_search=true" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="35133922" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1506026635l/35133922.jpg" width="132" /></a><a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328759840l/9748332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="9748332" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328759840l/9748332.jpg" width="129" /></a> My hold on Educated finally came in! I haven't started it yet but I am excited to.<br />
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I finally went to my library in person which meant I was able to pick up Abundant Beauty, a book I've been meaning to read for a while but I've been busy with all the e-book options my library offers.<br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/05/dear-sunday-spring-showers.html">Dear Sunday: Spring Showers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/05/traveling-through-time-austen-style.html">Traveling through time Austen style || The Jane Austen Project</a></li>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-to-hobby-watercolor-inspired.html">How To Hobby || Watercolor-inspired greeting cards</a></li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58_FpFJmJG7W-hxaDeorbDonKgdVyJE6pa76uS5Rw4st0ESxUJg7_VcFYIz3hpfuJQdKbj4Fg1g8ZDNgKMzKC429mkpNBJJOfqnbhYbV2kZz3yd8UTLLDmw6MsDH4ZWt7jbrslTchgbB4/s1600/next+week.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; color: #72659e; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="70" data-original-width="346" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58_FpFJmJG7W-hxaDeorbDonKgdVyJE6pa76uS5Rw4st0ESxUJg7_VcFYIz3hpfuJQdKbj4Fg1g8ZDNgKMzKC429mkpNBJJOfqnbhYbV2kZz3yd8UTLLDmw6MsDH4ZWt7jbrslTchgbB4/s320/next+week.png" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul>
<li>Top Ten Tuesday: Book Worlds I want to live in </li>
<li>ARC Review: A Defense of Honor by Kristi Hunter</li>
</ul>
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That's it for this late edition of my Sunday post! I got caught up this morning playing the aforementioned Zelda game and forgot to write this post in a more timely manner.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for reading! I hope the weather is pleasant for your holiday weekend! </span><br />
Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-48991114576997987572018-05-24T07:00:00.000-05:002018-05-24T07:00:17.962-05:00How To Hobby || Watercolor-inspired Greeting Cards<i>This is my second installment in my series How To Hobby, dedicated to one of my friends who always says she wants more hobbies. So I decided to do a series covering all of my extensive and random hobbies with the hope of one of them catching her fancy. <a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-to-hobby-embroidery.html">Check out my first post in this series!</a></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcUNGoQolghv-egvDeweIHmJnD0nk014d4xeTSbyd2LzvBpTnU8wJ-Zw4eGl5h9-uQcyy3fWDhcg-wgdcOu-vs-rTPj1CBfVfyb8rMl8WHblUvv5ozXdbADgBZED8FX7GAZmBlU6q5RGnp/s1600/final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcUNGoQolghv-egvDeweIHmJnD0nk014d4xeTSbyd2LzvBpTnU8wJ-Zw4eGl5h9-uQcyy3fWDhcg-wgdcOu-vs-rTPj1CBfVfyb8rMl8WHblUvv5ozXdbADgBZED8FX7GAZmBlU6q5RGnp/s320/final.jpg" width="213" /></a>Welcome back to my favorite non-book series here on my blog! This week I want to share a really fun watercolor-esque technique I've learned that I use to make almost all of the postcards I send out to friends.<br />
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Originally I was going to do a MASSIVE post on watercoloring in general but I decided to break it into two: this one is more watercolor-inspired, and the next one will be more traditional watercolor.<br />
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The final product is on the left! It is a super easy but still cool looking way to make artwork/thank you cards/postcards/whatever you want.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzo88vHDLRy5UkD5V0YrsDdmC0DTOzuQPkpJBwnwP5WKt22gNZZt0JG_vJtJBay-KJEF4f54vJt9WCsvZml6HTQui01IjMXdQ0S3TO02gDZmdV835mcFbt7LrkAVZ96FZd5vUJhOljBBu/s1600/materials.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="88" data-original-width="333" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzo88vHDLRy5UkD5V0YrsDdmC0DTOzuQPkpJBwnwP5WKt22gNZZt0JG_vJtJBay-KJEF4f54vJt9WCsvZml6HTQui01IjMXdQ0S3TO02gDZmdV835mcFbt7LrkAVZ96FZd5vUJhOljBBu/s320/materials.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4d5CCSAEZMjfEftJc07i_0YVl5_RApLTC5-R386jcIEAtKu5s4Jtl4Gdec00MDg6WMuN9ljgjc4KVODhdOdgTT8gRCcSQygQFcMdIgtbijXY5aHUY96pZJwxIcdjIQlJQPQO8hWSiQHo0/s1600/markers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4d5CCSAEZMjfEftJc07i_0YVl5_RApLTC5-R386jcIEAtKu5s4Jtl4Gdec00MDg6WMuN9ljgjc4KVODhdOdgTT8gRCcSQygQFcMdIgtbijXY5aHUY96pZJwxIcdjIQlJQPQO8hWSiQHo0/s320/markers.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0921VQN66MY1BChXhuwcrvUAH_DsbsiHwhFRZVp2RL1f6v48KBGzYmOWl_lcSfGzA7jJm5AJpUpUz1k7KGdrUjOZllHsuACQOOdgi3T4F4-NH2p3Ofzczg9pQzHgNEcFHUJH5tIXAKgg/s1600/pen+and+plastic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0921VQN66MY1BChXhuwcrvUAH_DsbsiHwhFRZVp2RL1f6v48KBGzYmOWl_lcSfGzA7jJm5AJpUpUz1k7KGdrUjOZllHsuACQOOdgi3T4F4-NH2p3Ofzczg9pQzHgNEcFHUJH5tIXAKgg/s320/pen+and+plastic.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgpsm3CUK7mBsmUrn_9FBdU8lUy5XRIL4RqRQ_FPnEoTAd8h_Yoa73BjvX87y9Af2_GVMznvNNDreNTRbCOo4U_64j4lK7wGF1dN0QD3Jpee7DCH1SoSULOGVeV_f17o4Qh1wVJf-iSi7r/s1600/water.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgpsm3CUK7mBsmUrn_9FBdU8lUy5XRIL4RqRQ_FPnEoTAd8h_Yoa73BjvX87y9Af2_GVMznvNNDreNTRbCOo4U_64j4lK7wGF1dN0QD3Jpee7DCH1SoSULOGVeV_f17o4Qh1wVJf-iSi7r/s320/water.jpg" width="213" /></a><br />
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<b>What you'll need:</b></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">markers of any sort</span></div>
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pen of any sort</div>
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plastic ziplock bag (generic will not work)</div>
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haha jk of course a generic ziplock bag will work</div>
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#Generic4Life</div>
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water spritzer (not necessary, but helpful)<br />
and some paper</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjipbLUFbTzcCsILsWk2G_vMRFbcwj19PDStyAEXXTUKZwZU3nzPlGOiv8z3wiAEpNb7a8iZha4aCEE1Y927XevxLQkDAq7RMEmwgQuIs3M8-BUAgf106sHxJZmgr7SG81zXgm4yqiRBdj3/s1600/how+to.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="99" data-original-width="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjipbLUFbTzcCsILsWk2G_vMRFbcwj19PDStyAEXXTUKZwZU3nzPlGOiv8z3wiAEpNb7a8iZha4aCEE1Y927XevxLQkDAq7RMEmwgQuIs3M8-BUAgf106sHxJZmgr7SG81zXgm4yqiRBdj3/s1600/how+to.jpg" /></a></div>
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<li>Pick out two (or more) colors to use in your card. I used Tombrow brush markers because I had a long lasting love of bullet journaling but really Crayola markers would work really well.</li>
<li>With no precision, draw several large patches of color with your markers. I tend to keep the colors separate because I want to keep my markers clean but it doesn't really matter. </li>
<li>Don't worry if the colors don't look very vibrant-- just scribble some color onto the ziplock bag</li>
<li>Now you want to sprinkle some water over the ziplock bag. This can be achieved with a brief, diffuse spray of a water bottle BUT if you don't have one (I have one that I use to teach my cat that defacing the furniture with his claws is not acceptable) you don't need one. Use a cup of water and a brush-- or your fingers-- to flick water onto the ziplock bag. </li>
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<li>here's the trick: too much water and your paper will pill (small lumps everywhere; not the end of the world) too little water and the colors won't blend well</li>
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<li>Place your paper on top of the bag and run your hand over the paper to distribute the color. Flip the paper over, peel off the ziplock bag and you're done! </li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKzNZfNG9Bha-9zZ9DgpkSDBCwdMvFdk34DdO5IezbEQWOG0YXKCrHnLFN-TJXf4sMTFqKCG-4kXIqFDFVpEs7viv4J8NCzWESjWw5Ic8e_bmWkie3khaoSp2eptz3nR40-cFX34n69vU/s1600/marking+the+plastic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEjXDg_lGg2qQDNMi4IB0PWC5NhnyVWujXE_bY7MS-1EeoceKP7k-iiosZC_jdUhHHJg6jpss4nDbBSjWN6CN0Im0zkvrfjjSfDQoRywiMq-FUsdTKOiAJku3I4qjXcjttGPmBTtAOQMXE/s1600/water+droplets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEjXDg_lGg2qQDNMi4IB0PWC5NhnyVWujXE_bY7MS-1EeoceKP7k-iiosZC_jdUhHHJg6jpss4nDbBSjWN6CN0Im0zkvrfjjSfDQoRywiMq-FUsdTKOiAJku3I4qjXcjttGPmBTtAOQMXE/s320/water+droplets.jpg" width="320" /></a><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKzNZfNG9Bha-9zZ9DgpkSDBCwdMvFdk34DdO5IezbEQWOG0YXKCrHnLFN-TJXf4sMTFqKCG-4kXIqFDFVpEs7viv4J8NCzWESjWw5Ic8e_bmWkie3khaoSp2eptz3nR40-cFX34n69vU/s200/marking+the+plastic.jpg" width="133" /></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbV-9g35tWI5sacCZ3qe78tnNX8tU4jlaK9UggXnJU95xIHnhC4vCT7H4Xlpr2_4XTJU_12QZYczsc9ZZrOaievJyR1kJZMJklLPcknlQ7z7CmefLIZ6i1blOQyYP-eEcL68qMt6aG6Jv/s1600/colors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbV-9g35tWI5sacCZ3qe78tnNX8tU4jlaK9UggXnJU95xIHnhC4vCT7H4Xlpr2_4XTJU_12QZYczsc9ZZrOaievJyR1kJZMJklLPcknlQ7z7CmefLIZ6i1blOQyYP-eEcL68qMt6aG6Jv/s320/colors.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Et voila! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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That's it! Now you should have a loose blended tie-die/watercolor background to write your message on. If there are pools of water on your paper you might want to blot them off. I'm impatient so I dried the paper off with a heat gun (just a super powered hair dryer) and then wrote on my message.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Jtw_ImjbvtqQyUhjmedG_PtWmBrmuCFloS9NSh26mdXiVruplly568JBeRXGvbqTaZ26RS-3-8xtE1KVMpMd5OYiTbgr4SzDUFITkNLG4XECntHsgJs6ZzJkgSjFbLQWMqLTEnf6A5_1/s1600/example.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Jtw_ImjbvtqQyUhjmedG_PtWmBrmuCFloS9NSh26mdXiVruplly568JBeRXGvbqTaZ26RS-3-8xtE1KVMpMd5OYiTbgr4SzDUFITkNLG4XECntHsgJs6ZzJkgSjFbLQWMqLTEnf6A5_1/s320/example.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here's another card I made using this technique-- this one is a bit fancier because I used an pen full of embossing ink to draw the little graduation hat/champagne and then put some embossing powder over it and used a heat gun to get those raised edges.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioevVDg-oa4-JkCgLhaxIvSUD9RTUDeVN28UQSaEW3_cKrZEvZFKxPbWenaM_3jvFtqCtapEimGi4qej6J7k2Fql9ROOec_TSB6BisrYUIIcKB0XkyLZx7b36HoOdKy-kMdWofjX_6ZRuy/s1600/final+overhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioevVDg-oa4-JkCgLhaxIvSUD9RTUDeVN28UQSaEW3_cKrZEvZFKxPbWenaM_3jvFtqCtapEimGi4qej6J7k2Fql9ROOec_TSB6BisrYUIIcKB0XkyLZx7b36HoOdKy-kMdWofjX_6ZRuy/s400/final+overhead.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSamEvPkya8N4nP-5zVVRV18r9w6HzGoMYCpWQ06rplNadx_qCA4Ue4Jy8mjhlHEDJtNRa3gMyETjzFaDc6EHDP96opnYKP0MlI_vO3nPoFFv6kjb7DaDcdQiEWSU-XGrQzPTRpzJWqhm7/s1600/people.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="99" data-original-width="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSamEvPkya8N4nP-5zVVRV18r9w6HzGoMYCpWQ06rplNadx_qCA4Ue4Jy8mjhlHEDJtNRa3gMyETjzFaDc6EHDP96opnYKP0MlI_vO3nPoFFv6kjb7DaDcdQiEWSU-XGrQzPTRpzJWqhm7/s1600/people.png" /></a></div>
Have I inspired you to use what you probably have laying around to make some fun art?? If so, I have a couple of cool sites that you should check out.<br />
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<a href="https://littlecoffeefox.com/"><img border="0" height="84" src="https://littlecoffeefox.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Official-Little-Coffee-Fox-Full-Logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Little Coffee Fox primarily talks about artistic bullet journaling but I find that she is great for overall artistic inspiration!<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/thefrugalcrafter">The Frugal Crafter</a></div>
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This is a YouTube channel by an artist and I just love all of her videos! She is fun, the techniques are approachable, and she has inspired me a lot. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let me know if you try this technique! Tag me on Instagram, leave a comment here, send out some smoke signals-- anything to get my attention. :)</span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-40529840841922634342018-05-22T07:00:00.000-05:002018-05-22T07:00:10.048-05:00Traveling through time Austen-style || The Jane Austen Project<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXV_3WFz-9bO5af8JM5FljhokX4LLjltwaDVaDWLrB8RpmlgoXjtKIGIw8lduMC-HzjyGAkmIV8cOkXeyMJlKYtL7ijt6zth5IooC8c75e-XQhn0n0GAQhdpN4rHZewEcSBvEGpVx6wI8y/s1600/jane+austen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXV_3WFz-9bO5af8JM5FljhokX4LLjltwaDVaDWLrB8RpmlgoXjtKIGIw8lduMC-HzjyGAkmIV8cOkXeyMJlKYtL7ijt6zth5IooC8c75e-XQhn0n0GAQhdpN4rHZewEcSBvEGpVx6wI8y/s320/jane+austen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm a sucker for time travel novels. I love watching characters get thrown into a completely new world; struggling to understand how daily life actually occurred in a time so drastically different than their own.<br />
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So when I heard of The Jane Austen Project, a novel that promised to combine both Jane Austen and time travel, I knew I had to give it a try.<br />
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<b>The Jane Austen Project is an interesting, fast paced novel about two people who are sent back in time with one goal: to meet Jane Austen. </b>In the present time, a unfinished novel of hers was just discovered, and the time travelers are tasked with the difficult prospect of befriending Jane Austen and discovering how the book ended.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTcHTSqeGInosaf53ItkoqSYPn0Q2h7Amf7YIh5EEiehcdxC0BEF4KPlJGySegfXXgSqG2QeoE4bCZW37myUpSkJFxYyfIYWy1-7MY0IOM6f46Xyil1LU8qAwN1GfuIpwS3RzspD23m-J9/s1600/jane+deck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a>The narration was precise and almost clinical at times-- and seeing how the narrator was a doctor, that made sense. It was interesting to watch the characters struggle to blend in, worrying that with any misstep they would be exposed as frauds.<br />
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The way the author dealt with the subject every time traveler writer fears-- paradoxes-- was...interesting but not really logical. The way she dealt with the possibility of paradoxes was a paradox in and of itself.<br />
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But that didn't really detract from the book itself. <b>Overall, the novel was a fun, easy read perfect for fans of Jane Austen. </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTcHTSqeGInosaf53ItkoqSYPn0Q2h7Amf7YIh5EEiehcdxC0BEF4KPlJGySegfXXgSqG2QeoE4bCZW37myUpSkJFxYyfIYWy1-7MY0IOM6f46Xyil1LU8qAwN1GfuIpwS3RzspD23m-J9/s1600/jane+deck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTcHTSqeGInosaf53ItkoqSYPn0Q2h7Amf7YIh5EEiehcdxC0BEF4KPlJGySegfXXgSqG2QeoE4bCZW37myUpSkJFxYyfIYWy1-7MY0IOM6f46Xyil1LU8qAwN1GfuIpwS3RzspD23m-J9/s320/jane+deck.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What about you? Have you ever read The Jane Austen Project? </span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222388960626219864.post-2945723342836541452018-05-20T09:09:00.005-05:002018-05-20T09:09:52.058-05:00Dear Sunday: Spring Showers<i style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Caffeinated Book Reviewer </a>series.This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with<a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/2012/05/staking-shelves-official-launch.html" style="color: #72659e; max-width: calc(800px); outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"> tyngas reviews</a>.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF-vpqmvR61nNMaIfN9L81cNDyMBDyn6w9nDQvDzwfuNICAwxiw4q4xwZkZUsLTWj7zqSxuzEUfb3wknzbUNbCGyvSawqBXV_bD7lQe6PU3ProiFjTLl_adaSfrF6e6KMty8d-sLMvwNIt/s1600/2018-05-19_18-20-30_413.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF-vpqmvR61nNMaIfN9L81cNDyMBDyn6w9nDQvDzwfuNICAwxiw4q4xwZkZUsLTWj7zqSxuzEUfb3wknzbUNbCGyvSawqBXV_bD7lQe6PU3ProiFjTLl_adaSfrF6e6KMty8d-sLMvwNIt/s320/2018-05-19_18-20-30_413.jpeg" width="240" /></a>This picture is from a walk I took last night in the forest that lies right behind my apartment. Luckily it turned out on my first try-- I was going to try more angles but some very persistent bees were buzzing over my head and I was forced to retreat.<br />
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Today is full of stormy clouds and threatening thunder so my nightly walk may not happen.<br />
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This past week was a busy one at work, as we had a collaborator come visit us. It was fun to have a different person-- and different perspective-- in the lab but it will be nice to get back to normal.<br />
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Speaking of getting back to normal I am hoping to finding a blogging routine again! Fingers crossed I can get back to following some sort of schedule.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVpyo3phFcj5Z-E_K3q_is1RzVvn04TPTsLOZJs7AiZhUxxSX-bF2wy4knmWzS7T1j9pIhgGRodZ6ols89KcZNteMvb4CKMzYlDFPSl_ajHqhQLxUFvzvylP45MLIJnqzY3hD8VAX2K6v/s1600/STS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVpyo3phFcj5Z-E_K3q_is1RzVvn04TPTsLOZJs7AiZhUxxSX-bF2wy4knmWzS7T1j9pIhgGRodZ6ols89KcZNteMvb4CKMzYlDFPSl_ajHqhQLxUFvzvylP45MLIJnqzY3hD8VAX2K6v/s320/STS.png" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; border: none; box-shadow: transparent 0px 0px 0px; color: #888888; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.4px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center;" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>click on the covers to check the books out on Goodreads!</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36353414-a-defense-of-honor?ac=1&from_search=true" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="36353414" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509154718l/36353414.jpg" width="128" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33918883-before-i-let-go?from_search=true" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="33918883" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1494701560l/33918883.jpg" width="133" /></a><br />
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The theme of this week's Stacking the Shelves is <i>ARCs I have no recollection of requesting appearing magically in my account. </i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZnjiKna0T3cYGIXXdnOOmHMLRE30eg6eCzCmMAIVJKj0l-gUag7ydsxS__m6E4dkNObtsxKCYmfeC2-ZpUvCnWdRfKiYItatkXVHYnNgaKxzc_bks5ARwTmPU_nVOGuy7dzmiU7ZT6DE/s1600/last+week.png" imageanchor="1" style="color: black; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; max-width: calc(800px); outline: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="70" data-original-width="346" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZnjiKna0T3cYGIXXdnOOmHMLRE30eg6eCzCmMAIVJKj0l-gUag7ydsxS__m6E4dkNObtsxKCYmfeC2-ZpUvCnWdRfKiYItatkXVHYnNgaKxzc_bks5ARwTmPU_nVOGuy7dzmiU7ZT6DE/s320/last+week.png" style="border: none; color: #72659e; font-family: "noto serif", sans-serif; font-size: small; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/05/dear-sunday-mothers-day.html">Dear Sunday: Mother's Day</a></li>
<li><a href="http://read-and-repeat.blogspot.com/2018/05/getting-lost-in-amazon-review-lost-city.html">Getting Lost in the Amazon || Review: Lost city of Z </a></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58_FpFJmJG7W-hxaDeorbDonKgdVyJE6pa76uS5Rw4st0ESxUJg7_VcFYIz3hpfuJQdKbj4Fg1g8ZDNgKMzKC429mkpNBJJOfqnbhYbV2kZz3yd8UTLLDmw6MsDH4ZWt7jbrslTchgbB4/s1600/next+week.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="70" data-original-width="346" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58_FpFJmJG7W-hxaDeorbDonKgdVyJE6pa76uS5Rw4st0ESxUJg7_VcFYIz3hpfuJQdKbj4Fg1g8ZDNgKMzKC429mkpNBJJOfqnbhYbV2kZz3yd8UTLLDmw6MsDH4ZWt7jbrslTchgbB4/s320/next+week.png" style="border: none; color: #72659e; font-family: "Noto Serif", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; text-align: center;" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Am I the only one who just isn't feeling the top ten Tuesday prompts? </li>
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<li>this week is favorite character names but I don't have anything really come to mind so! I'll skip out on this week</li>
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<li>Traveling through time Austen-styled || Review: The Jane Austen Project</li>
<li>How To Hobby : Watercolor</li>
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<li>this will be the second installment of my How To Hobby series, a series I started mainly as an instructional manual for my friend who wants to pick up more hobbies</li>
<li>for this post I'll show some of my favorite super easy watercolor techniques that I use to make postcards! </li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's it for me! Thanks for stopping by :) </span>Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00141390647221186884noreply@blogger.com0