Book Blogger Hop: 10/28-10/31

The Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books, is a great way to get know other bloggers and find new blogs to read. This week's question is:


“What is your favorite Halloween costume?
Even if you don’t celebrate, what kinds of costumes do you like?”


Halloween in my family was a BIG DEAL when we were little. My parents loved taking us trick-or-treating and I went until I was a senior in high school. My last costume was a bag of jelly beans, but I think my favorite was the Statue of Liberty. We found a shimmery, sparkling silver sheet for the gown, made a crown out of tin foil, and created the torch using tissue paper and a flashlight. It looked great and even better, it was homemade! Homemade costumes are the best.


The best I've seen so far this year are Transformers. My friend made her own and they are awesome. They even "transform" into cars when they crouch down on the floor. So cool.

Book Blogger Hop 10/21-10/24

The Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books, is a great way to get know other bloggers and find new blogs to read. This week's question is:


"What is your favorite type of candy?"


Tough question! I hardly ever eat candy, but if I do, I like kinds that I can eat little pieces of, like gummies, m&m's, or nerds. I think it seems like more when there are tiny pieces :)

Book Blogger Hop 10/14-10/17

The Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books, is a great way to get know other bloggers and find new blogs to read. This week's question is:


“What is your favorite spooky book (i.e. mystery/suspense, thriller, ghost story, etc.)?”


I don't read a lot of spooky things because, uh, they scare me since I'm a wuss, but recently I read The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson and loved it. It definitely had a lot of scary elements in it and like other reviewers/readers have said, I may have had a bit of trouble sleeping after finishing it. Maybe. Check out my review here.


I am open to suggestions if anyone thinks I am missing out by not reading suspense/thrillers/other spooky books!

Book Blogger Hop (10/7-10/10)

The Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books, is a great way to get know other bloggers and find new blogs to read. This week's question/spotlight is:


“It’s time to spread some love beyond the borders of the Book Blogger Hop! This week, we aren’t answering a question. We are spotlighting our fellow bloggers. Find your favorite(s) author interview(s), guest post(s), book review(s), or bookish article(s) that ANOTHER BOOK BLOGGER featured on their site recently and tell us why you love it/them! As an additional challenge, find your favorite one of EACH of the categories above and spotlight all 4 (interview, guest post, review, article).”


Well, I failed at the challenge, but I could easily think of a few reviews and a book cover discussion blog post to share with everyone.


1. Review of Daughter of Smoke & Bone over at The Story Siren. She starts the review by proclaiming that she LOVED the book, which immediately makes me want to read it. The story itself sounds odd, but with all the blogger love of this book, I think I need to read it soon.


2. Review of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer at Young Book Love. She titled the review "The Unbecoming of Bethany's workouts," which made me crack up, then she followed it up with a very detailed and funny review. I knew I wanted to read Mara, but now I do more than ever!


3. Review of Shade at Gone with the Words. Jess was tweeting about loving this book a few weeks ago, then her review was gushing with more love! She (and her review) convinced me to get it from the library and it is currently sitting in my car, waiting patiently to be read.


4. Discussion of Revolution's cover changes at The Compulsive Reader. I have an arc of this, currently in my classroom, and I noticed at a book signing on Tuesday night that the cover is now different from the arc. I liked the arc cover much more and then on Friday saw the blog post about the very same thing! I liked how she compared all the covers, including the UK one. The old one is by far the best :)

Book Blogger Hop (9/24-9/27)

The Book Blogger Hop is run by the wonderful Crazy for Books. I love it and think it's a great way to find blogs and get to know other bloggers! This week's question is:
"As a blog reader, what information (besides the book review) do you like to see in other bloggers’ reviews of books? (For example – Author bio, social media links, book synopsis from Amazon/Goodreads or one written by the blogger, page count, ISBN number, link to purchase, etc.)"


Great question and definitely one that I struggle with when I am trying to decide what information to include in my reviews! Other than the review, I like to see the book cover and a synopsis from either Amazon or Goodreads (no preference for either one). Page count and all that doesn't really concern me since, for me at least, the length doesn't normally effect my enjoyment of the book. I never thought about wanting to see social media links, but now I realize that I did put Maureen Johnson's twitter link on my review of The Name of the Star because she is so hilarious and entertaining. I guess other than the odd social media link, I really just want to see a synopsis and the cover!

Book Blogger Hop (9/16-9/19)

Book Blogger Hop time! As always, the hop is brought to us by Crazy for Books. This week's question is: 

“As a book blogger, how do you introduce yourself in your profile?”


Honestly, I love looking at people's profiles on their blogs, so it took me a while to decide what to put in mine. I finally decided to explain first of all that I am a girl (my name is Kyle, so everyone usually assumes I am a dude) and then what my job is. Hopefully knowing that I am a teacher can kind of explain 1) part of the reason I enjoy reading so much and 2) why I post much less during the school year. All that pesky grading and planning gets in the way of reading, sadly.


In profiles, I just like learning a bit about the blogger and what kinds of books they like, so that's how I concluded mine. Hopefully I don't come off sounding too weird! Profiles/About Me sections are your own, so do what you want!


Happy Friday and Happy Reading!

Book Blogger Hop (9/9-9/12) and Book Beginnings (9/9)

Book Blogger Hop time! Last week was my first one and I loved it, so here I am again! As always, the hop is brought to us by Crazy for Books. This week's question is: 

“Many of us primarily read one genre of books, with others sprinkled in. If authors stopped writing that genre, what genre would you start reading? Or would you give up reading completely if you couldn’t read that genre anymore?”


Interesting question! I'm honestly not even sure what I primarily read anymore; I used to adore YA contemporary, but I think I'm growing out of it. Lately I have found myself loving both adult and YA dystopian, sci fi/fantasy, and historical fiction (although I have always loved that one). I've also read some really great nonfiction recently.


Anyway, my answer: I would never stop reading, but if my favorite genre(s) disappeared, I would probably read more mystery/suspense books. I've read a few and while I enjoy them, I never seem to seek out more. I also have tons of classics left that I want and need to read, so I suppose I'd throw those in there too with the mystery/suspense.

Book Beginnings is a great meme I just discovered, hosted on Fridays by A Few More Pages.  You basically share the first line or two from the book you are currently reading and then discuss if you like them! Love it. I'll kinda sorta break the rules and write the lines from two books.




1. I just started Delirium by Lauren Oliver last night and am enjoying it so far. The first line is:

"It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure."

I love it because it immediately grabbed my attention and I knew that I needed to keep reading. Love as a disease? Love is gone? There's a cure? What the what? I'm thinking Delirium will be one of those read in a day or two kind of books. Glad it's the weekend!

2. I reviewed Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer here a few weeks ago, and I'm including the first line here because my junior English class started reading it on Thursday. I read the Author's Note aloud to the class and we stopped after the first two sentences to discuss them:

"In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do East Coast family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness of Mt. McKinley. Four months later his decomposed body was found by a party of moose hunters."

My students loved how open and honest it was. They knew right then that the young man did not survive and they knew that the book would track his journey to his death. We talked about why Krakauer just lays it all out in two sentences and about how it made them want to keep reading. I love it because, well, they wanted to keep reading! Great, tragic story.

Book Blogger Hop!

The Book Blogger Hop is of course brought to us by Crazy for Books. This week's question is:

“What are you most looking forward to this fall/autumn season – A particular book release? Halloween? The leaves changing color? Cooler temperatures? A vacation? (If your next season is other than fall/autumn, tell us about it and what you are most looking forward to in your part of the world!)”


Let's see...I am definitely looking forward to November because my best friend and I are heading to Washington, D.C., for a long weekend to visit our other friend who teaches there. I also have another friend from college who just moved there, so I'll get to see her too! I haven't been to D.C. in at least 15 years, so I am really looking forward to it. It'll be a nice break from teaching and I love traveling.


I'm also looking forward to cooler weather. It was a hot, hot summer here in Michigan and I can't wait to wear jeans and hoodies/sweaters outside instead of shorts and tank tops while dripping with sweat (you're welcome for that visual). And of course, there will definitely be bonfires! My favorite!


Anything you are looking forward to?