Last bloggiesta, I spent my time organizing my books into a new set of bookshelves. This round I want to spend more time focusing on my blog! However, as always, life gets in the way. I’ve attempted to come up with a fairly achievable agenda of items to complete, as seen below.
Friday
7:30-4:30 PM Work. Clean up the feed reader during my lunch hour
5:00 PM-?? Visit the new indie bookstore in the area, One More Page Books. One can’t blog without books, right? Imperative to show the love to the indie bookstore as well!
It’s practically impossible to be a successful book blogger unless you have some sense of organization, from how you keep track of the review copies you receive down to how you organize your bookshelves. This post & mini-challenge will help you better organize your books!
Organization starts the instant you receive a pitch for a book. Keep track of those pitches somehow! I personally use an Excel spreadsheet saved in Google Docs, which grants me access to my files anytime & anywhere! Here are some of the things you should keep in this spreadsheet:
Date pitch received
Publicist Name
Book Info (Title, author, publication date)
Date book was received
Date review is scheduled to post
Date review is posted
Link to review
Date link to review sent to publicist
Mind you, these are just suggestions!
When I’m considering a pitch, I always consult my Google calendar on which I schedule all my reviews. Within minutes I know if I’m able to accept a pitch for a book, based on the release date. While I’m in the calendar, I go ahead and add the book to my calendar, typically within a week of the review date.
Organizing your books once they arrive is the next step! Be it Goodreads, Librarything, or Shelfari, I always think it’s best to have your library organized somewhere virtually. I personally use Librarything the most because of the many labels I can assign to books. For example, I use the following labels: review copy, to be reviewed, read & own, read & not owned, library copy, etc.
Now, there’s no sense in getting organized if you can’t have fun doing it! A few years ago, I invested in a CueCat, a USB barcode scanner you can use to scan your books directly into your Librarything library! It also allows you to scan your books into other web sites like Bookmooch, Swaptree, Paperbackswap, etc. Adding your books to your virtual library will only take minutes (ok maybe hours!) instead of days! A great investment for a mere $15!
When I receive review copies in the mail, I follow these steps:
Mark book as received in review database
Add book to my Librarything library
Check review calendar for review date. If none, assign one
Write review date on post it & affix to cover of the book
Add book to my review copy bookshelf, by date of review
Yes, I have a bookshelf devoted to review copies! This prevents review copies from getting lost among the hundreds of other books I own. It’s not a fancy bookshelf or anything, just a small cube-shaped four shelf bookcase from IKEA. Since I generally have review copies up to 6-8 months before publication date, two months worth of books fit on one shelf. This bookshelf sits at the end of my chaise lounge so it is within reach at all times.
Looking back on this post, it might appear that keeping yourself organized is a time-consuming task. I assure you it is not! Once you get used to this routine it’s a piece of cake! On average, I spend about 30-45 minutes per week organizing my books and I’m a little on the obsessive side.
Many of these tips will also help you in organizing your TBR (to-be-read) books, whether or not they are review copies.
So, how do you organize your books or review schedule? Comment below & become eligible to win a publisher-sponsor prize! Go forth and organize!
Interested in participating in Bloggiesta & some of the other mini-challenges? Check out Maw Books Blog to learn more!
Today is the official release date of The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. To celebrate this wonderful day and, at the request of many, I’ve decided to publish my original, gushing, nonsensical review of the book. Since I’ve already published the synopsis of the book, following is simply my thoughts & feelings about the book. To see the second draft of my review, hopefully one that is more cohesive and organized, click here.
Have you ever read a book, falling in love with it the instant you started reading it? The Weird Sistersis that book for me. How can one not fall for a family full of misfit sisters: an attention-hound (Bean), a free-spirited baby of the family, unable to establish roots (Cordy) and a sometimes uptight older sister, reluctant to loosen up and live a life of her own? What if I told you this family is full of bibliophiles as well? Seems like the perfect equation, yes? Obviously, I wholeheartedly agree.
Brown has stunned me with this outstanding book. I’ve read it not once, but twice, in the two months since it’s been in my possession. I pick it up and read it whenever I have a spare minute (and sometimes when I don’t). The cover is now well loved (aka falling apart) but I don’t see that as a sign of abuse, but a sign of a book that has been read several times. I’ve fallen in love with the characters, despite their many, many faults & flaws. I wish they were real, I wish they were a part of my life. That may sound sad & pathetic, but once you pick up this book you will understand and agree.
So enough of the gushing. Get up and go buy this book. Now!
Thanks to the author, I have one audiobook of The Weird Sisters to give away! To enter, please fill out the form below. The winner will be announced on Monday, January 31st. Open to US & Canadian residents only, please. Good luck to all who enter!
When their mother is stricken ill with breast cancer, three sisters reunite in the college town of Barnwell, OH where they were raised. Not that they needed a reason, each were seeking solace and a safe place to escape.
Rose, the oldest and most responsible of the trio (almost to a fault) remained in Barnwell to teach. She clings to her caretaker role, reluctant to leave when her fiance suggests she come stay with him in London.
Bianca (Bean), the attention-seeking middle child drops everything in New York to head home. She didn’t have a lot to leave behind, frankly. It was discovered she was embezzling money from her employer. While she didn’t face any charges, it was made obvious that her presence was no longer welcome.
Cordelia (Cordy), the baby, is a free spirit. She’s spent the past several years roaming from one place to the next, never knowing where she’s going to end up. She discovers she’s pregnant by a random painter she met during her travels.
Their father, a professor, speaks mainly in Shakespearean verse. The girls grew up with this as a normal part of their everyday life. Honestly, I wanted to grab hold of the man & shake him into reality.
His marriage to their mother is a strong & pure one; they’ve never spent a night apart. Despite growing up witnessing this “healthy” relationship, each of the girls have big issues of their own. They must learn to relinquish the roles they played as children and grow up into adults in order to survive.
This is the second review I’ve written of The Weird Sisters. The first contained a lot of gushing, squeals of delight and ramblings about my love of this book. I’m hoping this one is more cohesive!
How can one not love a book about a family of book lovers? The relationship the Weird Sisters share is quite unique, but not abnormal. I’m one of three sisters and found myself finding characteristics I share with each of the sisters. Who doesn’t want to make their parents proud, afraid to admit when they have failed? Who isn’t reluctant to leave the safety of home & reach outward into unknown territory? The girls have grown to define themselves in terms of their sisters, not as individuals.
As Aiden, one of the secondary characters states:
“…it is past time …for you to stop telling that particular story, and tell the story of yourself. Stop defining yourself in terms of them. You don’t just have to exist in the empty spaces they leave. There are times in our lives when we have to realize our past is precisely what it is, and we cannot change it. But we can change the story we tell ourselves about it, and by doing that, we change the future.”
The Weird Sisters is not only a story about sisters, it’s the story of three individual’s search for independence. Even if you don’t have a sister, if you are a single child, I guarantee you will learn something from this stunning debut. I have…and I plan on sharing the book with both of my weird sisters!
Thank you to TLC book tours for providing me the opportunity to review this outstanding book! Be sure to check out the other stops on this tour:
At Fort Hood, TX dozens of women are awaiting the safe return of their husbands from war. They form a close-knit community, linked together by the feeling of loneliness and concern about the fate of their husbands. In You Know When the Men Are Gone, Siobhan Fallon uses her own experience as a Fort Hood wife to detail the stories of women forced to deal with this separation from their spouses. While the stories are fictional, the experiences they detail are real.
Meg is a young wife who deals with the absence of her husband by becoming obsessed with the activities of her neighbor, a Serbian woman who met her husband when he was stationed in Kosovo.
David “Moge” Mogeson joined the army after 9/11. Typically, men like him counted down the days til their tour was over. They fought out of need to contribute to a cause, but not necessarily as a career. When his Sergeant is injured, Moge becomes the acting squad leader. He now leads the men he bunked with. The squad’s interpreter quits & they are assigned a new, female interpreter-Raneen. At first Moge is apprehensive about this assignment, but Raneen proves that she is strong to the core and becomes an integral part of the squad.
When Moge goes home on leave, he discovers that Iraq has become a part of him. He can’t survive in the “real world” and misses the sweltering temperatures and dust-filled air. With the fear of death constantly weighing on him and death & destruction surrounding him, is he a braver man for leaving versus staying?
Ellen doesn’t have to deal with her husband’s absence. When his chain of command learned of her diagnosis & the surgery required, John was appointed to rear detachment commander. This position allowed him to stay at home. That’s not to say Ellen didn’t have anything to worry about, a war was raging in her body. Her relationship with their teen was rocky as well. Her story details that the effects of war can be felt at home just as much, if not more, than overseas.
When Kailani doesn’t hear from her husband for several days she becomes worried enough to log into his email account to see if he’s received her communications. What she sees stuns her; a female officer has been sending elicit emails to her husband. He denies it, stating the email was meant for another officer. When he comes home, she tries to forget it. She’s luckier than many army wives. Her husband has returned safely, without injury. Anything that happened overseas an be forgotten.
These examples are just a snippet of the lives affected by war. We all see images of war on the nightly news; stories of explosions & deaths. How often do we really get to see the families of the soldiers & what they have to face as a “victim” of war? Fallon gives us a glimpse inside this hidden side of war. Soldiers aren’t the only casualties of war, the families supporting them are forced to deal with a completely different war on a daily basis.
Fallon also describes the close-knit relationships shared by military wives, of the strength and power held by these women:
“…thoughts of a deployment color every aspect of a military spouse’s life. When we meet another spouse for the first time, we ask ‘How many times has your soldier deployed?’ It is a way to compare years of experience in a few short sentences. It is our way, without the obvious map of a soldier’s uniform, to check out the medals on on the other spouse’s chest, to know what she, too, has survived and what she is made of.”
I’m not a military wife. I’m lucky to have my husband by my side everyday. While the women in these stories are fictitious, their stories are not. I’m proud of what these women have faced & survived, proud of what the endured for the sake of our freedom.
I urge you to pick up a copy of You Know When the Men Are Gone. Even if, like me, you aren’t a part of an army family, the stories of these army families will forever resonate in your soul. Highly recommended.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week. It was created by J.Kaye’s Book Blog, but is now being hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books so stop by and join in!
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (October 12, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0375865861
Source: Library
Vera Dietz is a senior in high school still reeling after the death of her best friend Charlie. The two have been inseperable since they were young, but recently Charlie joined up with a different crowd & shunned his friendship with Vera. Vera loves Charlie, she always has. But she also hates him. Hates him for casting her away like a piece of trash, hates him for betraying her, hates him for dying.
Vera had a pretty difficult childhood; she’s the product of a teen pregnancy, born to a stripper mother & an alcoholic father. Her mother ultimately left Vera & her father. She’s ridiculed at school because of this; she’d much rather be ignored so she can fade into the background. She simply wants to get through high school without leaving a mark.
Charlie had a pretty horrible childhood as well. He lived close enough to the Dietz that Vera could hear the yelling. Where Vera was able to rise up and survive her trying youth, Charlie turns to behavior that is destined, and ultimately, destroys him.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz is broken up into three narratives and vaccilates between the past and present. The majority of the story is told by Vera herself. One can’t help but admire Vera’s character. She’s smart, witty, strong and, like many people, flawed. She makes many bad decisions on her path, but nothing that isn’t atypical for a teen.
Another voice is that of Ken, Vera’s Dad. He tries to explain how his life ended up the way he did, even using flow charts to chart his path to destruction. He’s unable to refer to his wife Cindy by her real name, referring to her as Sindy instead.
The reader also hears from the Pagoda, a popular spot on the hill that overlooks the town.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz is “real”, involving real teens with real problems. No fantastical creatures or mythical lands. It is brutally honest, a book that must be read. Teens should read it so they can see the feelings they have of lonelinees & despair aren’t unique unto them. Adults should read it because, despite her age, we could all learn a little from Vera Deitz.
Please, please do not ignore Vera Dietz. It is a book that will stay with you, perhaps buried, but will reappear & remind you of it’s powerful impact when least expected.
Sixteen year-old Colt McAllister is orphaned after his parents are killed in a car “accident.” He moves to Arizona to live with his grandfather and start up his life all over again. Shortly thereafter, he receives a call stating his parents death wasn’t an accident; his mother was killed because she was about to reveal that a top corporation known for creating chips to aid in curing serious diseases is actually using these chips for mind control. His father was “collatoral damage.”
Colt soon realizes his world wasn’t as it seems, but strangely mirrors a series of comic books his parents encouraged him to read as a child. The flying motorcycles & beings from other worlds are real, and human kind is protected from these invaders by an agency referred to as C.H.A.O.S. This isn’t anything new; C.H.A.O.S involvement can be tied back to World War II.
It is up to Colt & his friends Danielle & Oz, along with the C.H.A.O.S. agency to stop an alien race from crossing over into their world for the purpose of dominating the human race.
Invasion serves its role as the first book in a series. It introduces the characters, provides back-story and lays out the main storyline. The storyline is exciting and engaging. As a lover of graphic novels myself it was exciting to read about one quite literally coming to life. My only complaint is the lack of character development. I hope Lewis plans on expanding upon this in much more detail in the subsquent books. Because I couldn’t “mesh” with any of the characters, this book didn’t grab my attention as much as I would have liked.
While published by a christian fiction publisher, Invasion really didn’t have the feel of christian fiction. There was only a brief mention of faith, but again perhaps this is something the author will delve into more in subsequent books.
All in all, I do recommend Invasion for fans of YA science fiction. The plot is pretty unique and this series has a lot of potential. I do look forward to the second book in this series, scheduled for release in 2012.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week. It was created by J.Kaye’s Book Blog, but is now being hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books so stop by and join in!
