In My Life
Two things: my sister’s finally on her semester break, which means all the book pushing commences! I’m starting her off with Cinder and The Raven Boys. I can’t wait to see what she thinks of them. It’s always fun discussing books with her. Sadly, she has next to no time to read during the semesters when she’s swamped with projects at uni. The other thing is, I’m finally gonna be off for my vacation this week. Exciting stuff!
Book Haul
My latest book haul definitely shows the diversity of my reading tastes. I don’t really confine myself to a particular genre and make a conscious effort to include non-fiction as well.
- Paid Attention by Faris Yakob
- Shadowdry (Wintercraft #1) by Jenna Burtenshaw
- Things I’ll Never Say: Stories about our Secret Lives by edited by Ann Angel
- The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht
- The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
On the Blog
As you might have noticed, I changed things up on the blog and overhauled the theme. I love how it’s turned out because things pretty much now are how I had envisioned. As before, I’ve decided to do away with sidebars. Full-width layouts make for much easier reading, in my opinion, since content is centered.
Blog Posts
This week I made a case for cherishing the backlist, given the hype for the newest releases that has become much fiercer as of late. In a bid to not only think about books after reading but also before, I unveiled Confess by Colleen Hoover. Of course, Georgie and I continued with our weekly book photography challenge. This week’s Mise-en-scène theme is playlists.
Book Reviews
Over the past week I reviewed Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer as well as Material Girls by Elaine Dimopoulos. Belzhar disappointed me and left me feeling cheated at the end of it. Material Girls was a much more interesting book to me. Even though I thought the prose and characters could have been stronger, I appreciated the satirical view it presented of the fashion and music industry.
Around the Blogosphere
- Stormy @ Book. Blog. Bake. reflected on her evolving thoughts on love triangles. I’m not a fan of love triangles when they’re clearly just a plot device to fill up pages in a books. But once in a while when the progression comes off as natural, I don’t mind them.
- Sandra @ Tea Between Books though about how languages and translations can affect the enjoyment of certain books. I could relate so much because I grew up with three different languages, progressing from French to German to English in my education. Transiting between all these languages often made me think about what we mean to express and what we actually express. I felt this all the more during the two semester in uni that I took Mandarin. I had to express thoughts with the limited vocabulary that I know. That was tough! And even if our vocabulary is limitless in two languages, words exist in one that don’t in another.
- Hazel @ Stay Bookish put together a master list of links and tips for Book Expo America (BEA). While I won’t be attending, I think it’s a great resource for those who are. As for those of us who aren’t going, these links should satisfy our curiosity about all things BEA.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE NEW LOOK. This is what I want my blog to look like *sighs* if only I were self-hosted then I can enjoy its benefits. Hope you enjoy GIRL AT MIDNIGHT! Now that’s a book I’m VERY eager to read.
Your design is sleek! And I love the header! Yaaay to more reading time for you! :)
THE NEW LOOK IS GORGEOUS AND I LOVE IT. So clean and fresh and pretty!! ^-^ I freaked out when I first got rid of sidebars, but now I love it. It makes readers focus fully on the content, I reckon. And keeps the page looking fresh and focused. SO YAY. You’ve done so well. ;-)
The new design looks awesome, Josephine! I love the clean look, but how vibrant the colors still are.
Your new blog design looks GREAT, I love it. :D
Thank you, Maraia! :D
I forgot to wish you happy travels! I hope you have a great time. Where are you going?
I’ll be in the Philippines for a little over a week :)
That’s great! I would say to enjoy the warm weather, but I think it’s already hot where you live? Do you take pictures when you travel?
I LOVE the new look! Gorgeous!
Haha! I also love the book pushing. Now that my bestie is going on summer break soon, I plan on doing the same.
Thank you, Amy! And yes, summer is for all the book pushing! :D
OH OH OH OH OH OH josephine your new design looks AMAZING. i am so in love with that banner and everything’s just so nice and sleek. also GOOD for getting your sister to read the raven boys! after finishing blue lily last year i’m all about that the raven boys pushing life. i tell EVERYONE i know to go read that book because it’s just sooo freaking good.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Annie! :D Brace yourself for more Raven Boys pushing on my blog this month ;)
LOVE the new design! The header is georgous!!!
Yay! I’m happy you love it too :D I finally got round to doing up the header design last night.
Look great. I can’t believe how prolific you are. Please oh please let me have a time in my life where I make as much time for reading and writing as you do.
Keep up the great work, Jason
Thank for the kind words, Jason! I tend to read and write things on my phone when I’m commuting, then format posts when I have time. And when I don’t, I sacrifice sleep. Heh.