Angieville

Today is one of my favorite days to be a blogger because it means (thanks to Book Blogger Appreciation Week ) I get to let my favorite bloggers know how much they bring to my days. I usually like to highlight a new-to-me blog (or blogs) from the last year. This year I'm picking three blogs that I knew of before but that I became a full-fledged  fan of this year, meaning when they post I click on the link. No questions asked. And I can honestly say, I never regret it either. In addition, they all happen to possess three of my favorite site titles and  designs. Clean, clear, and absolutely unique to them as well. Brava, ladies. Jess runs The Bluestocking Society , and she's just as intellectual, informal, and conversational as the society her site is named after. I click on Jess' links because she always surprises me. I never know what she's going to read next or what her reaction will be. I'm lured in by the possibilities and the frank honesty she exhibits in eve...

The interview swap day is always one of my favorite parts of Book Blogger Appreciation Week . I anxiously look forward to finding out who my partner will be and then have a grand time exploring their blog. Invariably, it is a new-to-me site and I love the excuse to branch out and add a new blog to my reader. This time around I was lucky enough to be paired with Ryan of Wordsmithonia . So without further ado, please welcome Ryan! What prompted you to start a book blog, and how has your approach to blogging changed, if at all? It all started on a dark and stormy night....actually I think that may be true. I had been on the Barnes & Noble book club forums for about a year and a friend on there had started her own blog. I had never been a big blog reader in the past, the few I did read, were mainly political (liberal) blogs. She, Deb of  Book Magic , seemed to be having a lot of fun doing it, so I checked her blog out, but even then I never though...

It's the first day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week again! I love this week and look forward to browsing through all the lovely posts each year. Today we're talking about blogs that have made a difference to us. I wanted to highlight A Jane of All Reads --a blog that I've really loved and spent a lot of time frequenting in the past year.  In case you can't read the fine print, Laura's tagline reads,  . . . in which we just keep falling hopelessly in love with very good books and every now and again form very sensible and respectable relationships . . . with vampires. Ahhhh. It was this tagline (and the original name of the blog--Life After Jane) that first drew me to Laura's site, and it was her hilarious and utterly honest reviews that kept me coming back. That and the fact that she fell in love with Richard Armitage and North and South shortly after I did, so we fangirled  bonded all over the place on that. Everything about this blog delights. I get ...

I'm a bit behind on this one, but I didn't want to let Book Blogger Appreciation Week go by without highlighting three of the best blogs I discovered this year. They're each of them distinct and charming and they managed (within a very short time indeed) to get me coming back for more on a daily basis. First up-- Book Harbinger . Isn't that the best title? This one is a bit of a cheat, as I actually met Holly in person before she started her blog and I may have egged her on a bit when she brought it up as something she was thinking about starting. You see, I knew she'd be just fabulous at it and, after reading (and consistently loving) her reviews on GoodReads , I looked forward to enjoying them in a more extended and unlimited environment. Holly has such a developed sense of and appreciation for beauty and the aesthetics of books, their covers, and their language, and I look forward to each of her reviews and posts with great anticipation. Add her to your feed, g...

I've been looking forward to today ever since I got to meet and  swap interviews  with Jena from  Muse Book Reviews  last year during  Book Blogger Appreciation Week . This year I got paired up with another new-to-me blogger--Lisa from  Her Book Self . I've spent a fair bit of time browsing her blog now and it is excellent. She has both eclectic and discerning taste and I enjoy her take on books. I've already noted down several titles she recommends to add to my TBR. So please welcome Lisa to the 'Ville!  *** You ran a personal blog for quite awhile before starting up  Her Book Self . What prompted you to start a book blog and how has your approach to blogging changed, if at all? My personal blog started as a way to keep in touch with friends after college, but after connecting with so many of them on Facebook, my blog dwindled and posting updates was more of a chore than a source of enjoyment.  I started reading other people’s book blog...

So basically you are all awesome and Angieville made the shortlist for the Best Young Adult Book Blog category as part of the Book Blogger Appreciation Week festivities. As you can see, it's in pretty much stellar company along with Steph Su Reads , Forever Young Adult , Presenting Lenore , and Pure Imagination rounding out the list. I ♥ each of those blogs and bloggers so much ! Voting is going on right now, I believe, and be sure to register for the interview swaps as well. I participated last year and it was so fun to get to know other blogs I'd never frequented before.

Amazingly, it's getting on that time of year again. Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2010 will be held September 13th-17th. I had a very fun time last year participating in the week full of events, getting to know new (to me) bloggers, and enjoying the general merriment. This year everyone is invited to register their blogs for the week and, as part of registering, bloggers can self-nominate for any awards categories for which they feel their blog is a good fit. You can, of course, opt-out of the awards portion if you would like. In order to nominate, bloggers are instructed to post the links to five posts that best represent their blogs in the categories they are entering. So here are my posts for consideration in Best Young Adult Book Blog: Review of The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan Retro Friday Review of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton Review of Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers Retro Friday Review of A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb The Parents of YA ...

And the winner is . . . cqueen2! Please contact me with your mailing adress and I'll get your copy of Silent on the Moor sent out. I was so happy to see all the entries as this series is really something special and I hope you all get a chance to read it if you haven't yet. After all, everyone deserves a little Brisbane in their lives. I think this is such a wonderful rendering of Brisbane. Check out more of Doris' wonderful artwork here !

I'm a bit late on this, but now, as part of the great BBAW , it's time to talk about the reason I love book blogs the most: the book recommendations they bring my way. Specifically, the ones I would never have picked up otherwise but that I absolutely loved and can't imagine having never read. Today we encourage you to blog about a book you read only because you discovered it on another book blog. Preferably, this will be a book you loved! You might also write a bit about the blog you discovered it on! Ahem. I've talked before about the gateway blogs that got me into the whole crazy, awesome book blogging world and Bookshelves of Doom is pretty much at the top of the list. I discovered Leila's supercool blog a long time ago now it seems and rarely a day goes by I don't check in to see what books are being challenged/banned across the nation, which books almost get her hit by cars , what the weather's like in Maine, etc. It was Leila's revi...

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack? Not usually, no. If we have leftover baked goods lying around then I will occasionally settle in with one or two. I'm actually much more likely to have a drink next to me than a snack. All that invested emotional energy, the occasional sweating of bullets...makes a girl thirsty! Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? It doesn't horrify me. I just don't do it much. I marked up my textbooks like crazy and if I give a book as a gift I do love inscribing it with a short message, but otherwise no. The funny thing is I love used books with writing in them, love perusing past owners' thoughts and handwriting. It makes them more valuable to me. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? This is a tricky question. My gut reaction is: bookmark. On a brand new hardcover, it's almost painful to crease the page. But when I was a teenager I...

Today I'm lucky enough to participate in the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Blogger Interview Swap ! That's a fancy way of saying today you get to read my interview with the lovely Jena of Muse Book Reviews . Jena and I were assigned the task of interviewing each other and (as was the idea) we'd never run across each other's blog before. We were both amazed by that fact as we have quite a lot in common, both in our background and in our reading taste, and I have to say it was a treat getting to know her and browse Muse Book Reviews . Without further ado, my interview with The Muse! *** How did you get started blogging and what was your goal when you started Muse Book Reviews? Several of my teacher friends asked me to keep them abreast of my reading when I left teaching. One night I decided a book blog was the best way to keep track of my reading and to share it with friends and family who were looking for book recommendations. Have you always been a reader or was there ...