Devourer of Books » Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon – Out and About

May 192013

If I haven’t been around as much as usual this week, it is because I’ve pretty much either been working or I’ve been outside. For the past two weeks now I’ve been trying to get our yard in shape and have been, in particular, waging war against dandelions. I seem to be winning at the moment, but it is a war that requires Constant Vigilance. (We don’t want to be using weed killer on the lawn while the girls are at an age where they crawl around on it). So, anyway, I’ve pretty much been outside Doing Things or inside taking care of the children or trying to squeeze in sufficient work time. ALSO, yesterday I got a Fitbit Zip, so I made a point of taking TWO walks, one really quite long and the other with a significant detour. I did manage to get in over 18,500 steps yesterday after the mail came at 10:30, so I’m really rather happy about that. Plus all this moving around outside stuff has meant I’ve gotten in a lot of audiobook time (if not much in the way of print-book time). Here’s what I finished this week:

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This week I announced what is next for BOOK CLUB this summer, and also posted two book reviews:

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And now I am off again because we are digging up weeds and ground cover in a nearly-barren patch of lawn in order to re-seed. Hopefully before the girls get back up.

Sunday Salon – Readathon

Apr 282013

So, for the first time since Daniel (who is almost 4, by the way) was just a few months old I was able to participate in the Readathon this weekend. I got to head to an empty condo with my lovely ladies Michelle from That’s What She Read and Julie from Girls Just Reading for some reading fun while my husband hung out with the kids.

During the time we were actually reading and not talking I tried the tactic of alternating books every 50 pages. It kept me going very nicely, but it also meant that I didn’t finish my first book until just before midnight. I finished one more around 1:30 or so, and started two others before heading to bed around 3 (okay, actually I’m writing this at 3 and will very likely still be asleep when it posts, but SHHH, I’m going to bed in a minute).

I read about 800 pages all told and had LOTS of fun, not least with Michelle’s brilliant idea of doing all hourly updates on Instagram (and posting those to Tumblr). Although there were some hours where picture ideas were tough to come by, it was still a much faster and lower-stress method of updating than getting on the computer and typing something up, and it served to keep us less distracted by the world of social media.

So here are the books I finished this week, first pre-Readathon, then Readathon:

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I know I typically also link you to what I reviewed in a given week, but I’m falling asleep in my keyboard, so I will trust that you are all capable of going back and checking that out on your own.

Did you read anything good this weekend?

Sunday Salon – 4/21/13

Apr 212013

When a story about someone trying to send ricin to the president and a senator gets largely overlooked, you know it is a crazy, crappy week. None of the news drama effected me directly, but I did find myself staying up far too late too many nights glued to Twitter for the next report. I saw lots of complaints about the cable news networks, particularly CNN, but all my attention was on what was being tweeted and retweeted by those in the print media, particularly the Boston Globe. We also had some fun torrential rains here last week, particularly Wednesday night, and when I checked my basement Thursday morning I had nice, damp carpet and a non-functional sump pump. My husband was traveling, but luckily my inlaws live nearby and my father-in-law came over and took care of it. Not quite sure what I would have done…

Despite all that, I did actually get some reading done. I think I was trying to dive into fiction to escape some of the madness of reality.

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This week I posted a giveaway for Nathaniel Philbrick’s new Bunker Hill and a guest post with Amity & Sorrow author Peggy Riley, as well as two book reviews:

What did you do to get you through this week?

Sunday Salon – 4/14/13

Apr 142013

Well this was a fun week! My parents were in town and both of my sets of grandparents came up. The girls took a little time to warm up, but Daniel was super excited and ran around like a crazy person to see everyone. I did manage to squeeze a little reading around the edges, though. Here’s what I finished:

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This week I also hosted BOOK CLUB for the fascinating novel The Liars’ Gospel by Naomi Alderman, as well as reviewing the following books:

Sunday Salon! 4-7-13

Apr 072013

Um… I don’t have a whole lot to say about this past week (except Elizabeth stood on her own three times yesterday). So, without further ado, recent baby pictures!

As far as what I finished this week, that is less exciting, picture-wise, because the one print book I finished this week does not yet have a cover image. It is Jillian Cantor’s Margo, coming in September from Riverhead Books. Other than that, here’s what I finished:

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And here’s what I reviewed:

TSS: 3-17-13

Mar 172013

Well, week two with Foreword Literary saw me featured with a new agent alert in Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents. HELLO AUTHORS!

I am now in a very enviable position for a new agent, I have ALL THE QUERIES, including a number of full manuscripts to read. Today is all working on edits for one client and reading manuscripts and queries. We’ve also begun the conversion of our guest bedroom into my office (no more working on the couch and coffee table – well, mostly, I’ll likely still do a bit of work there on my netbook while the kids are happy occupied). I’ll post pictures at some point, but for the moment I’m working on a card table, so there’s nothing too exciting yet.

Tonight we’re having some homemade corned beef. My husband got a brisket nearly two weeks ago and cured it for ten days and has been cooking it in our sous vide for two days. I’ve never been a big fan, but I do love brisket in the sous vide, so I’m hopeful I’ll enjoy this. Perhaps I’ll get enough done tonight that I can even read a bit of my book tonight.

I am sort of amazed that I actually finished three books this week, but that is only because I largely read the two in print before the party really started in my inbox. Here’s what I finished:

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If you are a book blogger, remember that the deadline to make recommendations for the April edition Bloggers Recommend is Wednesday, March 20th. All book bloggers are welcome to recommend April books (a book published in the US for the first time in April).

This week I showed you my nifty new Nook cover, and also reviewed these books:

Sunday Salon – Exhaustion

Mar 102013

So this was the week of ALL THE THINGS. I announced two huge things to you guys this week. First was my project with Nicole, Bloggers Recommend (my post about it | Bloggers Recommend website). Bloggers Recommend, in case you missed it, is essentially a monthly blogger ‘best of’ list. Don’t forget to subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

I also told you about Foreword, the new literary agency of which I am part. We have some exciting stuff going on, and I think the partners at our agency are super smart and savvy; they pay attention to what is happening in publishing and are ready to help authors navigate it.

Somehow in the middle of all of this I managed to read just a bit. This first book took me a whole week, but I shut myself off from my computer on Friday night and Saturday morning and read the whole nearly 500 pages of the second one.

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I also managed to review a couple of things this week:

TSS: Teaser

Mar 032013

So, I have a big week coming up this week, stuff you’ll find out about in the next couple of days. But, um, I don’t actually have much to say today, so here are some pictures of babies!

High chair twins!

Elizabeth has not quite figured out how to eat puffs

Elizabeth gets stuck!

They got to try to eat things on their own (puffs and scrambled eggs) for the first time this week and they are really into it – particularly Elizabeth.

Back to the bookish, here’s what I read this week:

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On Thursday I posted my February 2013 Reading Wrap-Up and let you know February’s pick of the month. I also reviewed the following:

Sunday Salon – 2-24-13 (an anniversary)

Feb 242013

So here I was, thinking that this week had not much worthy of note (it was not a bad week, just not much interesting to talk about), when I remembered that there was a little anniversary I forgot earlier this week. Turns out, Friday was the 5th anniversary of my first-ever post at Devourer of Books: Beginning of a Booktastic Journey, which includes my list of favorite books from back when I graduated college. I’ve told my “origin story” to many people, but I might as well share it here, as well. Basically, the existence of book blogs had never occurred to me until someone mentioned their existence in a thread in the LibraryThing Early Reviewers group. My reasoning pretty much went like this: “I think my friends and family are sick of always being told about what I’m reading, maybe the internet cares!” And the internet does care (or at least a small portion of it does). I have met so many wonderful people in the last five years: bloggers, authors, publicists and marketing people, editors, and many others passionate about books and the reading community. I love being immersed in the book world and cannot, at this point, imagine my life without it.

Anyway, that’s my little five year gush fest. As for reading I had a pretty good week. I got all caught up on writing reviews and freelance pieces, so I had extra time to read. In addition to the queries and requested manuscripts I read, I also finished all of this:

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This past week I told you about February’s books I’m dying to Drop Everything And Read, and I also reviewed these books:

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Sunday Salon – 2/10/13

Feb 102013

I hope everyone who braved Nemo is safe and warm with power, heat, and some good reading material. For us, Nemo actually meant that my husband got to come home a day early. He was in Texas most of the week but with an event in New England on Friday. Well, luckily the event got canceled and he got to head home Thursday afternoon instead of getting stuck out east for who knows how long. He meant for it to be a surprise, actually, but I ruined it by checking his flight information when I realized he was going to fly into Nemo’s path. Ah, well, he still got to surprise Daniel.

This past week was busy-busy, including finally cataloging all of the books that came into the house during January. Yikes, there will have to be some bookshelf shuffles going on soon. The girls have also been busy teething. And the end of January they were toothless, but by yesterday (their 7 month birthday, by the way), they each had one lower tooth. They are also crawling ALL over the place, sitting up, and crawling up and out of the sunken living room. Elizabeth has even contemplated the stairs!

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Perhaps unsurprisingly I haven’t had a whole ton of reading time, but here’s what I’ve finished so far this month:

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On Friday I told you about the audiobooks I’m really dying to get to and Thursday I announced that I have a signed galley of Jojo Moyes’s wonderful Me Before You to give away. Here’s what I reviewed so far this month:

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