Sunday, February 24, 2019

The Sunday Post #187

I have a niece!
(Also, this is what would happen if a burrito wished to be a real girl.)



The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, and share news. It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Book Date. I get to tell you what I’ve read recently.




On The Blog Last Week











On The Blog This Week


  • On Saturday there’s a giveaway. Come back to win a brand new book of your choice.









In My Reading Life


Last week, I finished The Arsonist by Stephanie Oakes. I have mixed feelings. I loved every second of reading it because the mystery is compelling and the characters are funny. When I got to the end, I realized that the mystery is kind of pointless. The adults could have just behaved like adults and talked to the kids. There was no reason for two teenagers (and a pug) to go gallivanting off to Germany on a potentially illegal quest.



Then I read and listened to Dear Martin by Nic Stone. This book is too short! I love Justyce and how he’s caught between cultures. I love that he’s trying to make himself a better person. I didn’t love the audiobook narrator. He puts. Weird pauses between. Words for. Absolutely. No. Reason. Everything sounds. Choppy and I. Got. Pissed off quickly. That’s why I switched back and forth between reading and listening.



Right now, I’m reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I have a feeling I’m going to run out of patience with this one and DNF it. It’s quite preachy. I’m listening to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. I like the stories, but I’m once again struggling with the audiobook narrator’s voice.








In My Internet Stalking Life











In The Rest Of My Life


Five things that made me happy last week:

  1. I’m on an accidental blogging hiatus right now. I’m finishing up two giant work projects, and there’s a new baby in the house. Those are good things, but they’ve made blogging a bit impossible. I’m hoping that everything will be back to normal on the blog on March 1.
  2. Harry Potter movie marathon.
  3. I baked cookies. They looked awful, but they tasted good.
  4. I’m trying really hard to organize my Pinterest stuff. Right now, I’m working on a board for books that I think are worth reading.
  5. Brooklyn, my sister's baby. She was born on February 16. Her hobbies include screaming all night and throwing up on everyone:









Of course there was a snowstorm and 1000 traffic accidents while we were driving to the hospital.








Help me along the path to world domination














Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other! See you around the blogosphere!








68 comments:

  1. Ok you made me laugh with the burrito and your niece hobbies! Man if you live under the same roof as your sister you are in for some short nights for a while! About your audiobook now: that's ashame the narrator does not fit! I am trying audiobooks for two months now but I always listen to a sample before deciding. I noticed that my favorite genre (romance) does not work at all in audio (I just want to giggle when they make some noises or when a man tried to speak like a woman or ...). I realized that the audiobooks that work best for me are memoirs or true stories! Like Becoming by Michelle Obama or right now Beneath a Scarlet Sky. Anyway hang on tight with work and the baby and hopefully see you back begin March!

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    1. I tried listening to samples, but I don’t get annoyed by a narrator’s voice until I’ve been listening to it for a few hours. I haven’t tried listening to a memoir yet. I can see how that would be better. I do laugh when men do lady voices. Most of them are really bad!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  2. Congratulations to your sister ... and excellent news re your new niece. Good luck to you all cheers Hilary

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  3. aww the baby!! congratulations! so precious.
    I know, I read Little Women and found it preachy too, I think it was a sign of the times.
    Enjoy your week, I may bake cookies today myself.

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    1. Yeah, a lot of children’s classics are preachy. So far, I’ve been gritting my teeth and waiting for the story to start again.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. Congrats on your niece! She is so cute.
    Babies often scream and throw up a lot, however nothing beats being peed on. :)

    I hope you have a great week, Enjoy that baby! Happy Reading! xx

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    1. Haha, I haven’t been peed on yet, but she has peed on her blanket, her bathtub, and the floor.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  5. Congrats on your niece! Brooklyn is a lovely name.

    I know what you mean about Little Women. I loved it as a young girl, but in adulthood, I thought it was too moralistic.

    Enjoy your cuddle time with the baby. Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES

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  6. Hah! I love your niece's hobbies. It's a good thing she's so cute, right? I'm not blogging as much lately but hey, it happens! I want to read Little Women, but I'm a bit worried I won't finish it either. We'll see. lol

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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    1. Little Women is very long and very moral heavy. It annoys me when books pause the story to teach the reader a lesson.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  7. You definitely have some good reasons to be away from the blog for a bit! Babies are nice, but she will be even more fun the older she gets. My niece and nephews make me smile every day!

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    1. Hopefully she becomes more interesting soon. Right now, she sleeps, eats, poops, throws up, and screams.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  8. Congrats on your new little niece. You won’t mean to, but you will fall in love.

    I’m always amazed at some of our old children’s books like Little Women, Pollyanna, Heidi—-people were pumped full of Optimistic Juice, and the oddest conversations occur. I’m not sure what that was about, but it often reads false. It is pleasant to think that perhaps people were more kind and good long ago. One can dream.

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    1. I agree that a lot of children’s classics are sickly sweet. All problems can be solved by smiling more and listening to your parents!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  9. What a sweet face! The whole baby burrito thing is always so fun to see. Neither of mine could really stand it and always had to have at least an arm out. I hate mysteries like that. Seriously people - just talk to each other! I soldiered through Little Women last year and was not a fan. Definitely preachy and I loathed Amy. Everyone else had consequences in spades but she just kind of bounced through life with everyone patting her on the head. I sympathized with Meg who got out of there as quickly as possible. I did love Jo's Boys which is later in the series and Eight Cousins was one of my favorites. There's a little preachiness/moralizing but I didn't want to smother any of the characters which made it way better. Did I mention I didn't like Amy? Have a great week!

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    1. Haha, I’m not an Amy fan, either. She mostly just whines about things. So far, Jo is my favorite. She has the most personality.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  10. Aww, your new niece is just adorable!! I'm happy for all of you. Between Brooklyn and big projects at work, no wonder you need a little hiatus from blogging. We'll see you back here when rings settle down...

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    1. Hopefully all the blog things will be back on track in early March. I ran out of scheduled posts and didn’t have time to write more.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  11. Yay for baby pictures!! She's the sweetest little thing (well, besides the screaming and throwing up---I remember those days!). No worries about a hiatus--sometimes you just need to focus on other things.

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. There have been A LOT of other things happening recently. I feel like my brain is going in a million directions at once.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  12. Aww cute baby pics! Congrats to your sister (and to you for being an aunt)!! Lol about her hobbies. :)

    Cookies! If they're good it doesn't matter how bad they look haha!

    Have a super week!

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    1. I’m surprised the cookies tasted good. I burned them a little. :)

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  13. How adorable! She is a beautiful. I am glad everything is good with mom and baby. Of course there was a storm - birth is never easy even getting to the hospital to deliver! Have a good week and things will calm down.

    Mary

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    1. It didn’t help that the hospital is 45 minutes away on a good day. It took forever to get there.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  14. Brooklyn has the most important hobbies at the moment. You should support you relatives in their hobbies, shouldn't you?
    That was the queckest. And most laconic. Description of narration. Of the audiobook!

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    1. Haha, I’m trying to support her hobbies, but some of them are gross!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  15. That's the most adorable burrito ever!!! She is precious. I would rather eat an ugly cookie that is delicious, than a beautiful cookie that tastes terrible. I'm just saying.

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    1. A beautiful cookie that tastes terrible would be the most disappointing thing ever!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  16. Well, hello there, auntie! There is a lot of screaming and puking the first two months, it's a mandatory rule of babydom. Ha ha. 👶👑

    I'll always give a big thumbs up to a Harry Potter marathon! ⚡✨👍

    So many bloggers have read and re-read Little Women recently and not cared for it. I loved it as a young teen and am afraid to revisit the story for fear I won't like it any longer. I plan to re-read it next year when I do my Year of Classics on the blog. 📚

    Have a wonderful new week! 🌞

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    1. I read a lot of classics as a kid, but I somehow missed Little Women. Maybe I would have had more patience for it as a child. Right now, moral-heavy books get on my nerves.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  17. I love your nieces hobbies! It's funny that my two girls had the same hobbies :) My oldest daughter was born during a snowstorm and everyone let me know how much that inconvenienced them....like I had some control over the weather...lol. Have a great week!

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    1. Haha, nobody seemed too mad about the weather. I guess because it’s Colorado and we’re used to snow and car accidents.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  18. Haha, burrito :D congratulations! And agreed about Little Women. I felt the same :D so much preaching.

    Oh hey, your little niece was born on the independence day of my country :)

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  19. Glad to hear your neice arrived safely! No harm in a little bit of a break, a baby in the house is a big change!

    Hope you enjoy the HP movie marathon. With a couple of exceptions, I hate the movies. 😆

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    1. Haha, I like movies 6-8 more than 1-5, but I don’t hate any of them. They make me happy.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  20. Congrats and I love the name! So adorable. I loved "Dear Martin" and actually enjoyed it more than "The Hate U Give." "Little Women" is actually one of my favorite classics so I'm sorry it isn't working out for you.

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  21. Ahhh your niece looks adorable <3
    I'm happy you enjoyed Dear Martin, though the audiobook narrator sounds so annoying haha. :) I hope you'll have a fantastic week! <3 <3

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    1. It’s such a good book that an annoying narrator couldn’t ruin it. :)

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  22. Cute baby! I love her current hobbies. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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  23. I love reading your Sunday posts! Great photos. Your niece has the same hobbies as my niece, who is 6 weeks older than my daughter. Luckily, my daughter had different hobbies; she was a sleeper. My brother came for a weekend when she was 4 weeks old for her baptism and said I didn't deserve to be called a parent because he never heard her cry the whole weekend! She's 22 now and sleeping is still high on her list. lol Have a wonderful and hopefully more restful week! Anne - Books of My Heart

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    1. You’re lucky. Brooklyn sleeps a lot, but she screams whenever someone isn’t holding her. She has to sleep on people.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  24. You definitely deserve that accidental hiatus.

    Also interesting insight to The Arsonist. I had been looking at it, but apparently not closely but I didn't realize they run off to Germany.

    Congrats on the birth of your niece AJ!!!

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    1. Yes, the kids are trying to solve a mystery, and it involves them running around all over the place. It’s a fun book. I was just disappointed in the reason behind the mystery.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  25. Ahh...so sweet! congrats on being an aunt. :)

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  26. I have never managed to finish Little Women. Congratulations again on your niece. My weekly update

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    1. It’s such a long book! So far, I’m doing okay with it, but I don’t know if I’ll make it to the end.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  27. You’re going to make a great aunt—cute baby and I hope that before too long she’ll be sleeping through the night.

    www.thepulpitandthepen.com

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  28. I tried a few classics but the writing style and content never suited my taste! I don't go near them now. I might look at a few of the adventure books by Conan Doyle and Verne just out of curiosity!

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  29. Your sister's baby is here!! Congratulations on your new niece! ❤️

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  30. I'm laughing at baby burrito! Congrats on your niece! I really want to read The Arsonist because I loved Minnow Bly, but now I'm nervous. I hate when the whole plot is because of failure to communicate. :/ Hurray for cookies! Who cares how they look as long as they're tasty!

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    1. I liked The Arsonist a lot, but the end was a bit of a letdown. The characters are great, though, so I’d recommend reading it.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  31. Welcome to Brooklyn! I’ve never had to live with a newborn but I imagine the whole household now revolves around her. Which is fun... but also a major time suck. Yay for cookies!

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    1. Yes, everything very much revolves around her. She’s a needy little creature.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  32. Congratulations!!! Being an auntie is among my favorite titles.

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  33. Oh my goodness, BABYYYY. So cute!! I hope you have so much fun with her- and best part of being the aunt, you get to give her back! I am kind of bummed about The Arsonist, I still may give it a go one of these days but my expectations are definitely lowered! Glad that Dear Martin was mostly good though!

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  34. Congrats on being an aunt. The baby is so beautiful! I really liked Dear Martin when I read it. I'm glad I didn't try it on audio though because everything you mentioned would drive me crazy.

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  35. So adorable!

    I'm looking for a few audiobooks for my cross country trip and I forgot about Dear martin. I'll have to see if my library has it.

    Karen @ For What It's Worth

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  36. aww....congrats on the new family addition. Hope life gets calmer for you soon!!

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