Sunday, January 3, 2021

The Sunday Post #256

 

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.



The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book ReviewerReaderbuzz, and Book Date.


 

 

The Sunday Post #256

 

 

 

 

Public Service Announcement

 

It’s that time of year! The time where we sign up for all the reading and blogging challenges. Since I failed spectacularly at last year’s goals, I’m only doing two challenges this year. I set my Goodreads goal at 50 books. I really hope I can read more than that. For blogging, I’m participating in the Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts At Midnight. I’ve participated in this challenge every year for approximately six zillion years. I’ve run out of topics to discuss. Do you have any ideas? The topics can be related to books or blogging. Tell me what to talk about! I’m desperate!




 

 

On The Blog Last Week

 

 

 

 

 

On The Blog This Week

 

  • On Tuesday we talk about 2021 middlegrade book releases.
  • On Thursday I (hopefully) wrap up December.

 

 

 

 

In My Reading Life

 

Bad news! I gave up on Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasserberg. I’m extremely surprised because it’s a “Me” book. The cover is beautiful. The story is about a commune in a crumbling manor house in the English countryside. That sounds perfect for me! Unfortunately, there’s no plot, the characters are bland, and the writing style is . . . weird. I read 1/3 of the book and was mostly just bored and confused. So, I gave up. I started 2021 by being defeated by a book at midnight.


 

I had much better luck with Finders Keepers by Stephen King. I flew through this one. If you like King’s classic Misery, you need to check this novel out. It’s about bookworms who are so obsessed with a book series that they’re willing to commit robbery and murder to get their hands on the author’s unpublished manuscripts. I like the themes of the novel. King talks about how unnerving it is to see aspects of yourself in evil people. If you share the same obsession with a deranged murderer, does that mean you have the potential to become a murderer, too? Is it okay to love something that causes other people harm? It’s interesting to think about. My only complaint about the book is that it’s part of King’s Bill Hodges series. Bill Hodges is a detective character. I struggle with cops and detectives in fiction because solving crimes doesn’t interest me, especially when I already know who committed the crime. I’m more interested in the criminals and the victims. I was tempted to skim Bill’s chapters.




I haven’t talked about baby Brooklyn’s books in a while. She got a ridiculous number of them for Christmas. The standout book this week was The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. It’s a classic from the 1940s about an imaginary game of hide-and-seek where a baby bunny runs away and transforms himself into different objects. The mother bunny follows him around the world so they can always be together. It’s comforting and sweet. Brooklyn seemed to like it.





Right now, I’m reading Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman. I love it so far, even though it’s stressing me out. It’s a dystopia about what happens when California runs out of water. There’s a lot of action and drama and guns. I’m also reading The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. I just started it. Nothing much has happened. Well, there's a teenage boy who gets randomly angry at everyone? I guess random anger is happening.





 

In The Rest Of My Life

 

Five things that made me happy last week:

 

  1. Happy 2021!
  2. Reading all the wrap ups and end-of-year lists on blogs. If you have a “best books” list or a 2020 wrap up, I want to see them. Give me links!
  3. Working on my own wrap up and lists. I track a lot of reading statistics. I won’t have my post ready for another week or two, but it’s been interesting to sort through my spreadsheets and try to figure out what happened last year. I already posted my Best Books of 2020.
  4. I’ve now done yoga every day for 11 months. I’m still terrible at it. Yesterday I fell over while failing at dancer pose. If I don't hurt myself, I'll make it to a year of daily yoga.
  5. I finished watching The Queen’s Gambit. I liked it! After 7 hours of that show, I feel like I should know something about chess, but nope.

 

 

 

 

My New Year’s Resolution Is To Acquire Friends

 

 

Pinterest || Bloglovin’ || Goodreads || Instagram || Twitter || Donate

 

 

 

 

 




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




29 comments:

  1. I bet you're not as bad at yoga as you think. The only thing I have done daily for year (other than eat, sleep) is read. Good on you! The Runaway Bunny is an oldie by goodie. It's amazing to see kids still enjoying it after all these years. Good luck with the discussion challenge. I will try to do it again this year. I am sure you will find something to talk about in the fascinating way you always do. I have faith in you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I’m not sure what to suggest, maybe something about the earliest book people remember from childhood, or a book that was responsible for a major change in life, or a favourite reading spot.

    You can find my wrap up post here https://bookdout.wordpress.com/2020/12/31/the-end-of-the-year-2020-wrap-up-post/

    Wishing you a great reading week, and good luck with your resolution

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy New Year, AJ! Glad your second choice for the beginning of the year was a success - and I hope the coming week is suitably book-crammed and peaceful:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm glad you liked The queen's gambit, so did I ! I try and do some yoga every day too, but I would fall *before* attempting the dancer pose. I have much more balance than I did before, though, so keep your hopes up :) I would have been interested by Foxlowe too, too bad it turned out boring. The Stephen King's theme is appealing, and my, that children's book is beautiful, those colours ! Enjoy your week.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well, it seems that you somehow enjoy doing yoga, so why do you keep complaining about it? *lol* Anyway. I wish you a happy new year and that you can and will read a lot of books in 2021. Here is my Best Books of 2020 list. Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I feel like I ran out of discussion topics years ago! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Now you have aroused my curiosity about Finders Keepers, as I did love Misery.

    And I love The Runaway Bunny!

    Enjoy your week and making your lists. Here are my WEEKLY UPDATES

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Runaway Bunny is such a cute one. :)

    And what a bummer about Foxlowe! It sounds totally like a "Me" book too!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yeah after 2020 I decided to only have Goodreads as my only challenge of the year. I just want to get back to the joy of reading again and not stressing about meeting my challenges.

    Hope you had a wonderful New Years and peace and blessings be upon you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm doing the Discussion Challenge for the first time, and I'm overwhelmed with thinking about all the posts I could do.

    The Saenz book looks good. I hope you enjoy it.

    My best books of 2020 post is here: https://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-best-books-i-read-in-2020.html

    We watched episode one of Queen's Gambit last night. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good for you and your yoga skills, even if you fell over. I have wanted to do it but feel so uncoordinated. I think I am going to start really walking, like once a day just to get the blood moving and maybe lose some wait so I can try yoga again.

    I can play chess but I can't win. I just know how to play lol

    Have a great week, AJ! Happy Reading!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your new years resolution is to acquire friends? Strange year to pick that one! But to have a friend, is to be a friend. You'll be fine.

    Finders Keepers is a good one yes! I loved all the Bill Hodges books.

    I actually also still want to sign up for the Discussion challenge. I saw it last year and it tickled me. Let's see what my week looks like! I don't have any bright ideas for you yet, will sleep on it a bit!

    Have a good week AJ!

    Elza Reads

    ReplyDelete
  13. Always enjoy reading your posts! Here's my fav books of 2020: https://mirisaspacestation.blogspot.com/2020/12/favorite-books-read-in-2020.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. I haven't heard of the discussion challenge, or ever seen anyone participating. I find discussions of blogging to be a little overdone. I feel like you should write blog posts or not write them, but I don't like things to get too meta. On the other hand, I don't see how you could ever run out of books to talk about, since no one can read all the books on even any one topic. I must just not understand.

    have a great year in 2021 -- may it be better than 2020 for the whole world.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well I do yoga too but not daily. More twice of three times a week and so far, no fall LOL Have great week AJ!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm planning on doing the discussion challenge too - need to make a sign up post. I have a Best of for 2020 Books, but I want to do some other wrap-up posts...gotta get working on those.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

    ReplyDelete
  17. I have always wanted to do more discussion posts but not sure I could commit to it. We did a whole week of various top 10s last week. Every post as well as previous years is under Features - Top 10 on my top menu bar. I like yoga but I wouldn't say I am good at it either. I definitely like a class where someone leads it but also they only do the poses I can do. I really enjoy Neal Shusterman's dystopian books. Happy New Year!

    Anne - Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post

    ReplyDelete
  18. I tried the discussion challenge one year, but failed miserably at it. I wish you luck with it this year as well as your Goodreads Challenge. I am sorry Foxlowe did not work for you but am glad Finders Keepers was better. I think Dry would freak me out--living through California draughts, I imagine it would feel all too possible to me.

    I hope you have a Happy New Year, AJ.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I set my goodreads goal low for 2021, too. Sorry Foxglove didn't work out. The King book sounds good!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I have been soooo bad at discussions lately. Coming up with topics is HARD. Good luck with your goals though. I have none lol.

    I love that cover of The Runaway Bunny so much. Reminds me of that warm fuzzy feeling I get whenever I see Goodnight Moon!

    Have an awesome week!!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm impressed with your yoga streak! I tried to do daily yoga when the pandemic hit, but I haven't been very good about doing it daily.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I haven't seen the discussion challenge before; I'm joining!

    ReplyDelete
  23. I'm working on my end of the year book wrap up and plan to have it up on Wednesday. I'm keeping my goodreads goal at 48 even though I read 53 last year. Looking back, I need to read more fiction, but my heart is call for more poetry!

    https://fromarockyhillside.com

    ReplyDelete
  24. I am so bad at coming up with my own discussion topics, I always enjoy yours! I love The Runaway Bunny, it's so beautiful. I've been curious about Dry, but it feels too close to home since I live in California and we've had our drought problems, haha (we've had like one day of rain so far where I am since... I don't know, last winter?) I hope you have a great week and new year!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Dry was an incredibly stressful book!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Love your picture at the beginning. Makes me want something with sprinkles. That does sound like one Stephen King book that I might enjoy. I usually find him too scary for me. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Oh no, how sad about Foxlowe because that cover is GORGEOUS! I really loved Dry, but I can definitely see how it's a stressful read. I hope he writes more like it! Good luck with your reading goals!

    ReplyDelete
  28. I hate when a "me" book just doesn't end up working. It's like doubly bad. I loved the Runaway Bunny and loved it again when I read it to my kids. The illustrations were my absolute favorite part. Yay for a year of yoga! That is impressive! Hope you're having a great week.

    ReplyDelete
  29. My mind always goes blank when someone asks about suggesting a topic or something! Sorry I'm not being any help at all! I'm just doing the Goodreads Challenge and my own Tackling The TBR because this year is going to be full of stress and I don't want to pressure my brain with reading targets!

    ReplyDelete