The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer. It's a chance to recap posts from the past week and tease upcoming content, as well as share new books, reading challenge progress, and anything else you've come across in the last seven days.
For my first Sunday Post of 2018 (and ever!) I want to feel out the format and content that works best. It's been a busy start to the year with work grinding back to life while I try not to fall behind before I even start on my new blog. It's tiring at times, but I can feel a rhythm starting to settle in. January is also when 30 Days of Yoga kicks off on Yoga With Adriene. I discovered her YT channel in February of last year, which makes this my first time doing the challenge "live" and I'm proud to say I haven't missed a day yet! The daily break for myself, even if it's only 20 minutes, helps me recenter no matter how busy I've been.
And because these first few months will be full of firsts for me and my blog, I thought there was no better time to announce a new post series! I'm kicking off a series of discussion posts, which I'm titling "Between Daemons". I'm hoping to do at least one per month, provided I can keep coming up with topics y'all enjoying talking about! My "book vs. film" post series is also in the works; if you have requests for either type of post, let me know!
READING CHALLENGES
I'm off to a good start on my Goodreads challenge— 3 books ahead of schedule! That will undoubtedly change as the year goes on; several titles I want to finish this year are quite long and/or dense, which will slow my pace. For the time being I'm confident, though! Last year I read over 50 books (my current goal) and that included two massive Ron Chernow biographies.
I've already completed one of my twelve pledged books for the other challenge I'm participating in, RoofBeamReader's 2018 TBR Pile Challenge, and started on my second: Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. It's a rather dense (but interesting!) book, so I'll mostly likely read some review copies concurrently so that I don't fall behind on my overall goals. Be sure to check out my review of the first book on my challenge list, The Alienist by Caleb Carr, in time for the TV series which starts next week!
LAST WEEK ON THE BLOG
Down the TBR Hole #2
Book Review: La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust #1) by Philip Pullman
Film Review: Freak Show (2018)
Film Review: Inside (2018)
COMING UP ON THE BLOG
Book Review: The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
Down the TBR Hole #3
Between Daemons: New Year...Old Favorites?
BOOK HAULS
My January Book of the Month pick came earlier this week. I selected Red Clocks by Leni Zumas, which I've been excited about for a couple months! (I kind of regret ordering right away though, since a couple days later Powell's announced that Red Clocks was selected for their next Indiespensable box...Oh well!) Some of my post-Christmas orders also arrived, including Thunderhead by Neil Shusterman, The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison, and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. I also just received an ARC of CIRCE by Madeline Miller, which I won in a giveaway last month!
#NEWBLOGGERS101
I want to extend a big thank you to Evelina at AvalinahsBooks for starting up an advice and networking group for new book bloggers! (For more info, see this tweet.) She and the other mods have put a lot of time, thought, and effort into a project meant to help others, which I'd like to help pay forward in my own small way. Right here each week I'll feature posts by members of the #NewBloggers101 group*, so be sure to click through and discover some new, amazing bloggers!
TBR for January and February on IslandGirlReads
Video Game Review: Life is Strange: Before the Storm Episode 1 on NorthernPlunder
The Dark Artifices: Lady Midnight Book Review & Discussion (Re-Read) on ReadByTiffany
*If you're a member of the #NewBloggers101 group and would like to see your post featured here, I put out a call every Saturday afternoon on Twitter and share the tweet to the Discord chat!
How did your week go? Are you still on track with your 2018 reading goals? Have you gotten any new books, or are you on a buy ban for the start of the year?
Keep us updated on the yoga! Thanks for featuring my post :) I'm so grateful for the new bloggers group
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome (and so am I) :) Feel free to submit a link every week! I've had a bit of a cold the last couple days that sidelined the yoga, but I think I'll be able to get back on track tonight :)
DeleteI need to pick up Annihilation again! I tried reading it last year, but it was just a bad time. I cannot wait to see the film as well!
ReplyDeleteConfession time: I struggled a little with his new novel, Borne. I'm hoping that isn't the case with Annihilation since I'll have read his writing before, but I'm still a little scared! We'll have to compare notes on the film after it comes out :)
DeleteCirce has been calling me but I'm still slowly going thru all my bookoutlet hauls *sigh*
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely a few books standing between me and CIRCE still haha. Thankfully it doesn't come out until April!
Delete*Applauds the fact that you are ahead on your Goodreads challenge*
ReplyDeleteI keep alternating between keeping up and dropping behind, but as of today I'm one book ahead. :)
Have a great week!
Hurray for you!! :) I'm sure that's how my year will go as well, falling behind when I start a brick of non-fiction, then catching up after.
DeleteOooh! I need to check out that Yoga channel! I need to get back into working out myself!
ReplyDeleteHere’s my Sunday Post!
Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog and join in this week’s Book Photo Sundays!
I highly recommend that you do! Adriene has videos for any kind of practice, whether you just want to spend 10 minutes quietly breathing or do a full 60 minute flow :) I love having it as part of my routine.
DeleteYeah it took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to format Sunday Posts, what worked for me. The good news is, you can change the format whenever you want! Lol. The yoga thing sounds fun! And yay for already being ahead on your GR challenge! HAve a great week :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm not very aesthetically gifted, so I tend to fiddle around a lot before settling on something clean and simple haha! Thanks, I hope you have a great week too :)
DeleteWelcome to the Sunday Post! Mine have evolved so much- when I look back at my early ones I cringe lol. But it's fun to change them up and tinker around. :)
ReplyDeleteYour post ideas sound great, I always love books vs film comparisons! Nice book haul too, I've heard the Shusterman books are great, but haven't read them yet.
https://gregsbookhaven.blogspot.com/
Aw, thank you! I wish I could get more artsy with posts, but that's just not my strong suit haha.
DeleteI liked, but didn't *love*, Scythe. When I heard it was only a duology I knew I'd want to read the end, though! It's such a cool idea, Shusterman could totally win me over in the sequel.
Congrats on being so far ahead with you reading challenge. I’ll probably get way behind on mine this year. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Haha it definitely won't last long! At least I'll always have that screenshot to remember the feeling :)
DeleteI am only 3 books in to the 10 I set up for myself on goodreads. I want to make a point to review the ones I should have long ago. I had an old blog that I gave up and now I blogging about books. They are really my passion. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteMary @ StackingMyBookShelves!
That was something I struggled with and worked on last year. I made a point of writing a review for every book I read, even if it was only 50 or 100 words long. Of course, I'd get behind and then forget all my thoughts when I came back to a book 3 months later- oops... This blog is keeping me on my toes about writing opinions as soon as I finish! And you have a wonderful week too :)
DeleteLooks like a nice haul. I hope you enjoy all of your new reads :)
ReplyDeleteI am also thinking about the new ideas for my blog and guess what, book vs. movie comparison was one of them :D I'll wait for your series. I am struggling in deciding the day when I'll post it. I feel like I have so much stuff to put but Don't have time to write them. I don't want to pressurise myself by posting more than 4 days.
Good luck with all the new blogging work :)
The main question is when I'll find the time to read them all! Hopefully the next few hauls will be (much) smaller :)
DeleteYou don't need to wait on me! :) I'm in the exact same mindset as you. I have some ideas for comparisons but can't decide when to start or what day to post. January is too early for burnout, so I'm sure it'll be another couple weeks at least before I fit any on my schedule :)
(Plus, the more book/movie comparisons the better! It's so interesting to see how expectations differ among fans, or if those who saw an adaptation first have different opinions.)
Whaat? 4 books already. *sigh* And I thought it was a miracle that I read 2 books.
ReplyDeleteBut great work. I am gonna totally try to catch you up on the challenge (and fail miserably).
Gayathri @ Elgee Writes
It won't stay that way for long, I'm sure of it! A lot of the books I want to read this year don't exactly fall into the "quick and easy" category, so I won't be able to keep up a quick pace forever.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you'll catch up to (or pass me!) more than once :)