Book Blogger Blind Date

The Idea:

Book Blogger Blind Date is a feature hosted by Jillian over at Rant and Rave about Books. The basic concept is pretty simple. Jill got a bunch of people to sign up and then she paired us up to get to know each other and post about each other! Done!

The Blog:

My blind date is with Cindy at My Book File. Cindy does book reviews and has a cute feature called Double Reviews, where she and Anne from Inked Brownies review a book together. I LOVE THIS IDEA and if I ever got my shit together enough to coordinate schedules with a whole other person, I would totally steal it!

So, Cindy and I decided to exchange brief little blurbs about ourselves and then do questions and answers. Here's Cindy's intro:

I like books (fantasy and historical fiction are my favorite genres), history (not 20th century history, though), writing, photography and medieval languages (Germanic languages mostly). Dutch is my mother language. I speak English, German and have some knowledge of French, Spanish and Norwegian.

Since some time ago, I stopped doing sports, but I really want to try something new in the future, the last 12 years I did horseback riding. 

I'm really addicted to coffee [WELL, WHO ISN’T, CINDY!?] and chocolate, olives with garlic are really close to the top as well :')

Cindy lives in the Netherlands which I'm pretty sure, that for the majority of my life, I thought was where Peter Pan lived. But lookie here, it's an actual place!! She lives where the red thingy is. She's about half my age (ahem) and is an English student. 

We were only going to ask a certain number of questions but each of the questions I wrote was like a bunch all in one, so I failed the first task of the whole assignment!! During the little intro, I learned that Cindy has pets which is pretty much all you need to know about a person.

 

Anyway, here’s

Book Review: The Diviners by Libba Bray

This book was published in 2012 but it kind of feels like one of those "classic" books, already. Why, though? I think that it's because it has been on so many different must read lists and it gives you them sense that everyone has read this already. Maybe it's just my own fear of missing out... but, anywhooo...  

The Goodreads Summary:

Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.

Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.

As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.

My Thoughts:
I guess my first thought was about how fricking big this beast of a book is. But I got over that because of how annoying the main character is. Evie is a flapper in the 20's. She's a member of the primary counter- culture for young women in her time and she faces it head on, drinking, smoking, showing a little too much leg, and basically sassing every adult who's responsible for her.

I'm all for that but she's inconsiderate of her friends and puts people in danger too often. I'm too old to think that's cool, I think. Her friends know she's selfish but also know that she's got a heart of gold, or she thinks she does, anyway. We know pretty quickly that Evie is able to read people's secrets from their regular every day objects. She's too reckless to learn from her mistakes and keep her trap shut about this superpower, like other people are able to.

Many of the other characters have some kind of supernatural ability and almost all of them have gotten into some kind of trouble as a result. This is a world where magic exists, but people really don't talk about it. Something big is brewing that is pulling "magical" people to New York. Or maybe it's not. Maybe it's a coincidence that all these people end up in the same city and begin to cross paths. This book is obviously the setup for a much bigger story. There are more characters than you need, more repetition than is necessary, and really about 300 pages too many for this not to be leading somewhere. There's really A LOT going on in this book: religious cults, murder, cyborgs, occultism, grave robbery, and speakeasies. There's a mystical murder mystery happening while we are introduced to and have flashbacks for almost completely unrelated characters. For example, if you take out all scenes with Theta and Memphis (and fam) who seem like main characters, you wouldn't miss any of the main story line. While my favorite characters in the story so far really have very little to do with this book, I'm looking forward to spending more time with them in the novels to come. The Diviners must be getting together for something, right? Maybe the murder mystery thing was just the "monster of the episode." 

Don't get my wrong. I enjoyed this book. It's nestled firmly between a 3.75 and a 4.25 stars out of the usual 5 point scale. The characters are diverse with interesting back-stories. I like the tone of the book and the fun '20s lingo. The pace was good, even when tangential. The emotional experience of the book is spot on and you definitely get the heebie jeebies at all the right spots. There are two potential love triangles that have utter disdain and complete anticipation for, not to mention the inter-racial relationship that is sure to cause more tension. The whole political (with both racial and sexual bits), religious, sexual, and roaring 1920's backdrop is actually a strong point of the book. Importantly, these elements are part of the story and don't feel contrived as book-selling fodder. 

The sequel, Lair of Dreams, dropped in August 2015 so I'll probably read that soon. Goodreads ratings suggest the story continues strong. But I've kind of had enough of Evie for right this minute.

Related Posts:

  

Meet the Boss (2015)

Updated: June 2018 -- go there

I've noticed that most of the blogs that I visit have an About Me page other than the lame one offered through the host site. Technically, I didn't really notice it, myself. I was actually reading someone else's blog that pointed out that most blogs have one... and THEN I noticed. And who am I to shuck a tradition in blogging?

I'm Kenya. I'm a "30 - something" mother of two teens who lives in a suburb of Rochester, NY. I guess 30- something is generous... I'm more like "late- 30's." My 18 year old just moved out to stay with her grandparents in Dallas for while. I miss her like hell but know that she needed some grown-up space for herself. My 15 year old is a smart- alecky book nerd who is getting more active at school and drives me bat shit crazy. I don't know what I'd do without her to keep me humble.

I both love and hate Rochester. I love my job. I hate the weather. We're no where near extended family... which is a pro and a con. My life is actually pretty awesome. I spend most of my days doing things that I really like doing with people I really like. I drink too much coffee, I rarely exercise and I don't sleep enough. What's not to love! 

I've always been a reader but have really been able to become an extreme reader and maybe just "a little over the top bookish" over the last couple of years, since my kids are older and my career has settled down a bit. My partner recently told me that he thinks I'll be "over my book thing" soon, but I don't see it happening. 

I tend to read a lot of Young Adult books. This is probably because I have the attention span of a teenager and YA books tend to move quickly and have more action. But I enjoy a wide range of books, really. I decided to start blogging because it seems like fun. Writing about the books I read also helps me remember the books for longer. I kind of get book amnesia and source confusion BIG TIME about a month after reading a book.

I tend to blog my reviews for books that I liked, rather than those I didn't care as much for, though I am trying to get better about at least leaving a few thoughts on the Goodreads review for all books. For small press books, I also try to remember to post a review on one vendor site, usually Amazon.com. Please feel free to contact me through this blog, my Twitter, or my Goodreads accounts with review requests. 

I've been off from work following a surgery from the end of November 2015 until the first week of January, which means I've been able to spend more time with the blog than I would have otherwise. I'm hoping I keep up some momentum when I go back to work. But life happens. Here's a post about what I'm doing when I'm not reading.  

That Blog Life: From NaBloPoMo to Regular Posting

I'm trying to work out my "blog life." I mean, I know that I like blogging but I need to add some structure into the task for it to GET DONE. I just looked at the stats for this blog and it looks like I didn't post at all between 2011 and 2014. Of course, I was moving a couple of times, buying a house, starting a practice, increasing my time at my job blah blah blah, but I probably could have posted if I had really wanted to. But things come up, you know? When I was doing NaBloPoMo, it was helpful to think about how I was going to get the task done. That was an intense but short- term goal. Now it's time to think about how to sustain the "blog life." 

I'm actually a fan of structured problem solving and goal setting, because it's what I help people do for my living, probably... but it never hurts to reflect on what the hell you're doing. Right? If you don't know where you're going, you can't really know if you are on the right track. Or if you need to make a change. That reminds me of something:

Here are some questions I have for myself:

1.  Is your blog only going to be about books and bookish things?

a.   Mostly. But I think that there will be some posts that are more current thought/ event based. Primarily, I like doing the reviews but don't like the idea of only having review posts. I think that would be boring. My last few book posts have incorporated thoughts about the book along with some related real- life thing. I'm going to try to keep that up for review posts.

2.   Who are you writing to/for? Is this a Dear Diary sort of a thing or more of an open letter to an unknown reader sort of thing?

a.   I'm still working on that. When I blog, I think about "talking" to someone who knows me pretty well so the posts are pretty casual. It book review posts are partially to provide some information about the book to those who might be interested, but also to me, because I forget stories pretty quickly. 

3.   How often are you going to post? Or are you going to just post when the mood strikes?

a.   Aye. There's the question. I posted a twitter poll for bloggers and it seems like a common goal is to post about once per week/ at least several times per month. I actually have two blogs, one of which is super dead. My goal will be to post to each of them once per week. The other one is here, if you want to see it come back to life.

4.   What do you NEED: Space, materials, time, hardware?

o   I have a lap top but I don't really like my set up at home. For NaBloPoMo, I went to the library pretty often because I like their computers better. This is something to think about. 

Related prompt:

Name the five biggest distractions from your writing. I have posted about the things I do when I'm not posted. It boils down to:

1. Family
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. Work and Paperwork from my actual job
5. Extracurricular/ Volunteer work 

Links for blog posts ideas: 

http://selfpublishingteam.com/105-author-blog-prompts/

http://www.literaryrambles.com/2009/03/new-blog-topics-for-writers-blog.html

NaBloPoMo: Because I like to join things

I have never in my life completed a 30-day challenge of anything, NaNoWriMo, fitness challenges, increased water consumption. Nothing. Though, I have joined many. Many, many. But National Blog Post Month, which is actually hosted every month by BlogHer.com is definitely going to be different! Probably.

Feel free to cheer me on on Twitter. And yell at me. #NaBloPoMo

Other Bookish stuff I'll be doing instead of the work I'm supposed to be doing:

Tower Teams IV: a challenge on Goodreads where small groups get together and shoot to get to 25,000 points before the other teams by reading and posting book discussions. I'm co-captain of a team... I haven't really figured out what that means, yet. But, GO TEAM Bastet!!

14- in-4 Challenge: I started a personal challenge with a friend of mine last year where we each try to read books from 14 categories. We have each added friends and families to the FB group and start the third (fourth) challenge today! I define the categories... mostly because I have control issues... and good ideas!! 

Here's the list if you want to make some recommendations for me!

1. Read a book from one of the US banned book lists. Here’s a place to start: 
2. That you already own but have never read.
3. That was recently selected by a local library for book discussion.
4. A book about books, libraries or librarians.
5. A book where one of the characters has the same (or similar) job as you do.
6. Written by an author of a different racial, religious or ethnic background that you are.
7. A book with a child on the cover
8. A book that it seems everyone has read except you
9. A book with “Fall” (or Autumn) or “Winter” in the title
10. A microhistory
11. A book recommended to you by someone
12. A book written this year (whichever year you’re reading)
13. A book where the same vowel appears in the title at least 5 times
14. A book with a holiday theme

Book Blogs to check out (notes for myself)

Excuse this boring post. I'm just putting these links here to review later and so the links are on hand for random clicking. I'll gussy it up later!


http://www.stuckinabook.com/
 Totally copying his idea for the My Shelf: A challenge (5/06/2015)

https://gaskella.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/a-new-tbr-project/ 

http://thebooksmugglers.com/
Beautiful page!

http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/
Romance books

http://dearauthor.com/

http://www.blogmetrics.org/Books
Top 50 by rank