Weekend reads and yucky times...


It's a stunning February day, but I'm home sick and feeling blue. I don't know if it's something in the stars, but houses and homes are causing me a great deal of stress, both our new home and our old rental. Expensive stresses, too.

I'm self medicating with flowers and oranges and planning to some reading over lunch. I'm finishing up Heidi Heilig's The Girl From Everywhere, which has me captivated, and am starting Susan Wittig Albert's Loving Eleanor, a historical novel about Eleanor Roosevelt's romance with AP reporter Lorena Hickok. Yummy!

Amazingly, today's theme for Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) is Blogger Burnout -- something I'm becoming all too familiar with!

I remember when I first started blogging in 2010, I couldn't imagine anyone getting burned out. Free books! Reading! Writing! Swapping enthusiasm with others!

It's caught up with me now, and not in the ways I imagined. I've got the luxury of saying the free books are tiresome -- though free, they come with a different kind of price -- and the relentless tension of promotional machine versus personal space for introspection has tripped me up frequently. I feel like I'm doing neither right and I wonder if I'm loving my reading despite doing so much of it. (My malingering top ten of 2015 is slow to come, in part, because I'm struggling to assemble 10 reads that electrified me to my roots!)

How do you deal with possible burnout? And what are you reading this weekend?

Comments

  1. bermudaonionFebruary 19, 2016 at 12:33 PM

    I love the way you self medicate!

    I'm not sure how to deal with burnout but I'm feeling some of it too. Writing posts is becoming harder and harder to do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AudraFebruary 19, 2016 at 1:56 PM

      Kathy, I often mope so am trying a sunnier method now! ;)

      Not sure what has made it hard to write posts, but now I've such a backlog I'm frozen, le sigh.

      Delete
  2. Jenny @ Reading the EndFebruary 19, 2016 at 1:50 PM

    Aw, hon, it sounds like you have a ton on your plate! I hope you're being good to yourself and reading only the nicest books. Feel better! I'm glad you found time to participate in BBAW, even though you're not feeling your best. HUGS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AudraFebruary 19, 2016 at 2:00 PM

      Jenny, thank you for the sympathy -- I appreciate it! BBAW has been a lovely bit of shine this week or so -- been enjoying the mutual adorationing between bloggers.

      Delete
  3. France BooktoursFebruary 19, 2016 at 3:54 PM

    take care of yourself. with all that going on, book blogging is certainly not the good time. I hope you have some good relaxing read available

    ReplyDelete
  4. MarceFebruary 19, 2016 at 4:01 PM

    Flowers and oranges are perfect medicine :-) house financial stress are total nightmares, I understand.

    I had to smile about you still putting together your top ten for 2015. Enjoy your weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Literary FelineFebruary 19, 2016 at 4:13 PM

    I'm sorry for everything you are dealing with right now. Books are my go to medicine for when I am feeling stress. I hope you enjoy Leaving Eleanor. I have a copy of that one to read and am looking forward to it. :-)

    I understand what you mean about the relentless tension of promotional machine versus personal space for introspection. I have struggled with that too at times. I wish I had an easy answer for it. If you find one, be sure an let me know!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Shannon @ River City ReadingFebruary 19, 2016 at 5:11 PM

    Such good self medicating! It can be so hard to just turn off a switch in the way you read/write when you've been doing it so long. Along with that, I think (as book bloggers) we can spend so much time turning over our own feelings on reading that it can get worse. I hope you find something that sticks and a good way to get it all out!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Terra HangenFebruary 19, 2016 at 11:40 PM

    Yes, I cut back on accepting free books and writing reviews, and instead mostly choose any book I want and read that one. Much more fun. Be well reading friend.

    ReplyDelete
  8. LisaFebruary 20, 2016 at 11:12 AM

    Moving is so incredibly stressful in and of itself! I don't think I read anything much during my last move. And then all the unpacking was so distracting as well. On top of all that you're not feeling well. I like your prescription :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farewell My Life by Cynthia Sally Haggard

Image
The war had been over for less than four years, and Berlin was full of amputees begging on the streets, of gaunt young men startling at the slightest thing.

This is a splashy, dramatic historical novel that reads like a mix of penny dreadfuls, 1980s Joan Collins romances, and any number of thrillers. Mixing a tumultuous, intriguing setting -- Europe in 1921 and 1922, then a jump to 1938 -- with a dysfunctional family saga, this book is like a froofy cocktail in a bubble bath: a little excessive but oh-so good.

Farewell My Life by Cynthia Sally Haggard
Self Published, 2019
Copy provided by author as part of blog tour
Read Harder 2019

What I so appreciated and enjoyed in this book was the mix of expected and surprising in the story. I've read many pre-war historical novels and any number of gifted-heroine-exposed-to-the-world coming-of-age stories, but Haggard picked unique details that made this story new. The heroine at the heart of this novel is Grace, an Italian-American woman w…
Read more

The Only Skill That Matters by Jonathan Levi

Image
But the truth is that while it's great to have enthusiasm for learning, enthusiasm without planning cna do more harm than good.

The subtitle of this book -- "The proven methodology to read faster, remember more, and become a superlearner" -- immediately attracted me. I usually only read one or two nonfiction books in a year but wish I read more, especially for personal and professional development. Never mind my perpetual yearning to learn another language or be more adept at some of my woo hobbies.

The Only Skill That Matters by Jonathan Levi
Lioncrest Publishing, 2019
Source via publisher, thanks to TLC Book Tours

I was unfamiliar with Levi and his SuperLearner empire, but found his book to be easy to engage with and understand. At the center of this book is a particular practice of priming one's self for learning and a particular way of studying; and honestly, I wish I had had this book when I was in college. I managed to do well in high school without learning ho…
Read more

Interview with the authors of A Day of Fire, part one

Image
Yesterday I reviewed the faaaaaaaaahbulous A Day of Fire, a marvelous historical novel set during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Uniquely, it's penned by six authors -- Vicky Alvear Shecter, Sophie Perinot, Ben Kane, Kate Quinn, E. Knight, and Stephanie Dray -- but reads as a single work, devastating and exciting in equal part.

On a whim, I asked if the authors would consider doing a roundtable interview/discussion for my blog and to my delight, the authors agreed! I'm so excited to share this interview -- it confirms what I've suspected: that authors really are among the most fun people out there! I've split the interview into two parts, so here's part one (part two to be live on Friday).

And I loved this book so much I've decided to splurge and offer a giveaway, so be sure to enter!

How did this project come about?

Stephanie Dray: It started when Kate, Sophie, and I were celebrating Kate’s latest book release and began chatting about how, in the romance genr…
Read more

Interview with Susan Higginbotham

Image
I am so excited to share my interview with novelist Susan Higginbotham. Although she might be most well known for her novels set in the UK, she's started exploring 19th-century America in her more recent books, including her newest, The First Lady and the Rebel. It's the gripping story of Abraham Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and her beloved sister Emily, as they find themselves at the opposite ends of the Civil War. My review comes on Thursday but prepare for major squees. I loved this book!

What was the plot of your very first piece of fiction?

Because I've been writing since I was a child, I can't remember, but I can tell you that it likely had something to do with cats. My first attempt at a historical novel, however, was when I was in junior high and started to write a novel about a family of orphans living through the Blitz. (Clearly, given the current vogue for World War II novels, I was way ahead of my time.) It didn't have much plot, as I recall,…
Read more