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

Weekend reads, or it's sunny, sunny, sunny!

Image
Hoping to finish this New Adult romance, Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. First Son Alex thinks he loathes British prince Henry but it turns out they maybe have the hots for each other. It's pretty cute and very escapist.

After something like 28 days of rain, we're finally promised a sunny weekend so I'll be doing yard work for infinity. (My front yard is such a jungle that a landscaper actually jackknifed in the road to give me their card so if that's not a sign from the universe, I don't know what is.)

What are you reading this weekend? Or, what else will you be doing?
Read more

Supper Club by Lara Williams

Image
Those evenings, sitting on the living-room floor, laptops to our sides and an array of paper scattered across the floor, drinking wine and listening to music, were suffused with a warmth like nothing else I'd ever felt. I thought of it as the same feeling people get when planning their wedding. It felt enormous and essential and transitory: this papier-mâché beast that we were trying to carve into form.

Did I like this book? Or did I hate it? I'm going to split the difference and just say "yes".

Supper Club by Lara Williams
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2019
Digital review copy via Edelweiss

To stave off loneliness in college, our narrator Roberta takes up cooking. But this isn't one of those sumptuous, charming foodie novels that has your mouth watering; instead, there was something a little gross, slightly dank, and funky about the food. (Williams has our narrator observe that our appetites tip close toward revulsion.) There was an extreme focus on body that reminded …
Read more

I am Mrs. Jesse James by Pat Wahler

Image
I've spent so much time praying marriage would be an anchor for Jesse. Do you think he'll ever abandon his wandering life and stay home with you for good?

I won this book in a giveaway last fall and had been meaning to read it as soon as it arrived; and then my wife broke her ankle and we moved and I hadn't unpacked this book until a few weeks ago. It was a perfect read for both of my reading challenges this year -- Historical Fiction and Read Harder's challenge 9, "a book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads".

I will confess to some apprehension ahead of starting this book, though. In this current political climate, in which neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and domestic terrorists are getting mainstream platforming, I wasn't sure if we needed historical novels that offer empathetic views of people who were, and remained, problematic in their lifetimes. (I keep wondering if Melanie Benjamin's The Aviator'…
Read more

Interview with author Cynthia Ripley Miller

Image
I'm excited to share my interview with author Cynthia Ripley Miller; I've just started her newest book, The Quest for the Crown of Thorns, a historical novel that is giving me The DaVinci Code-meets-Outlander vibes. Set in 5th century Rome, it's a romantic thriller adventure with fascinating historical elements that have me hooked. If you're intrigued, check out the interview and enter the giveaway at the end of this post.

Do you have any writing rituals or routines?

I prefer writing in the late morning continuing into the early evening. Depending on how much time I have, I'll take a break and step away from it for some fresh air, and then return a little later. When I walk, I listen to music. Often, the words or melody will trigger ideas that I may incorporate into my stories. I'll often write after the dinner hour as well.

Regarding rituals, in my office, I have pictures that represent how I imagine my settings and characters to look. I have talismans that ha…
Read more