For a long time my husband has called me “Book Girl” as a term of endearment. and BookGirlJenel is my new Instagram handle. This week I got a copy of a book called Book Girl from the library, and just started reading it tonight. I already have my favorite quote for the week: “To be…
Fireworks! Hot Dogs! Books? Okay, well not a traditional way to celebrate – but I thought I’d make a list of five of my favorite U.S. historical fiction books in honor of Independence Day! Happy Fourth everyone! Photo Credit: Paul_Stachowiak via Pixabay book-reviewBooksIndependence DayReading
When I tell people that one of my yearly goals is to read 200 books a year, I tend to get a lot of astonished reactions. Granted, reading is my #1 hobby, part of my day job, and I’m blessed to be a very fast reader, but I also think that there’s a number of…
The proof copy of my paperback arrived today. The entire process may have been worth it just to see it in lovely book form. I don’t know what it is about ink on paper, but I do think it has its own magic. BooksReadingSelf PublishingWriting
I’m always reading multiple books at one time – at least one book for work (history or teaching), at least one fiction book, and at least one audiobook. For awhile I had so many of my library audiobook holds coming in that I was having a hard time getting through them so I stopped putting…
I am currently reading (well, listening to) Claudia Gray’s The Murder of Mr. Wickham. I’ve read lots of Austen inspired stuff, but this book does something that I’ve never seen before – she comes up with a convincing way to put characters from all (or almost all, I’m admittedly not a Jane Austen expert) of…
A couple of weeks ago when I was on vacation I read Katherine Center’s book The Bodyguard. I enjoy all of Center’s books, but her novel How to Walk Away is especially powerful, and definitely a more serious work than The Bodyguard. That being said I loved every minute of reading The Bodyguard – it…
Stumbled across this quote by author Lisa See and it made me smile – “Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.” I read a lot of books. My Goodreads goal for this year is 200 books and even that feels like not enough. Books fuel me in so many ways,…
Okay so here’s the hard truth up front – there are some things about the book Possession by A. S. Byatt that I don’t like. I have a genuine animosity toward books that romanticize affairs, and the character of Maud Bailey I find irritating, and not in a good way, about 90 percent of the…
Just finished the novel Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson about an editorial assistant juggling too many publishing jobs. First of all – of course I had to read a book with that title! One aspect of the novel that stuck out for me was the protagonist’s pain at the disconnect between the actual love…
Jenel Alan 