Series Books

I'm a huge lover of series books. While I like stand-alone novels, there's just something about going back and visiting old friends. I don't mind if it's a companion novel (Hello Isla and the Happily Ever After) or the fifth book in the series.

But I do have a growing problem about how to talk about series books in the sense of a review. I'm good with talking about the first one or two and then I'm not sure what to do. For example, I just finished Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead - part of the Bloodlines series. And no surprise, it was amazing. I need the next book - yesterday. How can I talk about it without giving away details to people who might have have read the series yet?

I don't want to spoil anything. I hate spoilers. Most of the time I'm rarely spoiled, but it does happen - sometimes on twitter or tumblr or even pinterest. Sometimes it's books and sometimes it's TV shows. I really try NOT to spoil things, but I can see it happening if you haven't read the series and here I am talking about book number five. Clearly there are details that you don't know yet.

So what do you do? Do you just say the book was amazing if you liked it and leave it at that? Sometimes at the end of a trilogy, I'll write up mini reviews and talk about the book that way - how satisfied I was with the ending, if I'm sad that it ended because I'm greedy and I want more time with the characters, or if there was a part that bothered me. That's harder to do with the series not being over.

So - bloggers, how do you handle it?

Top Ten Tuesday: Blogging Confessions

This week's topic is blogging confessions....so here we go.

- meme from The Broke and the Bookish

1. I'm much more personable online and very shy in person

2. I rarely review books I don't like. True story: I agreed to read/review a book and it was a huge struggle to get through it. It wasn't my kind of book. I gave it to a girl at the library and she loved it. So, even if the book isn't my cup of tea, it doesn't mean it's a bad book - just not the book for me.

3. Unless there's something wrong with the  book - like that Stats book with the complete lack of women's stats (10 in the whole book) -I wanted to warn other readers. Book Rage.

4. I hate the term book cheerleader

5. But Since I really only write positive (ok - gushing reviews) I guess I am one.

6. I read more romance books that I blog about - I'm thinking about doing a larger post with several mini reviews.

7. I'm bad at commenting on blogs, although I've been trying harder. I usually do pretty good on Top Ten Tuesdays posts - but the rest of the time, I fail at it.

8. I'm getting better though, when I see a post on Twitter and read it, I'm more likely to comment on it.

9. I really do love getting comments on the blog - who doesn't?

10. Most of my facebook posts are blog related. I'm not sure if that makes me real life boring or just more private...

NELA

I've been away for the first bit of the week at the NELA conference in Burlington, VT.

I went to presentations on teen programs, learned about folk and fairy tales, presented on blogging, heard the wonderful T.A. Barron speak, learned about the digital divide, and got some new ideas for displays.

If you didn't get to go to NELA, you can see the presentations/handouts here. My handout with various blogs is here. I know there were some programs I missed due to scheduling conflicts, so I'm happy to be able to look through the presentations myself.

I was nervous talking, but it turned out great. I LOVED meeting my co-bloggers
Leila Roy’s Bookshelves of Doom
Andrea Graham’s blog, 4YA
Josie Leavitt, one of the bloggers at ShelfTalker at Publishers Weekly


Here's a write up of our presentation. Sounds like we did pretty good!

A few pictures:




Here's T.A. Barron and myself:

Tom's website

The READ poster I made of T.A. Barron

BBAW: How Blogging has changed my reading habits

Book bloggers blog because we love reading. Has book blogging changed the way you read?

I have always love reading. I remember special days when I was little of going to the library and then the Laundromat with my Dad. I remember going to a different library - one that had my last name (no relation) on the building. I remember really reading through middle school and high school. In college, I mostly read during the summers only until my senior year. I took a children's literature course - where we had to read tons of books. I walked downtown to the public library and got a card. And then I checked out a bunch of adult and children's books. I wish I had done this all four years. I started graduate school the following year, reading my first teens books in years. I fell in love with teen literature.

Now, after being a librarian for eight years, and blogging in one form or another for most of that time, my reading habits have changed a bit.

I try to read more middle school reads, more tween reads, and more reads with boys as the main characters. Book blogging and reading other blogs have helped my see I need to be a little more diverse in my reading. I read mostly for pleasure - and I want to the books to be happy and entertaining. However, there are times I need to be aware of certain books and have a sound knowledge of them in order to chat about them with my patrons. Book bloggers are a GREAT resource for this. I don't have to read every book I purchase for teens. Where would I find the time? But it's great that I can know about them from reading blogs. Blog are also great for finding out about upcoming books. It makes my purchasing list so much easier.

My goal for this year is to read 365books - from all ages. As of this morning, I'm at 247 books. Thanks to GoodReads, I can keep track of the number with their reading challenge App. It tells me how many books I'm behind on my goal (that would be 10). I'm grateful for bloggers for introducing me to books, creating buzz around books, and pushing me to read books that I would not normally pick up.

BBWA: Cultivating a Community of Bloggers and Readers.

Highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog.


I started blogging ages and ages ago - first on myspace and then later on blogger.

It took me a while before I started blogging at least 6 times a week. Something The Story Siren wrote made me blog each week day.

Then I started writing up reviews for the cozy mysteries I read. I made the mysteries posts on Saturday - as a weekly feature. I love the weekly features on so many blogs.

GreenBean Teen Queen - another librarian blogger started Tween Tuesday Reviews - which makes me make more of a conscious effort to read tween books

I love the connection between Twitter and blogs. That's were I found That Cover Girl - a unique book blog. It's also where I first heard of If You Like... posts from Melanie from the Reclusive Bibliophile. Here's the latest one on Project Runway. I LOVE the idea of If You Like... posts

I talk about books the most with my librarian friend Jess started the I Read to Relax blog - it gave us more books to talk about (not that we needed that - both of our TBR piles have grown considerably since then!).

I love how the sharing within this community, I love the differences of books posted, the opinions shared, and the friendship between people I've never met but hope to meet one day. I love being a part of this community!!!