Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: High Fives

For the “High Five” Challenge as part of the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books we’re meant to share our current favorites (what is currently making us happy) for each of the five categories below.

Book – This is a toss up between My Heart & Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga (my review) and A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (my review). I love both of these books for completely different reasons, but I would HIGHLY recommend both of them. I already know they’ll be two of my favorite reads of the year.

     

Genre – This is so hard as I don’t really read only one genre at any given time. I’m too much of a mood reader for that. I just finished reading a contemporary (The Duff), am working through a fantasy (The Assassin’s Blade), and will start a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic (??), crazy something (It’s the End of the World as We Know It). So really, I love all the genres.

Author – Current favorite? Oh, man. Ummm. I’m going to have to go with Matt Haig. He’s always one of my favorites, but I just read another of his books (To Be a Cat), so he’s currently relevant with me. Always relevant. Love his books.

Blogger – Seriously? I have to pick just ONE? No, I can’t. Here’s four. That’s not too bad, right? Rachel @ Confessions of a Book Geek, Brandie at Brandie is a Book Junkie, April at Bookishly Speaking, and Amy at Read What I Like. I’ve got awesome things going with all of them (buddy reads, book clubs, and a really fun upcoming challenge)! But honestly, you are all my favorite. Anyone who’s ever commented on my blog or tweeted me or emailed me. I love every single one of you and I appreciate you so much. ❤

Bookish Merchandise / Book-related site – Is it lazy to say Goodreads? I’m on there every single day and that is where I find most of the books I add to my TBR (the rest of the books are found through all of you on your blogs!). Add me on Goodreads! ❤

What are your “high fives”?

Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: Book Spine Poetry

Hello, there! It’s time for Book Spine Poetry as part of the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books! I’m going to make this post super simple and just share what I’ve come up with. I would LOVE to see what you came up with too, so make sure you link me up in the comments.

I have made friends from all over the world because of book blogging (and because of my time in Scotland pursuing my Master’s degree), and I constantly wish I was closer to them so we could hang out and fangirl and such. I miss the friends I’ve met in person and I wish I could meet those I haven’t. So I’ve done my book spine poetry as a reaction to that. 🙂

Maybe Someday
The Distance Between Us
(Will) Shift
Forever
I’ll Meet You There

What’s your book spine poem? 

Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: Questionnaire

Hi lovelies! The Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books has started. This is the first post, a questionnaire designed to help you get to know me a little better. To anyone who’s never been to my blog before, HI! Welcome to Caught Read Handed. To anyone who’s been here before, it’s good to see you again. ❤ Let’s get started, shall we?

1. What’s your name? Stefani! 🙂
2. Where in the world are you blogging from? I blog from the Middle of Nowhere, Mississippi. Usually on the couch, sometimes in bed.
3. How did you get into blogging in the first place? I’ve always LOVED talking about books and spreading the love for books, authors, and reading. I should’ve gotten into book blogging a long time ago, but I finally did in March of last year. Haven’t looked back since.
4. How did you come up with your blog name? It’s really hard to come up with something unique for a book blog name because there are already so many lovely ones out there, but I tried to think of something different.
5. What genre do you read and review the most on your blog? YA. (I also review comics at least twice a week on WatchPlayRead.com)
6. What other types of posts do you do on your blog, apart from reviews? Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, book to movie posts, random bookish talk posts.
7. Best blogging experience so far? Having people tell me they read a book based on my recommendation and loved it. Or interacting with authors on Twitter who’ve loved my reviews or been appreciative of my WoW posts.
8. Favorite thing about the blogging community? The people. I even wrote a post about this on Thursday.
9. Name the 5 books you’re most excited for this 2015! THIS IS SO HARD. I am looking forward to way more than these five, but these were the first five that came to mind.
   1. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
   2. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
   3. We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
   4. The Prom Goer’s Interstellar Excursion by Chris McCoy
   5. More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
10. What’s an underrated book or series that you think everyone should read? I honestly think everyone should read The Humans by Matt Haig. It makes you appreciate what it means to be human and to be alive. It’s a beautiful, amazing, funny, sad, wonderful book.
11. Which book boy or girl would be your book BFF? Pretty sure Lola (from Lola and the Boy Next Door) and I would be BFF. But that might be a problem because Cricket (her love interest) is my boyfriend.
12. Apart from reading, what are your other hobbies or interests? Crafting, going to the movies, painting.
13. Apart from book shopping, what else do you like shopping for? Music.
14. At a party, the DJ suddenly changes the song – and it’s your song. What song would be playing? Oh, man. This is hard. Current favorite: AWOLNATION’s “Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)”. I even did a post about how much I love it.
15. Pick out either a book you want turned into a film/TV show, or a film/TV show you want turned into a book.  I had to think for a while on this, but I think The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion would make a really cool movie – The Big Bang Theory is super popular, and Don, the main character in The Rosie Project, is really similar. It could translate well to the screen.

Are you participating in the Love-a-Thon? Let me know so I can come check out your questionnaire! ❤

Thursday Thoughts: Blogging Community Love (and Love-a-Thon)

My favorite thing about book blogging is the community. I love being able to talk to people from all over the world who are just as passionate about books and reading as I am. We get to talk about the books we’ve read and loved (or…not loved) and no matter how excited we get over something, there are people in this community who get you. Almost everyone I’ve “met” through book blogging has been super supportive and nice and positive, and I love that.

Sometimes things get stressful or too much or you have a bad experience that gets you down. But those things are far outweighed by the times we get to connect over a shared experienced with a book or we get to interact with a favorite author on Twitter or we are shown generous amounts of support on those horrible days. I recently tweeted and said this:

Blogging is the only thing that truly, truly makes me happy these days. Thankful for my blog on this not-so-great (mentally) day.

— Stefani Sloma (@StefaniSloma) February 16, 2015

And it’s true. But as much as I enjoy just being able to freely discuss what I felt about a book, it wouldn’t really be the same without all of you wonderful people. All of my followers and the people I follow. I appreciate all of you so much for supporting my blog and talking to me about books and reading and life.

This post was going to be about positivity and how a lot of the time people are really negative and create drama when it is not needed nor wanted, but then I wrote that first line and realized I didn’t want to be negative too. I don’t give in to that negativity on Twitter. You will probably never see me subtweet about something or fuel new drama about something that’s happened in the book blogging world. And I do that on purpose. There is no point to it. I would much rather push that negativity to the side and be positive, even when that negativity threatens to drown me.

This post is also a short little plug for the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books that’s happening this weekend. Basically, it’s a weekend long event in which we all tell each other how much we love and support them. It’s dedicated to doing exactly what I said I like to do: spreading the love for blogs and bloggers. How awesome is that? It’s happening February 21 & 22, so you’ll be seeing a few posts and probably a lot of love from me this weekend. I might get a little mushy. Get over it. :p If you are interested, you can still sign up HERE on Alexa’s blog!

How do you feel about the book blogging community? Let’s try to stay positive in the comments, but I don’t mind if you want to discuss the things that get you down! I’m here for you. ❤

ALSO, while I’m spreading the love, I’m doing a giveaway for a copy of Jennifer E. Smith’s The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight over on Twitter if you want to enter!

The Versatile Blogger Award

Hi guys! I’ve been sick now for two days, so instead of a review, I’m doing a tag post because it’s fun and I don’t have to think too hard. I was nominated by Alina at Radiant Reads and Maren at The Worn Bookmark for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks, lovelies! For this award, I’m supposed to thank the bloggers who nominated me, share the award, and give you seven facts about me. I feel like I’ve shared all the facts you guys could ever want to know about me in one award post or another, but let’s see if I can think of more.

– I have two physical bookshelves in my room – one for books I’ve read and one for books I haven’t. Helps me stay organized and on top of my to read list.

– I have a slight obsession with Damian Wayne (Bruce Wayne/Batman’s son). I love his character – he’s such a sassy little punk. And SPOILER – I’m so glad he’s alive again.

– Things I don’t like to eat: cucumbers, oranges, bananas, cherry flavored things, ground beef.

– Things I could eat all day every day: chicken, pizza, string cheese, mangoes, fresh pineapple, pretzels, York peppermint patties.

– I discovered my love of audiobooks and comics in July when I started working at the library. I haven’t looked back since. I’m a little obsessed.

– I really wish I had a dog.

– I’m going to be 25 this year. It scares me. I know I’m still young but I feel like life is moving too fast.

I’m nominating

Rachel at Confessions of a Book Geek

Brandie at Brandie is a Book Junkie

Shaina at Shaina Reads

April at Bookishly Speaking

Shannon at It Starts at Midnight

Rita at Books & Stuff

Selah at A Bibliophile’s Style

And YOU if you want to do it!

My FOURTH Liebster Award

So it’s been a while since I did a Liebster Award. Hope it’s okay if I do another now because I was just nominated by Anna over at Millenial Creativity (Thanks, Anna!!). I wasn’t sure if I was going to do the questions and such, but then she had some AWESOME questions so I figured I might as well. It’ll be fun!

Basically, the Liebster Award is given to bloggers with less than 500 followers. You accept the award, answer the 11 questions the blogger provided, nominate 11 other bloggers, and give 11 new questions.

What I’m going to do is nominate ALL of the bloggers who follow me who have less than 500 followers. I love Anna’s questions a lot, so I just want you to answer those. Anyone who feels like doing a Liebster post can, because I love all of you and I don’t want to pick only 11. Plus, I’m really lazy. 😛

1. I started blogging [number of] months/years ago because…
I started blogging 9 months ago (HOLY CRAP, it’s been NINE months??) because I needed an outlet. Because I love books and I love talking about books with other people who love books. Because I needed something to focus on that I could pour myself into. Because it’s fun. Because I wanted to be part of this wonderful community.

2. My favorite holiday tradition is:
Getting up hella early on Christmas day, even though everyone in my house is an adult and we don’t really need to, sitting down with a cup of coffee, and seeing the look on my family’s face when they open what I’ve chosen for them. I love being surprised by what they’ve chosen for me too. Having a lovely family moment. ❤

3. Favorite landscape: woods, beach, mountains, desert… others?
Woods-y mountains. I love the mountains. I haven’t spent a lot of time in the mountains, but I’ve always felt calm and comfortable there. Plus, I love snow.

4. When I was growing up, I wanted to be ______. This has / hasn’t changed, because…
When I was growing up, I want to be…I don’t know. I’ve just always wanted to do something with books – I wanted to be a teacher for a while, a librarian (hey! That’s what I am now!), a publisher (still want to do this)… I just wanted to work with books. This hasn’t and will never change, I don’t think.

5. Describe your dream home.
Something that has a secret library behind a bookcase; library would be spacious, bright, and have a big, comfy leather chair. Other than that, I have no preferences. Okay, one of those rain showers would be cool too.

6. Are you currently doing any series of blog posts or challenges? Which ones?
Not on my blog, but I’m doing the #decphotochallenge14 on Instagram. I’m really bad at challenge posts (I only did like 6 BookBlogWriMo posts) but I’m trying. It’s pictures of books. Why wouldn’t I want to post? Check out my pictures on Instagram. 🙂

7. Favorite TV series?
Currently running or not? No longer running: Lost. And Community. Currently running: Teen Wolf, Doctor Who, The Big Bang Theory, The Walking Dead, Sherlock, The Vampire Diaries. Look, I’m in pretty much all the fandoms. I’m a fangirl. Whatever.

8. Dream vacation? Who would you take with you?
This is hard. I’m tempted to say Scotland because I want to go back there every single day. I wish I was there right now. However, I’ll choose somewhere I’ve never been before.

9. Favorite superhero? Or favorite superpower?
Batman – I like him because he has no superpowers. He’s human. He’s fallible. He has many weaknesses. He can be broken. I just enjoy reading his comics and watching his movies because of this. He’s defeatable, which totally isn’t a word, but should be.

However, if I had a superpower, I’d want it to be teleportation. I have so many friends around the world. It would be awesome to blink and be there with them. Or be back in Scotland whenever I wanted.

10. This cartoon character summarizes my childhood:
Wile E. Coyote never gives up. Even after he’s fallen and was broken beyond repair and probably died. And you know, when he should probably give up. But he never does. He keeps going and trying. He knows what he wants and goes after it. He’s my favorite Looney Toon.

Wile E. Coyote. Suuuuuper genius. Lol.

11. One tip I would offer to all new bloggers is…
Well, this was actually one of the BookBlogWriMo posts I did. Check out what I had to say HERE.

So for real. If you’ve never been nominated for a Liebster Award or you just like these awesome questions, feel free to do a post! Link me up to it so I can learn more about you lovely people. 

BookBlogWriMo – My Review Process

Welcome to BookBlogWriMo day 13! The theme today is “Your Review Process.”

It’s funny that this is the theme today as I just got done writing a review (of Afterworlds – up tomorrow). I’m trying to think of what my process was while writing it, but I don’t know if I really have one.

Let’s see.

1. I always, always, always take notes while I write. I have a notebook that I keep with me, and if a passage, sentence, few words stand out to me, I write down the page number and whatever stood out. If I have a feeling while reading or a reaction to something, I write that down too. If I can, I site a page number for that as well, so if I need to, I can go reread it to feel it again. General thoughts about the book or characters or writing go in the notebook too.
2. When I finish the book, I immediately write down what I think in that notebook as well. I try to write out a general review outline, maybe even a few sentences that I’ll use in the review. As much as I like to do this, sometimes I don’t always have time.
3. If I have time, I’ll write a review of the book that day, but that pretty much never happens. Since I don’t usually do it that day, I just try to write the review in the few days after I’ve finished the book. I find that if I wait too long after I’ve finished reading to write the reviews, my feelings and thoughts completely leave me. This is because I’m reading other books in between finishing that previous one and writing the review, and so my reactions to that previous book will be pushed aside for the new book. Does that make sense? I honestly don’t know how some people could write an in-depth review months later.
4. Once I sit down to write my review, I’m pretty much good. My review kind of just flows out of me, and I think that the format for each review is different. What I talk about and where depends on the book, so I don’t stick to one specific format. Of course, I have my bottom line and rating, but what happens in between that and the pub info depends on the book. I just write my honest reaction to the book and whatever happens happens. 🙂

What is your review process? Any tips for writing you want to share?

SUNDAY FUNDAY: WEEK IN REVIEW [7]

The lovely Cristina over at Girl in the Pages started Sunday Funday as a way to recap the bookish (and not-so-bookish) things that have happened that week. I thought it’d be a really fun way to keep you guys up to date on what I’ve been reading, reviewing, and wanting to read but also to tell you a little bit more about myself outside of my book love. I think I’ll tailor the post each week to what I’ve done but I will always try to include a book haul and a new book or two that I’ve added to my want-to-read list. 🙂

July 7 – 13, 2014

This week was my birthday! 🙂 I turned 24 on Monday, and I got an awesome birthday book haul from my parents. I also got my car (picture below)!!

Coming up on the blog this week: My first comic book review of Saga; children’s book reviews of The Story of Ferdinand and one or two more TBD; Top Ten Tuesday; Waiting on Wednesday: hopefully a The Walking Dead review or two. 🙂

Books read: I started getting into children’s books, graphic novels, and comics this week. I’ve read several, but I’ve reviewed Sophie’s Squash, Long Night Moon, and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish so far. I’ve got a review of Saga coming up on the blog tomorrow, so make sure you check that out. I read the first three volumes of The Walking Dead comics this week and I’ll be writing reviews of those soon. My review of Lori Rader-Days The Black Hour was posted on WatchPlayRead so make sure you go check that out! I got the opportunity to interview her (WOO!) and that should be up on the site soon! I also read Everything Leads to You for my Summer Blogger Promo Tour post with The YA’s Nightstand, which will be on her blog in August. I’ll let you guys know when that’s up.

TBR: Everything from my birthday book haul.

Non-bookish things I’m excited about:

Tomorrow I’m going to Nashville with my friend Georgie to see The Neighbourhood for the fourth time, and I AM SO EXCITED! I’ve been looking forward to this since, like, April when we bought tickets. I can’t even handle my excitement.

I GOT MY CAR!! Look at him. He’s awesome. His name is Freedom. 🙂

My awesome book blogger friend Annette (aka Booknerderie) made me these. Aren’t they super cool? She’s very talented!

[Quote from The Living by Annie Dillard; quote by Stephen King; lyric from Hands Like Houses’ song “Oceandust”; quote from All Time Low’s song “Dear Maria, Count Me In”]

Summer Blogger Promo Tour: Ink on the Shelf

Hi guys! Today is the start of the Summer Blogger Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz! I am very excited to have Jen from Ink on the Shelf on the blog today. She’s really awesome (and super awkward as you’ll see below) and you should definitely go check her out her blog (and follow her on Twitter)! Awesome and awkward? Winning combination, in my opinion. The following post is one of Jen’s “Moments of Jen” posts which I absolutely love and it made me laugh out loud several times. Enjoy!

Hi lovely people!

This is Jen here, from Ink on the Shelf and I am very excited to be guest posting on Stefani’s blog here today. Moments of Jen is a segment consisting of all the embarrassing things I do on a regular basis. Sometimes it will be about books, but mostly it’s about me acting like a Hufflepuff initiate.

There is something utterly ridiculous and uncoordinated about me which comes out in perfectly timed moments (a self-deprecating montage is flitting across my mind right now, feel free to send me any additional memories I may have repressed).  In moments like these, I can only cringe and hope that people find it endearing. I know they don’t though.

During the period in which I worked in an office, there was a giant shopping complex located a short walk away. My lunch breaks were spent rapidly spending the money I had just earnt like a small child who has just discovered that money can actually buy you all the things.(Note: I still haven’t really come out of this mindset, it is just I have no said money to spend presently 😉 ).

On one occasion, I was walking by one of the coffee shops when I saw a slice of cheesecake in the glass window (cue the chorus of hallelujahs). I decided this would be a great alternative for lunch, so bought it and started walking back to the office. The plan was to keep it in the fridge, and take it home in the afternoon.

Yes, I’m aware they don’t have necks. It is an observation of mine that people who attend the gym on a regular basis often have none.

I made it around the corner. Then decided I could not wait any longer. I needed to taste this cake. So naturally I found the nearest building and huddled under the patio, trying to subtly taste the culinary masterpiece in privacy.  It was only after a few minutes that I realised the building I was huddled near was in fact the major gym of the area.

The window I was looking into? The cardio exercise class.

The people inside the room staring back? Yes they could all see me. Eating cake. In front of them while they were exercising vigorously, sweating through their eyeballs.

I imagine they were either shaking their heads in disgust or swearing at me under their breath for bringing “cake-eating” impulses to the front of their minds again (yes, I have decided this is an actual thing. It explains a lot of violence).

I can see it now. In their minds, I was probably the girl who had tried summon up all the willpower I possessed in order to just drive to the gym. I had set a goal to be empowered, and sexy and fit. Only to be found eating cake at the door a few minutes later.

The cake was damn good though. It will forever own my soul.

 

SUNDAY FUNDAY: WEEK IN REVIEW [4]

The lovely Cristina over at Girl in the Pages started Sunday Funday as a way to recap the bookish (and not-so-bookish) things that have happened that week. I thought it’d be a really fun way to keep you guys up to date on what I’ve been reading, reviewing, and wanting to read but also to tell you a little bit more about myself outside of my book love. I think I’ll tailor the post each week to what I’ve done but I will always try to include a book haul and a new book or two that I’ve added to my want-to-read list. 🙂

June 16 – 22, 2014

I had an interesting week. I had a very interesting opportunity came up that I don’t know much about but I am freaking out over. Fingers crossed something amazing happens with that.

I also joined up with the Summer Blogger Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz, and I’m super excited about it. I’ll be getting to know 8 other amazing book bloggers and each Sunday, starting July 6, I’ll be posting something (an interview, collab, etc) about/with each of those bloggers. I’m really looking forward to that!

Some posts on my blog this week you might be interested in:

I was nominated for a second Liebster Award by the lovely Rachel at Confessions of a Book Geek.

I also did a post on The Problem with Books which got a lot of attention! I loved how many people were able to relate to it, and I’ve got another “The Problem with” post in the works. If you have any ideas for a discussion post or a “The Problem with” post, definitely let me know in the comments! 🙂

Not my post, but I thought this post about YA fiction over on The Atlantic was extremely well-written, and I agree with it 100%. Here’s a quote I especially liked:

“YA doesn’t need rescuing. All it needs is a change in the way people talk about it.”

Books read: I’m reading Necroscope by Brian Lumley this week. It’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would. I’ve got less than a hundred pages left now!

TBR: Nil by Lynne Matson, which was described by A.N. Willis on Twitter as “Lost meets The Maze Runner, with a welcome dose of romance (shirtless surfer dudes aplenty)”. I mean, YES, please!

I also finally got To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han and Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour from the library.

AND I won this ARC of Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern from Happy Book Lovers through a Twitter giveaway! Can’t wait to read that one.

AND I won a copy of The Sting of Summer by Katherine Over from a Goodreads competition. Woo! Lucky week for me.

Non-bookish things:

So I’M FREAKING OUT about the Teen Wolf premiere tomorrow night on MTV (10/9c), and I recapped Season One and Season Two on WatchPlayRead. The Season Three recap will be up tomorrow so watch out for that.

I also revisited David Wong’s John Dies at the End on WPR, too!

On Monday, I went to the movie theater to see “Rise of the Cybermen” and “The Age of Steel” (two episodes of Doctor Who from when David Tennant was the Doctor) on the big screen. It was AMAZING. It was incredible to see these two episodes on that huge screen. And David Tennant. Especially David Tennant.

Non-bookish things I’m excited about:

TEEN WOLF. TEEN WOLF. TEEN WOLF. I’m excited. If you’re a fan of the show, first, tell me in the comments, and then follow me over on Twitter because I’ll probably be live tweeting my reaction as I watch. 🙂 Just watch the trailer. It. Looks. Epic.