sunday post #13


The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer. It's a chance to recap posts from the past week and tease upcoming content, as well as share new books, reading challenge progress, and anything else you've come across in the last seven days.

This was an exciting bookish week because I decided to check out the last day of TLA! Stephanie Garber was signing ARCs of Legendary in the morning, which was reason enough to go, but I decided to stick around for the organized frenzy as vendors gave away their stock and packed up to go home. There were so many good books to see and discuss! The publishing reps were all very sweet and loved to give out recommendations; you could tell they'd been asked about the same five titles all week, so it was nice to hear about some lesser-known gems. I was fortunate enough to pick up a few fall releases but let me tell you: my haul was tiny compared to the regular attendees who were there all week and know all the little tricks to making it successful. Overall I was happy to go since it was happening less than 15 minutes from my house, but I'm not sure I would trek all over Texas each year to do it regularly.

In another exciting piece of news, DIFF announced the first 12 films for this year's festival! I've attended the last couple of years (ever since I moved back) but this will be the first time I get to go as press instead of a regular moviegoer. (I think...my editor requested a pass, but they haven't been sent out yet.) The programming is usually solid, with the exception of horror; the organizer and I apparently have very different tastes. With a Mr. Rogers documentary and a couple of SXSW darlings, this first taste bodes well. The festival itself runs for a week in early May. I won't be posting every review I write (last year I saw 23 movies in total, averaging nearly 3 per day) but I will put up a recap for those who are curious!

READING CHALLENGES


Although I haven't finished it yet, I did start a buddy read this week with Evelina of AvalinahsBooks! She was one of the first bloggers to welcome me into the community via her #NewBloggers101 group and I really admire the example she sets, so I'm absolutely delighted to get to read The Little Friend by Donna Tartt with her :)

As for the books I did finish, I blazed through all 500+ pages of Furyborn by Claire Legrand in about a day. Y'all, this book is good. The kind of good that's making a couple of my previous five-star ratings look more like 4.5-stars in retrospect. Even though it still counts as YA it has a darker, more adult-y vibe similar to His Dark Materials—and I named my blog after that series, so you know how much I must love it. I'm still struggling to write a coherent review but the central thesis is: buy it!

I also finished a Penguin First to Read selection, Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson. For the first few pages I struggled a little bit with getting lost in Mila's teenage perspective, but I put that down to being so far removed from high school now rather than a shortcoming on the book's part. The concept was great, the protagonist is smart and funny, and I really loved the plot from start to finish, so this was another success for me!

LAST WEEK ON THE BLOG
COMING UP ON THE BLOG

Book Review: The Beloveds by Maureen Lindley
Down the TBR Hole #15
Dust Motes: March 2018
Book Review: The Gold-Son by Carrie Anne Noble

BOOK HAULS


To those of you who expressed pride in my small haul last week, I apologize. I didn't just jump off the bandwagon: I derailed it completely! I picked up The Cheerleaders, My Plain Jane, Sawkill Girls, Contagion, Escaping from Houdini, Smoke in the Sun, Mirage, and The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle during my brief TLA jaunt. It's impossible for me to pick a favorite of the bunch; needless to say, I have some very good reading ahead of me! And because it's the first of the month, there was another potential Book of the Month pick awaiting me. I've recently been disappointed in their selection but I was thrilled to see Our Kind of Cruelty as an option for April! I made the mistake of passing on The Woman in the Window a couple months ago, so into the box it went as an add-on.

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE
Have you ever been to a book-centric conference before? Do you enjoy big festivals or would you rather avoid the crowds? Say hello in the comments and I hope y'all have a great week!

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