Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed blog hop created by  The Broke and the Bookish  and now hosted at  That Artsy Reader Girl . This Week's Topic: Audio Freebie Today we are going to visit one of my other favorite things in the world: Broadway Musicals. I love them. My collection of musicals is the largest of any genre of music I own. It all began when little second grade me when on a field trip to see a regional production of The Sound of Music . Since then, I have tried to see every National Tour possible. I have been fortunate enough to see several of my favorites not just on National Tours but also on Broadway. Here are my favorites in the order I fell in love with them. (Limited to shows I've seen and not just listened to. And I would totally pay to see over and over.)  Times I've seen it: 5 Favorite Song: "On My Own" Favorite Number to See Live: "One Day More"  Times I've Seen It: 3 Favorite Song: "I Still Belie...

Hey Everone! Here are my favorite May reads with general stats for the month. I didn't do a monthly stats report for March or April because I didn't read many new books and had no new favorites to add. But I seem to be getting my groove back this month. I even have TWO whole posts schedule for next week. GASP! One is the review for the favorite May read on the right and the other is the return of Future Favorites Friday. Hopefully I still have readers.

My family is moving. Again. I did this just a little over three years ago. Fortunately this time it looks as though we will be staying in the same place for a while. In the mean time, things around here might slow down a little. Or a lot. In addition to the regular moving things, school just started. I can't exactly let that slide even a little bit or we will have a TERRIBLE year. It will be almost impossible to get them back on track if I let things slide even a tiny bit. And even more, moves in my husband's business happen fast. From the date we found out until he reports to work is six weeks, but I want the kids there for homeschool co-op so we really only have a five week turn around really. And we need to find a house. I'm excellent at handling day to day stress. And even slightly extra stress. I've moved every 2-5 years my whole life so I'm actually pretty good at it. But there are several factors about this move that have ratcheted the stress up eve...

Things have been slow on the blog lately and that's because for a while there I lost all my words. I've been feeling a lot these past few weeks and all of it was overwhelming. There has been anxiety and fear, but also a fierce need to DO something. That overwhelmed me all the more, and I couldn't help but feel like this space was frivolous and maybe not the best use of my time in the face of everything else going on. But I kept reading because without books and words I don't know what I would be. As always, reading helped me find a path even if I still can't see the end of it and the shadows are looming dark. There are many recent or upcoming releases I've read that speak to the heart of where we are as a nation, and I've realized that boosting those voices is important. My space here is small and my voice is not loud, but I'm going to use it to the best of my ability. Because books speak to the heart. They build empathy. They force us to see people,...

Top Ten Tuesday  is a Meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish This Week's TTT Topic: Books for X X= People Who Enjoy Love Stories  What book with a good love story do you like?

It's time for one of my favorite posts of the year! I love characters. They are what keep me reading and make me fall in love with books. Here is a list of the characters I fell in love with for the first time in the past year. (If I read a book with characters I loved, but was introduced to through a series in a previous year, I don't include them in this list. It is for new new characters.) There is something truly special about characters who stick with you long after you've closed the pages of the book where they live. Previous Years: 2014 2013 2012 2011 And 2015 (links to my reviews): Finn, Petey, Rosa, Sean This is the book I've probably promoted more than any other this year. I love everything about it, but the characters are what made me fall. Finn, confused and broken, and Petey, angry and cautious, are still so full of hope despite themselves. The way fall for and into each other through this book is just so perfect. Contrasted to their youthful top...

This year has been a struggle for me when it comes to books and reading. Regular readers of this blog probably already know that. I wrote about being in the worst reading slump of my life earlier this year, and my posts lately have been sporadic and not as focused or as enthusiastic as in the past. Part of it is that, while we have found a lovely community here in Michigan, I miss teaching. SO. MUCH. Of course I still teach my own two kiddos and that is no small thing, but I miss being in a classroom discussing books with teens and tweens and helping them learn to think about them on different levels. It was only one day a week when we lived in Tennessee but that day was a highlight of my week. I miss the prep work for it. I miss the grading. Yes, I do mean that. I loved reading my students' papers. Another factor is that a lot of what I read this year was just disappointing. I've been getting my groove back as far as reading goes, but it's been slow going and hard. If it ...

I loved The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy by Rae Carson. There was no way I could pass up a chance to read an ARC of her new book Walk on Earth a Stranger . This is an incredibly different sort of fantasy from her first trilogy. I wasn't really sure if I would like it as much going in as I've never been a huge fan of Gold Rush/Oregon Trail novels, but I LOVED this. Loved loved loved it. Yesterday it was included on the longlist of books for National Book Award for Young People's Literature. It most assuredly deserves to be there. Lee Westfall has a special ability that must remain a secret. She can sense the whereabouts of gold. If this were discovered, she knows people would want to use and exploit her for their own gain. Lee is content finding what gold she can on her father's claim in Georgia and living a quiet life with her parents. Everything changes when her parents are shot dead by someone they trusted, someone they told her secret to. Knowing she needs to ...

Hello Everyone, It's been kind of quiet around here for the last week due to an unplanned and unexpected hiatus brought on by a massive reading slump. I don't have reading slumps often and I've never had one that has lasted this long. But this is how all new to me books are making me feel right now: It's rather terrifying because while a normal reading slump for me lasts a few days, I've been feeling this way for almost two weeks now. To snap out of my slump, I started reading Every Breath  which so many of my book loving friends have adored. I've been reading it for three days and am only half way through. It never takes me that long to read a book of that length. But I am not invested in it or the characters. Every book I've tried to read to get out of this slump has failed me. Now I'm terrified to try any new books because I don't want to hate them due to the weirdest reading mood I've ever experienced.  It really is my worst ...

ETA: There is a more general post that doesn't address  the  current controversy, but  the  just  the  basic problem I was trying to get at here at Bookshelves of Doom. Worth checking out.  I didn't really want to write a whole post on the Andrew Smith drama playing out on Twitter and various other media outlets right now. I'm one tiny little voice on one tiny little blog with absolutely no power, but this kept me awake most of the night. Because what went down yesterday is indicative of a massive problem within the wider children's and young adult literature community just as Smith's comments are indicative of a bigger problem than one statement in one interview. For those of you who might not be aware of the situation, Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle , The Marbury Lens,  and several other critically acclaimed books, did an interview with Vice  in which he was asked about his his books in relation to females. The quest...

Why yes, that's a totally made up word in my title. Full credit for that goes to author Stephanie Burgis who wrote this post a couple weeks ago about book missionizing. That got me thinking about the books that fill me with the most evangelistic zeal. What are the books I recommend most often and to as many people as possible. The Authors/Series I recommend:     These are my auto-buy authors, the ones I love and recommend the most. There are MG, YA, and Adult books here in all different genres: fantasy, science fiction, historical, romance, adventure, mystery. Many of these authors write more than one of these into their story. What you will find with any one of these authors is that whatever they are writing about, it's just darn good writing and their characters will be amazing. Because I love characters. Individual Books I Get Excited About:  Those two bottom ones are my most recent obsessions. What about you?...