Hello Blog friends! Thank you so much for all the sweet comments you’ve been leaving me in my anniversary post. I will come back tomorrow and announce winners and tell you a bit more about what I’ve been doing while I was on my blog break. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this Q&A I did with Kelly of The Written World.

We read Among Others by Jo Walton for the Once Upon A Time Challenge and both really enjoyed the book. You can see Kelly’s answers to my questions on her blog and here are the questions she asked me:

1. What lead you to read Among Others? Did it live up to your expectations?
I admit one of the reasons I picked up the book was because it was sent to me by the publisher but I soon began to read very glowing reviews of the book. I wasn’t expecting the diary format but that was an added bonus as I love stories like that. This book is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year so far. It was an unusual story and had a main character who I really liked.

2. What did you think of Morwenna Phelps? Was she a believable character despite the two worlds that she inhabits? I think so. Even when she talked about fairies I know in real life I would probably wonder about a person like that but somehow it was so easy to believe her. She was a complex character, full of bravery one minute and fears the next.

3. Do you have a favourite scene from the book? Yes, when Mori joins the book group and is there for the first time I could relate to her anticipation of what was to come. She was excited but also a bit scared or worried I guess because she wanted to so much to fit in and to find a group of bookworms that read the same genre as she did was almost too much to hope for. I loved seeing her open up to others and forget about the difficulties she had been facing while she was in her world of books.

4. One thing I found myself thinking about after I finished the book was whether or not it was believable for me. Did you think it stretched boundaries, or could you see it being a plausible storyline? The fairies part was a bit harder for me to sort of take in but again I feel like in part that’s because I’m not a big reader of sci/fi books. The magic though was a lot more believable and that’s probably from years of enjoying magical realism in books. I liked most of the characters a lot and actually this is one book where I would love to see a sequel because I would enjoy visiting again with Mori.

Here is one of my favorite lines in the book:

“I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books.”

Isn’t that great? I hope you’ll give this book a chance. It’s such a fantastic read.

Guess what I’m celebrating this Friday? My blog’s 7th anniversary! While I was very excited when I started my blog back in 2004, I don’t think I ever imagined how long I would keep at it. I imagined writing about all things bookish for a while and how fun it would be but wow, I never imagined I’d keep this going for so long. I’m glad I have though.

This year has been a bit more challenging for me on the blog front because I have started working full-time and my job is quite demanding. I’m also trying to spend quality time with my family and friends, keep up with my bookbinding and all the other projects I have going on so yep, blogging has been a bit more hit or miss in recent months. I truly appreciate all of you who are sticking with me and have been so understanding. I’m still trying to learn to balance all of it.

I want to thank my sweet blog friends who comment and send me emails. I love sharing my bookish life with you. Thank you also to all the publishers and publicists who send the ARCs for reviews. I also want to say thank you to those who perhaps never comment but read my blog. Feel free to say hi!

So enough of the mushy stuff, how about a giveaway? You know my tradition right? Leave me a comment and I’ll choose three winners who’ll receive one of my handmade journals! I’ll announce the winers at the end of the month. Oh and if you want you can tell me what your favorite read of the year has been so far.

Now, to properly celebrate I’m going to take a few days off from the blog as I’m meeting up with one of my best friends for a little getaway. So have a lovely weekend and I’ll be back the middle of next week

What a way to start the week. I was getting ready to leave the house and was just putting on my shoes when “pop” the strap on my favorite strappy heels broke. Darn, I love those shoes. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to have a visit at DSW shoes right?

Anyway, you want to hear about the books right? I’ve been focusing on my mysteries this month but I just got a bunch of new ARCs recently that are very hard to resist. Here’s what I got:

• Rules Of Civility by Amor Towles.
• A Young Wife by Pam Lewis
• Pearl Buck in China by Hilary Spurling
• Mrs Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger by Lee Smith
• Nightshade and Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer
• Digital Geishas and Talking Frogs: Best 21st Century Short Stores from Japan
• The Lotus Singers: Short Stores from Contemporary South Asia
• Another Kind of Paradise: Short Stories from the New Asia-Pacific

Don’t these sound good? Let me know if you’ve read any of these.

Also, if you get a chance please stop by Carina’s wonderful blog, Reading Through Life, as she’s interview me for her reading roots series.

Last but not least, it’s time to wrap up the Once Upon a Time Reading challenge but I am probably going to do that next week when I can do a joint review/Q&A with Kelly. I’m happy to say I read my one book for the challenge and it was wonderful!