Category: Chatty

Posted in Chatty

What happens when you like a series

Posted on by Jennifer

I recently bought V1 of Heartstopper by Alice Oseman with some store credit I had, having never heard of it before but thinking it looked cute after checking out the first chapter or so. I read that first one and was so excited for more!

Then a few days ago I learned there was a webcomic, that had more to read! So I started diving in there. 🙂

…And THEN in one of the comics, there was a little author note at the end that mentioned they had FOUR BOOKS PUBLISHED WTF? I thought there was only one! So of course I checked the digital library and took a copy of the next book.

Read it.

Got a copy of the third.

Read that too.

Got a copy of the fourth.

Read most of that…

…then finished it later that day.

So…. here’s what that looks like. xD

My chart numbers are going to be ridiculous for this month when 250 is the lowest number to measure by. Those days where it’s like 20 are looking pretty silly right about now. 🤣

Posted in Chatty

The Amazon First Read results are in… Kind of…

Posted on by Jennifer

I mentioned recently that I was finally reading a book from Amazon’s first reads program that I was enjoying. After a few rounds of stinkers, I had pretty much given up on it. I finished one from it today though and it was…

Fine. It wasn’t excellent, but it wasn’t terrible. I’d say solidly average. Some good, some bad, overall fairly forgettable and some moments where I checked how much was left.

That’s not even the book I had posted about though, so there’s a second chance to impress me in the running. We’ll see if it can be anything better than “ok at best!”

The shape of a coffee cup made up of black and brown words. There are steam lines coming off the top, too.
Posted in Chatty

My Amazon First Reads picks may finally break their streak of being really disappointing!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! I’ve mentioned before in some reviews of books I read that were from the Amazon First Reads program that they had continuously not impressed me. Some were so unenjoyable that I just DNFd the book usually between 20-50% depending on how generous I was feeling about giving it a chance.

WELL! I think I’ve finally found one that’s working for me! Oddly enough, it was for the July first reads that I put off choosing until the very last day of the month that I was able to choose them. I’ve been so disheartened by how bad previous choices were for me that I was feeling like I shouldn’t bother… but ultimately, I can’t have 2 free books offered and not even look at them!

I’m glad I did because there were several intriguing choices. I was debating on, and accidentally opened the chapter sampler of it. I realized that was a good idea to help me decide if I would like it, and three chapters later I realized yes, I liked it, and should probably just get the whole book. xD

Hopefully this holds true, and I’ll have a cheerful review of No Ordinary Thursday by Anoop Judge soon!

Summary

Lena Sharma is a successful San Francisco restaurateur. An immigrant, she’s cultivated an image of conservatism and tradition in her close-knit Indian community. But when Lena’s carefully constructed world begins to crumble, her ties to her daughter, Maya, and son, Sameer—both raised in thoroughly modern California—slip further away.

Maya, divorced once, becomes engaged to a man twelve years her junior: Veer Kapoor, the son of Lena’s longtime friend. Immediately Maya feels her mother’s disgrace and the judgment of an insular society she was born into but never chose, while Lena’s cherished friendship frays. Meanwhile, Maya’s younger brother, Sameer, struggles with an addiction that reaches a devastating and very public turning point, upending his already tenuous future.

As the mother, daughter, and son are compromised by tragedy, secrets, and misconceptions, they each must determine what it will take to rebuild their bonds and salvage what’s left of their family.

Posted in Chatty

Word Origins: Ditto? ditto?? ( . ___ . )

Posted on by Jennifer

I’ve become a Wordle convert after months of resisting the baffling squares being shared by everyone on my social media feeds. One of my friends today played the word “ditto” which made me think of it outside the context of children being snotty or Pokemon for maybe the first time ever. I mean… ditto? That’s a real word? Is it just me or does it seem like a word that adults don’t use? An unprofessional word?

So… what does it mean, technically? Could I defend my usage of it in a meeting or should I probably pass that one on by in favor of “I concur?”

Origins of “ditto”

When did it first get used?
1620s, in Italian! Specifically the Tuscan dialect. Go you!

What does it mean?
modern day meaning is “what they said” or “same here” kind of mentality. Agreeing with a previous statement or sentiment

Originally, it was “in the month of the same name” which is… weird and specific and kind of confusing?

Continue reading “Word Origins: Ditto? ditto?? ( . ___ . )” →
Posted in Chatty

Word Origins: Big Word Summer

Posted on by Jennifer

It’s friggin’ hot here, and while it’s usually hot in late July, this has been excessively hot for the area. Heat warnings galore! My puppy is spending about ten minutes outside and most, then coming inside to slurp a gallon of water and pass out on the cool tile floor for a few hours. I’m not far behind.

So today’s word is “summer,” and let me tell ya: I thought this would be a boring AF word to search but the results told a different story. Who knew?!

Origins of “summer”

When did it first get used?
1300s, but it had other points of innovation all the way up through 1941!

What does it mean?
Hot season of the year. In Old Norse, that was starting on the first Thursday between April 9 and April 15, which is weirdly specific and very sensible for Norwegians way up in the north, I guess.

What did it come from?
The word summer itself is so old that the roots I found were basically just looking at all the other words in old languages that also meant summer, which wasn’t really helpful. But I did learn a lot of other little things related to summer that were fascinating! Such as:

Continue reading “Word Origins: Big Word Summer” →
Posted in Chatty

Top Ten Tuesday: Super summery book covers (plus crowdsourced list!)

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish question idea that was originally created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, from way back in June 2010! Since January 2018, Top Ten Tuesday has been hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks for taking it over! The idea is to make a list of ten books or bookish things on different topics each week. Check out her site for details on how to join and what the upcoming prompts are. 😊 You can also see all the posts from other bloggers linked on each weekly post on their main site.

This week’s prompt (by Ellie @ Curiosity Killed the Bookworm) is for books with covers that feel like summer. Like sunshine, and smores, and fireflies, and swimming, and flirting, and playfulness, and potential. All that: in a book cover. I thought this would be a hard one, but I ended up having to cut a bunch out of my list! 😊

The Books

The Thoughts

I’ve read about half of these, although it’s a CRIME that I never reviewed Siri, Who Am I? because that book was SO SO SO much better than I expected and genuinely funny and thoughtful and unexpected. 😁

Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday: Super summery book covers (plus crowdsourced list!)” →
Posted in Chatty

Top Ten Tuesday: Anticipated releases for the rest of 2022 (crowdsourced list!)

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish question idea that was originally created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, from way back in June 2010! Since January 2018, Top Ten Tuesday has been hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks for taking it over! The idea is to make a list of ten books or bookish things on different topics each week. Check out her site for details on how to join and what the upcoming prompts are. 😊 You can also see all the posts from other bloggers linked on each weekly post on their main site.

This week’s prompt is books I’m excited for that are releasing sometime in the rest of 2022. I’m taking a different approach with this week’s prompt and instead of making my own list, I’m looking at what others have posted for today’s prompt and picking new-to-me books from THEIR list that I think look good. I’ve only heard of one or two of the ones on my list below, but I’m so excited to have all of them added! Thanks y’all! 🥰

There’s not much book info here — sorry, I’m super tired today lol — but the cover links to the blog where I found it, and the name of the blog is included (and also linked).

The Unseen Library

Lydia Schoch

Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday: Anticipated releases for the rest of 2022 (crowdsourced list!)” →
Posted in Chatty

Kindle 2022 Summer Reading Challenge Achievements Guide (COMPLETED!)

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! If you use Kindle, you might have seen last month that they had a Spring Challenge where you could get little badges shaped like bookmarks for different reading and book-related goals they set. I scoffed at the idea that it would get anyone to read more, and then proceeded to obsessively track and get every one of the achievements. You can see them all here. It also has some FAQs on the challenges overall, like what counts as reading and how to view badges from old challenges.

Clearly I’m going to keep that up, so I wanted to put together a new post for their Summer Challenge set! I’ll update these as they reveal the mystery badges and as I unlock the full badges.

Kindle Achievements FAQ & all challenge guides
Kindle 2023 New Year Challenge Guide

Kindle Summer Reading Challenge Achievements

This one runs from July 1st to September 30th, 2022.

Days Read

  • Bronze Reader: read on any 15 days during the challenge
  • Silver Reader: read on any 40 days during the challenge
  • Gold Reader: read on any 75 days during the challenge

Books Completed

  • Bookish: read one book
  • Bookworm: read two books
  • Bibliophile: read three books

Streaks

  • Head Start: read one day
  • Perfect Week: read 7 days in a row (Sunday through Saturday)
  • Perfect Month: read every day for a calendar month (ex. every day in August)

Mystery (all are now revealed!)

  • Around the Campfire: read a book from the Summer Reading list
  • Prime Day: read on July 12 or 13 during Amazon Prime days
  • Topshelf: Read an Editors’ Pick of an Amazon Original Story
    • Note that you can only access this list via the link in the achievement in the app, and will have to add any books to your wishlist or otherwise save them and then purchase them via browser since you can’t purchase via the app anymore. Asked customer service. They also couldn’t find a way to get this list in the browser. OY. Email seller-suggestions@amazon.com to tell them to change this for future achievements!!!
  • I’m A Fan: Sign up for updates from an author by following them
  • Quick Bites: Read a Kindle Vella story
  • Epic Ending: read any 3 days between Sep 17 and Sep 23
Continue reading “Kindle 2022 Summer Reading Challenge Achievements Guide (COMPLETED!)” →
Posted in Chatty

June 2022 Wrap Up: apparently I read a lot

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 6 books in my June TBR and of those I read 4, with one in progress and one not started. But in total, I read 15 books so… I guess I plowed through anyway.

The Plan:

A mix of library loans of new releases and books I had on my shelves but hadn’t read, this was the goal for June.

The Result:

WOWW did I ever want to abandon two other books in this list: Crying in H Mart and Remarkably Bright Creatures were both duds for me in different ways, and I super wanted to stop reading them. But since I’ve met my quantity goal for the year, I’m pushing myself to read more widely and things I might not usually try. That includes continuing with books even when they’re a struggle or I would usually ditch them due to my mood-reader-ness. I think the slog of those are partly why I read so much: trying to break them up to make them more palatable. xD

Besides those two, I plowed through a ton of other books. I peg this largely on the 20 (15) books of summer challenge that i joined a little bit into June where you have to read and review a certain number of books in the summer. I may have gone aggressively into that list, and even posted ONLY reviews for like a week straight which was an interesting experiment.

Here’s a massive list of all the reviews that came up in June, because I went on an absolute tear there for a minute.

Phew!

~stats

Last month I put an unnecessary amount of time into creating my own charts and graphs and such of my reading tracker, on top of all the wonderful charts and graphs and data that Storygraph tracks for me. So to showcase that a bit, here’s a little section for all the data people like me out there to drool over. 😍

  • My reading was 7% Nonfiction this month (and the remaining 93% fiction).
  • My top genres were Young Adult (8 books) and Romance (7 books).
  • I mostly read books that were emotional, adventurous, or lighthearted.
  • My average rating was 3 stars out of 5. I read a total of 5,958 pages in May.
  • I traveled to South Korea, Japan, France, and even the Underworld through my books. In the United States, I was in Washington, California, and Boston.
Continue reading “June 2022 Wrap Up: apparently I read a lot” →