Category: Ruminations

2016 Reading Challenges – Final Update

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations3 Comments

We’re coming up on the end of a very long, very strange year, in which I did a lot of reading.  So let’s get down to it!

Newbery Medal WinnersPicture
Goal: 15 Newbery Medal Winners, to bring myself to half of the total list
Host: Smiling Shelves

This has continued to be my most successful challenge in terms of numbers.  These are mostly fast reads, and so convenient to listen to on audiobook (and not every type of book is) that I’ve blown right through my target number and read 22.  That brings me up to 54 total, out of 95 Newbery Medal Winners.  So that means 41 to go…because my secret goal of course is to read all of them.  Just, not within one year… Continue reading “2016 Reading Challenges – Final Update” →

Taking a Stance

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations2 Comments

This is not a political blog, and it is not about to become one–but in light of recent world events, it feels like time to make some kind of statement.  The time may have been a month ago, but on my own personal journey the right time seems to be today.

I already alluded in a NaNo post to being shaken by the November U.S. election results.  I won’t get into details about candidates or specific results, but here is what I will say:

I am against racism, xenophobia, hate-mongering and fear-based politics.  I believe in everyone’s right to claim their own identity and choose their own lives.  I believe in protecting marginalized groups, whether they are marginalized for their color, their income level, their gender identity, who they love or who they worship.  I believe in protecting our planet, which I believe is under human-made threat.

I believe in the right to speak and write your truth, and I believe in freedom of the press to find and spread truth.  I believe that no elected official is above the law, and that hate is not acceptable no matter how many people vote for you.

I believe that most people are basically good and that many, many people in our country and world are hurting–on both sides of the political spectrum.  I believe it’s on all of us to choose love rather than hate, and to each do our own part, big or small, to address the pain and fear of the people around us.

So what does that mean for this blog?  I also believe in the power of stories to shape our world view–and ultimately our world.  I have always embraced stories with strong female characters (and male, but it’s women who historically and still currently need those stories more).  In recent years I’ve become more committed to finding stories with racially diverse characters.

I am recommitting to sharing about stories that offer hope or inspiration, that present characters of every color and creed, that tell us that we can create a better world.  I’ll call out stories that present abuse as romance, that tell us we can’t choose our fates, or that gloss over racism or hate.

I believe what I always believed, and I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done.  I believe in love, tolerance, compassion, and stories that strive to create a better world.  It simply feels that at the moment, that message needs to grow more overt.

So that’s my line of books in the sand.  I hope you’ll keep reading.  And we’ll see what happens next.

Blog Hop: Grateful Reading

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Would you take a book with you when you go to your family’s Thanksgiving gathering/dinner?

Absolutely!  Though I should clarify by saying that it would be very unlikely I would actually read it.  I just bring a book everywhere, all the time.  And there might be a suitable reading opportunity somewhere in a day-long Thanksgiving gathering.

In recent years I’ve fallen into a semi-tradition of reading Terry Pratchett over Thanksgiving weekend.  I think it started when I read Hogfather one year (a little early, as that’s his Christmas satire, but it was almost seasonal) and now I’ve been carrying it on just for fun.  And perhaps it’s appropriate–laughter in general and Terry Pratchett in particular are something to be grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, all my American readers–and a lovely day to all the international ones too!  I am grateful you are here. ❤

Blog Hop: Reading Off to Sleep

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: When you settle in for the night with a good book, do you read until you can’t stay awake or simply have a nightly page goal?

Actually, neither!  Just about any time I settle down to read, but especially at night, I’m looking more at a timeline than at a page goal.  I know what time the light should go out, and I read until then–and I usually try to settle down to read about half an hour before then.  Very prescribed and ordered, I’m afraid!  And I suspect this is not a surprise to the people who know me well off-line…

Though it does sometimes surprise people that I don’t stay up late reading.  I get into books and I occasionally read page-turners, but it’s been a long time since I stayed up later than planned because I couldn’t put a book down.  I remember the last time that happened (a few years ago now)–it was Jane Eyre.  Probably not cited as a page-turner all that often!  But it’s a book I really love, and I was reading it for the first time.  I had watched a movie version, and I was eager to keep reading and see how the book wrote some of the moments I had seen in the movie.

What do your bedtime reading habits look like?  Assuming you have any–but many readers seem to!

Novel News: Upcoming Blog Spin–and Pre-Order

On By cherylmahoneyIn Novel News, Ruminations1 Comment

Lioness Cover - SmallAs I’ve mentioned a time or two, my next novel, The Lioness and the Spellspinners, will be out October 14th!  As I’ve done in the past, I have some lovely bloggers graciously helping me spread the word.  I’m keeping it small this year because life is a little crazy at the moment (good things, no one worry!) but I am still delighted to be visiting four other bloggers in the weeks after the book release: Lynn E. O’Connell of Little Lion Lynet’s; Katy of A Library Mama; Jessica of The Bookworm Chronicles; and Lynn of Lynn’s Books.

Of course, a blog tour requires a witty name, after I’ve done a Blog Wander, a Blog Waltz, and a Blog Banquet.  I got very stuck this year trying to think of an appropriate knitting term–and then it hit me.  Obviously I’m going to do a spin around the blogosphere!

Just so you know, I’m more punnish on my blog than in my books. 😉  Which you can find out for yourself on October 14th.  And you can already pre-order the Kindle version today!