Friday Face-Off: Surprisingly Pink

On May 15, 2020 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations2 Comments

It’s time again for the Friday Face-Off meme, created by Books by Proxy, with weekly topics hosted by Lynn’s Book Blog. The idea is to put up different covers for one book, and select a favorite.

This week’s theme is: As pink as cotton candy – any cover that is pink

I went to hunt my bookshelves for this prompt, to see what pink covers I could turn up. I was actually kind of surprised to realize that my Song of the Lioness quartet books actually have a lot of pink on them. And when I started looking at covers online, this seemed to be a trend. Considering I feel like they started the “woman as hero” genre of books, with the heroine disguising herself as a man, well…”pink” isn’t really what comes to mind. Although Alanna does eventually come to discover that, while she definitely wants to be a knight and use a sword, sometimes she enjoys styling her hair and wearing a dress, so–bit of balance there.

Anyway, here are a few cover versions of the third book in the series, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, selecting for pink ones!

This is definitely the pinkest. The war horse and the pink background is…interesting.

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Friday Face-Off: Fairy Tales, in Pictures

On May 8, 2020 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations1 Comment

It’s time again for the Friday Face-Off meme, created by Books by Proxy, with weekly topics hosted by Lynn’s Book Blog. The idea is to put up different covers for one book, and select a favorite.

This week’s theme is: Graphic novel cover – “Love belongs to Desire, and Desire is always cruel”

I don’t read many graphic novels, so I had to really think about this one…and then I remembered that I did read quite a few of the Fables graphic novel series. Characters from fairy tales (and sometimes nursery rhymes) are living in a secret community in modern day New York, exiles from their magical home. Despite what this might sound like, they’re very adult-oriented graphic novels, with mature themes and sometimes more blood than I really needed! Still a fun series though, and I probably read eight or ten volumes. But I thought I’d look at covers for Volume One.

This seems to be the most common cover, and I think the one on the copy I read. I actually don’t like it! It looks too busy, and even studying it, it’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on, or what sense I’m supposed to get of the book.

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Blog Hop: Books for Low Days

On April 10, 2020 By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: What is a book that has helped you get through your lowest point in life?

I don’t know that I can point to any one book at any one moment in life helping me…but I do know that Terry Pratchett books are especially good if life is blue or stressful. I also like rereading L. M. Montgomery’s journals. I find biographies in general are often good for perspective, because they remind me how long and variable life actually is. Right now, during rather a strange and anxious time in the world, I’m on my second Star Trek novel, because I appreciate a hopeful book at the moment.

I was fortunate to read When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner when I wasn’t going through a particularly bad time, but I think it would be a very good book for that kind of crisis.

What books have helped you in bad days? Do you have go-to authors for difficult times?

2020 Reading Challenges – First-Quarter Update

On April 7, 2020 By cherylmahoneyIn Phantom Challenge, Ruminations2 Comments

Already into April, it’s time to check-in about how 2020 reading goals are going! I hope you are all enjoying nice weather, staying safe in a weird time, and reading as much as you’d like to.

My overarching goal this year was to read more, with a number goal of 125 books. I read a lot in January, starting me off well for the year. I’m at a total of 32 books for the first three months of the year, though it has been dropping off. Now that I’ve been following “stay at home” orders for a few weeks, my audiobook listening has reduced (very little driving!) and I don’t seem to be doing a lot of extra print reading…but I’m still going through some books, and wondering how long my last-minute stock-up pile from the library will last!

Here’s my monthly totals:
January: 14 books
February: 11 books
March: 7 books

Now onto the specific challenges…

The Phantom of the Opera Reading & Viewing Challenge
Host: Tales of the Marvelous
Goal: Lon Chaney Level

I already posted the check-in post for the Phantom challenge I’m hosting. So far, I’ve reread the Gaston Leroux Phantom. I have a modest goal for this one, so I’m currently on track. I’m hoping to re-watch the 25th Anniversary Webber play next. We’ll see!

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Blog Hop: Visit My Bookshelves

On March 27, 2020 By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Share a photo of one section of your bookshelf randomly selected or go ahead and share the entire bookshelf.

I’ve been wanting to share a video touring my L. M. Montgomery shelves (so, not that randomly selected), making this blog hop prompt perfect! Please enjoy the visit to my shelves in the video below. 🙂