READING NOTES: #MiserablesMay group read, Vol. 5 (with spoilers)

A weight has been lifted from my shoulders, because I. am. FINISHED. With. Les. Misérables! I completed my reading of The Brick just after midnight on Tuesday. I had finished Volume 4 just hours before and written some scant thoughts on it (which you can see here; there's also posts on Volumes 1, 2 and …

READING NOTES: #MiserablesMay group read, Vol. 3 (with spoilers)

Every week I'm falling farther behind on finishing volumes of The Brick. In case you haven't been paying attention, I'm participating in a group read of "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo. It's hosted by Emma at The Terror of Knowing and Liz at Travel in Retrospect. Thank you both; you've sufficiently ruined my life. [Need …

READING NOTES: #MiserablesMay group read, Vol. 2 (with spoilers)

My reading of "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo continues. I'm along for the ride with group read hosts Emma at The Terror of Knowing and Liz at Travel in Retrospect. I just finished Volume 2 and wanted to share a few thoughts. [You can read what I had to say about Volume 1 here.] I …

READING NOTES: #MiserablesMay group read, Vol. 1 (with spoilers)

Never did I ever think I'd be attempting to read "Les Misérables" again, yet here we are. I blame Emma over at The Terror of Knowing for luring me back to The Brick, which I first tried to read in 2016-17ish. It's OK, though. Reading something overwhelming like this deserves to be blogged about, and …

Author Mindy Mejia demonstrates new dance move, discusses “grip-lit”

Yesterday afternoon, I traveled with three fellow Book Swap pals to Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City, where we attended a reading and signing by "Everything You Want Me to Be" author Mindy Mejia. First off, I wanna say that Mindy is hilarious. She told us how, while making breakfast for her two young children …

Birthday/book swap book haul

So, um, today is my birthday ... *throws confetti* I'll be celebrating later today with Jared and my parents. Yesterday the celebration kicked off early with book shopping, dinner and a movie. We saw "La La Land" ... Jared suggested it without realizing it's a musical (he hates musicals!). It was a beautiful film! Anyway, …

Happy New Year!

Happy 2017, all! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve/Day. On Saturday, Jared and I had a late lunch with his parents (mainly to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday). Then, we spent the evening with friends – eating more food, drinking delicious beverages, playing Jackbox games and laughing ourselves silly. Yesterday was …

Top 10 least favorite reads of 2016

So with this post, I suppose I'm ending 2016 on a bit of a negative note. But after seeing a similar post from Jess @ The Mud and Stars Book Blog, I thought it might be interesting to come up with my own list of my least favorite books read this year. Check out my favorite …

Reading Notes: “Little Women”

Happy Saturday, dear book bloggers. I'm in rather high spirits this morning. Yesterday marked four years since Jared's and my first date. Due to some nasty weather, we weren't able to celebrate with a return trip to the diner and movie theater where it all began, but hopefully we can recreate our first date, as …

Reading Notes: “Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk”

Happy Friday to one and all! Today's post is something a bit new and different for That Book Lady Blog - my first installment of "Reading Notes." It's basically a chance for me to jot down some of my thoughts on a book I'm currently reading. I'll try to avoid spoilers when I can, but if I …