Thursday, January 30, 2025

Thursday 13: More New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2024

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂  


This is a book topic so I will also be posting to the Discussion Challenge at Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.


One of the first Thursday 13 posts I did when I began participating last summer was on new-to-me authors I read in the first half of 2024. I had more then 13 to choose from at that point so narrowing it down as a little hard. I knew I'd find more during the rest of the year. Again, I found  more than 13 (per my Goodreads list for 2024), and it was once again hard to choose just that many. 

I've never done this weekly posting topic at this blog, though I have glanced at the blog. This week's topic happens be "Top 10 new-to me authors I discovered in 2024." The topic at the blog above me think of my post and made me want to do a second one on the same topic. The blogging topic is for making Top 10 book lists, but I wanted to do them one better. Make that three better 😉 Will be linking to that one as well.

So here are some more of the new-to-me authors I read in 2024, mostly in the second half of the year, since the original post was at the end of last June. Once again, I will be listing  the book I read from the author and how I came across the books. These are not in any particular order.


  1. Katherine Slee--The Book of Second Chances Needing a book for one of the prompts in this challenge, I looked up books in my library's database containing the word "second." This one came up and I had already seen it at the library. I'd wanted to read it when I first saw but had decided against it for the time being. When it came up in my search, I decided it was the one I'd choose.
  2. Saleem Haddad--Guapa While searching for a book by an LGBTQ+ MENA author, I came across this one in my library database. I decided on it right then, but did not get around to reading it until December. 
  3. Sabaa Tahir--All My Rage I picked this one for one of these prompts. It came up, and I was afraid of not finding it at my library, but I did.
  4. Laila Lalami--The Other Americans As with the book Guapa, I decided on this when I first come across the title, but put off reading the book until the end of the year.  Needing a North African author, this one came up while searching. Again, it seemed like one by library would not have, but did.
  5. Zadie Smith--Swing Time I'd known about this author for some time, and have been waiting to read her book White Teeth. But this was the only one at the library. I'll have to keep looking for the other book! 
  6. Susan Crandall--Whistling Past the Graveyard  One of the books I picked up at a thrift store, most likely because I liked how it sounded when I first saw it. 
  7. Clare Boylan--Emma Brown It seems to get harder and harder to find titles containing "brown", yet I just have to do this challenge every year, because I still enjoy it. When looking for a title in my library database, this one came up and it sounded good. I was particularly interested in this one after learning it was written from an unfinished manuscript left behind by Charlotte Bronte when she died. This author picked it up nearly 150 years later.
  8. Zaraida Cordova--The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina This was one of those books I saw for sale when it first came out. It looked good, but didn't want to buy it. I nearly forgot about it, until I saw it at the library. I was not aware they have it until last December.
  9. Eric Gansworth--Apple: Skin to the Core Having had the Indigenous culture prompt at least twice last year, this what I chose. It seems that a lot of the  books at my library that have to do with indigenous culture are in the reference section or our "California Collection" shelves, and not for loan. This makes it hard to find such book to read. But this one was in the YA section.
  10. Susanna Clarke--Piranesi Unsure how exactly I found this one, though I seem to remember hearing about it somewhere, sometime earlier. I obviously was interested enough to seek it out.
  11. Hannah Orenstein--Love at First Like When searching for a book with "like" in the title, this was one that came up in my library catalog. It just sounded good.
  12. Plum Sykes--Bergdorf Blondes One of those books that I got at a thrift store but don't remember when or why I chose it. I have many books that fit this description.
  13. Linda Holmes--Evvie Drake Starts Over  I'd heard so much about this book and kept meaning to read it, but did not get to it until November. 

Are you familiar with any of these authors? If not, do any of them sound interesting to you? Have you discovered any new authors this past year?

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

From the Blogosphere This Week

I came across these en some of the blogs I regularly read.  I just had to share them. 








These last two  I shared on Facebook as well, and many thought the Spacex one was funny.





Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Bluesky

So I decided to go onto Bluesky. Though I'm not certain about leaving Twitter/X yet.  Even though I hate Musk, I did not feel compelled to leave that platform when he took over. It was hard to want to leave after 15 years. 

My Bluesky username is jannghi. I've already followed some people and have only three followers as of yet. But I've only just begun today. I was not certain about joining, but decided to just this morning. 

Monday, January 20, 2025

Inauguration Day

These say everything about today. 






And it feels like we've stepped back in time:




The only good thing about today is this:



Today Google doodle celebrates MLK. 

Only once previously has MLK day coincided with Inauguration Day, since MLK has only been a federal holiday since 1986. The last such co-occurrence was in 1997. Also, Inauguration Day in 2013 was held a day later (since Jan.20 was on a Sunday then), thus coinciding with MLK Day. 


Friday, January 17, 2025

The Clock Reading Challenge 2025

I was sure I was done signing up for challenges. Some I'd done in the past don't appear to be offered this year. But seeing two others sign up for this one made me want to do this one now. This is my first year doing this one. As two others who signed up pointed out, this one goes well with the Card Deck Challenge in terms of the number titles. 


 


Challenge completed on October 7

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Thursday 13

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂  



Here are some things I picked up on the Internet this past week, some coming form my Facebook feed and memories.

















Tuesday, January 14, 2025

My Year In Books 2024

 Anne at My Head is Full of Books is hosting this meme.


My Year in Books

Rules?

  • Answer the questions with titles from books you read in 2024. (Some may end up being silly, others may seem overly serious.)   
  • The goal is to have fun. 
  • Participate by copying the questions below. Erasing my answers and inserting your own.  
  • Once you've created your post, link it below so others can see it, then visit others' posts to see how they answered the questions.
  • Spread the word. Let's see if we can make this a thing again this year!


Questions:

  1. In high school I was (the one who would): Keep Quiet--Lisa Scottoline
  2. People might be surprised: When We Believed in Mermaids--Barbara O'Neal
  3. I will never be: Paris: The Memoir--Paris Hilton
  4. My fantasy job is: Summers at the Saint--Mary Kay Andrews
  5. At the end of a long day I need: Euphoria--Lily King
  6. I hate it: All My Rage--Saba Tahir
  7. Wish I had: The Books of Second Chances--Katherine Slee
  8. My family reunions are: The Singles Game--Lauren Weisberger
  9. At a party you’d find me: In Her Shoes--Jennifer Weiner
  10. I’ve never been to: The House of Eve--Sadeqa Johnson
  11. A happy day includes (a): Funny Story--Emily Henry
  12. Motto I live by: Happy Place--Emily Henry
  13. On my bucket list is: Summer on Sag Harbor--Sunny Hostin
  14. In my next life, I want to have: Every Last Word--Tamara Ireland Stone


This was rather fun, but also hard. I kept changing some of the answers. As it says in the rules, the answers may be silly or serious. I tried to make most of mine seem silly. Though I kind of like the idea of summer on Sag Harbor--I've never spent an entire summer at the beach. Last summer was the last time I'd even been to the beach. And I could use a funny story at the end of a long day after being exhausted. 

What would you put for each one? How funny or serious would your answers be? Click the link at the top to participate and to see others' answers. 


I'm also posting this to: