Happy weekend, readers! I’m hitting the road to visit family tonight and still haven’t decided what books I’m packing. Send help!
My favorite finds from around the web:
- The Battle of the Book Cover: U.K. versus U.S. Hat tip to Mel Jouwan for the great read!
- Emma Thompson Gets A Shock At 60. Fascinating interview.
- A friend sent me these erasable highlighters and I loooove them.
- Book subtitles are getting ridiculously long. What is going on? I enjoyed my conversation with Rachel Kramer Bussel for this! What do you think about book subtitles?
- Our Kitchen Garden Plan. I’m always interested in seeing how other people garden.
Favorite Instagram:
I can’t resist a #littlefreelibrary. If I walk or drive by one and I have a book even remotely handy, I’m leaving it for a future patron to find. I hope someone is happy to find this copy of I’d Rather Be Reading in this one. (Follow me on Instagram @annebogel.)
On the blog:
One year ago: 6 things I’m loving for early summer. The little, everyday things that brought me a disproportionate amount of happiness. (And still do, one year later!)
Two years ago: What’s your reading personality?
Three years ago: 17 big, fat books for your summer reading. I still love a giant doorstop of a book in the summertime.
Four years ago: A first-timer’s adventures at Book Expo America and BookCon. These annual events just happened last week/weekend and it was fun watching everyone there.
Five years ago: Gift ideas for men.
On the podcast:
Hannah Christmas is a stay at home mom whose reading life changed forever when she had a baby. Not only how much she read, or when she read, but the big-picture long-term-plan way she wanted to share her love of reading with the world. We talked about fresh blood in the bookselling world, the treatment for a serious overdose of books set in New York City, literary handcrafts, and much much more. Plus, you’ve got to check out her Narnia embroidery!
Have a great weekend!
17 comments
Love these weekly links! I’m definitely not a fan of long subtitles, especially now that I know the reason behind them! Some of the authors interviewed said they did it to provide the readers with enough information, but honestly, I think they provided too much information. I don’t need the entire book summarized in one long sentence.
When we travel overseas I always end up bringing back books that I already own since I can’t resist the UK covers! I almost always like their covers better than ours…
I don’t mind a long subtitle in nonfiction and memoir, but I find the fiction subtitles really grating. Especially the ones with qualitative adjectives. The number of books with “heartbreaking” or “heartwarming” in the subtitle is maddening. Your subtitle is not supposed to be a review!
I have just finished ‘When All is Said’ by Anne Griffin. It was stupendous! I was so moved by it and would really recommend it (especially the Audible version which is read brilliantly).
Take “Beyond the Point” by Claire Gibson if you haven’t read it yet! I started it late afternoon yesterday and am already halfway finished!
Just wanted to thank you Anne for recommending Louise Penny.
I can’t even remember the post but spotted a copy of the first in the Gamache series in a charity shop a couple of days later and was hooked!
Desperately trying to only read 1 a week as I don’t get anything done as I think ‘Just another chapter.. and another…’
Best series I’ve read since Patrick O Brians ‘Master and Commander ‘books…
So thank you Anne from one of your British readers who really really wants to visit Quebec one day…
Well the books are geared towered teens I have enjoyed Irene Hunts books, particularly No promises in the wind, and the lottery rose, I feel I got more out of them as an adult then if I had read them when younger, but then that is typically the resalt when I read books geared to younger people.
Thoughts on the Frixion Gel Pens? I’m SO obsessed with them. 😂 If you like them, search Amazon for the Pilot Frixion 4 Color Pen White (white is the .5mm). I could see that being handy for editing. 👍🏻
I love to read your blogs and also listen to your interviews with all these interesting people. I look forward to reading them every week. Thank you.
Will you do another BIG FAT BOOKS for summer reading this year? I read the one from 3 years ago and I’d love new ideas. Thank you!
NOTED. 🙂
If your looking for light easy but well written storied I highly recommend two books I recently finished. The first one is “My Ex Best Friends Wedding” by Wendy Wax. I think it may be my favorite out of all the books she has written. It has two of my favorite things book store owner and a published author. I will stop there so as not to give spoilers. I just finished last night “Queen Bee” by Dorthea Benton Frank. I really enjoyed it and flew through it. Definitely a great book for beach reading. Its not summer until I read her yearly book.
Both of these are on my shelf! Thanks for the nudge.
I really, really love books with subtitles, so the length of them doesn’t bother me (unless they get so long that they no longer fit into the title box for a blog post! THAT might be an issue). Nonfiction is my jam a lot in the winter, especially (not lately, because I’ve been sick for three weeks and have more been looking for easier reads), and I’ve recognized for years that if a book has a subtitle, it’s right up my alley. 🙂
Happy reading! 🙂
Since the Women’s World Cup began this weekend, I thought I’d share another readerly link. Becky Sauerbrunn (USWNT), defender extraordinary, talks about how reading helps her escape from “the grind”:
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2019/06/23-stories-becky-sauerbrunn
(Link didn’t post.)
On the matter of book subtitles, since you asked, long can be better. The short title can capture attention and serve as an easy way for people to refer to a book in conversation. A long subtitle can complement that by giving a sense of what the book is about, something missing in short titles.