Instagram and Me

02 May 2016 Leave a comment

by Amy in News Tags: , ,

InstaBecause I’m terrible at sharing anything I am doing, I am here to officially let you all know I’ve joined Instagram! I actually joined a few weeks ago, and after sharing my posts on Facebook and Twitter, and even adding the link to the blog it’s only now I’m actually properly announcing it because as we’ve established, I’m terrible at remembering to do these things.

I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while and I finally took the plunge and signed up. I have been a silent spier on others for many months, and now I’ve become part of the bookstagram pack. You can find me at @lostinagoodbk and put up with my pictures of my books and reading habits and more often than not pictures of my puppy. I’m loving it so far, bringing out my artistic picture taker and trying to make my posts pretty is quite fun.

To help me get really immersed I’ve joined a challenge hosted by Alyssa (@alyssaisreading) and Brooke (@just_a_nerd777). The May Book Challenge covers everything from your TBR and books that made you cry, to fave last lines or a shelfie. You can follow or join via the tag #alyssaandbrookemay16. It should be a great month of sharing!

If you’re on Instagram let me know so I can follow you!

It’s Gonna Be May

01 May 2016 2 Comments

by Amy in News Tags:

As fun as having an entire month dedicated to Shakespeare was, my goodness it was hard work. I’m also now a bit lost in my plans, I have reviews that need writing, updates about Bingo and AWW that need posting. I feel like I’ve come back from a break and need to readjust. Not the case of course, but in a way Shakespeare and life took up so much of my time my plan to multitask blogwise has not come true. But I’m rectifying this and will be posting normally again soon. Even if I’m not that far ahead in my reading challenges I want to post an update just to start feeling on top of things again. I’ve got a new feature I finally got around to doing something about during Shakespeare Month. It’s been in my drafts forever and I finally did something with it so I’m excited about that.

I have a few books events coming up and some I need to write up so I will be posting those over the week, Star Wars Day is coming up again on Wednesday too which will be fun. May also means the Sydney Writers’ Festival so in a couple of weeks I will be heading to Sydney for another week of awesome bookish fun. Really, the more I think about it I’m not actually becoming less busy, but there’s some exciting things happening.

I’m also going to be doing a group read of the Bindarra Creek series with Jess from The Never Ending Bookshelf. You may have seen the multiple Facebook and Twitter posts about it. You’re free to join in with us, just head over to Jess’ post and leave a comment letting us know you’re interested.

So that’s May, I can’t believe it’s May but it kind of feels like May too. Winter is coming and the weather can’t make up its mind so there’s some good rainy and cool reading days to enjoy.

New Month, New Season, New Ideas!

01 Mar 2016 2 Comments

by Amy in News Tags: ,

NewsIt’s 1 March, autumn has arrived, and with a new month comes to implementation of all my ideas! I have a few new blog features I am going to try about this year, and I have a few reading challenges I’m participating in that I will be updating you on. I’ve also had a restructure of my review requests and how I manage them. So there’s some of the new plans, all semi-inconsequential in the grand scheme of things but I’m a believer that if I share my plans I have more chance of following through so here we are.

Already with only two months into the year I am again inundated with requests! Thank you all so much for wanting me to review your books, I am properly honoured. I also know how easy it is to become overwhelmed and bogged down with reading requests and become stressed trying to review them and catch up when I fall behind. It’s happened done before and it’s not fun. So as a result, this year I am restricting myself so I can maintain balance. I am going to review a set number of request books a month, leaving enough time for me to read other books and complete other goals like the Australian Women Writers, Book Bingo, or any other book. Nothing else has changed, as usual unless a request is made for a certain date/day for the review to go up it goes in the queue and read in the order I received it. And of course, if I review more than my set number a month that’s great! I just need a limit so I don’t become stressed. Last year was so chaotic with falling behind and promises and the fact I think I read nothing but requested books I don’t want to do that to me or you guys again.

So there’s that. But that’s just one tiny thing I have happening! I’m going to be posting ongoing updates once a month about my Book Bingo process and my AWW challenge (and sticking to this plan). I’m also looking at a new feature called “From the Shelf” where I pick a book from my bookshelves and read it. That way I can also address my unread book collection and share all the awesome books I have.

In fun actual news, I have two big events planned for this year: the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and the 90th anniversary of Winnie the Pooh. Like my July block out for His Dark Materials, I will be doing something similar in April and October for these events so look out for those. The Newcastle Writers Festival takes place early April so there will be a lot about that as well.

In the near future, I have a few reviews coming up this week for some amazing books, and I am heading to a book launch this weekend so I’ll be posting a wrap up of that too. The event is for YA author Kaz Delaney’s new book The Reluctant Jillaroo, if you’re in the Newcastle/Hunter area and want to head to Cardiff library this Saturday come and join the festivities. Details on booking here. I’ll also be drawing the winners from my Loved Loot giveaway. I’m pretty sure every entry is going to win so congrats, but I will post about that soon too.

This is a very brief update because I have so much to do I can’t spend all the time talking about it and not actually doing it! I look forward to sharing my new features, and hopefully share with you some amazing books and book content! Don’t forget to like the Facebook page and Twitter for a bunch of other content like articles and fun book things I don’t share on the blog.

Happy 1 March and hopefully you are all reading something spectacular!

 

Harry Potter News!

11 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

by Amy in News Tags: , ,

Exciting news Potter fans! This morning it was announced that we are going to get our eighth Harry Potter book after all! A script book of the upcoming play is going to be released in July, the day after the play is first performed in London. This is excellent news for all of us who can’t make it to London to see the play first hand, we won’t miss out on the glory of a new Harry Potter story.

For those who don’t know, the play takes place after book seven, following on from Rowling’s 19 years later epilogue. Harry is working at the Ministry and his children are at school, and it seems everyone is still learning to deal with the aftermath of Harry’s great achievements. A brief synopsis reveals part of what we can expect:

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.

The play is by Jack Thorne, based on an original new story by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, and is the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage (though we can’t forget the glory that is A Very Potter Musical, as unofficial as it is).

Both a print and digital copies will be released simultaneously after the world premiere on 30th July this year, and according to Pottermore it will comprise of the version of the script at the time of the play’s preview performances.

As exciting as this is, it gets better. Aussie bookseller Booktopia and Amazon.com have already got pre-order links available so you can secure your copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II. This announcement is clearly the start of some great Harry Potter news, and with the 20th anniversary next year we have only got special editions and many more surprises to look forward to. Pottermore reveals there are going to be four special UK editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, one for each Hogwarts house, and there will also be brand new editions of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, with new content by J.K. Rowling, as well as new editions of the Hogwarts Library books – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

There is so much to look forward to and I’m sure there will be even more surprises to come as the anniversary nears. I know I already have grand plans to celebrate next year and with all these new releases and special editions it’s only going to get better.

Pre-order Harry Potter and the Cursed Child via the following

Booktopia

Amazon

News (of sorts)!

30 Apr 2015 1 Comment

by Amy in News Tags: , ,

NewsI cannot believe how long it has been since I have done a news post! I have been so busy I haven’t even had time to write a post telling you how busy I have been! But having arrived at the last day of April I decided it was time to stop everything, reassess where I am currently in my review list pile and work out where we are going from here. Which as it turns out was WONDERFUL because I found books I’d received which had been forgotten about and left off my review list which I am horrified about so now I am doing a complete redo and catalogue of all the request emails of 2015 to get myself sorted. So much for thinking I was organised! Luckily it hasn’t made too much of a difference but I still feel super bad to keep people waiting.

Since I got my first review request of the year on 1 January this year I have gotten fifty requests to review books this year alone! And it’s only April! This in itself is AMAZING and I am eternally grateful to all those wonderful authors and publishers who have written to me asking me to review books. Of these fifty I agreed to forty-eight and of these forty-eight I have read twenty-five so I have twenty-three to go but I am past halfway and I am always at it, ticking one book off at a time.

So as you can see from that first book I have had a steady and ongoing increase in requests which has also meant I have had a lot of reading to do and so many apologies must be sent out again for the delays in getting some of those reviews back to you. For awhile there it was about two months after I was first asked, but I did manage to get it down to a month there for a bit which I am quite proud of. I am trying super hard to catch up and a few weeks ago I worked out my schedule enough so I could finally give everyone a heads up on the delay which made me feel less guilty as I could offer up a general time frame.

There has been a slight change though: to those who I gave review dates as late April this will now be early May I’m afraid, reading a few quite long books pushed back my timeline which couldn’t be helped. There are a small handful of you and I promise those reviews will be coming in the next couple of weeks (fingers crossed, no major disasters or delays pending). To the early May and late May pile you should still be ok for the time being but be prepared to be a bit later as well (sorry!).

In other less stressful news, Book Bingo is going well as you may have seen from my post the other day. The great thing about having 50 random books at your disposal means you can fill in quite a few categories rather quickly. No BINGOs as of yet though but one day soon I will get a row of five I have no doubt!

Other than that not much has been happening so I think that is all for now, best get back to reading. Starting this post made me realise my organisation skills were not that great since a few books fell through the cracks, but it has made me realise I have been faring rather well all things considered. Needing to be extremely organised with emails and (newly updated) review lists, and having a working system of read-review-read-review day in and day out has meant while I am a few weeks behind, I am still pretty much staying on top of things which I am quite proud of if I’m honest.

So while this is not so much news as ‘let’s just take a breather and realise how much I have to do’ therapy post, it has been nice to recap all that I have achieved in the first four months of the year and bring on May!

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