I was inspired by a post I read by Kelsye at Wise Ink Blog Ultimate Bloggers Guide to Growing Your Readership. Her list of ways to increase traffic got me thinking about how little I actually do to set schedules and really update readers on what to expect from my little slice of the inter-webs. In theory, this feature should help keep me on track and active. My long term goal is to turn this post into a weekly newsletter of sorts outlining where we are and where we are going.
I signed up to Read, Sleep, Repeat’s 3rd Annual ARC August to make a dent in my TBR ARC list at the beginning of the month and am ashamed to say I haven’t really done any updating. I know, I know..what am I thinking? I’ve made the decision to make a giant post at the end of the month for final reflections, but my reading slump made any real updates impossible. Actually, if I’m completely honest, I’ve spent more time job searching and working on setting up my final plans for university rather than reading.
My goal was to read 3-4 books before the end of the month.
Current total: 3
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by Kate Moretti: NetGalley.
A while back I took part in a cover reveal post for While You Were Gone which is a book about am unlucky woman living in Toronto. I don’t see many novels about Canadian women and even less that really capture my attention. So, when I saw While You Were Gone on NetGalley I immediately requested a copy. I’m super excited to see if this book is as fantastic as it sounds! Despite Karen Caughee’s intense focus on her music, her life is drifting out of its lane. Her alcoholic mother keeps calling from bars for early-morning rides, her boyfriend doesn’t think she gets him, and that Toronto Symphony Orchestra position she applied for ends up going to her friend, Amy. By chance, she meets American Greg Randolf just before she’s in a car accident. He pulls her from the wreckage, but after major surgery, her recovery is slow. Without her music, her life’s pursuit, Karen is pushed further adrift.Greg stays by her side while she heals, and he sees her every time he’s in Toronto for work. Without any other support or friendship in her life, Karen craves his enthusiastic attention, and their friendship deepens to love. Though she’s fallen hard for him, he doesn’t share everything with her. In one heartrending moment, Karen’s life comes to a crossroads, and she must face the full truth about who Greg is, and about who she has become. |
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by Marko Hautala: NetGalley. Lately I’ve been desiring novels outside my usual romance and science fiction genres. I stumbled upon The Black Tongue on NetGalley and decided that a little paranormal horror would be a fantastic fall read. Let’s get in the Halloween spirit! For generations, the urban legend of Granny Hatchet has plagued the quiet residential area of Suvikylä in northern Finland. As the story goes, this immortal killer murders her victims with a hatchet, then buries the hearts in a potato field and eats them after they’ve rotted black. But not everyone is convinced it is just a story.Maisa Riipinen has returned to her hometown to complete her dissertation on urban folklore at the same time that Samuel Autio has come home to arrange his father’s funeral. As hazy, disturbing memories from their pasts meld with strange events in the present, Maisa and Samuel attempt to make sense of the town’s fearful obsession with the mythical Granny Hatchet. But if it’s only a legend, then why are people still vanishing without a trace? |
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y M. R. O’Connor: NetGalley. Since reading How to Clone a Mammoth I’ve been extremely fascinated by the technological advances in DNA sequencing. It wasn’t a huge leap that when I saw Resurrection Science added to Goodreads I added it to my TBR list and my “most wanted” list. I cannot wait to delve into another title about cloning, ethics and de-extinction. Seriously, this book is going to be amazing. In a world dominated by people and rapid climate change, species large and small are increasingly vulnerable to extinction. In Resurrection Science, journalist M. R. O’Connor explores the extreme measures scientists are taking to try and save them, from captive breeding and genetic management to de-extinction. Paradoxically, the more we intervene to save species, the less wild they often become. In stories of sixteenth-century galleon excavations, panther-tracking in Florida swamps, ancient African rainforests, Neanderthal tool-making, and cryogenic DNA banks, O’Connor investigates the philosophical questions of an age in which we “play god” with earth’s biodiversity.Each chapter in this beautifully written book focuses on a unique species–from the charismatic northern white rhinoceros to the infamous passenger pigeon–and the people entwined in the animals’ fates. Incorporating natural history and evolutionary biology with conversations with eminent ethicists, O’Connor’s narrative goes to the heart of the human enterprise: What should we preserve of wilderness as we hurtle toward a future in which technology is present in nearly every aspect of our lives? How can we co-exist with species when our existence and their survival appear to be pitted against one another? |
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Resurrection Science looks good. Wish I could be organised enough to do a weekly update but I must confess to being chaotic about blogging and an impulse reader.
I can’t wait to read Resurrection Science. It was on my list of most wants for September!
I do a weekly update to try to keep myself on some sort of a schedule. So far so good but it’s difficult. I’m also an impulse reader but ARCs help me keep on track. I tell the publisher I’ll review the title so I do. Otherwise I’d be super lazy about it and post every few months instead of a weekly review. 🙂
I’m doing ARC August too! I’ve read 2 ARCs so far – Magonia and Everything, Everything. Funny story is I read Magonia before I had decided to do ARC August (It was my very first read of August) so for a while I was thinking Everything, Everything was my first ARC of the month, BUT IT WASN’T! My next ARC of the month will be A Thousand Nights – I took a poll on my blog about what order to read the ARCs I already had, which is always a fun way to come up with your TBR. My only hard and fast goal for Arc August was to read an ARC every other non-ARC book and it’s been working so far!
That’s great! ARC August was really helpful in getting myself organized. I have one more August title before I’m done them all! I didn’t think I’d get through them but I have! I did Lumiere, The Worst of Times and Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend which were all fantastic in their own way. I’m hoping next year I’ll be able to really participate rather than just an end of month post.
I’ve been toying with buying Magonia it looks really interesting! I might have to creep your blog to see what you thought of it. 😉