Alright, another year in the books! (Badum-tss.)
Sure, I could just link or rewrite my Year in Books (Goodreads) and 2022 Reading Wrap-Up (StoryGraph) and be done with it. But what’s the fun in that? (Especially when I made a spreadsheet and I have graphs in said spreadsheet!)
🎶 I was working in the lab, late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster from his slab, began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise… 🎶
Truth be told I haven’t yet finished updating Goodreads, so my Year in Books and 2021 on Goodreads aren’t wholly accurate or complete. But even if I had, I’d still be compiling this post to share the metrics and reads that I personally find most compelling. So there.
Happy Pride Month, friends! While planning this month’s posts I went looking for Pride-themed book tags and only found a couple, so today I’m bringing you an original set of prompts that I hope you’ll enjoy, regardless of whether you identify as LGBTQIA+ (including questioning, that’s completely valid) or are “just” an ally.
This tag is based on the Progress Pride Flag (shown in the post header) and the meanings of different rose colors (as compiled from multiple sources), because why not?
Before we get into the swing of 2021, let’s take a moment to look back at 2020 so that we can repress and bid it farewell forever. Okay, jokes aside, there were some highlights to my year that I wanted to recognize.
It’s possible that I have a thing for cookies in books (see: my Mother-Daughter Book Club chocolate chip cookies). What can I say, I love baking and I also love reading about characters baking; it makes them extra relatable and lovable.
So food scenes are a general favorite of mine, and this one from Small Town Hearts by Lillie Vale is no exception:
I sank my teeth into a shortbread cookie that wasn’t perfectly round. The sweet, smoky notes of tea blended with the crushed vanilla beans I’d sprinkled into the cookie batter. The flavor was incredible — like sweet, crumbly autumn goodness. Like fragrant, floral tea and crisp breaths in brisk air. Like fingertips warmed by hot cocoa and enormous woolly sweaters wrapped around me.
There’s a lot going on in the world right now — well, there always is, but it’s particularly loud and overwhelming right now.
Not gonna lie, I’m writing this post in large part just because I need the reminder that it’s more than okay not to be super productive even though it seems like I have all this time, that I have a tendency to take on too much work and stress and I should stop doing this, that it’s easier to prevent than to recover from burnout.
Hello and welcome back to Bookending Spring on the Nine Tale Vixen blog! If you’re new to Bookending Events, they’re quarterly (seasonal) events aiming to bring the book blogging community closer together; this spring, the optional theme is organization and cleaning. If you’re new to my blog — hi, I’m Isabelle and it’s nice to meet you! If you’re a returner — welcome back, friend!
The past couple of days have been lots of fun for me, and I hope you’ve gotten some inspiration from my prompts and from Bookending Spring as a whole!
For my last day as your host, in the spirit of spring and new life, I’d like to take you back to the beginning … of your own blogging journey.
If you were to restart your blog / bookstagram / other media account knowing what you know now, what (if anything) would you change? What tips would you give to newbie bloggers?
This post is part of Bookending Spring 2020, which is organized by Sam & Clo!
Today’s prompt, “Begin Again,” is hosted by yours truly — if you do this prompt, don’t forget to link back to this post!
Nine Tale Vixen 