Lisa Loves Literature: Blogging Year Number Nine Has Been So Fine!

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Blogging Year Number Nine Has Been So Fine!

Wow, it's been nine years since I started blogging, and I feel like the last two years have been really great, and really busy! I've been so busy this past year in fact, that right now, I am stressed about taking the time to do this post, because I've got a bunch of books to finish for reviews this week! Gah!

I am slowly working on my scheduling, and I thought I was getting better, and ahead, but let's just say I'm still working on my time management with review books every once in awhile. There are just so many good ones out there, and with publishers reaching out to me more these days, I have trouble saying no.

That's how I feel right now with all the books I need to read! So many e-galleys! The thing that has stressed me out even more is that in the last two weeks I have somehow lost my Nook, so I've had to try to get them all read on my phone. Which, don't get me wrong, I read on my phone all the time, but it isn't as quick as on an actual e-reader that is real book size. At work today I gave in and bought a new Nook. With my luck, I will find my old one now.

Let's talk about a few of the cool things from this past year. Something little is that I switched to Direct TV and got Starz channel free for a short time, and so got hooked on the Outlander series, and finally started reading and loving the books. In October I got to finally meet Colleen Hoover, and at that same event joined a Kansas City Book Club, which I haven't actually gone to a meet-up with yet, but I've seen several members at different book events.

In February I spent $100 to get this picture taken (worth every single penny):

At the second annual Kinky in Kansas City, I got to see Amy Daws again:

Then I was busy saving money for my two big trips this past summer. First was my very first time at the American Library Association annual convention. It was held in New Orleans, my third time visiting there, luckily I have a friend who has a place he lets me stay there for free, right in the French Quarter! It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet some favorite authors:

Andrew Smith is the author of one of my favorite books, Grasshopper Jungle.

Tahereh Mafi, love her Shatter Me series.

Now, I actually met Julie Kagawa at my first BEA, but I hadn't read any of her books then. Now that I have, it was so cool to get to tell her how much I loved her books in person.

You can check out my full post about ALA HERE.

Then, I was back home for about a month, which was spent working a ton of hours at my part time job, to save money for my second big trip of the summer, Book Bonanza, in Denver. Book Bonanza was a new convention put on by Colleen Hoover and it had a TON of awesome authors! Here are a few of my unicorn authors, that it totally made my day to get to finally meet them!

Helena Hunting, author of the Pucked series.

Cambria Hebert, author of the #Nerd series.

Meghan March, author of the Beneath series.

Now, I could go on and share a ton more pictures from that event, but if you want to see them, you can just go check out my post dedicated to that event HERE.

Now, let's get to the part of a blogoversary that everyone looks forward to, the giveaway! I've got three prizes this year. One will be choosing three books from my books for trade piles in the pictures below. Now, there may be more added once I finish them this month, since I will keep this giveaway open till the end of August, so I'll send the winner an updated photo then. Also, this part of the giveaway is for US only. Sorry, there will be an international part to this giveaway too.

I'll probably throw in some swag from my conventions this past year as well!

I'm going to give away a $9.00 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble, your choice.

And internationally you can pick one of my 5 star reviewed books listed below from The Book Depository, as long as they ship to your country. Hint: There will be an option in the Rafflecopter to comment on the reviews below for an entry, one a day!