Book Review: Spear by Nicola Griffith

Today’s book review is SPEAR by Nicola Griffith, a queer retelling of one aspect of Arthurian legend. This ethereal read is about identity and brims with beautiful, lyrical writing.

Author: Nicola Griffith
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Tordotcom
Publish Date: April 19, 2022
Print Length: 192

Want to support local bookstores? Buy a copy of Spear on Bookshop.org!*

*These are not affiliate links and I do not make a commission from any purchase made using these links.

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First Lines Fridays: October 7, 2022

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?  The rules are as follows:

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

If you’re using Twitter, don’t forget to use #FirstLinesFridays!

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How to Make Book Blog Friends and Grow Your Audience

I started my blog in March 2021, more than 1.5 years ago. Every so often I find myself reflecting on my journey. And every so often something I see on social media or someone else’s blog will spur another moment of reflection. A topic I keep coming back to involves how I found or created my niche within the bookish community. Note that I am definitely not an expert on this and these are just what I found worked for me. In this post I talk about how to make book blog friends.

It wasn’t easy at first. Starting a blog and maintaining it takes a lot of time and effort. Like many others, I started mine to connect with others who enjoy reading similar things. However, ever since the advent of more instantaneous social media (i.e., Twitter, Instagram, TikTok), blogging can feel like shouting out into the void. Therefore, it’s just as important to create and maintain at least one form of social media, in my opinion. That in itself can take a while to curate and figure out. You have to decide who to follow, what hashtags to use, and how to set up WordPress such that shared links to your site automatically preview an image.

All of this is initially overwhelming and may feel futile for the first few months. But after trying different ways to interact and create content, I feel like I’ve started to crack the code. (But who knows, it could change tomorrow. :-)) So I put together a list of things that I strive to do and that I encourage others to try. While I engage in these activities to connect with others, I’ve also seen a positive impact on my blog statistics, if that is something that is equally important to you. So, consider this list a work in progress. Read on to learn how to make book blog friends and grow your audience.

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Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: September 2022

Despite feeling super busy, I surprised myself by finishing six books in September in addition to my eight BBNYA 2022 extracts. I don’t know how I did it, but I’m very happy about that. I suppose it’s called avoiding-the-world-by-reading-all-the-time. 😉 It’s a great habit. I approve. Also, no plant injuries to report this time around, so another positive in my book.

I think the biggest life thing I’ll share is that our family vacation house in southwest Florida is still there! It’s on one of the barrier islands, so we had no idea what to expect after Hurricane Ian moved on. But we finally found aerial footage from NOAA that shows it didn’t wash away. We’re feeling very fortunate about that fact, though it will take a very long time to repair everything. The only way to access that part of Florida now is by boat or air, so that will definitely add to the restoration timeline. We don’t have any boots on the ground since those individuals are first and foremost tending to their own lives, as they should. We’ll learn more with time. Lots of good memories at that house.

Anyway, let’s see how September went on the blog!

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ARC Review: A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

Today’s review is about A DOWRY OF BLOOD by S.T. Gibson. It’s a retelling of Dracula through the point of view of one of his wives. It’s incredibly atmospheric and provides a poignant look at the line between love and obsession.

Author: S.T. Gibson
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Redhook
Publish Date: October 4, 2022
Print Length: 304

Want to support local bookstores? Buy a copy of A Dowry of Blood on Bookshop.org!*

*These are not affiliate links and I do not make a commission from any purchase made using these links.

Continue reading “ARC Review: A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson”