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March Monthly Wrap-Up
March was a surprisingly productive reading month! I was able to finish three books while still making progress on my dissertation. I think prioritizing for fun reading at night before bed and taking the weekends off to read really helped. The three books I finished in March are: The Splendid and The Vile by Erik Larson The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown I’m still making progress on the other books I’ve been reading since February. My current reads are: Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong The Woman…
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Gimmee Gimmee More, Give Me More Books
This week’s Top 5 Wednesday theme is books you wish had a sequel or “give me more.” What are 5 books you wish had more to read? Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly book meme created by Samantha and Lainey. Weekly themes are currently developed by Alex. You can join Top 5 Wednesday here. I thought this was going to be hard, but then these stood out to me while staring at my bookshelf. Give Me More 1. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant2. River God by Wilbur Smith 3. Mary Called Magdalene by Margaret George4. Lamb by Christopher Moore 5. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde Anyone notice a theme to these books? Instagram Post
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For Dad, Who Taught Me Books Are Life
My dad would have turned 75 today. Sadly, he passed away almost a year and a half ago. My dad was the main support of Sitting in the Stacks. In fact, he came up with the blog’s name back in 2008/2009. He also regularly posted comments on all my posts and would always let me know he read the latest review. I decided to build a book stack on Instagram in honor of my dad and all the support he lent this blog. He taught me to love books and encouraged all my reading. He also wrote a couple posts for SitS. You can read his reviews about digital language…
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The Splendid and The Vile Personal Tales of London During the Blitz
The Splendid and The VileBy Erik Larson The Splendid and The Vile is an intimate look at Winston Churchill, his inner circle, and relations with the U.S. during the London Blitz of 1940-1941. It takes you through the personal and political of World War II using archival materials and a narrative style that has you rooting for England even though you already know the outcome. Larson strikes again as a historical storyteller that weaves together diaries, governmental documents, and personal correspondence to humanize stories learned through history. The Personal Angle Years ago I stumbled on Erik Larson‘s book Devil in the White City as I was preparing to move to…
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Blue Book Stack for Colorectal Cancer
Book stack challenges are a fun feature of Bookstagram. There are constantly challenges about color, pattern, title, etc. It’s really fun to see all the different and creative ways people organize their books. The first book stack challenge I participated in was for colorectal cancer. March is colorectal cancer awareness month. A fellow bookstagrammer did a fundraiser for every blue book stack that was posted. I took part in this book stack challenge for a cause for personal reasons as you can read in the Instagram post below. Instagram Post
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We’re on Instagram!
Last month Sitting in the Stacks (SitS) joined Instagram. Or as it’s better known–Bookstagram! You can find the blog @sittinginthestacks. I wanted to get back to this blog and writing book reviews, but my dissertation is time consuming. Creating an instagram account for Sitting in the Stacks seemed like a nice middle ground between ignoring the blog and spending hours writing full-length reviews. You can find your favorite SitS features on the Insta account: Friday Findings, Bookstores of the World, Reviews, Top 5 Wednesdays, and many others. Take a look at the SitS account! Here are a couple of my favorite posts. View this post on Instagram A post shared…
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Books to Movies, The Page on Film
This week’s Top 5 Wednesday theme is books to movies you enjoyed. What are 5 books that have become movies that you really liked? Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly book meme created by Samantha and Lainey. Weekly themes are currently developed by Alex. You can join Top 5 Wednesday here. Why are these so difficult for me?! I struggled with this week’s theme, too. I have books I enjoyed, but didn’t enjoy the movie. Then there are movies I enjoyed, but the books were meh. So I decided to go with books I like even if the movies weren’t that great. Books to Movies 1. Fahrenheit 451: I saw the 1966 movie and it was…
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Be the Star of the Show, Take on the Role
This week’s Top 5 Wednesday theme is “star of the show.” What are 5 books in which you would want to be the main character? Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly book meme created by Samantha and Lainey. Weekly themes are currently developed by Alex. You can join Top 5 Wednesday here. I had trouble with this top 5. There are books I’d want to be see their world, but I don’t want to live in them. There are other books where I’d want to be an ancillary character in. And then in some books I just want to be an observer. Star of the Show After lots of thinking, here are my 5 picks (with…
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Judge a Book By Its Beautiful Cover
When I started Bookstagram in February, I decided to participate in Top 5 Wednesday. Here is the first one! I’ll be cross-posting these on Insta and the blog. Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly book meme created by Samantha and Lainey. Weekly themes are currently developed by Alex. You can join Top 5 Wednesday here. This week’s Top 5 theme is beautiful covers. Here are my top 5…. Beautiful Cover 1. From Here to Eternity by Caitlin DoughtyI’m a sucker for art nouveau style! This cover has the added beauty of the artistic skull. 2. Shadow of Night by Deborah HarknessThe color scheme of this cover gets me. I LOVE purple so the plum…
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Inheritance
I wrote this poem for a project about bodies and vulnerability. You can learn more about this project in the post “The Self in Study.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Etched in Bark (@etchedbark) on Jan 13, 2019 at 11:55am PST The main inspiration was genetic inheritance. My dad was in the middle of his treatment for leukemia at the time and I was reflecting on the amount of cancer that occurs in my family. I’m sharing this poem with you as I return to my family home for the first time since my dad passed away a year ago.
