Mystery Blogger Award

I was nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award by Ashlee at Books are 42 in the last week of May, and it has taken me a bit to get to this because of everything going on right now, and my mind and heart being elsewhere besides with reading and reviewing and book blogging. This is my first time being nominated for this award, thank you Ashlee!

The Mystery Blogger Award is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging, and they do it with so much love and passion. The Mystery Blogger Award was created by Okoto Enigma on her blog way back in 2016.

Rules

1. Put the award logo/image on your blog

2. List the rules

3. Thank whoever nominated you

4. Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well

5. Tell your readers three things about yourself

6. Answer the questions provided by whoever nominated you

7. Nominated 10 - 20 people

8. Notify you nominees by commenting on their blogs

9. Ask your nominees any five questions

10. Share a link to your best post(s)

Three Things About Me

Eddie and the Cruisers is my favorite movie of all time. I was OBSESSED with this movie from the time I was about four or so. I didn't understand all of the plot but I loved the music and have easily seen it hundreds of times in my life. I introduced Eleanor to Eddie and the Cruisers when she was four as well, and she loves it as much as I do. It is kind of weird to watch it as an adult, because in my mind as a child, Eddie was so real, it wasn't an actor playing him. These characters were my friends, and now I still feel like a kid watching the movie over and over again. And yes, I still know all the songs by heart.

I have never broken a bone (that matters) in my entire life, and my only surgery ever was my emergency c-section when Eleanor was born. I played sports growing up - basketball, volleyball, softball, and threw shot-put for track, but always managed to keep all my bones together. I have had so many broken baby toes and once my big toe on my right foot, but those don't really count as far as I am concerned because there's literally nothing you can do for them.

On our 8th grade class trip I was among a group of students that got kicked out of the FBI building, despite taking no part in the thing that got us kicked out. We were explicitly told multiple times that we were not allowed to take pictures anywhere inside the building. After our tour ended it was starting to drizzle, but our bus had not yet arrived to pick us up. A couple of us were waiting in the tiny lobby area while the rest of the group finished up in the gift shop. A kid from our group decided it would be okay to take a picture in that little waiting area because there were no agents around. Literally the moment the picture was snapped of him and his girlfriend, the employee from the gift shop was at his side. She took his camera and pulled out all the film, exposing every last part of the film. Bummer for him that this was not our first stop of the day and we had already been to a couple other sites. Bummer for me because I had to wait outside in the rain with the rest of the idiots who thought it was a good idea to take a freaking picture in the FBI building after having been warned multiple times what would happen if anyone did so.

Ashlee's Questions

1. What fictional mode of transportation do you wish you could take?

I would ride around all day on Nate Macauley's motorcycle, as long as he was driving it.

2. What three fictional characters would you go on a road trip with?

Just one. Nate Macauley. It would be so awkward if Bronwyn was there, since I would totally be stealing her boyfriend.

3. If you could invite your favorite author over for dinner, who would you invite and what would you serve?

Duh. Dan Jones, the coolest historian ever. We'd probably just drink a lot of beer and I would make him tell me absolutely everything he knows or thinks about Eleanor of Aquitaine.

4. What was your favorite picture book when you were a kid?

Max the Bad-Talking Parrot by Patricia Brennan Demuth. My mom read it to me a million times, even long after I could read it myself. I loved loved loved this book and it remains one of my most favorites. A couple years ago for Christmas my mom gave Eleanor and I each a copy.

5. If you had to add a regular non-bookish feature to your blog, what would you write about?

I care very deeply about social issues, particularly in regards to abortion rights, #BlackLivesMatter/Persons of Color in general and dismantling systemic racism, and LGBTQIA+ rights. If I blogged about anything else, it would be those topics - though I do blog about them often anyway because I read a lot of books covering these issues.

My Questions

1. Is there any book you have collected multiple copies/editions of, and if so what makes that particular book so special to you?

2. If there is any book or series you could rewrite the ending to you, which one and why?

3. Do you prefer stand-alones or a series?

4. What is your favorite hobby outside of reading?

5. Are you more likely to pick up a newly released super-hyped book, or do you wait until the furor has died down before giving it a try?

My Nominations

You probably know who you are already, but here you go anyway. As always, play along if you would like, or don't know. But know that even though I tag roughly the same collection each time, it is because you are bloggers who I enjoy "spending time with", and who I have learned from. Thanks for being an inspiration!

Greg @ Book Haven

CyberKitten @ Seeking a Little Truth

Stephen @ Reading Freely

Stephanie @ Literary Flits

Judy @ Keep The Wisdom

MudPuddle @ Mudpuddlesoup

Sherry @ Fundinmental

Carole @ Carole's Random Life in Books

Ethan @ A Book A Week

Evelina @ Avalinah's Books 

Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear?

Nicci @ Sunny Buzzy Books

My Best/Favorite Posts

Book Review | Eddie and the Cruisers

That Time I Met Dan Jones

My Three-Part Series on the (HAUNTED!) Palmer House Hotel

My Non-Review and Review of the Beastie Boys Book

There you have it! Thanks again to Ashlee for nominating me.

Happy Reading!

Sarah

The Sunshine Blogger Award

The Sunshine Blogger Award is an award given by fellow bloggers to those who are creative, positive, and inspiring, while spreading sunshine to the blogging community. I do not typically think of myself in those terms all the time, so I was glad to see that someone else does!

Before we get to the requirements and whatnot, a big thank you goes first to Judy over at Keep The Wisdom for nominating me for this award. It is always nice to be recognized by fellow bloggers as having a blog worth reading - though I admit especially in the first months/years I was probably just talking to myself a lot!

The Rules:

1. Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you in a post and link back to their blog

2. Answer 11 questions the blogger asked you

3. Nominate 11 blogs to receive the award and write for them 11 new questions

4. List the rules and display the sunshine blogger award in your post and/or on your blog

Here is my list of bloggers who I enjoy reading regularly, and hope you will too. There will be some overlap with Judy's nominations, as now we kind of run in the same circle, so that's extra blog-love for those nominees. If you do not want to create a post of your own, or answer the questions I am going to shamelessly steal borrow from Judy (and others, because I am so not creative in this area), no worries. Just know that you are valued and I appreciate you!

Judy's Questions:

1. How did you get started blogging?

I was posting my reviews on Goodreads, and as I read more and more about how Goodreads was sometimes deleting reviews without warning or notice that it somehow violated one of the 'rules', I wanted a place where my reviews would be safe. I also had a blog in college, and I kind of used it to make fun of the word blogging when it was a new thing, because it was such a dumb word. I obviously do not make fun of it anymore.

2. What do you enjoy most about being a book blogger?

I love to write, and have since I was young. Same with reading, of course. I enjoy sharing about books that I love or loathe with bloggers who have become my friends, and talking with them about all sorts of bookish and non-bookish things. I also enjoy the fact that I have begun to cultivate relationships with publishers and authors. Free books for reviewing purposes is also a bonus!

3. How long have you kept your blog going?

Oh goodness, I am not even sure. I am literally going to have to stop typing this answer and look it up...Okay, first post here was February of 2015.

4. Would you say you have a philosophy behind your blog? If yes, please say what it is.

My number one goal is to be honest about everything I read. I never have and never will take money to write a review. Unless of course I am working for a publication that pays me specifically for the job of reviewing books, because that would be amazing. But there, the payment would be tied to the actual job and not a specific book. But I digress. I do not hold back in reviews where I think a good scolding is warranted. I do not tolerate books which are sloppy in research, contain vast amounts of supposition, or are flat out wrong and go against all the research currently being done in a particular area. I also do not tolerate sexist, misogynistic, and/or homophobic bullshit and will immediately call out any and all that I see. So, in summary, honesty is the best policy.

5. What genres do you enjoy reading the most?

NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. NON-FICTION. I specifically am interested in European history, and even more specifically that of Scotland, England, and Ireland. I love reading about feminism, LGBTQIA+, Black Lives Matter, and politics. There are so many more topics I am completely enthralled by and this answer would grow rapidly if I listed all of them.

Oh, and I dig a good cozy mystery (Mercy Watts is my fave series), plus I am having a not so hush-hush affair with both YA and middle grade as of late. But non-fiction will always be my first love, and history especially.

6. Who are your top three favorite authors?

Tee-hee, this is a no-brainer if you read my blog regularly 😉

First, forever, is Dan Jones. He introduced me to Eleanor of Aquitaine through his book The Plantagenets and I have not looked back. We are also practically BFFs. Which I'm sure he NEVER gets tired of hearing...

I also am really loving Karen McManus. I LOVE her books and am dying to get my hands on One of Us is Next!

7. Do you attend any reading groups? If so, how many?

None. I am a solitary reader, Eleanor is the only exception to this! Unless you count my job as a Resource teacher, where I meet with my kiddos who need reading support. Then I would have to say I belong to five reading groups.

8. If you could invite a few authors over for dinner, who would they be - even if you had to resurrect them from the dead?

Dan Jones, obviously. Remember how we are BFFs? Also, Helen Castor, Karen McManus, Bernie Sanders, Louisa May Alcott, LM Montgomery, Michael Crichton, and Agatha Christie.

9. How do you find the books you want to read?

I stalk follow Dan Jones religiously on Facebook, waiting for the announcements of his next books, tours, haircuts, recent purchases, etc. Just kidding, mostly. He is pretty hilarious in general so definitely check out one of his Facebook Live chats. I also find so many books through Goodreads, as well as the bloggers I follow who have similar reading tastes.

10. Do you think authors today are as good as those from earlier years? Better? Worse? Why?

This is actually a really tough one to answer. For what I mainly read, non-fiction, I think authors in every era have done the best they could with material they had to work with. Access to contemporary resources for research is much easier today, though not always as easy as I wish it was. Worldviews have also changed, and so many fields that were once dominated exclusively by men are now getting female perspectives as well - a perspective that has been needed for a loooooooooong time. Women who have been treated horribly by past historians are finally getting more fair and unbiased representations of themselves. Catherine Howard (5th wife of Henry VIII) is a prime example.

11. Name a few of the best books you have read this year.

Oh Lord, I don't even know where to start. This has been an exceptional year in books for me. There are dozens that I have given five stars to. Crusaders by Dan Jones, City of Ghosts and Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab, The Girl in the Locked Room and Took by Mary Downing Hahn, Nobody's Victim by Carrie Goldberg, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson, Mercia by Annie Whitehead, The Five by Hallie Rubenhold...this list is out of control so I will just stop here.

Now onto the easy part (nominating bloggers) and the hard part (coming up with questions!), so here we go:

1. Cyber Kitten @ Seeking a Little Truth

2. Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl

3. Carole @ Carole's Random Life in Books

4. Sherry @ Fundinmental

5. Stephen @ Reading Freely

6. Nicci @ Sunny Buzzy Books

7. Greg @ Greg's Book Haven

8. Stephanie @ Literary Flits

9. Evelina @ Avalinah's Books

10. Nicole @ Christian Fiction Girl

11. Carrie @ Reading Is My SuperPower

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to answer the following questions and then nominate some bloggers of your own!

1. What genres do you prefer? Why?

2. What genres do you refuse to read? Why?

3. What is the easiest thing about blogging for you? The hardest?

4. If you could become a character in any book, which book and why?

5. If you could travel to any period in history, which would it be, and why?

6. Do you ever DNF books? What makes you DNF?

7. Who are your favorite authors?

8. How important is book cover quality to you? Why?

9. Name a character that you would want to be best friends with, and why.

10. Name a character who would become your mortal enemy, should you ever cross paths in real life.

11. Which authors would you invite to a dinner party? (never mind silly things like death)

There you have it! If you feel like playing along, great. If not, no worries.

Happy Reading!

Sarah

The Versatile Blogger Award

Okay, so I am kind of a dolt.

Tonight as I was tidying up some things around the blog, I noticed one of my pages had an uneven number of comments. Uneven numbers bother me. I can't explain why. So I took a look and discovered a comment way back from APRIL 9TH by a fellow blogger, Nicole @ The Christian Fiction Girl, nominating me for this award! Nicole is such a gem and I enjoy her blog and reviews, though our genres do not typically overlap. She has great insights and we have bonded over the joys and pains of being public educators. I was surprised to see this, but grateful that Nicole took the time to nominate me. Thank you Nicole!

The Versatile Blogger Award was created to recognize blogs that are unique in their content, and have high quality writing and/or photography, as well as to "honor those bloggers who bring something special to your life whether every day or only now and then."

The Rules:

• Thank the person who gave you this award and include a link to their blog
• Nominate blogs (up to 15) that you've recently discovered or that you follow regularly
• Share seven interesting things about yourself that people might not know

Seven Facts About Me

1. I played basketball from YEARS. When I was in 9th grade, one of the boys' varsity coaches told them and me that I had the best jump shot he'd ever seen.

2. I am an only child...and so is my daughter.

3. I have never broken a significant bone in my entire life...but I have broken those tiny, tiny bones in my baby toes more times than I can count - mostly because of fact #1

4. I don't like odd numbers, as you read up there ↑

5. I am going into my 7th year as a teacher of Special Education, in a self-contained classroom for students in 3rd-5th grade who are verified as having an Emotional Disturbance. Often there are other diagnoses accompanying the ED, such as specific learning disabilities, ADHD, ODD, etc. My Bachelor's Degree is in Elementary Education with a concentration in Language Arts. My Master's Degree is in Special Education, with endorsements in Behavior Disorders, Learning Disabilities, and Mild/Moderate Disabilities

6. My favorite movies are The Godfather, Jurassic Park, and Newsies.

7. I can quote the entire series of F·R·I·E·N·D·S pretty much, and a couple of my obsessive besties and I have been known to have entire conversations just using quotes from the show.

My Nominees

• Candace @ Literary Dust
• Greg @ Book Haven
• Chuckles @ Chuckles Book Cave
• CyberKitten @ Seeking a Little Truth
• Stephanie Jane @ Literary Flits
• Stephen @ This Week at the Library 

Thank you again Nicole for the award!

Happy Reading

Sarah