31 Days of Book Pics - Day 31 - Spooky Books (And the #31bookpics Link-Up!)

I'm kinda sad that this is the last day of #31bookpics. I couldn't think of anything better than my Spooky Books compilation from last year, so I'm reposting it. Here are a few books that have "haunted" me!

• I read The Distant Hours nearly two years ago, and I still think about it. It's definitely the most sad of Kate Morton's books, and I dreamed about it for months after I finished it.
• Bellman & Black is a book that I wouldn't even say I liked. Actually, I almost disliked it. But I couldn't stop reading it, and I think of it every time I see a black bird.
• The Secret Place was not my favorite of Tana French's books, but it has a supernatural subplot that I found slightly disturbing and unforgettable. And it's one of those books where the whole plot hinges on one tiny moment (much like The Distant Hours), and you find yourself wishing you could change that moment.
• The Book Thief was our October pick for the Young Adult Book and Movie Club. Obviously a book narrated by Death is going to be fairly haunting, and World War Two stories are often hard to forget! 

What books have haunted you?

An InLinkz Link-up

This is Day 31 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 30 - Books and Lunch

This picture is from a few weeks ago. I'm not a coffee shop kind of reader (I really dislike coffee), so if I manage to get a few kid-free hours, I'm more likely to read with a burger in hand! 

I know that Laura Tremaine (from Hollywood Housewife), takes regular reading lunches. If it worked out better with school time, I think I'd do it a lot more often. But Eleanor is in school from 8-11, and most lunch places don't start serving till 11. 

Back in my bookstore days, I almost always read on my lunch break - although most the time I'd pick trashy gossip magazines. I mean, come on, when the break room is full of People and Us Weekly, how are you supposed to resist?

Do YOU read at lunch?

This is Day 30 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Favorite Author (And 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading Georgette Heyer)

I love Georgette Heyer unabashedly. I've already written multiple posts where I mention my love for her. But when I was stacking up my Heyer novels to take a pic for today's #31bookpics prompt, and I realized just how many I have... (!) I decided that clearly, if I love her enough to own 67 copies of her various novels, it's about time to write a post on why YOU should love her too!

1. Jane Austen didn't write enough books. Sure, I love Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion as much as the next girl - but c'mon, there are only 5 good Austen novels (giving you major side-eye Mansfield Park), and you can only reread them so many times. Georgette Heyer's books are the next best thing to Austen - they're witty, romantic, and superbly written.
2. You'll learn a lot. I'm not kidding. I took a British history class in college, and totally aced it, even though I skipped that class a lot. I thank Georgette Heyer for that -- we did a whole Napoleon segment, and I already knew all about the Peninsular War, and the Battle of Waterloo thanks to An Infamous Army. All the 19th century slang and archaic words in her books were also super helpful in terms of SAT studying.
3. You'll laugh out loud. I promise. Start with The Grand Sophy or The Reluctant Widow or Frederica, and see if you're not giggling to yourself in no time. Some of my other favorites include The Masqueraders, Venetia, and The Talisman Ring. Heyer has a knack for writing her heroines into hilarious predicaments, and she does annoying side characters fantastically well. Think Mrs. Bennett or Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice, and then you'll totally understand Abigail's older sister in Black Sheep or Kit's mother in False Colours.
4. They're not sexy. I don't know about you, but I really get tired of overly explicit romance novels. When I worked in a bookstore we used to read bits of them out loud to each other, and try to decide which were worse: the ones that had almost clinical love scenes, or the the ones with ridiculous euphemisms. (In case you're curious, I think "love sword" and "love sheath" as euphemisms for genitalia won...) The great thing about Heyer's books is that they were written 40-90 years ago, so there's no hanky-panky. Just nice, funny romance.
5. She wrote a LOT of books. Did you notice how I said "40-90 years ago"? Because yes, she published books for 50 years! She wrote almost sixty in all, across multiple genres. A few were contemporary (for her) fiction, My Lord John is nonfiction about John of Gaunt, and about a dozen of them are mysteries set in the 1930s. A handful - including Simon the Coldheart and The Conquerer - are medieval fiction. A few are set in Jacobean times - These Old Shades, Powder and Patch, and The Black Moth among them, but the large part of them are the regency romances she's known for. In fact, a lot of people credit her with creating the genre, which is pretty crazy when you look at how many 19th century romances get published these days!

Have I convinced you to try Heyer? Or are you already a fan?

This is Day 29 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 28 - Quit Reading It

For a while on Goodreads I had an "unfinished-stalled" shelf. But lately when I burn out on books, I've just been changing them back to marking them as "to-read", since I don't like unfinished books messing up my reading stats!

Really, it seems like I should like all of the books in this screenshot. Some YA titles, some Scandinavian mysteries, the sequel to a book I loved...

But for some reason, none of them clicked with me. And there are too many good books waiting to be read - I don't have time to waste on books I'm not enjoying!

How about you? 

How often do you quit reading a book?

This is Day 28 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. 

Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 27 - Library

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is taking my girls to library story time during the week of Halloween. They read Halloween-themed books (I have a great list of books if you're looking for some of your own!), and then the kids make a big line, and do a little costume parade through the library, getting stickers and other treats from librarians stationed along the way. It really is the cutest thing ever!

I love the kids programs that our library has. We are story time regulars, and my girls get so excited about going there! I was just a tiny bit sad that now that Eleanor's in school, she missed out on the costume parade this year.

Do you love YOUR library?

This is Day 27 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 26 - Makes You Laugh

This book made me laugh out loud multiple times while I was driving! I think perhaps my favorite part was his anti-kale rant, mwahahaha.

The great thing about Jim Gaffigan's humor too, is that he's really family-friendly. I think in that whole 7 hour book there were maybe 3 slightly off-color jokes, and they were over the girls' heads anyway. So nice to have an audiobook I can play in the car without having to worry about what little ears are picking up on!

This is Day 26 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 25 - Wild Books

Someday I will hopefully get to go on some wild adventures of my own. But for now, armchair traveling will have to suffice. Someday I hope to visit Australia, New Zealand, China, Northern Africa, and lots more of Europe than I've already been to!

Bill Bryson is my favorite travel writer for sure, but I love Tony Horwitz too! And I keep meaning to read that Adam Gopnik book...

Who's YOUR favorite travel writer?

This is Day 25 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 24 - Audiobooks

You guys know that I love audiobooks. I wrote a whole post on why you should be reading them. Here are a handful of audiobooks I've loved recently.

• Bill Bryson's books are great on audio. They're enjoyable and fascinating nonfiction, and he does a pretty good job narrating for an author. (Usually I like professional narrators much better.)
• I love anything narrated by Rebecca Lowman. She does all of Rainbow Rowell's books, and they're so good. 
• Celebrities who perform their own memoirs are also super fun. I've enjoyed books by Martin Short, Amy Poehler, Martin Sheen, and Cary Elwes - but my favorites are Rob Lowe's books. Stories I Only Tell My Friends is especially great.
• Other favorite narrators - Jim Dale, Simon Vance, Orlagh Cassidy, Caroline Lee. 
• Other authors whose books make for addicting audiobooks - Kate Morton, Tana French, Marissa Meyer, Liane Moriarty, Robin Hobb.

This is Day 24 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 23 - So Bad It's Good

I have a sneaking fondness for these Emilie Loring romances. I own about a dozen of them. They're ridiculously cheesy. The dialogue is atrocious, and they're completely dated. But every now and again I can't resist rereading one of them. My mom and my aunt both own tons of them, and when I was 12 or 13, I loved them. So the nostalgia factor makes them good, even though they're so bad!

Do YOU love any cheesy books?

This is Day 23 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 22 - Book Club

Sheila of Deliberate Reader and I are working on a joint book club project for next year. It's called Reading Together: A Family Exploration Book Club. Every month will be themed, and the options will include a picture book, elementary book, and young adult book connected to that theme. 

If you’ve got little kids, read them the picture book! If you’ve got older kids, you can pick which book is right for them. If you’ve got no kids, you’re more than welcome to join in anyway – reading whichever book from the set you like. Additional details will be coming soon, once we get them finalized. I hope lots of you will join us!

This is Day 22 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Book Pics - Day 21 - New Books

I love it when I get new books in the mail! Every month Shelf Awareness sends me a big envelope of books to review, plus I sometimes get books directly from publishers. 

Deciding which books to read and review is so fun. (And I've been Periscoping my book mail every time it arrives -- I'm @quirkybookworm there, if you want to watch me choose.)

So just based on title and spine; which of these books would YOU read?

This is Day 21 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 20 - Picture Books

I was having trouble deciding what picture books to pick for this prompt, since we have approximately 9,000 of them in our house. (A less hyperbolic estimate would be around 400... but still, too many to photograph.)

So I told Eleanor to run and pick 3 picture books she really likes. And here's what she came up with.

• Pinkalicious: Flower Girl (which she got for being the flower girl in my brother's wedding last year).
• I am Rosa Parks (which I bought during Black History Month - it's a great little history of the Civil Rights movement).
• A Little House Birthday (which tells about Laura Ingalls's 5th birthday - my mom bought it for Eleanor's 5th birthday last spring).

How many picture books are there in YOUR house?

This is Day 20 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Book Pics - Day 19 - Reading Place

A kid-free hour at the library is basically my perfect reading place. It's quiet, it doesn't smell like coffee, and there are books everywhere! I think if I lived somewhere cooler, a nice outside reading place would be great too (I love my brother and sister-in-law's deck in Flagstaff). But here in Tucson, you can't beat the library!

Where do YOU like to read?

This is Day 19 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 18 - Ugly Cover

My parents bought me a set of classics for my birthday when I was younger. I remember my mom being SO annoyed when she realized that the price wasn't a sticker, it's actually part of the cover. 

I find it such a bizarre cover design choice. Why blatantly advertise the price like that? How hard is it to put a separate sticker??

Do YOU have any ugly books in your collection?

This is Day 18 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Book Pics - Day 17 - Blue Books

I was surprised by how many blue books I have. This isn't even half of them. I was NOT surprised how fast Juliet knocked them over though, ha!

Here is a closeup of the stack, in case you want to try and read the titles.

This is Day 17 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Book Pics - Day 16 - Obsessed With It

Considering that I listened to Fangirl on audio three times in less than one year, I'm pretty sure "obsessed with it" is the correct terminology. For some reason, I just can't get enough!

What book are YOU obsessed with?

This is Day 16 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 8 - Pretty Books

I have one shelf on my living room book cases which is my "pretty" bookshelf. It has some nice Austen reprints, my Easton Press edition of Little Women, and the book sculpture "Love" (made out of Sense and Sensibility) which my friend Meghan gave me last year. It's a cute little corner of the living room that always makes me happy!

What books do YOU find pretty?

This is Day 8 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 7 - Old Favorites

I read each of these books multiple times in elementary and middle school. And paid a rather exorbitant price for that ugly copy of Constance on Amazon a few years ago (since it's out of print). Rilla of Ingleside is definitely the best book in the Anne of Green Gables series. I've read my copy nearly to death, the pages are all loose inside!

This is Day 7 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 5 - Movie Adaptation

Part of the reason I originally purchased The Martian on audio a few months ago was its eye-catching orange cover. I find it interesting that in Audible they changed the cover to match the movie poster!

But I really loved the audiobook, and Noel and I are going to try and go see the movie next weekend. I hope that the movie is as good as the book was!

What movie adaptations do you like?

This is Day 5 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!

31 Days of Book Pics - Day 4 - Green Books

I pulled all my green books off the shelves in the living room, and lined them up for a picture on the front sidewalk. So you get a bonus green item - the ladder in the background - since Noel was trimming the tree out front. 

Two of them even have the word Green in the title -- Emerald Green and The River at Green Knowe.

What green books do you have?

This is Day 4 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!