Category: Blog Birthdays & Blogoversaries

#TheSundayPost X | After August, a renewed appreciation for Austen and the return of #Mythothon in my life!

Posted Sunday, 5 September, 2021 by jorielov 6 Comments

#TheSundayPost banner created by Jorie in Canva.

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books..share them!

  • Enter your link on the post-
  • Sundays beginning at 12:01 am (CST) (link will be open all week)
  • Link back to this post or this blog
  • Visit others who have linked up
  • Read this week’s #TheSundayPost!

A note about the format I am using to journal #TheSundayPost:

I am finding I like being able to give my readers who cannot visit my blog each time a new post, review or guest feature goes live a digest journal of what is happening on #JLASblog each week! If you are familiar with the style in which I journal my readerly adventures via #WWWednesdays (see also Archive) you’ll know why I like this journalled style for #TheSundayPost!

It’s a way of talking about what is bookishly on my mind whilst sharing where my travels in Fiction & Non-Fiction took me through the last seven days! Quite stellar – so very thankful I was encouraged to participate as I love being able to think about which stories settled into my heart and which of the stories I am most eager to see arrive by postal mail and/or via audiobook! It’s a bit of a lovely way to journal your bookish life and have a weekly reminder of the experiences of you’ve gathered and love to remember!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

I’ve had the honour of writing my 2nd Austen in August Guest Post,…

Once in [2017], I tackled my journey discovering Jane Austen,

whilst four years later, I’ve written about my renewing interest

and appreciation in seeking Austen on Audio!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

AUGUST. It was meant to be the first month wherein I could finally announce my goals for #MyYASummer for 2021 and begin a bit of a hand-selected journey back into reading stories about and centred round Jane Austen’s canon. I have long held a fierce appreciation for her stories – both in the original manner in which they were written and in the visions of those who have stepped forward after her own life to re-tell and re-spin her characters’ lives in such a way which both pays homage to Austen and renews our appreciation for the Regency overall.

On that note, I’ve had a passionate eye on reading Regency & Victorian stories since I first picked up my first Romance story at the age of nine – it wasn’t a full length novel but rather two anthological collections of Christmas Romances: one set in the Regency, one set in the Victorian era. From those early readings, I was definitely on a path towards embracing Austen as well as Historical Romances which tucked me back into both eras of interest. In the ensuing years of being a book blogger I’ve come to love reading about the Edwardian era as well which is a new timescape of interest which blessedly goes hand-in-hand with stories set from the early 1900s into the late 1940s. I consider that the capstone years in my readerly life as its a nice block of time to journey into through Historical Fiction and/or through Historical Romance.

When it comes to Austen directly, as you will see in my guest post this year – I’ve entertained a few different variants of interest now as a Janeite which I might have previously avoided. For instance, to put Austen’s world into a fantastical setting might have felt a bit too far forward for me earlier in my adventure seeking out her collective works and after canons. These days? It seems quite fittingly brilliant and having seen how two different authors are approaching it, I am thankful to see two different lens into the same entreaty of blending Austen and Fantasy (with dragons!) together. The latter of which is a new release this year and one I am hopeful to pick up before @SatBookChat in November, 2021.

However, I’m getting a bit far afield,… before I resume chattering about what I was able to do during the #AustenInAugustRBR event, I wanted to go back over what I was able to do as a book blogger this August, which sadly, was a bit less than I expected to accomplish overall. It was definitely the footnote on Summer being one of the worst of the last eight years and a bit of a disappearing block of hours which led to little reading and less blogging.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

And, now, how I fared in August:

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

August Blog Calendar banner created by Jorie in Canva.

BOOK REVIEWS:

  • The Twin Stars by Bridgette Dutta Portman (see also Review) *my first #MyYASummer read!
  • The Texas SEAL’s Surprise by Cari Lynn Webb (see also Review)

The Twin Stars by Bridgette D. PortmanThe Texas SEAL's Surprise by Cari Lynn Webb

If someone were to tell me how lean of a readerly month I’d have in August, coming off of June and July, I would have felt it would be quite impossible to continue through Summer without the ability to read and blog my bookish life to the same level I’m used to sharing. However, August on a whole was quite a hard month both personally and professionally; whilst it also brought its own share of strife and adverse circumstances to work through. To be honest? I’m wicked grateful the month is OVER and September has now begun! It is best to walk forward than to stay waddling through the quagmire of chaos, eh? I’m also grateful a lot of the stressful bits were worked through and with a new month, comes new possibilities of where perhaps Autumn might become a kinder season than Summer which truly sought to take my ever last nerve.

Therefore, to walk out of a month like August and have two lovely reads behind me – felt like an accomplishment of its own! The first, was meant to launch my showcases and featured stories for a little event I’ve created called #MyYASummer, which this year was meant to be co-hosted by Peyton @ Word Wilderness. I’m not sure if either of us succeeded this Summer. Though I still am hopeful to read at least 4x of the books on my list for #MyYASummer this September before folding the rest into 2022’s event.

When I first found out about The Twin Stars, I was truly overly curious how the author would handle the narrative – from the presumption this world was set a bit like the world inside The Neverending Story wherein the lead character is reading and/or creating the world in which they will one day experience was quite the clever twist on a Fantasy novel. Once I entreated inside this world, I had quite strong reactions to both the world itself and the characters within it. The ending and the last 25% of the novel were the hardest for me to read through – mostly as I hadn’t quite agreed with the direction of the story and series at that junction nor did I feel one of the characters had had a justified conclusion to that part of their own storyline. It was immensely hard to reconcile and I left the book a bit on the fence about how I felt overall because of how hard the end of it was for me. It became a very emotional read in other words and although there are very strong reasons why I loved it, there are a few reasons why I’m worried about the sequel.

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Posted Sunday, 5 September, 2021 by jorielov in #Unboxing BookMail, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Birthdays & Blogoversaries, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Photography of Jorie, Spontaneous Musings, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post

#TheSundayPost IX | The first two quarters of 2021 : a #bookblogger retrospective! Plus, the return of #AustenInAugustRBR!

Posted Sunday, 8 August, 2021 by jorielov 4 Comments

#TheSundayPost banner created by Jorie in Canva.

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books..share them!

  • Enter your link on the post-
  • Sundays beginning at 12:01 am (CST) (link will be open all week)
  • Link back to this post or this blog
  • Visit others who have linked up
  • Read this week’s #TheSundayPost!

A note about the format I am using to journal #TheSundayPost:

I am finding I like being able to give my readers who cannot visit my blog each time a new post, review or guest feature goes live a digest journal of what is happening on #JLASblog each week! If you are familiar with the style in which I journal my readerly adventures via #WWWednesdays (see also Archive) you’ll know why I like this journalled style for #TheSundayPost!

It’s a way of talking about what is bookishly on my mind whilst sharing where my travels in Fiction & Non-Fiction took me through the last seven days! Quite stellar – so very thankful I was encouraged to participate as I love being able to think about which stories settled into my heart and which of the stories I am most eager to see arrive by postal mail and/or via audiobook! It’s a bit of a lovely way to journal your bookish life and have a weekly reminder of the experiences of you’ve gathered and love to remember!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

The first quarter of 2021 has been a rollercoaster of angst & fatigue,…

IF I were to be completely HONEST.

Loads of LIFE shifts & transitions.

A HEAP of health afflictions.

And a sombering END to WINTER and a predicted return of MIGRAINE(S).

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

JANUARIES… some years, like 2020 + 2021, January is a difficult transitional month for me as a reader. I find myself vacillating between wanting to read + blog with feeling a bit indifferent about it all – either due to the international crises of 2020 (ie. wildfires of Australia first & foremost, the earthquake of Puerto Rico second & a few other things as well) OR the personal woes of 2021 wherein our holiday season was spliced into a new variant of the holidays due to Mum’s insane work schedule of Christmas & New Year’s – which frankly left all of us more stressed than JOLLY. Both Januaries were hard-won months for reading – yet, despite the upheavals of 2020, I was in a better position to read + blog than I was in 2021.

Ironic or not? I felt like 2020 was a year I happily survived and came out of a lot of personal crises and emergencies (ie. my parents rotated in and out of the ER more times than I care to remember) with the added worries over low yield supplies of necessities (ie. #toiletpaper you all!) which prompted rising as early as roosters to secure a PACK of toilet paper (oy!) by mid-March; and yet, overall, my 2020 wasn’t affected by the pandemic. If anything, as Mum was an essential worker throughout the year, our lives progressed forward in and round the new guidelines but overall? It was just another adversely challenging year but not one without its own rays of sunshine and joy.

This year? JANUARY just felt oppressively exhausting and I think that’s partially why I’ve been stumbling a bit this first quarter of the New Year with my readings. I have always tended to hug close to deadlines – sometimes even smashing straight into them (if I were to be truly transparent!) but eh. This year? I admit, I’ve lost my readerly inclinations more than 10x due to ‘life behind the blog’ and health afflictions which have set my heart and mind elsewhere than this blogosphere space I love to engage with the bookish community. Ergo, my post stats for JANUARY are decidedly at my lowest over a stretch of eight years!! *le sigh* Though nothing prepared me for the lightning storms of Summer wherein July truly tested my own patience as I only could share 3x posts!

Whilst at the same time, I returnt to work full-time in February which proved to be challenging in of itself and a new work/life balance ensued. I admit, I didn’t quite balance work and downtime very well in those last fleeting months of Winter nor has the weather & climatic patterns of Summer allowed me to pick up the renewing energy I felt during #WyrdAndWonder (in May) — but I’ve never been a person to throw in the towel when things get difficult! I just find a way to persevere even if a way forward isn’t always optional or within sight of a bout of adverse circumstances. One thing I can say, despite all the ups/downs I’ve experienced within this first quarter of the year, I still found INCREDIBLE storytellers, memorable characters and stories which LIFTED MY HEART in times where I needed a lovely distraction from the chaos of my life. Plus, of course I was quite exhausted and fatigued whilst working double shifts (which I continue to do) which was an adjustment of its own during the first quarter of the year as well.

Also it should be noted: despite what seemed to be a return to normal with my migraines by mid-Summer, I had reflected on the fact that my migraines have truly taken an absence in my life in comparison to last year and especially the more difficult years of 2018/19 where I felt their wrath the most. For that bit of relief, I have been truly blessed and I am hopeful it is my new ‘normal’ where I am not blighted and burdened with migraines to the extent I used to be every season.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Before moving FORWARD – one must LOOK BACK:

cue the monthly calendar cards I created for my blog!

: all of which are customised & personalised :

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

January Blog Calendar banner created by Jorie in Canva.

BOOK REVIEWS:

There is a clear winner from this grouping of stories – aside from my rapt enjoyment of discovering the cosiness of McGovern’s Cosy Mysteries (which I’ll address in a moment) there was another author who truly charmed me by her fantastical storytelling and of whom, I intend to re-read this #WyrdAndWonder year and perhaps offer a few more insights into why FLY FREE truly stole my heart in January!! However, until that moment arrives, I can definitely offer a snippet of insight into why this novel affected me so much as a reader and why I hope it might entice you to pick up a copy yourself to see the beauty of what Ms Rose gave us all to read!

Fly Free blog tour banner provided by Storytellers on Tour and is used with permission.

I positively love character centric stories and within the opening chapters of Allison Rose’s Fly Free we are treated to a beautiful overlay of seeing the fey and understanding where we are entering their lives in regards to the issues they are currently facing with an illness sweeping through their ranks. The ways in which Rose identified her fey and how their markings told a bit about them as an individual was wickedly classic as it opened the door into the fey by showcasing how individualistic they are and how they each respond differently to moments of crisis and drama.

Rose entreats us to explore this world of the fey of the Day Court through a growing discourse of unease as this particular group of fey are succumbing to a disease and an affliction which could overtake their race. Rose doesn’t wait long to showcase how far reaching the effects are of this condition either – as the fey are connected to the earth and the earth to the fey – proving the symbiotic connection they equally share is also part of their destruction. The fey have to feel the lifeblood of the earth in order to survive and by all accounts thrive – yet when this is placed in jeopardy it puts their lives in a vice against time.

Similar to the reasons why I loved reading To Court A QueenFly Free is an eclipse of life behind the veil of where the fey live and how they find balance out of their court of rule. You get to see glimpses of how they set themselves to high standards, how they suffer no fools and to deceive when your a fey is a straight ticket into the kind of trouble no one would broker for themselves. And yet, this is exactly what Rose is exploring as both Jae and Sevelle are putting themselves on the frontlines of where danger and deception co-mingle together.

-quoted from my review of Fly Free

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Posted Sunday, 8 August, 2021 by jorielov in #Unboxing BookMail, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Birthdays & Blogoversaries, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Photography of Jorie, Spontaneous Musings, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post

#TheSundayPost VIII | From the misery of a cold to a revival of random bookish joy! [with a bit of an #unboxing reveal for #FindingEsme!]

Posted Sunday, 1 March, 2020 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 14 Comments

The Sunday Post badge created by Jorie in Canva using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books..share them!

  • Enter your link on the post-
  • Sundays beginning at 12:01 am (CST) (link will be open all week)
  • Link back to this post or this blog
  • Visit others who have linked up
  • Read this week’s #TheSundayPost!

A note about the format I am using to journal #TheSundayPost:

I am finding I like being able to give my readers who cannot visit my blog each time a new post, review or guest feature goes live a digest journal of what is happening on #JLASblog each week! If you are familiar with the style in which I journal my readerly adventures via #WWWednesdays (see also Archive) you’ll know why I like this journalled style for #TheSundayPost!

It’s a way of talking about what is bookishly on my mind whilst sharing where my travels in Fiction & Non-Fiction took me through the last seven days! Quite stellar – so very thankful I was encouraged to participate as I love being able to think about which stories settled into my heart and which of the stories I am most eager to see arrive by postal mail and/or via audiobook! It’s a bit of a lovely way to journal your bookish life and have a weekly reminder of the experiences of you’ve gathered and love to remember!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

From the misery of a cold to a revival of random bookish joy,…

IF I had to speculate how my February would have concluded on a sour note of a severely intensive Winter cold which not only rendered me undone by a severely crippingly migraine (as it was unfortunately attached to said cold) but also incredibly *sore!* ears (wherein it affected ALL attempts at listening ot audiobooks previously highlighted via my last Sunday Post!), a throat which felt like strep and at the very end of it all – I nearly lost my voice just like Mum! She had it for just under a week and a half – whilst I’ve barely squeaked out of it under a fortnight but as its still ‘with me’ that’s not exactly conclusive yet!

I found myself getting down quite a bit about it – normally I can ride out a cold with reading but this one was unrelenting with side issues and a heap of unwelcomed fatigue; so in essence, unless it was a streaming television series (here’s looking @ Star Trek: Enterprise & Zoey’s Playlist!) odds are in great favour I passed the hours of the final weeks of February without many stories in my hands or arriving inside my headphones. The one audiobook I attempted to read didn’t work out very well and I regret I had to postpone listening to it. I’ve already requeued it to be heard this March.

Meanwhile, I also learnt a harder truth about expectations and failed inspirations in regards to Star Trek: Picard (see also my last #BookishNotBookish – updated that section!) and on a happier note, we had a ‘second chance’ Wintry weather spurt which left me wickedly happy despite how real the struggle was to embrace brisk winds (with sore ears, throat and a migraine!) and colder than ice temperatures – a part of me was trying to remember why I love grey skies, cold Wintry days and how good it felt to have a vacation from the Sun! Colds like this one muddle your senses and your ability to enjoy everything you normally *love!* – but despite that, there was one day where Mum took me out for cinnamon bagels and hot tea which reminded me to anchour into small joys and random serendipity rather than feeling curtailed by a situation I had zero control.

In the midst of feeling quite unwell, I did have a turning bit of tide in regards to how I recaptured some bookish JOY this week! I had to stack all my #bookpost into different piles – flat parcels together, bundled boxes together and it became a bit of a tricky situation as I wasn’t sure if any of the short piles would fall! lol I definitely have drawn a bit of curiosity from postal workers lately and I can’t wait to reveal a few thoughts of joy to the one who enquired about a few recent arrivals. She’s one of the few who enjoy chatting to me and hearing snippets of my life as a book blogger – which makes getting #bookmail ever more exciting when you can talk about it with others.

There was a keenly hidden SURPRISE though this week as I entered a bookaway whilst I was taken ill and to be quite honest, had FORGOTTEN all about it! I was visiting with a bookish friend of mine whose also an author of the stories I enjoy reading in her Speculative worlds of interest: Jennifer Silverwood (via her blog) when I noticed a curious review about a Middle Grade Fantasy novel called: Finding Esme! Wait til you discover the happiness this #bookmail brought into my life! I mean, talk about a total 360 experience from feeling taken under by the cold and being lifted in pure joy by what the author sent me!! I can’t remember getting quite a bookaway like this before except for one which I won from Jane Porter prior to being a book blogger.

Whilst I have some bookish updates regarding being an influencer and book ambassador with the Once Upon A Book Club subscription box service! Further updates are arriving this Tuesday and next Tuesday respectivefully! I also might have another bit of news to share next Sunday in regards to a new opportunity which came into my life this weekend – however, mum’s the word as I am still finalising the details.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Parajunkee Designs

*UPcoming!* blog & Twitter milestones:

(celebrating my 7th Year as a book blogger and joyful tweeter : dates to remember!)

I created my blog on the 31st of March, 2013 – my blogoversary!

I launched it LIVE to the world on 6th August, 2013 – my blog’s birthday!

I waited til the 13th of November, 2013 to join Twitter – my #twitterversary!

To help celebrate my #blogoversary @ the end of the month – I’ll be tweaking, blogging and finishing my edits for my *End of the Year Survey, 2019* – thereby allowing me to dig into the past years which were unable to be featured previously and will be time capsules of the recent past about the stories and authors I loved discovering, reading and spending time with as a reader! Due to stay tuned for this special post arriving on 31.March!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Some updates about where my bookish adventures took me this final week of February and what I am planning to do my first week of March as a bit of a renewal of resuming where I left off with the stories and books themselves. I feel like I lost so many *hours!* and yet, despite that well of inactivity I had quite a busy week overall! Even though technically speaking you’ll find that my #bookpost stacked up a bit to where I had the joy of revealling a heap of loveliness all at once!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Callisto Publishing Club : what Jorie requested in February

Will be reading this coming week:

  • The Story of Frida Kahlo: A Biography Book for New Readers by Susan B Katz
  • The Easy 5 Ingredient Vegan Cookbook: 100 Healthy Plant Based Recipes by Nancy Montuori
  • Super Green Smoothies: Veggie-Based Recipes to Boost Your Health and Well-Being by Danielle Omar
  • → [arriving this week] Essential Vegetable Fermentation: 70 Inventive Recipes to Make Your Own Pickles, Kraut, Kimchi, and More by Kelly McVicker

Sort of goes without too much saying that when your under the weather as severely as I was (and of which the main details are not shared!) reading or viewing food isn’t exactly going to be your top priority! I could barely eat most days be as it were! However, within the last day or so I’ve started to go through my #bookpost and I’ve had the joy of rediscovering these Callisto books which arrived! I am overjoyed truly because the cookbooks are beyond budget friendly and the biography is awe-inspiring on so many levels – plus I love the graphic design and bright colours they used to illuminate Frida’s life as a young girl.

The one which is still enroute is the Veg Fermentation – I have my eye on the kimchi section as I’ve heard such good things about that over the years. Plus, if I can finally slay the mystery of fermenting my own foods I’m one step closer to my self-sufficiency goals as I eventually want to harvest my own garden of fruit, veg, herb and cut flowers whilst canning for Winter, etc. I have appreciated the concept of eating macrobiotically since my early twenties and fermented foods are a part of that lifestyle. I’m definitely leant more towards a macro-vegetarian vegan and GF lifestyle any other way of eating as those are the foods which I have found help my health and wellness the most. Thereby you’ll be seeing me requeue my #TheBookishFoodie sections on Jorie Loves A Story as we move into Spring and I can start reviewing cookbooks again! Read More

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Posted Sunday, 1 March, 2020 by jorielov in #bookclubVIP, #Unboxing BookMail, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Birthdays & Blogoversaries, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Book Subscription Boxes, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Jorie's Box of Joy, Library Loot, Once Upon A Book Club, Photography of Jorie, Spontaneous Musings, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post

#TheSundayPost VII | Just your average book blogger celebrating her seven years being socially engaged online!

Posted Sunday, 16 February, 2020 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 12 Comments

The Sunday Post badge created by Jorie in Canva using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books..share them!

  • Enter your link on the post-
  • Sundays beginning at 12:01 am (CST) (link will be open all week)
  • Link back to this post or this blog
  • Visit others who have linked up
  • Read this week’s #TheSundayPost!

A note about the format I am using to journal #TheSundayPost:

I am finding I like being able to give my readers who cannot visit my blog each time a new post, review or guest feature goes live a digest journal of what is happening on #JLASblog each week! If you are familiar with the style in which I journal my readerly adventures via #WWWednesdays (see also Archive) you’ll know why I like this journalled style for #TheSundayPost!

It’s a way of talking about what is bookishly on my mind whilst sharing where my travels in Fiction & Non-Fiction took me through the last seven days! Quite stellar – so very thankful I was encouraged to participate as I love being able to think about which stories settled into my heart and which of the stories I am most eager to see arrive by postal mail and/or via audiobook! It’s a bit of a lovely way to journal your bookish life and have a weekly reminder of the experiences of you’ve gathered and love to remember! In regards to getting back into the groove with #WWWeds – I’m either going to make the meme bi-monthly or monthly which I’ll decide within the next fortnight.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

And, then,…

Jorie finally returns to journalling her weekly bookish adventures,…

Finding the motivation to write #TheSundayPost has been a bit tricky the past few years, which is why you’ve noticed a staunch reduction in posts alighting in my feeds! I had a lot of good  intentions to resume this lovely meme I was enjoying participating in but structuring it the way I wanted to have my weekly journalled notes to appear on my blog was part of the issue and the other half of it really is that I have a lot to shuffle behind-the-blog so to speak (we all do,..) to where I was thankful I had the hours I needed to maintain Jorie Loves A Story but when it came to writing up supplemental posts and keeping in step with the memes I love to blog about – long ago, I realised something had to ‘give’ and these were the posts I had to put on hiatus.

Some months I thought I might be able to return to them sooner, so there are a few notes here or there saying “#TheSundayPost” is returning this week or that week, but no, they haven’t returnt until now! I have a lot of news I never had the chance to share from past reading challenges or past milestones of the blog – I might tuck those into some retrospective posts as the months move forward. For now, I simply wanted to try to recapture a bit of what has been going on since January and then, I’ll tackle what I want to share from [2019-back].

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Parajunkee Designs

*UPcoming!* blog & Twitter milestones:

(celebrating my 7th Year as a book blogger and joyful tweeter : dates to remember!)

I created my blog on the 31st of March, 2013 – my blogoversary!

I launched it LIVE to the world on 6th August, 2013 – my blog’s birthday!

I waited til the 13th of November, 2013 to join Twitter – my #twitterversary!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

I almost cannot believe *seven years!* have elapsed since I first created this idea I had for a book blog and undertook the journey of what has emerged through seeking out the bookish and readerly adventures I’ve curated ever since I first started to blog my bookish and geeky life wayy back in [2013] !! I hadn’t known then how my life would be tenfold #blessed by the authors, their stories and the bookish culture I would endeavour to become a part of until I was into my first few years as a book blogger. There was no guide and blueprint towards sorting out this book blogosphere world nor the twitterverse where I undertook getting socially chatty on a platform I never expected I’d take like a duck to water to explore, engage and carve out my own joyfully tweeting presence seven years in the making!

I’ve worked with publishers in the United States, Canada, the UK and aboard whilst I have had the chance to get to host blog tours with genre focused blog touring companies inasmuch as innovative and insightful touring companies who either focus on select works of Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry. Each step of the way, I was not just hosting blog tours or seeking stories for review consideration but I was endeavouring with each opportunity which crossed my path to read deeper and to seek out the stories which :pushed: me into new horizons of literary exploration. For me, that was always the key goal: to find the stories being writ by the authors who are giving me a wicked good read!

I never knew if I could balance my online readerly life the same way I balance my IRL readerly life – but I have found being a hybrid reader has had its best benefits because I can move between mainstream and INSPY offerings by publishers, publicists, authors, agents and touring companies quite easily. Each year, I have decided to seek out new adventures and to re-shift what I wanted to focus on – I started to reduce how many blog tours I would host each month back in [2016] something I happily maintained until this February [2020] where I slide back into a bit of a chaotic blog schedule! (laughs)

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Through the years, I’ve disclosed snippets of my walk in faith, my struggles of being a migraineur (someone who has chronic migraines) and have found that I love hosting guest features where I get to interview different guests – authors, editors, narrators (of audiobooks), actors (for Indie Film projects) and other creatives who have crossed my path. I still love blogging the heart out of the stories I am reading – not just to examine the story as a discerning reader myself but to truly give a strong impression about what I found inside the story in order to help someone else choose whether or not the story I’ve read and blogged about is a good ‘fit’ for their own readerly curiosities. As we all gravitate towards different stories at different times – we all dance through genres and literary styles – a book which appeals to us today might not resonate with us when we go to read it, etc. I find I love visiting with the book bloggers who give me something to ‘chew on’ as I’m reading their blogs – from their reviews, to their guest features to their discussion posts. I want to know more than the surface layer of their reactions to stories and that is what I try to bring to my own readers here on Jorie Loves A Story. (and yes, the “a” is purposefully shown in caps!) Read More

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Posted Sunday, 16 February, 2020 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Birthdays & Blogoversaries, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Photography of Jorie, Spontaneous Musings, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post | No.6 | #SummerReads, new #INSPY favourites and how I reclaimed my reading life from Spring’s bout of migraines!

Posted Sunday, 22 July, 2018 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

The Sunday Post badge created by Jorie in Canva using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

My participation in this meme was directly inspired by my new bookish friends: Avalinah + Savanah via this post!

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books..share them!

  • Enter your link on the post- Sundays beginning at 12:01 am (CST) (link will be open all week)
  • Link back to this post or this blog
  • Visit others who have linked up

A note about the format I am using to journal #TheSundayPost: I am finding I like being able to give my readers who cannot visit my blog each time a new post, review or guest feature goes live a digest journal of what is happening on #JLASblog each week! If you are familiar with the style in which I journal my readerly adventures via #WWWednesdays (see also Archive) you’ll know why I like this journalled style for #TheSundayPost!

It’s a way of talking about what is bookishly on my mind whilst sharing where my travels in Fiction & Non-Fiction took me through the last seven days! Quite stellar – so very thankful I was encouraged to participate as I love being able to think about which stories settled into my heart and which of the stories I am most eager to see arrive by postal mail and/or via audiobook! It’s a bit of a lovely way to journal your bookish life and have a weekly reminder of the experiences of you’ve gathered and love to remember! In regards to getting back into the groove with #WWWeds – I’m either going to make the meme bi-monthly or monthly which I’ll decide within the next fortnight.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Hallo, dear hearts, welcome to an INSPY filled July,..

Finding my new pace & rhythm with my reading life has been the most difficult part of my Summer, as I had planned to *devour!* loads of #FantasyReads in Mayheaps of #AudioReads in June – whilst July was meant to be stuffed to the gills with #INSPY stories spilt between Fiction & Non-Fiction! I was also planning to release reviews for the colouring books which I’ve happily enjoyed creating art inside whilst I’ve listened to audiobooks! Thankfully, as there is still a bit of time left to the month, I can run a series of reviews befitting my original goals for July (including those colouring books!).

The main reason I was thrown off-kilter this year was due to the health reasons I previously disclosed after #WyrdAndWonder, yet what I hadn’t realised then, as I do know is how many after effects I truly had to trudge through in order to resume where I left off reading! This July, when I stumbled across the Christian & Clean Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Singing Librarian Books – I had no idea how this would deeply impact my life! I blog about my passionate appreciation for INSPY Lit quite often even though it is not always as regularly as I would prefer – I’ve been striving for a better balance of stories being read/heard between both mainstream and INSPY markets – a goal I’ve had tucked onto the backburner for the 5 years I’ve been blogging on Jorie Loves A Story!

July was giving me this opportunity to find a renewal of purpose to focus on #INSPYreads as due to how the challenge was self-directed and self-motivating towards your own personal goals – this is what I did to get into the mindset of approaching it:

→ I developed a book list I wanted to use as a primer and guide towards what I could read

→ I kept very loose goals per day and week – meaning, if I was finding myself tucking into a story where I could only read a few chapters at a time, I considered this a ‘win!’

→ The beauty of the challenge was not needing to ‘blog’ per se to participate – this opened the door for me to head into the twitterverse to micro-blog my updates, interact with the authors I was reading and give myself a much needed hiatus from weekly blogging! (it also helped I was under-booked!)

→ A bit of a competition between your Mum goes a long way towards reclaiming your reading life as well! I have made it quite well know I’ve been following in Mum’s footsteps towards reading the Love INSPIRED Suspense series – as she has beloved favourites: Elizabeth Goddard, Laura Scott, Lenora Worth, etc of whom she’d like me to read and become introduced to in order to start having fireside chats about the characters, the plots and the wicked intensity of ‘feeling on edge’ throughout the course of the novels! (we’ve started in on that goal, too!)

→ Call me crazy but I used the widget for the bookaways as a personal ‘self-check’ towards staying on my goals, keeping the ‘pleasure’ in my reading hours without the added worry of (should I blog, shouldn’t I blog) chatter whilst finding with each new day I was ‘recording’ my progresses – either by audiobooks listened to (as of now, I heard two) or books read (as of now, three) and a sampling of what I was microblogging on Twitter – you could say it proved fruitful for a girl whose angst was not just limited to her personal health but as a step towards reconciling how to be a ‘reader’ when she didn’t feel like being a ‘book blogger’. This is something I haven’t resolved in five years – as I was a reader before I was a blogger but I was also a reader in a semi-permanent reader’s rut at the same time – part of the reason I was having guilt over ‘not blogging’ is I didn’t want to backslide into a period of time where I was ‘not reading’ and thereby, erasing the process of the past five years where I have re-established myself into the genres I love and finding my own rhythm for how I read/blog/tweet my reading life!

Another aspect of what was aiding my recovery post-migraines this July is the fact the Love Inspired novels were either Large Print, Larger Print or in the case of one of the Ms Worth novels “True Large Print” which for me felt GIGANTIC! lol I had started to notice this was something which was helpful to me as I was reading Harlequin Roms for some of the Prism Book Tours I was hosting throughout the past eight or so months? Those stories were generally in Large print themselves and being I had so many migraines to overcome, I noticed the font size being enlarged was a lovely step ‘back’ towards reading regular print!

Curious about which INSPY stories

caught my heart & left me musefully happy afterwards!?

Callahan Confidential series by Laura Scott Photography Credit: Jorie of jorielovesastory.com. Photo edits and collage created in Canva.

Shielding His Christmas Witness | thrifted

The Only Witness | ILL’d (inter-library loan)

*bookmark, FREE at my local library – I am in FULL agreement of the sentiment!

For Laura Scott, you might want to check-out my micro-blog about reading her #CallahanConfidential first as I was on the VERY edge of my cosy comfort chair awaiting the ‘final’ chapter to see what would become of Kari & Marc! You forsake SLEEP reading these Love Inspired Suspense novels!! At least, I find you do! I couldn’t dare think I’d have to take a wink & a nod away from the action! You barely get to catch your breath whilst your reading the story-line as so much is happening ALL at once! Plus, I like how the heroes of the stories are charmingly honest, realistically relatable and have their own fair share of faults to round off the joy of reading their adventures! Seriously though – if you want a slightly lighter side to your Suspense Reads but with the full-octane of traditional Suspense, you ought to give Laura Scott a chance at charming your bookish heart!

READ my microblogging notes!

Shielding His Christmas Witness (Callahan Confidential, Book One) by Laura Scott Read More

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • #CFSRS18
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Posted Sunday, 22 July, 2018 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Birthdays & Blogoversaries, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Photography of Jorie, Spontaneous Musings, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post