Tag: Glow

_+ #atozchallenge _+ 26 Days | 26 Essays [epic journey] Today is Letter “E”. Hint: The World is a Melting Pot

Posted Saturday, 5 April, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

A to Z Challenge Day 5 Letter E I am involved in a world-wide globally connected blogosphere challenge where each blogger who signs into the participant linky is quite literally confirming their express desire to blog straight [except on Sundays!] for *26 Days!* whilst writing *26!* most intriguing & thought-producing alphabet essays! Or, to be comically inspiring, randomly cheeky, and otherwise delightfully entertaining! The bloggers who have signed into the challenge are from all walks of blogosphere life: book bloggers united alongside lifestyle gurus; writers of all literary styles nudged up against travelogues; the gambit runs the full course of each and every theme, topic, subject, and genre you could possibly light your heart with joy to broach in a blog! And, the curious bit to the journey is where your posts lead you as much as where other blogger’s posts inspire you! It’s this fantastic community to celebrate the spirit within the blogosphere as much as the spirit of connection amongst the bloggers who might not have crossed paths with each other otherwise. After all, the road map for blogs is as wide and large as the actual world outside the nethersphere of websites, pixels, and memes! Walk with us whilst we discover a bit about ourselves, our blog, & each other!

I am blogger #552 out of 2279!

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{ should be noted: @aishacs posted a multi-post Interview
on the blog Story & Chai
about diversity in literature; Part II, Part III, Part IV }

Originally I was going to focus on E P I C F A N T A S Y for Letter E, except to say, that throughout the twitterverse and the book blogosphere I was finding encouragement to draw light on another equally as important discussion of interest E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E! I grew up in a moderately sized city to the extent that the world was outside my door, the essence of the melting pot in vivid colours and dimensions was all around me. I loved the multicultural heritages I grew up near and I enjoyed the conversations I had with those who could help me understand traditions, cultures, and religions outside of my own. I have many fond memories speaking to Native Americans for instance whether I was at a bookshoppe or at an arts & crafts festival. I loved finding ways to engage with people who could dynamically shift my point of view and endear me to how our differences bridge the gap to how we are all interconnected and related.

Although I grew up in a house full of European descent (for the most part; mostly Briton though), the inertia of connectivity of other cultures was always encouraged and sought out. When you live in a city of any size, you get to see a beautiful cross-section of everyone who lives within the city itself. Whilst your riding the bus or walking down the boulevard you are greeting people as you come across them, accepting them as you speak to them, and within those brief moments of conversation you begin to grow curious about their own stories. Stories in which they grew up sharing within their own families and stories in which they grew up reading inside the books they cherished as bedtime companions.

I always celebrated then when I found multicultural characters in the stories I was personally reading as well as settings outside the norm of the net in which is regularly cast. E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E does not end nor begin on having different perspectives in ethnicity or nationality, as it also is inclusive of the ideal for a balancing of all characters and the lives in which they lead. This can include single | divorced | grandparent | foster parenting, adoptive or step-parent families, LGBT families and individuals; learning difficulties as well as those who are living with a medical handicap, illness, or affliction. Immigrant stories of people and families changing their stars for a life in a new country; biracial and multi-ethnic families. Whilst going further to extend past religious differences and spirituality freedoms to include a cross-section of all representations of a person’s beliefs as much as the differences in how we live, eat, and breathe. Full equality is giving the writer the will to focus on the characters they can personally identify with and as thus, can endear the reader to draw connection with as well. For every well-written story there is a reader who is aching to read a story which has transcended the living reality mantra of the earth being a melting pot and has taken the theory into practice in literature. I hint about my views about all of this under “My Bookish Life“.

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E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E for me is reading the world through the lens in which we live. Our world is a beautiful melting pot of cultures, traditions, religions and individualism. Why not celebrate those differences by painting living testaments of our lives as a portrait through the characters we breathe to life in novels? Giving back a bit of the grace in which we are free to live?
by Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story

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Access to Different Kinds of Literature via Color in Colorado

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Books on the Underground; Books on the Subway; Jorie Loves A Story: Booking the Rails

I recently reviewed a book for my Booking the Rails Feature where I highlighted Wonder by R.J. Palacio who wrote this beautiful book about a boy whose face is altered from other children yet the light of his heart uplifts everyone who meets him. The beauty of the novel itself is showing the grace of living your life as true to who you are on the inside as to reflect back to those who perceive you through prejudicial eyes the joy in being authentically yourself. The barriers people build up between each other can be brought down one by one if we endeavour to understand what alienates us and be determined to draw out empathy and compassion as a first response rather than fear, ignorance, and indifference.

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August has a keen philosophical intuitiveness about himself, the dynamics of his family, and his personal living environment around him. He seeks to find solace out of uncertainty and squalls chaos with simplistic truths which etch out the stigmas of which society oft-times places on individuals who are in some shape or form ‘different’ from the ‘norm’. And, the sad truth is that normalcy is in the eye’s of the beholder! To be normal is quite definitively the ability to be wholly true to yourself, your internal resolve of spirit, and in knowing who you are without the prejudgements and negative thoughts of others assembling into your heart. August has instinctively dry humour to convey his thoughts about life, dispelling any unease to meet him because he breaks the ice by simply being himself! He draws you into his sphere by engaging you in a way you were not expecting! No pretense. He’s simply ‘August’, who prefers to go by ‘Auggie’, the brother of Via and the boy who wants to live like a regular ten-year old entering fifth grade!

– quoted from my review of Wonder by R.J. Palacio

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Each book I am selecting to highlight as part of my Booking the Rails feature will be a story which will challenge convention and/or the ideals of story-telling and branch out into new horizons for both my readers and those who find the books on the trains. I want to start a conversation on those posts of giving dialogue and conversation to topics and subjects that will benefit from having a light shined on them. It’s my own wink and a nod to creating a new pathway back into the culture of being ‘bookish’ and ‘conversational’ with each other. Rather than merely nodding in agreement or staying silent altogether. More of my thoughts on this are contained on my visit to The Star Chamber Show : Episode 16. (archived & easy to listen too)

Carol Antoinette Peacock & Pepper
Carol Antoinette Peacock & Pepper in the author’s office. Peacock Family Album.

Previously, I showcased the adoptive story of Carol Antoinette Peacock whereupon her story entitled: Red Thread Sisters embarks on the journey of adopting children from China. This is one of many yet to appear on Jorie Loves A Story, as one of my sub-focuses on my blog will be positive adoptive stories for those who are considering foster adoptive options as well as international, open, and other avenues towards adopting children into their family home. I wanted to find authors who give a positive testament of the emotional keel a child or teen experiences prior to adoption as much as the transitional period after they are adopted. (if the story broaches both time periods) What I appreciated about Ms.  Peacock’s writings are her honesty in leading with her heart and her own adoptive story in which the Red Thread Sisters stems from at its core.

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There are two sayings throughout “Red Thread Sisters”, as well as in the personal letter attached in the afterword by the author herself,… one is a meditative pause of ‘light reflected as brightly lit as lunar lanterns’, and the second is the poignancy behind the entitlement of the book itself, ‘of the delicate red thread that unites all of us in a shared common bond, where those who cross our path are meant to be in our lives, and despite the appearance of the thread’s nature, will hold steadfast and strong perpetually’. The book gives pause to any woman considering motherhood through adoption and any father choosing his path of fatherhood through adoption, because it touches on the raw emotions that are silently withheld from the adoptive parents, by children who live in constant fear that something they do or say or not do even will be grounds for them to return back from whence they came. To become un-adoptable simply because they didn’t live up to the adoptive parents expectations. It’s also a book that examines adoption from the reflections of the children themselves, as they struggle to yield and bend with a new rhythm completely different from the one they were used too whilst at an orphanage, group home, or foster home. They have to learn its okay to make mistakes, to learn and grow through their experiences, and that a forever family isn’t co-dependent on perfection but rather with honesty, heart, emotion, and love. May we always keep ourselves lit from within with a light of hope as powerful and strong as lunar lanterns, to advocate for adoption and the expansion of our hearts and worlds when a child in need of a family, finds one in those of us willing to open our hearts and homes to them.

– quoted from my review of Red Thread Sisters

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One author where I found a strong sense of giving E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E a new definition of purpose is Laura Resau. Her blog is linked to my sidebar where the RSS feeds join the mixture towards the bottom. I have been making purchase requests for her books at my local library each chance that I can as well. The tricky bit is to remember which book of hers I read first: What the Moon Saw OR The Indigo Notebook!? I have taken it upon myself to read all of her novels, but I am still in the middle of accomplishing this goal! I have also read Star in the Forest.

Laura Resau
Photography Credit: Tina Wood Photography

Laura Resau is the award-winning author of seven highly acclaimed young adult and children’s novels– What the Moon Saw, Red Glass, Star in the Forest, The Queen of Water, and the Notebooks series (Delacorte/Random House). She draws inspiration from her time abroad as a cultural anthropologist, ESL teacher, and student. Loved by kids and adults alike, her novels have garnered many starred reviews and honors, including the IRA YA Fiction Award, the Américas Award, and spots on Oprah’s Kids’ Book Lists. Praised for its sensitive treatment of immigration and indigenous people’s issues, Resau’s writing has been called “vibrant, large-hearted” (Publishers’ Weekly on Red Glass) and “powerful, magical” (Booklist on What the Moon Saw). Resau lives with her husband, young son, and beagle in Fort Collins, Colorado. She donates a portion of her royalties to indigenous rights organizations in Latin America.

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The Indigo Notebook Book Trailer by the Author Laura Resau

The Indigo Notebook Page on Laura Resau’s site

[ after the 1:00 mark the song continues to be enjoyed by audience ]

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The Indigo Notebook by Laura ResauResau has the natural ability of fusing the indigenous culture of Mexico and Ecuador into her novels in such a wonderfully skilled way, that whilst I was reading The Indigo Notebook I instantly flashed back to my own memories of traversing through the interior of Mexico in and around the Federal District and the Yucatán Peninsula! One of these days I want to collect her books for my own personal library, but what I appreciated about my local library is being open to bring in authors who write multicultural stories for a young audience who could benefit from the life lessons and story contained within her pages! As I start to re-read over the books I have already read and progress forward into the ones I haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading, I will be writing down my thoughts on my blog! I am always hopeful that through the sharing of my own lamentations about the writers and books which speak to me to the point of being moved emotionally, I will in one small way impact another reader’s life.

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E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E : A sampling of Books to Read

{ books I have predominately found through my local library }

UPDATE: per rifflebooks.com errors I’ve moved this list to my #LibraryThing
(as I will be reading these selections throughout [2019] part of my #BeatTheBacklist challenge)

E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E : New Authors on the Horizon

A full list of the book covers & stories is on Riffle: (share at will!)

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Equality in Literature & Diversity in Literature : walk hand in hand – July 2014

Reaching past our own heritages and our own living environments gives us a wider world view and depth of understanding. We become wholly in-tune with the harmony of the world’s spirit by embracing all the lovely and unique differences which shape our identities. We grow out of love and we give back love each time we endeavour to forge a bridge between our culture and the culture of someone else. We give our spirit a bit of a lift by the joy of celebrating the history of people who live as passionately as we do and whose traditions are as rooted in their culture and families as much as our own. Lessons of connectivity and of friendship will always abound when two souls are willing to make a connection.

One of the books I have oft spoken about online via my blog and my Twitter feeds is “The Golem and the Jinni” by Helene Wecker, which is an atmospheric enriched narrative which crosses the divide between mythology and immigration. She digs deep into the setting of her novel to shift between New York City and the old world in which the Golem and the Jinni originated from. She has a deft hand in revealing human emotions and convictions out of characters who are everything except human! What endeared me to the text is her gift of story-telling to not only enchant you with a magical kinetic plausibility but to give you a full score of characters who are each on their own individual journey towards self-discovery. It’s in this inherent quest to understand both origin and worth in a world set against the tides of where their destinies are taking them, Wecker infuses her narrative with a connection of heart.

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Each were set on a course to learn and grow out of their experiences in a place neither expected to be. They each succumb to their inherent natures, but I feel only one of them is able to change the other for the good. Because one of them is stronger than the other as far as knowing how to make good on what has been turned for the bad. Their journey leads not to a resolution of sorts to overcome their individual obstacles towards true freedom, but rather too a junction point that leads them to question everything they felt they knew thus far along. And, in that conclusion the reader has to sit back and ponder the true meaning behind “The Golem and the Jinni”, for was it a journey of theirs that you took or an inward journey of understanding the limitations of humanity?

– quoted from my review of “The Golem and the Jinni” by Helene Wecker

I am hopeful that more readers will seek out E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E by choosing titles by all authors of all backgrounds who celebrate our united spirit within the global society of nations and nationalities.

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Not enough multicultural books? via Color in Colorado

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Thank you for joining me on DAY 5 | A to Z Challenge!

I am a girl named Jorie who loves a story!
I am a bookish library girl on a quest for literary enlightenment!
I am predominately self-taught and library educated!
I am Mademoiselle Jorie!
Thank you for joining me on this journey!

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This marks my fifth post for the:

A to Z ChallengeFun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Which authors do you feel reflect the beauty of E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E? Which authors who are newly published OR have books which will soon be forthcoming would you recommend to be added to the “on the horizon” category of this post!? Which books have captured your heart whilst enveloping you in another person’s shoes and culture?! How do you feel progress has been made to give ever writer a voice and each story the gift for expanding our horizons?

UPDATE: 1 May, 2014: In the weeks since this post was first published I have participated in #diverselit & #WeNeedDiverseBooks movements on Twitter. I also created the tag #EqualityInLit to reflect my personal view and feelings towards diversity and equality in literature. You will denote a new category indexed on Jorie Loves A Story E Q U A L I T Y in L I T E R A T U R Ewhich speaks to the heart of how this blog post inspired me to make my views a bit more well-known.

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{SOURCES: A to Z Challenge Participant & Letter C Badge provided by the A to Z Challenge site for bloggers to use on their individual posts & blogs to help promote the challenge to others.The photograph of Carol Antoinette Peacock was given to me by the author and used with permission. Laura Resau photograph, author biography & book cover for The Indigo Notebook used with permission by the author. The book trailer by Laura Resau had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portals to this post, and I thank them for this opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Post dividers provided by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

Related Articles:

Diversity Solutions with Sherri L. Smith (author of “FlyGirl”) – (mayaprasad.com)

Why I Write About India – (mayaprasad.com)

Diversity in Kid’s Books – (nytimes.com)

Booklist 2014 (for multicultural literature) – (campbele.wordpress.com)

Exploring Diversity Through Children’s & Young Adult Books: Background Reading – (cynthialeitichsmith.com)

Embracing Diversity in YA Lit – (slj.com)

Comments via Twitter:

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Posted Saturday, 5 April, 2014 by jorielov in A to Z Challenge, Adoption, Book Cover Reveal, Book Trailer, Booking the Rails, Bookish Discussions, Bookish Whimsy, Brothers and Sisters, CFHS The Society, Children's Literature, Coming-Of Age, Conservation, Cultural Heritage, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Author, Debut in United States, Debut Novel, Epistolary Novel | Non-Fiction, Equality In Literature, Family Life, Fantasy Fiction, Genre-bender, Guest Spot on Podcast, Hard-Boiled Mystery, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller Suspense, Interviews Related to Content of Novel, LGBTTQPlus Fiction | Non-Fiction, Literary Fiction, Memoir, Meteorology, Nanowrimo 2008, Non-Fiction, Orphans & Guardians, Quaker Fiction, Readerly Musings, Septemb-Eyre, Siblings, Sociology, Southern Belle View Daily, Teenage Relationships & Friendships, The Dystopia Challenge, The Rocketeer, The Typosphere, Time Travel, Time Travel Adventure, Travel Narrative | Memoir, Vignettes of Real Life, Wicked Valentine's Readathon, Writes of Passage, Wuthering Heights, Young Adult Fiction

*Nominated & Awarded* | The Liebster Blog Award! | by The Geek’s Bookshelf!

Posted Wednesday, 2 October, 2013 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

Liebster Blog Award

I, Jorie, of Jorie Loves A Story, have been thus nominated to be awarded the coveted “Liebster” Blog Award, on 29th of September, (a Sunday), 2013! The blogger who contacted me to inform me of this honour is *Sarah!* | A Geek’s Bookshelf, of whom I am certain I have visited in the recent past, but I am forgetting the connection of my stop on her blog, by which, she reminded me, it was Bout of Books, 8.0!! She is also one of my Feedly readers!!

I not only accept this nomination and award, but I know exactly which bloggers I want to give the award too! Before I get into the particulars, I want to explain the origins of the Award, as they were described to me, with a few edits where I expanded on what was being said:

The Official Rules of “The Liebster Award”

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award and you choose to accept it, write a blog post about the Liebster Award in which you:

  1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
  2. Display the award on your blog.
  3. Answer 10 Questions About Yourself. These should be provided to you by the person who nominated you, but hey, maybe they didn’t know!
  4. Provide 10 Random Facts About Yourself.
  5. Nominate 5+ blogs that you feel deserve the award, which have less than 1000 followers. I also read this to be between 200-3,000! Clearly flexible!

After you have posted your “Liebster Award” post, kindly inform the people whose blogs have been nominated for the Liebster Award. Provide a link to your post so that they can learn about the award (as they could be in the dark about it!) and make sure to send your 10 questions and tell them to provide their own 10 random facts!
Although many mistake this for a chain letter type of blog post, to me it feels more like a bookish community meme, wherein everyone enjoys sharing the love of blogging with the aspect of finding out a bit more about the blogs we come to love on our blog hoppin’ visits! The main idea behind the Liebster is to recognise your favourite new bloggers and help promote them! At its root, it’s a compliment you pay forward!

About my nominating blogger: Sarah has been blogging since 2011, she’s a member of The Classics Club (by which I join in January 2014!), and our paths originally crossed during Bout of Books, 8.0! In other words, it was rather serendipitous that our paths crossed at all! I am finding that this is the case a lot of the time I find new blogs & bloggers to follow! She lives in Scotland, a country in my ancestral past, and one by which I adore to watch such as through the BBC series “Monarch of the Glen”!! I look forward to dropping back by her blog, as to be honest, I had to suspend all of my Bout’er activities, but it’s still on my docket to complete, as the 7 Bout Books I choose are works-in-reading-progress (just follow my WWW escapades!) and I am still wanting to go back through the 108 blogs that I discovered during the Bout itself! :)

10 Questions of Jorie asked by Sarah:

{she provided me with a sheet of 50 Random Questions, of which I could select 10 to answer!}

  1. What books on your shelf are begging to be read!? |In no particular order: Rebecca’s Tale by Sally Beauman (sequel to: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier; both on my tCC!); Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke; Glow by Jessica Maria Tuccelli; Moonrise by Cassandra King (which I believe is either a sequel to Rebecca OR Jane Eyre; going on my tCC!); Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline; The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne; Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter; Fly Away + Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah; and Mistress of my Fate by Hallie Rubenhold!
  2. Do you save old greeting cards and letters!? |I must certainly do! I started to write letters to friends’ who live outside my own country when I was younger, as there was a pen pal club for children. My first correspondents were to a Norwegian girl who lived near the Arctic circle and a Kiwi (New Zea lander) who lived in a large city compared to how small her island country truly is! I loved receiving their letters, as each letter was an adventure and a learning experience of getting to know someone who lived far, far away from me, with different customs and traditions! I continued to find new people to write as I entered my teen years, and onwards through to present day! My correspondents have become my cherished friends!! The treasure each of them, and quite a few of them read this blog now, and so, this is a special shout-out to them for always supporting me and being a bright light in my life! THANK YOU! Oh, to answer the forementioned question! Laughs! I not only save their letters and cards, but I make sure each friend of mine has their letters secured into a special folder whereupon I can re-read their letters at any point in time! I love seeing their handwriting, choice of stationery, typeface if they typed their letter, and of course, the pure delight of seeing which postage stamps were selected for the envelope!
  3. Which animals scare you the most!? | Hands down, snakes, spiders, and anything in the insect world!
  4. Do you have a catchphrase!? | Not only do I have a wide variety of them, but I tend to either compliment someone else who used one that I liked for myself by saying it whenever I feel it’s warranted to be used; but I oft make up new ones to try out OR to become part of my voice! :) The one that I use the most online though is “wicked sweet!” To express my purist joy over something that has caught my eye or attention!
  5. How and where do you prefer to study!? | Although, I am well outside the schooling years, being a writer who craves research as though its going out of fashion, my favourite places to study the research I need to stitch together my stories are in two places: a library | my study! I am sure most writers have a ‘study’ these days, as it serves a duality of purpose, part personal library, part research hub, part writer’s lair! It’s that special place where you can tune out the world, and focus directly on your writings and the characters that are pulling you deeper into their stories!
  6. What is your all-time favourite towne or city!? | I have several actually: Washington, DC; Uxmal, Mexico; St. Augustine, Florida; Seattle, Washington; and Key West, Florida! I think the appealment of the nation’s capital goes without question, as due to the history of the city, and the walkability of seeing that history is impressive by itself! Uxmal is one of the last standing relics of the Mayan age that still feels as though its heyday were yesterday rather than thousands of years! St. Augustine is a quirky, artsy towne that has an authentic charm of history itching out of itself! Seattle, was a lovely place to visit, and yet wholly unfamiliar to me, as you could see volcanic mountains no matter what your vantage point was downtown! To me, that was as impressive as the fact the ‘sun’ took a hiatus, rain fell without lightning, and the temperatures were heavenly! Key West is an enchanting city, which being at the very tip of the southern most point in Florida, I was always thrilled that I could have the opportunity to visit and say, “I’ve been tip to stern in Florida!” :)
  7. When do you find yourself singing!? | Whenever the mood strikes!! I love music, from the radio, iHeart radio, albums on CD, tape, or vinyl; whichever method the music is reaching me, and I feel the rhythm and lyrics inspiring, I start to sing! :) I know the Oldies like the inside of my hand, and the funk, soul, and folk of the 1970s holds a special place in my heart as well! :)
  8. When did you immediately click with someone you just met!? | You could say each friend that I cherish to have in my circle is an example of this, including the lovely souls I am sending this Liebster Award too! There are some people who alight in your life, as happily as a butterfly OR ladybug, who singularly know how to make you smile, engage you in a great conversation, and whose presence is always appreciated! I am quite blessed, indeed!
  9. What’s one thing you’d rather pay someone to do than do yourself!? |Being a creatively museful individual, if I could delegate two aspects of everyday life, they would be housework + yardwork! Those are the two areas of the domestic arts, that I could seriously do without! Although, I do enjoy vacuuming on occasion, as I find that its a great stress reliever! And, I would love to have a proper garden one day to maintain, but outside of that, yes, I freely admit it, a housekeeper and groundskeeper would be rather ideal! :) 
  10. What’s something that amazes you!? I would have to say the natural world, of whom I am always rapt in awe with what I observe, discover, and uncover through my lens, as I walk amongst the inhabitants of a world just a stone’s throw from our own! Comparatively, I can never stop seeking out the stars and constellations that slowly move around us in the upper cosmos and yet, reflectively are a constant part of our lives, as they’re twinkling never fails to impress me by their ability to transport me out of a living moment and into a pensively blissful one!

10 Random Quirks About Jorie:

  • I am a girl with yarn on the brain, to the extent, that my eyes tend to outweigh my abilities to knit up my WIPs [works-in-progress] + UFOs [unfinished objects] as quickly as I’d prefer! I am keenly addicted to natural, plant, and animal fibers for knitting, but I do a lot of charity knitting, where I am at the mercy of the donated yarns! My favourite charity knits thus far along are prayer shawls + mini prayer shawl crosses! I currently have |11 WIPs: 3 prayer shawls, 2 shawls/wraps, 3 afghan blankets, 1 set of fingerless gloves, 1 headband, & 1 earwarmer! | Its my desire to knit through my Harry Potter Knitting Book, as much as to be able to learn how to make amigurumi animals! I dream in fiber! :)
  • To put it mildly, I am a reader who can become jazzed about a book as quickly and as simply as wandering through a library, a book shoppe, a card catalogue, a book tour, random bookish blogosphere reads, OR anywhere else my eyes alight to find the creative scope of a story! Due to this magnetic attraction, my TBR Mountain has grown a bit past Everest in both height and depth! Therefore, I will be implementing the bookish sphere’s project: The TBR JAR in October! Stay tuned!
  • I have a very low-tech (or lo-tech!) sensibility (as you may have read about in my sidebar!), to where I not only dream about owning a retrofitted and restored vintage typewriter, but I am quite determined to make it my sole writing machine once I do acquire a workhorse model! Having suffered 3! computer crashes and deaths within 15 years (PC / Mac), and losing countless hours of work, files I’ll never remember having, and data that cannot be replaced — I am finding myself less akin to using a computer to write, than I was agreeable too prior to this! This is not to be misunderstood — I am quite a happy book blogger who adores her blog, and the bookish community she has become a part of — I am simply referring to my writing life ‘off-blog’ and how thankful I will be to have a machine independent of electricity + tech! The typewriters of the 1930s + 1940s are my absolute dream machines!!! :)
  • I am most comfortable being away from our hectic lifestyles by absorbing myself into the simplicity and serenity of the natural world! I breathe deeper and feel an internal balance whilst swept into marshlands, prairies, mountains, lakeshores, forest, and oceanscapes! I love the curious creatures who inhabit these diverse ecosystems as much as I like taking stock and notice of the natural environments that live counter-current to our own lifestyles! The random joy of seeing birds of prey within a stone’s throw of your stance and to be caught up in the beauty of a shorebird alighting on a path inches from your camera lens is a true blessing to behold! Nature affords such a calming effect on me, that I always ache to return into her folds of grace, if too much time has elapsed since my last visit!
  • Cats will always have a place in my life, because I cherish having their presence in my life! The hardest part of Spring, (as read here) was the sudden death of my beloved cat! He has left an impression on me, due to his strength at the height of an insidious illness, as much as his uncanny way of knowing when you’re not feeling well yourself! His kind soul-filled eyes could melt your heart, and warm your wary soul! He was outspoken, considerate, and a true diplomat when it came interacting with other animals! Cats tend to know instinctively how to fit into your life, and for that, I am forever blessed to know them!
  • Although I have the tendency to watch quite a heap of medical examiner series (fictional ONLY!), I am squeamish about how visual and graphic I am willing to go to watch them! This is most readily a ‘true quirk’ because although I adore: Crossing Jordan, Castle, and NCIS, I oft long for the softer edges of Quincy, M.E.!! At the same time, police procedural dramas and detective mysteries are amongst my favourite tv serials to watch! Case-in-Point Examples: Nash Bridges, The Sentinel, Walker, Texas Ranger, McMillan & Wife, The Mentalist, Castle, Monk, NCIS, NCIS: LA, Hawaii Five-O (original/sequel), Cagney & Lacey, The Division, Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbach), Hetty Wainthroppe, Rosemary & Thyme, Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, Endeavour, CHiPs, and a heap more I am sure to have forgotten to mention!
  • Pottery was a passion of mine, but not from the artisan side of it, but rather the hobbyist side!! I used to love to pick out unfinished bisque, sit down with water-based paints, and just paint the world of time away by absorbing into that piece and seeing where the day took me! I was going to have my own locker at a pottery studio, complete with array of paints, white & green bisque (there is a better word for that, but I’m forgetting it!), and a lovely gathering of artsy souls, but the place went out of business the very day I went to put my ‘lock’ on the locker! Oyy vie!
  • My latest best find of the past year is the CDBaby newsletter free music programme! Artists select tracks each month to give to listeners as a way to get to know their artistry and music style! I cannot tell you how many of those artists I’ve either grown to love OR am personally starting to connect with! I recently discovered that Rolling Stone offers a daily download option as well! :) I’m not really into digital music per se, as I am a traditionalist a bit in that regard, as I still love to collect CDs | vinyl, but this is one way where the industry falls in your lap, as you get to stay on the inside edge to the indie artists!! :) :)
  • I am a late bloomer in the kitchen, as like Julia Child, I didn’t pick up an instinctive hankering to ‘cook’ until I was on the brink of my 30s! She followed me and started cooking in her early 30s, which is why I can always jokefully lament, that I bet her to it by a few years! :) Laughs. I always was keen to bake though, so I suppose in some ways it was a natural progression, but what truly captivated my joy of cooking, was simply by observing my Mum all these years! She cooks like my grandmother did, where each recipe has its own ‘hidden’ steps and each ‘measurement’ is really not one that can be writ down! Laughs. I developed a keen sense for spice, herb, and supplemental ingredients from a young age, and I am definitely a girl who loves her garlic! Yet. Getting to the point to read recipes and cookbooks and actually feel like I understood what to do with the information took time to evolve! The fact that I’m evolving out of an omnivore into a herbivore makes it even sweeter! :)
  • I thrive on four seasons yet I struggle to survive in a sub-tropical volcanic heat intense state such as Florida!

My Nominees Are:

[Due to the elusiveness of # of followers, my nominees have less than 200 &/or 3000 total followers! At least by the best of what I can deduce by visiting their blogs and seeking the information! IF they have more than they were meant to have, I did the best estimations without contacting them directly! Afterall, it’s an award we each elect to give to another blogger who has made an impact on our blog reading life, (as much as our personal life!) to which end we wish to draw others to discover their blog in return! As this award is elusive, I doubt this rule is strictly finite!]

Charlene @ Bookish Whimsy | I originally found Charlene’s blog through her post about “Finnikin of the Rock“. At the time of nomination she has a total of: 1,648 followers [via Twitter, Linky Followers, & Bloglovin’] What I love about Charlene is her lovely way of drawing you into her interests, and for never letting you feel as though you’ve let her down if time swept you away from something! She has a kind-hearted spirit, and is as mad-crazy about authors and books she adores as I am! She has a great sense of knowing how to convey her thoughts in her reviews, and she’s always there to cheer you when your downtrodden and celebrate your joys when you’re accomplishing something rather grand!

Lianne @ Caffeinated Life | Lianne & I were matched through a Blog Pen Pal Exchange, hosted by Stormy @ Blog. Book. Bake. At the time of nomination she has a total of: 50 followers [via Bloglovin’ + Feedburner] Curiously we each were going through a heap of life moments that were sweeping us away from our ability to compose our thoughts onto paper, but we did each manage somehow to get out one letter that fateful month! However, what endeared me the most was her listening ear, whenever I had a ‘blog’ question to pitch to her, OR to ruminate about something I had learnt to do myself on JLAS! She has a great spirit for sharing not only her life, but her passions contained in motion pictures, books, and blogging! She is an incredibly patient soul, and I am quite eager to see where our next conversations take us!

Maggie @ An American in France | Brought together through a read-a-long of Jane Eyre, neither of us expected to find a true blue friend in each other! At the time of nomination she has a total of: 63 followers [via Bloglovin’ + Twitter] It is always said to be that the people who cross your path are the ones you might not see alighting into view! You never know who you’re going to meet, when you will encounter them, or how radically altered you will feel by having their presence bless your life! Maggie came out of the ether’s of Septemb-Eyre and we have been stitching together our friendship ever since! Including starting to exchange letters by postal mail which delights me to no end!

Audra @ Unabridged Chick | At the very heart of her blog, is a reader who isn’t afraid to read something with a controversial subject if at its core is a story of the human condition! At the time of her nomination she has a total of: 1,771 followers [via GFC, Bloglovin’, and Twitter] Audra was an unexpected stop on a tour hosted via TLC Book Tours, for “Freud’s Mistress“!! As I started to read her blog, visit more of her tour stops, and get an insight into her reading life, I started to realise that I wanted to keep dropping back on her blog each day &/or week, just to get caught up! She was reading and reviewing a LOT of books that turned my eye, but maybe, I had hesitated to seek at the library, for one reason or another! Finding out that she is a fellow writer was simply happenstance and pure bliss!

Christine @ Readerly Musings | I quite literally ‘stumbled’ across Christine’s blog within hours/days of her launch! I felt like I was able to pass forward something that I did not experience myself, which was a fellow blogger who found my blog unexpectedly and jumped into a a hearty conversation about reading, books, and the merits of spontaneous joy + discovery! Our conversations exploded on her blog, and I am forever grateful now, to the WWW Meme, which was responsible for bringing our blogs together, and for giving us a new friend we were not expecting to meet! At the time of nomination she has a total of: 7 followers via WP!

At present, Jorie has 31 followers [via Bloglovin’, FeedBlitz, Feedly, WP, and Email!]

[Although, I do know that I have regular readers who are not officially following me!]

[My gratitude overflows to each person who drops by Jorie Loves A Story!]

[I gained 1 more follower before I could post this awesome news!]

Questions for my Nominees to Answer (if they accept the award!):

  1. How did you initially get caught by the bookworm, to develop a passion for reading as you entered adulthood!?
  2. What are your go-to yearly reads if you have been able to curate a short list of books you MUST re-read!? IF not, which books would you love to re-read if you had the time!?
  3. What is one hobby or interest that you maintain that is a close compliment to your reading life!? (ie: for me its knitting and writing letters!)
  4. What is one of the biggest joys that book blogging has brought into your life!?
  5. Were you surprised how dedicated you became to curating content for your blog!?
  6. What makes you awe-struck to the brink you just have to stand there in rapt amazement!?
  7. What city would you love to visit if you haven’t already!? Why is it of interest!?
  8. Do you have any books that are winking to you from your shelf and you simply haven’t had the time to read them!?
  9. What is your favourite bookish character &/or tv serial!?
  10. Do you seek out classic motion pictures OR only watch modern films, outside of book adaptations that is!?

{SOURCE: To the best of my knowledge, the Liebster Blog Award Badge is freely given to be used by any and all bloggers who are nominated for the award. I haven’t been able to source the origins of this award anymore than anyone else who has failed in their attempt at time of nomination and acceptance! Therefore, if further credit is needed, please alert me, as I was not readily able to sort of whom to give it to and by which to attribute the source. Until then, from my understanding of this award and meme, we are given permission to have it on our blogs. Which I was going to do, until I realised I had a free post lovely from Shabby Blogs that “fit” this award quite well! Post lovely provided by Shabby Blogs with edits by Jorie in Fotoflexer. 50 Random Questions provided by The Greek’s Bookshelf but originally was sent to her by The Most Happy Reader!}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2013.

Related Articles:

A Liebster Blog Award – (ageeksbookshelf.blogspot.com)

The Liebster Blog Award – (inaroomofmyown.wordpress.com)

The Liebster Blogging Award -(thewanderingsoles.com)

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Posted Wednesday, 2 October, 2013 by jorielov in An American in France, Awards & Honours for JLAS, Bookish Whimsy, Caffeinated Life, Jorie Loves A Story, Readerly Musings, The Liebster Blog Award, Unabridged Chick