My participation in the Bout this time around simply made sense due to the fact that I have a booked schedule between now & the start of September! I’d love to share journalling bits of where I am on my reading adventures, as much as interact with other Bout’ers when I could use a break between page turns! I am keeping in place the lovely paragraph I spoke on behalf of my participation in Bout 9.0 as it simply echoes my sentiments right now! :) Of course, I *love!* to push myself to read a bit more than I normally can during a Bout, but this time around, I seriously do have 8 books being read for review! On the flipside, I’m a late Austen in August reader who wants to *catch!* up a bit by soaking into her first picks for the challenge which celebrates her admiration and love of all things Jane Austen! I have a heap in store for my blog this next week, both for the readathon, for blog tours, and a few surprises outside of those too!

I, Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story is not only a seriously addicted reader of books which wrap me inside stories which enchant my mind and murmur reflections in my heart after I put the books down, but I am a girl who is positively happy whilst caught up in the book blogosphere events which unite readers with books, and stories with readers who love to chatter about why they love to read what they read! I am going to sit back and enjoy this Bout, as I’ll be reading up a wicked storm of fiction whilst hosting wicked awesome blog tours & reviews! I will be spending equal time on Twitter & in the blogosphere visiting other bloggers who are participating. Here’s to being spontaneous and seeing where the Bout takes me next!

Whose going to join me!?

One year ago I participated in my *first!* Bout of Books!

I am #851 (signups) + #378 (goals)! Rock on, dear hearts!

A celebration of my life as a book blogger who celebrated her 1st Blog’s Birthday starts this week as well! Stay tuned for the start of 12 posts which journal back through my adventures!

Converse with Bout’ers:#boutofbooks | @BoutofBooks

Hostesses:@BookBender + @soulswallo

Personal Goals & Motivations of Bout 11.0!

Books to Absorb during Bout of Books 9.0:

Books for Review:

The Gin Thief by S.C. Barrus

Willow Springs Blog Tour via Cedar Fort Publishing & Media

Romancing the Soul by Sarah Tranter

Maggie's Wars by Phil Pisani

Blade of the Samurai by Susan Spann

French Twist by Glynis Astie

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

Sense & Sensibility: A Latter-Day Tale by Rebecca H. Jamison

• Sense & Sensibility: A Latter-Day Tale by Rebecca H. Jamison (a Jane Austen re-telling)
• The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar (a soul-stirring Literary fiction)
• French Twist by Glynis Astie (a Contemporary Romance) Re-scheduled due to exhaustion
• The Gin Thief by S.C. Barrus (as a beta reader)
• Blade of the Samurai by Susan Spann (a sequel to a Cosy Historical Mystery)
• Maggie’s Wars by Phil Pisani (a war drama Historical Fiction) Re-scheduled/Self-Hosting blog!
• Romancing the Soul by Sarah Tranter (a parapsychological Romance)
• Willow Springs by Carolyn Steele (an Inspirational Romance)

Author Interviews this week:

• Thrity Umrigar
• Susan Spann
• Carolyn Steele Re-scheduled/Self-Hosting blog!

Books Aiming to Read in Addition:

• Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann (the first Shinobi mystery)
• Aunty Lee’s Delights by Ovidia Yu (the first Singaporean mystery)
• Mortal Arts by Anna Lee Huber (sequel to the Lady Darby mystery series)*
• {to be revealed} by Jane Austen (for Austen in August)*updating Austen in August MP
• The first 25 pages of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (a RAL w/ @LitChat & my tCC List)

*my review of “The Anatomist’s Wife” (the first Lady Darby mystery) will post during the Bout!

Bookish Posts Forthcoming:

• Jorie’s Box of Joy : Inbound Books for Review
• Austen in August : an modified reading list & proper update
• Top Ten Tuesday : ?
• WWW Wednesday : An update on last week & this week’s readings
• 10 Bookish & Not So Bookish Thoughts : my 1st contribution!
• Jorie Loves A Story 1st Birthday Celebration Post
• August 2013 to August 2014 : First Month Retrospective
• Read A Romance Month : Participation & why I adore reading Romance novels!

Bout 11.0 Events I will be joining in on the fun:

• Twitter Chats: clearly I was not meant to join in on the wicked sweet Twitter parties, as alas both Monday & Wednesday proved not to be good days for me to join in; Saturday I cannot join in on the fun as I host my own weekly chat on Twitter: #ChocLitSaturdays @ 10am Central / 11am Eastern for Romance novel readers and writers!
• Book Spine Poetry
• *I might add more of the challenges as I visit what they entail

Seven days,
168 hours,
with the prospect of devouring itching to read books and savouring the joy of discovering the ones which I am reading for a blog book tour!
Ooh, let the readathon be underway!

{My Bout’er Updates:}

• Monday 18th: I was quite literally consumed inside the world of “Sense & Sensibility” through the dramatic re-telling of Rebecca H. Jamison! She not only proved that she could write a believable story, but for me, she added in so many realistic elements of what can happen that at times I felt emotionally blindsided! One particular event held my breath in my throat as what I hadn’t disclosed in my review is there is a motorcycle crash in the latter chapters that puts your heart out of your chest! My family has always been cognisant of cycles on the road & want to find one of those bumper stickers to reflect awareness for everyone else too. I am not sure how much of the story follows in line with Jane Austen, but for me, I could not read the story fast enough as I was completely tied and invested inside the lives of the characters in this modern re-telling! I lost all sense of time, and I can only hope my thoughts I left behind can convey how much I enjoyed reading the story! I might have found a few wrinkles (my ‘fly in the ointment’) but that did not stop my pleasure of the novel overall! I find that even the most celebrated works I discover at times have a few things I might have found rubbed me the wrong way, but it is presence of where the writer took me in the text that gives all stories the ability to have me transcend directly into the world they gave to us as they penned the story! I was hoping other Janeites & Austenites would leave comments about cross-referencing the original canon to what I disclosed on this re-telling as that is one element I could not give this year. This was also the day I did the most tweeting for Bout’ers and slightly missed the chance to ‘talk’ during the live chat!
  
• Tuesday 19th: Whilst I edited my Author Interview for Thrity Umrigar, I started to read her novel “The Story Hour”, only to find that despite the allure of the synopsis, I was having a bit of trouble shifting into the story, as the characters were being presented in a way that felt a bit disconjointed for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the Questions I had composed for the Interview, as it was one of the few times where an author has such a breadth of media posted online and in different mediums like: podcast, YouTube interview, print media, and other blogger Interviews! The day dissolved before my eyes and turnt into Wednesday,…
  
• Wednesday 20th: I was attempting to accomplish so very much today, as I sort of had a late start, as I found I had overslept and that completely threw off *everything!* I not only wanted to blog about (as I wanted to work on the *Bookish Posts* section of this challenge, but it threw off my focus to dig into “Claws of the Cat” before the day I was meant to post my review of “Blade of the Samurai!” I did accomplish one wicked sweet thing: I not only read, edited, and commented on “The Gin Thief” — I actually learnt a few new tricks on how to use added features of Word! I was most delighted as I had not sorted out the ‘insert comment’ & the ‘track changes’ features prior to my project and work with S.C. Barrus as one of his Beta Readers work a work-in-progress! I appreciated the work immensely especially being that his writing style is so far outside my own that it felt like a joyful adventure! I can see why writers talk about being a Beta for stories not only outside your comfort zone but outside what you were  normally read, as it heightens your eyes to seeing what might not be working and/or to give a different intensity of feedback. As the night was folding into midnight, I was still working on my double showcase for Ms. Spann. The Interview Questions arrived whilst I was firming together how I wanted the Interview to look and feel inside the post, and then, I rather happily staid posed at my keyboard until nearly 3am sorting out how I wanted to add replies! It was a special Interview to host, as it always is when I have previously known a writer I feature on my blog! The hours I was spending working on everything overlapped with the hours I wanted to tweet & thus, I missed the second chat for the Bout! I also wanted to soak into the French Twist series by Glynis Astie, as I was striving to post my book review for “French Twist” — there are some days the hours dissolve faster than we’re able to grab them!
  
• Thursday 21st:
• Friday 22nd: Oh, my dear goodness – I never thought it would be possible to self-host my blog within 24 hours, but necessity was the  (work in progress)
• Saturday 23rd:
• Sunday 24th:
• Monday 25th:

{SOURCE: Bout of Books Badge created by Jorie in Canva to give readers & visitors who come to her blog a way to know of its existence and therefore increasing the mystery & lore surrounding it!! Badges for Proud Book Nerd, Read All Day, & Coffee are given to bloggers to add personality to their blogs by Squeesome Designs.Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Book Covers: “Sense & Sensibility: A Latter-Day Tale by Rebecca H. Jamison provided by the author; “The Story Hour” by Thrity Umrigar provided by TLC Book Tours; “French Twist” by Glynis Astie provided by the author; “Blade of the Samurai” by Susan Spann provided by the author; “Maggie’s Wars” by Phil Pisani provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours; “Romancing the Soul” by Sarah Tranter provided by ChocLitUK; Willow Springs tour banner provided by Cedar Fort Publishing & Media; “The Gin Thief” by S.C. Barrus provided by the author; all Press Materials are used with permission for both review and promotion on my blog.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

Comments via Twitter:

@JLovesAStory I’m still doing a manga marathon. Enjoy your books!

— Crystal Santos (@infiniteink671) August 19, 2014

@JLovesAStory I really recommend reading it. Very reminiscent of Austen, but also such a unique idea, and beautifully written.

— somethinglikelydia (@thinglikelydia) August 19, 2014