September Recap

Books read this month:

Twitter review (140 characters or less):
This book was gripping, intense, and full of twists and turns. I was hooked from the first to the last page. A must read for everyone.

Read from August 30-September 1

Twitter review:
Swoon filled. My sexual tension is rising. Good plot. Extremely funny. Intense moments. Janet Evanovich does it again! (Ranger is still bae)

Read from September 1-September 5

Twitter review:
Ranger is forever my favourite male character after this book. I could not stop reading it. It's funny, intense, and sometimes really sad.

Read from September 6-September 7

Twitter review:
Dickie Orr was involved. I laughed until I cried and I was so nervous I could barely read. The more I read, the more I love Stephanie.

Read from September 7-September 13

Twitter review:
Why did it take me this long to read this book? I loved everything about it. The characters were real. The plot was intense. I couldn't get enough.

Read from September 13-September 19

Twitter review:
This book was adorable and made me feel so many different ways. I'm so glad I found this on Netgalley. Pick it up; you won't regret it.

Read from September 19-September 20

Twitter review:
I NEED a whole series devoted to an undercover cop. I didn't think it was possible to get better after In The Woods but it did. Read this!

Read from September 20-September 26

Tana French is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. I loved both books that I read by her and I'm already planning on reading Faithful Place in October. I have no doubt that the series gets stronger as it goes on and I'm so excited to see how it goes. I also really enjoyed reading more Stephanie Plum. I wanted to get further in the series, but I'm happy with my book choices that I made this month. I'm hoping that October brings just as many great books.

This month I:

• Turned 21! 
• Got a new phone (Galaxy s3)
• Worked a ton
• Watched my favourite baseball team win the central division
• Went to a few baseball games
• Bought tons of books
• Found a new author
• Bought new shoes
• Getting closer to figuring out what I want to do with my life

So lets talk: How did you do in September? Did you find any new authors?

Rewind: January Favourite

I had a book blog before I had this one. I made monthly "favourite" posts talking about which books I liked the best. I still do something like that, but it is a little different. I am slowly going to be bringing over a few of my favourite posts, plus my monthly favourite posts so I can make a big post at the end of the year about my favourite books.

Books read: 9

Every month, I am going to post my favourite book I read that month. Since I just started this blog, I was unable to make one for January, so I will do it before the February one in a few days.

My favourite book I read in January was Along Came a Spider by James Patterson.

Along Came a Spider is the first book in the Alex Cross series. This series started out intense and emotional. It had the ability to pull any reader in within the first few pages and it definitely did that with me.

Alex Cross is a black detective and psychologist living in Washington DC. He’s a strong person and a very lovable father. I already love Alex and I’m only two books into the series. I would recommend this book, and this whole series, to anyone that likes mystery, thriller, and crime novels because you won’t regret it.

Fortunately for me, January was a great reading month. Looking through the books I read, I can’t say I disliked any of them. I wasn’t completely thrilled with The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, but a few days of reflecting on it, I really began to love it.

Honorable mentions: The Narrows by Michael Connelly | 3rd Degree by James Patterson | Something Blue by Emily Giffin

When Not To Write a Review

Lately I've been finding books that I just don't want to write reviews for. There are some that I plan on writing reviews for and then when I go to sit down with my notes, I just don't, and can't, do it. So then I have to think to myself "what is making me not want to write the review?"

Sometimes, I like a book too much to where whatever I write is not going to do it justice and I don't even attempt to get my thoughts down. Sometimes I get half way through a book and I realize that it's going to be one of those books that changes my life and I just need to spend the rest of the book enjoying it instead of analyzing everything. Night Film by Marisha Pessl was one of those books for me. I read it last month and haven't even tried writing a review for it because I just enjoyed it too much. I needed to just enjoy it.

Sometimes, I hate a book so much that I couldn't possibly write a review without it sounding like a big rant. I want my reviews to be nice and well thought out, even if I didn't like the book. I want to rationally discuss what I did or didn't like about books. There are some books where I just can't do that, so I choose not to write reviews. Those books I finish just so I never have to think about them again. I don't want to think about the book and I don't want to write a review. So I don't.

Sometimes, I read a book knowing from the start that I'm not going to be writing a review. We all need these books once and a while. If every book I read needs to be analyzed, them I'm not going to enjoy reading as much. So maybe one book a month is just a laid back book that I don't analyze. I just read. It's made reviewing more fun for me and it's made reading more fun for me.

If I don't feel like writing a review for a book, I don't. I don't do it because I won't be into it and the review will reflect that. I want my reviews to be fun but not sloppy. I can't do that if I don't care about writing the review. We all need to take breaks from writing reviews sometimes.

So, how do you decide when you're not going to write a review?

Sunday Post [4]- New Ways to Read!

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @
Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~
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!

This week:

I worked a few days so I didn't get much reading done on those days, but Thursday was my birthday! I had tons of fun and got some awesome presents. The rest of the weekend I just laid back and read a lot on my new Kindle. Saturday night we went to Outback and it was just a fun night. It was a fun week and even though it was a tad stressful at work, it was still a good work week. 

This week on my blog:

Monday: Review: Since You've Been Gone

Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday

Wednesday: Wishlist Wednesday

Thursday: [Day off for my birthday]

Friday: Birthday Book Haul

Saturday: My Favourite Place to Read

Next week on my blog:

Monday: When Not To Write a Review

Tuesday: Twitter Reviews 

Wednesday: Flashback to January Favourites

Thursday: How I Was Changed As a Reader By The Internet

Friday: Review: And Then There Were None

Saturday: Monogamy or Polygamy When It Comes To Reading Books?

Sunday: The Sunday Post

Books read this week:

In The Woods by Tana French (finished)

Kept by Jamie Fuchs (finished) short story

Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander (finished)

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

Taken by Jamie Fuchs

Pages read this week: 823

Total pages: 1874

Goal: 6,000

Looking at it now, I don't think I'll be able to read 6,000 pages this month. Next month I'll set my sights a little lower. But I like having something big to aim for.

Favourite Place to Read

BOOKISH DISCUSSIONS

If I had to think of the one place where I just get into the zone of reading, what do I think of? Do I think of Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee? Do I think of Friday nights when I know I have the whole weekend ahead of me to do nothing but read? Do I think of long car rides across Michigan? Or do I think of the chair in the living room?

The surprising answer is in the car. I love reading in the car. If I'm going on a long trip, I'll take a few books with me and just read in the car while listening to music. 

I don't have my license so anytime I'm in the car, I'm not driving. I am free to read as much or as little as I want. I usually read in the car no matter where I'm going, even if it's just a trip to the store in the middle of the night. 

I don't get car sick so looking down at my book does not affect me the way it affects some other people. I could sit in a car for 6 hours and read the whole time and not feel queasy once. It's a great skill and I'm glad that I have it.

I just love reading in the car. I used to live 2.5 hours away from my boyfriend so the trip would get very tiring, especially if I was running on little sleep. To keep myself awake, I would talk to him and read. Now that I am living here, I'm not going on long car rides anymore but I do still read in the car.

I am really glad that I have the ability to read in the car as much as I can. I know not everyone can. So, what is your favourite place to read?

Birthday Book Haul!

Yesterday was my birthday and of course I got a ton of books and more money for books that I want. I figured I should do a book haul (or birthday haul) to show what I got!

From my internet friends:

Brittany got me the cutest duck birthday card. I have no idea where she found it but it was such a fun card to read and she got me Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. Yesterday I got a book in the mail and had no idea where it came from. It came with a note from Brittany and I had NO idea that she was getting me the book. I am so excited to read it. I also got One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich from an awesome pal, Dakota


From my boyfriend's mom:

I opened a shoe books and saw all of these books. I think you can see a pattern though. Yes, two people got me One, Two, and Three. I'm giving one set to Grey's mom because she likes the series as well. She also got me Four to Score, Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Sizzling Sixteen, Smokin' Seventeen, Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich, and 1st To Die by James Patterson. The cupcake has a fake candle on it than I can blow out and it sings the birthday song. It's too cute.




From my boyfriend:

The shirt is a David Price shirsey (shirt jersey). He's a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and I really like him. He also got me a $50 Amazon giftcard.
Aaaaaand a Kindle!!

The cover is so cute and I love the Kindle so far. It's what I wanted most so I'm glad that I got it. I ended up buying a few books and getting a few books that were free just to try them out.

It also should not surprise anyone that this was the first book I bought. I will one day get a physical copy but for now, this is perfect for me.

So altogether, this is what I got for my birthday (with $200 from my dad.) It was a great birthday and I had a ton of fun. I also loved my presents and apparently have more on the way.

Top Ten Tuesday [2]

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at Broke and Bookish. Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Ten authors I've only read once but NEED to read more:

I only recently read this book and I already want to read it again and also read her previous book. This book was so strong and I've been told the first one may be even better. I'm not sure it is possible to be better than this, but if it is then I need it in my life RIGHT NOW. It took me nearly a year to finally read this book and I regret waiting that long to read it. It's seriously awesome. I recommend it to everyone. 

Seriously though, how did it take me this long to read Agatha Christie? This book made me create a shelf on Goodreads "5 stars is not enough" I can't stop talking about this book. It was a wild ride and I'm still in shock from it. I loved this book and everything about it. I can see why it's still a HUGE book decades after it was first published. I can't wait to get my hands on another book because if her other books are half this good, then I can see why she's so famous.

This book ruined my life. It made me laugh. It made me smile. It made me cry until I felt like I was running out of tears. This book made me FEEL so much. It was beautifully written and I can't wait to read another book. She just came out with another book and I need to read it really soon. I am so glad that I gave this one a try because it lived up to the hype. I hope that the other books by Jandy Nelson are this good.

I have three of her books but never seem to read them. I loved this book. It was fun. It was light. But it was also sad and happy and interesting. I felt invested in every character. I want so badly to pick up another book by her but other books get in the way and I keep saying "okay I'm going to read this book next" and then I go to the library and decide to read those books first. I WILL read another book by Jennifer Weiner by the end of the year. Someone hold me to it.

I've tried to read another book by her but I was in a slump and couldn't get into it. But this one was SO good. It was her first stand alone novel and I was shocked that it was her first. I personally think there are certain authors that just need to do all stand alones and there are some authors that need to do only series. I've heard nothing but great things about her series' but this book was also fantastic, so maybe she's an author that can pull off both and succeed. As much as I wish this was a series, it went really well as a stand alone. I WILL read another book by Slaughter by the end of the year as well.

Any author that can write a book like this and write it well enough for me to actually enjoy it, then I must read something else by them. I'm not sure what drew me to this book. I remember being at the library and picking it up and going "is this.... is this a real book?" and so I HAD to read it. For science or something. And weirdly, I actually liked this book. It was really well written. Nutting is very talented. I'm not sure if she actually has any other books, but if she does, I would definitely read it.

This book was heartbreaking. It was sad and scary and so realistic. I think that's what I liked about it most. It was real. It felt real. Never once did I feel like it was made up. I've read two non fiction books about kidnappings and this one was as real as those. It's almost scary how good this was. I NEED to read another book by Donoghue. As soon.

I actually wasn't a huge fan of this book. It was fun but it was a little strange. The more I think about it though, the more I think it was actually really clever and fun. Months after reading this book, I found out that it's part of an animal mystery series. There is a duck book. I need the duck book. If I find another book by her, I'll definitely pick it up. I'm hoping they are all as funny as this one was.


I am done after eight authors. After going through my read books, I've found out that I read a lot of books from the same authors. I've read three Janet Evanovich books THIS MONTH. So that should tell you something about how often I stray away from authors I like. Hint: not often.

I would like to make an honorable mention, though.

I'm reading this right now. It wouldn't be fair to put it on the list if I haven't officially read the book. But from what I've read so far, I would put it on the list if I had already finished it. I'm already sucked into the book and can't wait to find out what happened. I can see why Tana French is so popular. 


SO, have you read any of these authors? Have you read any of the books I read? Any recommendations for these authors?

TreesofReverie Read-a-thon Sign Up

This will be my fourth read-a-thon that Sarah has made. I'm an addict, what can I say. This time, however, I will be working most days and can't read as much as I did the three times prior. I'll be doing updates on this post and updating it daily.

Goals:
-3 books. I know that isn't a lot but I'll be working a lot and won't have much time to read. If I pass this early, then I'll take it up to 5 books
-1500 pages. I'm more interested in how many pages I read because I set books aside often and don't want to force myself to read a book just to finish it for the read-a-thon.
-Do daily updates on Tumblr. I slacked on these last time but this time I want to do them and link back to this post.
-Have fun!

Sunday September 14:
Books read- 0 (Currently reading: In The Woods by Tana French)
Pages read- 114
Books total- 0
Pages total- 114
Pages goal: 1500

Books goal: 3

Monday September 15:
Books read- 0
Pages read- 38
Books total- 0
Pages total- 152
Pages goal: 1500

Books goal: 3

Tuesday September 16:
Books read- 0
Pages read- 16
Books total- 0
Pages total- 168
Pages goal: 1500

Books goal: 3

Wednesday September 17:
Books read- 22
Pages read- 0
Books total- 0
Pages total- 190
Pages goal: 1500

Books goal: 3

Thursday September 18:
Books read- 0
Pages read- 108
Books total- 0
Pages total- 298
Pages goal: 1500

Books goal: 3

Friday September 19:
Books read- 1
Pages read- 186
Books total- 1
Pages total- 484
Pages goal: 1500

Books goal: 3

Saturday September 20:
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Review: Eleanor & Park

Book: Eleanor & Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Format: Hardcover
Own or borrow?: Borrowed from library
Published: February 26, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Two misfits. One extraordinary love. Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor. Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. [Via Goodreads]

The Good:

Eleanor was a strong character. She was realistic and it was easy to root for her. She was someone that I would like to know in real life. I wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything was going to be okay. She was smart and I loved the book from her perspective. 

Their relationship was fun and at times I really felt like it could really be true. Neither of them tried to purposely make the other mad. They worked together to make life easier for the other.

The ending. I think the ending was the strongest part of the book. I was so emotional at the end and I started crying and it was just a perfect way to end the book. I'm not sure how many other people like the ending, but I thought that it was more realistic than most other endings to books. I could easily see something like this happening in real life.

The book made me feel all emotions. Happy, sad, angry, confused, exhilarated, giddy, fangirly, and resentment. I may not have liked some parts of the book but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a wide range of emotions.

I loved the 80's references.

The character development.

The Bad:

There were a few parts in this book where I really cringed at how the characters were described. Park was the weak Asian kid and that's just stereotypical and I was uncomfortable about it. I also didn't like how the two black girls in the books were seen as ghetto almost. No one wanted to talk to them and they spoke differently than everyone else. 

Park was an asshole. I am still not sure how I felt about him. He made me mad more than anything else. I can't really even pinpoint exactly what he did anymore, but I just know that I wasn't too fond of his character.

I had a hard time believing their relationship (when I didn't love it.) It just seemed forced to me.

The book was just slow at times.

The Ugly:

The insta-love. Seriously, it was really weird to me how fast their relationship progressed. That's why it was hard to believe for me. No one falls in love that fast.

This should be in the good and the ugly because I liked this part of the book but it was ugly: her relationship with her step dad. Her step dad made me cringe and I hated him so much.

If you don't mind insta-love and you love a good story with great character development and realistic characters, this may be the book for you. Even though there were things that I didn't like, I'm still glad I read it and I hope Rainbow Rowell continues to write books. She's obviously very talented.

Are Endings Of Books More Important Than The Rest?

BOOKISH DISCUSSIONS

When reading a book, the ending can sometimes make or break the book. For me, it's what I remember most. I may not remember what Amy and Nick from Gone Girl were fighting about at the beginning of the book, but I sure remember the ending. Endings are the last thing we read and usually what sticks with us the most. So are they more important?

To me, an ending can take off a whole star or add a whole star if it's really thought out and ends in a great way. A few weeks about I read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Truthfully, the whole book was going to be 2 stars for me. I wasn't that interested in it and I felt like I was lied to about it. But that ending. The ending saved the book for me. It turned out to be a 3 star book. I've also read books that I really liked and it would probably be a 4 or 5 star rating but the ending was disappointing, rushed, or not well thought out and the rating shoots down to a 3 star or 4 star.

Basically, endings are super important to me. Should they be, though? I think, personally, since I read a lot of mysteries it is okay that endings are important to me. If a book takes 300 pages to set up this awesome story about who the killer is and then just says "oh and this is who it is" then it'll ruin the whole book to me. I expect books, especially books where there is going to be a big twist in the end, to have a good ending.

I'm a little more lenient with romance and YA because I read contemporary. At the beginning of the book, we know that at the end they will be living happily ever after. For contemporary, I expect the middle to be better than the rest. I can handle a slow-ish start and a fast or slow ending with contemporary as long as the middle is spectacular.

So endings, important or just another part of the book? Share your thoughts!

Review: We Were Liars

Book: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Format: Hardcover
Own or borrow?: Borrowed from library
Published: May 13, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press

A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth.[Via Goodreads]

I'm glad I went into this not thinking it's a mystery novel. I would have been seriously disappointed and would have dropped it. I repeat: this is not a mystery novel. That doesn't mean it wasn't good, but it should not be touted as a mystery book when it's not. But even though I went into it with that, I just couldn't connect with this book.

The Good:

- The ending. It was the strongest part of this book. I remember the ending better than I remember anything else about this book. I didn't see it coming and I enjoyed it, unfortunately it didn't help much how I felt about the book.

- They live on a private island. I can't really explain why, but I love the idea of private islands and getting away for a summer. I saw it in the Summer series by Jenny Han, Night Film by Marisha Pessl, and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

- The writing. I know a lot of people didn't like it

because it would

randomly turn into a prose type

of book and people, just didn't

like that. I can see why they didn't, but I 

just thought it was interesting. I also realized that this was usually the most important parts of the book and that made it stand out.

- It was a quick easy read.

The Bad:

- I thought the characters were weak. It says a lot that I'm having trouble remembering their names other than they were called "The Liars." I didn't identify with any of them and I didn't particularly like any of them.

- They were just spoiled brats. If people were saying this book were about a large group of uber rich people that are fighting over grandpa's inheritance, then they'd be pretty spot on. I have no problem with reading about rich people. I LIVE for that, but these people were all just whiny brats because they weren't getting their way 200000% of the time.

- By extension, it annoyed me that this book is called a "mystery book." We don't even know there is even a mystery involved until the end of the book and by then we know what happened.

The Ugly: 

- There were just too many characters and I didn't feel any connection at all so it was rather boring

- There was no character development. Sure, the MC changed a little, but I wouldn't say it was character development

- Again, this is not a mystery book. I can only imagine what I would be saying if I thought it was.

Additional thoughts: Really, overall, it wasn't a horrible book. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I've read better and I've read worse. Would I read it again? No probably not. Would I recommend it to someone? I would, if they asked for this type of book/genre. Now that I'm done with it, I can see why the blurb is so vague. There isn't really a way to describe the book.

I'll Always Appreciate John Green Even Though I Don't Like His Books

BOOK DISCUSSIONS

Even though I don't like John Green's books, I am still always going to be thankful for his books.

You're probably thinking, "how does that work? What do you mean?"

Let me back up a little. During all of 2012, I was not in the best mindset and I stopped reading. I hardly picked up any books. I didn't buy any books except for a Sarah Dessen box set. The only books I read that year were the Sarah Dessen books and this old book about the 1984 Detroit Tigers written by Sparky Anderson. I worked third shift and would read that book about the Tigers at work over and over and over. 

Then one day I got fired. I didn't know what to do. I was upset and stressed and just wanted to wake up and have it be a dream. But it wasn't. So, my dad tried to cheer me up by taking me to Barnes & Noble.

As I was browsing, I realized how out of touch I was with books. I had seen some I had heard about, but I wasn't on the internet a whole lot at the time and didn't follow new releases or anything like I do now. Anyway, I saw "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green. I liked the cover and I read the blurb and decided it was the perfect book for my depressed mood. I had never heard about the book so I had zero expectations going into it.

I went home and read it in four hours and then bought the rest of his books. Including his co-written books. I realized, through John Green's books, that I did still love reading. I just needed that little push. So even though I don't really like his books, (I know, I know I'm sorry!!) his books pushed me to start reading again and start buying books. I fell in love with books and reading again because of The Fault in Our Stars. So even though I would call it The Fault in Our Three Stars (that's what I rated it on Goodreads) it was still influential to me and I'll always be grateful for that book.

So tell me:

Do you have any authors/books that have helped you out of big book slumps? Do you still like that author/books?

What I Want To See From More Women Characters

BOOKISH DISCUSSIONS

Maybe it's just the books that I'm choosing, but it seems that most women that are in the books that I'm reading are SO one dimensional. They may be really passionate about one thing (that one thing usually turns into a guy by the end) and that's it. Other than Stephanie Plum who is a sports fan and loves her job, but even the hockey is on the sidelines. What I'm getting at is, most women in books are not well written in my opinion. Sure, we may like them but are they well written when we distance ourselves from them after a few months and really, really think about them?

I try to think like an author. I do. I think to myself "gee I bet it would be really hard to make someone three dimensional" but then I remember how easy it would be to describe a girl wearing a dress one day and then the next day chugging a beer at a baseball game. I remember that it's possible to write a girl that is at ballet lessons in her pink frilly tu-tu and then goes home to put on her all black outfit and does witchcraft. See how easy that was? Now imagine that character. Imagine that second character. That was be AWESOME to see in a book.

But I've never seen that. I've seen girly girls and I've seen "tom boys" but I've never seen a girl that was both. I've seen "dainty" girls and I've seen hardcore devil worshipping girls, but I've never seen a girl that did both. But you know what I see in real life? Me. A girl who owns more pairs of heels that I like to admit but also spend 20 Friday's a year in downtown Detroit at a baseball game.

I hardly see any characters that enjoy sports unless they are men. Meredith in Anna and the French Kiss played soccer and it was mentioned in the first 20 pages that she has a Cesc Fabregas poster on her wall. I was SO excited for this character because Cesc is one of my favourite soccer players and I was so excited to finally have a character that loved soccer. You know what I got after that last mention of the poster? About four sentences of how Meredith was off playing soccer. Okay yes, Meredith wasn't a main character and this was a romance that had nothing to do with Meredith, but it still annoyed me because I got one character that was sort of like me and she is pushed to the sidelines and forgotten. I was talking to someone that has read the book more than once and couldn't even remember who Meredith was.

Lindsay Boxer from the Women's Murder Club by James Patterson likes baseball but she only watches it when it's on tv and if Joe is watching it. Baseball is only ever mentioned if Joe is watching it. Sure, you could say they are mysteries books and don't need to talk about baseball, but why is it not possible for her to sit down and watch a game by herself?

People could probably make a lot of excuses as to why these things aren't mentioned, but if someone can go in detail about the food they ate for dinner then cant they take one paragraph a book to talk about a sport that the character loves? If an author doesn't want a sport to get in the way of a "girly girls" image, then say she used to like sports. It's not difficult to write that in. Background information is important.

Of course, this is just me. Maybe someone else wants more female characters to enjoy playing chess. Maybe someone else wants more female characters to stand up for abortion or for anti-abortion. Maybe someone else wants female characters that worship the devil. Everyone wants something different, so this is just my opinion. I just want more characters that are a little more like me.

So, what would you like to see in more characters? Or do you like how it is now?

Free Time Fridays [1]

Free Time Fridays is a weekly meme created and hosted by eatupmyfreetime. On Fridays we will recap how we spent our free time during the week + our plans for the weekend! ie. Did you read? If so, what books? Did you shop? Listen to any cool tunes? Binge watch any cool TV shows? Take any trips lately? I want to hear all about it!! You can either mention ALL of the ways you spent your free time that week or focus on one activity. Whatever your heart desires!

How I spent my free time this week:
I didn't actually have that much free time this week. On Tuesday I had my first day of work. I worked Wednesday and Thursday. Tonight I have a baseball game to go to. When I wasn't at work, I was usually sleeping or writing things for my blog.
I really hardly read this week and I'm really upset about it. I wanted to read about 800 pages this week but Tuesday and Wednesday I read around 50 pages total. I may start taking my book to work with me and reading on break.
In the "free time" part of my week it was pretty boring. But other than that I had a great week!

Plans for this weekend:

Friday night I am going to a baseball game. Saturday I work from 3 pm to 11 pm. Sunday I am not working. Hopefully I'll get a bunch of reading done and maybe I won't even leave the bed. I forgot how tiring working 8.5 hour shifts everyday is, but I'm really enjoying the job so far.

How did you spend your free time this week? I'd love to hear about it!