Monday Musings and what I am reading

Hello everyone!

It's Monday, and honestly, I wish I could be more positive, but the last week was not very productive, so the upcoming week might easily be horrible. The truth is, I was sick for the majority of last week, which in part had to do with the joys of missing a connection and getting to spend extra time in the cold outside when I was already not 100% healthy. It happens, so I just recovered, tried to at least get a bit done every now and then. Everything else I will have to tackle this week.

As I am working on my thesis at the moment, I am somewhat busy as it is, but additionally, I decided to revive my blog and YouTube - I need to do something for myself, after all, so it is a nice way to spend some me time. To be honest, I do like it, but I do not know how much of a proper schedule I can actually make for myself with this. For now, I know that I have 2-3 blog posts planned out in my head, so it's a matter of time until I have written down my thoughts and organized everything. And for YouTube I have a somewhat regular schedule set up that is relatively easily manageable. Nonetheless, both means work to a degree and this takes a back seat to my thesis and my family (unless I really need to unwind).

I am currently working on a number of books and I hope I do not forget about any. For one, I finally picked on older series back up with Jillian Hoffmann's Plea of Insanity. This is a great one and I cannot wait to have more time to read it. The basic premise is that a family was brutally murdered and the prime suspect is the father. It ties in with Hoffmann's Cupido books, but does not have a direct connection.

I am also reading Cassie Alexander's Nightshifted, the first in a series about a nurse who deals with plenty of supernatural beings. I cannot say much more about it yet, but the writing style is quite neat, so I am going with it.

And then I am reading a book which is a bit more unusual. I am talking about Lynda Barry's Syllabus. It is set up pretty much like a series of sketchnotes on Barry's lesson planning and writing exercises. I find it absolutely fascinating, but it is going slower for me simply because I am taking my time to think about it and I am taking notes.

Now, I am sure I forgot something, but we will leave it at that, ok? What are your plans for the upcoming week and what are you reading?

Musing Mondays (January 11)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about tidy bookshelves.

Are your bookshelves strictly books only? Or have knick-knacks invaded? Do your shelves also shelve DVDs? Photos? Why not snap a photo – I’m sure we all like to spy on other’s shelves!

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

Now, I already posted my bookshelves a while ago (they're now filled with more books, but otherwise it looks the same). As I am not with my bookshelves, you'll have to make do with these shelves (or maybe I'll vlog with them in the background one say)...

I absolutely love my bookshelves and I have sorted all my books first by read and unread and then by author. My new bookshelves, who also divide my room) hold my DVDs and the unread books and the old shelves hold the books and mangas I already read.

Other than that, I only have a few knick-knacks on my shelves: three scented candles (vanilla, chocolate chip cake and some caramel-y dessert), a pen that looks a lot like that yellow bird on Sesame Street, two wooden mini-puzzles, one in form of two cats, the other in form of a bear. Oh, and the plastic and cloth flowers I got at various flea markets/festivities and the wooden rose a good friend of mine gave me as a present are all on top of the shelves, where nothing else would do much use (I can't reach up there anyway, so why not put those up there?)

Catching up!

So, this week I'm somewhat late with my weekly posts, so I decided to do them in one post.

Oh, and as with the last posts, if you click on the covers, it leads you to Amazon where you can buy the books!



Here's my Mailbox Monday, hosted by Marcia. If you want to join in, feel free to drop by!

I received only one book:


An Grenzen: Acht Reisen durch Israel und Palästina, edited by Florentine Dame & Elizabeth Weydt (translated title: On Borders: Eight journeys through Israel and Palestine)

This book started out as an idea of two political science students. They got together a group of eight students from all over Germany with different backgrounds and language skills and teamed them up in 4 teams. Each of the teams traveled through Israel and Palestine, starting in Tel Aviv and ending their journey in Jerusalem. On the route, they met people of different religions and stayed with them - and they all came back with a collection of reports.

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Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca of Just One More Page. To join in, please visit her blog and leave a link!

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about bookstores…

How many bookstores do you frequent? Do you have a favourite? If so, which one and what makes it so?

I have three favorite book shops here in Germany. One is Hugendubel, which is really big and they have lots of great books - if I didn't have to watch what I'm spending I would leave that place with huge bags filled with books every time I go there.

The second place is an English book shop at the Eschenheimer Tor in Frankfurt, which is called Readers Corner. They have an awesome variety of books there, and the women (I've never seen a male salesperson there) give great recommendations and really seem to know the books they're selling!

And the last place is a book shop about 20 minutes from my hometown. They are neither as big as the first one nor do they have awesome salespeople like the second, but I somehow still love going to that book shop.

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This is a wonderful weekly hosted by J. Kaye. Thanks so much for hosting this!


Books completed last week

Robert Fate: Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption

This week's reading list

Nancy Horan: Loving Frank
Laura Childs: Eggs In Purgatory
F. Dame & E. Weydt: An Grenzen (see above)

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Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB. If you want to join, just go over there and post a link to your teasers!

Grab your current read

Let the book fall open to a random page

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

There is only one VERY IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER:
*** Do NOT post anything that could spoil the plot of the book!!! ***

If your sentences that fall between lines 7 and 12 on the page you turn to give too much away, choose a different page, or a different spot on the page… we don’t want to ruin any surprises for anyone!

Frank was stretched out in a garden chair, eyes closed, face slanted up to the sun. "Another perfect day," he said when he heard her football.
Page 152 of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank

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Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. If you want to join in, head over to her blog!

I'm waiting for the following books:

Jill Shalvis: Storm Watch
Sorry, no cover yet on Amazon, but check out Jill Shalvis' blog. There you can find the cover. (If you're not curious about the cover, check out her blog anyway, Jill Shalvis is hilarious!)

Daniel Depp: Loser's Town


And yes, Daniel Depp is Johnny Depp's brother!

Julia Hoban: Willow


Susan Crosby: The Rancher's Surprise Marriage


Jill Shalvis: Double Play

Musing Monday, March 9

So, her is my post for this week's Musing Mondays hosted by Rebecca!



What is your policy when it comes to new authors? Do you feel comfortable purchasing a book or do you prefer to borrow new authors from the library? How often do you 'try out' a new author?

I never really thought about it, but I think it is a great question. As I live in Germany where I don't get as many books in English as I'd like from the libraries I have given up on libraries altogether (unless it's the university's library). So way in the past I changed my whole habit of getting hold of books to buying them. Who can expect me to wait until a book has been translated into German so that it is available at the libraries here, after all?

So that changed my policy for new authors. Now I don't worry much about buying books from a new-to-me authors. Usually, I either heard quite a bit about the author already online and have a good idea what to expect, or it's an author I discover in a bookstore and read the backcover blurb and the first few pages.

Actually, I enjoy discovering new-to-me authors! I already bought books before I found book blogs, and one of the authors I discovered on my own was Jeffery Deaver. I was at a bookstore browsing the shelves and discovered The Bone Collector. I loved the cover and the backcover blurb was even better - with that I was sold and have bought lots of Deaver's books in the past. (I admit, though, that I haven't read them all yet!)

Of course, like everyone else probably, I've had some bad luck as well. Authors I bought and didn't like usually ended up at Bookcrossing or a German bookswap page.

Nowadays, most new authors I try are books I have read a lot about already. I have hundreds of books on my wishlist and almost each book has been recommended by a good friend or a fellow blogger. The last ones being Jill Shalvis and Cindy Gerard. I hadn't even read a single page by those two authors, but the reviews I found were interesting enough to make me run out and buy their books!

Musing Mondays, March 2

So, I'm a day late for this week's Musing Mondays hosted by Rebecca, but still, here it is!



When reading do you read every word? Do you ever skip chapters or skim over parts? (question curtesy of Wendy)

Well, I have to admit I sometimes skip words, but never chapters, and I don't read the last pages first. Why the words? That's easy, sometimes I have the attention span of a goldfish. I can't concentrate on every single word, but the action doesn't escape me. And then, some authors use incredibly wordy sentences for things that couple be explained with a simple SVO-sentence (subject, verb, object). What's up with the page-long sentences anyway?
I just skim those sentences/parts to know what's going on. But usually, if I find myself skimming more than a few sentences I either am too tired to read, or my attention span doesn't even match the one of a goldfish - or I drop the book sooner rather than later!