bookish, Updates

I Was Eaten by the Busiest Autumn on Record…

Katy Alice

Image result for woman pop art

I suck at blogging… If I ever write a memoir, this is definitely in the running for the title.

I mean, it has become abundantly clear to me that I cannot direct a play, have a job, and regularly update this blog. I officially suck.

So here’s a quick update so that we can all get caught up before I try to start posting with any sense of regularity.

  1. I opened and closed a production of The Foreigner by Larry Shue. I am very proud of it, and it was a moderate success, selling out three shows and getting a really positive review in a local paper. I’m very glad it’s over because I want my life back.
  2. I opened and closed a production of Little Women: The Musical. I am less proud of this one, mostly because I was just the producer and had very little to do with its creation. It will probably be a bigger success than The Foreigner because it’s also a musical and in a much larger theatre (the Historic Woodstock Opera House). So grains of salt, I’m taking them.
  3. I have been swamped with programs and new responsibilities at work, and library work is never done.
  4. I successfully completed NaNoWriMo–meaning I hit 50,000 words on a new fiction project. The novel itself is only about ⅔ done.
  5. I’ve taken in a lot of freelance editing work to supplement the holidays, and yikes does it take a lot of time.
  6. I took one whole weekend to do nothing but watch Hallmark Christmas movies and draw in my bullet journal.

Wow… that doesn’t look like a lot… but I promise you, everything on that list has been extremely time-consuming.

So, there it is. What I’ve been up to since August… moving on.

I’m hoping to update about once a week… but honestly, we’ve done this dance before, haven’t we? We know the steps… see you on the floor.

 

PS I actually do have some bookish content in the pipeline… so I think I can make good on this promise for at least a month.

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The Best Laid Plans…

Katy Alice

Remember how at the end of July I set myself two challenges? To Actively participate in ARC August and reread the Harry Potter Series?

Well… I’m here to confess that life got on top of me this month. I was crazy busy at work (I had three programs, have taken on the selection duties for the 800s, am working on launching three more programs, and became the head of interlibrary loans for the whole library), I started prepping for two plays (I’m directing The Foreigner at McHenry County College and co-producing Little Women for TownSquare Players in Woodstock, IL), and of course during all this a depressive episode came roaring into town. So saying that I was “unmotivated” to stick to my plans is a bit of an understatement.

But here goes…

A Super General Update:

  • My ARCs are still out of control, I only managed to read And the Ocean was Our Sky.
  • My reread has stalled a little. I made it into Order of the Phoenix and hit a wall.
  • I am however sticking to my book buying ban.

Right now I’m reading Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why it Still Matters by Anne Boyd Rioux, and it is making me all kinds of nostalgic for all things Alcott.

I’m thinking my next book might be my ARC of Sawkill Girls by Clare Legrande, which I was just approved for.., but I’m not making any promises.

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Hogwarts Class Reunion

Katy Alice

Image result for hogwarts skyline

I would consider myself a Harry Potter fan. I would even go as far as to say at various points in my life, that I was obsessed with the world of the Boy Who Lived. I was late to the party but, devoured the books in high school and college (I bolted through books 1-4 over Winter Break my junior year and then had to wait until the summer after graduation for Order of the Phoenix to came out, and I read and anticipated them in real-time from that point on. I watched and loved the movies… and had some very strong opinions about that casting (I still have strong opinions about the casting… Gary Oldman is NOT my Sirius Black…more on that later). I wrote a lot of Marauders era fanfiction (it felt less like stealing and more like borrowing since, you know she wasn’t really using them… also I felt like I had a lot more freedom with those under-utilized characters.)

When the last movie came out I did feel a profound sense of loss, loss of the world, loss of community etc. I felt like the end was the end and everyone would move on… spoiler: we didn’t.

But I have a confession to make…

I’ve never reread the books.

I mean I have given Sorcerer’s Stone a few goes in the past, but I have never given the series a full-fledged reread…

UNTIL NOW!

I fell in love with the newly released mural editions and bought them all in a weekend fever-spend.

mural

So now, because I spent roughly $70.00 on books that I already owned, I MUST reread them. I WILL reread them.

Will they hold up? Will I still love them? Or will JK Rowling’s viciously cruel descriptions of women and the unconventionally attractive make me think twice about just how good this series is for kids and teens…

We shall see…

Also, this is how I shall be picturing the Golden Trio:

Image result for loquacious literature

Also, check out Loquacious Literature on Tumblr! Her HP Art is awesome.

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ARC, ARC and Away 2018!

Katy Alice

It seems that just yesterday I was blundering my way through 24in48. I read seven books in my 24 hours over the course of 48 hours. It was fun, I felt mildly accomplished, I didn’t win anything this time… but the experience was worth it, especially because I dragged two new people into the cult of 24in48.

Then tragedy struck.

I got food poisoning from mall lemonade and ended up sicker than I have ever been. Like the missing two days of work not eating for a week, unable to do anything but watch the Harry Potter movies in a complete daze kind of sick. It was a nightmare and I feel like I literally lost two weeks of my life (one from being sick and recovering and the second from catching up on all of the things I missed during that sick week). So here I am, three days into August and I realized that I didn’t wrap up July, I haven’t shared a TBR (but let’s be honest, we all know I’ve been avoiding TBRs this year) and I’ve basically been a social media ghost since the Readathon.

Image result for too many books
The inside of my Kindle… basically

So, here’s what’ going to happen. I’m going to try ARC August again. My digital pile of Advanced Reader Copies is OUT. OT. CONTROL. When I was put in charge of the YA book club at work, I signed up for Edelweiss Plus… and let me tell you, my shelf runneth over. I thought it was bad last year when I had 18 ARCs taking up space on my iPad, now I’m getting approved for roughly ten ARCs a week, and I can’t keep up.

But this time, this time I’m actually going to read AND review them as I finish… or at least write reviews that I will release close to their publication dates. I know I’m setting myself up to fail as per usual, but what is life without goals?

Here it is, my Wildly Ambitious™ ARC August TBR:

Image result for and the ocean was our sky Image result for we set the dark on fire Image result for meg, jo, beth, amy little women and why it still matters

Image result for pulp robin talley Image result for how fascism works cover Image result for toil & trouble cover

Will I read them all? Will I abandon them to feed my capricious whims? Will I end up continuing to re-read Harry Potter?  Only time will tell, dear readers.

Wish me luck!