Sunday Post – 26 April 2020 @kimbacaffeinate @readingreality @Tynga

Posted April 26, 2020 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Sunday Post / 55 Comments

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly  @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week, and showcase books and things we have received.

Stacking The Shelves is also a weekly meme hosted by  Tynga’s Reviews and Marlene from Reading Reality.  It’s all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Don’t forget to look at my giveaways on the right sidebar.

Sunday, I did a bunch of blog hopping and email reading.  I made chocolate chip cookies earlier in the week which were a bit of a disaster because I forgot to adjust the recipe for the gluten free flour. So they were flat and dripping with butter, but the best tasting cookies ever!  I decided to try a new batch with an adjustment (since we gobbled that first batch up quickly) and they are less flat but I really need to increase the flour more.  After supper, I did make my first mask.

Monday, I made 3 more masks.  Tuesday I spent a lot of time on financial paperwork and phone calls.  Wednesday, my daughter made her first foray into the world since 3/16 to go to the chiro and then we picked up Chinese takeout.  After lunch, I made myself get out in the yard. I did some trimming of bushes, pulling weeds, and mowing the yard.

Thursday was the usual.  Friday I got a grocery order delivered from Aldis.  I also got my once every 2 months from Butcherbox.   I needed to finish reading my book for a blog tour on Saturday.  And I got to see that my weekly digest email worked as expected.  I also forgot to order the milk and so I scheduled a Food Lion delivery for Saturday morning.  Food Lion, for some reason, has all the favored products which have been discontinued at other stores. At least it’s stuff I only need once every 2-3 months.  They also have  pretty good gluten free selections. Plus I saw homemade ice cream on Ilona Andrews’ site and had to add that stuff so I could make ice cream on Sunday.

Saturday is the Dewey 24 hour read-athon.  I’ve always wanted to do it and it will count for COYER too.  I’ll be buddy reading River Marked by Patricia Briggs with Kai.  I have ARCs to read also:  The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence, Starbreaker by Amanda Bouchet, and Driving the Deep by Suzanne Palmer. I’ll be listening to The Janes by Louise Luna (from the library).


Things I Learned This Week:

OK  if I’m asking for help, I’m also going to share the cool things I learn. You may already know them but hopefully it will help someone.

So I would love to subscribe to everyone’s blog but there are a couple of issues I have.  One is that I already get so many emails a day it is overwhelming sometimes.  Another is while I may love the blogger, I don’t read the same genres much of the time. In the latter case, I tend to just read their Sunday post and then go read some posts from the previous week which are of interest to me.

Many bloggers list their past and upcoming weeks posts in their Sunday posts and I have thought gee, I’d like to just subscribe to their Sunday posts.  I would do that here except I don’t really do that in my Sunday post, the information is always on my right sidebar.

In light of my own preferences, I did a little research and created a new option on my subscription.  Now you can get the regular blog posts which is an email each time there is a new post, or you can get the weekly digest which will be on Friday mornings at 7am ET.   I may fiddle with the date / time and please feel free to comment on this if you have a preference.

This was an easy update to the subscription form, after adding a new list for the weekly digest and then choosing to add a list selection option to the form.  I use Mailpoet and I was able to read about this in their online help and implement it in about 30 minutes. Of course, I may have a few adjustments to improve it over the next few weeks.

So hopefully this will encourage more of you to subscribe to my blog, since I don’t have very many subscribers.

 

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality.  These are the exciting ARCs I received this week (If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry):

         

Thank you so very much William Morrow; I am beyond ecstatic to have this one!     Another long time series favorite by Karen Rose – thank you Berkley!

 

(If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry)

Nothing.

 

Now the really scary one. This is all the Kindle and Audible freebies I grabbed this past week. You can see why I need to do Thrifty Thursday to be sure I read a few at least one each month.

         

               

         

 

 

I really meant to cut back on freebies BUT  they are free so I guess that won’t be happening.

 

I’m not including things like reviews posted or upcoming as they are always in the right sidebar. And, my challenge status is also there.

If you like this and want to see me do the Sunday post, as often as I can manage, leave me a comment and let me know.

Anne

 

 

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Posted April 26, 2020 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Sunday Post / 55 Comments


55 responses to “Sunday Post – 26 April 2020

  1. As far as romance novels have been going, I’ve been reading Christina Lauren. I noted your valentine rec and Artificial condition. I liked the Mars book that was made into a movie, so I’ve been reading more sci-fi

  2. I do not email subscribe for the same reason you mention – I get too many emails already and am very bad of keeping on top of them. I much prefer Feedly, then I’m catching up on blogs when I’m ready for it and I’m not overwhelmed by the numbers. Some bloggers – I follow for their Sunday posts and others for all posts. I’ve got it categorized in Feedly accordingly and that helps. Nothing too fancy but works for me.

    Athira recently posted: Out in the yard | Weekly Snapshot
  3. Interesting about the subscription options. I used to subscribe to blogs, but I don’t do well with email subscriptions. Now I use feedly instead. It works so well for me. I hop on and see all the new posts at the blogs I follow. I mark the ones I want to read and then mark the rest as read. I work my way through the posts I marked throughout the day.

    So funny that the cookies turned out bad but also yummy! I hope you find your balance for the flour soon. I think I might make some cookies today actually. Oatmeal raisin I’m thinking. Yum.

    Have a great week!

    • Thanks, Berls. So I guess I need to look at Feedly. But does that count as subscribers? I’m getting pushback on some requests that I don’t have enough subscribers. And I’m not even sure how to count subscribers easily when some subscribe by email, some by facebook, some by Twitter, some by WordPress, some by Feedly or maybe bloglovin?

      It’s going to be warmer today and this week so I’m excited to make homemade ice cream (fresh strawberry) !

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Audio: Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
  4. Karin Slaughter & Karen Rose…two of my favorites! I’m holding out for the audiobooks. Made that switch long ago and am hooked. Enjoy them both?

    You are so fortunate to be able to get so many food deliveries. It’s been a challenge here so I’ve done a couple of pickups and one in-store visit, which turned out well because I went during a low traffic time.

    Have a great week and stay safe, Anne!

    Jonetta (Ejaygirl) | Blue Mood Café recently posted: Saturdays at the Café
  5. You cookies disaster sounds similar to my attempt at making cookies with semolina instead of flour, i didn’t adjust the recipe correctly and they were flat buttery cookies, unlike yours though mine weren’t tasty. I am glad to hear your still tasted good even though they looked flat. That’s awesome you made some masks. I hope that ice cream you’re hoping to make turns out good. I’ve never tried making my own ice cream, but my mom once made oreo cookies ice cream herself and that was delicious.

    That sounds neat to have a weekly digest option for subscribing to your posts. I use a free plugin I think for sending out those daily emails, so not sure if it’s possible to set up a weekly digest email or I would have to look into switching to a mailing list service for my blog emails. Maybe in the future I might do that.

    I hope you’ll have a good week and stay safe!

    • I send my emails through a free plugin also, called Mailpoet. I set have 3 types of emails now the post notifications, the weekly digest, and the Library Love emails. I could do other separate emails by certain types of post categories too. I haven’t figured it all out yet but I have enough for now and with trying to tweak the weekly.

      The homemade ice cream is from Ilona Andrews’ blog. She links to the recipe. I made fresh strawberry and the non frozen tastes yummy but it will be 4-6 hours before it is ready now.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Read A Series in a Month Challenge May 2020
  6. Subscribing by email does not work for me either Anne as I get far too many mails a day! I follow through the WP reader or through Sunday posts like these.

    • I did download the Murderbots even though I have them on audio because I love them so much.

      I had one blog which I subscribed through bloglovin and it drove me crazy with emails. Obviously I did not know how to change any setting in bloglovin. I just “subscribed” to about 5 blogs through Feedly to see how it works. I can’t see how to tell how many Feedly subscribers one has or how to create a Feedly subscribe button. I should probably look at the same info for Bloglovin. I do go look at things through the Sunday post but then the bloggers don’t have me as a subscriber in any way for numbers. I have some figuring out to do.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Audio: Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
    • I registered for Feedly to try it out. I don’t understand it yet. I don’t know how to see how many people “subscribe” to your blog through Feedly or how to set up a Feedly subscribe button. But it gives me things to learn.

      I had a headache yesterday so even though I read I did a poor job of updating. I’m feeling great today so I think it was just I slept poorly before. I hope to get to do it again!

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Don’t Go Stealing My Heart by Kelly Siskind
  7. I think you are so clever – managing to make delicious cookies with a slightly incorrect recipe:)). I hear your pain regarding emails… my email account is now COMPLETELY out of control. And go you for getting hold of the Murderbot Diaries! I loved the first one, but they are just insanely expensive and I cannot justify spending that much on a novella! I hope you have a peaceful, healthy week, Anne.

    • Thank you! I own all the audios and I love them. Tor.com had them for free this week with Network Effect coming out May 5th. I could always get them at the library; that’s what I do when I can’t see spending the money. But these are so great I had to own them.

      Butter makes it all good. lol I made Ilona Andrews’ homemade ice cream recipe and can’t wait for it to freeze. The soupy start tastes yummy.

      I’m going to have to research Feedly and Bloglovin (so far) and post what I learn, if I can figure them out at all.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Murder on Pleasant Avenue by Victoria Thompson
  8. Looks like a good productive week. I got some yardwork done along with regular chores, but we got snow a few days this week and I had a sinus infection so some days were a bit of a loss. 🙂 I made chocolate chip cookies, too. Oops about the flour, but at least they were tasty. I also made up a big batch of hummus super strong on garlic the way I love it.
    Nice haul of books. I got the new Karen Rose, too. I picked up the last two Murderbots I didn’t have in e-book so thanks for the heads up on those.
    With the email post notifications for blogs, I only do newsletter when I’m a regular visitor to the blog (more than once a week) so its quite a few, but probably not the amount you’re talking about. I can see how a weekly notification works for that type of situation.

    Have a good week, Anne!

    Sophia recently posted: Bloglovin option
  9. You’ve put me in the mood for chocolate chip cookies. My husband makes the best. My coworkers always beg me to have him make the cookies for them. LOL It’ll be awhile though before they can do that again though.

    I was looking at my roses yesterday thinking I need to trim them. It’s gotten warm out so fast. Mid-nineties. I walked out of the office Friday and couldn’t believe it. But I am glad for the sunshine.

    I subscribe to your blog through Inoreader, which is how I follow most of the blogs I follow. I prefer it to e-mail subscriptions because my mailbox gets cluttered so fast and things get lost easily there. But that’s just me.

    I hope you enjoy your books and current reads! Have a good week.

    • Thanks for the info about Inoreader – I don’t know that one but today I’ve looked at Feedly and Bloglovin. I’ve got buttons for them now but Feedly doesn’t work yet. I’m trying to get those emails reduced, but still give people subscription numbers.

      The weather here is going to be gorgeous 70s this week so if I can I should do more yard work.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Read-along & Giveaway: Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
    • yes I’m looking into Bloglovin and Feedly and someone just suggested Inoreader. The bloglovin is easy to set up but they don’t seem to go away even if you have read them which is uncomfortable. Feedly I can’t get the button setup yet but they seem to go away once you read them. I’ll have to futz around to figure out what I want. I’ll still subscribe to the favorites I want to see every day too.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Don’t Go Stealing My Heart by Kelly Siskind
  10. I pretty much subscribe to everyone’s email. I can’t always visit every post but I see most of them. I use gluten free flour (Better Batter is awesome) along with gluten free mixes most of the time. I have been making some bar cookies lately and trying to mix things up a bit. Nice new reads this week! I hope you have a great week, Anne!

    • Thanks Carole! I subscribe to many blogs but I’m trying other things for some blogs because the emails are getting wild. I liked Better Batter but it’s easier for me to get CupforCup. I have some mixes and stuff too. I like Pamela’s stuff. I’m trying some new Chebe ones that were at Food Lion. I didn’t like the Chebe pizza crust mix at all. I like Pamela’s for that.

      Yes I have plenty of great reads. I just have to stop looking at Facebook / Twitter at bedtime, and just read instead. I never used to look then, but I’m looking at the Covid and political news but it doesn’t mean I sleep well so I’m stopping.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Read A Series in a Month Challenge May 2020
  11. shooting

    I really want to read the Murderbot series! They sound so good – not my usual reading, but still!!! I really need to check into Aldi. I have one near me and I hear they have a lot of gluten-free options, which I could always use more of.

    -Lauren
    http://www.shootingstarsmag.net

    • I love Aldis! They have very reasonable prices on everything. Most of their products are fresh produce, meats, dairy and frozen. There is just a little canned / baking products / snacks. The stores are relatively small and easy to navigate. They have a gluten free section and we use several of the products regularly. They also are connected with Instacart and the first time I did a delivery, they gave me a code for 3 free deliveries. They have mostly their own store brands but they are good, better than the average generic stuff.

      I LOVE Murderbot!!! I did the whole thing on audio so far. Still I was happy to get the Kindle versions since with audio it is tough to know how to spell names and places!!

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Audio: Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
  12. yay to chocolate chip cookies, I’ve been wanting to bake some soon. Enjoy your books this week, I love Karin Slaughter’s work.
    I’m not subscribed to blog, but what I do is follow them so I can get updates in WordPress. Aside from that I visit my favorites regularly through my comments on in my favorite links sidebar.
    Happy reading this week and be well.

  13. I’ve literally just started doing a “Sunday Post” post, and I think it’s fun. But I haven’t been linking my past week’s posts, so I may add that in next Sunday. Sounds like you are keeping really busy!

  14. I have a couple of K Slaughter books on my TBR pile, but I don’t think I’ve read one yet. And I don’t subscribe to any blogs (unless I have to for a contest). All the emails in my box annoy me as it is. I visit all the linkies on one meme each week. So right now I’m working through last week’s Sunday Posts, and next week I’ll either do Sunday Salon, Monday Mailbox or something else 🙂

    • That’s a reasonable approach Becki! I do my “favorites” on the Sunday post each week which is like at least 40 of them. I get emails daily from my favorites plus more. I’m reworking some of the subscriptions over to Feedly or Bloglovin of people I either haven’t subscribed before or ones I do subscribe but I don’t want a separate email. I just setup Feedly Sunday and it shows by the day. The people I want to follow have 97 new posts today. Yeah… that’s why I don’t want separate emails. I’ll have to choose what I want to read each day a bit. Thanks for visiting!

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Audio: Crime Beat 1 NY & 2 DC by AC Fuller
  15. I had a recipe I used for chocolate chip cookies, but I tweaked it and it’s been so long since I’ve baked them I can’t remember what I did, lol. Glad to hear your experiments at least tasted good.

    I don’t subscribe to many blogs through email, but I did do yours. It’s just too many emails, and I’m already struggling with an overfull inbox most days. I usually keep up with blogs by my blog roll on the right side of my blog. Blogger has an option were you can list the blogs you follow on the and it shows their latest post on your blog sidebar. I really love that option. Not sure if WordPress has something similar.

    I didn’t read the last Will Trent because I was so nervous about it after seeing some of the reviews coming back saying it was so intense. I’m not sure if the ARC you received above is the next Will Trent after that? I’ll have to check, but I do absolutely LOVE the series!

    • Your blog is one I subscribe to get the emails also. There are some I am excited to see every email and will keep in subscription. Some I will move into Feedly, or Bloglovin or something. I like Feedly but the setup is harder and I wish it sent me a daily email. WordPress does also have a reader. Today I moved some of those subscriptions over to Feedly also. I can always use my list there to choose what to move if I find something better. Some I will continue to just look at their Sunday post each week.

      The homemade ice cream is a big hit also. My daughter says I should make it every week. I said it makes a half-gallon, that’s a lot of ice cream! I need to work out quart containers so I can make 2 flavors each time in the future.

      YES that is the new Will Trent! I love this series the most! I’m still reading some of her back list. I did the rest of the Will Trent on audio, getting some for review as they were rerecorded with Kathleen Early as the narrator. In fact I hope to get this one on audio too.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Starbreaker by Amanda Bouchet
  16. I just recently subscribed but may go to the weekly option. I like it either way because I like to know what posts you have going up. The cookies sound good. I do find I’m baking more since the quarantine but also am running out of supplies I had stocked. I just reviewed The Girl in the Stars for a blog tour today so I hope you enjoy it as well. You are right, I now want to read Red Sister. Have a wonderful week!

    • Well that’s why I added the weekly option for those who feel all the posts is too much. I am fiddling around with subscribing by email, WordPress reader, Feedly, Bloglovin right now for myself. I will still read many of the same blog posts but I’ll be able to control the flow better for myself by changing some of the setup. It will be a work in progress for a few weeks / months

      I have a good supply of gluten free flour because I have a monthly Amazon subscription for it for awhile now. I just got a 12 pack of Quaker gf oatmeal yesterday! I use that for breakfast and for baking.

      I’m reading Girl and the Stars right now. I don’t want to like Yaz. You do need to read Red Sister, Grey Sister and Holy sister. I LOVE them. I did listen to them on audio, which was excellent.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Starbreaker by Amanda Bouchet
  17. My email is a hot mess so I use Feedly for following blogs. I know it doesn’t help with numbers for subscriptions but I would never see the blog if I subscribed via email lol.

    Also, pretty jealous you can get food delivered right now haha! I haven’t been able to ever since this all happened

    • Maybe because this is a smaller city? But yes with planning food delivery has worked. I always schedule it 4-5 days in advance. Instacart has done a good job here. I always try to tip my shoppers well. None of them seem to wear masks; all of them are young. I did go to a regular store not on their list yesterday and they were cleaning all the carts well, wearing masks, and the store was pretty empty but it had the items I was looking for, except wipes.

      Yes I prefer Feedly to Bloglovin for my own blog visiting so far. I am testing them out. But I sort of wish Feedly sent me a daily email, which seems stupid, but I do use emails to remind me to visit. But I can’t figure out how to get my Feedly button to point to my blog instead of just to Feedly in general so far. I have had a big uptick in Bloglovin subscriptions and I really appreciate it.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence
  18. I don’t subscribe to blogs via email anymore because it got overwhelming. Instead I use Bloglovin’ (I realized I wasn’t following you there, so I added you!). But it’s interesting that you have the weekly digest option. I’m not sure if I can do that with my email subscription or not—I just use Feedburner for my emails and I haven’t really looked into customizing it, but that seems like a really good idea. Like you, I don’t necessarily follow ALL the posts of every blogger I interact with. I typically check in with a lot of them just via Sunday Posts to get life updates. 🙂

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction recently posted: I’ve Been Impersonated on Instagram!! Let’s Discuss
    • Yes exactly! I want to “subscribe” to add to their numbers though. So thank you for the follow on Bloglovin. I am finding I like Feedly better for my personal viewing and right now I am subscribed 3 ways to some blogs, but will organize it as I figure things out over the next month or so. The Bloglovin button was easy to add. The Feedly button was easy to add but only points to the program but not my blog. So I have to figure that out. I hope the weekly option works better for those who want the specific reminder but not so often. But whatever option works is great.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Don’t Go Stealing My Heart by Kelly Siskind
  19. I follow blogs that are on blogger and I follow blogs on WP – only over the accounts, I have there. No email subscription anymore. My email box exploded and since I have some technical issues with my main email I stopped doing that some months ago. But it is always good to know why others handle it the way they handle it. Absolutely respected and accepted *smile* Stay safe and healthy!