Shaina Reads

Boy, April, you've been a doozy real life-wise. Between administrative headaches at work and a surprise week-long cold in the middle of the month, you've left me itching for a vacation. Good thing I'll be going to Chicago in May for a wedding (and, hopefully, to meet Julianne!). Book life-wise, April's been decent. The month brought me a strange mix of 3-star and...

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After my failure of a Week Three, I'm happy to report that Week Four was a wild success. I ended up finishing three whole library books this week! Saturday's Readathon gave me an awesome boost; I got a full 5/6 of my reading done during the event. @shainareads That's awesome!! #ReadingMyLibrary — Stefani Sloma (@StefaniSloma) April 26, 2015 Here's what I done read:...

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Happy #Readathon, bookworms! This is where I'll shove all my #Readathon-related statistics, surveys, mini-challenges and more today. If you're not interested, feel free to ignore this until the #Readathon madness is over (which I don't even want to think about—does it have to end?!). I'm not sure how often this post will end up being updated. As a reader, cheerleader, and Goodreads group...

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Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon is finally upon us! This will be my second time participating, and this is how I feel about it. As some of you might know from my About Me page, Dewey's Readathon is the entire reason I got into the online bookish community. There would be no Shaina Reads without it! (Go ahead and take a moment to think about...

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I had no idea what to expect from Loving Day when I requested it from NetGalley. The site describes Mat Johnson's fourth novel as "a brilliant and biting ghost story about family, real estate, race, and the dream of utopia." I'm not sure a person could fit more loaded terms into a vaguer blurb, but I was on the hunt for another work...

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The #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge is run by Stefani of Caught Read Handed and Amy of Read What I Like. Sign-ups closed on April 15, so you'll just have to enjoy my posts about it instead. Speaking of those, here are my updates from Week 1 and Week 2. Based on my last post, it probably goes without saying that I have not read any...

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Friends! I live! Kind of. It's more like... staying alive, I guess. Last week started with weird digestive issues that morphed into less-weird-but-more-debilitating respiratory issues by Wednesday. Almost a week later, I still feel an awful lot like this pup, but I'm on the mend. On top of being a walking biohazard, I've been busy! I went to New York City last Friday...

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The #ReadingMyLibrary challenge is hosted by Stefani of Caught Read Handed and Amy of Read What I Like. The goal? Read at least one book from your local library in the month of April. Sign-ups are still open for another two days—what are you waiting for?! If you need more #RML goodness, check out my week one update here (spoiler alert: I got...

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I've been sitting on this post idea for a couple of weeks, and now feels like the right time to share it. If you're new around here, I care about things, and I want to read about the things I care about, no matter how difficult: "I tend to gravitate toward heavy books—for example, nearly 30% of last year's reading dealt directly with...

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Look at this pretty! Hausfrau. You all know the book, that gorgeous, shiny blue business over on the right. It's the one that's been making waves in the blogosphere since the ARC was released in late 2014. It's the story of Anna Benz, a depressed, unfulfilled housewife in Zürich. She sees a Jungian psychoanalyst, takes German lessons, and has several steamy affairs, but...

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Did I tell y'all that I'm doing the #ReadingMyLibrary challenge, hosted by Stefani of Caught Read Handed and Amy of Read What I Like? I made an announcement, but it was in tweet-form. See all the awesomeness you miss out on when you aren't following me on Twitter? Anyway, sign-ups are still open! The overall thrust of the challenge is to get people to...

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While I was away at my conference two weeks ago, I realized that my stressed-out traveling brain just isn't great for appreciating certain types of books. (Ahem.) Too many things going on? Nope, too relevant to my present state. Too philosophical? Nah, no attention span for that, and it might be all I need to pass out on the train. Too sad/serious/otherwise distressing?...

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