Category: Housekeeping

End of the Month Review – JANUARY

Valerie @ Valerie's MusingsLeave a comment

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Obviously, I’m a few days behind on getting this up, but here’s a look at what’s been happening throughout the month of January here at Valerie’s Musings!

I read a total of 19 books in January. 15 cozy mysteries, 1 romance/women’s fiction, and 3 children’s books. Of the 19 books I read, I posted 7 reviews (an 8th was posted the first few days of February). I read several Agatha Christie books that I did not write reviews for, but most of the other books I read, I wrote reviews.

I’ve made some progress on my Reading Challenges as well. Since the majority of the books I read were cozy mysteries, I made the most progress on the Craving For Cozies and Cruisin’ Thru Cozies challenges. I’ve made headway on my Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, Read it Again Sam Challenge, the Library Love Challenge, and the Pages Read Challenge.

I was also a part of 4 blog tours during January – 2 spotlight posts and 2 review posts.

One housekeeping move that just happened in the last day or so is that I have given the author, Geneva Lee, her own page under the Steamy Romance page. I read more of her steamy romances than pretty much any other author, so I figured she deserves her own page.

Another housekeeping thing is that I updated the About Me page. I’ve separated it into three sections, About Me, About My Blog, Review Criteria/Guidelines. That way it’s easier for people to find the information that they’re looking for, whether it’s about me, my blog, or what I review.

Upcoming this month is one blog tour, one specific review for a review crew I’m part of, and hopefully some reviews on things from my back list of titles!

 

Just a quick note

Valerie @ Valerie's Musings2 Comments

This is just a super short post to let you, my followers, know that I now have my own domain name. It’s simply valeriesmusings.com. I’m pretty happy about this as it’ll hopefully make it even easier to promote my blog!  Have a good rest of your Sunday and beginning of your work week!

swirls of colors - red, pink, green, yellow, turquoise, etc. and a yellow smiley face in the lower left corner

Adding Something New

Valerie @ Valerie's MusingsLeave a comment

I’ve decided to add something new to my blog – author interviews. Primarily, these will be the authors who contact me about reading their books or those whose review crews I am apart of. We’ll see how it goes. I know this is a small blog in comparison, but hopefully I’ll have a few takers!  I’m sending out a list of questions to my first author tonight and I’m crossing my fingers that she’ll answer and return them so I can post that after I post my review about her debut novel.

Here’s hoping it works!

Two waterlily blossoms and pads - from the blog owner's own pond

Getting Back on Track

Valerie @ Valerie's MusingsLeave a comment

As I stated a couple of posts ago, life with anxiety and depression mean that sometimes “regular” life gets to take a backseat to the issues. When things are extra rough, it makes it hard to do anything “productive” including reading. Especially if I’m trying to read something for review purposes since that requires more concentration. I try to pay attention to more details when I’m reading to review. If I’m reading for pleasure, it’s often something I’ll read more than once so if I miss a detail the first time around, I’ll catch it eventually (and if it’s a mystery, I’ll probably go “D’oh!” because it’ll be an important clue to solving the crime!).

Thankfully, an adjustment of medications and some new techniques for dealing with panic attacks has helped and I’m back to reading my review books. I’m hoping to have at least one finished by the end of the weekend, but I’m trying not to push myself too hard. I don’t want to have another meltdown and end up not able to really read and comprehend things again.

I’m happy things are getting back on track again and hope to have a new review post by the beginning of next week for you all!

Have a great weekend!

Welcome – Take 2!

Valerie @ Valerie's Musings2 Comments

Welcome to Valerie’s Musings! I’m very glad you found me and I hope you find my reviews useful.

My first welcome post got a little buried amongst the backlog of the previous reviews I was uploading, so I thought I’d do a 2nd take!

I’ve finally gotten all of my past reviews added from Amazon, Goodreads, and my local library’s catalog.  Some of them were originally written several years ago and are perhaps not as full of details as my some of my reviews from more recent months. They’re also not as well-done as my more recent ones. I did attempt to update the older reviews, but I was not completely successful since it had been so long since I read the material.

Now that the backlog is uploaded and done, I will probably be posting about once or twice a week, depending on what I’m reading and how long it takes me to finish it.

This is a great time to start following the blog since you will no longer be flooded with many posts every day!

I also have a Facebook Page where I will be sharing each new post as they happen from this point forward. If you would prefer to follow the blog there, click here and then like the page.

I’m so very glad you’ve found me and I hope you continue to join me as I review books and have some fun!  Eventually, I hope to have the opportunity to do interviews with authors, other book-related facts/fun, and perhaps even a giveaway or two!