Christian Shelves

It's Friday! Here are a few books that I hope to get into this week: 📘 Christian fiction : Pixels and Paint by Kristi Ann Hunter 📗 Christian non-fiction : When Narcissism Comes to Church by Chuck DeGroat 📙 Non-Christian fiction : I'm on hold for a few books at the library, but the wait times are long. 📕 Non-Christian non-fiction : How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith In addition to these books, I have a few ARCs to read, which I look forward to sharing as soon as I'm done. A reader's shelf is never empty; all the more reason to enjoy weekends 😀

I am truly grateful for the opportunity to receive ARCs, especially since the last two I have received are both Christmas stories—hooray! As a Hallmark movie enthusiast, I am definitely excited to spread the Christmas cheer beyond the end of the year, although I do think that selling Christmas merchandise months in advance seems to dilute the spirit of it. Instead, I appreciate that I can immerse myself in wintry worlds filled with charm and coziness any time of the year (not that I have to imagine too hard, living in Canada). Since I am embarking on some Christmas books, it made me wonder about some of the things that seem to have widespread appeal. Here are a few of my thoughts below, in no particular order: One thing that I appreciate about (most) Christmas stories is that they can often be in the form of novellas, where it's a shorter way to get a story in without the length of a full novel. Family seems to be a more prominent theme with contemporary Christmas stories, which is...

Do you ever hit one of those lulls where you're not sure what book to pick up next? There are days and weeks when I fall into that, but I'm finding that my Friday list has helped me to narrow down books by genre, which has kept things interesting. At the same time, I like the freedom that comes with picking something up quite unexpectedly. There have been many occasions where I have seen something that piqued my interest and upon discovering whether it was available, getting into that book right away. Other times though? As much as I love reading, getting over the first page is sometimes the biggest hurdle after finally deciding what to read. One step back, and it's choosing which book to immerse myself in first. A thought that has come to my mind has been whether some books are meant to read at just the right time, and not a moment sooner or later. While there are certainly titles that I wish I had discovered earlier, I find that if there is something I am going through, G...

Yesterday's post about book cover usage prompted some thoughts about the covers themselves. In reading a lot of fiction, I have come across some funny book cover trends that other readers have pointed out over the years. This funny video shows that when you spot a trend, you see it everywhere; in this case, people are walking to a lot of places. Closely related to this is women facing away (hello, Amy Lynn Green 's book, Things We Didn't Say , that I agree was amazing!). Others have commented on headless heroes or heroines. Another trend has been illustrated covers in lieu of either stock or staged photography. I don't think I have a preference, although I would say that in some of the fiction books I've read or owned, there have been times where the pictures of the characters on the covers don't quite fit the descriptions in the book, which gives me overall mixed feelings—the inconsistency! Thankfully, these things are much easier to fix now through editing i...

Having worked in communications and being aware of copyright issues, I am doing my best to set up my blog and social media in a way that does not infringe on anyone's rights. While I am starting to introduce some of my own pictures, I am also reliant on royalty-free stock images, such as Pixabay. Reading and adhering to their content license summary means that I am trying to be extra careful in what I select and how I use it, regardless of my limited scope and reach. If you hover over any of the images I have used on here, you will see the attribution information 🙂 Right now, I am researching fair usage of book covers for book reviews, one of the things that I am eager to embark on. In wanting to do this right, I have found some interesting articles that speak to this matter: Do Book Covers Fall Under Fair Use? Can You Use Book Cover Images on Your Blog? Can You Post Book Covers on Instagram? Copyright for Writers: Using Images in Blog Posts How To Use Copyright Protected Images ...

Happy Paperback Book Day ! To celebrate this book holiday, my husband took me to a new and used bookstore in the mountain town of Canmore, Alberta. Even though Banff National Park (the first national park in Canada!) is nearby and much more well-known, there seems to be no existing bookstores left within the town of Banff —at least none that I could find in my research as the Indigospirit (mini version of a Chapters Indigo store) in Cascade Shops closed down a few years prior and the gift shops only supply a few local area interest books. In terms of charm and everything that you can picture for bibliophiles, Café Books in Canmore hits the mark. The staff kindly let me take pictures of my excursion today, including the one above of their children's and fiction used books. Café Books is divided into two storefronts that are connected by a hallway with the front store entrance containing new books and book-related merchandise, and the back section an area for used books in a stor...

Is it Friday already?! What a treat to have some titles to read going into the weekend! As the literary merchandise says, my weekend is indeed booked up 😄 This upcoming week, I am working on the following books, courtesy of the public library: 📘 Christian fiction : Hearts of Steel by Elizabeth Camden 📗 Christian non-fiction : God is Rice by Masao Takenaka 📙 Non-Christian fiction : None this week! 📕 Non-Christian non-fiction : Fair Play by Eve Rodsky—just finished! I have a fuller schedule coming up, so I want to ensure that I have enough time to focus on the two titles I've been waiting to dive into for a few months now. I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the Blackstone Legacy series! I was able to finish listening to Fair Play a couple of days ago, and there were some nuggets that are still in my mind, so I may consider getting the book down the road. There were a lot of acronyms used throughout, and I'm hoping that a visual copy will make it easier to navi...