By Tessa Pulyer Posted on

Sunday Post 11523 | New Year and New Bookish Projects

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See the rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Things have finally returned to normal except that I still have a very large number of thank you notes to get out to donors. After this weekend though, that’ll return to normal too. That means I finally had time to think about new projects – mostly the bookish kind.

First, I knew that, even though I haven’t requested a book in many months, the widgets (direct pre-approvals) that I received had taken me way over the amount that I could possibly read in February and March. Especially, since I feel I need to add in at least two Berkley books per month since they accepted me into their program. They don’t stipulate that I have to take anything, but it does kind of stand to reason that they expect some kind of participation from me.

I’ve been utilizing StoryGraph more and more and one of the things that I really like about it is that trigger warnings are so easy to find. They have a special section for them, and authors are even encouraged to review what triggers readers noted and confirm. Since the pre-approvals are sent out very soon after the book has been put on NetGalley, this is not something I can check at the time of receiving the widget. I took the opportunity to go through the books on my list and make note of the ones that had one of the few triggers that I struggle with. I was able to purge my ARC list of 9 books which helped immensely. My thoughts are that I will decline to review based on unexpected content (i.e., triggers) but offer to feature those books on IG. My views and engagement rate have gotten quite good (thanks to a lot of work on my part), so that should be considered a fair alternative. At least I think it is.

My big project this year though will be setting up a new book photo area in my house. I’m trying my best to marry the flowers/seasonal aesthetic on IG with my beach theme on the blog. I have changed some of my graphics on the blog already to feature beach and flowers, but now I have to add a little beach into IG. My plan is to take the extra space we have on the ground floor from where we finally got rid of our very large elliptical machine: (1) paint my 2 tall bookshelves/bookcases I already have down there white; (2) set them up in a corner of the room; (3) keep the organization by cover color that my daughter had already set up a few years ago; (4) set up a table in front of the bookshelves where I arrange my books and props for the photos – that way the bookshelves will always be in the background. I can decorate the bookshelves with beach decor in between the groups of books to add in the beach theme – it’s subtle but that’s the best I could come up with. So that’s my 2023 bookish project. Wish me luck that it comes out how I hope!

So, that was my week – how was yours?

This week, I received my new monthly Berkley offerings and took Vera Wong and the Anne Bishop book. Also, I finally had time to go through all the HTP Books mystery, YA, and rom-com offerings but only found room for Zora Books Her Happily Ever After this season.

We finished Willow (Disney+) which implied there will be two more seasons at the very end of the finale and His Dark Materials – season 3 (HBO Max) this week. His Dark Materials ended so sadly. I forgot how sad the ending was from the books. I will be starting Emily in Paris, season 3 this week. I just love Lily Collins. I was always a big Phil Collins fan, so how could I not love his daughter – who is just too cute.

  • Monday (January 9, 2023) Book Review of The Hunter by Jennifer Herrera (Psychological Thriller)
  • Tuesday (January 10, 2023) Book review of City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita (Police Procedural)
  • Wednesday (January 11, 2023) WWW Wednesday
  • Thursday (January12, 2023) Book Reviews of Son of the Poison Rose by Jonathan Maberry and Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame by Meg Long (Fantasy)
  • Friday (January 13, 2023) Book Blogger Hop
  • Monday (January 16, 2023) No post
  • Tuesday (January 17, 2023) Book Review of A Guide To Just Being Friends by Sophie Sullivan (romcom)
  • Wednesday (January 18, 2023) WWW Wednesday
  • Thursday (January 19, 2023) Book Review of The Devil You Know by P.J. Tracey (Mystery/Police Procedural)
  • Friday (January 20, 2023) Book Blogger Hop

33 Replies to “Sunday Post 11523 | New Year and New Bookish Projects”

  2. CJRTB Books says:

    Setting up a little booksta/book area sounds great! I love doing projects like that and it also makes life easier! Have a great week ♥️

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I have the one I use but it’s very limited. And my daughter fusses when she comes home every few months because there are props all over her room 😂

      Like

  3. Zainab says:

    Ahh I love the idea of the little book setup – can’t wait to hear more updates on that! Glad you’re coming back to normality a little bit too! 😌

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Dini @ dinipandareads says:

    I’ve been using StoryGraph more lately too and I hope that I can still keep it up as the year goes along since using Goodreads is a well-ingrained habit! 😂 Your book projects sound fun, especially the photo corner for IG! My aim was to start posting more on IG this year too, with a couple posts every week or so to get back into the habit. Let’s see if I can manage it. Good luck with your projects and have a great week ahead, Tessa!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. WendyW says:

    Your plans for your photo area sound great! I’ve been thinking of using Storygraph too, mostly for the charts and graphs, but it’s nice to know about the trigger warnings too! Have a great week, Tessa!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Louise H says:

    I’m trying to use Storygraph this year, at the moment I haven’t done much more than add reviews, so I do need to start looking at other features. Your Instagram/photo corner sounds beautiful, I hope you get it all set up soon.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. writerravenclaw says:

    You sound like you are going to be very busy, reading all those books. I struggle reading two, while working full time. I am watching Dancing on Ice, which has started this week. I will also watch Call The Midwife, and Happy Valley (a police drama) I like detective programmes, and enjoying the third series so far.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Carla says:

    I really need to check out Storygraph, it sounds like it is becoming more and more popular. I love the idea of having your own book photography area. I’m sure it will be amazing. Have a wonderful week Tessa, and enjoy your time getting back to normal.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Teri Polen says:

    After you finish the new look with your IG, can you do mine? I’ve seriously been lax lately, and I’ve got to do better with it. I was on a streak for a little while with posting, but then holidays. Good luck with the painting, Tessa!

    Liked by 1 person

  13. BonnieReadsAndWrites says:

    That’s really great about the Instagram photo area. I am way behind on Instagram technology, and I usually use shutterstock background photos. The real thing sounds great. I also need to learn a lot more about reels, which are so popular.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I need to get back to adding reels in. The last one I did was before the holidays. They take a lot more time than the pictures.

      Like

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      My biggest challenge are my cats. They love the props. Apparently they are good for chewing on 🤦🏻‍♀️

      Like

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  17. Dan says:

    You have a busy blog. I just started using Goodreads, but I’m going to check out StoryGraph.

    Liked by 1 person

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