grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

The Books I Read in 2019

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Books I Read in 2019

Today I’m looking back on the books I read in 2019. I’m sad to say I was short of my 2019 book goal by 2 measly books! Ugh. Yes, I considered dropping everything to cram in two more books during the last two days of the year but decided that was silly. What does it really matter?

Plus reading 63 books in 2019 isn’t too shabby.

I likely missed my target because I spent so much time reading my own, coming-soon book, Gene, Everywhere a million times! Editing is time consuming (but very necessary) to say the least.Continue Reading

How to be a good Literary Citizen

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How to be a good literary citizen

Literary Citizenship?

Lately I’ve been thinking about the topic of literary citizenship. I learned of this concept from author, Kathleen Rooney. When Kathleen spoke about it at a writer conference, she credited Cathy Day who teaches a class on the idea. Kathleen’s talk on literary citizenship was a light bulb moment for me. I’d been working to be a good literary citizen without knowing there was an official term for it. But I realized there was more I could do in that department. There’s always more we can do, right?

No, this isn’t anything new. Anyone who tries to follow the golden rule will likely do many of these things already. But putting a title on the concept expanded the idea for me and gave me a clear pathway to follow.

So what does it mean to be a literary citizen?

Literary citizenship is about supporting the literary community, whether you are a writer or a reader, a storyteller of any sort. That’s all of us! Continue Reading

7 Word Reviews: December 2018

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I’m trying something new beginning with my December 2018 Book Reviews. 7 Word Reviews. 

Why?

Because over the past two years, I spent an inordinate amount of time writing my monthly book review blog posts. And I want-need-must spend that time elsewhere. But because I LOVE to read and I still want to recommend books to you, this is the idea I’ve come up with for now.

Writing a 7 Word Review feels like a fun challenge for me—like trying to tell the shortest of stories in the least amount of words. Yes, I’ll continue to provide my favorite quote from each book. I believe this gives you a glimpse into the author’s voice as well as the setting of the story. I will also continue to share my ratings on Goodreads, so I hope you’ll be my Goodreads buddy. I find so many great reads via books my friends add to their “want to read” shelf.

Tip: Adding books to your “want to read” shelf helps authors by making the books more visible to readers.

So here we go…Continue Reading

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THANKS FOR READING!