Bloggiesta | Words And Peace

January 25-26, 2014

After I posted my beautiful plans for Bloggiesta, “disaster stroke”:
I was asked not to translate the last chapters of a book, because it looked like they were not too different from the first edition.
So I accepted the translation of another book,
and then the client told me to actually go on with the translation of that first book!!
Of course all these things have tight deadlines, so that meant adios to Bloggiesta!

~~Maybe: Participate in a~~ ~~#bloggiesta twitter party~~. Too dead for many hours of translation on the computer before that
~~Maybe: participate in a few mini-challenges, if I find some exciting ones.~~
back-up my blog
~~sign up for the last, I swear reading challenge for 2014, on reading books in translation~~. Will definitely do that soon, however
write 2 or 3 reviews
organize a contest to get more reviewers for France Book Tours. Done! will be posted here and on France Book Tours tomorrow.
link more virtual book tours on Pinterest

= the most pitiful of all my Bloggiestas!
How did yours go?

March was quite eventful, even though the biggest event I was looking for, the REAL arrival of Spring, is still delayed around Chicago. Yes there are crocuses on my lawn, yes the red-wing black birds are back, yes I saw a couple of flocks of cranes, BUT the juncos are still around, and it is really still too cold to read a book on the porch…

On the reading front, I managed to read 8 books, with a total of 2527 pages, that is, 81 pages/day.
And I listened to 1 audiobook, a long one of 12:15 hours, which gives a 23 mn/day. I also started another very long one, the biography of Benjamin Franklin, by Walter Isaacson, excellent.

Here are the books I read, and oh miracle, they all have their reviews!!:

1 non-fiction:
Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses, vol 1, by Jean-Claude Larchet

5 historical fiction:

The Painted Girls, by Cathy Marie Buchanan – audio
House of Rocamora, by Donald Michael Platt – part of Virtual
The Iron King, by Maurice Druon – ebook
The Lavender Garden, by Lucinda Riley –ebook – review scheduled for June 5. You can read the first lines of my review though!
The Chalice, by Nancy Bilyeau – with giveaway between 4/2-4/10

1 fiction
Plainsong, by Kent Haruf

1 science-fiction:
The Best Of All Possible Worlds, by Karen Lord – ebook

1 picture book:
Flotsam, by David Wiesner

My favorites this month:

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Reading Challenges recap

Around the World in 12 books: 2/12
Audiobook: 3/12
Books on France: 8/12
Cozy Mysteries: 3/10
Ebook challenge: 9/10
European reading challenge: 6/5 – COMPLETED
Historical fiction: 14/15
Japanese literature: 0/? (starts in June)
New authors challenge: 19/25
TBR challenge: 1/12
What’s in a Name: 4/6
Where Are You Reading?: 3/50

Total of books read so far in 2013 = 29

Number of books added to my TBR in March = 47
You notice this is a new feature in my wrap-up. I stole this genius idea from Allison at The Book Wheel. Please go visit her nice fancy March wrap-up.

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Blog recap

2 big events have rocked the bloggosphere/twittersphere this month.

I was part of the twitter madness the night we discovered Google Reader had been sent to death. Seeing the number of tweets that night (surpassing by far the tweets related to the election of the new Pope of the Roman Catholics) and after that all the blog posts, you could write your own Chronicle of a Death Foretold!
After some panic and many tries, I ended up choosing Taptu, the only real RSS feed aggregate that works really well on a Nook Color. See what I have to say.
The other event is the recent announcement that Amazon bought Goodreads. Right now, I’m staying put, hoping against all hope that things will remain ok, even though I kind of know it won’t… I really enjoy a lot the Goodreads community, and I may stay there until the end of The Year of Reading Proust, to enjoy all the discussions on the year read-along to cover all of In Search of Lost Time. But if some major changes bother me, I’ll pay my $25 and go to LibraryThing.

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I reviewed 2 books for Virtual Book Tours; and hosted 1 giveaway, which is open from 4/2-10.
Bloggiesta 2013 was very good for this blog: my two biggest achievements were finishing the archive list by author of all the books reviewed so far on this blog, and listing all the book blogs I follow. Go have a look, and if you see yourself on the list, would you mind returning the favor? Thanks
I participated in Book Blogger Hop: March 8th-14th
I participated in Colorado Book Month
28 readers signed up for my Books on France Challenge, and 32 reviews have already been posted. Don’t forget to post your reviews!

Most popular recent book review

The Dervish – 2nd month in a row!

Most popular recent post – non book review

Best Google Reader Alternatives

Plans for April

Reading a couple of netgalleys and a couple of paperbacks received by the authors
Starting April 14, until the end of the year: Catching up where I am at in the reading of In Search of Lost Time, by Proust, following the weekly schedule on Goodreads
Read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, for my US state challenge (Georgia), and many other goodies!