BBAW Day 5: Best of BBAW

Share a highlight of this year’s BBAW. Whether it’s a blog you discovered or a book you’re going to read or a way you felt refreshed, this is the day to celebrate the week!

I've really enjoyed my first Book Blogger Appreciation Week! It's been a lot of fun to remember why I started this crazy hobby, share a couple of awesome books, and meet a few new friends! To be honest, I didn't get around to visit as many blogs as I would have liked, but there's always next year, right?!

My favorite part? Probably the interview swap! I loved discovering a new blog and meeting Lisa from Captivated Reader! She has a great book blog with some wonderful articles, features, and reviews of an eclectic mix of books. In fact, it was so much fun that I might do it from time to time here at i blog 4 books.

Looking forward to next year!

BBAW Day 4: Pimp Some Books!

One of the best parts about book blogging is the exposure to books and authors you might never have heard of before. Pimp the book you think needs more recognition on this day. 

Yes! I love sharing about books. Today, I'm featuring TWO books. They're different than a lot of the books that I read and review and highlight on here, but I'm so excited about them! So . . . here are two non-fiction (!) books that I would like to recommend to you!

Love Thy Rival
by Chad Gibbs
Available August 2012
Blue Moon Books
238 pages 

In his first book, the best-selling God & Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC, humorist Chad Gibbs explored his own struggles to balance faith in God with passion for pigskin. Now Gibbs is back asking how Christian fans can love their enemies, when we can't even love rival fans.

From the cross-country culture war of Lakers vs Celtics, to the cross-state hate-fest of Alabama vs Auburn, Gibbs spent one year attending the most intense rivalry games in sports (Yankees vs Red Sox, Duke vs Carolina, and many more), observing the darker side of fan culture, and pondering the problems rivalry games present to the Christian fan.

The result... Love Thy Rival, an enlightening, laugh-a-minute look at what sports? greatest rivalries teach us about one of Jesus' most difficult commands: Love your enemies.

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The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected
by Nik Ripken
Available January 1, 2013
B&H Books
384 pages

The Insanity of God is the personal and lifelong journey of an ordinary couple from rural Kentucky who thought they were going on just your ordinary missionary pilgrimage, but discovered it would be anything but. After spending over six hard years doing relief work in Somalia, and experiencing life where it looked like God had turned away completely and He was clueless about the tragedies of life, the couple had a crisis of faith and left Africa asking God, "Does the gospel work anywhere when it is really a hard place? It sure didn't work in Somalia.

Nik recalls that, “God had always been so real to me, to Ruth, and to our boys. But was He enough, for the utter weariness of soul I experienced at that time, in that place, under those circumstances?” It is a question that many have asked and one that, if answered, can lead us to a whole new world of faith.

How does faith survive, let alone flourish in a place like the Middle East? How can Good truly overcome such evil? How do you maintain hope when all is darkness around you? How can we say “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world” when it may not be visibly true in that place at that time? How does anyone live an abundant, victorious Christian life in our world’s toughest places? Can Christianity even work outside of Western, dressed-up, ordered nations? If so, how?

The Insanity of God tells a story—a remarkable and unique story to be sure, yet at heart a very human story—of the Ripkens’ own spiritual and emotional odyssey. The gripping, narrative account of a personal pilgrimage into some of the toughest places on earth, combined with sobering and insightful stories of the remarkable people of faith Nik and Ruth encountered on their journeys, will serve as a powerful course of revelation, growth, and challenge for anyone who wants to know whether God truly is enough.

BBAW Day 3: What Book Blogging Means To Me

What does book blogging mean to you?

Well, that's a pretty vague prompt isn't it? Let's see if I can be concise and not wax on for pages. It IS bedtime after all. :)

Book blogging is . . .

- a way to talk about books without boring people to death
- an opportunity for me to be creative
- a chance to e-meet new friends
- a great way to find out about new books
- so much fun!

Yep, book blogging is all of these things and more. Bottom line? I'm glad I discovered this little hobby that led me to a great community of new friends!

BBAW Day 2: Interview Swap w/ Lisa @ Captivated Reader

Well, it's Day 2 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week and that means it's Interview Swap day! What a fun idea, right?! Well, today I'm hosting Lisa at Captivated Reader for an interview, and she's hosting me on her blog. Be sure to stop by, check out her blog, and say hi! Let's dive right in!

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i blog 4 books: Lisa, I'm so excited about today's interview swap! Tell me a little about your blog.

Captivated Reader: My book blog is called Captivated Reader, because I have been captivated by books and reading ever since I can remember. I started Captivated Reader on January 1st of this year and have been making posts daily ever since.

The following is the brief description of what Captivated Reader is all about:

My blog is about the books I'm reading, the independent bookstores I visit, the author and book events I attend, and any bookish related things I come across in the months to come!

ib4b: How did you get started as a book blogger?

CR: Starting a "blog" had simply been an idea that I had been toying around with for a couple of years. I didn't want to start a blog until I had enough time to devote to creating and maintaining one. Plus, believe it or not, I didn't know what I wanted to blog about, which may sound odd considering that I've been a life long, avid reader and book reader!

The idea of doing a book blog didn't come about until last November around Thanksgiving time. It was then that I decided to begin a book blog on January 1, 2012. I spent the last few weeks of 2011 coming up with a name for my blog, defining how often I would blog, and topics to discuss, etc. My blog is a work in progress, but so far, I've met my blogging goals and having fun along the way. :-)

ib4b: What’s your favorite aspect of book blogging?

CR: Connecting with other readers and book enthusiasts. It's fun, exciting and rewarding to read comments from those who post comments to my blog.

ib4b: What were some of your favorite books as a child?

CR: Babar books were my all time favorite books hands down as a toddler. I had the stories memorized and could virtually recite them word for word while my mom was reading them to me!

I had other favorite books growing up. I remember The Ghost of Windy Hill by Clyde Robert Bulla being one of the first books I read for pleasure in elementary school. I loved the book so much that I read it more than once. The story has a mystery element in it for kids. Perhaps this book was the start of my life long love of mystery novels.

I also loved reading Ultra-Violet Catastrophe!: Or, The Unexpected Walk with Great-Uncle Magnus Pringle by Margaret Mahy. This was a fun book to read as a child and the illustrations are fabulous too!

ib4b: Who encouraged your love for reading when you were younger?

CR: My mom was the most influential person in starting my love of reading and learning as a youngster. She read to me nightly at bedtime. It was my favorite part of bedtime and I usually never wanted it to end!

Many thanks to my loving mother for my love of reading.

The interesting thing to note here is that my mom is not an avid book reader herself, yet she was my biggest influence in becoming the avid reader that I am today.

ib4b: What are some of your favorites now: genres, books, authors?

CR: Favorite authors in no specific order of preference: Jerry Spinelli, John Steinbeck, Margaret Atwood, Geraldine Brooks, Mikhail Bulgakov, Agatha Christie, Diana Gabaldon and Maya Angelou.

Earlier this year, I listed my top ten favorite books of all time on my blog and they are as follows:

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
2. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov
3. The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
4. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingolver
8. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
9. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice by Mark Plotkin, Ph.D.
10. Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin

I don't have a favorite genre.

ib4b: What was the last must-read book that you read and would recommend?

CR: Wicked Bugs by Amy Stewart. It's a work of nonfiction. It's filled with excellent illustrations of bugs as well as captivating/riveting information about various bugs found around the world.

What did I like most about Wicked Bugs? It's written for the layperson. I liked the content layout of Wicked Bugs as only a few pages are devoted to each bug and these pages are packed full of interesting information. Who knew the subject of bugs would be so interesting?

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. In fact, I wasn't sure I'd like it all as bugs creep me out big time... Especially ones that transmit diseases like ticks and mosquitoes. But this book came highly recommended and I'm glad I made the leap and read it.

Check out the following YouTube video about Wicked Bugs from the author herself.

ib4b: And, because my husband suggested this question and the responses are always interesting … write your memoir in six words or less.

CR: Can't describe myself in six words.

(Geez, what does that say about me when I can't describe myself in six words or less lol!?! Number 8 was the most difficult one for me to answer.)

ib4b: Lisa, thanks so much for stopping by. This was fun!

CR: Thank you so much for hosting me this year! I had a blast!! Best wishes to you in your continued success as a blogger.

BBAW Day 1: Appreciation!

Appreciation! It can be hard to navigate the huge universe of book blogging. Share with your readers some of the blogs you enjoy reading daily and why.

I follow a few tons of bookish blogs, but these are a few that I make sure to check in on every day. They always have great recommendations and usually have a few other fun and creative things to post about! Be sure to stop by when you can!

Legacy of a Writer: Katie posts tons of great reviews and has recently branched out to feature some etsy shops.
Relz Reviews: I especially love Rel's "coming soon" posts. Just when I get my TBR pile down to a reasonable size, she posts and adds about 10 new books to my wish list!
Christian Bookshelf Reviews: Melanie always has great recommendations and thoughtful reviews!
Christian Novels: I am in awe of how much Abbi reads! It's always interesting to see her weekly wrap-ups to see what she's read and which are her favorites.
The Overweight Bookshelf: I love Lydia's reviews!
Writing for Christ, the Audience of One: Casey's reviews are always great, plus she posts features from time to time that I've really enjoyed.

BBAW 2012

Tomorrow kicks off the start of Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2012. I've never taken part before but thought it would be fun! There are a lot of fun things going on this week—daily blogging topics, guest posts, interview swaps, giveaways, and more!— so be sure to check it out. AND . . . if you want to participate, there's still time to join in the fun!

Over-committed much?! Probably, but it's going to be a fun week!