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review: rooftops of tehran

book info: on sale: now copy from: public library pages: 348 review written: 21.12.17 originally published: 2009 edition read: Penguin NAL 2009 title: Rooftops of Tehran author: Mahbod Seraji In a middle-class neighborhood of Iran's sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari's stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah's secret police. The violent consequences awaken him to the reality of living under a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice... my thoughts: This book was first published in 2009 and I remember adding it to my list around that time but never actually reading it since I preferred checking out library books to ...

The Secret

armchair BEA: beyond the blog

Tips that will help you move your blog forward or perhaps your own personal goals of writing and making an income from what you love to do.


I am a writer. I truly enjoy writing, and I'll had nearly twenty Chapter 1's for many brilliant ideas I've gotten. But of course, it's so hard to shoot off from there. Hopefully, I do get published. But I want to get published just so other readers can read my writing and enjoy it, not for the money aspect. But if I did earn any money, it'd go straight to my parents. Like you may have noticed, we're in a tough financial situation and they're kind enough to support my blogging and pay shipping for my giveaways. I should tone down on them, come to think of it. Yeah....

I'm inexperienced in publishing and making money in that sense, so I don't think I should try to give false advice. However, I've got tips on moving one's blog forward (based off of experience with mine)

Tips On Moving One's Blog Forward

1. Be patient! Getting five hundred followers isn't going to happen over night
2. Host a couple of giveaways to get possible followers interested, but don't just rely on them. Readers deserve good content as well.
3. Comment on other blogs. It's both interactive and courtesy. You get to meet new people and they'll be aware of you, plus it's just nice to be active in the community. It's a way to put your blog out there and make people know it exists
4. Have a good blog design. I know it sounds like a very superficial thing to say, and some blogs are popular even with normal minimal blogger templates, but it's still good to have a decent design. A blog's design is something a reader will see for the first time: it's that first impression and it should be something that reflects you and your blog's content.
5. Book blogs: post frequent book reviews. It's the reason people follow (I think?) But stay true to what your blog is about. If it's YA fiction, than don't post cooking recipes, or adult fiction all the time.

Personal Goals on Writing

1. Finish a good majourity of the rough draft by the end of this summer (since I'll barely have time once school starts)
2. Edit. Edit Edit. But don't overdue it
3. Finish rough draft by end of this year
4. Next year: start editing like mental
5. Then, work on selling it.
 These sound like terrible goals! I'm so sorry, I'm not used to setting them. Therein lies my problem with never getting  anywhere with these half-baked novels I've written. This is a good start! And thank you all for stopping by today! I've said this thousands of times, but if you haven't entered my armchair BEA giveaway, you should enter. I've simplified the process, without all the extra entry stuff.

Anyway. I look forward to your tips to blogging and goals of writing! I hope they inspire me :) Feel free to send me the link to your post, I'd love to read!

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review: the elementary particles

book info: on sale: now copy from: public library pages: 263 review written: 23.5.16 originally published: 1998 ("Les particules élémentaires") edition read: Knopf, 2000, translation by Frank Wynne title: The Elementary Particles author: Michel Houellebecq The Elementary Particles part-story part-metaphysical-rants in an interesting narration from two characters, half-brothers borne of a hippie and absentee mother in the 60s: Michel and Bruno. Michel is an asexual scientist who "expresses his disgust with society by engineering one that frees mankind at last from its uncontrollable, destructive urges" and Bruno is a crass brute driven by sexual desires that lusts after his lost youth. This book follows their stories from childhood to their middle age, spinning around the past and present and major and minor characters in an intriguing narrative that had me reading every single word for fear of missing anything crucial. (quote from book summary) When I first began to...

The Woman Who Ride Like a Man by Tamora Pierce

The Woman Who Ride Like a Man by Tamora Pierce Series:   Song of the Lioness #3 Source:  Bought paperback Publisher:  Atheneum Books For Young Readers Age Genre: Young Adult Challenges: Flights of Fantasy Challenges:  Prequel-Sequel Challenges:  TBR-Cleaning my Shelves Alanna fights on... Newly knighted, Alanna of Trebond seeks adventure in the vast desert of Tortall. Captured by fierce desert dwellers, she is forced to prove herself in a dual to the death. Although she triumphs, dire challenges lie ahead. As her mysterious fate would have it, Alanna soon becomes the tribe's first female shaman, despite the desert dwellers' wariness of the foreign woman warrior. Alanna must battle to change the ancient tribal customs of the desert tribes--for their sake and for the sake of all Tortall. That's me. With everyone else clapping in the background. Once again, I find myself unimpressed with the Song of the Lioness. It's not that I dislike the books. It's just that th...

The Sweet Gum Tree by Katherine Allred

The Sweet Gum Tree by Katherine Allred Source:  bought Kindle copy Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publication Date:  May 12, 2005 Age Genre: adult (not graphic) Sweet tea, corn bread, and soup beans—everyday fare for eight-year-old Alix French, the precocious darling of a respected southern family. But nothing was ordinary about the day she met ten-year-old Nick Anderson, a boy from the wrong side of town. Armed with only a tin of bee balm and steely determination, Alix treats the raw evidence of a recent beating that mars his back, an act that changes both of their lives forever. Through childhood disasters and teenage woes they cling together as friendship turns to love. The future looks rosy until the fateful night when Frank Anderson, Nick's abusive father, is shot to death in his filthy trailer. Suddenly, Nick is gone—leaving Alix alone, confused and pregnant. For the next fifteen years she wrestles with the pain of Nick's abandonment, a bad marriage, her family and friend...

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