Book a Week with Jen

I know I haven't posted in a while, but that probably has something to do with the fact that I hadn't read a book since the end of the 52 books in 52 weeks series. Yes, I said "hadn't." I finished a book, two books actually. I started reading one and got sidetracked by the other -- and finished them both within a day of each other. Are they significant choices? Maybe. The first I finished was Nora Robert's The Hollow , the follow up to book 21 of 52 . I picked it up while food shopping at the Jersey shore. I'd brought half a dozen books with me, hoping to jarr my reading mind back open while spending six days away from home. But when I saw that book in the supermarket isle, I couldn't say no. It was an easy (and sometimes silly) way to get back into things. The second is Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto . My food education is progressing since reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals , boo

Two articles of note in today's Philadelphia Inquirer : My write up of the Philadelphia Library Book Festival. My suggestions for summer beach reads. Ths books were numbers 45 of 52 , 49 of 52 , 35 of 52 , 50 of 52 , and one not included on this list I'm off to Cape May today for my father's wedding. I'm packing two books. I hope to get some quality reading time in before the ceremony today. We'll see! Remember, if you'd like to reviews in order from 1 to 52 in a word document, just email me at jenmiller27 [at] gmail [dot] com!

...because this showed up in the mail today: I can't even tell you how excited I am about this bag. I must take it down the shore with me this weekend. Click here to read what the fuss is all about. Still haven't read anything since I ended the series. I don't know if it's book overdose or making a major push for my shore book -- probably a little bit of both! Remember, if you'd like to reviews in order from 1 to 52 in a word document, just email me at jenmiller27 [at] gmail [dot] com!

Thanks to everyone who commented and emailed me about ending the blog series. It's nice to know that people enjoyed it. As someone said to me, "You should either write something worth reading or do something worth reading about," and your support makes me think that I managed to do that. So what have I been doing since finishing the 52nd book? A lot, actually. I haven't read a book! I tried -- even dipped into a few -- but they couldn't keep my attention. I don't think it's because of the material, but because I need a break. What I have done is sorted through all the magazines I didn't get to because I had my nose burried in a book. I forgot how much I enjoy reading magazines (and not stuff like Cosmo and Maxim -- I'm talking Portfolio , Metropolitan Home and National Geographic Traveler ), and how many ideas for articles I get from reading magazines. I've also been planning my book launch party , and finishing up a lot of work that I ne

I went through the blog today and put the reviews in order -- 1 to 52 -- in a word document. If anyone wants it, drop me a line at jenmiller27 [at] gmail [dot] com. Why give it away for free? Because it's already free online :-) But I realize that some people might want to be able to read it all in order without the clicking, or print it out and carry it with them.

I don't want Tim Stark's Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer to get short shift in this post since it's the last one. But it's a beautiful book and, really, the perfect cap to this series. It's sat on my 'to read' list since I got the galley, but I kept putting it aside. For all I worried about picking the right book as book 52, it was there all along. I started this project because I got dumped. Or at least that was the final factor that pushed me into trying something new. Now that I'm looking back over the series, there's a lot of things that rolled into me making the decision to challening myself to read 52 books in 52 weeks. I'd only been seeing the guy for a few months, but that break up (which I wrote about in my review of book 7 of 52 ) was another reminder that I had failed...again. I had tried to pick myself up off the ground after a major, heart wrenching, spirit crushing breakup that happened in March. I tried to start

I'm done. I just finished book 52 of 52. I tried to write the review, but there's too many thoughts winging through my head. So I'm going to process and write up my report later. Until then, here's a picture of the series:

Sorry for the relatively blogging silence. I'm in the thick of promoting my book, so time for reading has been cut short (though I'm really enjoying book 52 of 52). But I did want to let you know that you can win a free copy of my book! I was interviewed over at K.C.'s Write For You about guide book writing. Ask a question in the comments section of Kerri's blog by 5pm CST today and you're entered to win!

I interviewed Trish Ryan, author of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not ( book 35 of 52 ) on my shore blog -- check it out here . So far (and there's only one book left in this series), the events surrounding me finishing Trish's book have been the most comical, even if I didn't think of it at the time. I think about it every time I see my likes-to-have-sex-to-bad-techno neighbors. They've been relatively quiet as of late. Either they're fighting again (there was one incident where the guy brought home balloons, which was followed by about 20 seconds of techno, then nothing), or they read the blog. Based on how they'd been acting lately, I'd go with the former. Read more at trishryanonline.blogspot.com .

In honor of book 51 of 52 , which is about a mobile library (though I doubt it's not as nice as this one):