Hiatus

So ended up taking an extended hiatus from semi-officially reviewing books.  I was spending a year in Korea and it just didn't mesh well with creating lesson plans and learning to live in a very different society.  After I came back I did some bouncing around jobs and such until I finally found one that should stick for a while.  Related to this job I'm most likely going to be going to grad school in less than a year SO in between studying for an entrance exam (haven't decided which yet...) and applying and all that fun I'm going to try and get in some reviews.

So why write this instead of just jumping into doing a review?  Good question...hopefully this will be my motivation?  Yeah, we'll go with that.

As every Amazon user (and many avid readers) have seen there is now the "Kindle Unlimited" option where for $10 a month you get access to around 600,000 titles.  My next few entries are going to be focused around those titles and whether I think it's worth the cost (still undecided).

The Secret to Living Your Life Fully: Lessons on Mindfulness - Jennifer Brooks **4/5**

Quick & Dirty:

• Background guide as well as how-to, I would not recommend this book to anyone who is not looking for/willing to read through the background information.
• Solid introduction without being a long and daunting read.
• The authors writing style made the reading a bit awkward at times.

Long & Wordy:

77 Ways to Find New Readers - Laura Pepper Wu *5/5*

Quick & Dirty:

• Concise, practical, and relevant.
• Simple and straightforward advice.
• Useful advice for everyone, whether you're a techie or afraid of a keyboard.

Long & Wordy:

Before I picked up this book I was scared.  I thought "oh she's going to tell you to flood facebook and all these other services and you are going to drive your readers INSANE."

No.

If you follow her advice, keep it simple, you're on your way to successfully marketing your book.  Hope you wrote a good one...

Very simple and straight forward book to help you get a larger audience for an indie published book.  Really, this advice is mostly universal to anyone trying to make a mark online or otherwise, and not limited to authors.

The book is pretty short, but don't let this fool you.  Not only is the book filled with great ideas, it also has links to help you actually apply these tips and (hopefully) be successful.  

Many of the links connect back to her blog, but considering the blog is a "30 day" blog, you're going to find some extras in the book.

It also gives practical advice for the services you're already using.  Sometimes we need a reminder to "keep it simple stupid", and this book does that wonderfully.

As is, this is a wonderful book.  I mentioned that there are links, which are really where the depth of the book comes in, which is a big positive and negative...a pain to click through to more but allows the book to be less bulky and cumbersome.  My only real concern is that over time some of the links may be disconnected, but because many of them are for her blog this is pretty unlikely.  

Check it out on Amazon.

Overall 5/5

***I received this book as an ARC.  This in no way effected my review.***

Gamers - Thomas Carpenter *3/5*

Quick & Dirty:

• Interesting story about life turning into a large computer game.

• With the wide variety of YA dystopian novels available now this one falls in the middle of the pack.

• A few annoying bits of...’borrowed’ slang don’t destroy the book but aren't an asset.

Long & Wordy:

The Problem is YOU - John Burke

Quick & Dirty:

• If I was basing my review solely on how the book is marketed, I’d give this book a 2 at best. HOWEVER if you ignore the title and view this as a reference book it’d deserve closer to a 4.  I’m meeting half way and saying 3.
• Advice sections are very small and scattered for a self-help book.
• There is a lot of information provided about many facets of self-defeating behavior…Important to avoid “medical school syndrome” when reading it.

Long & Wordy: