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My Book Rating System
I finished my first two reads of 2025 last week and started to post my reviews when I realized that I’d updated my rating system and hadn’t shared it with you all. But before I go into detail, let me preface this by saying reading and rating books is very subjective. I’ve read reviews where people have deducted points because they were reading outside of their usual genre {and out of their comfort zone}, and didn’t “get” the subject matter. I try really hard not to do that. My goal is to read and rate each book on its individual merit {unless it’s series, then you have consider continuity between…
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52 Week Project 2025: Weeks 1-4
I wasn’t sure if I was going to attempt a 52 week project this year. I’ve started and failed to complete one each year because I’ve been too ambitious {yes, that is possible}. Where I messed us was trying to shoot daily. I simply can’t do that. So I’ve decided to shoot once a week. That’s much more doable. There’s no pressure, ya know? If I don’t shoot one day, I have six more days to get it in. I can handle this. I’m not using any prompts, I’m just taking pictures of what I see and going from there. Again, no pressure. Here are the images from the first…
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Bleu Wednesday: Her Story
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Meet the Reader: My 2025 TBR Shelf
Hi, I thought I’d do a little introduction since it’s the beginning of a new year and there may be some new faces around here. I’ve had this blog for about 15 years now. I know, I can’t believe it has been that long either. I started this blog as part of an assignment when I was in library school. Social media was just starting to take off and our instructor wanted us to connect using blogs, FriendFeed, and other social media platforms. I think I may be the only one who still has my blog, although it has undergone a lot of changes over the years. Where I used…
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January 10 on the 10th: 10 Things to Remember or Forget about 2024
Happy New Year, Friends! Knowing all that’s going on, it feels so, I don’t know, out of touch to say that… Still, I do wish all of you a happy new year and for those who are suffering, I pray for comfort and peace. THE PROMPT: Ten Things You Either Want to Remember or Forget About 2024 Last year was such a blur that I actually put on my goal list that I wanted to record one memory in my planner at the end of the day. Good Memories Two of my daughters and I flew to Pennsylvania to surprise my mother-in-law. And, while we were there, we got to…
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Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Rainy Day Activities
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Where Bloggers Live: My New Year’s Resolutions
Y’all. Twenty twenty-five pretty much shoved twenty twenty-four out the door, grabbed the hardest liquor in the cabinet, and said “I’ll take it from here.” I mean, seriously, what the actual ______ is this nonsense? How do we start the freaking year off with terrorist attacks, a mass shooting, expansionist threats, and a devastating fire? This is all just too much. Sorry, didn’t mean to start off quite so, I don’t even know the words, but this is pretty much what I’m feeling right now. But we’re gonna plow through this. We’re survivors, right? Right. On a more positive note, The Hubs, my sister, her husband, and I ended the…
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Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Rainy Day Activities
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Bed and Breakfast: The Orchid in Jackson, Mississippi
One of The Hubs and my favorite things to do is to go to historic towns for a little sightseeing and antiquing. Rather than stay at hotels, we prefer the coziness and friendliness of B&Bs. For the last weekend in 2024, The Hubs and I were joined by my sister and her husband at The Orchid in Jackson, Mississippi. A few weeks ago, I was mindlessly scrolling Instagram when I came across a video of a young lady happily dancing around a beautiful historic home, so, naturally, I had to click through, read the caption, and find out what she was talking about. I’m so happy I did. I turned…
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Vision Board Bingo: 2025 Goal Setting
Can you believe we’re a little over a week away from 2025? I feel like 2024 just flew by. I’m trying to remember all the things that happened this year and all I’m getting is a blur. A big ol’ fuzzy blur. This is not a good feeling, especially since I know I accomplished something. I had to have, right? Right? Right. Anyway, I’ve decided that 2025 is going to be different. I want to be able to look back at the end of the year and see all the bright spots. To that end, I’ve customized my iPad so that it works much like an interactive digital journal. My…
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Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Rainy Day Activities
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Where Bloggers Live: The Best Gifts I’ve Ever Received
When I was in my early teens, my best friend, Alisa, introduced me to Danielle Steel. Danielle Steel is an American author whose books are characterized by young women with traumatic childhoods who marry wealthy, much older men. Initially, I was caught up in the romance of the stories… To my thirteen-year-old mind, wealth and glamour went hand in hand with love and romance. Never mind that these women were marrying men who were old enough to be their fathers. That being said, one story stuck with me and would have a significant influence on me. Message from Nam told the story of Paxton Andrews, a female war correspondent who…
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Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Rainy Day Activities
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{Audiobook Review} Untethered by Angela Jackson-Brown
As the blogger and photographer behind Living Outside the Stacks, I independently select and write about stuff I love and things I think you’ll enjoy too. Living Outside the Stacks has affiliate and advertising partnerships so I get revenue from sharing this content and from your purchase. Thank you for your support. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus | Harper Muse for providing me with a free audio version of this book for review. BOOK DETAILS Title: Untethered Author: Angela Jackson-Brown Narrator: Karen Murray Publisher: HarperCollins Focus | Harper Muse Publication Date: 3 December 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction, Multicultural Focus, Family Drama Format: Audiobook Listening Time: 10 hours, 51…
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I was a Podcast Guest
I don’t think of myself as a social media expert. In fact, I kind of have a love hate relationship with social media. I love it for all the things it has taught me, but I also hate it for all the things it has made me aware of {I won’t be too specific here, but SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE?!}. I don’t hop on the trends because I lack rhythm and I overthink everything — is the lighting OK, is the video too hazy, what is that weird background noise, etc. Still, I’m primarily responsible for the social media accounts for our college. My responsibilities consist of taking pictures, posting information about…
