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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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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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A Selection of Bookish Coffee Mugs for Literary Types
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. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’m all about that coffee life. One of my favorite memories of my grandmother is of her drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and watching her evening soaps {Dynasty, Dallas, Falcon Crest, and Knots Landing}. MY COFFEE STORY I’m a preacher’s kid. Actually, I’m the child of two preachers. And, y’all, when…
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Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Books
Hey, y’all, hey! I hope you had a relaxing holiday weekend. We did. The Hubs and I went to Mississippi to visit my family. I didn’t take many pictures, but you can see the few that I did take on Instagram. Mostly, this trip was about making sure my parents are doing OK. And they are… I also got to see my sister and her family, which is always nice. We took her youngest son and walked around Lowe’s to look at plants and pick out tile for her new house. You guys, even that little bit of normalcy was enough to make my heart happy. ABOUT WHERE BLOGGERS LIVE…
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Book Review: Soon: The Beginning of the End (Underground Zealot, #1) by Jerry B. Jenkins
BOOK DESCRIPTION (FROM THE BOOK) Paul Stepola, an agent working for the National Peacekeeping Organization(NPO), has been assigned to enforce compliance with the world government’s prohibition on religion. Paul relishes his job and is good at it. He is determined to expose underground religion ~ flush it out, expose it and kill it ~ until his life is turned upside down and he is forced to look at life in a different way. As Paul begins to unravel the truth about what he has found, events taking place around the world start to make sense. Something big is coming ~ something that can’t be stopped. And it’s coming soon. ABOUT…
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2012 {To Be Read List}
According to that sweet little widget on Goodreads, I met my goal of reading 12 books during the year 2011. Hmmmm…. that may have been my stated goal on Goodreads, but I didn’t come close to making my personal goal. But I will celebrate the small victories and aim to do better next year. I had a whole list of books that I wanted to read, you know, some were classics, others were books I’d heard about through my internet wanderings and the rest were ones I saw that had interesting covers. Yes, I do judge books by their covers. What of it? In the coming year, I’d like to…
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Book Tour: The Tehran Initiative by Joel C. Rosenberg
BOOK DESCRIPTION (FROM THE INSIDE JACKET) IS IT FICTION, OR IS IT REAL? The world is on the brink of disaster. Iran has just conducted its first atomic weapons test. Millions of Muslims around the world are convinced their messiah ~ known as the Twelfth Imam ~ has arrived on earth. Israeli leaders fear Tehran, under the Twelfth Imam’s spell, will soon launch a nuclear attack that could bring about a second Holocaust and the annihilation of Israel. The White House fears Jerusalem will strike first, launching a massive preemptive attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities that could cause the entire Middle East to up in flames, oil prices to skyrocket,…
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Coffee Talk: Libraries are More Than Books
Fox Chicago News recently asked “Are Libraries Necessary, or a Waste of Tax Money?” Really? The article by Anna Davlantes goes on to talk about how libraries “eat up millions of your hard earned tax dollars” and as proof of the irrelevancy of libraries, an undercover camera crew recorded library visitors for an hour. During that hour, they recorded 300 visitors with most of them using the free internet. Hmmm… This is your proof that libraries are irrelevant? Three hundred visitors with “most” of them using the free internet? Did you ask them why they were using internet access at the library instead of in their homes? Could it be…
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Book Review: Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer
Broken Angel is set in the future where the United States has been divided in 2: the United States, a secular nation, and Appalachia, a land run by religious fundamentalists. In Appalachia, reading is a crime, citizens are drugged and those who break the laws are sent to slave labor camps. At the center of the novel is Caitlyn, a deformed young woman, who is being pursued by bounty hunters, who want her dead or alive. The reason for the pursuit is left unknown to both Caitlyn and the reader until the end of the novel, which adds to the suspense. Along the way, Caitlyn meets two traveling companions who…
