Armchair Book Expo 2017 - Day 5: Wrap-up #ArmchairBookExpo

Armchair Book Expo is the experience for book bloggers to participate in Book Expo from the comfort of their homes. This experience is created lovingly by book bloggers specifically for our peers who for whatever reason are not able to participate in the main conference in New York each year. We bring publishers, authors, and bloggers together in celebrating our love for all things literary by hosting celebrations such as sneak peeks, daily discussion topics, and sponsored giveaways. 

This is my first Armchair Book Expo, and I had a lot of fun! I joined in on a whim when I saw another blogger's post on the first day, so I was completely disorganized. Next year, I will definitely plan in advance and have my posts scheduled and ready to go. It was a bit hectic and chaotic to join in so late, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to blog hop but still plan to go back to the website's link-ups and check out other posts. The topics that I enjoyed most were the Introductions and Recommendations. You can never have too many books on your TBR/Wishlist :)

I was able to join in at the Twitter Party this morning, so that was good. I missed the earlier ones because they conflicted with my younger daughter's soccer games!

Here are the links to my posts:

Wednesday: Armchair Book Expo 2017 - Day 1: Introductions

Wednesday: Armchair Book Expo 2017 - Day 1: This Is Me Instagram Challenge

Wednesday: Armchair Book Expo 2017 - Day 1: Best Practices Instagram Challenge

Thursday: Armchair Book Expo 2017 - Day 2: What Do Readers Want and Let's Collaborate

Friday: Armchair Book Expo 2017 - Day 3: Delving Into Diversity & Dining With Authors

Saturday: Armchair Book Expo 2017 - Day 4: I Recommend Instagram Challenge

Saturday: Armchair Book Expo 2017 - Day 4: Expanded Horizons Instagram Challenge

Hats off to the wonderful organizers of this event! And thank you to the authors and publishers who donated prizes!

Armchair Book Expo 2017 – Day 3: Delving Into Diversity & Dining With the Authors #ArmchairBookExpo #diversity #dreamdining

Armchair Book Expo is the experience for book bloggers to participate in Book Expo from the comfort of their homes. This experience is created lovingly by book bloggers specifically for our peers who for whatever reason are not able to participate in the main conference in New York each year. We bring publishers, authors, and bloggers together in celebrating our love for all things literary by hosting celebrations such as sneak peeks, daily discussion topics, and sponsored giveaways. 

• Delving Into Diversity: Book Expo sparked quite the controversy a couple years ago regarding diversity in books and authors. Where are we now? OR, let's take a different direction and explore the diversity of the format of a book. Do we judge a book by its cover and/or content (e.g.,, audio, digital, graphic, etc.)? Or, combine the two topics and discuss diversity found in alternative content (e.g., representation in graphic novels). Get creative and maybe even controversial! 

Personally, I see more diversity now in books than when I first started blogging in 2010. I don't read a book BECAUSE it is diverse or features a diverse character. Rather, I go with my interests and what appeals to me.

I absolutely am sucked in by a gorgeous cover! I frequently buy books because the cover entices me in some way, whether it's dark and disturbing or beautiful. I won't even read the synopsis!

• Dining With the Authors: Every year at Book Expo, children and adult authors are featured during breakfast. Who would you dream of enjoying a meal with? Would it be breakfast, lunch, dinner, or simply coffee? What would your meal be? What would you discuss?

I think I'd love to host a dinner party with some of my favourite horror writers, including Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Saul. I imagine retreating to a den afterwards with a drink by the fire and the three of them combining their talents to tell one heck of a ghost story!

I'd also love to have a drink/coffee with two authors that I find hilarious: Alice Clayton and Christopher Moore. I think they would both have me in stitches!

Armchair Book Expo 2017 – Day 2: What Do Readers Want and Let's Collaborate & Listen #ArmchairBookExpo #whatreaderswant #collaborate

Armchair Book Expo is the experience for book bloggers to participate in Book Expo from the comfort of their homes. This experience is created lovingly by book bloggers specifically for our peers who for whatever reason are not able to participate in the main conference in New York each year. We bring publishers, authors, and bloggers together in celebrating our love for all things literary by hosting celebrations such as sneak peeks, daily discussion topics, and sponsored giveaways. 

What Do Readers Want?: What makes or breaks a book? How do we rate the books, or determine if it is good literature or a good story? What do we want from an author event? How does diversity representation fit into all of this? 

For me, what makes or breaks a book is how engaged I am. When something is tough for me to put down, it gets a higher rating. Whether or not I like the characters is irrelevant. I don't have to like them to enjoy the story. Evil characters are sometimes the best! When I am reading YA, the content has to be age-appropriate and something that I would feel comfortable letting my teenager read. I get really irked when an author or publisher passes off a book as YA simply because the main character is a teenager, when it really should be marketed to adults. 

If a book is un-put-downable and I loved it, then I give it five stars. When I really enjoyed the story but it didn't give me the "love it" feeling, then I give 4 stars. If I liked it and enjoyed it but wasn't WOWed in any way, then I give 3 stars. If it's just "meh", then I give 2 stars. If I didn't like the story at all or it just wasn't for me, then I give only 1 star. I never mark a book as DNF. I feel obligated to finish it, even if I am not liking it!

Let's Collaborate & Listen: The online book community has changed so much over the years. How do we keep up within our own book-sphere as well as within the community as a whole (i.e., libraries, bookstores, authors, publishers, etc.)? 

Way back when I first started blogging, there was a great site called Book Blogs NING. It was a great way to meet other bloggers and share reviews. I do miss that community of passionate readers, but I enjoy talking about books with other fans/bloggers over at Goodreads. I participate in different weekly memes on a regular basis, so I find out about new books from other bloggers. I'm also a big fan of utilizing my local public library, and I am there each week checking out the New Release shelves. My local branch is small, so I frequently use the inter-library loan service. My library's branch manager told me that I single-handledly have increased the circulation at their branch and that I must never move out of the area :)  I don't generally request ARCs from NetGalley or Edelweiss because I don't enjoy reading e-books, but I love using Edelweiss to view publisher catalogs. I keep track of upcoming releases on Goodreads and add them to my Wishlist. When I post reviews on my blog, I tweet the link to publishers and authors so that they can view it if they wish.

Armchair Book Expo 2017 – Day 1: Introductions #ArmchairBookExpo

Armchair Book Expo is the experience for book bloggers to participate in Book Expo from the comfort of their homes. This experience is created lovingly by book bloggers specifically for our peers who for whatever reason are not able to participate in the main conference in New York each year. We bring publishers, authors, and bloggers together in celebrating our love for all things literary by hosting celebrations such as sneak peeks, daily discussion topics, and sponsored giveaways. 

I am . . . a multi-tasking busy single mom, working full-time. I have very little sit-down time to read, so I listen to audiobooks on my work commute and while doing chores!

My current read . . . is Unspoken by Lisa Jackson, and I'm also reading an autobiography/memoir by Alice Cooper called Alice Cooper, Golf Monster. I'm listening to Souljacker by Yasmine Galenorn, and I'm reading the second book in the Oz series, The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum, aloud to my younger daughter.

  

My summer plans . . . spending time in my lovely backyard with my kids in the evenings and on the weekend!

My buddy . . . meet Trixie. She actually is my older daughter's cat, but she enjoys lying on my lap in the evenings if she can catch me sitting down.

My blog/channel/social media . . . Darlene's Book Nook. All the links to my social media handles are up top.

The best . . . my kids!!