EatReadSleep is Ten Years Old!

On July 21, 2012, I posted my first blog post. I wasn’t even sure what a blog was at the time, and one of my first stories was about the death of my dryer. After a while, a friend of mine advised me that most people enjoy blogs with pictures, so I had to figure out how to take and transfer photos, and we were off to the races. Over the course of ten years, EatReadSleep has reached 141 countries, with many tens of thousands of readers, although the lack of enthusiasm in Greenland is tragic.

The country with the greatest number of hits, of course, is the United States, followed by Canada. Rounding out the top ten are, in order, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, France, India, the Philippines, and Spain. As you can see, all of the European countries have logged in at some time, usually often, and in the last couple of months, a reader from Ireland often logs in before I wake up in the morning. I have regular Russian readers, and the People’s Republic of China has found ERS 27 times! Some of the interesting countries that have only found ERS once include St. Kitts & Nevis, Brunei, Yemen, New Caladonia, Curaçao, Zimbabwe, and Guernsey. I have really improved my geography skills!

EatReadSleep started out as an everything blog because I missed writing so much when I went to work fulltime as a librarian. Turns out that working full time and trying to keep up with the latest books made it impossible to write at any decent level, so I created a separate blog in 2016 called TheReaderWrites, but I rarely use it, unfortunately. After that, ERS became all about book reviews, which is a good thing, since I had started writing about politics in 2016 for some reason that we all know, and that’s just not good for my blood pressure. I will retire in a year or so, after which I hope to write more stories and memoirs on TRW.

TheReaderWrites lies fallow at the moment.

Are you dying to know which posts were the most popular? The first answer is disappointing from a data point of view: it’s just the home page and archives, which means people tuning in and just scrolling, which is awesome, actually. I’ve had tens of thousands of people doing just that. I have a confession to make: it was years before I knew to put individual URLs on the Facebook posts for each review. I just put the URL of the blog itself, so many of those Home Page/Archives hits are just from that! Hopefully, readers know how to use the search bar and are finding the posts they want.

As far as the most popular title, it’s surprising: Echo, by Pam Muñoz Ryan. I have a feeling that a lot of school librarians and teachers give out the web address to their students, not just for this children’s fiction title, but for many of them! Sometimes I seem to have a run on a particular children’s title for days on end. “Hm, thirty people read the review of Wishtree, by Katherine Applegate, today. Oh, and yesterday, too.” Of the top twenty posts, eleven of them are for children or teens. Four are spiritual books, and several are my own stories.

Blackmoor is one of the early Proper Romances by Shadow Mountain.

The third most popular post makes me laugh every time. I have had thousands of hits for the post “What Is a Proper Romance?” It is written about the Shadow Mountain adult series called Proper Romance, and I have searched their website fruitlessly to see if they have a link to EatReadSleep. I have no idea if people are truly looking for those books or if they are trying to inject virtue into their love lives or those of their teenagers, but I get at least a few reads of that 2015 piece every day.

As I noted above, before 2016, I had written posts that were not book reviews, and some of the most popular with readers and most important to me are the series of posts about my neighbors’ struggle to change North Carolina law concerning cannabidiol, the non-hallucinogenic oil from marijuana. Their daughter, Zora, has intractable epilepsy, and this natural drug had been shown to prevent seizures. I am happy to say that Zora is now a teenager and is living a much healthier life. Furthermore, North Carolina laws about medical marijuana continue to evolve.

Other popular non-book posts include my own— let’s say it— fabulous recipe for low-carb chocolate chip cookies and related cookbook and diet posts. The story about “Southern Guys and Knives” also gets regular hits all the time.

The Best of EatReadSleep series!!

While it is as impossible to choose my favorite pieces as it would be to choose your favorite children (I can’t relate; I have an only child), I want to put a few titles in each category, just for your entertainment and enlightenment. Sort of a “Best of EatReadSleep” so far. Today, we’ll start with adult fiction, with more genres in the coming weeks.

Favorite Adult Novels

Many Americans read mostly fiction, from thrillers to romances, but I have to know for sure that I will love a novel before I crack it open. This is not a problem, since I work in the selection department of a large library system, where I am bombarded by publisher marketing all day long. Plus, the adult fiction selector works just a few feet away, and she keeps us up to date.

Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. My favorite novel of Spring, 2021

I can definitely say that in 2021, my two favorite novels were Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell, in the spring and Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr, in the fall. They were both phenomenal and entirely different from one another. This year, Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the best novel so far. Both Chambers and O’Farrell have new books coming out in the next couple of months, and I am looking forward to them. Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See should be on everyone’s “Books I Need to Read Before I Die” list.

Cloud Cuckoo Land was my favorite novel of Fall, 2021.

Here are some of my other favorite novels over the last few years, in no particular order. Links to the reviews are in the captions.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman. Absorbing with a twist. I do love a twist.

Lila (and others in the series), by Marilynne Robinson. Deep, deep, deep, and fine writing.

The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett. Listen to the audio read by Tom Hanks and read These Precious Days to find out how that happened.

The Personal Librarian and others by Marie Benedict. I’m a librarian, and I’ve been to this library, so of course, but Marie Benedict is bringing many women’s stories to life.

Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng. I can’t speak for the tv series, but this novel made me identify with someone who is nothing like me.

Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. It’s been a bestseller ever since it came out for very good reason. Let’s hope the movie lives up to it. One of my lifetime favorites.

The Almost Sisters, by Joshilyn Jackson. Most people know her for Gods in Alabama, but I like this one so much more.

The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead. Historical fiction with a soupçon of scifi/fantasy.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, by Grady Hendrix. I usually run away from horror novels, but this one had me laughing through my screams.

The Half-Drowned King and sequels, by Linnea Hartsuyker. This series is so underrated. It’s historical fiction, but if you like Game of Thrones, you will like Linnea Hartsuyker.

Uprooted and Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik. Classic fantasy. Grimm’s fairy tales for grownups.

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Stay tuned for more from “The Best of EatReadSleep”, including faith-based nonfiction, books for teens and kids, anti-racist reads, and more!

Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik

Miryem was tired of being poor. She was tired of being cold, scrounging for food, and listening to her mother cough. She had seen a better life. Her mother’s family lived in the city in an impressive house, and they gave her delicious food and fine clothes when she visited. In their little village, though, her parents were scorned and hated because they were the only Jewish people in town—and because they were moneylenders.

Panov and Panovna Mandelstam’s pity and kindness made them the worst moneylenders in the world. When her mother’s health plunged to frightening lows, Miryem took matters into her own hands and went door to door to collect the debts their neighbors owed them. She had observed her grandfather and had learned to read and do sums. The villagers found her quite intimidating. Not only did she collect payments, though, she also learned to trade shrewdly, and soon her family was well fed, and she was putting gold into a safe at her grandfather’s house. She hired servants, and their lives were changed.

Miryem’s success did not go unobserved, particularly by the king of the Staryk, an icy civilization that existed in a world parallel to hers. The Staryk usually kept to their own pursuits, but when they were greedy or irritated with the humans, one could see their frozen roads shining closer than usual to the people’s homes. One day, the Staryk king knocked on the Mandelstams’ door and handed Miryem a small sack of silver coins, demanding that she change them into gold. Miryem knew that she had no magic powers, but could only change silver to gold in the mortal way: trading material things for a higher price. When she succeeded the first time, the Staryk set higher and higher tasks for her, until the day came when he carried her off to his crystalline castle, where she would marry him, become his prisoner, and change all the silver in his kingdom into gold.

Novik, author of the bestselling Uprooted, tells this story in several voices, as Miryem’s life touches and changes many others. As forces both human and supernatural threaten to bring permanent winter to the land, Miryem bands together with the young tsarina in a fight to save their loved ones’ lives. The plan will take courage, trust in their co-conspirators, perfect timing, and the ability to move back and forth between parallel worlds without detection. Fiery demons and icy faeries move in a fantastical Russian landscape in this feminist retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.

For adult fans of retold fairy tales, this novel is fast-paced, thrilling, and even a bit romantic. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: I read an advance reader copy of this book. Opinions expressed are solely my own and may not reflect those of my employer or anyone else.

Books for All

While I was unable to type comfortably, books piled up on my desk for review. Not too many books, since I was also unable to look down to read for as long as I wished, but here are three that I still want to share.

Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. Every ten years, the Dragon comes to Agnieszka’s village to choose a young woman to come to his tower to serve him for the next ten years. Agnieszka and her best friend, Kasia, are born in the year from which a girl will be chosen, and all of their lives, they and everyone they know has believed that Kasia will be chosen. She is the most beautiful and has been raised to have all of the skills a maidservant would need. Agnieszka dreads letting go of her dearest friend, and she knows she will never be close to her again, because once the Dragon— who is a powerful wizard—is finished with a girl, she is changed and usually goes to live far away from her family.

No one is more surprised than Agnieszka when she is chosen instead of Kasia. She is not ready! She has never been prepared for a life of service! But the service the Dragon requires is nothing that anyone in the village has ever imagined, and Agnieszka is more than ready.

This adult fantasy novel is filled with magic, terrifying danger, and a bit of romance. A fast-paced read, it is the beginning of a series that will have tremendous appeal to teens, as well. There is occult content and a sex scene, so use your best judgment.

Orbiting Jupiter, by Gary Schmidt. Jack’s family took in a foster child, Joseph, even though all of the authorities warned them that he was trouble. He had almost killed someone, he had been in jail, and, at the age of fourteen, he had become the father of a daughter named Jupiter—a daughter he was never allowed to see. Jack was around Joseph more than anyone else, however, and although he could see the pain and anger that was constantly seething within him, Jack watched him stare up at the night sky through their bedroom window every night, searching for Jupiter, and he knew that there was love and anguish inside Joseph, as well. Besides, Rosie the cow loved him, as she showed each morning and evening when Joseph milked her, and “you can tell a whole lot about someone from the way cows are around him.” (p. 32) A boy with Joseph’s past, though, often has too many things already stacked against him to ever be able to live a normal life.

Gary Schmidt is one of the best children’s writers around. His sweet, often humorous prose pulls hard on the heartstrings as he tells a story that could have been too coarse in lesser hands. He sympathetically yet realistically portrays the struggles of a young boy whose actions would be seen as honorable and responsible in an adult man, but at his age could only bring grief and punishment. A Calvin College professor, Schmidt writes stories that show ordinary, church-going families giving sacrificial love so quietly that it either goes unnoticed or is misunderstood by those around them. My favorite books by Schmidt are the Newbery-Honor winning The Wednesday Wars and its companion novel, Okay for Now. Orbiting Jupiter, although it is quite brief, is intended for a somewhat older audience.

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud. Since The Problem started decades ago, ghosts and hauntings have been on the rise everywhere, and because children are much more sensitive to otherworldly phenomena than adults are, the most talented children have been trained to capture and exterminate Visitors, working through the night and often losing their lives in the fight. Lucy Carlyle is able to see apparitions a bit, but her real talent is in hearing them, as she does when she hears the last words of a famous celebrity, reopening a cold murder case and throwing her employer, Anthony Lockwood, into the public eye.

This first volume of the “Lockwood & Co.” series is flat-out scary. Do not expect a Scooby-Doo ending that shows that all of the frightening elements were no more than smoke and mirrors. Stroud dishes up hair-raising scenes involving both ethereal and human adversaries, with lots of bravery and bravado on the part of the heroes. The tone is thoroughly British and quite charming, as when Lucy and Lockwood settle down to a cup of tea before going upstairs for a ghostly battle during which they burn down the house. The characters are engaging, the action is nonstop, and the dialogue is as sharp as their rapiers. For tweens and young teens who don’t mind sleeping with the lights on.

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Disclaimer: I read advance reader copies of Uprooted and Orbiting Jupiter, and I read a library copy of The Screaming Staircase. Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not reflect those of my employers or anyone else.