Category: Discussion Posts

Up Close and (un)Conventional #17 – What to Read with ESL High School Students

Up Close and (un)Conventional #17 – What to Read with ESL High School Students

Up Close and (un)Conventional #17 Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. This is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I’m going to talk a little bit about what books to read with ESL high school students. As many of you already know, I was fortunate enough to have a substitute teacher position from January through June this year at one of the local high schools. And I really loved it! Because my students were advanced, they were supposed to read two novels during the school year, and when I took over for their teacher, they had just started […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #16 – Epilogue or Not?

Up Close and (un)Conventional #16 – Epilogue or Not?

Up Close and (un)Conventional #16 Welcome my Up Close and (un)Conventional, this is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I’m wondering a bit about epilogues. I personally, feel like epilogues can be pretty good, but more often than not, I actually think a story can do even better without one. Epilogues are often set after the end of a story, as a way to bring it, the characters, and even the readers complete closure. I appreciate the feeling behind an epilogue, for sure, a little something to soothe me after a favorite series has ended, for example. However, I find […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #15 – ARC vs Older Review

Up Close and (un)Conventional #15 – ARC vs Older Review

Up Close and (un)Conventional #15 Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. This is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I’m wondering what other bloggers have noticed about their reviews and where they get the most interactions with other bloggers. It has been pretty consistent for me that my ARC reviews get quite a bit of traffic, but not that many comments. I can understand it, because I sometimes read ARC reviews for books I want in a diagonal way, so as to not be spoiled. And commenting only to say I only partly read the review can be […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #14 – What is a Good Book?

Up Close and (un)Conventional #14 – What is a Good Book?

Up Close and (un)Conventional #14 – What is a Good Book? Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. This is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I’m going to share what I expect from a good book. There are several things that are important for me in order to make me enjoy a story, and here are some of those things: Good writing! This includes not being too cliché, and to write grammatically correct sentences. It has happened sometimes that a homonym has been used, and thus changed the meaning of a sentence, and that can completely take me […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #13 – Mature and sexy characters

Up Close and (un)Conventional #13 – Mature and sexy characters

Up Close and (un)Conventional #13 – Mature and Sexy Characters Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. This is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about more mature characters, especially in contemporary romance novels. Since I’m what could only be described as ‘mature’ myself, I really enjoy reading about characters who are a little further along in their lives than college students, or those who just found their first job after finishing their degree… And it’s not all that easy to find stories that are sexy, and where the characters are fun even if […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #12 – Freedom of Speech

Up Close and (un)Conventional #12 – Freedom of Speech

Up Close and (un)Conventional #12 – Freedom of Speech Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. This is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I just want to talk about freedom of speech, and how fragile it can be. I’m sure most of you have heard about the horrors that happened in Paris yesterday, at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters. Armed men forced themselves inside the Charlie Hebdo headquarters and killed twelve people, including four of the most famous artists making the caricatural drawings the newspaper is well known for. I think the whole of Europe is in a state […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #11 – Bought vs ARCs

Up Close and (un)Conventional #11 – Bought vs ARCs

Up Close and (un)Conventional #11 – Bought books vs ARCs Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. This is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I’m discussing books I have bought versus ARCs I have requested and received. Going through the books I have read in 2014, I noticed a strange trend! Especially when I worked on my whole year wrap-up post. It seems I’m much better at reading ARCs than I am reading books I’ve bought. While it’s not so difficult to figure out why I read the ARCs first, it’s still a little disconcerting that I favour […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #10 – WP Security?

Up Close and (un)Conventional #10 – WP Security?

Up Close and (un)Conventional #10 Word Press Security Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. I am going to rant a little bit about Word Press security plugins today. Because for a long time, I used Better WP Security, until I couldn’t even log in to my own site, and my host told me it was because there was a virus in the security plugin. Yeah, imagine the look on my face when they let me know the problem came from the plugin that was supposed to make sure my site runs smoothly and can’t be taken over by hackers. I then changed to Bullet Proof Security, but I don’t understand anything from their logs, and I have noticed […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #9 – Privacy

Up Close and (un)Conventional #9 – Privacy

Up Close and (un)Conventional #9 – Privacy Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. During the week of October 20 to 26, there was a lot of scary happenings in the online community, and I didn’t really join in any of the discussions during that week, because I was traveling. I did read the infamous Guardian article, though, as well as several blog-posts showing time-lines, why that article is so dangerous, and also why fact-checking is extremely important. Now, apart from being a fellow blogger, I don’t really have any beef in this latest drama. However, I think that the fact that I don’t know the blogger who was stalked, and because I haven’t read (or shelved) any of […]

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Up Close and (un)Conventional #8 – Classes

Up Close and (un)Conventional #8 – Classes

Up Close and (un)Conventional #8 – Classes Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. I am going to talk a little bit about my classes this week, because my long summer vacation is finally over, and classes started again this week. Last week, I got the news that I have completed my BA and got my degree in English language and literature and General Linguistics. I was totally happy-dancing, opening the champagne and celebrating that! It took me four years, but I did it! So, now I’m starting my MA classes in English language and literature, and I am debating whether or not to start substitute teaching as well. Some you might already know that I used to be […]

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