Monday, June 4, 2012

Armchair BEA - Introductions First

Armchair BEA - Introductions First

Welcome friends and first time visitors.  This is my 2nd year participating in Armchair BEA and I am happy to be back for more fun and adventure.  I met some amazing bloggers last year, won some good books and participated in my first twitter party.

Today we are supposed to introduce ourselves by answering 5 questions.  So here goes.
  1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?
 Hi, My name is Laura and I live in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I am a high school social studies teacher and I currently teach, World Studies, Government, Economics and AP Human Geography.  It is a busy schedule but I love it.  I have been married for 18 years, I have one son who is 14 and a daughter who is 11 and a super cute, huge dog named Titus, (he's 90 pounds).  Everyone in the family loves books, including the dog.  All in all, I lead a super busy life and I hardly ever watch TV. 

I have been blogging for a little over two years, since February 2010.  I started blogging because I love to write and wanted a creative outlet and since I also love to read, a book blog was a natural fit.  The push to start my blog came at a time when my family was going through a really hard time.  My husband was very sick (low vitamin D), my son was depressed and my dog was in the hospital.  I needed to do something for myself to take away the stress and so I started writing.  I have come a long way since then and have learned a ton.

2.  What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?

I read more than one book at a time so I am currently reading A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway.  It is for a read-a-long that just started in June for the World War I challenge.  You can find information about it here:  http://warthroughthegenerations.wordpress.com/   I am almost done with Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  Infidel is an amazing read so far.  I am reading King Peggy by Peggielene Bartels as well and have about 100 pages left.  There are a few other books I have started too.

The best book I have read this year is Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.  It is truly amazing and after you finish reading it, you will feel like you just survived a hurricane's wrath.  You can read my book review here:  Salvage the Bones review

3.  What is your favorite feature on your blog (i.e. author interviews, memes, something specific to your blog?

My favorite part of my blog is the Hometown Track feature (see right sidebar).  This is where I feature a author from Minnesota for a whole month.  I get to meet a lot of great authors and read one of their books and it is really cool.  This month I am featuring Jonathan Odell, author of The Healing.  It is really fun to feature local authors and form a working relationship with them.  I meet most of the authors I feature at the Minnesota Book Fair but now that I have been blogging for 2 years, I have friends and authors contact me to make suggestions.  This meme ensures that I read widely and support indie authors in the process.  What could be better than that?

4.  If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?

This is such a good question.  Well, I wish I had more time to ponder this but the first fictional character who popped in my head was Scarlet O'Hara.  Gone with the Wind is my favorite book and so meeting Scarlett and having a good southern meal at the Tara plantation would be super cool.   I have a lot of questions for her and I bet she'd be entertaining.

5.  What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

I would like to visit Barcelona, Spain on April 23rd, the international day of the book. This is the day that both Shakespeare and Cervantes died on (4-23-1616).  It is also the feast day of St. George who is the patron saint of Greece (and possibly Spain too).  The tradition is to give someone you love a rose and book on this day.  They have huge celebrations in Barcelona with book sellers lining the streets and I would love to be there someday.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you can and Have a great day!  Only 3 more days of school until school is out for the summer!