Meet Marissa
Hi! If you're stopping by here you must be considering joining the Reading List community, and for that, allow me to say I'd be honored to have you as part of this humble community of writers and readers and bloggers.
I have been blogging on and off for almost 8 years and to be honest it is probably my favorite little hobby. I just love to read. I love to read good books, articles, blog posts, stories... and I love to talk to other people who have read similar things. And that is why I started blogging- I wanted more friends who would want to read and write and talk about it. Thankfully the blogging community is the perfect place to find so many like minded friends. (Read this for more of why I write this blog...)
As far as what makes me worthy to write such a blog... well probably nothing... except I do have an English degree, and spent a few years in the professional editing world. Mostly I read a ton of books. And I read many different types of books. Sure I have my favorites, but I'm willing to give most well-written books a shot. I've found some great characters and learned valuable lessons from books I'd have never wanted to read had someone else not recommended it. So I hope that you might check out some of my recommendations and give something new a chance. And hey, you if read a book I recommend and hate it, I'd love to hear about! Like I said, that is part of this blogging corner, a place to share our thoughts on what we are reading.
I am also a mom, of three... so my time is precious and the spare moments are hard to come by. So I made the decision early on in my career as a mom to carve out time to read, to explore new books and genres and keep my mind interested. Besides, out of all the things my kids could remember about their mom, I'm hoping they always list that she loved to read! I mean I always have a book and my kindle in my purse, not to mention the library app on my phone...
Luckily my kids have adopted my passion for reading. So I have shared many of their favorites, and will every once in a while share a new kids book that is just too good to miss.
A goal of this particular blog is that other moms (and dads... and those who hope to one day be parents) find great books to read, either for themselves or in order to find books to read with their kids as they grow. Books are such a great tool in learning personality traits and characteristics that help round out a person. You can grow in empathy and compassion by reading stories of people who survive difficulties, even if your life is calm and safe. You can learn drive and determination from stories of characters who have to overcome adversity even while you live in sedate country neighborhoods or vice-versa... The library of books is gigantic and growing exponentially every day... my hope is that you might grow to trust the thoughts on books in this small corner of the world and use it as you pick out books to read in your spare time.
If you are a fellow blogger, feel free to join the weekly link up. Feel free to link up any post you want to share! Or if you are a blogger looking for some new venues, shoot me a message and we can set up a guest post for you... We are a community after all.
All of my reviews include my personal thoughts on the book as well as a summary of the plot or focus. I always include why it was good and what wasn't so good about it. To be honest, I have yet to find the perfect book - the joy of art, there will always be flaws in art. My criticisms are not meant in a way to reflect horribly on the author, I just understand that the average American only reads a couple of books a year and therefore is picky about which books to select. So I feel it's only fair to share what my thoughts are, both good and bad.
My rating system is obviously subjective, as all reading ratings are (again we are talking about an art form!). I always write a little about my rating too, as I know this is fully subjective. But here is the general break down:
One Heart: this is for the books I really didn't enjoy all that much, but I finished reading them.
Two hearts: this is for the books I didn't really enjoy, but know other people could enjoy. These books tend to have major editing issues.
Three hearts: This is for the books I enjoyed, even had some great aspects, but there were equal amounts of dislike for me for some reason
Four hearts: This is for the books I really enjoyed. These books tend to have great character development, plot progression and settings. They are definately worth considering
Five hearts: This is for the books that I absolutely love. Finding some negatives is challenging for me. And I would suggest you pick this up from your library or local book store the next time you're looking for a book to read.
I have been blogging on and off for almost 8 years and to be honest it is probably my favorite little hobby. I just love to read. I love to read good books, articles, blog posts, stories... and I love to talk to other people who have read similar things. And that is why I started blogging- I wanted more friends who would want to read and write and talk about it. Thankfully the blogging community is the perfect place to find so many like minded friends. (Read this for more of why I write this blog...)
As far as what makes me worthy to write such a blog... well probably nothing... except I do have an English degree, and spent a few years in the professional editing world. Mostly I read a ton of books. And I read many different types of books. Sure I have my favorites, but I'm willing to give most well-written books a shot. I've found some great characters and learned valuable lessons from books I'd have never wanted to read had someone else not recommended it. So I hope that you might check out some of my recommendations and give something new a chance. And hey, you if read a book I recommend and hate it, I'd love to hear about! Like I said, that is part of this blogging corner, a place to share our thoughts on what we are reading.
I am also a mom, of three... so my time is precious and the spare moments are hard to come by. So I made the decision early on in my career as a mom to carve out time to read, to explore new books and genres and keep my mind interested. Besides, out of all the things my kids could remember about their mom, I'm hoping they always list that she loved to read! I mean I always have a book and my kindle in my purse, not to mention the library app on my phone...
Luckily my kids have adopted my passion for reading. So I have shared many of their favorites, and will every once in a while share a new kids book that is just too good to miss.
A goal of this particular blog is that other moms (and dads... and those who hope to one day be parents) find great books to read, either for themselves or in order to find books to read with their kids as they grow. Books are such a great tool in learning personality traits and characteristics that help round out a person. You can grow in empathy and compassion by reading stories of people who survive difficulties, even if your life is calm and safe. You can learn drive and determination from stories of characters who have to overcome adversity even while you live in sedate country neighborhoods or vice-versa... The library of books is gigantic and growing exponentially every day... my hope is that you might grow to trust the thoughts on books in this small corner of the world and use it as you pick out books to read in your spare time.
If you are a fellow blogger, feel free to join the weekly link up. Feel free to link up any post you want to share! Or if you are a blogger looking for some new venues, shoot me a message and we can set up a guest post for you... We are a community after all.
Are you wondering what kind of posts you'll find here? Click over here to see a collection of all the different posts.
All of my reviews include my personal thoughts on the book as well as a summary of the plot or focus. I always include why it was good and what wasn't so good about it. To be honest, I have yet to find the perfect book - the joy of art, there will always be flaws in art. My criticisms are not meant in a way to reflect horribly on the author, I just understand that the average American only reads a couple of books a year and therefore is picky about which books to select. So I feel it's only fair to share what my thoughts are, both good and bad.
My rating system is obviously subjective, as all reading ratings are (again we are talking about an art form!). I always write a little about my rating too, as I know this is fully subjective. But here is the general break down:
One Heart: this is for the books I really didn't enjoy all that much, but I finished reading them.
Two hearts: this is for the books I didn't really enjoy, but know other people could enjoy. These books tend to have major editing issues. 
Three hearts: This is for the books I enjoyed, even had some great aspects, but there were equal amounts of dislike for me for some reason
Four hearts: This is for the books I really enjoyed. These books tend to have great character development, plot progression and settings. They are definately worth considering
Five hearts: This is for the books that I absolutely love. Finding some negatives is challenging for me. And I would suggest you pick this up from your library or local book store the next time you're looking for a book to read.
Well when I'm not reading or caring for my kiddos, I'm probably out taking pictures. I work as a family photographer, which is a new passion of mine because there is something so priceless about capturing those moments of our lives that pass away all too quickly.
I love to read about other mommies and how they are persevering in this world as they raise little ones for the Kingdom of God. This is why I host the weekly link up!
Mostly, I just love to hear from others. So if you enjoy spending a moment or two reading articles here on Reading List, please leave me a note in the comments, or follow along in social media so I might get to know you!
