#bookstagram

Monday, August 21, 2017 | | 1 comments
Are you on Instagram? I am! It’s fun! If you follow/have followed me there, I changed my handle to @ceceliareads in June. It’s all books all the time. My personal handle (for photos of not-book things – most likely scenery, sports & coffee) is still live, too.


After I changed my handle I mentioned to several real-life friends that I’d started to do the “bookstagram thing.” Most of them couldn’t see any difference between my feed then and my feed now, so I guess we’ll chalk that up to me being extra on-brand with bookstagram. I did get one complaint about too many photos of socks, but what can you do? #socksunday, y’all.

For those not in the know, bookstagram (with or without the #) is the bookish community on Instagram. Participants take photos of books or book-adjacent things, use the hashtag for easy discovery, and then (as far as I can tell), go around telling people how beautiful their photos are and how excited they are to read [insert book title here]. It’s pretty great.

I was inspired by a few bookstagrammers I met at the Fierce Reads party at Book Expo. I looked them up after the fact and thought, yeah, I could do that! And then I had to figure out how to take tons of photos of books without getting really boring and repetitive.

Well folks, aside from the #socksunday idea I was stumped about how to make my photos stand out. I don’t collect book swag (bookmarks, trading cards, branded knick knacks, etc.), I don’t subscribe to any book delivery services, and I can’t afford to spend a fortune at the craft store – nor do I want to. Then I had an awesome brainstorm: could I use the flowers at work?

an example of a typical bouquet at our office. see those orange mini roses?

Work for me is in a nice-ish building in downtown DC, and the office has a standing Monday morning bouquet order with a local florist. It makes the reception area look really classy. But from Friday at close of business through Monday AM, the last week’s flowers just sit there (rotting!) – and so I asked the receptionist if I could start taking them on Fridays after the end of the day. Thus, Cecelia’s Friday book & flower photoshoots were born. I now take a stack of books with me to work on Fridays and look forward to the end of the day, when I’ll get to deconstruct the current week’s vase of flowers and create a few looks to fill my feed for the following weeks. I’ve included an example of the before-and-after so you can see what I mean!

the petals made for a beautiful #bookstagram look!

Of course, the flower and book thing is a little precarious – it depends on the goodwill of the office staff and me staying late every Friday night. So, what else should I feature on my bookstagram? Hit me up with ideas!

the one that got away

I know we’re almost at the end of summer, but if you need one last read for the beach or the Labor Day weekend, I’ve got the perfect recommendation. Melissa Pimentel’s The One That Got Away is a funny and fairly adorable modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. It’s a touching, feel-good story, and a must-read for anyone who has watched Austen adaptations with a smidge of envy.

Ruby and Ethan were perfect for each other. Until the day they suddenly weren't.

Now, ten years later, Ruby is single, having spent the last decade focusing on her demanding career and hectic life in Manhattan. There's barely time for a trip to England for her little sister's wedding. And there's certainly not time to think about what it will be like to see Ethan again, who just so happens to be the best man.

But as the family frantically prepare for the big day, Ruby can't help but wonder if she made the right choice all those years ago. Because there is nothing like a wedding for stirring up the past…

Ruby is a New York career woman through and through, and she’s mostly content with her life. However, with her best friend decamped to New Jersey with baby #2 on the way and her younger sister about to be married in a castle in the UK, she’s reevaluating some things – and worried about seeing her successful ex Ethan at the wedding. What follows is a then-and-now tale of love, loss, and figuring it all out again years after the fact.

Given that Pimentel’s novel is a retelling of Persuasion, you can likely guess the ending. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t some unexpected twists and turns along the way though – this is a thoroughly updated version. I won’t say any more, because I think this book deserves to preserve the surprises it does have.

Beyond the plot, it’s clever and entertaining, and I found myself chuckling several times, or at least smiling down at the book with gentle amusement. Pimentel knows her audience and her pop culture, and I think she infuses the right amount of cute into a familiar storyline without edging over into sappy. I very much enjoyed The One That Got Away.

Now, I do want to be fair and mention things that brought me out of the story a bit, though they didn’t dampen my enjoyment: the first chapter is a bit of a slow set-up, and you have to just push through it and get adjusted to Ruby’s first-person narration. Don’t worry, she’s intelligent and unpretentious, and if you’re anything like me you’ll end up liking her immensely. The second thing is that the book is set up in Then chapters and Now chapters, so you slide between Ruby’s first person present and third person from the past. Third thing: there are several Briticisms scattered about that I don’t imagine would naturally be flowing through an American’s head. But, as the book was published first in the UK, this does not surprise me. And as I mentioned, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book.

In all, The One That Got Away is a satisfying, charming read with a heroine to root for and the perfect dose of English scenery.

Recommended for: fans of modern Jane Austen adaptations, and anyone who likes light, smart, and funny women’s fiction, à la Marian Keyes.

The One That Got Away will be released by St. Martin’s Press on August 22, 2017.

Fine print: I received a finished copy of this book for review consideration. I did not receive any compensation for this post. 
Newer Posts Older Posts Home