December 03, 2020

Hope, Faith & Books is moving + a new name + 2021 Dystopia Reading Challenge News!

 

As those of you who have been following me for at least the past year or so know, I've really struggled to find the motivation to want to keep blogging on Hope, Faith & Books. Not because I hate reading or anything, but because I've felt like since this blog was started solely as my book review blog that I have ended up stuck. I don't solely want to blog about books anymore as so much in my life has changed in the almost 10 years since I started blogging. And truthfully, I'm no longer happy with the name either. While it fit when I first started blogging, I don't feel like it fits now. So throughout 2020 while I was dealing with life and my depression, something in the back of my head all year was renaming/moving the blog so I could actually come back to the hobby I love and actually enjoy it again. While it's taken me most of the year, I finally settled on a name I love, that is still short and easy to remember, but also lets me blog about more than just books. You'll see why in just a minute with the name. This is a name I came up with in October. I let it sit for a good month and a half to see if I'd still love it after some time passed. And upon coming back to it I still really do love it. 

So let me introduce you to the new blog: 


Game, Read, Teach!

So yes, I technically started a new blog. I didn't want to just up and changed this blogs name and leave people confused when they get here. You'll notice though it is just another blogger blog, not moved to wordpress or anything. I don't want to pay for a website right now. I have no issues with the free blogger service I use. Plus school comes first over things like a website so the money is needed elsewhere. But yeah, I wanted anyone that comes to the blog to still see a name they recognize and then see where it went instead of being confused. PLUS... Lets face it Hope, Faith & Books is almost 10 years old. I guarantee you at least, but probably more than half the people that follow me in various ways (GFC, email, etc) don't even blog anymore. This will now let me see how many people are actively following and still around. As I hope all of you that still actively receive my posts will come follow me over at Game, Read, Teach. I have all the same options as I had for Hope, Faith & Books so all you have to do is resubscribe over there in which ever way you were here. Nothing to complicated. This obviously only applies to people following me on GFC, email, etc. If you follow the social media accounts for my updates, those have already been changed to the new name and your still set! 

So the nitty gritty on the new blog.

Things that are the same:
  • Yes, I will still talk books, post reviews, etc. 
  • I will still host the dystopia reading challenge! In fact, the sign-ups just went live. So if you plan to participate, pop on over and sign up! And share so people see it's "new" home. 
  • All my previously posted reviews, discussions, etc have been imported to Game, Read, Teach. Obviously I've put a lot of time into the content on Hope, Faith & Books. Even though I technically have a new blog, I absolutely want my previous content over there as its still applicable. And eventually, Hope, Faith & Books will be removed. I just plan to give time for followers to see this post and move with me before removing HFB because I love all of you that have stuck with me and absolutely want you to come with me!

Things new or Different at Game, Read, Teach:
  • I feel like blogging again! 
  • I feel like I can blog about more than books. Like I said, obviously still will, but you all know I've wanted so bad to talk others things too. I'm so excited to share and chat these other subjects with you over there. Obviously other big topics you can expect come from my love of gaming and from the fact I'm working towards being a teacher! 
  • I made graphics. Guys. I made buttons and a header and little separators like I did for HFB posts. But they all match! And I'm loving them so much!! This is the first time I've had a header instead of just the name typed out and I'm freaking loving it. I smile so much every time I open GRT and see it. 
  • I'm finally feeling the freedom I've been wanting for the past year or so when it comes to my blog.
I'm incredibly excited guys! 
Make sure to come by and resubscribe (if needed)!
We are going to have a great time on my new blogging journey and I truly hope you'll enjoy the new types of content you'll see from me as well as the bookish content you've enjoyed in the past! 

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November 28, 2020

A Few Months Recap

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality as a way to share all the books we got during the week!

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. Its a weekly post to showcase what books you got, recap the week, and talk about what will be coming up this week on the blog!


  • Night of the Dragon (Shadow of the Fox #3) by Julie Kagawa
  • Fable by Adrienne Young
  • These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin
  • Kingdom of the Wicked (Kingdom of the Wicked #1) by Kerri Maniscalco
  • Traitor by Amanda McCrina
  • The Project by Courtney Summers



  • Imagine Me (Shatter Me #6) by Tahereh Mafi

So its been a while since I've posted. Most of the year in fact. Its just been a rough year. I think we all can agree on that. I just haven't been in it. So many times I sat down to write a post and I just wasn't feeling it. So I'll just chat a little bit about why. I fell into a depression for a while. It was just hard for me to even get up and do things. I left my job at Amazon in June as it was contributing to my depression. Long story short with that, I was trying to get a transfer to a different department because the one I was in was causing me pain. There was literally one thing I was trained to do that my manager refused to listen to me about that was causing me significant pain. Like leave work in tears, spend my days off crying and trying not to move my arm kind of pain. I knew one of the other departments wouldn't cause me that pain, but between my manager not approving my transfer requests and HR refusing to do anything about it I had to leave. This manager only catered to her favorites and you were garbage if you weren't one. I wasn't one. Eventually she got removed as my shifts manager because almost our entire shift complained about her treatment. But it was too little too late by then. I had been trying to transfer since January. I left halfway through June. Between her, HR and our "wellness center" which was where we were supposed to go when we were injured, I had enough. The wellness center had the nerve to tell me I was faking my injury. I felt really depressed because I actually liked working for Amazon but I wasn't going to destroy my arm and end up on disability because of it at 27. But because of all this I dreaded going to work because I never knew if I'd leave uninjured or in excruciating pain. This all really contributed to me being depressed for a while.

Things have kind of started looking up though. I decided at the beginning of October to go back to school and get my Bachelors. So December 1st I'm starting my first term at Western Governors University to finally get my Elementary Education degree to become a teacher. And truthfully I'm actually excited about it. Since deciding to go back to school I've also started applying to schools for aide positions. I actually have 3 interviews this Monday for 5 aide openings (2 schools have 2 openings available). So I'm trying to be really hopeful about those. I'd love to work as an aide so I can get classroom experience before actually doing student teaching and getting my own classroom. The two districts I have the interviews for are also districts I'd love to work in so I'm gonna try my best to land one of these. Plus I'd be incredibly less stressed compared to Amazon working in a school when its what I'm going to school for. So I'm really hoping. 

I'm just exhausted over this year though. Its just been straight trash for the most part. At least the year seems to be ending on a better note for me. I am changing the blog like I've said though. I've decided on a new name. So I'm in the process of working on those changes. I feel like it fits better now. Its a little bit broader. Not overly broad, but it's not just specific to books now, however it still has something related to books in the title. Its still short and sweet like my current name. But yeah, I'm feeling better about it. I'm still planning on hosting the Dystopia Reading Challenge for next year, and actually being here more. I'm sure you guys understand my absence though. Sometimes you just need to put yourself first and come back to things later. And I needed to get through the hard parts of my depression this year before even thinking about coming back. And you won't fully see me back until next year. I'll post the challenge sign ups. And probably a post about the new name and some other things, but I won't be back regularly until 2021. But yeah, the name will change in December. The challenge graphics will have the new name, I'll have a new header, overall look will stay. Color change though to go with the header. I feel like I'm gonna have a better time coming back to blogging with the changes and it'll really feel like a fresh start. I'm looking forward to talking with you all again and catching up! If it helps, the fact I'm using my blue signature again gives you a hint of the color change. It'll be close to that. 

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February 28, 2020

Stacking The Shelves #151/Sunday Post #83

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality as a way to share all the books we got during the week!

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. Its a weekly post to showcase what books you got, recap the week, and talk about what will be coming up this week on the blog!


So I've never really been into Manga. Boyfriend says I should give it a try. Orange is one of the ones I've been wanting to try for a while now and I finally found it at Barnes & Noble! So far I'm actually enjoying it. So success! 

So not much has been going on. I did finally get the colors updated to what I said I wanted. I really like it! Now just to finish up some graphics and we'll be good! But definitely happy with the coloring! I'm finally reading! As mentioned above I'm reading Orange. Hopefully this is what pulls me out of my slump as I've just been having trouble picking up books and I'm actually looking forward to when I get to read this! Fingers crossed! 

I got my tax refund this week! So now I can finally go buy a few more things I've needed. Like a vacuum. The things you look forward to buying as an adult, am I right? Lol. But it'll be nice to have a good vacuum again. 

I've been playing more Warframe on the PS4. Its what I've been doing to unwind from work. Playing for an hour or two just helps me relax. I've been making decent progress I feel like. I've only been playing about a month and I feel like for just playing a little after work and some on my days off, I've unlocked a fair amount of stuff and made decent progress storyline wise. So that's nice. 
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February 16, 2020

Stacking The Shelves #150/Sunday Post #82

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality as a way to share all the books we got during the week!

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. Its a weekly post to showcase what books you got, recap the week, and talk about what will be coming up this week on the blog!


So idk why, but I feel like I'm really in the mood for some world wars based books. So I bought this so I can read both OMS and DDP at the same time! 

So yeah. Haven't been posting much. I just haven't finished a book yet. If you noticed (which I'm sure you have reading this in the first place), I changed the template on the blog again. I just wanted something with a lot more flexibility with changing the colors and with this one I can do that without having to buy a new template every time cuz certain things are only certain colors. I really like this one. Plus, there's a few things on this one that are more user friendly I think than my previous ones. So at the moment its a work in progress. The current color is not what I'm keeping. It's just the base color of it. I'm gonna be working on making it I think, like a sea green. I've been testing a few colors and so far I really like how that one looks in the tests. So it'll end up more green as I work on the coloring changes. 

I've also decided two things going forward with the blog. The first one being that I don't want it to focus solely on books anymore. While that was what it was all about when I started it in 2011, it's now 2020 and I want to be able to post about other things on here as well. Now don't get me wrong, its still going to primarily be a book blog. Like 75% of the content is still going to be book related. I just want to be able to talk about other things on here as well. Some of those things being games, TV, being a parent, etc. Other things in my life. While I give snippets here and there, there's just some things I'd love to be able to talk more about and changing how I post on my blog gives me that flexibility to now. If you noticed, there's a new section in the menus titled lifestyle, which is where I'll link posts outside of books. The second thing, is I want to rename it because of said changes. Again, I named the blog in 2011 too, and I just want something that feels more in tune with things today. Obviously I still want it to be a name involving books somehow, but just something different. This is something I've been thinking about for a long while now. That being said, nothing will change involving things I host, etc, except me updating graphics with a new blog name. Lol. The only problem I'm having with this is I'm having so much trouble coming up with a new name. I've been tossing around so many ideas and nothing has sticked so far with me 100% liking it. So if you got any ideas or suggestions for renaming the blog, feel free to toss them out. If you give me a suggestion I like, or one that leads to a good name I like, I might just buy you a book for the good idea. Lol. Cuz I'm just struggling to find something solid I like name wise so far. 

Outside of blog changes, things are going fairly good. Ana's prepping for a lot. She's graduating preschool in May and she's starting Kindergarten in the fall. I've already got her registered for Kindergarten. OMG guys, I have a soon to be Kindergartener. Why do kids have to grow up so fast??? Ahhhh. We're excited though. She got to meet one of the teachers at the school already and sit down with her for a few minutes. Very impressed with how much she's learned in preschool so far. Ana is so excited to start in the fall. Fun bits, I dyed my hair a dark purple. I love having a job that doesn't have issues with fun hair colors. One of these days I'll get a good pic and put it on the blogs instagram. Lol. The apartment is furnished now. And I have an actual bed. Not just a metal frame. It's so nice!!!! I've also been enjoying cooking a lot more now that I can do that with my own place again. Things have definitely been going well. Fun fact from work. Our building was in the top 3 for launch buildings. And we even outdid other buildings in productivity that launched before us (we launched end of Sept 2019). So that's pretty cool. 
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January 05, 2020

2020 Dystopia Reading Challenge: January-June Link-Up

Welcome to the first half of the 2020 Dystopia Reading Challenge!! This will be the first of two bi-annual link-ups for your reviews! So this link-up will cover January, February, March, April, May & June! The link-up will always be easily accessible by hovering over Dystopia Reading Challenge tab and selecting Review Link-Up from the drop down menu. :)

HELPFUL LINKS:


LINK-UP GUIDELINES:

  • Link up your book reviews under "Review Link-up" as follows: Name of book @ Your blog name, Goodreads, Shelfari, Booklikes, etc.
  • Make sure to use an email you check, because if you win the giveaway, I'll be using that email to contact you. Remember, each review you link up is an entry into the giveaway! :) Giveaway is open international as long as the Book Depository ships to you! :)
  • Try and stop by some other reviews! Lets create a sense of community and get to talking with each other! :)

JANUARY-JUNE REVIEW LINK-UP


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter


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January 04, 2020

Stacking The Shelves #149/Sunday Post #81

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality as a way to share all the books we got during the week!

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. Its a weekly post to showcase what books you got, recap the week, and talk about what will be coming up this week on the blog!


So obviously I had to get the B&N edition of The Queen of Nothing to go with my B&N editions of the first two! I also stumbled upon 50% off books when I went to buy Children of Virtue and Vengeance. So I might have indulged myself a little. I had some extra money from all the OT I did during peak. 
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December 10, 2019

2020 Dystopia Reading Challenge Sign-Up

Welcome to the 6th annual Dystopia Reading Challenge! 2020 is my third year hosting it and I'm so excited about it! I'll be hosting some giveaways and of course we are still going to earn our fun badges from years past!

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask them in the comments!

THE GUIDELINES
  • This challenge will run from January 1, 2020 - December 31, 2020.
  • You can join at anytime before December 1, 2020.
  • Books must be read and reviewed in 2020.
  • Audiobooks, re-reads, short stories, and crossovers are fine.
  • You don't have to be a book blogger to participate! You can track your progress on Goodreads, Shelfari, Booklikes, Youtube, etc.
  • Sign up below with your post, shelf, etc. and leave a comment letting us know what your personal goal is.
  • Can be combined with other challenges! Cuz who doesn't like reading books that count for multiple challenges??
  • Link up your reviews on the bi-annual post we'll provide!
  • Use the hashtag #2020DystopiaReads to share your reviews and chat with others on Twitter (and Instagram if you use that as well) doing the challenge!

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