H.S. Stone's Blog, page 9

Leap day

Happy Leap Day! It's not often we get a February 29, so to celebrate this day that comes only once every four years (roughly), I researched some questions I've had about leap years, and I wanted to share what I found with all of you.

1. Why do we have leap years?
This one is easy, and you probably already know the answer. The Earth takes more than 365 days to orbit the sun. To be more precise, rounding to three decimal places, it takes 365.242 days for our planet to circle the sun. If we didn't...

NY Times Best Seller Reading Challenge

One of my favorite aspects of past reading challenges has been reading books by authors who are new to me and (sometimes) whom I wouldn't ordinarily read otherwise. I was exposed to some of my favorite books through reading challenges. They include Legend by Marie Lu, This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales, and Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen (which I read as part of last year's reading challenge).

I have high expectations for this year's reading challenge, which I'm calling the NY Times...

Favorite reads of 2019

Happy New Year, everyone! As we get ready to welcome 2020, here were my favorite reads of 2019.


1. The Wife Between Us - Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Many books have claimed to be the next Gone Girl, but of all the psychological thrillers I've read since Gillian Flynn's, The Wife Between Us is the most worthy successor. The book is full of twists, some of which I was able to guess but some that I was happily surprised by. It's also written in a way that kept me turning the pages, wanting...

What I read in 2019

As another year comes to an end, it's time to review the books that I read in the last twelve months. In 2019, I read 84 books, one less than in 2018.

The average rating for the books I read was 4.01 stars per book, broken down as follows:
5 stars - 24 books4 stars - 37 books 3 stars - 23 books 
The 4.01 stars average was a slight decrease from the 4.07 stars per book in 2018.

Of the 84 books read, 26 were part of the Authors A to Z Challenge that I embarked on in January. One of the...

What would you do with a Groundhog Day time loop?

I watched a movie recently that was similar to "Groundhog Day" in that the main character relived the same day over and over. I don't know if "Groundhog Day" invented the genre, but it's pretty amazing to think of the number of movies following the same plot: "Before I Fall," "Edge of Tomorrow," and "Happy Death Day" (the movie I just watched) to name a few.

Columbia Pictures
The movie got me thinking about what I would do if I were to ever be caught in a Groundhog Day time loop. First, it...

Harry Potter vs. Star Wars, Theme Park Edition

It's no surprise that there are many similarities between Harry Potter and Star Wars. They both now share something else: with the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney World and Disneyland this year, both franchises have theme parks, coincidentally in Orlando and Los Angeles.

Famblooey!

Did you know that Dr. Seuss invented the word "nerd"? Or that John Milton came up with "pandemonium"? Charles Dickens coined words such as "doormat" and "boredom" (no comment on the irony of the latter), and many words in the English language can be attributed to Shakespeare. The reason I mention these words invented by authors is that I've started using a new word of my own invention: famblooey.

What does "famblooey" mean? Think of the best place you've ever been for vacation. That place was...

2019 Summer Sale

If you're feeling blue because summer is almost over, I have something to help cheer you up: a summer book sale! For the next seven days, most of my e-books will be on sale for 99 cents or FREE on Amazon! Snap up these titles before they return to their normal prices on August 11!

99 CENTS:
      Beneath
the Earth  All That
Remains of Me  Beyond
New Eden  Gifted
      Transmissions  In the Hands of
Children  Keep Your
Enemies Close  George...

2019 Authors A to Z update

At the beginning of the year, one of the reading goals I set for myself was to read 26 books by authors whose last names begin from A all the way to Z. With 2019 half over, I've read 12 of those 26 books, spanning A to L.

A big reason why I like challenges like this is that it forces me to read authors I normally wouldn't. Mission accomplished so far. Nine of the 12 books I've read during the challenge have been new authors I've never read before. More surprising was how much I enjoyed some of...

Finding room for books

Image courtesy of My Modern Met
I admit that I have a book buying addiction. I buy books every month. I buy them online and I buy them from physical stores. I buy new books and used. You name it, I'm interested. This is not a post about how to defeat my addiction though. It's about what to do with all of these books once I've bought them.

At this point, I have three bookshelves full of books in my room. My kids have bookshelves where books that once belonged to me are stored if they're interest...