Today I would like to give a very belated thank you to Deanna at The Book Lover’s Attic for thinking of me for the Shine On award. About a month ago, I was certain I would have this post up any day, but this month has been unusually busy and so here we are. As I recently received the WordPress Family award which allowed me to recognize some friendly wordpress bloggers, I’ll be using this award to recognize some non-wordpress bloggers who have also been incredible about making me feel welcome in the blogging community

THE SHINE ON AWARD
Here are the rules of the award:
1. Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Acknowledge that blogger on your blog, and link back.
3. Share seven random, interesting things about yourself.
4. Nominate up to 15 bloggers for the Shine On Award, provide a link to their blogs in your post, and notify them on their blogs.

First, my seven random things:

1. I recently got to see Maggie Stiefvater at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, NY!
2. I’m currently taking a very  interesting class on general linear models but it is largely responsible for my recent reduced posting rate.
3. I’m very excited for blogging events this month, including Non-fiction November and the Orange is the New Black read-a-long.
4. Raisinets are my motivational snack of choice for making myself write.
5. I love challenges and am already thinking about which ones I’ll be doing next year.
6. I’m watching all of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes for the first time and I think they’re a lot of fun.
7. Ebooks are really growing on me, which could be bad for my self-restraint when it comes to requesting ARCs.

And now to pass on the award! My nominees are:

Jenn at The Relentless Reader
Allison at The Book Wheel
Rebecca at Love At First Book
Asti at A Bookish Heart
Kelly at The Well-Read Redhead
Jessica at The Quirky Bookworm
Aylee at Recovering Potter Addict
Suey at It’s All About Books
Anya at On Starships and Dragonwings
Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness
Charlene at Bookish Whimsy
Birana and Krysta at Pages Unbound

It’s possible I’ll think of more to round out my 15 but for now, that’s the list. Thanks for being so awesome you guys!

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Last week I was in Austin for a plant pathology conference, and while some of it was amazing (great talks, meeting some professors I really admire) parts of it were less great (being the only one from lab was lonely and wow was the conference exhausting). So especially given how tired I was, it was just the nicest pick-me-up to check my blog and find out that kepagewriter had nominated me for the versatile blogger award :) Below are the rules for those who receive the award, my 7 interesting things about me, and my 15 bloggers to whom I’m passing on the award. I’d love to write a lot about each of them, but since there are 15, I’ll just highlight a few of my favorite parts of each blog.

The Award Rules

1. Display the Award Certificate on your blog.
2. Announce your win with a post. Make sure to post a link back to the blogger who nominated you.
3. Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers.
4. Drop them a comment to tip them off after you have linked them in the post.
5. Post 7 interesting things about yourself.

7 Interesting Things

1. I’ve just signed up for two pen pal exchanges, including one run by Book.Blog.Bake for which I’m paired with Kelly at The Well-Read Redhead.
2. The other pen pal exchange is run by The Nectar Collective and I’ve been paired with Laura at The Pink Herbivore.
3. I’d love to get better at nature photography, so any recommendations for tutorials would be awesome.
4. I love pancakes. But really, who doesn’t?
5. Lately magical realism has been one of my favorite genres.
6. I’m going to grad school because I love teaching college students.
7. I’m currently going through one of those phases where it’s hard to focus on the book I’m reading because I have so many good books on my TBR pile!

The 15 Nominees!

1. Recovering Potter Addict - I love her helpful, thoughtful YA reviews
2. Girl XoXo - great reviews from varied genres, helpful list features, awesome link-ups
3. The Book Garden - features non-fiction, finds fun bookish crafts, writes discussion posts that make me think
4. Good Books and Good Wine - runs a great 15-question discussion meme, helps me find new/indie fantasy and sci-fi, uses gifs judiciously
5. Paper Sanctuary - I cannot get enough of her rants that say exactly what I’m thinking (recent favorites include one about “strong” female protagonists who do nothing and one about self-sacrificing characters)
6. Unabridged Chick - great historical fiction reviews and pretty much the most helpful review format ever
7. Always With a Book - her reviews are always just the right length and have exactly the info I want about a book
8. A Little Blog of Books and Other Stuff - some of the best written reviews I’ve read, a great place for reviews of literary books
9. Book Paper Cut - another blog that has reviews that are exactly what I look for in length and content, mostly YA
10. Quirky Bookworm - great reviews of cozy mysteries and historical fiction, does a great job encouraging discussion
11. Year in Books - awesome source of indie book recommendations,
12. The Indiscriminate Critic - another blog with some exceptional writing and a great place for audiobook reviews
13. Bitches With Books - very fun, lots of great features, of her Harry Potter spoofs are some of my favorites
14. Write Meg – friendly and personable, exactly what I look for in reviews, plus some spectacular photography
15. The Blog of Litwits - extremely well written reviews of literary fiction and classics, does a great job encouraging discussion

So go check these blogs out! They’re all wonderful and really deserve the recognition.

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