Christmas | Amanda Haimoto Rudd

Hello folks! This is just a quick heads-up to let you all know that I will not have a full blog post up this Friday, as it is Christmas Week and I have family stuff, etc. I plan to have my “Fave Reads of the Year” list up the following Friday (last Friday of the year!). I have a long list worked out, but I am having a very difficult time cutting it down, lol! This is always my problem with all sorts of “best of” lists. I love too many things and I hate trying to prioritize, put in numerical order, or cut down, so we’ll see how it goes…

Also: I have a couple of upcoming-release books I plan to review. HOWEVER, they are both HarperCollins books, and I am waiting to post reviews of these books until the current HarperCollins strike is resolved. While this does impact the authors, most of the affected authors have voiced enthusiastic support for the striking HarperCollins union. They have encouraged book reviewers NOT to cross the virtual picket line, and to withhold reviews until further notice.

If you are unfamiliar with the HarperCollins Union strike, here’s a decent and brief run-down of what’s going on from The Washington Post: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/harpercollins-staffers-are-striking-here-e2-80-99s-why-that-matters-to-readers/ar-AA15i38K

For discussion of the strike from the Union itself, there are these two press releases:

Initial Press Release, Oct 17th

Updated Press Release, Dec 7th

I also highly recommend following the Strike account on Twitter: @/hcpunion for all updates, and links to ways you can support the strike.

Ok, that’s all from me for now! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Happy Chanukah to my friends in the Jewish community! And a general happy week to everyone, religious or not! See you all after Christmas!

Just sending out a quick little post to say Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy Kwanza! I’m afraid I missed my chance to say Happy Hanukkah as that ended over a week ago (apologies!) but the sentiment remains!

My family and I are not particularly religious these days, but we still go all out for Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday – I just love the colors and the lights and the decorations and the music and the food and the whole atmosphere! My mother and I, in particular, are a bit obsessed, actually…. we have FIVE Christmas trees! Each has a different theme or color scheme! We only put up three of them this year, though. My mother also has a collection of Santas and Nutcrackers that we display every year! Anyway, here’s a few photos of our decorations, in case a few colorful festive photos might make anyone smile.