Featuring Suey

As part of Utah Book Month, I’m excited to spotlight Suey, the author of the website It’s All About Books. 

Interview with Suey from It’s All About Books 

Suey is a busy mom from Utah who takes the time to read and review books on her website.  Her website biography is deceptively simple.  She says, “I read. I blog. I listen to music and watch TV. I haul kids all over the place, and do homework and make dinner and wash clothes. I work at the library a few hours a week. Sometimes I clean stuff, but only if I have to.”  But when I interviewed Suey, I found out that there’s a lot more to her than that.

1. Why did you become a blogger/book reviewer?   Because I discovered a few years back that my reading habit wasn’t normal compared to the “real ” world, and I wanted a place to talk about the books I read in a “safe” environment where people would “get” me and my excitement over books, since that didn’t seem to happening very well with real life friends.

 2. How did you learn to make your amazing website?  Ha. I don’t think I’ve really learned yet! I just push buttons and see what happens. Or try out things others teach me during Bloggiesta, or Google to find solutions to problems. Or ask my husband to help. Mostly, I’m okay with the simplicity of doing just what Blogger lets me do.

 3. How did you get into blogging?  When many of my online book group friends started talking about book blogs and started talking about book challenges and using their blogs to keep track of those challenges, I decided it was high time for me to join in. I’d thought about a blog for years, but never had the guts to try it. Then when so many bookish people started, I jumped on in.

4.  You read a lot of books for review.  Are there any books that you love so much that you would read them again just for fun?  What are they?  There are TONS of books that I read over and over again. Mostly the Jane Austen books and other classics like Charles Dickens books, but I also love to re-read Markus Zusak’s books. In fact, I’m about ready to start a read along for The Book Thief in September. It will be my third time reading it. We (Kami and Kathy and I) are hoping to get people to join us to read the book before the movie comes out in November, especially if they haven’t read it yet!

 5. What do you do for fun besides read?  Oh boy, lots of things! I enjoy watching all sorts of TV shows, and going to the movies, and listening to music and going to concerts and plays and traveling whenever I can. Sometimes I’ll haul out my quilting stuff and pick up that hobby again. It suffered a lot when I started blogging.  (Suey’s other interests include writing, baking, scrapbooking, and geocaching.) 

 6. Which fictional character would you want to be?  Why?  I would love to be Anne Shirley, or Elizabeth Bennett, mostly because of their spunkiness and positive attitudes and smarts.

 7. If you were in high school, which fictional character would you want to date?  Why?  There are so many that would be attractive to me! The one that comes to mind first is Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door. I don’t know, I just love his sweetness and humbleness and his… “boy next door” qualities. Oh, and then there’s Gilbert Blythe of course. He is a bit sassy, but I think once you get to know him, he is also about the sweetest kindest boy in all of literature.

8. If you could shape-shift into any animal, what would it be, and why?  A bird so I could fly, or a cat so I could sleep all day!

9.   What superpower would you give yourself, and why?  I’d love to not have to eat or sleep. What a pain those two things are sometimes! Wait, actually I’d love to be able to still eat but just whatever I want without worries! 🙂 

 10.  What are the three most important events in your life so far?  1. Getting married 2. Having kids (that’s four events, but I’m counting it as one) and 3. It’s a tie between getting a job at the library five years ago and also our recent big family trip to Europe!

 11. What is your favorite food? I really love Italian, all that pasta and saucy goodness! But lately I’m learning to love Indian food too. Wow, back in the day I would have never dreamed I’d be saying that! But mostly, my favorite food is all the stuff that’s bad for you… chocolate, donuts, bread slathered with butter, ice cream… you know… all that really yummy stuff!

12.  What advice do you have for aspiring writers?  Read a lot, write a lot and network with other aspiring writers. Also, be friends with book bloggers! 🙂

Thank you, Suey for your interview.  It’s been really fun to get to know you.  I love your website, and I encourage everyone out there to check it out.