Today is Sunday time to look back in the rearview mirror and talk about my week . I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted for years by Kimberly@caffeinatedreviewer .
In my private life
Happy Sunday
I hope everyone had a great week.
Last week has been pretty uneventful with a long weekend and two days of work drowning one fire after the other.
We celebrated my son’s birthday this weekend with the grandma meeting the girlfriend for the first time as well as my daughetr’s boyfriend. First introduction, first impression.
All went well even if my husband and daughter had a passionate debate about Palestine and Israel. But for once, they didn’t shout so that’s a win!
The girldfriend and boyfriend were just caught in the middle…welcome to the family!
And the other thing I wanted to talk about is a kind of “social media despair”. Not about blogging, even if it seems to be less “hype” than when I began blogging in 2017 but about Instagram.
The engagement has been abysmal for weeks now with barely any likes or views. Even if I don’t do it for fame, even if I know it’s the algorithm, even if I know I am not the only one suffering from it it is still extremely frustrating to witness posts you put a lot of work into being unnoticed.
I know I should focus on having fun taking great pictures, making reels etc but I am still smarting.
If you have any advice, they are welcome!
Talking about social media, as usual I am leaving you with two reels.
The first is echoing last week’s post about cancel culture (I tried to make it fun)
And the second one is about painting new book edges.
Last week on the blog (click on the graphic to read the post)
I reviewed two books last week and one of them is PHENOMENAL!
The Will of the Many by James Islington truly blew me away! Top 5 of the year easily!
And The Man who Died Twice was a cozy mystery/crime.
Thanks for reading.
Sophie
Social media engagement can be such a fickle thing! I will just say what I told my daughter, who has recently started a youtube channel for her art and is also becoming more interested in views, likes, and subscribes. Just keep on doing what you love doing and don’t sweat about what others do or think :)
Thanks for the sound advice Mogsy!
Sorry about the Instagram problems. I’m no help because I’ve pretty much quit all social media. It was stressing me out. I guess I need to read The Will of the Many. I don’t think I’ve seen a bad review of it.
I hope you will read it and love it AJ!
Social media can be so hit and miss. I had a ridiculously popular post on Bluesky for no apparent reason, but it never happens if I want it to. It feels so opaque. So, yeah, commiserations.
I really need to get round to reading The Will of the Many, I’ve heard such good things and I’m pretty sure I have a copy.
Tha Will of the Many si really worth it!
I’m sorry you’re finding that social media responses have dropped off. Could it be that a lot of folks are on holiday and don’t spend so much time on their phones? And I echo your opinion of The Will of the Many – I found it an awesome read, too! Glad the family get together wasn’t too hard on the newcomers and I hope the coming week is a good one:)).
I am glad to know you are also a fan of The Will of the Many!
I’m very much looking forward to the next book!
Happy birthday to your son, Sophie! I feel your pain with Instagram. I’m not on it often (I have good intentions every week), but it seemed like the more I posted the less views I had.
Ha! That would be discouraging indeed!
I am glad you had a good week (work notwithstanding! I hope next week will be less problematic!) and I am sorry for Instagram!
I think it’s normal to be bothered by it because even if you’re in for the fun, you still put work out there (and your posts are all beautiful and it shows that you put love and effort into them), so seeing it go completely unnoticed is not a good thing!!
Thank you for understanding Susy!
Sorry to hear about social media engagement. It’s so frustrating to work hard on something and then feel invisible. I’ve been there too! You are so creative, don’t let anyone stop you!
Aww thank you Tammy!
I know your posts must take a lot of time to make, so I can understand being disappointed if engagement is low.
Thank you Sam!
I totally get the frustration with engagement. Part of the problem is simply avoiding it because of the political climate, etc. I am most active on BlueSky personally.
You are the second to talk about Bluesky Kimberly! I had no idea what that is.
Well I am part of the problem. I have an Instagram account where I auto post but I never go there. The only social media I visit much is Bluesky and once in a while Facebook. I am sad about how Gaza is starving.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
I had to google to know what Bluesky was Anne!
Social media has been abysmal lately. IG makes it so hard. I have really just decided its in god’s hands now because clearly nothing I do makes a difference!
I loved The irresistible urge to fall for your enemy but threads had many opinions about that…because apparently if I liked it, I must agree with JKR?! Just crazy. I didn’t even know it was based on Hermione and Draco fan fic!
I know Samantha! It’s like they expect us to research about the books we plan on reading!
No advice Sophie as i am suffering too on Booksta but am not thinking about it!
I should stop thinking about it too Caro!
The cancel culture thing is a big gripe I have. If you don’t like a book, just don’t read it. Especially if the book isn’t hurting anyone! I can see if the book does hurt someone, yeah, call that out. But the whole thing with Julie Soto’s book makes me angry. I remember when everyone was all going on and on about the Dramione fan-fiction. But now anything that is related to JKR, which I get people’s issue, but don’t put that onto other authors. It just frustrates me. I really don’t do a ton of social media. Occasionally I’ll get on Instagram and scroll through a bit. I do TikTok once in a while too. But mostly I’m on Facebook interacting with friends, family, and authors. Or I’m trying to actually watch the tv shows I want to see without zoning out into social media. Or I’m reading. I keep blogging because I love it, even if I know blogging isn’t THE thing anymore. It still makes me happy to do it! And to see what others are doing. Hope you have a good week!
https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2025/07/27/weekly-wrap-up-234-july-27th-2025/