Posts Categorized: Discussion

Monday, July 02, 2018

What I’ve Been Reading: June Update

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YAY! We’re officially half-way through the year. And my yay was definitely not sarcastic. No indeed. Nothing has really changed. I continue to be stressed and semi-functioning but I did read a bunch this month so I am pretty happy. I’ve also officially read 161 books this year and I am hoping that means I’ll hit the 300 mark this year. WHO KNOWS. WISH ME LUCK, FRIENDS. 

 

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It was a pretty good month for backlist TBR smashing and I am happy I got so many sequels read! I have a bunch more checked out so hopefully, I’ll get more books read and ticked off that SEQUELS-TO-READ tbr. My favorite sequels were the remaining books in the Gallagher Girl series. Omg those booksssss. They changed my life.

 

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I didn’t hit my backlist tbr as much this month but I definitely read a bunch of books I’ve had my eye on for ages so I am pretty happy. I actually DNFed The Near Witch but I am still counting it because I read up till 50% before I decided to give up.

 

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Dangerous Calling and Sacrifice are both part of a series and I think both these series are underrated and in need of more attention. WHERE IS THE HYPE. StarCrossed is also part of a series where we never saw the last book come out because there wasn’t enough hype and if that isn’t the saddest thing you’ve heard, I don’t know what is. Ballad For a Mad Girl is OZYA which is probably why it doesn’t have more hype across the ocean BUT IT DESERVES IT.

What have you been reading this month? Anything you loved I should definitely check out?

Kid Lit Says No Kids in Cages + Five Books About Immigration Experiences You Should Read

Posted by on 06/20/2018 • 2 Comments

I think we are all aware the world is a pile of crap and yet this past week, it seems like all of that is escalating. From refugees running away from human traffickers being turned away by Italy to prove a point to incredibly young children being separated from their parents after escaping unimaginable horrors, the world truly sucks. Sometimes it can be incredibly overwhelming when many of us sit in the protection of our own homes feeling like we are unable to do anything. There is always something you can do though. Whether it is calling your representatives (no matter how shitty they are) or donating your time/money. 

Authors Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz put together the “Kid Lit Says No Kids in Cages” campaign. Donations will…

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On Why I Rarely Rate Books Five Stars

Posted by on 06/12/2018 • 4 Comments

At the end of every year, I like to go through and look at all of my reading stats just to get an idea of what went on in that year for my reading-wise and also because I love statistics. Last year was honestly one of the best bookish-years for me in terms of ratings. In 2017, I may not have read a lot of five star books (I think that numbed capped out at 12 out of the 230 books I read), but my average rating was 3.9. So I read a WHOLE lot of 4 star books last year and LOVED what I was reading. That is a significant improvement over average ratings from previous years and yet, I am still not reading a lot of five…

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What I’ve Been Reading: May Edition

Posted by on 06/01/2018 • 2 Comments

Wow. Can you believe it’s June already?? I certainly cannot. If you’ve been following along with my roundups, you’ll know 2018 hasn’t been the best year for me (neither was 2017 for that matter) but I think May has been going a little better at least emotionally? Hopefully I HAVEN’T JINXED MY 2018. May was also a fruitful reading month and I read 29 books. SO A LOT.

 

  

So not as much backlist sequel reading this month but I did finish a series! Neither of these really lived up to what I remember of the first books and I actually decided to give up on the Weather Warden series but at least I got these off of my TBR!!!!

 

       

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A Guide on How to Determine the Audience of a Book: A Discussion

Posted by on 05/22/2018 • 2 Comments

How do we define the various demographics books are published for? Publishing is split into Adult publishing and Children’s publishing but what determines who a book is published for? This is something I’ve thought about for a long time (especially since my primary focus in undergrad was on Children’s lit) but it recently came up on Twitter and I thought it was worth talking about. 

I think the first answer that always comes at point is the age of the main character but a number of books that would be YA/MG based on the age of the character are often published as Adult. For example, The Girl With All the Gifts. A non-literary example of this is Stranger Things – a show with younger characters that is aimed at an older audience.

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Pressure of Perfection: On Diverse Authors and Readers

Posted by on 05/08/2018 • 5 Comments

These past two years, we have seen a definite surge in the amount of diverse books that are focus titles. This means that they are essentially a main focus for the publisher for the season and receive more publicity and marketing that non-focus titles. I am guessing seeing a couple diverse books floating around has probably led some people to believe that all the problems in publishing and life have been solved. THE END. WE HAVE ALL THE DIVERSE BOOKS WE NEED. We’re never gonna need anymore. Well, for starters, if you take a moment to look at the CCBC stats, that is simply not true. Only a fraction of children’s literature published each year features diverse* characters and a fraction of those books are written by the people…

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What I’ve Been Reading: April Update

Posted by on 05/01/2018 • 5 Comments

Happy May everyone!!! New month new me?? Who knows. I ended up spending most of April in a funk. I didn’t get a lot of reading done but I am starting to feel a little bit more productive so we’ll see and hope May is a better month personally and for my reading aspirations.

Okay so I didn’t read any backlist sequels this month because again, I was in a funk but, I am counting the two sequels I did read in this update so I can give myself a pat on the back.

 

Both these books were anticipated sequels and coincidentally, both were pushed back to this year so I’ve been waiting on them for quite some time (After the Wedding for 2.5 years.) Trouble Never Sleeps…

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7 Books I’d Rescue If My House Was Burning Down

Posted by on 04/13/2018 • 7 Comments

UMMMMMM. So if you know me, you know I collect Melina Marchetta books but I don’t want this entire post to be about me saving my Marchetta books so I promise I’ll stick with just two. Also, S/O to Nick for helping me brainstorm this post.

1. My signed copy of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Ummm, I’d never let this baby cherish in a fire. Gene Luen Yang has been a fav for over a decade and I was ecstatic when I finally got to meet him. I might have freaked him out a little.

2. My tattered copy of Esperanza Rising by Pam Ryan Muñoz

I usually like to claim this book as the first one I ever bought and there is a fun story behind…

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