Graphicsathon--Starts Tomorrow

Hi All,

Stopping by to help get the word out about an event! 

Anything with images! Comics, graphics novels, manga, picture books. If it uses pictures/images as a main storytelling device, it counts!

• Find Graphicsathon on Twitter
• You can find my ‘Graphics’ shelf on Goodreads here for extra recs

• Dates: February 1st – 28th (your time, starts 12:00 AM and ends 11:59 PM)
• Hosts: Becca and Ellyn

 

Happy Reading!

Read Your Bookshelf Challenge

HI Everyone,

Stopping by to let you know about an awesome challenge that Chantel is hosting asking for folks to read your own books. The Feb theme is: is to read a book with love in the title. 

You can find out more here. 

Happy Reading!

Waiting on Wednesday: A LIttle Bit Country

Hi Y'all,

Just stopping by to let you know about a book I am waiting on. This one looks really good!

Author: Brian D. Kennedy
 
Summary from Goodreads:
Emmett Maguire wants to be country music’s biggest gay superstar – a far reach when you’re seventeen and living in Illinois. But for now, he’s happy to do the next best thing: Stay with his aunt in Jackson Hollow, Tennessee, for the summer and perform at the amusement park owned by his idol, country legend Wanda Jean Stubbs.

Luke Barnes hates country music. As the grandson of Verna Rose, the disgraced singer who had a famous falling out with Wanda Jean, Luke knows how much pain country music has brought his family. But when his mom’s medical bills start piling up, he takes a job at the last place he wants: a restaurant at Wanda World.

Neither boy is looking for romance, but sparks fly when they meet – and soon they’re inseparable. Until a long-lost secret about Verna and Wanda comes to light, threatening to unravel everything.

Will Emmett and Luke be able get past the truths they discover…or will their relationship go down in history as just another Sad Country Love Song?
 

Happy Reading!

Book Date: Find Your Unicorn Space

Hi All,

I LOVED THIS BOOK. It was exactly what I needed. Please go read it. I am happy to share with you on Book Date Monday.

Author: Eve Rodsky
 
Summary from Amazon:
From the New York Times best-selling author of Fair Play and "the Marie Kondo of relationships" comes an inspirational guide for setting new personal goals, rediscovering your interests, cultivating creativity, and reclaiming your Unicorn Space.

With her acclaimed New York Times best seller (and Reese’s Book Club pick) Fair Play, Eve Rodsky began a national conversation about greater equality on the home front. But she soon realized that even when the domestic workload becomes more balanced, people still report something missing in their lives - that is, unless they create and prioritize time for activities that not only fill their calendars but also unleash their creativity.  

Rodsky calls this vital time Unicorn Space - the active and open pursuit of creative self-expression in any form that makes you uniquely YOU. To help readers embrace all the unlikely, surprising, and delightful places where their own Unicorn Space may be found, she speaks with trail blazers, thought leaders, academics, and countless real people who have discovered theirs everywhere - from activism to artistic endeavors to second careers.

Rodsky reveals what researchers already know: Creativity is not optional. It’s essential. Though most of us do need to remind ourselves how (and where) to find it. With her trademark mix of research based, how-to advice and big-picture inspirational thinking, Rodsky shows you a clear path to reclaim your permission to have fun, manifest your own Unicorn Space in an already too-busy life, and unleash your special gifts and undiscovered talents into the world.

 

Happy Reading!

New Year Book Tag

The New Year Book Tag 2022

Happy Belated New Year to you all! I saw this post from 2021 at Library Looter and decided to play along.

The New Year Book Tag

How many books are you planning to read this year?

I set my Good Reads challenge to 26. I am hoping for more, but with school sometimes it is hard to get in reading for fun/enjoyable.

Name five books you didn’t get to read in 2021, but want to make a priority in 2022?
 
The Rest of the Wizard of Oz Books
The Tourist Attraction
Will
The Wish
One Last Stop

Name a genre you want to read more of in 2022?

I am hoping to continue to explore multiple genres!

Three non-book related goals for 2022?

Graduate!!
Be more creative.
Hopefully visit Green Bay!

What’s a book you’ve had forever that you still need to read?

There are too many…you can check out my list on goodreads here.

 

Happy Reading!

Woozy Wednesday

Hi All,

Happy Woozy Wednesday! I recently finished up books 4 and 5 of the Wizard of Oz Series. I can report that I believe Baum definitely had a vivid imagination! I enjoyed these ones. Here is a short recap for you.

Author: L. Frank Baum 
 
Summary from Amazon:

The Wizard comes back to Oz to stay, with Dorothy via a California earthquake. In this book we meet Dorothy's two good friends who we are sorry did not remain in Oz-—Jim the cabhorse, and Zeb, Dorothy's young cousin, who works on a ranch as a hired boy.

 The Road to Oz is the fifth of L. Frank Baum's Land of Oz books. Originally published in 1909,it follows the adventures of Dorothy's fourth visit to the Land of Oz. Meet the Shaggy Man, Button-Bright, and Polychrome as her adventures continue.

Happy Reading!

Book Date: Passing

Happy Book Date Monday! 

Stopping by to share my current read...Passing.

Synoposis:

Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past—even hiding the truth from her racist husband.

Clare finds herself drawn to Irene’s sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself—and her deception—into every part of Irene’s stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen’s brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to 'pass,' is as timely as ever.

Once I finish this one, I hope to watch the movie on Netflix. 

Happy Reading!

January Bookish Bingo

 

Happy Reading!

Waiting on Wednesday: A Little Closer to Home

Hi All,

Good news --the Wait is over! This is a book that you should have been waiting on, but as of yesterday you don't have to anymore! :) I was lucky to get early access to this one.

In Ginger Zee's follow-up to the bestselling Natural Disaster, the ABC chief meteorologist takes readers on a much deeper journey of self discovery.

When Ginger Zee opened her life to readers in Natural Disaster, the response was enormous. She put a very relatable if surprising face on depression and has helped lessen the stigma surrounding mental health issues. But Ginger tells us, Natural Disaster was "Ginger Lite" and only scratched the surface.

In this moving follow-up, Ginger shares her truest self. She spent most of her life shielding her vulnerabilities from the world all while being a professional people pleaser. Her stormy childhood, her ongoing struggles with crippling depression, her suicide attempts, and many other life experiences will resonate with readers who are likely to see themselves along the way.

In spite of its serious subject matter, Ginger's positive, life-affirming outlook comes through loud and clear. Written with great heart and quite a bit of humor, Ginger normalizes issues and challenges millions of people face every day. A Little Closer to Home will broaden the conversation around mental health at a time we need it more than ever.

 

Happy Reading!

Book Date: The Wolves Are Waiting

Hi All,

Happy Book Date Monday. Here is one that I was able to get early access to! :) (Thank you!)

Author: Natasha Friend 
 
Summary from Goodreads:
From award-winning author Natasha Friend comes a compelling investigation of sexual harassment and the toxic and complicit structures of a small college town.

Before the night of the Frat Fair, 15-year-old Nora Melchionda's life could have been a Gen-Z John Hughes movie. She had a kind-of boyfriend, a spot on the field hockey team, good grades, and a circle of close friends. Of course there were bumps in the road: she and her lifelong BFF Cam were growing apart and her mother was trying to clone her into wearing sensible khakis instead of showy short skirts. But none of that mattered, because Nora always had her dad, Rhett Melchionda, on her side. Rhett was not only Nora’s hero, but as the Athletic Director of Faber College, he was idolized by everyone she knew.

Now, Nora would give anything to go back to that life. The life before whatever happened on the golf course.

She doesn’t want to talk about it—not that she could, because she doesn’t remember anything—and insists that whatever happened was nothing. Cam, though, tries to convince Nora to look for evidence and report the incident to the police. And then there’s Adam Xu, who found Nora on the golf course and saw her at her most vulnerable. She ignores it all, hoping it will all go away. But when your silence might hurt other people, hiding is no longer an option.

The Wolves Are Waiting begins in the aftermath of an attempted assault, but reaches farther than a story about one single night or one single incident. What Nora and her friends will uncover is a story that spans generations. But it doesn’t have to anymore.

 

Happy Reading!

Stacking the Shelves

Hi All,

Just stopping by to let you know about a few books I recently acquired for Stacking the Shelves Saturday. I enjoyed both of these! 

What books have you read recently?

Happy Reading!

Waiting on Wednesday: Hard Pivot

Hi All,

Just stopping by to let you know about a book I am waiting on.

Author: Apolo Ohno
 
Summary from Goodreads:
Apolo Ohno shares his most valuable lessons for overcoming challenges with resilience, creativity, and purpose.

In speed skating, a hard pivot is an aggressive shift of direction that requires courage, practice, and split-second timing. For Apolo Ohno, the most frightening hard pivot of his life didn’t happen on the ice—but rather, when he had to hang up his skates for good. “After my final Olympics, I felt confused, vulnerable, and adrift without purpose,” he says. “Yet that’s when I realized my experiences had given me something much more valuable than medals and memories. I had tools I could use to shift my life in a new direction—and most importantly, these were tools anyone could benefit from.”

With Hard Pivot, Apolo combines practical guidance, personal stories, and deep insights from the psychology of success into a resource to help you through challenging times. Here he shares his most valuable lessons and tools, condensed into the Five Golden Principles:

• Gratitude: A daily practice to help you maintain perspective, cultivate empathy, and alleviate stress
• Giving: How to elevate your life’s purpose by offering your time, attention, and resources to others
• Grit: Exercises to build mental stamina, resilience, and toughness to persevere through hard times
• Gearing Up: Ways to prepare yourself to meet the unknown with flexibility and grace
• Go: Develop the courage to take risks, learn from success and failure, and come back stronger

When life drastically changes—whether by choice or circumstance—the hardest part is often letting go of what was familiar and stable. Yet in Hard Pivot, Apolo provides the tools and inspiration to create a new life filled with greater purpose, wisdom, and joy. “You can trust yourself,” he writes. “You can lean into the curve, pick up momentum, and speed down the track to success. In that pivotal moment, you might even find that you’re having the most fun you’ve ever had. You’re in flow. You’re enjoying your precious life. And you’re winning.”

 

Happy Reading!

BoutofBooks 33

 Happy New Year!

I am excited to kick of 2022 with a reading event!  Will you be participating?

Happy Reading!