Category Archives: Uncategorized

24 Hour Readathon Plans

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What does your 24 Hour Readathon stack look like?

I also have The Girls by Emma Cline and The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner on my Kindle. Plus, I have the audio book of Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton loaded on my phone.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to read the first 3 hours of the readathon due to my obligations as super feminist social justice warrior… otherwise known as Clinic Escort. Some anti-choice groups are planning a nationwide Planned Parenthood protest today so I will be on duty to ensure they stay off my local clinic’s property and patients are able to get in with minimal harassment. I sometimes live Tweet their foolishness if you are at all interested in what happens during a clinic escort shift follow me.

After that zoo, I will be so happy to relax the rest of the day with my giant pile of books. Being that BEA and BookCon are coming up, some of my reading will be in preparation for the authors I expect to see there. I am looking forward to meeting new folks throughout today so please comment or chat with me on social media!

 

March Book Brief

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Reading stats for March 2016:

The Merman by Carl-Johan Vallgren
Seed by Lisa Heathfield
Navel Gazing: True Tales of Bodies, Mostly Mine (But Also My Mom’s, Which I Know Sounds Weird) by Michael Ian Black
The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Saga Vol. 1 by Brian K.Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Total finished: 7
Already owned: 3
Borrowed from friend: 1
Borrowed from library: 3
Women authors: 3 (plus 1 illustrator)
POC authors: 1
In Translation: 1
Graphic Novels: 1
eBooks: 2

Favorite: The Memory of Light was so good but Saga is a very close second.

The 24 in 48 Readathon.

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It is upon us.  The 24 in 48 Readathon starts on January 16th and goes thru the 17th. This will be the first bookish event I have joined since creating this blog.  My hope is to get through at least one of the books I would like to read before Book Con, which is the first in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I’ve been meaning to read this for quite awhile, and since Richelle Mead was added to Book Con, I figured I better move it to the top of the TBR pile.

I would also like to get through We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo.  Ms. Marvel Vol. 4 is also in my stack from the library so hopefully I will get through that. Perhaps a non-fiction piece to my Buddhist studies as well, such as No Mud No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh.

We shall see how it goes.  Sunday is supposed to be a crap weather day in Richmond, so it will be nice to cozy up with my dogs and hot tea and read most of the day.

Keep in touch on Twitter during the readathon with the tag: #24in48!

My bookish Halloween.

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It started on Friday when we were able to dress up at work and had a lovely little potluck. I knew I wanted to go literary this year, but there was so much to choose from. I went with an old favorite who is widely recognizable, Pippi Longstocking. 12122622_10153714394854803_6790815025528300368_nBeing super introverted I already teeter a line of being comfortable in costume, but I find that if I don’t have to explain a not so popular fandom it feels good to dress up. Pippi

In September I decided that I was going to give out books on Halloween in addition to candy. (I would NEVER cheat the trick or treaters out of their candy!) Usually I drag a table to the end of my driveway to pass out candy because my yard isn’t well-lit and I don’t need kids who already can’t see through their masks tripping over a pine cone. But this year, my neighborhood decided to do a “trunk-or-treat” in the parking lot of our pool. So, I spent some time thrifting and yard sailing for used kids books. My cousin was also extremely helpful in mailing me a stack of books her daughter had outgrown. I tried to get a pretty good mix for all age groups, being that trick-or-treating is for the tiny toddler up to teenager.

I drove across to the pool to get all set up for our 6 PM start time.  After tangling myself in spider webs and trying to figure out how to keep a string of Halloween garland from falling from atop the car I had what I thought was a pretty good setup that I dubbed “The LiBOOrary.”  Liboorary

Kids began to stop by the festivities and I watched as their faces lit up when I tossed some candy into their bags and said, “You can also pick a book.”  Much of the response was, “Any book I want!?!?!?” I was so happy to see the positive reaction. Even better, so many parents really liked the idea. I didn’t see any of them hovering or try to influence the child’s pick. I am kicking myself for not counting how many books I started with, but by 7:40 I was out. (Still plenty of candy though.)

As long as I can afford it, this will become my new Halloween tradition, and I invite anyone else who wants to snag the idea to do so. Of course, let me know if you do next year so we can compare notes. Upon observation I need to plan for more middle grade and YA books next time and probably need to start collecting in August at the latest. Hopefully I can get more donations and not have to spend quite as much cash. Happy BOOkish Halloween!

Review: Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

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shadowshaperOver at the Book Lust blog, Aarti put out the challenge to make our reading a More Diverse Universe or #Diversiverse for short. The only rule of #Diversiverse is to read ONE book by a person of color between October 4th and 17th, then write a review. That’s it.  I invite you all to participate.

My pick for #Diversiverse was Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older.  Originally, I had heard about this book from a Book Riot review, and moved it to the top of my TBR when I saw that the stars had aligned for my library to have my hold available during #Diversiverse. I am not usually a reader of magical realism or urban fantasy so I was excited to try something new.

Shadowshaper is a look into the world of Sierra Santiago, a Puerto Rican girl living in Brooklyn. She’s an amazing artist who has been given the gift of Shadowshaping, that is bringing works of art to life through a connection with the spirit world. As she learns about what it means to be a Shadowshaper; she makes the connection that a group of Shadowshapers who hung out with her abuelo, before his stroke, are dying off one by one. Sierra teams up with her friends, including a potential romantic interest in fellow artist Robbie, to figure out what is happening and how she can put an end to it before they come for her. 

This is a great book dealing with so many issues; racism, sexism, cultural appropriation, etc all while we see Sierra come of age with her new found abilities. Older knows how to write about these issues in such realistic detail they were like a punch in the gut. Although as a white person, I could not directly relate to the both microaggressions and overt issues with race, I certainly recognized them and could feel the hurt. His writing of a couple of street harassment incidents, which I definitely have experienced as a woman, actually made me shiver. One of the overarching themes is cultural appropriation as we see what happens when a white, male professor intrudes into the traditions of the Shadowshapers.

I highly recommend this book for anyone. It is marketed as Young Adult, but I feel there is so much folks of all ages can get out of reading Shadowshaper. Also, judge this book by its cover, because isn’t it absolutely beautiful?

I am The Booktrovert!

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Welcome to The Booktrovert Blog. A shiny new blog for my 35th year.  I’ve been wanting to record my thoughts and feelings on my reading life for awhile and figured that this would be a good time to start.  My plans for this blog include reviews, many of which will be driven by emotion rather than specifics on language, plot, characterization, etc.  Also, I hope to write reflections of books that have shaped me into the person I have become. I read quite a variety, but I do especially love Young Adult Fiction. Lately, I’ve been working on catching up on classics that I missed out on in high school. Some other genres I’m most interested in are memoirs (especially those dealing with mental health), speculative fiction, dystopian fiction, literary fiction, pop-science/psychology, and grit lit.

Booktrovert refers to me identifying closely with being an introvert along with my love of reading.  An introvert is someone who is energized mostly from quiet, alone time.  Putting that together with my lifelong love of reading, I define a booktrovert as someone who is energized by reading books.

A little bit about me: My name is Nicole, I am a week shy of 35.  I live in the Richmond, VA suburbs with my husband and our two dogs Oliver (Twist) and Arya (Stark). My favorite book of all time is Harriet the Spy and I have a tattoo of Harriet on my left arm.  My favorite series of all time is The Hunger Games.  When I am not reading, I like to work out and am usually listening to an audiobook while doing so. I enjoy coloring, jigsaw puzzles, social justice and progressive politics and abandoning failed craft projects.