You may (or may not) have noticed that I haven't been posting much the past couple weeks. I wasn't sure if I officially wanted to do this or not, but I'm going to be on hiatus for the month of May. It's my last month of school (sort of...all the important stuff happens this month) which means I have my my recital and comprehensives, which are due THREE DAYS before my recital (If you didn't know, that timing is THE WORST. No one wants to write three papers when they should be practicing until 4 in the morning!) So I really need to focus on preparing for all of that instead of spending hours on my blog. I'll still be around on twitter (pretty much any time I've watched OUAT haha), and I'll still be making my rounds on everyone else's blogs. If you're going to miss my links for the next month, I'd recommend following me on Pinterest, since all of the links I post here come from my various pinterest boards. (The links I post here usually come from my Books, Geekdom, and Heart Warming/Thought Provoking boards).
Bookish Links
Where are all the heroines in YA fiction? - This is a really great article about love interests with female leads vs male leads and how books are marketed for boys vs girls
Eight classic young adult novels that deserve the Hollywood treatment - Oh my god can I have all of these adaptions happen!?
How Author G. Neri and Librarian Kimberly DeFusco Changed a Life - This totally made me teary eyed! It's always inspiring to see that we can make a difference in someone's life.
Slutshelf Book Giveaway - The author is giving $1 to Freedom to Read Foundation for each entry, as well as giving away books that celebrate instead of demonize women and sexuality!
OMG, Steven Spielberg Is Directing Roald Dahl's The BFG For DreamWorks - WHAAAT?!?!? I need this to happen! And it needs to be good! I'm SO EXCITED! This is my favourite Dahl book :)
Here Be Dragons - Umm so this crazy awesome. Rinn puts ranking stats for all the famous dragons from Smaug to Saphira
Why The Lord Of The Rings Is 'My Precious' - If you ever loved any part of LotR, you will totally relate to this post
Why Can't Books Be Free? - These are some really fantastic, well-thought out ideas, and I'd love to see this become reality in some way
HEIR OF FIRE Cover Reveal! (And Sarah J. Maas' soundtrack while listening to the book!) - OH MY GOD GUYS IT'S HERE! Unsurprisingly, I prefer the UK cover (It makes me think about water bending)
The Harry Potter Reread: The Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 12 - Excuse me while I tear up because of the ending to this analysis
Bloggers Anonymous: Enough is Enough - I know I have struggled with this, and I'm sure most (read: all) bloggers have gone through this. If you're having a love/hate relationship with your blog, this is an inspiring read.
Why Do You Read YA? - Preaching to the choir here, but I always like seeing how other people got into YA books
Are Teen Girls Seeing Themselves Reflected in What They Read? - I really, really recommend all of you read this. There's a lot brought up here, and these are definitely discussions we should be having within schools about what books we study. (Common Core certainly isn't helping, but even outside of this, it's a really important discussion we should be having anyway)
Nonbookish Links
Read Gabourey Sidibe’s Wonderful Speech From the Ms. Foundation Gala - This speech is so, so inspiring!
Why It's Important Being an Ally - This is a fantastic post, very well thought out. Even though I (hope!) all of you are LGBT allies, this is still well worth the read!
Stephen Colbert Says Goodbye - I can't believe this is really happening! *Sniffles* ... I wonder how things are going to be different on his new show?
Contents Under Pressure - Wow! A very strongly worded message to guys who think girls don't belong in geekculture, a really powerful read.
Several Women Arrested For Writing Fanfic In China - This is crazy! I can't believe that happened!
Meet The Undocumented Teen Who Confronted Hillary Clinton On Immigration Reform - That is such a brave thing to do, and I am a strong supporter of making citizenship, particularly for children, a much easier process.
And that's it for this week! See you guys in another month :)
I got so excited when I woke up this morning and saw this in my mailbox. I will miss your posts, but hope the hiatus is restorative!
ReplyDeleteEight Classics to be adapted to movies: Good picks! I'm surprised a Wrinkle in Time was never done, but I think Number the Stars would be a great movie.
Slutshelf: I just read What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick and the thing I really liked about it was how it dealt with the main character's sexuality. The MC isn't a virgin. She had sex with her boyfriend, then a one night stand, and then had sex on a first date. But while she is upset at the reputation she got as a result, she doesn't really wallow in self pity about her decisions. I never got the impression that she was ashamed she had sex...more that she didn't always do it with the right people. Which I think is pretty realistic.
Are Teen Girls Seeing Themselves: Yes! I wish HS lit classes focused more on relatable literature instead of "classics". I read Lilies of the Valley. I don't remember a thing about it and I certainly couldn't relate to it.
LGBTQ Ally: My sister in law came out this past summer and I was so proud of her. Everyone has been very supportive, but what really made me smile was the thought that my daughter will grow up knowing that being lesbian is as natural as not being lesbian. :)
Awww thank you! Yeah, I think the break will be good for me not only time wise, but stress/creativity wise as well.
ReplyDeleteThere's actually a terrible Disney tv movie (or something like that) of A Wrinkle in Time, but it'd be nice to get a great version of it. And I think Number the Stars would be a GREAT adaption, and am kind of surprised The Book Thief has been made, but not Number the Stars.
I actually hadn't read most of the books listed, but absolutely support what you've described being in books. I think after I stop stress binging fantasy novels I should start getting back to some good contemporary novels like the ones listed in that list haha
I was lucky enough that I was super into classics when I was young, so I'd read a lot of them before they were introduced in my high school classes, but I definitely see why most people don't relate to them. I understand the use of classics..but we definitely need to diversify what's being used. Especially the fact that we have so few female authors - the only ones I can remember studying were two of the Brontë sisters (And in fact I'm not sure we actually read Jane Eyre in class) and Kate Chopin. And that's only because I took AP Lit - I don't think the regular classes got any female writers. A lot of the messages the books we study are completely outdated. Our classics in school seem to stop about a century ago - what about all the classics we have that happened afterwards and are certainly more relevant to teenagers today? What about the modern literature which students DEFINITELY relate to more? They're certainly worth studying as well!
That's so awesome! To my knowledge, I don't have anyone out in my family, but I was lucky enough to have a family that's extremely open minded about pretty much everything, so I didn't even realize that being gay was a weird thing to most people until it came up as a topic with friends. (And growing up in the South, and then even more in the Bible Belt...it was certainly a different sentiment with many people I knew)
I feel like a total dweeb for saying this, but most classics bore me out of my mind. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI'm feel lucky that I live in Seattle. We actually just passed gay marriage (and legalized pot - haha) last year. It made me pretty proud of my city. Ashley is the first one in my family. :)
A lot of them DEFINITELY weren't for me (I'm looking at you Heart of Darkness and The Scarlet Letter), but my mom introduced me to Shakespeare when I was pretty young and she's pretty good at making me like things haha.
ReplyDeleteI just found out you guys passed a $15 minimum wage raise too! Makes me want to move out there haha
Good luck with your crazy month! You'll be missed around the internets! I am coming off a pretty awesome week off and have to get back in the work swing of things this week.
ReplyDeleteOh, Shakespeare! That's almost it's own thing. Actually, my dad and I have Seattle Shakespeare season tickets so we 2-3 Shakespeare plays a year. We just saw King Lear. Hamlet has been my favorite so far. Midsummer's Night's Dream is a close second.
ReplyDeleteAs for the $15 minimum wage: you need it to live in Seattle! Housing is very expensive here. Food is pricey. You're in Chicago, right? How is it to live there? Pricey?
Oh Hamlet is like the original Emo Kid. His treatment of Ophelia was disturbing. But the production I saw was SO good. Seattle Shakespeare usually puts on really good productions. Their comedies are usually really fun because they play around with settings a lot. Their Two Gentlemen of Verona took place in SoCal and one of the characters did his lines with a surfer dude accent. And there was a rolling skating bulldog. What's not to like? Their Taming of the Shrew took place in a trailer park. Lots of fun. They also usually do another play that isn't Shakespeare. They've done A Doll's House, The Importance of Being Earnest, Three Penny Opera...
ReplyDeleteI work at the University of Washington. The area isn't that nice. Lots of college kids, but also lots of homeless people. But the housing around here is sooooooo expensive for what you get. Not like, California or NYC expensive, but a one bedroom apartment will run you about $900-1100...and most of them aren't even very nice.
Booo. :( But, schools more important (not as important as Once Upon a Time- I clearly have my priorities straight, haha.) The Classics...I'm ashamed to say I haven't read any of those, but Go Ask Alice has been on my TBR for aaaages, since I read Girl, Interrupted (which is one of my favourites) and Amazon recommended it. I usually ignore them.
ReplyDeleteBloggers Anonymous: Enough is Enough- YES. Especially in the beginning when I got bored and I just couldn't be bothered. I did start this because I love reading, but I also started it as something to do while my life was on hold for a bit, and I think about stopping and deleting at least once a fortnight. But, definitely, I think everybody does. It takes a lot of effort to do, and it does have to be something you want to do and have fun with otherwise it does feel like a chore.
Why Do You Read YA? -It's weird, when I was 14/15 I was more into Adult, I was reading Kathy Reich's and Patricia Cornwall (because I'm weird) And books on serial killers (let's not get into that) and the classics English Lit force you to read (though, I do love Steinbeck now I hated it then). I will (embarrassingly) admit Twilight did bring me into YA, and made me love YA. I'm over that now, obviously (because blah) but I mean, Twilight did bring me to Vampire Academy, so I'll be grateful to it for that. But, I get it, like every new book out now gets compared to the more popular- even if it has nothing in common with it apart from being maybe in the same genre. And not every book is the same, and there is some amazing ones out there (I'm looking at you The Fault in Our Stars, long live the crying.) And ones that everyone should read because they're important to, and they can shape you. I read Speak when I was 13, and it did change me. Then there's Thirteen Reasons Why, and Willow by Julia Hoban (which is called Scarred: It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body in the UK, which I loved.)
And why thank you for linking my Ally post :D
Okay, aren't you due to be back by now?? But oh my gosh, what a great list of links to leave us with in the meantime. It's going to take me hours but I want to check them all out. Already read the Lord of the Rings one, and am totally going to do my own LOTR love post now. And the one about the senior girls talking about what worked and what didn't for them in books. I think I might need to re-read that one.
ReplyDeleteHaha I am! I meant to have a post up this weekend actually, but my computer died! An blogging on my phone was too frustrating to consider trying again lol. So it looks like I'll either be on hiatus till I get a computer or very sporadic posts at the library. We'll see!
ReplyDeleteWhaaaat I totally left a long response to this and I guess it never posted! Boo. Let's see what I probably said...
ReplyDelete1. I actually hated Go Ask Alice. But Girl, Interrupted was great!
2. I definitely was really into classics and adult books as a high school student! I still read plenty of YA, but my ratio of adult/YA books has definitely inverted since then, which is totally weird as I'm an adult now. I just don't like being reminded of it. Damn you bills and student loans!
3. I really think Twilight gets way more hate than it deserves. I also think most of that hate is in response to it's fans rather than to the book itself (although personally, after the first book the rest of the series DEFINITELY wasn't for me. Undead babies *shudders*) It's a novel that brought a whole new set of people to reading - whether it got them into reading in the first place or just brought people back into reading. And I think it's really important to acknowledge just how amazing that is. I even believe Twilight brought more people into reading than Harry Potter (or at least brought more people who had given up on reading). I'd say easily 75% of the bloggers I follow credit Twilight for bringing them back into the fold.
4. ...I may have an addiction to reading Wikipedia articles on serial killers...
5. It was an important thing for people to see! Hopefully you got some hits off it :)
Hopefully the break will do me some good :) - I'm super excited for your X-Files posts!
ReplyDeleteI actually sort of loathe Hamlet, but otherwise I've loved all his plays (Midsummer's Night's Dream is definitely one of my favourites)
ReplyDeleteYou know, I think it probably is expensive to find housing here...I just managed to basically get a miracle apartment that is huge, beautiful, and cheap! I'm going to be SO upset to move out of here, it's basically my dream apartment in my dream location :( Food was certainly a shock to my system though - $5 for a small box of cereal or a 1/2 gallon of orange juice?! So I rarely have either of those haha