A Day in the Life (21)

Not much of note this week, mostly just lots of working and cleaning.  My boyfriend flew in on Tuesday and it's been really, really awesome having him back!  No more 4 month intervals of not seeing each other :)  It still feels weird (and awesome) getting to see him every day!  Also he cleaned the kitchen for me, thank the lord.  I don't know if I mentioned how disgusting the apartment was when I moved in but it was....honestly beyond words.  It was hell cleaning the rest of the apartment, but even the bathroom wasn't as bad as the kitchen and the bathroom was...*gags*.  But now I have a nice shiny clean kitchen and I didn't have to touch it!  I should be getting internet in my place this week, so expect more regular posts and commenting from me (assuming I don't schedule posts for the same day like I did this week. *bangs head against the desk*)

I'm feeling in an opera mood and am still in a place where I can't listen to music (and therefore don't know what I'd put here), so here's some La Boheme!  (...and hopefully it's decent quality as I can't verify)

Bookish Links

Power Corrupts? Absolutely! - A look at fairy tale women in power.

Which 21st Century Comics Will Be Remembered in 50 years? - Even with my limited knowledge of comics, this was really interesting!

ON GRIEF AND BOOKS - Christina recently lost a friend, so this is a really personal post, but it's one that resonates with me deeply because of some of the things I've dealt with in the past few years. 

What If Harry Potter Was Sorted Into The Other Houses? - Bahahah this is hilarious!

Autism helped me become an internationally published author - This is a really insightful and touching post by author Corinne Duyvis.

Reading Helped Me Overcome A Racist Upbringing - Brings to mind a Tamora Pierce post I wrote a while back, so I'm glad that my beliefs on this front are being confirmed!

Great YA Books Without Romance - Something I LOVE! Some of these definitely do have romance, but it takes a backseat to everything else going on with the story (which is my favourite way of dealing with romance, and why this list has more than a few of my all time favourites on it)

Faultless in Spite of All of Her Faults: The Unlikable Heroine - I LOVE this post! It expresses so many things I've felt, and even more I've never thought to articulate before. Highly recommend.

The Sex - Carrie Mesrobian (and whoever the author of the post is) held a class where they discussed sex and violence in books with teen readers and writers.  The results are very interesting (although probably unsurprising except in how open the teens are, as I'm sure almost all of us had the same thoughts when we were teens). Another highly recommended read!

Female Sexuality in YA Fiction: A Look at the Landscape - Speaking of...

Why I, a Woman, Enjoy ‘Game of Thrones’ - Yes!!

Adult Fiction? - Apparently this "trend" of adults reading "not adult books" is really, really not as recent as people are touting!

Bridge to Terabithia Inspired a Song (And 6 Other Things You Didn't Know) - Well this is pretty cool!

 

Nonbookish Links

17 Things about ISIS and Iraq You Need to Know - For someone who has no tv and limited internet access, I haven't been following world news very well.  This lays out the conflict in detail, but is really easy to understand
Brain Orgasms, Spidey Sense, and Bob Ross: A Look Inside The World Of ASMR - I had no idea this was a thing, but judging by the description it's something I've experienced, so it's pretty cool it's not just a weird quirk of mine!

Large-Scale Hack Lands Stolen Nude Photos Of Jennifer Lawrence & Other Celebrities Online - A discussion of responses to these incidences, and what it says about us that things like this happen.

An Illustrated Guide to Issues of Harassment, Representation, And Media Criticism - Speaking of...

Sexism, Sexiness and Sexualisation - This is awesome!  It can get confusing with talk of objectification, but wanting to flaunt things as well, so I thought this discussion was spot on in clearing some of that up!

Disability, Self Esteem, and Sex - This. Read this.  It's important.

The Strange Tale of the North Pond Hermit - Very strange, and very cool.

Deaf for a Day - John Barrowman went deaf for a day to promote Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and talks about his experience.
Heteronormativity, fantasy, and Bitterblue – Part 1 - Malindo Lo has a ton of posts on her blog dealing with LGBT in books, and this was a really interesting look at Bitterblue.  Shannon sent me a link to all Malinda's LGBT posts, and it has been really, really awesome reading so far!  Definitely recommend browsing if this is an issue that is important to you.

Day 06 - Favorite Book of Your Favorite Series

I've mentioned before the the Redwall series was a huge part of my life growing up.  With twenty-two books in the series, it's no surprise that after about book 10, they all start blurring together.  I have vague remembrances of enjoying one more than another, but in general the stories were always pretty solid, if not memorable.  There is one exception in this series, and ever since my first time reading it (and upon many, many rereads of this series) it has always stood out as my absolute favourite book of the lot. 

Martin the Warrior is the sixth book in the Redwall Series, and it is the first time we go back to the history of the world Brian Jacques has set up.  In the previous books, you hear constant mentions of Martin the Warrior as a true hero to almost mythic proportions.  In the previous books it's been years (from what I recall it's basically at least a century), and it doesn't matter how far down the generations the books have taken us, Martin the Warrior remains a strong part of their history.  So when I discovered that we'd finally get to hear about this Martin fellow I was pleasantly surprised as it was a new twist to how the series had been progressing (aka, chronologically). 

This book has everything that I've come to realize that I expect in a fantasy novel to be worthy of my favourites shelf.  It's got heartbreak and tragedy, but humour and love, platonic and romantic relationships, epic worldbuilding (and food porn!), complex relationships...it's amazing. I'm not expecting anyone who hasn't read this story to read it, but in the interest of not spoiling it anyway, BEWARE SPOILERS.

Martin's main love interest is killed and my guess is that it was probably the first time I'd had a main character/love interest die (although Charlotte's Web may have happened before this, so who knows. But definitely the love interest dying bit.)  It was one of the only times in the series that a main character dies, and I was absolutely heart broken when I finished this book.  I always find that the books I found as a child that were more than just a happy story are the ones I was really drawn to.  (Hmm. Maybe this is why I am so morbid?)

END SPOILERS

And now I think I'm going to start rereading these books...I'm getting nostalgic haha

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd - Holly Black & Co.

Summary:

Goodreads -  Acclaimed authors Holly Black (Ironside) and Cecil Castellucci (Boy Proof) have united in geekdom to edit short stories from some of the best selling and most promising geeks in young adult literature: M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, John Green, Tracy Lynn, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Barry Lyga, Wendy Mass, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfield, Lisa Yee, and Sara Zarr.

With illustrated interstitials from comic book artists Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley, Geektastic covers all things geeky, from Klingons and Jedi Knights to fan fiction, theater geeks, and cosplayers. Whether you're a former, current, or future geek, or if you just want to get in touch with your inner geek, Geektastic will help you get your geek on!


Thoughts

I rarely read short story anthologies because I have such a hard time getting into them, but I saw this was at the library so I thought...well why not?  And I'm so glad I did.  As I read each of these stories I kept feeling like "This is my home. These are my stories." - even when they were in a "geeky" matter I didn't know anything about.  With the exception of maybe two of the stories that I read, I wholeheartedly loved everything in this collection (even if I kept thinking all the characters were gay and then discovering I'd gotten the genders all wrong. Ah the pitfalls of short stories in first person).

This collection seriously has something for everyone - cosplaying, role playing, academic debate, LARPing, computer games, dinosaurs, fanfic, theater, Buffy - you name it, it's in here.  And I think it's amazing how drawn into each story I got into, even when I didn't have a clue about what they were talking about, I well and truly cared about the characters.  Which completely bypassed all my normal issues about short stories - since I tend to be pretty character centric, it's hard for short stories to be able to draw me in enough to really care about the characters because the stories are...well...short.  Some of them I actually would have LOVED to have gotten a whole novel out of the story - David Levithan's in particular. (Which shows me that I need to go pick up one of his books immediately. It's not like they aren't already all on my tbr list anyway, I just haven't done anything about it yet. Which will be remedied. Soon.) His was also the only one featuring anything other than a hetero relationship, which actually made me kind of sad because as I mentioned earlier, I actually assumed 75% of the relationships were same sex at the start of the stories haha.   A lot of the stories also had a focus purely on family or friend relationships, and you all know how much I go gaga over that sort of thing!

Sadly I didn't get this post up before the book expired on my kindle, so I lost all the notes I'd taken on the stories I loved, but since there were only two I didn't, just assume that the rest are all pure love for me, because they are.  The only two I didn't love were Scott Westerfield's and Barry Lyga's.  Scott Westerfields was just kind of...weird. And psychotic.  It creeped me out too much to love haha, and while I loved the concept of Barry Lyga's (his was about dinosaurs), the ending definitely didn't make me feel good.  But only two out of an entire collection is like a crazy difference than what I'm used to - I tend to be the reverse!  So I'm glad I picked it up and highly recommend this, regardless of how you feel about short stories or books about geeky things (because let's face it - if you're reading this blog, you definitely will be able to connect to at least a few stories in the collection regardless).


TL;DR

I don't read short stories. Ever. I get supremely bored by them.  But this collection was well worth picking up, and I'd recommend it to all readers because there's something a story in here for everyone.

A Day in the Life (20)

Once again I got caught up in moving stuff, plus I started work (although since I'm actually writing this while at work, I suppose that's not the best excuse.)

Reasons why working as a receptionist at a gym is awesome:

1. I am writing this post as I work
2. If I actually ever wanted to work out, I could do it for free. Except that I don't go to gyms, so it's not really an advantage
3. I don't have internet right now, so getting to use it at work is awesome
4. I actually got so bored I LOOKED FORWARD to cleaning the equipment. And then went and cleaned a bunch of equipment I didn't need to. Because I was that bored. Maybe this will start applying to my apartment?
5. I'm meeting not musicians, which is interesting

Reasons why working as a receptionist at a gym is less than stellar:

1. Minimum wage ain't going to pay all the bills
2. Did I mention I was bored?
3. It is not inspiring any creative posts at the moment, so...hopefully I'll come up with something to post soon...(other than this. Obviously.)
4. I haven't had body image issues in YEARS...but when you have to wear pretty much leggings to work every day, it does things to your self esteem. 

...Ok I'm done procrastinating.  I'll go do the real blog post work now! 

Sadly due to my inability to remember where I packed my headphones and only being able to get internet in public places, no music this week.  Here's a video of Michael Rooker dancing like Groot instead!

Bookish Links

Authors
A Thing or Two About the #edbookfest - Sandra talks about meeting some of her favourite authors - (SARAH J. MAAS!!!)
The Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe: Sarah J. Maas - Speaking of SJM...want to read some kooky Q/A's?
Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Gritty" Memoir Sounds Historically Accurate and Deeply Upsetting - This sounds freaking fantastic!! Look at me getting all excited for a nonfiction book :)


 Fantasy
 The Extraordinary Cases of Histories of Fictional Worlds - You all know how into world building I am right?
 Fairytale's Most Wanted: The Five Most Well-Known Character Types - And in keeping with my fairy tale obsession...

My Favourite Fantasy Characters - Featuring two of my own favourites, Luna and Tyrion.

Which Hogwarts Professor Are You - I'm Hagrid! I may have posted this already, but who cares it's fun!
6 More Folktales from Around the World to Read to Your Kids - Did I mention I'm obsessed with ALL fairy tales?


Thought Provoking
I Got the Message Loud and Clear: Reading Isn't Cool - I am sure most, if not all, of us can relate to this post. I was lucky enough that for the most part my family is a reading family, or used to those of us who are, so I haven't gotten this much from my family. But I definitely got it elsewhere growing up/.
Animorphs: Why The Series Rocked and Why You Should Still Care - If you haven't read this series and are into diversity, sci-fi, HARDCORE life stuff, just...can everyone go read this series please? This article is AMAZING and you should read it. I loved this series when I discovered in 5th grade, and I'm so, so sad they aren't going to be reputting the books out there on the shelves. As much as I'm trying to purge books, I'll definitely have to start collecting them because they are books that everyone needs to read.
Questioning the Lack of Diversity in Historical Fiction - TBW bring up some excellent points - the conquerors write the histories.

Comic Books and the Question of Diversity - Kwame talks about some of the discussions that have been going on about Guardians of the Galaxy.


Miscellaneous Bookish Things
Manga Review: Maid-sama - While this isn't one of my favourites, it's definitely a ton of fun, so if you are looking for a new shoujo check out Christina's review, I think she really captures the essence of the series.

Tahleen's Favorite Audiobooks - Having just completed my VERY FIRST audiobook, I can second Etiquette and Espionage!
100 Happy Book Days: Days 1-10 - Nafiza shares the first 10 books in the #100HappyBookDays challenge
The Giver, and How it Kind of Surprised Me - Amanda reviews The Giver movie.

New York Public Library’s hilarious archive of librarians’ harsh children’s book reviews - “Be sure to read the chapter about the three girls and the banana.”
Favourite Fictional Couples - The Midnight Garden talks about some some of their favourite (And least favourite) couples.  And they have some of my favs! (FROI AND QUINTANA FOREVER!! Plus Chaol/Celaena. Obvs.)
Non-Medieval Historical Novels - The Book Wars talk about some awesome books and why you might like/dislike them



Nonbookish Links

“Undercover Colors” Is A New Nail Polish That Detects If Your Drink Has Been Drugged - There's been a lot of lashback because some people are saying that this is promoting rape culture, and I'm sorry...but they're wrong. Yes, in an ideal world we should be saying just don't do it (and aren't they saying that anyway? In the article it says that they want to make men scared to use date rape drugs instead having women feel fearful), but that's just not going to happen. And if we have the tools to take preventative action, I'm all for it. I'm really excited for this product and if I had money to donate, I would.

ATLA Recap - "Zuko Alone", "The Chase" - ALL. THE. FEELS.

Something in Red: Scarlett Johansson’s SciFi Appeal - Like sci-fi/fantasy? Like Scarlett Johansson (or dislike)? Good. Read this. It's interesting.

My Own Happily Ever After - Jamie gets personal and talks about her relationship with her husband over the years, and it's inspiring and adorable and yay!

Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling You That You MUST Read

Hosted by The Broke and Bookish

The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

I figured I should just go ahead and get this one out of the way. I don't have a clue why I haven't read it yet - I read Looking For Alaska and I loved it.  Everyone loves this book, and everyone loves John Green.  And yet...I've only read one book.  Like 8 years ago.  And in other news, a bus full of 16 year olds spoiled the ending of this book and it's totally the reverse of what I was expecting (if you've read it you know what I mean. Probably.) So I still don't know when I'll work my way up to reading it.  I'll probably get to his other books first haha

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was one of the most amazing, influential books I have ever read.  It is by far my favourite dystopia, and I also loved The Blind Assassin which is a totally different sort of writer. Clearly I love, love, LOVE Margaret Atwood...so why haven't I read one of the most lauded dystopias ever...written by the author of my favourite dystopia?

The Girl of Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson

I have only heard fantastic things about this book.  It's fantasy. It has a nonstandard heroine. It has basically the set up that sounds like I'll love it.  ...still haven't read it.

Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi

I don't know anything about this book. Except that there's a really smoking love triangle apparently. And it's addicting. 

On the Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta

I didn't mention it on the blog (I don't think?) but I FREAKING LOVED The Lumatere Chronicles.  I will read anything by this author, regardless of genre.  Give it to me now.

Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead

So, vampires are rarely my thing.  And the cover features an Angelina Jolie lookalike.  And yet...I know SO many people who are totally into this series.  I need to just go judge for myself!

The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery

This appears to be everyone's favourite not-Anne story!

The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

The concept seems awesome, a lot of people I whose opinions I respect really liked it.  Also Tamora Pierce gave it 5 stars and an awesome review (from what I could tell. I skimmed)

Eleanor and Park - Rainbow Rowell

I know, I know! This is even worse that TFIOS I think.  I loved Fangirl, and hello this features like the only white/asian relationship with the same gender/race set up as my boyfriend and I!  It also has all the marks for a contemporary/historical fiction? novel that I'll love

Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetys

Ok I can honestly be excused a little bit for this one because I honestly thought it was a 50 Shades of Grey sequel.  Which considering what it's actually about it well...embarrassingly offensive lol

Leave me a link in the comments so I can go check out your list!