Discussion Time: Reasons I’m Thankful I Started, and Love, Reading

The very first book I can remember picking up and reading was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Before that my parents would read fairytales to me, and after it was the Twilight series. It was the fairytales that inspired my love of magic and happily ever afters’, Twilight that inspired my love of YA fiction, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that inspired my overall love of reading.

Ever since I was a child there’s been so much I’ve loved about picking up a new book and diving into a new story. It’s why I’m still reading now twenty years after the first Harry Potter book was released. I have friends, and even family members, who rarely read. They pick up maybe one or two books a year, and I wonder how?!

Reasons I’m Thankful I Started, and Love, Reading

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Mother/Child Relationships in YA Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there is a new topic for bloggers to choose and list their top ten. This week’s theme is a Mother’s Day related freebie, so I picked Top Ten Mother/Child Relationships in YA Books.

I love seeing strong familial relationships in books, unfortunately in fantasy stories that’s an aspect that seems to be missing. I guess it’s hard to risk your life saving the world when you have a loving family at home worrying for you. Not all of the mother/child relationships I featured this week are happy, loving and perfect, but they were all amazingly written.

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Discussion Time: Diversity in YA Books

Diversity seems to be a hot topic in books now. Go back a few years and it was rare to see a book that featured a LGBT relationship, or a book where a POC character was the protagonist. Yes we’ve come a long way, but I think there’s still a long way to go. Diversity is important in books, I don’t think anyone would say it isn’t, so why isn’t there more of it?

Maybe it’s simply a case of slowly introducing it into the market, maybe in another few years there’ll be more books on the shelves that feature characters and relationships that aren’t focused on now. However, is it so bad to say that I’d like to see more diversity now rather than waiting for it?

Diversity in YA Books

Standalone Sunday: Highly Illogical Behaviour

Standalone Sunday is a weekly feature created by Megan at Bookslayer Reads which aims to showcase standalone books which you loved or would recommend.

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Highly Illogical Behaviour by John Corey Whaley

The Diverse Books Tag

When I was first tagged in The Diverse Books Tag I was worried that I would have a hard time finding anything I’d read that answered the questions. Turns out there were more than a few books already on my read list. Don’t get me wrong there are still more I want to read, and I’m always looking out for more diverse books so if you have any recommendations please let me know.

I was tagged by Izzi at Ravenclaw Book Club. Thank you so much for the tag Izzi; everyone else should definitely check out her original post and while you’re there her blog as well.

The Rules

• Credit the original creator, Read Diverse Books.
• The Diverse Books Tag is a bit like a scavenger hunt. I will task you to find a book that fits a specific criteria and you will have to show us a book you have read or want to read.
• If you can’t think of a book that fits the specific category, then I encourage you to go look for one. A quick Google search will provide you with many books that will fit the bill. (Also, Goodreads lists are your friends.) Find one you are genuinely interested in reading and move on to the next category.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten All Time Favourite Books in the … Genre

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there is a new topic for bloggers to choose and list their top ten. This week’s theme is Top Ten All Time Favourite Books in the … Genre.

YA Contemporary.

When I saw this week’s theme it took me a while to actually come up with a genre to which I could feature my favourite books. I’d already used my favourite genres for previous Top Ten Tuesday themes – fairytale retellings, mythology, fantasy, sci-fi – and I had no new ideas. Then I came up with YA contemporary. It’s a genre I’m slowly exploring more of and I have read some amazing books that have not only become all-time favourites of mine but that I will be going back and re-reading at some point.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favourite Beginnings and Endings of Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there is a new topic for bloggers to choose and list their top ten. It was a Top Ten Tuesday Rewind this week, I could pick any topic that had already been done before, so I chose a Top Ten Favourite Beginnings and Endings of Books.

Is it more important for a book to have an amazing beginning or an amazing end? Some people would say beginning – it’s what draws you into the story and those first few pages decide whether you continue with the book or move it aside for another time – and some would say ending – after all do you really want to read 300 odd pages only to be disappointed by the end? Obviously though you want a book to have an amazing beginning and end.

For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday Rewind topic I picked my top five favourite beginnings and my five favourite ends. Although I’d say all ten books on my list are amazing all the way through, not just the beginning and not just the end.

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Highly Illogical Behaviour

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Title: Highly Illogical Behaviour

Author: John Corey Whaley

Series: N/A

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Release Date: May 26th 2016

Rating:

Sixteen year old Solomon has agoraphobia. He hasn’t left his house in three years, which is fine by him. At home, he is the master of his own kingdom—even if his kingdom doesn’t extend outside of the house.

Ambitious Lisa desperately wants to go to a top tier psychiatry program. She’ll do anything to get in.

When Lisa finds out about Solomon’s solitary existence, she comes up with a plan sure to net her a scholarship: befriend Solomon. Treat his condition. And write a paper on her findings. To earn Solomon’s trust, Lisa begins letting him into her life, introducing him to her boyfriend Clark, and telling him her secrets. Soon, Solomon begins to open up and expand his universe. But all three teens have grown uncomfortably close, and when their facades fall down, their friendships threaten to collapse as well.

– Blurb courtesy of goodreads.com