We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is Books Involving Food (That are Not Cookbooks) (Submitted by Cathy @ WhatCathyReadNext and Hopewell’s Public Library of Life)
What was August? Where did August go? I have no idea. All I know is that it was a stressful month and I’m sorry for whining about it all the time in my weekly wrap-ups! 😂 This month was consumed, as usual, by work and stress due to increased workloads and organizational changes that impacted my whole team. I have to be honest, the latter months of the year are not off to a great start (and I’m saying this on the 1st of September, lol)! I want to say that I hope September will be less stressful but I know it won’t be… So let’s just say I’m looking forward to October! 😄
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We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today!
I’m spending my Sunday night in bed finishing How Not to Drown In a Glass of Water (hopefully). I’m reading a physical copy alongside the audiobook, and the narrator is amazing. How she brings Cara to life has made this such an enjoyable reading experience! I’m keen to finish it tonight if I have the time between work.
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits, and it’s where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Check out all the past topics if you want to join in the bookish discussion fun.
This week’s topic is actually a mid-year reading check-in but since I just posted my Mid-Year Check-In Tag earlier this week, I’ll be doing last week’s topic:
Prompts: It’s the fifth Friday of August and this month, Let’s Talk Bookish turns 5! How long have you been participating in LTB? What was the first LTB topic you wrote a post for? Have your opinions changed since then? How did you first hear about LTB? If you have a favorite LTB topic from the last few years, go ahead and write about that!
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Hi friends, as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours I’m excited to share my thoughts on Are You Nobody Too? by Tina Cane. Thanks to the TBR team for having me on tour and to Make Me A World (Random House Children’s) for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!
Are You Nobody Too?
Publisher: Make Me A World
Publication Date: 27 August 2024
Genre: Contemporary Middle Grade
Rep: Chinese, Asian, Adoption
Rating:
(3 pandas)
After years of discomfort as the only Chinese student at her private middle school, Emily transfers to Chinatown’s I.S. 23 for 8th Grade and ends up feeling more disconnected than ever. In this coming-of-age novel-in-verse, will Emily be able to find her way or will she lose herself completely?After a year of distance-learning, Emily Sofer finds her world turned upside she has to leave the only school she’s ever known to attend a public school in Chinatown. For the first time, Emily isn’t the only Chinese student around…but looking like everyone else doesn’t mean that understanding them will be easy–especially with an intimidating group of cool girls Emily calls The Five.When Emily discovers that her adoptive parents have been keeping a secret, she feels even more uncertain about who she is. A chance discovery of Emily Dickinson’s poetry helps her finally feel seen… but can the words of a writer from 200 years ago help her open up again, and find common ground with the Five?
Racism, bullying, pandemic, microaggressions, mentions of miscarriage (in the past)
TL;DR: This was a unique middle-grade contemporary told in verse. The author had a unique way of expressing the main character’s experiences during and after the pandemic. It touches upon evergreen themes such as coming-of-age, identity and belonging. Emily was an interesting main character—she’s very much a teenager—and I think many young readers whether they’re middle schoolers or just starting high school.
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Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is Posts I’ve Written That Give You the Best Glimpse of Me (Share the blog/Insta/Twitter posts or YouTube/TikTok videos you’ve made that showcase your personality the most and offer the clearest window into your personality. These are the posts you wish everyone would read!)
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today!
I’m spending my Sunday night in bed reading Are You Nobody Too? by Tina Cane. I’m reading this MG novel in verse for a blog tour spot next week. I’m roughly 20% in and while reading in verse makes it a fast read, I’m not sure I’m connecting to it as much as I expected. Keen to see where it goes though!
Happy Saturday, friends! I’m very excited to share my review for A Rose Among Thorns by Ash Fitzsimmons as part of the BBNYA blog tour hosted by The Write Reads.
Special thanks to the tour organisers for having me on tour and to the author for providing a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!
The BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website or Twitter. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
A Rose Among Thorns (Hall of Thorns #1)
Publication Date: 19 April 2022
Genre: Adult Cosy Fantasy Mystery
Panda Rating:
(4 pandas)
Rose Thorn should never be left unsupervised around plants. Potted things tend to die around her as if on principle. But when her great-aunt calls and asks Rose to watch her garden nursery for a few days, Rose can hardly say no. After all, Aunt Lily is the closest thing Rose has to a grandmother — and the only family she has left — so Rose doesn’t mind driving out to her tiny mountain town to look after the place.
Aunt Lily never mentioned anything about an inspection, however.
Rose is taken aback when an agent from an organization she’s never heard of arrives and panics to find Aunt Lily missing. As it turns out, Aunt Lily hasn’t been entirely straight with Rose. She’s not visiting a sick friend — she’s in danger and on the run. She keeps a hidden greenhouse on the property in which she grows highly regulated magical plants. And she’s an elf…as was Rose’s grandfather.
Though stunned to witness magic at work and shocked that no one ever divulged the family secret, Rose refuses to abandon the nursery until her great-aunt is safely home. But as she and the agent, now awkward housemates, try to keep up their cover story and find the missing grower, they realize that whatever led to Aunt Lily’s disappearance might not be the only magical crime in progress.
And while Rose has no green thumb, another talent of hers may be budding…
Kidnapping, captivity, death of parents (recounted), bullying (recounted), gun violence, imprisonment, compulsion (magical)
TL;DR: A Rose Among Thorns is a great beginning to a cosy fantasy mystery series. The characters were entertaining, the banter was pretty cheesy but so fun, and the fantasy elements were rather light, making it perfect for those who want to read more fantasy but don’t want to get bogged down by expansive world-building. It has great appeal for a wider audience and I can see why it got second place in the BBNYA competition! 😍 I enjoyed this much more than the start led me to expect and I’m keen to continue with the series!
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Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here are the rules:
First lines:
“First, there was only Sol among a sea of stars.
Alone, they formed the world by gathering stardust in their hands.
From the dust pressed between their fingers, mountains grew.”
dinipandareads 