Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag: 2018

I’ve gotten into the habit of doing this tag every year around this time, and I think a couple other bloggers are doing so too. It’s a nice little round up of the year so far.

This tag was created by ReadLikeWildFire (a booktuber) and Ely Jayne (a blogger).

Best book I’ve read so far:

Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus, illus. by James Jean

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I Heart Characters! #4: Grumpy Second in Command

I’m interrupting tag week to bring you… >> I Heart Characters!, a weekly meme hosted by Dani at Perspective of a Writer to share our love of great characters. Each week Dani assigns a topic/type of character that we must find examples of in the various media we consume (books, TV shows, movies, comics, podcasts, etc.).

I bulk together the topics, so here are my last two for the month.

Last week’s topic:

A grump with a heart of gold

Characters with rude or disgruntled personalities deserve love too… especially if they thaw towards the MC, eventually.

Burrich and Akeha

‘I Spy’ Book Challenge | Book Tag

Another day, another book tag. This one is the ‘I Spy’ Book Challenge that I saw on Becky’s blog, Blogs of a Bookaholic. I liked the concept and decided to give it a go. It was created by booktuber Books and Lala, who was inspired by her son’s I Spy books.

Instructions:

Find a book that contains (either on the cover or in the title) an example for each category.

You must have a separate book for all 20.

Get as creative as you want and make it happen in under 5 minutes!!

* * *

My plan was to search my physical book shelves and snap photos of my choices, but since my shelves are stacked two and three books deep, contain over 800 books, and are very disorganized (because of a recent home improvement project), I’ll instead refer to my digital shelves where I’ve recorded all the books I own. It’ll make it possible for me to complete this in 5 minutes (hopefully).

….yeeaa…that 5 minutes thing didn’t work out. I totally cheated.

Animal | Weapon | Transportation | Food

10 Books Challenge | Book Tag

Tag week continues with the 10 Books Challenge, which I found Lindsey’s blog, A Rambling Reviewer. I tried to find who the creator of it is but was unsuccessful.

The rules:

• List 10 books that have stayed with you in some way.
• Do not take more than a few minutes and do not think too hard.
• They do not have to be the “right” books or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you in some way.
• Paste these instructions and tag 10 friends.

A book that made me think:

Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future by Lauren Redniss (illus.)

World Cup Book Tag

It’s tag week for me and I’m kicking it off with the World Cup Book Tag created by the Humpo Show to share his love of football. 🙂

I’m not a football fan, but everyone else in my family is and I always love the excitement surrounding the World Cup so there was no way I’d pass on doing this tag.

Here are the rules:

• Pick ONE country from each group!
• Your choice can either be an AUTHOR or a BOOK set in that country.
• If you are struggling, you can pick a book or author you want to read at some point.
• I’ve included a little bit of information about the book, but you can anything you like — post photos of the cover, favourite quotes, go crazy!
• TAG AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU WANT!

The groups:

The Hardest Game of ‘Would You Rather’ for Book Nerds | Book Tag

Life has been busy lately, which has made my blogging spotty. I have several posts lined up to publish, if only I could finish them, but every time I sit down to write it’s usually very late so I feel tired and sleepy. Time hasn’t been on my side lately.

Since I couldn’t complete my intended post, I’ve decided to do this fun tag instead that I found on Kristin Kraves Books. The tag is based on a Buzzfeed article and it contains some difficult questions that only book lovers will struggle with.

Would you rather have a friend who loses your books or one who dog-ears them?

Ugh! I hate both, not that I’d loan my book to a friend, but I hate losing books so I’d go with the dog-ears, if I really, really need to choose one.

Would you rather secretly love a book everyone else hates or secretly hate a book everyone else loves?

I prefer to secretly love a book everyone hates. It’s less annoying for me that way and I could have fun quoting from it to others to get on their nerves. Lol!

BBC #3: Favorite Fantasy Book Covers

I’m the worst at keeping up with memes. I’m so bad at them that I even forgot to keep up with my own meme that I created to focus on one my favorite things about books — book covers!

I created BBC (Beautiful Book Covers meme) last year to feature and talk about book covers I love. My plan was to make BBC a monthly meme but after the second post, I totally forgot about it. I’m just horrible at sticking to a schedule or remembering what memes I’m participating in. I easily get distracted by the shiny, new one to come along.

Well, a few days ago I was reminded of my meme when I saw Beth’s (Bethan May Books) post on fantasy book covers she likes. The idea popped into my head to do a similar post and use it for my neglected meme. Well, here it is. There are loads of fantasy book covers I like so this will be a multi-part post with others posted in the future.

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The Fox and the Star was the first book to pop in my mind when I considered this topic, though it’s more fairytale/folklore than hardcore fantasy like the Lord of the Rings series. Drawn to the vintage feel of The Fox and the Star cover design, I decided to choose similar cover designs for this post. The following are the few that quickly came to mind.

The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Cover art by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Weekend Reads #88: Mourning My Favorite Character…for no good reason

Weekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend’s topic:

I want Fitz back!

**Quick note: Spoilers below for Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy, Liveship Traders trilogy, and Tawney Man trilogy. DO NOT spoil me for anything that comes after those books. Thanks!

Do you mourn your books? Do you lament stories you’ve completed? Do you grieve for plots that have petered to an end, never to flow forth in a story again? Do you pine for the moments you spent with characters you love and for the wondrous events you read, emotions you felt, epic friendships that seemed as if they’d last forever, love so true that nothing would come between them, and quests so grand and heroic that you had to pause a moment and take a breath when reading about them?

I Heart Characters! #3: Wicked Witch Flying

I Heart Characters! is a weekly meme hosted by Dani at Perspective of a Writer to share our love of great characters. Each week Dani will assign a topic/type of character that we must find examples of in the various media we consume (books, TV shows, movies, comics, podcasts, etc.).

Bulking the topics in a single post works best for me, so this post will include the first two topics for June.

Last week’s topic:

Wicked witch

A witch, or one who simply acts like one… a fantasy villain or a contemporary bully… if she’s b*tchy then she’s part of the group!

the white witch

“How to Love a Jamaican” by Alexia Arthurs

When I posted to my personal Facebook account that I was reading this book and it was making me feel nostalgic and a bit sad, I was met with pity, concern, and ridicule.

I didn’t state what the book is about, so my friends and family thought I was talking about my love life. I felt the need to post a clarifying statement to explain that this is a book short stories about growing up in Jamaica and leaving the country to live in the U.S.; about being a Jamaican in a foreign country – the U.S.; about romance, yes, but also families and other relationships; about being a Black woman in the U.S. and about being a Black lesbian. It’s about these and much more, but these themes are at the forefront of the stories and most resonated strongly with me.

Genre:

Contemporary; literary

Pubbed:

July 24, 2018 (I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.)