January Monthly Wrap-Up

This month has actually really flown by. Here's how I've got on this month!

Books Read in January:

And, all of the above books are diverse books! I think this is pretty awesome, considering, as I said in my 2017 Blogging & Reading Goals, that I'm aiming to read to my mood, rather than reading books because I feel I should. Every book I have chosen to read based on the story has been a diverse book in some way, and I think that's great. There are more books being published that are diverse - we still have a way to go, but there are more of them.

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Review: A Step Towards Falling by Cammie McGovern

A Step Towards Falling by Cammie McGovern (review copy) - 'Neither of us is exactly living the dream. But we're living something and that's more than either of us expected this year.'

In A Step Towards Falling, Cammie McGovern tells a poignant, compelling story of not judging people on appearances and knowing how to fix the things you've broken.

Emily has always been the kind of girl who tries to do the right thing - until one night when she does the worst thing possible. She sees Belinda, a classmate with developmental disabilities, being attacked. Inexplicably, she does nothing at all.

Belinda, however, manages to save herself. When their high school finds out what happened, Emily and Lucas, a football player who was also there that night, are required to perform community service at a centre for disabled people. Soon, Lucas and Emily begin to feel like maybe they're starting to make a real difference. Like they would be able to do the right thing if they could do that night all over again. But can they do anything that will actually help the one person they hurt the most? From Goodreads.

TW: Sexual assault.

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Discussion: Are There Certain Books a Privileged Person Shouldn't Review?

There's something that has been worrying me for a little while now. Are there certain books that privileged people just shouldn't read?

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Review: A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom (bought) - The heart-rending and inspiring novel from the critically acclaimed author of NOT IF I SEE YOU FIRST.

How can you have a future if you can’t accept your past?
Mel Hannigan doesn’t have it easy. Mourning the death of her firework of a brother, trying to fit back into a school she’s been conspicuously absent from and struggling to deal with the loss of three friendships that used to mean everything. Struggling to deal with a condition that not even her closest friends know about.

So Mel tries to lock away her heart, to numb the highs and lows, to live quietly without hope – but also without pain. Until someone new shows her that it can be worth taking a risk, that opening up to life is what can make it glorious…

And that maybe, Mel can discover a tragic kind of wonderful of her very own. From Goodreads.

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Review: Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom

Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom (proof) - Parker Grant doesn't need perfect vision to see right through you. That's why she created the Rules: Don't treat her any differently just because she's blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances.

When Scott Kilpatrick, the boy who broke her heart, suddenly reappears at school, Parker knows there's only one way to react – shun him so hard it hurts. She has enough to deal with already, like trying out for the track team, handing out tough-love advice to her painfully naive classmates, and giving herself gold stars for every day she hasn't cried since her dad's death. But avoiding her past quickly proves impossible, and the more Parker learns about what really happened – both with Scott, and her dad – the more she starts to question if things are always as they seem.

Not If I See You First illuminates those blind spots that we all have in life, whether visually impaired or not. From Goodreads.

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Discussion: When It Comes to Diverse Books, Who Makes Them Diverse?

When it comes to diverse books, who makes them diverse? And by "who", I mean which characters?

When I was recording the diverse books I read last year, I was only taking note of those where the/a protagonist/narrator was from a marginalised group. This was down to a conversation I had on Twitter with an author who said (and I'm paraphrasing) that she personally didn't consider a book to be diverse if the book wasn't told from the point of view of the marginalised character, as it doesn't get into what it means to be marginalised, and I could see her point.

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Review: A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard (#Ad)

A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard

I was sent this proof for free by Macmillan Children's Books for the purpose of providing an honest review.

Steffi doesn't talk, but she has so much to say.
Rhys can't hear, but he can listen.
Their love isn't a lightning strike, it's the rumbling roll of thunder.

Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life - she's been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He's deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she's assigned to look after him. To Rhys, it doesn't matter that Steffi doesn't talk, and as they find ways to communicate, Steffi finds that she does have a voice, and that she's falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it. From Goodreads.

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Review: Wing Jones by Katherine Webber

Wing Jones by Katherine Webber (proof) - Jandy Nelson meets Friday Night Lights: a sweeping story about love and family from an exceptional new voice in YA. With a grandmother from China and another from Ghana, fifteen-year-old Wing Jones is often caught between worlds. But when tragedy strikes, Wing discovers a talent for running she never knew she had. Wing's speed could bring her family everything it needs. It could also stop Wing getting the one thing she wants. From Goodreads.

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Discussion: How Do You Discuss a Book When Characters' Marginalised Identities Are Spoilers?

Eye Heart Romance & YA, Spoiler Alerts: When Is It Okay to Talk About It? It's a really interesting that asks after how long is it finally ok to talk about major spoilers. Her title, however, had me thinking about types of spoilers - is it ever ok to discuss spoilers publicly, or should you always be spoiler free or keep them hidden?

It's something that I really have a bit of an issue with when it comes to books featuring LGBTQ* characters. Quite a number of people had a problem with the blurb of Pantomime by Laura Lam when it first came out back in 2013, when it was published by Strange Chemistry. There was no mention at all the Micah and Gene were the same person; that Micah is intersex, raised in their aristocratic family as Gene, and later became Micah when they ran away (I'm using plural pronouns here, because Micah is also genderfluid, and I can't quite remember what pronouns they use.). So, yes, I've just said that Micah is intersex, but Micah being intersex is actually pivotal to their story. It's important for readers - especially possible intersex readers - to know about Micah's intersexuality. It's important that people know about books with characters they can identify with. Hiding the fact, no-one's going to know until they read it, and with our attitude to not spoiling books, if we don't talk about, still people aren't going to know. Thankfully, with people getting annoyed at how Pantomime was published, people did talk about it, and it became known. Fortunately, now Pantomime has been re-published (as Strange Chemistry are no more) by Tor, the blurb has also been updated.

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Discussion: Why Are US Covers Generally Better Than UK Covers?

Over my years as a book blogger, there is something I have found: 9 times out of 10, the US edition of a book will have a better cover than the UK cover. I also think there's a kind of style about covers from each, that without being told beforehand, I'd be able to pick out which cover was for the US or the UK edition. This is not to say that the UK covers are awful, just that I feel more often than not, the US covers are so much better. Take these covers for example.

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab

UK cover & US cover

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Review: The Memory Book by Lara Avery (#Ad)

The Memory Book by Lara Avery

I was sent this review copy for free by Quercus Children's Books for the purpose of providing an honest review.

“They tell me that my memory will never be the same, that I'll start forgetting things. At first just a little, and then a lot. So I'm writing to remember.”

Samantha McCoy has it all mapped out. First she's going to win the national debating championship, then she's going to move to New York and become a human rights lawyer. But when Sammie discovers that a rare disease is going to take away her memory, the future she'd planned so perfectly is derailed before it’s started. What she needs is a new plan.

So the Memory Book is born: Sammie’s notes to her future self, a document of moments great and small. Realising that her life won't wait to be lived, she sets out on a summer of firsts: The first party; The first rebellion; The first friendship; The last love.

Through a mix of heartfelt journal entries, mementos, and guest posts from friends and family, readers will fall in love with Sammie, a brave and remarkable girl who learns to live and love life fully, even though it's not the life she planned. From Goodreads.

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Top Ten Tuesday: 2016 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme run by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten 2016 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To (But TOTALLY Plan To).
Do I'm sitting here trying to think of what I wanted to read but didn't get round to, and I'm drawing a blank. I have so many books, and there are so many books I want to read, I can't remember them all without looking at my bookcases or Goodreads. So I had to go and have a look over my bookcases to remind me of what I've not yet read.

No Virgin by Anne Cassidy & Girl Detatched by Manuela Salvi

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2017 Reading & Blogging Goals

It is the New Year, which means people have been sharing their bookish and bloggy goals and resolutions for 2017, like Paper Fury, Bookends and Endings, and Jess Hearts Books. I thought I would join in and share my goals for this year with you all.

Swap ARCs for eProofs

I mentioned this in my Looking Back on 2016, Looking Forward to 2017 post. I am simply running out of space for books. I have five bookcases, books are stacked in most of them, and I still have piles of books on the floor. It's just too much. Not only does it not look good - everyone knows that a bookcase with books spine out is a thing of beauty, but you wouldn't have a clue looking at my bookcases what most of the books are - I'm actually feeling weighed down by all these books. We always talk about how you can never have too many books, but I think maybe you can. So I'm going to have a cull, and this year, I'm going to request eProofs of books instead of physical copies where possible. This isn't going to be possible in every instance, but I think it will for most. This will drastically cut down on the number of books I receive through the post, and I'll feel a lot happier with having pretty bookcases and no books to trip over in the middle of the night. My only problem is that I may forget what books I have on my Kindle, but I'll just have to keep an eye on NetGalley and the Home page on my Kindle.

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Review: Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland

Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland (proof) - Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him - at least not yet.

Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change.

Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl; she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It's obvious there's something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn't your average story of boy meets girl. From Goodreads.

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Review: The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan (gift) - Dash and Lily have been dating for nearly a year, but when Lily’s beloved grandfather falls ill, the repercussions take their toll on everyone. Even though they are still together, somehow the magic has gone out of their relationship and it’s clear that Lily has fallen out of love with life.

Action must be taken! Dash teams up with Lily’s brother and a host of their friends, who have just twelve days to get Lily’s groove back in time for Christmas. From Goodreads.

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