Hey y’all! Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish question idea that was originally created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, from way back in June 2010! Since January 2018, Top Ten Tuesday has been hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks for taking it over! The idea is to make a list of ten books or bookish things on different topics each week. Check out her site for details on how to join and what the upcoming prompts are. 😊 You can also see all the posts from other bloggers linked on each weekly post on their main site.
This week’s prompt is typographic covers. Covers where words are the winner, and that’s all there needs to be. Covers where the title is the focus, and maybe it’s done creatively or just smashed in huge letters so you can’t miss it. I ADORE this topic because I think making an attractive, interesting cover without any usual visuals is an impressive skill, and can be done so well. I found a bunch below!! 😀
The books
The covers are more giant than usual this week since the focus is entirely on the cover!
That’s it for this week! Have you read any of the above books? Link to your posts this week in the comments as well 🙂
Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is Where We End & Begin by Jane Igharo! Expected Release: September 27, 2022
Why wait on this one?
SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE! The stories of people reconnecting after years apart and finding that their love still holds true just makes me swoon and cry happy tears every time. I want Dunni and Obinna to fall in love all over again… while I watch. 😅
I also love stories of women making hard decisions to go after what they truly want in life. Dunni certainly seems to be doing that, abandoning the fiance approved by her parents in hopes of a chance to see where things go with Obinna. 🥰
I’ve read and/or added several other books by Jane Igharo to my list, and I generally really enjoy them. Part of it is learning about Nigerian culture through the characters, but I also find that her approaches to love stories don’t shy away from painful truths, giving her love stories some realistic pain with the love.
Dunni hasn’t seen her high school boyfriend, Obinna, since she left Nigeria to attend college in America. Before their devastating separation, they vowed to find their way back to each other one day.
Twelve years later, and their vow is a thing of the past. Dunni works as a geneticist in Seattle and is engaged to a man she doesn’t love but one her parents approve of. Her future is laid out for her, and everything is going according to plan until she returns to Nigeria for a friend’s wedding and runs into Obinna. The shy, awkward boy she loved as a teenager is now a sophisticated, confident man. Things have changed, but there’s still an undeniable connection between them.
As they rediscover each other, their days filled with desire and passion, Dunni is reminded of the beautiful future she once planned with Obinna. But when devastating secrets are revealed and the reckless actions of their past bring new challenges, she’s left questioning everything, including if the love that consumed her as a teenager is still worth holding on to.
If you use Goodreads and haven’t seen it yet, the book page on their website has been redesigned! Personally I’m not a fan overall, but I tried really hard to think of some positives about it too. 😂 Below are my lists and overall thoughts. Vote below on if you like it or not and drop a comment about why!
Love!
The fact that they redesigned it means they’re giving Goodreads more attention than it’s gotten in like a decade. Maybe that will bring some good changes soon!
The spot that shows how many people have the book marked as “currently reading” is really cool! It feels more like a community thing with that.
It remembers your settings for whether the book page should show the edition&book details or have it collapses by default.
The reviews show a breakdown of people you’re friends with or following and how each of them rated the book.
The book cover, status, and rating in the left sidebar stays with the main page as you scroll through sections.
Haaaate.
The reading status / tags button. I hate that it’s popped into the middle of the screen now — why make me go somewhere else from where I just clicked? I also hate having to select reading status, THEN tags on a new screen. Again, more clicking. Ugh.
Everything is HUGE! Why is it all so giant!
I can’t get to my individual review page from my review on the books page — only through the “My Books” listing. EDIT: Misty noted that you can see the review page by clicking the date on the review. Added a photo below! Thanks Misty!
If you’re looking for other books in the series, you have to scroll WAYYY to the bottom of the page in order to find them. WHY.
The book details button to collapse it when it’s open is not intuitive to find as it’s buried under a bunch of stuff instead of remaining at the top as a coherent “open/close” toggle.
There’s just SO MUCH on the page and I have to scroll so far to get to any of it. God forbid I’m at the bottom and want to return to the top. A floating Table of Contents with links to each section or TOC embedded in a sidebar would help navigate the page a ton. Even a standard “Back to the top!” floating button! SOMETHING!
Randomly get an error saying it cannot load reviews under the Friends and Following section, and retry doesn’t work. Kind of also a pro though, because now I have less scrolling to do!
Hey y’all! In early June, I started my first year challenging the 20 books of summer goal that’s hosted at 746 Books. The goal is to read and review 20 books from June to September 1. The reviewing is the key part!
In my sign up post, I chose to go for 15 based on specific prompts that I wanted to fulfill. I did hit all 15 prompts, as well as a lot of other books that I read and reviewed outside of it! Below is a list of the books I completed for each prompt, as well as the other reviews I posted during the summer. 😊
Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is Seoulmates by Susan Lee! Expected Release: September 20, 2022
Why wait on this one?
I’ll basically read any book with a premise of a k-pop star dating a Regular Ol Person. This very specific niche of celebrity trope has absolutely stolen my heart, and I’m really hoping that’s what will happen with Hannah Cho in this book too. ^.^
This one blends a few approaches I’ve seen in other books. The MC isn’t interested in/aware of k-pop (Hart & Seoul by Kristen Burnham), and has a former best friend who became a k-pop star and is now returning home (Once Upon a K-Prom by Kat Cho). Did I mention I enjoyed both of those other books? 😁 In my mind, there’s no way to not enjoy them being combined then with their own new style!
The best revenge is a life well-lived, right? It sounds like that’s exactly what Hannah is poised to do when her friends and boyfriend are all into k-pop and essentially ditch Hannah. First of all, shallow. Second of all, her falling in love (you know, probably) with a BFF-turned-idol is delightfully karmic. 😄
Hannah Cho had the next year all planned out—the perfect summer with her boyfriend, Nate, and then a fun senior year with their friends.
But then Nate does what everyone else in Hannah’s life seems to do—he leaves her, claiming they have nothing in common. He and all her friends are newly obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas, and Hannah is not. After years of trying to embrace the American part and shunning the Korean side of her Korean American identity to fit in, Hannah finds that’s exactly what now has her on the outs.
But someone who does know K-dramas—so well that he’s actually starring in one—is Jacob Kim, Hannah’s former best friend, whom she hasn’t seen in years. He’s desperate for a break from the fame, so a family trip back to San Diego might be just what he needs…that is, if he and Hannah can figure out what went wrong when they last parted and navigate the new feelings developing between them.
Hey y’all! Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish question idea that was originally created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, from way back in June 2010! Since January 2018, Top Ten Tuesday has been hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks for taking it over! The idea is to make a list of ten books or bookish things on different topics each week. Check out her site for details on how to join and what the upcoming prompts are. 😊 You can also see all the posts from other bloggers linked on each weekly post on their main site.
Today’s prompt is books that I bought because I loved them so much (prompt recommended by Alecia @ The Staircase Reader). This is one that I can only join because of recent changes in my life, namely having space to HAVE a library of my own of shelves and shelves of books. It’s such a luxury, and it’s basically all I need to be happy in my home.
The books that have moved me most enough to buy a copy tend to be nonfiction or graphic novels (or sometimes both!). This is partly because nonfiction tends to have a lot of information that I like to quickly thumb through and refer to or dip back into on re-reads, and graphic novels or heavily illustrated books are nicer to have a physical copy of to enjoy the art. With that in mind… here’s my list!
Hey y’all! This month’s TBR is very very short, because that’s just where I’m at. It’s totally possible that I’ll read more than these, but I’m not looking ahead too much. Anyway, here are the 4 books I’m planning on reading/finishing.
September’s Books
The North Wind by Alexandria Warwick – I splurged on a gorgeous physical copy and have been slowly making my way through
Take It From Me by Jamie Beck – an ARC I’m really excited about ^.^
City of Bones by Clarissa Clare – a re-read I’m looking forward to as I just picked up a new set of the series at a library book sale. I’m not sure I’ll ever get my old set back, so I’m delighted to have a new one of this series I really enjoyed.
So that’s it for this month, very gentle. I’m feeling like some slower paced books, and/or ones I’m familiar with and can sink into a bit.
Hey y’all! Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish question idea that was originally created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, from way back in June 2010! Since January 2018, Top Ten Tuesday has been hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks for taking it over! The idea is to make a list of ten books or bookish things on different topics each week. Check out her site for details on how to join and what the upcoming prompts are. 😊 You can also see all the posts from other bloggers linked on each weekly post on their main site.
This week’s prompt is a freebie that can be school themed. As a teacher in the past with a lot of friends who still teach, I’m often thinking about what books I’d recommend to them to use with their students or have in the classroom for any free reading time. I’m going to try to list books for multiple classes, because “English class” is such an easy obvious one and there can be so much more range!!
The Books
The classrooms
History: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
I don’t know about y’all, but I had never heard about the Wilhelm Gustloff, but this book is a piece of history where you know the ending and the stories to get there are so bittersweet because of it.
Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is She’s Nice Though by Mia Mercado! Expected Release:August 30, 2022
Why wait on this one?
This is a collection of essays and musings on societal expectations and stereotypes, which is always something that fascinates me. The social science behind decisions is often such a web to untangle, and I love going on that journey with someone. The blurb highlights a focus on Asians, Midwesterners, and women and some common ones that come to them: being “nice” in particular.
And you know what? I bet it’ll be funny. I bet I will half the time be cackling and the other half be thoughtfully tilting my head. If I’m really lucky, there’s be a bit of both at once.
The author’s other work, Weird but Normal, also sounds like something I’d like. That gives me a lot of hope that if I like one, I’ll like the other, and then potentially have two great books to add to my list! Humorous and personally introspective nonfiction is some of my favorite. Also as a side thing, to be 100% honest, the bright yellow cover absolutely makes me like it more, PLUS the cover format of title-on-cake looks like Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come by Jessica Pan which I LOVED.
Summary
And, at the center of it all, am I actually nice or am I just performing a role I think I’m expected to play?”
Mia Mercado is a razor-sharp cultural critic and essayist known for her witty and hilarious dissections of the uncomfortable truths that rule our lives. In this thought-provoking collection of new essays, Mercado examines what it means to be “polite,” “agreeable,” and “nice.” She covers topics from the subtleties of the “Bad Bitch” and why women dominate the ASMR market, to what makes her dog an adorable little freak and how you know if you’re shy. This is a book about the unspoken trick mirror of our “good” intentions: the inherent performance of the social media apology, celebrating men when they do the bare minimum, and why we trust a Midwesterner to watch our stuff when we go pee.
Throughout, she ponders her identity as an Asian woman and asks what “nice” even means–and why anyone would want to be it. With writing that is as precise as it is profound, and cultural references that range from trash reality television to the New York Times Sunday-morning crossword puzzle, Mercado uncovers weird, long-overdue truths about our frailties and failings. In the end, she sees them not as a source of shame but as a cause for celebration. Filled with revelations that range from the silly to the serious,
She’s Nice Though offers a mind-bending glimpse into the illusions and delusions of contemporary life–and reveals who we *really* are when no one is watching.
Hey y’all! Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish question idea that was originally created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, from way back in June 2010! Since January 2018, Top Ten Tuesday has been hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks for taking it over! The idea is to make a list of ten books or bookish things on different topics each week. Check out her site for details on how to join and what the upcoming prompts are. 😊 You can also see all the posts from other bloggers linked on each weekly post on their main site.
This week’s prompt was for funny book titles, but the only one I could think of even close to this was Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, which is only funny to me because I know what the style of her writing in it is.
Instead, I’m switching this up to be books that made me laugh, which is actually a post I did a year or two ago but still tracks. Maybe I’ll do a new list soon but for today this works! This list has both nonfiction and fiction, and a brief description of the kind of humor in each. 🙂
The second part of this is a look at what books other have posted for today’s actual prompt. I’ve done this once or twice before for other Top Ten Tuesday prompts and had a lot of fun with it! Plus I’m curious what others have found, and if there even ARE any that multiple people mention. Let’s see…
My Book Joy 