Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed blog hop created by  The Broke and the Bookish  and now hosted at  That Artsy Reader Girl . This Week's Topic: Characters I'd Follow On Social Media I love this topic. I actually have my students create social media pages for characters for extra credit assignments, so I've always thought this was fun to think about. It actually really requires some character analysis to do well. Which social media fits this character's personality? What would they post about? How much of their inner lives would they share? Here are the characters I would follow, where I would follow them, and why: Lizzie Bennet on Tumblr because you know her blog would be a beautiful mix of nerdy fangirl thoughtfulness and feminist manifestos. I love following people like that. Darcy on Twitter: He would use it rarely, but when he did, it would be to the point and oh so entertaining. Amy March on Instagram because it would be beautifully aesthetic, and...

Here are some shorter musings on some recent realistic YA reads. Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lai This, like all of Thanhha Lai's work, is excellent. It is historical fiction set in 1981 and follows a Vietnamese teen who has suffered a terrifying journey to America to find her younger brother who was taken from Vietnam as an orphan in the last wave of civilians leaving before the South fell. Along the way she employs the help of a wannabe rodeo cowboy fresh from high school graduation with a brand new truck and a dream. This is a wonderful tale about found family that covers a parts of the history Vietnam and America we often forget about, including that young Vietnamese people were risking their lives to make their way to refugee camps long after the war ended. Many of them paid until costs for this. Don't Date Rosa Santos  by Nina Moreno I thoroughly enjoyed this. This has the appearance (and description) of being a simple YA contemporary YA romance, but it is actually...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed blog hop created by  The Broke and the Bookish  and now hosted at  That Artsy Reader Girl . This Week's Topic: Last 10 Books That Gave Me a Book Hangover There is no better feeling in the world than that of a good book hangover. Unfortunately, it is a feeling I've experienced less and less in the past few years, though I'm hoping a turnaround is nigh. The first three books on this list I've read in 2020. Even if they were mild hangovers, the feeling being back is still exciting. In Order of Recency: Wow, compiling this list forced me to remember the Dark Reading Time of 2018. I knew it was bad while it was happening, but going back and looking at the stats was kind of shock. And there are zero books from that year on this list. And I want to take this time to give a shoutout to the book that caused the most epic book hangover of my life. It lasted for WEEKS, and the first few days I was completely usel...

I take the 2nd Friday of every month to highlight some upcoming releases I am looking forward to that I hope are Future Favorites. Feel free to do your own post, just please link back to my blog and tell me about your post in the comments. I JUST read The Bromance Book Club  a couple of weeks ago and FELL IN LOVE. I fell in love with the concept and the characters and the tackling of hard issues. Since both the protagonists of the sequel were introduced in the most delightful ways, I am so excited that I don't have to wait too long for it. Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville’s hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she’ll need assistance to take on the powerful chef. Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv’s blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic ...

Overall, I think this is was a great way to begin a new year of reading. I finished a lot of books, most of them new to me. I LOVED four of them. However, I also DNFed five sooooo..... The Favorites: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill  by Abbi Waxman Bringing Down the Duke   by Evie Dunmore Headliners  by Lucy Parker Well Met  by Jen DeLuca January in Numbers: Total: 11 New: 8           Rereads: 3 MG: 2            YA: 3               Adult: 6 Contemporary: 7 Historical: 2 Fantasy: 1 Non-Fiction: 1 DNFs: A Dastardly Plot Fake It Till You Break It Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things Love at First Like The Right Swipe Looking ahead, here are the February releases I'm looking forward to most: Did January have any stand-out reads for you? What are you looking forward to in the coming month?