Reader Rayna

Month: June 2015

  • Themeathon Announcement

    Hey everyone, so I just wanted to make an announcement letting you know that I’ll be hosting a month long read-a-thon! Woo! A few people on Twitter seemed interested, and maybe this will motivate me to read more since I’ll be the one hosting it, so why not!?

    Anyway, what is the themeathon read-a-thon you ask?

    Each week in July will host a different theme. So the goal is to read at least one book that fits that theme. Pretty simple, right? I mean, that’s one book per week. I think that’s doable, don’t you?

    There will also be mini-challenges to go along with the main challenge, so you can set your own goals for what you want to accomplish during this read-a-thon.

    Also, let me just say that this is a relaxed read-a-thon. Do not feel obligated to complete every challenge or participate in Twitter sprints or anything.

    To get a better idea of what I’m talking about, here are the dates and the corresponding challenges:

    July 1-8

    Theme: Daring Hero/Heroine

    • Read at least one book that has a daring/courageous hero/ine in it. Example: Katniss from The Hunger Games.

    Mini-Challenges:

    • Read a book with multiple points of view (two people or more). Example: These Broken Stars.
    • A book that’s between 350-400 pages.
    • A book that isn’t a novel (such as a memoir or non-fiction story).

    July 9-16

    Theme: Dangerous Love

    • Read at least one book with an element of dangerous love in it. This can either be environmental or personal. Example: Juliette and Adam from Shatter Me.

    Mini-Challenges:

    • Read a book with over 450 pages.
    • Write a poem to the main love interest in the book you chose (any type of prose/rhyme scheme/format).
    • Listen to an audiobook.

    July 17-24

    Theme: Villain You Love to Hate

    • Read at least one book with a villain you love to hate, aka a villain so horrible you want to toss them off a cliff. Example: Valentine from the Mortal Instruments series.

    Mini-Challenges:

    • Describe the book you chose with emojis on Twitter.
    • Write a haiku of the villain in the book you’re reading and share it on your blog/Twitter/wherever.
    • Watch a book-to-movie adaptation of said book, if there is one.

    July 25-31

    Theme: Only Standalones

    • No series, no duologies, no trilogies. It’s all about the standalones this week. Example: Fangirl.

    Mini-Challenges:

    • Read a standalone that’s not a contemporary.
    • Read a standalone over 400 pages.
    • A diverse read! Example: Main character is gay, religious, biracial, etc.

    Okay, so those are all of the weeks and all of the challenges to go along with it. Again, do not feel obligated to complete every challenge. I mean, you can if you want, but that’s up to you.

    Also, let me know if you’ll be participating by either commenting down below or using the hashtag #themeathon on Twitter/Instagram. You can create your own Themeathon TBR post and all that so I can see what you have planned! I’ll post my own TBR closer to the read-a-thon.

    I’ll host InLinkz on my own posts each week so those of you who participate can share and see what other people are reading and all that. I’ll be doing weekly wrap-ups so you can see my progress and all that, and I’d love to see yours.

    I’ll also be hosting Twitter sprints each week so we can all read as much as we can together. I’ll be hosting them on @SummerReadathon, so be sure to check them out there.

    Here’s a schedule for Twitter sprints:

    • Week 1: Monday, July 6th @ 6:00PM EST until 8:00PM EST
    • Week 2: Tuesday, July 14th @ 5:00PM EST until 7:00PM EST
    • Week 3: Wednesday, July 22nd @ 3:00PM EST until 6:00PM EST
    • Week 4: Thursday, July 30th @ 6:00PM EST until 10:00PM EST

    I’ll post reminders at the beginning of each starting week, don’t worry!

    Accompanying video: Themeathon Announcement

    So let me know if you’ll be participating down below or on Twitter. I think this will be a fun time and I hope to see you there!

  • Ignite Me Book Review

    igniteme

    Title: Ignite Me
    Author: Tahereh Mafi
    Series: Book #3 in the Shatter Me trilogy
    Publisher: HarperCollins
    Publication Date: February 4, 2014
    Genre: Young Adult – Dystopian, Romance
    Pages: 408
    Format: Purchased Paperback

    “Ignite Me” by Tahereh Mafi is the third and final book in the Shatter Me trilogy. It follows Juliette, a girl with a touch that can kill – literally – and a super strong power that she has begun to finally understand and harness to its true ability. It’s also about her conflicts of the heart between two guys, Warner and Adam, and how she, along with several others, have to fight against the Reestablishment to regain control of their country – and their lives.

    This review will probably contain some spoilers as this is the third book, so if you haven’t read it yet, please come back when you do.

    THIS BOOK, GUYS. It was SO good. As far as wrap-ups to trilogies go, this one was on point. It wrapped up a lot of conflict, both inner and outer, and it also showed some amazing character development from a beginning of a series to the end.

    Okay, let’s talk about the characters.

    Juliette. She was so BADASS. She really came into her own in this book, and though she was a little whiny at the beginning, she really opened her eyes and finally realized a lot not only about herself, but about others. She became physically strong (like, ridiculously physically strong) as well as mentally and emotionally. When we first met her in the first book, she was a super unstable girl who counted cracks in the ceiling tiles and how many seconds of every day went by. In the second book she started to really see more of the world, and though she still had far to go, she was starting to learn to trust herself. And then in this book? WOW. She really showed that she’s not afraid of anything anymore, that she’s willing to make a difference in the world if it means helping others and herself. And she finally understood the complex feelings in her heart (YAY) and chose based on those feelings rather than by the first kind interaction she ever had.

    Adam was a total jerk throughout a majority of this book. He showed a lot of his true colors when presented with stress and a broken heart. I really wanted to hit him a lot. I mean, he didn’t even apologize in the end, and I don’t really care what happens to him anymore, but yeah. His sweet and gentle personality was really, really tested in this book and it showed that he wasn’t all he was cracked up to be. I mean, throwing insults at Juliette and telling her what she can and can’t do? Yeah, no.

    Warner showed so much more of himself in this book than any other and it really shed so much light on him that I kind of can’t believe I thought he was a super creep in the first book. But his actions in the first book really showed he kind of was, but that’s not the point. In this book we get to know more about the past and how Warner really thought. We also got a more in depth look into his personal life and his feelings and how much he would risk for Juliette. I thought it was very brave of him to be able to do so much for her, and really sweet. He became one of my favorite characters.

    Kenji is also the best. I want him to be my BFF right now. Like seriously, I laughed out loud at so many of his interactions with Juliette and the others, it was great.

    The plot of the story continued from the previous book, but it had to refocus as a lot happened in the second book, including (spoiler alert) Omega Point getting destroyed. So not only did it deal with the repercussions of that, but it also dealt with two sides joining forces with each other to try to overcome a common evil. I mean, obviously there was more than enough romance in this book (including lots of steamy parts [ohhhh myyy]), but I think it did give an ample amount into the Reestablishment and how they wanted to overtake it and regain control for the citizens and everyone out there.

    Overall, I thought this book was an amazing trilogy finale and I highly recommend it if you’ve read the first two books. Seriously, this trilogy got better with each book (and the only reason it doesn’t get a full 5 star is because Juliette was still whiny and stuck in her ways at the very beginning).

    I rate this 4.5/5 stars.

  • Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Book Review

    meandearlandthedyinggirl

    Title: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
    Author: Jesse Andrews
    Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
    Publication Date: March 1, 2012
    Genre: Young Adult – Contemporary
    Pages: 295
    Format: Purchased Paperback

    “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews is a story about a senior in high school who’s just trying to live his day to day life on friendly-but-not-friendship level turns with every major group in his school. He has one friend, Earl, whom he hangs out with and makes films with. One day his mom forces him to hang out with this girl named Rachel, and soon finds out that she has leukemia. Greg (the main character) and Earl decide to make a film for Rachel, but what will it be about?

    Okay, well, this book confused me quite a bit. To understand why, let me take you through a few things first.

    I can understand where the humor would upset a lot of people. I wasn’t laughing at anything, really, and was offended and unnerved by some of the things that were said in the book, but at the same time I can understand cultural and regional references as to how people talk or act and stuff like that.

    I felt that the plot, or at least the majority of it, had nothing to do with Rachel or her disease or making a film about/for her. It was all over the place, talking about different people, different things, and some of it felt like it really didn’t need to be there.

    I thought the first third of it was good and coherent, but when the parts with Rachel surfaced, we barely even got to know her. It was kind of frustrating because it is called “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.” Not “Me,” or “Me and Earl Make Films,” or whatever.

    Okay, so I thought the main character, Greg, or the “writer” of this book (since this book’s POV is from that of someone writing a book) was very selfish. He was also kind of clueless in a lot of places. I thought his heart was in the right place on a few occasions, but it was otherwise just him rambling about his days and what he did and how much his films sucked. I found him to be extremely frustrating and annoying.

    Earl was a more complex character, but wow was he a potty-mouth. I understand teens swear, and the environment in which they grow up in can affect that, but wow. Was not expecting that. It was kind of annoying at times, but I did enjoy trying to read his parts in his voice with an accent I can only imagine. I liked him in a “he’s cool” way. Well… yeah. I honestly don’t know what to say. I did like, though, that he really understood the situation and that he tried to get Greg to understand and see it, too.

    Rachel was a sweet, quiet girl suffering through a life-sucking disease. We barely got to see her or get to know her at all throughout the book, which I thought was frustrating because, again, it should have included her more, in my opinion.

    The plot of the book is a tough one to explain. It’s from the perspective of a teen who has just lived through these events, but sometimes it read like a novel, other times like a screenplay. It was confusing a lot of the time, and other times it felt like it didn’t serve a point. I thought that some of the chapters or paragraphs were filler while others made a bigger impact. It really focused in on how much “Greg sucks” and how down on himself he is a lot, and I think that was probably the most frustrating.

    Unfortunately I don’t really know what to think about this book. I think that it was definitely different from the kind of books I’m used to reading, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

    I might see the film and do a film review of it later on, but I’m still deciding as I was very confused by this book.

    I rate this book 3/5 stars.

  • Booktubers vs Book Bloggers | Let’s Discuss

    Okay, so I already did a discussion video on this topic on my YouTube channel, but I also want to address the matter here because I believe that it’s important to address this issue across the board.

    Disclaimer: This was a very small group of individuals on Twitter who expressed their opinions in a harsh way about the general Booktube community. This in no way reflects the book community as a whole as this issue arose and was dealt with pretty quickly. Apologies were made, though, which is good, and the issue was addressed. Please check out Sam from Thoughts on Tomes’ video about the issue and how she calmly and reasonably discusses it.

    So many hurtful things were said about Booktubers the other night by a few select individuals who are book bloggers. Some of the things that were said were:

    • Booktubers can’t be trusted.
    • They make money so they really can’t be trusted.
    • You don’t get a lot of content from videos.
    • Their reviews are unintelligent and aren’t meaningful/insightful.

    There were a few other things that were said, but you get the point.

    These things didn’t need to be said and were harmful in many ways to those that do Booktube. We are all part of the same community that loves books and reads them to share our thoughts and opinions on them. I mean, isn’t that what we’re here for?

    Let me just briefly talk about why the broad generalizations these individuals made were incorrect and harmful.

    • Booktubers can’t be trusted. I think this stems from the second point that some Booktubers make money from their videos. While it’s true that a very small number of “big name” Booktubers do receive compensation for their videos, it’s a very small number of the Booktube community. They often state that their video is sponsored either at the beginning or end of the video so that people who view it know that it is being paid for. With that said, I think it’s a great thing that they’re getting paid for their content because those people have worked so hard to get their opinions out there, to make original content, and they’ve gained such a vast audience that, frankly, they deserve what they’ve gotten.
      • I have no reason to believe that Booktubers don’t give their honest opinions if they’re being paid or not. I’ve watched several Booktubers who I know get paid really hash out their feelings on a book, both good and bad. So why can’t they be trusted? I think they’re just like bloggers and can be. As long as their opinion is honest and critical, then I don’t see the problem here.
    • Their reviews aren’t insightful or meaningful/insghtful. I think the point here was that Booktubers videos aren’t as insightful or as deep as those of book bloggers, but I have to disagree completely. Some Booktubers are highly analytical and go very in depth on the prose of a book or characterization or plot development. Just because a Booktuber may be straight to the point or use smaller words or be happy and peppy in their videos doesn’t mean that they’re not serious about what they’re putting out there. To think otherwise is just kind of ridiculous.
    • You don’t get a lot of content from the videos. I think this statement is so far from the truth. Some of the most original content I’ve seen is from Booktubers. I think that’s partly because I saw/joined Booktube first and I’m not discrediting book bloggers by any means because book bloggers have come up with many amazing and cool things, but with Booktube it’s much more visual so it’s much more visually stimulating. I think that there are some that make great videos that may even be three minutes long but contain such wonderful content that it doesn’t matter.

    All of the statements made about Booktubers were made publicly on Twitter and so I think that was another issue: that it wasn’t addressed privately to an individual or group of individuals. This can cause other people to chime in and say hurtful things as well, which is not something that should be spread or anything like that. Talk reasonably with others, and issues like these can deflame quickly.

    Now let me just say this: I may be defending Booktubers up the wazoo, but I don’t think there’s a difference between Booktubers, book bloggers, Bookstagramers, Booklr, or any other platform that people who love books might be using. We’re all part of one huge community that spans the globe and that’s the most amazing part. We can share our thoughts and opinions with people who live in other countries or friends right next door. This community is amazing and wonderful.

    It’s just when issues like this arise we shouldn’t just cast it to the wayside, but rather address it in a civilized manner. It’s one thing to be critical and another to be mean.

    No matter the platform, everyone matters. As long as we’re putting out our own content, whether it’s by video, blog post, or picture, then what’s the problem?

    Check out my video response here.

    Let me know your thoughts on this issue. If you’ve seen it before, did you say or do anything about it? What are your thoughts and opinions?

  • Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer TBR

    Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday as hosted by the lovely people at the Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is all about the books on your summer TBR. Now these books may not all seem like summery reads, but hey, my tastes range.

    1. “A Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin. I started reading this in 2013, I think. I put it down after about 220 pages and didn’t pick it up until this past week. Now I’m getting back into reading it and it might take me all summer, but I’m okay with that.

    2. “The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson. This is the first book in the Mistborn trilogy and there’s been buzz going on around it for months now so I really want to get into it. It sounds interesting with its fantasy elements and magical system so I can’t wait to see what it’s all about.

    3. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews. So I’ve had this book on my shelf since last year and have yet to read it, but I think that since the movie is coming out that I really want (should) read it before the movie. It sounds interesting and from what I hear it’s really hilarious (if you have that type of humor), so I’m interested.

    4. “Rebel Spring” by Morgan Rhodes. I’ve put off the sequels for too long, I think, but I just haven’t been in the mood to read them. I’m interested to see where the story leads and how the four main characters’ lives continue to intersect and everything.

    5. “Days of Blood and Starlight” and “Dreams of Gods and Monsters” by Laini Taylor. These are the second and third books in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy and I haven’t read them yet and I don’t know what I’m doing with my life because of that. I loved the first book so I really, really want to see what happens next.

    6. “The Heart of Betrayal” by Mary E. Pearson. This is the sequel to “A Kiss of Deception” and I recently fell in love with this book. I need to know what happens to Lia and Kaden and Raif and just everyone. Ahh! I need it nowwww!

    7. “Queen of Shadows” by Sarah J. Maas. I am so, so, SO pumped for this next installment in the Throne of Glass series. I read the first three chapters in a sampler and all the memories came flooding back. I need to know what happens and just how badass Aelin can be.

    8. The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. I’ve been putting off reading this series until the last book comes out in paperback and I think when it does I’m just going to marathon them and see why so many people liked it. It sounds like something I’d like so I am excited to read it.

    9. “Scarlet” and “Cress” by Marissa Meyer. I’ve been putting off reading these only because the first book didn’t impress me as much as I would’ve hoped, but I think that it’s still an interesting world and everything so I definitely want to see the other characters and their stories for sure.

    10. “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by J.K. Rowling. So as it’s my first read through of this series, I stopped on book four a few months ago and I think I definitely want to try to finish it sometime this summer.

    What are some of the books you plan on reading this summer? Let me know!