Reader Rayna

Month: February 2016

  • Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Enjoyed That Aren’t My Typical Kind of Book

    Hey peeps and welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday as hosted by the lovely people of The Broke & the Bookish. Today’s topic is all about some of the books that I enjoyed in the last yearish that aren’t my typical kind of book/genre that I gravitate toward. So I looked back on my Goodreads reading challenge from last year and discovered that a) I read A LOT of fantasy/sci-fi, and 2) I barely read any contemporary – and ones that I enjoyed, no less.

    So, for this week’s TTT, I’ll be talking about contemporary that I enjoyed in the last yearish, plus one from this year!

    1. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I loved this book when I read it back in 2014. Rainbow’s reading style is a little difficult to get into, but once I’m into it, I’m hooked. I love the stories she tells and how raw and real they can be, and I just love the dynamic between the two main characters of the book and the romance and everything about it.
    2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I LOVE THIS BOOK. It’s probably my favorite contemporary book ever because I could just relate to it so much that it wasn’t even funny. I loved the fangirl aspect, the romance, the school crises, and just everything about it. So good.
    3. To All the Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han. I thought that this was a cute romance with a nice family dynamic because you don’t often see good family dynamics in YA, which I just don’t get, but whatever. I enjoyed reading this book and the drama in it.
    4. None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio. This was my first book reading about an intersex individual and I thought that it was well done. It was a good book to read about the kinds of realities people can face and deal with not only on the outside, but the inside as well.
    5. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. SO MUCH CUTE I CAN’T EVEN DEAL. GO READ IT. NOW.
    6. My Heart & Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga. A sensitive topic of suicide in this book, but I still enjoyed it. I felt there were a lot of beautiful lines in the book that spoke to me because of my own personal experiences with the topic.
    7. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. And with the longest title ever award (again), I thought this was a cute romance story about a girl and a guy who meet at an airport and grow to really like each other in such a short amount of time.
    8. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han. The sequel to To All the Boys, I enjoyed this book even though I found the love triangle to be more plot device than anything. But it was still cute and stuff.
    9. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. A girl allergic to everything, a new next door neighbor with a broken family, a secret, and love? Sign me up.
    10. Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone. I loved this book and thought that it did a good job portraying a certain type of OCD without being over the top with it. Plus, the romance was nice, too.

    So there you have it! I just realized that I’ve only read ten contemporaries over the last year and a half. The other 60ish books? Fantasy/sci-fi. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    What is the genre you typically don’t gravitate towards that you read in the last year or so? Did you find you enjoyed most of the books in that genre, or did you not like them much? Let me know!

  • Love-a-thon Wrap Up

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    Well guys, Love-a-thon has come to a wrap, which means I am a sad panda. But I had a lot of fun this weekend connecting with SO many book bloggers from various platforms. It’s truly amazing to me to see such wonderful, creative, beautiful people with a love for books as strong as mine.

    So I wanted to talk about the things I did, what I’ve learned, a few stats, and I wanted to give some awesome shoutouts to a lot of book people whom I’m following and who I connected with this weekend!

    The Challenges

    This was one of my favorite parts of the whole event. I had so much fun not only doing the challenges, but also checking out a lot of peoples’ challenges as well!

    What I’ve Learned

    I think one of the biggest takeaways from this event was how much I learned from participating.

    • There are SO MANY book bloggers/grammers/tubers out there! It’s amazing to see just how many people there are that come to events like this and join in the fun.
    • The book community is a very open, welcoming, warm, loving place, and I couldn’t have asked for a better event to be a part of to see just how true this statement is.
    • I’ve learned that there’s such a variety of styles and tastes as far as reading goes. Not everyone likes the same books or characters, and that’s fine! We can all still fangirl and respect one another’s interests!
    • This is an event I will definitely be participating in again! So much love is spread around and so many great things happened as a result.

    Stats

    Alright, this one is mostly for my excitement because HOLY CARP – I’ve never had so many views in one day! First of all, I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who visited my blog over the last two days. You guys are wonderful and amazing.

    Second, here are my stats:

    • Feb 20th: I had 148 views – crazy!
      • 34 likes – Yay!
      • 34 comments – Woo!
    • Feb 21st: I had 149 views – oh my gosh! The most I’ve ever had!
      • 23 likes – Yay!
      • 50 comments – Holy moly!

    Thank you all so much for contributing to these stats! You guys rock!

    Shoutouts

    Alright, time for the best part of this post: the shoutouts! There’s going to be a decent amount here, so prepare yourselves! Be sure to check out these awesome people because they deserve it:

    First of all, the hosts definitely need to shine:
    Alexa Loves Books, The Novel Hermit, The Daily Prophecy, Stay Bookish

    And now for all of these lovely people:
    Angela’s Library               Hiding Books          For Book’s Sake
    My Bookish Itinerary      Bookmark Lit          The Bookkeeper’s Apprentice
    Writer for Misfits             MaggersAnn            Beauty & Books
    Book Stacks Amber         Rainy Ink                  Key Read That
    T&G Book Boutique         Vivacious Hobo       A Thousand Words A Million Books
    It’s A Book Life                 DarcyHSU                 Trisha Jenn Reads
    It’s a Book Thing 13         The Canon                Bookevin
    SDAVReads                        Books N’ Calm         Eye Heart Romance & YA
    Endless Pages                   The Hardcover Lover       Hugs and Kisses of Poetry
    Lovin’ los Libros              Word Revel                Sunday Morning Coffee
    Reads and Thoughts       Perfection in Books         Books for Thought
    Perusing Pages                 Fleurs et Nerds          Reading is My Treasure
    Writing Haven                  Pop Crunch Boom     Bookworm Everlasting

    Wow, that’s a lot of people, haha! But seriously, guys, definitely check them out because all of them are wonderful human beings with a love for books.

    The event was so fun and awesome and I highly recommend it to any book lover out there who will want to join in next February! It’s been my best blogging experience so far as a book blogger for many, many reasons.

    Thank you to everyone from the event who came to visit my blog, comment, and that I made a connection with. You guys are truly amazing.

    And thank you to everyone in general for reading my content, liking it, visiting me, and talking with me about books.

    Hope to see you all next year in this event, but until then, keep reading and I’ll see you around the blogosphere!

  • Love-a-thon Mini-Challenge #4: Tea Party

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    Hey peeps! This is the last mini-challenge for the Loveathon event! Which makes me sad because I have really been enjoying myself. BUT THIS IS NO TIME FOR TEARS.

    This mini-challenge is a fun one: It’s time for a tea break! In this post, you’ll share which fictional character, book blogger OR BookTuber OR Bookstagrammer, and author you’d want to have a tea party with and why. Feel free to go above and beyond by including more details about your dream tea party!

    Alright, so here’s who I pick for my tea:

    Setting:

    • A small cafe by the sea with long, winding roads, a soft breeze, sea air, sunlight, and overall good feels.
    • The inside of the cafe would be cozy and decorated with arrangements of sea related things: starfish, shells, netting.

    We’d all pick a tea that corresponds to our tastes and sit around a table that seats four. We’d all be dressed in a way that makes us comfortable and then the fun conversations could begin. I can honestly see Aelin coming in something over the top, but hey, that’s her style. And, you know, a few daggers.

    Kinds of things we’d talk about:

    • Our shared love of books. Honestly, all of us love to read, so this is one conversation none of us would get tired of.
    • Our lives with our husband/significant other. C’mon, you know we all have stories to share about them being a pain in the butt.
    • What kinds of things we like doing at the beach – and then maybe we’d go do one of them afterward.

    Honestly, I think this would be a fun, relaxing sort of day. Just a girl’s day out, really, and one in which we’d all get to bond as we drink tea by the sea.

    Who would you sit with to have tea? What kinds of conversations do you see yourself having? Let me know!

    Hosts: Alexa, Cee, Hazel, Mel

  • Love-a-thon Mini Challenge #3: Book Spine Poetry

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    Hey guys! It’s mini-challenge #3 time for Love-a-thon, which is book spine poetry! If you don’t know what that is, it’s pretty much making a poem out of the spines of books.

    Here are the ones I came up with:

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    Hidden;
    These broken stars: ignite me.
    Unravel me.
    S h a t t e r m e.

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    An ember in the ashes –
    stolen…
    catching fire.

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    Daughter of smoke & bone:
    Exquisite captive.
    Uprooted, alienated.
    None of the above.

    What are some of the poems you can come up with with your own books? I’d love to hear them!

    Hosts: Alexa, Cee, Hazel, Mel

  • Love-a-thon Bookshelf Challenge

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    Hey peeps! More fun things are happening with Love-a-thon, including a Bookshelf Challenge! This challenge was a super fun one and it was mainly for those who have their own Booktube channels. As I have one, I decided to do this challenge!

    Check out my challenge below because I found it pretty awesome and hilarious:

    The challenges for this were:

    Apart from that, we’re doing a BookTube tag challenge called the Love-A-Thon Bookshelf Challenge! You’ll need to pick books based on the color of their spines as listed below, and then follow the prompts – all in your video. Don’t forget to use the #LoveAThon hashtag!

    RED: Flip to page 119, and find the first line of the third paragraph. This line is the first sentence of a book about you.

    ORANGE: Flip to page 3. The first name you see when you crack open the book is your book BFF.

    YELLOW: Flip to page 185. The first body part mentioned is where your superpower is.

    GREEN: Flip to page 238. The first place mentioned is where your book is set.

    BLUE: Flip to page 45. The first name you see when you crack open the book is your book boyfriend/girlfriend.

    PURPLE: Flip to page 77. The first adjective used describes your book boyfriend.

    PINK: Flip to page 94. The first name you see is your fictional nemesis.

    BROWN: Flip to page 216. The first object you see is your weapon of choice.

    BLACK: Flip to pages 198, 228 & 146, and find one name on each page. These people will be your apocalypse squad.

    WHITE: Flip to page 28, and find the second sentence of the fifth paragraph. This is the last thing you will ever say in your book. (Or is it?)

    Not only that, but there are also three hosts on YouTube to help out around that platform:

    Go check out their videos and channels when you have the chance!

    Who would your book boyfriend/girlfriend be? What about your apocalypse squad? Follow the rules above and let me know!

    Hosts: Alexa, Cee, Hazel, Mel