Check out my free ecourse Ignite Your Passion for Reading: Fall in Love With Books!

Better Than Dreams

You are here: Home / Archives for book chat

book chat

Monday Amusements 12

By Leave a Comment

Today’s library selections and renewals, Instagrammed.

Hello all! I’m afraid this Monday’s amusements list is a short one, as I’ve been ill and unable to use my computer as much as usual for the past couple of weeks. On the bright side, I have managed to do a fair bit of reading, and finished five books in June, so expect more reviews soon! Hurrah, that rhymes.

Why are we here? Who is this for? What are we going to do?, is an excellent post by Day Al-Mohamed at Disability in Kidlit (via @susieday)

Jim at YA Yeah Yeah is celebrating his favourite books so far this year AND his 500th post, with a giveaway! 

We all should know this, but I think it bears repeating: Why Book Bloggers are Important, at A Day Dreamer’s World.

I’ve heard of a few of the books on this list from The Guardian, In translation: nine authors pick their favourite children’s fiction, but others are new to me and really intriguing.

Finally, the Once Upon a Bookcase LGBTQ YA Month schedule has been posted, and it looks AMAZING.

Monday Amusements 11

By Leave a Comment

Tour my bookshelves!

This is a bit of a short one as I’ve been really busy lately, and my last Monday Amusements post here was massive! I thought I’d post my bookshelf tour video above, just in case some of you have missed it, and while we’re on the subject of self-promotion, I was interviewed by Michelle of Fluttering Butterflies for her Celebrating British Bloggers series! Please do go read and leave a comment, I’d love to know what you think of my answers! Now, onto other people’s posts!

On Friday, Publishing Perspectives posted a very silly piece bemoaning an imaginary lack of ‘regular kid lit’ (via half a dozen tweeters, I think the first I saw was @elockhart’s). I mean. SERIOUSLY. It’s called contemporary YA, and anyone who goes into a library or a bookstore or even just spends half an hour looking at book blogs is sure to stumble across it. Jim at YA Contemporary has even made a quite long list of recommendations.

I love seeing desk setups, so ‘Our Writing Spaces’ at Author Allsorts was right up my street. I am jealous of those with desks by windows. My desk is in the corner of my room, surrounded by wall.

I really enjoyed this interview with Marilyn Kaye at Chicklish, about her new book Gloss. I’m all for more historical fiction set in the latter half of the 20th Century!

If only I could have read ‘Things I learnt at university’ at So Many Books, So Little Time, before I finished my degrees! I completely agree with the point about making the most of all that time! I also liked Sophie’s list of underrated reads. I would also nominate Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tale series!Onto my favourite reviews, as I have quite a few!

Readaraptor‘s review of Stray by Monica Hesse, went straight into my wishlist folder. It’s a really unique sounding book, and I haven’t seen any other reviews.

I also loved Magan at Rather Be Reading‘s enthusiasm for When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney and Jo at weartheoldcoat’s love for The Vast Fields of Ordinary, by Nick Burd. Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson has been on my wishlist for years and Jo of Once Upon a Bookcase’s review has encouraged me to hurry up and read it!

Are there any posts you’ve really enjoyed that I’ve missed? Or have you written something recently that you’re really proud of and would like to share? Please do comment and check out the archives!