reading

My Day At the National Book Festival

5 September 2022

Yesterday, the Library of Congress held the National Book Festival in-person once again. And I was so excited that I was back just in time to attend.

Held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the Festival was jammed packed full of panels, authors, and books. In fact, I had such a hard time choosing which sessions to attend and which authors to sign books. I mean, check out this incredible schedule. How do you decide?

I attended in 2018 and went with no planning. That was a mistake. I ended up just randomly wandering around, got overwhelmed by the number of people (in fairness, attendance at the 2018 Festival was at capacity), and ended up leaving only buying a couple of books but without really seeing a panel.

So this year, I was determined to have a plan. And my first attempt to schedule all the sessions and book signings I wanted to do meant I would need to be 4 people.

Seriously.

My first few schedule attempts would’ve required Hermoine’s time-turner. But not having a time-turner, I did have at least some kind of plan.

I eventually eliminated those sessions on the main stage because I figured those would have huge lines to get in and I’d be unlikely to get in (as was my experience in 2018). And so I decided to stick mostly with the Science Fiction and Fantasy (SFF) Stage because those are my favorite genres.

Countdown 2: Top 5 Fantasy Subgenre Reads

18 April 2022

Two weeks to go! The countdown to Wyrd & Wonder* 2022 continues. Wyrd & Wonder starts May 1, and I’m getting ready by posting some of my favorite Top 5s. This week, I’m sharing my Top 5 Fantasy Sub-Genre Reads

*Not sure what Wyrd & Wonder is? Check out this post first.

Fantasy is itself a subgenre that falls under the broad category of Speculative Fiction. Speculative Fiction is a broad literary genre encompassing any fiction with supernatural, fantastical, or futuristic elements and encompasses literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to horror to folk and fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern myth-making and more.

So maybe in that sense, Spec Fiction is a super-genre and Fantasy is a genre with a ridiculous number of subgenres. There really is no one definition of Spec Fic just as there’s no one singular list of Fantasy sub-genres. Some put science fiction under fantasy, some have science fiction as adjacent to fantasy.

Regardless, Fantasy has a lot of bandwidth to cover a wide swath of literature. And I’ve picked out my Top 5 Reads from various subgenres. You may agree or disagree on the category and that’s okay. Because in the end, who cares as long as we’re reading.

Countdown 3: Top 5 Forest Fantasy Reads

14 April 2022

Three weeks and the countdown to Wyrd & Wonder* 2022 continues! Wyrd & Wonder starts May 1, and I’m getting ready by posting some of my favorite Top 5s fantasy reads. This week, I’m sharing my Top 5 Forest Fantasy Reads.

*Not sure what Wyrd & Wonder is? Check out this post first.

The traditional fifth anniversary gift is wood, and so Wyrd and Wonder is all about forest fantasy this year. (Hence the tree wolf.) This list celebrates all things forest-y, which covers a lot of ground from woodland settings to forest creatures, from a focus on trees to important wooden artifacts. But I’ve chosen to stay away from the most obvious answers, LOTR (Old Man Willow, Treebeard and the Ents, Trollshaws, and Mirkwood just to name a few as trees and forests play multiple roles in Middle Earth) and HP (Whomping Willow and the Forbidden Forest). And so here are 5 of my fave forest fantasy reads.

Countdown 4: Top 5 Stand Alone Fantasy Reads

3 April 2022

FOUR weeks to go! The countdown to Wyrd & Wonder* 2022 continues. Wyrd & Wonder starts May 1, and I’m getting ready by posting some of my favorite Top 5s fantasy reads. This week, I’m sharing my Top 5 Stand Alone Fantasy Reads.

*Not sure what Wyrd & Wonder is? Check out this post first.

Fantasy, more often than not, seems to give rise to series. It seems like every fantasy book I’ve picked up lately is at least a duology. While I love a good series and the ability to take a deep dive into a world, sometimes it’s also nice to have a stand alone book and not get to the cliffhanger at the end and realize there’s another book. (Why hello Skyhunter.) It’s especially distressing when I discover a series, realize it isn’t complete, and then have to anxiously await the next installment. Typically, it takes one to two years for the next book to be published (unless the author is a writing machine like J.D. Robb). But in some cases, it takes decades for the next book to drop. (I’m looking at you Pat Rothfuss!)

So it’s awesome to pick up a book, enjoy it, and not have to worry about when the sequel will be published. And despite the numerous fantasy series I have read and loved, I have found some wonderful stand alone fantasy books, no waiting required. So in no particular order, I present . . .

YA Books: To Read Or Not To Read?

20 February 2022

Several of my recent reads have been categorized as Young Adult (YA). YA is not a genre, but a general categorization of books that encompasses all genres from horror and thriller to fantasy and romance. What makes a book a YA book is normally that the protagonist is between teen, as young as 14 or 15, to early 20s. Those young adult years.

The genesis of YA books started in the 1940s and 50s with the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. But YA as a classification really started to gain traction in the late 1960s with the publication of The Outsiders, which not only features teenager protagonists but was written by a teen. S.E. Hinton started writing the book at age 15 and the book was published in 1967 when the author was 18.

YA books started flourishing in the 1970s and throughout the 80s and 90s. Authors started experimenting with genres and styles. YA series like Sweet Valley High and the Babysitters Club, and later Goosebumps, became staples of the YA category.

And yet despite the fact that I was avid reader of the Babysitters Club back in the day, I have since grown to loathe the classification of YA.

January Reads (Or an Update on My Quest to Read 100 Books in 2022)

1 February 2022

My quest this year, because calling anything a quest makes it sound way more exciting. I mean, think about it. Would you rather:

Update on 100 Books in 2022

13 January 2022

Last week I wrote about my 2022 reading challenge. I admitted that I have 112 unread books sitting right here on my bookcase that I have not read. And that I self-imposed a book buying ban until I get to under 20 TBRs.

Well, I might have maybe, just slightly underestimated how many TBRs I really have. My underestimation maybe, might have been just a wee bit off by nearly 50%.

Let me explain.

A Year of Books: 100 Books in 2022

2 January 2022

Yesterday I looked back on what I read in 2021. Today I’m looking forward to what I will be reading in 2022.

I set my annual reading goal at 104, which breaks down to 2 books a week. Even though I read 165 last year and 235 in 2020, 104 will keep me reading without making it too difficult to achieve.

But my big challenge, my biggest challenge this year is that I’ve put myself on a book buying ban.

What?!

That’s right. I will not buy any new books . . .

A Year of Books: Top 12 of 2021

1 January 2022

I think everyone can agree that 2021 was a weird year. In 2021, I read 165 books more or less. That number is, well, it’s a number. Is it accurate? Not exactly.

Let me explain.

Reflections and Aspirations on 1 January

1 January 2022

January first. Another new year. In some ways, 2021 seemed to last forever. Maybe it just seems that way because the days of 2020 and 2021 blurred together in seemingly endless restrictions and social distancing.

Then again, it seems like we just celebrated the 2021 new year, hoping for better days. In some ways, that did happen. In some ways, 2021 was more of the same. Regardless, while the days may have dragged, the months seemed to fly by as the weeks were marked off. And now here we are on the cusp of a new year.

For me, the first day of the new year means making plans for the new year as well as taking time to reflect back on the prior year.