Friday Fun and Fall Reading Challenge Update

When I started my personal fall reading challenge, the point was to read off my own shelves. I pick up a lot of books at conferences, events, and because you know, I like books.

Let's just say that "like" of books is a little hard to wrangle.

I live in a big city, so even my branch library gets in most of the latest YA books. A few holds I had came in, and if I have to go in to pick that up, I might as well swing by the new release bookshelf!

There's also BookBub's many .99 - $2.99 ebook deals. Then author event signings... so basically, I'm ADDING to my shelves.

All this and my husband says: if books are your vice, you're doing pretty well in this life. What an enabler!

Here is my recent progress. And look how pretty and coordinating the covers are!

A book written by a celebrity or personality:
OK this one is a book I own. Felicia Day is an actress who's played parts on Supernatural, Eureka, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and she starred in Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. She also created the webseries The Guild. One of my favorite parts of her story about building her online business (Geek and Sundry, affiliated with Nerdist), is she was part of a group of women who met for breakfast once a month to check in with creative goals. For a year, Felicia was in a depressive slump where all she did was play World of Warcraft. She used that experience to launch The Guild, written and produced by herself the woman who started their accountability group. Go women!  

Library Audiobook:
I added a new category to my Fall Reading Challenge (hey, it's my list!) This hold came in through Overdrive. This is one of the best audiobooks I've listened to. The narrator nailed the accents and tone of the story. Many audiobooks I tend to tune in and out of, even if it's a good book, but this held my attention. The book follows Hong Kong immigrant Kimberly Chang and her mother through impoverished years living in an unheated New York City apartment, working in a factory, and somehow rising above every challenge. Most heartbreaking is when she feels relieved that high school frees her from school projects of younger grades since she never had the craft materials at home to complete them.

Another Library Lend:
I devoured this book. I loved the writing and the fast pacing. In Hit, a bank bought up all the debt in the U.S. and has taken over the government. The bank is now calling in on the fine print in their credit cards: pay your debt now, or you're killed. This is book 1 of a series, so there's an ending here, but a lot of questions left and larger factions at work (not all is what it seems!). This had the same unsettling feeling as The Hunger Games given it involves teens killing people. It's dark, but the subject is handled well. I also appreciated a look at our consumer culture, debt, and the values of our capitalist country. 


I also read two ebooks: The Whiskey Rebellion #1 by Liliana Hart; if you like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books, this is along that same road. It's actually so much like those, it sort of drove me crazy. And there was a glaring plot hole that was kind of hard to get over. The other was The Bargain, serial #1 by Vanessa Riley about a black woman in the Regency era. I loved that someone out there is telling a story about Regency era that isn't a Pride & Prejudice clone. 

Upcoming:

The Pitch Wars agent round! Next week, the mentee that Valerie Cole and I have been working with will put her entry up on Brenda Drake's blog for a frenzied agent round!

National Novel Writing Month! NaNoWriMo starts Nov. 1. Join or die! 
(just kidding. join if you want because writers are super supportive.)

YA and MG writers:

The Adventures in YA Publishing blog opens their 1st Five Pages workshop October 31. Get feedback from a host of mentors (including me!) and final round an agent. This is ongoing, monthly. 

Happy Friday! What are you reading?