WHAT I READ WHILE I WAS GONE: PLAYING REVIEW CATCH UP

In my previous post - uploaded on my ninth anniversary of having founded my blog! - I mentioned that I want to do things a little differently around here. Less fluff, less topics I post just for the sake of posting, less of the kinds of things I wouldn't bother reading on someone else's blog... more of the kinds of topics I want to cover. More writing that I enjoy writing, about books I enjoy reading. 

I really hope you're as excited for that kind of content as I am, I really do. I've already got so many ideas about genres, series, novels, and authors I love, all amply worth writing about. However, it also wouldn't do fit to abandon what my blog has been for nine years entirely: this corner of the Internet was originally shaped to be the place where I could, enthusiastically, share my thoughts and feelings about books in as unadulterated a manner as possible. 

So while I'm stoked to get to the special interest pieces, it's still really important to me that I catch you all up on a few other titles I've been dwelling on, as well. They might not warrant their own individual posts or deep dives, but they're still what I've been reading recently. 

Here are a few of the books I've enjoyed (or not!) so far this year: 

30 BEFORE 30, Marina Shifrin

This memoir contains a brief collection of essays, detailing the author's attempts at meeting a certain set of goals prior to their 30th birthday. 

For everyone, those goals look different, but for writer and viral content creator Marina Shifrin, the list included everything from the seemingly mundane (riding by bike across the Brooklyn Bridge, meeting a local radio personality from her youth), to the somewhat explosive (the intricately intertwined "Quit Shitty Job" and "Become Famous" chapters, which she tackled in one go with a popular video of her leaving her abusive workplace, to the tune of Kanye West's"Gone," back in 2013). Some she admits she fails at, while others are much more successful, but the same sense of energy, action, uncertainty and bewilderment at their completion permeates them all.

That isn't to say that they're redundant; they're just familiar. What 20 or 30 something doesn't dream of living in a different country, falling in love, or flying first class? Shifrin's voice speaks to plenty with ambitions and interests, and abundance of opportunities that are maybe unmatched with a cohesive sense of direction.

But Shifrin sorts through that madness, using the goals of a narrative structure by which she can detail some of the lessons that life has doled out along the way, from the importance of knowing your personal value, taking time to understand your roots, and finding a place in the world where you feel a sense of belonging. Yet, she is also the first to acknowledge that not everything in your 20s has to be imbued with some sense of deliberation or intention: she chooses to forego an essay for one chapter, and instead, glibly admits, "Holy cow, not everything was a lesson."

SPINNING SILVER, Naomi Novik

A poor girl takes the reins of her family's household, and turns around their dwindling livelihood. Unfortunately, her tendency to "turn silver into gold" has caught the eye of a local otherworldly king. 

A beautifully written and absolutely enchanting fantasy tale... one that perfectly matched with the snow falling outside my window when I read it, during Seattle's "Snowmageddon" this past February. 

Naomi Novik excels at world-building, as well as bringing unlikely characters together across that world. Not only are all the moving parts lovingly rendered, but they come together in glorious pieces that enmesh themselves completely, laying out an intricate and complex tapestry of a narrative that fits seamlessly with a high fairy-tale aesthetic. 

In terms of specific reasons why I appreciate Novik's fractured or re-imagined fairy tales in a Fantasy genre that almost regards such things as passe, I really love her focus on well-fleshed female main characters, and even supporting female characters, as well. None fall into the trap of being too much of any one thing - too girly, too strong, too helpless, too overpowered - and while all have good intentions, it never keeps them from being too "good" either, frequently falling into jealousy, or anger, or selfishness. They are allowed to be heroes and humans, but all at once.

Something about her writing also feels really old-school, while still being very contemporary, in the best kind of way... like, it follows the classical construction, with characters that feel well-established, without relying on tropes or convenient plot formulas, but who else is integrating elements of Jewish faith into Fantasy? 

LESS, Andrew Sean Greer

Emotionally distraught by a wedding invitation from his former lover, a writer decides a little upheaval and world travel is just the thing to get his mind off of the disappointment. Maybe along the way, he'll figure out how to revive his floundering career?

[Thorough and unrepentant spoilers and significant personal emotional responses abound here, folks. I am not talking down to anyone's point of view, especially if you enjoyed this book... these are just my feelings. I have a lot of them. Strap in.]

To put it bluntly: this book did not deserve the 2018 Pulitzer. In fact, the fact that it won the Pulitzer, makes me like Less less. It wan't that it was BAD, necessarily, just that it wasn't up to par, especially when judged against other books that have achieved that sort of recognition in the past.

I understand what the book was attempting to do, especially in nestling the story within a story at the hands of the authorial main character. It made me consider how much of the narrative itself was autobiographical, if anything.

The main character is comically gifted with a litany of things that make him overburdened with goodness in his life: He has no problem pulling guys much younger than him, he's in better physical shape than most, he's experienced success as a writer that has kept him paid (even if his recent writing isn't as successful), he is hosted in countries around the world for arbitrary reasons, wins an award along the way, has an absolute embarrassment of friends, and good relationships with his exes (AND, as it turns out, his ex's ex-wife). And he gets his guy in the end! What the hell did he feel like he needed to pay all of this emotional penance for?

It did raise the interesting question of how LGBT writers perform gayness in their written works - something I haven't considered a ton before - in the main character grappling with being described as "spoony" in a review, or the claim being made against him by another another that he was "being a bad gay" when making his main characters suffer needlessly for the sake of a redemptive gay love story. 

I did finish it. I liked the ending; I thought it was sweet. Various repetitive elements / callbacks / motifs within the frame of the narrative were cute... it was a gentle reminder that nothing in the world exists in a vacuum; there will always be "signs" from the universes that remind you of the path you've walked this far.

Honestly, though, I can't help but consider what kind of reception this book would have gotten if its main character / author was a woman. It would have been lambasted as overly-gratuitous navel-gazing! She would have been called a mopey Mary Sue! She would have been decried as unlikable and unrealistic! Ugh. 

The Pulitzer!!!

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Jane Austen - Audiobook

Boy meets girl. Boy insults girl. Two rejected proposals later, Girl realizes she might have made the wrong call. You know, that old tune. 

I've read this novel plenty of times in my teenage and adult years, but after I couldn't quite find the time to finish it this past Spring, I turned to alternative means of making my way to the final page.

I was wholly unprepared for the unexpected and complete joy of listening to this classic on audio book, and found myself going for long walks alone in the morning, because I'd been looking forward to it so much the evening before. As someone who's never particularly enjoyed this format before, and never thought about the amount of time I spend listening to various media, it was a wholly happy surprise. I drove to and from Seattle for a sorority advisory event listening to this audio book, and found myself so enraptured, I sat in my driveway for five minutes after arriving home, listening to a chapter. 

As it turns out, Darcy and Elizabeth hold up no matter the format, and listening to everything Mr. Collins says out loud, with a nasally inflection, might be even funnier than reading it yourself.

WINK POPPY MIDNIGHT, April Genevieve Tucholke

Three teens, one summer, and endless dark and whimsical shenanigans in a remote, affluent town, with little parental supervision. Is it a fairy tale, or the start of something more sinister?

Sometimes it's nice to read books that are pretty, aesthetically written, and don't make you work very hard.

Welcome to Tucholke's PNW, where the teenagers are beautiful, prose is flowery, and consequences don't matter. The parents are absent, which is half of the reason why everyone seems to have such mental complexes, and even the foods everyone eats feel like something out of a Zelda video game (strawberries still warm from the sun, golden turmeric milk, slabs of gingerbread cake, basil and mozzarella sandwiches eaten on the porch in the dying light of day).

When these teens aren't wandering the woods and local haunted houses and cemeteries with impunity, they're toeing a weird sort of line between childlike wonder and rampant sexual behavior. Existing in this weird in-between of youthful whimsy and climbing-in-windows-naked, you're asked to consider for yourself which of the characters is a Hero, which is a Villain, and which is a Liar.

However, even once all of those questions have been answered, you'll remain with the most important one of all: What the actual hell?

So, they're a bit of a far cry from my typical review format, but they're something I'm still trying to figure out. All I know for sure, is that there's plenty more where this came from! I hope you are enjoying the difference in how I choose to write on this platform... but just in case you haven't detected all that much of a change yet, I hope you stick around for next Wednesday! 

NOW WE ARE NINE: NEARLY A DECADE ON THE INTERNET (aka, Back to Blogging, and What I'm Doing Differently)

As of this afternoon, I will officially have been owner and operator of this blog for nine years. Nine years! And yet... this is the first time I've posted on here since May. To be very honest, if you had asked me what my plans were for this today a month ago, I would have told you, "I'm deleting everything." But, as you can see, I've changed my mind.

Here's how I started, what went wrong, and what I'm doing next... plus, some of the best things to come out of this blog, from nine years of writing. Happy Anniversary to me!

WHY I STARTED BLOGGING

My first ever post, in case you were wondering
what teenage Savannah was like.

I grew up as the eldest kid of four in my family, and learned to love reading, very, very quickly. A practice readily prompted by the Montessori school I grew up attending, driven by a personal desire to be left alone for as great a period in the day as possible, I made it a daily habit early on in my childhood.

The writing part came about a little differently: As a kid who could reliably be found agonizing over folded pieces of white paper, sketched over with design scribbles and articles I'd painstakingly transcribed from American Girl, it was only a matter of time before my magazine-oriented mind found its way into the blogging world as a teen.

I started my blog primarily because of how much I truly adored following them. I collected a handwritten list of urls in an old composition notebook, rife with notable fashion and food bloggers, including, over a decade ago, both Cupcakes & Cashmere and The Pioneer Woman (and they remain on my list today, as well!). I knew I wanted a space of my own, but my parents would never have agreed to support this sixteen-year-old's sartorial or culinary endeavors... what I could do, instead, was expand upon something I was already passionate about: books.

Within a few days, I had a domain of my own. (My computer-savvy Dad has remained the biggest supporter of this space over the years.)

But, let me bring you in on a secret: I didn't even follow a single other book blogger online until I was in college... and didn't get a Goodreads account until my sophomore year, in 2013. Before that point, I allowed a total of three people to follow my blog, all of  whom were family.

For a really, really long time, it was just me and the Internet. Until, of course, things got a little more social.

WHEN IT BECAME DIFFICULT

I've blogged through heartbreak, depression, and a college education. I've blogged for resume clout, putting that past runway interest to literary use in a book-inspired College Fashion column that ran for two years. Even when I wasn't reading anything particularly inspiring, I found that I could still scrounge up low-impact content: slump-beating tips, "haul" purchases, or even taking part in various memes like "Top Ten Tuesday," where I'd talk about books I'd read in the past.

In part, those kinds of ideas only came about, because they were already featured so prominently elsewhere. BookTube, as a concept, exploded during my college years, and I quickly found myself being drawn to big personalities with extensive industry networks and jaw-dropping bookshelf backdrops. Bloggers with fancier custom website designs than just my stock Blogger template became a reliable news source, taken in with my morning tea. Instagram and Twitter held their own sway with snarky soundbites and gorgeous visuals, leading me to eventually make my own Instagram account for this blog last summer.

Writing is all about building a community, reaching out into the ether, providing a sense of connection, right? I was finally connecting.

But after nine years of writing, the focus had begun to shift. As a sixteen-year-old, I served as lord and master of my corner of the Internet, but lived in terror of it ever being discovered by anyone I actually knew. It was important to me, because it was such a sandbox: I could build what I wanted here, and no one would know, or have anything to do with its construction, but me.

At twenty-five, I realized it had somehow become desperately important, somewhere down the line, that I really, really wanted people to read what I had to say... even if I wasn't actually saying anything worthwhile. I had started buying into the superfluous flotsam and jetsam that came with the "bookish Internet person" name tag, but was no longer thinking about whether this was truly motivating me to read or write more often, or with greater purpose. On the Internet, you're rewarded for posting frequently, with high click-through content, displayed alongside snappy labels and trendy tags, but the practice of generating this kind of material wasn't developing my authentic voice, or inspiring me to pursue challenging or interesting reading material.

I would regularly rack up more than 50 likes on a carefully stylized photo on my 450+ follower Instagram on multiple days a week, but the numbers felt somewhat soulless, especially when my own content on my preferred platform was only reaching about ten to fifteen people. My writing was floundering, with lackluster content only posted when I could drive myself to do so, widely inspired by formats created by online creators. I wasn't involved in this work, intellectually or emotionally... nor was I by my reading material. Reading fell out of practice as a daily endeavor.

So, I made my stand this past February, which, at the time, no one but me recognized for what it was: one last attempt. I redid the layout and color scheme based on what was trending. I painstakingly selected a relevant font to service the "unique audience" I made up in my head, after watching one too many "targeting your clients" videos on Skillshare. My content posting schedule had been lagging, but thanks to a coinciding SEO-booster that same weekend, I cobbled together a solo reading marathon dubbed "Readchella" back in April.

But it all still didn't feel like enough. I was putting a lot of effort into making the blog seem marketable, because that's what I thought my focus should be, and the numbers weren't yielding the kind of social reward I'd expected. Eventually I asked myself the question: If I was still that kid, back at sixteen, would my own blog have made my handwritten list? The answer was no.

I stopped writing my blog, and I stopped updating my associated Instagram, back in May. The system I had in place was not sustainable... I wasn't creating content I felt passionate about, and therefore, it was easy to stop trying so hard to create it.

I mulled things over, and tried to figure out where I would go from here. My ninth anniversary was coming up the very next month, and the only way I could think to honor that, was to shutter this project for good. At least then, I'd be able to switch the domain over into something I could use for professional writing projects, or a digital portfolio, right?

WHAT MADE ME COME BACK

Truthfully, part of the reason was my friend Kayla. She doesn't read my blog, but she does follow me on Instagram, and in turn, I follow her @readkaylaread account. She doesn't invest any time in aesthetic props or contrived filter settings... not even anything more than just the book's cover, accompanied by, hands-down, some of the most entertaining book reviews I've ever enjoyed on the Internet. She has no posting schedule, doesn't put any more effort into the visuals than a simple Google Image search, and only writes the things she absolutely feels like writing, when she wants to.

Kayla's writing is absolutely inspired, but by nothing more than personal reflection and her own inclination towards humor. After a brief scroll through her feed yielded several recommendations and a good belly laugh, It felt like just enough to inspire me to get back to... whatever this is.

I still don't think people read this blog, and to be clear, I really don't think this post is going to be what convinces them to. I think this is still as much of a shout into the void as I did back when I started, back when I refused to let people know that I blogged at all. But I'm trying to care less.

First and foremost, I need to get back to writing for me, back when I didn't want anyone watching. I want to keep writing, and I want to keep writing about books. And that's it! SEO-optimization, Pinterest-friendly shareable headers, labor-intensive photo editing, industry advantages and Advanced Reader Copies, and all that hullabaloo should have no bearing on something I'm not doing for anyone else... I'm just doing it because I like reading, and writing.

Here's the plan: from this point on, I'm only going to generate content that serves me. ME. I will write once a week, if I can, and the topics I cover will be a lot more interesting and in-depth, like some of the best content I've done in the past. That's it!

So, to celebrate this anniversary, I just wanted to tell you I'm back. I'm back to blogging, if not for good, than as long as it serves me, and gives me a reason to make something cool with what I can.

THE BEST OF ME

If you're wondering what kinds of content I'm talking about, let me highlight some of my favorite posts of the past. Here are eleven posts and two series from a total nine years of blogging here at Playing in the Pages, all of which I count as some of my favorites:

the "Reading Romance" series (2018) 

(intro // vintage // modern historical // modern contemporary)

Up until last June, I had never, ever read a romance novel. I decided to take the plunge by way of a structured program: I'd dedicate each month of the summer into exploring a particular subcategory, and report on my findings. Needless to say, the entire project was an absolute joy.

Getting Bache-literate: The Need-to-Read List for Fans of ABC's Bachelor Franchises (2018)

As someone who's been a rose-wielding member of Bachelor Nation since my college days, crammed onto a sofa with sorority sisters after weekly chapter meetings, it's a lot of fun to get a behind-the-scenes peek into the minds of popular show leads... and villains. I honestly hope more of these glossy-haired TV-lebrities start publishing memoirs; I'd read anything Rachel Lindsay has to say.

Book vs. Movie: Love, Simon (2018) and Twilight Reread: The Podcast, the Novel, My Brother, The Movie (2017)

I've mentioned my siblings on-and-off throughout the run of this blog, originally only referring to them in nicknames, due to my parents' fear of detailing too much personal info online. However, as this blog has gotten older, so have they... and they've been all too willing to add in their two cents, like when my family all saw Love, Simon when it premiered last year, or my teenage brother read Twilight for the very first time.

Best Books for a Boy: My Weird Struggle with Book Recs for my Teenage Brother (2017)

The only other member of my family with whom I share a comparable bookish appetite, is my teenage brother. However, not all YA is created equal... and this deep dive into why that is, including how a passion for reading has developed into a pseudo gender-distinctive trait, proves why I find giving him recommendations more than a little difficult.

Table for One: How to Speed Date a Stack of Books (2017)

As it turns out, this one wasn't as much an original idea on my part, than an expanding on various techniques that already exist, for how to sort through a large assortment of books quickly to find your next novel. Still, it's one of my favorite things to do on a slow afternoon... and has convinced me to read more than a few books I've loved!

Reading and Leading: What Arts and Education Have to Do with the Election (2016-17) 

(part one // part two)

Everyone reacted to the 2016 Election differently, in my family. My choice was to write about my feelings; in particular, how the values promoted in Arts, Education, and especially Literature, are more valuable now than ever before.

Plus Six Arcana: Why All Fantasy Fans Should Join a D&D Party (2016)

I played Dungeons and Dragons - in a party that included both my sorority sisters, and my actual sister - for about two years, starting in my senior year of college. That time served as not only two years of apartment- and sorority house-hosted eight-hour-long sessions, but a crash course in narrative development, compelling character creation, and collaborative world-building... the kind that any fan of Fantasy would enjoy!

Time is a Goon: Revisiting Jennifer Egan's Visit from the Goon Squad (2016)

In my Freshman year, I read Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad as a part of our mandatory Fall "Intro to English" credit. It became one of my favorite novels of all time. Three years later, I was severely depressed, had failed two classes, wasn't graduating on time, and felt like all of my friends were moving away from me... so I read it again. The context of these two reviews, to me, says a lot more than just their respective messages, as well as a lot about the power of this book.

Capstone Lite: The Paper That Allowed Me to Graduate College, Abridged (2016)

Anything you spent an entire Quarter carefully cultivating is bound to stick with you, especially when it's your key to graduation... but it wasn't just that. My mom asked me the question earlier this year, what I would spend my life doing if money wasn't an issue, and the answer was "Writing T.S.W.'s biography."

Nearly Nancy: Failed Attempts at a Multi-Media Nancy Drew (2016)

For some reason, this three-year-old blog post feels even more relevant today, after the most recent attempt at revitalizing the girl sleuth went under, as Ellen DeGeneres' produced movie was sent straight to DVD. Nancy Drew will be one of my favorite literary fixtures forever, and her utter inability to successfully translate to screen - with one extremely notable exception - is, to me, a part of her magic.

Honorary mention: the poem I wrote for my HS graduation!

Girls in Space: This Year's Nebula Award Winners (2016)

I'm not as up on the Science Fiction genre as I'd like to be - despite a whole college class to the contrary - but as I've started to explore more recently-published titles, it's started to improve... in part, thanks to more diverse authors being published in the past few years. However, that wasn't exactly welcomed within the given audience of these kinds of books, as evidenced by the 2015-2016 Hugo and Nebula award drama.

End of an Era with College Fashion (2014)

Anyone who went to high school with me would probably be shocked to no end, that the girl who wore a North Face and jeans to school every single day of both Freshman and Sophomore year, ended up writing for an internationally-read fashion website for two full years in college. It still surprises me, too.


I hope you take the time to explore some of my past work, and maybe leave a comment on one you've particularly enjoyed. Nine years is a lot of time to dedicate to something, and the potential of having a specific place for generating this kind of content in the future is part of the reason why I'm refusing to let it go just yet.

If you've visited my blog, at any point, during the past nine years, thanks so much for being a part of something so important to me!

REVIEW: OKAY, FINE, WHATEVER

To be clear: I am a self-defined coward. In almost all areas of my life, I am in some form of constant terror. While my baby brother finds this amusing, and my childhood best friend finds it infuriating, it's been such a reliable presence in my life that I have even developed a tendency to freak out when I don't feel it. Needless to say, whenever I see a memoir that mentions Anxiety with a capital "A" in the blurb, it winds up in my hands. 

Okay, Fine, Whatever, by Courtenay Hameister is a memoir of Anxiety, chronicling her attempts at breaking through the stress of daily life, by embracing stress in its more exaggerated forms, too. (It's one thing to get over an instance of stage fright, but quite another to visit a professional cuddler, you know?)

Of course I was immediately drawn to Hameister's story, of trying new things and working through fear over the course of a year. However, the trap of being compelled to pick up a memoir of someone you think is very much like you, is that you inevitably get turned off when, eventually, they reveal themselves to not be like you at all.

Hameister portrays this memoir as one oriented around trying new things, and she does: from an isolation tank to water aerobics, to getting high, and getting an MRI, she attempts quite a few new experiences, most of which would spook most people.

The difficulty comes when the majority of them seem to fall into one specific category: Romance. She attempts online dating in three different chapters - chronicling several failed dates within each - and some of her other exploits include doomed romances within the polyamorous spectrum, explorations with public sex, and an instructional fellatio class. Even some of her tamer excursions still find ways to relate to intimacy or sexuality, like getting a Brazilian wax, and visiting the aforementioned professional cuddler.

At times, it felt like the book wanted to tell two different stories, one of Hameister's mental health and working through her anxiety, and the other of her romantic history, as a sort of "getting her groove back" memoir.

In some ways, Hameister does a good job at communicating how her Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects her life; especially in the form of her "stress balls," which weigh in her stomach and balloon small issues into greater ones, like with worries over her career and health. And I did relate to some of her candid accounts of her romantic history... it was just at all the stops after that, she totally lost me.

(Also, side note: she is INCREDIBLY funny, which made the book a little easier to read, too.)

In conclusion: I didn't love the book so much as the idea behind it, and I couldn't stop thinking about how much more I'd enjoy it if it was someone a little more relatable, or if her journey was made a little more clear.

What is something brave or new you've tried recently? Have you read any other memoirs about anxiety? Let me know, in the comments below!

READCHELLA REVIEWS: THE BOOKS THAT SAVED ME FROM THE SLUMP

Hey, remember when I was bemoaning my major reading slump a couple of weeks ago? Remember when I invented a whole readathon weekend in order to compel myself into breaking it? Well, I've recovered - kind of - and despite the fact that this blog post has now mysteriously deleted itself twice, I'm finally ready to review the books I read!

Book #1: The Darkest Part of the Forest, Holly Black

A fave from my college days - lent to me by a serial book-lending friend - that has resurfaced in my reading habits every once in a while since, this book was absolutely perfect to kick off my reading weekend, because it matches a fast-paced plot and action-oriented characters, with a sense of familiarity. 

I maintain that one of the best ways to break out of a slump is with a title you know really well, because if you know the narrative and what's going to be happening around the corner, and you already love it, well, that's going to make you want to keep reading, don't you think?

And what's not to love about this YA Contemporary Fantasy? Hazel, a feisty teen with a big secret, strives to save her faerie-adjacent town from a malevolent force in the forest, alongside her brother, Ben, and his changeling best friend, Jack. Together, they have to track down an immortal prince, who has suddenly disappeared from his glass casket, without incurring the wrath of any of the tricksy figures of the woods, who are beginning to get much braver in their efforts to antagonize the humans of Fairfold.

Not only is it an old fave of mine, but its structure and theming reminds me of some other media I love, too (Check out its place in my reading recommendations for fans of Gravity Falls!). Revisiting it once more was made even easier by doing so in a different format: having it on my Kindle, with a backlit screen, portable size, and easy click-through pages, made getting back into reading easier than if I had tried to do so with a physical book.

Book #2: Nancy Drew #18: The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion, Carolyn Keene (1941)

I have typed and retyped and retyped this section at least three times, but to sound like the cagiest person ever: this simple, antique mystery novel, opened up a whole new mystery for me to explore. Reading it as a part of this challenge invigorated me, partially because it definitely set me off reading quite a bit into its history, as well. In fact, I'm actually going to be covering it as a part of a separate blog post! So, no review for now... you'll be hearing plenty more about it in the future!

But to be clear, some of the reasons it was perfect for a readathon, were its size, and slightly younger intended audience. I still felt like I was reading a real book, because it was an antique copy and over 200 pages... but it didn't really require much mental effort at all. On to the next!

Book #3: The Proposal, Jasmine Guillory

I've been meaning to pick up this Reese Witherspoon book club pick since January, and thankfully, its availability on my library holds lists coincided perfectly with my reading weekend! An airy, un-bothered LA romance that was sunny and sweet, this next read really didn't require much mental exertion to keep the plot moving, either.

When her boyfriend of only five months makes a spontaneous proposal at a Dodgers game - while misspelling her name, no less - Nik needs a way out, and fast. Thankfully, Carlos and his sister are there to help whisk her out of the stadium posthaste. Nik's friends claim he's a perfect rebound candidate, but she isn't so sure... until a few chance meetings - and, well, not-so-chance meetings - later, when she realizes she actually might be falling for the guy instead. But are either really ready for a relationship?

One of my favorite things about this book, was that the conflict or tension was... almost nonexistent. The main characters are well-off and well-settled in their metropolitan landscape of Los Angeles, and are free from any more intense issues plaguing their lives, than coping with bad press (which Nik does easily), and Carlos' cousin's difficult pregnancy (which resolves itself without his input). They have very little baggage to lug onto this particular love train, you know? This frees them both up to fall in love with each other rather easily. In fact, the high point of tension in their relationship, is whether either is actually willing to be in one!

While the lack of conflict may be unrealistic, the cast of characters is much more representative. Guillory has received accolades for her romance reads centering black women in a romance landscape, but I was excited to see that her entire cast is well-fleshed out with people you'd actually find in the real world: our heroine's two best friends are Korean and plus size, and black and lesbian, while the love interest's family and heritage is Hispanic.

My primary qualm with the novel, was that I was a little bummed that the title event of the novel is tidily wrapped up within the first twenty pages or so. There is no lead up to the proposal at all, with the whole thing transpiring within the first few pages, and very little explanation as to why Nik and her d-bag boyfriend Fisher were together in the first place (especially when, spoiler alert, his intentions are later revealed to be kinda racist).

Other than that, it was basically the equivalent of setting your brain on E! channel mode for a few hours... which has made it my go-to beach read recommendation for 2019!

Book #4: Space Opera, Catheryne Valente

Alright, it's the Sunday morning of your readathon weekend, and you stayed up past midnight to finish your romance the night before. What do you reach for next?

Why not something completely different?

This popular, 2019 Hugo Award finalist is a total work of balls-to-the-wall science fiction, in the style of Douglas Adams. Taking the concept of "Intergalactic Eurovision," and decking it out in all the glitter, pizzaz, and gratuitously explained science-ish lingo it can, what results is a fast-paced mad-cap dash into the outer reaches of scientific exploration to save the human race with a failed, aging glam punk band... with significant heart and humor along the way, of course.

In some ways, this was the perfect book to pick for a readathon weekend, because it blasts along at such a frenetic and upbeat pace, that it's hard not to giggle all the way. In others, it was the worst: long and complex alien technological and biological explanations, and surprisingly subtle character moments, had me slowing down, rereading chapters, and trying to find the threads that ran through the narrative. It almost straddles the line, of wanting a little more information about some things, while having absolutely too much about others. For instance, wanting to hear more about the human relationships - which is trotted out piecemeal over the length of the story - versus the detailed descriptions of alien planets and competitions past.

In the end, I was so incredibly happy to have finally gave myself a reason to pick up this read, because on the whole, it did exactly what you wanted it to: it showed me a damn good time. 

I actually was originally recommended this novel via #askalibrarian on Twitter, with my query being "light-hearted science fiction," and this read absolutely delivered. It makes me want to check out more of those responses I got!

So, what do you think about the results of my personal Readchella 2019? Do any of the books on this list appeal to you? Let me know, in the comments below!

BACK TO THE BOOKS: READCHELLA DAY THREE

As you may have seen in my first post last Friday, I've been suffering under a really disheartening and oppressive reading slump lately. With the advent of the weekend, I'd decided to do something about it: hosting what was, essentially, a readathon for one, coinciding with the first weekend of Coachella!

I gathered the necessary provisions, gave the required apologies, and strapped in, for what I hoped would become a weekend of pushing through difficult mental blocks, to reach the great, green, bookish landscape on the other side. By day two, as detailed in my second blog post, I had somehow managed to make it through two novels, and was about halfway into a third.

And now, the weekend is over, and I reflect back on how my Readchella ended. So, what do you think? Did I make it through the third book?

saturday pm -> sunday am

• So, I actually ended up finishing The Proposal... at about 12:30am. I stayed up a lot longer than I should have in order to finish it, but the momentum I'd built up to that point just wasn't ready to slow down yet! 
• The next morning - Sunday - saw a lazy breakfast, packing my sister off for an HR convention, and chilling out around the house. All told, I actually didn't end up sitting down to read until a little before noon, which had begun to make me a little anxious about whether I could finish at least one more book before the challenge was over... 
• Little did I know that my fears were pretty much unfounded. I managed to make it through Space Opera, by Catherynne Valente, a little bit before 8pm last night, leaving me to bask in the glory of a weekend well spent... 
• As well as pick up the next book I plan on reading! Consider this slump over! 

bookstack! 

Like I said, I ended up completing four different books this weekend. I think I'm going to save reviews of the new reads for a different post, because they're all worth delving into a little more than just a cursory paragraph would allow, but I did want to say a little bit about how each of these specific selections served to help push through my book block.

The Darkest Part of the Forest, Holly Black

an old favorite that I could probably retell in my sleep, with enough action and romance to keep me engaged and reading 

Nancy Drew and the Moss-Covered Mansion, Carolyn Keene (1941 edition)

a collector's piece I've been meaning to revisit, intended for young audiences and with enough chapter-ending cliffhangers to keep me enticed 

The Proposal, Jasmine Guillory

a fluffy contemporary romance, with an LA setting, that helped distract me from the weather outside, and also served as the first non-reread of the weekend 

Space Opera, Catherynne Valente

a slightly more difficult science fiction novel, with jaw-dropping descriptions and a highly comedic concept, that helped slowly maneuver me into feeling up to reading harder books again 

I also started a fifth novel, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but didn't include it here, because I didn't make it far enough into the book to feel like it warranted a spot. However, I did want to mention it, because a. It's my blog, and I think it belongs on the list, and b. because if I had tried to pick up this read a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have made it past page one. And yet, here I am, well on my way back into an old classic! 

getting it back, and going forward 

One of the first things I did when planning out this readathon weekend, was look up the best advice on how to get out of a reading rut. Here's what ended up being the most helpful: 

• Telling myself to stop being stubborn, and just DNF the book already. One of the first orders of business on my Readchella weekend was putting down one of my recent reads, for good. I had been slogging through Lauren Weisberger's When Life Gives You Lululemons, but kept getting put off... somehow, it's strange writing style and irritating characters made me feel both too young and too old for the story. However, I kept at it, mainly because I knew it was a really hyped book last year, and I wanted to stick with it... but when I finally gave it up to the Goodwill bags, I felt so much better! 

• Changing up the format of how I was reading. I was actually pretty surprised at how much easier everything became once I was reading a book on my Kindle, rather than a physical copy. Maybe it was the low handling effort required, or the fact that the percentage of completion was always in view at the bottom, but it felt like it went by a lot quicker, and I was less distracted from the brightly lit screen. Of course, there were times where I had to put it down and walk away, but it also made it a lot easier to pick back up again when I needed to, and come right back to the same place. 

• Reading something tested and true, that I knew I liked. There's a reason I picked Holly Black for my first read of the weekend: I'm an old fan of her work, no matter the audience, and I knew that I could get lost in her books, no problem. While I could have opted for The Cruel Prince or The Wicked King, those aren't exactly my favorite... The Darkest Part of the Forest is just enough of an underrated hit for me to keep reading it over and over again, and the story is so familiar to me, I could probably tell you the whole thing myself at this point. Same goes for the antique Nancy Drew I read, too! 

• Finding my footing in familiar genres, like Contemporary, Fantasy, and Romance. Bite-sized, easy to read, and not require a ton of brainpower to decipher, the first three reads I reached for were all very much popcorn books, which highly differed from the realm of meaty nonfiction I'd been trapped in. 

• Reaching for reads under 400 pages. One of the key elements of keeping my readathon moving, was not devoting a ton of time to each of these novels. Even the one that took the longest, took no more than a day to finish! This not only helped me gather back my confidence - hey, I can finish a whole book! - but kept me engaged enough to where I felt like I was always making progress on my challenge. 

Hooray, my readathon is over! (Or is it just getting started?) What should I pick up now that my Readchella weekend is over? Let me know, in the comments below!

BATTLE OF THE BLOCK: READCHELLA DAY TWO

I promised you an update post yesterday, so I'm here. Granted, I don't really especially want to be writing this post right now, but I am. (Hey, two blood orange margaritas, and a boatload of chips and salsa at dinner, can do that to a person!)

You might have seen my blog post yesterday, about the book block I've been enduring these past two months. With only two Goodreads updates and two blog updates to show between both March and April thus far, I think that my statistics stand for themselves: sure, they still might be better than most people - according to my overly optimistic Mom - but they sure aren't on par for me. Far from it, actually.

And this might be a little "too heavy" of a moment for what is ostensibly a lighthearted topic, but it's necessary to include here: while "slowing down" and "taking a break" might be the advice I received from most people, it doesn't help my situation. While it might be okay to take a break from hobbies I've had trouble with in the past - like embroidery, or cooking - reading has always been an important part of my ability to self-regulate, and the absence of it in my daily routines can lead to spikes in anxiety and depression, both things I try to mitigate as much as possible on my own.

After a really hard anniversary came up again this past week - a week when I was, unfortunately, spending a lot of time by myself, and which passed by with little recognition from others - and I wasn't able to read through it, I realized that it was important for me to come up with a plan on how to fix things on my own.

And thus, Savannah's Readchella 2019 was born.

I've already told you what I planned to do about it, so here's what I actually ended up accomplishing last night, and so far today. Good news: it's kind of a lot!

friday night delight

Armed with my bevy of information, and with minimal amounts of forewarning to my family, I embarked upon my readathon weekend with as little overthinking as I could manage. I focused a little more on preparation than just simply reading, but still managed to get quite a bit done: 

• I cleaned up my room and parts of my house, so that I'd have relatively clear reading spaces (or at the very least, I'd be less called away by the distraction of chores later on). 
• I picked up a new cookbook from the library to glance through, as well as stalked through the movie section in order to pick up something that might serve as a suitable break, should I get burnt out on reading. In the end, I went for Brooklyn (2015), because I knew that I could probably get my film-buff sister to sit down and watch it with me! 
• In the end, I did end up DNFing one of the books that I had been stuck in before: When Life Gives You Lululemons, by Lauren Weisberger. I'll end up talking about this more once my Readchella is over, but it just wasn't serving me as either entertainment, or interesting reading material. So, I took out my bookmark, thanked it for its service, and sent it away into the donation pile! 
• I posted my first Readchella blog post (obviously). 
• And I downloaded, and started to read, Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest on my Kindle from a local library ebook database. I only got to about 50% through before I went to bed... which actually left me a little worried as to how much of this personal challenge I'd be able to complete. 

saturday distractions... and success!

To be honest, while I was okay with the progress I had made on Friday, it still wasn't too much to be excited about: sure, I'd written a blogpost, and gotten through half of a book, which was still a lot more than I had been managing up until that point, but it certainly wasn't the kind of outcome I'd been hoping for. 

After an impromptu family breakfast at IHOP, and family chores completed around the house, I buckled down and got ready to read at about 11am. Here's how the rest of my day has gone: 

• I finished reading The Darkest Part of the Forest at about 12:46pm, making it my first completed read of this challenge! Needless to say, I was stoked... and wasted little time picking up another read. 
• I figured that TDPotF had been such a success because it was 1. short, 2. compelling, and 3. familiar, so I aimed for a variation of that set of principles for my next read, with the expectation that the momentum would continue. I'd been looking for a reason to revisit one of my old WWII editions of Nancy Drew novels for a while, so I picked up my 1941 copy of The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion! 
• By 2:24pm, I'd finished that read as well, and had a really good time doing it. Again, more on this later, but I think the fact that it was such a nostalgic and slightly more juvenile read made it easier to get lost in. Readchella #2 complete! 
• Without wasting any time, I jumped back into reading as quickly as I could, getting started on Jasmine Guillory's The Proposal. Contemporary Romance was one of the more recommended genres to try and break a slump with, and I can see why: within a twenty minutes, I was more than 30 pages in! 

Unfortunately, my habits got a little waylaid after that point: I spent an hour and a half playing a board game with my sister and her girlfriend - Ticket to Ride is the best! - but it was a little too long of a distraction for me. Then, when we were finished, it was decided that the family was going to go out to eat for dinner. 

Filler time struck again, when we arrived at the restaurant, only to find that we wouldn't be able to be seated for a little while, which ended up taking a little over twenty minutes. Naturally, I had forgotten to bring my book along for the ride! It's a good note to be taking forward in this challenge, and any others I might undertake in the future: simply having a book at your side, is a pretty good way to guarantee you'll find time to read it. 

what's up next?

So, that brings us to now! I'm going to try and get a little further into The Proposal tonight, but being that I'm only at page 87, I can't imagine I'm going to be able to finish it before bed (not when it has Saturday Night Live and picking up my brother from his school musical to compete with). 

Here's my plans for tomorrow: 

• FinishThe Proposal
• Get started on another book... I'm leaning towards Cat Valente's Space Opera, a lighthearted science fiction read I had anticipating getting to on my Oregon vacation
• Maybe spending some time at a local cafe or restaurant, in order to get some reading done outside my own home 
• Make some good reading snacks (I've had a craving for Rice Krispie Treats for the past two days... specifically, Mickey Mouse shaped) 
• Taking the opportunity to do a little more blog drafting for posts coming up this month

For the most part, I'm trying to keep things loose and non-committal, so I can change up the plan if the mood strikes me! But you can bet that I'll get at least one more book completed (please!), and another post just like this one coming your way tomorrow afternoon. 

How do you think I'm doing? Any more tips for how to beat a slump? Let me know, in the comments below!

HOW TO BEAT A BOOK SLUMP: READCHELLA, DAY ONE

So, I'm not going to mince words: I feel completely trapped, at the moment.

I went on two vacations recently, to Victoria, BC, and Sunriver, OR, and as someone who's dedicated entire posts on the importance of a Vacation TBR, and who packed upwards of six books for that second vacation alone, I totally disappointed myself. Out of both vacations, I only finished a grand total of two books... and one of those, I had actually already started a few weeks beforehand. These also happen to be the first books I've managed to finish since February. 

And that's not where this permeating feeling of failure ends: I am currently stuck in the middle of two other different books, one of which I've been reading since March. I'm nearly going to DNF the second, despite being more than 100 pages in. I set a Goodreads Challenge for myself this year of 60 books - totally doable, given my track record - and I am currently SIX books behind where I'm supposed to be. This blogpost will only be my third time actually having posted within the past two months.

We've all been here. I'm stuck in a big, bad reading slump. 

I've already gotten plenty of comments from others that I shouldn't be forcing myself to slave over a hobby, but to be very honest, this mental break has gone far enough. I miss reading... and this might sound slightly insane, but I can feel it physically when I haven't read in a long time. The escapist aspect of getting lost in a good read has been one of my longest-exercised means of mitigating my anxiety, and without it, I feel like my body carries a lot of tension, the relief of which I definitely don't experience when I do something like watch television or a movie (in fact, those both usually only serve to heighten these issues!).

So you can see quite plainly, I really need a good reading-specific break, rather than a break from reading itself. But I'm having a huge problem actually picking up a book!

So, I turned to the Grand Ol' Internet, and decided to check out what other people had to say about beating a reading block. I'm going to assemble the advice, get my self-care artillery in line, and take down this slump once and for all, over the course of the next three days, starting tonight. 

And, you know. It's the first weekend of Coachella. So, Savannah's #Readchella2019 it is. 

let's hear from the experts 

Here's what book bloggers, BookTubers, and other assorted writers and book lovers had to say across the web, about how to take down a reading slump:

Book Roast on YouTube: Make reading a special occasion
"Set a time, set a place, set a meal, set it up a few days before so you have something to look forward to... make it an experience!"

Julia Seales on Bustle: Pick up something familiar
"Nothing will remind you of how much you love reading like revisiting an old favorite...You already know what's going to happen in the next chapter, so all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the story." 

Hailey in Bookland on YouTube: Go for something sweet and bite-sized 
"Choose the smaller books... pick up a book that is small, super quick, and, definitely, quick contemporaries are my favorite."

Charleigh from Charleigh Writes: Stop being stubborn
"There are too many books in the world to read – that you’ll probably enjoy – to stay hung up on a book you’re not into... Don’t do it to yourself – it’s not worth it and you’ll probably miss out on great books with all the time you’ve wasted on trying to finish a book you’re not connecting with."

Book Sundays on YouTube: Switch up your reading location 
"I think it's really important to find a cozy reading nook, and maybe that's a different reading nook than you're used to... You could try a coffee shop, you could try a park, you could even just run a bath!"

Haley at Whatever Bright Things: Space it out, and set goals 
"Set yourself a reasonable goal, and divide it into manageable chunks."

Paige at Creating and Co: Find a new way of looking at things, with a format shift 
"Try a different book format... what I mean, is an audiobook, or an e-reader. The human mind is a crazy thing. Sometimes it's easier to listen, or the faint glow of your e-reader helps trick you into reading again."

Susie Rodarme on Book Riot: Get away from the screens 
"Unplug. I find that the internet (gulp) is one of my main culprits for a lack of reading. Being online presents one with endless stimuli and I find that it can dampen that itch of needing to read something. Either that, or I get caught up binge-watching shows, and I can’t do both that and read at the same time." 

alright, so here's the plan

We've got our instructions, now it's time to formulate a plan with which to carry them out. I've got the next three days to wear this thing down, and I'm bringing in some of the big guns - from old favorites, to fun snacks, to genre-switching - to help me through it.

I'm planning what is, essentially, a readathon for one, so I might as well lean into the experience by making it as fun for myself as possible. My family is busy for most of tomorrow (Saturday), and that should free up time for me to do what I need to get done... and you better expect a great Trader Joe's cheeseboard, fresh fruit, home-baked cookies, and some delicious tea is going with it.

I'm also stepping away from the big books. I've been struggling through a couple larger non-fiction reads lately, as well as plenty of reference books as I try to set up my garden this Spring, so for the weekend, I'm going to be keeping away from any and all things above 400 pages.

I'm returning to an old favorite. Pretty soon after I started looking at all this info about how to break a slump, I skipped over to my library's Overdrive database, and immediately sent Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest to my Kindle. It's a Contemporary YA Fantasy that I've read a million times, and I'm about to try and read it again, in a different format than I'm used to.

I'm going to try reading somewhere new. I am absolutely guilty about pretty much holing up in either one of two places to read, both of which are conveniently placed in my bedroom. However, I'm going to try and branch out, by switching up my spots to other comfy places in the house, and if that doesn't work, I'll try my hand at one of the quieter local cafes downtown.

Of course, I'll be taking short breaks, so I don't feel like I'm losing out on my weekend. Spending time rearranging my bookshelves, and cleaning my room in general, are typically two activities that make me feel more thankful for the time I spend reading. I like cooking food for my family, and taking long walks in the sunshine, both of which will be totally doable this weekend.

Naturally, taking breaks to write blogposts is definitely going to be a factor, too... because let's be real, this blog has been really suffering at the same time my reading habits have been.

friday night plans: readchella, day one

• figure out whether I want to DNF either of the books I've been struggling with, or put them away for the weekend
• check out some fun rewards and distractions from the library - like a new cookbook, or a movie adaptation of a fictional work you enjoy - to serve as reading breaks 
• decide which blogdrafts to work on and finish over the weekend 
• finish downloading The Darkest Part of the Forest to my Kindle, and start reading

I'll check back in with you tomorrow, to see how my first day's worth of reading has gone, and let you know of what my plans for Saturday and Sunday look like. 

Welcome to my Readchella! (Tagline: Because reading on my couch is still better than sweating my butt off in the Californian desert.) 

So, wish me luck! Do you have any recommendations for helping break from a reading slump? Let me know, in the comments below!