We’re at the end of April, and it’s time to round up what’s happened on the blog, with challenges and around the blogosphere. I had a one week hiatus at the start of the month, and my welcome back was with a book tag where I spelled my name in books from my TBR pile.
Book Reviews
- Happily by Chauncey Rogers: 3.5/5 stars
- Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home by Nicole J. Georges: 4/5 stars
Happily is an interesting and fresh take on Cinderella—only without her. Fetch is a sad but heartwarming graphic memoir about the relationship between woman and dog.
Currently Reading
I’m reading Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones. I’m getting through it pretty quickly, but it’s not living up to the first book at a little more than a third of the way in.
Discussion Posts
I’m now up to 6 discussion posts for the year. This month I posted two discussion posts. The first post was about book design, but it was focused on the spine.
During an Xfinity Watchathon week, I got to catch up on Outlander. Unfortunately, I like Season 3 the least, and I griped about it last week. One of my biggest complaints is about Brianna.
Reading Challenges
Fanfiction Reading Challenge: 71/300 chapters
The last weeks of the semester means there is no time for fanfiction. College semesters have been generally too busy for me to read fanfiction.
How are you doing with the challenge? The next quarterly link-up is up and ready for you to share your progress and fanfics.
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 15/30
I read Happily by Chauncey Rogers, Orange: The Complete Collection #1 by Ichigo Takano, and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
Graphic Novel & Manga Reading Challenge: 5/12
Fetch counts for this now that the review is posted.
Library Love Challenge: 10/24
Fetch counted last month. Orange and The Hate U Give are #9 and #10 of the Library Love Challenge, and I love them. However, I need to remember to update this list over on Goodreads.
Platypire Diversity Challenge: 3/11
You must be living under a boulder if you haven’t heard of The Hate U Give. It is an #ownvoices novel featuring an African American teen girl who witnesses her friend get fatally shot by the police.
I count Orange for this because Kakeru thinks about committing suicide in this book, and the whole premise is for the other characters to do all they can to prevent his suicide.
YA Reading Challenge: 2/10
Once again, I count Ichigo Takano’s graphic novel and Angie Thomas’ YA novel. Orange, in particular, is shoujo, which targets teen girls.
Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-Along: 65/365
I haven’t had the time to try to catch up. This will be a May project.
Language Learning Reading Challenge: 1/4
No change at this point, but I’m not behind.
Interesting Finds
Do you prefer star ratings or GIFs in book reviews? Sarah @ Written Word Worlds listed the pros and cons of each. I’m not one to use GIFs in my reviews, partly because I don’t know how to explain my thoughts with them.
Lala @ BooksandLala made a bookish video inspired by the trend of beauty gurus trying each other’s tutorials. She decided to try another BookTuber’s TBR and read them herself. I don’t know how it’s turned out yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing how it went.
Is BookTube educational? That’s the title of Ariel Bissett’s latest video. This video takes a more scholarly tone that I think is something we can expect to see more out of her channel. She describes how BookTube is an educational place with quotations from print sources and from other BookTubers. To extend her argument and discussion, do you think book blogging is educational?
May @ Forever and Everly asks us to discuss privilege in the YA book community. She discusses income, the country you live in, age and more.
Do you remember Megan from BookSlayerReads? TeacherofYA shared the news of her death in March. I remember following her at one point, and I’m sad to see her go and be erased from the Internet. One of the other takeaways from this post is to consider all of your favorite bloggers’ mortality as well as your own. What will happen when you die? What do you want to happen with your blogging life when you die?
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is often at the center of controversy as a book that many schools challenge and ban. This time the controversy is in a lawsuit filed by the representative of Lee’s estate. Who is Atticus Finch? Has be been adapted appropriately, according to contract? You can read more at A.M. Blair’s blog, The Misfortune of Knowing.
>^..^<
Now for final thoughts
First: There are few hours left to submit your nominations for the 2nd Annual Book Blogger Awards. If you would like to check out who I nominated, you can follow this link. You can also follow the links to the rules page for the awards.
Second: Finals week is coming up for me, so there may be a week or two with only one post.
Thank you for your support as always. Reading, liking, commenting on, and sharing my posts is encouraging. Thank you.
Cat on the Bookshelf 
Hmmm, some interesting links here! I have strong opinions on GIFs in reviews. I find them annoying and distracting, and generally won’t read a review that has them. As for using them in my own reviews, I feel the same as you – I wouldn’t know which ones to choose.
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I’ve tried using GIFs in a few other non-review posts, but I’m not loving them. Either I don’t understand how to use them or they’re not for me.
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