It’s the weekend of your sister’s birthday and you’re excited to spend some time with your older brothers and sister one last time before heading to college. Everything is going to go according to plan, right? You couldn’t be more wrong.
Simone and Her Books
books, reviews, and recommendations
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After finishing A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza, I’ve been having the worst book slump ever. It might be because I’ve spent the last month and a half trying to read all the books I have for various projects this summer. Usually, I like to spread these out throughout the months to come so that I’m not bogged down with required reading.
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My review of this book honestly doesn’t do it justice. I had a ton of thoughts here and I tried to boil it down to its essentials without spoiling too much. Here goes nothing.
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I think I might have written a post like this in the past, but I’ve been thinking a lot about books and genres. It’s probably because I’m in the process of moving across the country and that means whittling my book piles down to the ones that I truly want to read.
I rummaged through all my books, made lists, and figured out that the top billings for genres that I love to read. Here’s what I got:
General Fiction
My general fiction contains everything from literary greats to the beach read. I love fiction in general, but there’s a time and place for all of it. I like to keep a mix of books available so that I can pick and choose depending on my mood. Most times, I’ll read a fun summer read because I’m always in the mood for those. I didn’t think that my general fiction pile would be so big, but I guess that’s because it’s got some literary fiction, womens’ fiction, some romance novels, and my diverse books.
Most literary fiction I read is from an author of color. I just love the stories that they tell and they always make me think a little harder and understand a little deeper.
The sad thing about this list is that there’s not a lot of literary fiction here. Most of these books are fun reads or “womens’ fiction.” I think the reason for that is because I’ve read so many stories about the young woman moving to New York in pursuit of something. Or that couple that’s on the verge of breaking up and they’re doing what they can to stay together. As I get older, I’m noticing that my tastes are changing and I’m moving away from books by the Jonathans (Safran Foer, Franzen, etc) and more into books that let me escape a little from my life.
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Sci-fi and Fantasy is my next biggest genre. If anything, sci-fi/fantasy is my favorite genre. The list here is small, but I also have all my bigger fantasy reads on my Kindle.
When I was growing up, I was in love with science fiction and fantasy. I even ran the sci-fi/fantasy literary magazine at my high school! However, I didn’t read a lot when I was a kid and therefore don’t have a lot of the classic sci-fi/fantasy novels under my belt. While I don’t have many of those classics in my TBR pile, I do have aspirations to read them all. Hello, I haven’t even read Hitchhiker’s Guide yet…
Non-fiction
My non-fiction pile is strangely tall. I also included my poetry books in here as well. I think the reason for that is because I haven’t read them. I love reading non-fiction essays and memoirs, but fiction just always happens to take over when I’m reading books. I think I’ll change it this summer and at least read one non-fiction book per month. This way, I’ll get some non-fiction in my life!
Sometimes I like to throw in some thriller, some romance and some YA to mix things up. I always thought I was a YA reader, but I guess most of the YA I’m reading is also Science Fiction and Fantasy. When I think back to my reading life, I think of the Twilight series and Harry Potter and The Hunger Games being big in my life. Isn’t it funny how sometimes your favorite genres are just sitting right in front of your face?
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Happy Friday everyone! I’m making a big announcement on my Instagram page today and I thought I’d write a little blog post about what I’m trying to do. I’ll probably end up oversharing because I’m just that kind of person!
If you don’t already know, I’m a bookstagrammer. A bookstagrammer is a person who dedicates their Instagram page to all things books. Mostly, it’s new books and current reads, but what I’m about to announce will change that.
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So over the weekend I went to my third (and probably final) BookCon. For those who aren’t aware, BookCon is a yearly convention for book readers to go and meet their favorite authors, find some new great reads, and even find some new bookish friends.
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I approach this novel like it was another diverse read with a distinct voice from an Asian American author. What I got was a heck of a lot more. I’ve also got a cute trailer for the book I want to share. Check it out below!
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Get your pre-order game on because June has got a ton of fun reads being published. I’ve already read a couple of the books on this list, so I’ll include my reviews for them.
When I think of June (and all the summer month), I just think of love and fun and a little mischief. I’ve also included a star on the books I’m super excited about and can’t wait to read. Without further ado, here’s what’s publishing in June:
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I love blogging about books. The other day I was talking with some friends about work and the differences between working for yourself and working for a big company. If you work for a big company, you’ve got your steady income and your health insurance. Your job may be a pain in the ass every once in a while, but it works out because you’re living comfortably. There’s nothing wrong with that.
If you work for yourself (specifically in blogging), you’re making little-to-no money. You might have to hustle 200x harder than you were at that company job and you don’t have normal hours like a company person may have.
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I seriously can’t believe that May is over. Seriously! I wasn’t even prepared to write this post. So I took a look back at my month and finally ready to share my findings.
Simone and Her Books 