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Author Spotlight, Books, Weekly Series, What I'm Reading

What I’m Reading Wednesday/Author Spotlight – Octavia Butler

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What I’m Reading Wednesday/Author Spotlight – Octavia Butler

Today is a very special Wednesday because not only is it the day I share my current reads with you, but this read is also an author spotlight of mine for November.

Octavia Butler has been on my reading list since I bought this Mind of My Mind t-shirt from Out of Print Clothing. I recall feeling a little sheepish buying a t-shirt of a book I’ve never heard of. However, I told myself that I would eventually read Octavia Butler and that time has finally come. I’m a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy especially when they’re written by women and women of color. Science fiction still feels like that one of those genres that’s dominated by white men and so I try my best to mix it up and include other authors of the genre.

However, what I’m learning about Octavia Butler has been blowing my mind.

I like to think of Octavia Butler as one of the earliest African American and female author of science fiction and fantasy. She’s been herald as ahead of her time writing about being a woman, being African American, being infringed, and being working class. She used her experiences growing up to help fuel the fire of her stories and the science fiction genre because it’s just so vast and the imagination is endless. She’s the first science fiction writer to be given the MacArthur Fellowship and a huge influence in the Black science fiction genre.

For my What I’m Reading Wednesdays, I’ll be exploring this genre and how that works with one of Octavia Butler’s iconic works, Kindred. I honestly feel like I’m learning so much just by picking up her novel. Here’s more on Kindred:

60931The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity.

Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life.

During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.

So this book is hitting all my science fiction needs. It’s got time travel, which in and of itself is paradoxical. It’s got a young African-American woman as the main character. It has her traveling back in time to a very poignant time in African-American history.

I think I’m about to have my mind blown. Will you be reading along with me?

You can find KINDRED on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

Blogging, Lifestyle

Taming the TBR Update

by Simone2 Comments on Taming the TBR Update
Taming the TBR Update

A few weeks ago, I put out a short-term project called #tamingtheTBR. This was basically a way for me to clear my bookish calendar for the summer and let me read whatever I want. It’s the summer after all and the summer deserves certain types of reads. For me, it’s going to be a lot of romance, a lot of fantasy, and a little bit of diverse reading.

I know there’s a couple of slow burners in my pile and I might skip them depending on my mood. That’s right, I’m going to kick off the TBR and just read books because of the mood I’m in. I want to make a pretty good dent in my TBR list this summer. I’m already getting anxiety that I won’t get to read everything I want. I mean, it’s more realistic to think this way.

Anyway, I did come away with a few highlights that I want to share. But from this point on, it’s going to be reading for me and I’m so excited about it.

Finished reading all the books

Well, just the books I had to read. It actually didn’t turn out so bad. Aside from a couple more books I’m waiting on for various IG promotions, I’m pretty much done! I did end up not reading a couple of the books I chose from Netgalley and I’ll share those reasons why.

I won’t be using Netgalley anymore

When I first started out, I used Netgalley to get books and review. It was a lot of fun! It allowed me to build my blog and my credibility. I was able to work on my review style too because of it. But as my Instagram started to take off, I didn’t need the books I was receiving on Netgalley. In  fact, I started ignoring my Netgalley reviews because I was getting so many books in the mail I’m happy to read.

So I’ve decided that I’m not going to be using Netgalley to request and review books, but I will use it as a resource on all the new books coming out and I can easily request from publishers.

I had the worst book slump ever

Scratch that, this wasn’t the worst book slump. That was the few years after college where I just didn’t care about books and just wanted to watch TV for a little while. That was my worst book slump. However, it did take me a week to read a contemporary YA story that would have taken me about two days. I mean, that could have been the book too, but I’m not going to count that.

As I mentioned in my post from a few days ago, I’m legit over reading. I guess when I’m asked to read a bunch of books I’m not in the mood to read, then I find myself wanting to stop reading all together. It’s something valuable and I’m glad I learned that about myself. But I’m glad that this slump is over as you can see by my review of Save the Date by Morgan Matson. I’m now reading They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera which is giving me serious Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe vibes.

Finally I organized my books and ready to read!

It’s been an interesting few weeks. I don’t think I’ve bellyached more than maybe I was a kid at Disneyworld and I didn’t get a chocolate Mickey ice cream bar. I finally took a moment to go through all my books in my TBR, make the choice on the ones I do intend on reading, and displayed them out like a library or a bookstore or something.

To make things short, I displayed all my books in my room. I don’t plan on having a TBR during these months because I want to really go by my mood. I still have a few books that I’m going to be reading for my book club, but aside from that it’s free reading from here on out.

I hope you enjoyed this update and I do hope you follow along with me as I read books existing in my TBR. Who knows, maybe you’ll read along with me or we’ll coincidentally read the same book at the same time.

Book Reviews

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

by Simone2 Comments on Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

A little side note: I didn’t know that Christina Lauren was two people! This was such a well written book knowing that two people contributed to the story. I kept trying to think about how they each contributed to both. Other books I’ve read written by two authors usually have two main voices. For this one, it was so consistent that you can’t even tell.

Continue reading “Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren” →