February Discussion Post: Nonfiction

I finally get to use this post graphic that I made over two years ago, but that’s beside the point. Today, I am actually going to post the discussion post that I’ve been slowly working on since January. As far as how often I’m going to do discussion posts I really don’t know, but I’m going to try for at least once a month. So, here is my February discussion post…

It took me a while to decide on a topic I wanted to write about. I didn’t want to just talk about favorite genres, format, or tropes. I feel like I’ve already kind of sort of discussed those things before. So, I kept that in mind as I planned for my first discussion post of 2017. Of course, in the end, I did find a topic. So, I want to talk about nonfiction and why it’s important to me—especially since the world is starting to look like the synopsis of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. No seriously, if you don’t believe me, look the books up, you’ll see.

Why is nonfiction important to me?

Whenever I think of nonfiction I automatically go towards one of my favorite subjects: History. But, history also makes me think of nonfiction as a whole range of subjects—from science to memoirs, even psychology. Anything that deals with information, actual facts or the details about someone or something, that’s what I’m talking about today.

It’s no secret that we live in a time where finding the information we need is literally only a click away. I can’t count on one hand how many times I’ve heard or even said the phrase “just google it”. That availability is great, because it allows ready access to things I want to know more about. Nonfiction is like a portal to the past and present. Mostly, it’s fact. But sometimes, that fact could be skewed by opinions, which is where critical reading and thinking comes into play. Having that ability to discern opinion and fact is getting to be crucial. I think it’s important to know, to be knowledgeable—or at least well-read—about the things that are happening around me whether that’s obscure bits of history, current affairs, or even the state of the environment. Simply put, I want to know, and nonfiction is one of the ways I can find the information I need to form an opinion about something that I find important.

Nonfiction is important to me because it gives me the option to learn about just specific subjects or varied topics all at once, which is something I appreciate.

So, in conclusion…

Nonfiction, like any form of literature, isn’t always perfect but it is important. Reading to learn is something I enjoy doing, but I fully understand that picking up nonfiction just because, isn’t for everyone. I think what it comes down to is reading preference, which is subjective and dependent upon the person.

What are your thoughts on nonfiction?

Music Monday (16) Twenty One Pilots, Lizzo, Cissie Redgwick, & Alice Francis

   Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Adri: Recently, I've listened to more electro swing. It's a type of music that I've been enjoying for the last few years. So, for this Monday's first pick, I chose Gimme That Swing by Cissie Redgwick. It was actually the first electro swing song that I heard that wasn't from the Great Gatsby soundtrack.

My second pick is also my second find thanks to recommendations from youtube: St. James Ballroom by Alice Francis. Its just so groovy to me.

Breana: I first heard about Twenty One Pilots back in 2015 when their song Stressed Out was released. I pretty much like all of the songs from the Blurryface album. So, you can imagine my excitement when Heathens came out. That song is so good. From the first time I heard it, I absolutely loved everything about it. Oh yeah, and the music video is pretty cool too.

My second pick this week is Worship by Lizzo, which is a song I’m really excited to share. Oh man, Lizzo is one of my favorite singers. I found her music by complete accident. I was looking for something new to listen to on youtube and happened to come across her song Humanize. Needless to say, Lizzo is awesome, and her Coconut Oil EP just gives me life. Worship is one of those songs that I can listen to on repeat and never get tired of it.

 

Do you have any songs that you came across by accident but really loved? If so, tell us in the comments down below.

The Friday 56 (95) & Book Beginnings: Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

A captivating and colorful adventure that reads like a modern day fairy tale, from the bestselling author of the Shatter Me series...

Inspired by her childhood love of books like The Secret Garden and The Chronicles of Narnia, bestselling author Tahereh Mafi crafts a spellbinding new world where color is currency, adventure is inevitable, and friendship is found in the most unexpected places...

There are only three things that matter to twelve-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it’s been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she’s about to embark on one to find the other.

But bringing Father home is no small matter. In order to find him she’ll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. It will take all of Alice's wits (and every limb she's got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss...

Beginnings: "The sun was raining again. Soft and bright, rainlight fell through the sky, each drop tearing a neat hole in the season."

56: "But the simple reason no one every left Ferenwood for long was that Ferenwood folk needed magic to survive."

Comments: The beginning is a perfect example of the writing in this book. It was very descriptive and the scenery was colorful and creative. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed Furthermore. I wasn't much of a fan of Shatter Me, but now I kind of want to go back and read the last two books in the series.

What are you reading this week?

Review: A Dash of Magic by Kathryn Littlewood

Title: A Dash of Magic
Author: Kathryn Littlewood
Source/Format: Purchased; Paperback
More Details: Middle Grade; Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Katherine Tegen Books; February 12, 2013 

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads...

This second helping in Kathryn Littlewood's Bliss series combines hilarious magic and daring adventure to make one delectable reading treat...

Rosemary Bliss will do anything to get back her family's magical Cookery Booke. That's why she challenges Aunt Lily to an international baking competition in Paris: If Rose wins, Lily agrees to return the cookery Booke that she stole. If Rose loses...well, the consequences are too ugly to think about. But Lily isn't playing fair--she's using a magical ingredient to cheat. The only way for Rose to compete is for her to find magical ingredients of her own. Together with her long-lost grandpa, his sarcastic talking cat, and a turncoat French mouse, Rose and her brothers race around Paris to find essential--and elusive--magical ingredients that will help her outbake--and outmagic--her conniving aunt. She has to win or the Bliss Cookery Booke will be lost to her family forever...

A Dash of Magic picks up shortly after Bliss left off. After the theft of the Cookery Booke, the Bliss family had to make some changes, and their home town seemed worse-off because of it. The contrast to what the town was before and what it was presently in A Dash of Magic, really did kind of set-up part of the characters motivation for trying so hard to get the Cookery Booke back. That was honestly great. I loved that about the story. I enjoyed the fact that the characters were so motivated to do what they thought was right and that it wouldn’t only benefit them but most everyone around them.

The sense of family was great. I liked how involved the parents and Rosemary’s siblings were. I also liked how more of the Bliss family was included. It was interesting to see how Rosemary’s “long-lost grandpa” ran his bakery. On the other hand, Lily was a manipulative character. She was also selfish and power-hungry, contradicting her earlier claims. Those were the things I was kind of expecting from her character given her antagonistic role in the story.

The cooking and the magic were fantastic and happened to be what I liked most about A Dash of Magic. I still like the idea of having the ingredients being a source of magic. Part of the process was collecting those special ingredients, and the methods that the characters employed to do just that were pretty creative. It was just a really cool idea.

Like Bliss, I had one main problem with this story. This is kind of a pet peeve of mine, but I hate it when a character has no confidence in their obvious capabilities. They constantly reiterate that they can’t do something while actually doing it. Not just doing the thing they say they can’t, but also excelling at. Really, in this one, Rosemary falls prey to this mindset. The first time she says it, I can honestly understand and relate, because she, at that moment, fully realized the magnitude of the task that she had undertaken. However, after the second time, the third, and the fourth time these doubts were brought up, it got kind of repetitive.

Other than that one issue, A Dash of Magic wasn’t a bad story. Unfortunately, I’ve reached the end of the books I currently have for this series, but I would be open to reading the next installment.

Musing Mondays (67) Favorite Types of Book Covers + Random Weekly Questions

Rules: 

• Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker that asks you to muse about something book related each week. 

My musings for the week...

I'm going to start out by answering some of the random weekly questions that I missed, before moving on to the rest of my musings for today.

Do you try out genres you have not liked in the past once in a while just to see if your taste changed?

Actually, I'm doing this more often now than I did when I first started blogging. There were some genres that I just avoided, but going back to them now has been a different experience. It's a clear indication that my reading tastes have slightly changed over the years. I'm reading more contemporary than I used to, and so far, its going pretty well. I've found a lot of books that I ended up enjoying more than I thought I would. I would have never found those books if I hadn't been willing to go back and try contemporary again.

If you could travel to one place you’ve read about in a book, what place would you visit and what book was it from?

When I first saw this questions I literally had no idea what answer to write, because a lot of the places I read about are ones I wouldn’t actually visit. However, when I went back through some of my favorite books, the answer became kind of obvious. I would visit the world from Finding Serendipity, specifically, the land where stories come from. I mean, just think how cool it would be to actually be able to visit the characters from your own story and physically go on an adventure with them, only to turn that into a story later. What’s not to like about that? Plus, the method of how to get to that place is pretty cool in itself.

Other Musings...

Instead of talking about the book I’m currently reading, I wanted to write up a small post about my favorite types of book covers. I didn’t feel like I had enough to say about this subject to make a full discussion post about it, so, I thought I’d use it for Musing Mondays instead. This is going to be a list.

Now, I don’t judge books based off of their covers, but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating them. So, what are my favorite types of book covers? Honestly, I have my favorite types. But then, who doesn’t? It doesn’t matter if there’s a mountain or dog, or a girl in a dress, or a dragon. As long as it looks nice, there's some obvious creativity and thought put into it, and the color combinations are awesome, chances are, I’ll probably like it anyway. So, without further ado, here are my top 7 favorite types of book covers…

1. The illustrated ones: Clearly, I’m a sucker for animated things. Some of my favorite movies have been animated—along the lines of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. So, it should come as no surprise that I really like illustrated covers.
2. It’s all about that scenery: While I like elaborate covers, I will also take something that is more simplistic, and that includes covers that deal with scenery. That can be anything from a landmark to a door, as long as its architecture of some kind or a landscape.
3. The cover that is a showcase for a face: There have been no shortages of faces on covers, but I have to admit that some of them are just so beautiful that I don’t even care how many times it’s been done before.
4. The “You’re so sci-fi”: This one is another favorite. Whenever I read sci-fi books I also like the technology. It’s one of the reasons why I actually read that genre. So, it’s also cool when the cover reflects the story and actually has one of the ships or any of the technology front and center. I'm all for it. 
5. Obviously, fantasy: Fantasy is one of my favorite genre’s to read, and a lot of the covers are as cool as the story. I also like covers that put the genre on obvious display. 
6. Minimalist: There's just something that I find gorgeous about minimalist designs. I think it's the clean, straight forwardness that gets me every time. Sometimes, I like the simpler ones better than any of the others. 
7. Silhouettes are a thing: This one might be last on my list for today, but I  really like this style a lot. Silhouettes, whether black or white, look great against other brighter colors. The same could also be said for colors like gray, blue, even yellow, as long as the background color contrasts in a good way.

So, that’s it for today. What are some of your favorite book covers?