Armchair BEA: Middle Grade/Young Adult

Middle Grade/Young Adult

Our final genre of discussion is one that we know is a popular one these days: books for the younger crowd, from middle grade to young adult. If you do not normally talk about this genre on your site, maybe you want to feature books that you remember impacting you during this stage in your life. If this is where you tend to gravitate, maybe you want to list your favorites, make recommendations based on genres, or feature some titles that you are excited to read coming later this year.

This is pretty much a YA book blog (though I do intend to branch out and review some adult fantasy books as well; this was my intention from the beginning but it's been over two months and I still haven't reviewed a single one *cough*), so I talk about YA books all the time! I feel like I have been talking a lot about my recent favourites lately though, so I don't really want to rehash those again...

I only started this book blog back in March this year, and prior to that I hadn't read much YA since I was about 17. I thought it would therefore be a good idea to return to my life back then, and think about what some of my favourite books were. Then I'll look to the future and showcase some upcoming releases that I'm excited about!

Armchair BEA: Beyond the Borders + Giveaway!

Read on till the end of this post for a giveaway! (:

Beyond the Borders

It's time to step outside your comfort zone, outside your borders, or outside of your own country or culture. Tell us about the books that transported you to a different world, taught you about a different culture, and/or helped you step into the shoes of someone different from you. What impacted you the most about this book? What books would you recommend to others who are ready or not ready to step over the line? In essence, let’s start the conversation about diversity and keep it going!

So, I think most people who's been on this blog before will know that I'm really passionate about diversity in books! I admit, the books I read aren't often very culturally diverse, but on that front I really liked these two books:

Armchair BEA: Novellas/Short stories

Novellas/Short Stories

Now it is time to give a little love to those little stories in your life. Share your love for your favorite shorts of any form. What is a short story or novella that doesn't get the attention that it deserves? Recommend to readers what shorts you would recommend they start with. How about listing some short story anthologies based upon genres or authors?

Uhhhhh, my reaction to this topic, like Cayce's, is basically ??????

I almost wasn't gonna do an Armchair BEA post today since I honestly don't really have much to say about either of the topics, but I decided I'd do a short post anyway for this topic, since I have actually read two collections of short stories..... by Neil Gaiman. I've already mentioned him in both of my Armchair BEA posts so far, so this should probably come as no surprise to anybody, but yes, I loved them lots and lots and lots.


Of the two, I remember I probably liked Fragile Things a tad more than Smoke and Mirrors, but they were both excellent. I just love Neil Gaiman's particular brand of weird and creepy, and that comes through so beautifully in all these short stories. And let us take this moment to appreciate those pretty covers, which look even prettier in real life. (My favourite has got to be the Neverwhere cover though. MY PRECIOUSSSS.)

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Tell me your short story/novella feels, people! I'm sure some of you actually have those feels, unlike me.

Armchair BEA: Author Interaction & More Than Just Words

Author Interaction

Let’s talk interacting with authors IRL (in real life) or online. This is your opportunity to talk about your favorite author readings that you have attended. Or, you can feature your favorite author fan moment (i.e., an author sent you a tweet or commented on your blog). Maybe you even want to share how your interactions have changed since becoming a blogger or share your own tips that you have learned along the way when interacting with authors as a blogger.

So, I've never really had the opportunity to interact with authors IRL, but I love interacting with authors online! When I love an author's books, I pour my heart into writing reviews for those books, and it's so nice when they tweet about how much they liked my review. :')

Armchair BEA: Introduction & Literature

First of all, let me introduce myself!

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? Where in the world are you blogging from?

Hi! I'm Cynthia. I'm 20 years old and studying Classics at university. I'm either blogging from Hong Kong or from England, depending on what time of the year you find me. Right now I am in rainy England!

I've been blogging for over two months (since 16 March!). I got into blogging because I was starting to mourn the fact that I hardly read anymore, and then I realised if I started a book blog, I would have to carve out the time to read! And also because I realised that all the good books I'd read over the years and rated on Goodreads – I simply had no idea why I liked those books anymore. Why did I give this book a 4-star rating? I don't remember. So here I am, motivating myself to write reviews so that I can remind myself in the future why I liked a book.

Notebook Sisters Tea Party Blog Tag!

Happy blogoversary to the Notebook Sisters!

Cait & Mime @ The Notebook Sisters are celebrating their 3-year blogoversary this week with a week-long party! It's Alice-in-Wonderland-themed and they're currently giving away Alice in Wonderland notebooks! It's all really exciting and you should all stop by and wish them a happy unbirthday and maybe take part in this tea party blog tag! Whooooo!

(I'm totally supposed to writing an essay on knowledge and belief in Plato's Republic right now but shhhhhh, let me just forget about it for a while and answer some fun questions about books!)