August Reading Wrap-Up

So, I have had a better month this month and have managed 6 books, I am also nearly done with another book. I have read a good variety this month in terms of genre too. One book took me quite a while to finish but not because I wasn’t reading, it was a long book and I started reading a second one sort of by accident when I was in the middle of it.

My ratings have varied quite a lot but thankfully the lower rated ones haven’t put me off reading like they have in the past.

I have been good about reviewing too, see the links!

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Why do so many adults read YA?

Personally I usually don’t really like YA (young adult), but I know a lot of adults do, why?

Now generally a book is considered YA if the main characters are adolescents, so in the book they are doing things that adolescents do. So, why do adults like reading about what kids are doing? Is it a nostalgia thing? Is it an escape from “adulting?”

The language in YA is usually very simple, so they are generally pretty easy reads. If you are reading for enjoyment you likely don’t want to slog through difficult text so it’s understandable to want something simple. Simple language also often makes things a quicker read which I guess could be another appeal. Adult books can be pretty easy reads too though so that can’t be the only reason some people choose YA?

Do you judge a book by its cover?

Everyone knows the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” but do you stick to it?

Surely bookstores rely on people judging books by their covers? When you walk into a bookstore, what else makes you pick up a book if not the cover? With some books you might have heard about them somewhere or recognise the author’s name, but that can’t be the case for most books, for most people. So if not the cover what else is there, at least in terms of picking up a book to find out what it’s about?

Book Review- Everything I Never Told You

Title- Everything I Never Told You
Author- Celeste Ng
Published-  2014
Genre- Contemporary, literary fiction
Length- 305 pages
Rating- 5/5
Synopsis (Goodreads)- Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet . . . So begins this debut novel about a mixed-race family living in 1970s Ohio and the tragedy that will either be their undoing or their salvation. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother’s bright blue eyes and her father’s jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn’s case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James’s case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.

When Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart.

Review- It is difficult to know what to say about this book. When a book is this good it’s hard to find any faults with it, meaning that other than gushing praise, there isn’t much to say.

I want to be an author. You?

So, I want to be an author. Why you ask? Because I have a ridiculously romanticised view of what it would be like, that’s why!

Of course if I wrote a book it would instantly be a New York Times bestseller and I would end up winning a Nobel Prize for literature right? “That’s ridiculous” you say? “You’re crazy” you say?…….Nah

I have read lots of articles about authors earning terrible money but still when I think of being an author that’s not what I think of. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because I am competitive. There is nothing wrong with being competitive, competition leads to advancement, not just personally but societally as well, but it is something people often judge you for.