Thursday Thoughts: My New YA Library Book Club Read The Raven Boys and LOVED It

Monday night, I had my first young adult book club at the library. I chose The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater for our first read (duh). I was a little worried that my teens weren’t going to like it – not because it isn’t GREAT (because it is. Like, seriously), but because it is quite different from most of the books I’ve seen them read. I was so overwhelmed with happiness at their reactions to the book and our discussion, which, by the way, lasted an hour and a half! We talked about the characters and the setting (we loved everything about both), the magic and the journey that each of the characters are on, what all of the characters are looking for (like Adam is looking for a family and Ronan is looking for redemption) and which of the characters was everyone’s favorite (Ronan, obviously). We discussed the fact that the romance was more of an underlying theme in the book and that the friendships and bonds between the characters was the most important aspect. We chatted about Blue and how being the only non-psychic in her family makes her different from a group of people that are already different and how that shaped who she was as a person. We swooned over characters (mostly Ronan and Gansey) and were creeped out by others (Whelk and Noah – half of us loved Noah and half thought he was weird). It was a brilliant discussion and I was so impressed with my teens.

I promise this isn’t a whole post about me being excited and happy with the turnout (even though I TOTALLY AM). One thing I asked them to do was to come up with ONE word to describe each of the characters and the book overall. I adore this series, so I thought it’d be fun to share these descriptions with you guys.

ADAM
Relatable // Underdog // Brave // Emotionally strong (okay, two words. Whatever)

GANSEY
Irritating (she wanted me to point out she only felt this way at first) // The perfect guy // Smart // Huggable (she didn’t want me to share this one but it’s too cute)

BLUE
Spunky // Quirky // Sassy // Outsider // Relatable

NOAH
Creepy // Confusing // Weird // Wonderful // They liked his name

RONAN (aka my boo)
Dangerous // *heart eyes emoji* // Indescribable // Sweet AND salty // Bada$$ (she said bad a-word. Lolz.) // Everyone’s favorite

THE BOOK OVERALL
Sad // Intelligent // Mesmerizing // Complex // Smoldering (I said this one and they all agreed) // Enchanting // Perfect (I was over the moon when they said this)

——————–

As I’m sure you can all imagine, I was unbelievably happy about their reaction and the fact that it went so well. After our discussion, I told them I was going to let them make suggestions for our next read and then we’d draw it out of a hat if we couldn’t come to a consensus. This was when my little librarian heart grew three sizes: they said they’d actually rather I decide because they trust my judgment and they knew I’d get them to read something they wouldn’t usually pick. I could have CRIED, you guys. I gave them a few suggestions and told them what the books were about (and maybe got a little too passionate about a few of them), and they decided to go with…MOSQUITOLAND by David Arnold. YES YES YES. I cannot wait to discuss this book with them! We also decided on the two months following September: we’ll be reading I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (asdfjkl) and The Young Elites by Marie Lu (ASDFJKL;). I’m just really glad that I’ve got teens who are willing to try new things and who want to read and who love TRB and…

Bloggers’ Book Club – May Read

Hi everyone! I’m sure you’ve seen a post or two from me about the Bloggers’ Book Club I started a few months ago. We’ve just chosen our read for May, and I thought I’d post about it to see if any of you wanted to join us!

I am excited to tell you that we’ll be reading ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS TO THE UNIVERSE by Benjamin Alire Sáenz for our May read! I’ve been wanting to read this one for months, so I’m really looking forward to it! You can find the book on Goodreads to learn more, and you can purchase ​the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, The Book Depository, or even better – check it out at your local library! (None of those are affiliate links – I don’t have that – I just wanted to make it as easy as possible for everyone to find the book!!)

 

If you haven’t yet joined the Goodreads group, make sure you do that! This is where we’ll be having most of the discussions about our reads, as well as updating you on chatroom discussions and conducting our polls to determine monthly reads. The discussion thread for Aristotle and Dante is up! I’ll send out information about when we’ll be doing our two live discussions in a chatroom in May. This is when we’ll get more in depth about what we’re reading!

If you have any questions whatsoever, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you are unable to participate in this month’s read, that is totally fine! I hope you can participate next time. I would LOVE to have any of you lovely people join us!

Happy reading,

Stefani

Bloggers’ Book Club – MAY 2015 POLL!

Hey, lovelies! This is just a quick post to remind anyone who’s in the Bloggers’ Book Club to vote in the May 2015 poll over in our Goodreads group! We’ve got four choices as I didn’t get a lot of suggestions:

– Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets to the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

– The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

– Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

– Inescapable by Amy A. Bartol

GO VOTE!

And if you aren’t part of the book club right now, but would like to join, we’d LOVE to have you! We’re over on Goodreads. 🙂

The Bloggers’ Book Club

Hey guys! Remember how I posted a few weeks ago about the possibility of an online book club for any and all bloggers?

Well, it’s HERE! April at Bookishly Speaking and I have created the Bloggers’ Book Club, and after a poll between the members who’ve already signed up, our first read will be The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons! I would absolutely love if you joined us. Head over to the Goodreads group and sign up! We’ll be starting our discussion of the first book on March 1 – but don’t worry if you can’t get the book in time! No spoilers will be placed in the discussion without a spoiler tag so you can join in whenever you’re ready. We’ll also be having two live chats in a chatroom during the month where we can get more in depth with our discussions.

Don’t want to read The Glass Arrow? That’s okay! You can skip this month and join us in April. Feel free to put forth a title in the thread for April suggestions or email us at thebloggersbookclub [at] gmail [com]!

I hope to see you in the Goodreads group!

A little more information for you:
– You’ll be able to come and go as you please – don’t have time to read the book this go around? No problem! We’ll let you know what the next book is and hope you can join us then!
– ANY blogger can participate – not a book blogger? Doesn’t matter as long as you love to read!
– All genres will be read – we don’t want to exclude anyone by focusing on only YA contemporary or only fantasy books. We’ll be taking turns with all of the genres so that everyone will get a chance to put forward their favorites.

Are you interested in a blogger book club?

Hi lovelies!

April (from Bookishly Speaking) and I have been talking recently about possibly starting up a blogger book club. We’re still planning everything out but that’s where you come in! We want to know what you think about the idea of a blogger book club and what you’re looking for in something like that.

SO, we’ve made up a super short little Google form for you to fill out if you are so inclined. Basically, it just asks for your thoughts, how often you’d like to read a book, how we should choose a book, etc. It’s only about ten questions and it would really help us if you’d fill it out. We want to make sure our book club is just right for everyone!

Also, a little more information for you:
– You’ll be able to come and go as you please – don’t have time to read the book this go around? No problem! We’ll let you know what the next book is and hope you can join us then!
– ANY blogger can participate – not a book blogger? Doesn’t matter as long as you love to read!
– All genres will be read – we don’t want to exclude anyone by focusing on only YA contemporary or only fantasy books. We’ll be taking turns with all of the genres so that everyone will get a chance to put forward their favorites!

If this sounds like something you might like to try, PLEASE fill out the form here and let us know your thoughts!

Top Ten Tuesday: Adult Fiction Picks if I Was in a Book Club

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Today’s theme was:

Ten Books I’d Love to Read With My Book Club/If I Had A Book Club (or you could pick a specific kind of book club — like if you had a YA book club or an adult book club or a science fiction book club etc.)

I don’t have a book club (unless you count my blog) but I’ve often thought about joining/starting one. I read a lot of YA, and while I would enjoy discussing the YA books I read in a group, I kind of use my blog and other blogs for that. So I’d like to be in a book club that read adult fiction – to keep me reading more adult fiction and to be able to discuss it with other adults. So if I had a book club that read adult fiction, I’d love to read these books with them. [GR behind each explanation is linked to Goodreads]

BOOKS I’VE READ AND WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS

      

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber – we all know how much I LOVED this one. I’d love to talk about it with a book club! GR

The Humans by Matt Haig – who’s surprised by this choice? I’ll answer for you – no one. I want everyone to read this book. GR

Rivers by Michael Farris Smith – another book I loved. Would be interesting to discuss Rivers with a book club especially since I live in Mississippi and know people who were really affected by Katrina. GR

The Labrador Pact/The Last Family in England by Matt Haig – a book written from the perspective of the family dog? Yep. Matt Haig has a beautiful way of making you realize things about yourself and humanity that you never would have thought of in his books. GR

BOOKS I HAVEN’T READ AND WOULD PICK TO READ

          

If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Cavino – Have been told by several people I need to read this one, and I would love to! GR

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – I know, I know. I’m not sure why I haven’t read this yet either. Probably because I tend to stay away from hype. I don’t know what the major twist is, but the fact that I know there’s a major twist kind of irritates me. I’ll be looking for it the whole time I’m reading. BUT I do want to read this one eventually. GR

Landline by Rainbow Rowell – I really liked Rowell’s other adult book, Attachments, so I want to check this one out too. Would be fun to read with a group. GR

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey – I don’t know if this is really book club material, but I’m going to assume if I joined a book club, it’d be full of really cool people who’d want to read this. GR

Us by David Nichols – I enjoyed One Day, and I think this would be a good book to read in February. GR

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick – I’ve heard that this one is weird and wonderful. I like both of those things. Plus, I liked The Silver Linings Playbook, and I want to read more by Quick. GR

What about you? What books would you read if you had a book club? Or if you do have one, what are some books you’ve read and enjoyed? Link me up to your TTT if you participated!