Top Ten Tuesday – My Top 10 Bookish Goals & Resolutions for 2018
/51 Comments/by Suzanne
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Bookish Resolutions/Goals for 2018. This is a topic that has been on my mind a lot lately since we’re at the start of a new year. I did pretty well with most of my goals last year, but there’s definitely always room for improvement.
Here are some areas that I hope to work on for the upcoming year…
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MY TOP TEN BOOKISH RESOLUTIONS/GOALS FOR 2018
1. GET BETTER ABOUT SCHEDULING AHEAD (I.E. STOP PROCRASTINATING!)
Procrastinating is probably one of my worst habits as a blogger and it’s something I really need to work on. I finally started using the built-in Schedule Posts feature on my blog late last year, but thus far, I’ve not been very good at scheduling more than a few days ahead. I’d like to work toward having at least 2 weeks’ worth of posts scheduled at all times. I’m a procrastinator at heart but if I can improve on this, it will make my life so much easier.
2. MAKE A DENT IN THE ENORMOUS PILE OF UNREAD BOOKS THAT I ALREADY OWN.
Between the physical books in my house and the e-books on my Kindle, I probably have enough unread books to keep me busy for at least a couple of years. It’s time to really do something about that, both in terms of reading more of them and in purging the ones I’m just not interested in reading anymore. I’ve joined the Beat the Backlist Challenge again this year in hopes that it will keep me motivated to achieve this goal.
3. WRITE MORE DISCUSSION POSTS.
This was one of my goals last year as well and while I did okay with it, I’d like to do better this year. Part of my issue last year in addition to the eternal struggle to come up with topics to write about is that because of my extreme procrastination (see Goal 1), I never seem to have enough time to actually sit down and write discussion posts. If I can get Goal 1 under control, hopefully there will be more time to work on discussion posts. I also joined a discussion challenge in hopes of facilitating this goal.
4. FINISH MORE SERIES.
This goal kind of ties in with Goal 2. I have so many series where I read the first book, loved it, purchased the next books, and then nothing… Since I am also constantly starting new series, it’s time to finish up some of those that have been lingering for ages.
5. REQUEST ARCS MORE SELECTIVELY.
Now that I’ve been consistently reviewing for almost 2 years, I have been getting approved for a lot more ARCs than I used to. I’m starting to reach that point where I have too many sitting in my queue waiting to be read and because I don’t want my ARCs to turn into the same problem I have with older books, I want to work on being more selective about the ARCs I request. I’d love to be able to keep my Netgalley percentage at 80% for more than 10 minutes, lol.
6. READ AND PROMOTE MORE DEBUT AUTHORS.
I guess this one is self-explanatory but I also signed up for a challenge to motivate me to achieve this goal. I’m hoping to read at least 12 debut authors this year.
7. CONSISTENTLY POST AT LEAST 5 TIMES A WEEK.
I’m pretty confident that I will never be one of those bloggers who is able to post everyday. I’m just not a good enough planner for that, and I know I’d be setting myself up for failure to even attempt it. I managed to post at least 4 times a week all last year and sometimes even made it up to 5 or 6 posts on weeks where life wasn’t too chaotic. I’m aiming for 5 posts every week this year. Fingers crossed!
8. STOP COMPARING MYSELF TO OTHER BLOGGERS.
This is probably as much a mental health goal as it is a blogging goal, but I want to really focus on just doing my own thing and not comparing myself to other bloggers. My favorite part about blogging, aside from the community itself, is that there really is no right or wrong way to blog. When I first started blogging, I remember reading comments out on social media from fellow bloggers “I don’t understand why some bloggers do __________.” (fill in the blink with the nitpick of your choice). Comments like that used to stress me out and make me second guess everything I was posting and feel like a failure. After almost two years of blogging, however, I’m getting better about ignoring comments like that. Once I was able to do that, I started enjoying blogging so much more. I want to continue that trend this year.
9. REMEMBER REAL LIFE IS GOING TO GET IN THE WAY OF BLOGGING SOMETIMES & THAT’S OKAY.
This goal ties in with Goal 8 and not stressing over my blog. Even though I know real life comes first and that it’s occasionally going to get in the way of whatever I’m doing with my blog, I still have those freak out moments when I don’t get to post as often as I had planned or if it takes me a few extra days to visit all of the blogs I want to visit. My goal for this year is to really stay mindful of the fact that blogging is a hobby. If I have to step away from it to attend to real-life issues that come up, it will still be here when I come back. The blogging community isn’t going to forget I exist because I had to take a few days off.
10. EMBRACE MY INNER MOOD READER.
I had a few moments last year where reading felt like a bit of chore. I won’t call it a slump because I was still okay with the books I was reading, but even though I enjoyed them, sometimes I felt like I was forcing myself to read popular books even if I wasn’t really into them at the moment. This year I want to make a point to listen to my inner mood reader. If my inner mood reader has no interest in reading a popular book that has been super-hyped, but would rather I pick up my old copy of Pride and Prejudice and re-read that instead, then I’m going listen to the mood reader rather than force myself to read something I’m just not feeling at the moment.
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Question: What are some of your bookish goals for 2018?
Book Review: A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard
/12 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: Goodbye, Perfect
Published by Simon Pulse on January 9th 2018
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 400
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
I know we’re only halfway through January, but I have a strong feeling that Sara Barnard’s A Quiet Kind of Thunder has already secured itself a place on my Best of 2018 list. It’s one of the most gorgeous contemporary stories I’ve read in a long time and I don’t know that I’ve ever related to a main character more than I related to Steffi Brons.
Steffi is a high school student who was diagnosed with selective mutism as a young child and who has lived with social anxiety and chronic shyness all her life. What this means for Steffi is that, for most of her life, it has been nearly impossible for her to effectively communicate verbally with pretty much anyone outside of her immediate family. And because there were even times when she had trouble verbally communicating with her family, she and every member of her family learned how to use sign language as a workaround.
About the only non-family member Steffi is able to easily communicate with is her best friend, Tem. Steffi and Tem have known each other since they were toddlers, and in many ways, Tem has acted as somewhat of an interpreter in social settings such as school over the years when Steffi has just not been able to get the words out on her own. Up until this year, that is. Tem ends up transferring to a new school, and Steffi is on her own. With the help of her therapist, however, Steffi begins taking some new medication and also starts making plans to slowly but surely challenge herself to better cope with her anxiety and shyness.
Enter Rhys Gold, the new boy in school. Rhys is deaf and has transferred to Steffi’s school, and since Steffi is the only student at the school who knows sign language, their teachers decide it would be a great idea to pair them up so that Steffi can help Rhys get acclimated to his new environment. Because Rhys can’t hear, it doesn’t matter to him that Steffi usually cannot speak. They find plenty of other ways to communicate that don’t involve speaking and form a fast friendship that quickly turns into something more.
With so many changes going on in her life, Steffi starts to have a lot of questions: Can she ever overcome her anxiety and go out and live a normal life? Can she go off to college and live away from her parents? If there’s an emergency, would she be able to cope with her crippling shyness enough to get help? And then there are the matters of the heart – is she really falling for Rhys or does she think she is because the relationship is easy because no speaking is necessary? And finally, after all of these years of living this way, if Steffi is able to overcome her anxiety, will she even know who she is anymore? Will she recognize herself?
This is one of those books where there’s so much to love. It has wonderfully-drawn, realistic main characters in both Steffi and Rhys. I fell in love with both of them immediately – Steffi, because I could relate to her crippling shyness and social anxiety as those are issues I’ve dealt with all my life as well, and Rhys, because he’s charming and friendly, and I loved that he left his deaf school because he wanted to challenge himself in an environment where everyone around him was not hearing-impaired.
I especially related to Steffi because of her determination to challenge herself a little at a time to better cope with her anxiety. I remember doing similar things when I was in school, challenging myself to raise my hand and answer questions in class, etc. Watching Steffi in many ways was like reliving many of my own school experiences so of course I was cheering her on every step of the way. I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself in a character as much as I see myself in Steffi.
In addition to having these two amazing main characters, I also loved the focus on friendships and family that Barnard presents in A Quiet Kind of Thunder. I absolutely adored the friendship between Steffi and Tem. Tem is a fabulously well-developed character in her own right, but what I loved most about her was that she just “gets” Steffi. She accepts her exactly the way she is and supports her in every way that she can. I loved how realistic the friendship felt, especially when it came to some of their heart-to-heart conversations. Their conversations are honest and intimate and were conversations that I could totally imagine myself having with my best friend when I was that age.
The family support that we see in A Quiet Kind of Thunder is wonderful too. So many times we see parents that are oblivious to what is going on in their teen’s lives or they are unsupportive. Thankfully, not in this case. Yes, Steffi’s parents are of course concerned about her and are apprehensive about the idea that someday she will move out and go away to college. They’ve known her all her life and have seen firsthand just how crippling the anxiety has been for Steffi. But, that said, they have also done everything parents can possibly do to get her, not only the professional help that she needs to cope with it, but also the support at home. And we see the same kind of support at Rhys’ house, with his parents being on board with the idea of him challenging himself at a mainstream high school, etc. It just made for a nice reading experience to actually like all of the parents that were in the story for a change.
I could probably write for days about everything I loved about this book, but I’ll wrap up by talking a little about the diversity and the portrayal of mental illnesses and disabilities. One of Barnard’s main characters has selective mutism and severe anxiety, while the other is hearing impaired and also happens to be bi-racial. Tem is a POC as well. I thought Barnard did a beautiful job of writing a book with a diverse cast of characters without making it feel like she was just checking off boxes.
I also thought she handled the selective mutism, the social anxiety, and the deafness in a well-informed and respectful way. I felt like I learned a lot about all of them, and I loved the book’s positive message that even with any of these conditions, you can still live a productive and meaningful life, and not only that, but yes, you can find love.
Speaking of love, I’ll admit I got a little worried that the book’s message would be that having a boyfriend is somehow a magic cure-all for anxiety. Thankfully, A Quiet Kind of Thunder does nearly the opposite. Steffi clearly acknowledges throughout the story that she is probably doing as well as she is with her anxiety because of the new meds. There never comes a time when she attributes it to having a love life. So no worries at all on that front.
When I first started reading, I thought I was going to have an issue with the romance between Rhys and Steffi because it definitely had an insta-love feel to it at first. I was able to get past that, however, because Barnard takes the time to have her characters explore the same questions I was asking about how they really do feel about each other: Do they like each other because they really feel like they have a connection or do they like each other because it’s convenient? Is Rhys only hanging out with Steffi because she’s the only one at the school who knows sign language? And is Steffi hanging out with Rhys because she can use sign language rather than actually having to speak? As soon as Steffi and Rhys started thinking about their own connection in these terms and started working through their own doubts, I was much more comfortable with their relationship moving forward since it added an extra layer of depth to all of the initial fluffiness.
If you’re looking for a beautifully written coming of age story that also includes a little romance in addition to tackling more serious issues like mental health, I’d highly recommend A Quiet Kind of Thunder. It’s an engaging and moving read that is sure to put a smile on your face.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
A girl who can’t speak and a boy who can’t hear go on a journey of self-discovery and find support with each other in this gripping, emotionally resonant novel from bestselling author Sara Barnard. Perfect for fans of Morgan Matson and Jandy Nelson.
Steffi doesn’t talk, but she has so much to say.
Rhys can’t hear, but he can listen.
Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life. The condition’s name has always felt ironic to her, because she certainly does not “select” not to speak. In fact, she would give anything to be able to speak as easily and often as everyone around her can. She suffers from crippling anxiety, and uncontrollably, in most situations simply can’t open her mouth to get out the words.
Steffi’s been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He’s deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she’s assigned to help him acclimate. To Rhys, it doesn’t matter that Steffi doesn’t talk. As they find ways to communicate, Steffi discovers that she does have a voice, and that she’s falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it. But as she starts to overcome a lifelong challenge, she’ll soon confront questions about the nature of her own identity and the very essence of what it is to know another person.
About Sara Barnard
Sara lives in Brighton and does all her best writing on trains. She loves books, book people and book things. She has been writing ever since she was too small to reach the “on” switch on the family Amstrad computer. She gets her love of words from her dad, who made sure she always had books to read and introduced her to the wonders of secondhand book shops at a young age.
Sara is trying to visit every country in Europe, and has managed to reach 13 with her best friend. She has also lived in Canada and worked in India.
Sara is inspired by what-ifs and people. She thinks sad books are good for the soul and happy books lift the heart. She hopes to write lots of books that do both. BEAUTIFUL BROKEN THINGS is her first book and a dream come true.
Email: info@sarabarnardofficial.com
For promotional enquiries, please contact: Rogers, Coleridge and White
Weekly Recap #35: Week of 1/6 – 1/13
/30 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
I’m a little late getting my Sunday post up today because I have family from Florida visiting this week. I wish it was purely a social visit, but it’s because my father-in-law has been in the hospital since last weekend. His initial diagnosis was congestive heart failure, which made the end sound near, so family near and far came rushing to town to offer their support and to be there to say their goodbyes, if necessary. Thankfully, however, the initial diagnosis turned out to be only somewhat correct. Yes, he had fluid that was forcing his heart to work too hard, but the fluid itself was being caused by a terrible case of bronchitis. So it’s entirely treatable. He’s responding well to the treatments and seems to be on the mend now, getting stronger everyday. He came home yesterday so now we’ve just been using the time to visit with our relatives who we don’t see nearly as often as we would like.
In spite of all of that, or maybe because of it since I wasn’t sleeping well while waiting for news on his health, I’ve managed to somehow already read 5 books this year and have started on my 6th and 7th books. It was a mix of backlist books and new releases so I’m off to a pretty good start on two of my reading challenges, which is exciting. This week I’m hoping the reading streak will continue, and the writing streak as I’ve gotten mostly caught up writing reviews as well.
This week I’ll also be posting my list of bookish resolutions and goals for the upcoming year. I’ve taken a couple of weeks to think about them and I’m feeling pretty good about the ones I’ve chosen and can’t wait to share them with you.
Oh well, I should probably stop being a bad host and get back to my guests. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [7 Jan] Weekly Recap #34: Week of 12/31 – 1/6
- [8 Jan] The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin ★★★
- [9 Jan] Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Books I Totally Meant to Read in 2017…But Didn’t
- [10 Jan] Can’t Wait Wednesday: Spotlight on TO KILL A KINGDOM by Alexandra Christo
- [12 Jan] Origin by Dan Brown ★★★★
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM