Photo Credit: Dan Whale/Unsplash

How are you all doing book wanderers? It’s dreadfully hot nowadays where I am from. The sun is glaring angrier than ever to us people in the tropics. Summer is here and the heat is on, what are your plans for the sunny days ahead? Whether you are thinking of chilling it out on a beach or arranging for a family vacation and/or reunion in your home town, I am inviting you for the whole month of April to join me in a blog event I am hosting, dubbed as “Love at First Spark”, featuring 2017 #SparkNA authors. 

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay Asher

Synopsis:

You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret. . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen doesn't want anything to do with the tapes Hannah Baker made. Hannah is dead. Her secrets should be buried with her.

Then Hannah's voice tells Clay that his name is on her tapes-- and that he is, in some way, responsible for her death.

All through the night, Clay keeps listening. He follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his small town. . .

. . .and what he discovers changes his life forever.

Review: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Tell Me Three Things
by Julie Buxbaum

Synopsis:

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

Wandering Thoughts: Do Racially Indeterminate, Non Gender Specific Characters Hurt The Push For Diversity?

Image: Kaboompics

Wandering Thoughts is where I let my mind stray, think and talk about non-routine things. This is an avenue for bookish personal stories musings and discussions. This post is linked up to Book Blog Discussion.

Don't take me seriously, I'm just a clueless hag.

When we push for diversity, the obvious step of action is to denounce books that are racist or books that leave out the minority and mostly just depict white cis characters. We also hate it when art covers and screen adaptations are whitewashed. Or when stuff like Peeta Mellark’s leg amputation in The Hunger Games – a major plot point because this made him slower in Catching Fire—is not depicted in the movies. What I am a bit unsure of is how to deal with racially indeterminate,non gender specific (R.I.N.G.S. for short?) characters. Are these book characters hurting the diversity movement? Should authors confirm their character’s race and gender explicitly in text?

Review: Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay

Everything That Makes You
by Moriah McStay

Synopsis:

One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.

And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacrosse player in the state, heading straight to Northwestern on a full ride. She’s got more important things to deal with than her best friend Trent McKinnon, who’s been different ever since the kiss. When her luck goes south, even lacrosse can’t define her anymore. When you’ve always been the best at something, one dumb move can screw everything up. Can Fi fight back?