Popsugar Reading Challenge 2021

Tags

2021, challenge, popsugar RC 2021, reading challenge

It’s that time of the year again!

Happy new year! I guess everyone had enough of 2020, and can’t wait to start a blank, clean page of 2021 – regardless of the unknown in front of us XD

Even though 2020 was really challenging, a positive side for me was the number of books I’ve read in the year – from initial 80 books per year, I kept increasing my goals, and in the end I’ve read 117 books in 2020! That’s what quarantine and work from home did to me 😀 I also have completed Popsugar Reading Challenge, although I didn’t review all of the books. I hope this year I can be more consistent in reviewing the books that I’ve read for the challenge.

So – without further ado, I’ve decided to join the challenge again this year, and here are the list of books for each prompt:

1. A book that’s published in 2021: The Mystery of Mrs. Christie (Marie Benedict)
2. An Afrofuturist book: Pet (Awaeke Emezi)
3. A book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover: Wonderland: An Anthology (Marie O’Regan)
4. A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign: The Dutch House (Ann Patchett – Sagittarius!!)
5. A dark academia book: Ninth House (Leigh Bardugo)
6. A book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the title: Gods of Jade and Shadow (Sylvia Moreno-Garcia)
7. A book where the main character works at your current or dream job: Shakespeare and Company (Sylvia Beach- bookstore owner!!)
8. A book that has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction: Home Fire (Kamila Shamsie)
9. A book with a family tree: The Cousins (Karen M. McManus)
10. A bestseller from the 1990s: The Stand (Stephen King)
11. A book about forgetting: The Memory Police (Yoko Ogawa)
12. A book you have seen on someone’s bookshelf (in real life, on a Zoom call, in a TV show, etc): The Night Tiger (Yangsze Choo) – Stacey Abrams’ bookshelf
13. A locked-room mystery: Murder in the Crooked House (Soji Shimada)
14. A genre hybrid: Radiance (Catherynne M Valente) – scifi, horror, mystery
15. A book set mostly or entirely outdoors: The Salt Path (Raynor Winn)
16. A book with something broken on the cover: The Broken Girls (Simone St. James)
17. A book by a Muslim American author: The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mohsin Hamid)
18. A book that was published anonymously: The Whisper Man (Alex North)
19. A book with an oxymoron in the title: Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons)
20. A book about do-overs or fresh starts: Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me (Bill Hayes)
21. A magical realism book: Nothing to See Here (Kevin Wilson)
22. A book set in multiple countries: A Long Petal of the Sea (Isabel Allende)
23. A book set somewhere you’d like to visit in 2021: How We Disappeared (Jing-Jing Lee)- Singapore!
24. A book by a blogger, vlogger, YouTube video creator, or other online personality: Furiously Happy (Jenny Lawson)
25. A book whose title starts with “Q”, “X”, or “Z”: Queenie (Candice Carly-Williams)
26. A book featuring three generations (grandparent, parent, child): The Great Alone (Kristin Hannah)
27. A book about a social justice issue: Such a Fun Age (Kiley Reid)
28. A book set in a restaurant: Tiny Moons, a year of eating in Shanghai (Nina Mingya Powles)
29. A book with a black-and-white cover: Dead Wake (Erik Larson)
30. A book by an Indigenous author: The Round House (Louise Erdrich)
31. A book that has the same title as a song: The Water Dancer (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
32. A book about a subject you are passionate about: Why We’re Polarized (Ezra Klein)
33. A book that discussed body positivity: Dumplin’ (Julie Murphy)
34. A book found on a Black Lives Matter reading list: White Fragility (Robin DiAngelo)
35. A book in a different format than what you normally read (audiobooks, ebooks, graphic novels): Sapiens: A graphic history (Yuval Noah Harari)
36. A book that has fewer than 1,000 reviews on Amazon or Goodreads: Artforum (Cesar Aira)
37. A book you think your best friend would like: Final Girls (Riley Sager)
38. A book about art or an artist: The Muse (Jessie Burton)
39. A book everyone seems to have read but you: Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
40. Your favorite prompt from a past Popsugar Reading Challenge: Rodham (Curtis Sittenfeld)- a book about world leaders (2020)

ADVANCED

41. The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list: Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) – 1,329 pages!

42. The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list: The It Doesn’t Matter Suit (Sylvia Plath) – 41 pages

43. The book on your TBR list with the prettiest cover: Once Upon a River (Diane Setterfield)

44. The book on your TBR list with the ugliest cover: On My Honor (Marion Dane Bauer)

45. The book that’s been on your TBR list for the longest amount of time: When God was a Rabbit (Sarah Winman)

46. A book from your TBR list you meant to read last year but didn’t: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Michael Chabon)

47. A book from your TBR list you associate with a favorite person, place, or thing: The Bookshop (Penelope Fitzgerald)

48. A book from your TBR list chosen at random: Apeirogon (Colum McCann)

49. A DNF book from your TBR list: Sophie’s World (Jostein Gaarder)

50. A free book from your TBR list (gifted, borrowed, library): My Name is Red (Orhan Pamuk)

Wish me luck!!!

Popsugar Summer Reading Challenge

Tags

challenge, popsugar summer RC 2020, reading challenge

Just to spice up things a bit in the middle of the year (when I usually had my worst reading slump), I decided to participate in Popsugar Summer Reading Challenge. This is an intermezzo from the regular challenge and will be on until early or mid September.

I don’t think I will finish the whole challenge (but I still targeted to finish the regular challenge by the end of this year!!), so I just read on and take it easy with this challenge. Most of the prompts are fun anyway and I do have some in my TBR list. So… let’s do it and enjoy the summer months wherever you are! 🙂

1. A book with “summer” in the title
2. A book with a summer drink or cocktail on the cover
3. A book that takes place in your favorite (or dream) summer destination
4. A book about a vacation
5. A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist
6. A book with an item you’d find at the beach in the title
7. A book with a body of water or pool on the cover
8. A book set at the resort or hotel
9. A book with release date in June, July, or August of any year
10. A summer-set thriller
11. A book involving a summer romance
12. A book about Black history in America
13. A scary book you’d read around a camp fire
14. A book that takes place during the summer before high school or college
15. A book that takes place in a beach town
16. A book with “sun”,”sand”, or “waves” in the title
17. A book with sunglasses on the cover
18. A book about camping or summer camp
19. A book classified as a “beach read”
20. A book that makes you nostalgic for summer (rereads welcome)

 

2020 Popsugar Reading Challenge

Tags

2020, challenge, popsugar RC 2020, reading challenge

Oh boy! It’s been a while (or forever) since the last time I updated this blog. I focused too much on fulfilling my Goodreads challenge (100 books!) and neglected reviewing the books here :(

And the bad news is I won’t be able to finish my Goodreads challenge anyway XD (I changed the number from 100 to 90 now). So next year I think I will not be too ambitious in number, but decided to join (again) the Popsugar Reading Challenge to spice up my game.

So here is the list of the challenge:

1. A book that’s published in 2020: The Glass Hotel (Emily St. John Mandel)
2. A book by a trans or nonbinary author: Nevada (Imogen Binnie)
3. A book with a great first line : Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
4. A book about a book club: The Agatha Christie Book Club (CA Larmer)
5. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics : The Alice Network (London) (Kate Quinn)
6. A bildungsroman: Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery)
7. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed: TBD
8. A book with an upside-down image on the cover: Fleishman is in Trouble (Taffy Brodesser-Akner)
9. A book with a map: Winnie the Pooh (AA Milne)
10. A book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club: The Snowman (Jo Nesbo)
11. An anthology: Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption (Daniel Jones)
12. A book that passes the Bechdel test: Beloved (Toni Morrison)
13. A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it: Inside Out (Demi Moore)
14. A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name: Crenshaw (Katherine Applegate)
15. A book about or involving social media: So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed (Jon Ronson)
16. A book that has a book on the cover: Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonder (Julianna Baggott)
17. A medical thriller: Unwind (Neal Shusterman)
18. A book with a made-up language: TBD
19. A book set in a country beginning with “C”: The Painted Veil (China) (W. Somerset Maugham)
20. A book you picked because the title caught your attention: TBD
21. A book published the month of your birthday: The Starless Sea (November 2019) (Erin Morgenstern)
22. A book about or by a woman in STEM: The Signature of All Things (Elizabeth Gilbert)
23. A book that won an award in 2019: The Overstory (Pulitzer Prize) (Richard Powers)
24. A book on a subject you know nothing about: From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death (Caitlin Doughty)
25. A book with only words on the cover, no images or graphics: Franny and Zooey (JD Salinger)
26. A book with a pun in the title: Red, White & Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston)
27. A book featuring one of the seven deadly sins: The Middlestein (Glutony) (Jamie Attenberg)
28. A book with a robot, cyborg, or AI character: TBD
29. A book with a bird on the cover: The House of Birds (Morgan McCarthy)
30. A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader: The President is Missing (Bill Clinton and James Patterson)
31. A book with “gold,” “silver,” or “bronze” in the title: The Golden Tresses of the Dead (Alan Bradley)
32. A book by a WOC: Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi)
33. A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Michael Chabon)
34. A book you meant to read in 2019: Pachinko (Min Jin Lee)
35. A book with a three-word title: The Clockmaker’s Daughter (Kate Morton)
36. A book with a pink cover: Milkman (Anna Burns)
37. A Western: Inland (Tea Obreht)
38. A book by or about a journalist: She Said (Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey
39. Read a banned book during Banned Books Week: The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
40. Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: White Chrysanthemum (a book with a plant in the title cover – 2019) (Mary Lynn Bracht)

Advanced, 2020 Edition

1. A book written by an author in their 20s: The Luminaries (Eleanor Catton)
2. A book with “20” or “twenty” in the title: Twenty-four Days Before Christmas (Madeline L’Engle)
3. A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement (a nod to 20/20 vision): Because of Winn Dixie (Kate DiCamillo)
4. A book set in the 1920s: The Secret Adversary (Agatha Christie)
5. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics: Convenience Store Woman (Sayaka Murata)
6. A book by an author who has written more than 20 books: Enid Blyton (TBD)
7. A book with more than 20 letters in its title: The Bookshop of Yesterdays (Amy Meyerson)
8. A book published in the 20th century: Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
9. A book from a series with more than 20 books: Hercule Poirot (TBD)
10. A book with a main character in their 20s: The Story of a New Name (Elena Ferrante)

So– 50 books for the challenge doesn/t seem so bad, right? And hopefully I can read few other books as well so the final number wouldn’t be too disappointing 😀

I’ll make a separate page for this challenge and update the progress there.

Wish me luck for 2020!!!!

BBI Read and Review Challenge 2017

Tags

2017, BBI, bbi review reading 2017, challenge, reading challenge

Seperti biasa, divisi event Blogger Buku Indonesia (BBI) setiap tahunnya selalu datang dengan ide-ide segar tentang baca bareng dan posting bareng. Tapi berbeda dari tahun-tahun sebelumnya, tahun 2017 ini BBI untuk pertama kalinya hosting reading & review challenge. Jadi nantinya akan ada sistem poin sepanjang tahun, di mana member yang berhasil mengumpulkan poin terbanyak akan menerima hadiah-hadiah keren. Huhuy!

Apa saja kategorinya? Nih dia:

Kategori Single Point

1. Classic Literature, adalah buku-buku sastra klasik seperti buku-buku Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, etc.
2. Children Literature, adalah buku-buku bertema dan cocok untuk anak-anak kecil hingga usia middle grade (SMP), atau usia hingga 15 tahun. Contoh, Rick Riordan
3. Young Adult Literature, adalah buku-buku bertema remaja (Young Adult) dan New Adult (NA), berusia SMA hingga kuliahan, atau berusia 16-22 tahun. Contoh, Sarah Dessen, John Green, Jennifer L. Armentrout, dll
4. Asian Literature, buku-buku yang berlatar belakang Asia, bertema kehidupan Asia, atau penulisnya berasal dari Asia. Contoh, Kevin Kwan, Akiyoshi Rikako
5. Indonesian Literature Before 80’s, buku-buku asli dari Indonesia yang terbit sebelum tahun 1980
6. Self-Improvement & Self-Help, merupakan buku-buku pengembangan diri. Contoh, buku-buku John C. Maxwell, chicken soup, dll
7. Poetry, buku-buku puisi, baik dari Indonesia maupun luar Indonesia. Contoh, Tidak Ada New York Hari Ini, atau sonnet Shakespeare
8. Biografi Pahlawan Indonesia, adalah buku-buku yang menceritakan kisah hidup pahlawan Indonesia, seperti tentang Ir. Soekarno, Jenderal Soedirman, dsb
9. Award Winning Books, adalah buku-buku yang memenangkan sebuah penghargaan atau lebih, misalnya pemenang RITA Awards, Goodreads Choice Awards, dsb
10. Science-Fiction, buku-buku dengan genre utama science-fiction. Contoh, Star Trek, Ender’s Game, Across The Universe
11. Dystopia, buku-buku dengan genre utama dystopia. Contoh, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner
12. Adventure, buku-buku mengenai petualangan dan memiliki tema utama petualangan, contoh: buku-buku Enid Blyton, Robinson Crusoe, dll
13. Historical Fiction, adalah buku-buku dengan genre utama fiksi historis. Bisa romance, non romance. Contoh: Ruta Sepetys, Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas (romance)
14. Fantasy Fiction, adalah buku-buku dengan genre utama fantasy. Contohnya, buku-buku Neil Gaiman
15. Paranormal Romance, adalah buku-buku dengan genre dan elemen utama paranormal romance, tentang vampire/shifter/makhluk non-manusia. Contohnya: Ilona Andrews, Nalini Singh, Thea Harrison, dll
16. Contemporary Romance, adalah buku-buku yang memiliki genre utama romance dan berlatar belakang kontemporer, dengan tokoh yang sudah berusia dewasa. Contoh, Cecilia Ahern, Sophie Kinsella, Jojo Moyes, Colleen Hoover, Elle Kennedy, Lauren Blakely, dll
17. Erotic Romance, buku-buku dengan genre utama romance dan memiliki unsur eroticism yang besar. Contohnya, E.L. James, Sylvia Day, C.D. Reiss
18. Sport Fiction, buku-buku fiksi dengan tema olahraga, baik romance maupun non-romance. Contoh: Susan Elizabeth Phillip
19. Thriller and Crime Fiction, adalah buku-buku yang memiliki genre utama thriller dan fiksi kejahatan. Contoh, Stephen King, J.D. Robb, David Baldacci, John Grisham, etc
20. Wedding Literature, buku-buku yang memiliki tema pernikahan (wedding)
21. Graphic Novels & Comic Books, adalah buku-buku komik, novel bergambar, dan novel berilustrasi.
22. Debut Authors, adalah buku dari pengarang yang melakukan debut pada tahun 2017 (buku pertama), bisa fiksi bisa non fiksi
23. Hobby Nonfiction, adalah buku-buku nonfiksi mengenai hobi, seperti crafting, travel, fotografi, motor dan mobil, dsb
24. Brick Books, adalah buku-buku yang memiliki ketebalan buku minimal 500 halaman dalam bentuk fisik (paperback/hardback) maupun digital (sesuai dengan edisi Kindle/ebook)
25. Name In A Book, adalah buku-buku yang memiliki nama tokoh (nama depan/belakang) pada judulnya, dan bukan pada nama serinya

Kategori Ten Point

1. Full Series, membaca dan mereview satu seri penuh selama tahun 2017, minimal memiliki 3 buku (trilogi) dalam satu seri dan semua review dimasukkan ke dalam linky [EDIT] tidak termasuk komik, dan novella tidak dihitung (buku-buku pendamping)
2. Buku Pengarang Lima Benua, mereview buku-buku dari masing-masing satu pengarang dari setiap benua (Asia, Eropa, Amerika, Afrika, dan Australia), sehingga dalam tema ini akan ada 5 link/tautan review. Buku yang dibaca boleh fiksi, bisa nonfiksi
3. Lima Buku dari Penulis yang Sama, membaca dan mereview lima buku dari penulis yang sama, namun bukan bagian dari seri (harus stand-alone), bisa fiksi maupun nonfiksi
4. Historical Non Fiction, merupakan buku-buku historis nonfiksi, bisa berupa ensiklopedi, buku sejarah, dll

Saya sih nggak bakalan bisa ikutan semua jenis kategori, tapi saya akan berusaha untuk memasukkan setiap review yang saya buat tahun ini di salah satu kategori.. Syukur-syukur kalau bisa juga digabung dengan POPSUGAR reading challenge 🙂 Sambil menyelam, minum air. Yeaay 😀

POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2017

Tags

2017, challenge, master post, popsugar RC 2017, reading challenge

Heyho! So finally I decided to do another challenge this year, after skipped all kinds of challenges in 2016. Well, go with the flow was really fun and liberating, but I think I would like to add a bit of spice for this year reading. Because after a long and winding 2016, people need to welcome 2017 with some more spirit 🙂

After looking at some candidates for my challenge this year (I decided to only join one challenge), I kept coming back to POPSUGAR Reading Challenge. It doesn’t require reviews, unlike challenges hosted by bloggers, and I think most of the books there could come from my forever tall TBR pile.

Here’s the list:

2017 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge

1. A book recommended by a librarian – Three Times Lucky (Sheila Turnage)
2. A book that’s been on your TBR list for way too long – The House of The Spirits (Isabelle Alende)
3. A book of letters – 84, Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff)
4. An audiobook – TBD
5. A book by a person of color – The Underground Railroad (Colson Whitehead)
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title – If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler (Italo Calvino)
7. A book that is a story within a story – The Princess Bride (William Goldman)
8. A book with multiple authors – Let It Snow (John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle)
9. An espionage thriller – An Officer and A Spy (Robert Harris)
10. A book with a cat on the cover – Cat and the Stinkwater War (Kate Saunders)
11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym – 1984 (George Orwell)
12. A bestseller from a genre you don’t normally read – When I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
13. A book by or about a person who has a disability – Wonderstruck (Brian Selznick)
14. A book involving travel –  Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert M. Pirsig)
15. A book with a subtitle – Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented (Thomas Hardy)
16. A book that’s published in 2017: TBD
17. A book involving a mythical creature: A Feast for Crows (George R.R. Martin)
18. A book you’ve read before that never fails to make you smile: TBD
19. A book about food – Sweetbitter (Stephanie Danler)
20. A book with career advice – Girlboss (Sophie Amoruso)
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective – The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
22. A steampunk novel -Un Lun Dun (China Mieville)
23. A book with a red spine – TBD
24. A book set in the wilderness – The Call of The Wild (Jack London)
25. A book you loved as a child – TBD
26. A book by an author from a country you’ve never visited – Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
27. A book with a title that’s a character’s name – The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair (Joel Dicker)
28. A novel set during wartime – Sophie’s Choice (William Styron)
29. A book with an unreliable narrator -The Dinner (Herman Koch)
30. A book with pictures – TBD
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you – Broken Monsters (Lauren Beukes)
32. A book about an interesting woman – The Signature of All Things (Elizabeth Gilbert)
33. A book set in two different time periods – The Distant Hours (Kate Morton)
34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title – One of Our Thursdays is Missing (Jasper Fforde)
35. A book set in a hotel – Evil Under The Sun (Agatha Christie)
36. A book written by someone you admire – Seriously, I’m Kidding (Ellen Degeneres)
37. A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017 – TBD
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas – TBD
39. The first book in a series you haven’t read before – Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of Lioness, #1) (Tamora Pierce)
40. A book you bought on a trip -TBD

Phewww, those are a lot of books! Hopefully I could actually finish this challenge LOL. Let’s see what happens at the end of the year…

Actually POPSUGAR also has an Advanced Challenge, with additional themes but I don’t think I would do it, since I would still join BBI Reading & Review event each month.

Sooo… wish me luck!!

PS: Since POPSUGAR doesn’t make official button for this challenge, I took the image from their original post about this challenge and add the wording myself, and voila, I made a special button just for my posts 😀

 

Lucky No. 15- Challenge Winners!

Tags

announcement, challenge, lucky15, winners

Something New Category

I know, I know, I know. This is like the very late post ever XD Apologies for this very very delayed post, somehow since I’ve been a very bad host last year, I tended to neglect and postpone anything related to the Lucky No. 15 Challenge.

Anyway, promise is a promise and it’s better late than never. So I would like to announce who are the lucky winners of this challenge, the ones who had successfully completed the challenge and put their links in the wrap up post linky.

There are two Indonesians and two international winners, whom I chose with the help of random.org. Here they are:

1. Wardah @Melukis Bianglala
2. Bzee @Bacaan Bzee
3. Malin @Malin’s Blog of Books
4. Carolyn @Riedel’s Fascination

Congratulations for all winners, and thank you again for all participants for your wonderful contribution, especially for those who had successfully finished the challenge.

For Indonesian winners, please send an email of your address to astridfelicia@hotmail.com, I will send you the goodies soon 🙂 And for international winners, please choose a book from Bookdepository.com (maximum of USD 12), and email your choice to astridfelicia@hotmail.com.

Maybe I will host a mini challenge sometime after the midyear. I hope I could repay my bad host attitude this year with something more appropriate LOL.

Hopefully you are all enjoying your reading in 2016 so far 🙂 See you soon!

 

13 Days Reading Children and Young Adult Literature – Winner of the Challenge!

Tags

announcement, BBI anniversary, challenge, CL/YA, ebent, giveaway winners

Yess, terima kasih untuk semua partisipan yang sudah meramaikan event 13 Days Reading Children and Young Adult Literature. We hope you all had some fun!

Dari 24 orang peserta yang menyetorkan aktivitas membacanya ke form yang tersedia, telah terpilih satu orang dengan poin tertinggi, yang membaca buku dan menyetor review dengan jumlah terbanyak. Pemenang ini berhak atas hadiah voucher buku sebesar IDR 250,000, dan namanya adalaaaah…….

Astri Nardi (@astri_nardi) – Congratulations!

Astri berhasil mengumpulkan total 160 poin dan membaca 20 buku dalam 13 hari, wow!

Pemenang diharapkan mengkonfirmasi ke email: arimifauziyyah@gmail.com paling lambat tanggal 17 April 2015 pukul 09.00. Jika tidak, akan dipilih pemenang lain.

Terima kasih untuk semua yang telah terlibat dalam 13 Days Reading Children & Young Adult’s Literature ini 🙂

See you in another event!

Just as Long as We’re Together by Judy Blume

Tags

challenge, CL/YA, fiction, gentle spectrum, Gramedia, review15, terjemahan, young adult

Title: Just as Long as We’re Together

Writer: Judy Blume

Translator: JE Retno Dwiastuti

Publisher: Gramedia Pustaka Utama (2004), first published in 1987

Pages: 360p

Swapped at IRF 2013

The thing about Judy Blume’s books is, they’re always tell honest stories about sensitive issues- even though the targets are young adults. She wrote about religions, ethnicity, cultural differences, divorce, family problems, although in the 70s-80s, people didn’t really care about “diversity in YA books”. I love how she wrote simple stories with deep meanings and memorable characters.

Just as Long as We’re Together told a story of three friends: Stephanie, Rachel, and the newcomer Alison. Despite their differences (Stephanie is an extrovert, cheerful girl, Rachel is a total genius, and Alison is an artsy, pretty girl from California), they fought their way together in the middle school dangerous fields- complete with bullies, popular girl cliques and handsome crush all over their way.

But their friendship has been tested with the problems they faced at home: Stephanie’s parents were in the middle of “separating phase”, Rachel’s brother kept on getting into troubles, and Alison was feeling torn as an adoptive daughter of a famous actress.

I love how Judy Blume wrote the story in a light, flowing kind of way. This book was taking me back into my teenage days, growing up in the midst of family issues, ups and downs of friendship stages and of course the murky, unclear future in front of me.

One thing I noticed in Judy Blume’s books is the crappy parents. Seriously, I can’t hate any parents more than I do with Stephanie’s selfish parents. They are separating but telling nothing to the kids, and the first time the kids had to accept the fact is when they were introduced to their father’s new girlfriend. Sucks!

That’s why I think Judy’s books are as important to the parents as they are to the children, since they remind us how to avoid being selfish, inconsiderate, and childish parents to our kids! 🙂

The companion book, Here’s To You, Rachel Robinson, tells the story from Rachel’s point of view. Too bad, after the second book, Judy didn’t continue with another sequel.

Submitted for:

Cheerful category

Lucky No.14 Reading Challenge- The Winners!

Tags

2014, announcement, challenge, giveaway, lucky 14, winners

Hi all! Apologies for this very late post 🙂 I should have done this weeks ago. But anyway, better late than never, right? XD

So I would like to thank all of you who had participated in the Lucky No.14 Reading Challenge. I hope you all had some fun doing it, even though maybe you didn’t complete the challenge.

For you who already completed the challenge, congratulations!! Like I promised earlier in my master post, I would randomly select two winners from Indonesia to get some goodies, and two winners from outside Indonesia to get a book of your choice from The Book Depository.

So after consulting with random.org, here are the winners:

From Indonesia:

1. Ratih @ Morning Dew

2. Afifah @ Lady Book’s Notes

Congrats! Please email your mailing address to astridfelicia@hotmail.com. I have some prizes for you, including this stuff:

From outside Indonesia:

1. Jamie

2. Malin

Congrats! Please email me your choice of book from The Book Depository, with maximum price of USD 10, along with your mailing address. Please send your email to astridfelicia@hotmail.com

And for the rest of you, please join The Lucky No. 15 Reading Challenge. There will be a whole year of fun and prizes too!!

Cheers,

Astrid

Reading Challenges – 2015

Tags

2015, challenge, gentle spectrum, master post, NARC2015, reading list, WIN2015

It never hurts to join a few challenges every year to boost your reading mood. Even though I didn’t always strive in every challenge I joined, at least I tried to do my best 🙂

This year, I decided to join the following challenges (and I may add some more throughout the year, we’ll see!!)

What’s In a Name- 2015

This is always becoming one of my favorite challenges every year and I have joined the challenge for several years now. This year it’s hosted (again) by Charlie @ The Worm Hole, and consisted of six categories. Here we go:

• A word including ‘ing’ in it (The Time Of Singing, Dancing To The Flute, Lex Trent Fighting With Fire) My examples are verbs but you can of course use other words.– Looking for Alibrandi (Melina Marchetta)
• A colour (The Red Queen, White Truffles In Winter, On Gold Mountain) — Emerald City (Jennifer Egan)
• A familial relation (Daughter Of Smoke And Bone, Dombey And Son, My Cousin Rachel) By all means include in-laws, step, and halves. — Pilate’s Wife (Antoinette Way)
• A body of water (The River Of No Return, Black Lake, Beside The Sea) — The Lake of Dreams (Kim Edwards)
• A city (Barcelona Shadows, Shanghai Girls, Under The Tripoli Sky) — The Alexandria Link (Steve Barry)
• An animal (Black Swan Rising, The Leopard Unleashed, The Horse And His Boy) —The Cat’s Table (Michael Ondaatje)

I never failed this one so wish me luck again for this year!

 

New Author Reading Challenge (NARC) 2015

I’ve never joined this one before, but I realized I love to try reading books from new (aka unknown) authors who I’ve never heard before, so I decided to join this challenge this year, hosted by Ren @ Ren’s Little Corner.

I want to try for Middle Level (15-30 books), and take the following extra challenges:

1. Whats In a Name (reading books that have “name” in their titles)- minimum of six books: The Einstein Girl (Philip Sington), Pilate’s Wife (Antoinette May), A Tale Dark and Grimm (Adam Gidwitz), Fatima’s Good Fortune (Joanne Dryansky), The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Jacquelinne Kelly), The Club Dumas (Arturo Perez-Reverte)

2. Genre 101: Reading books from the following genres:

Fantasy: The False Prince (Jennifer Nielsen), Thriller: Complicity (Iain Banks), Asian Lit: The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni), Children Lit: Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O’Brien), Mystery/Crime: The Twelfth Card (Jeffery Deaver), Young Adult: The House of The Scorpion (Nancy Farmer), Dystopia: Unwind (Neal Shusterman), Holiday: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (L. Frank Baum), Classic: Far From The Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy), Biography: Neil Patrick Harris Choose Your Own Autobiography (Neil Patrick Harris), Adventure: The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle (Hugh Lofting), The Women Fiction: The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)

Looks like a lot of books to read, huh? I think I need more luck for this!

Gentle Spectrums 2015

This cool challenge is hosted by Carolyn from Riedel Fascination. I was thinking to join this one since last year but hadn’t got a chance. I decided to give it a try this year, it looks like fun 🙂 There are two main challenges with different categories:

(A) Limitless Pallet – Read books with any color in the titles. I choose Colourful Level (10 colours), and plan to read these: Ruby Red (Kerstien Gier), Emerald Green (Kerstien Gier), Sapphire Blue (Kerstien Gier), Emerald City (Jennifer Egan), Charlie Boone and The Blue Boa (Jenny Nimmo), The Emerald Atlas (John Stephens), The Golden Ball (Agatha Christie), The Portrait in Sephia (Isabelle Alende), Ginger Pye (Eleanor Estes), Sapphire Battersea (Jacqueline Wilson), Emerald Star (Jacqueline Wilson)

(B) Gentle Subjects

1) Stones: Variations of the word, gems, jewellery, ruins, geological formations: The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins)

2) Cheerful: Uplifting, positive messages;  conveys pleasant thoughts, images: Just As Long As We’re Together (Judy Blume)

3) Nations: Cultures, locations:  lakes, towns, even well-known places;  fictional included: The Taliban Cricket Club (Timeri N. Murari)

4) Plants: Trees, flowers, lawns, fields, grasses, grains, and gardening paraphernalia: Flora and Ulysses (Kate DiCamillo)

5) Water: Water bodies, proper names, closely-connected components:  taps, sinks, pools: The Lake of Dreams (Kim Edwards)

6) Space: The sky, its contents, spatial matter, concepts, tools.  Star Trek / Star Wars-related: Number The Stars (Lois Lowry)

7) Daunting: Any title that has you thinking:  “Oooo!  That does not sound good”!: Struck By Lightning (Chris Colfer)

8) Structures: A building, its rooms, proper names, any of a structure’s parts: 44 Scotland Street (Alexander McCall Smith)

9) Time: Any signifiers of time, like seasons.  Any unit-measurers, like watches and calendars: The Distant Hours (Kate Morton)

10) Humorous: Odd, or anything that gives you a grin.  I’ll accept a ‘pun laid on too thick’ grimace too!: Neil Patrick Harris Choose Your Own Autobiography (Neil Patrick Harris)

Phew, if I take a look at it, these all seem very ambitious for me!!! But who knows, maybe I finally can conquer a bit of my TBR???? (and of course add some new ones along the way haha)

Have a great 2015 peeps! Hope you all have fun with your reading challenges. Remember, reading is about joy, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself, kay? 🙂 Good luck!