Armchair BEA 2013: Picture Books to Young Adult

Thanks to Nina for the graphic! Armchair BEA is an online conference for people that can’t attend BEA in NYC. Find more info at armchairbea.com

Another late post but OKC has been insane the last few days! I’m pretty new to blogging so I don’t have much to say about keeping it real at this time.

Picture Books to Young Adult

I’ve always loved reading and when I was small, I consumed Dr. Seuss and Little Golden Books. I liked all sorts of nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

I read Goosebumps, Sweet Valley Kids, Bruce Colville. I was obsessed with the Animorphs series.

Anne of Green Gables is still one of my favorite books and I love the whole series. I loved The Chronicles of Narnia. I read Harry Potter for the first time in 2012 and fell in love.

I read a lot of YA! It’s mainly what I blog about. I love Anna and the French Kiss, Divergent, If I Stay and Where She Went, The Raven Boys, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, and the list could go on and on. A lot of YA is about new experiences and life lessons, which makes it easy to relate to and enjoy.

If we follow each other and I’ve missed your BEA posts, I’m going to try to catch up! There isn’t supposed to be severe weather in OKC for a while, so hopefully I’ll be better at keeping up with everything!

Armchair BEA: Non-fiction

Thanks to Nina for the graphic! Armchair BEA is an online conference for people that can’t attend BEA in NYC. Find more info at armchairbea.com

Non-Fiction

I like non-fiction. I don’t read as much as I should. I love history, so I enjoy a lot of books historical non-fiction. When I was growing up, I really fell in love with reading about real stories from the Holocaust, because I think it is very important that their stories get told.. I read The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diana Ackerman a while ago and liked-not-loved it. I haven’t read as many Holocaust stories lately, and I need to read more. I’d also like to explore books about WWII in general. It’s shaking to read about horrible people can be, but it’s inspiring to read about survivors, and the people that help others.

I also want to read more about the Russian Revolution, French Revolutions, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome. I have The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas and Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln by John Stauffer and need to read them. There are so many historical periods I want to read about! I’d also like to read a lot more about Asian history and non-fiction about Asia in general. There’s so much that’s happened in the world and I am very nosy curious.

I really enjoyed The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, it was really interesting and his writing style is so enjoyable! I would like to read more non-fiction about things other than history, too.

This post isn’t that great but I’m excited to see what other people read about and add even more books to my TBR list! What non-fiction have you read and enjoyed? Or not enjoyed?

Armchair BEA: Literary Fiction

thanks to Nina for the lovely banner!

Literary Fiction

I don’t read a whole lot of literary fiction, but not by design. Like I said yesterday, I read stories based on if they sound interesting to me. I don’t purposely ignore Literary Fiction, but sometimes there’s just so much to read that I end up overlooking it.

 

I do love Jonathan Safran Foer‘s Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I had mixed feelings but mainly enjoyed The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. I liked-not-loved Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I couldn’t get into One Day by David Nicholls. I cared a lot about the characters in The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I know I’m forgetting some! I don’t think I’ve read any in 2013.

I definitely need to expand my literary fiction reading! I’m excited read posts from today and add more books to my TBR list! I have been having a lot of fun looking at posts and getting ideas on what to read! I’ve also met some cool people! I’m really enjoying Armchair BEA.

Armchair BEA: Development and Genre Fiction

Thanks to Nina at ninareads.com for the graphic! You can find out more about the awesome online conference Armchair BEA at armchairbea.com!

I always feel late with post that have link-ups because so many people have already done them! I meant to do this earlier, but I was having computer issues.

Development

I’m a new blogger, so I have a lot of development and improvement to work on. I would definitely like to become a part of the community and work with other bloggers. So far I’ve done some memes and commented on other blogs. I would like to have a self-hosted blog at some point. I’m just going to take things as they come and try to be a better blogger!

Genre Fiction

I love genre fiction! I love any book with a good story and characters I can really care about. When I was younger, I really branched out and tried a lot of different genres. As a teenager, I read Robin McKinley, Stephen King, Agatha Christie and Anne McCaffrey. When I got into college, I started trying out more romance. I love Lisa Kleypas and Julia Quinn! Regency Romance books are fun, even when they’re infuriating. I like contemporary romance and paranomal stories, too. I’m not sure I have ever met a genre I didn’t like.

My favorite genre lately is probably fantasy. I really love George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. He’s created a world with so many characters, and all of them are so important. They’re in a fantasy setting, but they deal with realistic problems and you can relate to their feelings. It’s also impressive how many characters I’ve changed my opinions about. There were some characters I absolutely hated in the beginning, and now they’ve become some of my favorite characters. When you start out hating a character but an author shows you what they are like and how they feel and you find yourself loving them, that is just good writing.

I have been a bit hooked on the fantasy genre lately. I’ve also been reading the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. I’m on the last book and I’m taking a break because I got a little too invested. I’m also taking a break from The Name of the Wind, which is the first book in The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. I read Sabriel by Garth Nix and need to finish the rest of the Abhorsen trilogy.

I read genre fiction because I love a variety of worlds and characters. I have never been particular about genres. If a story is engaging and enjoyable, I will read it. I read for enjoyment and an escape, and magic worlds with dragons, a futuristic story in space, and ballgowns and romance are all enjoyable to me.

  I’m not sure why genre fiction books don’t get as much respect. If people can connect to a story, I think that should be enough.

I feel like I probably rambled. Hopefully it makes enough sense! I’m excited to read other posts about development and genre fiction! Maybe I can pick up some recommendations!

Armchair BEA 2013: Hi!

thanks to Nina for the beautiful banner!

Armchair BEA is for book bloggers who can’t attend Book Expo America and the Book Blogger Convention in New York. It includes daily blogging themes, discussions, giveaways and more! Find out more at the Armchair BEA blog!

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

I’m Katy, I’m 25. I haven’t been blogging very long, only a few months. I decided to start blogging to try to find more bookish friends and more people to talk about books with. I like sharing my opinions!

2. Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures.

I’m from Oklahoma, originally in the NE corner but now in OKC, always close to Route 66! We have scary tornadoes and very kind and somewhat odd people.

Pops is a restaurant that has many different kinds of pop! Fun place! This is my friend Amanda‘s photo, snagged from her facebook.

this is a picture of the park close to my house, I love it there.

tornadoes recently hit Oklahoma, but it’s always home and the kindness people have shown in the aftermath is inspiring.

3. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013?

I think Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland might be my next read!

4. Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.

I have an intense love for the color green!

5. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why? 

Blue Sargent from The Raven Boys. She’s snarky and she’d be fun to hang out with! Actually, Maggie Stiefvater would be fun, too!

I feel like this post is really late, but hopefully I’ll still get to comment on some others and get to know some of the Armchair BEA bloggers!