Top 10 Goals/Resolutions For 2015

Oh my, it is gone! 2014 is gone. I've mentioned before that in 2015 I want to read more diversely, but what I also want is to read more broadly. There are areas that I feel that I am doing ok, as in Author Sex where I am reading 59% Female authors vs 41% Male. Where I am lacking is on cultural representation I am afraid. Only 14% of my reading represented POC and slightly better, but still 31% of my reading had a Stong Female Main Character (SFMC for short). Also, only 13% of my reading was nonfiction...I want my reading to be more about the content AND authors than the total of books read. Yeah, I read 100 books on 2014, but when you see the stats (and I do love stats)...they don't make me happy.

So here are my top 10 resolutions for the year that comes. It will also be the year that I am supposed to seriously start writing my thesis (maybe defend? Not sure yet) so I am a bit afraid I won't be able to make it to all of the goals, but I will do my best!

1. Read more diversely:

For that I opened my own challenge. As I mentioned in it, from my side I am starting with reading at least 1 POC author per month. I do realize that this is not the only one of reading diversely, but it is my starting point.

2. Read more in Spanish

This is more for me, 91% of the books I read on 2014 where in English, either translations or because they were originally written in English. My Spanish is a big part of who I am, and hence I want for it to make part of my reading life once again. As in my first resolution, I want to read at least 1 book in Spanish per month. They will probably overlap at times, but this is perfectly fine.

3. Read more Canadian Literature

I've been living in Canada for more than 5 years now and only until recently I started reading consciously Canadian author, mainly Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro. I believe being in a new country I should get to know it's authors better, and so I have joined another online book club called Hello Hemlock. So that's 1 Canadian Literature Book a month.

4. Read more nonfiction

As I mentioned, I really didn't read much nonfiction during 2014, I mean it was better than in 2013 thanks to #NonFicNov, but still. So, yes, you guessed it: at least 1 book of nonficiton per month.

5. Finish (when possible) series that I left hanging

This only applies to series I liked. If I left them hanging because I was just not capable or reading it anymore well, that's different.

6. Keep track of how many of my books pass the Mako Mori Test

Basically I was already looking for SFMC in my books, but I would like to pay more attention to how many of the books I read have female characters that, while they might not be the main one they still have their own strong arc story and it is not about supporting the male character/

7. Read more of my "already owned" books

Pretty self explanatory I think. In 2013, 43% of my reading was from books I already owned, 50% in 2014. I want to at least keep it to 50% if not a bit higher. This is just about really knowing what is unread on my shelves.

8. Join at least one of the Dewey's Read-a-Thons
If not as a reader, for sure as a cheerleader!

9. Keep track of the country represented by the book

Whether by the author's origin or where the story takes place.

10. Read all the month picks from the Sword and Laser  and the Hello Hemlock book club

Well...I will try, sometimes I can't access the books on the right month and then I forget to catch up :/

Bonus: To not feel guilty if by some reason or another I can't make all my resolutions

I will try, and I will do my best, but I will stop the book guilt!

That's it! Here is a screen shot of my Excel tab for 2015. Do you think I forgot something? Let me know :D

The Empyrean Key by J. L Tomlinson

The author contacted me and sent me a copy of this book for an honest review. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. The book was published on August 27th, 2014.

First impression

A fantasy book sent in the world of Ardentia. Jahna is a Narcean teenager growing up in Ardentian soil, her pale hair and skin color giving her away easily. She doesn't know much of her past, her mom won't talk to her about it and so, she is determined to know more and helping her to do so she has her two friends, Lilac a strong girl from a family of warriors, and Silko, a fragile but smart boy who loves knowledge and books.

At the same time, the king of Ardentia, the light of the Kingdom, is dying. With no male heirs, Princess Mydra would have to take the throne, except that...over centuries this has never happened. Never before a King didn't have sons, and the Queen Selizardra is suspected of being the culprit also adding to the case against her that she a foreigner.

Jahna will finally get some answers to her past but in doing so, she will realize she is in for way more than she expected for.

Final thoughts

The author did a wonderful job building this new world, sometimes I would feel lost with so many new terms that were never explained. See, this is a delicate balance I find when reading fantasy or science fiction: with new words/terms sometimes authors either over explain or as in this case, don't explain them enough. The first case makes me feel like the author wants to take me by the hand, and in the second, well, I have to re read paragraphs several times to try to understand what is going on and my brain then disconnects.

I quite enjoyed the secondary characters, mostly Lilac and Silko; but I didn't completely fell for Jahna and found her a bit predictable as well as her story. The abrupt changes from Jahna's story to Mydra's made it pretty obvious (to me at least) what was going on between them, and without this surprise element the rest of the story felt...sort of short I am afraid.

I think this would be a better read for a MA or early YA group of readers. My cousin is 10 years younger than I am and I am pretty sure she would enjoy the whole story, and continue the series.

#AMonthofFaves: 5 Books That Deserved the Hype

 

Hello everybody! First of all Merry Christmas Eve :). Today's topic on the Month of Faves event is 5 books that deserved the hype . I wasn't sure if we were limited to books we read on 2014, but looking around to other people's post I figured it would be ok. So here they are, 5 books that I read and found that they more than deserved the hype.

 

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami: I've found that this is one of those books that you are either going to hate or love, and I loved it. It is super weird, and sometimes you pout the book down thinking: what the H did I just read. But it was so involving and different! it is also a huge book, so I understand why so may people just put it down completely, but in my opinion it is worth to push through.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: This was such a fun read you guys! But once again, it really depends on the reader. It has a lot of pop culture references, mostly from the 80s, but also to the gaming world. So if you don't like or even don't care for those, you might not enjoy it as much as I did. However it was great for me. The characters were fun, the rhythm very fast paced and exiting. 

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed: I have talked to you about this one almost on every post of this months event, but I will do it again, just because it was so beautiful. Sure, it made me cry, but that is just how touching the whole book was. I've been recommending it all over town since I finished and I intend to continue doing so.

The Martian by Andy Weir: Just as RPO, this one is a book that might not be for everyone. There is quite a bit of science and sarcasm. Mark, the main character, is not a pleasant person necessarily, but boy it was fun. Also just like RPO, A read it after me and it made him very happy too, and considering we have quite different reading tastes that is a plus on my list :).

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: Wow, I just realized this was one of my first reviews in this blog! And even almost 3 years after I still have a lot of love for this book. It is magical, it has action, love, whimsical world building... everything! Even some delicious treats that with just the description will make you salivate. I am a bit sad that I couldn't re read it this December with the Sword and Laser book club, but as it turns out I lent it to my cousin back in 2012...and she hasn't finished it yet, if you can believe that.

Well there you have it, my 5 books for today. I wish you a lovely Holiday time!

#AMonthofFaves: Picking Favorites!

I think we can all agree that this event is making our TBR grow and that this is a good thing ;). Here are my favorite posts of the week:

On Monday Andi from Estella's Revenge gave us all book envy with her recently acquired list!

On Tuesday I met Christina's Blog: You Book me All Night Long (great name right?) and I loved her list of top 10 read of 2014. For this same post, Andi was a favorite once again

On Wednesday we discussed 5 fave Winter Reads and Tanya from GirlXOXO had great suggestions for the cold weather! I also loved Florinda's picks for this topic (I also think that Fangirl is a good winter read). You can find her at The 3 R's Blog.

On Thursday it was time for 5 winter must haves and I have to say guys, your winter is definitely not like mine at all!!! Favorites include Andi, Trish and Flo, all of them with great products to keep us comfy and cozy in this frightful weather!

A Month of Faves: Top 10 (or so) Favorite books of 2014

Well, here it is, I am finally telling you my top 3 books of the year. But first I will introduce some of the runner ups:

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Dawn (Xenogenesis #1) by Octavia E. Buttler

Angelmaker by Nick Harkway

What We see When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

The Martian by Andy Weir

El ruido de las cosas al caer (The sound of things falling) by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

And now....drum roll please, here are my top 3 of the year!!!

As I said, 2 non fiction, 1 fiction, all of them by women and one of them in Spanish :D

Here are some exceprts from my reviews that explain why they were my favorites

Nosotras que nos queremos tanto by Marcela Serrano:

It was a splendid read and I would recommend to all of my contacts and beyond. It has taken me a while to write this review, mostly because I feel that words fall short for what this book made me feel. So I can only say, read it!.

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed:

I know this is a short review, particularly for a book that I loved, but I cannot put into words how this book makes me feel. It made me laugh, cry, laugh while crying, miss my family like crazy, made me tell people I love them and even took away weight from my shoulders. I would recommend this book to everybody, but get some tissues first. Now go and read it.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tart

It was a beautiful book, full of sentiment; a book that I have recommended several times already and that I might even re listen too.

2014 was a good reading year for me, I hope you had a wonderful year too!

Introducing My Own 2015 reading Challenge

http://www.ppls.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/children-reading.jpg

I wanted to use today's free topic post to talk to you guys about something.

For the past 2 or so years, I have participated in the GoodReads reading challenge, the Where are you Reading Challenge (hosted by Book Journey) and the Sequel Challenge (hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Writer Grrl Reads). This year also joined other monthly events. But this has also been the year where the talk about reading more diversely has been all over my radar. I joined the A More Diverse Universe challenge (Diversiverse for short), hosted by Booklust and I tried to incorporate more diverse reading by the end of the year. It was good, but it can be better.

So I have decided to hold my first ever challenge! I will call it: Diversifying 2015. My goal is to read at least one diverse author every month. Diversifying can also be applied to reading more LGBTQ authors or POCs off course. Every month I will do a wrap up post, and I would love it if you can add on those posts your own Diverse readings of the month! That way we are all exposed to more diverse reading and get the wheels turning!

But I want to also give a tiny incentive. So here is the deal, every entry every month will give you a registration and at the end of the year I will randomly select a lucky winner for a 20$ gift card from Book Outlet! (If the winner leaves in a country that is not covered by them we will figure something out :D)

So here is the registration form and as I said every month there will be a wrap up post. I hope you guys join me on this!!

A Month of Faves: A Year in Books Timeline

http://www.kfstudio.net

Which month did you … read the most, the least, read the book you liked LEAST for the year, read your longest book, tried a new genre, fell hard for a book boyfriend, re-read a favorite, finished an epic series, read something you’ve been wanting to read for a long time etc.

January: The month of my birthday!!! I read 7 books on January (one of them on my top 3 ;))  This is also the month I read my least favorite books of the year: 2 romances that were given to me on Christmas on a gift exchange. I read them on a dare, but safe to say that so far I haven't found romances I like. 

February: the month I finally got around to reading a Neil Gaiman. 

March: Only read 4 books this month, but I read Angelmaker and loved it!

April: Read-A-Thon!!! I read The Last Unicorn that month and got to meet Peter S. Beagle

May: The month I read the most: 12 books that month!!! Great books that month with Dreams of Gods and Monsters (excellent series) and The Martian

June: The month I joined NetGalley! My first book from them It Girl, wasn't that great, but during this month I read my other fiction favorite of the year, in Spanish.  

July: The month I first read Dawn and fell in love with Xenogenesis

August: It was slow month for my reading. Best book of the month was The Name of the Wind but I never got to write the review :/

September: The month I participated on my first official Read-A-Long with The Haunting of Hill House.

October: Read-a-Thon part 2. I also read 12 books this month and it is the month I first read Meg Medina. It is also the month I was introduced to another YA series I quite enjoyed with The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.

November: Non-fiction November, Oh gosh, it feels so long ago and it ended less than a month ago!. Ok, so I read my non-fiction favorite during this month.  It was also during November that I read the longest book I've read this year with Three Daughters

December: I've finished 2 books so far this month and I should finish another 2 at least. But this month has been proven to be busier than usual with my experiments finally working. So that's good, but it takes time from the reading. 

What about your year??