August 29 2018: Book List for Class on [pick genre/trope/etc]
–Just in time for back to school, create a reading list for a class on a bookish topic of your choice
Disability
Finding Me by Kelly Gunderman
Sixteen-year-old Claire Williams spends most of her days feeling angry and alone. After a car accident took her mother and Claire’s ability to walk, life in a wheelchair is the new normal.
When she’s sent to live with her grandmother, away from school and friends, Claire has a chance for a fresh start. Just when Claire thinks she can handle things, she runs into Todd – the son of the man who caused the car accident.
At first, Claire wants nothing to do with him, but the more time they spend together, the more she hates to admit her feelings. She’s slowly falling in love with Todd.
Now, Claire’s father wants to move and take Claire with him. But she can’t go. Not now when everything is falling into place, and she’s just now finding herself. Claire’s defiant. She won’t leave Greenwood, her new friends, her grandmother, or Todd.
Can Claire find the strength to let her dad go on with his life while leaving her behind to live hers, or will she allow the guilt and shame of surviving the accident pull her back under?
Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Josie Wyatt knows what it means to be different. Her family’s small farmhouse seems to shrink each time another mansion grows up behind it. She lives with her career-obsessed mom and opinionated Gran, but has never known her father. Then there’s her cerebral palsy: even if Josie wants to forget that she was born with a disability, her mom can’t seem to let it go. Yet when a strange new boy—Jordan—moves into one of the houses nearby, he seems oblivious to all the things that make Josie different. Before long, Josie finds herself reaching out for something she’s never really known: a friend… and possibly more. Interlinked free verse poems tell the beautiful, heartfelt story of a girl, a family farm reduced to a garden, and a year of unforgettable growth.
You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner
When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural.
Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up.
Out in the ’burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off—and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.
Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
With acerbic wit and a hilarious voice, Shane Burcaw’s Laughing at My Nightmare describes the challenges he faces as a twenty-one-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy. From awkward handshakes to having a girlfriend and everything in between, Shane handles his situation with humor and a “you-only-live-once” perspective on life. While he does talk about everyday issues that are relatable to teens, he also offers an eye-opening perspective on what it is like to have a life threatening disease.
Can’t Escape Love (Reluctant Royals #2.6) by Alyssa Cole
Regina Hobbs is nerdy by nature, businesswoman by nurture. She’s finally taking her pop culture-centered media enterprise, Girls with Glasses, to the next level, but the stress is forcing her to face a familiar supervillain: insomnia. The only thing that helps her sleep when things get this bad is the deep, soothing voice of puzzle-obsessed live streamer Gustave Nguyen. The problem? His archive has been deleted.
Gus has been tasked with creating an escape room themed around a romance anime…except he knows nothing about romance or anime. Then mega-nerd and anime expert Reggie comes calling, and they make a trade: his voice for her knowledge. But when their online friendship has IRL chemistry, will they be able to escape love?
I believe that there is more to education than sitting on a desk and learn. So, when I saw this story, I knew I had to share it with you. When Bionca Smith had unpaid bills up to her head, couldn’t make rent in time, she says quits to her job and starts to teach her 10-year-old son on the road. The single mum dreamed about travelling the world and seeing the hidden gems of this world. After she wrote a post on Facebook, she realised that the only one stopping her was herself.
When she was 20, she had her son Carter. She had everything her heart desires apart from the mountain of bills but, something still wasn’t adding up. Her job took her quality time from son; he was getting bullied and having a hard time with reading. After thinking about her childhood, she says “Growing up, I wasn’t allowed out of the driveway, and we never travelled,” she says. “My biggest dream was to see a beach.” While in school, she had been mercilessly bullied for her acne: “Kids would throw things at me. I was afraid to raise my hand, afraid to try to make friends.”
They gave their house lease and decided to travel in the next 30 days, which made it feel very real all of a sudden. Since she knew that she had to home-school but did really know how to do it, she researched and found an online school called Connections Academy so that her son can have online lessons and have access to teachers while she was his coach at home.
How did they end up in Thailand? Simple they spun a globe and Thailand landed under their finger. After like the culture to discover and it was affordable to them. After a few weeks, Bionca found a 1989 Ford Econoline with a kitchen, a toilet, a shower and two beds for $4,900 which became their new home. Everywhere they travel they try to volunteer such as “We feed the homeless, work in animal shelters, clean up beaches and campgrounds,” she says as a way to give back to the community they are calling home for that time being.
My thoughts after reading Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman. This is the first graphic novel I ever read, I mean they’re expensive to buy, and I’m not sure if libraries have them to borrow at least where I live. I managed to get my hands on an arc. Therefore, the panes weren’t coloured, but from what I saw from the sample at the back, the art in this volume is bright and beautiful. The topic of consent is precise here, which I don’t see a ton in books.
I like that Charlie Spring didn’t make a big deal out of coming out at school or more to the point he was outed even if he was getting bullied about it. Then we have Nick Nelson who is in year 11 at Truham Grammar the same school that Charlie goes to but he never really talked to him but heard rumours that he is gay. Then, one day they have the same class, and they start chatting, by the way, is it an American thing that students from different years have a class together? That kind of confused me.
When the rugby team needs players, Nick persuaded Charlie to join the team. Even if Charlie never played rugby or showed any interest in it, their friendship grew, but you need to read the book if you want to know what happens in the end. I gave this graphic novel five out of five stars. It was a great experience and can’t wait to read more like the format of this book.
I was tagged by my friend Hannah @ HannacondaBlog so thank you and guys please go follow her. I guess, it’s time to get this party started!
RULES:
1. Use the sunshine blogger award logo
2. Give thanks to the blogger that nominated you
3. Answer the 11 questions given to you
4. Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 questions
Hannah’s Questions:
What is the one hobby that you cannot live without?
Hand down, writing and reading.
Apparently, at least around where I live, it is blasphemous to like Nickelback. What are your thoughts on their music?
They’re decent.
What is the one book that you would throw into the fiery pits of hell?
The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook right now.
Do you think trigger warnings are useful? Should they be included in books/reviews/synopsis etc?
Yes, just in case your reader get triggered on certain topics.
What is the weirdest movie/tv show/anime that you have ever seen?
Below Her Mouth (movie).
At this very second what would make you the happiest in the world?
Learning about someone doing good in this world.
A lot of readers have a TBR pile. That pile may be a mental list, physical, digital or something else. Do you have a TBR pile? How big is it?
It’s on Goodreads and my list on there is 70 plus books.
If money wasn’t an issue, what is the one place that you would want to travel to on a week long vacation?
The UK.
Everyone has a subjective way of rating their books. How do you rate your books. What differentiates between a 5 star read and a 4 star. Or do you use some other method than star ratings?
Based on how much I can relate to it.
What is your favourite binge-worthy show that you would recommend to people?
Pose
Is there a famous person where you have to experience everything that they have been a part of? Whether that is an actor/actress, author, musician, director Confess etc
I don’t really have an answer for this one.
My Questions
What’s the first graphic novel that you loved?
How old is your blog?
Which blog post you loved writing the most?
What’s one thing you wish for this world we live in?
Shout out one blogger that deserved more followers.
What is your go to drink while you read?
What’s the first book you were ever gifted
If you could choose to be an animal what would you be?
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book
Lines
It’s at Amber Brunati’s annual Pink Party that everything begins to unravel.
The invitation—on thick pink paper, naturally, with gold and turquoise swirls—had declared it to be the last great luncheon of the summer. As if my summer had been packed to bursting with a whole host of other themed luncheons instead of babysitting jobs and shifts at Pinky’s Sub Shop. It also implied that there had been a number of mediocre luncheons this summer, as this was meant to be the last of the great ones.
I stare around Amber’s backyard at clustered tables covered in pink gingham cloths and at the girls around said tables. We’re all wearing pink except for Iris Huang, who had the nerve to arrive in lavender (Amber’s angry whispers carried clear across the lawn), and Kaitlyn Winthrop, who is technically wearing magenta. This seems to incense Amber even more, because while we all know that Iris’s dress is a big official eff you to the entire Pink Party construct, Kaitlyn doesn’t seem to realize that she’s committed a faux pas.
“Someone get that girl a color wheel,” Amber hisses angrily to Madison Lutz, sitting to my left. “Someone get her a fucking Pantone booklet because magenta is not pink. We all know magenta is not pink, right?” She looks to me. “Right?”
