Looking Forward: May

Sometimes it's really hard for me to keep track of what comes out what month, especially while juggling early reviews and publisher catalogues and all the other confusing bookish things bloggers deal with. It's just a LOT OF BOOKS ALL THE TIME. How do you ever keep them straight?! So on the last day of the month, I post a guide to what books I'm most looking forward to in the following month and that you should keep an eye on. So, since it's the last day in April, here are the May releases most tempting me.

There are SO. MANY. HUGE. BOOKS. THIS. MONTH. (like seriously, putting this post together made me PANIC at the sheer volume of them) that I'm forgoing a Book of the Month because DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE.

Reading Quirks and Why We're All Mad Here

Hey, guys! Long time no blog. I just want to send out a whole bunch of <333333 for all the kind words, care packages, Twitter hugs, and other lovely things you nerds have done for me lately. It's been a tough April, but I miss blogging, and I hope to be getting back into the swing of it before BEA comes stomping onto the horizon. Because I AM still going to BEA! I may be doing it a bit more chill-ly this year (that is so a word, Blogger, stop it), but I will be there!

So today, I want to talk about reading quirks.The cool thing about joining a readerly community like ours is that you get to compare your reading habits with other people, and doing so makes you realize...

...you're kind of a freak.

An Update

Hey, guys. I mentioned a couple days ago that I'd received some really bad news and would be taking some time off from...well, basically everything, and I sort of just want to let you all know what's going on. On Tuesday, very early in the morning, I lost my dad. He was probably the person I was closest to in the world, and it was completely out of nowhere, so obviously I'm not in the best place right now. However, my brother, friends and family have been amazing about helping me and each other. I honestly couldn't imagine going through this kind of shit without that support system, which I didn't even realize I had before now, at least not to this extent. I have friends taking care of my dog while I stay at my mom's house, and yesterday--which happened to be my and my twin brother's 24th birthday--three of my cousins, my mom, and my very close friends put together a little dinner for us and made it as nice a birthday as possible.

I'm updating you guys because I want you to know why, despite recently returning to active blogging with Dark Lord Funk fanfare, I'll be taking some time off again. And also because I wouldn't have been able to handle these last few years without the support of my wonderful internet friends, who aren't even really "internet friends"--you guys are just friends. So I'm sending love and hugs to you all, and thanking you so much for the nice things you've already said to me on Twitter and Instagram. When I say those things mean the world to me, I really, really mean it. The niceness and warmth and love I've received in the last two days has helped enormously.

I love all of you guys so much <3333333333333

Review: None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio

Review: None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
Goodreads
Release date: April 7th, 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Length: 352 pages
Source: eARC via Edelweiss/ARC from ALAMW15
Rating: Extremely important (and extremely brutal on mah feels)



 A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she was born intersex . . . and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.

What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?

When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she's decided that she's ready to take things to the next level with him.

But Kristin's first time isn't the perfect moment she's planned--something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts."

Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin's entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?


Honestly, it would have been difficult for me not to love this book due to subject matter alone. It's literally the only YA novel starring an intersex main character that I have ever read or can even think of (if you know of others, please share in the comments! I'd love to read more). So unless this book was somehow heinously offensive, I knew I was going to enjoy reading it even if it was lacking other positive aspects. But lucky for me, None of the Above was a great, emotionally charged read, in addition to being groundbreaking, informative, and extremely important.

Book Haul, or the First One in a Looooooong Time

Yayyy, book hauls! I missed doing these. I haven't done one of these in aaaages, since way before ALA. I had been planning to do one for ALA, but I got SO. MANY. BOOKS. that the idea of linking them all and typing them up was intensely stressful, so I ended up not doing one, and then weeks passed and lo, no book hauls. And yet I was getting books, so I really I was just being a big lazy fail.  (If you are interested in what my ALA book haul was, I Instagrammed my haul here and here.)

Rather than list every book I've bought/been given/received for review in the interim, I'll hit the recent highlights. Because it's been a lot and, erm, I've forgotten. Also I've been very busy GETTING SHELVES and moving the cumbersome contents of my beastly book Himalayas into them after PUTTING THEM TOGETHER MYSELF which is frankly beyond my skillset so it took a lot of effort and swearing and coffee...my point being, all my books are newly organized so it's even harder now to remember which are new.

ANYWAY. BOOKS.

When the Last Book Ruins Everything

We've all been there with series we love (and some we only sort of like). You build up ALL that anticipation for the final book. The grand finale! The big kahuna! The buildup, the big one, the moment we've bene waiting for, the REASON ALL THOSE OTHER BOOKS EXIST! Waiting...for this!

And then you read it.

And you. Don't. Like it.

Baking the Books: Simon vs. the Oreo Sapiens Agenda

Welcome to Baking the Books, where I bake things inspired by my favorite novels! Since I do a lot of reading and a lot of baking, it was only a matter of time before the two things overlapped. It's just part of my evil plot to get books involved in every single aspect of my life.

Last time on Baking the Books: To All the Cookies I've Loved Before

You're probably sick of me shouting at you about Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, but it's a perfect book, so I'm not going to stop shouting about it anytime soon. Not only is it ten kinds of adorable, not only is it funny, and not only is it a brilliant rendering of what it's like to be confused/confident/closeted/hilarious as hell teen, but it will make you crave Oreos like you've never craved them before.

Review: The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

Review: Things We Know by Heart by April Lindner
Goodreads
Release date: March 31st, 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Length: 384 pages
Source: ARC from the publisher
Rating: ALL THE ADORBS



Following her pitch-perfect debut Open Road Summer, Emery Lord pens another gorgeous story of best friends and new love that proves it's never too late for second chances.

It's been a year since it happened--when Paige Hancock's first boyfriend died in an accident. After completely shutting out the world, Paige is finally ready for a chance at high school...and she has a plan. First: Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her—the perfect way to convince everyone she’s back to normal. Next: Join a club—simple, it’s high school after all. But when Ryan’s sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, moves to town and recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team (of all things!) her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop. Will Paige be able to face her fears and finally open herself up to the life she was meant to live? 


THIS BOOK. Oh, I enjoyed reading this book so much. It's equal parts adorable and heartbreaking, and best of all, it's sublimely nerdtastic. it's about nerds falling in love through pop culture and geekery, and HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THAT? This is my first Emery Lord book, but I guarantee you it won't be my last. The way she writes romance and girl friendships is utter perfection.