The Book Shell

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Bout of Books Read-a-thon day 2!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Bout of Books 7.0 Read-a-Thon Day 1

Goals:
I need to read four books this week to catch up with my reading goal for the year so that's what I'm aiming for! I know some people who are aiming for way more than me but I don't want to go completely crazy this week...

Monday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Total number of books I've read: 0
Books: Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill, The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Comments:

Well, today did not go too great. I didn't finish any books or even make a significant dent in one. Being the amazing person that I am, totally left my book at home today! I was so depressed when I opened my purse and realized I had left the most important thing at home! This coming from the girl who constantly forgets her wallet at home...

In my desperation, I downloaded a free book on the kindle app on my phone. It is called Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill. Honestly, it kind of sucks so far but when you were expecting to be reading Percy Jackson all day...it really isn't a fair comparison! Hopefully, the quality of this book improves... *crosses fingers* *looks up to the heavens*

While I was feeling bad about myself earlier, I did spend a lot of time on the #BoutofBooks on Twitter. It feels so great to be getting involved in this amazing community of readers! I am really glad I discovered all of you. Just providing you the recommended allowance of mushy blogger love :) <3

Let's just not even talk about the horrible thumbnail options I end up with....seriously that was the best one.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Top Ten YA Books Dealing with tough subjects

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & The Bookish

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green- While this book is wonderfully witty it is also deals with some heartbreaking subject matter. The main character, Hazel, has terminal cancer and has to grow up feeling like she is a ticking time bomb.

2. Burned by Ellen Hopkins- Burned is one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read, but at its core it is a book about abuse. Payttn Von Stratten grows up in an extremely devout and completely misguided church (THE RELIGION IS NOT IMPORTANT PEOPLE. CALM DOWN) where women are bellow men. Her father is mentally unstable and very abusive. When Payttn begins questioning her life she is sent away... This book is extremely emotional.

3. Cut by Patricia McCormick- This book deals with the difficult issue of cutting and self mutilation. It has been a few years since I read this book but I remember it as being honest and raw. At the time, many of my friends and classmates were dealing with this issue and I am thankful to books like this for helping me understand what they must have been feeling.

4. Identical by Ellen Hopkins- My tears literally stained the pages on this book. This deals with sexual abuse by a parent and it is very difficult to read. Nothing is put gently in this book and the content is very mature.

5. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous- I found this book thrown in the hallway of my middle school. It is the published diary of a teenage girl who falls into drugs. Reading about her fist interaction with drugs at a party is something that I will never forget. Since it is a diary the reader is left to interpret the missing pieces. At the start (before the drugs) this was a girl who I could really relate to. A good girl. It astonished middle school me just how easy it is to fall into the wrong habits.

6.Willow by Julia Hoban- The main themes behind this book would have to be loss and guilt. Willow's parents have both died in a car accident, and she was driving. She was a young and inexperienced driver on a rainy night when both her parents were tipsy. She blames herself for the accident and becomes a severe cutter. This is a story that I find myself reading at least once a year. It reminds me that we are only human often too hard on ourselves.

7. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson- Rape. This is a difficult topic for anyone to jump into. Melinda is such a strong female character. Her growth and emotions as she deals with an event she would rather forget is empowering to say the least.

Non- YA Titles I wanted to mention

I won't go into detail with these because they are more than well known classics.

8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

9. Night by Elie Wiesel- A young man's brutal account of his experience at a Nazi death camp.

10. The Bell Jar by Sylia Plath- One of my all time favorites. This follows a young woman as her mind slowly succumbs to insanity.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Bout of Books 7.0 Readathon!!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 13th and runs through Sunday, May 19th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 7.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Well, I have officially decided to take the plunge and do Bout of Books 7.0! This Bout of Books will run from Monday the 13th until Sunday the 19th. This will be my first readathon ever so I am very excited to prove myself! My goal is to read 4 books during this readathon which I think is rather realistic.

I plan on reading The rest of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian Series during the readathon!

To keep me going on this readathon I will be purchasing shameless amounts of candy! To anyone else participating I wish you the best of luck! :)

The Book Shell is vlogging?!?!

This week was all school, School, SCHOOL. Horrible group projects and mathematics took over my life. Although, I have threatened both already and they promise to leave me alone soon (thank goodness). In, other news, I think it is time I let this blog in on a little secret.

Are you ready?

I have a YouTube channel!

Now we can all see what I look like....umm still not sure how I feel about this.

I decided to create this channel because I watch a ton of BookTube videos and I want to be apart of this wonderful community. When I first started watching things on YouTube it was primarily beauty guru's. I was completely fascinated by this idea of getting a camera and just talking to people, but make-up just wasn't my thing. Also, not to insult the beauty community, but let's be honest it is not the friendliest place.

Then 2013 came around and I decided that I needed to make a change in my life. I decided that it was high time I devote more energy to the things that I am passionate about. This is what led me to start this blog (read the rest of my new years resolutions here). Around the same time that I was getting into this whole blogging world, I was discovering the BookTube community. Everyone on BookTube is so friendly and open to new people, it is absolutely amazing. I love how everyone is friends and lots of video responses go around because it is such an interactive community. I've made a few videos now and I am enjoying the creative experience so much!

From this point on I will probably post my videos on this blog after they go up on YouTube. I hope you enjoy this new type of media and you can watch all my videos here. Now, I don't have to feel guilty if I ignore one for the other :)