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Athena's Reading List 2018


Athena

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15 hours ago, frankie said:

That's really interesting about you having more of an even balance between male and female authors before, and now reading a lot more female authors this year. We'll see, at the end of the year, if the scales will get more balanced :D

 

Thanks! I think part of it is that I've not been reading as much of certain genres as I used to. I haven't felt like reading much adult fantasy this year for example, which is mostly written by men. On the other hand, I am thinking about picking up certain children's book series again and most of those I have in mind, have been written by men. We will see :D.

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This past week I've been reading two books. They are:

 

Tony Atwood, Craig R. Evans, Anita Lesko & Others - Been There. Done That. Try This!: An Aspie's Guide to Life on Earth

Kathryn Ormsbee - Tash Hearts Tolstoy

 

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Below some thoughts on both of them. I don't usually read two books at once, but with the first book (BT.DT.TT!) I felt I couldn't just read that and nothing else (fictional). The content was a bit more 'dry' and quite a bit to take in with the many people who made contributions to the book. So I decided to start THT alongside it.

 

BT.DT.TT! consists of 17 chapters, which contain 17 topics that stress out people with Asperger's or that they have difficulty with (there was a survey taken before the book was started, to identify these 'stressors'). Each chapter has contributions from a variety of people with Asperger's, and the chapter ends with Tony Atwood summarising their responses. Most of the chapters also have accompanying art in colour, the middle pages of the book contain all the pictures of the art, and after each chapter the artists tell something about the artwork (there are 1, 2 or 3 pieces of art).

 

I found some things in this book really helpful. Others were things that I had heard before, more generic advice along the lines of 'eat healthy, sleep well, exercise', or things that I didn't really find applicable to my own situation. Most of the chapters were pretty interesting, there were a couple that interested me less.

I quite liked most of the art that accompanied the chapters. This was a nice little surprise. I particularly liked the artworks done by Michael Tolleson (the artist who had been asked to make the most contributions of art to the book).

 

One thing I did notice was that several of the people with Asperger's who contributed to the book, named, was their 'hyperfocus' on their special interests, which is one of the talents of most people with Asperger's. However, I don't think I have this (I have HFA, but okay). With my ADD, I find it hard to concentrate on anything, and I have trouble concentrating on anything longer than a few minutes. It might be so though that I find it easier to concentrate on certain things, I would have to think about that, I'm not sure if that is the case to be honest. Anyway, in that sense I felt I couldn't quite relate to some of the contributors of the book, when they were talking about that. It's great that that's one of the positives of having AS, but.. I don't think I have a hyperfocus. I have.. very little focus.

 

Okay, let's move on to the second book!

 

Tash Hearts Tolstoy is about a girl who makes a web series with her friends. She loves Tolstoy's works and they are doing a modern reimagining of the book Anna Karenina. One day their web series suddenly becomes really popular, and it's about Tash trying to deal with that. Tash is a romantic asexual, and this plus the synopsis was what made me pick up the book (after I'd heard/seen recommendations from a couple of people online). I feel the synopsis on the back of the book, and possibly also the synopsis on sites like GoodReads or Amazon, gives away a little bit too much of the story. So if you're reading this and don't want to be too spoiled for the story, know that. I mean, I would personally have preferred to have left it at what I wrote above.

 

I liked THT. I think I would have liked it more though, had I not been reading it together with BT.DT.TT!. Most of the time I read one chapter in BT.DT.TT! and then 2 chapters in THT. But breaking up my reading like this, and reading it over a whole week, kind of interrupted the flow of the book a little bit. I kept wanting to read on but then I made myself go back to BT.DT.TT! to read that next chapter first before going back to THT. Which made it a bit harder for me to remember exactly all the things from THT, because my temporary memory isn't so great.

 

In the beginning THT throws quite a few characters at you. Gladly there is a list in the front, that helped, but it took me a bit of time to figure out who was who. I liked the main characters. The writing style was nice and I liked the plot twists. A couple of times I felt the main character could have made a better decision or responded to something a bit differently (but then, I wasn't in the situation).

 

Overall I liked reading THT. Not a new favourite read, but I liked reading about the web series and the characters and what happened.

 

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I bought a couple of books at the library:

 

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Helen Salter - Tina Topper 84: Anne 1: Is Verliefd Zijn Ook Een Sport? (Does Snogging Count As Exercise?)
Helen Salter - Tina Topper 87: Anne 2: Kan Glitter Ook Als Camouflage? (Does Glitter Count As Camouflage?) (collecting Tina Toppers as I find them, I own most of them and have read a lot of them, enjoyed them a lot back in my teenage years).
Kristin Hannah - Alice, het Wolvenmeisje (Magic Hour) (my sister read this book and recommended it to me many years ago, when she still read contemporary fiction. Nowadays it's mostly fantasy she reads. Someone from BCF has read it too I believe :)).
Meg Cabot - Dagboek van een Prinses 4: Prinsessenlessen (The Princess Diaries 4: Princess in Waiting) (slowly collecting these as I find them for a good price)
Mirjam Mous - De StrandTent 4: Aflevering 4 (been wanting to borrow this series from the library but they never had them, I suppose they got rid of them, at least I got one of the books, this is the last one I believe).
Tony Ross - De Kleine Prinses: Ik Wil Lekker Vies! (My Little Princess 7: I Don't Want To Wash My Hands!)

 

And I got new library loans! I don't know if I'll be able to read all of them, but we'll see :). Here are pictures of the new library loans:

 

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Anja Cocquyt (ill. Pieter Fannes) - Zora en Mira
Simone Arts - Plan C
Simone Arts - Krabbels van Bien
Simone Arts (ill. Ingeborg Vriends van der Steijn) - Sterre 1: Sterren!
Simone Arts - Sterre 2: Applaus voor Sterre
Pete Johnson - Louis de Lach 3: Mijn ouders maken me gek (Louis the Laugh 3: My Parents Are Driving Me Crazy)
Mathilda Masters and Georgien Overwater - De Keukenprins van Mocano 3: Reis naar het Høge Nøørden
Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton - De 13 Zwaarden 4: Het Laatste Zwaard (Le Tredici Spade 4: Il Segreto del Lupo)
Will Mabbitt (ill. Ross Collins) - Merel Jansen 3: Merel Jansen en het Einde der Tijden (Mabel Jones 3: Mabel Jones and the Doomsday Book)
Chris Riddell - Ottoline 4: Ottoline and the Purple Fox
Laura Ellen Anderson - Amelia Fang 1: Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball
Lissa Evans - Wed Wabbit
Stuart Gibbs - Spy School 3: Evil Spy School
Stuart Gibbs - Spy School 4: Spy Ski School
Stuart Gibbs - Spy School 5: Spy School Secret Service
Elsje Bakker - Wilde Haren
Philip Pullman and Fred Fordham - The Adventures of John Blake 1: Mystery of the Ghost Ship
Petra Jongeneel - Phi: Het geheim van het Poollicht
Bill Willingham, Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leailoha and Craig Hamilton - Fables Deluxe 1 (Fables: The Deluxe Edition 1)
Sylvain Savoia and Marzena Sowa - Marzi: 1984-1987 (La Pologne vue par les Yeux d'une Enfant)
Ferrian Jonker - Gelukkig, ik ben gewoon autist
Birsen Başar - De jungle van autisme
Arabella Carter-Johnson (ill. Alice Tait) - Iris Grace (Iris Grace)
Peggy Royackers - Autisme in bolletjes
John Donvan and Caren Zucker - Autisme: De vele gezichten van een stoornis (In a Different Key: The Story of Autism)

 

Like I said, I probably won't be able to read all of these, but that's okay. Hopefully I can at least read most. It's also possible I might abandon something if it's not fun to read or if it isn't something I feel like reading at the time. Some of these books I haven't heard of, they just looked interesting.

 

It was also nice to see how the library had re-organised the available space. They did that last year (I think in September?? But I'm not sure). But I hadn't taken the time and seen it all yet. It was great to see what they had done :).

 

I'll be reading some of the library loans for the upcoming BCF read-a-thon (August 3rd through August 5th), and during that time (I'll be starting on the 4th of August) I'll also be reading my usual reads (Princess Jellyfish, With the Light, Chobits, Fashion Academy, and a Lucy Knisley book). Next week the BookTubeAThon also takes place (from July 30th to August 5th), and I'll be reading some books and library loans for that too (they have a couple of challenges). Outside of that week I'll try to get the rest of the loans done, until I'm handing them in again.

 

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On 7/25/2018 at 1:40 PM, ~Andrea~ said:

Ooh, I like the sound of The Question of the Missing Head! I'm going to add it to the wish list.

 

I hope you enjoy it if you decide to buy it :).

 

On 7/25/2018 at 1:40 PM, ~Andrea~ said:

You have some great looking books in your collection Gaia!

 

Thanks Andrea :)!

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1 hour ago, Athena said:

 

I hope you enjoy it if you decide to buy it :).

 

 

Ditto. :D  I`ve read the Missing Head book, the first few in his Haunted Guesthouse series, and have got the first in a new series, Written Off, in my TBR pile(s) - he`s an author I`d really recommend, if you like that sort of thing ( ie, a cosier type of mystery ).

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  • 3 months later...

Hey everyone.. I never thought I'd be writing in my log again! I'm not sure yet what I want to do with it. I kind of said goodbye to the forum and have a BookTube channel since a few months (something which I've been wanting to do for the past 5 years). I'm not sure about writing book reviews next to also filming book reviews. But I also know it is not done to link to external content of your own often (and I won't unless someone asks). So maybe I'll make some short book reviews or only review those books that I really liked or didn't like. I certainly don't feel like writing book reviews of all the books I read in between the forum shutting down and it being back, I read about 75ish books in between!

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Thanks Brian :), that means a lot to me.

 

My most recent video that's very much book-related is my October Reading Summary.

 

I will be posting a book review this weekend, of The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton, a book I've been re-reading over the last 8ish months.

 

Most of my book reviews are usually pretty short (5ish mins), though the one for this weekend and the one that's coming next week Wednesday (for some books by Alice Oseman), are both longer videos.

 

My videos are always a bit ahead as I might sometimes not have anything to post for a while if I read something long or if I don't read at all, so I try to space things out, if that makes sense. So I don't need to feel stressed out about having stuff to post.

 

I'm planning on finishing off my current read this afternoon (Het Idee M/V by Asha ten Broeke) and then film a video about it. As it's a Dutch book I know not many people will be able to read it, but I'm thinking there could be a nice discussion about the idea of men / women, gender norms and such. I've made a few videos earlier in the year that talk about this subject a bit as well.

 

Anyway, I'll try to post and link to my video of the Hamilton book in the weekend when it's up :).

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Here's the link to my video review of The Neutronium Alchemist (Night's Dawn 2) by Peter F. Hamilton.

 

I've been in a bit of a reading slump the past few days :(. But I've also been quite busy with other things, so maybe I'll feel more like reading once I have less things on my to-do list (which should be soon).

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19 hours ago, bobblybear said:

I hope you get your reading mojo back soon, Gaia!

 

Thanks BB :)! I actually managed to do some reading yesterday :)!

 

14 hours ago, Hayley said:

I agree that you should post your booktube reviews :) I'm sure you'll find a balance between them and your thread too. 

 

I also hope your reading slump ends soon! 

 

Thanks Hayley :)! I'll try to write some reviews in my thread for the books I read from now on as well as linking to my videos :).

 

I'm glad I can say I managed some reading yesterday :). I'm reading Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan, which is a middle-grade contemporary fiction book about a quircky girl who is dealing with grief and is making some new friends. It reads relatively quickly (being a middle-grade book), so it shouldn't take me too long to finish it.

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On 11/20/2018 at 8:47 AM, Athena said:

I'm glad I can say I managed some reading yesterday :). I'm reading Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan, which is a middle-grade contemporary fiction book about a quircky girl who is dealing with grief and is making some new friends. It reads relatively quickly (being a middle-grade book), so it shouldn't take me too long to finish it.

 

I finished Counting by 7s, which was nice. I liked the racial representation, the main character has dark skin and 3 side characters are (half) Vietnamese. I thought the main character Willow might have been a bit too quircky and too much of a genius, but I did enjoy reading about her. Overall I enjoyed this read :).

 

I also read The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. This is a middle-grade fantasy story, and I loved it. It was so magical, with great characters, a nice plot, and it was funny too. I really liked the writing as well.

 

Reviews for these books will be up next week. Reviews posted in the past few weeks:

Solitaire by Alice Oseman, Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Het Idee M/V by Asha ten Broeke (a discussion on the ideas of men and women, and on gender norms)

(Note: linking them like that instead of as a video, because it makes my screen bigger if I do that. I don't mind, but I don't know how it will affect mobile devices so I thought it'd be better to link them like this rather than as a video).

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I read a lot of books during the past week. A read-a-thon on YouTube (BookTube) coincided with our monthly BCF read-a-thon. I read these books during the past week:

 

Elsa Beskow - Olles Skitocht (Olles Skidfärd)
Ton van Reen (ill. The Tjong Khing) - De Avonturen van Tobias: Een Ijskoud Vriendje
Disney - Donald Duck Pocket 216: Een Wonderlijke Kerst
Bat Pat - Bat Pat: De Bevroren Mammoet (Il Mammut Freddoloso)
Geronimo Stilton - Geronimo Stilton 65: Een Magische Kerst (La Magica Notte degli Elfi) (re-read)
Kristien Dieltiens and Erika Cotteleer - De nieuwe knecht van Sinterklaas
Various Authors - Sinterklaasverhalen
Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele - Queer: A Graphic History
Julie Maroh - Blue is the Warmest Colour (Le Bleu est une Couleur Chaude)
Melissa de la Cruz, Nic Stone, Aimee Friedman, Kasie West - Snow in Love
Molly Knox Ostertag - The Witch Boy 1: The Witch Boy
Chii - The Bride Was a Boy

 

Out of these, I liked The Witch Boy the most (and I've already ordered the sequel). Olles Skitocht was a nostalgic read from my childhood. Sinterklaasverhalen (many short stories), Queer: A Graphic History (information with pictures), Blue is the Warmest Colour (graphic novel) and Snow in Love (short story collection) were a bit of a mixed bag for me. The Stilton was a re-read. Some of these books were Christmassy, 2 were Sinterklaas-related. Several had queer elements.

 

See my video for a bit more detailed reviews of these books.

 

I'm currently reading An Asperger's Mystery 3: The Question of the Felonious Friend by E. J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen, together with Sarah (Little Pixie).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Recent reads:

 

E. J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen - An Asperger's Mystery 3: The Question of the Felonious Friend

I read this mystery together with Sarah (Little Pixie), we both enjoyed it a lot :).


Courtney Stevens - Dress Codes for Small Towns

This was just an allright read for me. There were some elements I liked and some elements I didn't like. I liked that religion played a part in the book, I liked reading about small town village life, and the LGBT+ elements. I had trouble getting into the book at the beginning. I couldn't quite relate to Billy and her group of friends in the book. I didn't always feel like continuing reading and I debated abandoning/dnf-ing the book in the beginning, but it came highly recommended by someone so I didn't want to give up too soon. I'm still glad I read the book even if it was just an allright read for me.

 

Gloria Chao - American Panda

I liked this book, but didn't love it. I'm not sure what I didn't like about it though. I liked to read about the Chinese/Taiwanese culture, and I liked that the book used some Chinese phrases and words. I liked Mei's germ fear and I liked some of the characters. I also liked the plot twists. I didn't always feel like picking up the book though.

 

I'm currently reading The Mother of All Christmases by Milly Johnson. I hope to finish it at least before the end of the year, hopefully a bit sooner than that. I've currently read 260 books and 59,692 pages. If I finish my current read before the end of the year, I'll have read 261 books and just over 60,000 pages (the book is just over 500 pages long). I don't know if I'll read another book by the end of the year, after this one. We'll see. The end of the year is usually pretty busy and a different routine so I'm not sure how things will go.

 

Is anyone else already thinking about how they're going to set up their 2019 thread? I have been thinking about it :).

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On 12/26/2018 at 1:12 PM, Athena said:

. I've currently read 260 books and 59,692 pages. If I finish my current read before the end of the year, I'll have read 261 books and just over 60,000 pages (the book is just over 500 pages long). I don't know if I'll read another book by the end of the year, after this one. We'll see. The end of the year is usually pretty busy and a different routine so I'm not sure how things will go.

 

Is anyone else already thinking about how they're going to set up their 2019 thread? I have been thinking about it :).

wow! this is an amazing amount! 

 

I haven't thought about how I'm going to set up my 2019 reads yet, I've decided not to make a Goodreads goal though. I'd prefer to log everything on this board and in the book log I got for christmas.

 

I hope you read some excellent books in 2019!:hny:

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