Winter Biannual Bibliothon 2017 Reading Challenges TBR

I'm looking forward to this already. 2016 was not the best year for readathons and I'm not entirely sure that 2017 will be much better, but I have to start somewhere and that somewhere is going to be the Winter Biannual Bibliothon 2017. As a book blogger, not a bookTuber, the video challenges are exciting but not so much for me, but the reading challenges went up today and I wanted to make a TBR right away because why the heck not?

Challenge One: Read the Group Book

I've actually got this out from the library right now, but I won't have time to really give it a go before it has to go back, so I won't actually start it. Hopefully I'll pick up my own copy sometime between now and the bibliothon, or I can always request it again.

Challenge Two: Throwback - Pick any past Bibliothon Reading Challenge

Read a book with your favorite mythical character

In my case, that would be mermaids. I love all the stories about mermaids as a child and would often pretend I was one. I think that was the only reason I joined the swim team in high school. I love swimming, but dear god did I hate doing it competitively, so major oops on that end.

This book has been on my shelf for ages, so I'd like to finally get to it and see if it's worth it. There are a few books in the series by now, so if I really like it I can pick up the rest.

Challenge Three: Read a 2016 New Release

I've had this one on my shelf since it came out and I'm annoyed that it's taken me this long to get around to it. It might be a good one to read in the middle of winter, though. I don't really care for the heat, but the middle of January in New Jersey can get a bit bleak so this sounds like the ticket for a cheer up.

Challenge Four: Read a book a BookTuber recommends to you

Thank you to MissSassieKassie for this recommendation. I think I tried it once and it wasn't for me, but it's been awhile so why not give it another shot?

Challenge Five: Read a book you were really excited for but never picked up

This is supposed to be a loose Beauty and the Beast retelling. That is one of my favorite stories of all time, so of course I was excited when I heard about it. I just never really got around to reading it, even though I own it and the sequel. 

Challenge Six: Read a retelling

I'm 90% sure this is going to be in a subscription box I get for November, so I'll try to save it for the bibliothon. :)

Challenge Seven: Read a diverse book

I'd meant to read this for a past readathon, but didn't make it so I'll put it here and hopefully check it out. The premise sounds really unique and interesting, so I might even go "out of order" and do challenge seven first!



So there you have my intended books for the Winter Biannual Bibliothon. If you want to check it out, the reading challenge video is here and the video challenge video is here. It's always a lot of fun to watch the videos, even if I don't make any. The New Year should be fun!

All pictures, quotes, and videos belong to their respective owners. I use them here solely for the purpose of review and commentary.

#ReadThemAllThon & Review: Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

I've had a bit of a slow start to the #ReadThemAllThon but this weekend has started off great. I finished off my first book, Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and I've got the review below. My Happiny will be evolving to a Chansey before you know it.

I want to take a moment to thank Aimal from Bookshelves and Paperbacks for making and maintaing the graphic you see above. She made a great way to showcase the info about my Pokemon, her current stats, and what Gym Badges I've earned so far.

With the completion of Aristotle & Dante, I've earned the Rainbow Badge for reading a book featuring diversity.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Amazon  -  Barnes & Noble  -  Booksamillion

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Rating: 3.5 Stars 

As I read this for the #ReadThemAllThon specifically for one challenge regarding diversity, I was glad to have picked a book that turned out so well in showcasing what I was looking for. There was a lot shown here about the duality of being a Mexican-American and the difficulties that lie within. Ari showed us not only his own struggles through his internal monologue, but through his relationship with Dante we learned about Dante's struggle with not feeling one half of his heritage. Through Ari's interactions with his parents we hear about his family still in Mexico versus family members that have left for new lives in the States. The contrast between their lives is interesting to view, especially as Ari seems them and reconciles them to his own experiences.

What I liked about the romantic aspect of the story was that it was introduced slowly and very subtly.  I almost wasn't sure where things were going to end up until the last few chapters in the book when something tragic happens and Ari really starts figuring things out not only about himself, but about the people he surrounds himself with. He starts discovering the answers to questions that have hounded him all of his life: what happened to my brother? Why do we pretend he doesn't exist? Why do I always feel like something is off? Watching him struggle made this book so sad to read at times, but that made it more real than if  there weren't a struggle.

I read this in two different ways, as I had to work during the majority of the time I wanted to read it. The audio book from Audible is narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame and I thought he did a good job. Something I noticed, though, was that listening to the book, I felt like there were parts of the book that dragged more than when I went back and reread them. Now, I'm not sure if this had to do with those portions being a reread section, but the audio was good but not great. Reading it through on my own was a better experience in the long run, though I want to thank Miranda for being an excellent narrator and getting the pronunciations of all the Spanish words correct.

Overall, the experience of reading this book was a good one. I was engaged in finding out why Ari was the way he was, how Dante fit into all of this, and what they meant to each other. While it was good,  I can't say the story blew me away, hence the 3.5 star rating.







All pictures, quotes, and videos belong to their respective owners. I use them here solely for the purpose of review and commentary.

Biannual Bibliothon Wrap-up

This was my first readathon of the year. It did not go as well as I had planned, but it takes awhile to get into the swing of things, so that's okay.

What I did manage to read was pretty fantastic, so I'll count this one as a win, even if I didn't meet all of the challenges.

The Challenges

1. Read the Group Book
2. Read a book that has been sitting on your shelf for over a year
3. Read a book over 300 pages
4. Read a book from your favorite genre
5. Re-read your favorite book in a series
6. Judge a book by it's cover: read a book that you haven't read the synopsis of or with a synopsis you can't remember
7. Read a book that has been recommended to you more than once

I managed to read three of the seven books I intended to read: Saga, Volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughn (#4), Binge by Tyler Oakley (#6), and Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (#7).

Three books is actually pretty good. Saga was amazing, as per usual, though the clffhanger is killer and I'm anxiously awaiting the release of volume 6.

Binge had some pretty dull essays at the beginning, but I am glad that I read past them because there were some much better ones in the later half of the book.

Red Queen was very enjoyable. I did have a couple of problems with some of the characters, namely the MC Mare, and her behavior changing drastically in such short periods of time. The twists at the end, though, had me very happy that I'd pre-ordered Glass Sword.

At the time of writing this post I'm almost done with my next readathon and it isn't going nearly so well as the Biannual Bibliothon did. I better get back to reading. ;)