Tag: 2016 Hub Reading Challenge

2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #20

Not signed up yet – there’s still time! –  for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm EST on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challengeHey Hub Challengers, we’re getting down to the last days of the challenge. There’s only 11 days left to read all the books on the awesome list so if you’re just starting you only need to read about 2 books a day and you’ll make it. Totally doable, right? Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #20

2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #19

Not signed up yet for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm EST on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

I am pretty excited that it is summer. I know it might not technically be summer yet, but it is definitely in sight and I am personally looking forward to it! Summer is the perfect season to take a good book on vacation or read outside after a day at work, so I’d love to hear from you in the comments about where you’re reading and listening to your books these days.

Cover-of-Sacred-Heart

My most recent Hub Challenge book was Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia. I had no idea what to expect going into this particular book. I wasn’t familiar with Liz Suburbia’s work before this book, but I did know that Sacred Heart had won a number of accolades, including an Alex Award and a spot on the 2016 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Top Ten list. I also knew that it started as a webcomic. With this knowledge, I decided to delve into the story, which is simultaneously a comic about high school that feels as though it will be very relatable to a wide range of readers, and a mysterious story of a town where all of the adults have disappeared. Suburbia chooses to handle this central mystery very peripherally, particularly at first. Though many characters mention parents and other adults and their absence, it is not the focus of the story. This gives the reader a feeling of having been dropped into a world that has been dealing with the absence of adults for some time and allows Suburbia to explore the impact this has over time. While I don’t want to give too much away, I will say that most all readers will find something that surprises them as this story proceeds. If you want to learn more about the book, check out Elizabeth Norton’s Hub interview with Liz Suburbia.

sacred-heart-sample-page

I actually haven’t decided what I am going to read next, so I would love to hear recommendations in the comments! Which book have you read for the Hub Challenge that you loved? Or that you think people might have missed but should really read? Any books that got you interested in a whole new genre? How about a new format, like a book that made you love audiobooks or graphic novels more than ever before? Let me know in the comments! I can’t wait to see what you recommend as my next book. And, be sure to share any other thoughts you have on the books you’re reading for the Hub Challenge in the comments below, on Goodreads, or using the #hubchallenge hashtag on Instagram and Twitter.  Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #19

2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #16

Not signed up yet for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm EST on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

 

There’s a first time for everything, they say, and Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson has the honor of being the first non picture book that my daughter read first and then recommended to me.  She’s seven, so the recommendations usually flow the other direction, but if Roller Girl is the caliber of suggestion I have to look forward to I am in good hands for sure.  A 2016 Newbery Honor book, in addition to showing up on the 2016 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels & Top Ten Popular Paperbacks lists, Roller Girl tells the story of Astrid’s summer at roller derby camp, her struggles with friendships both old and new, and the looming specter of middle school. Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #16

2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #14

Not signed up yet for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm EST on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

 

I’m feeling a little shocked that it’s May already (I work in a school; crunch-time is descending!), but there are still over seven weeks of reading time left in this year’s Hub Reading Challenge, and I’ve got lots of titles I’m hoping to fit in before June 23rd.

Lately, I’ve read the latest Ms. Marvel installments (Vol. 3: Crushed, from the 2016 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Top Ten list, and Vol. 4: Last Days as well, which is not for the Hub 2016 Reading Challenge, but I really really love Ms. Marvel, so I’m planning to keep reading the series as long as G. Willow Wilson is writing them). I also finally got my hands on Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (this year’s Morris Award Winner), and am half-way through The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds, a 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book.

 

Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #14

2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #13

Not signed up for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

Hello fellow Challengers! How is your reading? Recently, I’ve finished What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe, Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa, and More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera and the three books are very different. What If is just an incredibly fun read. I actually let myself fall behind on some beloved podcasts to listen to What If at the gym instead, which is really saying something! Wil Wheaton does a great job narrating and the questions are truly absurd and entertaining.

Fans of the Impossible Life and More Happy Than Not are more similar because they are more serious works of fiction. And yet More Happy Than Not is about learning to deal with memories and past events when it seems easier to forget and Fans of the Impossible Life is not about running away from the bad stuff but trying heal and embrace it. Both were really lovely and I especially liked how Silvera explored the nature of identity and the weight of our pasts in More Happy Than Not. Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #13

2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #12

Not signed up for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

 

It took me awhile, but I finally finished lluminae: The Illuminae Files_01 by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, which I read and loved, though I sort of wish I’d listened to it instead (it’s a 2016 Top Ten Amazing Audiobook.)  I was swept away by the action almost instantly, but the format…the format was so disruptive for me I found reading it a bit of a struggle.  I generally enjoy books with unusual storytelling–epistolary, journal entries, and the like–but the actual printed formatting of lluminae kept pulling me out of the experience as I scanned to see which bits I could skip (I found the document headings and page detritus were pretty repetitive and unnecessary except as decoration to add an air of authenticity.)  Plus, I found turning the book this way and that in order to read one particular characters’ sections was difficult; lluminae is not a small book! Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #12

2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #11

Not signed up for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

I’ve been on a graphic novel and nonfiction streak.

I finally read Nimona, and thought it was a lot of fun. I’m not generally a fan of manga, but A Silent Voice was a great look at bullying and people with disabilities, and seemed to be a very sensitive portrayal of the characters. The teens in my library tend to be drawn to the fantasy and action-filled manga, so I was glad to familiarize myself with this title so I could potentially recommend something a little different to them. I was a big fan of My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf, so I was excited to check out Trashed. I was surprised by how much research went in to it!  Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #11

2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #10

Not signed up for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

My Challenge reading has slowed down in recent weeks due to other titles demanding my attention (book club picks, adult nonfiction, and recommendations from patrons), but we’ve got over two months still to read, so I’m feeling good about my progress. The most recent titles I’ve finished are Mike Mullin’s Ashfall, and Lumberjanes, Vol. 2: Friendship to the Max. Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-in #10

2016 Hub Challenge Check-In #9

Not signed up yet for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm EST on June 23, so sign up now!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

This has not been my most successful Hub Challenge year, due a lot to the 500+ page adult book I’m working on and my discovery that I like video games, but I am trying! I’m a little behind but the two most recent titles that I’ve read I have really enjoyed. First was Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I actually started it in February and then put it down. At the time, I wasn’t able to commit my full attention to is and I felt like the book –  which is a letter to his son about police violence, institutional racism, and the joy and pain of African American and black cultures –  deserved more. So I waited a week or two and started again when I had fewer distractions. It’s a very interesting and different for me since I have very little experience with the situations that Coates describes: I’m white and from a relatively privileged background. But I think it’s so important to read outside your experience in order to have empathy, compassion, and just plain knowledge of people different from you. Coates’ writing is lyrical and moving and worth taking time to digest. I hope this book is required reading while also hoping that someday our lives will be such that African American sons won’t need books like this from their fathers. Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-In #9

2016 Hub Challenge Check-In #8

Not signed up yet for YALSA’s 2016 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since the awards were announced counts, and the challenge runs until 11:59pm EST on June 23, so sign up now!

I can’t believe how this winter flew by! Today is officially the first day of spring and, at least here, it has been feeling more like spring every day. If winter has had you feeling cooped up and not in the mood to read, now is the perfect time to grab one of the Challenge books and take it outside to read in the fresh spring air!

the hub 2016 reading challenge

Recently, I’ve been rereading another favorite from last year that made more than one of the lists, Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson. This graphic novel not only made the 2016 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Top Ten but also found its way onto the 2016 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Top Ten. And, to top it off, it was also a Newbery Honor Award winner. The story follows 12-year old Astrid as she signs up for a roller derby summer camp and comes to terms with changes in her friendship with her closest friend as their interests and passions start to diverge. This book has the potential to appeal to a wide range of age groups and reading styles. Best of all, it has great tie-in potential with the fitness/sports theme that many summer reading programs are adopting this year. I highly recommend reading this book; not only am I sure that you will enjoy it, but I am guessing that you will end up recommending it to friends and patrons alike. Continue reading 2016 Hub Challenge Check-In #8