Click To Give At The Literacy Site

Do you visit The Literacy Site?

There are several websites where you can click to generate donations from their sponsors to fund various causes, but did you know that there's one that helps to promote literacy? The Literacy Site has funded more than 5 million books for kids in need and you can help participate just by visiting to click for free every day. You can log in and track the difference you make every day, set up reminders through the site so you don't forget and share it on social media, too.

If you want to do more, you can also buy items from the site store or make donations. I really like buying gifts from these sites because you know they're going to a good cause and you can find really unique items for people you care about.

Do you know of any other projects that are promoting literacy and how to help them? Share your links in the chat! 

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Society
Education

May TBR List Time!

What's on your list?

New months are almost as exciting for me as new years. They present a whole new start twelve times a year, so if you feel like the last month didn't really do what you wanted it to do, or that you didn't meet your goals, you get another chance! Yes, I treat Mondays in a similar manner.

Maybe I didn't read as much as I had hoped in April but I have high hopes for May! I just reserved my book club books for the month, which are If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha and A Pho Love Story by Loan Le. While I'm loving contemporary romance lately I'm not really into the YA romance--I still love YA fantasy, which usually has a touch of it--so we'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to more books by Sally Thorne. The Hating Game was one of my April favorites and I have a few on reserve from her! I'm also reading Jen Louden's Why Bother (I also bought the workbook), adrienne maree brown's Emergent Strategy and Mariame Kaba's We Do This Til We Free Us.

What's on your May TBR? Share your books in the chat!

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Entertainment
Books

Your Slowest Turnaround

What book took you ages to read?

Any bookworm knows that there's no race to read a good book. Unless you're avoiding spoilers, I highly recommend taking your time and savoring a book, which can be difficult! How many times have some of us read through a gripping novel only to realize that it's already over before we're ready for it to be?

While I've devoured many a book in hours, I've also taken months, even years, to read some books. It makes sense for books like Simple Abundance or 365 Goddess, books that are meant to be read on the daily that you might forget to read... on the daily. Then there are history books, like the one I'm reading with my teen for a year while we slowly build a timeline. 

But what about fiction? There have been a few books I've enjoyed that I picked up only to not finish before they were due at the library. I've had to re-check out books that were on hold at a later date. Right now I'm experiencing with that with the Scythe series. We started it as a family and had to return it. 

What books have taken you ages to finish? Did you decide to simply not finish any of them? Share them in the chat.

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Entertainment
Books

Virtual Reading Clubs

Share the ones you've enjoyed this year

As much as many kids and adults are suffering from Zoom fatigue, we're still quite grateful for all of the online resources available to us, not only during the pandemic but especially those that are available all of the time, creating a more accessible world for people from more walks of life. Book clubs are one of many of these wonderful resources.

My book club, the Page Turners, has been meeting on Facebook since long before the pandemic began, as has my teen's book club through Secular Academic Eclectic Homeschoolers. Both clubs offer reading guides, discussion questions and a space for members. The latter even has a live video once a month where the teens can discuss the book.

Virtual reading clubs are popping up at libraries across the nation as well, and since they're virtual sign-up often doesn't require living within the district served. Kids can sign up at different libraries to see which programs work best for them.

What online book clubs have you enjoyed this year?

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Entertainment
Books

Goodreads Challenge Check-In

How is yours going?

Can you believe that a third of the year is already over? It's always such a surprise when spring arrives without much warning. When the seasons change it's always a good time to reassess your goals, including the TBR piles!

How is your Goodreads Challenge going? I set a goal of 121 books for the year (yes, I'm going with a 2021 theme but there's no way I'll be able to read 2,021 books!) and I'm currently at 31, which is one book behind schedule. Not bad, not bad. There have been some books that I thoroughly enjoyed and several that were so-so, as well as a couple I just couldn't finish, but nothing that I've loved so much I wanted to re-read again and again... yet.

How about you? How is your challenge going, and have you read anything that has become a new favorite? Share it in the chat.

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Entertainment
Books

Best Books for National Poetry Month

What do you plan on reading?

National Poetry Month is upon us! My family and I used this month to both read and write poetry, so this year I'm hoping to get some good suggestions for reading. We're going to finish our Walt Whitman book (we got a bit behind) but what should we read next?

Here's a list of books coming out this year that we migh consider, but I also saw a book of self-love poetry that looked a bit interesting. I'd love more representation and diversity, though, so I'm especially looking for books by Own Voices.

What are you reading for National Poetry Month? Share your ideas in the chat.

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Entertainment

Spring Must-Reads

What's on your TBR?

Right now I'm finishing up my winter must-read list and I must admit that I went ahead and moved a few to next winter's lists. I never get though the whole list I create for myself, and honestly I think it's a fun problem to have! I will never run out of books that I want to read, for sure. According to Goodreads, I'm one book ahead of schedule for my goal of reading 121 books for the year, so I think it's fair.

Right now I'm on a big romance kick, which I think is just due to me wanting to laugh more during the pandemic. Romance novels filled with humor are my current jam. I haven't read a fantasy novel in months, which just isn't like me, but as long as I'm happy, right? I'd love to find another book like The Kiss Quotient, and A Boy, A Mole, A Fox and A Horse was so moving that I know I want to buy copies for everyone I love. This week I'm supposed to read Dark Fever with my book club but I'm already two days behind, so...

What books are on your TBR for spring? Share them in the chat.

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Entertainment
Books

Your Quickest Turnaround

How fast do you read your books?

When I was young, I used to get a kick out of how fast I read. I wasn't fast at first. I was an early reader, but it took me until second grade to get fast, and that's when my teacher let me check out middle school books because the younger books annoyed me. I remember the first time I read a chapter book and thought each chapter was a different story! Once I got the hang of it I was reading two or three "chapter books" a day, although back then they would be under 200 pages. Today they are door stoppers.

Now I realize that speed isn't everything, and that everyone reads at a different pace. But I'd love to know what book you just devoured because it was that good. Two weeks ago, I consumed The Kiss Quotient. It was absolutely delightful. Then the sequel came in, I read it the same day and it wasn't as good, but it was pretty funny. That's got to be the fastest turnaround I've ever had as an adult.

So what book did you devour out of sheer love? Share it in the chat.

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Entertainment
Books

Own Voices Reads

What have you enjoyed lately?

Lately it feels like if a book isn't written as an example of Own Voices, or authors writing about their own experiences from a marginalized group, I don't want to read it. I'm sure that won't always be the case, and it's not like I don't support all my favorite white authors anymore, but there are a lot of reasons to support #OwnVoices books.

For starters, books written by white authors have been mainstream since... forever. Many of our classics are only classics because white men wrote them and other white men considered them the best books ever. But they're honestly just more interesting to read to me. I hope I don't sound like a jerk who is fetishizing a culture by saying this, but whether I'm reading a book written by a Black person, indigenous person, person with autism, LGBTQ person or anyone else who isn't a cis white author, the stories are richer. There's just perspectives I've never encountered and I crave more of it.

So what #OwnVoices books have you been reading lately? Share your favorites in the chat!
 

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Entertainment
Books

March Reading Challenges

What are you reading?

Can you believe it's already March? While I didn't read everything on my TBR for February, I definitely read a lot of what I had planned on reading and then some that I hadn't, so I'm pretty satisfied. Some people in my book club make little graphics of the books they read for the month, which are pretty cute.

What kinds of challenges are you doing for March? We're doing Musical March as a family this month in terms of movies, so that doesn't go well with reading like our Fantasy February always does. This looks like a fun reading challenge, and I've really enjoyed the monthly ones here. They're nice and easy, with just a few prompts per month.

Do you have any fun or unique reading challenges this month? What's on your TBR?

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Entertainment
Books

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