Faith, Hope, and Love

May is National Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, so I choose to read books that featured Asian characters and/or dealt with mental illnesses in some way. There were a few books that didn't fit into this reading theme (I'm not great at sticking to strict reading plans, plus when a library hold comes in, you gotta read what you gotta read before due dates and stuff), but here's what my reading looked like in May! 1. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.  This was a quick, short read. And the ending ultimately threw me. It's about a rich family who spends every summer on their private island. Until one summer, something happens. The second half of the book follows the main character trying to heal from the trauma of whatever happened, as well as try to figure out what  happened.  She's an unreliable narrator, and so the ending definitely was unexpected and the twist kind of crushed me.  2. Afterward  by ...

Very delayed on this post, I know! But here's what I've read for the last three months + how I'm doing on the MMD Reading Challenge! Books Read February 2018: Because February is Black History Month, my goal was to read only black authors. This was a really enjoyable month, and I finally got to read books that have been on my TBR list for years (like Alice Walker's The Color Purple ). One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia The Color Purple by Alice Walker All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison How to Fix a Broken Record by Amena Brown P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia American Street by Ibi Zoboi Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia If I had to pick a favorite... do I have to? They were all so good! For so many different reasons! If I had to pick a least favorite... maybe American Street, but mostly becau...

January marks the start of a new year and is all about follow-through on resolutions, so it only felt right that most of the books I read were either new releases or books that have been on my TBR for way to long! Here's what I've been reading lately... 1. Denton Little's Deathdate : This is a book I bought in the Spring of 2017, and it had been sitting on one of my side tables for months. So, on January 1st, I was resolved to get through that stack before the end of the month. I have not  be successful in getting through all the books (especially because a few more keep getting added), but Denton Little got me started! I thought this book was funny and super engaging. Imagine if we lived in a word where we knew the day we would die from the day we were born. That's the world Denton Little lives in. This books takes us through the 48 hours before he is supposed to die. I won't say much more, except that secrets are revealed and surprises abound. And... ...

A new year means a new reading challenge! And the blog behind one of my favorite podcasts, What Should I Read Next? , has the perfect list to tackle. It's short and simple. Twelve categories (so you could say one per month), with good variety (to ensure you push yourself in your reading habits). I first heard of the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge back in 2016 from my dear friend and fellow reader, Erica. However, I didn't actually complete the challenge until last year (and MMD had TWO lists , so I felt pretty accomplished to finish both). Because of the 2017 MMD Reading Challenge, I ... Finally  Little Women (it was a book that was more than 600 pages). While I have seem the movies plenty of times, and have read the sequel Little Men  more than I can count, I realized that I never actually finished Little Women  after I once tried to read it when I was around 8 years old. I only got through Book 1 and never came back to it. Well, finally did in 2017! Got...

Every so often, people ask me, "How many books to do you read?" It's a question I never knew the answer to because I had never thought about keeping track. Reading wasn't a competition, nor was I attempting to attain a medal for it. I never set reading goals. I just read . However, the question got asked more and more often, and so last summer, I decided to keep track. I wrote down how many books I'd read the summer of 2016 and kept at it once school began in the fall. And between June 2016 and December 2016, I had read 88 books. Close to 100 books, and that was missing 5 months! So for 2017, I decided to keep track for the whole year. Each month, I would jot down the title of each book as I finished it. On average, I read about 10 books a month. Some months I read more, some less. Length and genre varied, although I did try to push myself to read one non-fiction book a month  (and didn't always succeed). And... I ended 2017 with 152 books under m...

Towards the end of my summer, I had the chance to visit Portland, Oregon. I started the journey in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Took the train to Chicago. And then went from Chicago to Portland over 46 hours.  But that is the story for another blog, another day. I loved Portland, and my friend Dam and I did pretty much everything we could squeeze in within the four days we had: The Zoo, The Rose Garden, The Japanese Garden, The Pink Trolley, Powell's City of Books, Saturday Market, Multnomah Falls...  Dam and I in front of the Multnomah Falls But there was one thing on my list that I didn't get to: The Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden  + taking a walking tour around her neighborhood. I even bought a book to help make the experience complete!  I was only going to get the Ramona book, but I believe very book needs a friend. And it was ANNE... how could I resist? I almost stole the book versus paying for it, since it says it technically isn't il...