Tuesday Talks | Is Reading Graphic Novels/Manga Actual Reading?

Hello all! This Tuesday Talks will be posted on Wednesday technically, since I'm currently typing at two minutes to midnight. My crazy month of March is finally winding down and now I will be entering an equally crazy April! You can find me here every Tuesday to discuss more bookish topics. Join the goodreads group here.

Graphic Novels/Manga

Up until very recently I had never tried reading a graphic novel. I finally read one and really enjoyed it. The experience was very different from reading a novel composed entirely of words, but was enjoyable nonetheless. Graphic novels and Manga are just different ways to tell a story. They are still written, but they are also drawn. So do I consider reading these types of stories reading? Yes. 

That being said, I can understand why you may not include graphic novels/manga in some reading contests and things because they are generally faster reads than other forms of novels or audibooks because all of the description we're used to being written is now depicted in picture form. So I can see why it may not always be categorized with other reading for certain reasons, but it's still reading. The written word is still being used to convey a story to a reader, it's just paired with a visual now. 

I do think that novels generally hold more substance than graphic novels/manga, purely because there is so much that can be conveyed through word that I think sometimes is lost in visual representations. I know many people who think the exact opposite though, so it all depends on the person and their preferences. 

This is a short, somewhat scattered post, but share with me your thoughts in the comments! Do you consider reading graphic novels/manga reading? Or would you call it something else? Do you think that they represent a different kind of storytelling? Let me know your thoughts below! 

Tuesday Talks | Is Listening to Audiobooks reading?

Hello, book loving friends! I haven't been active on my blog a ton this month due to a reading challenge I've been doing, but I'm here to give you another round of Tuesday Talks! You can find out more about the group and the creators Janie and Janelle by visiting the goodreads group here. Come discuss fun bookish things with us!

Does Listening to Audiobooks Count as Reading?

Personally I'm not much of an audiobook person. I definitely think it counts as reading, it's just a different form. I can't take that much auditory stimulus (seriously, I can read for hours from a book but listening for more than maybe one or two kills my head). 

One of the beautiful things about audiobooks is that you can listen and get the fun and intellectual stimulus you're seeking from a book while you're driving or running or any number of other activities. Driving tends to be the only time that I listen to audio and even then only rarely. I can definitely see the perks and I know people who listen to dozens of audiobooks while traveling, so I think that it's great we have that option. 

I know some people may not consider listening to a book reading, but to me it's the same thing. We might get different things from reading ourselves and having the story read to us, but overall the experience is the same. We listen because we love the stories, the writing, the beauty of the written word. And when a book is brilliant in audio form that pretty much means it's just brilliant. 

What are your thoughts, do you think listening to an audiobook is reading? Do you listen to audiobooks? What format do you prefer for your books? Let's discuss this in the comments!

Tuesday Talks | How Do You Choose Your Books?

Tuesday Talks is a weekly discussion hosted through the goodreads group you can find here. We discuss bookish topics each week, so you should join in the fun.

How Do You Choose Your Next Read?

For me, choosing what book to read next is just a random occurrence. Occasionally I have a set list for a certain month or something, but usually I just go from book to book. Over the past few months, since starting to review books for authors, my reading has been on a random track.

I don't like to completely structure my reading list, because I tend to get burned out when I have a list of books that I tell myself I have to read. Instead I just randomly choose a book. Sometimes this is based off the unread books I have on my shelf, a suggestion from a friend, something I randomly pick up at the library, a book randomly selected from my to-read shelf on goodreads, or a book I pick up to review for someone. I find that selecting books this way gives me more enjoyment in my reading time. 

Sometimes I do have a set book that I plan to read in a given month. This usually happens when I'm doing readalongs or something. Otherwise, I pick up the book that I feel the most like reading. This is occasionally based on the length of the book or the genre as well. If I feel like I need a break from a certain genre or that a certain book will take more dedication than I can devote at the time, then I will pick up something else, even if I really want to read the book.

So my basic answer to this weeks discussion topic is that I choose at random. I just grab a book that looks interesting and go with it. Usually this works really well for me. 

What about you? How do you decide what book to read next? Let me know in the comments below!

  

Into the Deep End~Leesa Freeman | Review

Title: Into the Deep End
Author: Leesa Freeman
Genre: Contemporary/Romance/Inspirational
Publication: March 2015
My Rating: 4/5 Stars

I received a free ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

Luke used to have a future. He was going to swim in the Olympics and graduate college along with his twin sister Bethany.

Adriana used to have dreams. She was going to marry Rob, Luke's best friend, and build a life with him. 

But life had other plans for this pair. After surviving an accident that took the lives of both Bethany and Rob, Luke and Adriana are barely surviving. Now Luke is confined to a wheelchair and Adriana is afraid to live. 

After being forced into working at a summer camp for children with special needs, Luke and Adriana start to heal and open up to the possibility of a new future. 

Review

"I knew without a shadow of a doubt that all it would take to fall was a whisper, a featherlight touch, a breath, and I'd shatter in her hands."

This novel is full of emotional highs and lows, love, heartache, the deep chasms created by profound loss. It has all of this and more. The novel is told in first person from Luke's perspective, picking up months after the accident that put him in a wheelchair. We get to see him struggle with himself, trying to embrace the life that he can't change. 

I have always had an extreme fear of breaking my back, or having some other form of spinal injury, so reading about Luke's injury was intense for me. Maybe if I didn't have that fear I wouldn't have appreciated this portion so much, but when he talked about his injury I felt his pain. I felt like I was there, feeling what he felt. It would definitely be a challenge to have to face all of the tasks you once did with ease, now knowing if you would ever be able to do them again. 

Luke was a great main character. His struggles were so true to life and charged with intense emotion. Freeman did a wonderful job showing his pain over the loss of his sister and best friend. His memories of Bethany were some of the most powerful things in the novel for me. I felt like she was just as much a character as any of the living characters, and I really appreciated that. Sometimes I feel like these characters are glossed over in novels, and we don't really get to see how they shaped the other characters, but here it was great to see just how important Bethany had been in Luke's life. 

The relationship between Luke and Adriana was beautiful and sad as well. Obviously there was some form of survivors guilt after the accident and again we actually get to experience some of that guilt and pain along with them. It really was beautiful. 

The rest of the characters were great too. I really enjoyed Gina. She was so full of life and wanted to push everyone to be the best they could be. It was great. Uncle Wally and the rest of the people at the ranch were great during their appearances as well. And Will was a great friend to Luke and Adriana. Luke and Adriana's families were also a great addition to the story. You got to experience some of the pain of the accident from several different perspectives.

Overall it was a really nice, emotion infused novel. There is some strong language at times and a few sexual scenes, but none particularly graphic. If you enjoy contemporary novels, you are likely to enjoy this. Be prepared for an emotionally charged read infused with life lessons about learning to face your fears and continuing to live even through heartbreak. 

You can order the book on Amazon(US link) here: Into the Deep End 

    

Tuesday Talks | Should Authors Provide Books For Reviewers?

Tuesday Talks is a weekly discussion group where we discuss bookish topics. You can find the goodreads group here if you would like to participate or find out who else is doing Tuesday Talks!

Should Authors Provide Their Book For Review?

Since having my blog and booktube for the past six months or so, I've been given many free copies of novels in exchange for review. I love helping authors by reviewing their novels and they are seeking the feedback. Personally I think giving free copies (whether physical or eBook) is a good policy for authors who are just starting out. Of course they want to sell their books, but they also need to develop a group of readers so that someone will want to buy their books. 

Being an aspiring author, I plan to seek beta readers and reviewers who will read in exchange for a copy of my book. One day I would like to be able to sell more copies than I'm giving away, obviously, but as an author it's important to develop a reputation with your target audience. And what better way to develop that relationship than to offer up your book, free, to bloggers and other reviewers? I think that's the best advertisement you can get. 

This obviously also depends on how the novel is published as well. A self published author may be able to give out eBook copies, but not physical. An author with a publisher likely has to go through that publisher to offer their books. Or the publishers determine how many copies and how they will be given away. So it all depends on the means of publication and what can be afforded by the author/publisher. 

With all that said, I don't think it's wrong to seek reviews where the book must be purchased. I do believe that the author will get more support by offering free copies. I'm an avid reader, but I can't afford to buy every book I'm interested in. I'm more likely to buy books by authors that I already know and like. So giving me a free copy to review helps me determine if you go on my list of authors to buy. I've read several novels that I've gotten for free from authors and then gone and bought the sequel because I liked the first one so much. 

So I think a lot of it has to do with expense and marketing. If you are in a position to offer copies (physical or ebook) then I think it's definitely a great way to get your book read and out there in the public eye. If not, it may just take you longer to get your work noticed. Then again, it may not. It's just something the author has to determine and see where they want to go with it. As a blogger/booktuber, I love receiving free copies and helping spread the word about lesser known writers that I come to appreciate. So I think it's a great thing, but not the only way. 

I hope this post made sense! I'm feeling a little all over the place at the moment. So share your thoughts in the comments. What do you think about authors giving out free copies of their novels in exchange for reviews? Should they? Should the not? Does it matter to you? Let me know down below!  

Avant Nation~C D Verhoff | Review

Title: Avant Nation
Author: C D Verhoff
Genre: YA Dystopia
Publication: March 2015
My Rating: 4/5 Stars

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

Clara Spinner lives in a society where everything has already been predetermined for her. Raised to adolescence in an artificial womb, Clara then begins her life with her family. Clara is a Compassionate. Her genetic code allows her to stay awake for hours and to care deeply. This makes her a perfect candidate for the medical field.

But Clara doesn't see things quite the same way as those around her. She forces herself to accept the society she's always been devoted to, only to have one of the closest people to her ripped away. Then she begins to question once more. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she is sent to the front lines of the war that is being waged with the remainder of people that was once the United States. 

Review

This novel started off rather slowly for me. The concept was very intriguing and I was very excited to read it. I was expecting it to be a bit faster paced, but still found the introduction to the society very interesting. The different groups of people and labeling some as "defective" gave me a Divergent feel, but the stories were quite different. 

About the halfway point the novel picked up and jumped from one exciting event to another. It was hard for me to put the novel down at this point. I read the last half in almost one sitting. Clara is thrown into a war that she's only ever viewed as an outsider. Now she's the center of a mission to extract memories from an important target using equipment only she a few others can operate. But her brain and heart are at war. After losing her sister, one of the people closest to her, she's afraid to open up to anyone else. She's also worried about destroying someone with the memory machine. Because that's the only way to extract the memories they need: to wipe out the person's brain function. 

The story is told in first person from Clara's point of view and she was an easy protagonist to get along with. Unlike many leading characters in dystopias, I didn't feel she was extremely overdone. She was insecure in some ways, she challenged the society to which she had always been devoted, she struggled to reconcile her feelings with what she believed. She was overall a nice character to spend time with. 

Clara's sister is tagged as defective and dragged away to The Spotted Elephant Colony, a place that no one is even sure exists. Clara is desperate to get her back, but doesn't know how to find her. And no one she finds can help her. Her only chance is to get involved with the military and try to get a close enough connection to the top to find out where her sister was taken. I liked the relationship between Clara and her sister. 

There was a slight touch of romance to this story, but it wasn't overdone. I really liked the love interest Hawk. He was an interesting character. There were a few scenes that I thought he got a bit over the top in, but I still really enjoyed him. I loved the fact that they both had their own struggles with the society as well as the things the other did. It wasn't a simple love, but it was cute. 

I'm guessing that this is just the first in a series. The ending leaves us with a definite cliffhanger. I'm definitely looking forward to finding out what happens with Clara and Hawk in any follow up stories. And what they find out about their society and the society of the Luddites (the other nation). And if they find out what exactly happens to those labeled defective. 

Overall this was a fun read. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dystopias. It has some of the regular elements with a few new tweaks of its own. 

  

The Stonekeeper~Kazu Kibuishi | Review

Title: The Stonkeeper (Amulet #1)
Author: Kazu Kibuishi
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy
Length: 192 Pages
Publication: January 2008
My Rating: 5/5 Stars

Synopsis

After the death of her father, Emily moves with her mother and younger brother Navin to an old family home. But everything is not as it seems. Emily finds an amulet and soon must rely on the power it lends her to save her mother from a demon in another world.

Review

This was the first graphic novel that I've ever read (I think) and I thought it was excellent. I do think the beginning could use some tweaking. I just feel it was somewhat too sudden. The accident, being thrown two years into the future, it could have been a bit slower and given us time to connect with Emily rather than forcing us to connect based on her circumstances. 

Once you get into the story it's loads of fun. The world that Emily and her family venture into is fascinating and I loved the illustrations. I'm not sure that graphic novels are completely my thing, but I do appreciate the fact that people can write and illustrate them. It was beautiful. I often paused just to stare at a certain page I found intriguing. 

The story itself reads like a nice middle grades fantasy story. The amulet lends powers to Emily and she has to choose whether to keep it and wield its powers or turn away from the path she's on. The relationship between Emily and Navin was really nice too. They argued like real siblings, but still loved each other. I really appreciate when sibling relationships are given a realistic touch. 

I'm really excited to get into the rest of this series. This one leaves us with an interesting cliff hanger and I'm interested to see where the next one leads. I also can't wait to explore more of this world with its robots and bunnies and powerful amulets. It's really fun and really quick. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a fun graphic novel to try out them out. This is definitely a good one.