Between The Pages discussion

Team Members

Sarah D
Jonathan
Eileen
Sylvs

Awesome! Looking forward to this! I'm in the middle of a time crunch this week, but I want to sit down and figure out books I can use for the prompts. Some of them are definitely challenging!

Eileen wrote: "Awesome! Looking forward to this! I'm in the middle of a time crunch this week, but I want to sit down and figure out books I can use for the prompts. Some of them are definitely challenging!"

Haha we're glad! They're not meant to be easy!

Yay, go team! I'm planning on making my way through the Diversity and All for One categories. Excited for this nudge to read some great YA.

Sarah, I would love to try to make my way through the Diversity category and Genre, so maybe we can help each other think of books for our categories. I think I read a couple of books for that category in January, but obviously that won't help, ha ha!

For sure, Eileen! Here's what I'm planning for the Diversity prompts (in spoiler tags in case folks wanna skip):

(view spoiler)[
LGBTQ+ Main Character - Cemetery Boys
BIPOC Author - Binti
Trans Rep - Felix Ever After
Neurodivergent Rep - Queens of Geek
Disability Rep - The Silence Between Us
Mental Health Rep - Me
Asian Author - Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Non-Binary Rep - I Wish You All the Best

Happy to share more options for individual prompts you're thinking about! (hide spoiler)]

Oooh those seem really cool! Queens of Geek was so good

Ooh, very nice! So far I have (view spoiler)[The Kiss Quotient (hide spoiler)] for Neurodivergent Rep, but that's it. I might try Binti because I loved her Akata Warrior trilogy. Here's my potential list for Tropes, but I'm having trouble finding Forced Proximity:

(view spoiler)[
Enemies to Lovers The Spanish Love Deception
Fake Dating The Love Hypothesis
Chosen One Wild Magic
Only One Bed The Hating Game
Forced Proximity ????
Friends to Lovers People We Meet on Vacation
Love Triangle The Lightning-Struck Heart
Found Family Under the Whispering Door
(hide spoiler)]
The one for Only One Bed could be used for Forced Proximity since it's not exactly one bed--it's a tight office. But then I would need a book for Only One Bed. The last two are from one of my favorite authors and I've read and loved the Verania books, but now I have the audiobooks so I want to listen to them!

Here's a Bookriot blog on example plot themes within the forced proximity trope that people might not think of. Perhaps it'll spark some ideas? https://bookriot.com/forced-proximity...
A recent recommendation that I'd like to read at some point is The Voting Booth where the two main characters spend the day together because of the election deadline and voting rights obstacles. It might not be what you're looking for but was the first that came to mind.

Eileen wrote: "Ooh, very nice! So far I have [spoilers removed] for Neurodivergent Rep, but that's it. I might try Binti because I loved her Akata Warrior trilogy. Here's my potential list for Tropes, but I'm hav..."

Forced proximity is like if the main character or love interest are forced into a situation together or are stuck together for a period of time. Books I know that have good forced proximity is Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett where two characters get lost in the wilderness together and By Your Side by Kasie West where two characters are stuck in a library together. You can definitely check those out if you want :)

Sarah D wrote: "Here's a Bookriot blog on example plot themes within the forced proximity trope that people might not think of. Perhaps it'll spark some ideas? https://bookriot.com/forced-proximity......"

Oh, I loved The Voting Booth! I read that one as an ARC! It was quite good! Sylvs, I'll take a look at the other two and see if anything strikes me!

By the way, I was lookng at the All For One. I am not on Instagram or tiktok that often, but are there places where I can look at lists of books that have been recommended? Also what are the Book Shimmy Awards?

Eileen wrote: "By the way, I was lookng at the All For One. I am not on Instagram or tiktok that often, but are there places where I can look at lists of books that have been recommended? Also what are the Book S..."

Yeah, I love the All for One category because I had to do some research lol. Epic Reads launched the Book Shimmy Awards a decade ago for YA. Here are the 2021 winners: https://www.epicreads.com/bookshimmya...
I'm gonna read Six Crimson Cranes for that one.

You can search the #bookstagram hashtag: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tag... OR just google Booktok and a bunch of lists will show up. Here's one for recent trends: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bookt...

Eileen wrote: "By the way, I was lookng at the All For One. I am not on Instagram or tiktok that often, but are there places where I can look at lists of books that have been recommended? Also what are the Book S..."

Usually books that are posted regularly on TikTok or Instagram are pretty hyped up ones. You can probably check out the New York Times bestseller list because guaranteed a majority would've appeared there from social media. Some I know that have been super hyped up for me on bookstagram have been Iron Widow, These Violent Delights, Kingdom of the Wicked, From Blood and Ash and my current read, The Hating Game.

Also the book shimmy awards is an end of year award that @epicreads posts where readers pick their favourite YA books of the year. These were the 2021 winners: https://www.epicreads.com/bookshimmya...

Sarah D wrote: "Eileen wrote: "By the way, I was lookng at the All For One. I am not on Instagram or tiktok that often, but are there places where I can look at lists of books that have been recommended? Also what..."

It's meant to be challenging ;) also side note, Lore is our BOTM for this month and it's also a Book Shimmy Award winner so if you want some extra points they're definitely up for the taking :)

I LOVE Lore. Hmm...maybe I should give that a reread. I read it as an ARC before it was published, so maybe I should listen to it. If I can fit it in, I'll do so!

Okay, wow, I've read 7 of the books that won the Book Shimmy Award, lol!

I'll try to fit Lore in too (especially if my other Shimmy pick doesn't become available from the library in time).

Also @Eileen, your review of Barakah Beats makes me wanna read that asap! Looks like a must-read middle grade.

Sarah, I think I might read Bronzed Beasts for the Shimmy Pick, unless my request for Lore comes in on time. I'll save that slot for later. Supposedly it will become available from my library in 7 weeks, but it's usually faster than estimated.

And I'm glad my review made the Baraka Beats interesting. My sister recommended that one to me, and I'm so glad she did!

Yay! I now have an excuse to read my Fairyloot edition of Lore ;) I'm just trying to get through The Hating Game now. I'm hoping to focus on Crescent City and A Conjuring of Light this month so we might be able to get some extra page points from that since they are 600-800 pages.

I think I have a book for each of the Tropes, but haven't started them yet. However, I've made a serious dent in the Diversity category. Bitter was the latest for LGBTQ+ Main Character and it blew my socks off. But the other two books I've read by the author have been equally good, so I was pretty sure I'd like this one. I also read a collection of Amanda Gorman Poems, plus a children's book for BIPOC Author. The Goldfish Boy was pretty cool for Mental Health Rep, and I mentioned Baraka beats up above. I also read New Kid, which was a graphic novel for First Book in a Duology. And Graveyard Book worked great for Britain. None of my books are especially long so far, but I'm having a blast with them. I did rack up some points for the Jimmy Carter Book (His Very Best) since it's 800 points and I wrote a review. But no prompt for that one, lol.

Eileen wrote: "I think I have a book for each of the Tropes, but haven't started them yet. However, I've made a serious dent in the Diversity category. Bitter was the latest for LGBTQ+ Main Charac..."

Excited to check out Bitter!

Eileen wrote: "I think I have a book for each of the Tropes, but haven't started them yet. However, I've made a serious dent in the Diversity category. Bitter was the latest for LGBTQ+ Main Charac..."

Oooh nice work Eileen! I'm just finishing off the Hating Game today and will try finishing off the rest of my currently reading shelf. Vespertine is probably next. I've read 57 pages so far. It's much darker than her other books.

Sarah D wrote: "Eileen wrote: "I think I have a book for each of the Tropes, but haven't started them yet. However, I've made a serious dent in the Diversity category. Bitter was the latest for LGB..."

That one's on my TBR!

I enjoyed Vespertine quite a bit, but I agree with you that it's fairly dark. I haven't read any other works by that author though. I can't wait to see what you all think of Bitter. I loved their two other books and I will now read Pet, which is the first book of the Bitter Series. I didn't realize right off that Bitter was a prequel. What would you all recommend for IloveOzYA? Does it have to be set in Australia or can it be by an Australian author? I was seriously thinking of doing a reread of Abhorsen which takes place in the Old Kingdom (fictional place) but Garth Nix is a well known Australian author.

The #LoveOzYA promotes Australian youth literature that centers the experiences of Australian teens. Here are some helpful book lists that I browsed for ideas: https://loveozya.com.au/book-lists

I read Queens of Geek which would apply, even though I used it for a different prompt (neurodivergent rep), and really enjoyed it. I'm also planning on reading Euphoria Kids for the LoveOz prompt. I partially had to base it on what my library has available, but I found a bunch that I want to add to my TBR, including:

The Boy Who Steals Houses
Please Don't Hug Me
The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridge

Can't wait to see what you come up with! I bet Sylvs has good ideas too.

I think Sarah put it the best but yeah it's promoting Australian stories, experiences and authors. For example, the book Illuminae which is set in space is tagged under LoveOzYA because the authors (Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff) are both Australian. Some great LoveOzYA includes:

-The Boy From the Mish (by Gary Lonesborough)
-Take Three Girls (by Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell, Fiona Wood)
-Our Chemical Hearts (by Krystal Sutherland)
-Aurora Rising (by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff)
-Making Friends with Alice Dyson (by Poppy Nwosu)
-A Thousand Perfect Notes (by C.G Drews)
-All That Impossible Space (by Anna Morgan)
-Small Spaces (by Sarah Epstein)
-Paper Cranes Don't Fly by Peter Vu
-Whisper by Lynette Noni

(Also, I'm still counting books that are co-written by at least one Aussie writer (e.g The Other Side of the Sky, These Broken Stars) because the publisher recognises it as LoveOzYa. Also counting any Sophie Gonzales, Krystal Sutherland and Cale Dietrich books as LoveOzYA because although the books aren't published in Australia, they are written by Australian writers).

Also Garth Nix definitely counts :)

Oooh, actually, Illuminae is on my list and comes highly recommended, so I think I'll use books 1 and 2 for LoveOzYA and Co-written! Hee hee!

Eileen wrote: "Oooh, actually, Illuminae is on my list and comes highly recommended, so I think I'll use books 1 and 2 for LoveOzYA and Co-written! Hee hee!"

Ooh yay! It's my favourite series so I hope you like it a lot :D

Sylvs (NOVELty Reads) wrote: "Eileen wrote: "Oooh, actually, Illuminae is on my list and comes highly recommended, so I think I'll use books 1 and 2 for LoveOzYA and Co-written! Hee hee!"

Ooh yay! It's my favourite series so I hope you like it a lot :D"

Oooh, you make me want to read it even more!

I think you'll love A.I.D.A.N a lot, he's my favourite character. He's very morally grey.

My copy of the Hating Game came in today, so I'll listen to that first, but then I want to do Illuminae!

Eileen wrote: "My copy of the Hating Game came in today, so I'll listen to that first, but then I want to do Illuninae!"

Ooh nice! I just finished that one :)

Hey Sylvs, I just finished Illuminae and while it took me a little while to adjust to the unusual construction, it was a very strong ending and I had to jump into the second book immediately. Definitely an interesting series!

Sylvs (NOVELty Reads) wrote: "I think you'll love A.I.D.A.N a lot, he's my favourite character. He's very morally grey."

Yes, he was really cool! I can't wait to see more of him--Kady's conversation with Ezra's mom made me cheer, ha ha!

Eileen wrote: "Sylvs (NOVELty Reads) wrote: "I think you'll love A.I.D.A.N a lot, he's my favourite character. He's very morally grey."

Yes, he was really cool! I can't wait to see more of him--Kady's conversati..."

I love Gemina! It's darker than Illuminae but I love Nik and Hanna's dynamic so much!

I'm about a fourth of the way through Gemina and they've just been taken over. Hanna is a complete spoiled brat and Nik is a a drug dealer--I can tell I'm going to like them already, ha ha!

Okay, I just finished a book that would be perfect for the Neurodivergent prompt. Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? is more of a middle school book rather than YA, but it was a great book about the unlikely friendship between Aurora, who is very loud and exuberant (and likely has ADHD at the very least) and her best friend Frenchie, an autistic boy who is also mute. It's being published on Feb 15, so soon.

Eileen wrote: "Okay, I just finished a book that would be perfect for the Neurodivergent prompt. Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? is more of a middle school book rather than YA, but it was a great book..."

That looks like a sweet read. I love a good middle grade!

I love middle school books that are good for adults too!

Gemina is awesome but it is a liiiiiittle bit gruesome too. Now you're making me want to reread 😂

I just finished Obsidio and I really liked the ending, but I think Gemina is my favorite of the three books. I still gave Obsidio 4.5 stars and rounded up because it was such a satisfying series.

I'm getting close on the DIVERSITY category, but keep getting distracted by other books, lol! I'm really trying to make my way through some of my ARCs for March, so that's part of the distraction. But also, I just finished reading Wild Magic for the Chosen One trope and it was good enough that I want to read the rest of the series, lol. It's those things that keep drawing me into other rabbit holes ha ha!

Eileen wrote: "I'm getting close on the DIVERSITY category, but keep getting distracted by other books, lol! I'm really trying to make my way through some of my ARCs for March, so that's part of the distraction. ..."

Ooh nice! I'm currently reading Cool for the Summer. I need to write up some reviews so then I can make the entries :)

I'm getting happily distracted by many other works as well, so gonna weave in and out of my committed prompts. It's a fun, intuitive journey.

Also, I loved Wild Magic. I never did read the rest of the series. Perhaps I should at some point.

I am curious about some of the other characters, but I think I might read the Wild Magic series all the way through and then hit other series in that universe.

I just finished listening to Sistersong on Audible for trans rep and it was beautiful, haunting, and heartbreaking. I am currently listening to I Wish You All the Best, which will be the last one I need for DIVERSITY. :)

Ooh nice! I still need to read that one. I'm hoping to finish off Cool for the Summer today and then read Burn Down Rise Up, Fence: Disarmed and To Kill a Kingdom before the month ends. Keep up the good work you two :)

We're doing great! :)