Category: Uncategorized

Blog Tour

Well, I’m doing my first blog tour!  Well, technically it isn’t even my tour.  As part of his mission to promote indie and self-published authors, Mark of The Masquerade Crew has reached out to other bloggers to get the word out about a certain number of books.  Those of us that post for his tour will get a chance to win an Amazon gift card and our readers will get the chance to learn about great indie books they never may have heard of before.

Tomorrow I will be posting my first tour article, but I want to ask you guys: Do you want me to do blog tours?  Please post your answer and reasons in the comments section.  If the general consensus is no, I won’t go any further on the tour, but if you guys like blog tours I will keep going with it.

Look What Just Arrived! (#3.5)

I hadn’t intended on buying 5 more books, but for whatever reason I decided to go birthday shopping for my friend in a book store.  That was how I blew my entire month’s book budget.  Anyway, here are the books I bought:

  • The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
  • Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
  • The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin
  • Delirium by Lauren Oliver
  • Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

Wondrous Strange is what I originally bought for my friend’s birthday present, but then my shopping kept going.  Delirium by Lauren Oliver is a book that didn’t really sound appealing to me before I read an excerpt online and liked what I saw.  The same was true of The Clan of the Cave Bear, but I’m skeptical about how that one will turn out.  The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin is a book I’ve been looking at for a while, but never found it in my small local bookstore.  And yes, after following John Scalzi’s blog for 3 years I finally got around to buying one of his books.  If his blog is anything to judge his writing by, I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy Old Man’s War.

Look What Just Arrived! (#3)

I know, I’m late posting.  Yesterday I was travelling and attended an opera.  The hotel, which was rather nice, had very sketchy internet access.  But now I have proper internet access and bought 7 new books from the Chapters branch.  Sorry, no pictures yet, but I will post a picture as soon as I get home.  The picture is now up!  So what did I buy in the city?

  • A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
  • Looking for Alaska by John Green
  • Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
  • Feed by M. T. Anderson
  • Eve by Anna Carey
  • 1984 by George Orwell
  • The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Looking for Alaska by John Green is not a book I would have normally picked up, but it was recommended to me by two different people.  So, what the heck?  Kushiel’s Dart is also something I normally would have picked up, but I kept reading about it on TVtropes, so I had to pick it up.

Eve and The Girl of Fire and Thorns are both YA books that are relatively new and from what I’ve read about them on other blogs, I’m expecting good things.  Feed by M. T. Anderson (not to be confused by Mira Grant’s political thriller/zombie novel Feed) is one of those classic YA books I never got the chance to study in school, so I decided to read it on my own.

And yes, I finally caved in and am going to read A Game of Thrones, if only to see what all the fuss is about.  Who knows? I might actually enjoy it.

So what are you guys reading right now?

I am a Racist Reader

How much do we really think about diversity in fiction?

A while back I was reading a fascinating article over on The Masquerade Crew by JeanNicole Rivers called ‘Are You A Racist Reader?’  JeanNicole made some excellent points and I began to look at how I picture characters when I read.  I have now come to the conclusion that I am a racist reader.  Then I immediately started feeling guilty.

The community I grew up in was not known for its diversity or even its political correctness.  It was predominantly white and racism was pretty much the default attitude for most people, especially the older generations.  There is a family anecdote about how when I was two years old my mother took me shopping in the city and I pointed at an African American man and said: “Mum, why is that man brown?”  Yes, that’s how white my community was.  I never actually had spoken to a ‘brown’ person until I was six or seven, when my father began importing Filipino workers, who we treated as part of the family. Continue reading →

Bullying: An Issue Near and Dear to my Heart

Today is my birthday, but more importantly October is Bullying Prevention/Awareness Month.  Today is also the only day of the year I will ever deviate from my book discussion/reviewing mandate.  I feel strongly about many issues, but the only time I will take a stance on any non book-related issue is now.  You have been warned.

I was bullied in school.

There, I’ve said it and for the first time in many years, I am not ashamed nor am I looking for a pity party.  For five years of my life, as I transitioned from child to teenager, I was socially ostracized, verbally assaulted, sexually harassed and was the subject of many, many vicious rumours.  The reasons for my bullying were my appearance, my grades, my religious beliefs and the fact I stood up for my best friend, who received the worst of our classmates’ cruelty.

Now, I know that there are those of you out there that say bullying is just kids being too sensitive.  This is true in very few cases.  What my best friend (let’s call her Jane) went through was enough to put most people in therapy for a decade.  Nearly every single person in her class and mine (I was a year younger than her) actively joined in the bullying.  The teachers and school administrators did not do a damn thing, even when it happened in front of them.  After five years of every sort of horror imaginable, Jane transferred to a private school two provinces away, where she was happy.  I won’t go into many details because it is not my story to tell, but know that she suffered more in those five years than anyone deserves to in a lifetime. Continue reading →