I tried to take part in the Booktube-a-thon last year, but did not do too well! So I am excited to try again this year. The video that explains the challenges involved can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1UucWZ0Ylg. It begins July 18 and runs until July 24, 2016.
The 2016 Reading Challenges:
1/ Read a book with yellow on the cover.
The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver
Ok, maybe the yellow is slightly more orange, but close enough, right?! I need to read this book for uni this semester, so it seems a good idea to get going on it!
What it is about: The year is 2029, and nothing is as it should be. The very essence of American life, the dollar, is under attack. In a coordinated move by the rest of the world’s governments, the dollar loses all its value. The American President declares that the States will default on all its loans–prices skyrocket, currency becomes essentially worthless, and we watch one family struggle to survive through it all. The Mandibles can count on their inheritance no longer, and each member must come to terms with this in their own way-from the elegant ex-pat author Nollie, in her middle age, returning to the U.S. from Paris after many years abroad, to her precocious teenage nephew Willing, who is the only one to actually understand the crisis, to the brilliant Georgetown economics professor Lowell, who watches his whole vision of the world disintegrate before his eyes.
2/ Read a book only after sunset.
Why God is a Woman by Nin Andrews
I have been wanting to read this, and when better to ponder the inequalities imposed on the sexes than night time?!
What it is about: Why God Is a Woman is a collection of poems written about a magical island where women rule and men are the second sex. It is also the story of a boy who, exiled from the island because he could not abide by its sexist laws, looks back with both nostalgia and bitterness and wonders: Why does God have to be a woman? Celebrated prose poet Nin Andrews creates a world both fantastic and familiar where all the myths, logic, and institutions support the dominance of women.
3/ Read a book you discovered through booktube.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
This collection sounds very interesting. I heard about it from Taylor on the booktube channel, ‘Leather-Bound.’
What it is about: Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. ‘milk and honey’ takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.
4/ Read a book by one of your favourite authors.
The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales by Kirsty Logan
I loved ‘The Gracekeepers’, so I am keen to read more from Kirsty Logan.
What it is about: Twenty tales of lust and loss. These stories feature clockwork hearts, lascivious queens, paper men, island circuses, and a flooded world.
Some of these stories are radical retellings of classic tales, some are modern-day fables, but all explore substitutions for love.
5/ Read a book that is older than you.
Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande
I have wanted to read this for a while, and it was published in 1934, so it is well and truly older than me!
What it is about: Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer remains evergreen decades after it was first written. Brande believed passionately that although people have varying amounts of talent, anyone can write. It’s just a question of finding the “writer’s magic”–a degree of which is in us all. She also insists that writing can be both taught and learned. So she is enraged by the pessimistic authors of so many writing books who rejoice in trying to put off the aspiring writer by constantly stressing how difficult it all is.
6/ Read and watch a book-to-movie adaptation.
BFG by Roald Dahl
I loved BFG as a child, and I am excited to re-read it before seeing the movie at the cinema!
What it is about: Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It’s lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG-she would have soon become breakfast. When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!
7/ Read seven books
Feast by Dean Mayes 
Dean Mayes’ books are so well written, so I am keen to read this short essay from him. It sounds very interesting.
What it is about: At the end of your life, will you just fade away to nothing or will you burn the candle just one more time? Dean Mayes poses a thought provoking essay about a man at the cross roads of his life that will leave you emotionally moved and crackling with possibilities.
I would love to hear if you are taking part, or if you have read any of these and what you think of them! I would also be eager to team up with others reading for the booktube-a-thon for online motivation and chatting about the books!
