What I'll Be Reading this Spring Semester!

Hi everyone and welcome back to my blog! I'm Genni, and today I'll be sharing what I'll be reading this upcoming spring semester.

If you don't know, I'm a double major at UNC. I am studying English and Women and Gender Studies. This semester, I'm not taking too many classes - only 4 - for a total of 12 hours. My last three semesters, I've been taking 5 to 6 classes each, totally 15 to 18 hours. I'm really looking forward to a more relaxed semester, especially because I have an internship as well. 

Without further ado, here are the books I'll be reading this semester! Today is actually my first day of classes, so let the reading begin! 

1) Victorian Literature and it's Retellings

Charlotte Bronte in all her (glaring) glory

This semester, I'm taking a class all about Victorian literature and modern retellings. From January to May, I'll be reading these books: 

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
• Possession by A.S. Byatt
• Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
• Jack Maggs by Peter Carey
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

 Out of this list, I'm most interested in reading Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. Last semester I was taking a Jane Austen class, and my professor talked about Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea several times. I know the reveal of Jane Eyre, and I think the racial implications of Mr. Rochester's wife provide a more dire and horrifying revelation that is ignored in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Out of those two books, I don't know too much about anything else. I didn't love The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, so I'm a little wary about reading something else by her. I've also never read Dickens in my life, so we'll see how that goes!

2) Middle Eastern Literature by Women

What I love about being a double major studying English and Women and Gender Studies is that there is so much overlap! While this class is coded for Women and Gender Studies, we'll be studying literature written my middle eastern women. I don't know too much about the middle east, and I think it will be fascinating to learn more about the culture and feminism there! I don't recognize any of the books we are supposed to read, but here they are.

• Stone of Laughter by Hoda Barakat
• Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh
• Opening the Gates: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing
• Loved Ones by??

I'm not familiar with any of these books or authors, but I think they'll be really eye opening and insightful. It's easy to just read strictly from US or white authors, as they are heavily published, and I'm ready to read from diverse POVs. Also, I have no idea what Loved Ones is, since my professor didn't put an author or ISBN with it.

3) Diverse Literature

Okay, I know. This is the most vague heading ever, but that's the name of the class I'm taking! Based on the reading list, we'll be focusing on African-American and/or black literature. Here's what I'll be reading

• The Bluest Eye
• I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
• Kindred

While only three books long, this required reading really strikes my fancy. This will be my fourth semester at UNC, and the third where I was required to read Kindred by Octavia Butler, which I love. I've never read Toni Morrison, but I hear she is a provoking author, so I'm looking forward tot he reading experience and discussing it with my peers. I've never heard of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, but I'm looking forward to reading diversely this semester! 

Have you read any of these books? What did you think? If you are in college, what books are you reading this semester?

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!

Waiting on Wednesday #66

Hi everyone and welcome back to my blog! I'm Genni, and today I'll be participating in Waiting on Wednesday, and meme originally created by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. Jill hasn't been active for a while, so Tressa @ Wishful Endings has adopted it! If you see posts by the name of "Can't Wait Wednesday," it's the same thing!

The book I'm looking forward to this week is Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi!

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

Goodreads

#TheReadingQuest // How Did I Do?

my character card! which is just so darling <3

Hi everyone and welcome back or to my blog! If this is your first time here, yay! Glad you can join in. :) Today I'll be talking about my results for the Reading Quest readathon! There are a ton of rules, so I don't want to get into all of those. So, if you want to learn more about what this whole readathon was about and what my inital TBR was,  check out my initial post here!

So let me preface by saying that I didn't do too well if I went by all the rules. One of the big rules is that you cannot do other main quest squares if you are not done with your first main quest. Well, I completely ignored that! XD I know, I know. But I just wanted to see how much I was reading and how many would be able to fit into the categories.

In the span of the readathon (Aug. 13-Sept. 10), I read 14 books/manga volumes/short stories!

Without further ado, here is how I did in terms of levels, exp, and all that jazz!

Book Review: Stop! by Alison G. Bailey

Stop! exceeded my expectations and then some. 

I had no real grasp of what Stop! was about before going into the book, which I was able to get through a goodreads group. The novel follows Hollis Murphy as she navigates her first year of college. She has major anxiety issues due to severe burns on her face and arms from an accident, and mean girls don't help. While figuring out how to overcome her anxiety, she not only gets paired up with a seemingly weird roommate, but bumps into a certain boy a couple times that she can't take her eyes off of. 

While Stop! was a much darker read than I anticipated, I enjoyed where Alison G. Bailey took it. However, the last third of the book did seem really rushed. So much was happening in so little of time that I had a hard time suspending my disbelief. Besides that fact, this was a pretty good book. I do wish some characters were fleshed out more, like Hollis' roommate and her best friend. 

I would recommend this for anyone who wants a refreshing contemporary novel that focuses on topics that are ignored far too often. There is a great LGBTQ+ plot to the story, and I loved it. A lot of the times books capture everyone as being straight, which is not realistic. Though I personally do not feel the struggle of being part of the community and feeling oppressed my society, I think Bailey captured it very well. 

Another plot point that I don't see often enough is the fact that the main character is a trauma survivor. A lot of the times in NA and YA we see people go through traumatic things, but we don't see the aftermath of that. In new adult, you see the classic guarded guy with a mysterious secret, but his secret is normally not that bad. Hollis on the other hand has gone through something truly horrific. 

One of the things I truly appreciated was how Hollis' love interest was not a douche bag for a good portion of the book. He wasn't this guarded mysterious guy, he was just a good guy. It was an accurate representation of what a healthy relationship looks like. 

All in all, I would recommend this book. I did have some issues with the pacing and characters, but that is something I can definitely look past. I enjoyed myself reading this, and I believe others would too!

With that, I give this book 

3.5 out of 5 Stars!

  

What are some of your favorite books set in college? Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!