Literally nobody but me might be interested in this mix of history and academic texts, but that’s okay. I’m starting to build my PhD library and this is the tiny beginning!
school
Massive School Book Haul + Mini Reviews
Interested in what I read for school last year? Here are all my physical books, and some mini reviews of the ones you might not know about!
I have no idea what happened when I uploaded this, but the off audio will stop around the 1 minute mark so hang in there!
From the Notebook: Searching for the Joy in Reading
I’m here today to talk about something that you may have guessed: I haven’t been reading a lot recently. In the aftershock of having graduated from college, I’m just now beginning to realize that reading can be fun again. I’ve been struggling with this for a while now, but I think I’ve finally had my eureka moment! Here’s my explanation of what’s been going on and what I’m thinking now!
Thesis Thursday: First Complete Draft is … Complete
Thesis Thursdays is a weekly(ish) feature where I rant, love and talk about young adult books I’m reading because I’m conning my college into thinking this is all for academia! Find out more here!
You heard that right, folks. Since the last time I made one of these posts … I did it. I wrote the first draft of my third chapter. It lives and breathes in the world, bringing my page total for the first draft up to 75 pages altogether.
The fight is far from over. In fact, I really should be editing right now. However, all of the initial hard work is … done. On top of that, my defense was just scheduled for next Wednesday, so time is really running out on this whole thing. I can see the finish line–for this, as well as school in general.
I think there are only going to be one more of these posts, considering that there will be a Thursday right after my defense. Wow. What am I going to do with my Thursdays now?
Well. Hang on. Back up. Let’s talk about this third chapter that just, as far as these posts are concerned, appeared out of nowhere. The working title is all over the place, because I don’t like it and it’s really long, but here’s the gist: big, traditional publishers exploit teen online engagement for their own marketing gains, but focus on what their research says will make the next bestseller and NOT the next good book. While authors can make use of these new media outlets these days, publishers ten to ignore them and instead create these debilitating feedback loops with their own marketing departments that keep us trapped within really bad trends.
Out of all three chapters, this is the first one that really made me … angry. Like, really 
angry. And all the stuff I researched and talked about, it’s nothing that I didn’t at least subconsciously know about YA publishing. But seeing it, reading it, understanding the depth of the madness–it’s just terrifying.
I write posts like In Defense of YA: We need a Rebellion of Our Own because I genuinely love YA, and I believe that the genre has a powerful role to play in literature if only we can rescue it from its dependence on tropeism and “what sells.” However, writing an essay like this and seeing how far the traditional publishers go to keep producing the next new megahit … it’s sad. I start to wonder if the whole idea of a rebellion isn’t just some cute idea. I start to wonder if YA is eventually going to implode on itself, and if I’ll have to watch the whole genre fall apart.
Not to be a total Debbie Downer, I guess that’s why I do this kind of research: because I think I can say something that someone can here. And my research did turn up a bunch of publishers doing really important and innovative things because they believe as I do. So, the battle isn’t lost. But, still.
I’ll probably come out with a From the Notebook video on Monday talking about how this paper literally made me consider deleting my blog and throwing in the towel on my participation in these schemes. Obviously, I only considered that for about 0.1 seconds before I threw the idea out entirely, because I love you guys and this community and I get excited about books and what we do. I could never leave.
But this paper did make me think about it. And other things.
Really wish I had time to process those things, but it is not this day. I have chapters to edit 
and other papers to write and graduation to get through. There will only be one more Thesis Thursday post, I think, and then I’ll try to figure out something new to do with the day. I’ll tell you guys all about my defense, and maybe wrap all this work up a but more thoroughly. For now, though, this post is the honest truth.
I hate YA. I love YA. I really, really want to fix it. Who’s with me?
Thesis Thursday: I DID IT!
Thesis Thursdays is a weekly(ish) feature where I rant, love and talk about young adult books I’m reading because I’m conning my college into thinking this is all for academia! Find out more here!
If this were a movie, I think this is the point where I’d give some great speech about how I always knew I could do it. But, here’s the thing: considering that I had three panic attacks on Monday before it was even noon, I did not think that I could do this.BUT HERE WE ARE.
The chapter was due Wednesday. I finished it Tuesday. GO ME.
I finally, finally got all my reading done in time to spend all last Saturday writing the beginning of this paper. I spent (rounding) 5 straight hours, left for dinner with friends, and then 3 more straight hours just pounding away. That first night, I got up to 14 pages–which honestly wasn’t that great. I thought that I only had one more section to write and then my conclusion, and the paper at that point felt really lacking to me.
Enter Sunday. I just had to take that day to myself, meaning that I needed it to do all the
homework I had for Monday and that left me no time for thesis writing. I let it go and pretended that that didn’t bother me. (It did.) However, in thinking about it all day, I realized that I needed to add a section, so I really needed to write TWO more sections and my conclusion and also rewrite my intro.
Which is why I had all those panic attacks on Monday. My Mondays have a really long schedule, and I wasn’t sure I’d even sleep that night. But I hunkered down and finished the paper and I even slept that night. VICTORY IS MINE.
In the end, it ended up being 24 pages. Between that and the 29 page first chapter, I’ve already hit the minimum page requirement for this thing. And there’s one more chapter to go. I must really hate myself.
I realized something, though, that is trending between my first two chapters. It’s not intentional. My first paper, “Taming of the Tropes: How the Female Assassin in YA Literature Showcases the Biggest Issues and Best Possible Subversions of YA’s Most Popular Tropes” (working title), is all about the content of YA books, and how they claim to include these strong female characters but the publishers are LYING. This second chapter, tentatively titled “Masking the Issues: The Commodification of Young Adult Book Covers” talks about how publishers are putting more and more effort into producing covers of quality but not texts of quality.
Basically, I’m calling out big conglomerate book publishers for being liars.
Whoops?
Alright, yeah, there’s a lot more to it, and I still love YA A LOT. Just consider it part of my continued effort to get all readers of young adult a genre that actually speaks to them like humans rather than formulaic tropes that are packaged in shiny covers.
Thesis Thursday: AND WE’RE OFF
Thesis Thursdays is a weekly(ish) feature where I rant, love and talk about young adult books I’m reading because I’m conning my college into thinking this is all for academia! Find out more here!
Can’t say that I have too much to say today because GUESS WHO IS WRITING THIS SECOND CHAPTER THIS WEEKEND? Me. The answer is me. If it is also you, then I am confused.
After last week’s Sources Book Haul, I only have one more resource to add to the pile (in book for, anyways). This book was given to me by another one of my professors when I tried to explain my jumble of ideas, and it sounds like exactly what I needed: canonical and important. The book is The Culture Industry by Theodor Adorno, and it’s all about mass market culture and art.
Guess how that applies to young adult book covers. Guess. I’m sure it’s really hard.
I’ve also complied a shitton of data from the YALSA top ten lists
since 2010 about cover art, and read articles and theses up the whazoo. Once I get this book done, I have no more excuses. I need a draft before spring break.
In lieu of anything else, I’m going to share my initial whiteboard thoughts with you guys, to see if y’all agree. What am I missing? Am I off base? SOUND OFF!
From the Notebook: February Wrap Up
Happy last day of February everybody! Today I am bringing you my monthly reading wrap up, since this just happened to fall so nicely. I read a lot more than I thought in February, though a lot of it was for school. Okay, 11 isn’t usually a huge number for me but considering what I’ve been working through, it feels like a lot. And, yes, some of the books for school I didn’t read in full, but … I’m counting them. Fight me. Hopefully in March I’ll have some more entertaining books to read. Please, for the love of all that’s chocolate.
Monthly PopSugar update: I only ticked off two new categories this month, sadly – book with a blue cover and book about a culture you’re unfamiliar with. 8/40 complete!
Links mentioned in post:
- Bibliomancy for Beginners: The Falconer by Elizabeth May
- Re-Review: The Falconer by Elizabeth May
- Review: After: 19 Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
- Bibliomancy for Beginners – Imbibliomancy: Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
- Review: Choosing My Religion by Stephen J. Dubner
- Back to School Book Haul
- Betwixt the Books Review: Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan
Review: “Choosing My Religion” by Stephen J. Dubner
Choosing by Religion by Stephen J. Dubner
Choosing My Religion is a luminous memoir, crafted with the eye of a journalist and the art of a novelist by New York Times Magazine writer and editor Stephen J. Dubner. By turns comic and heartbreaking, it tells the story of a family torn apart by religion, sustained by faith, and reunited by truth.
Two stars
From the Notebook: Back to School Book Haul
Now that Amazon/Chegg have finally delivered all my school books for the year, I thought that it might be cool to do a book haul! Don’t worry: not a text book in sight. In fact, these books are all either fantasy/scifi short story collections, memoirs or–okay–some really strange philosophy texts. Some of them you’ll see on the blog … some of them you won’t. Either way, here’s a really cool 16 book haul for you guys!
Thesis Thursdays: MEETING YOUR IDOL IS COOL
Thesis Thursdays is a weekly(ish) feature where I rant, love and talk about young adult books I’m reading because I’m conning my college into thinking this is all for academia! Find out more here!
Okay, I know that I promised something regarding Bridget Zinn and Poison for this week. I lied.
BECAUSE I MET SARAH J. MAAS LAST SATURDAY, GUYS.
I’m from a really small town in New York, where no authors ever come near. Remember that time I traveled five hours one way to see Cassie Clare, Holly Black and Sarah Rees Brennan? No regrets, but yikes.
Anyways. Sarah JUST HAPPENED to add a few extra stops in Pennsylvania to her Queen of Shadows tour, and ONE OF THEM WAS ONLY 4 HOURS AWAY. I couldn’t miss this chance.
So I didn’t. (Props to my best friend of six years for driving me.)
Sarah is REALLY PRETTY, guys. AND REALLY NICE AND REALLY WONDERFUL AND AWESOME. She took time with everyone and was just … amazing. I shook the whole time and spoke in this really high pitched voice but it was okay because *shrieks loudly and incoherently with fangirl screaming*
Ahem. So what makes this a Thesis Thursday post, you ask? Because I wasn’t kidding when I said last week that the basis of my thesis is Sarah’s books. Literally. My entire evolving idea has had Throne of Glass as it’s center cog. When I did my Worth It Wednesday post for this series, I also talked about last year and my academic conference presentation that centered on her books. Now that I’m a senior, I get to do my English work on books *I* pick. And right now, that’s just … SarahSarahSarahSarah.
I have most of her books in ecopy (and I forgot my hardback of 
ACOTAR, dammit), but when I saw all of the hardbacks just sitting there behind her … I splurged. And I justified this because I need physical copies to put sticky notes in as I do my thesis. (Okay. Really just #1 but shhhh…)
Her books also exemplify the way that I would like to be as a writer, which is what I’m incorporating into the novel I’m writing for my other senior project. Not just in how much fun the books are, but also in how they’ve grown and changed as the series has been published. Her books aren’t just amazing for a reader; for a writer learning their craft, Sarah sets a great example for debuting strong and consistently getting better.
So this is a Thesis Thursday not because I did any actual work (ha!) but because I got to meet my idol and she was amazing and for this week I’m just going to revel in the fact that I am writing an honors thesis and I AM EXCITED ABOUT IT. And Sarah is a big reason why.
My Life is a Notebook 