SOPHIE LI

Hello everyone!

There are people who say, “Happy Monday!”

I, on the other hand, am more like this polar bear:

At least we are cute, right? :’)

Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Guys – this might just be my new favourite series. I finished reading Illuminae (Book #1) last night and it is SO, SO amazing. I am really looking forward to reading the second book in the series.

Fun fact: Marie Lu is listed as the illustrator for this book?! I will be listening to the audiobook but this makes me very curious about the print edition.

Aside: For all you audiobook listeners out there, do you make up the spelling of character/place names in your head? I just realized (while reading the Goodreads summary for this post) that “Corynza” is actually spelled Kerenza and “Bay-Tech” is actually BeiTech O_O

The Deal (Off-Campus #1) by Elle Kennedy

This is a recommendation from Lois @ My Midnight Musing, who convinced me to read more sports contemporary fiction. I enjoyed Him by Elle Kennedy, so I am looking forward to more of this author’s writing!

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

This book caught my eye in the bookstore (isn’t that cover awesome!?) The Goodreads rating is okay (3.58/5 stars), but the description is interesting enough (engineer and magician work together to save the world), so we’ll see how it goes!

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is my challenge #1 this month: Read a Classic novel. Even though I tend to enjoy Classics, like Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn, they intimidate me. I guess I am scared that I won’t understand them, and, therefore, be a Bad Reader. Also, Classics novels tend to have small font, and I can’t stand small font. (Believe it or not, I judge books by their cover and their font size.)

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I think this has been on my TBR for, like, years (seriously). But I am finally going to do it. Promise.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Chinese) by J.K. Rowling

This is my other challenge for the month. Because I have black hair, yellow skin, and brown eyes, people often assume that I can read and write Chinese…

However, I’ve been in Canada for the past 18 years of my life, and 100% of my friends speak English. So, while this assumption is not entirely wrong, my Chinese… kinda sucks.

BUT!!

I am going to improve my Chinese by reading a Chinese book. It might take an immense amount of effort, I might read 2 pages per hour, and Google translate might get a lot of traffic from me this month, but… BRING IT ON 🙂

And OH, did I mention that I am beta-reading a novel for a fellow author!? (Can you tell that I am excited!?) Her name is AM Leibowitz, and she is a writer of LGBTQIA fiction. Check out her blog here.

Some of my goals this month:

1. READ six books (as above), and beta-read one novel 🙂
2. Finish WRITING that novel. Good news? I am at 130,000 words.* Even better news? THERE IS AN END IN SIGHT!
   *No, it’s not an epic fantasy. It’s an……….. epic contemporary novel?
   **No worries, future beta-readers: I’m going to trim it down before I send it out to you guys.
3. BLOG!
4. FIND A JOB in the city that I am moving to in 4 months to be with my fiancé. As much as I love my fiancé, I hate job-hunting :’)
5. SLEEP seven hours a day. Unfortunately, sleep tends to be the last priority these days, but I want to live to a hundred, so that has to change :’)

Do you like Mondays, or are you like me and the polar bear? How do you feel about the Classics? Do you read/speak any other language? Do you care about the font size of a novel? What books are you reading this month?