Hello everyone!
Tomorrow (Tuesday Feb 5th) is Chinese New Year! I thought that this would be an awesome time to announce a reading challenge that I am participating in this year. (This was all planned. I swear.)
(Alright, it was kind of a coincidence haha… which means it was meant to be!)
Anyway. Deep breath in.
I’m signing up for a reading challenge!?!
I’ve been doing the Goodreads challenge for several years now, but despite hearing about reading challenges everywhere on the blogosphere… I haven’t signed up for any other reading challenges so far. And that’s because, being a mood reader, I have serious commitment issues when it comes to sticking to my TBR lol 🙂
BUT I think I am going to give it a try this year with the YARC reading challenge! For those of you who haven’t yet heard about this challenge, YARC stands for Year of the Asian Reading Challenge, hosted by CW, Lily, Shealea, and Vicky. It is basically a reading challenge dedicated to books by Asian authors. I love that this reading challenge is flexible in that we can set our own goal, whether it is 10 books or 50 books. So yes! I am hopping onto the reading challenge bandwagon 🙂
Being born and raised in China, I love reading about Asian characters and I also love to write about Asian characters in my own WIPs. Last year I read 7 books by Asian writers, which is good, but I’m hoping for maybe a bit more this year? We will see!
Since I am a reading challenge newbie, and I want to give myself an obtainable goal, this year I am going for 1 to 10 books total, which would put me at the Philippine Tarsier level. Who knows? Maybe I will surprise myself and score the Indian Cobra level haha 🙂
My YARC 2019 TBR
Since I am a mood reader, I’ll just start off with a small TBR of 5 books for now. I am sure that more books by Asian authors will spark my interest later on this year!
I am so excited to read these books. I’ve been wanting to read Starfish since forever (how come I haven’t read this book yet!?) I am definitely curious about The Epic Crush of Genie Lo which sounds like such a fun book. Monstress is a graphic novel that I received as a gift over Christmas, which I am looking forward to reading. Not Your Sidekick is new to me but it sounds super fun and awesome. And lastly, Little Fires Everywhere is my adult book for this challenge haha, since one of my goals this year is to read more books from the adult genre… since I am technically an adult now? Lol. (Don’t get me wrong- It is perfectly all right to read YA as an adult! It’s what I’ve been doing for years! This is a discussion for another day!)
Good luck with your TBR! I’m also joining this reading challenge, I aim to read around 12 books so we’ll see 😀 I love Little Fires Everywhere, it’s a really fantastic read!
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Hello Tasya! Yay! Glad to hear that you’re joining this challenge as well. Looks like we have similar goals in mind!
That’s great that you enjoyed Little Fires Everywhere. I don’t hear too much about this one around the blogs (I guess since it is an adult rather than YA book) so I’m happy to hear that you liked it 🙂
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I think it’s a great way to deepen your knowledge and understanding of your culture. Good luck!
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Definitely 🙂 Thank you!!
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Good luck with tour TBR list Sophie, it may only be five books but you’re still taking part and that’s what counts. 🙂
I’ve been seeing Starfish more these past few weeks than I ever have before. I’m not taking part in the YARC challenge myself but I’ll probably be convinced to pick up Starfish before too long, especially given what amazing things I’ve heard about it.
Again good luck, I really hope you enjoy all these books. 🙂 ❤️
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Hello Beth!! Yes I’ve been seeing Starfish everywhere I look, and I am SO excited to read this book. Hope that you will enjoy it as well and I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts ❤
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YAY Sophie I am so happy you’re joining this challenge as well, best of luck! I hope you’ll get to read Starfish soon, I really loved that one so, very much ❤ Happy reading and best of luck 😀
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Thanks Marie!!! It was after reading your post that got me thinking about joining the YARC challenge 🙂 I am really looking forward to reading Starfish since I’ve heard so many great things about it! Happy reading to you too!
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Ahhh this makes me so, so happy ❤
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Good luck Sophie!!!!
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Thank you 🙂
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Good luck, Sophie!! I’m hoping to sign up with this challenge soon, and am planning on having Starfish on my tbr as well! 💕
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Hey Kelly! Yay glad to hear that you’re signing up as well. I am so excited to read Starfish. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this book 🙂
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I’ve heard such good things about Not Your Sidekick and The Epic Crush of Genie lo! I really hope you enjoy them 💕 This is such a great challenge, I’m so excited to participate as well! I hope you enjoy the books you get around to reading for this challenge. Asian for the win!! 🙈❤️
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Yes!! I’m so excited for Not Your Sidekick and The Epic Crush!! They sound like such fun books haha. Hope that you will enjoy them as well 🙂 Glad to hear that you’re also participating!! Which other books are on your YARC tbr? 🙂
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Yay happy to see you joining in too, Sophie! I really enjoyed Little Fires Everywhere! Happy reading.
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Hello Kaleena! Glad to hear that you liked Little Fires Everywhere! I am looking forward to that one! What are you planning to read for YARC? 🙂
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I’ve just come back to my hiatus, but now I finally have the chance to officially sign up to the challenge as well, because it looks so good! 😍🌺 I hope you end up liking Starfish, that one was a solid read for me 🙂
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Yay!! That’s awesome that you’re signing up for the YARC challenge! I am really excited for Starfish since I’ve heard only great things about it 🙂
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Lol I’m already doing both the Goodreads challenge and the Toronto Public Libraries Reading Challenge, so no more for me, please! XD But that’s pretty cool, reading specifically from Asian authors. I would also like to read more queer romances with Asian protagonists.
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Oh wow, what is the Toronto Public Library reading challenge?! I won’t be able to participate in it but I am curious haha 🙂
That’s great that you might be reading queer romances with Asian protagonists! Let me know if you have any top picks! I’m also curious, since you read some Chinese books: how popular are queer romances in Chinese literature? I’ve always thought that Chinese culture hasn’t quite embraced lgbt yet but I could be wrong
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See this link for an explanation of the challenge: https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/bookbuzz/2019/01/join-our-2019-reading-challenge.html
Hmm I’m not too familiar with Chinese queer fiction, but I’m aware that on Amazon and probably other places, there is a genre called Tong Zhi, which means gay. Also, there was an online Chinese martial arts story I read once, where some of the important secondary characters were gay or bi.
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I heard the word “Tong Zhi” before, referring to a person who is gay (usually a guy, I think.) I thought that this was used in a derogatory way however I don’t know if the culture around the word has changed since then. That is interesting that it is also the name of a genre now 🙂
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