All posts by Kasey

About Kasey

Reads things. Writes things. Fluent in sarcasm. Willful optimist. Cat companion, chocolate connoisseur, coffee drinker. There are some who call me Mom.

2023 End-of-Year Reading Goals Check-In

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2023 End-of-Year Reading Goals Check-in

2023 End-of-Year Reading Goals Check-In

I had some super ambitious goals last year, and while I didn’t meet every single one, I did manage to keep track of them throughout the year. I’m giving myself a hefty sum of bonus points for being on top of things. Ha!

In keeping with my organizational streak, I wanted to post this recap of where I ended up by the end of the year. Here is my 2023 end-of-year reading goals check-in.

Goal: Read 150 Books

Books Read: 235

I knew when I set this goal that it was very likely I’d read well over it. At the time, I was reading a little more than three books per week, plus maybe an audiobook or two each month. At my peak, I was reading 5-6 books per week, but that was really not a sustainable pace for me. Keep in mind that I read a lot of middle-grade books and graphic novels. So these aren’t always 400 pages of dense text. This stat looks a lot more impressive than it actually is. Haha!

Goal: Read 3-5 Classics

Classics Read: 5

At my last check-in, I’d read four books I’m calling classics, and since then, I read Anne Frank’s Diary of a Girl and the graphic adaptation.

One of the classics at the top of my list to read was The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. I’ve read half of it, but still need to finish it.

Goal: Read 3-5 Backlist Nonfiction Titles

Backlist nonfiction titles read: 10

Thank you, reading tracker spreadsheet, for proving to me that I read a lot more backlist nonfiction than I thought! A few highlights: CASTE by Isabel Wilkerson, DISFIGURED by Amanda Leduc, MEG, JO, BETH, AND AMY by Amy Boyd Rioux, and HUNT, GATHER, PARENT by Michaeleen Doucleff.

Goal: Read 10-12 Backlist Titles

Backlist Titles Read: 66

Initially, when I made this goal, I envisioned myself picking books off my shelf that have been on my reading list for a super long time and counting those books toward a goal. What ended up working really well for me was to take on a challenge (or two) to help inspire my backlist reading choices.

So, I participated in the 2023 Beat the Backlist Challenge and the 2023 Book Riot Read Hard(er) Challenge, which helped me read 66 books that came out before 2023. Pretty much knocked that one out of the park. (Special thanks to audiobooks and graphic novels.)

Reading Challenges

Read Harder: 19 of 24

Beat the Backlist: 36 of 52

I mentioned already that I belatedly joined a couple of reading challenges. Though I didn’t fully complete either one, I am happy with my progress. I ended up reading a lot more backlist titles than my original backlist reading plans, so I’m calling it a goal met.

Both challenges proved to be great experiences for me this time. I will definitely try them again in 2024.

Book List Post Goals: 12-16 Top Ten Tuesday Posts

Top Ten Tuesday Lists Posted: 8

My original goal was to participate in three to four Top Ten Tuesday posts per quarter. I posted eight Top Ten lists, four shy of my goal but better than the year before. I think I posted only two in 2022.

I’ll reroll this one for 2024 and see if I can hit my goal this time around.

Book List Post Goals: Seasonal Lists

Another list goal I set for myself was to post seasonal lists of the most-anticipated and best books I read for middle-grade and young adult fiction. I also wanted to post more holiday lists.

One thing I stumbled onto that I LOVE is the idea of doing a seasonal backlist reading update. I love this because it means I can talk about the backlist titles that I read every three months rather than waiting to ever speak about them until I can squeeze them into my calendar.

I didn’t manage to hit every single list I wanted to, but I am proud of the ones I did post this year.

Retail and Goodreads Reviews

I’m not even going to try to check this one out. I already know this was a miserable failure for me this year. I work best when I have a system, and I simply don’t have that for this part of the process. If you have a good system for sharing retail and Goodreads reviews, please let me know in the comments!

This is another goal that I’ll put back on my list for 2024.

Work on My Own Projects

Ugh. I didn’t really make any measurable progress here, either. Frankly, I agreed to review too many books to begin with. Then I also tried to review all the unsolicited books I received from publishers since I usually don’t get many. I think they’re onto me, though, because I got a lot more than I expected this year.

Additionally, I started a new job in September, and it took up a lot more time than I anticipated. I love the work, and I’m learning a lot, though, so I really can’t complain. It’s basically writing plus spreadsheets. I mean… that is one hundred percent my wheelhouse!

PLUS I was basically sick from September to early November and again right at Christmas. That threw me off a bit, too.

But yeah… all that combined meant that I tabled my projects. Here I am a year later, wondering what on earth to do about that. To be continued, I guess.

Did you meet your 2023 Reading Goals?

Now that you’ve seen the very mixed results of my 2023 end-of-year reading goals check-in, maybe you feel brave enough to tell me about your reading goals? Leave me a comment about the reading achievement you’re most proud of from last year or something you’ve set as a reading goal this year.

Review: Money Out Loud by Berna Anat

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Money Out Loud: All the Financial Stuff No One Taught Us
Berna Anat
Quill Tree Books
Published April 25, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Money Out Loud

So no one taught you about money, either? Let’s figure this me$$ out together. 

In this illustrated, deeply unserious guide to money, Berna Anat—aka the Financial Hype Woman—freaks out her immigrant parents by doing the unthinkable: Talking about money. Loudly. 

Because we’re done staying silent, anxious, and ashamed about our money. It’s time to join the party and finally learn about all the financial stuff that always felt too confusing. Stuff like: 

  • How to actually budget, save, and invest (but also make it fun) 
  • How our traumas shape our most toxic money habits, and how to create new patterns
  • How to build wealth in a system designed to keep us broke 
  • How to use money to fund our biggest dreams—and change the world

No more keeping our money on mute. It’s time to grab the mic.

My Review

I’m hardly starting out in the workforce today, but I love that a book like this exists because I remember what it was like starting out and trying to figure out all these mysterious financial things. It seemed like everyone else already knew them or that it was bad manners to talk about them, so I felt kind of adrift.

Throughout the book, the author maintains a high energy, cheering her readers on at every turn. She makes things really easy to understand. There were nuances and differences in types of accounts that I hadn’t realized until reading this book, so I’d say it’s pretty comprehensive for a beginning guide.

I also like that she breaks things down and gives readers the opportunity to process ideas about money and finances. She asks probing questions about our earliest memories of money, promises we may have made ourselves, and invites us to look at how those views impact our ideas now.

On the whole, I loved this book. I’m not someone who enjoys spending a lot of time going over my finances line by line, but I loved the ways she suggested making this more fun and helping to develop consistent habits. There’s so much great information in this book. I recommend it to anyone looking for more information about the basics of managing money, saving, reducing debt, and preparing for the future. It’s good stuff!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Berna Anat is a first-generation Filipino American. She acknowledges the ways in which the financial system disadvantages poor, marginalized BIPOC communities.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used very infrequently. More often words with special characters are used as stand-ins for swear words.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
The author mentions that she has a strong personal spiritual practice.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of MONEY OUT LOUD in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Diary of a Confused Feminist by Kate Weston

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Diary of a Confused Feminist
Kate Weston
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published January 2, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Diary of a Confused Feminist

Kat wants to do GOOD FEMINISM, although she’s not always sure what that means. She also wants to be a writer, get together with Hot Josh (is this a feminist ambition?), win at her coursework and not make a TOTAL EMBARRASSMENT of herself at all times.

But the path to true feminism is filled with mortifying incidents, and when everything at school starts to get a bit too much, Kat knows she’s lost her way, and the only way forward is to ask for help . . .

Join Kat, AKA the Confused Feminist, as she navigates EVERYTHING from menstrual cups and mental health to Instagram likes and #TimesUp in her HILARIOUS, OUTRAGEOUS, and VERY EMBARRASSING diary.

My Review

I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard at a book since FINDING AUDREY by Sophie Kinsella. Seriously, this absolutely cracked me up. Kat is full of frank questions and sometimes irreverent observations. Her exploration of what feminism means and how to be a feminist felt so genuine and organic. She asks a lot of reasonable questions about her body, her period, and sex in pretty straightforward, often funny, ways.

The book is written in diary entries, as the title suggests, and I loved that, too, because it made this a pretty quick read. The scenes are generally pretty short and there’s a fair amount of white space on the pages.

I also enjoyed Kat’s relationships with her parents and brother. It’s always funny reading parents in YA novels as an actual parent. I think I may more attention to those characters than I would have as a teen, and I definitely appreciate it when they read like fully developed characters and believable parents. In this book, they’re not perfect parents by any means, but it’s clear that despite Kat wanting her privacy and rolling her eyes plenty, she loves her family members and has good relationships with them.

Not only did I laugh an absolute ton reading this book, but I cried quite a bit, too. Kat wrestles with some hard things, and one scene in particular broke my heart for her. I think the combination of the humor and the heart make this an incredible story (and a debut! Amazing!) and one that a lot of readers are going to connect with.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Two characters describe difficult experiences with anxiety. One character is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently. Also uses some crude language for body parts.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two boys. A girl accidentally walks in on a couple having sex in a bathroom and describes their disorganized state of undress.

Spiritual Content
A couple of jokes about how God must be a man because women endure so many biological trials.

Violent Content
A girl at school bullies Kat and says some very harsh things to her. It’s pretty cruel and upsetting.

Drug Content
Kat and her friends attend two parties where teens drink. At the second one, Kat mentions there being a cloud of marijuana smoke.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.

Review: Sky’s End by Marc Gregson

Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Sky’s End (Above the Black #1)
Marc Gregson
Peachtree Teen
Published January 2, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Sky’s End

Plummet into a kill-or-be-killed competition where a scrappy underdog hell-bent on revenge must claw his way to the top in this thrilling YA fantasy debut.

Exiled to live as a Low, sixteen-year-old Conrad refuses to become heir to his murderous uncle. But Meritocracy is a harsh and unforgiving rule on the floating island of Holmstead, and when his ailing mother is killed by monstrous gorgantauns, Conrad cuts a deal to save the only family he has left. To rescue his sister from his uncle’s clutches, Conrad must enter the Selection of the Twelve Trades.

Hunter, the deadliest of all the Trades, gains a fresh recruit with Conrad. Now he must endure vigorous training, manipulative peers, and the Gauntlet—a brutal final test that yields riches and status to whichever skyship crew kills the most gorgantauns. Forced to serve in the lowest of stations and unseen by all, Conrad overhears whispers of rebellion in the dark. Conrad had never known anything existed below the toxic black clouds of the Skylands . . . until now.

Grab your copy of Book One of the Above the Black trilogy today! This action-packed series is reminiscent of Attack on Titan and The Hunger Games—a great pick for fans of Pierce Brown, Scott Westerfeld, and Veronica Roth.

My Review

From the very first page, this author delivers sky-high stakes. Conrad, banished to live among the poorest people, struggles to earn enough money to keep himself and his ailing mother fed. He longs to see his estranged sister again, and the dream of reuniting his family is the only thing that keeps him going.

He’s got massive trust issues, which, considering that his father an uncle, both of whom had a hand in raising him and controlling his fate, are both abusive jerks, and the women in his life are either absent or terribly ill, makes sense. Though Conrad rejects the toxic behavior of the men in his family, it takes a lot longer for him to reject their teachings. Very late in the book, he not only considers willfully sacrificing a crew member he doesn’t like or trust, but he frames someone for murder as well, again justifying his actions as necessary because he doesn’t like the person.

Conrad’s relationships with women are also pretty limited. Mainly, he rescues them or is traumatized by his failure to rescue them. I was glad to see a story that doesn’t include romance– it’s nice that there are options for readers who aren’t interested or want a break from a romantic plot or subplot.

Conclusion

On the whole, I think the book’s strengths are its high-intensity plot and the friendships built between characters. I’m not sure why this is marketed as young adult literature, though. Conrad is only sixteen, but he’s essentially living an independent adult life. Despite that, the book leaves itself plenty of room to explore subsequent stories in what promises to be a wild ride of a series.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
There weren’t a lot of character descriptions, so I’m not sure about racial representation. Conrad lives in a meritocracy in which physical strength and certain skills are rewarded with better pay and housing. There’s a lot of animosity between the classes. Two characters are gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used pretty frequently. Some crude language used.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to characters coupling up.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Conrad attacks guards who would keep him from accessing his uncle’s mansion. In multiple scenes, characters battle one another for rewards. Some scenes show multiple characters attacking one character. More than one scene shows someone getting stabbed. Conrad’s crew is part of a larger team that fights giant monsters which try to kill them. Some of the team members meet gruesome deaths in monster battles. Conrad speaks to a prisoner who has obviously been tortured.

Drug Content
One person drugs another, leaving them unconscious.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.

Review: Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12

Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit (Theo Tan #1)
Jesse Q. Sutanto
Feiwel & Friends
Published May 31, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit

After inheriting a grieving fox spirit, a Chinese American boy must learn to embrace his heritage to solve the mystery of his brother’s death in Jesse Q Sutanto’s magical, action-packed middle grade fantasy, Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit.

Theo Tan doesn’t want a spirit companion. He just wants to be a normal American kid, playing video games, going to conventions, and using cirth pendants to cast his spells like everyone else. But, when his older brother dies, Theo ends up inheriting Jamie’s fox spirit, Kai.

Kai isn’t happy about this either. Theo is nothing like Jamie, and the two of them have never gotten along. But, when they realize the mysterious journal Jamie left Theo is filled with clues and secret codes, it’s clear that something strange was going on with Jamie’s internship at Reapling Corp.

But the only way onto the campus is the highly competitive “Know Your Roots” summer camp program, a celebration of Chinese and Indian cultures designed to help connect students with their heritage. Theo and Kai will have to put aside their differences long enough to honor Jamie’s last wishes, or the mystery he died for will remain unsolved forever…

My Review

I read the second book in this series last summer, and I have been meaning to read this first one since. When I read the second book, I liked Kai’s quirky humor and the funny footnotes she leaves in her chapters, but somehow reading the first book, I felt like I got the humor more, if that makes sense. Maybe it was simply that I was introduced to her as a character in this book rather than jumping into the second book in which the reader is already sort of expected to know her.

I loved the scenes at the beginning between Theo and Jamie. Even though Jamie was confusing Theo and acting strange, it was easy to get a sense of the rapport between them, and that made a great setup for the rest of the book. There were moments when I wondered if Kai’s storyline was distracting from the central plot, but as the threads of her scenes and Theo’s came together, I felt like they fit together nicely.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book a lot. I’d been on a graphic novel binge, and this was the first prose novel I read after that. It was an excellent choice.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Theo and his family are Chinese American. His friend is Indian American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Theo meets spiritual beings, from a fox spirit companion to deities and demons from Chinese mythology. Characters are shown in different spiritual realms, such as Diyu (hell).

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to a fatal car accident. Battles and deception.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THEO TAN AND THE FOX SPIRIT in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Librarian’s Ruse by Thirzah

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Librarian’s Ruse
Thirzah
The Pearl
Published July 30, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Librarian’s Ruse

Amelia’s peaceful life as a librarian is cut short when she and her older brother Leon are sent on an errand to Eldnaire, the capital city of the vicious Vilnarian Empire. After witnessing a crime carried out in the woods, Amelia and Leon enter the capital only to be faced with an impossible choice: tell the truth and risk imprisonment, or lie and face far worse if they’re caught.

One deception leads to a dozen more, and before she can put an end to the lies, she and Leon are swept up into Vilnaria’s high society. Amelia finds an unlikely ally in Vilnaria’s handsome new ruler, Emperor Kyvir. But as the secrets and scandals continue to pile up and danger closes in on all sides, Amelia must decide once and for all what matters: the truth…or her life?

My Review

Apart from the gorgeous cover, I think my favorite thing about this book is the fact that it centers around a relationship between a brother and sister. I really don’t see that often enough in young adult fiction, and this book absolutely made me wish for more of it. I liked the banter between Amelia and her brother and the way they approached situations completely differently.

While I really appreciated how short this book is– it’s about 130 pages– I found myself wishing for a touch more world-building here and there. I felt like I had to fill in a lot of blanks as a reader, which mostly worked okay, since I’ve read a lot of fantasy. It did make the story feel a little more generic, though, when based on the other elements, I think it could have been really unique.

On the whole, though, I enjoyed the relationships between the characters. I also appreciated that the book’s protagonist is a librarian. That is always fun!

If you’re looking for a quick fantasy read, especially one that centers on sibling relationships, check out THE LIBRARIAN’S RUSE.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Though there aren’t a lot of character descriptions listed, the story references several different cultures and the path toward rebuilding trust between them.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to thieves and people having been murdered. Amelia fears imprisonment or execution when she and her brother impersonate someone.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE LIBRARIAN’S RUSE in exchange for my honest review.