Read-A-Thon Spring 2021!

Hello friends! It's been awhile, but I'm so excited to be back on the blog. What better time to get re-acquainted than for Dewey's 24-Hour Read-A-Thon. It's been over a year since I've last participated in RaT. I'm so happy to be in a better mind frame this year, than I was this time last year. I have some major reading I need to get done. I'll be posting updates on this post throughout the day. Happy reading to me! 😁 

Reading stack on deck! 

Cultivating You, Inc. Summer of Giveaways!

Cultivating You, Inc. is not offering in-person or virtual programs this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are committed to nurturing talent through the written word. We will be hosting two book giveaways a month from June through August. The giveaways are to help curb summer slide, build home libraries, and spark discussion. Giveaways will include current topics, new releases, student recommendations, and a mystery selection.  

Review: In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

Cat Winters. New York: Amulet Books, 2013. 410 pp.
Rating: Striking

"They've closed down the city to try to keep the flue from spreading. They quarantined the soldiers sooner than the rest of us, but now it's the churches, theaters, moving picture houses, bathhouses, and dance halls—all closed."

    "Schools?" I asked with hope in my heart.

    "Closed." (15)

The year is 1918, World War I is raging, and the Spanish influenza is spreading rapidly claiming the lives of men, women, and children without prejudice. During the midst of this harrowing time, sixteen-year old Mary Shelley Black's life is turned upside down. She finds herself on a germ-packed train fleeing her beloved Oregon home—the only home she's ever known—to her aunt in San Diego, California after her German father is accused and arrested for treason. Mary Shelley arrives in San Diego to discover her young, widowed aunt working in a shipyard, her sweetheart dead, and her image used to entice grieving individuals to spirit photography by her love's unscrupulous brother. Being a young lady of science, Mary Shelly is skeptical of the spirit world, but will her position shift when she's thrust into its mystical wonders.

Review: Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyers. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2013. 454 pp.
Rating: Striking + 🌙🌙🌙🌙🌙

Note: I started writing this review as soon as I finished reading the book on December 7, 2013; however, I never finished writing it. Last month I decided to reread Scarlet, my favorite book of TLC, because I needed something familiar, something I liked, something that wouldn't take up more space than the already jumbled thoughts currently swirling in my mind. I needed a good friend. Not only did this rereading bring me peace, but it also prompted me to finish the review I started seven years earlier. Although many years have passed, I'm leaving the review as I started it. 

In Scarlet, the second installment of The Lunar Chronicles Series, Cinder's story surges forward. Readers sojourn from New Beijing to Rieux, a small province in the French countryside, and there are introduced to Scarlet Benoit, the fiery, red-haired granddaughter of a former European Union pilot. Scarlet is unconvinced that her grandmother's disappearance is intentional though the police and townspeople believe otherwise. While Scarlet grapples with her grandmother's disappearance, Cinder is attempting to break out of prison to elude extradition back to Luna and Queen Levana's malicious plans.

11 Books I Plan to Read in 2020

Happy New Year to all of my book-loving friends! My Goodreads Challenge of 36 books for the year has been set; and I've already begun my first read of 2020. Of all the books I will read this year, the following 11 will be among my reads.

What books are you purposefully setting out to read this year? 

My Contest Entries in Cat Winters' Halloween Giveaway

During the month of October, I participated in a giveaway hosted by one of my favorite authors, Cat Winters. There were four ways to enter; and I chose the option of posting an original photo of the book along with my favorite quote. My entries include images of and quotes from Winters' first three young adult novels. Although I didn't win, I'm proud of my photos and  wanted to share them with you all. Enjoy! 😀

"I plodded after her in my own boots, knowing we made quite a pair—two women, only ten years apart in age, whose femininity had become yet another casualty of war." In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Must Reads by the Close of 2019

If you're anything like me, there's either a stack of books next to your bed, on your bookshelf, living room floor, kitchen table, combination thereof, or all of the above that is demanding to be read. This year I've added more books to my TBR Goodreads Bookshelf than I've read, which of course is to be expected. However, there are a few books that I refuse to go into a new year, a new decade without having read or completed them.

Books to read or finish by the end of the year:

What Makes a Teacher?

An avid reader knows that reading the last line of a book or any literary piece can cause an array of emotions—satisfaction: knowledge of resolution; trepidation: fearing, but yet excited for the conclusion of the story; jubilation: for sticking it out and not abandoning it when it took a weird turn; or contemplation: reflecting on particular plot points or the piece's meaning. Whatever the emotion evoked, there is something about the last word of a written work. A few years ago, I read the editorial, "What Makes A Great Teacher?" in an EdWeek E-Newsletter. Soon after I began crafting a reply to the article. Until now, the response has been left unfinished for several reasons—mainly because I wasn't ready. I needed more time to digest the piece. I needed more time for my thoughts to percolate. I needed more time to be inspired by individuals whose paths I would cross at a later date. I needed more time to ripen emotionally to read certain books I wasn't ready to read at the time. I needed more time to experience things I had yet to experience. Also, during this time of mental processing, I read Reading with Patrick by Michelle Kuo detailing her years with Teach for America; in addition to her time with Patrick, a former student she taught while in Arkansas. After five years of churning in my brain, here follows my long-time-coming response.

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon Fall 2019 Announcement, Updates, & Wrap-Up

Hello reader friends! I decided to participate in read-a-thon after all. Here's my reading stack for the next 24 hours:

Read-a-thon reading goals: 

1. To complete two books
2. To knock off one of the books for the Mount TBR Challenge
3. To read at least three chapters of my current read, Reading Reasons  
4. Above all else, enjoy RaT!

Update Alert

Hello reader friends! With only a little over two months before the end of the year, I wanted to pop in for a moment and share a brief update.

Five book reviews made it from unfinished draft to published since the beginning of the year. Even though the number is much lower than I'd like, it's much higher than last year's. Progress, slow and steady, but progress nonetheless.