N is for (Books About) Nostalgia #atozchallenge

A note for regular readers. I’m going to suspend my updates on book challenges until April is over. I’ll do a summary post for the first Monday in May.

For A to Z 2018, my theme is Books About ____. If you’re stopping by from your own A to Z blog, feel free to leave a link. If you need help with how to do that, you can look here.

If you’re someone looking to read a lot of great blogs, here’s the link for the A to Z challenge.

I grew up in the 80s and we didn’t have the sense that our weird hairstyles and freaky clothing were anything strange. It seemed normal to layer two pairs of neon socks. I never jumped on the big hair bandwagon, but I did wear the huge glasses for far longer than I should have.

The 80s seem to be one of those time periods that are easy to be nostalgic about. We did have great music, iconic movies, and memorable video games. It’s no wonder that contemporary books go back in time to be set there, and that people love them.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (science fiction): This movie is set in the future, but thanks to a massive multiplayer video game, there are a ton of callbacks to the 80s. Both the book and movie are fabulously fun with tons of references. Even if you lived through it, it’s probably impossible to catch all the references… but it’s fun to try.

Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell (YA romance): Eleanor and Park first bond over music and comic books. He lends her his Walkman and a tape of music he thinks she’ll like, like The Smiths. She doodles on her paper bag-covered schoolbooks. It’s a lovely story and I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the 80s.

How to Build A Girl, by Caitlin Moran (YA): Okay, technically this was set in 1990, but though times did change, they didn’t change that fast. Johanna wants to remake herself, so she starts writing about music and turns herself into Dolly Wilde. It’s an interesting coming of age novel,

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Book Challenges- Week 12

This was another slow reading week for me. I was in Arizona, visiting family, and that makes it difficult for me to get anything read. Plus, I drive the 14 hours back and forth, which means the only reading I get done during the two days’ drive is on audiobook.

Popsugar Challenge

(11/50) No progress this week

While I Was Reading Challenge

(4/12) No progress this week

The Unread Shelf

Running Total: 3 No progress this week

5 Classic Books

(0/5) No progress

Miscellaneous Reading

How to Build a Girl, by Caitlin Moran (YA contemporary): I both liked this book and didn’t. It’s sort of like a rock and roll memoir from a teenage writer’s perspective. There’s a lot of sex and drugs in it, which wasn’t really my thing. I love that it’s sex-positive. I loved the awkwardness of the main character. And I loved that she reinvents herself throughout the book, trying one thing, then another when that doesn’t work. The message is ultimately a great one and one that teenage girls need to hear. Even if I didn’t love all the details of the book, I liked it enough overall that I’d recommend it to some people, though it’s definitely not for everyone. (Though really, what book is?)

All The Ugly and Wonderful Things, by Bryn Greenwood (narrated by Jorjeana Marie): Friends of mine who love audiobooks talk about what a different experience it is to listen to the book instead of reading it, so I decided to give it a go with this one. It’s no secret that this is one of my all-time favorite books. I had a long and boring drive, so I decided to give it a try. I loved it! Listening to it reminded me of all the reasons I love this book, but I also picked up on things I had missed in previous readings. The narrator was great, and this experience has inspired me to try rereading other favorites of mine on audio.

Abandoned

None this week.

2018 Running Total: 31

 

Have you made any progress on your TBR or book challenges?