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fanfic-reading-challenge · 3 years

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A tool to keep track of your fics!

Update for the 2023 tools!:

For 2023’s reading log, it’s been updated, but you can also track my own progress (with my own log (no shaming!) to see the different ways I’ve handled logging during the fic reading challenge. @jandjsalmon has a wonderful fic tracker which others have found great success with, and I’m sure she and I would br happy to assist!

I’ve been using a self-modified version of a self-modified version of a spreadsheet shared by the gracious @betheflame, which I believe is modified off of... a BookRiot spreadsheet? (Yeah, Flame says BookRiot. Here’s the link to that Reading Challenge---it’s really quite nifty!)

In any case! It’s just a simple spreadsheet where I plan to keep track of the fics I’ve already read, and sometimes even the ones I want to read later, just so that they’re already in the spreadsheet! :)

I hope that you enjoy using this. It’s a bit simpler than the Challenge spreadsheet, and then will make it 100% easier to transfer info and/or just check off the boxes on your 2021 Fanfic Reading Challenge. Mainly, I just want to make things easier for you, and I’ve found this has been great, for me at least. xD

Here’s the link to the view-only Fic Tracker spreadsheet. Find on the toolbar somewhere where it says ‘Make a Copy’, and then edit and play around with it as much as you’d like! This is my personal copy! You’re welcome to view it, but please make a copy and adjust as you want for if you want to use your own. :)

*blows kisses* HAPPY READING! <3

(P.S. Reminder!: there is no deadline for signups. Feel free to join this reading challenge at any time in 2021. Let’s make this, our, world at least a little bit happier by shoving our heads neck-deep into fics. :P)

xoxo Juulna

P.S. If at any time you want to peruse how I’m doing (or for different examples you might have questions about), use the link above!

Please feel free, just don’t bitch about what ships I read! :P This is meant to be used as a) inspiration for those floundering a little, b) examples of what you can do/what you could read/how to organize your spreadsheet, and c) someplace you could maybe find your answer before coming to me over Asks! (Feel free to, anytime, if you do need help and can’t find it elsewhere though. xoxo) And also! d) I want to normalize fanfiction, multishipping, and reading from multiple fandoms, as a multishipper and a polyamorous person both. So I’m trying to have a wide variety of ships, fandoms, and topics on my spreadsheet! ^_^

Yeah, some topics or ships are sketchy to others, but do try to be civil. This challenge is for any fandom, any ship, any person. Feel free not to write down any or just some of your fic details/not include a link on your own spreadsheet(s) if you’re worried about that.

I plan to use this spreadsheet as a way to keep things organized before I start pairing things up on my actual 2021 Fic Reading Challenge spreadsheet. (Find other links there, too.) Otherwise it may get a bit messy/I would personally lose track. That’s just the way I’m built, but at least I know that and can anticipate it, lmao.

All the best, everyone! <3

Examples of the (MY!) spreadsheet are below the cut. Click or press on them (or right click+open in new window to get far better detail for the smaller things).

Multiple Columns and Rows (Click, press, or open image in new window especially on this one).

A little closer in of a view. Cut out the fic links column, series name, chapter totals, any warnings if at all, and background ships, if any.

Here’s a peek at my colour-coding system (you are more than welcome to change your own once you ‘make a copy’ off the link above!) It also has basic instructions on how to adjust one of the Spreadsheet functions (SUM, though you may need to fix QUOTIENT too, after) after the fact, once/if you need more room.

Numbers on the left are what they would be if you finish reading all the fics on your list. The numbers on the right are the actual amount you’ve read so far (very easy to change it; there’s a whole column for it) and for curiosity’s sake I had it calculate automatically (the QUOTIENT function) how many words that made by chapters read. Pretty nifty! I love statistics. :D

#reading tool #reading #fanfiction #fanfic #spreadsheet #2021frc #2021 fic reading challenge #excel #google sheets #function

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monarchies-history · 3 years

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Act Your Age, Eve Brown

Act Your Age, Eve Brown By Talia Hibbert Description: In USA Today bestselling author Talia Hibbert’s newest rom-com, the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner and has him falling hard—literally. Featured on Parade, PopSugar, Marie Claire, Oprah Mag, Bustle, CNN.com, Kirkus Magazine, Bookpage, Bookish, Bookriot, and more! Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No…

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#Act Your Age Eve Brown #ARC #Avon Romance #Contemporary Romance #Diverse Romance #New Release #Release Day #romance novel #romance novel reviews #Romance Novels #Talia Hibbert #We Need Diverse Romance

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cheshirelibrary · 4 years

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Whether you’re a podcast fanatic already or looking to subscribe to your first-ever audio show, we have a list of book-themed podcasts for you that will fill the literary void in your heart (and ears!). Scroll down and check them all out:

Remember Reading Podcast. Featuring interviews with kids and authors as well as audiobook excerpts and archived clips from legendary writers, this nostalgic podcast is delivers all the feels.

88 Cups of Tea. This podcast uncovers the life of YA writers—from the writing process to the challenges of publishing a book.

The B&N YA Podcast. This pod seeks to uncover the stories behind young adult books by interviewing authors like Elizabeth Acevedo, Julie Murphy, and Angie Thomas.

Professional Book Nerds. A bookish podcast is hosted by staff librarians, or “professional book nerds”, who work at an eBook/Audiobook app called OverDrive.

The Librarian is In. Frank & Gwen from NYPL talk about what to read next as well as other literary discussions, from literary dogs to dog-eared pages.

What Should I Read Next? Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy interviews readers and makes recommendations on what to read next.

All the Books! BookRiot’s All The Books will tell you about, well, all the books—new releases and backlist—on a weekly basis.

Just the Right Book. Hosted by independent bookseller Roxanne Coady, this podcast is about books, authors, and everything lit-worthy.

Literaticast. This podcast is all about books for children and young adults hosted by a literary agent (and her friends).

Adventures in YA. A laidback discussion for YA fans featuring friendly, informative conversations about books and authors we love.

First Draft. Sarah Enni (a YA author herself) interviews YA authors of all types about how their lives influence their art (and vice versa).

Harper Audio Presents. A behind-the-scenes look at new audiobook releases, authors, and narrators.

#cheshire library #bookish podcasts #podcasts about books #podcasts for readers #podcasts for book lovers

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 5 years

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Hell is For Children: Animorphs as Children’s Lit

[Guest post from Cates!]

So a couple of months ago Bug asked me to write a post about why Animorphs is Middle Grade/Children’s Fiction, not Young Adult. Since she asked, I’ve read several wonderful posts from other people questioning or explaining what the difference is between Middle Grade and Young Adult, where Animorphs fits, and why it matters. Here’s my two cents as a children’s literature scholar.

To start, Animorphs’ 20,000-30,000 word count per book is a big hint it’s not YA fiction. Obviously, a book with a low word count is not automatically a children’s book, and a book with a high word count is not automatically a book for adults. But if Animorphs was aimed at teens, Applegate would likely have been expected to make the books longer. While there are a lot of great YA novels that are as short as or shorter than your average Animorphs book (check out BookRiot’s list of 100 YA novels under 250 pages,) most YA series, and especially fantasy or scifi YA series, are expected to top 100,000 words. (The three books in the Diviners series by Libba Bray have a total wordcount of 520,000 words; Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy tops 400,000 words, for example.)

Animorphs’ word count isn’t enough on its own to exclude the series from YA classification, but Animorphs’ short word count also fits the trend of children’s—not YA—series fiction in the 1990s. In order to understand this trend, and why it produced books specifically for children, not teens, we need to jump back in time to WWII. Because so many American men were drafted into the military, women took over jobs that had been almost exclusively done by men, like mechanics, sales, electricians, etc. When WWII ended, thousands of men returned home, but women didn’t leave the workforce. Realizing they had an excess of young men and not enough jobs, the US government created the GI Bill, allowing soldiers to attend college for free or at a steeply reduced cost, thus stemming the influx of workers and giving the economy and industry room to grow.

At the same time, families were having children (and those children were surviving) at an unprecedented rate. Thanks to the GI Bill, college was no longer something reserved for wealthy white men, but something available to the middle and even lower class. A college education offered social and economic mobility, and the Baby Boomers, children of the GI Bill recipients, became the first generation to grow up with the idea that college was something that could and should be pursued by all.

Then, the Baby Boomers began having children in the late 1970s through early 1990s, meaning a large chunk of those children (including Bug and I) were in elementary school in mid 1990s to early 2000s. Thanks to their parents, a higher percentage of American adults than ever before had attended college. Thanks to advancements in women’s medicine, psychology, sociology, and education, among other fields, people understood as never before the importance of instilling a love of reading in children at a young age. The huge middle class was willing to invest lots of time and money in their children’s educations, because at this point not having a college education was seen as a barrier to success.

I’m sure you can see where this is going. (Kidding).

Children’s publishing exploded in the 1990s because children—or, more accurately, their parents—were seen as a huge, untapped market. Previously, children’s publishing didn’t receive as much money or attention because, the logic went, children did not have money and therefore couldn’t buy books. But then the publishing industry realized that there were literally millions of parents willing to spend money on their children’s education, and publishers like Scholastic, Dutton, Dial, Penguin, Random House, and others rushed to take advantage of this new customer demographic.

Of the ten books featured on this Scholastic bookfair poster from 2000, seven are series fiction.

Serialized fiction—ie, stories that took place over the course of several books about the same characters and/or in the same setting—was the perfect way for publishing houses to capitalize on this new market. And hoo boy was it successful. From 1993 to 1995, Goosebumps books were being sold at a rate of approximately 4 million books a month. That means roughly 130,000 books were sold every day.

Here’s a few names to bring you back: Bailey School Kids, The Magic Treehouse, Babysitter’s Club, Junie B. Jones, Encyclopedia Brown, Cam Jansen, Horrible Harry, Secrets of Droon, The Magic Attic Club, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Bunnicula, The Boxcar Children, The American Girls, Amelia’s Notebook, Dear America, Wayside School, Choose Your Own Adventure…we could keep going for days. All of those series have two things in common: one, they were either published between 1985 and 2005 and/or experienced a huge resurgence in the 90s, and two, they’re all middle grade novels. Some are aimed at younger children, like Junie B. Jones and The Magic Treehouse, and some are aimed at older children, like the Dear America series and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The point is, Animorphs is so clearly a product of its time (and not just because of the Hansen Brothers references,) it slots perfectly into the trend of series fiction for children. If you want to claim Animorphs is YA, you also need to claim all of the series I just listed above.

Now, let’s talk about the main argument I see in favor Animorphs being YA: the dark content.

This is my personal wheelhouse. I’m planning on someday doing my PhD dissertation on trauma, violence, war, and trauma recovery in Middle Grade—not YA—fiction. I always find it funny when people use descriptors like cute, sweet, innocent, silly, light, and simple to describe children’s books. While there are certainly plenty of children’s books that are one or more of those things, there are also dozens that are the polar opposite—dark, complex, serious, violent, and deep. I once read a review of The Golden Compass which said “it’s not like other children’s books with a clear cut good guy and bad guy and a simple message.” I don’t know how many children’s books the author of the article had read, but I’m guessing not a lot. Let’s just do a blunt reality check with a few of my favorites—including some picture books which are typically for an even younger audience than Middle Grade. Spoilers for all of the books I’m about to mention.

Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki This book follows a little boy who is sent to a Japanese interment camp during WWII. He and his family deal with abuse, starvation, and sickness. Suggested reading age*? Kindergarten and up.

*(For this and all subsequent books I used reviews from Kirkus, the Horn Book, and School Library Journal to determine suggested reading age.)

Check out this picture of Shorty playing baseball while an armed soldier watches him from a guard tower. Isn’t it cute, sweet, and innocent?

Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco Pink and Say are 15-year-old boys serving as Union Soldiers during the Civil War. Confederate Soldiers kill Pink’s mother, Pink and Say become POWs, and Pink is hanged because he is African American. Suggested reading age? First grade and up.

Fox by Margaret Wild This book starts grim and just gets grimmer. Dog and Magpie have been burned in a wildfire. Dog loses an eye, Magpie a wing. Magpie rides on Dog’s head—she is his eyes, he is her wings. Fox comes and convinces Magpie to leave Dog and come with him. There are definite sexual undertones. The book ends with the possibility that Dog and Magpie will be reunited, but no certainty. Suggested reading age? Six and up.

[The text says “He stops, scarcely panting./ There is silence between them/ Neither moves, neither speaks./ Then Fox shakes Magpie off his back/ as he would a flea,/ and pads away./ He turns and looks at Magpie, and he says,/ ‘Now you and Dog will know what it is like/ to be truly alone.’/ Then he is gone./ In the stillness, Magpie hears a faraway scream./ She cannot tell if it is a scream of triumph/ or despair.”]

Tell me this isn’t a total punch in the gut.

The Rabbits by Shaun Tan The introduction of rabbits to Australia is used as an allegory for European colonization and the casual destruction of the Aboriginals’ lives and cultures. Suggested reading age? Six and up.

The Scarlet Stockings Spy by Trinka Hakes Noble A girl spies on the British during the Revolutionary War while her brother fights. He’s killed and there’s actually a description of her finding the “bloodstained hole” in his coat where the bullet struck him. How cute and silly! Suggested reading age? Second grade and up.

Meet Addy: An American Girl by Connie Rose Porter I think this works as a nice comparison to Animorphs because it’s another long-running, popular series aimed at kids just starting to read chapter books. Among other incidents, there’s a graphic description of Addy watching her brother get whipped by an overseer and a passage where another overseer forces Addy to eat worms. I actually give American Girls a lot of points for not shying away from the uglier parts of history. They don’t always get it right (*cough* Kaya *cough*) but those books are more complex than I think most people realize. Suggested reading age? Second grade and up.

My Teacher Flunked the Planet by Bruce Coville From the sight of a child starving to death to homeless children freezing in the streets, Coville certainly doesn’t avoid the darker side of human nature. Pretty sure most adults only noticed the funny green alien on the cover. Suggested reading age? Fourth grade and up.

“That was the day we crept, invisible, into a prison where men and women were being tortured for disagreeing with their government. What had already been done to those people was so ugly I cannot bring myself to describe it, even though the memory of it remains like a scar burned into my brain with a hot iron.

“Even worse was the moment when it was about to start again. When I saw what the uniformed man was going to do to the woman strapped to the table, I pressed myself against the wall and closed my eyes. But even with my hands clamped over my ears I couldn’t shut out her scream.”

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai The Vietnam War, migrants drowning in the ocean, refugee camps, racism…this book is a bit like Animorphs in that it’s got a surprisingly dry sense of humor even as awful events take place. Suggested reading age? Fourth grade and up.

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Patterson A pretty harsh look at the realities of America’s foster care system as told by a girl who could give Rachel Berenson a run for her money. It’s not afraid to show that parents aren’t automatically good people. Suggested reading age? Third grade and up.

Stepping on the Cracks and Wait Til Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn If WWII, bullying, dead siblings, draft dodging, and parental abuse are too light and fluffy for you, you can always read about a child consumed with survivor’s guilt because she started the fire that killed her mother. Suggested reading age? Fifth grade and up.

“‘How do you think Jimmy would feel if he knew his own sister was helping a deserter while he lay dying in Belgium?’

‘It wasn’t like that!’ I said, stung by the unfairness of her question. ‘Stuart was sick, he needed me! I wish Jimmy had been down there in the woods, too! Then he’d be alive, not dead!’

Mother slapped me then, hard as she could, right in the face. ‘Never say anything like that again!’ she cried. ‘Never!’”

I could go on (and on and on and on) about trauma narratives for children, but suffice to say while I think Animorphs is probably the most brilliant one I’ve ever read, it’s far from the only one. Kids’ books can be dark, which is good, because if we only tell stories about white, able-bodied children living in big houses with two loving parents then we’re excluding the majority of real children’s lived experiences from our narratives.

There’s one more point I’d like to address: without sounding overly accusatory, I think a lot of the compulsion to consider Animorphs YA instead of children’s fiction is born of the adult bias against children. I’ve mentioned this before on the podcast, but Children’s Literature scholar Maria Nikolajeva created the term aetonormativity to describe society’s tendency to value the adult over the child. Like I discussed above, we have this idea that children’s books are somehow sweet and innocent, while YA fiction is darker and grittier because it addresses so-called ‘adult’ topics like sex, drugs, suicide, violence, and death.

As I hope I’ve established above, just because a book addresses these topics that doesn’t automatically mean it’s for teens. Books about heavy subjects can, are, and should be written for children. I think most of us are fans of Animorphs because it’s a series that sticks with us long after we close the neon-cloud covers. It’s a series that strongly disputes the notion of a clear right and wrong, and doesn’t shy away from the atrocities of war. And it was written for children. It was sold to children. It was read by children.

Some of us adults are just cool enough to read children’s books that treat child readers with the respect they deserve.

— Cates

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theheroichydrangea · 4 years

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You said something in your tags about a copyright case on a/b/o dynamics??? I need to learn more that sounds WILD

oh man, okay, idk if tumblr is still bad at links but here is the NYT article about it from May and one from last month on BookRiot (there have been no updates since then)

but in case you didn’t want to read all of that: my understanding is two romance authors, Addison Cain and Zooey Ellis both write and publish romance novels that use A/B/O tropes- apparently Cain, who has be publishing longer, got the idea that Ellis plagiarized her work- both by copying the plot of one of her novels and that as far as she knows she’s the first person to publish A/B/O romance novels for M/F couples- Ellis claims any similarities are because they both use tropes common to that particular universe/kink/whatever. That case was dismissed but not after Ellis’s books had been taken off amazon and stuff. So now Ellis is counter-suing Cain and her publishers for making what they believe to be false claims about copyright infringement. (for the record as far as anyone can tell, A/B/O as we know it today is the product of a Supernatural KinkMeme on LJ because OF COURSE IT WAS) (I would not be surprised if it’s older than that too)

If you’re into copyright law there are apparently some interesting implications here AND this case is being tried in OKLAHOMA OF ALL PLACES so please please picture a judge in Oklahoma trying to understand the ins and outs of A/B/O tropes in order to make any sort of rulings on this case. Imagine trying to pick a jury in Oklahoma for this case. I stumbled upon a Twitter thread about this last year in the middle of my Moderism class and I have never tried harder in my life to keep a poker face going I swear.

#hope its ok that i published this #bc more people other than me need to know about it #does this need a cw???#sorry if you are v into this and i got some of the details wrong i'm going off memory and skimming these articles #PLEASE come talk to me about it #queer-crusader

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gayfantasybooklist · 4 years

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Nimona

★★★☆☆

2015 by Noelle Stevenson

Sword & Sorcery; Queer Main Characters

I think this started out as a web-comic, but I read the bound volume (libraries for the win!). The story sets in when the shapeshifter Nimona convinces kind-hearted villain Ballister Blackheart to take her on as a sidekick and her powers allow him to take his game to the next level in his vendetta against Ambrosious Goldenloin (lol at the name). But actually Ballister is reluctant to go all out in his villain scheming, because even though Ambrosious is the long-time poster boy of The Institution (superhero academy), back in the day Ambrosius and Ballister were very gay for each other. Beautiful art, fast paced, good humor, and a fun plot that treats good and evil in a nuanced way. But what I found most awesome about this tale is the effortless way in which Stevenson treats queerness. Not just the A&B gayness, but also the way Nimona is drawn as a kind and lethal character whose style is so refreshingly gender non-confirming.

How I discovered this book: Bookriot 50 Must-Read LGBT Fantasy Books

I post a book review every week. Visit https://gayfantasybooklist.weebly.com for the full archive.

#book review #gay romance #gay fantasy #bookreview #queerbook #gayromance #gayfantasy #lgbt #lgbt books #queer #gay #gay book

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stacyalesi · 3 years

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ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert

New #bookreview: ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert, so sad this is the last book in one of my favorite series! What's next, @TaliaHibbert? @avonbooks @HarperCollins #readAvon #romance #ownvoices #autism

The Brown Sisters, Book 3 CLICK TO PURCHASE From the publisher: AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In Talia Hibbert’s newest rom-com, the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner and has him falling hard—literally. Featured on Parade, PopSugar, Marie Claire, Oprah Mag, Bustle, Shondaland, CNN.com, Kirkus Magazine, Bookpage, USA Today, Bookish, Bookriot, and…

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#ownvoices #Contemporary

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sublecturas · 4 months

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"Nuestra parte de noche", de Mariana Enríquez en la #Línea B

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arnoldjaime13 · 4 years

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Blog Tour- WILD, DARK TIMES by @esoteric_austin With A Dream Cast & #Giveaway! @btwnthelinespub, & @RockstarBkTours

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the WILD, DARK TIMESby Austin Case Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: WILD, DARK TIMES

Author: Austin Case

Pub. Date: July 23, 2019

Publisher: Liminal Books (Between the Lines Publishing)

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 192

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, TBD, Bookshop.org

Read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited Subscription!

It's the summer of 2012 and Elizabeth Megalos is a disillusioned art-school grad getting by as a bank teller in St. Louis. One evening, she’s attacked by a possessed coworker and saved by a mysterious, wise-cracking sorcerer named Eddy. He drags Elizabeth and Hugh—a skeptical scholar of the occult—to Europe, where he introduces them to his three magical celebrity friends. Once there, Eddy explains the group's mission: preventing a Demiurge—a creature out of Gnostic Christian mythology—from fulfilling the visions of doom in the Book of Revelation. The Demiurge has been drawing power from the misguided beliefs in the Mayan apocalypse and is set to start the destruction on Dec. 21st, 2012. Through ritual magic and a series of psychedelic experiences, the group learns that Elizabeth is the key to taking down the Demiurge, though she can't imagine how she will be the one to stop Armageddon.

Book Dream cast.

Elizabeth: Stella Maeve

Eddy: Cillian Murphy

Hugh: Jesse Eisenberg

Veer: Rose Leslie

Frater: John Boyega

Albert: Nick Frost

William: When I was first writing this book I had Kevin Spacey in mind for the role, but…No. I think Leland Orser could make a really terrifying William, though.

Damon: B. J. Novak

Maya: Kaitlin Olson

About Austin:

Austin Case received a Master's Degree from the University of Amsterdam in Western Esotericism and Mysticism. His academic knowledge of the occult and other peripheral phenomena has given him a unique take on fantasy and other speculative fiction.

Giveaway Details:

5 lucky winners will win a signed finished copy of WILD, DARK TIMES, US Only.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba21146/?

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/7/2020

Two Chicks on Books

Interview

9/7/2020

JaimeRockstarBookTours

Instagram Post

9/8/2020

BookHounds

Interview

9/8/2020

BookHounds

Instagram Post

9/9/2020

TMBA Corbett Tries to Write

Guest Post

9/9/2020

TMBA Corbett Tries to Write

Instagram Post

9/10/2020

The Book Rookery

Excerpt

9/10/2020

The Book Rookery

Instagram Post

9/11/2020

Jaime's World

Guest Post

9/11/2020

The Phantom Paragrapher

Excerpt

Week Two:

9/14/2020

Books A-Brewin'

Guest Post

9/14/2020

Books A-Brewin'

Instagram Post

9/15/2020

bookriot

Review

9/15/2020

bookriot_edah

Instagram Post

9/16/2020

Lisa-Queen of Random

Review

9/16/2020

Lisa-Queen of Random

Instagram Post

9/17/2020

Books a Plenty Book Reviews

Review

9/17/2020

Reese's Reviews

Review

9/18/2020

Rajiv's Reviews

Review

9/18/2020

Rajiv's Reviews

Instagram Post

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