The Sunshine Blogger Award

So I did not get a notification for this award, which is very weird. I was casually scrolling through my reader, and wanted to leave a congratulatory comment over on the post by Allison @ Universe Within Pages for winning this award. I scroll to the bottom of her post and lo and behold I have been nominated??? I choked on my coffee.

After cleaning my keyboard and thanking her, I immediately got started on this post.

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are creative, positive and inspiring while spreading sunshine to the blogging community.

How Does it Work?

• Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
• Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

The Questions

1. If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you wish for? (Obviously, the genie has rules to prevent you from wishing for more wishes. Sorry.)

Absolutely nothing! I have read The Bartimaeus Trilogy, I know that the genie is going to twist my words and give me something utterly horrible in place of what I actually wanted. Magic is dangerous and I am not going to mess with it, thank you.

2. which book do you think is way over-hyped?

Just like Allison, I pick Serpent and Dove. I think it’s trying very hard to be adult but ends up coming across as extremely juvenile and immature, and I found it too grating to finish.

3.  If you had to give up watching movies or listening to music for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

Uhhhh good question, good question… probably movies, because they’re purely recreational for me whereas I listen to music for much-needed background noise when writing, reading, and cooking.

4. How do you organize your bookshelf / bookshelves?

I… don’t. I really don’t. I’m jealous of people who do the rainbow theme because it looks so good but to be honest my shelves have absolutely zero system. I’m just so used to the four bookshelves in my bedroom (yes, four, and there are more throughout the house because my entire family are heavy readers) that I don’t really need to think and just know approximately where all of my books are.

5. What is one of your proudest achievements?

This is gonna sound weird, but definitely starting and maintaining a daily planner/journal. Because of ADHD and anxiety I have a terrible memory and even worse executive functioning skills, and writing things down seems to help me actually get them done. I use bullet journals for life and school, but use Notion for organizing my reading life and this blog. I don’t know why I resisted planning/journaling for so long, but it makes me feel capable and in control of my life. I can’t recommend it enough.

6. If you had to redesign the covers for one book or series, what cover design would you bless us with?

This is a tough one! I have a soft spot for the old illustrated covers from the 20th century, since I grew up reading my dad’s old fantasy and sci-fi paperbacks, and I’d like to see more illustrated covers. However, I do see them from time to time in modern releases…

Ultimately, I would have to say that I would like to change a lot of different World War II-focused books so that, if the plot has a focus on the German side, then the cover doesn’t feature a gigantic swastika or other Nazi symbol. I understand the purpose is to grab attention, but I think it’s tasteless. When I reviewed The Man From Berlin by Luke McCallin, I ended up using the European cover, because the US edition featured a gigantic swastika and I refuse to put a swastika on my blog for any reason.

Also, I realize I kinda dodged the question here, but I’d really prefer to just reverse this overall trend.

7. Which food from your country should foreign readers definitely try?

Oh, man, this is another tough one. The US doesn’t have a huge number of foods that don’t belong to an immigrant group from another country, so the selection is actually pretty limited. On the other hand, I love talking about food (seriously, if this wasn’t a reading blog it would be a recipe blog), so I’m going to go with Bananas Foster.

This dessert is definitely American, and was first created in 1951 in the famous New Orleans restaurant, Brennan’s, to honor Richard Foster, a local businessman and friend of the restaurant owner. The recipe is composed of caramelized bananas in rum sauce, which is then set on fire (i.e. flambéed) until the alcohol burns off. It’s very dramatic. I want to try making it, but I think both of my parents would scream if they came into the kitchen and saw me doing this — my dad because I’m using his rum, and my mom because of the leaping flames inside the pot.

What is one of your most unpopular bookish opinions?

Sarah J. Maas has a weird habit of frequently reminding the readers of her books how sexually attractive the female protagonist is. It’s tiring and unnecessary. I have very little patience for this sort of thing, and I just will not read any of her books.

Which 5 emojis and/or GIFs best describe you?

Okay, so I feel uncomfortable doing this, but I rarely use emojis and never use GIFs, so I’m going to skip this question. I’m just not a fan of GIFs. I don’t like it when images move and they aren’t videos.

*shakes stick at shadows from within my cro magnon hut*

A book you think I (and everyone else) should go read already?

Oh, it’s definitely Digger by Ursula Vernon. It’s whimsical, it’s sweet — there are vampiric squash, warrior shrews, and galloping trolls — but there are also a lot of very deep, important themes about religion, sexism, and domestic violence, and the ending made me cry. I just love Ursula Vernon (who also writes under the name T. Kingfisher) so, so much.

Which post that someone else wrote did you love recently?

The wonderful team over at The Quiet Pond recently published a post titled Book Blogger Resources: Writing That Book Review When You Feel Out Of Your Depth (and Out of Experience). I found this invaluable, since I’m a white, able-bodied woman from a solid upper middle class background who is trying to read more diversely. Sometimes it’s hard for me to connect with a book because I don’t share more of the background of the protagonist and/or just aren’t a member of the target audience — and that’s okay! There was a really good examination of how to think critically about this lack of connection without judging the book itself negatively, and how to still talk about it in a way that’s helpful to readers.

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And that’s it! I’ll be honest, I’m too tired to think up eleven new questions. However, for people, I’m going to tag…

Sarah @ Suits of Stories

Aleks @ Aleks and the Books

Becca @ Toastie Books

Molly @ Silver Button Books

Althea @ Althea is Reading

Of course, if you would prefer not to do this tag, I completely understand!