discussion – musings of a book girl

Not Every Book is Appropriate for Every Situation (And That’s Okay)

August 2, 2019August 1, 2019 Musings of a (Book) Girl

You recently read a book and it’s now your favorite thing in the world. You’ve bought every single edition there is, lined them all up on your shelf, taken a dozen pictures to share with your book buddies, and now your goal is to make sure that every person you come into contact with gets to read it, too.

And what luck! Your best friend is running a book drive for their local homeless shelter/hospital/teen center. It’s almost too perfect of an opportunity to get this favorite book of yours into the hands of more readers. But, before you go and buy 5 more copies of this book to donate, let’s consider a few things first.

Not every book is appropriate for every situation. And that’s perfectly okay!

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Musings and Ramblings on Trigger Warnings

April 7, 2019April 6, 2019 Musings of a (Book) Girl

Just when you think people are finally starting to accept that trigger warnings are necessary, somebody has to come and ruin it. On Friday, those of us in the book community that take trigger warnings seriously had to speak up when Erika L. Sanchez, author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, began to say some very hurtful and problematic things regarding this subject.

I don't believe in trigger warnings for books bc literature is almost always triggering. That's part of it's job, in my opinion. When we decide to read a book, I feel like we're entering this agreement. Also, as I've said before, the world we live in is one giant-ass trigger.
— Erika L. Sánchez (@ErikaLSanchez) April 5, 2019

I have long been a proponent of trigger warnings, and it confuses me when I’m reminded that there are those out there who don’t agree. During this post, I’ll be breaking down Sanchez’s statement and going over each individual sentence. My hope is that people who are still against trigger warnings or on the fence about them will understand why they are needed, people who use them to stay safe will know they aren’t alone, and when this conversation comes up again (because unfortunately, we all know it will) that this post can be used to educate others.

Please note – because this is a post on trigger warnings, there may be content included that will be harmful to you. If you choose to continue reading, please proceed with caution and take care of yourself and your mental health.

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Musings and Ramblings on Authors Who Never Let You Down

March 16, 2019March 16, 2019 Musings of a (Book) Girl

Recently I read Jennifer E. Smith’s newest release, Field Notes on Love, and made a comment to my husband over dinner about how I have absolutely loved every single book she has written. This made him start trying to figure out if there were any other authors that I enjoyed where I had read all of their books and never felt let down by them. After thinking on it, I decided that my two never let me down authors were Jennifer E. Smith and Gayle Forman.

To me, an author who never lets you down is vastly different from an auto buy author. I could probably spend the entire day creating a list of people who I’ll automatically buy their book upon it’s release (Ellen Hopkins, Cassandra Clare, John Green, Amanda Lovelace…….), but just because I love those authors and will buy anything they write doesn’t mean that I’ve never been disappointed by one of their books. After some encouragement from my husband, this of course led me to Twitter. We just had to know who other readers considered their never let you down authors to be.

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Musings and Ramblings on Vampire Academy

March 7, 2019March 15, 2019 Musings of a (Book) Girl

A flurry of excitement has taken over the book community as the mostly inactive Official Vampire Academy Movie Facebook page has suddenly come back to life. Fans of the series have seen a new profile picture, cover photo, and a couple of cryptic posts.

When I saw all of this start happening, I was instantly excited. I mean, I know what it’s like to have something you love reach the end of it’s era only to surprise you with a comeback several years later (I’ve mentioned how much I love the Jonas Brothers, right?). But, it’s confession time: I’ve never read the series or seen the movie. Which has me asking myself, is it finally time? To come up with an answer I turned to Twitter, expecting to be met with a dozen replies insisting I stop wasting time and read it right this second; instead the results were grey toned, leaving me even more unsure.

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