Infinite Golden Floors: 2018

Celebrating Girl Power in Graphic Novels

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January TBR

8:30:00 AM

I rarely, if ever make monthly TBR lists because I'm a bit of a mood reader and prefer to just pick up what I'm in the mood for. But because I'm at my dorm for winter session and want to get a lot of reading done, as well as having some books I need to finish, I decided to create a TBR for January, although I may not end up sticking to all of it.

Now, I've already finished 4 books, all of which are on the list, and there are some that have not yet been released and one is my friend's draft, but the rest of generally the books I'd like to get through this month. I'm aiming to finish 1-2 per week, and I'm also open to changing to any other book I have at the dorms right now.

January TBR

1. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo | F. C. Yee

Genie Lo is one among droves of Ivy-hopeful overachievers in her sleepy Bay Area suburb. You know, the type who wins. When she’s not crushing it at volleyball or hitting the books, Genie is typically working on how to crack the elusive Harvard entry code.

But when her hometown comes under siege from hellspawn straight out of Chinese folklore, her priorities are dramatically rearranged. Enter Quentin Sun, a mysterious new kid in class who becomes Genie’s self-appointed guide to battling demons. While Genie knows Quentin only as an attractive transfer student with an oddly formal command of the English language, in another reality he is Sun Wukong, the mythological Monkey King incarnate—right down to the furry tale and penchant for peaches.

Suddenly, acing the SATs is the least of Genie’s worries. The fates of her friends, family, and the entire Bay Area all depend on her summoning an inner power that Quentin assures her is strong enough to level the very gates of Heaven. But every second Genie spends tapping into the secret of her true nature is a second in which the lives of her loved ones hang in the balance.

2. Spring's Awakening | Frank Wedekind

***The entire synopsis contains SPOILERS (I don't know why they did that but)***

Spring's Awakening is a tragi-comedy of teenage sex. Its fourteen-year-old heroine, Wendla, is killed by abortion pills. The young Moritz, terrorized by the world around him, and especially by his teachers, shoots himself. The ending seems likely to be the suicide of Moritz's friend, Melchior, but in a confrontation with a mysterious stranger (the famous Masked Man) he finally manages to shed his illusions and face the consequences.

3. Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race | Reni Eddo-Lodge

In 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it. She posted a piece on her blog, entitled: 'Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race'.

Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanised by this clear hunger for open discussion, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings.

Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge offers a timely and essential new framework for how to see, acknowledge and counter racism. It is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary exploration of what it is to be a person of colour in Britain today.

4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | J.K. Rowling [Re-read]

Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts is full of new dangers. A convicted murderer, Sirius Black, has broken out of Azkaban prison, and it seems he's after Harry. Now Hogwarts is being patrolled by the dementors, the Azkaban guards who are hunting Sirius. But Harry can't imagine that Sirius or, for that matter, the evil Lord Voldemort could be more frightening than the dementors themselves, who have the terrible power to fill anyone they come across with aching loneliness and despair. Meanwhile, life continues as usual at Hogwarts. A top-of-the-line broom takes Harry's success at Quidditch, the sport of the Wizarding world, to new heights. A cute fourth-year student catches his eye. And he becomes close with the new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, who was a childhood friend of his father. Yet despite the relative safety of life at Hogwarts and the best efforts of the dementors, the threat of Sirius Black grows ever closer. But if Harry has learned anything from his education in wizardry, it is that things are often not what they seem.

5. Seven-Sided Spy | Hannah Carmack

In the midst of the cold war, the CIA’s finest and most fatal female agent, Diana Riley, vanishes. Kidnapped by the KGB and taken to the backcountry of North Carolina, she and her team of unsavory partners are forced to undergo illegal experimentation.

But, when the experiments leave them horribly deformed and unable to reenter society without someone crying monster, the previously glamorous and high-maintenance spies must escape KGB captivity and avoid recapture at the hands of Nikola, a ruthless KGB agent with an intense and well-justified grudge against her former flame.

6. The Key to Everything | Paula Stokes

College senior Oakland Fuller has always believed in signs and soulmates, so when both a therapist and a fortuneteller say that her repeated relationship failures are due to unresolved feelings for her high school boyfriend, Seth, Oakland tries desperately to get back in touch with him. Problem: Seth isn’t responding to her online messages.

To rescue Oakland from a pathetic Christmas break of sitting in front of the computer, her best friend Morgan books the two of them on a guided excursion of Thailand. When the girls meet a pair of American soldiers in Bangkok, Oakland takes Morgan’s advice and engages in a little harmless holiday hooking up. Sergeant Tyson Banks is the perfect mix of sexy and fun. Two weeks with him might just turn out to be the best relationship Oakland has ever had.

Until the day she spots someone familiar across a crowded temple complex—it’s Seth! Somehow the boy she’s been trying to reconnect with is in Bangkok too. If that’s not a sign, then what is?

7. Saints and Misfits | S.K. Ali

How much can you tell about a person just by looking at them?

Janna Yusuf knows a lot of people can’t figure out what to make of her…an Arab Indian-American hijabi teenager who is a Flannery O’Connor obsessed book nerd, aspiring photographer, and sometime graphic novelist is not exactly easy to put into a box.

And Janna suddenly finds herself caring what people think. Or at least what a certain boy named Jeremy thinks. Not that she would ever date him—Muslim girls don’t date. Or they shouldn’t date. Or won’t? Janna is still working all this out.

While her heart might be leading her in one direction, her mind is spinning in others. She is trying to decide what kind of person she wants to be, and what it means to be a saint, a misfit, or a monster. Except she knows a monster…one who happens to be parading around as a saint…Will she be the one to call him out on it? What will people in her tightknit Muslim community think of her then?

8. Code Name Verity | Elizabeth Wein

Oct. 11th, 1943 - A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.

When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

9. Between Shades of Gray | Ruta Sepetys

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.

10. History is All You Left Me | Adam Silvera

When Griffin's first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he's been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin's downward spiral continues. He's losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he's been keeping are tearing him apart.

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

11. Nina & Minerva

This is my friend's manuscript, and I'm excited to finally be reading it! I've heard about him working on it for years, and I'm hoping I'll love it. I'm not sharing many details because I'm not sure he'd want me sharing, so sorry. Hopefully one day you'll be able to hear more about it. ;)

What books are you planning to read this month? Have you read any of these? If you have, what'd you think?

college

2018 / Spring Semester Goals

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I'm not a big "resolutions" person, but after my fall semester and 2017 in general, I actually had some goals I had in mind for the spring semester and for 2018 in general. As I was writing this post, I actually realized that most of my goals are roughly the same (I re-evaluate after each semester because I think in terms of school years, not calendar years, usually). There are a few that are part of my yearly goals but not my semester goals, but there aren't many (basically, more networking and continue to practice/work on my language skills (Spanish and Portuguese if you're wondering)).

1. Spend less time on my phone

Lately I've realized just how much time I spend looking at my phone. I often use it as a crutch when I feel awkward or anxious, and I will aimlessly scroll through social media when I'm bored just for the sake of it. I could use that time so much more productively!

2. Read at least 1-2 books a month

Goal 1 leads into goal 2. My Goodreads goal is 35 books this year, since I read 30 books in 2017. I've already hit this goal for the month of January, but it'll be tougher once the semester starts. But I want to keep up with some non-academic reading. I'd love to read more than this number, but many of the books I want to read this year are also on the longer side, so I don't mind. If you have any book recs send them my way (although my overflowing TBR won't be too happy about that)!

3. Create creative content sustainably and mix it up

Most of the fall semester was spent choreographing, and my spring semester will definitely also have a lot of dancing because our competition is coming up! But February is also February Album Writing Month, so I'll be participating and hope to get back to some creative writing during the semester as well. I want to take some dance classes, read, write, etc but without burning myself out. This fall, I felt the need to constantly be creative in one particular way and burned out so hard. I think mixing it up will help a little bit!

4. Limit coffee consumption (max. 4x/week)

Friends, I drank so much coffee this past fall, and I don't want to do that to my body or my wallet as much this spring. So hopefully less coffee drinking!

5. Spend more time with friends and go do fun things

All of my friends agree that we've generally seen one another less. We used to go hiking, go to museums, get dessert, just hang out. I barely did that, and it made a hard semester even more difficult, so I want to carve out more time to see friends and maintain relationships.

6. Return to journaling, cooking, exercising

All three things I should do but didn't. Cooking will probably be the easiest...I just have to be less lazy! Exercise should also be fairly easy. At the least, I want to consistently do some of my PT exercises. But I used to feel so great in my body, and I just feel so weak now. With dance competition coming up, I should focus on strengthening again. Journaling will be the hardest, as that's never been something I've been good at. It's always something I've wanted to keep up, but I'm so bad at doing it. I hope to at least spend 5 minutes writing down thoughts about my day every day. I'm already off to a bad start, but better late than never! So much stuff happened in the fall, and I know I'll wish I had written about it, so I want to start now.

7. Keep up with blogging!

I really, really want to get back on board with blogging. I know I'll have a lot going on, but my goal is to just have one blog post a week, probably on Tuesdays. But this also involves more social media work and all that jazz. Hoping to schedule some posts so I have a bit of cushion space, especially since I'll be busy with FAWM next month (expect song postings here ;)).

Celebrating Girl Power in Graphic Novels

Post-1906 San Francisco and a Parallel Fairy World

The City on the Other Side by Mairghread Scott, Robin Robinson

Girls and Aliens in Space

Zita the Spacegirl Series by Ben Hatke

Star Scouts by Mike Lawrence

19th Century France, Royalty, and the Breaking of Gender Norms

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Hilarious Gender-Stereotype-Defying Fantasy

Cucumber Quest: The Doughnut Kingdom (#1) and The Ripple Kingdom (#2) by DG Gigi

Inspiring Women in Real Life and From Around the World

Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Penelope Bagieu

January TBR

January TBR

1. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo | F. C. Yee

2. Spring's Awakening | Frank Wedekind

3. Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race | Reni Eddo-Lodge

4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | J.K. Rowling [Re-read]

5. Seven-Sided Spy | Hannah Carmack

6. The Key to Everything | Paula Stokes

7. Saints and Misfits | S.K. Ali

8. Code Name Verity | Elizabeth Wein

9. Between Shades of Gray | Ruta Sepetys

10. History is All You Left Me | Adam Silvera

11. Nina & Minerva

What books are you planning to read this month? Have you read any of these? If you have, what'd you think?

2018 / Spring Semester Goals

1. Spend less time on my phone

2. Read at least 1-2 books a month

3. Create creative content sustainably and mix it up

4. Limit coffee consumption (max. 4x/week)

5. Spend more time with friends and go do fun things

6. Return to journaling, cooking, exercising

7. Keep up with blogging!

Do you make resolutions? Goals? What are your goals for 2018?

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