Op-eds, book recommendations, and quick explainers. Check back here for the latest bookish conversations.
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Internal Monologuing: A type of info dump
As a reader, internal monologuing in books is a turn off for me. In this short article, I quickly analyze why.
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The Importance of Embracing Diversity in Fiction
Fiction has the power to shape our perceptions and understanding of the world around us, which is why it’s important to read diverse stories.
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Purple Prose: Atmosphere over Clarity
In this blog, we discuss purple prose, what that is, and why it’s not always an effective tool in writing.
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4 Reasons Audiobooks Count as Reading
In this blog, I break down four reasons why reading with your ears is just as good as reading with your eyes.
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Banned Books in the US: What everyone gets wrong
Banned books are not a new topic. In fact, book banning spans human history – as long as books have existed, humans have had polarizing opinions on them. During the 200s BCE, Chinese emperor Shih Huang Ti is said to have executed hundreds of scholars and burned books to control the political narrative. In the…
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Explanatory vs. Immersive Writing as a Reader
As a reader, I enjoy analyzing writing style because if I’m not enjoying a book, I want to understand why so I can better to hone my preferences. This allows me to more often select books I will like, and waste less time on the ones I probably won’t. Most of the books I’ve read…
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A Case for Negative Book Reviews
There has been some conversation online recently about negative book reviews. This isn’t the first time (as evidenced by a 2014 NY Times article on this same topic), but the cultural zeitgeist always seems to circle back around to the idea that it’s bad to leave bad reviews. As social media has blurred the lines…
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Exposition: A gateway drug to info-dumping
Exposition is an important element of storytelling, and it plays a particularly important role in literature. However – I often hate exposition and find myself glazing over when I come across it in a book. I have to admit it’s sometimes necessary, so what’s the difference between effective exposition and boring info-dumping? Let’s dive in. What is exposition? Exposition…
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The Genre Identity Crisis of Kingdom of the Wicked
This post contains light spoilers for the Kingdom of the Wicked series. The Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy has been a popular fixture in the online book world over the last couple years, and for good reason. Book 1 was an instant favorite for me, and I gave both it and book 2 four stars each. But then we got a…
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The Thing About Nesta Archeron: Why she’s loved and hated
Ever since the release of A Court of Silver Flames, the ACOTAR fandom has formed two camps over this character: love and hate.
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NA Vs. YA Books: What are they and why is everyone talking about them?
The online book world is full of acronyms. There are acronyms for not finishing a book (DNF), for your list of books to read (TBR), and even widely used acronyms as shorthand for popular book series (ACOTAR, TOG, FBAA, etc. ad infinitum). But a new one cropped up somewhat recently: NA – otherwise known as New Adult. …
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Romance Vs. Love Stories: What’s the difference?
People often use the terms “romance” and “love story” interchangeably, but there are some key differences. Let’s define these terms. Romance is a genre of fiction that focuses on, you guessed it, romantic relationships. These novels center around the development of romance and explore themes of love, trust, personal growth – yada yada yada. Romance can…
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So You Want to Get Back into Reading: 8 tips
Remember those days in middle school when you could curl up with a 500-page book and pound it out in about three days? Where did that brain go? You get so busy with life things, and dare I say “adulting” things (I know, I cringed writing that too), that at some point it’s easy to…
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AN White Books: Hello World
Welcome! I am so excited to have you here and to share my love of reading with you. Whether you are an avid reader or just starting to explore the world of books, I hope you will find something here that resonates with you. On this blog: I will be sharing book reviews, recommendations, and…
