Have you ever been to an author signing event? I know that unfortunately authors can’t make it to every city, and can’t make it to every country. One of my wishes if I had infinite money would be to send authors to places they don’t usually get to go! Anyway, I live about halfway between Philadelphia and New York City, so I’m lucky enough to have access to many author events.

This past Tuesday (January 29th) I was able to attend the Leigh Bardugo’s launch event for King of Scars! This is the first book of her duology about Nikolai, a character originally from her Grisha trilogy. Since a lot of people can’t go to these author events, I thought I’d talk a bit about about what it was like, share what she talked about, and just talk about the whole day in general!

Hey, friends! Mackenzie and Shari here. We’re always mentioning how fun it would be to do more joint posts, so we’re taking every opportunity to do one. 😉

M: I definitely say something like this every time the month comes to an end but like, how is January over?? I swear we JUST started 2019. APPARENTLY, time has no regard for my feelings so a month has passed already.

S: Tell me about it! It hurts me because I just want the days to SLOW DOWN so I can enjoy them more, you know? It looks like we both had a great reading month though — let’s share our wrap-up!

Here’s our set of mini reviews this week!

Shari’s Minis:

"Hilarious and charming. The most lovable duo since Frog and Toad." --NYT-bestselling creator of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants series, Dav Pilkey

Narwhal and Jelly . . . and Otty?! Exuberant Narwhal and skeptical Jelly test the waters of adding a new friend to their pod when they meet Otty the super-adventurous otter in the fourth book of this blockbuster early graphic novel series!

Dive into three new stories about the joy of adventure and the power of friendship! In the first story, Otty the otter makes her debut splash; while Narwhal greets her with immediate enthusiasm, Jelly's not so sure about her...mostly because he worries she'll take his place as Narwhal's best friend. Readers will easily see why Narwhal's so excited to meet Otty, a boisterous explorer who even has an aunt who's a real live sea captain! But readers will also relate to Jelly's uneasiness seeing his best friend making a new pal.

Jelly tries to work out his jealousy in story two, and in story three, the new trio say "Ahoy, adventure!" and discover they all have more in common than they thought . . . including a love of waffles! Jelly also takes over the "Super Waffle and Strawberry Sidekick" comic providing a sidekick's-eye-view of defeating the dreaded dEVILed egg!

I haven’t participated in a reading challenge in a long time but YEAR. OF. THE. ASIAN. How can I not sign up?!

What’s Year of the Asian, Shari?

I’m glad you asked, friend!

Year of the Asian (YARC) is a reading challenge hosted by four amazing book bloggers: CW from The Quiet Pond, Shealea at Shut up, Shealea, Vicky at Vicky Who Reads, and Lily at Sprinkles of Dreams. The goal of this challenge is to read as many books by Asian authors from January 2019 to December 2019. Since Asian lit is near and dear to my heart, I’m going to READ ALL THE BOOKS. From middle grade, YA, to adult fiction/non-fiction across all genres, I want to be intentional about reading them all. :’) *cue Pokémon theme*

If you’re interested in joining this reading challenge, sign up by filling out this form and find all the relevant links for this challenge here. You can join ANY time and it’s never too late to start!

If any of you follow me on Instagram, I’m sure you have heard me talk about Tamora Pierce at one point. If you somehow missed that or don’t follow me on Instagram, then here’s the gist of what I say when I talk about her: “SHE’S MY FAVORITE AUTHOR YOU HAVE TO READ HER BOOKS!” She’s written a lotttt of books, and started back in 1983, when YA was barely a category of books. I feel like she is one of the pioneers of YA, and especially of female young adult heroes. Since she has so many books out (and in the same universe) a lot of people have asked me where the best place to start is. I thought I’d make a little guide to help with that! And to hopefully convince you to read her books 😈