If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t give up the internet for much haha. Partly for the social media/fun/etc but also because it’s pretty much essential for my research/work lol. I know that many people in older generations think that we waste too much time on the internet (and sometimes it’s true) but I think I’ve just found a different community of people online that fill my life with good things! It’s not that much different than having a real life community.

Anyway! I’m rambling. I found this cool tag that was originally a BookTube tag, but Shelumiel @ Bookish and Awesome turned it into a blog tag so yay! I think it’s called the Extraordinary Means tag, because it originally is inspired by the book Extraordinary Means and is all about the crazy things you’d do for books/authors/etc.

Since most of what I read is fantasy and science fiction, there are tons of incredible places that authors create that I wish were real!! Most of them seem pretty grim to be honest haha so I wouldn’t want to live there but this prompt is amazing because I definitely want visit so many for just little while! I also tried to find fan art from each book or series, or artwork that looks how I imagined, just to give you a sense of the places!

Again, thank you to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting/organizing Top Ten Tuesday!

I’m gonna be real here for a second: I HATE Valentine’s Day. I think it’s a stupid capitalist holiday created to make people spend money. I hate seeing all the red and pink everywhere. And I know that makes me a bit of a grinch but hey, I’m not against romance! I just think you should be telling the person/people you love that you love them every day, not just on this one day.

So I didn’t want to write an entire post on love and relationships in books. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I am a grinch I do like a good romance when it’s done well. But there are amazing books out there without romance! And sometimes I just don’t want to read about romance, I just want some good action and fighting and politics and friendships, y’know?

I wanted to share both sides: some of my favorite books without any romance (for those of us feeling non-romantic) and some books with my favorites couples (for those us feeling like reading about some romance).

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 😈