Writing Stories and Celebrating Poetry

Hi my fellow bookworms,

Happy Spring!

This month I spent much time writing. It has been a while since I pushed myself to do so (with school over and whatnot), and though while the writing was instructive, it was the most creative writing I have accomplished in a while. I am prepping to host a memoir workshop this upcoming month, based upon the Story Circle Network's Older Women's Legacies initiative. I made a complete revision of the workbook that was used previously. It was hard, since I have a couple returning members, but I wanted this experience to be special and new for them. After much research, thinking, writing, and rewriting, I am happy with this new workbook. I hope this next month will be full of heartfelt writing and memories.

March honors many holidays and celebrations, but one I wanted to bring a focus to is Women's History Month. One of the blogs I read promoted this calendar featuring different books for each day in March, celebrating different women in history, written by women. I have not yet read these titles, but the one I want to is the book titled Let's Call Her Barbie by Renee Rosen. Find out more information about the books on Janis Robinson Daly's blog here. 

(c) Janis Robinson Daly, 2026

You can always use this opportunity to check off the squares on your bingo card (featured in my January blog post), or to check off your Read Harder list from Book Riot. :) 

Goodreads also has finally unveiled their DNF option, or "Did Not Finish" option. I just categorized a book on my Goodreads shelf as DNF and tagged it, so I will hopefully read it again when I have a moment! I feel like I started and stopped quite a few books this past winter, but haven't updated my public profile. I am aiming to read for fun for at least 20 minutes a day and will hopefully bring you some lovely new reviews soon! 

Speaking of books to read, there is a list of free fantasy novels for your Kindle! Check out the blog, Stuff With Fantasy, for your ecopies today. I believe you will have until the end of the day on Monday to download your chosen novels.

Continuing with my earlier conversation about celebrations...

(c) Once Upon A Book Blog(ger) 2026

April honors many different celebrations, including Deaf History Month, Earth Day, April Fool's Day, Arab American Heritage Month, National Poetry Month, National Scrabble Day, International Dance Day, and of course, religious observances, such as Easter and Passover. One of my coworkers is creating a display for our library observing National Poetry Month. She will be displaying artwork titled "blackout poetry." Blackout poetry is a form of poetry in which you take a page from a printed book (we are using discarded books that are now going to be upcycled), black out most of the page using a permanent marker, and create a poem based on the text present. Some who are more artistically inclined can draw pictures to help further the poem's meaning, others create more profound messages, but it is aimed to help overcome writer's block and unleash your creative spirit. I created my own! :) ^ See here ^

Last year I did my own display for April and National Poetry Month using "Pocket Poems," or poems you can fit into your pocket for on-the-go reading and inspiration. I also had a section were visitors could submit their own poems for display. While I am not a great poet, I love the elegance and rhythmic language and the imagery each poem evokes. 

Would you write a blackout poem? If you do, or just want to write a regular one, or even share a poem already in existence, please do so here! 

Until next month...Happy Reading! :)

Spring days are finally here!

Hello my fellow bookworms!

Spring weather is finally making its way to my city, and I couldn't be happier! I missed the birds singing (even though they like waking me up at 3 in the morning), the green grass, the blue skies, the sun. It's funny how long we can go without the sun, but how lovely it is to see it more than once a week again! 

(c) Faber and Faber, 2019

This month was crazy busy for me, but I took part in a book discussion for the poetry book Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky. The book has a plot that is good timing for the current war in Ukraine, but you may need to take breaks if the story is too much at once. April is also National Poetry Month, so I hope you enjoyed a poem, or two! 

You can always visit the official National Poetry Month website, hosted by the Academy of American Poets, where you can order a free poster designed by Marc Brown, the author of Arthur. You can also sign up for a free daily Poem-A-Day and enjoy some culture each morning, delivered straight to your inbox.

(c) HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2023

I also read Meg Cabot's The Quarantine Princess Diaries, which I have been waiting to read since...the quarantine in 2020 when Ms. Cabot was publishing short chapters each week to help us stop from going crazy staying inside. Her plot was well thought out and brought up good points and pandemic background, but that is one time I do not ever want to relive again. I did enjoy visiting Princess Mia's world, though, and cannot wait for a post-pandemic book to come! :)

Since this month was otherwise madness, I thought I would share some book/library tips and news:

• Starting tomorrow, May 1st, the OverDrive ebook application is shutting down, and you will need to upgrade to the newer version, Libby. 

• If you like to read newspapers and hate paywalls, try accessing the title through your local library's website. Many times, you will be able to read it for free outside of the library, or free while you are inside the library. 

• Reader's Digest also suggests using the free website 12ft.io to overcome paywalls. While it is right to support your local and national journalists, sometimes you just need a quick article or ran out of your free ones for the month. By navigating to this website, you do not have to download any software, just insert the URL of the article or website you are trying to access, then click on "Remove Paywall." Hopefully you will be able to access the site without issue!
  

• The Library of Congress named 25 recordings of popular songs to preserve, chosen based on "cultural, historical, or aesthetic importance." The Super Mario Bros. is the first video game theme to be chosen for this honor!

• If you have kids (or know one that likes to read), they may be interested in Andrew McMeel's Summer Reading Game!

I'm currently listening to the audiobook of Spare by Prince Harry. It is a lot more sad than I anticipated. I hope to catch up on more of my fun reading this next month after classes are over. What are you reading / look forward to reading? 

Until next time! Happy Reading!

National Poetry Month + May Bookish Updates!

Hello my fellow bookworms!

I hope you are all doing well. This past month was (technically still is) National Poetry Month and this upcoming month is Asian/Pacific Islander American Heritage Month! 

To celebrate poetry this month, I took part in a book circle for Joan Naviyuk Kane's most recent book of poetry, Dark Traffic. Ms. Kane is an American Inupiaq poet and novelist, whose work explores the experiences, perspectives, and identities of American Indigenous peoples. Having not been part of a book circle for a long while, I thought it was a fun, virtual experience. If you would like to have some insight on her poems, there is a video on YouTube from Poets House, which has Ms. Kane reading her poems from her various published works.

Here is some book related news and links for you to enjoy:

• If you are looking for books to read for May, try these links: PBS' list of children's books, Epic Reads' Young Adult List, and Penguin Random House's (Adult Book) List for books to celebrate Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

• World Press Freedom Day is coming up this May 3rd! UNESCO is the leading UN agency for education and is hosting a "Journalism under Digital Siege" conference in honor of World Press Freedom Day, that you can join online (click here for more information). As UNESCO states, May 3rd "acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in pursuit of a story" (UNESCO, 2022).
  

• A little late in passing on the information, but if you are currently working on either a horror/thriller or crime/mystery novel and have the first chapter already written, you can submit it for possible publication and a cash prize from Uncharted! See more details here.

• More and more institutions are banning books deemed unfit for our youth today. Institutions such as the New York Public Library (NYPL) is making it an initiative to provide copies of the banned books to all who request them - free of wait times and fines! The NYPL stands by the right to read freely, and you can too, by reading into their initiative here. 

• If you live in the Toronto area, Happily Ever After Books, a bookstore for romantics, will be popping up over the Toronto region throughout the year! If you visit, let me know how it is. Otherwise, you can visit them online, too!

•  If you are into Bram Stoker's Dracula, you can meet up with other enthusiasts at the Whitby Abbey in Whitby, England on May 25, 2022. According to CNN, everyone joining will attempt to beat the record to have the largest gathering of people dressed as vampires. Why this date? It celebrates the 125 anniversary of Dracula, of course!
  

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

I have some book-related plans coming up for the summer, but I will post about it after more details are finalized. What are your plans for this spring/summer? Are there any new books you are looking forward to or are on your To Be Read list? Let me know in the comments! :)

Happy Reading!