Happy Halloween! =^. .^=

Photo by Lucie Liz from Pexels

Happy Halloween my fellow bookworms!

Where has the time gone? It seems that October has flown by in the blink of an eye, and amongst all the fun fall festivities comes November and the time change! If you are in the U.S., be sure to remember to set your clocks back an hour next Sunday. (I could use the extra hour this week!)

I want to share some book tips, news, and links with you:

• Looking for a fun, yet creepy, game to play to celebrate the spooky season and get a fun book recommendation? Try the Tor/Forge Blog game Escape the Haunted Library! Can you get all the endings and recommendations? (Tip: It may be helpful to use a pen and paper to write down the codes!)
  

• Take a look at the Smithsonian's Things That Scare Us online exhibit for some spooky collection items that you can go visit in person.
  

• Uncharted Magazine is once again hosting a contest to publish a novel written by aspiring authors! Submit your novel by tomorrow (deadline is October 31st) and see if your writing becomes the next Uncharted novel! Click on the link for more details and submission information.
  

• Harlequin is hosting a mentorship program for aspiring romance writers! Interested? Check out the details here. Set a timer, because applications open on January 1, 2023!
  

• Did you know that librarians like to use Booklist to help choose the newest books? There may be a patron-version of the magazine at your local library, free for you to view! (I know there is at mine!)
  

• If you like to take notes while reading, but hate writing in the margins of your pages, Post-It came out with transparent Post-It Notes!
  

• NaNoWriMo is almost upon us! "NaNoWriMo" stands for "National Novel Writing Month" when writers challenge themselves to write an entire novel in one month. Many libraries are participating by hosting places for people to sit down and write with others. If that is not your cup of tea, Book Riot has some treats to inspire you to participate!
  

• Amongst all the book bans taking place, you can take part in preventing this in your area by establishing a Book Sanctuary. The Chicago Public Library has a website hosted with information and how you can take part in this call to action! 

 I will be wearing my Halloween costume to my local library tomorrow. What are you guys wearing and reading to celebrate? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you all have a fun, safe, and spooky Halloween day! 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!