Reading is Inevitable

Title: Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen Author: Jazz Jennings Genre: Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 Reviewer: Julia Before you begin to read my review, I want to tell you a few things. It's hard, in my opinion, to rate a work of nonfiction, especially when it comes to biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. When I say that I give this book a "4 out of 5", I am in no way judging Jazz's life or identity. No, I am not doing that, but rather stating how much I personally enjoyed the book. This memoir follows the life that Jazz Jennings has gone through due to her being transgender, specifically MtF (male to female). In the book, she writes about a variety of topics, including how she knew she was a girl, transitioning, being an advocate for LGBT+ youth, and more. One of the things that I liked when reading this book was that it gave me a new perspective. I really did come to understand the challenges that comes with being MtF or FtM. I mean, I think...

Hello! What I have noticed around the book-loving community is that a lot of you like to purchase handmade bookmarks. Not that there's anything wrong with this, but I don't really think that I want to spend 10 dollars or so on a bookmark when I could make my own! That's why I created my own bookmarks. They're cheap and I can easily do it myself. In this post, I will show you how I made these beauties. (One is shown above.)

Title: Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts Author: Susan Cain, with the assistance of Gregory Mone and Erica Moroz Genre: Nonfiction Rating: 3 out of 5 Reviewer: Julia Back in 2012, specifically the 24th of January, Susan Cain published her book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking . This book shook the world, and was listed as a bestseller and opened the minds of many. This book was for adults. But then, earlier this year (2016), Cain, along with the help of Gregory Mone and Erica Moroz, published another book on being quiet, only this time for teens and children. This book is a guide for kids on how to navigate life - at school, home, in social groups, and activities - using and recognizing their quiet nature. With stories of real introverted kids, the book is designed to help teens and kids to take advantage of their quiet ways, and teaches them to be proud and to embrace it. There is also a section in the back for teachers and o...

Title: How Many Letters Are in Goodbye? Author: Yvonne Cassidy Genre: Realistic Fiction Rating: 5 out of 5 Reviewer: Julia When I first started this book, I really wasn't expecting the story that I ended up reading. Almost everything that happened in the book was unexpected. I did not think that I would like this book as much as I did. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised. How Many Letters Are in Goodbye? is constructed of the letters that Rhea Farrell writes to her mother, who happens to be dead. The story starts off with Rhea living on the streets of late 1990s New York City. At this point, she has lived almost 18 years of her life, and it hasn't been the easiest. Not only has her mother passed away (with a questionable death, too), but she was taken away from the life that she knew in Ireland over to the United States when her father also passed on. In the states, she was to live with her aunt, Ruth, her aunt's boyfriend, Cooper, and his daughter, Laurie, and new ...

I know I haven't written a blog post in a while, but all of a sudden I really want to share stuff with you guys. Today I'm going to share with you something that I have been only doing for two days, but I feel is very useful. Now this idea isn't ground-breaking; you might already do it, but maybe in a different way. Recently I have been creating To Do lists. I know, this is life changing (not). But that's okay. Instead of putting "Get milk", or putting other reminders that aren't what you really would like to do, make a To Do list of things you want to accomplish in a year, day, or week. If you feel that you don't get time to enjoy yourself, this will make sure you do.

When I got out of school this summer, I was excited for a lot of things. One of the things that I was the most excited for was getting the opportunity to read more often. I have a lot of books that I want to read and the thought that I would (hopefully) get to read more of them was thrilling. Only, there was one problem: I wasn't in the mood for reading. We all have these times. They're awful. During these periods of times known to us as "reading slumps", we usually experience a lack of motivation or desire to read. You might find yourself picking up your book, thinking about how much fun you're going to have, and then - bam! - after a few words you feel bored to tears.  I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate it when this happens. So, after quite some time of dealing with this problem, I tested out a few solutions to "curing" a reading slump. Check them out below.

Title: Gena/Finn Authors:   Kat Helgeson and Hannah Moskowitz Genre: Teen/YA realistic fiction Rating: 4 Reviewer: Em This book is way different then I thought it would be. When I picked it up at my local book store, I chose it because, first of all, I liked how it was all in emails and texts and stuff like that; not in the usual format you read a book in. I like books like that. Anyway, I read this book in a day. It was a fairly quick read, but it was interesting - very interesting. I thought it'd just be a cute book on two people meeting, and then becoming great friends (or more, maybe). It was so much more than that. It wasn't like my new favorite book, but still. Like Finn said (I think it was Finn) about the TV show they both love, it's about how the characters change more than the plot. And I found that to be kind of true with this book. You really get to know the characters in this book.

Only a few months ago, I stumbled across the idea of a "bullet journal". At the time, I had no idea what it was, so I did some investigating. What I found out was that bullet journals were a relatively new way for organization in a simple way. The basic bullet journal includes a yearly planning log, a monthly planning log, and a daily planning log. In these spots, you write down things to do and events planned in a bullet format. (Hence the name bullet journal.) That's basically it, and there's always room for personalization. I decided that I would try to make my own bullet journal. There are a lot of different articles and bullet journals that you can find on the internet, so it was difficult for me to start. Everyone had their own systems and styles of bullet journals, and it was all very confusing. That's why this post is dedicated to those confused and curious beginner bullet journalers. Don't worry: you aren't alone.

Even though June didn't go as planned for us at Reading is Inevitable, I think that it still was a pretty good month for us. I mean, of course it could be better, but it could have been worse, as well. We still are starting out here and still are trying to grow our audience on our blog and Instagram, and I think that, considering this, we are headed on the right track!