Jennifer Niven: Holding Up the Universe

I'm so slow at reading the books I buy or get as presents. This was a Christmas gift I got in 2016. Yeah, about time I read it! Thank you my sweetest boyfriend for getting me this!

Holding Up the Universe is about Libby - (previously) America's fattest teen, and Jack - the cool kid who can't remember faces. When Libby starts school again after being home schooled a few years, she becomes the big laugh at school and the victim of a cruel game. Jack, trying his best to fit in and not let anyone know about his handicap, turns out to be the cruelest of them all. But these two misfits gets to know each other and turns to each other for help.

This. Was. So. Sad. And. So. Good! Yes. Just read it!

Some might find this book to be a bit over the top? Maybe? Because of the "America's fattest teen storyline - she actually gets stuck in bed until the rescuers have to tear down part of her house to get her out - you know the story from television. There is a lot of fat-shaming going on, but that is actually how reality is, and that's kinda why Niven has written this book. But it's told in a really great way, and she actually gets better and the way Niven has described her she's a person, not just America's fattest teen. She's a really cool girl, with hopes and dreams and the motivation and stubbornness to go for it.

Jack is good on the inside, but in order to hide his shortcomings he acts out and becomes this shithead to be "one of the guys". It was really interesting to read about prosopagnosia (face blindness)  and learning more about this disability. I've never really given it any thought, and now I know more about it, which is great!

The main storyline is pretty simple, and as mentioned maybe a bit over the top, but it gives the characters room to grow and shine. I read this book in one day, because I couldn't put it down.

Discuss this book with me in the comments if you have read it!
/menenia

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Week 4: read

This previous week was an extraordinaire week for me. I participated in both the Biannual Bibliothon reading 7 books in one week, and #24in48 readathon reading for 24 hours in two days. So I've read so much this week, it was amazing!

I read 6 novels, 2 graphic novels, 2 mangas as well as finishing All the Crooked Saints and starting Zenith. Oh, and reading the final few pages of a Norwegian comic strips collection. So many books!

I will write reviews on several of these reads, but it will take some time to get through it all. I enjoyed so many of these, even tho none of them are new favorites.

Books read:

• Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller: Otherworld (Otherworld #1)
• Alejandro Zambra: Bonsai
• Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
• Maggie Stiefvater: All the Crooked Saints
• Claire Kann: Let's Talk About Love
• Cecelia Ahern: Perfect (Flawed #2)
• Thomas Enger: Killerinstinkt
• Vampire Knight 16
• Vampire Knight 17
• Archie vol. 1
• Moonshine vol. 1
• Nemi book 13

Total pages read this week: 2089
Books read: 12

How many books is your record in one week? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia


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#24in48: read

I did it! I did it! 24 hours reading in the past 45 hours. I've been so tired most of the time, I never thought I'd make it. But I did, and it feels great and now I'm going to go to sleep for hours and hours and hours.

 

24 hours of reading.

I finished almost all of my TBR. The last book, Zenith, was not supposed to be on this TBR list but I didn't get the book I planned on including in the mail so I had to do some changes. Zenith was way too hard to read in a readathon,, but I did get started on it, I read 111 pages of it. Instead of continuing Zenith I started a Norwegian YA crime/thriller called Killerinstinkt, which was so much easier to read and kept me awake the last couple of hours.


It's been a lot of fun, even though I've been too tired. Unfortunately being tired means I eat to stay awake, so I've been so full so many times these two days - and not on the healthy type of food, no, no chips and chocolate. Oh well, will be healthy as a bunny tomorrow - all vegetables. (Yeah, who am I kidding?).

Going to bed now will feel soooo good, you have no idea! 

Books read:

• Maggie Stiefvater: All the Crooked Saints
• Claire Kann: Let's Talk About Love
• Vampire Knight 16
• Vampire Knight 17 
• Archie vol. 1
• Moonshine vol. 1
• Nemi bok 13

Total pages read this readathon: 1347
Books read: 7

Good night to you all, hope you had a fun readathon if you participated!
/menenia

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#24in48: Day 1

It's past midnight here in Norway, and I've been up since 7:30, reading almost all day. I had to take a nap around 2 pm, and some small brakes are just natural to have. I've had 11 hours and 30 minutes active reading today. So far. I will be getting ready for bed now, but I'll read some in bed before closing my eyes to sleep. I will be more than halfway in this readathon before I fall asleep.

I've had a good day, albeit a bit tired due to waking up several hours before my usual morning time. I've had an entire pot of coffee, two energy drinks and lots and lots of cola. And chocolate for sugar. So, aside from an hour nap in the middle of the day, I've been awake.

I've finished four books so far. I finished All the Crooked Saints which I started last week. I've read my two mangas. And I read Let's Talk About Love. So, I have only three more TBR titles left for tomorrow. Zenith is like 600 pages or so, so I have enough to read.

Books read:

• Maggie Stiefvater: All the Crooked Saints
• Claire Kann: Let's Talk About Love
• Vampire Knight 16
• Vampire Knight 17

Total pages read today: 768
Books read: 4

How are you this weekend? Doing anything fun? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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#24in48: TBR

Time for an all-weekender. Time to read 24 hours. Thankfully we can have breaks, as long as we finish in 48 hours. Read more about this readathon here.

My TBR is a good mix of novels (one contemporary and one sci-fi), graphic novels and manga. I hope they'll make for easy and fun reading.

Are you doing this readathon? What's on your TBR this weekend? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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Biannual Bibiliothon: Read

I did it! I actually did it! I finished all my five books during this seven days readathon, and thus all the challenges. 1489 pages in seven days. That is 213 pages a day. I really did not think that was even possible for me.

It was so much fun pushing myself to read this much. It was not as much fun for my boyfriend, who missed his board game companion. Well, it was only one week, I'll play more with him later. I'm still talking about board games.

I didn't have time to do any photo/video/blogging challenges during this readathon. I'll see if I can make time for that next time around.

Now it's time to move on to my next readathon, which is #24in48.

How did you do for Biannual Bibliothon? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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Week 3 and Biannual Bibliothon part 1

I was going to film a TBR for the Biannual Bibliothon, but the GoPro I've borrowed didn't want to cooperate. And I was planning on posting this update earlier this week, but my cat ate the charger cable. True story. She loves eating cables. It's expensive! So, I have not been updating as much as I had hoped, but that's okay.

Here's how my week 3 went...

I didn't have any readathons this week, or so I thought. Figured out a bit late that the Biannual Bibliothon started that weekend. But I did what I could with it, and I finished two books this week even without readathons.

I finished Fuck Verden, a Norwegian YA and I read the entire Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven in one day - which is a big feat for me. It was so good! Please read it if you haven't already. I will post a review soon, hopefully, if not the cat decides to kill my new charger as well. I started reading All the Crooked Saints before finding out I needed to do the Biannual Bibiliothon instead, and left this book almost finished - to pick up again once the readathon is finished. And I finished an audiobook, It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover.

Books read:

• Monika Steinholm: Fuck Verden 
• Jennifer Niven: Holding Up the Universe
• Colleen Hoover: It Ends With Us

Total pages read this week: 755
Books read: 3

Do you have a cat? Does it chew on stuff or otherwise destroy stuff? Let me know in the comments.
/menenia


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Biannual Bibliothon Winter 2018: TBR

Why am I always doing this? I thought this readathon was from Monday-Sunday, and was so ready for everything to do with it.........from Monday on. But noooooo, it's from Saturday - THIS Saturday! As in, it's already started! And I'm fully booked all weekend - the most important days for a readathon. Because I thought it started on Monday. And I was supposed to make a Booktube video on Sunday of my TBR, and be all ready for the week. AND IT'S ALREADY STARTED!

Now I'm way behind on everything. And it's in the middle of the night, so I can't make a Booktube video. AND I'M WAY BEHIND! Can people please stop with starting readathons on days other than Mondays? Pretty please? It confuses my little head!

Well, I have visitors, and we're supposed to play board games. I left that to my boyfriend and the guys. I will read damnit! 

This is my TBR for the week-long readathon:

Challenges:
J. Segel & Kirsten Miller: Otherworld
Read the group book

Lee Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird

Read a book that was mentioned in another book/movie/show etc.

Read a backlist title

Cecelia Ahern: Perfect (Flawed #2)

Read a sequel

Alejandro Zambra: Bonsai

Read a book you've never heard of before

Read a book under 200 pages

Jennifer Niven: Holding Up the Universe

Read a book about mental illness

Are you joining this readathon? What's on your TBR list?
/menenia

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Born to now challenge

This is a new challenge for me. I will try and read one book from every year I've been alive. That is too many years. Thankfully this should be a pretty easy challenge, and it combines easily with the decade challenge and the A-Z challenge - and all but one will be backlist books. I will keep this post updated as my reading progresses.

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

What's a great book from the year you were born?
/menenia

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Decade challenge 2018

One more of my challenges. Read a book for every decade between 1900 and this decade. I have done this two years now, and I like the challenge. You should do this too! Makes for interesting reads. I will keep this post updated through the year as I progress.

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

What kind of reading challenges do you enjoy the most?
/menenia

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Massive pre-order

To celebrate that I got lots and lots of money today, I made a trip to BookDepository and made pre-orders for the next months.

All these pretties will be mine!

 

 

And I had to have some for now as well....... Of course!

 And a couple of graphic novels... Because the boyfriend loves them too...

Wow, so many books to look forward too!

What's your number one wish list pre-order as of right now? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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A-Z Title challenge 2018

This is my 5th year doing this challenge, but all the previous ones has been for graphic novels/manga only. This year I will do this challenge with novels instead. I will keep this post updated as I read more on this challenge.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N
O

P

Q
R
S
T

U

V
W
X
Y
Z

Please recommend me some books on the difficult letters?
/menenia

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Winner of giveaway!

I was supposed to do this yesterday, but I'm a bit slow. I did however write down the names of my followers yesterday, so no new followers were added (not that I got any...).

This giveaway was for the very few of my followers. I have exactly 13 followers now, whereas two are related to me. So, 11 eligible contestants!

And the winner is............Ananya!
Please send me your address, and I will pre-order Hazel Wood shipped to you. My e-mail is: menenia@gmail.com. Hope you'll enjoy the book!

 

As for the rest of you, I will have more giveaways in the future, so stay updated on my blog and Twitter.   

What kind of giveaways do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!

/menenia

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Duodecathon 2018

Duodecathon is a fun reading challenge hosted by some nice people over on Goodreads. It's a readathon where we're given 12 reading challenges/prompts, and we finish one each month during a weeklong readathon. Find out more about this readathon here (and join us!). I will use this post to track my progress.

From the Goodreads group:
You pick one challenge every Duodecathon to complete out of the list of 12 challenges, so by the end you will have completed all the challenges:

2018 Challenges:

• Read 1,200 pages
• Read the second book in a series
• A book about a villain/antihero
• A book published the year you were born
• A 2018 bestseller
• An award winning book
• A book with multiple points of view
• A book with antonyms in the title
• A banned book
• A book with a great first line
• Alice Walker: The Color Purple
• A "high school" book you haven't read
• A book recommended by someone in the Duodecathon group
• Becky Albertalli: The Upside of Unrequited

Will you please recommend me a villain/antihero novel? Comment please.
/menenia

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Week 2 and Bout of Books 21: Read

The year is settling in, and I'm having some winter blues. All I want to do is stay at home, read and relax on my own. I'm not in a bad mood really, I'm just not feeling up to anything. It's winter in Norway and that means no sun and vitamin D, so it's not unusual to be feeling like this. Hope you are having a better time than I am.

This week there's been two readathons going on: both the Duodecathon and Bout of Books. And I've been reading a lot! I actually managed 3 and a half book this week, and my weekly graphic novel. I'm really happy with how much reading I got done.

For this month's Duodecathon I chose "A book recommended by someone in the Duodecathon group" because someone recommended The Upside of Unrequited and I was already planning on reading it this week.

I'm currently reading a Norwegian MG/YA novel called Fuck Verden (Fuck the World), which I will probably be finishing today. I read 90 pages of it late last night, and it's a really easy read. And not too bad actually. 

Books read:

• Becky Albertalli: The Upside of Unrequited
• Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express
• Liv Mossige: Tyskland
• DC Comics: Bombshells vol. 3

Total pages read this readathon: 1093
Books read: 4

How many books do you usually read a month? 
/menenia

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Reading Women 2018

I seem to be having an all-women month of January. All books on my TBR this month are by women! (And I'm actually following my TBR). And this month's first graphic novel was by a female author as well. Might as well jump on the Reading Women Challenge this year. Read more about the challenge and the hosts here.

My list: 
3. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Marguerite Bennett: DC Comics: Bombshells vol. 2
16. Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express


Will you be joining me in this challenge?
/menenia

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Reading goals 2018

On to my reading goals... (Which I forgot to post earlier this year...)

Reading goals is something different than reading challenges. Or is it? I don't know. But I'm treating my reading goals as guidelines for what to read.

These are my reading goals this year:

• Monthly goals:
• 2 Norwegian novels:
• 1 adult  
• 1 ya/mg
• 2 OwlCrate books 
• - because I have a backlog
• 1 classic 
• 2 book clubs:
• 1 online 
• 1 at the local library

Some of those can of course be combined to make a shorter to be read list.

Do you have any reading goals like these this year? Or do you just read whatever suits you at the moment?
/menenia

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