Should the Experiences of People of Color/Minorities Be Written By Authors Who are Not From the Same Background?

THIS WEEK'S BOOK IS....

Publication Date: January 1, 1960
Publisher: Signet (For this edition)
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Page Count: 192 (In this edition)

In the Deep South of the 1950s, journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross the color line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity-that in this new millennium still has something important to say to every American.

Now I know I don't talk much about nonfiction on this book blog, but this book...THIS...is a whole different species.

Should the Experiences of People of Color/Minorities Be Written By Authors Who are Not From the Same Background?

Now if you have not read this book, please do, but for those of you who haven't, here are the basics. The author, John Howard Griffin, became interested in exploring the experiences of living as a black man in the Southern U.S. during the 1950s, so he used medicine to darken his skin color. And the result you ask?...Well, we will go ahead and just categorize it as not fun.

But we already would guess this right? If you don't at all understand how blacks have been treated up to this day in the American society, let anti-racism activist and educator, Jane Elliott explain it simply...

Weekly Reflections: An Intro ~ Audio Post #1

Welcome to the new posts that are called Weekly Reflection and will be posted every Monday. I hope you enjoy. It includes a blog post recap, book haul, currently reading, and other fun topics

The Content of Book Reviews: Reading Experience v.s. Literary Analysis

You read book reviews right? You might also write them as well, but why? Over the time I have had to contemplate ways to improve my book reviews and my blog in general, I came across an interesting question that I thought would make for a great discussion.

The heart of this question deals with the purpose of book reviews or what a reader is to gain from reading book reviews. Of course, this question can be greatly expanded, and there are many common as well as unique reasons why we read or listen to book reviews. Therefore, discussing this matter on its own would be substantially complex and lengthy, so we shall save this discussion for a later date when more time is involved. Instead, we will focus rather on one of the topics numerous subquestions: What aspect of the book do we review?

This question in itself is also quite vague and can probably be taken many different ways, but I have attempted to simplify its answer into two responses. The first being a literary analysis and the second being the reading experience.

A Re-Introduction to Blue Books and Butterflies

Hello Lovely Readers,

It's been a while. Some of you may remember me from 3 months ago when I was last active, but I wouldn't be surprised if you don't. And Some of you on the other hand are probably new so I say welcome. I'm Chioma, a book blogger by definition, but not limited to its restrictions. You are now in my world which I like to refer to as Blue Books and Butterflies.

For a while now I have felt the need to redefine my blog and myself as a blogger, but I just was not sure how to go about it. Well here you have me saying why not just dive in head first?

I want this "book blog" to be authentic. Not authentic in the way that every "good" book blog is meant to be, or in the vision of the book blogging gods, but authentic to me. I want you to see who I am, what I think, my philosophies, and ideas about humanity through this blog. What's the point of writing publicly or speaking for a matter of fact if you have nothing important to say, no bright ideas to tell, no part of you to share???

There isn't.

If you take the time out of your day to read this blog, you shouldn't just be "another book blog." Scrolling through memes that are on 100s of other blogs, skimming numerous 5 star book reviews for the same upcoming YA book 20 times over, glancing over some not so insightful guest posts and blog tour is all just a big waste of time! It does you no good and you know it has no meaning. You won't remember single coherent idea by the time you rise the next morning.

It is not until you hear what the BLOGGER themselves has to say on certain books or important topics that you begin to see who they are, and their stuff actually starts to have some value to it. There are many wonderful bloggers who already have achieved this.

I really have no intentions of offending anyone by what I'm saying, and forgive me if I do, but don't think of this as me pointing fingers. It is just a fact that these things happen with me included because of the 10000s upon 100000s of book blogs out there. It's normal and is actually a part of what helps the book community thrive, but I personally don't desire to reach merely the surface level, nor do I want the ideas on my blog to be easily found elsewhere. I think it's time I dive deeper. 

So what's the conclusion you ask? Let's keep it short and simple: Expect to see more of me and less of the masses. Expect to see the trends, but also some unconventional things as well. Expect to see the books, but not only the books. Expect to read more authentic and meaningful posts.

But most of all.....

Expect to hear from ME soon.

How to Reduce the Number of Unread Books You Own

This seems to be a common problem between booklovers and people who participate in book communities such as book blogging and booktubing. We all have somewhere down the line developed a need to buy more books than we read which causes us to end up with an overly-excessive amount of unread books on our shelves. It can leave you sitting there and staring at your 30 or 50 or 100 or 200 books that are waiting to be read. It all can become quite stressful. Booklovers are always trying to lower their number of unread book, but the real question is: What is the best way to go about reducing the number of unread books I own? Where should I start? You are in luck because I have some great ways you can go about doing this whether you want to get the number of unread books you have cut in 1/2 or even brought down to 0.

1.) Adjust your ratio of Books Bought to Books Read

You must understand that the reason why you have so many books is because YOU BUY BOOKS FASTER THAN YOU READ THEM. The only way you will ever lower the number of unread books you have is by decreasing the rate at which you buy books and then increasing the rate at which you read them. One way you can do this is by setting some rules for yourself. You could say for every 5 books read off your shelf, you are allowed to buy one book. At least now after reading 10 books you have decreased the number of unread books you have by 8 and acquired 2 new books. Another way is by allowing yourself to buy only a certain amount of books a month (still keeping the number you usually read in a month in mind). Remember, the goal is the read more than you buy.

2.) Unhaul Books

This way is probably the fastest, but hardest method for hardcore booklovers. It requires you to get rid of books. (I know! Shocker right?) All you have to do is evaluate all your unread books and figure out which ones you can get rid of. This is the time to pull out all those books you have lost interest in, do not think you will enjoy, and/or do not think you will read within the next 1-2 year. Look, it's really not so bad. Just remember that you can always repurchase them later. Now that you have picked out books to get rid of, what should you do with them? Well, you have quite a few options. There are many places (physical and online) that will take your books as donations. These places include the library, thrift shops, non-profit organizations, etc. You could also give them to friends and family, hold a giveaway on social media, or sell them.

3.) Set Reading Goals

Now that you have lessened your book buying and gotten rid of all those unwanted books, it is time to start actually making your way through these unread books still left on your shelves. But first, it is best that you set a few goals for yourself. BE REASONABLE! Do not try to convince yourself to finish all 100 of your unread books when you can barely read 50 books a year. It's just not happening. Also, make sure you make an overall goal as well as specific goals within certain time frames and points where you will check in with yourself and see how well things are going. For example, I might say I want to get my 80 unread books down to 30 unread books in 10 months' time. I want to do this by reading at least 5 books a month and I will check in and evaluate my progress every 2 months. If picking books is a problem, To Be Read (TBR) Jars are a good option. To make a TBR Jar, all you have to do is take a jar and fill it with slips of paper that have all the unread books on your shelves on them. Then you can draw books every month to see what you will read next.

4.) Find some motivation

Make sure you stick to your goals by motivating yourself! You can do this in many ways. One good way is to find others who are trying to accomplish similar goals as you. This is VERY EASY because all you have to do is HIT THE INTERNET. There are so many people out there trying to lower their number of unread books including me! Go look in bookish communities such as Goodreads, book blogs, booktube, and there is always TWITTER of course. It is not hard at all to find support. Make sure to also post your goals on social media or just tell them to a friend or family member. This keeps you accountable and hopefully more motivated to get what you need to do done.

5.) Don't Do Anything

Now let's just stop a moment and think. Does it really bother you that you have so many unread books? Why do you like buying multiple books at a time? Would you consider yourself a book collector? These are all valid questions to ask yourself. Maybe you just don't need to do anything about your unread books. If you like having a wide variety to choose from when you are picking what to read next and seeing shelves filled with books makes you happy, then it does not matter whether you have 5 books unread or 500. At the end of the day, all those books you own are yours and you can use them however you please. Like me, it does not matter to me as much if I have lots of unread books because I know I will get to them eventually and to me they are timeless. So if it does not matter to you, don't feel pressured to lower how many books you have not read on your shelves. Just continue on with whatever makes you happiest.

I hope this post was helpful to you, and if it was, please share it! I would love to hear if you guys have any other methods of reducing your number of unread books in the comments. Also, let me know if you have any discussion ideas or questions for other post topics.

Back to School Blues

I know many of us American students are preparing ourselves to go back to school. This inevitably means more hours of the day spent inside a classroom. For me at least, this also means less time for doing things I actually enjoy like blogging and reading. Oh and let's not forget all the homework, tests, projects, online assignments, group assignments, pop quizzes, essays, timed writings, reports, finales, note taking, and most of all the teachers. Am I the only person who does not like 90% of the teachers at my school? Somtimes I feel that if our teachers actually liked to teach and are trying their best to help us do well then I would probably not dread going back to school as much as I do now. But even more than teacher, I am not ready for all the STRESS. I am sure many people will agree that school can get very stressful whether its from social issues, academic issues or both.

Now if you were to ask me how I felt about school my reply would probably be: I do not particularly enjoy it to say the least, but I do not hate it. This mostly is because hate is a strong word and honestly, isn't the purpose of school for us to learn? Isn't it supposed to prepare us for life? I believe it is. I don't dislike learning especially if it is going to prepare me for the future. So then I ask myself, "why do I not like school?" I guess it is just the atmosphere really, but I am not actually sure.  I do know that a lot students (myself included) might spend a little bit too much time complaining about school. There are many kids out there who would probably kill just to be able to get the same education I get. So even though school is definitely not my favorite thing in the world, I am thankful I can go to a school where I am safe, and I can get a good education that can open doors for me in the future.

In honor of school starting soon, I decided to share with you my top 7 favorite books that are set around a school in no particular order.

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

The Red Blazer Girls by Michael D. Beil

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

(If you are wondering why I picked such an awkward number like 7, it is because I had more than five but less than ten that I wanted to show)

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please let me know how you feel or felt about school in the comments and whether you like it or not. I would also like to hear a few of your favorite books that are set around a school. Good luck to all of you going back to school soon!

Welcome Back: What's in Store for the Future

Been a while hasn't it? That's okay I am ready to get back into speed and pick back up right where I left off. I have many plans for the future and I am very ecstatic to share them all with you. I really began thinking to myself and asked, "What is the purpose of this Blue Books and Butterflies blog? What differentiates it from all the rest of the book blogs in exsistence today?" Unfortunately I was lead to the conclusion that the answer really is "not much," but that definetely is going to change.

I have always loved viewing content that is thoughtful. It is refreshing to see topics that actually have meaning and value to them that make others want to discuss and share their own opinions and this is one aspect I really want to incorporate into this blog. I want my posts to be informative and helpful but also provoke taught in my audience.

Discussions

So with this, I am planning to have at least one topic or issue a month in the hopes that this blog can become a panel for meaningful discussions where no one has to completely agree or disagree. I also want to improve my reviews by leaving my audience with something think about at the end of each one. I also hope to make my reviews less typical more unique, so I can speak on the more less addressed aspects of books.

What Else Am I Going to Be Posting?

Well I do not plan on this blog lacking any of normal things we all enjoy in our book blogs, such as book reviews, blog hops and participation in reading events, ect. Those will all be on their way soon and we can all hopefully look forward to at least one new post a week or at least 4-5 posts a month. I definetely feel that there is even more in store for this blog though, and I am even hoping that some time soon we can have a running book club, guest posts, and giveaways and even more.  

So What Do You Think?

Yes I am starting right now? Please let me know how you feel about my plans for the future of this blog. Do you have any topics you would really like to discuss? Any suggestions for better content? Your opinions is valued very much on this blog.

See you soon!

January Wrap-Up and February TBR

The Books that I Finished in January

(yes I know pretty pathetic, but this month will be a better reading month)

What I Plan on Reading

(My TBR for this month)

Now I might not be able to finish all these books, but hopefully I will finish most of them. I have already read one and a half of these books, so expect quite a few new reviews soon ;)

Have a spectacular day!

February Updates: Blogging Slumps? and Black History Month

I thought one thing I could start doing to put more content on this blog is at the beginning of every month dedicate a post to share my plans for the blog in that particular month and also just mention a few updates going on if any. This way my audience can have something to look forward to. Hopefully, I can live up to what I promise. So you should be seeing these monthly updates in the beginning of every month and I hope they will be enjoyable and informative.

Blogging Slumps?

Now I don't know if anyone has noticed but I have kind of been in a blogging slump. Yeah....its been about two weeks since I made my last post......sorry. My plan originally was to post once or twice on the weekends and then once on Wednesday, but obviously that did not happen these last to weeks. Well I'm back and this time I hope to post at least twice a week, but I am not going to limit my posts to certain days of the week because I think blogging schedules are actually the source of my blogging slump........

I have quite a few posts in mind that should be coming up in the span of this week. I think I will be from now on doing monthly wrap-ups and tbr (to be read) so I can have a nice recap of what I have read and my thoughts of each book in about a sentence along with a link to my reviews, and also show what I plan on reading. That post should be up soon (Wednesday 2/12/14). I haven't written any meme posts on the days I said I would and I might have to wait until next week to resume them. Sorry again for the lack of content; life has been busy.

Black History Month

Since in America February is Black History month, I felt I should at least dedicate one or two post solely to black history. I am not too sure what these post will be yet, but I am up for suggestions if you happen to have any. I do have one or two books I plan on reading specifically for this month and I would really like any recommedations if you know of any other good books that portray "black culture". I kind of want to start a disscussion in maybe one of my Black History month posts which will be about the word "black" along with its connotations and dennotations and if that word is actually just limited to describing African American or Africans.

Also if you know of any other special months I might be unaware of, or topics that could be interesting to disscuss as a type of theme for a specific month, feel free to comment your suggestions at any moment in time from now on.

Don't forget I'm on blog lovin' now and I have a new button available always on the side of this blog!!!

Have a spectacular day!

I'm on Bloglovin

Its been called to my attention that I'm not on bloglovin multiple times, so I figured I might as well claim my blog there. I am now on bloglovin and you can follow me! Comment if you do follow me :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The New Button! Grab it Now ;)

Okay so I just created a cool new button for this blog. You can grab this button now from this post and it will always be available at the side of this blog. I hope you enjoy!

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2014 Reading Goals

Picture from: mycutegraphics.com

So I have done my 2014 Resolutions post, but I decided I was going to dedicate another post just for my reading goals of this new year. I hope that by making this post it will some how motivate me to accomplish all these goals by the end on 2014.

Read 50 Books

This is pretty basic and self explanatory. You probably already know this if you read my 2014 Resolutions post. If you want to follow my progress check out my Goodreads (there is a link always at the side of the blog)------->>>>>

Read at least 5 Books by a Variety of Ethnicities, Not just Caucasian Authors

Again I explained this already in my 2014 Resolutions post so go check that out for a more in dept explanation.

Read at Least 1/4 of the Books Currently on my TBR Shelf

I mentioned in a earlier post that I had about 60 books on my TBR shelf and I did not want that number to reach 100, so I am challenging myself to read at least 1/4 of them, which would mean I have to read at least 15 of them.

Start and Finish the Harry Potter Series

Yes, yes..... I know..... I am probably the only person on this earth who still has not read the Harry Potter Series. And no, I have not seen the films either. This year I am determined to read the whole series and find out why everyone loves it so much. It probably will not become my ultimate favorite though because the Percy Jackson Series will ALWAYS hold that spot.

Start and Finish the Twilight Series

Yet again another series I am SUPER late on but I still want to see what the hype is/was about. Let's be honest I used to look at the Twilight books and movies and be like "Eeewww vampires and werewolves what kind of story is that", but ever since about the year ago I watched Breaking Dawn Part 2 in theaters with my friends who dragged me there (And yes the first Twilight movie I watched was the last one), I found out it actually had a very interesting story line with pretty cool characters. So, now I am set on reading the series just to see how it goes.

Read 7 Non-School Required Classics

Now in school we read a classic every six weeks and most of them are very good books, but there are many other classics that a lot of people love that I think I should at least give a try. Some of them definitely being  The Great Gatsby, Wuthering Heights, and To Kill a Mocking Bird. Have any recommendations? Comment down below ;)

So that is my current list of goals so far. It might increase in the next month or so. Who knows? Tell me if you have any reading goals and what they are in the comments.

Have a spectacular day!

2014 Resolutions

The year of 2014 has finally begun and I am very excited to see what new joys and achievements this year will bring. I am eager to begin this year with a fresh new start, so I have compiled a list of New Year Resolutions I hope to accomplish by the time 2015 rolls around.

1. Read more!

Sadly with high school starting and stress from work overload, I have not been able to read much at all this year. But I think I am getting used to school and I will be able to manage my time better to allow myself more time to get reading done. If you have not already seen my little goodreads widget down the side bar,

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my goal is to finish 50 books in the year of 2014. It definitely will be a challenge but I am up for it.

2. Blog more!

I have many times tried to blog consistently on this blog, but it just seems to never really work out. This year will be different though, because I am determined to blog more and hopefully build my audience and interact with you guys some more. School is pretty intense a times so I hope to have a post up at least 1-3 times a week. In the summer I will probably try daily posts or some other fun new things. You can always request what you would like to see in the comments.

3. Reviews, reviews, reviews

There is not really much more I can say about this except I need to do A LOT more reviews on this blog. Any recommendations?

4. Classics?

Yes I plan to read more classics this year, hopefully at least one a month. So my classics reading goal will be 7. I already have a list that I really need to jump on.

5. Non white authors

A few months ago Rincey from rincey reads on YouTube created a very interesting video called Why You Should Read Diversely which I HIGHLY recommend you check out. It basically just describes why you shouldn't just stick to whatever is popular and hyped up but make an effort to branch out and experience the writings of authors who are not just American, English or Caucasian.The video really enlightened me to realize that pretty much all the books I have been reading are by white american authors, which there is nothing exactly wrong with that since they are very talented and I love their books, but I also want to give other writers a chance. Not just the authors on display at books stores, but the ones that are Latino, Asian, African/African American, Middle Eastern etc. This year I want to read at least 5 books by non white/american/english authors. Again you can check out the video for more information.

6. Writing

I have been wanting to write a novel and get it published since I was eight years old and I feel now I am fully ready to pursue this goal. I will be looking for new inspiration and at least trying to work on my writings daily. I might even post some excerpts up on this blog. Wish me luck!

7. Stop procrastinating

This is probably the most important resolution I need to stick to because I seriously have a problem. Once I have a lot of work I know I have to do, I immediately shut down and do anything but what I am supposed to be doing. Then before you know it, I am up late the night before frantically trying to finish the project. I have realized this needs to stop and I plan on taking this into effect this year. This goes back to managing my time and scheduling what I have to do so I can actually GET IT DONE.



So those are my resolutions for 2014 and I really hope I can achieve all of them. Let me know what your new year resolutions are and if we had any in common. Also like the new header?


Have a spectacular day!

Apparently I'm A Slow Reader.....................

Yeah I believe my score was a little over 200 wpm which is actually lower than the average eighth grader but I'm not dissatisfied because I am one of those people who just likes to thoroughly comprehend what they read. So if that means taking an extra however many seconds to reread a sentence I did not understand well the first time, then by all means that is exactly what I will do and what I already do very often. Why don't you try it for yourself? Just click the start reading button below and tell me your results in the comments!

Source: Staples eReader Department

Click Here To Check Out My Goodreads :D

Have a Spectacular Day!