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Read for Maui read-a-thon

#ReadForMaui: A Read for Maui Read-A-thon

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Please note that, though I intend to participate by buying and reading books by Hawaiian authors, I am not involved in running or organizing this event. I am merely sharing the public information to help with reach. Please address any questions to queercollective.booktok@gmail.com and maybe join along.

Read for Maui Read-a-thon on Storygraph

Please read entire information below prior to signing up:

TikTok has created miracles for many. Booktok alone has encouraged people to read, created a space to promote indie authors, and aided diverse communities in times of need (See #TransRightsReadAThon in the news). Booktok is a space that brings together many readers of different backgrounds (at times).

If you have seen the news lately, you might have seen apocalyptic wildfires scorching various districts of Maui. Ancestral lands, royal history, Hawaiian artifacts, families, businesses, and priceless ecosystems have been impacted by the wildfires. Many people have been displaced from their homes, many separated from their families—as well as those for whom their whereabouts are as yet flower-42957_1280unknown. Even though 80% of the wildfire in Lahaina is contained, the aftermath of the fires has and will continue to devastate the island.

Our goal is to use our booktok platforms and/or online presence to garner support, solidarity, awareness, and raise monetary donations to help the people who have been affected by one of the largest natural disasters Maui has seen in recent history.

The Maui Relief Effort Read-A-Thon will start August 14th-28th (participants can join at any time during the timeframe). We will be encouraging readers to donate to trusted local organizations recommended to us by people on the ground, on Maui, as well as those from Hawaii.

flower-42957_1280Please note – We realize the Read-A-Thon is super soon. This is because many cannot wait for help. Government aid often takes days, and certain criteria have to be met in order to receive assistance. Many had to flee quickly to survive with their lives. However, not everyone carries vital paperwork on their person. Other losses like that of key documents, government identification, insurance, registration, etc, are not to be overlooked. We are doing our best to heed the suggestions and ideas of Maui people and aid them whenever and wherever possible.

If you want to join or participate in the Maui Relief Effort Read-a-Thon, please read our guidelines and fill out our Google form:

Guidelines 

flower-42957_1280Before August 14-

  • Circulate graphics for Maui Relief Effort Read-a-Thon by liking, commenting, sharing, reposting, posting, etc.
  • Announce your intentions to participate in the readathon by using our hashtag #ReadForMaui on whichever online platform of your choice.
  • How you want to set up the donations is completely up to you! We just ask that you research and confirm the organization of your choosing will DIRECTLY aid Maui. We will have a list of suggested organizations and individual fundraisers from which you are welcome to choose.
  • PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS of SCAMS. We are endeavoring to help Maui directly and will do our best to do so, but we are not infallible. Do your own vetting at all times.
  • It is important to note that there are many ways to help! Your support efforts may land across someone’s FYP or feed that can help financially. Honestly, just showing that we care and hear Maui’s need for help may just make someone’s day.
  • Do you want to support Hawaiʻi authors in general? We have lists available! Hawaiian authors 

flower-42957_1280August 14th-28th

  • Content is key, baby!
  • Feel free to post resources, uplift Hawaiian content creators, book reviews, etc!
  • The read-a-thon is NOT ABOUT US. It is about HELPING MAUI.
  • If you are unsure if your content is insensitive to the situation, it may be best to ask someone how to improve or skip the idea for now.
  • Utilize relevant hashtags to boost content, such as #ReadingForMaui.
  • Keep followers updated on fundraising efforts (only if you are comfortable sharing). Anything helps! Whether it be $1 or $50! How you want to structure your Read-A-Thon is up to you! (Pledging by chapters, word count, or number of books).

flower-42957_1280

DONATING PROCESS:

  • We highly suggest that if you and your followers donate to an org/family of your choice, that receipts are submitted to our email queercollective.booktok@gmail.com!
  • Please omit any personal information(card number or bank numbers). We just want to see the org/family you’re choosing and how much was donated!
  • At the end, if you opt to share your email in the form,  we will let our participants know how much was raised for Maui orgs/families across the board to share with followers????????!
  • Post Readathon
  • We would love to see your conclusion videos/posts to see how you felt during the read-a-thon and a wrap-up of all the books you read (favorites, if any new auto-buy authors, books that brought in new information and perspective, etc.)
  • Read diversely all year round and encourage followers to do the same.
  • Remember that even though news outlets may find new stories and various online platforms/niches, attention spans may be long gone, Maui will still continue to hurt. Please keep your heart open to additional fundraising efforts in the future <3

flower-42957_1280Lastly, dear participant,

Thank you for all that you are able to do. We love you for it. And we love Maui! #ReadForMaui #MauiStrong #MauiReadAThon #AidForMaui

If you have any questions, concerns, or any items/suggestions you want addressed, please contact us at queercollective.booktok@gmail.com!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Huge thank you to the Queer Collective on Geneva, all in Maui Relief Effort – queer collective group chat on WhatsApp, @simbooktokbadly flower-42957_1280on TT for paving the way for Read-A-Thons on BookTok, @kahaulaauthor on TT for reading over our mission statement/guidelines providing us with feedback and suggestions relating to cultural sensitivity, @prblyreadingrn on TT & IG for sharing Maui Resources while on the ground, and to the countless other bookish folks who made this effort a reality.

Books I purchase from the above list

Odd Blood, by Azalea Crowley
Green Eyed Wolf, by Kahaula
The Mea Lupus series, by Kahaula
Wings Once Cursed & Bound, by Piper J. Drake
flower-42957_1280Weird Fishes, by Rae Mariz

Edit: I also happened to come across this that I thought I’d share:

“Romancelandia is raising money for the Maui Wildfires.
Check out the 400 great offerings from and for the romance community. ”

It looks like there are some awesome books/swag up for auction.

Mothman Reading Challenge

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For someone who has very little time to read, I keep constructing reading challenges for myself. But I like to get them down on paper when they occur to me. So, with that in mind, let me introduce you to my newest reading goal, the Romantic Mothman Challenge.

Yep, it’s totally random. And I’ll tell you how it came to be. But first, let me preface this with the fact that I’ve been very into Monster Romances lately. So, I was a little predisposed toward a cryptid challenge in the first place.

mothman challenge

Ok, it started when I innocently downloaded a copy of Emory Moon‘s Canary and the Mothman from a Bookfunnel event. Then I got an email saying I’d won a copy of Paige Lavoie‘s I’m in Love With Mothman. (I don’t even remember entering the giveaway. So, that was a complete bonus.)

Two books featuring the Mothman within a day or two of one another got my attention. So, I searched my considerable TBR to see if I had any more. Turns out I did have one—C.M Nascota‘s Sweet Berries. Three Mothman books; now I was well and truly invested.

Then, I picked up Vera Valintine‘s Carnal Cryptids: East Coast in a Stuff Your Kindle freebie event and, finally, I had a few dollars of Amazon cash. So, I bought a copy of Clio Evans‘ Doves & Demons. Though, I bet if I’d been a little more strategic, I could find that one at Hoopla and bought an additional one for the challenge. Too bad I’m thinking of that now.

Speaking of Hoopla, there are two more there that I could borrow. There is Peter Passenger and the Mothman, by Rafe Jadison, and Gateway Mothman, by Jay Noel, which also happens to be set in my city. (I’ve been meaning to do a Saint Louis reading challenge. But picking out all the books set in STL will take a lot more time than I have available.)

There’s also Run & Hide by Beatrix Hollow, which I’m told has Mothman in it but I don’t own, and the Mothman Mysteries. But I meant to go by book titles, not series titles. So, I’m not counting it.

I’m sure that there are quite a few more out there; these are just the ones I currently know about. But I generally form challenges as an incentive to read the books already on my shelves. I’m already stretching a little to include Hoopla books. So, I’m going to limit myself to these seven and only add to the list if the universe tosses another free Mothman book in my path. (Feel free to facilitate that if you know of one. LOL.)

Edit: Well after I’d posted this, Like Mothman to a Flame came up on the freebie list. So, I grabbed it, too.

skulls-Image by minh huynh tan from Pixabay

I decided to bring my reviews back here as updates rather than do a separate challenge wrap-up. so…
Reviews:
zero review challenge banner

Zero Reviews Challenge.

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I have a new challenge for myself, and this one is a little dangerous. Dangerous in the sense that there is a large potential to be unenjoyable. As such, I’m setting it as a long-term challenge. I don’t have a lot of reading time right now (because of university). So, I’m reluctant to donate any of it to read that I won’t enjoy. Despite that, I still want to try this. (You never know, I might love each of these books, after all.)

What is this? Reading the books on my Goodreads shelves with zero reviews. I was inspired to check this by someone I saw over on Tiktok (that I can’t seem to find again, so I can’t give credit to). But they said that sometimes when they have trouble deciding what to read, they order their books by review numbers and read the book with the fewest. This way, they can give a small-time or new author some attention.

I liked the idea and was somewhat surprised by how many books I have with no reviews. Then I thought about it a little more and was no longer surprised. This is for the same reason that this challenge has the potential to be either a lot of fun or none at all.

You see, I collect signed books. And one of my absolute favorite ways to find them is at charity shops. I always feel like I’m rescuing a book when I buy one from Goodwill or Savers. And sometimes I buy them because they are signed, not because they look good. (Though I try to fight my impulses on this habit.) The problem is that a lot of times, they are actually quite old—from back when self-publishing was still considered vanity publishing, and editing was often iffier than it is today.

Obviously, this isn’t the case for all of them. I am a magpie when it comes to collecting books. They come from everywhere. But the same kind of gotta-collect-them-all mindset accounts for a lot of them. So, while I love owning them, reading them is a real crap shoot. Some have been great, others every bad vanity press stereotype you can imagine. But I alway want to give them a try.

In terms challenge of logistics, I’m going by Goodreads review numbers. So, some of these might have Amazon or other reviews (though I doubt it). I’m not going to take the time to look. Similarly, I suspect some might be re-publications of older books that, if I looked hard enough, I might find history for. But, again, I’m not going to do that work. If it has no reviews on Goodreads and I own it, It qualifies for the challenge.

I’m not going to count anything that is brand new and can, therefore, be expected to garner reviews in the near future. I’m really going to focus on anything older than a year with no current reviews. And I’ll make decisions on books that are later books in a series on a book-by-book basis. The same will go for some of the odd non-fiction (don’t judge).

A lot of these are physical books that have befallen the all too common fate of books in my house. They got put on a shelf, which puts them out of sight and, therefore, out of mind. So, clearing some shelf space is a nice little bonus to the challenge too. But I’ll warn you now, being slotted in, spine out is a blessing for some of these books. There are some bad covers in the lot!

The goal is to list them below, and as I read them (no doubt slowly), I’ll come back and link to the reviews. Wish me luck. I very well might need it.

no reviews challenge books

The Coming of the Light & Piercing the Darkness, by J.W. Baccaro
The Clubhouse, by Frederic W. Baue
The Bones Dance the Foxtrot, by Donan Berg
Good as You, by B.A. Braxton
Feast of Darkness, Part II, by Christian A. Brown
The Queer Magician in Europe, by Brand Doubell
Paracord Knife Handle Wraps, by Jan Dox
Unwilling Bride, by M.J. Drakkon
Lost Faith, by Maia Dylan
Unmarked Trails, by Jane Flink
Cursed, by Athena Floras
Dust of a Moth’s Wing, by R. Ramey Guerrero
Star Crossed, by Eden Hudson
By Light of Phoenix, by Shade Jalo
Tom and Me, by Robert Lowe
Ankle to the Soul, by Shelly McDuffie
To Save My Father’s Soul, by Michael William Molden
The Wisdom Seeker, by Amy Peterson
Corporeal, by Danielle Powers
The Companions, by Michael Rader
Dragon of the Hesperides, by Dean Reavey
Gloaming, by Addison Taylor Rich
Sex, Intimacy, Love, and Romance in Elderly and Alzheimer’s Patients, by Sandy Sanbar & Judy Rector
For the People I Love and Can’t Forget, by Maria Szapszewicz
Gotta Be Down!, by Booker T.
Blood Revenge, by Robert F. Thompson
To Ocean’s End, by S.M. Welles
Reckless Dreams, by J.R. White
Defiled, by Elskidor Xell

So, there you have it. Those are the 29 books I own that Goodreads says have no reviews, the oldest being Tom and Me from 2016. (How can it have no reviews?) I’m fairly sure at least two of the authors have passed, one of which was a local-to-me author. Several are parts of series, the rest of the series’ books have few reviews too. And, honestly, none of them light me on fire with excitement. But that’s part of what makes this a challenge.

As always, you’re welcome to join in. Let me know how it goes.