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#SchoolSpirit

Thought of this one for today‘s #Paint prompt. It‘s in my #TBR waiting for #SundayBuddyRead 2025. I love Stacey Lee‘s YA historical fiction.🌅

I didn‘t have many books starting with the #letterU but this one was excellent.

#alphabetgame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I enjoyed this story of two teenage girls-one a runaway slave and the other a Chinese girl who has been accused of murder-who join the Oregon Trail disguised as boys. I loved how the relationships of the characters developed, especially between the 2 girls who barely knew each other at the beginning.

This is my #bookspin for March @TheAromaofBooks

The tagged is my #bookspin and Migrations is my #doublespin for March. Apparently I have a color theme going on this month 😂

@TheAromaofBooks

I decided to read this one as a last hurrah for the Women's History Month. But I also read this because the author is Asian American! Support AAPI authors! Anyway, this one is set during the Gold Rush era, and I love the adventure aspect of this book. I can see this book having a sequel. #ya #historical #womenshistorymonth

This book is really fun. It's YA historical fiction with a Chinese girl as the protagonist. And it's sort of a western. I thought it was cute. But it actually covers some pretty serious topics like racism and slavery.

Huge thank you to @TheBookHippie and #SundayBuddyRead for introducing me to this author. I never would have found this on my own.

#BookSpinBingo square 6
@TheAromaofBooks

Genre: fiction

Date Started: Oct. 6th, 2019

Date Completed: Oct. 21st, 2019

How did you choose this book: It looks really interesting

Summary of the novel: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician but not an easy. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life. With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown

Not really my kind of story but I thought the writing was very funny & smart.

My #boutofbooksTBR looks suspiciously like my #AugustTBR... I‘ve only finished one paper book, which was replaced with a library hold but I have knocked out a couple of audios, included the tagged book, which I finished today. I really need to buckle down and read this week, the top book is for #mummydaughterbookclub on Sun, 2nd is for #girlybookclub next Tues and the bottom two are still in progress since July!

#boutofbooks

Have my own lightly painted sky for tonight‘s #audiowalk

After a very long and trying week I'm treating myself to a new book today. I would love to hear others thoughts/opinions on this one. #mentalbreak #saturdayreading #underapaintedsky #staceylee

Working on my #readharder challenge on my commute to rehearsal.

I read this with the book club I run where I teach high school. A great YA historical fiction debut novel about a young Chinese American and African American, on the run from the law, who dress as males and join a group of travelers headed West on the Oregon Trail. They become fast friends as they face a number of challenges on their journey west. Great for upper middle school and high school students.🌟🌟🌟🌟

#AmReading this lovely book today. It's one of my library's choices for city-wide reading this year, so the author is coming for a visit next week—have to be prepared. 🤓

We have to traipse into the fields today to care for a horse and of course it's raining heavily 😭😭😭

This cover reminds me of #dusk. A great western historical fiction read!

#junebookbugs

Thank you to @BestOfFates for recommending this when I asked about other audiobooks narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. A crossdress romp through the Wild West, with a pair of teenage girls, one Chinese and one Black, on the run from the law, towards a brighter future. Sweet and fun. Zeller has perfected the art of the whisper-scream, one of the trickiest feats in audio narration.
#ownvoices #weneeddiversebooks

Super good. I ended up getting completely hooked.

His face lights up and he does it, a kiss as sweet as a serenade and achingly familiar. The smoke of a lonely fire and something wild fills my senses and lifts me from my ordinary existence. My sigh echoes in his throat.

"There ain't nothing free in this world except bad ideas."

"It's too dark, but we could shoot the stars."

"And they was as close as Saturday night and Sunday morning. He loved how pure was her heart, and she loved how steady were his shoulders."

". . . She's not wild, she's spirited. 'Wild' means 'I no care about what I do.' But 'spirited' means, 'I love what I do.' Big difference."

. . . I wonder at the power of a single word to goad males into doing things they don't want to do to acquire things they don't want to have.

Negative thoughts pour gravel in your shoes and make your step unsteady.

"Don't want safety, only freedom."

"God makes our bodies want to live, no matter what our minds want to do."

Under a Painted Sky is the story of Sammy and Annamae, two girls on the run on the Oregon Trial. They disguise themselves as boys and join up with a group of young cowboys.

Lee deals head on with the realities of that period for a Chinese girl and a runaway slave. This book has heart-pounding adventure, engaging characters with fun & witty dialogue, and lovely writing.

(Just realized those were dragons/snakes/rabbits on the cover: so perfect)

#readjanuary #booksbyasianwriters

Last spring I discovered a new favorite book store in Pasadena and found this treasure there. I haven't read it yet but it looks good and I've heard good things about it.

⚠Annamae fell dangerously close to the "magical negro" trope
⚠Very little adventure happened before the "hot cowboys" thing started
⚠Geographical, historical, and character inconsistencies and way too much repetition
⚠Felt like vehicle to teach Chinese culture
⚠They made it to Wyoming(ish?) without encountering ANY American Indian tribes?!
⚠All outcomes predictable

I wanted a story about two kickass girls on the range; I got a flimsy love story.

I might not be super into this book, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the side projects! #audiocoloring

Uhhhh...I've never heard of flounder living in Kansas, but that's what they just caught in the river.

A little over an hour into this and already feeling some disappointment. The adventures have hardly started, and already it's falling back on the romantic interest thing. I hope it bounces back, otherwise this will be a painful read... 😒😴

I know for sure I'll be reading Under a Painted Sky and One Crazy Summer (reread) for book clubs this month. As for the rest, I will probably let my reading challenges guide me...maybe start to dig into XO Orpheus? Which Litten out there mentioned reading a short story as a sort of palate cleanser between books? What a brilliant idea, especially for these types of compilations! #ReadJanuary #ThisMonthsTBR

There are some books that I know I'm going to love and then I put off reading them for ages. This is one of those books and I'm so happy I finally got to it.

A few of the many kickass heroines in YA. Samantha and Annamae are two girls heading west on their own, Jessie is a girl trying to save her community and almost traveling through time to do so, Katniss, and Isabelle who deserves more credit than I think she usually gets.

#kickassheroines #SeasonsReadings2016 #ya #MsDsLibrary

A day late... but I just moved cross country for 6 months and limited myself to only one box of books so I could also bring clothes and pots and pans. #booknerdproblems #photoadaynov16

Oh man, this was good. Sure, it has awful "slave speak" in some places and the occasional plot hole, but there wasn't a time between when I started and when I finally closed it in the end that I didn't want to be reading this book.

Let's see if I can stick with this one.

Lee does the best historical fictions

#recommendsday: I love Stacey Lee's books, and Under a Painted Sky is so great. Friendship, found families, and the fact that it made me cry over a violin.

Another great YA western infused with culture and diversity.

My #favbookishfriendship has to go to Sammy and Andy. This book had so much I love: unlikely friends who learn to trust each other, girls passing as boys, setting off on a journey, adventures, horses, and a violin. Plus, that cover is gorgeous!

Maybe what matters is not so much the path as who walks beside you. 😭😭😭 #24in48

Picked up Robin from daycare and he wants to lay in bed... So I guess we'll spend the afternoon in bed reading. 🐺📚💕 #24in48

Loved the diversity and the strong friendships and family bonds in this book. It had an interesting historical setting as well, and was unputdownable from start to finish. I would definitely recommend it.