Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m not really reading much YA any more but I enjoy Elizabeth Acevedo so I wanted to read the one YA book of hers I hadn‘t yet. I really liked Emoni and her family and friends. Her challenges were realistic and her talent for cooking was a fun angle.

This was my #BookSpin for July.

I didn't care for the MC. It was Emoni's behavior about the culinary arts class & having to follow Chef's rules when I checked out of this book. After that I started skimming the book, skipping entire chapters and never missed anything.

And why does every YA have to have romance? In this case, the romance felt formulaic, as in this is YA, so it must include romance.

Book 10 #summerrreadingchallenge (local DMV author)

#ItTakesAllKinds Day 16 #TitleWith?Or

(Book read on Aug 2019)

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

And my favourite from Feb

#12BooksOf2023

Great YA story about following your dream and finding your way. I loved the way food and family infused every feeling and every sentence. This was inspiring, real, and mouth watering. #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Sometimes the angst makes me run away screaming, but generally I enjoy reading YA etc. because the stories are usually straightforward and briskly told. #sundayfunday

Some of the books I‘ve read that #IncludeRecipes
🥧 🍎 🍋 🥙 🍜 🍽️

#BookBinge

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I really enjoyed this pick for #FoodAndLit #DominicanRepublic about a teen mum and her love of cooking 🧑‍🍳

Emoni was a likeable MC. It was bittersweet but her perseverance I think wins out in the end.

The only thing I would say is that I was a bit disappointed that none of the characters were Dominican as I like to try and pick books with characters of the ethnicity or set in the country of the month! But it was such a good read regardless!

Started this book today, which does coincidentally mention this dish early on!

This is Pollo Guisado Dominicano which made for a delicious meal! Served with white rice ☺️

#FoodAndLit #DominicanRepublic

https://mydominicankitchen.com/dominican-braised-chicken-pollo-guisado/

A great read that helped me finish #PromptMaze Q4. Yay!

@TheAromaOfBooks BTW, I think I missed the post about the new Q1 maze, can you please send it to me? I love them mazes 😁

I generally don't read fiction on audio, because I have a harder time following along, but listened to this one for a library challenge. Although I would have preferred a physical read, Elizabeth Acevedo narrates her own work wonderfully and I really enjoyed the story!

Another great Acevedo book❤️🔥🧡

#Fireside #JanuaryJazz @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I‘m glad the cover caught my eye, because I didn‘t really understand what this book was about before reading, & I might not have picked it if I had known. Emoni is an ambitious teen mom trying to make the best life for herself & her Babygirl, our stories couldn‘t be more different (other than a love of cooking shows 👩🏼‍🍳) but I was rooting for her the whole book.

The prose is a perfect mix of youthful vibrancy & poetic inclinations.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

I highly enjoyed this book. Acevedo has become one of my new favorite authors.

#AlphabetGame
#LetterW
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#alphabetgame #letterW

Found some #pantone2022 matches for my latest read!

Another great read from Acevedo! Emoni, the MC, is a teen mother trying to figure it all out - school, work, love, friendship, family relationships. She‘s a great character and I rooted for her the whole book!

#bookspinbingo

Thank you so much @TheBookHippie for this awesome #LitsyLovesAnimalsSwap package! April has already been playing with all the toys and I haven‘t even got everything open yet! 😆 I‘m excited to read both of these books (especially the tagged because I LOVED The Poet X) and the bird book mark is adorable.
#catsoflitsy

I'm joining @Andrew65 in #12Booksof2021, sharing the remaining months all at once! September was a very hard choice, which I narrowed to a top 3. Laidback Camp is a charming, relaxing camping manga. With the Fire on High is a warm hug of a self-acceptance and familial love book. And Bicycling with Butterflies is a beautiful journey through self-understanding, naturalism, bike culture, and monarch butterflies! #2021WrapUp

Late to the party here but here is Jan-July!! (Aug-Dec coming tomorrow) #12booksof2021 @Andrew65

With The Fire on High was the hug I really needed at the start of this year; The Darkest Part of the Forest was from @Emilymdxn (aka my superstar Book Consultant); and I've read some Jane Austen for the first time this year too and LOVED having it as my little project! Just Persuasion left there for 2022😁

This is one of the best books I read all year! It's the story of a teen mom learning to navigate school, family, friends, new love, and dreams of the future. #Booked2021 #LatinxAuthor @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft

Emoni is such a great character and this book was fantastic. And this cover is just gorgeous 😍 4⭐️

Birthday reads :')

"Baked mac and cheese doesn't need elevation, degradation, hateration, or nothing else. It's perfect in its purest form."

This book is overflowing with strength and warm family feelings. I absolutely loved it. The characters are so loveable (excluding Baby Girl's paternal grandma) and it was so wonderful reading Emoni's passion for cooking. I thought the author did a great job crafting love and self-acceptance into this story and loved that Emani was never ashamed of being a teen mom. The recipes were also super delightful to see and added a lot of character.

“But I also got more than one city, one hood inside me. And anyone who wants to get to know me has to know how to appreciate the multiple skylines.”

"The world is a turntable that never stops spinning; as humans we merely choose the tracks we want to sit out and the ones that inspire us to dance."

This book warms your heart; while it is listed as a young adult, it is worthy reading for all adults. Emoni is a teen mother facing all the realities of life yet also holding onto the hope and promise of the future.

“I feel like I'm being pulled in a hundred different directions and my feet are stuck in #cement.” #QuotsyJul21

This YA novel deals with important themes, like teen parenthood, in a simple but sophisticated way. It‘s a little more narrative and a little less poetry than her earlier works, but her unique style is still apparent. By far, the best thing about the book is its main character, Emoni. She is responsible and hardworking, mature and considerate. It‘s nice to see a YA character who refuses to get caught up in drama and cares about more than romance.

Day 22 #Multicoloured #Multicolored 😍
#CuriousCovers

I loved colourful covers! The reason I choose a lot of books.

@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This novel was a quick and fun read, very lighthearted and yet serious. I loved it!

For my full thoughts see:
https://heartandsoulbooks.blogspot.com/2021/05/with-fire-on-high.html

Some of my students are reading this right now, so I had to make sure I read it too- and I‘m so glad I did! Such a fun book. I think all high school students can relate to Emoni on some level because although her struggles are personal, all teenagers in high school are juggling a million responsibilities. Adults don‘t always understand the stress of being a teenager, but this book acknowledges that stress in a beautiful, uplifting way.

“And so at the age of four, I learned someone could cry from a happy memory.”

I absolutely fell in love with this book! I was a teen mom myself and it is sooo relatable! The raw emotions are real and I could feel every ounce of it. From having to struggle school, a baby, trying to manage a relationship between you and the babies dad, and still trying to figure out your future. I got lost in this book. 1 critique would be, sometimes the book felt all over the place. Very choppy. Other than that, great book!

I had mixed feelings about this book for a while, and at one point I almost bailed. Acevedo‘s writing at the beginning felt choppy, like it should have been in stanzas instead of sentences. While I preferred Clap When You Land more, I felt invested in the characters in this even if I didn‘t love all the writing. 4⭐️

It was pretty good. Kind of makes you hungry sometimes lol. But I liked it. It felt real and I love how fast paced it was. The chapters were never more than a few pages long.

The book without the dust jacket and I love it

My next read

Elizabeth Acevedo did an amazing job reading her book! I love this story so much. It‘s coming-of-age, strong family ties, finding your way and holding on to who you are - all rolled into one beautiful story. I think I might like this one more than I did The Poet X! 🤩 #audiobook #Libby

Totally recommend the North Texas Teen Book Festival, by Irving Public Library !!🎉 There are a ton of panels that are happening this weekend and are / have been recorded. There are big authors that participated ( Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas etc) , and other great YA authors. 💙Putting books On list to order this month for the library!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book made me laugh, made me say “awwww”, and really made me hungry! I can‘t recommend it enough

Fabulous YA novel about a teen mom in high school and her love for her infant daughter, grandmother who raised her, and best friend (who‘s a lesbian). Her mastery of food/cooking plays a very central role.

I ❤️ Emoni.

This book was everything I wanted it to be and even more. Definitely one of this months highlights. I just can't adore Emoni too much - I could've never accomplished what she did. And her love for cooking and food really got me, too. I can truly see her as a grown-up standing in the kitchen of her own restaurant, making all the customers happy. Just as she did with me.

@TheAromaOfBooks #BookSpinBingo

Finished two books today and I got a #BookSpinBingo - yey! Now it's time to clear the whole board 😁 Also, I'm quite content with myself that I for once managed to get my #BookSpin and my #DoubleSpin done before the end of the month 😆

@TheAromaOfBooks

• ModernMrsDarcy.com #MMD flight pick for February 2021

Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions-doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.