Epic Reading Challenge: November

Welcome back to the Epic Reads Challenge 2024, where each month select TBG members choose a book that fits the challenge's theme. Provided by Epic Reads, these challenges inspire new and unique book choices among readers. We encourage the community to join in this challenge with us and participate each month!

The prompt for November was… a graphic novel!

When you think of the word “novel,” you might imagine a thick, heavy book with pages jam-packed with dense text. But graphic novels are another form of book, one that became more common in the 1980s and continues to skyrocket in popularity today. 

Here are a couple graphic novels that TBG read this month + their thoughts!

Grace: Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper is a bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel following Nick and Charlie, two English schoolboys who become best friends after meeting in school and playing rugby together. The book series has also been adapted into a Netflix show starring Kit Connor and Joe Locke. 

If you somehow haven’t managed to read this graphic novel yet, then let this be your sign. The illustrations are wonderful and keep the reader fully engaged in the story, and the plotline is fast-paced and easy to follow. However, the best part is the characters, who are fun and easy to love. 

Luke: Deadendia by Hamish Steele

For this month’s challenge, I chose to read the first entry of the DeadEndia books by Hamish Stele. I really enjoy the Netflix series Dead End: Paranormal Park, and when I found it the show was based off a book series, I was eager to check them out. The Watcher’s Test, the first entry in the series, focuses on Barney who works at a theme park that’s secretly also serves as a portal to hell. Along with his friend Norma and his talking dog Pugsley, the group battles demons, time-traveling cowboys, and scariest of all, love interests. While I thought some of the ideas were executed better in the show, it was cool to see how concepts of the episodes were originally written in the book. The book also did a great job making all the characters extremely memorable and funny. This book, and probably the rest of the series, would be great to read during Halloween or other spooky seasons. 

Check out Luke's 5 Questions With... interview with Hamish Steele!

Top Ten Tuesday: Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR x 2!

 Two top tens written by Luke M. and Grace H.!

From Luke

As an avid reader, I have a long list of books that I want to read soon, and a lot of them aren’t insanely recent. There have been times where a book grabs my attention, prompting me to find everything there is about it, and I’m surprised when I discover that the book isn't brand new. There is an endless collection of books on my TBR list that were published a little while back, so allow me to present them, in no particular order.

My Friend Dahmer (2012)
Talk about a chilling start. To give some context, this graphic novel was made by Derf Backderf, a cartoonist and graphic novelist known for his punk-inspired art style, and serious subject matter. His debut, My Friend Dahmer, is a sort of autobiographical graphic memoir, in which Backderf chronicles his friendship with the now infamous serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, in high school. The book went on to become a bestseller and even got a film adaptation in 2017, with Ross Lynch, of Austin and Ally and Teen Beach Movie fame portraying Dahmer. It’s been on my list ever since I found out about the movie, and I can’t believe it’s more than a decade old.

The Girl From the Sea (2021)
That’s right, another graphic novel (there’s going to be a lot of them, sorry not sorry :). Written by Molly Ostertag, the book follows Morgan, a lonely teen who meets a mysterious girl named Keltie, who she ends up forming a relationship with. Considering I’ve enjoyed Ostertag’s work on TV shows like Star vs the Forces of Evil (prop design) and The Owl House (writer), I’d be intrigued to check out how her work translates in book form.

A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow (2020)
It has Reese’s Book Club stamp, so it must be quality. Written by Laura Taylor Namey, the book centers on Lila Reyes, a Cuban-American girl who moves from Miami, Florida to Winchester England, and falls in love with an English teen named Orion. At first glance, I didn’t take the premise of this book seriously and honestly, a part of me still doesn’t. However, the book must have been popular as a semi-sequel has recently been published, and there’s even a feature film in development, with Maia Reficco and Kit Connor starring in it. With all that in mind, I do sort of want to give this book a shot, even though it’s not insanely recent.  

Invincible, Volume 1 (2005)
Finally, an actual retro book on my TBR, by which it’s still in the 21st century. The Amazon adaptation has been the one show that has been constantly recommended by both my friends and my search engines, but I’ve put off watching it because I like reading the original source material. Made by Robert Kirkman, the stories follow the coming of age of Mark Grayson, the son of Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on Earth. It took a while to adapt the books into a show, but at least it makes me all the more eager to read the original series. 

Seconds (2014)
Written by Bryan Lee O’Malley, of Scott Pilgrim fame, Seconds follows the story of Katie Clay, who is head chef of a restaurant that shares the same name. One day, she obtains the ability to fix her mistakes by writing them in a notebook, eating mushrooms, and falling asleep, which ironically creates more problems. I don’t really have a lot to say about this one, but due to me enjoying the Scott Pilgrim books and a possible feature film in the future (with Blake Lively directing it), the book is pretty high on my list of books I want to read.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (2019)
I chose the cover with Emma Myers on it, that should say a lot about my motives for choosing what books to read. Holly Jackson’s YA Book Prize winning story follows Pip, a 17 year old true crime enthusiast, who investigates the murders of 2 classmates under the guise of a school project. The book was named one of the best books of 2020 (still released in 2019) and has received a TV adaptation by BBC (Netflix internationally). Given my habit of reading books before watching adaptations, I prioritize reading this book soon. Also, I just realized I have 2 books on this list that have “girl” and “guide” in the title…what?

Heartstopper, Volume 1  (2019)
Now this has been really high on my list for the past few months. Written by Alice Oseman, the book series focuses on the romantic relationship between teenagers Charlie and Nick, and the ups and downs their relationship faces. Starting off as a webcomic, both the book series and the Netflix series have received critical acclaim for their likable characters and positive portrayal of LGBTQ people, giving me all the more reason to check it out.

A Whole Song and Dance (2023)
I’ve realized that a majority of my selections on this list are books that have either been adapted into movies/TV shows, or from authors I already like. Some books on my TBR though, don’t fall into either scenario, I just happened to find it one day and became interested. Written by Sarvenaz Tash, the story focuses on Nasrin, a freshman in NYU who has to battle between pursuing her dreams of majoring in musical theater and her parents' expectations of earning a business major. Oh, and a crush gets thrown into the mix. As someone who’s also stuck between pursuing a creative career and a more practical/profitable career, I felt like I could relate to the story. Hopefully one day, I’ll actually pick it up and give the book a shot.

Turtles All the Way Down (2017)
The one John Green book of the list. Written by the acclaimed author himself, the story centers around Aza, a 16 year old girl with OCD and anxiety who, along with her friend Daisy, search for a fugitive billionaire. Believe it or not, I’ve never actually read anything by John Green before, and considering that a movie adaptation was recently released, maybe it’s time I changed that.

The Hunger Games (2008)
Let’s end the list with a bang. Suzanne Collins, of Wow Wow Wubbzy fame (no elaboration look that up), struck gold when she created the Hunger Games trilogy books back in the late 2000s. For all 6 people who don’t know, The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen, who is forced to be a contender in the Hunger Games, a battle to the death hosted by the wealthy capitol, as revenge for a failed uprising. There she befriends other contenders and attempts to take down the capitol and stop this corruption. I actually own the first 3 books, and since they are so iconic, it’s about time I actually gave them a read.

From Grace

Welcome back to TBG’s Top Ten Tuesday! 

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday is a widespread trend in which book bloggers create a “Top Ten” list in response to a different topic each week.

This week’s theme is… Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR!!

While preparing to write this list, I was looking through my TBR on Goodreads, and I clicked the helpful feature that allowed me to sort my shelf by date published. I was somewhat surprised to discover that all ten of the oldest books on my TBR were published before the turn of the millennium. Typically, I enjoy reading novels published recently, but I’m excited to delve into some older classics that are on my TBR.

Here are the 10 earliest published books on my TBR (oldest to most recent)!

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (published October 30, 1811)

Emma by Jane Austen (published December 23, 1815)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (published December 1847)

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (published 1878)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (published November 1939)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (published January 1963)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (published March 31, 1969)

The Body by Stephen King (published August 27, 1982)

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (published November 1985)

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (published October 1, 1996)