Hi everyone! My friend Chloe told me about the contemporary-a-thon a few weeks ago which is running this week and I’ve decided pretty last minute to join in.

You can see in the video above how contemporary-a-thon works. It runs from today (February 10th) to Sunday (February 16th) and there are 7 different prompts. I’ve listed the prompts below and then I’ll cover which books I’m going to try to read this week and which prompts they fit into. Some of them only fall into the categories loosely, but I think only a week to read more than one book is ambitious for me, so I’m just going to try my best with 3.

Prompts

1. Read a contemporary book with green on the cover
2. Read a contemporary from a new to you author
3. Read a diverse contemporary
4. Read a backlist contemporary
5. Read a dark/hard hitting contemporary
6. Read a contemporary with an illustrated cover
7. Read a contemporary that is beloved by a member of the book community

Books on my TBR

Goodreads | Waterstones

Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state candidate – as long as he’s behind the scenes. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is cancelled, her parents are separating and now her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing – with some awkward guy she hardly knows …
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer – and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural crush of the century is another thing entirely.

My current buddy read happens to fit prompts 2 and 3: read a book by an author new to you (Aisha Saeed) and read a diverse book.

Goodreads | Waterstones

Longing to escape his island home, a boy named Hodaka runs away during his first summer of high school to find a new life in Tokyo. As rain falls for days on end and Hodaka struggles to adjust, he meets a girl named Hina who holds a mysterious power: With a single prayer, she can part the clouds and bring back the sun. But her power comes at a price, and as the weather spirals further and further out of control, they must choose what future they truly want for themselves.
Written concurrently with production of the 2019 film Weathering With You, this novel comes straight from director Makoto Shinkai, the mind behind 2016’s hit your name.! 

Weathering With You discusses climate change, so I thought it would be hard-hitting enough to fit prompt 5. It’s also only 172 pages long and I’m hoping to read it alongside my buddy read!

Goodreads | Waterstones

In this volume we’ll see the Heartstopper gang go on a school trip to Paris! Not only are Nick and Charlie navigating a new city, but also telling more people about their relationship AND learning more about the challenges each other are facing in private…
Meanwhile Tao and Elle will face their feelings for each other, Tara and Darcy share more about their relationship origin story, and the teachers supervising the trip seem… rather close…?

And finally, we have Heartstopper Volume 3, which just about fits the rest of the prompts. It has green on the cover, to fit prompt 1, has been on my TBR since I read the webcomic almost a year ago, has an illustrated cover and is much loved by the bookish community.

I really hope I can get through all of these books by the end of the week!

Are you taking part in contemporary-a-thon?

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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