I recently took part in contemporary-a-thon, and today I’m back to discuss my wrap-up! Contemporary-a-thon is a week long challenge with seven different prompts. The aim is to read as many books as you can in a week that fit into the seven different prompts. I managed to fit three books on my TBR loosely into the prompts.
Having the challenge really pushed me to finish all three books. Even though one of them was a graphic novel and the other was pretty short, I pushed myself to read 140 pages on the final day in order to complete the challenge. Any other day I would have left the book until the next day to finish, so I was grateful to have the challenge in that sense!
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 I read
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.
I buddy read Yes No Maybe So with Alex and Faye! It fit prompts 2 and 3: read a book by an author new to you (Aisha Saeed) and read a diverse book. I adored Aisha Saeed’s writing and I can’t wait to read more by her. The diversity was great too!
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 fit prompt 5 with it’s hard hitting tackling of climate change. I read around 140 pages on the last day of the challenge to finish this book, and I loved it.
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…?
I choose to read Heartstopper 3 because 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 was so excited to read it after picking it up on the release day, and of course I adored this book even though I’m completely up-to-date with the Webcomic version.
Did you take part in contemporary-a-thon?
-Beth
May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽
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