Thirteen Anticipated Book Releases of 2021

Hello everyone! Happy February! I hope you are all staying safe and staying healthy as we continue into 2021! One of the best parts about starting a new year is looking ahead at all of the WONDERFUL book releases coming out in the upcoming year, and that’s what we’re about to do today! Keep your credit card handy because I know you’ll want to preorder all of these! Let’s get started (in order of publication date)!

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1. Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado 

Pub Date: February 2, 2021

Let’s kick off this list with one you can go buy RIGHT NOW! FAT CHANCE, CHARLIE VEGA releases on February 2, 2021 from Holiday House. I’ve been looking forward to this book’s release since I first heard about it from Twitter. It just seems like an overall fun contemporary about identity and discovering yourself (and you KNOW I love a good character driven contemporary!).

Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.

People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it’s hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn’t help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.

But there’s one person who’s always in Charlie’s corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing–he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.

A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.

Books I’m Bringing With Me to College (Spring 2021 Edition)

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing well and staying healthy in the new year! When you are reading this, I will be a couple days away from moving back to college for the spring semester! One of my bookish resolutions for 2021 is to read 20 pages every single day. I usually fall into a horrible slump during the semesters, so I set this goal to hopefully not have that happen this year!

Because of this, I will be bringing a hefty pile of books with me this semester, and I want to tell you all about them! Let’s start talking about the books I’m bringing back with me to college!

BEARTOWN By Fredrik Backman

As you are reading this post now, I am currently reading BEARTOWN by Fredrik Backman for the Among Us Readathon! This has been heavily hyped by so many of my friends, so I’m hoping I will love it just as much as they do! I do love a good character-driven contemporary, so I believe this will be up my alley!

Growing Up in the YA Community: A Five Year Blogiversary Reflection

Today, curlyhairbibliophile turns five years old.

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My book journey first begins like all great and embarrassing stories do, in seventh grade.

Let’s set a little bit of the scene. At the time, I was living in a suburb of Minneapolis, attending a TINY Lutheran private school. On a whim, I ended up picking up a copy of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS at my local Barnes & Noble. And I thought it was the SHIT.

Among Us Readathon TBR

Hey everyone! Happy 2021! I hope you all had a safe and restful new year, and here’s to hoping that 2021 treats us better than 2020! This month, I am so excited to be participating in the Among Us Readthon, hosted by my wonderful friend Halee! If you want more information on the readathon, I highly recommend checking out the Twitter account for all the rules and FAQs. Let’s get into what I’ll be reading!

Swipe Card OR Fix Wiring: Read a standalone or a sequel

I’m *technically* cheating with this one, but for this prompt I’ll be reading THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde since it’s a standalone! I started this the last few days of 2020, but I only got about 10 pages of the way into it. I REALLY am loving this one so far, and I can’t wait to continue reading!

Final Days of The Year Book Tag

Surprise! I’m back! I haven’t made any personal posts in several months, and I am so excited to be back and chatting with y’all again! I have had an unbelievably busy semester, but that can be a whole separate blog post. We’re not talking about that today, though. Today, I’m going to be participating in a tag that my friend Halee created and tagged me in, reflecting on all of the good books and bookish moments of 2020. Let’s dive right into it!

What is your most surprising read of this year?

I would have to say that LONG WAY DOWN by Jason Reynolds was the most surprising read of the year for me! This was the first book I’ve read by Jason Reynolds, and I was honestly BLOWN away! I started listening to the audiobook of LONG WAY DOWN on a whim because it was short and I needed to run some errands. However, I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it! I will definitely be reading more of Jason’s books in 2021, and I may re-read it physically in the near future.

If At First You Don’t Succeed: Guest Post by Gabriela Martins, Author of LIKE A LOVE SONG

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy. Today, I can’t wait to chat with Gabriela Martins, author of LIKE A LOVE SONG! I was initially going to feature our lovely guest poster during Latinx Heritage Month, but my college semester was unbelievably busy and I didn’t get around to featuring her. Also, her book is now available for pre-order so now I’m especially excited to chat with her! Let’s get started!

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It was July of 2004. That’s high winter in Brazil, especially where I’m from, where we joke that the Minuano Wind can break your bones, but we can take it, because we’re from the south. Coming out of a series of political scandals, a new television ad came out: a very popular football player (to become involved in his own scandal in the next few years), a musician with a tragic life story, and two everyday Joes, talking about the adversities they’ve been through in life, and ending the ad with what was supposed to be the new slogan of Brazil. 

Seven Cuban Foods from my Childhood in A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow: Guest Post by Laura Taylor Namey

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! Today, I am participating in the blog tour for A CUBAN GIRL’S GUIDE TO TEA AND TOMORROW! I will tell you more about the book at the bottom, but let’s hear from Laura about some of the foods in the book!

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My newest book, A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow is the perfect platform to give readers a peek into my childhood growing up in a huge Cuban Family. I hail from a long line of amazing cooks and bakers. So much of my emotional upbringing was done in the kitchen at one of my tías’ homes, and at the table during boisterous family dinners. My main character, Lila Reyes, is a Miami Cuban teen baker who learned a variety of prime kitchen skills from her abuela. Naturally, Lila cooks and bakes all of my favorite dishes in Miami and during her summer stay in England. Read on to learn about my favorites, some fun book facts, and to get links for recipes to make them yourself.

Blog Tour: FURIA by Yamile Saied Méndez {Mood Board and Highlight}

Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a great first half of September so far! Today, I am so excited to be working with Algonquin Young Readers to host a tour stop for the blog tour for FURIA by Yamile Saied Méndez!

Instead of doing a typical review post, I decided to make a mood board/aesthetic for the book! I am totally in love with the vibe and overall message of FURIA, and I’m so excited to tell you more about it towards the end of the post. I own none of these pictures; all of the pictures were collected from Pinterest.

Writing Process, Queer Joy, and Debut Year: Quick Q&A with Adam Sass

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well, staying safe/healthy, and hopefully enjoying the fall weather. Today, I am over the moon to have Adam Sass, debut author of SURRENDER YOUR SONS here on the blog today! Before we start the quick Q&A, I’m so excited to tell you about SURRENDER YOUR SONS! I read it a few months ago, and I was OVERWHELMED by how much I adored it and I know you will too!

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Connor Major’s summer break is turning into a nightmare.

His SAT scores bombed, the old man he delivers meals to died, and when he came out to his religious zealot mother, she had him kidnapped and shipped off to a secluded island. His final destination: Nightlight Ministries, a conversion therapy camp that will be his new home until he “changes.”

But Connor’s troubles are only beginning. At Nightlight, everyone has something to hide from the campers to the “converted” staff and cagey camp director, and it quickly becomes clear that no one is safe. Connor plans to escape and bring the other kidnapped teens with him. But first, he’s exposing the camp’s horrible truths for what they are— and taking this place down.

Goodreads|Amazon|Book Depository|Indie Bound|Barnes & Noble|

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RECOMMENDED FOR YOU Blog Tour: Six Things to do to Celebrate RECOMMENDED FOR YOU (+Giveaway)

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well and staying healthy in this funky time! Today, I’m so excited to be working with Simon Teen to be one of the blog tour stops for RECOMMENDED FOR YOU by Laura Silverman! I just finished the a few days ago, and I ended up REALLY loving it which makes me even more excited to highlight it here today!

In honor of the blog tour, I decided to make a checklist of six things you can do to celebrate the release of RECOMMENDED FOR YOU in honor of specific jokes or moments in the book! All of these are presented without context, so you’ll have to read RECOMMENDED FOR YOU to see what it all means! 😉

August Wrap Up

Hey everyone! We have officially reached the end of August! The month of August was quite overwhelming for me because it was my final month home before going back to school. Most of the month consisted of me packing, buying last minute items for my dorm room, and saying goodbye to my family + boyfriend! For that reason, I had a pretty slow month reading wise. I did listen to quite a few audiobooks, though, so I read six books in total! I’m super hyped to talk to you about them all, so let’s get started!

You Should See Me in A Crown by Leah Johnson ★★★★: If you were on Book Twitter in June, you may be familiar with You Should See Me in A Crown by Leah Johnson! There was so much hype surrounding it which automatically made me put it on my TBR! I am actually a part of a book club run by Claire at clairefy and Tessi at bookrapt, and the club selected this book as our book of the month! Personally, I would say that it fell a little short for me, so I would overall rate this book a 3.5/5 stars. I would HIGHLY recommend buying this book or checking it out from your local library because it was a really really fun book. If cheesy YA rom-coms are your vibe, then this will 100% be up your alley.

Books on My Fall TBR (Bingo Board, Plans, and Prompts!)

Hello everyone! As you are reading this post, I am currently on a train to Boston! I officially move into my dorm on August 28th after getting a COVID test, and then I’m in a 24 hour quarantine while I wait for those results. This is going to be a weird and chaotic week, but I’m excited to be back to school (with all the safety precautions in place, of course!).

This semester is going to look a lot different needless to say. Because of this, I’ve been going back and forth about what to do regarding my fall TBR. I know I’m going to have a lot more time because I will have hybrid classes (half online/half in person), all of my on-campus organizations will operate remotely, and my work study job’s hours will be significantly reduced. But, I wasn’t sure how to decide what to bring with me.