Welcome back to BOOK AND A BEVERAGE!
In case you don’t know the deal about Book and a Beverage, it’s a very simple yet fun feature: We read books, we drink beverages, we take pictures of them and then I share your photos and a little about you to the blogging world!
Give a big welcome to Kate from Ex Libris!
Name & Blog Name: Kate and I blog at Ex Libris. I’m usually known as Kate @ Ex Libris or Ex Libris Kate.
Tell us a little about your blog! It’s pretty much a review blog! I started it in 2011 as a hobby that I could do from home with two little ones and it grew from there. It’s a mix of YA and adult book reviews. Over the years I’ve added occasional features for romance and audiobooks, and I participate in Waiting on Wednesdays and Stacking the Shelves.
What’s been your favorite post you’ve written so far? (Link us up!) I am proud of the review I did for Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy. The main character is pretty unlikable and she has cancer, so I think those two things really challenged people and it challenged their idea of how a sick person should act. I love this book and I love Julie.
Got anything special coming up we should know about? I am going to be on the blog tour for a YA contemporary called Tell Me Three Things that is getting a lot of buzz and sounds really good! That will be in early December. Plus, giveaways…lots and lots of giveaways.
Whatcha reading? A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
Where did it come from? (Library, purchased, publisher, etc): Publisher – Harper Collins
Any special reason you chose to feature this book? It’s what I’m reading right now and I am really enjoying it!
What’s important that we should know about this book? Would you recommend it? I definitely recommend it. It’s a great combination of historical CSI with some Sherlockian (is that a word?) elements thrown in. On top of that, you get some history of the treatment of mental illness. The asylums, as they were called, were a way to treat real mental illness but it was also a place where women were placed when they did not meet society’s standards. Women had no rights and there was no real oversight of the conditions or treatment of the inmates. In 1887, a journalist named Nellie Bly posed as a mentally ill woman and went into an asylum in New York. The story she wrote about the conditions and her treatment prompted an investigation and began more dialogue about how we diagnose mental illness and who really belonged in treatment facilities. I mention Nellie because many of the things that Grace experiences in the asylum are things that Nellie went through. It’s really compelling and, of course, there’s lots of murder and intrigue, so it has a little something for everyone!
Whatcha drinking? Tea! Loose leaf lady grey tea which is being diffused by my astronaut and capsule diffuser that Ginger gave to me when she was my Secret Sister!
What’s your favorite thing to drink while reading? Because I mostly read at night after the kids are in bed, I usually need something that will promote staying awake, like tea.
Favorite beverage of all time. Go! You know, I love a good single malt scotch and soda.
What are your top three books you would recommend to other people? This is a hard one! Without knowing anything about the reading habits of the people, I would say:
The Martian by Andy Weir (try it on audio)
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (smart woman, time travel, James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser)
Trouble Is A Friend Of Mine by Stephanie Tromly (It hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, but this book is FUNNY. It made me laugh out loud several times.)
What’s your proudest blogging/reading/writing moment? I have gotten to interview several authors for book events with Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston and I have moderated panels for the Texas Teen Book Festival and Houston Teen Book Con. I am always so honored that they think enough of me to let me to that. It’s always a proud moment when I get to put my reading/blogging energy toward helping teen readers connect with books.
Anything else you’d like to share? Support your local indie book store! 🙂
Thanks, Kate! All of your recs are books I’ve been considering so it’s great to hear them come so highly recommended from you!
I love opportunities like the ones you have had with Blue Willow! I’ve had similar experiences at Anderson’s and they’re some of my proudest moments too!
4 thoughts on “Book and a Beverage [118] – Kate from Ex Libris”
Heeey Kate!
I loved Side Effects May Vary because of how unlikable the main character was but in a likable way if that makes any sense. And that tea diffuser is adorable!
Yes! I felt the same way. I love ‘unlikable’ characters!
Thank you so much for having me!