The Sunshine Blogger Award

Thank you so much to the beautiful Sofii @ A Book. A Thought for nominating us for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Sofii is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, she posts such amazing content and she recently did a redesign of her blog which looks INCREDIBLE, so you should definitely swing by if you haven’t already!!

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are creative, positive and inspiring while spreading sunshine to the blogging community.

The Rules

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award in your post/or on your blog.

1. What was the last book you strongly disliked?

Nish: After by Anna Todd. I have a salty review in the works, so I will keep my lips sealed here (trust me, they don’t want to be.)

Ngoc: Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. I tried so hard to like this book. Alas, it wasn’t for me. Salty review also pending.

2. How does your star rating system work for your reviews (if you use one)? 

Ngoc: My rating system is as follows –

5 stars: I LOVE THIS BOOK MORE THAN MATCHA MILK TEA LATTES WITH RED BEAN AND PEARL LITE SUGAR HALF ICE AND WILL CONTINUE TO TALK ABOUT IT UNTIL THE END OF TIME

4 stars: As above, but potentially had a few minor issues that brought it just short of a perfect 5 star rating.

3 stars: Didn’t hate it, but will not be starting a shrine anytime soon

2 stars: Salty review pending

1 star: You better get some antihypertensives because by the time I’m done reviewing this book, your kidneys won’t know what hit them

Nish: I’m still in the process of developing mine. After finishing a book I have a rough idea of how much I liked it, but I’m figuring out my system beyond just a gut feeling.

Nish: I definitely am reserving one star alone just for the ending – because I am SUPER picky with book endings.

3. What are your favourite pizza toppings?

Nish: Pepperoni is my all time fav. I would eat a whole pepperoni pizza by myself and have zero regrets about it.

Ngoc: My motto is, any pizza is a good pizza. And yes, I am one of those monsters who likes pineapple on pizzas

4. Would you rather read a great plot with mediocre characters, or a boring plot with amazing characters?

Nish: I mean I’d prefer both to be great, but I would choose boring plot with amazing characters. Some contemporary YA novels do not have the most amazing plots, and the storylines can be predictable, but the characters make the read so worth it.

Ngoc: I’m all about the characters – if I don’t care about them, good luck trying to sell the plot to me, even if it’s about wizards eating pizza while dancing to Taylor Swift.

5. How many books are you currently reading, and which one is your favourite so far?

Ngoc: I mean technically two – Goblet of Fire (yes I have 400+ books on my TBR but I’m re-reading HP, DON’T PRETEND YOU’RE BETTER THAN ME, I KNOW YOU’VE ALL DONE IT) and Again, But Better. I’ve also been ‘reading’ Our Dark Duet since April but not really because I lost interest about a week after starting it and haven’t had the heart to officially DNF it yet.

No prizes for guessing which is my fave

Nish: Currently reading two books – Oblivion by Jennifer L Armentrout (the end of my reread of the Lux series) and Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I can’t pick a favourite because these two books fulfil such different needs for me (sorry not sorry).

6. What was the last book review you posted?

Nish: My first one! It’s about this wonderful book called A Quiet Kind of Thunder, if you wanna check it out 😛

Ngoc: My review of Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (spoiler alert: I loved it)

7. Do you prefer MG, YA, NA, or adult books?

Nish: I live and breathe YA. I personally find MG a bit too juvenile for my current liking, and will venture into the world of NA – I do have a few books I love that are NA – but I always return home, to YA.

Ngoc: It scares me to think that there’ll come a day when I won’t want to read YA anymore?

How Ngoc feels reading YA as a 27-year-old

Nish: Honestly Ngoc and I will probably be 90 years old and when we run away from our nursing homes you can bet your last dollar we will be in the YA section of the closest bookstore.

8. Is there a popular author you’re NOT interested in reading anything by? (Elaborate if you’re comfortable doing so!)

Ngoc: George R. R. Martin – look, the GOT train came and left and I didn’t even bother lining up for a ticket. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Nish: I’ve heard so, so many amazing things about Rick Riordan and the magical world he has created in his Percy Jackson series, but I just have no inclination to ever read his books. I’ll appreciate them from afar! To any Rick Riordan fans, I’m sorry (genuinely this time.)

9. What marginalized rep would you most strongly like to see more of in books?

Ngoc: Oh gosh, it’s so hard to pick just one! I do want to see more representation of minority groups within minority groups. It’s great that we’re seeing more diverse books, but I’d love, for example, to have more books with an Asian main character who also suffers from a mental illness because honestly we’re not just one thing!

Nish: Asian. Representation. In. Mainstream. Fiction. Growing up, there were almost NO books that I read that I felt represented me as a person. Even something as major as Harry Potter only had Asian characters as the minor characters, and they were such stereotypical representations (I am sorry JK Rowling but the names! Cho Chang!! Cmon.) I love that this is starting to change, with books like TATBILB becoming more popular, and hope this trend continues!

10. Do you listen to music while reading?

Nish: NO. I don’t know how people do it, I wish I could put music on and tune everyone out in public places while I read but I just get distracted by the music! If I’m on a busy train, I just put my headphones in so no one will bother me but don’t actually play anything 😛.

Ngoc: Omg for some reason I always assumed you were one of those wizards who could do both? I don’t mind background noise while I’m reading, but I just can’t have music playing at the same time!

11. Do you prefer book twitter or bookstagram?

Ngoc: Tbh, Twitter actually terrifies me. Things get blown up out of proportion in a nanosecond. I much prefer Bookstagram, which combines two of the things I love most in the world – books and photography 😍

Nish: Bookstagram. Why?

Nish: All the pretty books ahhhhh. Plus I already spend so much of my time scrolling through instagram, it just makes sense. Ngoc also takes very, very pretty book photos and I recommend you all look at them.

Time for our questions…

1. How do you like to organise your bookshelf?

2. What was the last book you added to your TBR?

3. What’s your favourite ice-cream flavour?

4. Do you prefer first or third person?

5. What was your last 5-star read?

6.  What is your least favourite book trope?

7. Do you prefer physical books, e-books or audiobooks?

8. What’s a genre you consider outside of your comfort zone?

9. Are you a dog or a cat person?

10. Where is your fave place to read?

11. How does your star rating system work (if you use one?) (So curious we had to borrow this question!)

We’d like to tag the following rays of sunshine!

No obligations to do the tag, obviously, especially if you’ve been tagged a million times before 🙂

Lauren | Nen & Jen | Lexie | Olivia | Beck | Emme | Lindsay | Noémie | Caitlin | Belle | Chloe

With Love,