Tales Post – #ReadProud Special! The Art Of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson to…..

The wonderful Jim ( @YAYeahYeah ) has invited everyone to join in with a YA/MG focused version of the fantastic #6degrees meme, started by Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith over on his blog www.yayeahyeah.com

So the idea of 6 Degrees is to post a chain of 6 books, starting with the book that Jim has nominated for that month and from there a list of 5 more books with each successive pair linked together by a different connection!

Sounds fun right?!

Jim kicked off this months today – you can find his post here

This month, as it’s Pride Month, Jim is encouraging people to #ReadProud so we can start with any LGBT YA or MG novel of our choice and make our own chain of six books, linking in any way we like.

I have decided to start with …..

The Art Of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

Jim also has had some fab guest posts lined up throughout the month so do check those out!

So here goes……

The Art Of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson tells the story of David Piper, who has always felt like the outsider and has always known that he is a transgender girl and was one of my favourite books of 2015.  Such an important, stunning beautifully written debut.  I loved every single page, every single feeling and every single message.  Most importantly this book, for me asked the question What Is Normal?  And my own answer to this is everyone is normal in their own unique ways and we should stand proud.  Another favourite book I have read last year was Black Iris by Leah Raeder.

Black Iris by Leah Raeder was an extremely intense read with an amazing main character who is just as much unlikeable and she is likeable.  This book messed with my mind.  With narration from the past and present, exploration of mental illness, friendships, love (both m/f and f/f) and with twists and turns throughout, this book’s ending destroyed me!  I did not know what to expect with this book and I have to say it was a pleasant surprise much like when I read Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith.

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith is not my usual type of book at all I will be honest.  A kind of funny, super intense, end of the world coming-of-age story we follow Austin’s story of when he and his best friend Robby accidently unleash an army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises.  I ended up loving this book, but I know lots of people who loved it and lots of people who did not get on with it.  Praying mantises aside I was a big fan of Austin and not only his story of survival but exploring his sexuality.  Another book I loved that explores and represents different sexualities is Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate.

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate is told from seven different perspectives with each character encompassing one of the deadly sins.  Seven Ways We Lie was a really interesting contemporary read which examines the ripple effect from a student-teacher relationship.  What I also loved about this book was the representation of an on the page pansexual character and a suggested asexual character which I would love to read more of in YA.  One book that I have heard features an asexual character is This Song Is (Not) For You by Laura Nowlin.

This Song Is (Not) For You by Laura Nowlin was given to me by the lovely Jim and after starting reading it and leaving it at a friends I have now finally retrieved it back so I’m going to start it all over again.  This book tells the story of inseparable Romona, Sam and Tom who are all in a band together and become involved in a kind of love triangle and from what I have heard one character is asexual.  I cannot wait to start reading this again very soon!  Another book I cannot wait to read and has been on my TBR for far to long now is Radio Silence by Alice Oseman.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman is one of those books that I’ve heard so many amazing things about including it’s fab characters that I simply cannot wait to read it asap!

So there you have it!

Join in and share your #ReadProud 6 Degrees here

A huge thank you to Jim for restarting this idea and encouraging everyone to join in!  It was so much fun!

What did you think of the choices above?  What books would you choose?  How would the be linked?  Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of the page or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy !

Happy linking!