The Bookstore Cat

Me with one of my knockout faves from the end of 2018!

Hello everyone! My name is Cat! My pronouns are She/Her! I work at Bookmarks as a bookseller, and am our resident YA person, but I'm also an adviser for TAC! I'm newer than most of the other members because my very first meeting with TAC was our August 2018 one. It also happened to be my first event too! The launch of Megan Shepherd's Grim Lovelies!

I joined Bookmarks for my love of books and community, so being a part of TAC and helping and watching it grow has been the most incredible feeling!

my last snow at Salem!

A little bit about myself I guess! I'm 21! I graduated from Salem College in May 2018 with a Bachelor's in History and the intention to only take a year break and then head off to grad school to become a museum curator! Then Bookmarks and TAC captured my heart and my goal now is to help them grow and grow! I still love history, in fact I have a tattoo to prove it and the stubbornness to argue about it for hours! I prefer Renaissance Italy but ancient and medieval history also interest me greatly. Stop by and I can give you some great history book recs on top of everything else!

my favorite thing to do is sit down with a drink and a good book to build up some inspiration and relax!

A little bit more about me is that I adore video games and am into pretty much anything else nerdy, besides anime, and I'm too stubborn to get into that at this point. My favorite thing to do, besides play video games and read, is write! The hopes of being published and sharing the stories dear to my heart is what drives me. I'm very inspired by what I read, and what I mostly read is YA science fiction/fantasy, but plenty of adult sci-fi/fantasy interests me too! I love great world building (who doesn't?), but I can deal with baseline world building as long as the characters are incredible! And I do prefer if there's romance because I'm a softy.

Yeah that fave fictional character... he has his own duology now!

Some of my favorites to recommend are the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo (my favorite fictional character ever is introduced in book two), The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas (romance and angry women and incredible world building!), The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (a stand alone epic fantasy where women fly dragons, wield swords, and are gay with happy endings), The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden (history, magic, and a delicious kind of villain romance to top it off!), The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness (speaking of history, incredible world building, and a mind blowing romance!), The Queen's Thief series by Meghan Whalen Turner (some delicious political intrigue amongst ancient history inspire world building with a surprising romance), The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons (Phew! A new favorite series to take up my time until the next Game of Thrones book is out!), and Prince Charming by Rachel Hawkins (a contemporary "royal" romance with a lot of moxie!)

the beautiful crew at the Gilded Wolves launch! + Roshani Chokshi herself!

I'm positive a lot of the others have said it, but my favorite event personally so far has definitely been The Gilded Wolves launch party! It was the first big one I worked with TAC on and I was the host! It was my first time and we were packed so I was under a lot of pressure but Roshani and JJ were absolute dolls and charmed everyone around! But it was the TAC crew who made it all happen, so if you were there, send your thanks their way!

I have so much more to say but I've already taken up so much of your precious time with just this introduction post of mine so I'm going to wrap it up with a few words.

As adviser and sort of leader of TAC, it's definitely my responsibility to ensure these kids are treated right so interact responsibly fellow adults! We want you here because YA isn't just for teens, but we are not afraid to ensure our members' safety and happiness.

Also, this is an inclusive and welcoming environment, both this blog and TAC itself. I myself am a member of the LGBTQA+ community as a Pan individual, and I'm a woman who cares deeply for the world around her, so hatred and spite are not welcome here. But a good heart and willingness to learn and grow with a love of reading always is!

With that,

Welcome everyone! I'm absolutely delighted you're all here and this is going to be a wonderful place to be!