The Start of a Series

Hello, all! This is the first post on the Bookmarks YA blog, and I couldn't be more excited! This blog will be run by the Teen Advisory Council (TAC for short) of Bookmarks, an independent, non-profit bookstore in downtown Winston-Salem, NC. We will be posting everything from book reviews to event updates to occasional bookish challenges to miscellaneous bookish articles. Sometimes we'll do a series themed around a certain topic, but most of the time you can expect one off blog posts. For our first series of posts, we will be going down the line, member by member, until everyone on the TAC has been introduced.

This is me, holding my favorite book from last year

My name is Suzie, I am a junior in high school, and I am thrilled to kick off our new blog! You can find me on insta (@undeniablynerdy777) and twitter (@suzbeam), but be prepared for posts that are almost exclusively about books and my cats. I have been a reader for as long as I can remember, and there are very few things I love more than having a good book in my hand. I am a HUGE fantasy nerd, which is painfully clear when you look at my bookcase.

A copy of Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand that I painted

My favorite series/books of all time are probably The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss (it's not a YA series, but it IS absolutely amazing. It is fantasy to the max, and I can't recommend it enough), Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas (the entire series is amazing, but this book in particular will always hold a special place in my heart), and Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand (it was my top book for all of 2018, too. Sawkill is a book filled with magic and diversity and bamf female characters, and I cannot get enough of it! Also, Claire Legrand is an absolute gem of a person and I highly recommend all of her books). Right now, I am actually in the middle of reading Legrand's next book, Kingsbane (book 2 of the Empirium trilogy), and I am absolutely loving it! It is the perfect continuation of the series, and I am head-over-heels in love with all of the characters. If you love badass bisexual women doing what they need to do to protect the ones they love, beautiful scenery, and clever place names, you should definitely check out this series! On top of reading, I also paint books, write books, take (and occasionally post) photos of books, listen to songs that remind me of specific books, and I recently started baking delicious treats themed around books. Basically, my life kind of revolves around books. Books, my cats, and swimming.

The Teen Advisory Council's group photo with author Roshani Chokshi at the launch event for her latest book, The Gilded Wolves

With that in mind, it really is no surprise that I decided to join the TAC when we started back in March of last year. We have helped plan and execute so many amazing events over the past year, but I think that my favorite was the book launch for The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of the book, so I was already deeply in love with the world even before we found out that we would be doing the launch for it. I had tons of fun working on riddles for the giveaway challenge and painting a backdrop for a photo booth, and, of course, getting to meet Roshani again! I look forward to helping plan many more events like it, and can't wait to share them here!

Be sure to follow us here on the blog, on twitter (@bookmarksya), and insta (@bookmarkstac) to stay up to date on the latest happenings and going ons!