book blogger – READING WITH KT

November 13, 2020January 31, 2024

How to Get Free Advance Reader Copies of Books from Publishers

One of the trickiest and most taboo topics in the book community is free books: who gets them and how.

This blog will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about requesting books from publishers.

How many followers do I need before I start requesting books from publishers?
Who do I contact to request ARCs of books?
What do I say to the publisher when I email them?
What kinds of expectations will the publisher have of me once they have sent me the ARC?

One thing I do want to acknowledge before I begin: it can be tricky if you’re based outside of the UK or US for you to get your hands on Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) or proofs of your most anticipated releases, and depending on where you are based, it might be virtually impossible. However, “nothing ventured, nothing gained”, so don’t let this deter you. Publishers are also becoming more open to sending review copies to readers across the world, though I think they still have a way to go. While living in Scotland and Iceland, I have been successful at securing ARCs by exercising the advice I give here.

So let’s get into it and let me tell you all you need to know about requesting copies of your most anticipated reads.

October 29, 2020January 31, 2024

My Non-Fiction November TBR

I’m excited to be joining Non-Fiction November again this year and I thought I’d put together a bit of a TBR of non-fiction books that are on my radar and that I’m hoping to pick up over the coming weeks.

What is Non-Fiction November?

Non-Fiction November is hosted by @steakuccino and @abookolive. It is a month-long celebration of reading non-fiction books and an opportunity for reluctant non-fiction readers to try out the genre and possibly find the niche within non-fiction that will keep them hooked throughout the year.

Each year, the hosts assign optional prompts to get you started. For 2020, those are Time, Movement, Buzz and Discovery. While I personally won’t be looking to these prompts to guide my non-fiction reading, I’m glad they are there as a guiding tool to those who want or need them.

So what do I intend to read during this month-long readathon?

I’m actually spoiled for choice if I’m honest. I accumulate non-fiction books all throughout the year and then often find that they get neglected in favour of fiction titles or whatever I’ve picked up at the library that week.

According to Goodreads, I own 20 general non-fiction books and 14 memoirs. I also know I have bought a few recently in anticipation of Non-Fiction November. Here are those titles, interspersed with other books I’ve had for a while or picked up recently via Scribd, all of which I’d like to read during the month.

October 27, 2020January 31, 2024

10 Book Recommendations for Non-Fiction November

November is a month for celebrating non-fiction books. Established by @steakuccino and @abookolive, Non-Fiction November is one of my favourite readathons of the year. There are so many readathons throughout the year which seem to prioritise fiction – either directly or indirectly. This means that if you’re a fan of themed readathons (like me), you might neglect the non-fiction books on your shelves. I certainly know I’m guilty of this!

November, then, is a great time to set aside some time and space in your life to really get into reading non-fiction. Last November, I had a fantastic reading month as I leaned into reading memoirs (one of my favourite genres).

I’ve considered making a blog where I chat about my favourite memoirs (let me know if you would be interested in that), but for now, I’ve curated this list of general non-fiction book recommendations.

October 20, 2020January 31, 2024

Books I Want to Read Before the End of 2020

2020 has been a year unlike any other. I started the year wondering what it would bring, with hopes (and plans) of travel to Japan and Greenland. I assumed at the start of the year that I might be back living in Scotland by the end of 2020. How wrong I was. About it all. No travel. Still living in Iceland. It has been a wild ride.

This weird and tumultuous year has meant I’ve spent more time in my apartment than at any other point in my life. As a homebody, I’ve loved this time just to potter around and make my space feel like a proper little home. I’ve leaned into hobbies: watercolour painting, bullet journalling, home workouts and of course… reading. I’ve joined many readathons, including Transathon, Women in Translation month and Blackoweenathon and I’ve enjoyed the sense of community and connectedness that I’ve gained from doing so.

I’ve read more books than at any other point in my life. It’s mid-October and I’ve already read more than 120 titles. I’ve discovered some new favourite books, I learned more about my reading habits (what they really are and what I want them to be), and I ultimately feel like my life is richer for having this little corner of the internet where I share my thoughts on books.

There are, of course, some books I’d still really like to read before the end of the year. In this strange time, it’s nice to have some sense of direction – a false sense of agency, let’s be honest – so I’m leaning into that here as I formulate this list of books that I’d really like to read before the end of the year. Here goes.

October 18, 2020January 31, 2024

Blackoweenathon: Books Read, Reading and TBR

It’s mid-October, which makes this the ideal time to check in on how I’ve been getting on with Blackoweenathon.

If you don’t already know, Blackoweenathon is a readathon hosted by Loc’D Booktician. The aim of the readathon is to centre Black authors during the spooky season and for readers to prioritise reading Black-authored genre fiction.

Loc’D Booktician created a whole host of resources including a bingo board, a curated book recommendations list, some spooky BookTube tags and a whole host of prompts to guide your reading.

The prompts are:

A fantasy novel by a Black author
A book by a Black trans, queer or non-binary author
A book that features Black mermaids/sirens
A mystery book by a Black author
A historical fiction book by a Black author
A thriller book by a Black author
A book that discusses intersectionality by a Black author
A book that includes a Black witch
Read a book by an underrated Black author

The group book is Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin.

You can combine as many of the prompts as you like, making this as manageable or ambitious as you want it to be.

Blackoweenathon has been such a well-organised readathon and you can tell that so much work and energy has gone into hosting it, so I’m super glad to join in!

I also think it’s exceptionally important to consciously think about race representation in genre fiction.

During the 2019 Reading Women Challenge, one of the prompts was “read a mystery/thriller by a WOC”. Despite reading a fair amount of mystery/thriller novels at the time, I was ignorant of how white the genre is.

Since then, I have become interested in who gets published and for writing what books. In other words, what narratives are considered “commercial” enough for the publishing world. The ethos and intentions of Blackoweenathon speak to this conversation and the readathon aims to highlight work which is already out there. I think it’s a wonderful thing so, again, I’m really glad to be taking part.

Here I’ll be doing a mid-month check in on what I’ve read so far, what I’m reading right now and what I’m hoping to read.

October 16, 2020January 31, 2024

6 Prime Reading Short Story Recommendations for Your Kindle

Alongside the announcement that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would soon be releasing a short story via Amazon, I learned that I had access to Prime Reading: a service that comes with an Amazon Prime membership and allows you to rent book titles to read on your kindle.

As my local library is temporarily closed, and I suddenly had the unshifting desire to read exclusively on my kindle, this couldn’t have come around at a better time.

I’m not here to explicitly promote Prime or Amazon (I have nothing to gain from doing so), nor enter the debate about its ethical practices but I will say that while I agree that capitalism is abhorrent, I do find the current discussion around boycotting Amazon very classist, ableist and US/UK centric.

Regardless of that wider debate, I wanted to use this space to shine a light on some of the exceptional short stories that I was able to access via this service, in the hopes that you might benefit from a short read. In my eyes, these Amazon exclusive short stories are perfect for reluctant readers, those with limited time on their hands, or those moments when you feel you want a bite-sized story (one you can gobble up on your lunch break… too far?). While these were all free for me to read, the retail cost is £0.99, so if one takes your fancy it might be worth taking a punt on one of these short stories.

Those listed here are my favourites from among the ones I’ve read so far. There should be something for everyone among these, including readers who love romance, non-fiction, sci-fi and thriller genres.

August 25, 2020January 31, 2024

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim [Review]

This is a riveting, highly enjoyable read centred on the experiences of a Korean American woman, Margot, and her mother, Mina, a first generation Korean immigrant.

Told through these two narrators, we flip between 2014 (Margot) and 1987-8 (Mina) as we piece together the story of Mina’s life, in the aftermath of her sudden death.