Feminist Reads Challenge April Reviews, Updates, & Giveaway

I've been a very bad host & didn't put up a challenge post for March (sorry!), so those of you who reviewed books in March, be sure to link them on this post along with your April reads!

I hope everyone is still going strong and reading books for the challenge despite how hectic spring can be, though, if you've fallen a bit behind, I'm definitely not one to judge! 

Below, you'll find April's giveaway, a finished copy of Kristin Cashore's Fire, and a Mr. Linky to link all your March & April book reviews and updates!

Happy Spring!

Fire
Dial Books

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. The young King Nash clings to his throne while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves and lawless men.
This is where Fire lives. With a wild, irresistible appearance and hair the color of flame, Fire is the last remaining human monster. Equally hated and adored, she had the unique ability to control minds, but she guards her power, unwilling to steal the secrets of innocent people. Especially when she has so many of her own.
Then Prince Brigan comes to bring her to King City, The royal family needs her help to uncover the plot against the king. Far away from home, Fire begins to realize there's more to her power than she ever dreamed. Her power could save the kingdom.
If only she weren't afraid of becoming the monster her father was.

Interested in reading this amazing fantasy novel featuring a strong, feminist main character? Follow the directions below! 

To be eligible, all you have to do is leave me a link on the Mr. Linky to one of these two things: 
Your review of a book you've read for the Feminist Reads Challenge. The review can be posted on your blog, Goodreads, or wherever. (If you've written more than one reviews, link each separately and you'll get an entry for each!)

If you aren't a blogger, or are super busy like me and haven't don't always have time to write reviews in a timely manner, you can leave a link to a tweet, Goodreads status, or something in which you talk about and promote whatever you've been reading/have read for the challenge or promote the challenge. If you're tweeting and can fit it in, don't forget to use #FeministReadsChallenge

For a bonus entry leave a comment on this post talking more about what you've read, plan to read, have read and are considering rereading, like about the challenge, dislike about the challenge, suggestions etc, etc. Comments brighten my day! (I'll add in these entries later before I pick a winner!)

If you want to win this book, but haven't signed up for the challenge, NEVER FEAR! There's still plenty of time to sign up... the year is young! Go here for more information regarding the challenge!

Feminist Reads Challenge February Updates, Reviews, and Giveaway

I hope everyone had a wonderful February! 

In the January Update post, I mentioned having a hashtag (#feministreadschallenge) for when participants want to tweet reviews, comments, etc about the challenge, but I haven't noticed very many people (myself included!) using it. Instead, I've set up a Twitter account for the challenge: @femchallenge. Hopefully this will be a bit more user friendly, as pertinent tweets will simply show up in your feed for you to follow links or retweet! :)

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The winner of the January giveaway (for a copy of Megan Shepard's The Madman's Daughter) was Riedel Fascination! Please send your mailing information to thehidingspotATliveDOTcom to claim your prize!

This month's giveaway is for a finished copy of Elsie Chapman's Dualed! This debut was one of my February Feminist Reads. I loved the driven main character, West, who'll go to any length to survive the crazy world in which she's grown up.

About the Book:

Click image to add on Goodreads.

You or your Alt? Only one will survive. 

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life. 

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her. 

Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.

To be eligible to win, all you have to do is leave me a link on the Mr. Linky to one of these two things: 

1. Your review of a book you've read for the Feminist Reads Challenge. The review can be posted on your blog, Goodreads, or wherever. (If you've written more than one reviews, link each separately and you'll get an entry for each!)

1. If you aren't a blogger, or are super busy like me and haven't don't always have time to write reviews in a timely manner, you can leave a link to a tweet, Goodreads status, or something in which you talk about and promote whatever you've been reading/have read for the challenge or promote the challenge. If you're tweeting, don't forget to use @FemChallenge!

For a bonus entry leave a comment on this post talking more about what you've read, plan to read, have read and are considering rereading, like about the challenge, dislike about the challenge, suggestions etc, etc. Comments brighten my day! (I'll add in these entries later before I pick a winner!)

If you want to win this book, but haven't signed up for the challenge, NEVER FEAR! There's still plenty of time to sign up... the year is young! Go here for more information regarding the challenge!

Link away, my fellow feminists!

Feminist Reads Challenge January Updates, Reviews, and Giveaway!

I am so SO excited about the number of you who have signed up to participate in my 2013 Feminist Reads Challenge! Eeep! I get excited just thinking about all of the awesome, strong girls and women you're all reading about out there!

Maria, one of the awesome challenge participants, suggested there be a challenge hashtag for Twitter and I couldn't agree more! Unfortunately, I have no idea what to use as a hashtag because everything felt too vague or too long... I settled on #feministreadschallenge even though it's SUPER long... if anyone has better suggestions, please let me know!

I haven't been reading near as much I'd like to, but I have completed one book so far that can count for the challenge: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd! In fact, I loved it so much that I've decided to give it away to one of you participating in the challenge!!

I plan on posting a review very soon, but here's a brief synopsis and some other details:

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd
HarperTeen/1.29.2013

In the darkest places, even love is deadly. 

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.   

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.  

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

Interested in reading this upcoming gothic thriller featuring a remarkably strong heroine (and one of the most horrible and unsupportive, not to mention definitely anti-feminist, literary fathers I've ever encountered!)? 

To be eligible, all you have to do is leave me a link on the Mr. Linky to one of these two things: 

1. Your review of a book you've read for the Feminist Reads Challenge. The review can be posted on your blog, Goodreads, or wherever. (If you've written more than one reviews, link each separately and you'll get an entry for each!)

1. If you aren't a blogger, or are super busy like me and haven't don't always have time to write reviews in a timely manner, you can leave a link to a tweet, Goodreads status, or something in which you talk about and promote whatever you've been reading/have read for the challenge or promote the challenge. If you're tweeting and can fit it in, don't forget to use #FeministReadsChallenge

For a bonus entry leave a comment on this post talking more about what you've read, plan to read, have read and are considering rereading, like about the challenge, dislike about the challenge, suggestions etc, etc. Comments brighten my day! (I'll add in these entries later before I pick a winner!)

If you want to win this book, but haven't signed up for the challenge, NEVER FEAR! There's still plenty of time to sign up... the year is young! Go here for more information regarding the challenge!

Link away, my fellow feminists!

2013 Feminist Reads Challenge Sign Up

If you haven't read the 2013 Feminist Reads Challenge description, here, please do so first. This post includes helpful links and information about the challenge.

Been there, done that? Please sign the Mr. Linky below, linking to your blog post announcing your intent to participate in the challenge! 

Don't forget to include the challenge button in your post, which can be found below! 

If the Mr. Linky isn't working, please leave your name and the link to your post in the comments and I'll add it to the Mr. Linky later. Like so:

Sara @ The Hiding Spot

If you are participating, but not a blogger, please note this detail and leave whatever name you'd like to be listed under. Thank you!

Happy reading and thank you for participating! 

"By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream." -- Virginia Woolf

The 2013 Feminist Reads Challenge

Personally, I love reading about girls and women that are capable of kicking butt and taking names. I'm not just talking about the girls out there who are physically able to do this, but about the girls who have the tenacity and courage to rise and reach and grow, no matter the life they've been born into, forced into, or ended up in by some unfortunate turn of events.

Every year I read many fantastic books from a variety of genres that feature women and girls that embody this spirit and determination. In an attempt to support and spread the word about books like these, I decided to host a reading challenge here at The Hiding Spot that focuses entirely on books and characters like this! I present you with:

The 2013 Feminist Reads Challenge

Now I realize some of you may only have a vague understanding of what a feminist and feminism is. Others may have a negative connotation of the word feminist or think that only women can be feminists. Let me attempt to break it down for you.

A feminist is defined as:

• (n): a person who supports feminism
• (adj): of, relating to, or supporting feminism

Pretty vague and unhelpful, right? I agree. Let's look a little further.

Feminism is defined as:

• A movement for granting women political, social, and economic equality with men.

All true, but also fairly boring. I think Rebecca West summed it up pretty well we she said:

"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat."

Here's how I define feminism and feminists:

• Feminism is supporting and helping to create strong girls and women.Women who have the ability to take care of themselves, who believe in themselves, and who have the freedom to pursue their dreams and share their beliefs, values, and opinions.
• Feminists encourage and support strength, independence, individuality, and passion in women of all ages.
• Feminists fight for people. Yes, they obviously fight for women, but I think it can also be said that they fight for what is right. For equality for all. For every person to have a voice, an education, a fighting chance.

Therefore, any book that features, by your standards, a strong female character or supports feminist ideals is eligible for this challenge! Examples include: The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Dairy of Anne Frank, Matilda, The Handmaid's Tale. 

How to Participate:

Well, despite that super long explanation, I don't want to make this complicated. So the rules and whatnot are pretty simple.

1. Create a blog post (or, if you're not a blogger something to announce and keep track of your challenge progress).
2. On this post, give a quick explanation of the challenge, mention The Hiding Spot and include the challenge button, and link back to this post. If you're feeling awesome, encourage others to participate via twitter, facebook, word-of-mouth, etc. 
3. Pick a challenge level! I think it will be surprisingly easy to meet these level goals, as there are so many novels with great, feminist heroines.
1. Easy: 5 books
2. Medium: 5-10 books
3. Hard: 10+ books
4. Leave room to list the books you've read for the challenge. If you're the type of person that likes to plan and have an idea of what you'd like to read, you can list the titles and cross them off as you read. Below, you'll find a few helpful links with title suggestions.
5. Then, go to the 2013 Feminist Reads Challenge Sign Up page and fill out the Mr. Linky, linking back to your post (the specific post URL, so not just your blog URL).

Easy, right? 

Below a couple helpful links to lists of novels that you might want to consider for the challenge.The Goodreads lists are open, so feel free to add titles, but keep in mind the 2013 list is for books that are being released in 2013. I felt this might be helpful for those of you already doing 2013 release or debut challenges.

• 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader
• Feminist Reads (Goodreads List)
• 2013 YA/MG Feminist Reads (Goodreads List)

If participants think it'd be worthwhile, I'd also like to do some sort of post once a month in which participants would be able to link a review of a book read for the challenge. This will allow participants to see what others are reading, discover some new blogs, and, hopefully, stay motivated. I'll also do my best to promote these reviews via my own blog, Goodreads, and twitter.

I've also considered adding a bit of incentive to these posts by giving away a title that would be eligible for the challenge... I would provide these titles myself, but if there are authors, publishers, or bloggers out there who would like to donate a book, I'd be more than happy to include them!

You can find the April update post here. Be sure to link your reviews for a chance to win Kristin Cashore's Fire!

Have suggestions or comments? Please leave me a comment below!

I also have to give a big shout-out to one of my favorite bloggers and wonderful IRL friend, Katie, over at Sophistikatied Reviews for making me such a fantastic challenge button on such short notice. I'm blessed with the most talented friends! :)