Book Signings, Feminism and Some New Recommended Reads

At the start of the year I made a list of bookish resolutions and regulars to the blog may remember them. One of the biggest was that I was going to make it along to more bookish events this year and I’ve started well as me and my daughters headed off to a talk and book signing at the weekend.

The event was hosted by three female authors, the subject ‘Girl Power in YA’, it was held at Octavo’s Book Café and Wine Bar, local to me and it was a wonderful couple of hours, introducing me to some new authors, getting chatting with other bookish people and getting some new books signed along the way.

The talk naturally was of heroines, strong female characters, and how books reflect our changing times. It made for a fascinating couple of hours, and although it was the first bookish events I’ve gone along to, I’m sure it won’t be the last. My daughters (21 and 13) loved it just as much as I did, and it was a great chance to chat with the authors of the latest hot YA reads.

All the books featured in the evening are hot and current, with strong female leads. The panellists were Alwyn Hamilton, Sarah Govett and Katherine Webber. I ended up buying a stack of books and got them all signed.

I’d already started Alwyn Hamilton’s Rebel trilogy a few weeks ago, and Rebel of the Sands is well worth a read. The series is a cross between the Wild West and ancient Persia with some magic thrown in. Book two, Traitor to the Throne is out next week, but I was lucky enough to grab myself a signed copy a bit early and have already started it.

When Sarah Govett started talking about her environmental series The Territory I was enthralled! The Territory 1 has been out a while, but I bought books one and two (The Territory: Escape) to add to my TBR and I can’t wait to read them. Sarah had some really interesting things to say about strong girls and women too, and she’ll definitely be an author I’ll be keenly following in the future.

Katherine Webber’s Wing Jones has only been out a couple of weeks, this one is a standalone novel about a 15-year-old girl who loves running, a novel about friendship, love and perseverance. When Katherine was talking about the novel I immediately thought of my youngest daughter, a huge running fan and serious nerdy girl. She’s absolutely thrilled with her signed copy and will be reading it next!

All in all it was a lovely evening. I’ve featured the books from the evening below but the Rebel series has its second book out next week, and book two of the Territory series is already available too!