Category: Vlog

Tempest Challenge #17 – Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

After many months away, the Tempest Challenge videos are back. I’m doing a bunch of new things around these videos this month and next, and the plan is to keep going on a regular basis for at least another year. I’ll need some help from you (yes, you!)–details on that to come.

Meantime, my latest challenge is Alaya Dawn Johnson’s Love is the Drug, a YA Mystery told from the perspective of a voice we don’t often see in fiction: an upper class black teen girl.

Would love to hear your thoughts on Love is the Drug on the #KTBookChallenge tag on Twitter and Tumblr or the comments here or on YouTube. And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Love is the Drug from Powell’s or Amazon.

Jem Earrings

Do you have a pair of JemStar earrings? Because I do!

By:  TempestVlog

According to Amazon, on October 15th of last year Light-up Synergy earrings went on sale and no one told me. I feel as though Amazon should have contacted me personally to say: buy these things, they are for you. Amazon has failed.

No matter! I found out about them (from fellow JEMcaster Alex Knight) and immediately obtained a pair because they are Jem’s earrings and they light up. Plus, they cost $8.

The day they arrived in the mail I did an unboxing video because this is what we do now, we film ourselves unboxing things.

Now of course you want these earrings, right? Buy them here. And then subscribe to the JEMcast.

Tempest Challenge #16: Archangel by Marguerite Reed & Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Took a long hiatus, sorry! I wanted to get out the last of the Wisdom from WisCon suggestions. This week’s books feature characters that AREN’T isolated from their families and communities, plus gorgeous writing and awesome covers.

This week’s challengers: Margurite Reed and Gretchen T of A Room of One’s Own bookstore.

And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Archangel (The Chronicles of Ubastis) by Marguerite Reed from A Room of One’s Own, Powell’s, or Amazon; or Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett from A Room of One’s Own, Powell’s, or Amazon.

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This Week’s Episodes & Assorted Links – June 13

By:  TempestMulti-Media

A new episode of the Tempest Challenge is live. Second ep wherein I turn over challenging duties to the friends I saw at WisCon.

This week’s books feature women in lead roles, queer characters, lushly drawn worlds, women of color wrestling with the future and the past, plus deep questions about the role of religion in human history.

Our guest challengers: Meghan McCarron and Chesya Burke

Between the two of them they recommended three standalone novels and two series. That officially brings the Tempest Challenge reading list up to 37!

If you missed any previous episodes, do not fear. There’s a playlist. Or, you can go through them on the new Tempest Challenge Tumblr.

I quite enjoy having special guests! I’m looking forward to this being a regular thing when I go to cons.

Share a little bit of yourself screenshot

Episode 9 of the JEMcast is also live now. This week we discuss “The World Hunger Shindig,” one of my favorite episodes. Though I am somewhat irked at the white savior complex issues that pop up in the Holograms videos. The part where they ride off on a rainbow while shooting glittery, magical grain into African soil is a bit over the top.

Also, I continue to hate Rio.

Assorted Links

As always, please watch, listen, and share widely!

Tempest Challenge #15: A Stranger in Olondria, Solitaire, Water Logic, Kindred, and the Parable series

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Lots of books on the list of recommendations this week, all courtesy of our guest challengers from WisCon. That dealer’s room is full of must reads. Another reason to go next year :)

This week’s books feature women in lead roles, queer characters, lushly drawn worlds, women of color wrestling with the future and the past, plus deep questions about the role of religion in human history.

This week’s challengers: Meghan McCarron and Chesya Burke.

And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar from Powell’s or Amazon; or Solitaire: a novel by Kelley Eskridge from Powell’s and Amazon; or The Elemental Logic series by Laurie J. Marks from Powell’s or Amazon; or Kindred by Octavia Butler from Powell’s or Amazon; or Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler from Powell’s or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge #14: Hild: A Novel by Nicola Griffith & Koontown Killing Kaper by Bill Campbell

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

In this episode, WisCon Challenges You! There were so many amazing books for sale at the WisCon Feminist Science Fiction Convention that I couldn’t decide which ones to challenge you to read. So I got some of the amazing authors who attended the con to pick for me.

This week’s challengers: Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell.

And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Hild: A Novel by Nicola Griffith from Powell’s or Amazon; or Koontown Killing Kaper by Bill Campbell from Powell’s or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge #13: The Woodcutter/Arilland Series by Alethea Kontis

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Series Month continues on the Tempest Challenge. This week’s books are Enchanted, Hero, & Dearest by Alethea Kontis. And guess who helped me talk about these fabulous books? Alethea Kontis! Always awesome when I can get an author to talk to me about their books.

We didn’t talk about it in this episode since the video was recorded long ago, but the first book in Alethea’s parallel series is also out now! Trixter takes place during books two and three of the Woodcutter Sisters books. Read that, too!

And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Enchanted from Powell’s or Amazon; or Hero from Powell’s or Amazon; or Dearest from Powell’s or Amazon; or Trixter from Amazon.