Moon from Moon Light and Dreams takes the Inside Out Challenge

Hello, today in the Book Worm Hole we have Moon Kestrel, a blogger and artist, taking the Inside Out challenge.

First, please introduce yourself, including any blog addresses or twitter handles you like.

Hi, I am Moon, I live in the UK and I am an artist and engineer, I also read too much and blog over at https://moonkestrelblog.wordpress.com/. You can also find me on instagram as @moon_kestrel and on Twitter as @themoonkestrel.

Can you tell me about a book you have read that made you feel joy?

Will I sound silly if I say a children’s book? I laughed a lot and enjoyed The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton. It is cute and it is fun and it just makes you want a pony like that, plus it mentions farts. So it made me feel happy inside.

What about a book that filled you with sadness?

A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle. This is probably the easiest one to answer, since this book always makes me cry (I love it because it is so emotional). Mostly it talks about death and about growing up, and there is some beauty in the words that by the end it leaves you with this sadness hanging unto you, but not in a bad way.

Have you read a book that made you feel angry?

I had to think on this one, did I want to mention a book I hated and made me angry or a book that just made me angry? I went for Dear Martin by Nic Stone. It is along the lines of THUG so it confronts how white people see black people and it makes you feel that kind of righteous anger, because you can see how unfair it all is and you just want to fix it and know you can’t and it makes you angry because it should NOT be this way at all.

Has a book ever disgusted you?

Unpopular opinion here, but Game of Thrones series. I remember finding them in my bookstore and thinking they sounded interesting so I bought the first two books and started reading. It was so gross and just made me feel like I wanted to drop the book and hide it or burn it or something. It felt like the wet dreams of a very perverted man. Needless to say I only read those two books (at the time there was no tv show or any of the hype for it).

Can you tell me about a book that made you afraid?

The Gift of Fear. It is not a fiction book, but it was an eye opener on learning the “good” qualities of fear (but it also makes you afraid because then you look back and think “oh my god, I was right, so scary”). It definitely challenges you to rethink fear and in a way to “not be afraid” of being afraid, as ironic as that sounds.

And finally, can you tell me a little bit about a book that you know inside out?

The Hero and The Crow by Robin McKinley. I love this book with all my heart. Aerin is a flawed heroine but that doesn’t take away from her and she becomes a Hero and inspiration generations later, it has all the great elements, magic, forbidden books, dragons, swords, mysterious sages, a tower, a “prince”, a kingdom. It is a beautiful book.

Also, I would happily nominate Letters to the Lost for sadness, and After The Fire for anger. But they have more mixed emotions with them as you read so I chose ones that had “clearer” emotions.

Some really interesting choices there, thank you Moon for taking part.