January Book Haul 2016

Hello!

This month I’ve acquired four beautiful books and I wanted to share them with you! They are:

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Liar Temptress Soldier Spy by Karen Abbot

and

Baba Yaga’s Assistant by Marika McCoola and Illustrated by Emily Carroll

Look at how gorgeous they are! I can’t wait to read them, particularly the Robin Hobb book because I am so looking forward to diving into her work. Let me know what books have come into your life recently and if you have read any of these.

Bye!

16 in ’16

Hello!

I have given myself a break from doing reading challenges this year and would love to use that freedom to really make a dent in my TBR list of books that I don’t own and the unread books on my self. I’ve decided to put together a list of the 16 books I want to for sure read this year as a way to organize my brain a little bit. I’m not planning on specific dates to read these by or any specific order so I’ll just be picking them up as I feel like it. So here they are:

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: I picked this up to read before the movie came out and never got around to it. I still haven’t seen the movie so I can still read this first.

The Kingdom of the Gods by N.K Jemison: I’m reading the second book in Jemison’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms Trilogy right now. This is the final book and I would love to finish up the series this year.

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker: This is one I already read and loved a couple of years ago. I’ve been meaning to reread it since then and haven’t done so. But this year I will!

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb: I want to at least finish one of Hobb’s fantasy series this year. Hopefully I’ll love her work and get to more as well.

Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle: This book has been sitting on my self for ages. I’ve picked it up countless times to read but never followed through. Beagle is a big name in fantasy and I want to check out his work. This will be a good place to start.

The Fall by Bethany Griffin: This is a YA book based on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher that I received for All Hallows Read last year. Maybe I’ll save this for October!

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta: I’ve had this on my TBR for years! It’s supposed to be very good and I’m certainly in the mood for fantasy this year.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins: I hear there will be a movie made of this book and really want to read this first. It seems like it will be a quick read as well.

Liar, Temptress, Solider, Spy by Karen Abbott: Another long staying guest on my TBR. Definitely going to get to this one before the year is done!

The Dream Thieves and Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater: With the last book in the Raven Cycle coming out in March, I want to brush up on the other books in the series. I’ve recently finished The Raven Boys so I have two months to squeeze the rest in.

Inda by Sherwood Smith: I absolutely love Crown Duel by this author and need to read more of her work. This is the first in a fantasy series that hopefully I will want to continue.

The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George RR Martin: If I can’t have The Winds of Winter, at least I can have more stories set in Westeros.

Whew! That list looks a little daunting now that I’ve put it all in one place! But it will be fun seeing how many I end up getting to. What books to you definitely want to read this year?

Bye!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Recently Added to my TBR

The Top Ten Tuesday was started by The Broke and the Bookish in order to connect bloggers and readers together with a shared weekly post. Each week has a specific theme and this week’s is the ten books recently added to my TBR. Here are my picks:

1. Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb: I’ve been meaning to get to Hobb’s epic fantasy world for a while now but I had wanted to start with the Madship Trilogy for some reason instead of starting at the beginning. But now I’ve decided to work my way through her novels and definitely want to start with book one.
2. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson: I am really excited to get into non-fiction this year and have always been fascinated by this shipwreck. But strangely, I’ve never looked into it in any detail and mean to change that.
3. Girl King by Brittany Cavallaro: This is a book of poetry that is inspired by fairy-tales but with a feminist twist I believe. I saw it over on Jen Campbell’s YouTube channel and she raved about it. But I think it’s the title that really gets me.
4. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton: This is a YA book about a desert nation filled with dangerous beasts and a young gunslinger trying escape her oppressive circumstances. It isn’t out in the US until March but the synopsis sounds amazing!
5. Big Fish by by Daniel Wallace: I recently came across the Broadway musical and the movie based on this novel and loved both. I’m ready to cry while I read this tale about one man’s life and the way stories can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary as long as you’re willing to believe.
6. Baba Yaga’s Assistant by  Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll: I’ve been a fan of Carroll’s since Through the Woods and this graphic novel about Russian folklore’s resident witch looks just as spooky and mesmerizing. As you may know, I love books set in Russia, so this seems perfect for me.
7. Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq by Kirsten Holmstedt: Another non-fiction, this is pretty self-explanatory. I’m fascinated by the experiences of female soldiers and the challenges they face that their male comrades may not. I haven’t read anything like this before and this looks like a good place to start.
8. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh: Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, this YA novel has magic, intrigue, and of course, romance. I’ve seen this around for a while and finally have decided to give it a try.
9. The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer: I’ve heard amazing things about this book and how life changing it is. I’m only slightly familiar with Palmer’s work but Neil Gaiman must think she’s pretty cool!
10. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke: This is another book that I’ve come across for a while and just haven’t wanted to read until now, probably because it’s size is slightly daunting. But it’s said to be a must-read for fantasy fans and the 19th century setting for the duel between two magicians sounds pretty interesting.

So there’s my list. I didn’t include the books that I made an anticipated reads post about last week, so if you want to check that out click here. Let me know what books you’ve recently added to your TBR.

Bye!

“Why can’t people…”

“Why can’t people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?”

-David Baldacci, The Camel Club

Recent Read: Six of Crows

Published by: Henry Holt and Co., 2015

Genre: YA Fantasy Heist

Rating: 4/5

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is the story of an elaborate heist and the six criminal misfits hired to carry it out. It starts with Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands, and an offer of immense wealth too tempting to refuse. The task set before him is a prison break from the most secure prison in the world and if he can manage it, his life and the lives of his crew will never be the same. No one has ever escaped from the Ice Court, but Kaz means to change that. To help him, he recruits a spy silent enough to pass as a ghost, a gambling addicted sharpshooter, a Grisha trying to make things right, a convict with a fanatical past, and a explosions expert that is mostly there for leverage. With them, he plans to do the impossible.

Set in Bardugo’s Grisha universe, fans of her trilogy, starting with Shadow and Bone, will notice many references to her previous books but readers new to the universe won’t have a difficult time getting into the story. There may be some not-quite-spoilers, but only if you know what to look for. Bardugo is good at creating immersive worlds and she does that again here with the bustling trade hub of Ketterdam and the forbidding Ice Court. The worlds she creates are very detailed and feel like real places that exist somewhere in the universe. Her characters are well-done too, and each have their own journey besides that of the heist. The past’s ability to haunt someone and shape their future is a running theme throughout the story and I think she handles it well. The one thing that felt a little unrealistic was the fact that the characters are meant to be 15 to 18 years old. I know this is a YA book and that is the target age demographic, but I’m not that far from being a teenager and I certainly never knew any teenagers as mature and competent as these characters. I’m sure there are teens that are, but they are probably not the norm.  These characters read like adults who are lying about their ages. Other than that, I really enjoyed Six of Crows. The plot was fast-paced and exciting, the characters where ones I grew to care about, and the ending left me wishing the next book was published already!

Favorite Character: Inej. She is the most level-headed of the group and keeps all of their personalities in check. Her backstory is a tragic one and there is a selfless quality about her that I really admire. I like that she doesn’t let the criminals around her corrupt her way of seeing the world.

Favorite Quote: “Many boys will bring you flowers. But someday you’ll meet a boy who will learn your favorite flower, your favorite song, your favorite sweet. And even if he is too poor to give you any of them, it won’t matter because he will have taken the time to know you as no one else does. Only that boy earns you heart.”

Let me know if you’ve read Six of Crows and what you thought.

Bye!

Fantastical Fiction: His Dark Materials Series Review

Hello!

Welcome to the first post in my Fantastical Fiction series! Today I will be doing a series review of the His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman. There will be spoilers for all three books in the series so if you haven’t read them, go do that first, I’ll wait. Actually, that might take awhile so I’ll just continue on and you can come back when you are ready.

His Dark Materials (HDM) is made up of three books: The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass, as well as some short stories published later. I will just be talking about the three main books for the sake of this review. Published beginning in 1995, the series was marketed to children and follows a young girl named Lyra in an alternate Oxford who sets off on a daring mission to save her friend from sinister forces. Along the way, she learns of a mysterious material called Dust that the church is trying at all costs to eradicate. From there, the story grows much darker as Lyra learns of her father’s plan to destroy the Authority, or God, and to create a Republic of Heaven that is no longer ruled over by a tyrant.

I never picked up this series as a child, though I remember looking at it a few times in bookstores. My first encounter with Phillip Pullman’s writing came while I was researching a paper for a college class on C.S Lewis. My topic was the issue of children growing up in the Chronicles of Narnia and I used Pullman as a source to defend my argument that Lewis was totally against his young characters growing into adults. And after reading HDM, it is clear that they are an answer to Narnia, complete with talking animals, Christian imagery, and witches, but with a different conclusion. For in HDM, growing up is seen as a wonderful thing. Dust, or Original Sin, settles on humans once they become conscious thinkers, and is necessary for the world(s) to function. The church in Lyra’s world would rather have her killed than grow up and experience things like desire and sex, but Pullman makes it clear that the church is entirely misguided. The angels themselves envy humans for the ability to feel and touch one another, and the witches, who the church despise, are very powerful, earthy women who protect Lyra in her quest. In fact, Pullman uses his novels to argue for the importance of human connection with the earth rather than the idea that the soul is heavenly. In The Amber Spyglass Lyra travels to the world of the Dead and finds that the ghosts there are miserable. This “Heaven” is more of a Hell because they have been separated from the world they used to be so connected to. It is only after they are freed and return to the earth that they are given peace.

HDM is a retelling of Paradise Lost by John Milton and Pullman’s God is very similar in that both are viewed as oppressors to be overthrown rather than worshiped. Human beings are also allowed to be complex rather than labeled as “good” or “evil.” A lot of the themes and allusions are much more adult than one would expect from a children’s story and I’m sure much of them go unnoticed by kids. But these books are complicated and I’m sure I could reread them multiple times and still miss things. Needless to say, I very much enjoyed them. They are quite whimsical at times, but also very philosophical and filled with questions about morality, religion, and sexuality. Also, I really liked Lee Scoresby, the Texas Aeronaut. He’s very charming.

There is so much more I could say about HDM but this post is getting long already. Let me know your thoughts on this series in the comments and how much of it you understood if you read it as a child.

Bye!

Top Five Anticipated Books of 2016

Hello!

I’m here today with a quick list of the five books I am looking forward to being published the most in 2016. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater: This is the final book in the Raven Cycle which follows a group of students as they hunt for the grave of an ancient Welsh king rumored to be buried in rural Virginia. There are ghosts, psychics, magic, and really awesome characters. Stiefvater’s writing style is quite artistic and filled with beautiful turns of phrase. And I need to know how this ends! (March)
2. The Core of the Sun by Joanna Sinisalo: Drawing comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, this is set in a dystopian world where women are categorized based on their beauty and meekness. But due to a genetic abnormality, one woman has managed to trick the system. I loved The Handmaid’s Tale so I have high hopes for this one as well. (January)
3. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: I believe this was self-published in 2014 but it will be brought out again by HarperCollins this year. I’ve heard amazing things from people who have read this. It is a Science Fiction novel following a crew on a mission to build a wormhole connecting planets. But the characters are what truly shine from what I’ve heard and it deals with many issues that plague our society today. (July)
4. The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye: This is a YA book set in an alternate Russia in which to Enchanters must battle to the death. Of course there will be romance and intrigue! I love almost anything set in Russia (or a mystical Russia) and the plot sounds similar to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. (May)
5. The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky: This is the story of Selene, a vigilante who specializes in investigating crimes against women in New York City. That is until she comes across the body of a woman who has been ritually sacrificed, dredging up her past as Artemis, goddess of the Hunt. I have never heard of this author but the premise sounds amazing! (February)

Let me know what books you are looking forward to this year.
Bye!

Hello 2016!

Well, it is officially the new year and I thought I’d start it out by wrapping up my challenges from last year and letting you guys know some of my resolutions for 2016. First of all, I read a total of 60 books in 2015 and completed the Re-Read Challenge. I had a lot of fun participating and it helped me rediscover the joys of diving into a story that is familiar. I definitely plan on continuing this trend in 2016.

My favorite book I read last year was Uprooted by Naomi Novik. As I’ve said before, this book reminded me so much of the fun I had reading as a child, the way the world around you seems to fade away when you find yourself in the midst of a great story. Uprooted had a very Beauty and the Beast feel to it and I loved that the plot was a great combination of slower paced moments mixed with very high stakes events. It is definitely one I will be revisiting soon.

Looking ahead to this year, I don’t have any strict plans for challenges. I want to have a little more freedom in my reading rather than pushing myself too much. But I do have two goals I would like to accomplish. The first is I want to read four non-fiction books this year. And the second involves a new series for this blog. As you may know, I love the fantasy genre, but I haven’t delved too deeply into it. I plan on focusing a lot on fantasy this year with series reviews, comparison posts, and discussions of fantasy tropes. I don’t know what I’ll call this yet, so if you have any ideas, send them my way!

I wish you all a peaceful, bookish year! Let me know your resolutions!

Bye!