Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme by The Broke and the Bookish, this week is all about authors that were new to you in 2014. I'm not even sure, at the moment, who I'm going to be picking. There were a few new to me authors I've fallen in love with this year.

These aren't really in any particular order, just as they popped into my head or as I browsed through my goodreads challenge pages to jog my memory.

Maggie Stievfater - I read The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves so far and completely fell in love. The first books in a while that I've just fallen head over heels for, I can't explain what I mean by that, but they were different. And I've already reached the point where she can do no wrong in this series (which is my favorite point to be in a series. Who wouldn't want to enjoy a series instead of be disappointed?) I haven't read Blue Lily, Lily Blue, or any of her other works, but I'm definitely planning on it very soon.

(Note: I hate this cover, the paperback US one. It's just... they look like a boy band, alright? Don't even try to deny it - They've even got The Raven Boys over them and the head tilt, looking off things going on. Boy band. Which is hilarious if you really start to think about it. I can't hate it because of how amusing I find it, which is a strange feeling).

Stephanie Perkins - I'd met Stephanie before and actually first heard of her books through either John Green or at LeakyCon (and then realized her husband was in Gred and Forge, it's a weird word friends, also there's a wizard rock band rec for you). I read all three of the Anna books, I'm not sure what else to call them, and I really enjoyed all of them. I'm hesitant to pick a favorite, but I'd probably say Lola if pressed.

Emery Lord - her debut, Open Road Summer, was one of the contemporaries I read this summer, when I suddenly got thrown into a contemporary kick. And it definitely pushed me to read more contemporary. It had a fantastic friendship between these two girls and also a good love story, and talking about it makes me want to reread it. Fantastic debut, and I'm super excited for her next book.

John Scalzi - I owned Scalzi books, meaning to read it with the Sword and Laser book club, but never ended up doing it. And then, randomly, I picked up Redshirts and had this kind of 'holy shit' moment. I'm not a Star Trek fan, but I don't think you have to be. I was, and still am, mildly (very, like very) obsessed with Stargate SG-1 (the show) and the jokes about some of the stuff was completely hilarious to read about. And Old Mans War was incredible, I wasn't sure what to think about it, but I highly, highly recommend it.

James S.A. Corey - Space. Opera. I'd never really thought about it, considering how much I loved Stargate, that I'd like space opera. The Expanse series is a set in a far future and has so many elements - there's the ship crew element, the noire detective element, and then the horror element. It's fantastic, I highly recommend it. So far I've only read books one and two, and four are out, and five is coming out next year. And there's going to be a show starting next year on SyFy.

Patrick Rothfuss - I've only read The Name of the Wind, but I'm including him because I loved that book. He has a gorgeous writing style and such a way to tell stories. Normally I just want to know what happens, but this book was different - the story, the way it was told, everything that was happening. Basically - highly recommended. (Full review)

Derek Landy - Skulduggery Pleasant. It's a middle grade series about a young girl, who is strong and kickass, and a skeleton detective. It's smart and the dialogue is hilarious, and I just really have loved the first two books in this series (haven't had time to read it book three yet, but I'm planning to soon).

Kelly Armstrong - I'd never read Kelly Armstrong before this year. I know. And I've only read one book so far by her, Sea of Shadows, but I really enjoyed that and I'm definitely going to have to try out her other series. And I can't wait for book two in Age of Legends series.

Gene Luen Yang - I've read American Born Chinese and the Boxers & Saints duology by him, just this year of course, and I really enjoyed all three of them. I don't know if I can articulate anything about these - but they're freaking fantastic.

Matt Fraction - A comic book author, I've read Hawkeye and Sex Criminals, and I'm loving everything I've read by him. I can't wait to read more by him. Hawkeye was fantastic and the art, too, was also incredible. (Same for Sex Criminals)


I'm cheating with a bonus author: Leigh Bardugo. I marathoned her Grisha trilogy and really loved it, and I'm sure I wouldn't of loved them so much if I hadn't. But I really did and I'm really excited for her new book in 2015 that's set in the same world.


Whew - that was last minute, normally I do all my TTT's ahead of time, knowing which ones I want to do, but this was one of those 'I saw all the lists and wanted to join in.' I read so many good books this year and I know I've never going to be really able to spotlight all of them. I'm already trying to work on my top books of 2014 list and am considering making a separate post for the comics/manga I read in the year.

What are you top new-to-you authors? And were these any of yours? Or are you looking forward to reading any of these?

It's Monday! What are you reading? (1)

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme that was created by BookJourney. I've always considering doing a weekly wrap up, and I've liked WWW Wednesday, and I love that - but I don't like how it happens in the middle of the week (because it's great sometimes, but most of the time I can't make it work, which is why you don't see more of those).

And this year I've definitely been reading enough to do a weekly wrap-up and for them to actually contain things. That being said - some weeks I don't read a lot. I can go a whole week without picking up a book and then read like 10 in a week. My brain is very strange - but, of course, I won't be putting up a weekly wrap-up on the weeks there is nothing to, well, wrap-up.

So I've investigated a bunch of blogs - some I follow, but I also investigated past that - to see what they did for this. Their set up, what they wrapped up  - that kind of thing. And I think I have a vague idea of how I want to do this, which will probably change slightly every week (depending on what I want to talk about / what there is to talk about).

First up: books I've finished this week!
The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson (5/5)
I don't know if I have any coherent thoughts about this lovely book. Besides that it was incredible and the last 100 pages broke me.

The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2) by Brandon Sanderson (5/5)
Yes - I kind of immediately picked this book up. It was - freaking incredible. I don't know if it was better then the first, there's just something about The Final Empire and the introduction into that world, but I still loved this book. It takes place a year after the end of the first one, which I thought was good, even though I would of liked to hear how some of these conversations we missed went.

The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanders (5/5)
I cannot even. This whole book was insane and stressful as hell at multiple points. And - holy hell was it freaking fantastic.

I read these books in less them a week (finishing this one Friday night, the 5th, while I'd finished the first one on the first, Monday). And then I kind of haven't read since then (though that's changing today Monday, the first day of a new read-a-thon!), but I had a bit of a book hangover/mourning period.

What I've Been Watching:
I don't know what this is going to be every week, but I wanted to do something like this - maybe my favorite YouTube videos and what I've been watching in relation to TV.

So I haven't sat down for a weekly show in a while, everything is currently off that I'm really into / I keep getting annoyed with the writing of shows I did like. However - I recently started season 3 of Scandal (I'd marathoned the first two season and loved them, even though it's totally not what I'd normally be watching), but it's so good, I'm not disappointed so far by a long shot. (All three seasons are on Netflix, if you want to give it a a shot! Political intrigue, fantastic actors, complicated stories at points).

And then two BookTube videos / BookTubers. I just found Lindsey Rey this past week, about, and (I think her most recent) video is the A to Z Survey she reads a lot and I kind of really like watching people who read about as much as I do.

And then InkBonesBooks has fantastic videos - most recently was her September TBR where she talks about #SeptemberofRadiance (reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson in September - and you all know how I feel about this author by now right? And I need to reread WoK and then read this).

Blog Posts I've Liked:
I haven't been keeping track of these, because I didn't think about it (I will do better next week!) so there's only really one I want to talk about. There were books involved... did a blog post called How Do You Write Your Reviews? and it talks about how she has trouble just sitting down and writing reviews. And I definitely have that same problem, even just throwing words down so I can get a general idea (a first draft is what I call the spewing of thoughts), but it's so difficult. How do you guys write reviews? Can you just sit down and crank them out? How do you do that, if you do? Share your secrets!

On the Blog:
August Wrap-Up
September TBR
Waiting on Wednesday (6)
2014: Book Reviews (10)
Read-a-thon and a Read-a-Long (R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril IX & The Raven Cycle ReadALong)
September Read-a-Thon(s) (Tackle your TBR & treesofreverie)

Waiting on Wednesday (6)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted over at Breaking the Spine. And it's where people share their most anticipated reads that are to be released.

This week I want to spotlight a few books that come out this very month that I'm highly anticipating, and have been for a while. I haven't been able to one of these in a while, so I feel a little behind, but I still want to spotlight these books even though they're so close now.



Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White (Release Date: September 9th)
I've liked what I've read from Kiersten White and this sounds really interesting and really good. I haven't heard much, just some pretty good reviews and thoughts from people I've friends with on Goodreads. And all I've read of the synopsis in the first part, which I'm going to share because it sounds fun. (From Goodreads):

Downton Abbey meets Cassandra Clare in this lush, romantic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.
“I did my best to keep you from crossing paths with this world. And I shall do my best to protect you now that you have."

Get Even (Don't Get Mad #1) by Gretchen McNeil (Release Date: September 16th)
I'd really like to read one of her other books, as I own two and haven't read one yet - all of them sound interesting - this one also sounds interesting and fun. All about revenge - these girls, I'm assuming who are in high school, because they're getting revenge on high school bullies. The beginning of the Goodreads synopsis says this:

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars in Gretchen McNeil’s witty and suspenseful novel about four disparate girls who join forces to take revenge on high school bullies and create dangerous enemies for themselves in the process.

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld  (Release Date: September 23rd)
What I've read of Scott's - I've really enjoyed. I've read two series, and haven't yet gotten to his Uglies series, but I plan to. This is a standalone, though, and I'm sure everyone has already heard about it. It's so interesting sounding. It sounds strange and weird and complex - and I'm excited, but hesitant, to read it. It seems a little daunting and confusing, but I've preordered it, so we'll see what happens. Goodreads synopsis (in full):

Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she's made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings…  

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about most.

WWW Wednesday (18)

It's once again been more then just a week since I did this, it's been about a month, I think. So we've got a tad bit of catching up to do, it's a good thing a large chunk of the books I've read is a manga series, that'll make this easier.

WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. She asks that you answer three questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?

Currently-Reading:

The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles #1) by Patrick Rothfuss

I'm about in the middle of this one, it's long and the second is even longer, and it's so good. The writing, first of all, I don't care what genre you normally read because this writing, oh my god. And the characters and the plot - I kind of love it all, a lot, I'm taking it a little slow now, have kind of taken a break from it, but just because I didn't want to force myself through it.

The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove

I just started this one, and I'm a little eh on it, but I'm barely into it - only like 50 pages. I realized I just really wasn't in the mood for Fantasy, or anything that'd take too much thought. I'm definitely going to keep going, I loved the idea/concept of this book, I just need to get further into the story. Also I'd finished Ready Player One - and I just needed something lighter (even though I love RP1 and it's amazing).

Read:

Fruits Basket 1-23 by Natsuki Takaya (5/5)

Yeah - I reread the entirety of Fruits Basket (I also re-watched the anime), and this was really good, as good as I remembered it being. And the anime was actually better then I remember, and both are really funny at points. I definitely reccomend this series, I also think it's a good starting series - if you're trying to get into manga and don't want to get yourself into anything huge. This series has a definite end, it's fantastic and funny, and has an anime. (The anime only covers the story arc to volume 6, but it has scenes/information from further volumes, if memory serves, but not too much farther then that).

Volume One

Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott (4/5)

This was very, very good. Life or death situations, animal companions, possible corrupting - fantastic.

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour (5/5)

Whoa, a contemporary? I know, I know - but I do read them when the urge arises, and this one was really, really good. I always forget that I do like contemporaries, I just rarely get the urge to read them. Anyway - I stayed up late to finish this, and I hadn't even meant to pick it up to begin with, and I flew through it - it was fantastic and touching and it made me cry. That's the highest praise, I don't cry at a lot of books.

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony (3/5)

I - liked it, but it didn't draw me in, I didn't feel connected at all with these characters. But it was a really cool way to tell a story.

The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer (5/5)

I need to read her other series, it's werewolves and I love werewolves. Anyway - this one: steampunk, alternate history, and a shit ton of fun. It's can get cheesy, but sometimes I really like that. Which is probably a weird thing to say, but I liked the characters, the humor. It was just a lot of fun to read.

Sea of Shadows by Kelly Armstrong (5/5)

I was intrigued by this book, but I didn't expect to like it this much. I've never read anything by Kelly Armstrong, but I'm definitely going to look into her other stuff. This was really good, I liked the writing and the characters and the story was good and actually surprised me.

Burn for Burn by Siobhan Vivian, Jenny Han (3/5)

Fun, interesting, but it didn't feel like it was more then that. And I don't, honestly, think that's a bad thing. It was exactly what I expected - teenage girls trying to get revenge. I might even continue on with the series when they're also out in paperback.

To Read:

I have a large amount of books I want to read right away, and even short term TBRs just don't seem to work with me. I'm a very mood based reader, and if I'm not feeling a book - I just can't read it. However, I have a few ideas, I kind of am in a contemporary mood (what? blaspheme. I don't know if this has ever happened to me before). Anyway - I pulled a couple contemporary books out, and I just got one in the mail and such, but I also want to keep going with my #RYBSAT stack (I've been kind of reading that and other books, like I'm double reading for some, strange reason. Oh, right, I have no life). 

So - possibilities for soon (since I'm sure my next WWW Wednesday won't go up until after VidCon):

• Rock On by Denisa Vega (short, rock music - sounds fun)
• The List by Siobhan Vivian (because just read Burn for Burn and have heard good things)
• Open Road Summer by Emery Lord (because someone commented I sound and I've seen really good reviews for it. Also the cover is even more gorgeous in person, I just got it in the mail).
• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (the third book just came out, and I've been here even more good things).
• And - also finish some of the other books I'm still currently-reading.

Do you post a WWW Wednesday? Or just - what have you read recently or what are you reading currently? What are you eyeing to read next?

Friday Finds (3)

I really like this idea as a meme, which is a meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. It's, basically, books you've discovered during the week, whether you've just added them to the never ending "to-read" list (or shelf on Goodreads, as I do) or if you've actually bought them. These are the books I've discovered since the last time I was able to get one of these up.

I feel like I'm always discovering new books through so many different ways, and this is a good idea to remind myself of books I was really excited about, but also to share the books I've discovered. If you've heard of any of these or read them, please let me know in the comments.

But first off - these are from the last few weeks, I keep forgetting about this and then it's Friday again (how is it almost the middle of June already?). Anyway - books, let's talk about some books.

Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

This sounds super interesting, its historical and she's related to Hitler in someway and apparently something changes everything she's learned. And that's all I know, and I'm not really sure what this is about because I haven't looked at the full description anywhere. Still sounds amazing.

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones
I know nothing about this book - except that the first three books on BookOutlet were super cheap and they had a good overall rating on Goodreads, sounding interesting, and have okay reviews by people I'm friends with. So for like two dollars a book, I'll give it a shot. I think reapers? I honestly can't remember, but I do really love the titles, not so much the covers.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
So I don't know much about this book besides it's adult fiction, historical, and I think has already started winning awards? I've been hearing nothing but fantastic things and it does sound really good, it just came out in May, I think. So I might wait to get it in paperback, just because those adult hardcovers are expensive and I have so many books I need to be reading right now anyway.

Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
Haven't heard much so far, it's not out until mid-July, but I've heard amazing things about his adult books. And it's fantasy, high/epic fantasy, and people seem to be liking it. Added, don't know when I'll buy it / get around to it, though. But people whose opinions I trust have liked it so far.

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
I didn't know he was coming out with a new book until BEA and now everyone has copies of it. I will just have to wait - but it is huge and it sounds amazing and everything I've read by Westerfeld I've loved so far.

My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten
This is kind of the odd book out of all of these, really, if you put all the covers side by side - you'd probably be like why is that one there? Well, because Laura is the LeakyCon RockStar liaison and I have been a RockStar all the years I've gone - and Laura is a fantastic person. I might have given it a try, anyway, just because I kind of really love the Renaissance Faire, and that is the setting for this. 

Adam by Ariel Schrag
I don't know much about this, I just saw a review from Judith on her blog PaperRiot (said review here). And it sounded really interesting - it's about a transgender character and apparently sex. And I've never read, or stumbled across, any books with a transgender main character, which is so awesome. But there might be one reason I don't get around to this book - and it isn't the talk about the sex scenes or anything - it's because his older sisters name is Casey, which is my name, and I just get so confused and tripped up reading books with characters with my name. It feels like such a silly reason to not read this book, but it's there. 

Musing Mondays (3): Active Reading

A meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week:

• Describe one of your reading habits.

• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).

• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!

• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.

• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!

• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

Today, I really wanted to talk about active reading. And I feel like there's a lot of ways to describe or to do active reading. Personally, it tends to vary for me. And I had actually stopped doing it, what I do, for a little while and then I recently got back into it. And it makes writing reviews so, so much easier. 

Active reading could be anything from writing notes in the margins or on a seperate paper, marking your favorite lines, or anything that is really more then just reading the book. My favorite is tabs, the see through kind so they don't cause problems later, but for the life of me I can't normally force myself to write in a book. I guess it's kind of silly, and I'd kind of like to do it for my favorite books, but I can't bring myself to do it.

Also - this varies between non-fiction and fiction for me. For fiction I mark normally the important things, or things I want to go back and look up to learn more about or write down so I can remember better. With fiction it's normally quotes I really liked for one reason or another, either in an intelectual sense or maybe just because I laughed at it or found it funny. I've also marked 'important' things to know in fiction, like some specific world building or something like that.

So now I've got questions for anyone reading this, feel free to answer as many or little as you like: do you active read? What do you do as active reading or consider to be active reading? Can you write in your books and do you? And, if you don't do this, are you interested in doing this is the future or have you in the past?

WWW Wednesday (17)

So. It's been a long time since I've done one of these, way too long. And I really enjoy doing these, but there have been way too many books I've read since I did this. Actually, the last time I did this meme was last year, in May, so it's almost been a full year.

I'm just going to mention some of the few books I've just finished and not go further then that.

And here we go!

WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. She asks that you answer three questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?

Currently-Reading:

Well - according to goodreads I'm currently reading 15 books at the moment, insert freak out / sigh here, so I'm just going to list the ones that I'm actively trying to get through, the rest are more or less on hold for the moment.

• Saint City Sinners (Dante Valentine #4) by Lilith Saintcrow - currently reading, like 120 pages in. The start of tis book hurt so much, I haven't picked it up again, apparently I got way more attached to the characters then I thought I did because ow.
• The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson -  first book in the Mistborn series. I'm about a third into it so far. And I'm going to continue taking it slow, though I 'd like to finish it next month.
• The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer - I started listening to this on the audiobook. I really like the idea of audiobooks, but since I don't commute to anything, or don't really have time where I couldn't physically read - they can be more of a problem then anything else, they're just so slow compared to my reading speed.
• Also I'm currently rereading two books that I loved the first time around. Ready Player One and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm halfway through  Ready Player One and I'd almost forgotten how rich and amazing this world was, and how much I loved this characters, and I feel like i"m seeing things I missed the first time (and seconds, I actually listened to this one on audio because Wil Wheaton, mostly while I was mining on Minecraft).

Recently Finished:

I've finished a lot of books since I did my WWW Wednesday last month (hopefully I can keep up with these a little better) so I'm just going to list the last handful of them or so. In order of the most recently finished.

What in God's Name by Simon Rich (5/5)

So hilarious and good, and I flew through this book in just about one sitting. It's full of shenanigans and just some great fun.

Elusive Memories (The Hunted #1) by Amanda Shofner (5/5)

You might of heard of Amanda if you recently participated in the Bout of Books read-a-thon as her and Kelly are who run it. This came out like right at the beginning of it, I can't remember the exact day, and I ended up just buying it. And was very pleasantly surprised, I ended up reading this in mostly on sitting - something about the world and characters just sucked me straight it and about two hours later - I was done. 

Once Dead, Twice Shy (Madison Avery #1) by Kim Harrison (4/5)

This reminded me, reading the synopsis, of a show that's been over for years now called Dead Like Me, so I had to give it a shot. And was surprised - it did remind me a bit of that show, but it was so different and had a broader world. I'm excited to continue on with this series soon, I've got the second and last book in this series standing by.

To Read Next:

Well I'd really love to, you know, knock those 'currently reading' books out, the ones currently listed above that is, but also all of those other - I really don't like being over 10 on goodreads, which will probably take me until next Wednesday to even consider picking up more books, so I'm not going to bother listing more.

And I think I'm just going to leave it there, I've been considering doing a "summer reading plans" kind of thing, and it might be kind of cool to do quarterly reading updates about my progress and what I want to read during the next chunk of the year. Anyway - I hope you read something good recently and if you did - what was it? And what are you currently reading?