July 2017 | Monthly Wrap Up

Whoops, this is a few days late. Mostly because I was pretty much reading up until the last possible moment of the month, wanting to try (for some reason?) to get as much reading into the month as possible. And I had a lot of fun doing that? I wasn't really trying to do that until BookTubeAThon started - I vlogged for it, I'm hoping to get it up sometime next week.

Anyway - it was a good reading month in quantity but also in quality. I read a lot of things, sure, but I also read a lot of good things. And even managed to check off a few Diversity Bingo challenges, which is great because I'm officially behind. Reading challenges is when being a mood reader bites me in the ass.

Onto the books and then some thoughts - probably a good few because, well like I said, a lot in general but also a lot of good.

Books:

• Half-Resurrection Blues (Bone Street Rumba #1) by Daniel Jose Older (4/5)
• A Christmas Carroll: A Strangely Beautiful Novella by Leanna Renee Hieber (5/5)
• The King by Tiffany Reisz (5/5)
• Coffee Boy by Austin Chant (5/5)
• Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman (5/5)
• The Blue Horses by Mary Oliver (4/5)
• Wizards in Space, Volume 1 edited by Olivia Dolphin (4/5)
• Queer, There, and Everywhere by Sarah Prager (5/5)
• Want (Want #1) by Cindy Pon (4/5)
• Adaptation (Adaptation #1) by Malinda Lo (5/5)
• Dog Songs: Poems by Mary Oliver (4/5)
• Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher (2/5)
• Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1) by Seanan McGuirre (5/5)
• Hold Your Own by Kate Tempest (4/5)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where the Find them: Original Screenplay by J.K Rowling (4/5)
• The Gauntlet by Karuna Riaza (4/5)
• Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children #2) by Seanan McGuire (4.5/5)
• Exit, Pursued by Bear by E.K Johnston (5/5)
• The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord (5/5)
• The Gunslinger (Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King (4/5)
• Illusive (Illusive #1) by Emily Lloyd-Jones (3.5/5)

Graphic novels/comic/manga:

• Kill or Be Killed, Volume 1 by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips
• Dimension W, Volume(s) 1, 2, 3, 4, + 5 by Yuji Iwahara (4.5 average)
• Giant Days, Volume 5 by John Allison, Max Sarin (4/5)

So I read a lot of good, good stuff this month. You can see a bunch of 5 stars up there, but also a bunch of 4 stars. And the 4 stars were really fucking good in their own right, excuse the language. I normally try not to swear on blog but I'm tired, and also amped up about books. As always. I read 21 books, 7 graphic novels. Which equals to a total of: 5,902 pages with the graphic novels - 4,846 without gn.

I'm going to try and be super brief about most of the ones I loved, only going into depth about a few, just because there's so many but I live giving my mini-thoughts about the books I read.

I'm kind of mad at myself that I waited so long to read Half-Ressurection Blues? I've had it since just after it came out and it was so good and so much fun, and listening to the author narrate it was an experience. I don't know if this is weird to say, but he's got a good voice. And the way it's written feels conversation - highly recommend the book, and the audiobook if you're into that. 

The King - do I need to spew lover about Tiffany Reisz again? A Christmas Carroll was really, really adorable and I'm glad we got that last piece of closure. I'm loving Mary Olivers poems, which should be unsurprising since I read two of her collections this month.

The Gauntlet. Everyone was right about it being like jumanji and I highly recommend it - interesting, surprised me, and a ton of fun. Coffee Boy and Knit One, Girl Two were both short, adorable romances and I'd recommend them both, definitely going to be checking out more from the authors. 

Finally, the last few I really loved. First: Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones. I feel like I'm one of the last people to start this novella series but if you haven't, it's incredible. It's so damn interesting and just so good? I love fantasy, portal fantasy included, and I loved the idea of this book and also loved the way she wrote it. Would highly recommend both, cannot wait until the third comes out.

The Names They Gave Us was heartfelt and sad. It deals with cancer, though, just to warn you - the MC's mom has agressive breast cancer. It also deals with a whole slew of other problems and it's really, really good. I want to read the spinoff about Anna, I don't think it'll happen but I'd 100% read it.

(trigger warnings for sexual assault/rape discussion, just the below paragraph)

Exit, Pursued by Bear. This book. I cried through probably at least 60% of it. It's so well done, though. I'm not a survivor of an assault so I can't speak for that, but... I can't read books about rape, so I wasn't going to pick this one up. It makes me sick to read, especially when the writer feels like we need a detailed description of it happening? None of that is in this book. This book handles our main character with respect, but also lets her be confused. She doesn't know to feel, she doesn't remember it. I think I want to write a full review, but one last thing: how respectful every adult she encountered was incredible, how supportive her best friend was and mostly everyone in her life who was a friend. I just... if you can stomach it, I'd recommend reading this book. It's on a horrible subject matter, but it's an incredible read. 

Finally, we're ending on a lighter note because I feel like we should. Adaptation by Malinda Lo. There's mixed opinions about this book but holy shit, I loved it. I loved it in a way that I haven't a book in a while. It's fun, a little ridiculous, and deals with conspiracy theories - remember when there were those bird problems? And then conspiracy theories? Well - what if they were real? Oh, and also aliens? Haven't read book two yet - it's a duology - but I am definitely planning on doing so, I'm just kind of nervous about how it's going to end. This was only my second book by Malinda Lo but I think she might be an auto buy author now for me? (I read Ash by her last year, which is incredible)

Whew, that was a lot of words, took me a while to figure out what I wanted to say. And I don't feel like I did most of these books justice, I also don't feel like I really correctly articulated what I wanted to say about Exit, Pursued by Bear. Either way - if you've read any of these books let me know, or if me talking about them made you want to pick them up! (if you end up reading any, please come back or let me know on twitter)

And with that -

Happy Reading!

April 11th | Weekly Wrap Up #32

I meant to put up a weekly wrap up last week and then it completely slipped my mind - weekends go by so fast no matter what - but I wanted to definitely make sure to put one up this week since yesterday (today as I'm typing this) is the beginning of a week long read-a-thon, which I'm hoping to get a lot of reading done it.

Books:
Disney After Dark (Kingdom Keepers #1) by Ridley Pearson (4/5)
I decided to reread this series so I can finally finish it - it's a 7 book series and I have the last one to read, but these books are fun. And I honestly remember nothing from this series. Also there's a spin-off series now. This is one of those, not guilty pleasures, but they're just not really... good. They're fun to read, Disney related with the characters, but mostly it's just fun. (finished at the very end of march so including it)

Disney at Dawn (Kingdom Keepers #2) by Ridley Pearson (3/5)
Mildly regretting the reread, but the rule normally is that series like this get better. This one is just a little too drawn out, maybe way too drawn out, it's ridiculous. Either way, I'm going to keep going - because I do enjoy this series, and I like the characters.

The Raven Boys (TRC #1) by Maggie Stiefvater (5/5)
I think it was my third time reading this book - honestly I thought I'd read it more, but probably just because of my love for this series. I'm not sure how much I've talked about it on here, but I am literally in love with this series, these characters. It's been a long time since I've felt like this about a series, it might be my second favorite series of all time (And it's not done yet! The Raven King comes out this month, though!! I am excited and terrified and very sad - but I'll be able to reread all four in a row all the time, which I'll be doing a lot, probably).

Disney in Shadow (Kingdom Keepers #3) by Ridley Pearson (3/5)
This one way way better then the second, but still dragged. It just had more happening during that dragging out of things, but it was also longer. Not regretting the reread as much after finishing this one, hopefully I get to the point where I don't regret it anymore.


Stuff:
Mostly not much has been going on since I got back from Ithaca - I went to Ithaca, by the way, I don't remember if I mentioned this here, probably in passing. Saw friends, shopped, drove for miles where there is nothing to see but trees/rocks. It was a lot of fun, though, and I'm glad I went.

Not so glad for how I was not feeling so good after, but thankfully I'm better now (hopefully). However, vitamin D thing still kind of has be knocked on my ass. I definitely don't think I've mentioned that here yet - the lowest vitamin d my doctor has ever seen, obviously I strive to hit new lows. Joking aside - never, I keep telling people that - it explains some of my not feeling so hot recently, a surprising amount of them, but most notably: exhaustion, brain being cloudy/memory not so good (though, my memory is normally not so good), but hopefully I'll be back to normal soon. I've taken 3 doses of the 50,000 whatever capsules, just 5 more to go.

Besides my random health problems - which are still not solved magically with learning that, not that I expected them to be, but it would of been nice - I haven't been up to much. I finally started working out again after being too tired/in too much pain to, and have more energy from that. Hopefully that continues.

I also went to a random wizard rock, kind of, show that was during a libraries' Harry Potter day. Sometimes I forget how many small children are into Harry Potter, might be because I haven't been to a show outside of a house party in over a year, not even a con. My first library show, though! (I'm pretty sure, unless I'm forgetting something, which is possible). It was so strange it was surreal.

So it's been a quiet two weeks, but I'm okay with that. I'm hoping for it to be a mostly quiet month, which it looks like it's going to be - some stuff to get done, start on, but no big plans or anything.

What have you been up to? Reading?

Let me know, happy reading!

2014: Book Reviews (14)

Part fourteen, last part ended up being the series one, mostly TMI and ID. And this part is going to start with a book that I read about six months before it released, I got an ARC copy at LeakyCon, and devoured it surprisingly quickly (it pulled me out of a mixture of 'TMI series is over slump' and post travel slump, I always have a hard time getting back into reading after traveling, no matter how long or where).

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (5/5)
I'm looking at my notes I wrote right after I finished it and the first thing I wrote was: "such beautifully strange perfection," which feels like a good description. I'm hoping to put a review up close to when this book comes out, hopefully I remember, I'd also like to reread it. It is beautiful and a lot of fun. I really like faeries, though, am possibly a bit of a sucker for them, so if you don't like them as much, you might not enjoy it as much. But I'd still suggest reading this - incredible, lovely.

Say Her Name by James Dawson (4/5)
I've always really liked Bloody Mary as an urban legend, so I was a bit suspicious of what this was going to entail. I ended up liking it - it was strange and weird, at points, and eye roll inducing at others. But overall I thought it had a good story, a good reason for Mary, and also a fantastic ending.

Anna and the French Kiss (Anna #1) by Stephanie Perkins (5/5)
I didn't expect to love this book - I've always been a little eh about the young adult contemporary I've read, but for some reason I just loved this. It was fun and strange and a little lovely. Not my favorite of the three, but I did love their story. And the setting, I've always wanted to go to Paris, and now I think I might bring this book along to go where they go in the book.

Mortal Danger (Immortal Game #1) by Ann Aquirre (5/5)
I had a few problems with this one (suspension of disbelief at the beginning) but when it started getting going more and I got more into the story - I just ended up really enjoying it. I don't know why, but I just got caught up in the story. I should probably of just given it 4/5 stars since I struggled with it at the beginning, but even when I was struggling, as soon as I got past page ten or so I flew through this book. (full review here)

Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna #2) by Stephanie Perkins (5/5)
I think this was my favorite - I just love Lola and her clothes and wigs and personality. And I don't know why, but I had a lot of fun reading this one. Another place I've always wanted to go, not quite as unattainable as Paris, but still hasn't happened for some reason.

Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome by John Scalzi (4/5)
I haven't read Lock In yet, but I read this before Lock In even came out. And, obviously, really enjoyed it. It's short, only 68 pages, and just in the style of World War Z, but it's the actual official report of what happened, mostly, and I think it definitely adds something to the story, when a lot of the time prequel novellas can be hit or miss on goodness/importance to the story. Scalzi is a writer that I've learned this year that I adore.

The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles #1) by Patrick Rothfuss (5/5)
This book took me forever to read, but only because of it's length and it's a bit dense. The writing is beautiful, though, and I was listening to the audiobook on and off (the narrator was fantastic, I've never gotten hooked into an audiobook like this one before). (full review here)

Isla and the Happily Ever after (Anna #3) by Stephanie Perkins (5/5)
I really enjoyed this book and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I know other people haven't or haven't as much as the other two, and it definitely is probably my least favorite of the three but I still really enjoyed it. These two were sweet together and a little ridiculous. And the end was perfect.

My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Hart (5/5)
I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I don't just start spouting love for Hannah, which is why I haven't, and probably won't, write a full review of this. This book is good, it's fantastic, and it made me laugh at multiple part. If you don't know who Hannah Hart is well.... YouTube Channel.

2014: Book Review (9)

And, once again, I haven't done one of these in way too long, especially for the rate at which I've been reading. There have been, what feels like, almost a constant stream of read-a-thons, not that I think I'll ever have no books on my TBR, and I don't think I'd want to - then what would I read next?

Anyway, if you're not sure what this is, this is where I write up mini-reviews of all the books I've read this year in parts, this being part nine.

Dead Man Rising (Dante Valentine #2) by Lilith Saintcrow (4/5 stars)
Liked this one as much as the first, Working for the Devil, it was interesting and fast paced. This whole series is very different, but it's good.

The Devil's Right Hand (Dante Valentine #3) by Lilith Saintcrow (3/5)
Didn't like this one as much as the first two - the beginning felt drawn out, but I did like how it ended, how everything was linked/tied together. I'd still recommend this series if it sounds like someone you'd like. These are books that I don't really have much to say about separately, really just this, but I'm planning on doing a series review when I'm done with all of them.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (5/5)
This book - I don't know what it was, I know a lot of people find it boring or repetitive, but I really enjoyed it. I loved her writing and the way the story moved, it wasn't a fast paced book by any means, but I really liked that about it.

The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking #2) by Patrick Ness (5/5)
Damn. This series is fantastic and heartbreaking and incredible. I haven't been able to bring myself to read the third and final book in it yet - I just know it's going to leave me broken, but this series is fantastic.

The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe (3/5)
Just a short story, and it wasn't the best but it was an interesting read all the same.

The Walking Dead: Book Two by Robert Kirkman (3/5)
I had to force myself through this book, I don't know what it was about it. Because its dramatic, full of gore - I should be loving this series, but I'm just not. People get killed and I barely blink, I guess I'm just not invested at all in the story - this might be the last of the comics I read.

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos (Theodosia Throckmorton #1) by R.L. LaFevers (3/5)
The beginning - I didn't really care, it was slow and wasn't capturing my attention, but by the end I was enjoying it a lot more. I guess I just expected more from this book, for whatever reason, and I just needed to lower my expectations. I think I'll continue on with the series, I just don't know when considering all the books I have to read.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (4/5)
This was - interesting and really good. It wasn't perfect, but I really liked it and would definitely recommend it.

All Our Yesterdays by Caitlin Terrill (3.5/5)
For most of this book, I just wasn't enjoying it. I wasn't connecting with the characters, I didn't really feel anything towards them besides annoyance and confusion. The only reason this rating is so high is because the ending - I loved the ending, it was what I wanted, no punches pulled. However, apparently there's going to be a sequel, so that lowers my love for the ending a bit because I thought it ended perfectly.

2014: Book Reviews (7)

And here we go, another part of this series I'm doing. I really like this idea, even though a lot of these books I did post full reviews of. I haven't done one of these in way too long, and with the recent read-a-thons that have happened, I'm starting to fall behind. Anyway - onto the books.

Paradox: The Nine Great Enigmas in Physics by Jim Al-Khalili (5/5)
I really enjoyed this book, it's a non-fiction science book full of interesting physics things. Which probably sounds very boring to you, but if it sounds interesting I'd check this one out. He can articulate what he's trying to say very well, which is important for non-fiction and especially with something like this that goes this deep into quantum physics and other stuff. I'd like to write a full review of this one, but I don't think it'll happen, just because that's kind of all I have to say about it.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (4/5)
Good, even very good, but it just felt like it was a little odd at points to me. I did really enjoy it, though, and it's what I'm blaming on my recent SciFi binge and then love, which I kind of hope never goes away (the love for it, that is).

Redshirts by John Scalzi (5/5)
So. Fucking. Good. And hilarious as hell. I put up a full review here, but basically I highly recommend this book (even for people who aren't Star Trek fans).

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S.A. Corey (5/5)
This book. I've got a full review here, but - man I cannot stop just spewing how much I love this book and flailing so I'll just stop now.

The Martian by Andy Weir (5/5)
This was also a really funny SciFi book, but it's about a guy that just gets trapped on Mars. And he's a really great narrator, and it's probably why I loved this book so much, because he's hilarious. Full review here.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (5/5)
Psychological horror book that is great. It took me a while to read it, but I didn't really mind that, it was just one of those books that I felt would be better slow. And it was creepy and how the text is arranged at certain parts added a lot to the atmosphere and it was really cool.

The Preacher: Book One by Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon (5/5)
Gore, violence, what would probably offend anyone whose at all religious. Everything I love! (Okay, that was a joke, kind of a joke because looking on my taste it's also a tad true). I've got a full review up here. (Basically, though - really good, can't wait to continue the series).

Caliban's War (The Expanse #2) by James S.A. Corey (5/5)
This series is fantastic. And instead of fangirling about it again, I'm just going to stop - check out this series (my full review of Leviathan Wakes it just a little up there). Space Opera, guys - it's so good.

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson (5/5)
A reread and this time I listened to the audiobook and loved it as much as I did the first time. Sanderson writes such rich worlds with such interesting magic systems and they're always so different, it's incredible.

June Wrap-Up

I did not read almost any books this month. I went to two conventions (BEA and VidCon). I just go back from VidCon, actually, and am already missing all of my friends. I did read 4 books, though, and let me tell me tell you about them.

Soulless: Vol. 1 by Gail Carriger (5/5)
This is the graphic novel adaptation of Soulless, as you can tell, and I believe they're doing all 5 books in this series. I'm a sucker for graphic novels and I love it when they do this, it's so interesting to see what they keep and what they take out.

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Well by Chris Colfer (4/5)
This was a cute and fun book and I really liked it for that. You can see my full review here.

A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1) by James Dashner (5/5)
I adored this book. I'll be posting a full review closer to the release day, but definitely be looking forward to this series.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (5/5)
This book has just been sitting on my shelf for way too long and I finally just caved and read it and it as amazing. I'm sure you've all read this book, though, and don't need me to tell you that.

And now I get to play catch up. I'm currently 4 books behind, so it's good I'm going to probably be sleeping and relaxing for a while.

May Wrap-Up

So it's that time again, where I list all of the books I've read this month and tell you what I thought of them and what I rated them out of 5 stars. I read quite a few books this month, I participated in the Bout-of-Books read-a-thon which may have something to do with it, and you can check out my post about that here.

The Selection (The Selection #1) by Kiera Cass (5/5)
I loved this book, it was such a different dystopian book then normal, and I just really enjoyed it. You can see my full review here.

The Looking Glass Wars (The Looking Glass Wars #1)by Frank Beddor (4/5)
This is a book based on The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll which I haven't actually finished. It was really good, though, it's such a different and amazing take on the story and I loved it. It was really good and I'd recommend it.

The Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles #2) by Rick Riordan (4/5)
This is the second book in the Kan Chronicles series which is an amazing series and this book is even better then the first, I loved it. I really adore the two main characters, Carter and Sadie, and I'd recommend this series.

Fool Moon (Dresden Files #2) by Jim Butcher (4/5)
I am loving this series so far. I just really enjoy Jim Butcher's writing style and how he describes everything, like the magic, for example, is just so realistic. Before I just start gushing about this series, I reviewed the first book, Storm Front, and that can be found here.

The Demon King (Seven Realms #1) by Cinda Williams Chima (5/5)
This book was amazing. I still can't form any eloquent thoughts about this book yet it's just all flailing and fangirling. I was craving some high fantasy and I'd recently heard how amazing this book is and it definitely was.

The Walking Dead: Book One by Robert Kirkman (4/5)
I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I'd started the TV show but didn't really feel anything about it, really. I mean, it was good, but some of it made no sense. (Like handcuffing a guy to a roof. What the hell was that about?) However, I really enjoyed this and the plots and zombies were interesting.

The Gunslinger (Gunslinger #1) by Stephen King (5/5)
I've, of course, heard a lot of good things about this series and being a Stephen King fan, it was crazy I hadn't read it yet. And I enjoyed it as much as I thought I would, it was just so different and amazing. I have even less eloquent things to say about this one, it was just amazing.

Fruits Basket, V.1 by Natsuki Takaya (5/5)
I've read this series before, but not all the way through in a while, so I started to again and I forgot how good it was. I mean, it's cheesy and silly at times, but I adore it.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (5/5)
This book was perfection, no really, I've never read anything like this and it was just so interesting. I've never read any of Terry Pratchett's work - yet, I plan too - so I wasn't sure what to expect really, but I loved it to pieces. The writing was fantastic and the characters were great.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide #1) by Douglas Adams (5/5)
I just, this was, I mean. Okay, let's try that again. This book makes absolutely no sense, really. I mean, it kind of does, but regardless I really enjoyed it.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide #2) by Douglas Adams (5/5)
And this one was equally as good, I've become very attached to these characters and I just love everything about this series, I'm really excited to continue it.