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? (Weekly wrap-up) (2)

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme that was created by BookJourney. I'm not sure I'll keep using this meme to do weekly wrap-ups, just because I feel like this is really suppose to be just reading themed - what do you think? Stay with it? Just call it a weekly wrap-up? Any ideas?

Anyway - onto the actual post where I'm going to talk about the past week and what I read, what I watched, and blog posts I've liked.

Reading: (finished this week, actively currently-reading)
I read quite a bit this week as the Tackle Your TBR read-a-thon started (official post, my announcement post, my updates (1)), and next week I'll be taking part in the treesofreverie read-a-thon again, while this one is still going on. Simultaneous read-a-thon shenanigans. Anyway - what I've read since last Sunday.

The Merciless by Danielle Vega (3/5 stars)
I liked this more then I expected. For some reason, I just didn't expect to like it. Even though the loved the whole design, even though pink isn't my favorite color, that didn't stop me from giggling when I saw everything on that cover. It's not really scary, at least I didn't find it, but it is a bit gore-y at points. Still - fun. And I enjoyed the ending.

Tinder by Sally Gardner (3/5)
I was really loving this at first - because it was strange and weird and quirky, and the art was awesome. But it dragged and dragged - maybe I shouldn't of read it in such a short period of time, I should of just put it down when I wanted to and got back to it later. But: read-a-thon. Also, there was a point where I just wanted to finish it. Don't get me wrong - I liked it, I enjoyed it, but it definitely dragged. I'd still recommend checking out if it sounds interesting to you.

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (Alcatraz #1) by Brandon Sanderson (5/5)
A Sanderson book so my brain wasn't so deep in Sanderson (I had a dream about Mistborns and that world the other night, it was so stressful and so freaking awesome, I want to do it again). Anyway - this book, right. This book was hilarious and witty and smart. It's technically middle grade, I think, but I've always kind of enjoyed middle grade, especially smart middle grade. It's Sanderson, it takes place in our world (I'm not going to say slightly altered, trust me, our world, you'll get it), and really you shouldn't need anymore convince to read his books.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson #1) by Rick Riordan (5/5)
This was a reread for me, and the third or so time I've read this book. I have this hope to reread this whole series and the Heroes of Olympus series before the final one comes out October 7th. Considering how easy and quick these books are and how much I love them - it shouldn't be hard. And, yes, I do love these books. They're good middle grade: Greek gods, heroes, best friends, quests - who doesn't like all those things? Especially quests! And Greek gods! Highly recommended - I might do a full series review after I reread them.

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson #2) by Rick Riordan (5/5)
This book feels so weirdly short for all the things that go down - loving this reread.

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson #3) by Rick Riordan (5/5)
The reread continues! I'd forgotten about Zoe, I do like her. And, for some reason, I remember completely adoring Nico. I mean, I still do, but it's not like he's there a lot, or does much.

Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson #4) by Rick Riordan (5/5)
This one has some fantastic scenes, I mean they all have scenes I just really love, and I think Titan's Curse is my favorite for that - but still.

I'm also currently reading The Last Olympian and will definitely finish it Monday, unless something goes wrong. I'm not really actively reading anything else, though I'd eyeing too many books to read next.

What I've Been Watching:
I'm still trying to catch up on Scandal, but with read-a-thoning, it's a little slow going and I don't want it to end (I really like Mellie. Which might seem like a strange character, and she's not my favorite, but she's been through a lot of shit and I just kind of love her? I'm not even sorry). Anyway - besides Scandal...

I've mostly been watching Sponser Cut videos from RoosterTeeth (mostly gaming, but they're also just kind of a hilarious group of people, I'd highly suggest checking them out if you like games at all or humor - mostly stupid humor, but still).

Talkin' New Comic Releases with Amy Dallen - Amy is a Geek and Sundry vlogger (this is on that channel) and I thought this video was super interesting. She owns/runs (I think she owns it, now I'm not sure) a comic book store. And this video she talks about just how many new things come out every week and she highlights just a small amount of the weeks releases.

My First Book Haul - my friend Jenny (MagicCatJenny) has started into the world of BookTube. You should check her out and tell her how she did for her first book haul, send her some love and such. She's awesome and she also blogs here. She blogs about crafts, cosplay, traveling, and much more!

PeruseProject's Ask Regan video - she might be my favorite BookTuber I've been watching pretty much since I really started getting into the YouTube side of things. And it's mostly because I feel like we have similar tastes in book - read kind of everything, but with a specific love for fantasy. So you should check her out.

Spectacular September Book Haul [28 books], Lindsey Rey - I mentioned her last week also, because I found her last week. And I am still really enjoying her videos and this is an epic book haul! I don't care what anyone says, I love book hauls (obviously. And I think they're a way to learn people's tastes and such, and it's just fun. Though it does add books to my never ending TBR pile). So many books.

And, a video very close to my heart and that almost made me cry: Happy Esther Day! - it's a video of midnight at LeakyCon (we're not talking about the rebranding here yet, LeakyCon). (If you don't know what Esther Day is, it's explained in the video).

Blog Posts I've Liked:
I really like BlogLovin' - I mean I still haven't found something as good as what Google Reader use to be, but I really like BlogLovin'. And it makes liking posts so I can remember about them really easy (I also end up emailing myself a lot, when I'm on my phone). Anyway - onto some blog posts.

The Perpetual Page Turner, Jamie, put up two posts recently I really enjoyed. A kind of book talk style post inspired/about Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer, which was really interesting and I loved it. And she links to another post of hers, at the very beginning, about hanging up her book reviewer hat. And I thought it was interesting. I don't review a lot of the books I read, probably a small amount of them actually, but normally because I either have too little to say or because I just want to spew all my feelings about it. Maybe I'll start seeing if I can figure out a discussion post format. Mmh...

I also found a really helpful looking post with a ton of resources for Book Bloggers - old, new, wanting to start out.

Also a post about: How do you read ALL the blogs? Which - is interesting, because I've been really trying this year to keep up with the community and the blogs I follow. And holy hell is it hard, especially since they're not all in the same place. How do you do it?

On The Blog:
Monday Musings (5): Read-A-Thons
September Read-A-Thons Update Post (Tackle Your TBR) (1)
2014: Book Reviews (11)
Book Review: Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest

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.