Hey guys! This month has just flown by and I cannot believe that we're already on the verge of February. It feels like we were just going through the holiday season and approaching Christmas. If this month is any indication of how the rest of 2018 is going to go, this year is really going to fly. And if I can continue to have reading months like this one, I'm going to have a really good reading year.
I have managed to read a total of 9 books this month and, according to Goodreads, I am 6 books ahead of my goal for the year of 40. Since my update from last week, I have read and finished The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and Victoria by Daisy Goodwin that I mentioned in my last post. And almost immediately after finishing listening to Victoria, I started listening to Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming. I'll describe that one momentarily.
As for favorites from this month, I have three favorites and two honorable mentions. The first honorable mention is Victoria. I love history and this book beautifully captured Queen Victoria's early time as queen from what little I know of her life. I would love to see Daisy Goodwin put together another book picking up where this one left off.
The other honorable mention is The Cruel Prince. This was my very first Holly Black book and I enjoyed it quite a bit and cannot wait to see what happens to the characters in book two. Holly set it up nicely for the second book and cannot wait to see what happens next.
My third favorite book was Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore. This was the first physical book that I read this month and it was a fantastic start to my reading year. It was beautifully written and I am so glad that I started off with this book.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao was just a fantastic book and it had to be in the top three. It was going to be my most favorite read but that was before I got my hands on the book in the number one spot. But I adored this telling of the Evil Queen and how she got into the position she was in when the story we're familiar with begins. And the setting seemed like the perfect place. She wove in traditions nicely as well.
Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming was something I knew that I may like since I love him as an actor since this is a memoir from his life. What made it even better was that he narrated it. I had no clue about his life and we had gotten onto the subject of him at work one day not too long ago. We had been watching one of the Spy Kids movies and couldn't remember if it was the one with Alan Cumming in it. So when I saw it in the sale Audible just had, I knew I had to have it since that day made me want to learn more about him. This man went through so much as a kid and I wanted to hug him the whole time we were in the "then" portions of the book. There were times I wanted to hug him during the "now" portions as well. I had such a hard time putting my phone down to stop listening to his book. I believe he has a couple of other books that he's written and narrated and I may just end up picking those up soon. I want to know even more about this man. It is so worth the read (or listen since hearing him tell the story made it even more real). I do want to put a trigger warning for abuse, so if that's something that you can't handle, you might not necessarily pick this up.
What were your favorite books this month? I want to hear all about them below in the comments.
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Audio Book Haul!
I was perusing the Audible website just to look at some of the books that I have in my wish list to see what I would want to get when my credits become available on Saturday when I noticed that they were having a sale on their previous daily deals. Curious, I looked through the 10 pages of books that were on sale and next thing I knew, I had a cart of 13 books that I wanted. And cannot wait to get to. I think I got a fairly good variety of books, so let's get into them.
I can't remember if I have read this book before or not but I picked up Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. I remember hearing a lot about it in high school. In this book, we follow a man who becomes unstuck in time after an abduction by aliens from Tralmafadore. And the story goes from there. I'm interested to see how it goes from there.
Next, I bought Scythe by Neil Shusterman. There's a lot of buzz around this book on YouTube at least since the next book in the trilogy has just come out on the ninth of this month. I bought a physical copy of this not too long ago but I have so many physical books to get through that I may get to it faster in audio format. I'm interested in seeing how well I like this book. From what I understand of the plot, this book takes place at the point in the future where there is no illness or death, famine or war, etc. And the only way to die is by the hand of a scythe. We follow two people who are chosen to apprentice as scythes as they learn the trade. And that's all I really needed to know to pick this up.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling is a story I grew up watching in different interpretations of the books. I've always wanted to read them and now that I've found an audio version for cheap, I have no excuse to not pick it up. This is a story of a human boy, Mowgli, raised in the jungle by the animals, who teach him the Laws of the Jungle. So excited about actually reading this book.
In high school, we read the part of The Oedipus Cycle (Oedious Rex) by Sophocles. I remember going through it in no time my junior year. I don't remember my specific thoughts of the play since I graduated over ten years ago. But I do remember wanting to read the rest of the plays. From what I remember, at least Oedipus is a story of a man who was prophesied at birth to kill his father and marry his mother, so his parents sent him to another kingdom to prevent it. He grows up and lo and behold, the prophecy comes true. I don't remember what the other two plays are supposed to follow.
I remember reading The Woman in Black by Susan Hill at 23 or so. I can remember the night I read it, too. I read it in bed and it was just my luck that it had started raining while I was reading. Which made this creepy read even creepier since I do believe there was thunder and lightning as well. All I remember is the creepy factor and I don't want to know anything else.
Looking at the description for this book, it appears that My Antonia is the third book in a trilogy. Oops. Would have been nice to know when I was looking at the physical copy 5 or so years ago. But it happens. If anyone knows if you have to read the first two books, let me know. And because I don't want to ruin the story line since it is book 3, I'm going to try and avoid spoilers.
April Henry's The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die was a bit of an impulse buy. The title caught my attention and was reading the description when I saw the word "thriller" and that was all I needed to know.
Another impulse buy was Dean Koontz's Innocence. I liked some of his books when I was younger, particularly two of his Odd Thomas books that I had read. This one follows a man and a woman who are exiled from society for various reasons and would be destroyed if they were to be found. This in yet another I don't want to know too much going into before going into. And it looks like it's the first of a duology, so if I like this one, I'll definitely have to pick up book two.
I even picked up a memoir, which is something I typically don't pick up. But Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming was something I couldn't pass up. Especially on sale. I've been getting more into this particular actor after seeing him in The Tin Man when it first aired on Syfy. I've seen a few more of his movies and things under his belt and cannot wait to read about someone whose acting skills I admire.
I was a little more than a bit excited to see Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen as part of this sale and had to immediately add it to my card.This book has been on my to read shelf on GoodReads for almost a year now and this will help me move it to the read shelf. There are two groups of people: the Reds (the working class) and the Silvers (the ruling class). And we follow Mare, who is a poverty stricken Red. Mare has a power of her own that is deadly, despite her being a red. I didn't need to know much more than that to want to pick this up.
The next two books I want to cover fall more in line with classics. The first being Aesop's Fables. I grew up hearing variations of The Tortoise and The Hare and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. But I thought it was time to actually get to reading the original stories, among the rest of the fables. I'm super excited about it.
The other classic is Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I've always looked at this book and possibly getting it but could never bother to bring myself to actually buy it. So I couldn't pass this up when I saw it. The story follows fashionable Dorian Gray, who sells his soul for eternal youth. Now that I have a copy, I cannot wait to read it.
And last but not least, we have reached the final book: Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett. This is a survival story that follows men who were shipwrecked in New Zealand. And this just happens to be another one where I want to know very little going in. And it's nonfiction to boot. So hopefully I'll enjoy it quite a bit.
Have you ready any of these books? If so, what did you think? Are any of them on your TBRs? I want to hear everything.
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie
I can't remember if I have read this book before or not but I picked up Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. I remember hearing a lot about it in high school. In this book, we follow a man who becomes unstuck in time after an abduction by aliens from Tralmafadore. And the story goes from there. I'm interested to see how it goes from there.
Next, I bought Scythe by Neil Shusterman. There's a lot of buzz around this book on YouTube at least since the next book in the trilogy has just come out on the ninth of this month. I bought a physical copy of this not too long ago but I have so many physical books to get through that I may get to it faster in audio format. I'm interested in seeing how well I like this book. From what I understand of the plot, this book takes place at the point in the future where there is no illness or death, famine or war, etc. And the only way to die is by the hand of a scythe. We follow two people who are chosen to apprentice as scythes as they learn the trade. And that's all I really needed to know to pick this up.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling is a story I grew up watching in different interpretations of the books. I've always wanted to read them and now that I've found an audio version for cheap, I have no excuse to not pick it up. This is a story of a human boy, Mowgli, raised in the jungle by the animals, who teach him the Laws of the Jungle. So excited about actually reading this book.
In high school, we read the part of The Oedipus Cycle (Oedious Rex) by Sophocles. I remember going through it in no time my junior year. I don't remember my specific thoughts of the play since I graduated over ten years ago. But I do remember wanting to read the rest of the plays. From what I remember, at least Oedipus is a story of a man who was prophesied at birth to kill his father and marry his mother, so his parents sent him to another kingdom to prevent it. He grows up and lo and behold, the prophecy comes true. I don't remember what the other two plays are supposed to follow.
I remember reading The Woman in Black by Susan Hill at 23 or so. I can remember the night I read it, too. I read it in bed and it was just my luck that it had started raining while I was reading. Which made this creepy read even creepier since I do believe there was thunder and lightning as well. All I remember is the creepy factor and I don't want to know anything else.
Looking at the description for this book, it appears that My Antonia is the third book in a trilogy. Oops. Would have been nice to know when I was looking at the physical copy 5 or so years ago. But it happens. If anyone knows if you have to read the first two books, let me know. And because I don't want to ruin the story line since it is book 3, I'm going to try and avoid spoilers.
April Henry's The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die was a bit of an impulse buy. The title caught my attention and was reading the description when I saw the word "thriller" and that was all I needed to know.
Another impulse buy was Dean Koontz's Innocence. I liked some of his books when I was younger, particularly two of his Odd Thomas books that I had read. This one follows a man and a woman who are exiled from society for various reasons and would be destroyed if they were to be found. This in yet another I don't want to know too much going into before going into. And it looks like it's the first of a duology, so if I like this one, I'll definitely have to pick up book two.
I even picked up a memoir, which is something I typically don't pick up. But Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming was something I couldn't pass up. Especially on sale. I've been getting more into this particular actor after seeing him in The Tin Man when it first aired on Syfy. I've seen a few more of his movies and things under his belt and cannot wait to read about someone whose acting skills I admire.
I was a little more than a bit excited to see Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen as part of this sale and had to immediately add it to my card.This book has been on my to read shelf on GoodReads for almost a year now and this will help me move it to the read shelf. There are two groups of people: the Reds (the working class) and the Silvers (the ruling class). And we follow Mare, who is a poverty stricken Red. Mare has a power of her own that is deadly, despite her being a red. I didn't need to know much more than that to want to pick this up.
The next two books I want to cover fall more in line with classics. The first being Aesop's Fables. I grew up hearing variations of The Tortoise and The Hare and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. But I thought it was time to actually get to reading the original stories, among the rest of the fables. I'm super excited about it.
The other classic is Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I've always looked at this book and possibly getting it but could never bother to bring myself to actually buy it. So I couldn't pass this up when I saw it. The story follows fashionable Dorian Gray, who sells his soul for eternal youth. Now that I have a copy, I cannot wait to read it.
And last but not least, we have reached the final book: Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett. This is a survival story that follows men who were shipwrecked in New Zealand. And this just happens to be another one where I want to know very little going in. And it's nonfiction to boot. So hopefully I'll enjoy it quite a bit.
Have you ready any of these books? If so, what did you think? Are any of them on your TBRs? I want to hear everything.
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Weekly Check In! #3
I do believe I am having an amazing reading month so far this month. There's only a week or so left of January and I've completed 6 books so far this month! And I've finished half of them in the last week.
I want to start with the worst one. I started and finished listening to I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I really liked the premise of this: Robert Neville is the last human that he knows of and every other person on the planet is a vampire. And they all want his blood. I thought it had so much potential and it just... Let me down. I used to love vampire stories as a teenager, so I thought it would be cool to visit one published before I was even thought of. I had such a hard time connecting to Neville and his plight of being the last non vampire and empathizing with him. So it was just a bit of a flop of a read for me. This may have been better for me as a physical book as opposed to audio book but I was hoping to some extent that it being an audio book would add an additional creepy factor. But that was another thing that fell flat for me. At this point, it's a 2 out of 5 stars for me.
The other audio book from over the last week is Dragons of Winter Night from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman that I started and mentioned in my last check in. The audio versions of these books are definitely proving the way to go for me. I really liked the continuation of the story and don't want to give away anything that happens due to possible spoilers. But I liked seeing the growth of the companions from book one to book two. I'm going to have to put a bit of a pause on finishing the trilogy due to not having credits from Audible until this upcoming Saturday. At that point, I can pick it up and another one as well. This was a 4 out of 5 star listen for me.
I also finished reading Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao. This book is beautifully written and I never wanted to put down as I read. I finished reading this about an hour ago and I would absolutely love to get my hands on book two, Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix, which is due to come out sometime this year. With my luck, it's not going to come out until closer to the end of the year. I gave this book a 5 out of 5 stars. I will try to have a non spoiler review up within the next couple of days, I just want to get all of my thoughts together on this beautifully written origin story of the Evil Queen set in the East.
In terms of books I'll be picking up next, I think I'm going to start listening to Victoria by Daisy Goodwin as an audio book. I might have the physical book somewhere in my unread books but it's a bit of a pain going through them all. Plus, I think it'll be nice to be told this story of Queen Victoria. I love stories of royalty and I don't mind where they come from, whether it be somewhere in Europe, Japan, or anywhere in between. I just wish I knew more and would love any recommendations you would have for me.
For a physical book, I think I'm going to pick up The Cruel Prince by Holly Black in lieu of one of the two remaining books that I mentioned wanting to read this month in an earlier post. It came in my Owl Crate box this month and they had an exclusive, gorgeous cover for it that is super different from the original cover and even better is that the book itself is signed! I have heard so much buzz about this book and so many people seem to love it so far. From what I can tell so far, it follows this girl named Jude, who at 7 years old, alongside her two sisters, watches her parents be murdered. They are take to the High Court of Faerie. Fast forward 10 years later and Jude wants to be one of them. It seems like in order to join the court, she needs to defy the youngest prince and accept the consequences of her actions. I've had the book since this last weekend and I've been wanting to pick it up but wanted to finish Forest of a Thousand Lanterns first since I was loving that book as much as I was.
The main thing I'm trying to focus on with my physical books right now is catch up on on the books I've gotten in subscription boxes over the last few months and haven't read yet while keeping up with the ones that are coming in as well. It shouldn't take me long to get everything all caught up. I'm hopeful that I'll be all caught up with that by the end of March at the earliest and end of June at the latest. After that, I can focus on all of the other physical books I have that need to be read and then just keep up on the books that are coming in through Owl Crate and Fairyloot.
I would love to know what you're currently reading in the comments! Are you liking it so far? What has been your favorite book so far of the month/year?
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie
I want to start with the worst one. I started and finished listening to I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I really liked the premise of this: Robert Neville is the last human that he knows of and every other person on the planet is a vampire. And they all want his blood. I thought it had so much potential and it just... Let me down. I used to love vampire stories as a teenager, so I thought it would be cool to visit one published before I was even thought of. I had such a hard time connecting to Neville and his plight of being the last non vampire and empathizing with him. So it was just a bit of a flop of a read for me. This may have been better for me as a physical book as opposed to audio book but I was hoping to some extent that it being an audio book would add an additional creepy factor. But that was another thing that fell flat for me. At this point, it's a 2 out of 5 stars for me.
The other audio book from over the last week is Dragons of Winter Night from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman that I started and mentioned in my last check in. The audio versions of these books are definitely proving the way to go for me. I really liked the continuation of the story and don't want to give away anything that happens due to possible spoilers. But I liked seeing the growth of the companions from book one to book two. I'm going to have to put a bit of a pause on finishing the trilogy due to not having credits from Audible until this upcoming Saturday. At that point, I can pick it up and another one as well. This was a 4 out of 5 star listen for me.
I also finished reading Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao. This book is beautifully written and I never wanted to put down as I read. I finished reading this about an hour ago and I would absolutely love to get my hands on book two, Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix, which is due to come out sometime this year. With my luck, it's not going to come out until closer to the end of the year. I gave this book a 5 out of 5 stars. I will try to have a non spoiler review up within the next couple of days, I just want to get all of my thoughts together on this beautifully written origin story of the Evil Queen set in the East.
In terms of books I'll be picking up next, I think I'm going to start listening to Victoria by Daisy Goodwin as an audio book. I might have the physical book somewhere in my unread books but it's a bit of a pain going through them all. Plus, I think it'll be nice to be told this story of Queen Victoria. I love stories of royalty and I don't mind where they come from, whether it be somewhere in Europe, Japan, or anywhere in between. I just wish I knew more and would love any recommendations you would have for me.
For a physical book, I think I'm going to pick up The Cruel Prince by Holly Black in lieu of one of the two remaining books that I mentioned wanting to read this month in an earlier post. It came in my Owl Crate box this month and they had an exclusive, gorgeous cover for it that is super different from the original cover and even better is that the book itself is signed! I have heard so much buzz about this book and so many people seem to love it so far. From what I can tell so far, it follows this girl named Jude, who at 7 years old, alongside her two sisters, watches her parents be murdered. They are take to the High Court of Faerie. Fast forward 10 years later and Jude wants to be one of them. It seems like in order to join the court, she needs to defy the youngest prince and accept the consequences of her actions. I've had the book since this last weekend and I've been wanting to pick it up but wanted to finish Forest of a Thousand Lanterns first since I was loving that book as much as I was.
The main thing I'm trying to focus on with my physical books right now is catch up on on the books I've gotten in subscription boxes over the last few months and haven't read yet while keeping up with the ones that are coming in as well. It shouldn't take me long to get everything all caught up. I'm hopeful that I'll be all caught up with that by the end of March at the earliest and end of June at the latest. After that, I can focus on all of the other physical books I have that need to be read and then just keep up on the books that are coming in through Owl Crate and Fairyloot.
I would love to know what you're currently reading in the comments! Are you liking it so far? What has been your favorite book so far of the month/year?
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Weekly Reading Check In #2
This week's reading hasn't been too bad. I finished an audio book since the last check in. And I make good progress in the two books that I'm currently reading.
I finished listening to Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was such a nice revisit to this world with characters I was familiar with. I hadn't quite realized how much I missed the feeling of camaraderie that they all shared. I ended up rating it 4 out of 5 stars.
The audio book that I'm currently listening to is Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This is book two of the Dragonlance Chronicles. I'm currently 63% of the way through the book and hope to finish the book by the end of the week. I should be able to get in more listening in tonight as I get ready for bed and then tomorrow since I don't have to work tomorrow. I've been listening to it while getting ready for the day as well, which is been making it that much better. Listening to the audio book has been the way to go for me, I think, since I had had such a hard time completing the physical book for this. There's just something I love about having books that have adventure and action read to me that makes them just that much better.
As for physical books, I ended up picking up Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao. I'm 36% of the way done with this one and it is quickly becoming a favorite retelling. This one is an east Asian retelling with some magical elements to it. And it's a retelling of the evil queen. I've loved what I've read so far. I want to not stop reading the book but at the same time take it slow since I don't want it to end. I'll be a bit sad when I finish this book.
If you have any thoughts on any of these books, I would love to hear them!
Kindred bookmate,
Cassie
I finished listening to Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was such a nice revisit to this world with characters I was familiar with. I hadn't quite realized how much I missed the feeling of camaraderie that they all shared. I ended up rating it 4 out of 5 stars.
The audio book that I'm currently listening to is Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This is book two of the Dragonlance Chronicles. I'm currently 63% of the way through the book and hope to finish the book by the end of the week. I should be able to get in more listening in tonight as I get ready for bed and then tomorrow since I don't have to work tomorrow. I've been listening to it while getting ready for the day as well, which is been making it that much better. Listening to the audio book has been the way to go for me, I think, since I had had such a hard time completing the physical book for this. There's just something I love about having books that have adventure and action read to me that makes them just that much better.
As for physical books, I ended up picking up Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao. I'm 36% of the way done with this one and it is quickly becoming a favorite retelling. This one is an east Asian retelling with some magical elements to it. And it's a retelling of the evil queen. I've loved what I've read so far. I want to not stop reading the book but at the same time take it slow since I don't want it to end. I'll be a bit sad when I finish this book.
If you have any thoughts on any of these books, I would love to hear them!
Kindred bookmate,
Cassie
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Wild Beauty Book Review
This book was one I enjoyed more than I had anticipated. I had thought that I was going to like it but this book, at the completion of it, I almost wanted to start rereading it. Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore is a book that I think may end up on my favorite reads of the year.
I went into this book knowing that the story followed a family of ladies that had the ability to grow flowers. They lived on an estate where they grow lush gardens. They were also cursed: Love someone too deeply and they will disappear. When a boy appears who doesn't remember anything from before showing up on the property, it disrupts the flow of their lives a bit. And I was interested in seeing how.
The first line of the book is one of my favorite lines out of the whole book: "Later, they would blame what happened on the little wooden horses." And those little wooden horses were a recurring thing throughout the book as well. And I loved seeing how they tied in with Estrella's life as she grew up and how they tied into the history of Fel, the boy who appears.
I loved we see how Fel struggles with remembering who he was prior to meeting the Nomeolvides women. He gains bits and pieces as the story moves along and we learn as he does until it gets closer to the end. I don't want to give away anything due to possible spoilers about Fel's past.
The pacing felt perfect for this story, with it being a little slow to start with action beyond finding Fel and then progressively picking up with the answers being at the end. It tied up nicely, although I would love to see more of the Nomeolvides family to see how they fare after the events in this book.
The writing as well is beautiful as well. Which is a huge reason why I think I wanted to almost immediately want to pick it back up. McLemore's writing style in this book is perfect for the story and moved things just right.
I also loved that McLemore didn't have to come out and say that the cousins weren't straight. You saw that they weren't in the girlish ways that they showed their love for Bay Briar that any young girl may show her affections for anyone. Even the one time we're "told" that one of the Nomeolvides women was in love with another women, it's mom sharing a story with her daughter about the woman she was in love with. And I love that not being straight isn't a big deal in the home. It's just part of their lives.
This was a solid 4.5 out of 5 star read and would definitely suggest picking it up. If you've read Wild Beauty as well, I wanna hear your thoughts about it in the comments.
Kindred bookmate,
Cassie
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Weekly Reading Check In #1
For being just over a week into the year, my reading has been going really good so far! And I cannot wait to share my updates with you.
In terms of completed books, I've finished one audiobook and one physical book (this I just finished maybe 15 minutes before starting this). The audiobook was what I first started out with on the first of the year before even deciding on what physical book I wanted to pick up first. And that book is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. I haven't read this book in years, since I was maybe 20 or 21 years old. We had a copy that was really pretty and looked like a Bible. This was just as funny as I remember it being and I still laughed at the humor. It was a great start to the year. It follows Biff, whose real name is Levi. He is Joshua's (Jesus') best friend and it fictionally fills in the years of Christ's life that aren't reflected in the Bible with shenanigans and travels. This is easily a 4 star listen.
As for the physical book, I just finished Anna-Marie McLemore's Wild Beauty. This book was very well written and I couldn't put the book down when I got into the second half of the book. This follows predominantly Estrella Nomeolvides of the Nomeolvides family who live at La Pradera. They have the ability to grow flowers from their hands but have a curse placed on them: They cannot love someone too deeply or the person they love disappears in front of them. Soon after this book starts, a boy appears that they believe may have been someone that someone in the family previously had loved who had lived prior to the grandmothers, the oldest generation of Nomeolvides women. The story goes from there. The writing is beautiful and I gave it a 4.5/5 stars.
As for currently listening to on Audible, I'm currently making my way through Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This is book one of the Dragonlance: Chronicles trilogy. I have the physical books but couldn't get more than maybe 50 pages of book two. So I'm hoping that with listening to it through Audible, I'll be able to get through the series. It's not that I don't enjoy the series, I just get sidetracked every time I have picked up the second book. This follows a group of friends that meet up in the beginning after 5 years apart to tell the news that they've gathered over their time apart. One of the friends brings a pair of tribesman with him, the lady of the pair has a staff that initially seems unmemorable. They come to find that this is the Blue Crystal Staff that is being sought after by several people. This starts them off on this new adventure.
In terms of physical books, I think I'm now going to pick up Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao. I described the book in my last post, so if you want to read what it's about you can read my description there or read the description on GoodReads that I linked. I got this in a Fairyloot box, so if you get the box as well, my reading buddy number is #FairyLoot122133 and we can chat about the book! I'm very excited about this book.
What have you read so far this year? Are you enjoying it? I wanna know why either way. Let's discuss them in the comments.
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie
In terms of completed books, I've finished one audiobook and one physical book (this I just finished maybe 15 minutes before starting this). The audiobook was what I first started out with on the first of the year before even deciding on what physical book I wanted to pick up first. And that book is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. I haven't read this book in years, since I was maybe 20 or 21 years old. We had a copy that was really pretty and looked like a Bible. This was just as funny as I remember it being and I still laughed at the humor. It was a great start to the year. It follows Biff, whose real name is Levi. He is Joshua's (Jesus') best friend and it fictionally fills in the years of Christ's life that aren't reflected in the Bible with shenanigans and travels. This is easily a 4 star listen.
As for the physical book, I just finished Anna-Marie McLemore's Wild Beauty. This book was very well written and I couldn't put the book down when I got into the second half of the book. This follows predominantly Estrella Nomeolvides of the Nomeolvides family who live at La Pradera. They have the ability to grow flowers from their hands but have a curse placed on them: They cannot love someone too deeply or the person they love disappears in front of them. Soon after this book starts, a boy appears that they believe may have been someone that someone in the family previously had loved who had lived prior to the grandmothers, the oldest generation of Nomeolvides women. The story goes from there. The writing is beautiful and I gave it a 4.5/5 stars.
As for currently listening to on Audible, I'm currently making my way through Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This is book one of the Dragonlance: Chronicles trilogy. I have the physical books but couldn't get more than maybe 50 pages of book two. So I'm hoping that with listening to it through Audible, I'll be able to get through the series. It's not that I don't enjoy the series, I just get sidetracked every time I have picked up the second book. This follows a group of friends that meet up in the beginning after 5 years apart to tell the news that they've gathered over their time apart. One of the friends brings a pair of tribesman with him, the lady of the pair has a staff that initially seems unmemorable. They come to find that this is the Blue Crystal Staff that is being sought after by several people. This starts them off on this new adventure.
In terms of physical books, I think I'm now going to pick up Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao. I described the book in my last post, so if you want to read what it's about you can read my description there or read the description on GoodReads that I linked. I got this in a Fairyloot box, so if you get the box as well, my reading buddy number is #FairyLoot122133 and we can chat about the book! I'm very excited about this book.
What have you read so far this year? Are you enjoying it? I wanna know why either way. Let's discuss them in the comments.
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie
Monday, January 1, 2018
Anticipated 2018 Releases!
Looking through and finding books that are getting released within this year that I'm really excited about getting released are a bit sparse. But I did manage to find a few that I was excited about coming out and you will see a common theme in terms of one certain author as we go through these books because I just love his writing.
1. The Hazel Wood
by Melissa Albert comes out at the end of this month on the 30th. I haven't heard too many people talking about this book but from the little bit that I have heard, it sounds really good. We follow Alice and her mother. They've always moved from one place to another, with bad luck trailing them. Her grandmother, author of cult classic dark fairy tales, passes away on her estate, the Hazel Wood. At this point, Alice finds out how bad her bad luck could get: Her mother is stolen away. The person who took her claims to be from the Hazel Wood but her mother leaves Alice a note to stay away from there. There are supernatural elements to this story, which adds to the story. I cannot wait to get my hands on this book.
2. Shadowsong
by S Jae-Jones. This book is the sequel to one of my absolute favorite books from 2017. This one looks like a direct continuation for Wintersong and I absolutely cannot wait for this to come out on February 6. Since this is a sequel, I don't want to describe what is supposed to happen in this book. But Wintersong follows the story of Liesl and what happens when her sister Kathe is taken by the Goblin King, who they and their younger brother grew up listening to the stories about. Liesl agrees to trade places with Kathe to save her sister and she lives with the Goblin King. Wintersong has major Labyrinth vibes. If you like that movie, you'll love Wintersong.
3. Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller is another sequel. Daughter of the Siren Queen is part two of a duology, starting with Daughter of the Pirate King. The first book follows Alosa, who is, as you could probably guess, the daughter of the pirate king. She is on a mission to find and retrieve an ancient map. She allows herself to be captured by enemy pirates and the book follows what happens as she gets "captured" and after. Daughter of the Siren Queen is due to come out on February 27.
4. Obsidio
by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff is set to come out on March 13. This is the third book of the Illuminae Files. These books are uniquely formatted from anything I have seen any other book. The books are told through emails, instant messages, text messages, etc. Obsidio follows directly after Gemina, which is the second installment of The Illuminae Files. The books are set in space aboard ships and what are called jump stations.There's lost of action, some science-y things, and it has a lot of action. Loved every second of the two books already out and I may have preordered Obsidio.
5. A Court of Frost and Starlight
by Sarah J Mass. I just finished listening to A Court of Wings and Ruin within the last few days of 2017. From what it looks like, this is going to be book 3.5 out of six or so possible books in this series. The A Court of Thorns and Roses series isn't my favorite series that I've ever read but I'm still interested enough to keep reading it. Or listen, since I've been listening to this series on Audible. This book is set to come out on May 1.
6. LIFEL1K3
by Jay Kristoff is another one coming out in May, on the 29th. This is another scifi book that I'm very excited for. This one involves androids called Lifelike since they resemble humans closely. Eve, the main character, has cybernetic implants that were placed when she was younger and causes nightmares. This just seems like a very interesting book since Eve, her best friend Lemon Fresh, and robot sidekick Cricket journey across a dessert of glass, fight unbeatable bots, and infiltrate places. There's so much that Eve has to learn and I cannot wait to learn with her.
7. Book3 of the Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff, which is the last book of the Nevernight Chronicles from what I can tell, is about to bring this series to a close and I'm not ready for it. This very quickly became an absolute favorite series of all time when I first listened to Nevernight in August of 2017. I had to preorder Godsgrave on Audible as well immediately after finishing Nevernight. The books follow Mia Corvere, a 16 year old assassin to be. In the first book, she treks to a school for assassins. The school is held by the deadliest flock of assassins in all of Itreya -- the Red Church. There she learns techniques in fighting, thievery, poisons, and how to garner secrets from people. All in an effort to bring down the men who destroyed her family. Godsgrave picks up soon after Nevernight, where Mia is a Blade and I loved every second of it. I am going to hate seeing the ending of this series due to how much I love it but I need to know what happens to Mia.
8. TheLady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy
by Mackenzie Lee is the longest book I'm going to have to wait for since it doesn't come out until October 2. I enjoyed The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue enough to want to continue if there was any other books that were to come out. I had mostly hoped that any other books that were to come out to be from Felicity or Percy's point of view. And the bookish gods listened since this follows Felicity! Felicity seemed like such a kick butt lady, especially given the time frame that the books take place. We don't really get much in the way of a description on GoodReads about this book, except that it's narrated by Felicity and features travel, pirates, and a girl gang. I'm definitely interested to see what happens since travel was such a big part of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue.
Are you excited about any of these books? If not, what books are you excited about? Tell me about any and all books you're excited about coming out this year down in the comments. I want to hear all about them.
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie
2018 Bookish Goals! And Immediate TBR
Over the last few days, I've done some thinking. Especially when it comes to this blog, as it's been around for almost a year. The thinking has revolved around what I plan on doing with this blog, reading goals I want to set, etc.
In regards to the blog, the goal is post more consistently than I have been. For reasons that boil down to predominantly laziness, I plan on attempting to post at least once a week. Even if it just means check ins with where I am with my reading. Posts will range from those check ins to reviews of books, possibly unboxings since I do subscribe to both OwlCrate and FairyLoot, possible book hauls of either books I buy (granted I get my TBR pile down to a point where I feel alright buying a stack of books) or books from the library (which requires me getting my first library card here in New York). If there are any specific posts you would like to see, feel free to leave it in the comments or send us a message on Twitter at @kindredbookmate. We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
In terms of other general goals, I do have a GoodReads goal set for myself set at 40 books this year. Over the course of the 2017 year, I had it set to 30 books and ended up reading a total of 85! I was reading like a mad person from January until about mid-May or beginning of June or so. My reading has always slowed way, way down during the warmer months due to there being stuff outside to do, shows I want to catch up on, and other stuff where I just can't sit and focus. It's not that my reading stops in the summer, although I have had summers like that prior to actually liking audiobooks, but I started the swing of reading again in August of 2016. I just have always found it harder to read and have the focus to do so when it's warmer outside. But towards the end or so of September 2017, I did start getting into audiobooks, which helped me get to that 85 books read mark. Which was nice. And I hope that audiobooks will continue in my life, especially when it's warmer out and all I will need are my phone and headphones to listen to a good book. Like I said, I have my goal set at 40 for the year of 2018. Since I tend to read 2-3 books at the same time, I hopefully won't have any issues hitting this goal. I do believe I hit last year's goal of 30 books by the end of April 2016. I don't think I'll hit the 40 book mark that quickly this year since, for the next three months at least, I won't really be reading anything less than roughly 300 pages. Audiobooks I tend to fly through since I listen to them at 2X speed. So that may help me reach my goal faster.
I've been getting bookish subscription boxes for over a year now and have yet to read at least 12 of the books that I have received through them. So my immediate goal is to get those read. One of them is an ARC that was included in a Fairyloot box for a book that comes out in May. I thought originally that it came out in March but the ARC says otherwise. I'm planning on reading them in three four book batches, so to speak. Those books are:
The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis. I received this one towards the end of BooklyBox when they were still BooklyBox before they merged with another company (Quarterly Co, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, to form PageHabit). This books seems to be built around war and a military of some kind. We follow Auxiliary Lieutenant Josette Dupre and what happens as she is offered the position of captain of a ship.Women aren't allowed to fill positions outside of auxiliary positions. She wants the job, just not the politics that go with it. We follow what happens with her as she navigates the waters. This is the first book of a series and book two, By Fire Above, is due to come out in April or May of this year, according to the author. So I definitely want to get this read before the next book comes out. Just in case I like this one enough to pick it up.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao is the start to what I believe may be just a duology. This one is an Asian retelling of the Evil Queen and her beginnings, as far as I've heard it described so far. Her name is Xifeng and it goes through her story as a peasant, I believe, and she is destined to become Empress of Feng Lu. I'm very interested to see how this plays out. Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix is expected to come out in October of this year. So I definitely want to get this read before that comes out so I can pick it up if I enjoy it.
I'm starting to think they have a thing for sending out books that start off at least a duology because Even the Darkest Stars is the first book of a duology as well. This book follows Kamzin, whose dream it has been to go with the Emperor's royal explorers on an expedition. They are elite climbers tasked with mapping out the Empire and spying on their enemies. She gets her chance to prove herself when River Shara, the greatest of the team, shows up and demands to hire Kamzin as opposed to her older sister, Lusha. She goes with him and Lusha goes with a rival group. The story follows from there. All the Wandering Light, which is book two, appears to come out somewhere within 2018.
And last but not least for this round of four is Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore. Which may be the only standalone book in this grouping! When I first started hearing about this book, I was a bit intrigued by what I heard. The Nomeolvides women, who this story follows, have tended this lush, beautiful garden of an estate that enchant guests from the world. However, they have a secret: They cannot love too deeply and if they do, the person they love disappears.One day, a strange boy appears on the grounds and he knows nothing more than his first name. Estrella, one of the Nomeolvides women, attempts to help him remember who he is and as she does, they are lead to secrets about the estate itself. I am super excited about this one.
I would love to hear in the comments section what your goals are for the 2018 year, any books you're excited about reading that you have currently that you want to get to, or any anticipated releases for the year that you're excited for!
Kindread bookmate,
Cassie
In regards to the blog, the goal is post more consistently than I have been. For reasons that boil down to predominantly laziness, I plan on attempting to post at least once a week. Even if it just means check ins with where I am with my reading. Posts will range from those check ins to reviews of books, possibly unboxings since I do subscribe to both OwlCrate and FairyLoot, possible book hauls of either books I buy (granted I get my TBR pile down to a point where I feel alright buying a stack of books) or books from the library (which requires me getting my first library card here in New York). If there are any specific posts you would like to see, feel free to leave it in the comments or send us a message on Twitter at @kindredbookmate. We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
In terms of other general goals, I do have a GoodReads goal set for myself set at 40 books this year. Over the course of the 2017 year, I had it set to 30 books and ended up reading a total of 85! I was reading like a mad person from January until about mid-May or beginning of June or so. My reading has always slowed way, way down during the warmer months due to there being stuff outside to do, shows I want to catch up on, and other stuff where I just can't sit and focus. It's not that my reading stops in the summer, although I have had summers like that prior to actually liking audiobooks, but I started the swing of reading again in August of 2016. I just have always found it harder to read and have the focus to do so when it's warmer outside. But towards the end or so of September 2017, I did start getting into audiobooks, which helped me get to that 85 books read mark. Which was nice. And I hope that audiobooks will continue in my life, especially when it's warmer out and all I will need are my phone and headphones to listen to a good book. Like I said, I have my goal set at 40 for the year of 2018. Since I tend to read 2-3 books at the same time, I hopefully won't have any issues hitting this goal. I do believe I hit last year's goal of 30 books by the end of April 2016. I don't think I'll hit the 40 book mark that quickly this year since, for the next three months at least, I won't really be reading anything less than roughly 300 pages. Audiobooks I tend to fly through since I listen to them at 2X speed. So that may help me reach my goal faster.
I've been getting bookish subscription boxes for over a year now and have yet to read at least 12 of the books that I have received through them. So my immediate goal is to get those read. One of them is an ARC that was included in a Fairyloot box for a book that comes out in May. I thought originally that it came out in March but the ARC says otherwise. I'm planning on reading them in three four book batches, so to speak. Those books are:
The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis. I received this one towards the end of BooklyBox when they were still BooklyBox before they merged with another company (Quarterly Co, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, to form PageHabit). This books seems to be built around war and a military of some kind. We follow Auxiliary Lieutenant Josette Dupre and what happens as she is offered the position of captain of a ship.Women aren't allowed to fill positions outside of auxiliary positions. She wants the job, just not the politics that go with it. We follow what happens with her as she navigates the waters. This is the first book of a series and book two, By Fire Above, is due to come out in April or May of this year, according to the author. So I definitely want to get this read before the next book comes out. Just in case I like this one enough to pick it up.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao is the start to what I believe may be just a duology. This one is an Asian retelling of the Evil Queen and her beginnings, as far as I've heard it described so far. Her name is Xifeng and it goes through her story as a peasant, I believe, and she is destined to become Empress of Feng Lu. I'm very interested to see how this plays out. Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix is expected to come out in October of this year. So I definitely want to get this read before that comes out so I can pick it up if I enjoy it.
I'm starting to think they have a thing for sending out books that start off at least a duology because Even the Darkest Stars is the first book of a duology as well. This book follows Kamzin, whose dream it has been to go with the Emperor's royal explorers on an expedition. They are elite climbers tasked with mapping out the Empire and spying on their enemies. She gets her chance to prove herself when River Shara, the greatest of the team, shows up and demands to hire Kamzin as opposed to her older sister, Lusha. She goes with him and Lusha goes with a rival group. The story follows from there. All the Wandering Light, which is book two, appears to come out somewhere within 2018.
And last but not least for this round of four is Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore. Which may be the only standalone book in this grouping! When I first started hearing about this book, I was a bit intrigued by what I heard. The Nomeolvides women, who this story follows, have tended this lush, beautiful garden of an estate that enchant guests from the world. However, they have a secret: They cannot love too deeply and if they do, the person they love disappears.One day, a strange boy appears on the grounds and he knows nothing more than his first name. Estrella, one of the Nomeolvides women, attempts to help him remember who he is and as she does, they are lead to secrets about the estate itself. I am super excited about this one.
I would love to hear in the comments section what your goals are for the 2018 year, any books you're excited about reading that you have currently that you want to get to, or any anticipated releases for the year that you're excited for!
Kindread bookmate,
Cassie
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