My First OwlCrate! June 2014

OwlCrate is a bookish subscription box that I've been wanting to subscribe to for a few months now. They send you one box with a YA book and a couple of bookish things that all go with the monthly theme. They have different plans that you can get: monthly, three month, and six month. The prices do vary, depending on what plan you get. With a few events that have been going on, I was finally able to let myself buy one! I got a six month subscription. The monthly rate is $29.99. The three month plan is $86.98. And the six month plan is $167.94. All prices are plus shipping. And with that, you are charged either every month, every three months, or every six months. I will try to link as many items as I can.

On the top, there is always a card with the month's theme and where all the things are from. This month's theme is Make It Out Alive. If you don't want to read the back of the card right off so you won't spoil the box for yourself, you don't have to read it first. I know I didn't. It's way more fun to pull out the stuff and then look at the card after. Even though I wouldn't want to live in a swamp, this card is still pretty.

The first thing I pulled out was this bathbomb and it smells so good! It's a Divergent inspired bath bomb from Fizzy Fairy Apothecary that has a little charm in it that will determine your faction. Or you could end up with a Divergent charm! Cannot wait to take a bath and put it to use and find out which one I received! This bath bomb is an OwlCrate exclusive.

Next thing I found was the little flair pin that always goes with the theme. I couldn't help but notice that he matched the little guy on the card. I will be putting him on my Slytherin lanyard that I wear to work. I could always use more flair.

This thing is so heavy for a magnet! It says "Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be." It was inspired by An Ember in the Ashes from Little Inklings Design. I haven't read this particular book but maybe I'll pick it up one day now because I really like this quote. This is another OwlCrate exclusive.

This awesome patch is from Laserbrain Patch Co. It took me a minute to recognize that the design is inspired by Lois Lowry's The Giver since it's been so long since I've read the book. But  love the design of it and it's perfect for that book. The red of the apple is a beautiful shade of red, too. Don't know what I'm going to put this on but I'm sure I'll find something for it.

The second I saw this, I instantly thought of a friend of mine from Washington. She is obsessed with zombies and this would be perfect for her. This comes from Archie McPhee and it will definitely get tried out at least tonight. I usually don't like anything on my head when I go to bed (I can't even wear my hair tied up), so we shall see how wearing this goes. But it should be helpful by blocking sunlight since I know work so late into the night and sleep in in the mornings.

There is also a book mark with quotes on both sides. This one is from Sarah J Maas' A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOWAR, I do believe it gets shortened down to) and says: "You do not fear...You do not falter. You do not yield."

The other side is also from Sarah J Maas' ACOWAR: "Remember that you are a wolf. An you cannot be caged." This beautiful book mark is from Hey Atlas Creative. I do believe this is an OwlCrate exclusive as well.

This month was definitely a good month for me to start my OwlCrate subscription! They had not one but two books in this month's box. New World Rising by Jennifer Wilson has been published by Of Tomes Publishing, who worked with OwlCrate for the second book. This cover is beautiful and my favorite color. Phoenix has been living by her dying mother's last words: To be strong and survive. She lives outside of the Walls, outside of the Sanctuary. It's more of a drawn out death sentence. The Tribes run the city of Tartarus and their motto is, "Join or die." This seems like something I would have loved in my early 20's but I'm still excited to pick it up.

And finally, we have this month's book! Reading the description, it has a Lord of the Flies feel. And because the show Lost was based of of Lord of the Flies, it has a bit of that vibe as well. Kayla Olson's The Sandcastle Empire is definitely something that I would have loved after reading Lord of the Flies. LotF was my favorite book in high school. The cover is an OwlCrate exclusive cover, as well. The differences are supposed to be subtle. This one follows Eden, who had an easy life. Until the revolution. She has lost everything to the Wolfpack, the group now in power. She refuses to die by their hands while imprisoned. She has the coordinates to the only neutral place left in the world. Finally she makes it to the island and finds others who are resistant to the Wolfpack. It isn't long before one of her new friends gets lost in the forest. In searching the forest of the Sanctuary, they find it covered in lethal traps and there may be an enemy worse than the one they left behind. I'm intrigued by this and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get to it soon.

OwlCrate always includes a signed book plate and a letter from the author as well. I think it a nice touch and cannot wait to put the book plate in the book. Makes me wish I had a better signature since I have such horrible handwriting.

They also included stickers! I like stickers. And based off of the description of this month's book, these are perfect for it. I'll have to find somewhere good for these.

And finally, they include a card for next month's theme. Looks like it's going to be "wanderlust." It makes me thing of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. On the back of the card, iit says that in the July box, it will include an officially licensed item from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I loved the movie, so I can't wait to see what it in the box!

Of all the things in this month's box, the bath bomb has to be my favorite. I'm so excited to use it. All of this month's stuff is pretty awesome, I must admit. Feel free to leave comments below if you get OwlCrate (and what your favorite item/s is/are), if you've read either book, or just wanna say hi!

Your kindred bookmate,

Cassie

Birthday book haul!

My birthday is the at the beginning of the month of June. I figured I would treat myself to some books and ended up buying 11 from Thrift Books, most of which were plays. And a good friend that I met at work ended up buying me two more for my birthday as well. I'll start with the two from my friend and then go into the Thrift Book order:

House of Furies by Madeleine Roux was the bigger of the two books that she got me. This one looks like it's a YA thriller kind of a book. 17 year old Louisa leaves a scary boarding school and finds work as a maid in a boarding house. After her arrival, she realizes that the owner of Coldthistle  House gives his guests more than a roof over their heads during their stays with him. Eventually, she begins to fear for a young man named Lee, who she thinks is kind and good but can't be sure who to trust in the house filled with confusion and mistrust. I've been looking for a good thriller This is definitely something I'm excited to pick up when I've finished the three I'm currently working on finishing. I've read her Asylum trilogy, which wasn't a bad series. Her writing was easy to follow. The Asylum books I was able to whip through in a couple of days for the trilogy and the bind of of the prequel novellas. Each of the novellas were quick reads as well. Due to the size of this book, I doubt it will take me as little time to read this particular book than it did for all four of the other books I have of hers. But I may be able to knock it out during a nice summer day at some point in the next couple of months.

It has been years since I picked up a Nora Roberts book. I remember the entertainment value I liked about the books I've read of hers. Dark Witch is the start of  the Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy. Depending on how well I like book one, I'll pick up the other two books. This book follows Iona Sheehan. Her grandmother tells her to go to Ireland to find the devotion and acceptance that she doesn't get from her parents. Once in County Mayo in Ireland, she stays with her cousins, Branna and Connor O'Dwyer. Iona finds a job at a stable, where she meets the owner. Boyle McGrath is all of her fantasies in one man. But of course, it wouldn't be a Nora Roberts book if they didn't fall in love. But of course nothing is what it seems and Iona's family tree has been wound around by an ancient evil and must be fought for. Nora Roberts books have always been a guilty pleasure book that I don't admit to too terribly often but today is one of the days I'll admit to it. Like the previous book, depending on how well I like this book will determine if I buy the other two books to finish the trilogy. I probably will since I do like to finish a series. Only one series have I ever been tempted to not finish and I'm still working on trying to finish that one up.

Now for the Thrift Books order! This is the one sad book in the order. Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust by Allan Zullo tells the stories of nine children's experiences with the Holocaust. They each made their way through this horror that was this time and had their lives changed forever just because they were Jewish children. Some of them made escape into the unknown or disguised their true identities. Many were witness to the horrors that this people were subjected to. I've had a fascination with this time frame for years. Probably ever since the eighth grade. The one thing that I can't understand is how anyone  could subject one person to something like this, let alone a whole group of people. And to include children and those who couldn't take care of themselves. I just hope that we can learn from this and never have this piece of history never repeat itself in the future.

The cover alone of this book just about breaks my heart. The child has a look of sadness on his that no child should ever have to know. Let alone an adult. Going through what they went through is something no one should ever have to.

I do believe I've already mentioned my love of retellings here on this blog. This one is an Alice in Wonderland retelling. In this one, Alice's friend Ada comes over to visit Alice but comes a moment too late -- Alice has just gone down the rabbit hole. Ada goes down after her, determined to find her friend and bring Alice home. Ada brings her own apprehensions with her as she goes through Wonderland and meets the cast we're familiar with from the original book Alice in Wonderland. The friend who bought me the first two books mentioned in this post is obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and will most likely end up borrowing this beautiful copy of After Alice by Gregory MaGuire. I absolutely loved his Wicked Years series, which is a Wizard of Oz retelling starting with Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (which I'm almost done rereading). I've also read one or two of his non Wicked Years books but have yet to read this one. But this is definitely something I'm interested to see how MaGuire retells this story. I've read both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I've also seen at least four movie adaptations of the books. Each of the movie adaptions have combined the books in different ways. This will be a nice addition to add to my collection.

Gregory MaGuire's Lost is one of the few books of his that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. It definitely seems to have more adult themes to it. This one looks like it could be a Christmas Carol retelling with some Jack the Ripper information in there. The main character, Winifred Rudge, is haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival in London, her old friend/stepcousin John Comestor has apparently disappeared and a ghostly presence has taken over her great great grandfather's place. Winnie begins investigating. Everyone seems against her as she tries to find out if this spirit is the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge or the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper. This is going to be an interesting version of London to delve into. I will have to pick this one up soon. I'm currently reading The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The Discovery, The Investigation, The Authentication, The Debate by Shirley Harrison and Lost would fit right in after reading that. There is a chance that this book could end up being my least favorite book by MaGuire or it could tie for first with the Wicked Years books. It's going to have to be amazing to compete with that series, however.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory MaGuire is one of his books that I borrowed from the library at least once while I was in my early 20's still. I'm looking forward to rereading this now that I'm in my late 20's (which is still hard to admit since my birthday just happened). I remember vaguely liking this book. This one is a Cinderella retelling. It follows Iris in 17th century Holland, She is swept from the streets of Haarlem, and her story is intertwined with that of Clara (who is Cinderella in this story). Iris seeks out the secrets of her new family and the truth of her old life. This was a very close second to the first book in the Wicked Years. I remember having a very hard time putting this book down when I read it all those years ago. I think I was 22 or so when I read this. Maybe a little younger. It's been at least five years since I read it. If I'm lucky, I'll enjoy it all the more now that I'm a little older when reading this. I've never been able to the having a stepsister part but I've met people that have turned into family, That's as close as it is going to get any time soon to immediate step family. This is definitely another book I'm super excited to be getting into for a second reading.

Now we get to the plays! Every play in today's haul is from William Shakespeare. I think just about everyone is familiar with the story of Romeo and Juliet. Two young lovers from families who are in a blood feud with each other are determined to be together and get married. Every time a Montague or Capulet dies, the respective family calls for the death of one in the other family. And if the two lovers were to be found out by her family, they wouldn't hesitate to kill young Romeo. I read this as a freshman in high school at the age of the 14. I don't remember liking it too terribly much at that point but the teacher that I had at that point didn't really bring it alive much. This copy you can tell is definitely a used copy. There is handwriting all over it and there are tabs sticking out of the edges. Hopefully all of the notes throughout the book will be helpful in figuring out what exactly is going on with the story since it's written in old English. If I remember correctly, there is a good insult or two in this play as well. The one that comes vividly to mind is the part about biting one's thumb at someone as way of insult. Probably a good thing that's not a thing today (the biting of one's thumb part).

MacBeth is the only other Shakespearean play that I remember reading in high school. This one was read in junior year at 16. The Witches prophecy that MacBeth, a nobleman, will be king. He tells this to his wife and they descend into evil as Scotland is turned upside down. This play was my favorite out of the two that we had read while in high school. There was more action and kept you on your toes more than Romeo and Juliet did. At least for me there was. Hopefully I maintain that thought while reading this play. I can't remember if this was the other copy that had notes written into it or not but one other copy had notes as well. The Witches were my favorite characters out of the whole play. The way they spoke was the best part. And I always think of the Fates from the Disney version of Hercules when I think of the Witches. It makes reading this play so much more entertaining to put them in the Witches' place. And when Lady MacBeth killed herself, my thought initially was, "Seriously?" But it is what it is. This may be a play that gets put on the back burner for a little bit while I get through some of the other books that I have. My pile of books that need to be read is getting huge!

I had no clue about Much Ado About Nothing when I purchased this. Honestly, didn't even bother reading the description until writing this post. Might as well be honest, no? GoodReads explains it better than I can: "The action is set in Sicily, where Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, has recently defeated his half-brother, the bastard Don John, in a military engagement. Apparently reconciled, they return to the capital, Messina, as guests of the Governor, Leonato. There Count Claudio, a young nobleman serving in Don Pedro's army, falls in love with Hero, Leonato's daughter, whom Don Pedro woos on his behalf. The play's central plot shows how Don John maliciously deceives Claudio into believing that Hero has taken a lover on the eve of her marriage, causing Claudio to repudiate her publicly, at the altar." Just reading it makes it seem like modern day television. Who doesn't love a good drama, whether it be several hundred years ago or today? This one is going to be another one that will take some time to get to due to the ever growing TBR pile that just doesn't seem like it ever wants to stop growing. And there are still more books that I want to buy yet!

This one seems like another one of his dramas. The Tempest follows Prospero and his daughter Miranda. He is the exiled Duke of Milan and lives on a remote island. He plots to put Miranda in her rightful place, using illusion and deceit to do so. The tempest brings in Prospero's brother and the king of Naples, Alonso. While Anthony, his brother, and the King are there, he shows the King how low his brother is and gets Miranda married to Alonso's son, Ferdinand. This may be one of the first plays of Shakespeare's that I will pick up this summer instead of putting it off. I'm interested to see how Prospero's mind works to get his daughter married to the Prince. I don't know how well I'll like this one. This one is also the last play that Shakespeare wrote. Looking over some of the reviews on GoodReads, it appears that Prospero may have even manipulated his daughter Miranda. Doesn't seem like a fatherly thing to do.

This one is another one that I am going into knowing nothing other than the title and that Shakespeare wrote it. I feel like The Comedy of Errors is one that isn't talked about very much anymore. Let alone what it's supposed to be about. I'm hoping just by the title alone that there will be some humor to this particular play. I love this cover, though, out of all the plays I bought. Partly because it's green and that's my favorite color. This one will be towards the beginning of the plays that I read from him as well. I plan on getting to most, if not all, of the Shakespearean plays that I've bought this time around. And besides, I could use a good laugh. Life has been way too serious lately. A laugh a day keeps the blues away. Or so they say.

Almost done!A Midsummer Night's Dream seems like it's a bit of a romantic nightmare.Demetrius and Lysander want to marry Hermia. Hermia wants Lysander. Daddy wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Helena wants Demetrius. Lysander and Hermia run off together. Demetrius pursues them. Helena pursues Demetrius.In the forest, Obera and Titania, king and queen of the faeries, are having a fight. Things happen from there. This could be a really funny play. It sounds almost like a modern day rom-com. The idea had to come from someone. Why not from this play? I have been wanting to read this one for years, since I was probably about 13 years old. It's only taken me 15 years to get my hands on it to read. Definitely something I am going to have to read this summer. I cannot wait. Rom-com stuff isn't something I usually read but I'm more than happy to give this play a shot and see if it is as funny as it sounds.

Last but not lease is The Taming of the Shrew. This is supposed to be a comedy about Lucentio and Petruchio and the sisters the meet in Padua. Lucentio falls in love with and wants to marry Bianca, the younger of the two sisters. However, she cannot marry until her older sister Katherine marries. Petruchio agrees to marry Katherine only for the dowry he'll get from doing so against Katherine's wishes. Hilarity is supposed to ensue from the battle of the sexes from there. The battle of the sexes that seems to be another tale that has lasted through the ages. I'm hoping to get a good laugh out of this play as well. I've gone through I don't know how many serious books this year and some laughter will do me some good.

Oddly enough, this one was the only play that I had managed to buy in hardcover. I hadn't even noticed that it was going to be a hardcover instead of paperback like all of the others. At least it won't be a heavy book to hold.

Let me know if you've read any of these in the comments so we can discuss them! I'm always looking to talk about books with people.

Kindred bookmate,
Cassie

BooklyBox Unboxing! May 2017

Getting this box every single month when it arrives in the mail is the best day out of the month, hands down. BooklyBox, if you either haven't read my other unboxing post and/or haven't heard of them before reading this, they are a bookish subscription that sends you a book in a genre of your choice and a couple of other this. Two teas and a bookmark are always included. What the other items are is always a surprise, as well as what kind of teas and the quote/design of the bookmark. And if you want to save some money on your subscription, feel free to use my code and get 20% off. I do make a very small commission off of the link (only $5), so if you don't want to use it, you don't have to.

Every month that I've gotten BooklyBox so far, I've gotten the fantasy box. I may switch it up to a different genre here soon and see what I get from there. But in the meantime, I've been enjoying the fantasy box and have nothing bad to say about this service so far. And if something happens, their customer service so far has been super friendly and respond fairly quickly to emails.

The first thing you see in the box is always the card that shows you where they donated books each month. The greatest thing about this service is that for every book that's bought through them, they donate a book to those in need. Every box I've gotten so far, they have donated to different countries in Africa. This month, it was to Cameroon. There are always facts about the country and statistics. Things like the population, life expectancy, the number of those living with AIDS, the percentage of boys and girls in school participation, the number of children orphaned by AIDS, and more is all found on this card. It's so great that they add this in to help bring awareness to those that don't have the same luxuries that the rest of the world is accustomed to and considered necessary to daily life. It's fairly humbling as well.

The first things I pulled out of this month's bag are the teas. I'm not super fond of earl grey due to the lavender in it but it's nice to have on a super cold day outside. The pumpkin spice I've gotten before as well and I don't think I liked it too much. So I will most likely be giving that to a pumpkin spice lover. Don't get me wrong, I love a good chai. Just not pumpkin spiced flavor. I have a feeling that I will be able to find someone that will appreciate this particular tea, since I know that I won't.

This will be a godsend this summer, I do believe. I work on a computer five days a week in a building that gets very muggy on the inside during the warmer months. We try to keep the humidity out but it always seems to find a way in. So taking this handy little fan that plugs into the tower is going to be very useful. I will probably have to fight everyone around me for it but it's going to be used pretty much every day while I'm there. It also works out because I have been meaning to buy something to take to work with me to try and keep cool outside of the few objects I have at my desk to try and fan myself with. Laminated paper can only go so far before your hand/wrist wear out from all the effort and it just isn't realistic to do it every second for a 40+ hour work week. So excited to get use of of this.

This key chain was the item that was pulled out next. It is super cute. The only thing that I'm curious about it is the little rings hanging off the big ring surrounding the arrow and leather. I don't know what they're meant for. But in the meantime, while I figure that out, I'll just hook it to my keys and have it join them. So far, I couldn't tell you if I love the key chain or the fan more. It's a pretty dang close tie.

This bookmark is so me! The quote on it says, "I can imagine no greater bill that to lie about reading novels all day." The quote this month is from Julia Quinn. I love being lazy on a day off from work and just reading all day long with something to drink close at hand. Depending on the day, it's either a mug of hot tea, an ice cold soda, or home made fruit flavored water (plain water when there's no fruit in the house to put in the water). I have a tendency to just get lost in whatever it is that I'm reading and forget the world around me, where ever it is I'm sitting. If it's nice enough outside, I'll go take my book and a blanket outside and sit in the yard and get some sunshine on my pale skin. No better way to spend the day than with a book.

And finally, the book itself! The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis didn't strike me at first as a fantasy book. I don't really know how to describe it myself, but the description from GoodReads is as follows: "The nation of Garnia has been at war for as long as Auxiliary Lieutenant Josette Dupre can remember – this time against neighboring Vinzhalia. Garnia’s Air Signal Corp stands out as the favored martial child of the King. But though it’s co-ed, women on-board are only allowed “auxiliary” crew positions and are banned from combat. In extenuating circumstances, Josette saves her airship in the heat of battle. She is rewarded with the Mistral, becoming Garnia’s first female captain.

She wants the job – just not the political flak attached. On top of patrolling the front lines, she must also contend with a crew who doubts her expertise, a new airship that is an untested deathtrap, and the foppish aristocrat Lord Bernat – a gambler and shameless flirt with the military know-how of a thimble. He’s also been assigned to her ship to catalog her every moment of weakness and indecision. When the Vins make an unprecedented military move that could turn the tide of the war, can Josette deal with Bernat, rally her crew, and survive long enough to prove herself to the top brass?"

So I'm relatively interested to see how this book plays out. Not something I would have grabbed for myself but seems like it would be a good read. The blurb on the front cover from Patricia Briggs says, "Full of sass and terrific characters. Great storytelling. Loved it." I'm always down for a sassy comment or two, so this book may be just up my alley after all.

If you subscribe to BooklyBox, let me know in the comments below what you got in this month's box. I'd love to know. If you don't already but will be getting your first box, let me know that, too, so I can be excited for you!

Your kindred bookmate,

Cassie

(Another) Thrift Books Book Haul! May 2017

Over the last few months, I've bought all my books almost exclusively from Thrift Books. I've bought one or two from other locations since but mainly through them. I've bought roughly 40 books through them so far and don't really have any complaints about them. The only one I have is having to play the waiting game while the books come in in the mail. And that's not their fault.

The first book is the last one I needed to complete my Royal Diaries collection: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595. I thought I had had them all but then, as I looked through GoodReads one day, I saw this book and knew I needed it still. This one out of the whole series was the only one that wasn't a reread, if I remember correctly. When I was going through them all in my late teens or early 20's, this was the only one that wasn't in my library system and getting them through the library was the only way for me to get my hands on them at the time. Such is life when you're a poor college student. Nzingha is quite the woman. I've since read this since came in and she is one of my favorites out of the whole series. The major drawback to this story is how woefully short it is. Roughly 90 or so pages for the actual diary part of it felt too short. I wanted to see more of her life as she and her people tried to keep the Portuguese at bay. The author made her sound like the real person that she was all those years ago. Some of the other people in this series feel fairly flat. She was down to earth, her main wish to go hunting with her father at least once before she gets married. The historical note at the end brought her a bit more to life as it finishes telling her story of what happens after the last diary entry

Keeping with the historical books, although this one is closer in time than Nzingha's story. The cover, and eventually the tile, caught my interest when I was looking through some of the books. I had no idea what it was about and wondered why a book about someone's suitcase would be so interesting. Then I pulled up the description. Hana's Suitcase survived the Holocaust and ended up in Japan in 2000. It was marked "Hana Brady, May 16, 1931." The story follows the holocaust education center as they try to find clues about her and her family, who were from Czechoslovakia and what happened to them after the Nazi invasion. The book was a lot taller than I had anticipated it being and a lot thinner. This should be a quick read for me. I've been interested in years about what the Jews went through at that point in time and hearing their stories. Probably ever since we read Night by Elie Wiesel in the eighth grade at the age of 13. It's been about 15 years since then and I've been trying to get my hands on anything I can since then whenever I have the money for it.

Going back a little bit farther in time now. Just seeing the title for The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The Discovery, the Investigation, the Authentication, the Debate and I was sold. I  couldn't hit the button to add it to my cart fast enough. Jack the Ripper has been someone I've been interested in learning more about for years. Ever since roughly junior year of high school, I've found crazy people interesting. The big paper we had to write for English class that year could be on anything we wanted. I ended up picking a local to Washington state serial killer;I think it was the Green River Killer I had settled on, I could be wrong, though. But Jack the Ripper, if I couldn't find enough information on my original person, would have been my next pick. His story felt like a whodunnit for the ages since they never did figure out who he was while he was alive. I cannot wait to get into this book and find out what's between the covers of this diary. You'll have to ignore the reflections of the overhead light and my phone on the cover of the book. (When the picture is bigger, you can just barely make out part of my phone case [which is a NES controller]).

This should be the last book I bought this time around that deals with something in the not so distant past. And it follows another serial killer. Zodiac was something I ended up buying because I've only just recently become interested in getting an idea of what kind of person the Zodiac killer was and why he did what he did. And to add to it, he left notes to the police. The notes are the most interesting part to me. How he wrote them. Some of them seem so... Childlike. I'm so interested to see how he got caught. The best part of this book is the author was the reporter who was obsessed with finding the Zodiac killer and seeing him brought to jail. One intriguing part of the whole thing is the amount of his victims doesn't match up across the board. Official count is 6. He admits to 37. The real toll could be well over 50 victims. I cannot imaging being a family member of one of the Zodiac's victims (or Jack the Ripper's). This is definitely a book that I'm super excited to get to reading here soon. I'm almost done with this month's TBR pile (that post is here.), so hopefully I can start this soon.

Might as well keep going with the psycho theme, no? Although this one isn't historical, the hotel that The Shining takes place in is based off of is a real hotel. I watched the movie that is based off this book at an age where I was at an iffy sort of age to watch it but had been reading books similar for a year or two. However, after seeing the movie, I put off reading this book way too long. I've had the sequel, Dr. Sleep, for almost a year now and haven't read it yet because I hadn't read The Shining first. To be fair, I hadn't realized when I bought the sequel that it was a sequel. Kinda glad I had actually looked at the book before I started to read it and noticed that it was book number two.

If you're not familiar with this one, it follows the new off season caretaker and his family. Which is supposed to work out so they get more time together as a family and Jack, the father, can get some writing done. As winter settles in, the forces in the hotel have other ideas as they start to gather around. And the only one to notice is Jack's five year old son, Danny. This book, while I'm  excited to read it, may take me a while to get to with how many other books that seem to be getting put ahead of it. As it is, I've had the sequel in my possession for close to a year now. So a little longer can't hurt.

The Time Traveler's Wife will be a reread for me. I originally borrowed it from the library in my early 20's (I was borrowing pretty regularly from my library at that point) and liked it at that point in time. Now, about seven years or so later, I want to reread it again and see what I liked about it so much. There was even a movie that was based off this book and I still haven't gotten around to watching it. One day soon, maybe. This one follows the story of Claire Abshire and Henry DeTamble. Their story of their lives spans time as he goes back and forth into her childhood and the present, to where he's married to her. I don't remember this book being as thick as it is. It's over 500 pages long, weighing in at about 536. Which qualifies it as tome, I do believe. We'll see if I read it as quickly as I read it the first go around several years go. I think I had more free time when I read it the first time. So we'll see and good luck to me on getting this done. This one may take me some time to pick up as well. Since someone wants to borrow it from me, that may be the thing that gets me to pick this book up sooner rather than later.

When I bought Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, I didn't realize that it was technically book two in the American Gods series. And it's a book that's on the chunkier side of things at 400 pages. The description on GoodReads doesn't go into too much detail about what goes on in the story. Just that the main character, Fat Charlie Nancy, didn't know his father was a god or that he had a brother. His normal life had ended when said god-for-a-father died in Florida. And now the brother he didn't know he had had was now at his door. With Fat Charlie's brother, Spider, around, life is about to get more interesting. And dangerous.

I'm rather intrigued as to what happens, despite the vague description. It seems like this could go either way: The book could go very well or or it could end badly. No way to find out except read the book. A few of the comments on the GoodReads page say that you don't have to read the first book to read this one but... I'm one of those people where I like to read things in order (hence why I haven't picked up Dr. Sleep), so I will probably wait until I can get a copy of American Gods.

I loved reading the books in The Wicked Years. This was another series I had read in my twenties and loved. Retellings are some of my favorite books to read. Son of a Witch is book two in the series and follows Liir, who is the son of the Wicked Witch of the West. He was last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle, nearly dead after watching what had happened with Dorothy. In the Cloister of Saint Glinda, Candle, a silent novice, takes care of him. The story follows the two of them as Liir tries to find his half sister, Nor. He has the witch's cape and broomstick but is he really her son and does he have her powers? And since the wizard left Oz, the people running Oz may be dangerous. I don't remember loving this book as much as Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West but this was a very close second in terms of favorites. I don't remember the books very well and how things went down exactly in each book but this is a very near and dear storyline to me in terms of retellings. I've read a couple of others from Gregory MaGuire since having picked up The Wicked Years books and everything so far has been pretty good. Will have to pick up more of them since outside of this series, I borrowed every other retelling of his that I've read from the library.

Last book from Thrift Books! And it just happens to be book three in The Wicked Years series. The sticker that was on the copy of A Lion Among Men (as seen in the picture) bothered me. I don't like stickers on my books due to potential damage to the book. I know I shouldn't really complain since it's a second hand book but... Still. It was a sticker. On my book. Which, luckily, ruin the cover. But still. Grr.

Anyways, this one follows Brr, the Cowardly Lion. You get to hear Brr's story from cobhood as hetells it to an oracle named Yackle. As he goes to fix a mistake that he had made in the past. there are misadventures along the way. Such as becoming implicated in a massacre of trolls, faling in love with a Cat princess, and avoiding a jail sentence by agreeing to service as lackey to the Emperor of Oz.

In all honesty, this one and the last book in the series were a pretty close tie for not being my favorite books out of the series. They were still decent books, though, and worth giving a shot.

Bonus book! While I didn't get this book from Thrift Books, I picked it up while at Target when I friend and I went last week to pick up some last minute Mother's Day things. She and I can't not go to the book section of stores that have books when we're together and I happened to notice that they finally had Stars Above by Marissa Meyer in paperback in store. I've picked up this series almost entirely at Target. I was so very excited to see it. Now that I have this one, the only ones I have left is Winter and I'll be getting that one once it gets released in paperback. Which I think is later this year.

Stars Above is part of The Lunar Chronicles. Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter are all retellings and Stars Above is the same way. Except it has short stories of retellings. Almost all of them are prequels to the main stories. I'll pick this one up after Winter comes out and I have gotten it read. It's going to be so hard to not read this book. However, I have managed to hold of on reading Fairest, which is the story of the evil queen in the series. But, again, not something I will be picking up until after I get ahold of Winter.

Let me know if you've read any of these books and what you've thought of them. Are there any books that catch your interest? If so, maybe we can buddy read them together! 

Your kindred bookmate,

Cassie

May 2017 TBR!

Since it's a new month, I figured it was time I brought y'all my TBR (to be read) pile. Normally I don't plan out what I'm gonna read for the month. I am normally someone who just picks up whatever looks/sounds good in the moment. But now is the time to try something a little different. We'll see how well this goes at the end of the month!

I'm currently in the middle of reading two books. I've been reading quite a bit of historical fiction lately but I am starting to get tired of it. So the first two books I'm gonna mention are the last of that genre for a little while. Everything else outside of those two on my TBR for this month come from my BooklyBox subscription. I get this fantasy box, so the other four books are fantasy. I may not have gotten around to reading any of the books yet this year from BooklyBox (oops!).

First book is Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross. This one follows the life of someone who history tried to forget. It starts at the beginning of Joan's life, where you see what her family life was like, how hard it was to get any decent education if you were female. One of her older brothers dies and she takes the place of her other brother. She takes over his identity, climbs the monastic ladder, and becomes the pope. Which is unheard of in the 9th century. I'm only 29 pages into the book and it isn't bad so far.

The other one that I'm currently reading is The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I never had to read this in school but had always wanted to read it. And somehow had never gotten my hands on the book. Saw it in a local bookstore at the local mall and bought it, no questions asked. If you haven't heard of this classic book, it's the diary of Anne Frank. She and her family (they're Jewish) lived in hiding for 2 years in an attic of a friend during WWII. Also in the attic is another family and a dentist. She documents fairly regularly what is going on in the Annex (the attic) while the eight people are stowed away, all the quarrels, good times, any news they get. Eventually, they are found out and are sent to a concentration camp. The only one to escape from the Frank family is Anne's father, Otto. He edited her diary and had it published. I believe I'm just over a quarter of the way through the book and it is crazy to see how all eight of those people seem to make it work together for two years.

Now for the fantasy books! Starting with Freeks by Amanda Hocking. This was in my January BooklyBox. It follows Mara, who can predict the future. She wants to have a normal life and not have the ability to see the future and do all the other stuff that she can do that others cannot. A struggling sideshow comes into small town Caudry one day where she meets local guy Gabe. Who just happens to be gorgeous. It isn't too long before she realizes there's a dark presence and she has seven days to save everyone she cares about. And change the future.

February's BooklyBox brought me Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones. Reading the description of the book on GoodReads gives me The Princess and the Goblin vibes. Liesl had grown up with the stories of the Goblin King. He is the muse that inspires of her musical compositions. She has to put away her childhood dreams to help run her family's inn. One day, her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins and Liesl has to jouney to where they dwell and return her sister to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let her go but for a price: Her sister for her. Even in the underworld, the Goblin King continues to inspire Liesl. This looks to be the beginning of a series.  I'm excited to read this one.

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller came in March's BooklyBox. I haven't really read any pirate books, so this will be interesting. This is book one of a duology. This book follows 17 year old Alosa allows herself to be captured by an enemy on a quest to find a map to get to an ancient hidden map . The map is the key to a legendary treasury. The only thing between her and the map is the captain and first mate of the enemy ship. But she is the daughter of a pirate king who has a trick or two up her sleeve.

Last month, as seen in my last post, BooklyBook included Freya  by Matthew Laurence. The idea behind this book has my interest: Freya is the Norse goddess of love, beauty, war, and death. She lays low as Sara Vanadi and she finds true believers hard to find. After a few decades, she gets an offer from  a corporation. The offer was either join them or be destroyed. The story follows her efforts to fight back with help from new friend Nathan. This shall be interesting. I love mythological characters.

For now, this is what I'm planning on reading. How well I stick to it is yet to be seen. I'll let you know at the end of the month. 

Hope you're having a good day/night/whatever it is where you are!
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie

BooklyBox Unboxing! April 2017

This is probably my favorite subscription out of the three I subscribe to. BooklyBox is a subscription service that sends you a box every month in multiple genres (fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, literary, romance, sci-fi, and YA) and a couple of other bookish goodies. Also, they put in a couple of teas as well. On top of it, not only do you get a great book but they donate a book as well to charities where literacy isn't as prevalent as in the US. So far, even if I don't like the stuff that comes in the box, I enjoy at least one of the teas and the book itself. I also have a discount code that will get you 20% off discount. I do get a small commission out of it if you do use it since it is an affiliate code, just so you know. But it's so worth it. I've never been disappointed to date with the box.

 Every single month, they include a card with information about where the books were donated to. Usually, they work with Books for Africa. Every box so far that I've gotten, they've worked with them. This month, BooklyBox partnered with Eric Harms Libraries Project and donated books to Rwanda. On one side it gives information about how that specific project. This project was the fruit of tragedy, like quite a few others, but aims to do good. Which the world needs so much more of.




On the other side of the card are statistics about the country. They include things like:
Primary school participation: Female 88.5% Male 86.4%
Secondary school participation: Female 15.6% Male 14.7%
Youth illiteracy rate: Female 78% Male 76.7%
Life expectency: 63.6 years
Orphans, Children orphaned by AIDS: 120,000
Use of improved drinking water sources: 68.9%
Population below the international poverty line of US $1.25: 63.2%
And a few other stats. Reading these cards every single month is a small reminder of how much worse I could have things. But also a small reminder of how much good this box does in terms of bringing literacy ratings up.

Now for the stuff!:

First thing I pulled out was the teas that come with every box. So far, every tea I've gotten is from Tazo. This month I received Wild Sweet Orange, which is a tea I already know I don't like and will be giving to my younger brother for him to try since he may like it. The other one is Passion. I've never had the Passion one before.. The description of it is: "An infusion of hibiscus, orange peel, rose hips, & passion fruit flavors." We'll see how well I like that one since orange peel tends to take over everything for me and ruins the tea.

 The next thing in the box was this bookmark. They always include one of these as well, which I forgot to mention earlier (oops!). They always have a quote on them. This month's says, "It's a rare book that wins the battle against drooping eyelids." The quote is from Tracy Chevalier. Never heard of her before. However, the quote is so very true. At least for me. If I'm tired enough, my book usually won't win. I could use a book that makes you not want to sleep but get answers instead.

The back of the bookmarks always say, "Shhh! I'm reading!" Just in case some passerby doesn't get the hint to leave you alone while you read. ;)

For the most part, I don't mind the color scheme of this bookmark. Purple isn't my favorite color but I'll manage. And the quote on the front is spot on. I'm sure I'll get some use out of it.

This may be my new favorite key chain! It says on it, "I read, there fore I am." It is just an adorable little circle with an open book at the top. I cannot wait to put it on my keys with my Pop Funko Belle that I have from Beauty and the Beast. I think it fits perfectly on there with her. So excited about this.

This. Is. Beautiful. This may be my new favorite bookmark. I will have to put this to use ASAP. It says it's 18K gold plated. I would prefer silver but it's beautiful, nonetheless. I adore feathers. And this fits right in with that adoration I may have to drool over this for a little bit, so don't mind me...

This is this month's book! The cover to Freya by Matthew Laurence is stunning! I cannot wait to finish my current reads to delve into this book.

This is about a woman named Sara Vandai, who is much more than she appears to be. She used to be known as Freya, the Norse goddess of love, beauty, war, and death.

There is a modern power who wants to control the divine and Sara must either bend to it or fight back.

The star ratings I've taken a glance at on GoodReads seem pretty mixed. It might be a book I either love or hate. Either way, the cover is beautiful.

This may be the start to a new series, since there's a "(#1)" next to the title on GoodReads. This one just came out last month, so we'll see how long the wait is before book #2 comes out.

Oh! I almost forgot to include this! Everything except the card comes in a bag, This is the first time I've seen this specific design on it. Definitely a good thing that the other stuff comes in the bag so you don't get spoiled for the book and other goodies.









Hopefully you liked what you saw! BooklyBox is worth the money. And they put some good in the world just by having you be part of the family. Their customer service so far, while only online at this time, is on point. They helped me so much when I was getting started. They even noticed before I did that I somehow had gotten signed up for two boxes and emailed me first.

I do so hope you have a good day/night.
Your kindred bookmate,
Cassie