Tag: Books

Monthly Wrap Up October 2020

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Happy Halloween everyone!

If you can’t tell, I got a PicMonkey membership for editing photos. So what do I do? I made that. Go me.

I thought I would try this thing that other bloggers do which is to wrap up their month of blog posts! What do you think? Does it help in case you missed something?

Everything I Read in September 2020

This is exactly what it says on the tin, a wrap up of what I read in September.

What to Read-My October 2020 TBR

The TBR of all the books I wanted to read in October. I managed to read them all! Go me!

The Priory of the Orange Tree-A Book Review

Political intrigue meets dragons! You can see what I thought about it here.

A Birthday Away

The hubs and I spent our 40th birthday’s at a charming B&B. The Elm Creek Manor was very picturesque and the food was great!

A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires-A Book Review

So my book club read this one this month. The story about a Book club that faces off against a vampire that has moved into the neighborhood? I loved it.

A Little Re-Organization Never Hurt Anybody

I redid the book shelves in our library. They needed a once over.

Cemetery Boys-A Book Review

A trans teenager just wants to prove to his family that he can be a brujo. Plus, ghosts! And queer romance! I loved it!

Anxiety and Book Reading

I admitted that reading makes me anxious. One book in particular set me off. But which one?

And there you have it, a complete wrap up of everything I posted in October! Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Anxiety and Book Reading

Lauren1 Comment

So I have generalized anxiety. Which means everything has the potential to make me anxious. And recently, I have noticed, that one of my favorite things sometimes, just sometimes, makes me anxious.

Reading.

Yes, reading.

Which is great cause I decided to have a book blog all of a sudden and now reading new books sometimes brings out my anxiety. Go me!

This is most evident when I am reading a book I really like. I have to put it down and walk away from it cause it gets to me. And then I have to do something to distance myself from the book for a little while, whether it’s for an hour or for a day.

This was most note-able to me while reading A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. That book made me anxious as all get out. It’s because I didn’t want it to end. I knew that if I finished it, it would be over and I wouldn’t be able to read it anymore. I kept having to put it down because it just made me so dang anxious!

I know I can’t be the only one out there that has this happen, am I?

Cemetery Boys- A Book Review

Lauren5 Comments

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

So I just finished up Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas and wow. I was not disappointed.

Which is great.

Because right as I started reading this my ADD started acting up and you would have thought I had never read a book before. I couldn’t sit still. I would read twenty pages then I would put the book down only to come back to the book two hours later and get yet another twenty pages read. I finally got past that hump when there about a hundred pages left in the book. Thank goodness!

And please don’t let my inability to sit still and read lead you to believe this book is anything other than good. Because it’s very great. I couldn’t play Animal Crossing for very long either, and I play that for at least an hour every day.

I have no life. Cause Covid.

Back to the book!

I enjoyed the world the author created. And given that it is our world, it was pretty easy. But the picture they painted of the graveyard and Yadriel’s place in it (and the world at large) was wonderful.

The characters were rich and colorful. And I really felt for Yadriel on his journey to gain his family’s acceptance as a trans man. And Julian and Maritza are wonderful characters. I liked how alive Julian felt, you know, for a dead guy.

The magic system in this book is great. I really loved how the author used generational magic. It was such a large part of Yadriel’s journey in his struggle to be accepted.

I loved the plot, but I did have some problem with how certain things progressed here and there. I feel the book had some plot progression issues and that they kind of rushed us to the end of the story once we got there.

There were a few things I would tweak here and there, mostly to do with the writing style and the plot progression issues. And that’s why this book gets 4 out of 5 stars.

What? It’s a great book! It also happens to be the authors debut novel and I’m really excited to see what they do next.

A Little Re-Organization Never Hurt Anybody

Lauren1 Comment

So the hubs and I have a small library. We have carefully cultivated our collection over the years and to be honest, we have neglected the bookshelves. Because we keep the books organized by authors, some of the books were starting to pile up, as there was no more room for new books.

I mean, there was a little room. But it wasn’t with the original authors!

I may have a thing.

This particular picture was taken after I had cleaned off this shelve to put the books downstairs. I wasn’t hauling all those books back upstairs. Clearly, I am a genius.

My project supervisor was sleeping on the job…until I went to take this photo. And then of course she wakes up.

The good news is this project only took a few hours. The bad news is I now know all the books I am missing from some series.

I want the pretties.

One has to have a shelf dedicated to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

I can’t get the magazines to stand upright, so on their sides they go!

I still think there is some work to do. But I keep buying books, and my husband just informed me he has a bunch of books on the way soon, so its an ongoing struggle for us. As it is with any book lover.

it would help if I read them when I got them. Instead I am constantly reading old books. Because old books bring life!

A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires- A Book Review

Lauren4 Comments

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in. 

Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

Holy cow. What a ride this book was.

I have to say, I was not expecting to enjoy that as much as I did. I mean, I had heard great things about this book, but that doesn’t always mean a book is good.

But this book was great. I mean really. I couldn’t put it down.

Except I did put it down because I didn’t want it to end. Anyone else do that?

There are some trigger warnings for this book, so be aware of that. A hazard for any vampire book these days it seems.

The characters where great. I mean really, the author does a great job of painting Patricia as a woman who is is both uncovering the truth and seemingly coming unhinged to the people around her.

The world building was strong. Grady Hendrix’s world of the North Carolina suburbs in the 1990’s was really well done.

I loved our villain. James was wonderfully written. He was both charming and creepy all at the same time.

And that ending. Oh my goodness that ending! I loved it!

At the end of the day I had to give this book 5 out of 5 stars. How could I not? It was brilliant.

The Priory of the Orange Tree – A Book Review

Lauren2 Comments

The Priory of the Orange Tree was written by Samantha Shannon

As I sat down to write this review, which was right after finishing the book, I realized that I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it.

The premise: The kingdom of Inys has stood for a thousand years, and at it’s heart lies it’s queen, Sabran. Now it’s time for Sabran to do her duty and conceive an heir, but evil lurks in the shadows. A plot to undo her kingdom is at hand, and an ancient Dragon awakens in the deep.

This 800 page fantasy book is 3 parts political drama 1 part fantasy story. With a little queer romance thrown in just for good measure. And I’m not the biggest fan of pure political drama if I’m going to be honest. To much real political drama in the world, thank you very much!

The world building is the book was excellently done. Like, superbly done. The author paints a chaotic landscape in fear of the apocalypse to come.

The character building was well done. Sabran, Ead, Margret, Tané, Loth, Nicklays, and all the rest are very well fleshed out with strong backstories. They all have growth, if not all in the ways that you expect (here’s looking at you unexpected queer relationships!).

The plot, well that, that is where I have some problems. Overall, it’s good. The story is engaging and the world is thriving. But I had some problems with the little bits. Some things happened too slowly, some too quickly. There was an awful lot of “if it could go wrong, it will go wrong” happening here. But again, overall, it’s a good plot, with plenty of momentum to pull the story forward.

On the whole, the book was pretty good. I gave it 3.75 out of 5 stars.

What to Read? – My October 2020 TBR

Lauren14 Comments

It’s a week of lists. First you get what I bought last month. Then you get what I read last month. Now you get what I want to read this month!

That’s a lot of lists.

On to the TBR!

The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso

Magic is scarce in the Raverran Empire, and those born with such powers are strictly controlled — taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon army, to be used as weapons in times of war.

Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire Empire.

Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous world of political machinations.

But fate has bound the heir and the mage. And as war looms on the horizon, a single spark could turn their city into a pyre.

This book is also on my TBR for the year, so that makes me want to read it even more!

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They’re even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie’s doing okay until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.

It’s a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody’s gotta do it.

I’ve had Christopher Moore on my to read list for a while now, I just didn’t know where to start. Hopefully this is a good place!

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

I’m not gonna lie, I discovered this book because of booktok. The description reeled me in though. I mean, trans and Lantinx representation? I’m there.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum’s classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

I’ve read this before, but it’s been years. I want to give all four books a good read through, so I have to start here!

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

IT TAKES A GRAVEYARD TO RAISE A CHILD.

Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family.

I’ve wanted to read this book for a years and just never got around to it. Halloween is the perfect time!

Well, that’s all for my TBR. I’m more of a mood reader, so I don’t want to try and make a huge grandiose list of books that I know I won’t get to. That would be awkward.

So awkward.

Everything I Read in September 2020

Lauren3 Comments

So I thought I’d give this a try, sharing with you everything I read this past month.

Everyone likes a nice recap, right?

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

A story about Kingdoms with huge religious differences and dragons. Not to mention positive queer representation. I ended up giving this book 3.75 out of 5 stars.

The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett

The story of two black sisters from a small southern town. I found myself liking this book a lot more than I anticipated, which was nice given all that I had heard about it. I gave it 4.5 of of 5 stars, You can read my review here.

Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb

A deadly assassin is after Roarke and all he holds dear. Eve will protect Roarke with everything she has, even the full might of the NYPSD. I have been reading the In Death books for years and they are suffering a little from series fatigue. I gave this one 3 out of 5 stars. I’m gonna read the next one too!

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

A short novella about a robot that would rather watch it’s shows than perform it’s duties. What’s not to love? I gave this 4 out of 5 stars.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

A modern exspansion of the Authurian legend and female lead who also happens to be a person of color? I’m down for that. I gave this book 3.75 out of 5 stars. You can read my review here.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

A mysterious pandemic is leaving people with memories of lives they have never lived. This book took me through it! I gave it 5 out of 5 stars!

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

All this villain wants to do is bring down his arch enemy, within the rules of course. Enter his new sidekick Nimona, who just wants to sow chaos. This graphic novel was so cute! I gave it 3.75 out of 5 stars.

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

A young girl looks to forbidden magics to save an Empire on the brink of revolution. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. You can read my review here.

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne

In the kingdom of Pell you’ve never seen a Chosen One quite like this. I DNF’d this one. And I wanted so much to like it. Is no stars an option? No? I gave it 1 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente, art by Annie Wu

A series of intertwined stories from hero/villain connected women who have been fridged (killed). If you love comic books this is for you! I gave this 4 out of 5 stars!

A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Patricia finds a vampire lurking in her small town and and the ladies of her book club are the only people she can trust. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

A band has to perform in a singing competition for the fate of humanity. In space! I wanted to like this book, as I loved The Refrigerator Monologues by this author, but alas, it was not to be. I DNF’d this frantic, hyperactive book. Sorry book. 1 out of 5 stars on Goodreads because you can’t give zero stars!

Fangs by Sarah Andersen

The adorable graphic novel about the love story between a werewolf and a vampire. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Of everything I read this past month, I’d have to say I loved Recursion and A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires the most. Obviously, I gave them both 5 stars!

What did you read in September?

The Bone Shard Daughter-A Book Review

Lauren1 Comment

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.
Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.

Well, that surely was a read, wasn’t it. See I’m not so sure about the first half of this book. And the second half was good. But as a whole book, does it work?

I just don’t know. I’m so conflicted!

From the very beginning of this book I felt like I was jumping in at the middle of the story. Which as we all know from my review of Faith that it’s not my favorite thing to have happen in a story.

I also didn’t like how the character pov jumps happened by chapter. Don’t get me wrong, as the book went on I understood why the author chose the approach she did take on the time she spent with each character. It just really bothered me during the first half of the book. For example, she mentioned a character in the first 4 chapters that wasn’t heard from again until you were 30% of the way through the book.

Given all of my negative thoughts thus far, I very nearly DNF’d this book. But I decided to stick with it, and I’m glad that I did. I found myself really enjoying the second half of the book to the point where I was up until midnight reading because I had to know how it ended.

I will say the ending felt a little weird to me. I know its the first book in a series but I dislike when endings don’t actually end something. This felt like one big ole “see you next season”. I don’t particularly like when books try to be movies or tv series.

It irks me.

All that being said, I really enjoyed the bone shard magic system. It’s complex and, well, gross. I loved it.

The world the author created is of a nation on the brink of revolution, and it works, for the most part. I would be really interested to see how the world expands in future books in the series.

Pacing was slightly problematic for me, the first half of the book plodded along while the second half picked up speed. It’s part of my confusion at reading the book.

Character development was really well done. The authors characters really shine in this story. They were rich and complex, which is something other parts of the book were lacking.

As I don’t know that I’d pick up the next one in the series, I have to give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Decorating The Front Room With Books

Lauren4 Comments

So if you haven’t noticed, I love books.

Big shocker, I know.

And one of the things I usually do with books is decorate with them. We’ve been in this house for two years and, thus far, the front room has no books! This must be fixed!

See! No books! Lots of empty spaces for books though. And I have a collection of my mom’s old books from when she was a youngling. Of course, they were all upstairs in the library so I had to drag them all downstairs. Multiple trips.

That was fun.

As you can see the books added some much needed brightness and color to the dark cubbie shelving things.

And yes, most of my plants are still doing well! Despite my best efforts, one of them gave up the ghost. One of them is trying to make up its mind as to whether or not it is going to go bye bye. I’m still striving to keep them going.

But that’s it. That’s how I decorate with books (and plants).