Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2015

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly feature created at The Broke and The Bookish.

1. The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black: Faeries, sarcasm, lady knights, and a strange little town... this is where I'm at.

2. Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headly: My review turned into gushing a little, actually. This is such a bizarre and beautiful book.

3. The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony diTerlizzi: I find I often LOVE middle grade fantasy novels, and this one is great. The series is so much fun, and I am a huge fan of Tony diTerlizzi's gothic styled illustrations.

4. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir: I enjoyed this debut, and I'm looking forward to reading more in the story.

5. The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski: This was a great second book in the trilogy, it really built up the story, and I'm looking forward the final book.

6. The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien: I'm still a little astonished that this is my favourite Tolkien work to date. I really found myself appreciating the world and stories. I don't like it in the way that I like other books... I value it in a very different way from other books that I've read.

7. End of Days by Susan Ee: I just had so much fun with these books! They're both fun in a funny way and fun in a fast-paced awesome way. I mean, there's lots of violence and darkness, but I still had a lot of fun reading them.

8. Empire of Night by Kelley Armstrong: I'm quite enjoying this series so far, even when it has its frustrating moments.

9. Rook by Sharon Cameron: I think I might have to eventually read The Scarlet Pimpernel, though I will possibly be disappointed by the lack of cross-dressing, since I really enjoyed the retellings/ tributes to it that I've read.

10. Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman: I remember reading this at an abnormal speed for this book, because it isn't really a fast paced novel. I enjoyed finally getting the sequel to Seraphina.

June Mini-Reviews

Title: From a Distant Star

Author: Karen McQuestion

Release Date: May 19, 2015

Out of Ten: 4/10

Review: I think that this book is probably good for what it is, but sadly, what it is isn't for me. I went into it know that there would be a romantic element, as it is primarily about Emma trying to save her boyfriend. That said, I really didn't like how her life seemed to completely rely on their relationship, to the point of neglecting school, and not really having friends. It just seemed... unhealthy, and that aspect was never really examined. It didn't help that I didn't particularly care much about Lucas. The other thing that really got to me was how forced elements of the plot felt, with much of it feeling too convenient. 

The part I liked most about this story was Emma's friendship with Scout, the alien who has taken over Lucas's body. It was fun to watch Scout learn about the world, and reminds you how strange a lot of customs are when viewed from the outside. I found I liked reading Scout's view more than Emma's, which isn't that common for me, I often get pretty attached to the main narrator. Overall, this novel had its weaknesses, and what ultimately got me through it was the friendship that develops between Emma and Scout.

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Release Date: Feb. 11, 2014
Out of Ten: 7/10
Review: This story hit a lot of points that I really enjoyed. For one thing, MARS. Mars rates pretty high on my solar system interests list. Its a scientifically minded survival story in what is genuinely the most hostile environment humans have ever been exposed to. I am a huge fan of survival stories like that. The science in this book is very detailed, and doesn't miss a beat, it always feels plausible. I didn't quite feel connected to Mark, though I was still invested in the story, and there was something that didn't quite work in the action-y bits.

In a lot of ways this book is a love letter to humanity. It highlights the best parts of the human race and really is unfailing optimistic. Both human ingenuity, as well as everyone on Earth working together to find a way to keep a single human alive. It shows a lot of faith in the human race on a whole, and ended up being a really enjoyable read.

My Ten Favorite Top Ten Topics We've Ever Done In The Past 5 Years

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly feature created at The Broke and The Bookish.

Wow, FIVE WHOLE YEARS worth of ideas! That's a lot of Tuesdays. I admit, I haven't done all of them... I only started participating in TTTs about two years ago.

1. Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Reader: I think this one is pretty self explanatory, but it was great to be able to talk about the things I love about reading.

2. Top Ten Classics I Want to Read: I've only read one of them since I posted this (The Silmarillion). It seems that I have a slightly loose interpretation of "classic" as well. I'd love to redo this TTT at some point.

3. Top Ten Characters You Wish Would Get Their OWN Book: This was a fun one, but it kind of tortured me a little too... I'd do this one again if I got the chance.

4. Top Ten Things I Like/Dislike When It Comes To Romances In Books: Boy, do I have many grievances to air on this subject!  So it was nice to vent about that.

5. Top 10 Books From My Childhood That I Would Love To Revisit: This post was nostalgic in the best possible way. Also, if you haven't read The Lorax, go, read The Lorax!

6. Top Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist: A lot of things from here are still things that I would love to see/ see more of.

7.  Top Ten Characters I'd Like To Check In With: The reason I liked this was similar to why I liked #3 on this list. I would love to revisit!

8. Top Ten Popular Authors I've Never Read: I've now read stuff from Rae Carson, Richelle Mead, Maria V. Snyder. It turns out I accidentally lied about never having read Neil Gailman! I read one of his short stories a long time ago and really enjoyed it, but only recently discovered he was the author.

9. Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows: This was a recent one, and it was so much fun to imagine some of my favourite books in a visual medium!

10. Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Authors: In reality I have at least sixty favourite authors and the order of the list tends to vary by mood and the phase of the moon, but I really enjoyed reflecting on my reading preferences.

Review: Cutlass

Title: Cutlass
Author: Ashley Nixon
Series: Cutlass Trilogy
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: November 13, 2014
Goodreads
eGalley from Netgalley

A Quick Introduction: When Barren kidnaps his brother's fiancee to ransom her for a duel, he quickly realises that he has bitten off more than he can chew. Not only is Larkin nothing like he expected, but they've both caught the attention of very powerful people. As they're pulled into a quest that involves both of their families and some startling surprises, they have to learn to let go of everything that they've believed to be true.

Out of Ten: 7/10

Review at a Glance: Despite a somewhat slow start and occasionally exasperating characters, this novel was an enjoyable read.

Review: I read this using the Kindle App for iPad, so there were lots of highlighting and annotations. Some of these were of frustration, but they got further and further between as the book carried on. It took a while, but I found myself pulled in as the action picked up.

When I started reading Cutlass I had a moment of horror, where I thought that I was going to have only Barren's point of view to read, because he quite bothered, again at the beginning. I was relieved when I finally got to spend a couple minutes from Larkin's point of view. While I didn't really love either of them, I definitely liked that they both went through development as people, and I certainly liked both of them more in the end than I did at the beginning.

The world building left something to be desired. I wasn't impressed with the naming of either the places or the characters (seriously, some of those names), and I didn't really have a clear view of the world. I have intense personal preferences on how Elves are done, and this portrayal was hit-and-miss for me. I wasn't a huge fan of how the piracy was done.

It took me are really long time to get into this book, and I only really got interested once it picked up for me, which was more than halfway through. Once the plot picked up, I didn't put it down until the end. I wish I had been more engaged at the beginning, but the start lagged.

Overall, I still enjoyed this novel despite some pacing problems and exasperating characters, and it is possible that I'll pick up the sequels.

Top Ten Books On My TBR For Summer 2015

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly feature created at The Broke and The Bookish.

A lot of this was on my list  from a few weeks ago. I'm doing my best to avoid overlap, but there will inevitably be a couple.


1. Sweet by Emmy Laybourne: I enjoy "we are all stranded in isolation and some people are losing their minds" stories.

2. End of Days by Susan Ee: I still have to get to this... one day it will come back from the library.

3. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Andieh: This is another crossover from that other post, but I still have yet to get my hands on it... come on, library.

4. Slasher Girls and Monster Boys editted by April Genevieve Tucholke: Short stories of the horror variety.

5. In the After by Denitria Lunetta: I just go this, and I've yet to read it.

6. Transcendent by Lesley Livingston: Yes, I still haven't read this, but I reall

7. The Spiritglass Charade by Colleen Gleason: I've got an ARC for The Chess Queen Enigma, so I now have an extra push to get caught up. I'm waiting for this to come in from the library.

8. Under a Painted Sky by Stacy Lee: This sounds like a fun historical read.

9. Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal: I've only been meaning to get around to this forever.

10. The Glass Sentence by S. E. Grove: I've been meaning to read this since it came out. The paperback just came out, and reminded me (I do like the hardback better, appearnce-wise, though).

Review: Compulsion

Title: Compulsion
Author: Martina Boone
Series: Heirs of Walden Island
Volume: 1
Genre: Paranormal, Gothic Fantasy, Southern Gothic
Goodreads

A Quick Introduction: Barrie Watson is out in the world for the first time. After growing up isolated by her mother's refusal to leave the house, she's heading to a family home she didn't know existed. She didn't realise she had living family, much less that her mother has a twin. Living on the former plantation, Barrie struggles to understand the secrets of her new family, the island, and the supernatural gift that she was born with.

Out of Ten: 6/10

Review at a Glance: Despite stumbling on plot and characters, this Southern Gothic novel creates an intriguing atmosphere.

Review: I've been meaning to read this book since it came out last year, and I finally got around to it. I didn't really have expectations, and found a fairly enjoyable, though not enthralling.

Barrie is in a completely new environment, doing her best to figure a lot of things out. Her mother refused to spend time outside after being horribly scarred by a fire, and Barrie was pretty isolated growing up. She's trying to make connections with people in the place that is to be in her new home. While she isn't someone I particularly connected to, she still felt like a fairly real character. Eight sort of bothered me sometimes (as he also sort of bothered Barrie sometimes), and their relationship felt a little inconsistent because of that it.

This novel has a lot in the way of atmosphere, and not much at all in the way of plot. It isn't that there's no plot, its more that what plot is there isn't that engaging. There is an over-reaching story, but there are really only hints of it in this first book. There wasn't much focus on a plot, and a lot of events felt unconnected, and there are aspects of the world that still have yet to be explained, though this is mostly because Barrie doesn't know them

This book also has a lot of classic Gothic elements (old mansions, dark secrets, betrayals, people being buried alive, all that good stuff). They all contributed to the atmosphere of the book, which was the most vivid part of the novel. The whole story feels almost... burnished. Overall it has a very warm feeling, but at the same time there's a sense of something rotten at the heart, which was something that I really quite liked.

Overall, while this novel had some very noticeable weakness in plot and characters, the atmosphere and Gothic elements were what really kept me reading. This wasn't a book that I found myself with complicated feelings about- I didn't hate it, but, at the same time, I wasn't any more than mildly interested.

Reading Habits: Many Books

My currently reading pile. Three new books and one kind-of-sort-of-reread.

Reasons I have ended up with a multitude of books on the go in the past:

1. I leave books lying about the house, and sort of pick them up at random.
2. Holds keep coming in from the library. And, obviously, the moment a hold book comes in, I must start it ASAP. I get about a hundred pages (or two hundred pages) in, and another hold comes in the next day.
3. A book doesn't impress me. 
4. I woke up and grabbed the closest book, or found a book in my backpack/purse that I had been reading.
5. I'm just not in the mood for a particular world. Like not being in the mood for a particular food that you generally like. Except for your brain.
6. I'm reading something more dense, so I have a lighter read as well. (Like when I was reading The Silmarillion).
7. I have no attention span. There are gnats with better focus.

So, do you always have multiple books on the go, or do you prefer to focus on just one book at a time?

Here's a photo of my "currently reading" pile from last year.

Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For the Rest of 2015

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly feature created at The Broke and The Bookish. Look at these covers, too!

1. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: This flew under my radar until about a month ago, and it sounds FANTASTIC. Its a sci-fi. A space sci-fi. A space sci-fi made of found documents. That sort of thing is exactly to my taste, so I'm quite excited.

2. Winter by Marissa Meyer: It has been a long wait for this one, and I'm really looking forward to finishing up the Lunar Chronicles.

3. A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis: The synopsis is intriguing and I love the cover. I'm hit and miss with photo-covers, but this is lovely.

4. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: I just finished a reread of the Grisha trilogy, and now I'm really looking forward to getting back to this world.

5. Soundless by Richelle Mead: I've read Richelle Mead's books before, but this is the first one with a synopsis that really caught my interest.

6. Slasher Girls and Monster Boys editted by April Genevieve Tucholke: Creepy short stories, need I say more?

7. The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow: I read Sorrow's Knot, and really liked it a while ago, and the synopsis sounds action-packed.

8. Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George: I find Jessica Day George's books really light, enjoyable fantasy reads.

9. Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson: This sounds like a unique historical fantasy, and I'm looking forward to see where this story goes.

10. Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Grey: I read A Thousand Pieces of You last year, and I'm curious what Grey plans to do with the this world next.

I have a love-hate relationship with my Goodreads Challenge

2015 Reading Challenge

Kelly has read 42 books toward her goal of 100 books.

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42 of 100 (42%)

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For me, there's something enormously motivating about challenging myself to read a certain number of books in a year. I like having a goal, it gives me something to plan for, and I like the feeling of accomplishment that comes with keeping up with my goal. Its led me to really realise something that I only sort of knew about myself: I don't do well with low bars. If I set my reading challenge for 100 books, I will complete 100 books. If I set it for fifty, it'll be more of a struggle. (I'm sure there's some psychology major shaking their head right now, because I'm not sure what that says about me as a person...)

Things I love about my Goodreads challenge:

• It makes me think of what I'll read next, as opposed to just sort of wandering around waiting for something to catch my fancy. (Though I still do that sometimes).
• It makes me push through reader's block more that I generally would. Not in an "I must read this book or else" way, but in an "I should probably give another book a try" way. I'm not great at forcing myself to do things that I hate (vacuuming...) so I'm never really in danger of forcing myself to read if I really, really don't want to.
• It has the dual effect of encouraging me to finish what I start, and discouraging me from slowly dragging through things I really am not enjoying. ("This books is alright right now, I think I can finish it, so lets read another 50 page and see where I'm at" versus "I cannot stand to read another page, this is wasting my time, I'm going to start something else.")
• Goals. I like having a goal. I was hardcore at summer reading programs when I was a kid, and feel a touch of resentment that they don't offer one for adults.

Things I don't love about my Goodreads challenge:

• It doesn't count rereads. This is sort of a pros-and-cons in itself, because I do explore new titles. I still wish it counted when I reread a book for the twelfth time, though. Its still a book. I still read it.
• Do I count audiobooks? Goodreads does, but I'm not sure if I do. Audio is often a profoundly different way of experiencing a story. Don't get me wrong, I love audiobooks. I just experience them in a very different way than I do reading print.
• Similarly, I don't track the manga I read (which isn't much, recently, but still) because it doesn't feel right to count it as a whole book. Pictures are a different medium of storytelling than print books are, and, because I go through them so fast, it feels a little strange to record them the same way I would record a novel.
• It can discourage you from picking up longer or more intimidating books, because they'll take longer to finish. This is less of a problem for me, because I generally read books that I go through fairly quickly, and also because I'm still pretty relaxed about the challenges. It really just takes a little more planning to make it work.
• I read The Silmarillion earlier this year, which is more dense than a lot of my other reads, despite having a similar page count, I usually had more than one book on the go. I read Silmaril in small amounts every day or so, and still managed to keep up with my challenge.

Overall, I would say that it works for me, though I definitely see why people would choose not to do a challenge like this one. It can be a lot of pressure it you get really invested, or set a really ambitious goal. For me, 100 books isn't outside being completely reasonable- I already finish a book every few days, so this doesn't add crazy amounts of pressure. Though, seriously, they could count rereads.

Anyone else have thoughts on their Goodreads challenge, or any other challenge they're participating in this year? Any challenges that you love or hate participating in?

Review: Magonia

Title: Magonia

Author: Maria Dahvana Headley

Genre: Fantasy

Release Date: April 28, 2015

Goodreads

A Quick Introduction: Aza Ray Boyle can't remember ever breathing easy. Since infancy, she's suffered from a lung condition, one that makes her feel like she's drowning in air. Nobody has really has any idea how long she'll live, but as her sixteenth birthday approaches, the symptoms worsen, and she's seeing a ship in the sky- one calling her name. Then Aza disappears into the clouds, into a world where, for the first time, she can breathe. A world where she has power. Now, Aza must decide who she can trust, and who should have her loyalty. Meanwhile, her best friend (and maybe something else too) Jason back on Earth searches desperately for her. The fates of both Magonia and Earth may depend on both of them.

Out of Ten: 9/10

Review at a Glance: This strange, marvelous book completely captured my imagination, and I thoroughly enjoyed the world, plot, and main characters.

Review: This books was wonderful, plain and simple. Its a strange little story, but the elements worked together in a way that I found quite enchanting. The mixture of human drama and out of this world elements really made it shine for me.

Aza makes an interesting narrator. At the start of the story, she has a very cynical, jaded voice, her way of coping with the fact that her body seems to be all wrong for the world, the fact that she's dying slowly. As the story progresses, especially after learning about Magonia and being taken to a completely new world, she grows a lot, while holding onto the aspects of her personality that make her her. Jason is a great partner for her, similar to her in a lot of ways, but also very much his own person, very clever and determined. I grew very fond of the both. While I wish some of the secondary characters were more fleshed out, I also enjoyed hearing about Jason's moms and Aza's family.

The world in this book has a delightfully dreamlike quality to it, especially once Aza arrives on the Magonian ship. The best way I've been able to think of to describe it is that its like a darker Miyazaki film; vibrant, quirky, incredibly imaginative, and uniquely magical. Even the environmental message fits. I would LOVE to see this as an animated film in that style, and I ended up picturing it in much that way. Like a Miyazaki movie, amid all the magic, its the human elements that really strike to the heart.

The story was, well, I want to say "all over the place," but that sounds negative, and it ins't really meant to be. Like the rest of the book, it has a sort of eclectic flow to it. Its fairly fast paced, and, with the enchanting world, had me completely engaged.

(I don't want to spoil, but they mention seed banks! I love seed banks!) The subtle plays on real-world issues like environmental damage and food security were something that I really appreciated. I'm an environmental science students, so this is very much where I'm at. Right here. In the food security area, with all the seeds.

This was really a very "Kelly" book, and I'm so glad picked it up! 

Re-read Challenge: May Re-reads

WHEN I First Read

I read Shadow and Bone in February of 2013, Siege and Storm in July of 2013, and  Ruin and Rising when it came out.

WHAT I Remember

I remembered a lot of the broader details, but not the finer points of the story. 

WHY I Wanted to Re-Read

There was a read-a-long, and I figured, why not, especially with Six of Crows coming out later this year.

HOW I Felt After Re-Reading

I still really like this trilogy. These books are enjoyable in no small part because of the cast. Alina isn't always likable, but she is always understandable- I see where her choices come from, even if I don't agree with them, and she goes through an interesting arc over the course of the trilogy. It was interesting seeing all the foreshadowing that Leigh Bardugo slipped in, now that I knew where the story was going. Overall, I still really enjoyed reading this, and I'm definitely looking forward to revisiting this world when Six of Crows is released. Here are a few more of my thoughts from the re-read on Tumblr.

WOULD I Re-Read Again

Definitely. I'm collected the paperbacks, I'm just waiting for Ruin and Rising to come out.

Review: An Ember in the Ashes

Title: An Ember in the Ashes
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Series: An Ember in the Ashes
Volume: 1
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Goodreads

A Quick Introduction: Laia is one of the Scholars, a people conquered by the spreading Martial Empire. When her brother is taken by the Masks, elite Martial warriors for treason, she'll do anything to get him back. Even agreeing to become a slave at Blackwood, the Martial Empire's school for Masks. Among those training to become Masks is Elias. Despite the fact that he's among the best, all he wants is freedom. As the stakes mount, and their paths intertwine, they discover that nothing about the Empire is as it seems.

Out of Ten: 7/10

Review at a Glance: A strong debut, with an interesting world and engaging characters living a story that I'm looking forward to more of.

Review: This turned out to be my favourite debut of the year so far! While it still has the feeling of a an author finding their feet, it was an enjoyable read, and I'm certainly looking forward to reading more of the story (now that the sequel is confirmed).

While this book had its moments of falling back on some old tropes, there were generally enough unique elements to breathe new life into them, and I found myself quite enjoying the story. Old tropes can be good tropes if they're made interesting. Except the rape-as-a-plot-device trope. That one is pretty much never good.

An Ember in the Ashes is told in alternating points of view, by Laia and Elias. I found that they both felt very young somehow, despite the difficulty of their respective situations. If overdone, I think this would have bothered me, but instead I found it refreshing. They're both in desperate situations, they're both idealists, and we definitely see that idealism put through some serious trails over the course of the story. They're both flawed, but despite that, they manage to not only hold my attention, but have me rooting for them.

The character relationships were hit-and-miss. Some of them were intriguing, some just fell flat for me. I'm hoping to see more of Helene (she deserves her own storyline after all she's been through, and I would like to see her and Laia interact more), and hoping that we don't see Keenan again, because he was just tedious. The Augurs are vague characters at this point, so I'm hoping for more insight into.

I wasn't really expecting magic to play into the story, but it does, and I'm hoping that there will be more explanation for what it is and how it works in the next book, as it was somewhat vague in this book. Its one of the small gaps in the worldbuilding that I would like to see filled in. Otherwise, there are few gaps, though I would like to see the worldbuilding go deeper into the world, with a little less info-dumping, which sometimes bogged down the story a little.

Overall this was a great debut, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Sabaa Tahir takes this world next.

April and May DNF

Title: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
I started this during a read-a-thon, but that couldn't compel me to finish it. This one wasn't for me. It just felt like the same old story somehow. Mare was a character that I neither connected to nor had any interest in. The romantic subplot felt forced, and I wasn't a fan of the love... shape... of some sort that was developing. I didn't find that the plot flowed for me in a way that kept me engaged when combined with my lack of investment in Mare. Also, I kept waiting for her to get a paper cut and blow her cover.

Title: Shadow Society
Author: Marie Rutkoski
After how much I loved The Winner's Curse, I hoped I might like the rest of Marie Rutkoski's work just as much, but this one turned out to be a miss for me. This was just an all-round weaker feeling book, it leaned heavily on some story and character tropes that I've seen too often recently, and I ended up doing nothing so much as losing interest and wandering off. I think this was more a case of "right now its more of the same" than that this was a terrible book, and its possible that I went into it with my expectations too high. 

Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly feature created at The Broke and The Bookish.

An abridged list of books I would love to see on screen, in no particular order.

1. The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski: TV show, of course. I have a very vivid mental image, though, so I imagine I would probably be disappointed at least once. I love the political aspect though, and I would love to see that, and the action.

2. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater: TV show again. Books are often better suited to television shows than film. I would probably watch this religiously, but get offended if they changed ANYTHING. And I'm not usually like that.

3. Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley: Movie for sure. Animated movie. More on that in my review, when it goes live, because I want to talk everyone's ears off about it.

4. Artemis Fowl: Movie, probably. Its the kind of compressed timeline that would be nice, and I think it would make a wonderful movie if done right.

5. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel: Movie or TV show. Airships, people, airships. Also newly discovered animals and crash landing on uncharted islands.

6. Dark Life by Kat Falls: Movie. Its mostly underwater, which is a very interesting pallet visually speaking, and I think it would be a great movie, lots of action.

7. Nation by Terry Pratchett: I think it would make a beautiful movie, possible an animated one.

8. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: There was movie news a while ago, but I'm not sure if that will end up happening.

9. The Lynburn Legacy by Sarah Rees Brennan: TV series. I'm not sure how this would work, but I still hope it would. I think it would be fun, though there might need to be some adaptation and possibly plot changes.

10. A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sarah Biggs Waller: Movie, probably. I picture if with a lot of bright colours on account of the artistic side. (Probably fairly historically accurate, but maybe a little more vibrant and visually beautiful.)