It’s barely Tuesday anymore, but Happy Tuesday anyway! Two weeks in a row!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time.
Anyway, without further ado, let’s get started! In no particular order, here comes my list!
Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston: One of my favorite books ever. A fantastic fall read – it had all the right vibes. It was one of the best things I read in 2020.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab: Another one of my favorite books ever. I was so jittery with excitement when I was reading it. I actually read this one in the late fall as well, as well as 2020.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: One of my newer favorite books – I read this last year in 2024. I loved the experience of reading it for the first time – the unique way it was written, the unreliable narrator, the clues for what’s actually going on laid out for the reader. It’s wonderful.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: I’m always singing the praises of Chaos Walking – I just love this trilogy. I first read this series way back in 2010.
The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima: I adore the Seven Realms Series, and I haven’t been shy about it. Honestly, I wish I could experience this series again for the first time, it was so good. One of the highlights of 2015 for me.
This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee: An awesome Frankenstein retelling. Another book I read in 2015.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: I’m just about positive that I read this in 2009. A great read.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: One of my favorite books ever, and one of my oldest ones at that. I read this in 2010. Such a classic.
The Other by Thomas Tryon: Another one of my oldest favorite novels. It’s pretty obscure nowadays, but no less great. I read it back in 2009.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: A classic that I was looking forward to reading for a long while by the time I actually read it. This was back in 2009, around Christmas. I used to love watching different adaptations of this book, and honestly I still like them, though I haven’t seen one in years.
What are your favorite books? Which books do you wish you could read for the first time?
As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!
Happy Tuesday everybody! Also – yay! – double post!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Books I Did Not Finish. Like last week’s prompt, I feel it’s rather self-explanatory. Of course, I’ve chosen to DNF several books in my life – more than ten, definitely – so I’m going to pick the ten most recent ones.
Here we go!
Witchmark by C.L. Polk: This one… I dunno, I was intrigued by the premise, but I think I was just so distracted and stressed by my job at the time that I couldn’t get into it (I’m pretty sure it was the holiday season). I remember distinctly not being in the mood for reading at the time as well. (Attempted to Read: 2020)
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins: So yeah, I know everyone loved this book, but I just couldn’t get into it. To be fair, I couldn’t get into Jane Eyre either and I know they have their differences, but… I dunno, I guess it’s not really my genre or whatever? (Attempted to Read: 2021)
Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima: This one hurt. This was one of my anticipated reads of November 2022, and it just wasn’t doing it for me. I’m not even really sure what it was about it in particular; honestly, I think it was several different things. (Attempted to Read: 2022)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: I wanted to like this one. Actually, I wanted to love it. But it was waayyy too slow for me. I think I made it to around 16% before I threw in the towel. I was bored. (Attempted to Read: 2022)
The House Witch by Delemhach: I loved the premise for this one too… but the writing killed it got me. Like I loved the world and the characters, but this book needed an editor. It has a lot of potential though… (Attempted to Read: 2022)
Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker: Yet another one of the books on my anticipated reads list – this one for July 2023. I couldn’t even make it past the first couple chapters. This one just didn’t grab me at all. (Attempted to Read: 2023)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson: I’d been wanting to get into The Stormlight Archive for a while, though I was extremely apprehensive about it because all the books are over a thousand pages long each. Annnd… I couldn’t get into it. I gave this book over two hundred pages, as well. I think I got so burned out from it, actually, that it put me in a reading slump. So yeah, it wasn’t for me. (Attempted to Read: 2023)
Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu: And a third representative from the anticipated reads list appears – this novel from the March 2023 list. I just… I dunno, I think I got a third of the way through this before the characters just irritated me too much. I’ve also found that as I get older, I can’t stand how Marie Lu writes hyper-intelligent characters. (Attempted to Read: 2024)
Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro: I dunno, I just couldn’t get into this one. I didn’t grab me at all, really. And I gave it over a hundred pages. I just don’t think it was for me, unfortunately. Dunno what it was about it, though. (Attempted to Read: 2024)
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle: This one… I might actually go back to, eventually. Even though it was slower, I enjoyed a lot of what was going on here. But I made the unfortunate decision to start reading this a few days before Christmas, a holiday that – as much as I love it – always distracts and/or stresses me out. So maybe I’ll give this one another shot someday. For now, however, it will remain unfinished. (Attempted to Read: 2024)
What books have you DNF-ed recently? What are DNF-ed novels that bother you the most? Why do you typically DNF books?
As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!
It’s that time of year again – the time of year where I recommend books for the season! My recommendations of autumn books of 2024!
It’s unfortunately a bit later than I had intended it to be this year (I had planned to get this post out yesterday or the day before), but it’s still October so it’s not too late. (Though it’s definitely later than when I did this post last year.) Also, because it’s spooky month I might also recommend some spookier books and not just books with that are autumn themed or have fall vibes in general.
I usually try to make this a list of five, but we all know how that goes. Especially since I’ve read such perfect books for this list in the past year or so!
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love, in this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.
When I read this book last November (and its sequel in January when it came out), I was immediately drawn to the impeccable autumn vibes that it had. Like, they were absolutely perfect – everything felt so cozy. I loved it.
It also helps that Encyclopaedia also takes place in the fall – that’s right everyone, this book’s got a fall setting as well! The epistolary nature of the novel also brings out the cozier vibes even more. Not to mention just about everything about this book is perfect on its own. Just. Read it.
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
This one’s gonna be one of my spookier recs on the list. I really enjoyed how unsettling What Moves the Dead ended up being. Not to mention, it was an excellent retelling.
I should probably note that its sequel, What Feasts at Night, also has a few of the same vibes, but I ultimately preferred book one. It just does everything better.
Perfect for fans of everything from Lockwood & Co. to The Haunting of Hill House, this gothic graphic novel follows a young medium with the gift—or curse, as some might say—to communicate with the dead. This ghost story “powerfully, tenderly, and empathetically examines death, grief, and the afterlife” raved Kirkus in a starred review!
Dorian Leith can see ghosts. Not only that, he listens to their problems and tries to help them move on to the afterlife. It’s a gift that’s made him an outcast to everyone in town. That is except for his dearly departed grandmother, who he’s partnered with to turn this paranormal ability into an honest living, and the local bookshop owner, who seems to be the only non-deceased person willing to give him a chance. But it’s all worth it to Dorian, who feels like he’s been given a bigger purpose. A chance to save those who cannot save themselves.
Then one day, the key to Death’s Door is stolen, trapping all the ghosts in the land of the living. Since he’s only one who can see them, the spirits rely on Dorian to retrieve the key before it is too late. If they can’t move on, they’ll soon be consumed by a ghostly rot that has begun to plague them.
As it continues to fester and spread, and the ghosts become desperate for relief, Dorian must do whatever it takes to find a way to bring peace to the restless dead—even if that peace comes at the cost of his own….
I feel like I’m cheating a bit with this one, because it’s also gonna go on the next list that I do, but I can’t not put it here either. Ever since I read it this past summer, I’ve known that The Ghostkeeper absolutely belonged on my Fall Recs List for 2024. The autumnal vibes are just too perfect.
It also works as a spooky recommendation as well. There’s just so much ghostly activity going on here, not to mention the gothic and gaslamp fantasy aesthetic it has going on. Like it said – it’s too perfect not to include here.
High Fantasy with a double-shot of self-reinvention
Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen.
However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve.
A hot cup of fantasy slice-of-life with a dollop of romantic froth.
Including Legends & Lattes here also feels like cheating, but for a different reason than above. Confession: I actually DNF-ed this book. Yep. That’s why it feels kinda disingenuous to me.
BUT! But, but, but – even though I stopped at 20% I’d read enough of it to know that it has the right kind of vibes for this season. Like, it totally already felt like a Fantasy Coffee Shop AU, and there’s really no better fall feeling than that. And honestly, I adored this aspect of the book. (It was the pacing that was the problem for me, and only the pacin. So freaking slow, ugh!)
A family flees the crime-ridden city—and finds something worse—in “a brilliantly imagined horror story” by the New York Times–bestselling author (The Boston Globe).
After watching his asthmatic daughter suffer in the foul city air, Theodore Constantine decides to get back to the land. When he and his wife search New England for the perfect nineteenth-century home, they find no township more charming, no countryside more idyllic than the farming village of Cornwall Coombe. Here they begin a new life: simple, pure, close to nature—and ultimately more terrifying than Manhattan’s darkest alley.
When the Constantines win the friendship of the town matriarch, the mysterious Widow Fortune, they are invited to join the ancient festival of Harvest Home, a ceremony whose quaintness disguises dark intentions. In this bucolic hamlet, where bootleggers work by moonlight and all of the villagers seem to share the same last name, the past is more present than outsiders can fathom—and something far more sinister than the annual harvest is about to rise out of the earth.
Credited as the inspiration for Stephen King’s Children of the Corn, Thomas Tryon’s chilling novel was ahead of its time when first published, and continues to provoke abject terror in readers.
Everything about Harvest Home screams fall. The setting, the corn festival, the vaguely unsettling atmosphere in the background. Everything.
I really can’t say anything else because I don’t want to spoil anything about this book (because I like it so much), but just know that it has both the fall vibes and the spooky vibes. (Also, it inspired Stephen King to write Children of the Corn guys. Come on.)
France, 1714: In a moment of desperation, a young woman named Adeline meets a dangerous stranger and makes a terrible mistake.
As she realizes the limitations of her Faustian bargain-being able to live forever, without being able to be remembered by anyone she sees- Addie chooses to flee her small village, as everything she once held dear is torn away.
But there are still dreams to be had, and a life to live, and she is determined to find excitement and satisfaction in the wide, beckoning world-even if she will be doomed to be alone forever.
Or not quite alone-as every year, on her birth-day, the alluring Luc comes to visit, checking to see if she is ready to give up her soul. Their darkly thrilling game stretches through the ages, seeing Addie witness history and fight to regain herself as she crosses oceans and tries on various lives.
It will be three hundred years before she stumbles into a hidden bookstore and discovers someone who can remember her name-and suddenly, everything changes again.
In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is by a New York Times bestselling author
V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.
Addie LaRue has it all guys. Demons, magic, curses, and cozy Bookshop AU vibes. It is yet another book perfect for fall reading. And just a good book in general.
Of course the vibes are there, but it’s also just all in the novel’s atmosphere as well. Just. Yeah.
#1 New York Times best seller Booklist Editors’ Choice 2015 – Youth Named a Best Book of 2015 by Time Magazine, School Library Journal, Barnes & Noble, NPR, PopSugar, The Millions, and The News & Observer
Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.
That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.
Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here–it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.
Carry On is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story – but far, far more monsters.
Honestly, dark academia in general always feels right to read in the fall. And Carry On is certainly no different in that regard. It helps that at least half of the novel takes place in autumn.
It also helps that there are quite a few supernatural goings on. ‘Cause not only does it feature witches in the form of mages, but ghosts show up too. And we can’t forget about the vampires too, of course. So, once again, we don’t just have autumnal vibes here, but spooky ones, too.
What books have you been reading this fall? Have any of them had any autumn or spooky vibes? Do we share any of the same favorites?
And if course, thank you to everyone so much for reading, and I hope that you have an wonderful day/night!
Happy Tuesday everybody! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve participated in this post. Whoops?
Anyway, Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Books I Was Assigned to Read in School. These can be books you loved or hated. Or just tolerated. Bonus points if a tiny review is given!
So here are ten of the books I had to read for school! In order from when I read them!
Dear Levi by Elvira Woodruff: This is an oldie, both the book and when I read it. This was the first required reading I did for school – way back in fourth grade! I remember enjoying it well enough, and it was I think the first epistolary style novel I read?
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: This is the next earliest book I remember reading for school. (I’m pretty sure, at least. Can’t think of any others right now at least.) I loved it then, and I still do.
The Giver by Lois Lowry: I remember reading and enjoying this in middle school. So much so that I read the two sequels that existed at the time – Gathering Blue and Messenger. I don’t think it really holds up as an adult, though I don’t hate it as much as some people I’ve seen.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I remember having to read this in eighth (and again in ninth) grade. I enjoyed it so much at the time that I read ahead, before rereading it again with the rest of the class. It was one of my favorite books as a teenager.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: This is one of the only things I remember reading in high school. I remember liking it, though parts of it made me sad.
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: I remember reading this for college. I enjoyed it well enough whilst reading, and I’ve remained miffed to this day that we finished up the book in class and never had a final discussion about it! The instructor had one for every fifty pages or so and then just didn’t for the last bit of the book! It was infuriating! We just went on to the next required reading, unceremoniously!
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: I loved this when I read it in college, and I still love it today. (I also enjoy retellings of it, as we’ve seen.)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: I remember enjoying this novel eventually. It took me some time while reading it, though. It was sooo slow.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: The main thing about this book I remember is that it was boring. (To me.) I didn’t even care for the modern retelling of it – The Wife Upstairs – that I read a few years later. I ended up DNF-ing the retelling.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: I remember being bored by this one too, though not nearly as bored as I was when I read Jane Eyre. I guess I kind of felt more neutral towards this one.
Here I am again! Doing this two weeks in a row, already. Woo! Here’s this week’s Top Ten Tuesday.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Debut Novels I Enjoyed. So I picked ten books that I really enjoyed reading. (Genre or age group debuts are also allowed, a couple of which I included myself.)
It’s been a bit (ei: a month) since the last time I did one of these, but since I’ve gotten my crap back together, I’ve decided to bring this back.
So without further ado, let’s get into the post. (Also, yes, I know this is technically nine days and not seven. … Shh, say nothing!)
Saturday 12/31: DNF’s of 2022, Five Star Books of 2022
On the left day of 2022, I did a double post after a several day hiatus. (I get busy around the holidays, okay?) These posts were concerning the books I read over the past year, specifically the ones that I DNF-ed and the ones that I gave five stars. If you’re interested and you missed them, you can check out the DNF post here and the five star books post here.
Sunday 1/1: Happy New Year
My New Year’s post was about… you guessed it, New Year’s! It was basically just a post wishing everyone a Happy New Year and going over my goals and stuff that I want to do in 2023. You can read the post here.
Monday 1/2: December 2022 Reading Wrap-Up, Majestic Monday #6
On the second day of the new year, I once again double posted. Firstly, I posted my December 2022 reading wrap-up, wherein I discussed my StoryGraph reading statistics from last month. Then, I posted the first Majestic Monday in like a month, but the sixth one chronologically. In this one, I highlighted A Coup of Tea by Casey Blair, The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty, and Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer. You can read the reading wrap-up here and the Majestic Monday post here.
Wednesday 1/4: 2022 Reading Wrap-Up, Shelf Control #7
On Wednesday, I did another double post. (I’m noticing a trend here, lol.) The first was my year of reading for 2022, where I go over the my 2022 StoryGraph stats as a whole, and the second post was another Shelf Control, where I talk about Haunting the Deep by Adriana Mather, the sequel to How to Hang a Witch. If you missed it, you can read my 2022 year in review here and the Shelf Control post here.
Sunday 1/8: Anticipated First Quarter Books
Yesterday, I finally posted my anticipated books… for the first quarter of 2023. So January, February, and March. There’s waaayy too many novels on it to list here in a compact manner, so just check it out here if you’re interested in new fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and contemporary novels coming out.
So, this year, I was fortunate enough to read a lot of books. Unfortunately, I didn’t like – or, at the very least, couldn’t get into – a few of them enough to finish them. Yes, this is that list. So, here I go.
Note: Though this list is numbered, it isn’t ranked by my enjoyment of the novels. It’s ranked by the order that I attempted to read the books in.
Witchmark (The Kingston Cycle #1) by C.L. Polk: This one is cheating a bit since I technically tried to read it at the very end of last year. I didn’t not like the book – not at all! – I was actually pretty interested in it. The problem was I attempted to read it around the winter holidays last year, and I was incredibly busy – much more so than this year even. I’ll probably give this another try eventually.
Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer: I want to finish The Lunar Chronicles. I really, really want to finish The Lunar Chronicles. But both times that I’ve tried to finish Cress it just doesn’t happen; for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to finish reading this book. I will say that both times I’ve made an attempt, something came up, so I’ll probably try again sometime. I really want to finish this series, after all.
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: Everyone loves this book. I wanted to love this book. But it was just too slow-paced for me, I guess.
Children of Ragnarok (Runestone Saga #1) by Cinda Williams Chima: I was very excited for this release, because I love a lot of Chima’s books. But I just couldn’t get into this one, and I found the characters to be kind of bland and not as likable as from her other novels. That and the repetitively used and (presumably) Norse-based words almost gave me a headache. The plot also took a bit too long to start getting off the ground. I mean, a hundred plus pages? Come on…
The House Witch by Delemhach: This book seemed so cozy and fun. It seemed like it has a bit more plot, and it also seemed a bit more faster paced than Legends & Lattes (which if already DNF-ed at this point), so I had some hopes for it. But alas, I just didn’t care enough about this book to get into it. It also felt under-edited there was some dialogue and naming conventions that took me out of the story.
