Start on Your Shelf a Thon TBR #StartOnYourShelfathon

What is #StartOnYourShelfathon?

#StartOnYourShelfathon is a 2020 star-themed readathon hosted and run by CW from The Quiet Pond. The aim of #StartOnYourShelfathon is to read as many unread books on your bookshelf as you can between December 13th 2019 and December 31st 2020.

#StartOnYourShelfathon isn’t an ordinary readathon too! The mascot of #StartOnYourShelfathon is Castor the Star Collector who is also a sloth friend of The Quiet Pond, who has lost all the stars he has collected over the years and needs your help to find them again.

For every book you read as part of #StartOnYourShelfathon, you collect a star you can add to your ‘star map’. Read books, collect stars, give yourself an amateur star-collector name, and create constellations! You can read Castor’s story and find information about and resources for the readathon here.

Lady NightSky’s #StartOnYourShelfathon Goals

I now present you with Lady NightSky (My Star Collector’s Name) 😉 who has, for the moment, the down-to-Earth goal of reading 20 physical fiction books, 10 Netgalley Arcs, 5 Audiobooks, 5 Library Books and 20 e-books.

It could happen that Lady surpasses this goal, but she doesn’t like being in a hurry while reading.

(And now let’s stop with the weird third-person writing.)

I will for now list only my physical book’s TBR here, otherwise this blog post would become way too long and I probably would only finish writing this in February.

When I read each of the planned books I will add one star to the map below and in December I’ll do a wrap-up for this challenge alone. I’m curious to see my own reaction to the books I buy myself, because if the way I’m choosing books isn’t working so well for me, then I will have to rethink my buying decisions in the future.

I think most of my TBR books will be a four star read for me, but let’s see, surprises do happen more often than not.

Many times I heard about the books for the first time on Youtube, aka Booktube, and I apologize if I forgot in some cases where specifically  I heard about each book for the first time. I will add the Channel whenever I do remember tough.

Since this is the internet I have to write the disclaimer “My personal opinions on the following books/YouTube channels below are solely my personal opinions and they are not meant to be offensive to any YouTube Content Creator/Author/Reader or Writing Genre.”

 

My #StartOnYourShelfathon TBR

My shiny 2020 TBR books!

1. The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library #1) by Genevieve Cogman

I have been hearing about this series for awhile now, so let’s start it.

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2.The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I have been interested in reading more by this author, so when I heard about this historical fiction at Kalanadi’s Youtube Channel it seemed like a good place to start.

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3.A Winter’s Promise (La Passe-Miroir #1) by Christelle Dabos, Hildegarde Serle (Translator)

I heard divided opinions about this book on Booktube, so I decided to check it out and make up my mind. The cover of this book is beautiful too, so this is a #covercrush case.

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4.The Power by Naomi Alderman

I have been interested in reading this since it won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, so let’s make this happen.

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5.Mind Games (Mind Games #1) by Kiersten White

This is one of my new favorite authors and the premise caught my attention for sure.

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6.Promise of Blood (Powder Mage #1) by Brian McClellan

I heard on Daniel Greene’s Channel this is an awesome fantasy series, so let’s see if I like it too.

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7. The Cloud Roads (The Books of the Raksura #1) by Martha Wells

Since I started reading the Murderbot Diaries series I have been interested in reading more by this author, so this fantasy series book is in my TBR.

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8.The Song Rising (The Bone Season #3) by Samantha Shannon

This is one of my favorite series, which I plan to continue this year.

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9. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Another book by this author I plan to read. This is 804 pages long, so it’s like planning to read a trilogy.

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10. Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1) by Ashley Poston

I felt like reading this since I heard about it on Booktube a long time ago, and it has pirates in space, so I’m sold 🙂

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11. Mage’s Blood (Moontide Quartet #1) by David Hair

I heard about this epic fantasy series for the first time at the Youtube Channel of Kitty G

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12. The Wrath and the Dawn (The Wrath and the Dawn #1) by Renée Ahdieh

I got this book and its sequel, The Rose & the Dagger (The Wrath and the Dawn #2) as gifts last Christmas, so let’s read them.

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13. The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1) by Roshani Chokshi 

This book was very hyped on Booktube, and later that seemed to cool down considerably. I will wait next time to see if a new hyped book is a solid recommendation or if it’s only going through a wave of hype euphoria followed by wrap-ups where the book is rated three stars and the Booktuber says something like “I thought this was going to be five stars but it was meh”. I think I’ll enjoy it even though, but you never know.

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14.The Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1)by Emily A. Duncan

This was the same case of hype followed by three star reviews. The premise seemed interesting, so I got it. I will read it, make up my mind, and wait a couple of months before I buy a hyped book in the future.

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15.The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1) by Melissa Albert

The premise has “a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors”. Ok, I’m sold! 🙂

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16. Slow River by Nicola Griffith

This book was recommended in the Youtube Channel of Kalanadi, one of my favorite Booktubers, so I basically had to check it out.

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17. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

Last year I read  and enjoyed “The Stars My Destination” by the same author, so I’m reading this in 2020.

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18. Nyxia (The Nyxia Triad #1) by Scott Reintgen 

I confess I bought this book without knowing much about it, except that the premise seemed interesting. Let’s see if I strike gold.

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19.The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (The Physick Book #1) by Katherine Howe

This is historical fiction with witches, so it seemed interesting enough.

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20. The “Wildcard” Book

This isn’t a book called Wildcard, but an empty space I’ll reserve to one of the last six physical books I didn’t mention in this list so far and which have equal chances of being read this year.

 

These books are:

Red Mars (Mars Trilogy #1) by Kim Stanley Robinson

To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel #2) by Connie Willis

Cyteen (Cyteen #1-3) by C.J. Cherryh

The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor #1) by Katharine McGee

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard #1) by Scott Lynch

Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) by Jay Kristoff

Any suggestions on what I should read first? Let me know in the comments.

What I reckon from writing this blog post is that I bought way too many Young Adult books the last couple of years. I do enjoy Young Adult books too, but I think that the actual ratio of Young Adult/Adult books is right now unbalanced when related to my reading taste.

One of my Goals for this year is to buy less books, so I’ll try a 95% book- buying ban on Young Adult and Paranormal Fantasy books, with the exception of the few series I want to finish.

I’ll start to ask myself if the new shiny book I want to buy is Adult Fantasy or Adult Science Fiction, and if not I’ll keep it in a list for future consideration. Let’s see how this new buying habit translates into my future TBR. Considerations apart, I’m happy about the TBR I set up for this year.

 

Join #StartOnYourShelfathon!

If you want to join #StartOnYourShelfathon, you can read more information in the readathon information post at The Quiet Pond.

The magic of unread books in your shelf is that one day you’ll find your way to them, in the same way Alice followed a white rabbit down the hole into a unknown new world. According to the story she fell down at seven and a half years old, which is the same age most start reading…

Food-for-though indeed.

Best & Worst Books of 2019

The Worst Books

Last year was a year of transition for me when it comes to my taste in books. If nothing, it proved to me that I am really tired of Paranormal Fantasy and my reading tastes are now turned towards Science Fiction, more specifically Space Opera. More than that, it also showed that if a book is well written or not makes a huge difference for me. If your book and characters are well written I will even rate a zombie post-apocalyptic book five stars, and I don’t usually like books with zombies, but I digress…

Six of the eight Paranormal Fantasy books I read in 2019 didn’t impress me, to a point that I stopped reading four series after the first, second or tenth book because they were mostly a repetition of previous books or other books in the genre. I just started to feel that, if a book series doesn’t bring anything new to a genre which I have now read for many years, than that series isn’t worth following.

In the same way, an author that constantly rehashes the same plot and characters; who always keeps the character and story development you wish it would happen above your head, only as a hook to make you buy the next book in the series; isn’t an author I want to keep on reading. Sorry, but if every book of a series isn’t good enough on its own, I’m out for good. I’m not going for the fan club excuse that the series will eventually become better, not anymore.

My boredom with three stars or lower Paranormal Fantasy books has become so strong that next year I plan to stop buying new books on the genre altogether. Since I don’t like getting rid of unread books I will still keep one or two Paranormal Fantasy unread books by new to me authors on my shelves, but I will donate many others away.

The exception will be books by my favorite author in the genre, Ilona Andrews, because she has innovated her new plots with the inclusion of space opera elements. Apart from that, when it comes to light reading, I’ll mainly substitute Paranormal Fantasy for space opera, young adult, or short stories.

In addition, the whole concept of “light reading” has lost much of its allure. I need stories with more content and that aren’t a repetition of old tropes, with new fresh story worlds, and original characters. The rehashed kick ass hot girl/hot guy, who jumps from one rehashed plot point to another without adding anything new, aren’t working for me anymore. And that is great, it’s time I challenge my mind with new stories, because the old ones bring no more surprises.

Let me know if you would like a detailed list of my worst books of 2019. Meanwhile, let’s move to more positive considerations:

The Best Books

This is a list of books that I, not only rated five stars on Goodreads, but also that brought new story elements on board. All but one were by authors I haven’t read before 2019, and all are by authors I will be following more closely in the next decade.

1.The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

A magnificent retelling of Frankenstein. And the Audiobook Performance of Katharine McEwan was five stars too.

2. An Unkindness of Magicians (An Unkindness of Magicians #1) by Kat Howard

This is a masterpiece, it has magic but even though it managed to have an extremely original plot of fantasy filled up with so many important themes and written in such an awesome style that I can’t believe it doesn’t has a higher rating and it isn’t all that hyped. Quality food-for-thought that everybody interested (or not) in stories with magic should read.

3. Children of the Nameless (Magic: The Gathering #72) by Brandon Sanderson

I read this for the r/fantasy Bingo Challenge. This was awesomely well written. Brandon Sanderson is one of the best fantasy authors at the moment. And you can read this story for free at the Magic The Gathering Website

4. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I rarely read mystery and even more rarely contemporary, but even though I could not stop reading this well written book, so it took me a day to read it entirely.
It is… Quite surprising and I like that in books, I won’t say more not to spoil it.

5. Rebel of the Sands (Rebel of the Sands #1) by Alwyn Hamilton

This was a wonderfully written tale of the desert, with so many important underlying themes and a compelling story with awesomely developed characters.
I will surely be following this series and Alwyn Hamilton is a new favorite author to watch for. The “Goodreads Choice Winner of 2016” prize this book has won is completely deserved.

I also read the second book in this series:

Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands #2)

This is the second book on this awesome YA trilogy with desert setting and Arabic mythology. It reminds me of City of Brass, but imo this is even better.
The writing style, the story world and the characters, everything is masterly written in a page-turner, edge of your seat way, until the very last phrase. If I could give this book more than five stars I would. 😉
I’ll be picking the series third book in the library soon, so stay tuned.

6. Circe by Madeline Miller

A well written and inspiring story. I’ll be surely reading more books from this author. Perdita Weeks is a great Audiobook narrator too.

7. Killing Gravity (Voidwitch Saga #1) by Corey J. White

An entertaining, page-turner novella, with great world, characters and a nice twist in the space opera sub-genre. After reading the first book in just one sitting, I will surely go on reading this series. I also read the next novellas, #2 and #3, and I’m looking forward to more books in this amazing space opera series!

8. Empire of Silence (Sun Eater #1) by Christopher Ruocchio

This is extremely well written. I see it more as epic fantasy with space opera elements than the other way around, but what matters is that once you start reading this, you won’t be able to put it down.

Note: The Blurb gives way too much of the story away, so I would not read it.

9. Snow White Learns Witchcraft: Stories and Poems by Theodora Goss, Jane Yolen (Introduction)

This is a beautifully written collection of short stories and poems, not only inspired, but also composed of “fairy tales fractured, reinvented, re-imagined, retold” as Jane Yolen describes in her Introduction “A Welcome to the Coven.”
Poetic, feminist and literary, the stories and poems are at times obscure, rich with symbols, and at times convey relatable women’s experiences and feelings in a deeply touching way. It also discusses women’s life experiences, and themes like women’s love, desire, marriage, motherhood, artistic expression, freedom, aspirations. It’s rich in themes deeply embedded in all its ‘tales’.

My favorite stories were:
“Blanchefleur”, with a beautiful quote about empathy.
“The Other Thea”, about a witch and her passional shadow.
“The Bear’s Daughter” about a girl who dreams of the south.
“Diamonds and Toads” about the interpretation of morality in fairy tales.
“The Princess and the Frog” with a nice twist on the outcome of the tale.
“Conversations with the Sea Witch” with the “old women sitting together in the sunshine”.
and finally “The Nightingale and the Rose” that was so touching it made me cry.

I consider this book a modern classic. I read it slowly because its richness of themes and meanings requires time to absorb and think over. I’ll probably reread this later on and also also check other books by this awesome author.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Mythic Delirium Books for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

10. A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine

It did take me a while to hear this because I didn’t want to loose any detail of this book full of political intrigue and twists. I will following this series for sure. The audiobook narrator, Amy Landon, was quite good too.

11. Planetfall (Planetfall #1)by Emma Newman

This was a very suspenseful, and character-driven science fiction. I’ll be following this series.

12. The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (Grishaverse) by Leigh Bardugo (Author), Sara Kipin (Illustrator)

This book was very nicely illustrated, and the ‘rewritten’ fairy tales were so original. It is a book I’m happy to have bought a hardcover physical copy of, because it is such a beautiful book.

My favorite stories were the last two, but the whole collection was five stars.

 

And you, have your reader preferences changed in 2019? Which were your favorite books from last year?

Best and Worst Series of 2019 Book Tag

I’m doing this very interesting book tag that I saw for the first time on the Youtube channel of BookslikeWhoa. She is an awesome Booktuber with great book recommendations so, follow her! 😉

Questions and Answers:

1. What is the best series that you caught up with this year that is still a work in progress?

AN UNKINDNESS OF MAGICIANS by Kat Howard. It is an awesome and well written first book and I can’t wait for the sequel. Rating: 5 Stars!

I must also mention EMPIRE OF SILENCE (Sun Eater #1) by Christopher Ruocchio. This is extremely well written. I see it more as epic fantasy with space opera elements than the other way around, but what matters is that once you start reading this, you won’t be able to put it down. (I wouldn’t read the blurb tough, it gives away too much of the story). Rating: 5 stars!

2. What is the best work in progress series that you are still catching up with?

THE WICKED KING (The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black
I know some people didn’t like this series. I liked it even if it has a couple of flaws, and I will surely read the next book, THE QUEEN OF NOTHING (The Folk of the Air #3) asap. Rating: 5 Stars!

3. What was your favorite first book in a series this year?

One of my favorites was REBEL OF THE SANDS by Alwyn Hamilton. This was a wonderfully written tale of the desert, with so many important underlying themes and a compelling story with awesomely developed characters.
I will surely be following this series and Alwyn Hamilton is a new favorite author to watch for. The “Goodreads Choice Winner of 2016” prize this book has won is completely deserved.Rating: 5 stars!

4. What is a first book in a series you read this year that you think should have just been a standalone, not a series?

KING OF SCARS (Nikolai Duology #1) by Leigh Bardugo.
The story of Nikolai dragged to a point I stopped caring, since there were too many POVs jarring the pacing and flow of the narrative there. An interesting character like Nikolai Lantsov deserved a more fast-paced book with a deeper exploration of his story. The other shallow narratives of Nina Zenik and Zoya Nazyalensky just stood in the way of the main story. Rating: 3,5 stars.

5. What is your most over-hyped series of the year?

I’m a bit late for this, but definitely, MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #1) by Ransom Riggs. I have heard so many times how this series was the best on Booktube that I was completely underwhelmed by it. Rating: 1 star.

6. What is a series that you DNFed this year?

I have the same answer as Bookslikewhoa for this question; THE PASSAGE (The Passage #1)by Justin Cronin. I could not understand why people liked this series. I don’t like when a book is way too sad. Dystopia is fine but not overly done. And there was so much exposition, tell and not show. In addition, it went so slow… No rating (since I bailed).

7. What was your favorite series finale of the year?

Again, my answer is the same as Bookslikewhoa, MAGIC TRIUMPHS by Ilona Andrews.
This was an amazing, great final book for this awesome series. I could not put it down. Rating: 5 stars!

8. What was the biggest cliffhanger you had in a series this year?

What a cliffhanger!

SAGA #54 (Saga (Single Issues) #54) by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples.
I won’t say more not to spoil it, but the last issue of this graphic novel was shocking (and kind of upsetting too). Rating: Variable through the series, average 4 stars.

9. What is your favorite spin-off series you read this year?

I have read only one spin-off series this year, but I didn’t like it enough to read past the first book. One of the spin-off books I liked but that wasn’t a series was THE LOST SISTERS (The Folk of the Air #1.5) by Holly Black. I wished this book’s story had been more deeply explored tough, as it was, it was a very rushed-up explanation. Rating: 3,5 stars.

10. What is your most anticipated next book in a series that you read this year that will come out next year?

I’m waiting since awhile for THE NEMESIS (The Diabolic #3) by S.J. Kincaid. I hope it comes out next year. Rating of the previous books: 5 stars!

I should also mention the VOIDWITCH SAGA by Corey J. White. I sincerely hope this awesome series continues. Rating of the previous books: 5 stars!

And finally, I’m waiting for the next book in the Game of Thrones series. But who isn’t, right?

11. What is your most anticipated series to catch up with next year based on what you read in that series this year?

I want to catch up with the BOBIVERSE series next year. I liked the first Audiobook of WE ARE LEGION (We Are Bob)(Bobiverse #1)by Dennis E. Taylor enough to go on reading or hearing the series. Rating: 5 stars!

12. What is your favorite series that you finished this year?

I already mentioned the KATE DANIELS series by Ilona Andrews. I think it finished in the right moment, since I could see myself reading spin offs with secondary characters of this series. Better than to drag it for many more empty sequels and loose its driving force momentum, as I have seen happening with other paranormal series. Rating: 5 stars!

I also finished the FALLEN EMPIRE series, by Lindsay Buroker. This series was extremely entertaining, funny and full of action. It included a captain full of jokes, a moody cyborg, a pessimistic engineer, space pirates, and many other interesting Space Opera tropes. It was the perfect light summer read for me, and I read all its eight books and spin-off short stories in fifteen days. Rating: 5 stars!

13. What is your favorite episodic series of the year?

I don’t really know any episodic series as far as I can remember right now. Recommend me a good one in the comments!

14. What is a series that you finally bailed on after holding onto it for a long time?

The MERCY THOMPSON series by Patricia Briggs. The last book, SILENCE FALLEN, was so utterly boring. I don’t know if it is because I am enjoying less paranormal romance lately, but I think the series has completely lost its momentum on its tenth book. So, after years following it,  I’m bailing. At least until my interest for the paranormal genre returns. Rating: Although I liked many books in this series, this last tenth book gets only 1 star.

15. What is the series you were most surprised that you liked this year?

The MORTAL ENGINE series by Philip Reeve, since I never read Steampunk before. This was one of the most interesting books I came across for a long time; with an extremely well built story world and every single one of the characters had many layers and something unique and special about them. Rating: 5 stars!

So, these were my best and worst series of 2019, I tag anyone who would like to answer these questions. If you do I would like to read your answers, so please leave your link below in the comments.

The two main reasons I’m not following a book series, even if I liked the first book.

1) The author killed most characters I cared about on the first book.

Game of Thrones was a series where I endured the death of a lot of my favorite characters, and its last tv season was *spoiler alert* so tragical! All hopes for my favorite characters, Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, were crushed in the worst possible way. Even though I read all the released books in the series so far and will probably read the next ones (when its ‘wizard’ author finally publishes them).

This was tough, an exception, because there were many awesome characters still left and even if my reader’s heart got broken five times or more in each book, I still had other five awesome characters to follow on the next one. (Furthermore, Tyrion Lannister was staying to the end, saying he was “the god of t**** and wine”).

GOT exception apart, I won’t be doing that again, especially not for five books in a row. If an author kills my most loved characters already in the first book, don’t expect me to hang around (no, no, no, enough with the heartache).

I have a really hard time understanding why authors make us, not only like, but tie all our heartstrings, to a character, show all her/his potential for all those series sequels to come, and not long after, after one hundred pages, kill them. Frankly, I’m not supporting this further.

Imagine how it would be if Dorothy had never journeyed through the yellow brick road, met the Wizard of Oz and melted the bad witch? As a reader, I’m Toto following Dorothy, and I’m not going anywhere without her.

 

2) The author changed the main characters from one book to the next.

I like when a story world stretches longer than three books. But for me, the longer and deeper character journeys that happen during more than one book, in a well-written series, is the most important reason why reading a series is enjoyable for me.

I consider very jarring if the main characters are switched for completely new characters already on the second book, or any next book in the series for that matter. Then, instead of following the amazing plot with the characters I already care about, I have to get acquainted to new points-of-view once again.

It also creates a multitude of superficial characters to populate a series, and that, for me, is usually less interesting than characters who have a personal journey at each new book. I would rather follow two characters for three or many more books.

My upper limit so far has been ten books and I could see myself following a character even longer, if its journey would be interesting enough to go on following, then follow six main characters that had their whole story told in only one book.

I understand that going that deep into analysing a main character is much harder for the author than creating yet another fascinating and superficial first impression, but I like character layers, depths, baggage and flaws. The first book is like the small talk of a conversation for me, the sequels is where stuff gets real and finally interesting. The sequels are when all those skeletons get out of the closet and the flashing characters turn from wooden puppets into real boys/girls/non-binary characters. 😉

And when it comes to plot, it’s better when a second book is done with the main character introductions. Now it’s time for development, deepening what I know about that characters I already know a bit about, so let’s move on with the story. If the main characters I liked in book one become secondary characters, it’s way too jarring. Their story and POV was the main reason why I was invested in the series sequel to begin with, and I rarely like spin-offs. Specially spin-offs posing as sequels. As a reader I feel as if I was promised a second book, so a first book with the same story world isn’t the same. I get that feeling of “this wasn’t the dish I ordered”. It may taste wonderfully, but it’s like ordering salad and getting pizza, or the other way around.

I have suspended my disbelief while following Dorothy, I don’t want her to find out about the Ruby Slippers and come back to Kansas before the story is told. I don’t want either to follow Dorothy’s daughter that picked up another tornado elsewhere and had other witches to melt. That story is already told. Dorothy’s daughter might become an alien hunter and have a completely new story in an a Moon in Saturn, but don’t kill her before her series is done either.

My favorite books from 3 Read-a-thons: A Starry Wrap-Up

 

Hello everybody!

These last months I was participating in diverse Read-a-thons and reading a lot of books. In May I was participating in the Bookémon Badgathon, in July in The Reading Rush, and finally in September I participated in Space Opera September.

I enjoyed many of the books I choose for my TBRs while discovering new favorite authors. At the same time I did not like or finish a couple of others too. Today tough I’ll be talking only about the books I did enjoy and that got at least a 4 stars rating from me.

In this post I listed the favorites for each Read-a-thon, also with the prompt I read them for, so here they are:

Bookémon Badgathon

My favorite for this Readathon was “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart. I read this Thriller for “The Chiller Badge- Read a book that is in the Crime / Thriller / Mystery / Suspense Genre”.

I rarely read mystery and even more rarely contemporary and young adult thrillers, but even though I could not stop reading this well written book. It took me a day to read it entirely. The end is… Quite surprising, and I like that in books, I won’t say more not to spoil it, only that it has a lot of ‘feels’. I almost never have tears for stories, but this was an exception.

For “The Fantastical Badge – Read a book that is in the Fantasy Genre”, I read “Children of the Nameless (Magic: The Gathering #72)” by Brandon Sanderson. This Novella can be found for free on the Magic: The Gathering internet page. It is extremely well written and interesting and Brandon Sanderson is a new favorite author.

The Reading Rush:

I was reading three books for this week long challenge, but of these I can only recommend “Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands #2)” by Alwyn Hamilton, which I read for the “Read a book with purple on the cover” challenge prompt.

This is the second book on this awesome YA trilogy with desert setting and Arabic mythology. It reminds me of City of Brass, but imo this is even better.
The writing style, the story world and the characters, everything is masterly written in a page-turner, edge of your seat way, until the very last phrase. If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. 😉

Space Opera September

One of the prompts of this very interesting Readathon was to read a space opera novella. For this, I read “Killing Gravity (Voidwitch Saga #1)” by Corey J. White and enjoyed the first book so much that I went on and read the next two books of the Voidwitch Saga; “Void Black Shadow” and “Static Ruin”. I hope this series is not yet finished because I’m looking forward to more books in this amazing space opera series!

I also went on reading the whole eight book series that started with “Star Nomad (Fallen Empire #1)” by Lindsay Buroker. The spicy humor and funny situations made the page-turner series the perfect summer beach read for me.

For the prompt of “Read a space opera 500 pages or longer” I read “Empire of Silence  (Sun Eater #1)” by Christopher Ruocchio. This was extremely well written. It seemed to me more epic fantasy with space opera elements than the other way around, but what matters is that once I started reading it, I wasn’t able to put it down. The only thing I didn’t like was the blurb, because it gives away too much and it doesn’t, at least in this first book, have much to do with the actual story, so I would recommend not to read it before diving into this awesome book.

Two Last Notes:

The picture on this blog post is by me. It’s sci-fiye and weird, therefore it fits. 😉

Now in October I’ll concentrate on the Gothic or Horror eerie books that are still lurking in the dark corners of my e-reader otherworldly dimension.

So, stay tuned for more recommendations!

 

 

R/fantasy 2019 Bingo: TBR and First Impressions Wrap-Up

In the picture above:

Titles in blue: Books I read for that square prompt, and included a mini-review here.

Titles in black: The books I chose for the challenge prompts and haven’t read yet.

This year I started the R/fantasy 2019 Bingo challenge with enthusiasm and already read books for seven of the prompts in the bingo card.

I decided to post the Bingo Challenge Wrap-Ups (with the mini-reviews on the finished prompts) quarterly, instead of writing a long, with 25 books or more, Wrap-Up in April 2020.

So here is my TBR with the finished prompts. If you are mainly interested in the mini-reviews and not so much on my planned TBR, just jump to where I put “(Done!)” before the prompt. I also put the already read book titles in bold. And a last warning, sometimes it was difficult to be completely spoiler free on my review, so if you don’t want to know too much about the story, skip the parts with *spoiler alert*.

Slice of Life / Small Scale Fantasy – The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

A SFF Novel Featuring a Character With a Disability– Planetfall-E.Newman

(Done!) SFF Novella– Envy of Angels (Sin du Jour #1) by Matt Wallace
Rating 3 stars: This was very different and entertaining. The reasons I’m not giving it more stars is that for me, the plot didn’t have much structure, being a constant run of crazy and bizarre events on top of each other. For a novella, it also had many characters, to a point where I wasn’t following who was who and not caring much either because *spoiler alert* zombie clowns were attacking. I hope though that the next books of the series may deepen their story arcs.

Self-Published SFF Novel – It’s a though decision, since I have many writer friends. I will probably start five different books and read the one that I like best entirely. One I might try is Lady of the Veils by M.L. John.

(Done!) SFF Novel Featuring Twins – The Black Tides of Heaven (Tensorate, #1) by J.Y. Yang  Rating: 3 stars *spoiler alert*

This was the first book I read with the pronouns they and them for a character and I considered this new and interesting. The writing style though sounded almost like a fairy tale and now and then I felt that important things were told too quickly, like for example, *spoiler alert*, when one of the characters went to a mountain to get phoenix feathers and came back with them almost in the next phrase. I was so surprised that such a thing that could have been a book on its own was just thrown in like that.

*spoiler alert* I also could not really connect with the main character as most of the time Akeha seemed to only react to what happened in the plot, the action being carried by other secondary characters that should have been main characters instead of him, since they were the ones who moved the plot. Even the so feared (for unexplained reasons btw) ‘Mother’ would have been a more interesting POV. The passive way how Akeha mainly reacted dragged the story so much I wished other character had been chosen to be the main POV of the book, because any other character would have done more. I considered the situation with the mother of the twins very superficially told, in a way I didn’t understand why everybody was so extremely afraid of facing her. This was the kind of book that could have been much improved from rewriting and more active POVs.

(Done!)  Novel Featuring Vampires – Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1) by Charlaine Harris–  Rating: 3 stars
This was funny. *spoiler alert* The end was a bit rushed up and out of the blue, but I’ll probably go on reading this series.

(Done!) Format: Graphic Novel (at least 1 vol.) OR Audiobook / Audio drama

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse #1) by Dennis E. Taylor (Author), Ray Porter (Narrator) Format: Audiobook – I enjoyed this book a lot, it made me laugh and the writing style reminded me of The Martian by Andy Weir.

I just wished that when authors would put Brazilians in a story, that they would use Brazilian names and not use Portuguese words (even curse words) out of context. Brazilians don’t use Mexican or Spanish curses.

I’m not saying this because I’m upset about the role of the Brazilian ships in the story. I’m happy that Brazil was portrayed in this book as a powerful country. (I hope one day it gets there but definitely not as a military empire.)

I will surely go on reading this funny and entertaining, page-turner series. The Audiobook performance of Ray Porter was five stars too.

SFF Novel by a Local to You Author – Dream a little dream (Silber #1) – Kerstin Gier

SFF Novel Featuring an Ocean Setting -The Priory of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon.

(Done!) Cyberpunk – Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs #1) by Richard K. Morgan
Rating: 2 stars. The story world/mystery was interesting and I really tried to like this, reading until around 30% of the book, but it wasn’t for me.

I didn’t like the pacing, writing style, and the visceral/gory details didn’t help.

2nd Chance– I’ll give a second chance to an author I didn’t like the previous books so much, so I might read the Shadow of the Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1) by Julie Kagawa for this prompt, even if the first books in the The Iron Fey series were three stars for me and I didn’t go on reading the series.

Afrofuturism – Brown Girl in the Ring – Nalo Hopkinson.
One of my continuing goals is to read more POC Authors, so I intend to read not only this, but many other books of Afrofuturism. Probably still this year if I manage, so stay tunned. 😉

SFF Novel Published in 2019 – The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1) by Roshani Chokshi

Middle Grade SFF Novel – The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1) by Soman Chainani

A Personal Recommendation from r/Fantasy – The Cloud Roads (The Books of the Raksura #1) by Martha Wells

(Done!) Any r/fantasy Book Club Book of the Month OR r/fantasy Read-along Book – Foundryside (Founders #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett

This is long and full of action. I could not really get immersed in this book so I’ll set it aside it for now and pick it up again eventually.

(Done!) Media Tie-In Novel – I read three books that can fit this prompt!

1)Children of the Nameless (Magic:The Gathering)by Brandon Sanderson
Rating: 5 Stars! This novella that Sanderson has written for Magic: The Gathering was awesomely well written. Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite new authors!

2)Mortal Engines (Mortal Engines Quartet #1) by Philip Reeve
This was one of the most interesting books I came across for a long time; with an extremely well built story world and every single one of the characters had many layers and something unique and special about them. The movie is on my asap list to watch.

3) The Circle by Dave Eggers
This book, that warns about the dangers of Social Media, may seem exaggerated and therefore ridiculous, but is it really so exaggerated? I look at the world around me and don’t think it is.
I see how a lot of people are looking at their smartphones for hours and hours, sending pictures of everything, nearly showing everyday reports of their lives. I receive messages of people upset because I was a couple of hours offline and didn’t send them an immediate answer, I do look around me and encounter similarities to the Circle world in an uncomfortable and unpleasant way. So I wonder how much the uncomfortable truths of this book can be dismissed.
My opinion is that the film based on this book had a *spoiler alert* very happy ending that seemed forced and not faithful to the tone and message of the book .

Novel Featuring an AI Character– Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente.

(Done!) SFF Novel That Has a Title of Four or More Words
An Unkindness of Magicians (An Unkindness of Magicians #1) by Kat Howard – Rating: 5 stars!
This is a masterpiece, it has magic but even though it managed to have an extremely original plot of fantasy filled up with so many important themes and written in such an awesome style that I can’t believe it doesn’t has a higher rating and it isn’t all that hyped. Quality food-for-thought that everybody interested (or not) in stories with magic should read.

I might still read A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine for this prompt, in any case this book is on my asap radar.

Retelling! – Deathless (Leningrad Diptych #1) by Catherynne M. Valente.

SFF Novel by an Australian Author – Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) by Jay Kristoff.

The Final Book of a Series– It will come up eventually, when I decide to follow up on a series. Lately I have had many reasons not to follow book series, but this will be the topic for one of my next blog posts.

#OwnVoices – Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse. I also want to read the anthology New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color by Nisi Shawl for this prompt.

LitRPG – Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension #1) by Andrew Rowe. I didn’t manage to read this book last year so I want to do this in 2019. I am an ocean of good intentions, really. 😉

Five SFF Short Stories – The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964 (Science Fiction Hall of Fame #1). (I love me old sci-fi tales from even before the time Spock was our most loved alien.)

I am also hearing the anthology “Tor.com Collection: Season 1” so I’ll post all reviews when I have achieved this year’s goal of hearing and reading-a-ton (this sound funnily the same as Readathon) of these short stories/novellas.

And you? Are you doing reading challenges this year or are you just picking up the next book on the shelf? Have you find any of my picks interesting ? Or not?

Let me know in the comments.

 

Read My Interview at BetaReader.io

The interview, where I talk about my current projects, my beta-reading process and BetaReader.io is now live. Check it out!

https://betareader.io/2019/05/01/leticia-toraci-views-all-feedback-as-an-opportunity-to-improve/