Category Archives: Compilation Posts

Library Loot!

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I added Top Ten Tuesdays, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, three weeks ago, I’m going to try adding a Wednesday post as well! Library Loot is cohosted by Silly Little Mischief and The Captive Reader. Every Wednesday I’ll post what I’ve picked up from the library in the past week, which will give you some idea of the reviews to come on the blog in the following few weeks!

Since this is my first Library Loot post, I’m going to post everything I currently have out from the library.

the president's kitchen cabinetSome of the oldest books I have, that I really, really need to read, are a few that I didn’t get to during Black History Month. (Why is that the shortest month of the year, anyway?) The President’s Kitchen Cabinet and The Residence are both about the White House; the first specifically about African Americans’ role as chefs and cooks, and the second more generally about the White House’s servants and staff. In the same vein I have The Big Sea, the big seaLangston Hughes’ autobiography, which I sent for as a counterpoint to Dust Tracks on a Road, Zora Neale Hurston’s autobiography. The Big Sea had to be shipped to me from a different library, so I didn’t receive it until mid-March. Around that same time I also picked up Jane Crow – the Life of Pauli Murray, about the jane crow pauli murrayoutstanding lawyer and activist. I read about her in The Notorious RBG and wanted to know more.

So I picked up Ten Little Indians in an effort to read more diversely, but then I found out Sherman Alexie is kind of a creep so now I’m not sure I want to read his work at all. I have other Native American literature I can read.

Fight Like A Girl I picked up to read short blurbs about prominent activist women that I might want to read more in depth about.

batman nightwalkerI have finished reading Batman: Nightwalker, Crimson Bound, and Anne Sexton’s Transformations already, so those are getting returned to the library soon. (I already have four more books to pick up!)

sexy librarian big book eroticaOne of my librarians actually recommended The Sexy Librarian’s Big Book of Erotica to me; I’ve only read one of the stories so far, but it was pretty hot, so I’m eager to read the rest of it!

wolves of winterThe Wolves of Winter will be my 13th Canadian book for my Read Canadian Challenge – and it’s a dystopia. Love dystopias! (Also look at that cover – it’s gorgeous – but I love winter.)

Another book I’ve had for a while that I really need to read is Philippa Gregory’s Changeling – I didn’t know she’d written a fantasy series, and I love her historical fiction books!

devil in the kitchen marco pierre whiteThe last book in my stack is The Devil in the Kitchen – Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef. It’s Marco Pierre White’s Memoir of growing up working class and becoming a culinary rock star.

So those are the 13 books I currently have from my library. I’m turning in Batman, Transformations, Crimson Bound, and Ten Little Indians, and picking up my holds sometime in the next few days, but I’ll go over those next week!

TTT: Top Ten Books I Loved that I will Never Re-read

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Books I loved that I will never re-read.

harry potter sorcerer stone

So the catch with this one is I RARELY re-read books. Even if I love them. About the only exception is if I realize I’ve forgotten some details in a series and a new book in the series is coming out, then I might re-read a book or two to refresh my memory. So coming up with books I won’t re-read for reasons other than “I just don’t do that” was the real challenge here.

Harry Potter
Starting out with the classic that everyone re-reads multiple times. I love the Potter-verse (though JK, lately, can go die in a fire) – I’m a diehard Hufflepuff. (I have a hat, scarf, gloves, mug, cross-stitch, enamel pin…the list goes on. I rep Hufflepuff whenever I can.) But I’m never going to re-read the books. I just don’t have it in me to dive into that series again.

salvation's dawnEve of Redemption (Salvation’s Dawn)
This is a set of ebooks I found via Kindle Unlimited about draconic humanoids in a high-fantasy world, and they are surprisingly excellent. But they’re also five large books and I just don’t have the time to devote to that.

odysseyThe Odyssey
I was surprised at how readable The Odyssey was, and I did love it, but it’s still too…obscure in language, I guess, to want to read it again.

Song of the Lioness quartet
song of the lionessOh, Tortall. Song of the Lioness was my introduction to Tamora Pierce and Tortall, by way of my husband, but having read her more recent novels, the quality of writing of Alanna’s story is very obviously lacking. The story is good. The writing level is nowhere as good as her later novels.

goddesscompGoddess Companion
I was reading this in my pagan phase, and it’s still on my shelf, but it’s basically a pagan devotional and I can’t see myself cracking it open again. It did get me through some difficult times, though.

Sookie Stackhouse series
sookie stackhouse billI read most of these before True Blood came out, and then I watched the first few seasons of True Blood as they came out, and while I love Alexander Skaarsgard as Eric, I HATE BILL. I can’t even read the books anymore for picturing freaking Bill from the show. (That’s him on the cover to the right – ew.)

married to the militaryMarried to the Military
This book was invaluable when Alex enlisted in the Marine Corps but is no longer really applicable to my life now that he’s out.

wizard's first ruleSword of Truth series
Man, I loved these in high school. Unfortunately Terry Goodkind’s kind of a douche and I won’t be reading his books again.

kushiel's dartKushiel’s Dart Trilogy
Beautiful, evocative books that I will just never pick up again. I’m not really sure why. There’s something about long books about incredibly-detailed fantasy worlds that I can only read once. I don’t have the energy for them a second time.

world war zWorld War Z
Oh, World War Z. One of the best dystopias I’ve ever read. But I get nightmares about zombies very easily, for some reason. And I slept with the lights on for several nights while I read this, and for a few nights afterwards. I had a detailed plan for what we would do if the zombies came. The book was excellently done but I will not subject myself to that kind of terror again. It definitely tops my list of books I loved that I will NEVER re-read.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Take Place in Another Country

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Hey! I’m trying something new this week, and participating in That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday. If I like it, I may continue with these on Tuesdays instead of my typical book reviews. (Those might get bumped to Monday, or I might actually start reading a little slower and only do Thursday and Saturday – we’ll see!)

This week’s topic is “Books That Take Place in Another Country” – and while I could probably cheat and list a bunch of fantasy, I’m going to try to stick with actual real-world countries!

Top of my list is definitely The Astonishing Color of After. It was my Book of the Month this month and it was outstanding. A small part of it is set in the US, but the majority of the book takes place in Taiwan.IMG_20180323_234037_500.jpg

bornacrime#2 is Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime – It’s set in South Africa. I’ve really enjoyed Trevor as the host of The Daily Show, and his book was laugh-out-loud funny.

 

 

hangman's daughter#3 I’m going with Oliver Pötzsch’s The Hangman’s Daughter. Really the entire series. These are set in 17th century Germany, and they follow the Executioner, his daughter, and her man as they solve mysteries. They are translated from their original German, and they’re excellent.

 

 

 

city of brass#4 – I feel like The City of Brass only barely counts, as it began in Egypt and then moved to a fantasy realm, but it was amazing so I’m listing it anyway! I love non-Western inspired fantasy, and this has djinns, ifrits, court intrigue, a little bit of romance, hidden magic – everything, basically!

 

victorian#5 – I’ve read a lot of Canadian books in the past year for my Read Canadian Challenge, but surprisingly several of those were still actually set in the US! (Well, let’s be real, it’s unsurprising that most of their dystopia has its roots in the US, who’s more likely to be the cause of the end of civilization?) That Inevitable Victorian Thing was YA alternate future. I don’t want to call it dystopia because it was surprisingly positive. Though I really want to see the darker side of the world it’s set in, because that technology could be twisted to nefarious purposes SO EASILY. And as I was writing this, I realized THIS is what I know this author from – I was just looking at my bookshelf at the Star Wars Ahsoka book (which I haven’t read yet, I need to fix that!) and thinking the author looked familiar.

kissofsteel#6 – The London Steampunk series! Bec McMaster’s brand of steampunk romance and political intrigue is exactly my kind of escapist fluff. Vampires, werewolves, robots and London court politics and underground crime bosses – this series was great.

places in between#7 – The Places in Between by Rory Stewart is a book I read MANY years ago before I started this blog – Stewart chronicles his travels as he walks(!!) across Afghanistan. It’s REALLY good, and I really liked his style of writing. He also wrote The Prince of the Marshes and Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq.

 

handmaid#8 – You know, it might be cheating a little bit, but I’m going to throw in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s a harrowing book, and it’s technically set in Gilead, even if it is supposed to be what’s left of the US. But it’s definitely one of my all-time favorite books, and it somewhat fits the theme! (It’s also free via Kindle Unlimited right now!)

crown's fate#9 – The Crown’s Game and The Crown’s Fate are Russian fantasy, and they’re beautiful. I cried like a baby at the end of the first, and the second was wonderfully bittersweet. Game was Evelyn Skye’s debut novel, and I WEPT at the end. It didn’t actually end on a cliffhanger; I didn’t know there was a sequel until much later.

 

 

his majesty's dragon#10 – The Temeraire Series covers the Napoleanic Wars, if there were dragons involved! It ranges from Britain, to France, to China. I’ve only read the first six books and there are apparently nine now. I got a little bored with the series and moved on to other things, but the world building, like all of Naomi Novik‘s work, was really good. (Uprooted, another book of hers not in this series, is an absolute favorite of mine!)

 

So those are my top ten picks for books not set in my country (The United States). It was actually a little difficult, because I didn’t want to use books set in entirely fictional countries, and I read a LOT of fantasy! I also didn’t want to use a ton of books set in the United Kingdom, and that’s where a lot of romance and urban fantasy are based. Honorable Mention probably goes to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which I almost included. Also anything by Philippa Gregory. I’ve reviewed several books that I didn’t include here that would fit, but I didn’t think they were good enough to warrant a spot in a Top Ten list.

This was kind of fun. What do you think, should I continue doing these on Tuesdays? Next week’s theme is “Characters I liked that were in Non-Favorite/Disliked Books.” That’s gonna be a tough one!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

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So I usually publish a review on Saturdays, but as it’s St. Patrick’s Day today, I thought I’d do something a little different, and share the Irish books on my shelves! I have Irish and Scottish ancestry, so I’ve always been fascinated by Celtic things. It’s also a popular theme in the Renaissance Faire community, so I see a lot of it. So here are my Irish books, with a couple of more general Celtic books tossed in.

bloody irishBloody Irish – Celtic Vampire Legends by Bob Curran
A short book, only 186 pages, but centered on Irish Vampire stories. This book hails from the days I played Vampire: the Masquerade all the time! I didn’t find anything in here too creepy, but it gave me material to use in my games!

 

celtic myths legendsCeltic Myths and Legends by Eoin Neeson
This one actually belongs to one of my housemates. Unlike the rest of these, it only has seven stories, but they are preceded by a lengthy foreword on the place of myth in Celtic history, and what we know about ancient Celtic history. Each story is much longer than the stories in most of these other books, as well. And having the larger historical context is pretty interesting.

 

irish fairy folk peasantry talesFairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry edited by William Butler Yeats
This one focuses more on the Irish tales, rather than general Celtic ones, and most of them were collected in the 19th century by folklorists, so the language is rather old-fashioned. There are stories here that I haven’t seen anywhere else, though, like Bewitched Butter, and Rent-day, and The Pudding Bewitched.

 

great irish fantasy myth talesGreat Irish Tales of Fantasy and Myth edited by Peter Haining
Similar to Celtic Myths and Legends, this book includes context for its stories, but instead of a lengthy foreword, it contains a few paragraphs before each story about the legend it came from and the authors who recorded it. I like the bit of context and history it gives to each individual story.

celtic fairy talesCeltic Fairy Tales collected by Joseph Jacobs
Another general Celtic book. It overlaps a few stories with the Irish Peasantry book – The Horned Women and King O’Toole and his Goose, among others, but still a fun book of fairy tales. He has a second book (More Celtic Fairy Tales) that I don’t own.

 

 

 

irish tales fairies ghost worldIrish Tales of the Fairies and the Ghost World by Jeremiah Curtin
Another book belonging to a housemate. A tiny book of only 124 pages, it still manages to cram in 30 stories told within a framework of a man and his houseguest trading stories.

Black History Month

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So February is Black History Month, and I thought I’d try to spotlight African-American-centered books. Most of my reviews this month will be on that topic, but I thought I’d quickly point out a couple of old reviews that are topical, as well.

Tears We Cannot Stop is an excellent place to start, written from a black person to white people.

American War follows a bisexual woman of color in a dystopia where the south has seceded again.

There’s also my Goodreads shelf on Activism and Civil Rights.

Coming up this month are reviews of Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings, from Oprah’s Book Club. By the end of the month I’m also hoping to have reviews of Zora Neale Hurston’s autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, and an ARC of a new African-inspired fantasy novel, Children of Blood and Bone. Also on the list to read is The Black Rose, the story of the first female African-American millionaire in America. This Bridge Called My Back and Colonize This! are also on my shelf, but they might wind up being later this year instead of this month.

I’ve been making an effort to read more diversely, but that covers more than just African-American, so I only have these two to link here so far. Stay tuned this month for more, though! You can find other minority-driven stories under my “Minority Representation” tag.

 

PopSugar 2018 Reading Challenge

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So I’m going to attempt the PopSugar 2018 Reading Challenge this year, in addition to my personal goals. I’m going to list off the prompts, and the books I have chosen for the prompts so far. I’ll come back and check them off on my master list, linked in the sidebar. (And link to my reviews.) I haven’t picked out every book yet, to leave room for books I find interesting throughout the year.

POPSUGAR 2018 READING PROMPTS

A book made into a movie you’ve already seen – Heinlein’s Starship Troopers
My husband’s been encouraging me to read this one, but I HATED the movie. He says the book is quite different. We’ll see.

True Crime

The next book in a series you started – Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
I read Rolling in the Deep, a novella starting this series, a long time ago. Thought it was a standalone, I’m really happy to learn she continued to write more in this world!

A book involving a heist

Nordic Noir – the princess of burundi by Kjell Eriksson
Found this at Baltimore’s The Book Thing, and it’s a winner of the Swedish Crime Academy Award for Best Crime Novel, so I thought it would fit!

A novel based on a real person – Paula McLain‘s The Paris Wife or Circling the Sun

A book set in a country that fascinates you

A book with a time of day in the title – The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
I’ve been meaning to read it.

A book about a villain or antihero

A book about death or grief

A book with your favorite color in the title – Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch

A book with alliteration in the title

A book about time travel – A Wrinkle in Time
It’s time I re-read this, before the movie comes out!

A book with a weather element in the title

A book set at sea – Avi‘s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
A childhood book my husband loved.

A book with an animal in the title – Turtles All The Way Down
John Green‘s newest that I’ve been wanting to read, and have a hold on at the library

A book set on a different planet

A book with song lyrics in the title – Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur
A book about a journalist’s experience on the Trump campaign

A book about or set on Halloween

A book with characters who are twins – something about Jacen and Jaina Solo

A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym – Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin writing as Murray Constantine

A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist – The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
I also have a biography of Radclyffe Hall, so I’ll probably read them consecutively. I might use one of them for the advanced prompt of an author with the same first or last name as you.

A book that is also a stage play or musical – Harper Lee‘s To Kill a Mockingbird
A classic I’ve never read

A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you – Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
Canadian-Jamaican author, so it fits my Read Canadian Challenge as well

A book about feminism – Colonize This! Young women of color on today’s feminism
A book that’s been on my reading list for a while, and I recently bought from a used bookstore

A book about mental health

A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift – No is Not Enough
Given to me by my mother-in-law for Christmas.

A book by two authors

A book about or involving a sport

A book by a local author

A book mentioned in another book
I’ll probably pick one after I read Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, since it’s about reading!

A book from a celebrity book club – The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Oprah’s Book Club List

A childhood classic you’ve never read – Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Another suggestion from my husband

A book that’s published in 2018 – I’ll probably have a bunch of these to choose from, but currently it’s between The Girl in the Tower and Fire and Fury.

A past Goodreads Choice Awards winner – Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (2016)
It looks amazing, and there’s a second book in the series now. 

A book set in the decade you were born

A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn’t get to – Blackwing by Ed McDonald
An ARC I won through Goodreads but didn’t get around to

A book with an ugly cover

A book that involves a bookstore or library – Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
Won a Kindle copy from Goodreads

Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 PopSugar Reading Challenges
This will probably be a book with a cat on the cover, from 2017’s Challenge. Because cats.

 

ADVANCED PROMPTS

A bestseller from the year you graduated high school – Tom Brokaw‘s The Greatest Generation

A cyberpunk book

A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place – Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
Spotted in the Atlanta airport on my way home from holidays with my in-laws

A book tied to your ancestry

A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title – Roald Dahl‘s James and the Giant Peach
Another childhood book of my husband’s that I’ve never read

An allegory

A book by an author with the same first or last name as you – To the Elephant Graveyard: A True Story of the Hunt for a Man-Killing Indian Elephant by Tarquin Hall

A microhistory

A book about a problem facing society today

A book recommended by someone else taking the PopSugar Reading Challenge