Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag

June 27, 2018 jaleenajo Leave a comment

It’s halfway through 2018, apparently. I’m not sure if I actually believe it, but we’re going to roll with it and go ahead and do this lovely tag that I first saw this year on ChelseaDollingReads‘ BookTube channel (I’ve seen the tag around in past years, but this is my first time actually doing the tag, I think). Apparently this tag was originally created for a blog and then moved to BookTube. Links to the creators, Chami and Earl Grey Books, are here and here. If this sounds fun to you, consider yourself tagged!

As of literally today, I’ve read 51 books so far in 2018. I have many opinions on all of them and on my reading in general. I’m probably going to do this weirdly and give around 4 answers for all of the questions, which isn’t the point, but here we go!

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2018

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio Nasty Women by Samhita Mukhopadhyay The Unseen World by Liz Moore

I’ve read some fantastic books so far in 2018. My four favorite (probably) are these: In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan, If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio, Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, and The Unseen World by Liz Moore.

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2018

Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3) A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.1) Impostor Syndrome (The Arcadia Project, #3) Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3)

After scrolling through my Goodreads tracker, I’ve apparently read 4 sequels in 2018. All of them were good; I wouldn’t say that any of them were amazing. I’m pretty sure I gave all of them 3.5 stars. That’s actually really weird. If I HAD to pick, my favorite of these is probably Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire.

2.5 (Bonus question I made up) Best new series you’ve started

So far in 2018, I’ve read the first books in 4 new fantasy series that I’m really excited to continue with. I like to have a certain number of ongoing series that I’m reading, so I’m relieved that 2018 has already come out with some great ones.

3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to

There are actually a bunch of 2018 new releases that I haven’t gotten to yet, but these three are the ones I’m most interested in and want to get to the soonest. Two of these are Book of the Month picks from previous months.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

This summer, there are 2 next-in-series books coming out that I’m ridiculously excited for; one is actually the tenth and final book in my all-time favorite urban fantasy series (Magic Triumphs), which is bittersweet, and the other is the third book in my favorite ongoing science fiction series (Record of a Spaceborn Few). And later on in the fall, there’s a new fantasy book coming out that caught my eye at BookCon, Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri.

5. Biggest disappointment

By far, the biggest disappointment in my 2018 reading was tackling House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, a 700+ page, unconventionally formatted weird novel and finding it dull and poorly written. It’s a great concept; I wish it could have been better executed so that I didn’t feel like I wasted my time reading it.

6. Biggest surprise

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

I’m always really wary of the hype surrounding new YA releases, but in Furyborn‘s case, I found it completely earned. You’ll find my full review of Furyborn here.

7. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)

I decided not to overlap this category with my favorite books of the year so far, but instead to pick books that I really enjoyed but that also showed me that I want to read a lot more from those authors’ backlists. I’ve already added several other books from Kirsty Logan, Aimee Bender, and Alissa Nutting to my TBR.

Also, WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME THESE HARD QUESTIONS.

8. Newest fictional crush

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang also would have worked well for my biggest surprise so far this year, because I basically never read contemporary romance but found this book to just be completely delightful, sexy, and well-written.

9. Newest favorite character

I’m a sucker for a badass yet flawed heroine, so of course Maggie Hoskie from Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning had to make this list. But I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that Elliott and Luke from Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands made it to my list of favorite characters of all time.

10. Book that made you cry

I cry a lot when I read, so there were a lot of choices to pick from, but these three books absolutely had me in tears multiple times, for different reasons. I Crawl Through It is a must-read book for our time, since it addresses the horror and tragedy that teenagers are forced to accept as the norm and challenges that fact. The Unseen World is a book about love and loss and absolutely gutted me emotionally. And What Happened by Hillary Clinton was a stark reminder of the incredibly impressive woman who should be our president right now.

11. Book that made you happy

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

I mean, obviously a lot of books made me happy this year, but these two really stand out. In Other Lands was just absolutely wonderful, and I laughed out loud more times than I can count while reading it; it also had this really touching and sweet romantic arc. The Kiss Quotient was such a fun read that I devoured so quickly and made me want to find other romance reads that are just as delightful.

12. Favourite book to film adaptation you saw this year

Call Me by Your Name. I haven’t read the book, so I’m not sure that this can officially count for this question, but it’s probably the best movie overall that I’ve seen this year as well. I actually don’t think I’ve seen any other book-to-film adaptations this year, but I do want to see Love, Simon (haven’t read that book either, though).

13. Favourite review you’ve written this year

Lately I’ve been posting more detailed book reviews, and it’s something that I want to continue to do going forward, but I don’t know that I really have a favorite. Maybe I will by the end of 2018.

14. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

I love the shadowed white cover of An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard. I’m also a huge fan of the rainbow design of Made for Love by Alissa Nutting; a lot of people hate this cover, but it totally works for the weird and quirky book. Mem by Bethany C. Morrow is such a gorgeous physical book; it has a translucent white overlay but the naked hardback is a golden vault design, which fits well with an ominous vault featured in the novel.

15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

SO MANY. I’m going to try and limit myself to 4, because every time I try to make a TBR I end up deviating from it, but also because I just can’t at all narrow down what I want to read soon. I’m also not going to mention any of the books I already talked about in earlier questions. So that being said, I’m currently almost halfway done with The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer, and I absolutely want to finish before the year’s end. I have an ARC of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik that I received at BookCon, so that obviously makes the list as well. A Little Life and A Tale for the Time Being both fall into that “I can’t believe I haven’t read that yet!” category, so I’m going to prioritize those in the next few months.

In conclusion, this tag didn’t make me freak out at all, but it did make me think more intently about what I’ve read so far this year and realize how many awesome books and authors I’ve encountered. I’m excited to see what else I’ll read in the second half of 2018. This was a lot of fun to put together, and please consider yourselves all tagged!

book review

Book Review: Between the Sea and Stars by Chantal Gadoury

June 19, 2018 jaleenajo 1 Comment

39311858

Book review: Between the Sea and Stars by Chantal Gadoury

3 stars

Between the Sea and Stars is the story of a young merrow girl named Lena who lives with her father and brother beneath the sea, but dreams of exploring the surface. Unfortunately, it’s forbidden for merrows to explore the land or even emerge from the sea after the merrow queen was betrayed and killed by her human lover, who sought her magical shell that allowed her to transform from a merrow to a human. Through an unforeseen course of events, Lena does find herself on shore and immersed in the human world, although not in the way she had expected, and is forced to quickly adapt to a world of intriguing new friendships and enemies alike.

I’ve always loved mermaids and fairytale retellings, so I was of course drawn to this book due to its undersea setting and Little Mermaid inspiration. I really enjoyed learning about the world and culture of the merrow, and I thought that the Danish influences in the book’s language made it very unique. I thought that the story of the merrow queen, which may not have happened exactly the way Lena’s always heard it told, made an intriguing backdrop to Lena’s story, and it kept me curious about the assumptions that the humans and merrows make about each other’s worlds.

What didn’t work quite as well for me in this book was Lena’s character. It’s stated that she’s nineteen, but to me she seemed younger. She comes across as somewhat sheltered and naïve, which in some ways is very understandable considering her circumstances; after all, she has to adapt to living on land in a very short period of time, and she’s also dealing with the land and the sea both being very patriarchal in structure. However, I did find it frustrating that Lena rarely acts to assert or defend herself. To be fair, Lena has to deal with the aftermath of trauma over the course of this book, which absolutely affects her actions to a certain degree, but as a reader I couldn’t help but want her to stand up for herself. I also would have loved to have seen more female characters in general.

I did have some difficulty with the pacing of this book; it’s very short and moves quickly, but I felt like after the initial inciting events, there’s not much forward motion of the plot over the course of the book. I would have preferred that the book was longer so that we could see how the different tensions building in the novel would play out. There is so much interesting worldbuilding in this book that I would have loved to see more of both the human and merrow worlds, but I’ll have to wait for the next book. Overall, this was a fast, enjoyable YA novel rooted in fairy tales and mythology, and fans of mermaid stories will likely want to check this one out.

*I received an eARC of Between the Sea and Stars from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Reading Recaps

May Reading Wrap-Up

June 13, 2018 jaleenajo Leave a comment

May is over and it ended quite awhile ago! I’m very late with this wrap-up, but I have good reasons (sort of…).

So May was a pretty crazy month in general for me; one of my good friends got married in Arizona, so another friend and I flew there and then took a road trip to the Grand Canyon and then Sedona before going to her wedding. It was a lot of fun, and between packing, traveling, and a crazy month at work, May really flew by. And then I spent the first few days of June at BookCon (I’ll have a post up about my experience soon! Spoiler alert: it was fantastic 🙂 ) and then another crazy week at work leading up to a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week at the beach with friends. But now I’m finally trying to get caught up with bookish things, so here’s what I read in May:

Total books read: 9

#readmyowndamnbooks: 6

Audiobooks: 2

ebooks: 1

Reviews:

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (5 stars) – This month, I read one of my new favorite books of the year, and also of ever. In Other Lands fits right into that niche genre of books that satirize and also pay homage to traditional portal fantasy stories, like Lev Grossman’s Magicians series, or Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On, or Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. If you liked any of those, you’ll also probably love this book. We follow Elliott, a young bisexual British boy, who’s given the opportunity to enter the fantasy realm of his dreams–except nothing there is as he expects it to be, and he finds himself constantly challenging society’s expectations and norms. Elliott is extremely intelligent but very difficult in social situations, and he’s constantly butting heads with everyone around him except for his crush, Serene-Heart-In-the-Chaos-of-Battle, a beautiful elf maiden who is also, like all female elves, a deadly warrior. The two of them form an at-first tension-filled friend group with Luke Sunborn, a seemingly perfect stereotypical male fantasy hero, with the three of them gradually becoming closer and learning more about accepting each other’s faults as they progress in their training to join the Border Guard, which acts as a military force policing both the fantasy realm and its border with the human ones.

I will say that if you are a stickler for structured plots, then you may have issues with this book. Personally, as long as I’m enjoying what I’m reading and I love the characters, I could care less about having drawn-out battle scenes or whatever, so it didn’t bother me at all, but I could see some readers taking issue with the fact that the story meanders without following a traditional conflict/resolution fantasy plot struture.

This book is a beautiful story about growing up and learning to challenge traditionally held beliefs, which may not be the right ones, and learning to understand and accept yourself for who you are. It’s about friendship and how people can complement each other while still being from very different backgrounds. It’s about learning your strengths and using them to make the world a better place. It made me laugh out loud continuously and also cry multiple times. It’s one that I can see myself re-reading and enjoying just as much each time. It’s honestly wonderful, and I really hope that more people read it.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand (4.25 stars) – Furyborn is a well-written, well-plotted, absorbing, feminist YA fantasy. There’s a great amount of action and worldbuilding, and also some romance, which I’m always a fan of in my YA. Since it’s the first book in a planned trilogy, I’m extremely excited to see where things are headed, and I’ll absolutely be planning on picking up the next book. I won an ARC of Furyborn in a giveaway on Litsy, and you can see my full review of Furyborn here.

The Color Master by Aimee Bender (4 stars) – I really enjoyed this short story collection and will definitely be picking up more books from Aimee Bender. These short stories run from more realistic to magical realism to fairytale-esque, and I liked the variety. My three favorites were “Tiger Mending,” which is about the relationship between two sisters but also about the literal stitching together of fraying tigers; “The Color Master,” which is a partial fairytale retelling of “Donkeyskin;” and “The Devourings,” which is about a woman who marries an ogre and what happens after he mistakenly eats their children.

Impostor Syndrome by Mishell Baker (3.5 stars) – This was the third and final book of Baker’s Arcadia Project series, so I can’t tell you much about the plot, but this series revolves around Millie, a double amputee with Borderline Personality Disorder who survived a suicide attempt and now works for an organization that attempts to regulate the secret interactions between the human and fae worlds. It’s a great UF series that has a lot of discussion about mental illness, and I’m sad that it’s ending, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each book and hope that Mishell Baker writes more things in the future.

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas (3.5 stars) – this short novel is intended to bridge the gap between A Court of Wings and Ruin and the upcoming trilogy that focuses on side characters from the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy. It was enjoyable to read, but there wasn’t a whole lot happening in terms of plot. I still love this series and am very excited for the new books.

The Merry Spinster by Mallory Ortberg (2.75 stars) – Unfortunately, this was a disappointment for me. I love Ortberg’s old site The Toast, and I thought that Texts From Jane Eyre was delightful and hilarious, but these stories mostly fell flat for me. They weren’t as funny or as creepy as I wanted them to be. I love fairy tale retellings, especially dark ones, and I wanted to love this, but it ended up being only OK. I do feel like I have a decent amount of fairy tale knowledge, but Ortberg’s knowledge of fairy tales and classic literature is super impressive, so I’m sure that there are some references that I missed; it’s possible that may have taken away some of my enjoyment.

The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee (2.75 stars) – This book is literally a futuristic version of Gossip Girl, and I checked out the audiobook from my library after hearing a review on the Young Adulting podcast (which sadly was forced to change its name to Bad on Paper). It was a fun audiobook listen overall, but it did drag in parts, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of most of the characters. There is a sequel out, and apparently it’s going to become a trilogy, but I don’t think I’m into it enough to continue.

Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore (2.5 stars) – This was an example of a YA book with a really great premise that (for me) failed in its execution. Jane, Unlimited is about a teenager who accepts an invitation to visit a sort-of friend’s family’s island mansion on the advice of her recently deceased aunt, who had made her promise that if she were ever asked there, she would say yes. While there, she finds a number of strange rich people and suspicious circumstances, and eventually the story branches off into five different choose-your-own-adventure-ish endings, all in different genres (except you really have to read all five or you’ve only read a bit of the book, so it’s not really Choose Your Own Adventure, unfortunately).

And also unfortunately, none of the five possible plot lines were very good. Neither were any of the characters, who all acted sort of nonsensically and were seemingly without actual personalities. No one was guilty of this more than Jane, the main character, whose entire personality could be summed up by the word UMBRELLAS. You see, Jane is a teenager who makes artsy umbrellas, and they are SO AMAZING that wealthy art dealers want to buy them for thousands of dollars, and everyone sees them as evidence of Jane being basically the coolest chick alive. I wish I was kidding. I guess if you are a huge fan of umbrellas, you would enjoy this book more than I did.

As I said before, Jane’s story branches off into different genres, which sounded like something I could really get into, since I basically love all genres. But all of the stories seemed like they were half-explored; the fantasy one in particular just seemed very lazy and not well thought-out. The horror one was fairly creepy, which I did like, but most of the others just felt far too silly for what they were supposed to be doing. I know that a lot of people loved this book, and I did finish it (I DNF a lot of YA if I’m not feeling it) but it definitely wasn’t for me.

Has anyone read any of these? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

book review

Book Review: Furyborn by Claire Legrand

June 13, 2018 jaleenajo 2 Comments

Book Review: Furyborn by Claire Legrand

4.25 stars

Furyborn follows two young women, Rielle and Eliana, who are living in the same world but 1,000 years apart. Rielle is the daughter of the king’s general, and she has been forced to hide her staggering magical powers for her entire life, until they are unintentionally revealed. Once her talents come to light, Rielle is forced to undergo trials to prove that she will use her magic as a force for good as the prophesied Sun Queen, protector of the realm, rather than the also prophesied Blood Queen, who will bring ruin in her wake. And 1,000 years later, Eliana is serving a tyrannical empire as a bounty hunter in order to support her family, but she is torn out of the world she is familiar with when her mother disappears and she has to make a deal with an underground rebellion in order to find her. Their stories are told in alternating chapters as each of these very different young women are forced to battle their way through tremendous obstacles and find out who they can really trust.

I’d like to start by saying that I loved this book. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I’m very picky when it comes to YA, and maybe especially YA fantasy, and there are a lot of books that I’ll DNF fairly quickly if they’re not what I’m interested in. Furyborn kept and held my interest the entire book; the alternating chapters made me constantly anxious to know what would happen next with each character, and I felt like I was getting little tastes of their stories that kept me motivated to find out more. It’s difficult for me to choose which story I preferred since they were both so captivating, but if I was forced to choose, I’d probably go with Eliana’s. I liked that she was an unabashedly morally grey character who had to make tough choices in her line of work in order to protect her family.

I honestly thought that it might bother me to read the story of someone set so long after the other main character’s, since I thought that might mean that you would already know how Rielle’s story ended and Eliana’s might then seem too distant to care about, but it didn’t work out that way at all. Instead, I loved that we got hints of each girl’s story through the worldbuilding, and I especially loved how things like magic, which are commonplace in Rielle’s world, are treated as myth in Eliana’s. It’s a risky, creative premise, but for me it definitely worked.

Furyborn as a whole is a well-written, well-plotted, absorbing, feminist YA fantasy. There’s a great amount of action and worldbuilding, and also some romance, which I’m always a fan of in my YA. Since it’s the first book in a planned trilogy, I’m extremely excited to see where things are headed, and I’ll absolutely be planning on picking up the next book.

*I won an ARC of Furyborn in a giveaway.

Reading Recaps

April Reading Wrap-Up

May 3, 2018 jaleenajo Leave a comment

April is over and I read a bunch of great things!

I unexpectedly had a really stellar reading month in April: I read an unheard-of three 5-star books (what!), re-read a YA favorite, found a new YA series to follow, and found a new author that I need to now read all the things from (Kirsty Logan). I also participated in Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, which was wonderful as usual. I’m really hoping that I can keep the momentum going in May, because there are SO MANY BOOKS that I want to read RIGHT NOW.

Stats:

Number of books read: 10

#readmyowndamnbooks: 7

Audiobooks: 1

House of Leaves Breath of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #2) The Cruel Prince by Holly Black On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century The Gracekeepers A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2) The Unseen World I Crawl Through It Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3) Penance

Here’s what I read, ranked from most awesome to least:

The Unseen World by Liz Moore (5 stars) – This book had a lot of build-up, but the last 150 pages were very much worth it. I absolutely loved the direction that things ended up going (yes, I have to be that vague). The Unseen World is about Ada, a young teen in the 1980’s, whose brilliant computer scientist father begins to lose his memory. At the same time, Ada begins to discover that she doesn’t know her father as well as she always thought she had, and she has to confront these feelings while attempting to uncover her father’s secrets. It’s about growing up, and learning to shift your perspective when your worldview is suddenly altered, and about AI. Highly recommend.

I Crawl Through It by A.S. King (5 stars) – I was so surprised by how much I loved this book; I basically never give 5 stars to YA, but in this case it was so earned. I Crawl Through It is an incredibly relevant novel about a group of teens dealing with extremely difficult issues, but it’s so much more than that. It’s surrealist and uses magical realism elements to highly the absurd contradiction of teens being forced to function normally and take endless multiple-choice tests in a world where nothing is being done to protect them against school shootings and bomb threats. It’s about the ridiculous fact that people don’t pay attention to real issues happening right before our faces. It’s about how we have so much horror happening that it becomes our new normal, and how we can shock ourselves into challenging our sense of what normal is. It’s a book that’s difficult and strange but also makes perfect sense, and I think everyone should read it.

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (5 stars) – A very short and informative essay that’s essentially an instruction manual for resisting tyranny based on what historians have learned from the 20th century. A very important read in today’s political climate.

The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan (4.25 stars) – This was a really lovely novel set after the earth has become almost entirely covered by water, and prejudices between those that live on land and on the ocean divide the remaining population. It’s told in multiple perspectives, but our main characters are a “bear-girl” who performs a routine with a bear in a floating circus and a “gracekeeper” who is responsible for laying the dead to rest at sea. Their lives come into contact briefly at first and then they work to find their way back to each other. I really enjoyed the world-building and Logan’s writing; I’ll definitely be looking to pick up more from her.

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (4.25 stars) (re-read) – This series remains the most enjoyable ongoing YA (ish) fantasy series I’m reading.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (4 stars) – A YA “it” book that lives up to the hype! I very much enjoyed this dark faerie story full of cruelty and revenge. Looking forward to the next book.

Penance by Kanae Minato (4 stars) – This mystery/thriller set in Japan is full of twists and told in multiple perspectives; I really enjoyed Minato’s previous book Confessions, and I definitely enjoyed Penance just as much.

Breath of Fire by Amanda Bouchet (2.5 stars) – Unfortunately I don’t think I can continue with this series; I still really like the worldbuilding, Greek mythology elements, and main character, but the terrible love interest and sexist behavior of literally every male character is just too frustrating, so I think I’m out.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (2 stars) – Well, that was disappointing. I should start by saying that I love weird books; the weirder, the better. I also love when books utilize alternative formats and modes of storytelling, because it can be really creative and interesting when done well.
BUT. Books need to have more than that. To be successful, you still have to have good writing, memorable and well-developed characters, and an interesting plot. House of Leaves fails on all three of these accounts, unfortunately making its alternative formatting the most interesting thing about it.
This was actually a book that I’ve looked forward to reading for years and years, and I hate giving books bad ratings, and I wanted to love it, but I just didn’t, at all. The Johnny Truant sections in particular were so cliche and lazy that it almost made me unable to finish the book. At first I was really into the faux-academic format of House of Leaves, with all of the made-up quotations and footnotes (I also love academic writing) but after awhile you start to realize that you’re being told everything about the characters and shown nothing, and that it takes away any emotional impact the book might’ve had. A book needs to at least be good enough to justify the way that the story is told, and it wasn’t. The end result of this book just felt hollow and dull, even though with its premise the book should’ve been anything but that.
I know that this is a very well-known and much-loved book, but it didn’t work at all for me, even though I went into it really wanting to love it. Would not recommend.

What did you read in April? Have you read or do you want to read any of these? Let me know!

readathon

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon Wrap-Up!

April 29, 2018 jaleenajo 1 Comment

That’s a wrap on this round of Dewey’s! I had so much fun participating in the readathon after a pretty stressful week, and I felt myself relaxing more and more throughout the day, which was honestly the best part. Sometimes you just need to take a chill day and be bookish!

I started out the readathon at a decent hour–it starts at 8:00 a.m. my time but I never wake up right at the start time, as I always catch up a bit on sleeping during the weekends. I did wake up around 9:00, though, and started reading almost immediately, which was pretty good for me. I started off the readathon with Obsidio, the third and final book in the Illuminae Files trilogy, which I actually pre-ordered and received in March but have been waiting for the readathon to actually pick up. I knew that it would take me a decent amount of time to finish, but since it was what I was most looking forward to, that’s what I wanted to use to kick off the readathon.

I actually read all of Obsidio with only one short break to post on Litsy and eat a delicious salad for lunch, which is very unusual for me! It was definitely an enjoyable read, but I didn’t like it as much as the first two books in the trilogy as it didn’t get nearly as in-depth with any of the characters. After Obsidio, I took a break to go to the gym and shower, and then started in on Penance by Kanae Minato after reading the first page of all 3 of the shortest books on my TBR and deciding that one appealed to me the most. I took a break partway through Penance to order dinner (I got takeout! Turkey burger and sweet potato fries, because that was just what I was in the mood for and didn’t feel like cooking during a readathon) and watched an episode of Life Sentence. After that, I finished up Penance fairly quickly. It’s a short book (only 225 pages) and divided into 5 parts, one from each perspective of the women impacted by the murder of a child.

After I finished Penance, I took a long social media break to catch up with Instagram and Litsy, and found that I was not really in the mood to try to start and finish another book during the readathon, even though I did have two shorter books on my TBR that I could have probably finished if I’d really tried. I just didn’t feel like I would have been able to focus on the book enough to really get everything out of it that I normally could, so instead I went with a humorous YA fantasy, In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan, which fit my mood and level of alertness much better. Because I was getting tired, I only got through about 50 pages (with frequent breaks) before I was ready to fall asleep around 2:00 a.m. Throughout the day, I also listened to just a bit of The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; I just wasn’t really in an audio mood. Overall, it was a great, relaxing, and productive readathon!

Dewey’s Closing Survey!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

There was an hour in the middle of the afternoon when I got really off-track because I was trying to find tickets to see Avengers: Infinity War on short notice with a large group of people. All of the nearby theaters were full and so much texting was happening and it took me awhile, but I did end up getting tickets and getting back to reading.

2. Tell us ALLLLL the books you read!

I finished 2 books, Obsidio by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman (615 pages) and Penance by Kanae Minato (225 pages), and read from 2 others, The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer (24 pages) and In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (50 pages). In total, I read 914 pages!

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3)

Penance

The Female Persuasion

In Other Lands

3. Which books would you recommend to other Read-a-thoners?

These would all make good readathon reads! Especially Penance, as it’s very short and fast-paced.

4. What’s a really rad thing we could do during the next Read-a-thon that would make you smile?

This year the mini-challenges were all given at once, as opposed to other years when they come out one hour at a time and last for only a few hours. I think I preferred the hourly mini-challenges.

5. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? Would you be interested in volunteering to help organize and prep?

Very likely! I will definitely be participating in the next round of Dewey’s on October 20th, and I like the idea of getting more involved by hosting a mini-challenge or donating a prize next time!

If you participated, how was your readathon??

readathon

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon: Mid-Event Survey

April 28, 2018 jaleenajo Leave a comment

Hi fellow readathoners! I hope everyone is really enjoying Dewey’s so far if you’re participating. I missed the opening survey because I was staying off of social media for the first few hours, but I’m back with my mid-event updates!

Unfortunately, my internet is being terrible and I can’t upload any pictures, but my instagram feed is linked in the sidebar.

Penance

1. What are you reading right now?

I’m currently reading Penance by Kanae Minato, which is a mystery/thriller set in Japan. It’s about how the unsolved murder of a young girl impacts the lives of her friends into adulthood, and so far it’s creepy/twisty/absorbing.

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3)

2. How many books have you read so far?

So far I finished one book, Obsidio by Jay Kristoff and Amy Kaufman, but it was a longer one (615 pages, albeit with alternative formatting so there’s less text on each page). I also listened to some of my audiobook of The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

After I finish Penance, I think I might start Furyborn by Claire Legrand or In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan because I like the idea of getting immersed in a new fantasy world. But also, I just really hope that I do finish Penance to meet my goal of finishing 2 books.

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

Yes! For the past few days I’ve been trying to figure out tickets for friends for Avengers: Infinity War and of course it took everyone until Saturday afternoon to figure out when they were free, so I spent awhile trying to find seats that aren’t too terrible. Thankfully, I did find decent tickets and I’m going to see it tomorrow!

5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

I was surprised that I stayed off of social media for so long! Usually I like to check in a lot, even when I’m really focusing on a book, but I read almost all of Obsidio without checking in.

How’s your readathon going so far?

readathon

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon TBR and Goals

April 27, 2018 jaleenajo 2 Comments

It’s that wonderful time of year again–time for another round of Dewey’s 24-hour readathon!

If you aren’t familiar, Dewey’s is a readathon that takes place over 24 hours, and the way to “win” is to read the entire time. Many people, myself included, never read for the full 24 hours and that is also OK–you can participate as much or as little as you want. It’s a low-pressure and very social readathon that tends to get a lot of participation across many countries and platforms. If you’ve never participated, I highly recommend it–it’s a lot of fun! If you want more information or to sign up, check out the Dewey’s site here.

During the week leading up to Dewey’s, I usually spend a fair amount of time agonizing over my TBR. Dewey’s can be tricky to plan for since you don’t know what reading mood you’ll be in and you tend to need shorter, faster-paced books to carry you through. I actually made a stack of recommendations of books that I’ve loved that I think would make great picks for Dewey’s on my Instagram account (linked on the sidebar).

This time around, I don’t have any novellas or graphic novels on my TBR since I’m not in the mood for graphic works and I don’t currently own any unread novellas. It’s possible that this will cut into the amount that I’m able to finish, since those are typically what I use to keep myself motivated and break up the day. That being said, I’ve put together a pretty awesome TBR stack that I’m very excited to dig into. As always, I definitely don’t plan on reading all of these books, but I like to have options as I’m very much a mood reader. I’ve got a variety of genres: fantasy, both space-related and post-apocalyptic science fiction, realistic fiction, mystery/thriller, and a collection of horror fairytale retellings. These are all fairly new books; I’ve been making an effort to read from my backlist TBR shelf lately, but for the readathon I’m in the mood to treat myself to some newer things.

So, here’s my Dewey’s TBR!

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3) The Female Persuasion Furyborn (Empirium, #1) The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror Penance Bannerless In Other Lands

I would normally rank these in order of most to least likely to pick up during the readathon, but this time around I’m almost equally excited for all of them. The exception to this is Obsidio by Jay Kristoff and Amy Kaufman, which I pre-ordered before its March release yet fully intended on saving it for Dewey’s. The Illuminae Files series is perfect for a readathon; the books are chunky yet there’s not much text on each page due to their alternative formatting, and they’re extremely fast-paced so that you’re motivated for binge-reading. I’m planning to use this book to kick the readathon off and figure out the rest of my TBR after I finish it.

As far as longer YA books go, I have 2 other options on hand: I just won an ARC of Furyborn by Claire Legrand in a Litsy giveaway, and for awhile I’ve really been looking forward to picking up In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. I’m more likely to pick these up after I finish both Obsidio and one of my shorter books (I think?) but I like the idea of starting a longer book during Dewey’s that I won’t necessarily finish during the readathon, but that I can carry on reading into May.

I have both the audio and the physical copy of Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion, which is the only book in this stack that I’ve already started. I’ve listened to about an hour of the audiobook so far and really love it; I’ll probably use the audiobook to help break up the day, or if the weather forecast magically changes and I want to go for a walk.

And in terms of shorter books, I have 2 novels and a collection to potentially pull from. I’m liking the idea of picking up either Penance by Kanae Minato or Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn after I finish Obsidio; both are less than 300 pages long and seem like they would be fast-paced as well as good. I feel like there’s a high likelihood of me reading at least one of them. And then I also have The Merry Spinster, a collection of fairytale retellings with a horror twist by Mallory Ortberg (who recently announced a transition to Daniel Ortberg but is listed as Mallory on the book). I think that even if I don’t read the entire collection, I might read a story or two in between longer books and then finish it later on.

Goals-wise, I’d like to finish 2 of these books and start a third. I think that’s pretty reasonable. I’d also like to keep up with posting updates throughout the day as well as checking in to see how everyone else is doing with their reading on Bookstagram/Litsy/blogs. Ideally I’ll take a reading break partway through the day to go to the gym; I would have loved to go on an audiobook walk or do some reading outside, but as of now my weather app says it’s supposed to be chilly and rainy, so it’ll likely be an indoor reading day unless I need a change of scenery and go to a coffee shop or something. I’d like to read for many hours (I have no idea how many, but “many” sounds good). And that’s it!

Are you participating in Dewey’s? What’s on your TBR?

Reading Recaps

March Reading Wrap-Up

March 13, 2018 jaleenajo Leave a comment

March is over! I’m pretty sure it lasted approximately 1,000 years but it was also over in like 2 seconds. Not sure how to explain that; I don’t have all the answers, guys.

Anyways, I read some books! Not nearly as many as I thought I would or wanted to, but hey, it happens. I actually kicked off the month really strongly by reading 3 books that were all quite good 4-star reads, and I was fooled into thinking that the rest of March would be stellar reading as well. It wasn’t! I started reading (but didn’t finish before the month was over) House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, and it sucked up a ton of my reading time and also (spoiler alert) I hated it, so it wasn’t even really worth it. While trudging through House of Leaves, I did read a few other books, but honestly, nothing really blew my mind this month and now I’m desperate for another 5-star read. Desperate!

And in non-reading-but-still bookish news, I got to see Colson Whitehead give a talk at a local college, and he was amazing and funny and I bought The Underground Railroad and he signed it. So that was pretty awesome. And! And! At a separate bookish talk at a different local college, I got to see my hero/idol Margaret Atwood give a talk, and she was just the coolest.

March stats:

Total books read: 7

#readmyowndamnbooks: 5

When did I obtain the physical books I read? February 2017 (The Exile), April 2017 (American War, Purple Hibiscus), July 2017 (Made for Love), January 2018 (An Unkindness of Magicians)

And here are some reviews!

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4 stars) – This book was beautifully written, but very difficult to read due to the subject matter. It’s about a wealthy family in Nigeria whose extremely religious father severely abuses both his children and his wife while presenting himself as a good and charitable man to the community. When the children are able to go visit their aunt and cousins and get away from their father for a week, they are awakened to the fact that life shouldn’t be like this.

An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard (4 stars) – The Magicians meets Gossip Girl meets Game of Thrones. This book is about a tournament between prominent magical Houses in New York to gain the rule of the Unseen World, or the world of magic. Our heroine, Sydney, is a badass magician with a traumatic past out for revenge. I enjoyed the heck out of this book and would recommend as an enjoyable modern fantasy with great worldbuilding. I could definitely see this as a TV series and wish the book had actually been a series as well. I did have some issues with the writing style, which isn’t perfect, and the fact that climactic action sequences typically only lasted about a page was an odd choice. But overall, I really liked this book.

Made for Love by Alissa Nutting (4 stars) – this was very weird and quirky and full of incisive humor about human nature and behavior. Some people may hate it, and I didn’t love the ending, but overall I thought the writing was great and I very much enjoyed the read.

American War by Omar El Akkad (4 stars) – another difficult read, because this deals heavily with war and its many horrific incarnations and aftereffects. It’s hard to say I “enjoyed” this one, because it was so difficult to read in some parts, but I thought that the worldbuilding was really interesting and this future a very terrifying one.

A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet (3 stars) – So, I really enjoyed the writing style, heroine, and Greek mythology-inspired worldbuilding of this book, but I was not a fan of the “alpha” male main character and the fact that he kidnaps the heroine and we’re all just supposed to get over it. I am going to continue with this series, but it definitely has its issues.

Bachelor Nation by Amy Kaufman (3 stars) – A very quick, entertaining analysis of the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise written by a fan who never shies away from the problematic aspects of the show. Kaufman moves from the history of reality dating shows to an analysis of how contestants are treated and why they act the way we see them on-screen to the modern implications of reality TV fame for contestants. If you watch the show UNreal, there’s nothing too shocking, but I did enjoy it, as you probably will too if you’re looking for a lighthearted, fun read.

The Exile by C. T. Adams (3 stars) – Great premise and ideas, but I wished everything had been fleshed out a LOT more. We could have used more of an introduction to the characters and the world, and the third-person narration with multiple POVs only served to distance me from characters I really wanted to get to know better, and could have done so through a sole main character (Brianna)’s eyes. I really just don’t think that having multiple POVs added anything to the story at all and I’m not sure why that was done. I liked Adams’s version of Faerie quite a bit, however.

And here are the books I purchased in March:

Reading Recaps

February Reading Wrap-Up

March 2, 2018 jaleenajo 1 Comment

February started off with a bang and 2 five-star reads, which was awesome and unexpected! Both of these were nonfiction reads, and I read them right at the same time, which was also very unusual for me; unfortunately, after that, I did have a bunch of mediocre, middling-type reads that were only OK, before I wrapped up the month with a few better reads.

Here are my stats:

Number of books read: 9

#readmyowndamnbooks: 6

Audiobooks: 2

Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America, edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding (5 stars) – YES. This is the type of nonfiction that makes me love nonfiction. This collection was powerful and full of diverse voices discussing the 2016 election, its aftermath, and how we can resist the coming issues.

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton (5 stars) – This book does a very thorough job of exploring what happened during the 2016 election. It’s also a collection of Hillary’s meditations on various issues and topics and a discussion of her life and background. I found it extremely powerful and teared up at several points, particularly the ending. I wish so much that she could have been our president.

A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball (4 stars) – a weird, short, dialogue-heavy novel with sparse prose and a strange premise. A man, referred to only as the “claimant,” wakes up with no memories and must be re-taught even the most basic parts of life by a woman referred to as the “examiner.” I enjoyed the oddness and the slow reveals about what’s going on.

Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein (3.5 stars) – I’m picky about short story collections and the prose in this one was nothing to write home about; I also felt like all of the main characters were basically the same middle-aged dude. However, the science fiction concepts were really interesting and the different tech advances and their impacts on humans very well thought-out. Creative, but I wasn’t blown away.

The Dark and Other Love Stories by Deborah Willis (3 stars) – So, unfortunately this one ended up being a bit of a disappointment for me. It’s not a bad book by any means, but I think that the title being “The Dark and Other Love Stories” makes you think that you’re getting, well, dark love stories. And I wouldn’t classify these stories as dark so much as sad. They left me feeling sad and kind of disappointed, for the most part. I wasn’t that impressed by the writing and I was hoping for deeper meanings that just weren’t there. To be fair, the short stories I read are mainly magical realism, whereas this collection is realistic fiction, so the style isn’t what I’m used to. I will say that I really loved the story “Girlfriend on Mars,” which for me was by far the strongest story of the bunch. Most of the others just didn’t nearly measure up.

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda (3 stars) – Unfortunately, this one was a disappointment for me. I greatly preferred Megan Miranda’s other adult thriller, All the Missing Girls. I still enjoyed her writing style in this book, but the plot twists for me were just not very good; things weren’t explored and also didn’t make a ton of sense.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (3 stars) – this is the first book in a YA UF/PNR series that I found at a library book sale for $1 and thought I would give a try. (It also fits into Fae-bruary, a readathon to read fae-related books in the month of Feb, which I hadn’t planned on participating in, but was just a nice coincidence) And I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t say it was amazing. The writing is pretty good, and I liked that the Fae in this world are very cruel, which is my preferred version of Fae, but the book definitely had a lot of issues. There are 5 books in this series and I do think that I will try to read them all based on this one, but I’m not necessarily expecting anything earth-shattering, and this isn’t a new favorite series or anything.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (3 stars) – this was the second book in the Wicked Lovely series, and unfortunately it had a lot of the same issues of the first book. It also got a lot darker in tone, and I did enjoy it, but I opted not to continue with the series afterwards.

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (3 stars) – Meh. I used to read a ton of historical fiction about the Tudor period, so it was interesting to see an alternate take on familiar historical figures, and I did like the twist about prejudice against animal shapeshifters replacing the religious conflicts of the era. Overall, however, this just kept getting too silly for me and it lacked any depth.

And here are the books I bought in Feb:

	Most Anticipated 202… on Most Anticipated Book Releases…
	LaRonda @FlyingPaper… on Dewey’s 24-Hour Readatho…
	Ethan Romero on 24 in 48 Reading Challenge
	Shawnerly on Feb Reading Wrap-Up
	jaleenajo on Most Anticipated Book Releases…

beachesandbooks

Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag

Book Review: Between the Sea and Stars by Chantal Gadoury

May Reading Wrap-Up

Book Review: Furyborn by Claire Legrand

April Reading Wrap-Up

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon Wrap-Up!

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon: Mid-Event Survey

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon TBR and Goals

March Reading Wrap-Up

February Reading Wrap-Up

I write about nontraditional beach reads for nontraditional readers