Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

March 2020 Reading Wrap-Up

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Failure to Appear by Emily L. Quint Freeman
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  Yes
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  February 17 – March 1
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  LGBTQ+ history from a first-hand perspective
Least Favorite Thing:  Wish she would have acknowledged her privilege?

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

My Posts About Failure to Appear

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 1 – 2
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Tony is presh
Least Favorite Thing:  She’s so selfish!

I mean…. What do I even say? I preferred the movie… They softened Eilis, made her more sympathetic where the romance is concerned. When you watch the movie you understand how she might wind up torn between the two men and the two lives, but in the book she just seems so selfish and calculating…

My Posts About Brooklyn

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
(The Underland Chronicles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 4 – 5
Read Count:  4
Favorite Thing:  Oh man there’s so many scenes I love how can I pick just one! Probably the root beer scene or the sandwich scene lol
Least Favorite Thing:  Fuck a least fave, I love this book.

I have been craving a reread of these books for a minute, and they are on the list of books I recommended to my boyfriend to try out, so I figured I might as well give it a listen as well.

My Posts About Gregor the Overlander

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins
(The Underland Chronicles, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 5 – 8
Read Count:  4
Favorite Thing:  Twitchtip!
Least Favorite Thing:  I know what I should say, but it’s probably still just the fireflies… They are even more annoying in audiobook form lol

Everyone calling Photos Glo-Glo “Fo-Fo” cracked me up though.

My Posts About Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale
(Princess Academy, book 2)
Rating:  N/A
Review:  DNF
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  February 26 – March 10
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Quarry-speaking in the palace.
Least Favorite Thing:  Alternately boring and stressful…

Like the little intrigue with the whole “will there be a revolution lets meet at my house to secretly discuss the king” thing was stressful and then the rest was boring so…

My Posts About Palace of Stone

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  Yes
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  March 5 – 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The writing style
Least Favorite Thing:  Literally all the men?

I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley.

I am so glad I requested this book! It was so good! If you want my full thoughts, please read my review (link above), but the short version is:  Excellent look at the struggles of women both within South Korea and without. Definitely recommend to all women.

My Posts About Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
(A Song of Ice and Fire, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 9 – 25
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Are all the Starks just casually wargs then? (At least where their wolves are concerned?)
Least Favorite Thing:  Men are gross in this series.

Ugh can someone please just protect the Starks?? Is that too much to ask???

My Posts About A Storm of Swords

Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight, book 1.75)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  Yes
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  February 19 – March 31
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The ending was different?
Least Favorite Thing:  SO BORING

I’ve never been so bored in my life, fuck this book honestly. I hope I never get it into my head to reread Twilight again…

My Posts About Life and Death

First Lines Fridays: September 13, 2019

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

When Gregor opened his eyes he had the distinct impression that someone was watching him.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

November 2017 Reading Wrap-Up

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Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 3 – 4
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Ripred being a little shit.
Least Favorite Thing:  Henry. Blah. Dickhead.

I woke up in the middle of the night with an urge to reread this series, and seeing as I have poor impulse control, I immediately arranged for my husband to go get them all for me from the library.

I know these books are Middle Grade so a few things are a bit silly, like a guy called Sandwich, but the story itself is quality and I recommend it to anyone who likes a fun fantasy adventure.

My Posts About Gregor the Overlander

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 5
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Twitchtip. I miss her already.
Least Favorite Thing:  Please read this in your most disgusted tone, while screwing up your face as if you smell something foul:  Shiners.

Gregor has a lot more self-restraint that I do when it comes to not yelling at people…

I have to admit though, reading this book is a bit more difficult once one knows what’s going to happen in the next books!

My Posts About Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Gregor grooming Lapblood.
Least Favorite Thing:  The descriptions of some of the grosser things like plague victims and Gregor’s acid toes…

I read this whole book in like 2 hours! I surprised myself lol I didn’t intend to read it that quickly, but since it’s middle grade and the story is pretty engaging, I zipped right through it.

My Posts About Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Boots’ fucking princess scepter lol
Least Favorite Thing:  The Bane. He skeeves me out.

Oh man I had forgotten that this book is way sadder than the others! 😦

My Posts About Gregor and the Marks of Secret

Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6 – 7
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Ripred and Lizzie. It’s too sweet!
Least Favorite Thing:  I hate one very specific thing about the ending, but only read about it if you don’t care about spoilers.
[start] I just hate that they go back to the Overland permanently as if they don’t obviously and completely belong in the Underland! That has literally always bugged me.  Sometimes I just pretend that and the thing with Ares never happened. [end]

I really love this series, I’m so glad it was recommended to me back in high school.

My Posts About Gregor and the Code of Claw

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 8 – 14
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The end when Jane wraps everything up. I like the way she does it.
Least Favorite Thing:  The way literally no one ever listened to Fanny about her own feelings?????

I’m glad I reread it, I think I even liked it more than Sense & Sensibility now.

My Posts About Mansfield Park

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 13 – 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Puppyyyyy!
Least Favorite Thing:  Come on, as if I was going to say anything other than Gabe? Please.

It’s been a long time since I first read this book and I admit to not enjoying it as much this time around, but I think that’s only because it’s geared more for younger readers and sometimes I have trouble with the rhythm of Middle Grade books. I’m glad I’m going to finally get down to going through all of Rick’s books though.

My Posts About The Lightning Thief

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  lol Tyson
Least Favorite Thing:  Clarisse not knowing when to shut her damn mouth…

Oddly enough I remembered almost nothing from this one except for Tyson… So rereading it felt more like reading it for the first time. I have a feeling the rest of them will be like this too.

My Posts About The Sea of Monsters

The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Bessiiiiiiie!
Least Favorite Thing:  I actually find Nico incredibly annoying…

Would it kill anyone to stop being cryptic? Like wow. Just answer a question somebody!

My Posts About The Titan’s Curse

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15 – 16
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Poseidon showing up for Percy’s birthday just to be a drama queen. “Blowfish?” lol
Least Favorite Thing:  STILL NOBODY CAN JUST ANSWER A FUCKING QUESTION OR SHARE INFORMATION!

So far this is my favorite of the series. I’m wondering if they will just keep getting better or what.

My Posts About The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 16 – 17
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Percy being like “acknowledge your fucking children assholes” at all the gods.
Least Favorite Thing:  Guess what. It’s still the fact that no one will answer a damn question. I’m so annoyed.

Honestly, if someone doesn’t directly answer a question I’m going to scream.

My Posts About The Last Olympian

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 17 – 18
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Leooo! Precious little fireball.
Least Favorite Thing:  It took them way too long to figure certain things out… Like everyone who spoke to them alluded to 2 or 3 specific things and they didn’t get it until the very end? Oookay.

My Posts About The Lost Hero

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 18 – 19
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Ella/Tyson lololololol
Least Favorite Thing:  When Octavian talks I roll my eyes so hard I get a headache…

I’m not sure if this one was better than the first one (Lost Hero), but I was really glad to be back to Percy so I enjoyed it more.

My Posts About The Son of Neptune

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 19 – 20
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  “If they’d let women warriors into their cult, the might have learned some common sense.”
Least Favorite Thing:  Literally only Leo talks about things, everyone else is like “I’ll explain later” and “we can talk about it later” and “I hope it’s not what I think it is” but they never talk about it!!

My Posts About The Mark of Athena

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 20 – 21
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Bob + Small Bob (I’m not crying, you’re crying.)
Least Favorite Thing:  Gaea is so fucking annoying…

IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR LITTLE NICO TO GET A DAMN HUG????? My poor little spooky baby…

My Posts About The House of Hades

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 21 – 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Nico gets to be happy!!!!!
Least Favorite Thing:  Zeus the douche…

I’ve got all the warm fuzzies from the ending of this book. Thanks, Rick.

My Posts About The Blood of Olympus

In Progress

WWW Wednesday: November 8, 2017

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Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:  Mind Games (Mind Games, book 1) by Kiersten White

I meant to finish this last week, but to be honest I only read about a chapter before I got distracted by other things! Oops!

So this week I’m determined that I’ll finish it I just hope it gets less depressing than it was last time. But I’m hopeful because it seemed like some real action was about to start up.

I still haven’t quite figured out the whole powers thing. I think only women have powers? But it’s never actually explained outright how any of this came to be or how it works, I’m just putting it together as I go along. Or maybe it was explained and I just missed it somehow, who knows.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

I decided earlier this year after rereading Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility that I might as well go through and reread some more of Austen’s novels. So now I’m starting on Mansfield Park.

I didn’t realize this until just now, but I’m actually rereading them in the order I like them. (With the exception of Persuasion which I actually read for the first time ever, so I’m not counting it here.)

Despite all the annoying Bertrams and Crawfords, I really enjoy this one a lot. I think it’s because Jane is so subtly snarky about everything.

Recently Finished:  The Underland Chronicles // Suzanne Collins

I literally just woke up with the urge to read these and couldn’t stop myself from getting them all from the library. I also meant to space out the reading a bit, but if considering I read the last three in one day I can’t really say I managed that either…

Reading Next:  The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 1) by Rick Riordan

For a while now I’ve been wanting to get back to Rick’s books, but it’s been so long since I read the Percy Jackson ones that I only remember parts of them. I feel like it would be best to just start all the way over.

I’ve got the ebook version of The Lightning Thief from the library so I can start it as soon as I finish Mind Games.

Musing Monday: November 6, 2017

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Musing Mondays is a weekly meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ____, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What do you think of ghostwriters??

I blogged about ____ this past week…

It wasn’t my greatest week, blogging-wise. I just didn’t really have the energy to do much of anything. I did get some books read though, so I’m not going to beat myself up over it.

  • Tuesday, October 31 – I finally got myself to finish Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan and I posted a rating for it. I didn’t wind up reviewing it though, there just wasn’t much to say at all. It was kind of a disappointment compared to the rest of the series…
  • Wednesday, November 1 – I put out my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up (Part 1 & Part 2) and I think overall October was a pretty good month. I managed 13 books (plus part of a 14th)! This is the last month I’ll have to do two-parter Wrap-Ups. I was doing it because I like to tag each individual title and author, but that usually means it’s got too many tags to show up in the reader. Luckily my lovely husband helped me come up with a solution that lets me tag everything, but still put all the books in one long post. From now on I’ll be doing a book list style Reading Wrap-Up like the ones I’ve been doing, but adding a separate post where I talk about the month more generally and about my blogging, and just link from there to the book list, and this post would show up in the reader because it would have very few tags.
  • Friday, November 3 – First Lines Fridays went up as always, mostly because I schedule those ahead of time, and then because I gave into the urge to reread Suzanne Collins’ Underland Chronicles I managed to get a Friday 56 up as well. As was pointed out, this week’s line was even more random than usual! Haha!
  • Saturday, November 4 – I finished Gregor the Overlander and as always there was a rating post. I also posted a quote that tickled me from the very first page.
  • Sunday, November 5 – I invented a Chai Mocha for my Tomes & Tea bookstagram and read pretty quickly all the way through Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (rating post) and shared a quote from it that fits my life perfectly, especially this time of the year.

What do you think of ghostwriters??
I guess on the one hand I think it’s a good system. That is, there are some who have a story to tell, but aren’t skilled writers, and I know they hire people to help them write their stories. And often those wind up published under only the name of the person whose story it was to begin with. So in that instance I don’t mind it at all.

But then I think of the times when some author or other takes credit for work they didn’t even put the slightest effort into. And then it just annoys me.

Maybe if I knew more about the ways it was all done I might have a more definite opinion, but for now I just have a sort of wishy-washy “eeehhhhh” sort of opinion about it I suppose.