WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday: August 2, 2017

LeeLeave a comment

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:  Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
This is a reread for me. I read it about 10 years ago, so I figured it was about time for a second round.

I remembered the story pretty much perfectly, but I had lost some of the nuance of the experience. For instance, I had forgotten how it felt like almost every conversation Elinor and Marianne have feels like borderline fighting!

I don’t like this one as much as Pride and Prejudice, but all of Austen’s works are good. I do think this one could do with a bit more snark though!

The main thing I’ve discovered during this reread:  I knew Marianne was dramatic, but it seems so much more over-the-top this time around!

Recently Finished:  The Beast is an Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale
I picked this book up for a booklr Read-A-Thon. I was too tired to keep reading a classic novel, and this one practically jumped off the shelves screaming to be read! (Not…you know…literally. I would have run away.)

It was the perfect one for Read-A-Thon. An quick, easy read, which was still engrossing enough to make me forget I was about to fall asleep!

I saw on Goodreads that the author is working on a second novel in the same genre, which I plan to keep an eye out for.

I wrote a review for this one, which you can read here!

Reading Next: The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
(Little Blue Envelope, book 2)
I figure my next book should be a fluffier sort of read. And since I read the first book in this duet ages back, it’s probably past time to get to this one!

I may actually start this book before I completely finish Sense and Sensibility if I find myself needing a break from the somewhat denser writing style.

WWW Wednesday: June 14, 2017

LeeLeave a comment

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:  The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle, book 2)
This is only my second time reading the Raven Cycle so I’m noticing a lot of little things I didn’t get to enjoy the first time around and that’s always fun.
My favorite thing about The Dream Thieves is how much more we get to learn about Ronan. Despite his proximity to Kavinsky, Ronan is definitely my favorite Raven Boy.

I’m also still technically reading Crashed by Robin Wasserman. And by technically reading I mean, sitting with the book near me, but not actually reading it because I hit a slump and I just want to read things I already know I like.

Recently Finished:  The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle, book 1)
I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the way Maggie writes dialogue! I consider myself a pretty snarky person (I’d say other people in my life would agree), but I’ll never achieve the perfect sass so easily tossed around between characters in this series. The only drawback is that as good at Maggie is at writing characters I love, she’s also very good at writing characters I can’t do anything but hate! (Looking at you, Barrington Whelk, you massive creep!)

I read The Raven Boys directly on the heels of Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Wings and Ruin, which was so good it left me in a good enough mood that I was able to start crawling out of my most recent reading slump!

Reading Next:  Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle, book 3)
One of the things that happens when I read a series is that everything not in the first book and the last book tends to blend a little bit, so I’m actually not 100% sure of every detail even though I’ve read this once before. So I get the experience of rereading a book I know I liked, but also some surprise, which I’m looking forward to in this case especially.

WWW Wednesday: March 8, 2017

LeeLeave a comment

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:  Crashed/Shattered (Cold Awakening, book 2) by Robin Wasserman

I have just begun Crashed, by which I mean, I’ve just gone and gotten it off the shelf to start reading it today. So I have nothing but the summary and Skinned to base my opinions on so far.

The Goodreads summary says “Lia is forced to choose between . . . sacrificing the girl she used to be and saving the boy she used to love.”

This fills me with a certain amount of what I like to call Love Triangle Dread. But that aside, it also leaves me with the question of: Auden or Walker?
Because she did love Auden, platonically, and if you’ve read Skinned you know he could very well need her to save him. But since I read a lot of YA, I am almost positive it’s Walker that hint is about. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, pretending I believe Auden is an option is purely wishful thinking….

Did I mention I’m almost positive (based on prior YA Lit knowledge) that Jude is going to be her love interest in this one? I am not excited about that at all….

I am pretty excited to see her new Mech-life, though, a life (hopefully) uninhibited by her old one, even if it does mean reading more about Jude.

This last bit is for Krysta over at Pages Unbound who commented that “The cover for Crashed is a little creepy!” (which it is), but I wanted to let you know I totally found out why when I was reading Skinned: It’s because the Mech-heads try to make themselves look as obviously non-human as possible. Jude is described as having silver hair and silver paint streaked down his face! So it seems that creepy is their little Mech-Aesthetic™.

Recently Finished:  Skinned/Frozen (Cold Awakening, book 1) by Robin Wasserman

Overall I liked this book. It was well written and nicely allegorical over multiple types of bigotry. I also found the futuristic world it was set in pretty interesting, I hope to learn more about it in the next books.

I’ve seen people relate it to Scott Westerfeld and I’d say it’s a somewhat an apt observation. Generally I don’t like the “for fans of [author]” or “it’s like [series]” because that makes you expect something pretty specific. So to be clear, it might remind you of the ‘Uglies’ series in some ways, but it is definitely not the exact same, definitely it’s own world/story.

I did find a few things I didn’t love, but they were minor enough that those things couldn’t ruin the book for me.

I wrote a (somewhat messier than usual) review on Skinned which you can read here.

Reading Next:  Wired/Torn (Cold Awakening, book 3) by Robin Wasserman

HOPEFULLY I’ll be able to get my hands on a copy. The local library has the first two, but not the third? What kind of evil librarian shenanigans are they up to there??
But I talked to one of the lovely ladies there and they think they can get it for me pretty soon on inter-library loan from another town. I’m just hoping it happens quick enough for me to go straight from Crashed to Wired, because I hate interrupting a series.

If for some reason I have to wait longer I’ll go ahead and read one of the books off my TBR Shame List.

WWW Wednesday: March 1, 2017

Lee2 Comments

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:  Skinned by Robin Wasserman (also published as ‘Frozen’)

I’m only about halfway through, and for the most part I’m enjoying myself.

The least part (the not enjoyable part) is that I just want Lia to move on and stop trying to have her old life with her lame friends and her prejudiced family. As far as I can tell, Lia cares about Lia more than anyone else, so why is it so hard for her to just move on? Why am I at the halfway point and still watching her try to fit in with a bunch of morons? Why has she not realized her relationship with Walker was crappy even before she was dead?

I did have a message from Robin Wasserman herself who confirmed both that Lia isn’t that aware of things outside what’s happening to her, and used the phrase “hasn’t quite yet [caught on]” so I have hope that soon Lia is going to realize the people from her old life don’t deserve to stay in her new one and she’ll MOVE ON so I can see some awesome Mechs-People.

Also I miss Quinn, I hope she comes back.

Recently Finished:  Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson

I tried to like this book, I swear I did. But after two days of desperately trying to find something to like about any of these characters, I gave up.

I even reviewed it, which I normally wouldn’t do for something I couldn’t get more than 28 pages into, but the people deserve to know (or possibly I just wanted to complain).

You can read the review for yourself here.

I also found some problems regarding racism in some Goodreads reviews and at that point I just figured I couldn’t be asked to continue reading.

Reading Next:  Crashed by Robin Wasserman (also published as ‘Shattered’)

I will most likely get to this one Friday or Saturday and I’m pretty eager, even though the summary makes me think there’s going to be more Walker, who I really don’t enjoy… But maybe by the time this rolls around I’ll have grown to like him. (That laughter you hear in the distance is me totally not believing what I just said.)

WWW Wednesday: February 22, 2017

LeeLeave a comment

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:  Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson

I’m only on page 19 at this point because I took a break earlier to avoid having to actually read the boyfriend’s introductory scene after the 3 or so pages of inner monologue about him that made me 100% hate him from almost the first moment…

I’m also concerned this might not be my type of book. Specifically my type of main character… I just keep catching myself thinking she thinks she’s too special, but I can’t tell if I’m just a grumpy person who dislikes people too easily, or if it’s legit. If anyone has read this, please chime in!

Also does anyone know how Alicia Thompson pronounces her name? Is it the right Spanish way or the white English way or another way less common to me here in Texas? (I need to know for personal reasons.)

Recently Finished:  The Tale of Elske by Cynthia Voigt (Tales of the Kingdom, book 4)

I never actually managed to read the whole Tales of the Kingdom series in order in one sitting before (ignore that I took a giant break during Oriel) because I never had them all at once or I didn’t realize it was even a series before or whatever stupid reason. I love them so much and it was wonderful reading them in order finally. In fact, so far, I love them more every time I reread them!

I also wrote the first actual review of a book I like! For some reason I find it much harder to write a review for a book I enjoy. Perhaps because I’m not constantly picking them apart, but mostly because I suck at writing and reviewing.

And seriously, I recommend this entire series to everyone! (As previously mentioned, it’s a loosely-connected, non-magical fantasy series.)

Reading Next:  I LITERALLY CAN’T DECIDE IS ANYONE WILLING TO HELP ME???????

WWW Wednesday: January 25, 2017

LeeLeave a comment

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:  The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable (Chanters of Tremaris, book 1)
I’ve read this series once before, but I realized the other day I was having trouble remembering some details. And the details I did remember made me want to reread it so I could remember them all!
Plus I always love the idea of magic through language (in this case song). And of course it’s elemental magic for the most part, which is always fun.
Calwyn almost seems boring in the beginning, but I’m not sure how exciting you can make a convent girl who does nothing but chores or singing at a wall to keep it frozen solid all day long really seem…. She get’s more interesting after she meets Darrow.

Recently Finished:  Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 3)
I am never getting over my affection for Jacob’s stupid Hollow! I literally cried over that thing for heaven’s sake… And the ending really got me. Like I knew there had to be some way to make the ending happy, but at a certain point (I won’t say specifically in case some haven’t read it) I was feeling just as desperate and hopeless as Jacob and almost in tears.
I did have some trouble around the half-way point with this one because everything just seemed to be going wrong over and over and nothing going right, but I got past it and I’m so glad I kept reading.
Did I mention the Hollow? 😦 I miss him….

Reading Next:  Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink (Prophecy of the Sisters, book 1)
I’ll probably be reading this next, unless some miracle happens and the copy of The Waterless Sea that the public library ordered comes in and I can continue with the Chanters of Tremaris series.
Also if I have any luck at all, I’ll manage to read some more on The Tale of Oriel since I just stopped part way through a while back and never got back to it! It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that I hit a reading slump while I was reading this one and now I’m having trouble making myself get back to it in case the slump comes back!

WWW Wednesday: November 30, 2016

LeeLeave a comment

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: The Tale of Birle by Cynthia Voigt
This is the second book in the Tales of the Kingdom series and was previously published with the title ‘On Fortunes Wheel’. Birle meets a mysterious stranger when he tries to steal from her father. She chooses to follow him on his travels and this takes her to places she never could have imagined.
For anyone curious about the Tales of the Kingdom books, this is a loosely-connected, non-magical fantasy series.
One of the odd things for me is that I identify less with Birle than I did last time I read this series. I can only chalk it up to the fact that I was still a teenager then. It doesn’t make me like her any less though. Actually, it’s almost making this reread feel more like a first-time read, which I’m very pleased with.

Recently Finished: The Tale of Gwyn by Cynthia Voigt
This is one of the Tales of the Kingdom books, previously published as ‘Jackaroo’. Jackaroo is a sort of Robin Hood/Zorro type hero, and in the Kingdom, he’s just a legend. Gwyn is an innkeeper’s daughter and doesn’t believe in heroes like Jackaroo. But while taking cover in an abandoned home, Gwyn finds a mask and clothes, which leads her down a path fit for a legend.
I like Gwen so much! Ah! Also she and Burl are too precious at the end. I remember liking this book the other times I read this series, but it’s actually become one of my favorites in the series. And like all Voigt’s novels it left me with such a satisfied feeling. I just wanted to sit there holding the book and basking in it.

Reading Next: The Tale of Oriel by Cynthia Voigt
This is the third Kingdom novel, previously published as ‘The Wings of a Falcon’. Oriel and Griff escape the cruelty of the island with a stolen treasure. But it’s not as easy to find a new safer life as they hoped. Their adventure leads them into unknown dangers, like armies and Wolfer raids.
I remember so little about this one for some reason, so I’m very excited. I know I liked it and it was good, but for the most part this will be a fresh story for me. It’s also different from the other three Kingdom novels because the main characters are boys.

WWW Wednesday: November 23, 2016

LeeLeave a comment

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: The Tale of Gwyn by Cynthia Voigt
This is one of the Tales of the Kingdom books, previously published as ‘Jackaroo’. I got this copy from the public library, because my own books are still boxed up and sad, so this is the first time I got to see the new covers/titles for myself. I had heard of the change back when it was just in the planning stage. They aren’t quite as interesting as the old titles, but at least now you can tell at a glance they are part of a series. As for the new cover… I’ll just say I miss the Vermeer painting covers. I’m pretty excited to reread the Kingdom books. It’s been several years since I picked up a Voigt novel, which is way too long!
Jackaroo is a sort of Robin Hood/Zorro type hero, and in the Kingdom, he’s just a legend. Gwyn is an innkeeper’s daughter and doesn’t believe in heroes like Jackaroo. But while taking cover in an abandoned home, Gwyn finds a mask and clothes, which leads her down a path fit for a legend.
For anyone curious about the Kingdom series, it is a loosely-connected, non-magical fantasy series.

Recently Finished: Forest Born by Shannon Hale
I love the Books of Bayern. I’m clearly on a Middle Grade roll here. This was actually my first time rereading Forest Born (the fourth Bayern novel), and I loved it way more than the first time I read it. I mean I liked it then too, but I was racing through it desperate to know what would happen, and this time I got to take my time and really enjoy Rin and her story.
This book focuses on Razo’s little sister, Rin, a forest girl who isn’t sure the forest wants her anymore. Her desire to find her place is a driving force in her life, sending her on an adventure through Bayern to the neighboring Kel. Rin and her new friends, the magical girls from the three previous novels, must find out who is attacking Bayern cities and prevent a war.
I think my favorite part of this story was the banter between Enna and Dasha, they’re honestly adorable. I also noticed, for the first time, a parallel between the way the various speaking gifts affect a person (when not balanced) and mental illness. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but it’s fascinating.

Reading Next: The Tale of Birle by Cynthia Voigt
Another Tales of the Kingdom novel, this one was previously published as ‘On Fortunes Wheel’. Birle is a long-time favorite character.
Birle meets a mysterious stranger when he tries to steal from her father. She chooses to follow him on his travels and this takes her to places she never could have imagined.
For anyone curious about the Tales of the Kingdom books, this is a loosely-connected, non-magical fantasy series.

WWW Wednesday: November 18, 2015

LeeLeave a comment

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived here 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: Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken
I know, I know, you can’t believe I’m still on this one. I keep trying to finish it, but something keeps getting in the way every day. And when I can finally read my brain just cannot get into it like I did with The Darkest Minds (book 1 in the series). Things are starting to quite literally “heat up” and the important characters are finally coming together so hopefully I’ll be able to finish it tonight or tomorrow morning!

Recently Finished: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Last week I happened to realize I had two (2) days to get this one back to the library so I sat down and read it at top speed, putting off Never Fade again. [Please fake shock now.] Of course it was so good I had to get the other two (2) books in the trilogy from the library right away. I’m so glad Mary from Books and Cookies convinced me to put this on my TBR! My only complaint is that none of the reviews I read happened to mention there was a paranormal aspect so I went into this expecting it to be just like ‘Don’t Look Back’ by Jennifer L. Armentrout. (That is: girl witnesses murder, girl barely escapes with her life, now suffering from amnesia, must figure out who in her life is a bad guy…) So when things got blatantly paranormal I was really confused for a bit and actually had to go back and read a few select paragraphs to clear things up! Also as much as I hate to admit it, I didn’t enjoy the romance at all, love interest boy was 2-dimensional and annoying. There were times when she was clearly saying he should back off and he would just go for more because supposedly he can sens her emotions and knows that she really wants more. And I think it’s supposed to not be creepy because her inner-monologue shows us she really does like his attentions, but it still bothers me, you know? If she says no, no it should be. Period. The End. Amen.
But honestly, overall I enjoyed the novel and plot and look forward to the sequels and the cliffhanger definitely sank it’s hooks into me!

Reading Next: The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
This will be at least my third time reading this one. I know technically it’s marketed to younger teens, but the story is so good it holds up again and again. The braver, more adventurous of the sisters catches a sort of plague going through their kingdom and in order to save her the timid, shyer sister sets out on a crazy adventure for a cure. On her way she encounters ogres, spectres, even a dragon and faeries! For a book that only takes a matter of hours to finish, it’s remarkably good and interesting.