The Chanters of Tremaris
Top 5 Wednesday: January 31, 2018
Hidden Gems in Your Favorite Genre
What are some of your favorite books in your favorite genre that don’t get a lot of hype?
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!
Tales of the Kingdom // Cynthia Voigt
I swear there isn’t a single book rec that goes by without me trying to get someone to read these books. It’s a four-book, loosely-connected, non-magical, fantasy series, in a feudal sort of setting. These are actually some of my all-time favorite books. The female characters are strong, without falling into the whole “strong = masculine” trope, and the lack of magical powers doesn’t take away from the overall magic of the story at all.
The Books of Bayern // Shannon Hale
This middle grade fantasy series was actually my introduction to the genre and they remain favorites to this day. It starts with a fairy tale retelling of The Goose Girl and expands from there into a lovely series full of magic and friendship and saving kingdoms.
Underland Chronicles // Suzanne Collins
This is another middle grade fantasy series. In this one, a boy discovers a hidden land under NYC and he and his family proceed to get caught up in a bunch of prophecies. There’s not magic in this one, unless you count giant talking animals as magical…
The Chanters of Tremaris // Kate Constable
Nature magic via song? Yes, thank you! This trilogy begins with a world divided. Those with magic are separate from those without, and even the individual types of magic wielders keep segregated. But what world could thrive like that?
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
In this standalone novel, serving maid Dashti is bricked into a tower with her obstinate mistress as a seven-year punishment. It’s another fairytale retelling — Shannon’s specialty if you ask me — and this time the magic works through song.
I’d love to hear what books from your favorite genre haven’t gotten the attention they deserve. Hit me up with some recommendations everybody!
December 2017 Reading Wrap-Up
The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 2)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 11 – 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Chanters vs. Pirates from the beginning.
Least Favorite Thing: Ooomg so many sexist desert-dwellers!
I started to reread this series earlier in the year and then just totally got side-tracked, but I’m back now! (Also I think I completely blocked out the end….)
My Posts About The Waterless Sea
The Tenth Power by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 3)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: The reveal about Cal’s family 🙂
Least Favorite Thing: Um… Keela’s entire original personality?
Man I zipped through this one! I was so anxious because I couldn’t remember in detail how this book went so I just devoured it!
I definitely recommend the Chanters of Tremaris series to anyone who likes YA Magical Fantasy and those who, like me, love stories about nature magic.
My Posts About The Tenth Power
The Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: Kinda?
Reading Dates: December 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Lavena had me cackling!
Least Favorite Thing: Seriously why does her entire family have to be Like That?? I just wanted to climb into the novel and systematically throttle them all…
I was actually surprised by how little of this story I remembered from when I first read it years ago.
My Posts About The Swan Maiden
The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
(Trials of Apollo, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: November 23 – December 13
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Actually dealt pretty well with the portrayal of a relationship between a child and their abusive parent.
Least Favorite Thing: Apollo is so fucking annoying. I miss Percy.
Seriously the only parts of the book I truly loved were the parts with Percy. I didn’t even realize he was my favorite, but he’s obviously my favorite. Lovably sarcastic dork….
My Posts About The Hidden Oracle
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
(Brian’s Saga, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 13
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: I love the way Brian thinks about things, like referring to the fire as his “new hungry friend”.
Least Favorite Thing: That moose was a dick. (Honestly, I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about the story/writing.)
I’m really glad I decided to try rereading this again. I wanted to see if I still liked it after all these years and I think I actually like it more now.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
(Rise of the Empress, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★★
Review: Yes
Reading Dates: December 15 – 18
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Had me totally rooting for someone I knew was technically a villain!
Least Favorite Thing: I really didn’t need the mental images of killing small animals… (To be clear, it’s not often and it’s not like gratuitous slaughter, it’s just the descriptive language Julie C. Dao is good at made things a little too vivid for me for that particular couple scenes.)
I was so excited to get my hands on this book and it didn’t disappoint! I feel like wandering around town yelling about this book like a street preacher. Seriously, I recommend it to everyone, especially if you like fairy tale retellings.
(I almost put that my favorite thing was that there was literally zero white people in this entire novel, but I thought that might be a little tactless…oops!)
My Posts About Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
Mind Games by Kiersten White
(Mind Games, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: October 22 – December 23
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Fia being all small and kick-ass.
Least Favorite Thing: It just didn’t hold my attention very well…
I think it’s a pretty decent book, there was just something that made it hard to stay in the story. Still it ended on a minor cliffhanger so I guess I’ll be reading the sequel at some point!
Hold Still by Nina LaCour
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 23 – 26
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: The photography.
Least Favorite Thing: I’m surprised to find there isn’t really anything I didn’t like from this book. Everything felt very honest.
I was afraid this book would be really hard to read because of the subject matter, but it moved really well and was a very honest portrayal of grief and recovery.
In Progress
Completed: The Tenth Power by Kate Constable
Completed: The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable
January 2017 Wrap-Up
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★★
Reading Dates: January 9 – 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: The books Jake finds when he explores the bombed shell of the home. He remarks the titles of ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘The Secret Garden’. I laughed so hard I lost my place!
Least Favorite Thing: Jake does not think about things enough! He supposedly went over his grandfather’s last words constantly, but he doesn’t catch when people say things that might allude back to it? That freaking apple rots overnight into dust and his reaction is literally: “puzzled, I shrugged it off and went out”! What the hell, Jake!?
If you love adventure and amazing descriptive language in your novels, this is definitely a book (and series) you need to read. I genuinely had to pause several times just to absorb the imagery. (And once to scrub my brain of the mental image presented by the imagery…)
If you saw the movie and decided this book wasn’t worth reading, I urge you to reconsider.
My Posts About Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 2)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Reading Dates: January 12 – 14
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: “Nowhere am I deadlier than in a field of wildflowers,” Hugh said, enjoying the attention.
(Also can we talk about how cute Fiona and Hugh are? She grew flowers for his bees so they could kiss! I’m dyingggg!)
Least Favorite Thing: The menagerie… Something about the peculiar animals just… Bleh…
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 3)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Reading Dates: January 14 – 23
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Jacob’s Hollow!!!! Precious little killing machine!
Least Favorite Thing: The defeated feeling it gave me around halfway through… I accept that adventure novels have to have a “progress, set back, progress, set back” sort of rhythm, but sometimes it gets to a point where it feels like more set backs than progress and it leaves me feeling hopeless. Luckily, it didn’t last too long in this book, so don’t let that be what keeps you from reading it.
My Posts About Library of Souls
The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Reading Dates: January 24 – 27
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Talk shit get…..all the saliva in your mouth frozen solid.
Least Favorite Thing: Trout whines too damn much… (And Samis gloats too damn much…)
WWW Wednesday: January 25, 2017
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!
Top 5 Wednesday: January 25, 2017
Favorite Underrated Books
Give some love to those books that aren’t as widely talked about. Those hidden gems. Those books that maybe used to be popular but people have forgotten about and they still deserve some love.
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, just head over to their Goodreads Group and join the fun!
I wound up with a list of book series instead of individual books, but whatever!
- The Books of Bayern // Shannon Hale
- The Tillerman Cycle // Cynthia Voigt
- The Underland Chronicles // Suzanne Collins
- Princess Academy Series // Shannon Hale
- The Chanters of Tremaris Series // Kate Constable
What underrated books do you love? Comment or make your own Top 5 Wednesday post!
What Are You Reading Wednesdays: January 25, 2017
What Are You Reading Wednesdays #WAYRW is a weekly feature on It’s A Reading Thing. Everyone is welcome to participate.
Grab the book you are currently reading and answer three questions:
- What’s the name of your current read?
- Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a couple of sentences.
- Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?
- The Singer of All Songs
- Calwyn felt suddenly very solemn and serious. Usually during lessons and lectures she felt only a fierce desire to be elsewhere or an irresistible urge to fidget, but now she sat as still as a statue, sensing that what Marna was about to tell her was more important, and certainly more interesting, than herb lore or weaving patterns.
- I think I might, but only if I could be just a regular little background character doing my own thing, just enjoying my magic, while they went on the dangerous adventures.
Teaser Tuesday: January 24, 2017
Calwyn stopped in her tracks, and her song faltered on her lips. For the space of a heartbeat she thought she must be dreaming; the steady chantment she’d been singing without pause since dawn jerked almost into silence.
– Kate Constable, The Singer of All Songs (The Chanters of Tremaris, book 1), page 8
Version:
Hardcover, 297 pages
Published March 1st 2004 by Arthur A. Levine Books
Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.
Darkestwings Reads