Dreams of Gods & Monsters

September 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

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Neon Gods by Katee Robert
(Dark Olympus, book 1)
Rating:  N/A – DNF
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates: Aug 19 – Sept 7
Read Count:  0.5
Favorite Thing:  Interesting premise
Least Favorite Thing:  This book made me feel oogy?

I tried to read this for Katesbookdate‘s patreon book club and… I swear this was almost porn-without-plot, it was barely not that. I felt so uncomfortable the whole time, not about the sex, but about how every single thing – good or bad – brought on a new sex scene. Also…the way he talked to her was shudder inducing.

My Posts About Neon Gods

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  Sept 7
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  The oracle!
Least Favorite Thing:  Why can’t people just tell other people things?

I probably won’t ever read these books again, but because I feel like I’ve really aged out of them. But it was a nice little throw-back.

My Posts About The Last Olympian

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 7 )
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 1 – 7
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Telepath Teamup!
Least Favorite Thing: I can’t even think of anything, I take these books as they are lol

So I’ve read this before, physically, but I listen to music or audiobooks while I work now and I needed something fluffy so of course I went for the Sookie Stackhouse books. I’ve been trying to slowly work my way through, but once I start one I just can’t turn it off!

My Posts About All Together Dead

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 8 – 9
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: I love the way everyone talks. No the accents, but like the word choice and the…cadence maybe?
Least Favorite Thing: She’s so painfully selfish, the movie definitely took some of that out.

I love this movie so much, and I have listened to a different audiobook version in the past, but I think this one was better.

My Posts About Brooklyn

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 8)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 10 – 11
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: I like that a major real life event was included, makes a fantastical story feel more real.
Least Favorite Thing: Stop, I’m never going to have a least favorite am I?

These books are so relaxing for me. And occasionally quite funny.

My Posts About From Dead to Worse

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 9)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 12 – 13
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Shifters out!!!!
Least Favorite Thing: How many times is Jason going to be accused of some kind of horrific murder? Examine your life, bro.

Ok, fine, I picked a least favorite thing. Except it’s not even really a least favorite thing, because it’s kind of hilarious?

My Posts About Dead and Gone

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 15 – 17
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: TEETH!
Least Favorite Thing: Special girl is so special.

I had been wanting to reread these, specifically via audiobook, for so dang long! I finally broke down and joined audible just for the time it would take to listen to these books.

My Posts About Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 2)
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 17 – 20
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: Ziriiiiiii
Least Favorite Thing: Mr. White Wolf himself obviously.

You know I’m just now realizing how little the covers have to do with the story…

My Posts About Days of Blood & Starlight

The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 22 – 23
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: I just love the magic style!
Least Favorite Thing: Does she have to love the first man she’s ever met?

Don’t ask me why, but I suddenly became convinced that this was the book I needed to listen to ASAP… Anyway I bought it and I listened and the background sounds were strange…

My Posts About The Singer of All Songs

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: July 23 – Sept 28
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Uh….I….can’t think of one…
Least Favorite Thing: SHE’S SO INCREDIBLY STUPID I CAN’T HANDLE IT

Could it have taken me any longer to finish this book? Gawd! I honestly did not enjoy it at all. I wanted to, I tried really hard…. Blah.

My Posts About Lock Every Door

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 20 – 28
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: Things finally happen!
Least Favorite Thing: I wish I could care at all about the main characters’ romance, but the only romances I give a shit about are side characters lol

WHAT DOES THIS COVER HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING??

My Posts About Dreams of Gods & Monsters

In Progress

First Lines Fridays: December 1, 2017

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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:

Nerve thrum and screaming blood, wild and churning and chasing and devouring and terrible and terrible and terrible —

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3)

Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera’s rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.

When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited – not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.

But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?

The New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy comes to a stunning conclusion as – from the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond – humans, chimaera, and seraphim strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

Musing Monday: October 2, 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 do with your non-keeper hard copy books?

I blogged about ____ this past week…

What do you do with your non-keeper hard copy books?
Well, I know a lot of the online book community members are major e-reader people, but I am not. I don’t actually have anything against them, I’m not one of those people. I actually like them, I love how available they’ve made books to everybody and I have noticed I read faster on e-readers (or it feels that way because I can’t mark my progress the same as with a physical copy), but I have a little trouble with reading on screens and let’s face it, there is nothing like holding a book in your hands. The weight, the smell, the texture, everything about physical books appeals to me.

All of this is to say:  I have lots of hard copy books. Not as many as some people, but considering I have so little money, I think 600 books is quite a stash.

I try to stick to the rule of only buying copies of books I already know I like. If it’s a book I haven’t read I like to just get it from the public library, and if I like it I’ll put it on my list of books to buy. That way I don’t spend my extremely limited book buying money on books I don’t like.

However, I am pretty terrible at following my own rule… I go to my favorite bookstore, Recycled Books, and I start off looking for books from my list and next thing I know it’s been 3 hours and my my husband (or mother) is standing over me where I’ve sat down on the floor with at least 2 stacks of books, probably more, and lost myself in some book or other. (Tip: If you tell yourself you’ll just read a page or two to see if you want to buy a book, don’t believe yourself. If you are anything like me you will read several chapters before you even realize it.)

AND NOW THAT I’VE TALKED ABOUT A TON OF STUFF LET ME ANSWER THE ACTUAL QUESTION:  When I do wind up with physical books I don’t want to keep, either because I got distracted from my list or because I hit up some garage sale where they had books for a quarter and I couldn’t stop myself, what do I do with them?

I take them back to the aforementioned favorite used bookstore and trade them in for store credit! And then I get to go shopping for more books!! Hurray!

(I’m so sorry, I really didn’t stay on topic even a little bit today…)

September 2017 Wrap-Up (Part 2)

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Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan
(The Lynburn Legacy, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  September 15 – 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Rusty. Perfect Rusty.
Least Favorite Thing:  Rob Lynburn is so skeezy I need 10 showers every time he talks…

Welp, I’m not mad about the thing I was mad about at the end of the first book anymore because it was explained and resolved in a very satisfying manner. However! I am frustrated because I have made several connections based on information Kami has already that she has not made and I have no way of climbing into the book to tell her!

My Posts About Untold

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 17 – 20
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  That fucking fruit basket/note thing!
Least Favorite Thing:  Thiago. Obviously.

The close second for favorite thing was the trio of Akiva, Liraz, and Hazael. Sweet murder siblings.

But it was deeply infuriating waiting for Karou to figure out that Thiago and Ten were playing her! It seemed so damn obvious!

One thing that bugged me about the book though, there was a mention when explaining the whole “Angel-lover” insult where it says “in all Karou’s human languages, there was no insult so loaded with disgust and contempt, no single word that cast such a pall of filth” and I actually had to stop for a minute because I was annoyed. I mean… It’s really obvious what real life insult it resembles and yet it’s supposedly worse than anything in any human language. Ok Laini. Sure. (To clarify, I by no means think this was some intentional slight intended by the author, it’s just something that really bothered me personally.)

My Posts About Days of Blood & Starlight

The Runner by Cynthia Voigt
(The Tillerman Cycle, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 20 – 21
Read Count:  3  (Pretty sure I’ve read it more than that, but only 3 that I can be sure of.)
Favorite Thing:  Reading him running, of course.
Least Favorite Thing:  The Phone Call. I’m still crying even though I always know it’s coming.

I want to warn potential readers, for a good half of this book Bullet is a racist. Not a “death to all black people” kind of racist, you won’t have to read depictions of him committing violence against black people, but an “I don’t mix with them” sort of racist, and you will see his thoughts about it several times. Part of his journey in this book is him learning that he’s wrong to just arbitrarily dislike people who are black. I didn’t want anyone getting blindsided by that in the beginning of the book.

My Posts About The Runner

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★★
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 23 – 27
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  We Haven’t Been Introduced
Seriously this is easily my favorite part of the whole book. I grin like an idiot and squeal internally just thinking about it. Like just now, I briefly recalled parts of the book I enjoyed to evaluate them for a favorite and when I came to this one I actually hid my face and giggled so I feel like it’s really no contest.
Least Favorite Thing:  Morgan Toth’s pillowy lips…

I actually raised my rating of this book from 4 stars (from back in 2014) to 5 because it’s definitely the best of the trilogy for me.

My Posts About Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Come A Stranger by Cynthia Voigt
(The Tillerman Cycle, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 28 – 29
Read Count:  3  (Pretty sure I’ve read it more than that, but only 3 that I can be sure of.)
Favorite Thing:  Mina’s laughter.
Least Favorite Thing:  Racist teachers, blech.

I learned so much from Mina back in middle school when I first read this book. So much was changing for me and reading a book where that was happening to a character who was dynamic and strong was so helpful at that time.

My Posts About Come A Stranger

In Progress

Thursday Quotables: September 28, 2017

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This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week; whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written.

The despair was entire, complete as a possession, but fleeting. It released her, and was gone, but it left Karou gutted, guttered, feeling for all the world like…
…a candle flame extinguished by a scream.

Summary:

Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera’s rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.

When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited – not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.

But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?

The New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy comes to a stunning conclusion as – from the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond – humans, chimaera, and seraphim strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

Thank you Bookshelf Fantasies for this fun book meme!

What Are You Reading Wednesdays: September 27, 2017

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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:

  1. What’s the name of your current read?
  2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a couple of sentences.
  3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?

  1. Dreams of Gods & Monsters {Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3) by Laini Taylor
  2. Here it was, then, a restoration to the natural order: hostility.
  3. Oh… too late. Back during the first book I decided I wanted to live in that world, but as predicted, I died quickly and now cannot answer this question again.

WWW Wednesday: September 27, 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:  Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3) by Laini Taylor
I’m halfway through this book and I have the worst feeling!

As I admitted previously, I don’t remember much of the goings-on in this book, just a few major plot points. So I can’t actually say that something bad is about to happen, but… I feel it! I feel the bad thing coming, y’all.

As it is, I’m mostly enjoying reading this one, even if I find the Stellians annoying and wish the narration wasn’t always so vague and mysterious!

I’m also, as always lately, working my way slowly through Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Recently Finished:  The Runner (The Tillerman Cycle, book 4) by Cynthia Voigt
Ah, man, it was nice to be in Bullet’s stubborn head again.

I’m still sad from the last chapter though. I’ll probably never get over the need to cry every time I read it. I’ll be rereading this book for the 57th time when I’m 80 and I’ll cry like a little baby over the Phone Call.

I will never understand how Bullet can draw me in so well. He’s not exactly a likeable person, and yet I love him. I’ll credit that to the magic of Cynthia Voigt’s writing. In fact, I give the magic of Cynthia’s writing credit for many things I care about.

Reading Next:  Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy, book 3) by Sarah Rees Brennan
Well, I managed to get this one on Interlibrary Loan, and faster than I expected, too.

I have no idea what to expect from the end of this trilogy… Goodreads promises the ending will be shocking, but that could just be hype to get people into reading it? (Yeah, even I don’t buy that.)

All I really hope for is an ending that makes sense, plenty of that banter I love, and for Jared to not stay where he was at the end of the last book because that would be awful!

I also plan to get to the next book in The Tillerman Cycle and then I’ve been thinking of rereading another series from back in high school. This one, The Gallagher Girls series, I actually can’t remember very well, but I do remember enjoying the two books I read of the series. Some posts on tumblr reminded me of it and I got it from the library in a fit of nostalgia. My only hesitation is wondering whether I will like it as well as I did when I was younger…