WWW Wednesday: June 14, 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 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.

What Are You Reading Wednesdays: June 14, 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:

  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. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle, book 2)
  2. Though he had been dead for quite a while and by all rights should appear more ghostly, he was always rather living-looking when standing on the ley line.
  3. Um, hell yes. Who wouldn’t? Admittedly I’m not a boy or rich, so my life wouldn’t be as exciting as any Raven Boy’s, maybe I could get in with Blue’s psychic family or something.

Musing Monday: June 12, 2017

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:  Which would you rather live without? Books or chocolate.


I’m currently reading… The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater (again)!

I have been wanting to reread these for a while and in my current barely post-slump state I thought now was a good time to reread something I know I like. I’m trying to pace myself a bit so I don’t get back into a slump, but I love the way these books are written so that’s hard to do!
On a slightly odd note:  A friend of mine who isn’t as big a reader has had me reading these to them, which has actually been weirdly fun.

Which would you rather live without? Books or chocolate.
Normally my response to anything like this would be that you won’t get me giving up chocolate till you pry it from my cold dead hands! But of course you had to bring books into it… I can’t even imagine life without books. In fact, the only time I don’t read incessantly is when I’m struggling more than usual with my depression (see recent months). So as much as it hurts me to say, it would have to be chocolate I gave up.
But I’m not giving up either, no one can make me!

What Are You Reading Wednesdays: March 8, 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:

  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?

Just a note before I do the WAYRW prompts: I know my WWW Wednesday post from earlier said I was currently reading the second book in the Cold Awakening Trilogy, but I just happened to check my account at the public library shortly after making that post and discovered that Frostblood is due back tomorrow with a couple people already having it reserved. So, if I want a chance to read it without having to wait at least a month, I have to read it now. I’m about 35% in so far according to Goodreads and if I’m lucky I can get it all done in time for the husband to return it for me tomorrow. Then, back to Crashed and the Mech-heads!


  1. Frostblood by Elly Blake (Frostblood Saga, book 1)
  2. His palsied hand trembled as he tried each key, until one of them opened my ankle cuff with a decisive snick.
  3. I’m a little less than halfway through at this point and I still haven’t decided… I like the fantasy aspect and would enjoy living in a world with that, but it doesn’t seem like a world it’s own inhabitants would choose at this point. Not to mention, knowing myself and my husband as I do, I’d be a Frostblood in love with a Fireblood and I don’t see that going well for the two of us in the current state of upheaval! (Also I’d be forced to kill anyone who tried to turn him in for being a Fireblood, and I’m not sure I’d even feel guilty about it. So best that we stay out of that world for now, huh?)

WWW Wednesday: March 8, 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:  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.

Top 5 Wednesday: March 8, 2017

Favorite Science Fiction & Fantasy Books

Talk about your favorite science fiction and fantasy books of all time!
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, just head over to their Goodreads Group and join the fun!


  1. A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, book 2) by Sarah J. Maas
  2. Specials (Uglies, book 3) by Scott Westerfeld
  3. The Tale of Elske (Tales of the Kingdom, book 4) by Cynthia Voigt
  4. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
  5. Daughter of Smoke & Bone Trilogy by Laini Taylor

Comment with your own favorite fantasy & science fiction novels (or a link to your own post) so I can check them out too! My TBR totally doesn’t mind growing!

Musing Monday: March 6, 2017

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:  If you could be best friends with an author, who would you choose and why?


I wish I could read literally anything, but… I’m totally scattered right now and it’s hard to even get through a page before my consciousness just checks right out, like, “Goodbye Lee, nice knowing you, nothing is real anymore!” And then I’m just staring at a wall or doing some totally weird impulsive thing that I drop halfway through. I haven’t even finished Skinned yet which is so embarrassing because I should be able to read a ~300 page book in less than a day.

If you could be best friends with an author, who would you choose and why?
Um… if it has to be best friends then I say Cynthia Voigt. She seems like she’d be the most enjoyable to talk with.

But if I can change this question to something like “what author would you most want to be related to” then I’m saying Robert Fulghum because I’ve always thought he’d be the world’s coolest/most interesting grandfather. Of course, I’m basing all of this on reading/tv because I’ve never had a grandfather and don’t actually know what they are like! But I really like to think they are like Robert Fulghum.

Classic Remarks: March 3, 2017

Classic Remarks is a meme hosted on Pages Unbound that poses questions each Friday about classic literature and asks participants to engage in ongoing discussions surrounding not only themes in the novels but also questions about canon formation, the “timelessness” of literature, and modes of interpretation.

This Weeks Prompt:
What do you think of adapting classics for younger readers?


I mean, technically I agree with it and like it… I like the idea of young readers getting exposed to the classics, and I’m all for making books accessible to people of all ages.

The problem I have with it is I feel like the book loses something when it’s adapted.

And don’t get me started on adaptations for teens… They tend to border on ridiculous. It feels like they are written by people who have never met a teenager and can’t even remember being one. Like when you read it you can hear them being like “Yes…this is what the young people like… I’m a genius!”

Perhaps if it could be arranged that established YA authors could be offered the job of adapting a classic for the YA audience. That would make it less terrible I think, and they’d know how to keep the important themes and literary devices intact.

As for the kids ones… Even when I was a kid, I thought there was something missing from them. I remember asking my mom if pages were missing from the book because the story just didn’t fit together properly.

My hope is that I was just exposed to really bad adaptations. Because the practice of adapting classics for younger groups has so much potential. I can think of a lot of stories I would have enjoyed as a kid, but the writing was such that it just didn’t hold my attention until around 5th grade…

ADDENDUM (because while reading/commenting on this post I realized there was some stuff I neglected to mention):
Also let’s not forget, if a parent is a reader and wants to expose their children to the classics, there’s nothing that says they can’t read it TO them, and explain the parts the kids need explained. Like maybe no Shakespeare, but things like Jane Austen or some Brontë works. There’s literally no reason the parent couldn’t read the un-adapted version to a child and explain it as they go so the kid can enjoy the story even if they are too young to comprehend everything when reading it alone.
And there are some classics that could be considered for kids to begin with, but their status as “classics” makes people think they are too high brow or something.


What do you think of classic adaptations targeted at young audiences?

Make your own post and send me a link, or just leave your opinion in the comments.