Lee is 80% done
I love how much extra bullshit she pulls to be sure no one ever carries Beau bridal-style. They almost all carry him once in this chapter and they all do it in a different way, and they’re all so extra! One of them picks him up around the waist and lets his legs drag along because that’s SUPER efficient. Apparently Meyer thought being carried bridal-style by a girl wouldn’t be masculine enough. But she’s not sexist!
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?
First Lines:
The list arrived after Sloane had been gone two weeks.
Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!
It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.
On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?
Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.
Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?
Kiss a stranger? Um…
Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane’s list. Who knows what she’ll find?
Go skinny-dipping? Wait…what?
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.
Mother prescribing her books like medicines. A good dose of Whitman would set me straight, like caster oil.
Summary:
Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery – but their idyll is shattered when Astrid’s mother falls apart over a lover. Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, and is sentenced to life in prison.
White Oleander is the unforgettable story of Astrid’s journey through a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself in impossible circumstances. Each home is its own universe, with a new set of laws and lessons to be learned. With determination and humor, Astrid confronts the challenges of loneliness and poverty, and strives to learn who a motherless child in an indifferent world can become.
Thank you Bookshelf Fantasies for this fun book meme!
Lee is 67% done
I gotta say this version is somehow more boring than the original, but I can’t pin down what it is that’s done that.
Lee is 56% done
OMG the fucking “piggy-back ride through the forest” bit is soooo much funnier now. Beau is supposed to be super tall and gangly and Edythe relatively small/delicate looking and I’m just imagining him dangling off of her like a basketball player in a toddler bed.
This month’s crossover topic is your auto-buy authors that write SFF.
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!
I know she’s only done the one fantasy series, Tales of the Kingdom, but they are my favorites (it’s not often that I find a non-magical fantasy in the YA genre) and she’s my absolute favorite author so you know I had to bring her up! And anyway, if she ever published another fantasy novel I’d be trying to buy it before the ink could even dry.
After Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, I am so in love with Dao’s writing I absolutely have to have her future novels. It’s rare that I would call someone an auto-buy after only one book (or at all actually, I have very few auto-buy authors), but that’s how good it was to me so there you have it.
If you had asked me before Strange the Dreamer I might not have mentioned Laini, since I’d only read her DoSaB trilogy at that point, but now? I don’t think I could resist buying anything she came out with at this point.
Shannon was the first author that I liked something of theirs so much I had to search out everything else they’d written. I got Shannon’s novel The Goose Girl in 6th grade at the book fair and it introduced me to one of my favorite genres (fairytale retellings). And her take on magic is a strong favorite of mine.
He’s only got the one Peculiar Children trilogy so far, but it was so good that I’ve already decided to buy the untitled book he’s got listed for publication this year (hopefully this year).
What sci-fi and fantasy authors do consider worthy of automatically buying anything they come out with?
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: White Oleander by Janet FitchThis book was recommended to me by a friend in a Book Club I am in as part of a “buddy reads” program. This is absolutely not my usual genre, and I was pretty nervous about that, but so far I am loving it.
I’ve had to take a bit of a break from it for a few days because the excellent writing which easy drew me into the main character’s world and mind, also makes for excellent dissociation fodder. By which I mean, I over-empathize and get so caught up in the emotions and thoughts of the character that I get stuck in them and it takes me a little while to recover. This is how I know a character/book is really well written, because a poorly written novel wouldn’t suck me in so deeply. But it also means that if the subject matter is a little darker or the protag a little more troubled than my usual YA genre novels, then I need breaks to keep from being overwhelmed by it.
Totally fucking worth it though.
Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (Twilight Saga, book 1.75) by Stephenie MeyerWelp, I’m reading another Twilight Saga novel, and before you ask, yes I am Suffering. Honestly I’ve been having trouble going through this one as quickly as some of the others because I keep having to stop and reorient my thinking due to the gender and name swapping. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve taken to keeping a list of each character and their new gender swap name so I can refer to it when I get confused.
Of course, I also keep getting held up by the amount of times I have to stop and heave an exhausted sigh or roll my eyes or groan or some combination of the three.
I’m in the middle of this one, but will definitely finish it by the end of the day today.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman*** Audiobook ***
So basically I have very little self-control, so when I learned of the existence of full-cast audiobooks I was incapable of stopping myself from checking them out. I listened to one full one already, and then started this one because it was recommended to me as a quality FCA.
I have to say though, listening to some man reading me that Bilquis scene was pretty damn awkward!
Right now I’m paused at the part where Shadow is at the funeral and he’s about to learn some hard truths!
I’m still reading this technically, but I’m taking a short break because I have 5 other books I have commited to reading this month, and 2 others that I’d like to finish within the week. Because moderation is for quitters!
Recently Finished: Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, book 5) by Sarah J. MaasWell it took me like a month, but I did finally finish it. Don’t even talk to me about the ending I’m not dealing with that right now. I refuse.
I had some troubles which I’ll talk about in my April Reading Wrap-Up, but one thing I have to say is like…. Why is everyone having sex every 10 seconds? Like I was trying to read a book about magic and war and all that. And my husband and I have theorized that if you cut out all the sex scenes the book would lose like half its volume so seriously, why was all that necessary?? Can we just chill even a little bit because I didn’t sign up for erotica at this time.
The Goose Girl (The Books of Bayern, book 1) by Shannon Hale*** Audiobook **
I decided to listen to this on a whim. As I mentioned earlier I have only just learned about full-cast audiobooks, and when I discovered that one of my favorite stories had been done in that way I had to try it.
I wrote a Mini-Review, specifically about the audiobook version I listened to, not about the story itself. The story itself was as enjoyable as I have always found it to be.
It was more of a test of the FCA format, so I probably won’t keep going with the entire series at this time, especially since I’ve got so many other books to read right now.
Reading Next: Once and for All by Sarah DessenI’ve been meaning to get to this one, and I found the perfect motivator. That book club I’m in has monthly challenges, and one of them is to read a book with a pastel cover.
I have some others that I need to read this month, but I’ve also been reading a lot of fantasy this year so I figured I should extend my genre break by reading a Dessen novel.
And if I’m honest, all the talking about Dessen novels I’ve been doing I’ve been considering a reread anyway, but I can hardly justify a Dessen reread if I haven’t even read the two newer novels of hers yet.
Lee is 40% done
Darkestwings Reads