Year: 2020

Flashback Friday: Books I Loved When I Was Younger

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We all have those books that hold a dear place in our hearts. Books that looking back may not be perfect but that we can reread time and again because of how much we loved them in our youth. I’m going to take a walk down memory lane and talk about some of the ones I loved and still love.

Nancy Drew – I read a lot of Nancy Drew as a young teen. I was voracious in my devouring of books so my mom suggested I try them out, thinking they would last me a while. Yeah, I read all of the original stories, the extended originals and most of the files books. I’ve now collected all of the originals and all of the filed through 100. These books are a product of their time and aren’t perfect, but in a lot of ways they are also timeless. I can usually pick up one if I’m in a slump and fly through it.

L.J. Smith – I may be somewhat revealing my age, but I read pretty much all of L.J. Smith’s books when they came out. The Forbidden Game trilogy (my favorite), Vampire Diaries (the originals, not the ones that were added on later), Secret Circle, Dark Visions and Night World (do not even get me started on Strange Fate unless you want to hear a mega rant). I now have two sets of the original cover editions of the Forbidden Game trilogy, as well as two editions of all the Night World books, including first editions and the new beautiful re-released ones. No, they don’t necessarily hold up as well to modern standards, but they all have such a dear place in my heart.

Anne of Green Gables – I was gifted a box set of the entire Anne of Green Gables series as a child, another gift from my mom, because I loved the TV series that was made (starring Megan Follows). I didn’t get to them until I was a little older, but they are a huge chunk of my adolescence. I have thought about getting a new set of books since mine are very battered, but haven’t settled on what exactly I want yet.

So there we have it, a very narrowed down snippet of books that I loved and still love. What are some of your old favorites?

Happy reading!

Review: Norse Mythology

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Neil Gaiman, long inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms of his fiction, presents a bravura rendition of the Norse gods and their world from their origin though their upheaval in Ragnarok.

In Norse Mythology, Gaiman stays true to the myths in envisioning the major Norse pantheon: Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki—son of a giant—blood brother to Odin and a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator.

Gaiman fashions these primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds and delves into the exploits of deities, dwarfs, and giants. Through Gaiman’s deft and witty prose, these gods emerge with their fiercely competitive natures, their susceptibility to being duped and to duping others, and their tendency to let passion ignite their actions, making these long-ago myths breathe pungent life again.

I already knew going in that I liked Neil Gaiman’s writing style, so I was excited to experience the Norse myths though his style. I think this is a great example of modern language and story telling techniques refreshing these old myths and making them more accessible to people who may not want to read them as they were originally written.

Gaiman injects his usual wit and cleverness in the stories and in my opinion makes them vibrant and an easy, enjoyable read. He sets up the myths well and laid a great groundwork so that the worlds and characters could be understood. This is great for people who already love the myths or those just getting into them.

Happy reading!

Review: The Last Conversation

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What’s more frightening: Not knowing who you are? Or finding out? A Bram Stoker Award–winning author explores the answer in a chilling story about identity and human consciousness.

Imagine you’ve woken up in an unfamiliar room with no memory of who you are, how you got there, or where you were before. All you have is the disconnected voice of an attentive caretaker. Dr. Kuhn is there to help you—physically, emotionally, and psychologically. She’ll help you remember everything. She’ll make sure you reclaim your lost identity. Now answer one question: Are you sure you want to?

This is the last story from the Forward collection I had left, so I was excited to get to it. Since it is so short I don’t want to say much about it since it would likely be a spoiler. This was my first experience with Paul Tremblay’s writing though I’ve heard tons of great things about it in the past so I was eager to see if I liked it. I did really enjoy the writing and the language used – plus the twist at the end was really good and surprising. The story itself speaks to a number of things regarding science, morals and the lengths that people will go to. I felt that the story could have been much longer and kinda wished it was, but I still really enjoyed it.

Happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday: Last 10 Books I’ve Added to My Shelves

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ ThatArtsy Reader Girl, I decided I wanted to participate to add a little more content to my blog, so here we go!

This week is all about the last 10 books I’ve added to my shelves. It’s a good thing I keep track of the books I add every month or I’d be hopeless in this. Early in the month I went to my local bookstore and traded in a bunch of unhaul books and books that family members had passed to me. On that excursion I picked up four books.

Then I received my Book of the Month box, which included my selection from the finalists for being a BFF, my monthly book and an add on pick. You just can’t beat their prices when it comes to the subscription cost and cost of add ons.

Finally I’ve ordered on book from Amazon this month, which is another Heather Graham book as I’m trying to pick up the ones that I’m missing from the Krewe of Hunters series. Those are all the physical books that I’ve picked up this month, but to make this an even 10 I’ll include the last two books I’ve picked up on my kindle, both of which I’m really excited to get to.

What are some of the last books you picked up? Happy reading!

Review: Murder Is a Debate

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Nora and her two best friends, Liv and Nina, aren’t like most people. Nora is the private school kid; the rich girl, though everyone hates her. Liv and Nina attend the run-down public school on the opposite side of town where the football team is a solid two and the art department was shut down due to funding. Their worlds should have never collided, but they had one common factor that brought them together, murder.

In an online mystery chat room, the three girls meet and decide to form The Murder Club. Each week one of the girls must come up with a murder scenario for the other two to solve. It’s fun. It’s active. It’s also deadly.

When one of Nora’s classmates ends up dead, she’s suspicious of her new friends. His death mirrors the very same scenario Nora came up with in their previous meeting. As clues emerge, pointing more definitively at the members of the Murder Club, Nora begins digging for her own clues, bringing fantasy to reality. Could Liv and Nina be involved, and if so why?

They were all curious, but the question is, was one of them too curious?

I didn’t know much about this story going in, but the description caught my interest so I decided to give it a listen. This story was a lot of fun, while also addressing a lot of deeper issues such as anxiety and mental health. The main character, Nora, really goes through a lot of things that are only made worse by figuring out that she has issues with anxiety. A lot of the other characters contribute negatively to that, but there are definitely some stars that are loyal and truly want to help her as she works to unravel what is going on in her town.

This was really well written and a quick mystery that had a few great twists that kept me guessing. I was fairly sure I knew who was doing everything, then was pleasantly surprised when I was wrong, which is always a good sign for me!

Happy reading!

Review: Battlefield Ghosts

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A Confederate general peers out to sea: is he still guarding against a federal naval attack? A plaintive cry echoes at Antietam: did modern schoolboys meet the famous Irish Brigade? A collection of compact histories of important American battles — and the cries of the spirits that echo over the fields.

I love books that center around ghost stories in different regions, but this one unfortunately wasn’t one of my favorites. It was more of a historical book than a ghost story book, which is fine if that’s what you’re looking for. With each story I do recognize that you have to set up the story, but most of them only had a couple paragraphs at most about the ghost stories while the rest told the tale of the battles and people that fought in them.

Another thing that kind of affected my reading experience was that there were stories from both the Revolutionary War and Civil War, which isn’t a problem, but I had wished that they were in chronological order or separated into two sections. I was constantly having to double check which war things were happening in as some of them occurred in similar locations.

I am always down for a book of ghost stories and this one definitely had a number of very interesting experiences, it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting. If you’re looking for something much more historical detail heavy with a little bit of ghostly experiences, then you’d probably love this one as it does have a lot of great detail and is well written.

Happy reading!

Review: A Strangely Wrapped Gift

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In A Strangely Wrapped Gift, you will find journeys from mental illness to recovery, from heartbreak to heart growth, from hopelessness to empowerment, and from the ocean to the stars. In these pages, Juniper takes heavy, emotional raw material and weaves it into stunning, relatable poetry you’ll long to share with friends and loved ones. This collection is a reminder that broken pieces make the most beautiful mosaics, and that all of us possess the power to bloom even after a harsh winter.

The poetry collection contains some beautifully written passages. The phrasing in many of the pieces was wonderfully done; however, I found myself not loving the format. This is probably more a me thing than a book thing, so keep that in mind. If you love the poetry format that is more small passages, then you will probably love this collection way more than I did. I just had a slightly hard time getting into the format.

That being said, the content of this was wonderfully done. There is a lot of discussion about mental health, OCD, heartbreak and recovery. It’s obvious that the author put her heart into her poetry and that is something I do love about this collection.

Happy reading!

Review: Infinite Possibilities

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The New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and speaker provides the next step beyond his immensely popular Notes from the Universe trilogy with this special 10th anniversary edition of the modern classic that contains even more enriching wisdom for living an abundant, joyous life.

We create our own reality, our own fate, and our own luck. We are all filled with infinite possibilities, and it’s time to explore how powerful we truly are. With clear-eyed and masterful prose, Infinite Possibilities effortlessly reveals our true spiritual nature and exactly what it takes to find true happiness and fulfillment. Witty and intelligent, this is “the perfect book at the perfect time. It is full of wisdom, answers, and guidance—a unique combination that is guaranteed to help anyone during times of change and transition” (Ariane de Bonvoisin, bestselling author of The First 30 Days). This tenth anniversary edition features a new foreword by Bob Proctor and a new introduction from the author.

This book is written wonderfully, I felt that it was such an easy read that flowed like a conversation. If I had to compare it to something I would say it reads like a TED talk, which is understandable considering Dooley has taught his methods.

While I didn’t necessarily agree with the whole of Dooley’s perspectives, the book is full of good advice and a perspective that I think would be valuable to anyone looking to improve themselves or their life. There’s a lot of discussion regarding intention, how positivity and negativity can affect you, etc. Pretty much anything could take something from this book and find it useful.

All in all this was a very enjoyable read that I’m glad I was able to take the time to read. It’s got a lot of great points and even if you don’t agree with everything there are a number of things that could be helpful.

Thank you to Beyond Words for sending me a copy of this book for review, it is out now. Happy reading!

Anticipated February 2020 Releases

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Everyone looks ahead to see what books they want to check out and add to their TBR. It may not be great for the bank account, but I’m always excited to add to my want to read list. Let’s look at some of the books coming out in February that I want to check out.

Of Curses and Kisses – Ok, this one is no surprise to anyone who knows me, since it’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling. When it comes to fairy tale retellings anything Beauty and the Beast is always at the top of my list. Plus, I’ve enjoyed Sandhya Menon’s writing before in When Dimple Met Rishi so I’m eager to try out her writing with more of a fantasy twist.

The Sun Down Motel – While I haven’t read Simone St. James’ other book that I have, The Broken Girls I am eagerly wanting to read both that one and this one. I was able to select it as my book from Book of the Month so I already have it, now I just have to get to it. I knew after I read the blurb that it was definitely something I wanted to check out.

The Unspoken Name – Ok, I’ll admit I haven’t really heard of this one but it snagged my interest when I was browsing a list so I took a look. Based on the description alone I am intrigued and really want to check it out. We’ll see if I like it when I do get it and get to it! It definitely looks like it would be a fun ride with a lot of morally grey areas, plus a fantasy!

The Unwilling – This is a book that I received an eARC of and accepted it purely because of the premise. It sounds like a fantasy with many moving parts and at the center of it a girl that everyone might want to use. This is one I’ll be diving into very soon, so look for a post about it from me!

So that’s it, those are some titles coming in February that I am very excited to get to. I hope that I end up loving all of them when I get to them, but we’ll just have to see. Do any of these pique your interest?

Happy reading!

Top 5 Things I Love About a Bookstore

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We all buy books online quite a lot now, because of convenience or availability, but I still enjoy going to brick and mortar bookstores. Part of this is loyalty, there’s a local one that has been around since I was in high school and I like to support them – but another reason is that sometimes I just need the comfort of a bookstore.

The Smell – Yes, that’s right. Bookstores smell of paper and ink regardless of if they are new or old. I would love candles specifically with this scent because it’s so soothing and a happy place for me.

Books you may not expect – Each bookstore is going to have a different array of books available, especially if they are a used and new bookstore that accepts trades. Finding those rare books that you don’t see in other bookstores, or the hidden treasure of an edition no longer available is an amazing feeling.

The Staff – As I said it’s wonderful when you have a favorite local bookstore, it’s even better when you can build a rapport with them and get to know the staff. They start knowing your taste and trusting your opinions when they ask you how a certain book was.

Trading in – If your favorite bookstore is one that allows you to trade in books for cash or credit, take advantage of it! It’s a great way to ave money and to eliminate books from your shelves that you may no longer want. I’ve saved a ton of money by doing this at my local store.

Instant Gratification – Let’s face it, being able to grab the book and take it home immediately is WAY better than waiting for the book to arrive in the mail!

So those are my favorite things about bookstores – what are some of yours?

Happy reading!