The final book with the villain as the protagonist. Let’s see how this one ends.
What I’m Reading Now: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu
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Sending Love to Sarah Rees Brennan
Sarah Rees Brennan is an author I adore. So it saddens me to hear that she has cancer. She has Hodgkins Lymphoma, which is treatable but still cancer. Yesterday, she made a diagnosis known in a very touching and funny post on Tumblr. I do recommend you read it. In attempt to send positive healing vibes out there for Sarah, here a links to some of my past blog posts about her books. I hope she sees the love and that you dear readers, give her books a chance.
Series You Should Check Out: The Lynburn Legacy by Sarah Rees Brennan
Diverse Stacks, Diverse Lives Reading Challenge Update
With only 2 months left of the year I thought I would take a look at my chanllenge and to see how I’m doing. Not good. Of the 54 books I have read only 13 fall into any of our reading challenge requirements. I realize this is my fault is that I haven’t done a very good job of pushing myself to branch out from norm. The Sub-challenge I’m doing the best is the genre one and the The Sub-challenge that I’m doing the worse is the Author challenge. It turns out I read a lot of women authors, a lot of white woman authors. Not that there is anything wrong with that but I’m missing out on some really great books.
So I have 8 weeks left to read as many diverse books as I can. I’m in the middle of book 14 because Hammer of Thor has a Trans Character and I have 15 and 16 already picked out so at least I’ll be halfway done. I’ve got a lot of reading to do.
Review: Crecy by Warren Ellis
I’m pretty sure that I read this graphic novel when it first came out but, I recently moved and in all the packing I came across it and decided it was time to pick it up and read it again.
The year is 1346 and then English army is outnumbered outside of the village of Crecy. They’ve run a shock-and-awe campaign, attacking villages and just generally making mayhem but now they have to stand and fight. French forces with mounted knights and hired crossbowmen go up against English longbows and other fighters a battle that would have a major impact on the Hundred Years war. The story is centered around one longbowman as he moves through the French countryside and prepares for battle.
This is a quick read about a piece of English history. It is pretty good. A little sweary and sometimes a little gross, but that is in line with the subject material. So, if you’re looking for a little history but you aren’t into reading a long tome, I say give this a try.
It’s NaNoWriMo!
It’s November which means Election Day, Thanksgiving, Veterans Day, Movember and of course National Novel Writing Month. In Solidarity with all of you out there participating in NaNoWriMo we at Stacks are going to attempt to publish a post every day in November like we did last year.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Give us a shout out! We would love to hear about your progress and Good Luck!!
And a little Captain America to give us all a little inspiration!
What I’m Reading: The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
Maybe it will help me be a better writer! It probably won’t but it might!
Quick Review: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
There are more twists and turns in this book then most streets. While Six of Crows took us to Fjerda and back, Crooked Kingdom stays firmly in Ketterdam. After Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias and Wylan were double-crossed after successfully completing their job at the Ice Court. They plan and scheme to take down Jan Van Eck and get the money they were promised, all while hiding Kuwei Yul-Bo from those who would want to use him for his knowledge of the drug Parem Jurdo, that could change the balance of power to whoever has it. Taking on Van Eck will be no easy task when they are the considered the worse of worst and Van Eck is a highly powerful member of the Merchant Council with the power of the city behind him. Then again, Kaz is never outdone and will not stop until he has his vengeance on everyone who has ever wronged him. Just like the first novel , this is a heist story more then anything else. It would fit in perfectly next to Oceans Eleven if it were a movie. There are so many cons and slight of hands going on that if you are not paying attention, you will miss it. That’s just part of the fun of the book is trying to see if you can figure out Kaz’s master plan before the big reveal. He is always two or three steps ahead. Even when it looks like he’s been bested he already has several cons waiting in the wings, just in case. Each of these characters are deeply flawed but each given time to grow. You may not agree with their decisions but at the same time you can’t really disagree with them either. They use the resources and the circumstances that they find themselves in to their advantage. They are just six teenagers from the barrel and they are going best the powerful merchants at their own gain. You can’t help but cheer. For fans of the Grisha Series will be happy to see some old friends make an appearance that is most welcomed but also made perfect sense to the plot. I recommend this duology to anyone who likes a good heist novel. You’ll be on the edge of your seat.
Scary and Spooky books to read before Halloween.
With Halloween just a few days away, I thought I would revisit some of the more scarier and spookier books I’ve read. For all the books that I read that have vampires, witches and werewolves in them, not many fall under the horror genre. So some of my picks don’t really fall into the typical Halloween fare but they are scary nonetheless.
Scowler does fall in the horror category as it was super suspenseful and scary. I picked this book up because I knew that Daniel Kraus was working with Guillermo Del Toro on Trollhunters. The fact it takes place in Iowa an added bonus. Ry and his mother and sister are barely scraping by on their farm and Ry is doing everything to distract him from the pain of the physical and emotional abuse of his imprisoned father. Everything starts to fall apart when a meteorite falls and his father returns to the farm. Ry must defeat his father with the help of his imaginary childhood friends, including Scowler. This book is super super creepy. With a scene at the end that still sort of haunts me when I thing about it. It’s not just a great scary read but also delves into the effects of abuse has on it’s victims. The fear of facing is ones abuser maybe as terrifying as taking on a monster but being able to face that fear takes real strength.
I admit that I still have nightmares from this series. Particularly since I live in New York City and ride the subway through many of the same stations that they talk about in this book and I can’t help but wonder if they are vampires down there. You may have seen the show. I haven’t so I don’t know how it compares but I can’t imagine it as scary or creepy as the book because I’m pretty sure most of the book is not cable ready material. New York because the epicenter of a virus that turns people into vampires. Instead of the traditional being bite on the neck by a vampire to be turned, people are turned by little worm like things. Gross. Eph and his team at the CDC investigate several mysterious illnesses only to find themselves in the middle of a epidemic that deals with ancient vampires. As they try to stay alive and figure out what’s going on and how to stay alive and not to mention dealing with family drama. It’s the perfect scary series to read for Halloween. The ending of the series is truly heartbreaking.
Holly Black is one of my favorite authors. She’s never boring. Her books are never the same and truly original. In the The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, whole cities have been quarantined off because of vampires. Vampires have let’s say got out of control and in these Coldtowns vampires and humans leave together. Some humans more willing then others as some had the misfortune of getting stuck inside when the walls went up. Tana’s mother was bitten by a vampire and later died. After a wild party, Tana wakes to find that only she, her ex-boyfriend and a tied up vampire are alive. The vampire virus takes a couple of days before it takes hold and Tana is determined to save herself and her companions by going to one of the Coldtowns away from her family. It’s not your typical vampire story. It was truly refreshing read and Gavriel is a vampire worth crushing on.
Ok, so this is scary or spooky as the others but the make no mistake the story of the Baudelaire siblings is truly terrifying. When their parents tragically die and they are sent to live with Count Olaf. Things get worse from there. A Series of Unfortunate Events is truly an understatement as the unfortunate events are usually the faults of the adults they are put in the care of. Violet, Klaus and Sunny are put in one bad situation after another from the very first book when Count Olaf tries to marry 13 year old to get a hold of their fortune. Is there really anything more horrifying then that? The first couple of books are a little formulaic but once you get to book five things really start to pick up and things get really scary.
What are your favorite Scary or Spooky books to read?
What I’m Reading Now: The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan
The sassiest hero this side of Percy Jackson.
Throne of Glass Novellas by Sarah J. Maas
After I finished reading Empire of Storms, I decided to go back and read the prequel novellas as many of the characters we meet in these stories make appearance and play a role in the final book to come out next year. It’s very common for authors to publish novellas or short stories in connection with successful series. Most of the time they have little consequence to the actual narrative of the series themselves. They are just a fun story about the time before, or another character’s perspective. The further I got into Empire of Storms and the big reveals starting to come out, I realized that I these novellas were more important then I originally thought. The end was blending of Aelin’s present with Celaena’s past. If Aelin is going to defeat Erawan and reclaim her crown in Terrasan she is going to have call in all of Celaena’s favors. And so I went back and bought all the novellas. The five novella’s The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, The Assassin and the Healer, The Assassin and the Desert, The Assassin and the Underworld and The Assassin and the Empire tell the story of the months that lead her to be arrested and sent to Endovier where we meet her in the Throne of Glass that starts everything in motion. All five novellas were collected together and later published under the named The Assassin’s Blade.
The novella’s we see Celaena in her full Adarlan’s Assassin glory. She is the most feared assassin in the land and she knows it. As Arobynn Hamel’s protege she is at the top of her game, when she is sent to the Skull’s bay to meet with Captain Rolfe, the Pirate Lord. When she finds out that her master is going into the Slave business, she defies him for the first time. With the help of fellow assassin Sam Cortlandt she not only saves the slaves Arobynn was trading but all the slaves. All good deeds don’t go unpunished. She is severely punished and sent to the desert to learn from the Mute Master of the Silent Assassins. Here she meets Ansel of Briarcliff, her first real female friendship and new skills. Upon her return Arobynn gives her a mission that she can’t refuse but it ends up in even bigger betrayal that she pays off her and Sam’s debt’s and leaves Arobynn behind. Celaena and Sam have fallen in love and plan to Rithfold behind but not before they do one last job. This leads to tragedy and ultimately what leads to the beginning of the series. Caleana’s exploits are alluded too in the earlier books but didn’t really have much to do with the actual plot until our heroes make their way to Skull’s Bay to try to convince Captain Rolfe to join their cause. Since the last time Aelin was there, she destroyed the docks and ended the very profitable slave trade for the Pirate King. So, not the best impression to leave on the a possible ally. The Pirate Lord and Ansel have been mentioned before but in passing. I used to think it was just a wink to not only Celaena’s past but also to all those readers who read the novellas but both Rolfe and Ansel play a pivotable role in Aelin’s plans to win the war. The stories gives us a sense about who Celaena was before the action of the series and how deep the scars run for her. From the books, we know how complicated her relationship with Arobynn is but since it all happened before the action of the series we didn’t get see how toxic it truly was. We also get to know Sam. His death is major part of Celaena’s story arc in the first two books. It’s what haunts her and motivates her to seek out Arobynn for the truth. These are some of the rare series novellas that actually further the series plot and for that for fans of the Throne of Glass series, it’s worth reading all the novellas.
2 Women, So Many Books 