Review: Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Posted on by
Reply

51xznz5it0l-_sl300_

I did not expect to binge read Dream Thieves on Thanksgiving. But, I did and now I have to slow my roll down because the fourth book doesn’t come out until Spring. The Raven Cycle is about a group of teens who are looking for a medieval Welsh King rumored to be sleeping somewhere in America. If you wake him, he will grant you a wish.

From here there are spoilers for The Raven Boys.

This novel picks up where Raven Boys left off. Ronan can pull things from his dreams and make them real. Adam woke the ley line and is now its hands and eyes. Noah is still dead and Gansey is still Gansey. Blue is still a not-psychic in a family of psychics. Adam and Blue are kind of together, as together as you can be when your kiss can kill. There is a lot of pain in this novel. Adam doesn’t get why Blue keeps him at arm’s length. Blue can’t help that she’s falling for Gansey. Ronan is still broken from losing his father. None of them understand why Adam went off on his own and, as he grows into what the ley line needs him to be he feels isolated. Gansey is beat up over feeling like he’s losing Adam and he’s at a loss for what to do with Ronan at times. Oh, and Noah keeps reliving his death.

And, now some spoilers for this novel.

In addition to all the growing pains, we learn more about Blue’s family. Persephone has a connection to Adam, we find out. We also meet the Gray man who is there as a bounty hunter to collect whatever allows Ronan to steal things from dreams. I really enjoyed the subplot with the Gray man and Maura and I hope that he continues to be part of the next book. We also learn a little more about Gansey’s and Ronan’s families.

A lot of this novel really focused on Ronan, his ability and its connection to the ley line. I liked Ronan a lot as a character in the first book but he was a little one dimensional. He was Gansey body guard and enforcer. So it was interesting to get some Ronan point of view in this novel. He’s got a lot of anger and also a lot of questions surrounding his father’s life and death. Unraveling the mystery of Niall Lynch not only pushes the narrative forward but also gives Ronan some much needed character development.

We also get a lot of point of view from Adam. We learned about his family in the first novel and we got to see a lot of fall out related to that in this one. We also got to see why this quest and the ley line mean so much to him. Some of the scenes where we see Adam and Gansey together actually lead to some much needed character development for Gansey as well.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I needed to know what happened next. But, I have to say that Adam repeatedly broke my heart. That kid, man. He deserves better.

I am really looking forward to the next novel, Blue Lily, Lily Blue.

World Aids Day

Posted on by
Reply

Today is World’s Aids Day and Giving Tuesday.  So in that spirit, I hope that you will join me in supporting this Kickstarter.  It’s by my friend Bill Bytsura.  He hopes to publish his book of portraits and stories of Aids activists he collected from all over the world between 1989 to 1998.  These are stories of those who fought from the beginning and deserve to get the recognition for their work to help fight this disease.  For more information on this project and Bill go to www.theaidsactivistproject.org

Thank you for supporting and spreading the word.  How ever you spend to day be generous.  This is the time of year of giving.  So give what you can, whether it’s to this or another project that is close to your heart.

Rereading Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Posted on by
2

scarletNow on to Scarlet. I do love this book too.  I love the no nonsense of Scarlet.  The almost innocence of Wolf. Captain Thorne cockiness.  Cinder’s sarcasm. Kai’s sarcasm and Iko as a ship.  Just like I did with my rereading of Cinder, he’s a few observations I may have missed or didn’t think much of the first time around or just things that I love about this story. *Spoilers*

  1. Seriously, is there a better character as Iko ever.  Whether she is a regular android, a ship or an escort droid, she’s the best.  I mean that.  No way the team can accomplish anything if Iko wasn’t there.  She’s very Data like (Star Trek reference!) in her quest to be be and feel more human.  She’s a total optimist in the face of the immense odds and gets everyone going when they feel that can’t go on.  She’s the best!
  2.  When Kai starts to think that the Lunar’s are spying on him, why doesn’t he have his office swept then?  Why wait?  The worst thing that could happen is that there are no bugs and he was just paranoid but the best, he could have stopped  their spying a little sooner.  Of course, who knows what Levana’s reaction would have been then but she was probably going to attack anyway.
  3. Wolf not knowing what Tomatoes were and saying he was from Paris probably should have been a bigger red flag that he was not actually from Paris.  I’m not all that familiar with French food beyond pastries but I’m sure he would have at least seen a tomato before.
  4. How much time did Dr. Erland spend on building new hand and foot for Cinder?  Is that what he was doing when he was hiding from Levana instead of researching the antidote? Or did he have spare cyborg body parts at the ready and once he found her pulled out what he needed once he found her? And if Cinder hadn’t been arrested, when would he have given it to her?
  5. Anyone else want to talk about how creepy it was that Throne wanted to take an unconscious Emile hostage?
  6. How cute was Wolf when Scarlet suggested that she was his Alpha female?  Love seeing men blush.
  7. Let’s give props to Michelle Benoit.  She keeps the biggest secret the world has ever none for 11 years and still doesn’t give it up under severe torture.  Sacrifices herself and her son to do so and still was able to do some serious trash talking before she dies.

I feel like there was more  I wanted to say but I can’t remember.  I really should write these things done.  Next up, Cress.

Review: Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Posted on by
1
It’s been on our minds. It’s been in our posts. I’ve been re-reading. The Fourth book in the Raven Cycle comes out early next year and I want to get you as excited about the books as we are.
I am here to pump you up.

//giphy.com/embed/BLxpjrZNLHu9y?html5=true

via GIPHY

The Raven Cycle is about a quest to find a sleeping King.  Like all quest stories, it involves a band of merry companions who all have their secrets, their desires and their heartaches.  Our Quest Squad contains the Raven Boys: Richard Campbell Gansey III, Ronan N. Lynch, Adam Parrish and the on-again, off-again Noah Czerny who are accompanied by the not-psychic Blue Sargent.  They are searching Henrietta, Virginia for a ley line that should lead them to a Welsh King that was buried in America.  A medieval Welsh king.  I am kind of a Cymruphile so that one little detail was really all my sister had to say to sell me on these books. A Welsh king buried in America and prophesied to return to unite the Welsh and end English tyranny? Sign. Me. Up.
The first installment of the books brings the team together.  Blue Sargent is the only non-psychic in a psychic family and a townie in Henrietta, Virginia home to Ivy League Feeder School Aglionby Academy. Blue’s family run a tarot card reading business and a psychic phone hotline. The Raven Boys are students at the fancy college prep.  Adam is a scholarship kid, Ronan Lynch appears to be the son of a gangster, Noah is quiet, unassuming and fuzzy around the edges, and Gansey is Old Virginia money and the driving force behind the quest for the Welsh King.  Blue keeps crossing paths with the boys in ways that make their teaming up seem fated and inevitable. They have to wake the ley line before someone else gets to it and harnesses its power. Of course, no quest for long forgotten item would be complete without opposing teams questing for the same thing.
This book was a lot of fun to read.  I enjoy all of the characters and I particularly like how they all have their definite strengths and their weaknesses.  Ronan is violent where Gansey is diplomatic.  Adam is thoughtful where the other boys are thoughtless. Blue is grounded where everyone else has their head in the clouds.  On top of the main story of Blue and the Raven Boys, there is a subplot involving Blue’s family that is also complex and interesting.  I cannot wait to see how the series plays out.
So, you should get in on this.  Quests, Kings, Psychics, ley lines, treasure maps, bad guys, flawed good guys, and, I can’t believe I’ve waited until now to mention this, trees that speak Latin!

Gratitude 2015

Posted on by
Reply

book-cornucopia-300x236

Image from Books on the Nightstand

 

Yesterday, Beth gave us her list of things she is grateful for this year and now I am going to share what I am grateful for.  I am so grateful for this blog.  Having this space to share my thoughts about the books I’m reading and knowing that other people actually read it is surprising and humbling and wonderful.  I love reading and I love talking about books and I’m so happy to have a place to do that.  Thank you for stopping by!

 

I am grateful for audible. In this past year I have doubled the number of books in my audio book library and I’ve listened to more books but I have read.  Being able to listen while I drive, cook, clean and work out at the gym has been a nice distraction from a whole bunch of necessary activity I don’t normally enjoy. As a PhD student, audio books have given me a way to keep up with something I love without feeling guilty about eating into time I could be working on my dissertation.  Multi-tasking, FTW!

 

I am grateful for the Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries. Like Beth, I have eleventy billion books in my house and I do not need any more books in my house.  For now. The library has helped me keep my book habit in check by giving me so many options to check out. I love the library! I love the library’s website! I (mostly) have loved the books I have borrowed this year!

 

I am thankful for book groups and reading assignments.  I wouldn’t have read All the Light We Cannot See, Beauty Queens, Who Fears Death? (even though it was my pick for book club!), and all of Rainbow Rowell’s books if it had not been for book club and the pop culture homework assignment. I am so grateful for both of those things because I really enjoyed all of those books.

We hope that you have a happy holiday season! We also wish you happy reading! Thank you for sharing our reads with us!

Dark Reads for Black Friday

Posted on by
Reply

The day after Thanksgiving is a much advertised shopping holiday here in the States: Black Friday. It’s a day full of sales and, if you’ve ever worked retail, full of awful people who don’t know what they want and/or don’t know how to be nice about it. Depending on the side of the fence you are on, it can be a dark day full of dark deeds. To get us all in the spirit of this terrible and wonderful day, we’ve put together a cheeky little list of books you could be reading instead of being yet another warm body crushed into the mall. This list is part horror, part horrifying, part oddly hopeful: just like the holiday season.

1. The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Scary monsters to haunt your nightmares from beyond the stars and below the sea. What could be worse than not finding the perfect gift this holiday season? Well, let Mr. Lovecraft tell you.


2. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Coraline is a curious young lady exploring her family’s new apartment. What she finds is at first wonderful and strange. Then, it’s just strange. Maybe even dangerous and strange.

3. Fallen by Lauren Kate
Fallen angels, True Loves, and high school. What else do you need in your life? A Toaster?


4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark
In a world that is not our world two men try to restore magic in England. Don’t you wish there was magic in the world and you could just flick a wand and you’d be done Christmas shopping?


5. Dear John by Nicolas Sparks
This book might be the worst thing that ever happened to me. It’s hours worth of reading I can never get back. I don’t actually recommend reading it but if you wanted to know what real horror looks like to me its this: a lifetime trapped in Nicholas Sparks’ terrible and cliched prose.


6. Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dracula is a blood sucking fiend. Shopping is a soul sucking endeavor. You get the metaphor.

7. Hellblazer: Original Sins by Jamie Delano
John Constantine is the anti-hero’s anti-hero. He’s a terrible person. Hell, he’s more unlikeable than likeable. And, yet he’s necessary and compelling and chain smoking. If you’re seeing the devils of commerce everywhere, you may need a little Constantine in your life.


8. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

This is technically the second book in the cycle, but I’m not sure you’d actually miss the first book. Will Stanton must fight the Black Rider and a blizzard at the holiday season and find the six sign symbols. He’s only eleven years old, can he do it?

9. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Forgotten why we’re all doing this? Let Charles Dickens remind you in this classic tale. Bonus: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the stuff of nightmares.

What I’m Thankful for 2015

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating today.  In keeping with tradition here at Stacks,  we are going to share what literary things we have been grateful for this year.  I’m going to go first.

I am thankful for my Nook Tablet.  Now this is something that I have never thought I would say.  I bought it because I got a heavy employee discount on it when it first came out but I haven’t used it all that much until this year.  Since leaving B&N, I’ve had to buy more books than I have ever had before.  I much prefer the real deal when it comes to reading but I have to admit the convenience of my Nook has its benefits.  The books themselves are cheaper.  I don’t have to get dressed to the bookstore.  I don’t have to wait for them to be delivered and they take up space in my apartment.  My place is already overrun with books as is.  Plus, my nook is a little easier to read on the train to work because it doesn’t take up as much space.  So thank you, Nook.  You will never fully replace books for me but you have come in handy.

I am thankful for #Weneedmorediversebooks movement.  It has made me aware of my own privilege which I never really thought about.  I’m sure if you look through the books that I read you will noticed that they are mostly all women but you also will noticed that they are also mostly all white.  And their characters are also mostly white as well.  I’ve been trying to be find more authors of color, who are from different backgrounds from me but also look for books with protagonists who are from different cultures.  I’ll admit that I still have work to do but I am trying.  Thank you for Sabaa Tahir, Marie Lu, Julie Kagawa and Nnedi Okorafor just to name a few.  I hope that 2016 will bring new authors and new voices.

I am thankful for book clubs because it forced me to read books that I probably would never have read on my own.  Also, it’s also fun to talk books with friends.

I’m thankful for J.K. Rowling’s twitter.  I’m thankful for her in general but following her on twitter just reaffirms everything I have ever thought about her and that I really want to be her friend.   She’s smart, quick, funny and does not suffer trolls.  She truly is a bright spot on the internet.

And finally I’m thankful for all you reading.  Kate and I started this blog for fun.  A way to keep connected and talk books but I think it’s fair to say it has passed our own expectations.  I thought that maybe a few of our real life friends would read it and comment but to have complete strangers from all over the world, like our blog and leave comments has been so much fun for us.  If it wasn’t for you, I’m not sure that Kate and I would have been as motivated to keep updating the blog.  So with complete sincerity, thank you.

Extra Reality This Month: Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon

Posted on by
1

I never felt cool enough to be a Sonic Youth fan. Or, I’m not sure I’ve ever really understood their music and I attributed my lack of understanding to how utterly uncool I am. But, I’ve always respected them as a band (and more than once my lack of understanding because me an opportunity to flirt with a musically inclined cutie.) Plus, Kim Gordon has always been kind of a feminist icon to me. She was a shining example of how a woman could succeed in a profession dominated by men. And, the fact that she succeeded and managed to maintain a relationship with talented hottie Thurston Moore just made her even more iconic. It’s a little unfair to pin so much hope to a relationship but I know a lot of people who looked at their marriage and thought, “If they can do it, we can do it.” and the world seemed surprised and disappointed when they announced they were divorcing. I was also disappointed. It seemed like the end of a era and maybe it was. I don’t know. So, when I heard that Gordon was writing a memoir I knew I had to read it.

The book chronicles her life starting with her childhood in California and takes us all the way to the present day with a kid in college in new projects post-band. Gordon talks a lot about her relationships with her parents and brother and her mentors and how that shaped who she was and how she ended up in a band. Kim Gordon, you may not know, went to art school and studied painting. (I didn’t know that.) So, this memoir is not just a story about a band or a story of how her marriage came together and fell apart. It is also an interesting look into the art world and how the New York of today grew up.

This was a really, really neat book that made me crave 90s music and to wander around Manhattan. It was really interesting to read what Gordon had to say about the music scene and the growing gallery culture of that time period. It was also really interesting to get a perspective from an older feminist on the world then and now. As I mentioned in on periscope, Kim Gordon is the same age is Beth’s and my mother and her feminism and my feminism are not the same. It is nice to be reminded that the movement has moved.

So, if you are interested in the music and art of the 80s and 90s, I definitely recommend it.

Fan Art

Posted on by
2
This post contains spoilers for Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle and Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series.
I’ve been listening to Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and I’ve really been enjoying it.  This is no surprise; I’ve read it before and Beth and I are avowed Maggie Stiefvater fan girls. One of the things that I really enjoy about rereading a book is that you get a chance to notice all the little things that the author sets up to sign post the direction of the narrative.  Noah is the smudgy boy, which at first I took to mean that he was like Pig Pen but now I’m starting to wonder if his smudge was more than that?  And, does the tension between the psychics mirror the tension that develops between the raven boys or foreshadow the covering and uncovering of secrets as the time goes on.  And, I didn’t notice the first read through that Blue is the page of cups (“So full of potential” they say.)  Coincidence that the one person that makes the leyline powerful is the one that is full of potential?  I think not. Oh, and there’s some nice, not-at-all subtext about Chain Saw and Ronan Lynch.  Anyway, today, I got to the part in Raven Boys where the death is.  And, it was heartbreaking again.  After that I thought for a minute about what kind of fan art I could make, if I wanted to, to honor this fallen soldier in the narrative. I’m a knitter and a tatter so my fan art would have to be something made with needles, shuttles and fiber.
This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about knitting something for a character.  If you’ve been with us for the full year you’ll know that Beth and I once had a…disagreement? moment of upset?  over a character’s death.  Back when the second Daughter of Smoke and Bone came out I fell in love with Akiva’s angel sibling Hazael.  And, while I read the book I sent a series of texts about my new book boyfriend to my sister who politely engaged my new obsession without a hint of what was to come.  She’s good about not ever spoiling anything, including your inevitable heartbreak. So, I was devastated when Hazael was slain at the end of the second book.  And, a little angry at my sister for not even a tiny hint that it was coming.  (I got her back for it, though.) After reading that I book I started my first fan art knitting project: a shawl I’m calling My Fallen Angel.
image_medium
For the knitters in the room, I am using the dreambird pattern by ravelry user Nadita Swings.  It is completely shaped by short rows, so it looks complicated but is pretty easy (as long as you don’t lose your place in the pattern).
image_small2
I am knitting it up in fingering weight palette yarn from knitpicks in the colors seraphim and hazelnut for the feathers and fairytale for the body.
Since I’ve been reading Raven Boys, in addition of thinking about what I could do for the dead, I’ve been musing about what a Blue Sargent sweater would look like.  I think it would need to have design features that look like rips and it would have to be made in bright colors.  In the meantime, if you’re as excited for the upcoming release of the fourth book as we are and you’re also a knitter you can try your hand at Alasdair Post-Quinn’s corvus pattern.
crow-3_small2
It is double knit, so that can be challenging at the beginning and at the edges.  But, It is a cool pattern that’ll up your chart reading fu.
Are you the kind of fan that makes fan art? What is your favorite fan made piece? Hit us back in the comments!

Rereading Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Posted on by
3

cinderEarlier this month, we posed the question, should you reread the previous books before reading the final book in the series or just dive in.   Kate on the other hand has gone back to the beginning of The Raven Cycle. Of course, she still has five months until the final book The Raven King comes out.     I decided to go ahead and read Winter, the final book in the Lunar Chronicles.  Which was fantastic! I loved it so much that I decided to take my friend Valerie’s advice and read the last book and then go back to the beginning.  So I did and there were some things that I didn’t noticed or didn’t think were important at the time that now that I’ve read the whole series seems silly.  So let’s the observations begin. Obviously spoilers will follow.

  1. In almost every scene that has Sybil or Levana in it the narrative always points out that the blond guard behind them.  This of course is Jacin.  We don’t know that, in fact he is only named once in Cinder. It does bring up the question, if he’s just a guard then why spend so much time reminder the reader that he’s there.  It should have been the first clue that he would play a bigger role.
  2. How nonchalant Dr. Erland was in hearing that droids were harvesting id chips from letumosis victims. We learn in Cress that he is responsible for the genetics behind the Luna’s Wolf army so he probably knows or at least on some idea as to why the androids would be taking the chips, more then what he said.
  3. Adri selling off Iko.  She’s been sitting on a goldmine for years and didn’t know it.  I guess that is partly her husband’s fault for not telling her about his work, you know just in case something happens like catch the plague.  It also makes me wonder how involved she was in his work or in his life?  She seems to be like someone who married for comfort then love.  She is lucky that Cinder saved Iko.
  4. Why doesn’t anyone ask why Levana is so insistent on catching Cinder?  If Levana is so sure that she is just a shell or just another Lunar then why would she threatened war over her?  These are red flags people! did no one think, maybe we should look further into Cinder’s background, like how she got to earth in the first place.

Stay tuned for more observations for Scarlet.