What I’m Reading Now: Not A Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis
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Tag Archives: bethylou reads
Quick Review: The Anatomy of Curiosity by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff
Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff are three successful authors on their own right but they are also each other critique partners. They call themselves the Merry Sisters of Fates. If you are familiar with our blog, then you already know about Maggie. I love her and obviously, I have read all of Maggie’s work. I have read some the works of Tessa and Brenna and have mix feelings about them. I really liked Brenna’s The Replacement but only so-so about Fiendish. I did enjoy both Tessa’s Blood Magic and Blood Keeper but for some reason have yet to pick up her latest series. Anyway, the three ladies used to post their short stories on their website but I think since all of their writing careers have taken off they haven’t had time to write that many. They all are very different writers with different styles, though they do all seem to stay on the fantasy side of literature. In The Anatomy of Curiosity they each wrote a short story displaying their personal theory on what is important in starting to build a story. Is it Character development, world building or the idea of a story. They all start at different places but still come up with great stories. Before each story, they go through their process and why they started where they did, why they made these choices and so forth. Through out the stories, they each write for asides as to why they used these words or choices, giving the reader a true insight into their thinking and process. After the story is over they other chime in with their notes. You can read all the notes or you can just read the stories and you will still get a great experience. For inspiring writers, this is a good tool to helping them with their decision making or for us readers, a chance to read some good short stories. Either way it’s a win.
What I’m Reading Now: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
I just really hope that Celaena/Aelin and Chaol can get over their “You distracting me from saving my best friend” “I’m afraid you’re a ticking faery time bomb ready to go off” differences and just get back together.
Review: Black Widow Forever Red by Margaret Stohl
You would think that this novel about the Black Widow would be about you know, the Black Widow. But it’s really not. Natasha Romanoff has to share the lime light with two other characters. I mean, the girl can’t ever catch a break. First she gets shut out of all the promotional toys and now she can’t even be the main character in her own YA novel. What does a super agent girl got to do to get some respect? Ok, maybe I’m going a little overboard since she is still a major part of the story but she has to share the narrative with two new characters. Ava, another prodigy of the Red Room that Natasha saves in one of her missions and Alex, who at first doesn’t seem at all connected to either lady but of course he is deeply connected to both of them. We also get a little more insight into Natasha in between chapters, as we read transcripts from a hearing about how the mission we are reading about went bad. Right away you know that one of them is not going to make it. Continue reading
Review: A Whole New World by Liz Braswell
Disney has been all about re-imagining their classics lately. In the last few years they have told the story of Sleeping Beauty through the eyes of the villain, Maleficent. Made a live action movie of Cinderella and has Beauty and the Beast coming out next year. Not to mention, the show Once Upon a Time, which is nothing more but a chance for all Disney’s characters meet each and hang out. Disney has now taken their new initiative to rewrite all of stories to books. The Twisted Tale series is a new series who’s aim is to ask “What would happen if this or that didn’t happen? Aladdin is the first of their classics to get a new literary spin. What would happen if Aladdin didn’t end up with the lamp but Jafar did? How does that change Aladdin, Jasmine or the Genie? Talk about a plot twist. Continue reading
Quick Review: The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
All right I’m going to just get into it. Talis is by far the sassiest AI in history. I knew that I was going to love this book from the the get go. Talis starts things off with outlining how he took over the world. It truly was love at first read. So, here’s the deal, the world was in chaos, the icebergs in the Arctic have melted. Humanity was killing each other with war after war after war so the UN decided to give Talis the task of finding solutions to stop the chaos. So he blew up a couple of cities, just to get people’s attention and then went medieval on all of them and demanded royal hostages. You declare war, well, then your beloved heir to your throne is going to die. Talis’ number one rule. Make it Personal. Mission accomplished. Fast forward 400 years and for the most part, Talis’ rule has worked. The nations of the world have been almost peaceful. Greta is the heir to the PanPol throne aka Canada and has been raised to be the perfect hostage and heir. She knows that the likelihood of her living to rule her people is getting slim. Her people have been at the brink of war for years and she has become sort of ok with it since it is her duty. That is until Elian shows up and challenges everything she thought was true. Elian is everything she is not. He wasn’t raised to rule or to be a hostage. He knows that he is going to die and instead of accepting it, he fights for it. He, with the help of Xie, Greta’s roommate and fellow royal, open Greta’s eyes to different possibilities. Show her how to be strong and how to rule. They show her what she has been missing by only doing her duty. She makes real friends, falls in love and possibly changes the world. All the while Talis is there being his sassy self, keeping the jokes coming and his no nonsense rule. I highly recommend this book. Come for the sass but stay for the heart.
Review: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for awhile now. I’ve read so many great things about it online but I’m always a little wary, too, when it gets too positive reviews online. I don’t want to be disappointed, you know? So I’m happy to say, I think this one lived up to the hype. An Ember in the Ashes. I think what has drawn so many people to it is that sort of unique. It’s a dystopian novel that isn’t really dystopian. It’s sort of historical fiction but not really. It’s based on Ancient Rome. Yes, it does have a little bit of a Hunger Games feel to it with it’s fight to the death competition in the middle of the novel but I’m willing to forgive because I feel it serves the purpose of the novel. The Martials have taken over the empire and enslave people as they go. One of those newly enslaved peoples are the Scholars. Laia and her family have tried to stay out of trouble but when her brother is arrested for treason she agrees to become a slave and spy on the evil Commandant (she’s seriously evil) for the resistance. Elias is the top student and is poised on carrying on his family’s name but he’s looking for a way out. Their paths collide as they discover they might be exactly who each other needs to get what they want and possibly more.
Laia is an interesting character. She doesn’t see herself as brave. In fact, she spends a fair amount of the novel chastising herself for being a coward for not saving her brother and for running away. Despite all her fears and doubts she pushes herself beyond anything in the attempt to save her brother. She’s strong. Elias is also interesting. He has started to question his surroundings and started to realize that he is as much as a slave as Laia is. He may be an elite soldier but he will always have to do what he is told and live how he is told. He has no free will. So he tried to run away but got sucked backed in. It’s an interesting contrast between the two. One is clearly a slave and has no rights and is abused* and the other may not be called a slave but doesn’t have freedom as you would expect. Add in some mystic priest, a sadistic school master and a little romance and you will be hooked. I can’t wait to read what happens next. Thank goodness there is going to be a sequel.
*Ok, time for a rant. I’m getting tired of reading books that have the heroine live in constant fear of being raped. I have read at least five books in which this was a thing. Yes, for some of the books, it made some sense if you take in to account of setting and time period but it’s getting a little too much. It reminds me of a post by Maggie Stievfater that is really relevant. In the middle of Ember in the Ashes, every time Laia left the house she worked for, she had to be on guard or she would be raped by one of the students in the school. I get it! It’s a threat that women in this time and place of the book, especially slaves (though the other female character also has to guard against her male students, too) have to worry about but do you have to remind us every other chapter? So authors, can we try to think of other ways to bring tension and raise the stakes for female characters besides them being worried about being sexually assaulted? Rant over.
What I’m Reading Now: Black Widow Forever Red by Margaret Stohl
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What I’m Reading Now: The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
If the rest of the book is as good as the Prologue then I’m in Love!
Review: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
I did it. I have completed my summer’s Pop Culture Homework Assignment and still have a couple more weeks before the kids go back to school. (Kids in NYC go back ridiculously late.) I’ve read four books. Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott, 13 Blue Little Envelopes and Last Little Blue Envelope (extra credit) by Maureen Johnson and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. I feel very good about all of this. I’ve read three non-fiction books, which is three more than I read all of last year. I read about two brave women and how they overcame their struggles and came out stronger. I got a feel for what it’s like to hike and camp and it still has no appeal to me but I can see how it might appeal to others. I also got to read a new book form an author I really like. I would say it was a productive summer.
So A Walk in the Woods was enjoyable. I can definitely see why Kate loves it so much. Bill and his friend Stephen Katz are two people who probably shouldn’t be hiking but they did and they made it. Ok, maybe Bill but definitely not Katz. Bill moves to New Hampshire and finds out it’s right by the Appalachian Trail and decides, he’s going to hike it because why not. Out of no where, his long lost friend Katz decides to do it with him. Like Cheryl in Wild, they have no idea of what they are getting themselves into. Sure, they’ve done some hiking before but nothing like this. Reading their misadventures was a delight. From their struggles with their packs, the people they meet and their run-ins with animals that were real or imaginary was amusing. The best part of the book is when they are together. In the middle, Katz has to go back to Des Moines for a job and Bill continues on his own. It’s not that I don’t like Bill, it’s I liked him more when he had Katz to play off. If they were a comedic duo, Bill would be Desi to Katz’s Lucy. The book read faster and I was more interested. When it was just Bill, I felt like he spent more talking about history and other tangents and while interesting, it slowed the pace down. Maybe he spent so much time talking about other things because he was by himself he obviously didn’t have any witty dialogue to include. The Appalachian Trail is older then the Pacific Crest Trail that Cheryl hiked and so it had a lot more places to stop. Also, it’s surrounded by more towns and people, so Bill and Katz had more chances of interacting with people on and off the trail. It was interesting to see how they were treated when they left the trail. In some cases like Gods and others indifference. All and all it was an enjoyable read. I’m glad I read it.
2 Women, So Many Books 