- Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor(★★★★☆)
- These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker & Kelly Zekas (★★★☆☆)
- The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (★★★★☆)
- The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (★★★★☆)
- Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea (★★★★☆)
- Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (★★★★★)
MONTHLY TOTAL: 6
YEARLY SO FAR: 86
A solid month with mostly unexpected reads! I hadn’t at all anticipated on reading so much romance/women’s fiction this month. What happened was, I had a sort of half-dream about a contemporary romance story and I started writing it with fervor, and that made me want to read other romance books to get a feel for the flow of the narrative, since I’ve never read romance before. I had a good time! I also finally got around to Laini Taylor’s latest, which makes me want to read her backlist now!
I’m not sure why my reading seems to be slowing down quite a lot…perhaps it’s because of the holidays. I had a solid five days off this month where I did absolutely no reading (instead I binged The Office for like the fourth time).
I am currently reading:
Sawkill Girls is so freaking good so far!!! It’s so much creepier than I had anticipated. I love reading good old-fashioned horror. Vampire Academy isn’t bad or anything, but I’m not finding it as compelling as I had hoped…then again I’m only like 10% into it. I think I just might not be in the right mood. I was totally in the mood for vampires at the start of the month but then I had that romance story dream and my mood shifted, so who knows.
The fact that Sawkill Girls is so good makes me think I’ll pick up Furyborn sooner than I had thought! But before that, I’ll probably get to Vengeful, and then Damsel, and then maybe, hopefully, The Girl in the Tower? I’ve had it on my Kindle for ages. I also had kind of wanted to read at least one non-fiction book because it’s been ages since I read non-fiction, but winter is such a cozy month that I want cozy, seasonal reads, not non-fiction, so I’m not sure if that will happen. Also being considered are The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater and my re-read of The Traitor Baru Cormorant, but these are both very tentative. I might push both to January.
Mini Life Update:
Because of some fortuitous evens, I am all set to graduate library school by the end of Spring 2019 rather than Summer 2019. That means just one more semester and I can drop two of the four classes I was signed up for! Before I can get to all that, though, I have to get through this semester – I have so many papers and assignments piling on that I need to get to but have been steadfastly ignoring.
Mini TV Update:
I watched Thirteen starring Jodie Cromer, which was the perfect short thriller series. I’ve also been catching up on season 13 of Supernatural, which, while frustrating in many ways, is still really enjoyable. I’m such trash for this show. Like, I fully acknowledge that it should probably end, but I’ll likely be devastated when it does. I’ve also been enjoying Hasan Minaj’s Patriot Act because it’s freaking hilarious. And I’ve also been rewatching random episodes of The Office.
Otherwise, things have been quiet. I’m very much looking forward to next month both here and on BookTube; I love seeing everyone’s end-of-year lists!
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Timekeeper by Tara Sim
Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves
The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King
Everless by Sara Holland
The Sweep Series by Cate Tiernan: Choosing a single favorite book is really difficult for me. There’s so many different criteria one could go by! In the end, I decided to choose my comfort series, the one that I go to when I just want to sink into a world and not think. Obviously, that’s Harry Potter, but I didn’t want to go with Harry Poter, because, what a formulaic answer! So, I decided to go with my second favorite series: Sweep.
When the Sea is Rising Red & House of Sand and Secrets by Cat Hellisen: Felicita Pelim comes from wealth and privilege – but when her best friend commits suicide to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita decides to trade privilege for freedom. She takes to the streets, joins up with a gang, and gets caught up in a plot to destroy the city. In the first book, Felicita isn’t badass so much as resilient, but in the second book, after her marriage and move to another city, her prowess grows. She is every bit a lady, with all the selfishness and pride and willfulness that comes with growing up privileged, but she’s also compassionate, sharp, and snarky as hell. In a city where her family name means little, Felicita fights fiercely to bring justice to members of an oppressed caste who are being murdered and whose human rights are soon to be stripped.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin: This was Jemisin’s debut as well as my introduction to her. I remember picking this book up at a time when I was just so, so tired of all the generic white male fantasy being recommended to me. I don’t recall how I stumbled upon Jemisin’s book, but I do remember reading that it was unusual in many ways for a fantasy novel, particularly a debut. I loved it completely – it was a totally original world, and the narrative style – though not everyone’s piece of cake – was fantastic. In this book Jemisin explored Gods and creation myths all though the first-person perspective of a young black woman, and it was mind-blowing.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander: As a nerd who reads a ton of non-fiction, narrowing this down to one book was tough. Eventually, though, it came down to The New Jim Crow. Michelle Alexander’s book is incredible not only because it is written in accessible language and puts forth a resonant thesis, but also because of the sheer amount of eye-opening information it provides. If you think the United States justice system is at all fair to those who aren’t wealthy and white, read The New Jim Crow. This book will completely overturn any false narratives you hold about the United States as a champion of justice.
Truthwitch by Susan Dennard: Okay, as a YA high fantasy, I don’t know if this book is necessarily for everyone, but I absolutely love it, so I’m including it on here. Not only is Truthwitch is an absolute achievement in worldbuilding, it features two fully fleshed out female leads who love each other more than anything else in the world. Their friendship is the thread that binds the plot together, even as they struggle against coups and political machinations. The magic system is intricate and incredible, and Dennard can write action scenes like nobody’s business.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson: I’ve read some of Dickinson’s short stories, and he seems to be fascinated by the concept of extremely difficult choices. A Sophie’s Choice, if you will. This whole novel is one big Sophie’s Choice, but you don’t really find out until the very end, in one of the most shocking, heart-breaking twists I’ve ever come across in literature. The main character, Baru, is an accountant who has had her home colonized by a brutal empire. She grows up with the goal of dismantling said empire and winning her home back, but the choices she has to make to achieve that goal may just break her. This book is utterly devastating. It’s a truly horrifying portrait of the brutal effects imperialism and colonialism has on people.
The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin: I read a lot of YA, Genre of the Beautiful Covers, so of course I come to you with…a non-YA book cover. It’s another Jemisin book (she’s my favorite author, of course she features twice), from her oft-ignored second series. Most people nowadays praise The Fifth Season (rightly so) or her debut, but her middle series tends to be forgotten, which is such a shame. The Shadowed Sun (and its prequel) feature some truly fantastic and hella creative worldbuilding based on North African myth and culture. As a North African myself, you can bet I loved that. But The Shadowed Sun also includes one of my favorite romances ever, because it is real and raw and unexpected.
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer: I read the first book in this series and liked it well enough. I thought the second book would begin to answer some of the question posed in the first book. How wrong I was. Basically, Authority is a literary rendering of bureaucratic routine with some occasional weirdness thrown in. Pretty much nothing happens throughout this book; there’s a lot of meandering and asking questions, but nothing is answered or revealed. By the last third of the book I was truly struggling, and I began to skip significant chunks just to get to the end.
Everything You Want Me To Be by Mindy Mejia: I finished this book in a day and a half. I remember very clearly that I did not sleep until nearly four am the day I started reading this book, and probably would not have slept if I didn’t have to get up for work in the morning. This book is a murder mystery/thriller, told in alternating perspectives and using flashbacks. It also features one of my favorite tropes, but I won’t say what that is so I don’t spoil the book!
Hadeer Elsbai 