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Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read
I had some trouble with this topic, I won’t lie, it’s too hard to pick from all the great books out there! But I hope you’ll find some good ones on this list and I hope you’ll enjoy them if you choose to read them.
Top Ten Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber – I read this book almost ten years ago but I still think about it occassionally. It sticks with you. It’s a story about a missionary who leaves his wife behind (for years) to go to a new planet and spread his message to the aliens living there, but it’s the exploration of human nature and humanity that struck me. I need to reread this sooner rather than later.
Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee – Another book that delves into the human psyche and what it means to live a hedonistic lifestyle. If nothing is important, then what is it that makes life meaningful?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – This trilogy is marketed under YA and launched a whole trend of dystopian YA books, but it is honestly in a league all its own. It still holds up after all these years, and again, the exploration of human suffering and what it means to be human is the thing that gets me.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – Another exploration of human suffering, with a vengence! Literally. I know this is a thick book and can be daunting but it’s so fast-paced and thrilling that you don’t even notice it once you get started. There are so many exciting twists and turns, especially if you’re reading it for the first time, but even after a dozen rereads, I still get excited reading it again.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah – This is one I’d recommend listening on audiobook because the author reads it. His performance is a work of art and you really feel like he’s a friend having a conversation with you and telling you his stories. I’m a huge fan and I have so much respect for him for so many reasons.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – I’ve only read a couple of books in this series, but it’s so fun and different that I can’t not include it on the list. It’s so rich and funny, and yet, also poignant in some ways. You’d be a fool not to at least try it, really!
Life of Pi by Yann Martel – I love the fantastical elements of this story as well as the exploration of our religious beliefs and spiritual values. You could say they actually go hand in hand in many ways. This book made me think about why I believe what I believe.
11/22/63 by Stephen King – Honestly, you’d be a fool not to read at least one book by Stephen King. It doesn’t have to be one of his big horror books, in fact, his non-horror books are some of my favorites. If you don’t know which one to pick, I’d recommend this one, but he’s just got so many good ones! I may be biased, but I’m also right! 😂
Circe by Madeline Miller – You might have heard about The Song of Achilles by the author, and it’s good, but I think this one is better! For some reason, I never wrote a review for the book, but impressions stick, and I remember feeling all my feelings for a while after reading the book.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly – This is a well-known classic but it’s popular for a reason. The more I think about this book, the more impressed I become. I love how this story came to be, I love how insightful the author is about the topic of human nature and monsters, both literally and figuratively. It is a haunting story.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books I Did Not Finish
There are many books I dnf’d because I didn’t like them but there were also some books that I think I might like but just wasn’t ready for. Today’s list is a mix of those I didn’t like and will never pick up again, and some that I know I want to try again one day.
Top Ten Books I Did Not Finish
Dracula by Bram Stoker – This one is a funny story because it’s not that I didn’t like the book, it’s that I listened to it on audio and somehow thought it would be a good idea to listen while sleeping. I was frightened awake by a nasty, scary, loud voice – Dracula’s voice, I presume, I didn’t wait long enough to find out. I quickly turned it off and hid under the covers and I just haven’t picked up the book again. I will eventually! Maybe on print and not before bed!
You, Me, and the Colors of Life by Noa C. Walker – I read up to 52% of the book. I don’t know what happens so this isn’t a spoiler, but I got the impression that things wasn’t going to end well for the MC. She has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which is the same cancer I had when I was 19, and I couldn’t keep reading thinking that she was going to die from it.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber – I had really high hopes for this book and I think I got all the way to 90% of the book and then rage-quit because it kept getting worse for me. Here’s what I said in a review: “It was all so juvenile and nonsensical, and there were so many holes in the plot. I didn’t like any of the characters at all, and even Julian, who was supposed to be the most appealing and was portrayed as such, didn’t appeal to me at all. A lot of the book was repetitive and annoying, and I really didn’t like Scarlett and her sister Donatella.”
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton – This one came highly recommended and I really wanted to like it but I just didn’t. I love the idea, but the execution was disappointing. There was too much narration, too many big words, too much telling, too much effort going into trying to convince us how smart the crow was. I just didn’t care about the characters or the story. I dnf’d about 35% in.
I Fell In Love With Hope by Lancali – The language was beautiful but it was too much purple prose. It became not about the story but about the word-crafting, which is fine, but that’s not what I thought I was getting into. I dnf’d maybe 10% in, probably less, because I just couldn’t get through the story, I got so stuck on the words.
We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida – I only read two “chapters” but it looks like each chapter is an individual story about different people who were prescribed cats. They all seem unrelated to each other except for the cat thing, I can’t say for sure since I dnf’d, but I realized that maybe slice of life stories just aren’t for me. I was mostly bored.
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson – Here’s my review from when I tried reading it in 2016: “I couldn’t get past the first 15%. It started so confusing with the characters names and change in POVs, but then I started to get it and it seemed promising. Then came pages and pages of descriptions about how Kelsier was using Allomancy… all the talk of Pushing and Pulling, and IronPush, PewterPull, etc. It’s much worse than what I’ve described here, it was just too tedious and boring.” Don’t come at me, Brando Sando fans! I’ve enjoyed his other books, and I’ve since read the first three books of the Stormlight Archives and loved them. Maybe 2016 me was just not ready for Mistborn but I’m open to trying again!
Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang – I borrowed this book because I wanted to read just that one story that the movie Arrival was based on – Story of Your Life. I loved it and intended to read the rest of the book, but didn’t get to them before I had to return the book. I’ve since read Exhalation by the author and loved it so I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this one!
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion – I initially thought this book was about magical living, you know, the whimsical happy life kind of thing. I picked it up in 2016 when my father was sick and I needed something whimsical. It turned out to be a book about grief and I just couldn’t do it then because it was too close to home. One day, eventually.
Only A Monster by Vanessa Len – I try my best to support Malaysians where I can, so I got excited when I found out this story has a Malaysian MC and the author has Malaysian roots. It sounded like a great story and I was looking forward to reading it but unfortunately, I couldn’t get into the book. I couldn’t relate to the characters or the story, but I love that others seem to like it and I hope that adding it to my list might help it find other readers.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books on My Spring 2025 to-Read List
I haven’t done a very good job of reading from my TBR so far this year, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have books on my TBR. It’s a symbol of hope. That I’ll actually read these books. We shall see. 😂
Top Ten Books on My Spring 2025 TBR
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst – I’ve posted this book on a few TBR lists already and I still haven’t read it! I don’t know what’s the holdup but I hope I’ll get to it this spring!
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman – The third book in the series; I read the first two months ago and I desperately want to continue the adventure. It’s so much fun!
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros – I didn’t like the second book as much as the first, and I’ve heard mixed reviews about this one, which scares me, but either way, I feel like I have to see it through.
The Lost Tarot by Sarah Henstra – The gorgeous cover reeled me in, and I love stories about divination, so it found its way into my TBR!
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston – Another one that’s been in my TBR for ages. It’s got good reviews so I really want to read it.
The Terror by Dan Simmons – I’m quite excited about this one. I’ve had it on the waitlist since December last year and it’s supposed to get to me soon! Fingers crossed!
Rose Madder by Stephen King – I’m on a personal Stephen King reading challenge and I heard great things about this book. It will be my first time reading it. I’m excited!
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore – I love mystery thrillers and this one intrigued me. I also heard a lot of good things about the book and author so I thought I’d try it.
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett – I loved the first book, was a little disappointed with the second, but I love the characters and want to visit with them again!
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard – This one is so interesting; it’s a scifi with a time element, which I always love. Can’t wait to get to this!
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books that Include/Feature…
Not exactly a plot device but definitely a sort of theme; I decided to go with books that feature divination. It made me realize that for someone who loves learning about divination tools, I don’t read a lot of fiction that features divination. Maybe some minor mention here and there, but not many that have divination as a main plot point.
I’m not sure that all the ones listed below do either because I haven’t read many of them, but searching for books that fit the theme certainly made me interested in reading them!
Top Ten Books that Feature… Divination
The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick – One of my favorite series, it features a form of card divination, but the beauty of the books are the characters and the relationships between them.
The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware – This one features tarot cards. I remember not really liking the story very much but being impressed with the accurate portrayal of tarot cards.
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick – Featuring the I Ching. I haven’t read the book but I watched the tv series and loved it. I don’t remember the I Ching in the show though.
The Darksword Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman – I have these books on my physical bookshelf but haven’t read them. They feature a form of tarot cards, but not exactly the same as real tarot I think. I love the Dragonlance series by these same authors!
All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue – The main character is a tarot reader who goes to a Catholic school in a conservative Irish town. I am hooked! It’s YA and looks like it’d be an easy read so maybe I’ll get to it soon.
Fated by Benedict Jacka – I haven’t read this one but I’ve heard some good things about it and I’m intrigued. The main character is Alex Verus who is a mage diviner and uses many different forms of divination. This is the first book of twelve.
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig – I’m not sure if I’d consider this one a form of card divination, but it does have cards with magical powers.
The Lost Tarot by Sarah Henstra – I borrowed this from the library because of the title and the gorgeous cover. I don’t know what this is about except that it features tarot.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – I have been wanting to read this series forever but never got around to it. I also love that there’s an actual tarot deck you can buy, my only issue with it is that I didn’t like the orange color, but I’m starting to change my mind about the color so we’ll see.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman – The alethiometer is the divination tool here, which is great because it’s different. I’d love to get my hands on one and figure out how it works if it was real. It sounds so fascinating when you read about it in the book and watch the film adaptations.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings.
Missing You All
I don’t like that I haven’t been posting Sunday Posts. I just feel like I haven’t done very well with reading recently, and/or being organized, and taking the time to visit everyone’s blogs and replying comments. However, I’ve missed catching up with everyone and reading about what I’ve missed, and I really want to make an effort to check in with you all. And even if it’s only a couple of times a month instead of every week, I think it’s better than missing you all for months!
The weather has been warming up, which is great because I’ve been missing my runs outside but there have still been some snowy days and it looks like this week is mostly overcast. I’ll try to get it in whenever there’s a nice day. You have to take it when you can!
Crochet One thing that I have been doing better at recently is crochet; I’ve made some wearables but not many and I haven’t really worn any of them much because they don’t fit right. I’ve started getting better (or just more stubborn) and made a few I really like. I redid them over and over until I got them right, I think I frogged the first one (on the left) three times! I’m not sure yet that I like the last one (on the right). It’s not the best fit so I might redo it.
I also learned that blocking makes a huge difference! It’s such a game changer! I used to be too lazy to block but I’m going to be better about blocking my projects in the future. Unfortunately, I’m still too lazy to swatch. If you’re a more experienced fiber artist, how important is swatching, really? Do I need to change my lazy ways? 😅
The Books
Books I read last week:
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab I only finished one book last week, but it was pretty good. I enjoyed the first book in the series and I liked this one too especially towards the end. The jumping timelines were a little annoying and there were certainly some issues with convenient plotlines, but I still cared very much for the characters and was very invested in how things turned out.
Books I’m reading:
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson – A huge book I’m listening to whenever I get the chance. It’s 55 hours and I’m at 22 hours at the moment. Not sure if I’ll be done by this time next week, but I’ll try!
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao – Just started. Literally. Like, I’m on the first page. But it’s been on my TBR for ages and I really hope it lives up to the hype!
I’m hoping to finish at least two books this week. It used to be no problem to read more than that even with the huge Brando Sando books, but it’s been a struggle recently so I’m just aiming for at least two now.
How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Things Characters Have Said
I’m not good with today’s topic because I usually don’t remember or keep track of what characters have said, but I really enjoyed last week’s topic and decided I’d do the same topic but focused on the future this time. Unlike the ones set in the past, we don’t have a set basis for these timelines in comparison to our current time. I’m assuming they are set in the future based on context and technology, but who really knows? In any case, they’re all really good books and I enjoyed reading them all!
Top Ten Books Set In Another Time – The Future
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – Space travel, diverse species, and lots of intergalactic hijinks. This is one of my favorite books for found family, world building, and adventure. The best thing about it is the internal philosophy for learning to understand, live with, and love other diverse people.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – A dystopian future, but definitely set in the future based on context of what Panem used to be. I’ve read the trilogy so many times, but the last time was a while ago so I think I’m due for a reread!
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – Also dystopian and quite scary if you’re in it, but so fun to read about! I’ve read the first two books but stalled because I had other books and deadlines to get to. I think about this series every day and can’t wait to get back to it.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky – This one spans years and decades and centuries of the future! A whole species evolves over a long, long time, and I never expected it to be so amazing to read about!
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman – This book never specifies the timeline, but I’m assuming it’s in the future because certain relics from this story’s past are the things we are familiar with. The writing style is meandering and stream-of-consciousness style, but somehow it was easy for me to get into because it felt so interesting to me.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood – Another dystopian future. It seems quite self-contained though, and it’s only the first book in a series but it sets the stage and I’m interested in seeing what the next books bring.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell – Space travel and alien encounters. This one is haunting and painful but so good and so worth it. I don’t think I’d want to reread it anytime soon because it’s quite heavy, but it’s a book that stays with you.
Grass by Sheri S. Tepper – Alien planet migration. It’s been a long time since I read this but I remember loving it very much and feeling fascinated by the characteristics of this new planet with its indigenous plants and animals. Probably time to revisit soon.
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber – I think of this one often. It’s about a missionary who travels to a new planet to spread the word of god and has to leave his wife behind. The interaction he has with the inhabitants of the planet is really interesting, but the thing that I remember most about the book is the correspondence between him and his wife. I remember thinking it’s such a strong story about marriage and relationships. I really need to reread this one.
Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee – This book was originally published in two separate parts, now combined to one. It’s set in a hedonistic world where people can do what they want, live dangerously, die and come back with a new body. They can custom design their bodies each time they come back, which I thought was interesting because it eliminates the external skin as part of their identity. Another one I’m wanting to reread.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
February 2025 Wrap Up
February was a little better. I’m still disorganized but doing better with getting things done and cleaning up the disorganization bit by bit. The first part of February was bad, but things improved later and I’m trying to keep things going on an upward trajectory.
The weather has started to get nicer, and I started running outdoors again! That makes me so happy and gives me a little bit of grounding that I needed. My body is sore because it’s gotten used to being lazy this past winter, but I’ll just do what I can when I can. At the very least, it’s nice to just be outside in the comfortably cool weather.
My February 2025 TBR Intentions
I ended up reading different books because of mood and library loan deadlines! I’ll come back to the ones I haven’t read soon though!
Children of Time and All Systems Red are rereads, but they were necessary because Children of Time is quite complex and I needed to refresh my memory before moving on to the next books. All Systems Red was the chosen BOTM for my in-person bookclub and I had to reread to refresh my memory for discussion as well. I enjoyed them both very much the second time around!
Vicious was a stand out; I had no expectations going in but was very pleasantly surprised. It had me at the edge of my seat and I had to keep reading because I needed to know what happened next.
The Frozen River was another surprise! I had not expected to be excited while reading about events that happened such a long time ago or that it would keep me so worked up that I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep. It’s based on true events and real people, and unfortunately it’s not completely accurate to what really happened, but this version of events was very well-written and satisfying and I loved reading it.
March 2025 TBR Intentions
Most of these are BOTMs and/or buddy reads that have a March deadline. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish all of them, but I’d like to try!
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Terror by Dan Simmons
All The Living and The Dead by Hayley Campbell
How was your month in February What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful March with lots of great books!
