Author: Haze

Sunday Post | Happy Lunar New Year!

Posted February 10, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 18 Comments

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. 

Happy Lunar New Year!

As of this writing, I am exhausted because it’s the Lunar New Year and I’m prepping for our “traditional” new year meal (traditional to our family, not really to the culture as a whole). I’ve also been cleaning the house and doing laundry and all the extras, although I’ll admit that my definition of clean is probably not as strict as it used to be. Clean enough is good enough.

It’s just my husband and me this year, so I didn’t go overboard. I made crispy pork belly in the air fryer, and we had several side vegetable dishes to go with it. We’ll have enough leftovers for the next couple of days too, which is great! Are you celebrating the Lunar New Year?

I’ve also finally finished Season 3 of Veronica Mars, and it’s so apparent to me now how toxic Veronica’s relationship with Logan is. I used to ship them so much, but now I’m like, you guys need to stay away from each other. It’s funny that this time around I’m more invested with her relationship with Piz. Piz is so much better for her than Logan ever was.

I did start watching a couple of episodes of Season 4, but not liking it very much. Logan and Veronica’s relationship is as toxic as ever, maybe more. And Piz is nowhere to be seen. I don’t know if I’ll finish watching it. It’s more of a curiosity to see where it goes.

As for my reading last week, I finished Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley on audiobook, and I binged on The Improbable Meet-Cute Series, which were so much fun! I’m also currently reading Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng on audio and loving it so far.

I dnf’d two books, which I’m very proud of because dnf-ing doesn’t come easy to me. As it was, I spent way too long on them before I finally dnf’d, but it’s a practice and I’ll get better at it!

The books I dnf’d:

  • Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien – so apparently I’ve picked up this book before and dnf’d it then. I didn’t remember it but it started to get really familiar as I read, and instead of dnf-ing again, I kept reading past where I stopped last time because I thought maybe this time, I’d like it better. I didn’t.
  • Children of Virtue and Vengence by Tomi Adeyemi – This is the second book in the Legacy of Orïsha series, and I’m very disappointed because I wanted to like it. I dnf’d at 53% because there’s a character in the story that gave me the ick and I can’t get past it. I’d accept this character as a villain but it seemed like the author might be trying to redeem them, and I can’t. It’s too icky. I have more I want to say, so maybe I’ll write a separate post about it later.

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I’ll finish Our Missing Hearts soon, I’m already 80% in, and I really want to start Legends and Lattes this week!

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Book Review | The Improbable Meet-Cute Series

Posted February 9, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Improbable Meet-Cute Series

My Thoughts

I wasn’t planning to read all of them initially. I had only just downloaded two of them – The Exception to the Rule, and With Any Luck – (they are free with Amazon Prime!) on Kindle, but I finished them both very quickly and then I wanted more, so I downloaded the rest, and finished them all too!

So here are my general thoughts; are they cute? Yes! Are they cheesy? Also yes! But are they a lot of fun? Hell yes!

Some are cheesier than others, and also totally unrealistic, and I would probably not like a couple of them if they were full-length romances. But as they are, in this format, I had so much fun reading them all! I love that they were all connected to each other in some small way, and I love how they each tied in with Valentine’s Day.

My Feels

Book 1 – The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren
This one was my favorite of them all. I loved that it spanned years and that it wasn’t insta-love. Conversation and correspondence are also my weaknesses, I just cannot resist love that blossoms through love letters – or the modern equivalent to love letters. I also loved how they finally meet! It’s just wonderful from start to finish. 5/5 stars.

Book 2 – Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez
This is my next favorite, and can you blame me when you realize it’s also got that love letter element? Notes on the windshield, back-and-forth correspondence, falling in love through notes before ever meeting each other. It’s just so sweet, and of course, improbable, but that’s the name of the series, so there. 4/5 stars.

Book 3 – Rosie and the Dreamboat by Sally Thorne
So here they also get to know each other before they see each other, but it’s not through love letters. It’s through voice. Rosie is stuck in the isolation tank, and the fireman needs to get her out. I think my enjoyment of this love story is tempered with my fear of being stuck in enclosed spaces. I loved that they connected, but I was too focused on Rosie being stuck. 3/5 stars.

Book 4 – Drop, Cover, and Hold On by Jasmine Guillory
I was very confused with the male MC’s facial expressions being all over the place, but I love the sentiment, and I love a baker. The way to my heart is through my stomach, and any man who gives me extra pastries for free and makes my favorite baked goods is gonna have a place in my heart. 3/5 stars

Book 5 – With Any Luck by Ashley Poston
I quite enjoyed this story, but it’s funny, I feel like this one would be much better as a full-length novel. I feel like the story can definitely be expanded on. I loved the characters and I love the idea of Audrey being the kiss that helps other people find their true love. I want more! 4/5 stars.

Book 6 – Royal Valentine by Sariah Wilson
This was probably the most improbable one for me, but hey, it’s sweet, and it’s cheesy, and I enjoyed seeing them fall for each other. 3/5 stars.

My Rating

I’ve given each story their individual rating, but collectively, I’d give them a rating of 4/5 stars. It’s just fun!

Have you read these books? Would you read these books? Did you like them or do you think you would like them?

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Book Review | Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley

Posted February 9, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley

In this spirited sequel, The Rook returns to clinch an alliance between deadly rivals and avert epic—and slimy—supernatural war.

When secret organizations are forced to merge after years of enmity and bloodshed, only one person has the fearsome powers—and the bureaucratic finesse—to get the job done. Facing her greatest challenge yet, Rook Myfanwy Thomas must broker a deal between two bitter adversaries:

The Checquy—the centuries-old covert British organization that protects society from supernatural
threats, and…
The Grafters—a centuries-old supernatural threat.

But as bizarre attacks sweep London, threatening to sabotage negotiations, old hatreds flare. Surrounded by spies, only the Rook and two women, who absolutely hate each other, can seek out the culprits before they trigger a devastating otherworldly war.

STILETTO is a novel of preternatural diplomacy, paranoia, and snide remarks.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #3: More than 40 chapters)
2024 Finishing the Series Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

It’s the second book in the Checquy Files, and I loved the first one!

The Quotes

“Plus, anyone who wants to clone himself is usually an asshole. You don’t want any more of those running around than absolutely necessary.”

“You’re a tool, to be used and directed for the good of the people. Sometimes you’ll be a scalpel, cutting out disease. Sometimes you’ll be a sword, and you’ll take on threats with all the strength you can muster. And sometimes, Odette, you’ll be a stiletto, a hidden weapon that slides quietly into the heart.”

“I’ll tell you what, if, after fifteen years, you still think you hate her, we’ll do something about it.”

“We’ve had plenty of skeletons in our closets,” continued Thomas. “Hell, one of our Rooks was a skeleton. And he was in the closet as well, come to think of it.”

The Narrator

Moira Quirk. I liked this narrator more than the first, but the editing left a lot of empty space between chapters, which confused me a bit.

The Characters

Myfanwy Thomas is still one of the characters in this book, but she’s not as prominent. It seems like she’s more of a background character, with a few chapters that highlight her POV. I still love her, and I love seeing her when she appears in the book, but there are two other main characters in this book.

Odette, a member of the Grafters – a rival organization to the Checquy that’s been at war with them for centuries with a lot of bad blood between them. And Felicity, a pawn in the Checquy, who’s been tasked with being a guard/protector to Odette.

The Grafters and the Checquy were enemies, but Myfanwy is now trying to broker an alliance between the two organizations, and Odette and Felicity have to work together.

My Thoughts

I wish there was more of Myfanwy’s presence in this book, but I do love Odette and Felicity, and I find them both fascinating in each of their very unique ways. I enjoyed the history lessons about the two organizations and the bad blood between them, it wasn’t tedious for me at all. I also loved the background stories of both Odette and Felicity, and how they got to where they are. I loved how they each had their moments of shining with their very interesting talents and abilities.

Spoiler
I couldn’t believe it when Rook Gestalt was revealed to still be in play! It complicates the plot for sure, and makes the story a lot more interesting! I’m also really looking forward to see what happens in the third book, because I’m sure with Gestalt in play, it’s going to be dangerous for Myfanwy and the Checquy. Gestalt is one of the most interesting characters I’ve come across, so I really want to see what happens with the kind of ability they have.

My Feels

It’s complicated. I feel really impressed with the way each of the relationships are presented here. Between Odette and her former crew, between Felicity and her former crew, between Odette and her ancestors/the higher-ups in the Grafters, between Felicity and Odette. There are so many interlacing relationships and trust circles here, and I loved observing all of them and watching them evolve.

My Rating

5/5 stars. Different from the first book, but just as good in its own way!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Recent Books I Read In One Sitting

Posted February 5, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 30 Comments

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 Recent Books I Read In One Sitting

Some of these books are novellas, and there’s also a gag book, but many of them are full-length novels which I finished very quickly because they were easy reads and so good I couldn’t put them down.

Top Ten Recent Books I Read In One Sitting

  1. 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston – 336 pages. It’s a fun YA romance set around Christmas season. I didn’t expect to enjoy it so much, but I did!
  2. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster – 248 pages. Too many people were telling me to read it, so I did, and I loved it!
  3. The September House by Carissa Orlando – 344 pages. It’s so good, I couldn’t put it down! It was scary and horrifying, but also funny and insightful. It’s my favorite book of January!
  4. All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen and Jory John – 96 pages. Funny story; I came across this book while I was looking up another book on this list (Book Love by Debbie Tung), and this book came up in the “Readers also enjoyed…” section. It looked fun, so I went on Libby and it was available so I borrowed it, and opened it intending just to look inside. I ended up finishing the whole thing in maybe… 10 minutes? It was funny and sad, and I felt totally called out by the plant that said to stop buying their friends only to kill them slowly!
  5. Book Love by Debbie Tung – 137 pages. I loved this book! I relate so much to it because of all the book related jokes and tales of the reading life.
  6. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros – 498 pages. This isn’t a short book and it was also pretty intense, but it was so good and I just couldn’t put it down. I finished it way too fast, and I wanted more, but I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here with most of you.
  7. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher – 116 pages. I’m a huge fan of T. Kingfisher, and this was a short but really good story! I love this perspective of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale.
  8. You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle – 368 pages. I didn’t expect to love this so much when I started it because I thought they were horrible to each other, but it got really good and I loved how it all went down.
  9. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – 390 pages. I laughed out loud at so many parts in the story, and also cried at some places. I went in with zero expectations because I didn’t know about the hype at the time, but it became one of my favorite books in 2023.
  10. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – 65 pages. This is a very short book, but so impactful. It says so much in so few pages, and it really makes you think. I’d highly recommend it to anyone.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What books did you finish in one sitting because they were just so good?

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Sunday Post | “I just want to be married again…”

Posted February 3, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 32 Comments

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. 

“And I just want a million dollars…!”

Funny story, last week I posted about maybe starting an in-person book club. I was only kinda joking, but guess what?!

Yup, there’s a book club.

I asked around and ended up getting a handful of people who are interested, and that makes me so happy! It’s just getting started and our first meeting is going to be at the end of the month, so who knows what’s going to happen and if it will work out long term, but I really hope it does!

So I spent the first part of the week setting up a couple of platforms for our new bookclub, for book picks and voting on our first book, getting to know each other, and so on. I’m nervous and excited for our first meeting! It’s totally still open to new members, if you happen to live or know anyone who lives in Calgary! Just letting you all know it’s an open invitation!

As for everything else, I’m running behind and trying to catch up. I didn’t read a lot, but I managed to finish Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, and I loved it! I’m still working on Stiletto, the second book in the Checquy Files series by Daniel O’Malley. I haven’t gotten much else done this week, unfortunately. The new month caught me by surprise, January went by so fast! How was January for you?

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I’m sure I can finish Stiletto this week, and I have Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi up next on audiobook. On e-book, I’ve got Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien, and I’ve got Legends and Lattes as a physical copy from the library. I am looking forward to all of them!

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Book Review | Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Posted February 2, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #45: Chapter headings have dates)
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I love fairy tales. I love tales about faeries, and changelings, and magic, and folklore, and I love the whole idea of this book! I’ve been seeing this book everywhere, and of course, I couldn’t resist! It’s like I’ve been enchanted!

The Quotes

“Perhaps it is always restful to be around someone who does not expect anything from you beyond what is in your nature.”

“One doesn’t need magic if one knows enough stories.”

“There was something about the stories bound between those covers, and the myriad species of Folk weaving in and out of them, each one a mystery begging to be solved. I suppose most children fall in love with faeries at some point, but my fascination was never about magic or the granting of wishes. The Folk were of another world, with its own rules and customs—and to a child who always felt ill-suited to her own world, the lure was irresistible.”

The Characters

I love Emily Wilde! I love Wendell! I love Shadow! I love Poe! I love Thora! I love Aud! Omg, I love them all!

I relate so much to Emily. I found it painful and funny how awkward she was around people and yet, she was so amazing at her job, so resourceful and smart! To be clear, I relate to the awkward part, not the smart part, I’m not an intellectual and I probably couldn’t write a faerie encyclopaedia. I also relate to how practical she was, not really caring about her clothes looking good or her cottage feeling homey. It always seems to be the woman’s job to make the house homey and to look good, but I love that Wendell is the homebody in this book!

I love seeing Wendell through Emily’s eyes, I think I fell more in love with him because of her practical and objective descriptions. In fact, I loved seeing all the other characters from her eyes. There’s something about the way she writes that’s so matter-of-fact, and yet, you feel the feels she tries to downplay.

My Thoughts

What an adventure! I loved discovering this magical world of Emily Wilde’s, where faeries and faerie folklore are studied and discussed in academic circles. I loved learning about this world through Emily’s notebook. It was so interesting to be introduced to the different faerie folk, to see Emily’s interactions with each of them, to see her embroiled in certain situations in regards to them, and how she finds solutions to any issue she comes across. It is hard not to fall in love with her, even though she tries to be unlikable!

My Feels

Two words; found family. I am a sucker for it. I loved how she started out practically ostracized, and ended up with a whole community of people who loves her as family. I get choked up just thinking about it and how it all came about.

My Rating

5/5 stars. I’m a character driven reader, and this book has the best characters all around. I need to see more of them!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Monthly Wrap Up | January 2024

Posted February 1, 2024 by Haze in Monthly Wrap Up / 4 Comments

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.

January 2024 Wrap Up

I read 11 books in January, which I’m both happy and worried about. Happy because I can’t seem to separate my sense of accomplishment from reading quantity vs quality, and I love that I read more than I normally do in a month. Worried because my goal this year was to read more slowly, savor the books, and remember more details, and I’ve found myself rushing a bit towards the later part of the month. I need to remind myself to read slow!

And be more mindful in book choices as well. I have a lot of books I mean to read this year, but I keep adding more and more new books to the TBR and some I’m just too excited about to wait! Which is fine, but I’d like to try to read some of the books that have been on my shelves forever.

Books Read in January 2024

  1. Holly by Stephen King
  2. Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson
  3. The September House by Carissa Orlando
  4. The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
  5. Light Bringer by Pierce Brown
  6. The Switch by Beth O’Leary
  7. Don’t Call It A Cult by Sarah Berman
  8. The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
  9. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
  10. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
  11. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Favorite Book This Month

Oooh, tough choice. Reeaalllyy tough choice. I’m going with The September House by Carissa Orlando, but only by a hair. Holly by Stephen King is a close second.

On The Blog

In addition to the reviews I’ve written for books read in January. Here are some of my other notable posts in January.

Top Ten Tuesdays

Notes & Discussion Posts

Reading Challenges

2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge – 1/12
2024 Series Ender Reading Challenge – 1/5
2024 Finishing the Series Challenge – 2/4
2024 Diversity Reading Challenge – 0/12
2024 Bookish Books Challenge – 2/10
2024 Audiobook Challenge – 8/30
2024 Library Love Reading Challenge – 9/36

February 2024 TBR Intentions

This is a sort of TBR list for February 2024. I’m sure I won’t be able to stick to it exactly, but these are the books I anticipate I’ll be reading in February because of release dates, where I am on the library waitlists, being next in a series I’m reading, and other random reasons. It will also help remind me to stick to reading the books I initially wanted to read!

  1. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
  2. Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree
  3. Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley
  4. Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherworlds by Heather Fawcett
  5. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
  6. The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner
  7. The Way Forward by Yung Pueblo
  8. Children of Virtue and Vengence by Tomi Adeyemi
  9. Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien

How was your month in January? What were your most memorable moments? I hope you have a wonderful February with lots of great books!

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Top Ten Tuesday | New-To-Me Authors Discovered in 2023

Posted January 29, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 31 Comments

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 New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023

I wasn’t sure if I had ten new authors I read in 2023, but apparently I did! Some of them I liked better than others, but I’m happy to say all of them are authors whose works I’d read again.

Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023

  1. M.R. Carey – I read the Rampart Trilogy and I loved it. He is also the author of The Girl With All The Gifts series, which was turned into a movie I remember enjoying. I didn’t know at the time it was based on books, but I’m curious to read the series.
  2. Tomi Adeyemi – I read Children of Blood and Bone, the first book in the Legacy of Orisha series, and I’m intending to finish the series this year, hopefully.
  3. Madeline Martin – I read The Last Bookshop in London, and have since read The Librarian Spy. I also want to read The Keeper of Hidden Books.
  4. Bonnie Garmus – I read Lessons in Chemistry. It looks like she’s only got a single book released, but if/when she writes more, I’ll be reading them.
  5. Sarah Hogle – I read You Deserve Each Other. It was so well-written and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It looks like she’s got plenty of books in the same vein and I’m going to make my way through them.
  6. Allison Ashley – I read The Roommate Pact. Fun, light-hearted, heartwarming contemporary romance. I’ll be reading her other books as well.
  7. Emma Straub – I read This Time Tomorrow, a time-travel story with a lovely father-daughter relationship I fell in love with. Apparently she’s the daughter of famed author Peter Straub. I’ve never read him, but I’ve seen many of his books around. I’m interested in reading more of her books as well as trying some of Peter Straub’s books.
  8. Rebecca Yarros – I read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, and I’m obviously going to read the next books in this series!
  9. Louis Erdrich – I read The Sentence. It was not what I expected at all. It was simultaneously so mundane and yet magical. I love the glimpse into the Native American world, and I want to read more from her.
  10. Ashley Elston – I read 10 Blind Dates and it was such a joy to read that now I want to read more. There’s a sequel, and there are several other books I’m looking forward to.

Have you read any of these authors? Did you read any of these books? What did you think of them?

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Sunday Post | Happiness Is…

Posted January 27, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 28 Comments

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. 

Happiness Is…

We got to go to the zoo this week and see the Penguin Walk! I loved it! They were so adorable and I loved watching them walk! The big furry brown one is Augustus, and he was chirping so happily, omg! It’s lucky they cordoned off the space and had people controlling the crowd and protecting the penguins from me, because it was all I could do not to throw myself at them!

Happy!

I also went down to the Central Library this week because it’s been a while, and that’s another happy place for me! I wanted to browse books I might not have found on my own (like I don’t have enough books already anyway!), and I ended up with more books than I can carry, so I just took a couple and placed a hold for the rest.

I asked about book clubs because the library used to have a whole bunch of them listed in the programs guide, but apparently, they have no more book clubs now, ever since the pandemic. Which is really disappointing to hear.

Not so happy. =(

I’ve been looking for an in-person book club for a while but haven’t found one that would be right for me. Logistics is an issue for me so there are limited locations I can travel to, and there was a couple that seemed to be “dinner and book club” things, which would be too pricey for me. A book club at the library would’ve been perfect for me, but oh well. I’ll keep looking.

Or maybe I’ll start one! Does anyone live in Calgary, Canada, or knows someone who lives here and wants start a book club with me? Lol! (I’m only half-joking!)

As for reading, I’m also very happy because I managed to read three books that I’d been wanting to read for a while!

I finally finished The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher, and by popular demand, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I loved how many of you were telling me to read it and how much you loved it. Well, I read it! And I loved it! Thank you for your enthusiasm for the book! I’ve written a review if you wanna know what I thought!

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I have started on Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and I am loving it so far. I just got the second book in the Checquy series on audio today, and I’m excited to dive in as well! I’m happy I didn’t have to wait too long after finishing The Rook!

I am still planning to read The Dance of Anger. I know I said I’ll try to read it for last week, but I was caught up with other books and activities, and wasn’t in the right frame of mind. I’m still not ready to give up on it, but I’m not certain if I should give up on it for now and pick it up again a couple of weeks later. I’ll just play it by ear and see how I feel.

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Book Review | The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Posted January 26, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 7 Comments

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

This beloved story -first published more than fifty years ago- introduces readers to Milo and his adventures in the Lands Beyond.

For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams. . . .

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #32: Time frame spans a week or less)
The Classics Club Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I’ve had this book on my physical bookshelf for a couple of years, but if you want the real reasons, it’s because…

  1. Deb Nance @ Readerbuzz says, “Put The Phantom Tollbooth at the top of your list!”
  2. Lydia says, “The Phantom Tollbooth was excellent.”
  3. Sarah @ Exploring All Genres says, “The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my favorite books from when I was younger. I still have a well-loved copy on my shelf.”
  4. Nicole @ NewBookCatsReads says, “I read the Phantom Tollbooth when I was fifth grade! What a fascinating read!”
  5. Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits says, “The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my all-time favorite books.”
  6. Felice says, “The Phantom Tollbooth was one of my favorite books I read as a kid! I hope whenever you get to it, you enjoy it!”
  7. Cindy @ Cindy’s Book Corner says, “I HIGHLY recommend listening to The Phantom Tollbooth on audio. It was fantastic. My husband read the book and didn’t see why me and my kids thought it was so good…until he listened to it as well. He didn’t catch some of the humor. It’s also not a genre I would normally pick and only listened to it because of my kids. I have lost count how many times we have listened to it on road trips.”
  8. Sarah @ All The Book Blog Names Are Taken says, “I absolutely love The Phantom Tollbooth. It’s so clever and a lot of fun.”

So I listened! Thank you all for the enthusiasm for this wonderful book! There were so many endorsements, and I hope I didn’t miss anyone, but it definitely put The Phantom Tollbooth at the top of my list. I listened to it on audiobook because of Cindy’s endorsement, but I also flipped through my physical copy while listening, so I could look at the illustrations as I go.

The Quotes

“So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”

“Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.”

“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.”

“You must never feel badly about making mistakes … as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”

The Narrator(s)

Rainn Wilson, and a special appearance from Walter Wilson (his son) as the voice of .58! I loved it. Rainn Wilson is a wonderful narrator and I loved that Walter Wilson made an appearance too. It was just perfect the whole way through.

The Characters

There are so many interesting characters in this book with such distinctive personalities. I loved them all! Milo is the main character, however, and we see things through his perspective.

My Thoughts

I cannot believe this is the first time I’ve ever read this book! Where has it been my whole life? I don’t know how I would’ve felt as a child reading this, but as an adult, it was just delightful and it brings me back to innocent days of childlike wonder and imagination. There was a lot of simple wisdom in this book, and it reminds me that we are never too old for magic.

My Feels

It makes me feel young again! It makes me feel like nothing is impossible, and that the world is filled with infinite possibilities. It makes me feel like I am one of those infinite possibilities. I love it!

My Rating

5/5 stars. Is this book the secret to the fountain of youth?

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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