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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.
Zoolights
As promised, we went back to the zoo last week for the Zoolights!
It was amazing and far exceeded our expectations! It’s our first time going to the Zoolights, but I’m quite sure it won’t be the last. It might have to be an annual thing from now on. The lights were gorgeous, there was so much to see, everyone there were in good spirits and we bonded a little with other people there helping each other take pictures, and as luck would have it, the weather was perfect. It was cold enough to feel Christmassy, but not so cold that we felt uncomfortable.
We took a lot more pictures than these, because there was so much to see, but I’ll spare you the photo album tour. Wherever you are in the world, I hope you’re enjoying this holiday season (or if you’re not celebrating anything, I hope you’re just enjoying life in general!)!
As for my reading plans last week, I didn’t read the books I originally intended, and I had a couple of false starts (books I started but couldn’t get into), but I ended up getting sucked into Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi and absolutely loving it! So I call that a win!
I’m having a hard time deciding what to read because a lot of the books on my TBR are books that fit the 2024 reading challenges I signed up for, and I want to save them for the new year. However, it seems that the Finishing the Series challenge requires that you started the series before 2024, so I’m reading the first books in series I think I might want to finish for the challenge. I might end up not liking them and not wanting to continue them, and I’ve already got lots of series on the list to be finished, but at least I’m giving myself more options!
So this is just a list of books I have on my TBR that are first in a series. Obviously I won’t be able to read them all by the end of the year, but they’re here to motivate me and I’ll do my best to read a couple!
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Stolen Heir by Holly Black
Dune by Frank Herbert
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Gilion @ Rose City Reader for sharing the opening lines of the book you want to feature.
The Friday 56 was started and hosted by Freda @ Freda’s Voice and is currently being temporarily hosted by Anne @ My Head is Full of Books for sharing a couple of lines from page 56, or Chapter 56, or at 56%, or however you want to interpret the number 56, of your featured book.
Note: For Blogspot users, I am unfortunately not able to comment on your posts if you don’t have Name/URL enabled on the comments. I’m not being snobbish, I promise! I’d love to leave comments if you’d consider enabling it. Thank you!
My Featured Book
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
They killed my mother. They took our magic. They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.
My Book Beginnings:
Pick me. It’s all I can do not to scream. I dig my nails into the marula oak of my staff and squeeze to keep from fidgeting. Beads of sweat drip down my back, but I can’t tell if it’s from dawn’s early heat or from my heart slamming against my chest. Moon after moon I’ve been passed over. Today can’t be the same.
My Friday 56:
As we tear through the streets lined with pastel-colored buildings, two troops of royal guards fight to take us down. Their shouts grow loud. Their footsteps pound even louder. With swords drawn, they close in, only a few paces behind.
My Thoughts
I am currently at Chapter 24, about 40% into this book and I’m enjoying it very much. I thought the book beginning and the Friday 56 quotes were really strong quotes that keeps the reader engaged, and I realized that I feel that way about the whole book so far. It’s really exciting and fast-paced, and filled with constant tension, it never stops! I want to keep reading but I’ve got adult responsibilities (boo!) and gotta get them done before coming back to the book.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? What do you think of it?
Books from the Backlog is hosted by Carole @ Carole’s Random Life and features neglected books that’s been sitting on your TBR for a while.
I’ve decided to choose which books to feature according to how far down they are on my Kobo sorted by recent. I’ll also feature physical books I own eventually, but it’s a bit harder to determine which ones are older, though I’m sure it doesn’t matter all that much.
This week’s neglected book
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice.
When Theseus, the Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?
Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world.
– Goodreads
Why did I add this book to my bookshelf?
I was on a Greek mythology binge and a friend recommended I try this book, so I added it to the TBR but I satisfied my binge and moved on to different books before I could get to this. I’m sure I will come back to Greek mythology again, but there are so many great books in the genre, and so many other Greek myth characters I want to read about.
What are your thoughts? Have you read this book? Would you recommend it?
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 Winter 2023-2024 To-Read List. I don’t typically read a lot of Christmas-themed or winter-themed books on purpose. If they happen to be set in winter or at Christmas, that’s fine and I enjoy them, but I don’t seek them out, so my winter TBR are just regular books I want to read. I do love watching a lot of cheesy Christmas-themed movies during the season though!
Below are the books I hope to read this winter. Many are library books that I’m on the waitlist for, and I’m estimating that they’ll be getting to me this winter, so fingers crossed!
Top Ten Books on my Winter 2023-2024 To-Read List
Top-Bottom, Left-Right:
The Switch by Beth O’Leary – I read and loved a couple of her other books but I haven’t gotten around to this one yet.
Holly by Stephen King – I really enjoyed the Mr. Mercedes series where we first got to know Holly, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her here.
Light Bringer by Pierce Brown – I am stuck in limbo waiting for this one to get to me because it’s Book 6 in the Red Rising series, and I was in pain seeing my beloved characters suffer in Book 5. I need to know what happens next!
Slewfoot by Brom – I don’t actually know what this is about. I just heard a lot of good things about the book and author. I did just recently read a different book by this same author and didn’t like it, so I’m tempering my expectations.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett – It’s the title that got me for this one. I would’ve read it even if it was an actual nonfic encyclopedia. In fact, I’d probably want to read it more if it was a real encyclopedia of faeries!
Watership Down by Richard Adams – This has been on my TBR for ages and ages. It’s one of those books you take for granted because it’s a classic and you know it will always be relevant so you can read it any time.
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid – Not sure if I should be embarrassed to admit that Bookstagram is responsible for this one.
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson – Also this one. What can I say? I’m weak and easily influenced!
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross – I actually have a different book by this author on my TBR, A River Enchanted, but yes, Bookstagram is making me want to read this first. We have already established I’m weak.
The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan – This is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read everything he’s written so far, except this one which is his latest. His books are beautiful and profound and beautiful and lyrical, and did I say beautiful? I cannot recommend him enough.
I am very much looking forward to these books! Have you read any of them? I’d love to hear your thoughts. What books are you excited for this winter?
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.
Birthday Celebrations
I didn’t get a lot of reading done this past week because it was my husband’s birthday and we did several activities to celebrate, but I did manage to finish one book. We had a nice Sichuan meal. The food was so good, but honestly, not nearly spicy enough. It was our first time at this restaurant and we had the fish, prawns, and pork, but they’ve got lots of other great stuff on the menu and we’re definitely going back for more.
Our local zoo is very good and mindful about wildlife conservation, and the animals always seem happy and well taken care of. There are both indoor and outdoor spaces for the animals that need them and they can easily move between the two when they want depending on the weather.
It was my first time seeing the polar bears, but the otters were the stars of the show this trip. They were very active and frolicking around in the water, playing with seashells and each other. It was so fun to watch. It hadn’t been snowing when we went to the zoo so it looked nice and balmy in the pictures, but it was quite cold and I’m sensitive to the cold so I’m all nice and bundled up.
There were lots of other animals at the zoo too, of course, but we only visited the North American animals section of the zoo this time because it was closed the last times we went and we had already seen the other sections. We are definitely going back as often as we can though, because it’s always such a joy to see the animals playing, or just doing their own thing, and some of them even like performing for the crowd. We’ll be going back again for the Zoolights when it snows, because my husband wants to see them in the snow.
It did snow later in the week, and we went out to see Christmas lights last night. I love how beautiful they all look. My favorites are the peacock, and the big Christmas tree. There are lots of places in Calgary going all out on Christmas lights decoration, and we’re going back for the Zoolights, but we’re going to see if we can visit some other ones too. The Christmas lights are some of the best things about the winter season.
I don’t have much planned this week because I was too busy to think, but I do plan to do the weekly memes, and hopefully start reading the books I intended to read last week – Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!
Books from the Backlog is hosted by Carole @ Carole’s Random Life and features neglected books that’s been sitting on your TBR for a while.
I’ve got a lot of them so I’m not even sure where to start. But I ended choosing one that has been on my mind for a while, and that I keep wanting to go back to.
This week’s neglected book
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
“The body you are wearing used to be mine.”
So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.
She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.
In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.
Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, The Rook is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.
– Goodreads
Why did I add this book to my bookshelf?
I’ve actually read this book before and I remember loving it and rating it five stars, but it’s only the first book in a series and I haven’t read the next books. I’d forgotten much of the details in this one so I wanted to reread it before getting to the next books. In fact, I had gotten all three books in the series in 2022 and meant to read them but it’s now December 2023, and I still haven’t read them! At this point, I’d be happy if I got to them anytime in 2024!
What are your thoughts? Have you read this book? Would you recommend it?
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 a freebie and it’s my first one on this blog so I’m going with Top Ten Reasons I’m Happy to be Book Blogging Again!
I love the book blogging community. I book blogged for many years before I stopped 10 years ago due to things getting hectic IRL, and while I continued to follow book lovers on other platforms, there’s really nothing quite like the book blogging community.
One of the things I loved most about book blogging were the weekly memes! I actually did TTT more than 10 years ago before I stopped blogging.
I love doing the memes, but I also loved seeing what everyone else was doing. I loved discovering new books, new ideas, and most of all, new friends.
I also love the reading challenges, and following along with everyone else’s progress and achievements. I love that the challenges help me to expand my own reading.
As you can see, I used the word “love” a lot when I talk about books and book blogging. That means I’m passionate about it, and you should always do what you love!
I’ve still been reading a lot, but had no one to talk to about the books I’ve loved. Which makes me sad. Starting a book blog again means I can talk about books here, and that makes me happy!
Sometimes I’ve hated the books I’ve read and want to complain about them but had no one to complain to. Which makes me frustrated. Now I can complain here, and that makes me happy too!
I’ve got a really bad memory when it comes to books I’ve read and I desperately needed a place to write down my thoughts and organize my reading plans and challenges.
I actually started a physical book journal in an effort to organize my reading, but I found it difficult to keep up with when I had to write everything by hand! Plus, it’s not very interactive. Unlike a book blog.
Some of my best memories are of when I used to blog. I had so much fun and made so many reader friends. I hope to make new memories, and new friends, and maybe reconnect with some old friends.
That’s my first TTT post! I’m so happy to be book blogging again. What do you love about book blogging? Let me know!
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.
This past week was my first week book blogging again, so there’s that! There’s nothing much to show on my blog just yet, but I wanted to do a post anyway to commemorate my first week. Plus, although I haven’t posted much yet, I did spend a lot of time browsing other book blogs and book memes, and even signed up for a couple of reading challenges which I’m really excited for!
Planning to get started on The Classics Club challenge by
Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Reading Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree
Writing a review for The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
Honestly, I’m still new to book blogging again so I don’t know if I can do all that I want to do, especially since the coming weeks are busy end-of-year ones, but I am excited to be here again and I’m going to keep reminding myself that even if I can’t do it all, I’m happy just to be blogging again!
