Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10.
Sadly my book club dissolved a little over a year ago and I miss it SO MUCH! These are the books I’ve read since our last meeting that I’m dying to talk to someone about!
If you counted, yes there are thirteen not ten. I can’t help it. If you’ve read these tell me what you thought. I’m dying to discuss!
Claire LaZebnik
5 Spot, 2010, 352 pgs
When Rickie headed off to Berkeley she had done everything right. Good in school, motivated. Fast forward 7 years and she’s a tattooed, pierced, single mother back living with her parents. Rickie knows she’s really lucky to have her parents who are supportive financially. In addition to letting her live there, they pay for her son’s private school education. But Rickie is really struggling. She takes one online college class at a time (mostly just to say she’s still going), but she doesn’t know how to get out of her rut.
Rickie’s son Noah is 6 and he’s a little different. He’s undersized and suffers from Celiac disease resulting in his being an outsider at school, dealing with bullies. Rickie knows that it’s also partly her fault – she’s about a decade younger than the other mothers so she hasn’t joined the school social network either.
After one particularly bad PE experience, Rickie meets with the principal to talk about what can be done to improve Noah’s situation at school. She’s surprised when she meets the new PE teacher that he’s young – just a year older than she is, but she leaves the meeting unimpressed and like nothing is going to change.
That’s when Rickie’s half sister Mel steps in. Mel is also living back at home. In her case it’s because her husband cheated but instead of fighting over the house, the kids stay at the house and Mel and Gabriel move in and out. Mel is probably the best older sister she could be and is genuinely kind to everyone, but especially Rickie. So when Mel signs them both up for the Event Hospitality Committee at the school, Rickie reluctantly tags along.
I’ve read this book countless times and I can’t quite put my finger on why I connect with it so much. I really enjoy reading books about people who are growing into themselves and changing – I think that’s why I read so much YA. But when I find the adult books that do that well it’s a treat. Because I think the coming-of-age process continues throughout our lives. Rickie tried to grow up too fast and it bit her in the ass so she stopped. I really enjoyed the journey of her starting to move on again and in doing so help her son face some of his fears.
The romance is perfect and it’s not the focal point of the book. I don’t quite think it’s a back story, more like a parallel. The relationship develops naturally.
The most frustrating parts of the book are Rickie’s interactions with her Mom. And I like Rickie’s mom – she clearly wants the best for Rickie and is just trying to help her get moving again, but the effort just results in Rickie feeling pressured and defensive and she lashes out. I understood that feeling because my mom can bear the brunt of my frustrations at times, but it can be hard to read.
Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10.
I wasn’t quite as engaged in new releases last year, but these are the books I REALLY with I’d heard about earlier (although when I would have read them I have no idea).
A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller
Takes place in 1909 London and the MC participates in the suffragette movement. Sounds like an easy read, but a little different.
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Another blogger who’s taste I trust and a woman I work with have recommended Liane Moriarty. The setup of her books reminds me of how the TV show Reverge is structured. I own Big Little Lies and Three Wishes, but still haven’t read either.
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
I feel like I’ve been hearing about Love Letters to the Dead for longer than a year. Interesting premise, gorgeous cover, and highly reviewed.
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
I don’t think I need to say anymore than Laurie Halse Anderson. She’s a great author and I picked up a SIGNED copy of this at the half price book store.
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
I love the cover of this book which is sadly enough of a reason for me, but I’ll Give You the Sun has also been positively reviewed by several bloggers I read. Plus it’s right in my reading comfort zone – I’m frequently in the mood for this type of book.
Pointe by Brandy Colbert
I’ve developed a fascinated with ballet over the last few years. I took dance growing up, but I also had a ton of other activities. The level of dedication ballet dancers display amazes me. I loved the show Bunheads – the choreography was phenomenal. Breaking Pointe was 90% reality soap opera, but the 10% ballet was enough to keep me hooked. I’ve read a few ballet books, but I can’t believe I didn’t read this the second it came out.
No Place to Fall by Jaye Robin Brown
The MC sounds like someone I’ll identify with (although I’ve identified with characters I NEVER would have expected to).
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Just reading the synopsis of Lies We Tell Ourselves makes me tear up. I like stories in any format (books, tv, movie) that have characters with diverse characters coming together.
The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
I read a lot of books about slut shaming and high school. I think it’s because if I have kids I think the more I read about it the better I’d be able to help them deal with it. Or prevent them from participating.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Parents living vicariously through their daughter who’s body ends up found in the local lake.
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
This is a bonus because it wasn’t released until November so it really hasn’t been that long to not have read it. A Thousand Pieces of You is high concept and sounds fascinating. MC’s father invented something that allows people to jump into other dimensions. Her father is murdered and the killer escapes into another dimension before he can be caught.
These posts tend to overwhelm me – there are just SO many books I want to read! What books did you miss last year?
After a couple years spent largely at home, I’m going to spend 2015 traveling for work and not to especially exciting areas. Small towns can be charming, but I’m not excited about spending 75% of the year in hotels with extremely limited dining and entertainment options.
As a reader there’s an added challenge – How many books do I pack? And which books?
The travel should afford me the opportunity to read quite a bit this year, but I already have an over-packing problem and books are heavy.
I’ll be home each weekend so I can restock, but I’m a mood reader so I need to have options. And I do have a lot of ebooks, but there are times when I want a physical book. Especially when I’m traveling because books are comforting to me in a way that my phone/ipad aren’t.
I’m actually started 2 ebooks before leaving for this trip, but I haven’t felt like reading them (and I was enjoying both).
So for week one – I brought
I’m happy with my choices for this week. I was in the mood for something light and decided on Keep Calm and Carry a Big Drink. Hopefully I’m as happy with my choices going forward.
Anyone have any tips for books/travel? Hopefully at the end of the year I’ll have some tips to share.
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas
Bloomsbury USA
404 pgs, 2012
Purchased Hardback
Summary from Goodreads
After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.
Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another.
Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
My Thoughts
In the past two weeks I’ve read Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, and Heir of Fire. I also read the prequel book The Assassin’s Blade. I’m going to try to separate my thoughts down to just Throne of Glass, but beware of spoilers – I’m going to try my best not to spoil anything, but it’s difficult when I read them all together.
I obviously loved this book considering I read all four in a couple weeks – it doesn’t break my Harry Potter record of 7 in two weeks, but still notable.
Celaena is a bad ass – which isn’t really that noteable in current YA, but what was refreshing was that she knew it. I actually enjoyed reading a female protagonist who was a little full of herself. At the beginning of the book this is 100% her defining characteristic, but as the book progresses you start to see other facets of her personality. She’s a bookworm (so pretty much anyone reading can relate), she’s surprisingly compassionate and very loyal.
As Prince Dorian’s Champion she spend quite a bit of time training with Chaol Westfall.
Prince Dorian originally picked Celaena as his Champion as an act of rebellion against his father the King, who is pretty much the embodiment of evil. It doesn’t take long before Dorian admires Celaena for more than her ability to piss off his father. He finds himself drawn to spend more and more time with her to the frustration of his longtime friend Chaol
Chaol Westfall takes his responsibilities as Captain of the Guard very seriously, as well as his long time friendship with Prince Dorian. Neither of these line up with having a convicted assassin around. Especially one in such close proximity to Dorian. But since Celaena is representing the Prince in the competition, Chaol must spent time training with her. Chaol thaws towards Celaena, begrudgingly admiring her determination…and other things he doesn’t really want to admit to himself much less anyone else.
Honestly my biggest knock on Throne of Glass is that there are very clearly defined good guys and bad guys and I LOVED all the good guys all the time and HATED all the bad guys all the time. Prince Dorian and Chaol are both amazing men, but with different personalities. Nehemia is an amazing representative for her people and a good friend to Celaena. The King, the Duke, Cain, and Kaltain are all manipulative and power hungry. Simple but I generally like my characters a little more varied than that.
I don’t think this is a spoiler but this small complaint changes in the next books. I started to have a little empathy for some previously 100% evil characters and the “good guys” displayed some imperfections.
My summary in a nutshell – love the characters, the world building is amazing and I can’t wait for the next book!
Between the Notes by Sharon Huss Roat
I really want to grow as a reader this year. I toyed with doing the PopSugar 2015 reading challenge, but there are a lot of categories in that challenge and honestly two/thirds of them are not challenging. Then Elizabeth mentioned the Read Harder Challenge from Book Riot. After looking over the categories it seemed like the perfect fit. I few are gimmies, a few are a stretch, and several are really outside my comfort zone.
There’s also a Goodreads group for this challenge and it’s helpful if you need help find examples for a certain category. IE – Which books were written when authors were under 25 or over 65.
Here are the Categories – I’ve arranged by level of challenge.
A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ
A book by a person whose gender is different from your own
A YA novel
A romance novel
An audiobook
A book that someone else has recommended to you
A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over)
A book published this year
A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25
A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65
A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people)
A book published by an indie press
A book that takes place in Asia
A book by an author from Africa
A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans,Aboriginals, etc.)
A sci-fi novel
A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)
A book that was originally published in another language
A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind (Hi, have you met Panels?)
A microhistory
A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade
A collection of poetry
A book published before 1850
A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”)
