Get Lost in Literature

Book Blogger Hop   Which do you think is more likely - clean utopia or frenzied dystopia? (Julie @  Stepping Stone Book Reviews ) I hope the answer to this question isn't too loaded: as fun as it is to imagine police in clean, white suits monitoring the town while people subserviently smile and avoid eye contact as they make their way to the farmer's market, cue little robots in the background cleaning litter off of sidewalks... Everyone is happy, everyone is calm, everyone is kind.  I feel like current events, both in America and abroad, have suggested the opposite will be true. People heard about a virus and immediately stockpiled toilet paper and meat. A cop kills an unarmed citizen in broad daylight and protesters retaliate by burning a convenience store to the ground. A dictator, who can't let go of the past, decides it might be kind of cool to use nukes to hold the world hostage... If a society/government changing event is on the way, I think it...

 "Sometimes, guilt and loss push a person into becoming more than singular. They split in two to resurrect what they’ve lost or live in service to what was lost. A lover will take up the mission of the dead partner. A mother might take up a dead daughter’s hobby to feel close to her. A sister might flirt with the notion of becoming a monster, to fill in the parts of her brother she doesn’t know." -  No Gods, No Monsters   by Cadwell Turnbull I'm reading No Gods, No Monsters   by Cadwell Turnbull this week. It's a wierd little paranormal mystery. A case of police brutality against a monster spurs an uprising of protests, hate crimes, and suicides...The monsters don't want to hide anymore. Parts of this story flow like river water in a hurricane, other parts like a tipped Dixie cup in a desert drought. We'll see how it goes. What are you reading this week? Thursday Quotables brought to you by  Bookshelf Fantasies

Today's topic for the Top Ten Tuesday hosted by   That Artsy Reader Girl , is :  "Books with [___] On the Cover (Pick a thing (a color, an item, a place, an animal, a scripty font, a sexy person, etc.) and share covers that have that thing on the cover.)"   I went with Top Ten Black Covers because sometimes that pitch black color makes the cover-art really pop...And though we should never judge a book by its colors, sometimes, we do. Some of these books I've read, some of these books I haven't gotten to yet. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  What's on your list this week?

“They would just trade one type of shackles for another, trade physical ones that wrapped around wrists and ankles for the invisible ones that wrapped around the mind.” Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi My rating: 5 of 5 stars I feel like this book should be taught in schools. It's basically about the birth of racism in America. It starts in Africa, where villagers on the Gold Coast strike a deal with the Europeans. The locals are willing to facilitate the trade of other Africans from other villages in exchange for payment. Effia and Esi, two sisters who will never meet, are unfortunately worlds apart. Effia will marry into a life of luxury, while Esi will be sold into slavery. I couldn't really figure out how to review this book, without giving spoilers. I had a US History teacher lecture once on slavery: He said during the days of slave trade, a black woman had more value to a plantation owner than a black man because a woman could be used to make more slaves. (view spoiler) [When Es...

Book Blogger Hop   22nd - 28th  - Do you finish reading every book that you have slotted for a review? (submitted by Elizabeth @  Silver's Reviews ) Good question. I don't really choose books specifically with the intent to review... But every time I start a book, it is with the intention of finishing it, and if I finish it, I usually leave a review. Sometimes I don't make it to the ending. It could be I didn't like the story, was in the wrong frame of mind/mood, or maybe I found it to be poorly written... While I try to leave an honest and fair review of every book I read, I don't ever leave a review of a book I did not finish. How could I leave a fair review of a story I didn't actually read? So to make a long ramble short: the answer is no. But I'm curious: Do you know ahead of time what books you are planning to review? * Friday Book Blogger Hop  hosted by  CoffeeAddictedWriter . Every Friday there will be a weekly prompt featurin...

  "He closed his eyes as she began to rotate the key in a clockwise direction. He wondered if the cylindrical metal box inside his chest felt cold the way metal usually did, or was it warm from his body? From her nearness...He sensed her fingers brushing his chest. He could feel the clicking of the small wheels and gears deep within his chest and imagined the mainspring tightening."   Wind-Up Hearts , by Stan Swanson Chronology produced by Curiosity Quills Press is an anthology of short stories, some better than others, as these things go...  Wind-Up Hearts by Stan Swanson is proving to be one of the better stories. Steampunk and star-crossed, it's a lovely idea. Thursday Quotables brought to you by  Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by  ThatArtsyReaderGirl  . Today's topic is Top Ten Bookish Merchandise I'd Love to Own. This was kind of an odd topic for me -- because outside of saddle pads and books, I'm not super materialistic -- and it made me stop an think. I actually just typed book related searches into Etsy and Amazon and browsed, which in hindsight was silly, because now I actually want stuff. 1.  This Marauder's Map throw rug, for example would be awesome in my office. 2.   This Jules Verne inspired journal from Paperblanks Manuscript Collection. 3.   The Lamp Post Tea from the  LiteraryTeaCompany. Inspired by Narnia, the tea is flavored with the following ingredients: Sri Lankan & Chinese Keemun black teas, rose petals, vanilla pieces, chocolate & vanilla flavouring, cocoa shells... It sounds delicious. 4.  Jurassic Park themed bathroom art. Sure this has more to do with the movie than the book, but I'm maintaining it counts; wi...

  "...the right book exactly, at exactly the right time."  This story is a wonderfully lighthearted, humorously told, fast-paced adventure, fit for any bookworm who has ever dreamed of having an adventure.  Clay Jannon is deeply relatable (I too was unemployed during a recession) nerd looking for a job; he finds one at a bookstore in the shady part of town. But it's a bookstore where no one ever buys a book and the customers are asking for unusual titles with names that can't be pronounced... The terms of his employment include a promise to his boss that he will not open the books, but the best adventures start with a little rule breaking.   I spent the entire day reading this. No regrets. It's kind of odd to classify this as a fantasy, to call it just fiction is also a tad unfair. This is fantasy like a daydream is a fantasy; no spells are cast and no wild creatures frolic, but there is magic in the written word. Robin Sloan writes an atmosphere fit for a wizard ...

Book Blogger Hop  Do you prefer to leave book jackets on or off while reading? (submitted by Billy @  Coffee Addicted Writer ) OFF! Most definitely off. Usually the book jackets are prettier than the book covers, and even though I know the book jacket was intended to protect the book, I have a tendency to want to protect the jacket. If I leave it on, it gets all wrinkled and fingerprinty...possibly torn. Also, I find book jackets are kind of awkward, when the book is open it gets too much slack, sometimes it wants to flop off the book and create chaos for your fingers...Who has got that kind of time?  Which do you prefer?

  "It's her fever,"Hanna said quickly as an apology. "She doesn't know what she's saying." "Yes, I do!" Adelaide said. And then, as if giving a formal recitation, she clasmed her hands to her chest and spoke brightly:  "There is the element of Badness in me. I long to cultivate my element of Badness. Badness compared to Nothingness is beautiful."--Emily M. Danforth, Plain Bad Heroines Thursday Quotables brought to you by  Bookshelf Fantasies

Happy Hump-day Readers! I've been trying to figure out which of my GoodReads reviews to integrate into my blog, and when. I had some stories that I read and didn't bother to review, some I reviewed in three sentences or less, and some that got reviewed as if the review was its own novel. While I was on - let's call it an "unplanned-hiatus" - my unplanned hiatus, not all reviews were created equal. I'm planning on using Monday as the day to post older reviews, and I've got the following scheduled: Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan 4/16 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 4/25 Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs 5/2 A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs 5/9 A Time to Kill by John Grisham 5/16 The Pillars of Earth by Ken Follet 5/23 To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Chris Paolini 5/30 I've restarted book blog memes TopTenTuesday hosted by  ThatArtsyReaderGirl  and Thursday Quotables brought to you by  BookshelfFantasies ; I'm also trying a new one, Friday Book ...

This week's Tuesday Top Ten topic is, Top Ten Authors I Haven't Read Yet, But Want To. Robert Ludlum John Scalzi Terry Pratchett (I'm not counting Good Omens, I know he co-authored it.) Ursula K Le Guin Douglas Adams Ira Levin Tim Powers Philip K Dick Deborah Harkness Khaled Hosseini Who are you hoping to read soon? Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by  ThatArtsyReaderGirl

"There is no “right” way to be. I am flawed and imperfect, but am uniquely me. I don’t fit in and probably never will. And I don’t have to try to anymore. That other person was a lie. And let’s face it, normal is boring. We all have something to offer the world in some way, but by not being our authentic selves, we are robbing the world of something different, something special." If you're a fan of Leah Remini, which I am, you'll love this book. She writes the way she speaks: ego, attitude, and honesty. She tells her story, growing up in a troubled home and her determination to make something of herself. If you are only interested in her involvement in Scientology: either to degrade the religion or to degrade those who don't believe in it, you'll probably hate this book. It's not really about the religion, although she does detail her involvement in the movement. Truthfully, as an underachieving Average Jane, I find this biography to be deeply relatable. L...

Book Blogger Hop Are you able to choose your favorite books? (Julie @  Stepping Stone Book Reviews ) At first, I wasn't sure what the question meant, which gave me time to consider a few possible meanings of, and answers to, the question. Are you able to choose your favorite books? Like do other people pick my favorite books for me? No. Hell, no. If they pick the book, it's likely their favorite and not mine, and if they found mine on the first go, they'd be mind-readers (or mine-readers?) and not the sort of people I'd be hanging out with in the first place. Are you able to choose your favorite books? Perhaps the author of the question meant, am I able to choose my favorite books as a blogging topic. I suppose I could limit the span of my blogging to only books I absolutely loved. But what the heck would I write about if my reading material for the year was made entirely of duds? And wouldn't people get sick of hearing me rave about the same ha...

  "The world outside the window was white with snow--the trees caked in it, the garden killed by it--its plants stiff and gray, frozen, the tilled ground mounded white, and footprints, from the garden to house, showing the path the mother had walked with her screaming child. Though somehow the tomatoes remained bright red, now almost like shiny Christmas tree ornaments--much too red against the snow." --Emily M. Danforth, Plain Bad Heroines I was under the misguided notion that this book was a horror novel, a notion partially fueled by my local bookstore displaying it in the "Horror" section of the store. To date, the scariest thing about this novel is the author's overuse of the words "celesbian" and "wunderkind" to describe her characters. But the story is not bad... Thursday Quotables @  Bookshelf Fantasies

This week's Top Ten Tuesday had "Freebie" listed as a topic. I wasn't quite up to the task of making up my own topic this week, but TTT's host is still keeping a running list of topics they've covered. I've missed out on quite a lot... I've been away so long, I had no idea that Top Ten Tuesday had even left  The Broke and Bookish , for  ThatArtsyReaderGirl . Without further ado, these were the books of my childhood. Come on, Seabiscuit by Ralph Moody. Call of the Wild by Jack London. Novels of Redwall by Brian Jacques. (All of them.) Upchuck and the Rotten Willy by Bill Walace. The Secrets of Belltown by Ted M Murphy. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. Falling Up by Shel Silverstein. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Matilda by Roald Dahl. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. Feel free to link me to your TTT in the comments!