Get Lost in Literature

  I'm not sure how a theme reveal blog post should go, I feel like it can be summed up into one sentence: For the 2025 A-Z Challenge , I'll be posting A-Z Book Reviews . But if you're looking for a little more info, I pride myself on reading a variety of genres, and not just committing every moment of my reading life to one. So tune in everyday for a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction, contemporary, mystery and horror. Although I think this year, I only feature one contemporary novel so that might not be the best example. As always, thank you for stopping by, and feel free to leave me a link in the comments section to your theme reveal!

  Happy Sunday! I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! The Sunday Post is a news meme created by Caffeinated Reviewer . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you'll join me. It's March! In February we got a small snowstorm followed by a bitter, howling wind that froze the snow solid, turning the yard into skating rink. But it's March and that's almost in the past now, as Spring approaches and the yard starts to thaw. Does anyone else think the day of Spring Forward should be a National Holiday? I posted two reviews in the last month: American Pharoah by Joe Drape Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros I feel pretty good about being 5 books into my yearly reading goal of 12. I haven't posted all of the reviews for them because some of them are going to count towards my A-Z Blogging Challenge in April. I'm reading the book for Q now, Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips , and am using the 'sample' feature on Amazon to audition book...

Hello all! I'm just giving an update on what's happening at this blog. You may have noticed my Monday Book Reviews have lessened, making my blog a little slow and desolate. Just letting you know it's not forever. This year I'll be participating in  April Blogging from A to Z Challenge  again, which is a blogging challenge where bloggers pick a theme and 26 alphabet based topics to go with it, all to be posted in the month of April. This year, I'll be participating with another set of A-Z Book Reviews (some old and some new) but I was missing books for the letters H, Q, X, and Z. I've been spending much of my time tracking down books for the missing letters and trying to read and review those books in time for April. So basically what I'm telling you is you're going to go from too few reviews to too many. I'm hoping to have it all under control by mid-March. Those four missing books will be read, the reviews will be pre-scheduled to post on their own,...

  American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise   by Joe Drape "The three hardest things to predict the outcome of are a ballgame, a love affair, and a horse race." In 1978, a horse named Affirmed managed to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown of horse racing. It would be a 37-years before the next horse was capable of accomplishing the same feat: American Pharoah in 2015. This isn't a particularly long book, but it took me forever to read. It's not a particularly emotional book (I don't think, anyways) but it kept making me emotional. I've been a horse lover all of my life, even making the financially irresponsible decision to buy one of my own, and a longtime fan of horse racing. I wasn't even born in 1978 when Affirmed won the Triple Crown... and while I'd seen video of Secretariat moving 'like a tremendous machine' it wasn't the same as ex...

Today's Top Ten Tuesday , hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl , is a list of the Top Ten Books I Never Reviewed. I liked all of these books, so it's a surprise to me that I never made time to review them. And at this point, it'd be necessary to reread them to make sure they were getting the rave reviews they all deserve which I don't really have time for right now.  1. Wicked by Gregory Maguire 2. The Host by Stephenie Meyer 3. Dracula by Bram Stoker 4. Ursula Under  by Ingrid Hill 5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 6. Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques 7. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemsin 8. The City and The City by China Mieville 9. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card 10. The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint Have you read any of these? What's a book you loved but never reviewed?

Book Beginnings on Fridays by Rose City Reader - Share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. "I was beginning to believe that I was never going to see a horse capture the Triple Crown." American Pharoah by Joe Drape This is the first sentence from the author's note at the beginning of the book, and I'm in total agreement. I wasn't even alive in 1978 when Affirmed claimed the title. I was beginning to think it couldn't be done. Book Blogger Hop Q: Have you ever read a Nicholas Sparks romance novel? If so, what is your opinion on his endings? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer) A: No, I haven't read anything by Nicholas Sparks as I don't read a lot of romance.

Valentine's Day approaches! And I have a confession: I don't really care. I don't mean that to be facetious but the reality is I haven't got much of a romantic bone in my body. I actually like the day after Valentine's a little better, because I can buy chocolate at next to nothing because it was all poured into a heartshaped mold that stopped being relevant the moment the clock hit midnight. Given all that, it probably won't come as a shock to you that I don't read a lot of romance novels, and when I do, it's not usually the romantic elements that made me pick it up in the first place. My GoodReads 'Romance' shelf list 27 books in all, and some of them are sequels so I'm not sure they count. Because picking up romance is such a rarity for me, and it is Valentine's Day (almost), I decided my list today should be Top Ten Romantic Books & Why I Read Them . (hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl ) 1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I like vampire...

  "Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities." Violet Sorrengail, frail and fragile, trained her whole life to be in Scribe Quadrant, wanting nothing more than to be surrounded by books, recording history. But her mother, the general, has other ideas. She's being sent to college to train in the Riders Quadrant to follow in the footsteps of her siblings to become a dragon rider. The problem? Besides being too weak to carry her own bag, she'll be in a school where every test she takes is graded by life or death and everyone wants her dead. I can absolutely see what the fuss is about, this was a little addicting for me. I was pulled in right away by the idea of Violet, this smart young woman with physical infirmities being forced into a war college where only the strongest survive. She's the heroine of the story, so you know she's going to survive, but s...

Book Beginnings on Fridays by Rose City Reader -  Share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. "On the White House roof, tucked into a corner of the Promenade, there's a bit of loose paneling right on the edge of the Solarium. If you tap it just right, you can peel it back enough to find a message etched underneath, with the tip of a key or maybe a stolen West Wing letter opener." Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston I just finished my first romance novel Red, White & Royal Blue . It was cute. Maybe someday I'll read another one. Book Blogger Hop Q: Do you prefer to read series one book after another, or can you read other books in between? (submitted by me, Idea-ist @ Get Lost in Literature) A: I prefer to read a series one book after another, but sometimes that's not possible if the sequel hasn't...

  Happy Sunday! The Sunday Post is a weekly news meme created by Caffeinated Reviewer . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you'll join me. The month of January was a cold one, and I mean cold ... we had one day with a high of 8 degrees and a real feel of -2. And I know that out there, there are places that get colder. This is not the coldest place on earth, not even the coldest place in the USA, but for us it was 'frickin' freezin' in here, Mr. Bigglesworth.' My reading month has been a bit slow, I've been working a lot of overtime lately. I started reading American Pharoah  by Joe Drape,  but it's slow going; that's got nothing to do with the quality of the story as it's quite good, but with the sentimentality of the reader. (It keeps making me cry.) I'm also reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros,  late to the party, I know. I did get at least two reviews posted in January.  Carving Shadows into Gold by Brigid Kemmere...

Today's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl , is listed as New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024 ... I didn't have time this week to decorate my blog post with photos and/or links to reviews, but I suppose that makes it easier and quicker to read.   1. Patricia Cornwell 2. S.A. Chakraborty 3. Harlan Coben 4. Robert McCammon 5. Kasey LeBlanc 6. Kate Alice Marshall 7. Colin Dickey 8. Jess Lourey 9. Stephen Graham Jones 10. Grady Hendrix Have you read any of these? Feel free to leave a link to your TTT!

  "He's always wanted to be a person with a legacy in this world. Henry is undoutedly, determinedly that. It's a little intoxicating." Alex Claremont-Diaz, First Son of the United States, hates Prince Henry. Henry is a cold, stuck up robot according to Alex who is passionate, flirtatious, and ambitious. After Alex and Henry get in a shoving match at Prince Philip's Royal Wedding, they are forced by their families to spend time together, to convince the paparazzi that they are actually best friends. It's a story of love at first fight. This is a first for me... I've read romantasy because I like fantasy, but I've never read a novel that was intended to be romance and romance only. I picked this book up from the library after seeing the trailer for the movie. I figured if it was a movie it had to be good, right? I was surprised to find I wasn't disappointed. This book was cute.  Told from Alex's point of view it opens with a fair amount of animus...

Book Beginnings on Fridays by Rose City Reader - Share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. "Zodiac's unmasked features first came into focus one blazing summer day upon the crystal face of a watch." Z odiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith I'm reading my first true crime novel this month. I had tried to get a copy of the original Zodiac book, by the same author, but they haven't adapted it to an e-book format, and I downloaded this from my library instead.    Book Blogger Hop Q: January is National Hobby Month. Do you have any pastimes or interests other than reading that go well with your love of books and literature? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer) A: Oh, boy, do I have pastimes. I do counted-cross stitch and that takes up a lot of time, I have an embarrassing stack of adult coloring books that I bought during the craze...

Today's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl, is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025.   I, for the most part, haven't got a clue about upcoming novels or debuts or anything of that sort, unless it's for an author I habitually stalk. Today what I'm going to do instead is recommend the Top Ten ARCs I read last year. I didn't read ten of them, but I did read 7 & 1/8 (I'm not going to recommend the 1/8). 1.  What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher  The sequel to What Moves the Dead  an Edgar Allen Poe inspired series. It doesn't count toward this year, it actually came out in 2024, but if you like gothic horror you might like these books. 2.  Salem's Cipher by Jess Lourey  A mystery/thriller in the style of The DaVinci Code,  Salem a cryptoanalyst and her best friend Bel, are trying to crack a code to bring their kidnapped mothers home. 3.  A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall  A woman marrying into an afflue...

The story of Tycho and Jax continues with their journey to Emberfall, during which there's a vicious attack by scravers. With scravers terrorizing the countryside, Tycho worries about the consequences of his promise to Nakiis. Prince Rhen orders Tycho away to warn the King and once again he finds himself riding away from Jax. Callyn's story opens with her chasing the princess through the palace, part of her new job as Sinna's lady in waiting. Soon it becomes her responsibility to figure out why the Queen was attacked, trapping her in a game of politics that may turn deadly. I'm going to start by saying, Jax and Tycho are sooooo sweet. They're sweet together and sweet to each other. If you are looking for a lighthearted romantasy that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, this book's opening salvo fits the bill. But as wonderful as it is it can't stay that way for long. Their relationship becomes strained by the necessity of finding balance between the...

Happy New Year! The Sunday Post is a weekly news meme created by Caffeinated Reviewer . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you'll join me. I hope you are all doing well, and are as excited about the New Year as I am. I'm welcoming it in with a recap of last year and my goals for 2025. In 2024, I challenged myself to read 12 books. I know it's not a flashy number, but I figure if I'm doing one a month I'm doing alright. I'm happy that not only did I meet my goal of 12 books, I exceeded it by reading 33, a grand total 14,755 pages. Last year I had set aside some reading goals (other than book count) to help keep my reading habits organized. I wanted to read only from my TBR list, except for when following up previously started series, or rereading prequels to their sequels. And while I did read some from my TBR, I added in a few ARCs and a handful of rereads during the busier holiday months. I'm proud to say, even though I didn'...