Category: Books

All book reviews go here.

Categories
Best of List Books Memes Recommendations

If you like Time Travel

Here we are, combining Top 10 Tuesday with… time travel! The first time I came across time travel was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in which miserly Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

Since then, I’ve become something of a time travel fan. I’ve also discovered that there are two schools of thought. One school believes that through time travel you can change the future. The other school believes that the future is inescapable, through time travel you can only change the paths to that future.

Let’s take a look at 10 (or more) books that use innovative devices for time travel.

Continue reading “If you like Time Travel”
Categories
Books Memes Recommendations

Who am I?? Top 10 Books on the Amnesia Trope

It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week, we are looking at books on our favorite trope, and the first one I could think of was: amnesia. Somehow, I find the loss of memory to be very closely linked to the loss of identity, and reclaiming both seems like a major victory.

(Source)
Continue reading “Who am I?? Top 10 Books on the Amnesia Trope”
Categories
Best of List Books Memes Starred Recommendations

Dynamic Duos in Books

Dynamic duos in books: What a fun topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks to Elley the Book Otter for the great suggestion. And now, onwards, with the list!

Continue reading “Dynamic Duos in Books”
Categories
Books Recommendations Watchlist

January 2022 Wrap-Up / Mini-Reviews

January saw work at the office pile up, but I still managed to get in a lot more escape reading and watching. Here are some of the books and shows that I like particularly and I hope you’ll give these a shot as well.

Continue reading “January 2022 Wrap-Up / Mini-Reviews”
Categories
Books

Review: Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier

Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier
Standalone Epic Fantasy
Published: 2017
Tropes: Land Magic/ Wild Magic, Mythological Fantasy, Bi-Protagonist, Court Intrigue, Dark Fantasy.

Winter of Ice and Iron was my pick for the “winter” theme for January, in Bookish Valhalla’s TBR SFF 2022 challenge. I’ve read and liked Neumeier’s work before and I think she deserves more press — so I picked this one up with interest.

Each kingdom’s land has a wild force which must be mastered by its ruler (else it will destroy the ruler and the people). Trouble starts when one particular mad king plans to usurp the wildforces of all neighboring kingdoms.

“Wolf Month was the starving month, the bitter month, the month when winter stores grew lean and the new growth had not yet come, the month when the long haunting cries of the wolves drifted almost nightly from the high mountains. It was a hard month. The cold lingered.”

This book reminded me of Game of Thrones but with land magic involved. (There are a lot of kings and queens asking each other to “bend the knee” which is a GOT reference if ever I saw one.) Ahem:

Continue reading “Review: Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier”
Categories
Best of List Books Memes

Favorite Books of 2021

Here we are, my favorite entry from the Top Ten Tuesday meme hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl — favorite books of 2021. This was one post I wasn’t going to miss. I swear I turned my back for a minute to fix up my new house, and lo the whole year has gone by. My 2021 had serious reading blues in the second half, but I still managed to identify top 10 (or more) reads. All to add to your TBR, of course!

Continue reading “Favorite Books of 2021”
Categories
Books Recommendations Watchlist

Mini Reviews / October 2021 Monthly Wrap-Up

In the last week of October, I probably read more books than in the past 3 months. So I’m really hoping that my reading/ blogging blues are finally over. There’s a lot to record and catch-up with, all those blogposts that I missed — still need to get up to speed there! In the meantime, here’s a bunch a mini-reviews / reading wrap-up for October 2021.

Continue reading “Mini Reviews / October 2021 Monthly Wrap-Up”
Categories
Books Recommendations

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

I once read that the cuckoo leaves its eggs in other birds’ nests to avoid the effort of raising its own young. Imagine the duped bird’s shock to find that the egg hatched into some other species!

And so in Cuckoo Song, young Triss wonders if she is a cuckoo among the crows. She’s just had an accident that no one wants to talk about, but she knows she’s changed. For one thing, her memories are hazy and detached. For another, she is so hungry all the time…

Continue reading “Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge”
Categories
Best of List Books Memes Starred Recommendations

Favorite Book Settings

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every Tuesday, you pick ten books on that week’s topic. This week, we are looking at favorite book settings.

Continue reading “Favorite Book Settings”
Categories
Books Recommendations

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

About The Forgotten Garden
Published: 2008
Book Tropes: Foundlings, Time Hops, Family Secrets, Mysterious Houses, Australia
Recommended for fans of: Susanna Kearsley, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, Possession by A. S. Byatt, The Thirteenth Tale by by Diane Setterfield

Forgotten Garden was the first book that I decided to read from my Fall 2021 Reading List — since that was the book most people recommended! It turned out to be a very engrossing read, and managed to get me out of my reader’s block.

Continue reading “The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton”