Tag: book-tropes

Categories
Books Memes

Second Place & Six Family Sagas

It’s time for #6degrees. Start with the monthly read, add six books, and see where you end up. The 6 Degrees of Separation Meme is hosted every month at Books are my Favorite and Best. The book for September 2021 is Second Place by Rachel Cusk.

Book Blurb: A woman invites a famous artist to use her guesthouse in the remote coastal landscape where she lives with her family. Powerfully drawn to his paintings, she believes his vision might penetrate the mystery at the center of her life. But as a long, dry summer sets in, his provocative presence itself becomes an enigma―and disrupts the calm of her secluded household.

I haven’t read Second Place, but the blurb reminded me heavily of family sagas triggered off by critical events in the life of an ancestor. So, here are 6 books all tied-up in family legacy.

Continue reading “Second Place & Six Family Sagas”
Categories
Books Memes To Be Read Books

Red Letter Days: Six Epistolary Books

Letters Postcards

It’s time for #6degrees. Start with the monthly read, add six books, and see where you end up. The 6 Degrees of Separation Meme is hosted every month at Books are my Favorite and Best.

Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher is the book for August 2021. Which makes me take on the very obvious route of epistolary books. Not my favorite format, but here’s the list for six books on red letter days.

Continue reading “Red Letter Days: Six Epistolary Books”
Categories
Books Memes

Wednesday Weekly: Those Saddest Books

Saddest Books

It’s time for The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge, hosted by Long and Short Reviews. The topic for June 23 is Saddest Book(s) I’ve Ever Read. So here we are, talking about a few tearjerkers.

Look, don’t judge me. Crying can have an emotionally cathartic effect. I mean, all those tragedies were created for a reason!

Continue reading “Wednesday Weekly: Those Saddest Books”
Categories
Books Memes

If You Like: Kitsune Lore

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, a very interesting theme: Books I Loved that Made Me Want More Books Like Them. So here we are, talking about some kitsune lore.

Once upon a time, I used to be obsessed with this trope — all thanks to the gorgeous Japanese anime show Kamisama Hajimemashita (lit: I Became a God), based on a manga of the same name. Unfortunately, while werewolves and dragons are all too common, the sly Fox doesn’t get much mention.

Kamisama Tomoe

I’m cheating here because I am taking these from an older post, but it’s such a fun topic!

Continue reading “If You Like: Kitsune Lore”
Categories
Memes

Ten Things About Book Villains

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 have a freebie. And I’m choosing to go with book villains!

What are some traits of the book villains we all love to hate? Here’s my count-down of some of the worst villains from reading life, and what makes them tick.

Continue reading “Ten Things About Book Villains”
Categories
Best of List Memes Recommendations

Seaborne Fantasy Books: Get in the Sea #WyrdAndWonder

Pirates of Caribbean - Seaborne Fantasy Books
Image Credits

Thanks to the wonderful Wyrd and Wonder challenge for reminding that May 22 is Maritime Day. So, let’s make it watery with all kinds of seaborne fantasy books: mermaid tales, sirens, ladies in the lake, pirates and other nautical adventurers. Get in the sea!

Continue reading “Seaborne Fantasy Books: Get in the Sea #WyrdAndWonder”
Categories
Memes

Top 10 Books with Environment Motifs

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every Tuesday, you pick ten books on that week’s topic. This week’s topic was books with Nature on the cover. On those lines, I tried to think of books that may also deal with environment themes / motifs, or even wild magic and herblore!

Which books did this environmental TTT theme make you think of? Let’s discuss!

More Top 10 Tuesday Books
Categories
Books Memes

Six Degrees of Sibling-Hood

It’s time for #6degrees. Start with the monthly read, add six books, and see where you end up. The 6 Degrees of Separation Meme is hosted every month at Books are my Favorite and Best.

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary is the book for May 2021. As the blurb says, “Newbery Award winner Beverly Cleary delivers a humorous portrayal of the ups and downs of sisterhood. Both the younger and older siblings of the family will enjoy this book.“

Continue reading “Six Degrees of Sibling-Hood”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

Mask & Dagger Series by Teresa Edgerton

Edgerton Goblin Moon

Books 1 & 2: Goblin Moon / Hobgoblin Night by Teresa Edgerton
Genres / Tropes: 18th Century Alternative History, Fantasy, Alchemy, Search for Atlantis and Philosopher’s Stone, Zorro-like Vigilantes
Published: 1991 / 2015
Similar Books: Sorcery & Cecilia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, Books by Georgette Heyer, Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater, The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells, The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Rating: 10 of 10. Highly Recommended.

The Plot:

Two alchemists try to raise a dead magician who may know how to make the Seramarias Stone. Two women try to flee a vengeful fairie halfling and her troll minions. A secret glassmakers guild plans to raise a submerged Atlantis-like island. A half-mad, sleepdust-addicted Zorro-like vigilante risks all to expose black magic cartels and the slavers’ trade. And no one can make sense of the homunculus and the golem out in the world. Clearly, a lot happens!

Continue reading “Mask & Dagger Series by Teresa Edgerton”
Categories
Books Starred Recommendations

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Book: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (Series: Vorkosigan Saga)
Published: November 2012 (Baen Books)
Audiobook Narrator: Grover Gardner (Blackstone Audio)
Genre/ Trope: Space Opera, Humor, Meet the Family
Rating: 9 of 10 / Highly Recommended

A perfect feel-good read for a lazy summer afternoon! I was chortling my way through this book about Captain Ivan Vorpatril, a rather laidback bureaucrat in the intergalactic Barrayaran Empire. The good news is that the book can be read as a standalone, and is a very good gateway into science fiction.

Ivan Vorpatril is the scion of a powerful political family in Barrayar, but he isn’t very ambitious. He would just rather stick on at his comfortable government job and enjoy his bachelor’s life. His meddlesome cousin Byerly asks him for a favor to check-in on two immigrant women living under fake identities — and poor Ivan can say goodbye to his uneventful life!

Continue reading “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold”