What have you been reading? Are you enjoying it? Why or why not?
If you’re not reading anything right now, what was the last book you read? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not?
What books are in your top TBR list right now (if you have such a thing)? Tell me five books in no particular order.
For me,
I’ve been reading Orphans of the Tide by Struan Murray and finished it in one day. It was so exciting and action packed, I loved it. It starts with this whale beaching and then a boy comes out of the whale. The MC is a girl who is an inventor’s daughter but the inventor, her mom, died so she’s like the resident fixer. I really liked that about the book. Women can be inventors, too!
I’m going to have to look up Orphans of the Tide! That sounds interesting.
Currently reading The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron. I typically enjoy WWII historical fiction novels, but this one’s not really doing it for me. Occasionally the author has a strong description or scene, but for the most part it’s a lot of fast-forwarding and telling and time skips, and there’s like 20+ characters introduced in the first 4 chapters. But, I’m also only 4 chapters in. I’m hoping it’ll get better. Nothing that’s written on the book blurb has happened yet, so I’m thinking it’ll get better once we get to present times and everything’s been set up.
Some books I have waiting to be read are:
Legendborn by Tracy Deon
Star Mother by Charlie Holmberg ← I’m more excited for this one, because it seems unconventional plot-wise and the writing style (from the sample I read) is wonderful. Less excited for Legendborn because I read the first chapter and it seems rather typical. It has good reviews so I’m hoping it’ll get better.
And lately I’ve been thinking about re-reading my childhood favorites, like the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman, the Heir Chronicles by Cinda Williams Chima, the River of Time series by Lisa Bergren, and Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. I have so much nostalgia for these books and they inspired a lot of my book ideas, so I kind of want to go back to them. I also want to re-live my crushes because I crushed on a lot of their characters xD especially in the Heir Chronicles. I cried when one of my crushes died and threw my book across the room when it happened. It was in book 3 and I still very vividly remember that scene even though I read the series 10 years ago
I’m currently in the middle of reading Dune by Frank Herbert. So, far I’m enjoying it although I haven’t had the time to read recently so it’s taking longer than expected.
Off topic, but tell me what you think about this, please! One of my favourite booktubers recommends this series a lot.
Anyway.
My current read is The Memory Collectors by Kim Neville. I enjoyed what little I’ve read of it so far, but I haven’t been reading too much.
My other most recent reads were Five Feet Apart, which I did enjoy, but not a lot, and before that, I read The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri which has become an absolute favourite of mine.
My fiction tbr:
Aru Shah and the end of time by Roshani Chokshi and it’s second book.
The obelisk gate by N.K. Jesmin
Mistborn era 1
The way of Kings (stormlight archive)
The Oleander Sword (when it comes out)
My non fiction tbr:
Rich Dad, poor dad (recommend, ironically, vy my dad and which I’ve been stuck on forever)
The Secret
Steal like an artist
Mangas. Got two things up on WP that I’m playing hookey from. School is almost out and between dance recital and Disney, my life isn’t my own, so…nothing serious right now.
I just finished the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares and it was meh. I honestly prefer the movie lol. Now I’m reading Thirteen by Steve Cavanaugh and I just started it, so I don’t have an opinion on it yet.
Unsouled by Neal Shusterman. The Rise of Kyoshi by F. C. Yee and Michael Dante DiMartino. The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James. The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston.
I’m on a Colleen hoover binge. I read the blurb of one and she used the same name as my protag so I got sucked in. Now I can’t put her books down.
Genuinely though she got me back into reading physical books instead of just reading off Wattpad. These days I haven’t got time to read but now I’m carving time to do it and loving it.
Annihilation by James Vandermeer and On Writing by Sol Stein! I’m diving into Grendel by John Gardner next. My goal for this summer is to read 20 pages of fiction a day and a chapter out of a book on craft a day (a habit that I started about a year ago and stuck with!). I have a whole stack of books that I plan to get through this summer!
I really like Annihilation and it’s a whole lot better than the movie. I’m learning so much about tension design, especially in science fiction. James Vandermeer uses too much narrative summary for my taste at times, but I really like how he handles flashbacks and conflict. The last book I read was Nyxia by Scott Reignten, an author I had the pleasure of meeting! It was such a great YA sci-fi story and I learned so much from it when it came to my own writing style especially since it’s also in first person present tense. It taught me that a lot more things are allowed in writing than I thought and encouraged me to be less critical of myself.
I can’t remember what order I read them in, but most recently I read these:
How to Stop Time / Matt Haig
Sea of Tranquility / Emily St. John Mandel
Normal People / Sally Rooney
Pliny the Younger / Daisy Dunn
Regretting Motherhood / Orna Donath
The book about Pliny was a bit of a slog, but the others were wonderful. (ღ˘ᴗ˘ღ)
I am so curious about this because it was hyped all over the place. I have it in my amazon wishlist and every time I use the site I always debate about getting it and never do.
That’s the same with me. It is constantly overhyped and everyone said it was amazing, so I wanted to buy it. But every time I had the chance, I never did… until recently. I saw it on sale at Walmart and got it.
I’m currently reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
I only got started but it’s been good so far.
I have a few books I bought but didn’t finish/start. So my TBR list is those books.
Burning World by Isaac Marion. This is the last in the series. I devoured this series. Not sure why I didn’t read the last book yet. Maybe the size is intimidating me? I need to get to it at last. I’m sure it will be great.
Lending a Paw - started, then got distracted and forgot about it. I might have to start from the beginning.
I don’t remember the title, lol. It’s a book about a medium. I bought it when working on my paranormal novel. I switched to a different project and suddenly I’m not interested in this book. I’ll get to it likely when I’m working on that project again.
I love how they reverse positions: in the beginning, he’s the cool kid and she’s the geek, but as they grow older it’s sophistication that’s more respected, so she becomes the cool one and he discovers that being a popular high school jock doesn’t count for much in the real world. I love that they first got together when he was cool and she was not. Then I love how their paths keep crisscrossing through life, and yes, many of their breakups are because of silly misunderstandings that could be easily rectified if they’d just talk to each other properly, but this isn’t done in a way that forces you to suspend disbelief. Most of all I love how they’re sort of bound to each other and can’t be happy with anyone else. They ultimately wind up together at the end, at least in my mind. Some readers say the ending’s ambiguous, but it doesn’t seem so to me. I think they finally understand each other and the fact that they’ll never be happy apart, so they work out how to be true to themselves without causing each other pain anymore. I wish the author had delved deeper into the abusive backstory, and it definitely would’ve helped if she’d mentioned that Ireland has a long history of parents favoring sons over daughters, but I guess no book is perfect. Anyway, this is the kind of book that you either love or hate. @Churro hated it but I loved it, so I can’t say "Buy the book; you’ll never regret it! because it has plenty of 1 stars. It’s only the first Sally Rooney book I’ve ever bought, but as soon as another goes on sale I’ll snap that one up too. U＾ェ＾U
Btw if you don’t mind reading ebooks on your phone or tablet, Red, White & Royal Blue is on sale today only for $2.99 USD.
It is constantly overhyped and everyone said it was amazing, so I wanted to buy it. But every time I had the chance, I never did… until recently. I saw it on sale at Walmart and got it. 