The Bookworms Guide

Hey guys! Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week’s topic is favorite audiobook narrators. So let’s get going!

1. Michael Crouch (The Gravity Of Us)
2. Sullivan Jones (The Gravity Of Us)
3. Chris Andrew Ciulla (The Gravity Of Us)
4. Marisa Calin (The Left-Handed Booksellers Of London)
5. Jeanette Illidge (The Prison Healer Series)
6. Frazer Douglas (The Song Of Achilles)
7. Ellen Quay (Oathbound)
8. Briggon Snow (The Infinite Noise)
9. James Fouhey (The Infinite Noise)
10. Charlie Ian (A Neon Darkness)

I’ve only listened to a couple of audiobooks so far, but I am planning on listening to a lot more. Check out these audiobooks!

Hey guys! Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This weeks topic is:  Titles with Animals In Them and/or Covers with Animals On Them (submitted by Rachel @ Sunny Side)

I am going to be doing 5 books that have animals on the covers that I have read, and then 5 that are on my TBR. And yes, birds do count.

So let’s get started!

5 books I’ve read…

1. Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia 4/5😄 10+
   (Animal: Chickens, and a dog)
2. An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo 4/5😄 11+
   (Animal: An elephant)
3. Marshmallow & Jordan by Alina Chau 3/5😄 10+
   (Animal: Another elephant)
4. Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce 4/5😄 12+
   (Animal: A horse)
5. Salt Magic by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock 4/5😄 10+
   (Animal: Another horse)

And now five that are on my TBR…

1. The Royal Ranger: Escape from Falaise by John Flanagan
   (Animal: Yet another horse)
2. The Too-Clever Fox by Leigh Bardugo
   (Animal: A fox, wolf, and bird)
3. Artie and the Wolf Moon by Olivia Stephens
   (Animal: More wolves)
4. The Dark Wild by Piers Torday
   (Animal: Another wolf, and a dog)
5. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
   (Animal: A dragon)

Have you read any of these books? Or are they on your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

Have a great day and happy reading!!

Hey guys! Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

The weeks topic is “Books for people who liked author x” I decided to twist the topic a bit to a “Books for people who liked series x” type thing instead. So, if you liked the series Shadow and Bone, or any other dystopian/fantasy/adventure books, read on!

Six Of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo

The Prison Healer series by Lynette Noni

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich

Oathbound by Victoria McCombs

Do you have any book recommendations for me based off this list? I’d love to hear them!

Have a great day and happy reading!

Hope you enjoyed this post, sorry it was a day late!

Hey guys! Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week’s theme is a TTT rewind. (Pick a previous topic that you missed or would like to re-do/update.)

Today I will be sharing five places from the worlds of my books that I would love to live in… and another five that I definitely don’t want to live in.

Let’s start with the ones I like:

1. Mount Pelion – The Song Of Achilles
   This beautiful mountain sounds like the perfect place to get away to. There is a cave made of pale rose quartz, the walls are hung with strange bronze implements, meant for surgery, instruments hang in one corner, lyres and flutes, and next to them tools and cooking pots. The cave’s ceiling has lines and specks of dye shaping the constellations and the movements of the heavens. Just a short walk from the cave is a cool river for swimming in. There is plenty of game and berries and fruits for food, and clean water for drinking. Everything is hidden away from other people and just sounds very peaceful.
2. Hogwarts – Harry Potter
   I think it’s probably pretty clear why I’d choose this one for my list, but just in case let me tell you why. I can just imagine spending hours wandering Hogwarts’s halls, meeting the friendly ghosts looking for clues to the newest mystery. Hogwarts is such a magical and amazing place and honestly, I’d love to be there for just one day if I could. From classes to quidditch to hanging out with my friends I’m quite certain I’d have a blast at this school. I have to say however, that I would definitely miss my parents.
3. The winter palace – The Prison Healer
   Who wouldn’t want to go to a big palace in the middle of the winter? I just know that I would spend countless hours exploring this palace. The inside and the surrounding property. I would love practicing my fighting skills with Jaren, Kiva and Caldon. The balls, the mysteries and everything makes me so intrigued by this place.
4. The Shire – The Lord Of The Rings
   The shire is such a happy place full of festivals parties and the friendly hobbits. The shire is also very beautiful. The fields and forest surrounding the cute little cottages make this place the perfect fairytale home. I would love to spend some time here. Especially if my friends and family were tagging along.
5. The spring court – A Court of Thorns and Roses
   The Spring Court is a land of rolling green hills, lush forests, and clear, bottomless lakes.  The grounds are encased by woods that stretched so far one can barely see the distant line of the forest. Magic didn’t just abound in the bumps and the hollows – it grew there. To be in a place this magical and beautiful, and with Lucien, Feyre and Tamlin? I’d love it here. Pus the beauty of this place is incredible. Not only outside but the manor as well. The manor is veiled in roses and ivy, with patios, balconies, and staircases sprouting from its alabaster sides. Inside, it is even more opulent. Black-and-white chequered marble floor shone, flowing to countless doors and a sweeping staircase. A long hall stretched ahead to the giant glass doors at the other end of the house, and through them is a second garden, grander than the one out front. I know I’d always be exploring, and I’d spend countless hours in the library.

And now, for the places I would really not like to visit:

1. Zalindov – The Prison Healer
   I would not want to be stuck in this prison. The even worse than usual conditions, the horrible prisoners and guards, and no chance of escape? No thank you. I can already imagine the anxiety and claustrophobia I would feel here. Plus, no hot showers!! No way. I’d be staying far away from this place.
2. Ketterdam – Six of Crows
   Honestly, this place may not be too bad, but with all the gang’s sickness and death in this area it definitely doesn’t give me warm vibes. I would be literally terrified everywhere I went. And I’d really not like to end up in one of those gangs somehow. Basically, I’ll be staying out of this city.
3. Literally anywhere in Scythe
   I would really rather not live my life not knowing if I was going to be chosen for gleaning and gleaned while I was just peacefully enjoying my day. Not that I would actually be able to enjoy my day, because I’d be so overwhelmed by fear. I would also be afraid that someone else in my family would be gleaned, or one of my friends. And what if I was chosen to be a Scythe’s apprentice!? No thank you, this world would be too much for me.
4. Panem – The Hunger Games
   “Panem is a sovereign nuclear state and democratic constitutional republic that was established sometime after a series of ecological disasters and a global conflict brought about the collapse of modern civilization.” Sounds like a nice place am I right? No. You can count me out. The whole reaping system and the fact that they even have the games is just crazy. And then there’s how badly most of the districts are treated, and how well others are. And of course, there’s the capital… nuh-uh. I feel like I might go after Katniss has defeated Snow, but even then…
5. Ikhara – Girls of Paper and Fire
   I feel like this place just has a really messed up government. Like the whole thing with the king and his “girls” just… 🤮 And in that reality if I was going to the palace, it would only be for one of two reasons… 1. I was going to be killed, or, 2. I was going to be another one of his “girls”
   No freaking thank you.

* No hate to any of these books! I actually love them all, and you should definitely read them!

Hope you enjoyed this post! What are some book places you want to go too? What are some you want to stay away from?

Have a great day and happy reading!

Hey guys! Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week’s topic is Ten Bookish People I’d Like to Meet (These can be authors, book characters, book bloggers/influencers, cover designers, cover models, etc.)

Authors:

1. Leigh Bardugo
2. Lynette Noni
3. Suzanne Collins

Book characters:

1. Kiva Meridan (The prison healer)
2. Caldon Vallentis (The prison healer)
3. Nikolai Lanstov (Shadow and bone)
4. Malyen Orestev (Shadow and bone)
5. Alina Starkov (Shadow and bone)
6. Kaz Brekker (Six of crows)
7. Jesper Fahey (Six of crows)
8. Genya Safin (Shadow and bone)
9. Inej Ghafa (Six of crows)
10. Wylan Van Eck (Six of crows)
11. Katniss Everdeen (The hunger games)
12. Peetah Mellark (The hunger games)

Of course, this is not all of the characters I want to meet, but for the sake of keeping this post short, those are my top 12. 😜

What are your top ten? (Or more)

Have a great day and happy reading!

✨Top Ten Tuesday! ✨

Hey guys! Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week’s topic is a genre freebie, so I decided to do Ten books that I never hear people talk about. Hope you enjoy!

1. How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

“Salem, Massachusetts is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?

If dealing with that weren’t enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with The Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it’s Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.”

5/5 😄 13+

2. Oathbound by Victoria McCombs

“Beware the waters. The dangerous deep brings ruin to all.

Emme has spent her life avoiding anything to do with pirates. But the fates are cruel, and now a hidden sickness leads her to partner with pirates for the one thing that can save her—a cure on an island none are certain exists.

The pirate captain’s secrets are darker than the deep and threaten to kill them all. His obligations are tinged with betrayal, for his oathbind must be fulfilled. To ignore it is to invite peril of unimaginable destruction.

As the adventure unfolds, the sea takes more than she expects and the sea gives more than he wants.“

5/5😄 13+

3. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

“Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for…and the most demeaning. This year, there’s a ninth. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it’s Lei they’re after — the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king’s interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king’s consort. There, she does the unthinkable — she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world’s entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.”

5/5 😄 16+

4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

“It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute… and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.”

5/5 😄 14+

5. Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

“Isabelle should be blissfully happy – she’s about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn’t the beautiful girl who lost the glass slipper and captured the prince’s heart. She’s the ugly stepsister who’s cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella’s shoe … which is now filling with blood.

When the prince discovers Isabelle’s deception, she is turned away in shame. It’s no more than she deserves: she is a plain girl in a world that values beauty; a feisty girl in a world that wants her to be pliant.

Isabelle has tried to fit in. To live up to her mother’s expectations. To be like her stepsister. To be sweet. To be pretty. One by one, she has cut away pieces of herself in order to survive a world that doesn’t appreciate a girl like her. And that has made her mean, jealous, and hollow.

Until she gets a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known: it takes more than heartache to break a girl.”

4/5 😄 13+

6. An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo

“With Lizzie’s father fighting in World War II, her mother takes on the job of a zoo keeper to provide for her family. Lizzie, her mother, and her eight-year-old brother Karli have become especially attached to an orphaned elephant named Marlene. The bombing of Dresden is imminent and soon, so the zoo director explains that as a precautionary measure all the animals must be destroyed so that they’re not running wild through the city. Lizzie’s mother persuades the director to allow Marlene, the elephant, to come stay in the family’s garden.

As predicted, Dresden is bombed, and the family, including Marlene, is forced from the city. Lizzie and her family aren’t alone. Thousands of Dresden residents are fleeing to find somewhere safe to stay. Lizzie’s mother has to find a different route out of the city to keep the elephant and the children safe from harm. Once they reach the abandoned home of their relatives, they come across Peter, a Canadian navigator who, by putting himself at risk of capture to save the family, gains their trust.

This unlikely grouping of family, elephant, and enemy turned ally come together beautifully to illustrate the importance of love, resolve, and hope.”

4/5 😄 11+

7. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

“In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.

Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.

Susan’s search for her father begins with her mother’s possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.

Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan’s. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.”

4/5 😄 13+

8. The Shadow Prince by David Anthony Durham

“On the night before his twelfth birthday, Ash learns that he was born on the same day as Prince Khufu, which makes him eligible to compete to be the prince’s shadow, a coveted position as the friend and bodyguard of the boy destined to be pharaoh of all of Egypt. At first, Ash can’t believe it, but when a floating royal barge takes Ash and his mentor to the bustling, magical, solar-powered capital, things get real.

What awaits Ash and the candidates is deadly–five days of dangerous tests filled with demon fighting, monster slaying, and magical spells–each overseen by a different Egyptian god. Ash finds two friends willing to fight by his side–the first friends he’s ever made. But there are candidates who will lie, cheat, and even harm others to win. Not all will survive, and only one can become the prince’s shadow.

To make matters worse, Ash is up against Lord Set, the devious god of chaos, who is secretly working to make the candidates fail. But if they do, the very survival of the kingdom is in peril. Can Ash and his new friends save Egypt? And will any of them survive to become the shadow prince?”

4/5 😄 8+

9. Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells

“While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure.

Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende’s missing father.

With the ship damaged on arrival, they attempt to traverse the strange lands on their quest. But when evidence points to sabotage and they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with the strange race of the sea-lands, Emilie has to make some challenging decisions and take daring action if they are ever to reach the surface world again.”

4/5 😄 13+

10. Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

“Young Daine’s knack with horses gets her a job helping the royal horsemistress drive a herd of ponies to Tortall. Soon it becomes clear that Daine’s talent, as much as she struggles to hide it, is downright magical. Horses and other animals not only obey, but listen to her words. Daine, though, will have to learn to trust humans before she can come to terms with her powers, her past, and herself.”

4/5 😄 11+

What are some fantasy books you don’t hear a lot about? Have you heard about any of these?

Have a great day and happy reading!