Skip to main content

Posts

Highly Anticipated Spring Reads 2018

Since my list of books I was looking forward to in the Fall was so popular, I thought I'd make a list of books that I'm looking forward to coming out this Spring. Most of these will be coming out in March and April and might give you some ideas for books to read over Spring Break.  Obsidio by Amife Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Releasing March 13) Obsidio is the third installment in The Illuminae Files.  While you could mostly read the second installment before the first, it seems that the third is best read after the first two. This is not official, but is my opinion based on the synopsis.  Synopsis (May be spoilers for 1&2) Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they’ll find seven months after the invasion?...

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

It's been a while since I've written a dedicated review post, so I feel like the fact that The Belles  has motivated me to write this already tells you how much I loved it. You should all go read it and go buy it now. I'd hoped to have a review up at its release date, but I'm in college and in midterms right now so things have been a bit crazy. Once I was able to dedicate some time to reading it though, I was able to read it in two or three sittings.  Synopsis: This is the official version and what you can find on Amazon, but I've shortened it because I think the full synopsis gives too much away and I'd recommend discovering it as you go along. Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orleans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orleans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful. B...

Books to Read for Black History Month and Beyond

I would've preferred to have written this post a earlier in the month instead of almost halfway through, but I also figured that reading stories by and about black people should be limited to just this month. So I'd rather present this month as an opportunity to read and learn some new things and to continue that beyond just this month. If you only read one book off of this list this month you'll have plenty to read later as you go through the rest of the year. I also wanted to make sure I was sharing books by black authors because I and other white people have said enough and I'd rather take this as a chance to point you to the voices that you should lend an ear to. These authors are all doing really amazing things in literature and the world as a whole. I haven't read all of these because this list also serves as a reading list for me to educate myself. Dear Martin by Nic Stone Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none o...

2017 Favorites

This is going to be a round up of my favorite books, shows, and just general things of the year. I'm also going to include some of my hopes and goals for 2018.  Favorite Books of the Year The Star-Touched Queen  by Roshani Chokshi          This book was inspired by Hindu stories and tells the story of Maya who has been cursed by a bad horoscope her whole life. When she's 17, her father finally finds someone who is willing to marry her and she is whisked away to a kingdom like no other she has ever seen before.            The immediate description I think for this book is that it is absolutely beautifully written. The prose is gorgeously lyrical and richly written. Reading this book is a sensory experience like no other. I'm not someone who generally visualizes things as I was reading because that's not the way I think, but the details in this book were so beautiful and rich that I couldn't help but appreciate...

My Most Anticipated Releases of Fall 2017

Now that it's getting into August and I start sophomore year of college in a few weeks, I'm looking forward to fall and winter. I'm looking forward to wearing sweaters, partially because last winter was so mild in Alabama that I barely wore any of the sweaters I got for Christmas. I'm also looking forward to some cozy fall reading. Not all books released in the fall are particularly autumnal, but some of them are and I love a good seasonal book. I'm sure I'll be rereading some of my cozy favorites (Harry Potter), but I'm also looking forward to some new books coming out this fall.  These are in no particular order, but I made sure they're all either very recently released or upcoming so that you won't have already read them. While I am trying to diversify my reading and read about important issues, these are all books I am genuinely planning on buying and reading. These are the ones I'm looking forward to the most: (photos and descriptions ...

Sports Books Round Up

I am certainly not an athlete and don't even watch or understand most sports, but I do sometimes fall victim to your usual high school athlete romance. Most recently, I've read Catching Jordan  by Miranda Kenneally, the first book of eight in her Hundred Oaks series. I wasn't sure I would like it but I did. I've also read books lately about swimming, gymnastics, and a few other sports. I'm also going to call ballet a sport here, because it is.  Catching Jordan  was my most recent sports-related read and I found it after reading Coming Up for Air . This one was about a girl playing high school football with dreams of becoming aI didn't know this was a series at first, but once I read the 8th book and enjoyed it, I decided I wanted to see what the other books were all alike. I wasn't sure I would like this one, because I have no interest in actual football, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I even found myself enjoying the book more as it...

The Upside of Unrequited

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda   Publisher: Balzer and Bray Release Date: April 11, 2017 Overall Rating: 4.5/5  Synopsis:  Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful. Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. If Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back. There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right? ...