I'm Back + Most Anticipated Releases of 2024

It’s been a minute, but I’m returning from my annual break from the blog. Once again, Happy New Year!

So, what have I been up to?

I always tell myself I’m going to read a lot more during my breaks than I ever do, but during the holidays, I inevitably end up preoccupied by other things. Whether that’s with a TV series, movies, some form of arts and crafts, or video games. This time, I got into making miniatures. They were supposed to be for small unfinished snow globes, but I got overly ambitious and overestimated what I could do with the size constraints. I had maybe too much fun with that, since the project is ongoing and has followed me right into the New Year.

As for video games, I’m working my way through the last dungeon in Fae Farm as well as the remainder of its central story. This is a game I’ve really taken my time with, and I don’t have any plans to change the pace with how I engage with it. I’m also still playing Tears of the Kingdom. There’s just so much to explore, but I’m genuinely enjoying it.

So, what are my 2024 blog goals?

I don’t have any other goals this year, except to finish a couple of book series (especially the two that I already have the books for).

What upcoming books am I looking forward to?

I always try to keep my anticipated books list kind of short, because I know I’ll come across plenty of novels as the year progresses. What I am looking forward to is: The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden, The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo, Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue by Kate Pearsall, and Holly Horror: The Longest Night by Michelle Jabes Corpora.

What upcoming albums am I anticipating?

Like books, I know I’ll come across my albums later in the year. For now my list includes: Lana by SZA (sometime in 2024; deluxe version of SZA's 2022 album, SOS) Savior by Green Day (January 19), Girl with No Face by Allie X (February 23), Funk Generation by Anitta (Unscheduled), Into the Unknown by Nero (Unscheduled), and ORQUIDEAS by Kali Uchis (Already released; January 12, 2024).

What upcoming video games am I looking forward to?

Last, and certainly not least, I want to go over the video games coming out in 2024 that I’m most excited for. I primarily play on my Nintendo Switch Lite, so the games I’m going to mention consists of releases that will be available on that console.

Luigi’s Mansion HD (Luigi’s 2: This Dark Moon Nintendo Switch Port) is at the top of my list for 2024 video game releases. Even though I always wanted to play the original, I never did. So I’m very excited that it’s coming to the Switch. Another one is Princess Peach: Showtime! How many years has it been since Peach had her own game? And from the look of the trailer, it seems like it’s going to be an exciting game. As for indies, the two I’m watching for potential Switch releases is Moonlights Peaks, a vampire life-sim, and Camper Van: Make It Home, a decorating game.

So yeah, I’m looking forward to the year ahead. Happy reading!

2023 Favorites: Books & Short Stories

The blogging year is coming to a close, and I thought it was time to go over some of my favorite things from 2023. This concerns media—books, short stories, music, movies, and TV shows—that I read, watched, or listened to this year. In this part, I’m focusing on books and short stories.

Books

I read a good number of books in 2023 and, overall—besides a few hiccups—I’m pretty happy looking back.

My favorite young adult books and manga were: A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid, Holly Horror by Michelle Corpora Jabes, Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall, A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, and Clock Stricker vol. 1 by Issaka Galadima and Frederick L. Jones. For general fiction, my favorites were: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Ninth House & Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo, Starling House by Alix E. Harrow, The Fatal Folio by Elizabeth Penney, The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland, The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett, and Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo. My three middle grade reads were excellent: Field of Screams by Wendy Parris, Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans by Isi Hendrix, and Totally Psychic by Brigid Martin. And last, but certainly not least, my favorite nonfiction books were: Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton, The Cult of We by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, and The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan.

  Short Stories

My favorite short stories I wrote about toward the end of each month, for the blog’s Short Stories segment—with the exception of The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Review HERE). Plus I started reading an anthology this year called The Book of Witches. I'm no where near finished with it, but I still wanted to include stories from it. The ones I liked were: What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata by P. Djèlí Clark, Met Swallow by Cassandra Khaw, and The Nine Jars of Nukulu by Tobi Ogundiran. I read other short stories this year as well, and that includes those that can be found on online magazines like Strange Horizons, Uncanny, Apex, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. I'm linking back to them here, for ease of finding them. And those stories were:

• Your Wings a Bridge Across the Stars by Michelle Denham (Apex Magazine; April 6, 2023)
• Did You Hear About The Neighbors? By Seth Wade (Strange Horizons; Issue: 24 April 2023)
• Yingying—Shadow by Ai Jiang (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Fifty-One)
• The Gratitude of Mice by Yume Kitasei (Strange Horizons; Issue: 6 March 2023)
• Our Exquisite Delights by Megan Chee (Lightspeed Magazine; Mar. 2023 (Issue 154))
• Silver Necklace, Golden Ring by Marie Brennan (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Fifty)
• Guidelines for Using the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library by Marie Brennan (Lightspeed Magazine; Issue 153)
• The Magazine of Horror by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki [Apex Magazine; August 15, 2023]
• The Discarded Ones by Linda Niehoff (Apex Magazine; August 8, 2023)
• Four Steps To Hunt A God by Athar Fikry (Strange Horizons; Issue: 12 June 2023)
• Mirror View by Rajeev Prasad (Clarkesworld; Issue 201—June 2023)
• All These Ghosts Are Playing to Win by Lindsey Godfrey Eccles (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Fifty-Two)
• A Lovers’ Tide in Which We Inevitably Break Each Other; Told in Inverse by K.S. Walker (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Ffty-Two)
• The Locked Coffin: A Judge Dee Mystery by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com; October 25, 2023)
• What You Are and the Wolf by Jae Steinbacher (Lightspeed Magazine; October 2023; Issue 161)
• Simmered in Their Wealth Like the Richest of Sauces by Jo Miles (Lightspeed Magazine; September 2023; Issue 160)
• The Tale of Clancy the Scrivener by Ramsey Shehadeh (Tor.com; September 20, 2023)

That’s it for today. Up next: Yearly Favorites Part 2. Until then, thanks for stopping by and happy reading!

Hello, I'm Back + Some 2023 Stuff I'm Looking Forward To...

Hello, I’m back from my annual break from blogging. As usual, some posts—like Short Stories—will return to a more regular schedule in February as I get back into the swing of things. To start out this new blogging year, I wanted to do a brief recap of the stuff that kept me entertained through December and early January, as well as the books and albums I’m waiting for in 2023.

On my break, I didn’t read as much or watch as many movies and TV shows as I thought I would. The main series I watched was Harry & Megan on Netflix. As for books, I won’t mention them here, since I have upcoming reviews for them.

What preoccupied much of my attention was: I got into a couple of indie games. Nintendo was having a great sale on some of the titles I’ve had my eye on, and I couldn’t pass them up. The first was Ooblets. It’s a cozy life-simulation with a cute style, which had the creature collecting aspect of Pokemon with the farming and decorating features comparable to games like Animal Crossing. But, it also has mini games as well as fun dance battles, which you conduct with your Ooblets and their special dance moves. Jokes aside, that aspect is basically a strategy card game. It’s not very hard to get the hang of it and start leveling up, but the deck had a measure of unpredictability to the moves that are dealt each turn. And, it kept it interesting. The other titles I picked up were Going Under, an action-rpg set in an office building, and Lost In Random, an action adventure game with a card/chance aspect to part of the battle mechanic—which reminded me of the dance battles from Ooblets (just a little more complicated and with a focus on defeating enemies to progress in game). I’m still in the early stages of those games, and I like them so far. The only drawback for Lost In Random that I’ve come across, is that it lacks a manual save function. I have to pay especially close attention to when the game is auto saving, before I go back to the main menu. Other than that, I like the style of the graphics, as well as the story (at least to the point where I’m at).

And, now for some of the stuff I’m looking forward to. My list is, of course, never concrete, and it evolves as the year goes on and more stuff finally gets announced. What I have now is very short.

Albums

Ellie Goulding’s Higher Than Heaven. This album is slated for an early February release (the third, to be exact). I’ve been an on-and-off follower of Goulding since her 2010 album, Lights. The singles released in support of Higher Than Heaven, has set a certain expectation for me, since I’ve liked everything I’ve heard so far.

Kimbra’s A Reckoning. Slated for a January 27th release, A Reckoning is one of my most anticipated albums of the year. I’ve been waiting for another full body of work by Kimbra since as far back as 2018. That was the year Primal Heart released, and, to this day, it’s one of my favorite albums.

Books

**Note: As a reminder, the Harpercollins Union is still on strike. So, no Harpercollins titles will be mentioned here today.**

The books I’m currently looking forward to include: Cinnamon Twisted by Ginger Bolton, Four Parties and a Funeral by Maria DiRico, and Hot Pot Murder by Jennifer J. Chow. I also want to get back into the Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn. And as far as classics go, I’m planning to tackle The Iliad and The Odyssey. 

So, that’s about it for today. I look forward to another year of blogging!

2022 Favorites Part 1: Books & Short Stories

As the year winds down, it’s finally the right time to do a favorites post for 2022. This year, I'm splitting the post into two parts, starting with books and short stories.

I read so many good books in 2022. While the number might not be as high as some years, the quality is what counts.

My favorite middle grade novels were Monsters In the Mist by Julianna Brandt, Shadow Grave by Mariana Cohen and Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden. As for romance, I didn’t really reach much this year besides Partners In Crime by Alisha Rai—a rom-com with an organized crime twist. (I had a lot of fun with that one!) Nonfiction was in the same boat, and my two main reads were Daughters of Chivalry by Kelcey Wilson-Lee—a book about Edward I’s daughters—and Meet Me by the Fountain by Alexandra Lange (a comprehensive look at the history of malls).The classics I tackled included Washington Square by Henry James (I had to read it after I saw the movie adaptation), A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and the entire John Ciardi translation of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.

Then there were the sequels. Holiday Heroine by Sarah Kuhn—the Heroine Complex books are always a delight. Another one was the second book in The Cambridge Bookshop series called A Treacherous Tale by Elizabeth Penny. It was one of two cozy mysteries I read and liked, with the second being Death by Bubble Tea by Jennifer J. Chow. And last, but certainly not least, I finally read We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal (it was a good end to one of my favorite duologies).

I also checked out Middle Game, which is one of my favorite Seanan McGuire novels to date.

But, most of my reads tended to be fantasy or fantasy adjacent (with some magical aspects) though. I expected it since it is my favorite genre. On the lighter side, there was the spectacular The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd and All The Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie. A spooky and funny suburban paranormal comedy called Suburban Hell by Maureen Kilmer. The magical A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross, and its sequel A Fire Endless. And a pair of excellent novellas: The Empress of Salt and Fortune, and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain.

Moving on, I wanted to list (and link to) my favorite short stories of the year. 

• Ineffective by Ken Poyner (Strange Horizons; Issue 17 October 2022)
• The Lonely Time Traveler of Kentish Town by Nadia Afifi (Clarkesworld; Issue 194—November 2022)
• The Portal Keeper by Lavie Tidhar (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Forty-Eight)
• The Skinless Man Counts to Five by Paul Jessup (Apex Magazine; September 27, 2022)
• The Three Books and What They Tell by Alexandra Manglis (Lightspeed Magazine; Oct. 2022, Issue 149)
• The Rustle of Growing Things by Isabel Cañas (Lightspeed Magazine; Issue 146, July 2022)
• Bonesoup by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Strange Horizons; Issue: 11 July 2022)
• Mycelysis by G.G. Diniz; Art by C.A.P. Ward (Strange Horizons; Issue: 30, May 2022)
• The Fruit of the Princess Tree by Sage Tyrtle (Apex Magazine; May 17, 2022)
• Heavy Possessions by Seoung Kim (Strange Horizons; Issue: 2 May 2022)
• Magical Girl Burnout Bingo by Lauren Ring (Lightspeed Magazine; Issue 144: May 2022)
• This Village by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Forty-Six)
• The Pigeon Keeper’s Daughter by Su-Yee Lin (Strange Horizons; Issue: 7 March 2022)
• The Kaleidoscopic Visitor by Shaoni C. White (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Forty-Five)
• Gentle Dragon Fires by T.K. Rex and Lezlie Kinyon (Strange Horizons; Issue: 17 January 2022)
• The Tinder Box by Kate Elliott (Tor.com, December 1, 2021)
• An Address to the Newest Disciples of the Lost Words by Vanessa Fogg (Lightspeed Magazine; Jan. 2022, Issue 140)

**Note: You can check out the Short Story tag at the bottom of the latest post to see my thoughts about them, or search "Short Stories" in the sidebar.**

So, that was just about all the books and short stories I read this year. In part 2, I’m going to go into my favorite albums, TV shows, and movies. See you then!

**Note: there are HarperCollins titles mentioned in this post. Be aware that their workers are currently on strike. And any outstanding reviews I have will be held until the strike is over. For more information about it, visit the strike's twitter page HERE** 

2021 Favorites

 

It’s almost December 31st. And, as 2021 winds down, it’s also time to talk about all of my favorite things from the year. 

Movies & TV Shows…

Surprisingly, I didn’t watch too many movies or try as many new shows as I thought I would have. I mainly rewatched old favorites when I happened to catch them. What I have, in terms of first time viewing, isn’t enough for it to get its own posts. So…

Some movies: F9, Poltergeist (1982), Nightbooks, Red Notice, Birds of Prey, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venome: Let There Be Carnage.

Some TV shows: Discovery of Witches season 2, SurrealEstate, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Gone For Good, Lost in Space season 2.

Books And Short Stories…

Generally, I liked most of what I read this year. I focused more on nonfiction as well as backlist titles and sequels that I’ve wanted to read. I didn’t get to all of them this year, but that just means I’m going into the New Year with a good-sized TBR list to keep me preoccupied. So, here are my favorite books from 2021.

Nonfiction...

• To The Greatest Heights by Vanessa O'Brien
• Aristocracy by William Doyle 
• She Memes Well by Quinta Brunson
• The Heartbeat of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst
• Fire & Ice by Natalie Starkey 
• Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

Fiction...

• Exit Strategy , Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
• We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
• Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert
• The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King by J. R.R. Tolkien
• The Case Study of Vanitas vol. 6, vol. #7 & vol. 8 by Jun Mochizuki
• Jelly by Clare Rees
• The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory 
• The Return of the Sorceress, Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno Garcia 
• Small Town Monsters by Diana Rodriguez-Wallach
• What Lives in the Woods by Lindsay Currie
• Mine by Delilah S. Dawson
• You Can Never Tell by Sarah Warburton 
• Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
• The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
• Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore
• Dark Waters by Katherine Arden
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• A Swift and Savage Tide by Chloe Neill
• A Murder Yule Regret by Winnie Archer 
• Hollywood Heroine by Sarah Kuhn 
• It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Murder by Maria DiRico

The short stories...

• The Karyōbinga Sings To Jiro by Riyu Ando (Strange Horizons; Issue: 11 January 2021) Note: there is a podcast version of the story available from Strange Horizons
  
• Your Own Undoing by P H Lee (Apex Magazine, January 19, 2021)
• #Selfcare by Annalee Newitz (Tor.com, January 19, 2021)
• Judge Dee and The Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com, February 10, 2021)
  
• A Serpent For Each Year by Tamara Jeree (Strange Horizons, Issue 1 February 2021)
• Las Girlfriends Guide to Subversive Eating by Sabrina Vourvoulias (Apex Magazine; Issue 122, March 2021)
• Mouth by Sasha Lapointe (Strange Horizons; Issue: 1 March 2021)
• Masquerade Season by ‘Pemi Aguda (Tor.com; March 24, 2021)
• Mysteries of Visiocherries/Misteri Visciceri by Rio Johan (Strange Horizons; Issue: April 26 2021)
• Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells (Tor.com, April 19, 2021)
• The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com, April 28, 2021)
• The Life & Death of Mia Fremont: An Interview with a Killer by A.K. Hudson (Apex Magazine; May 4, 2021)
• Eilam is Forever by Beth Dawkins (Apex Magazine, July 6, 2021)
• Data Migration by Melanie Harding-Shaw (Strange Horizons; Issue: 12 July 2021)
• Survival, After by Nicole J. LeBoeuf (Apex Magazine, August 3, 2021)
• What Cacti Read by Mary Soon Lee (Strange Horizons; Issue; 26 July 2021) 
• Cocoon by H. Pueyo (Strange Horizons; Issue: 2 August 2021)
• Judge Dee and the Poisoner of Montmartre by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com; September 15, 2021)
• Thread Count by Cynthia Gómez (Strange Horizons; Issue: Fund Drive 2021)
• Bespoke Nightmares by Carolina Valentine (Strange Horizons; Issue: 18 October 2021)

Music…

2021 was a great year for music. It seemed like most of my favorite artists had new music coming out, and I discovered a few new bands and groups I want to follow. Below is a list of all my favorite albums and EPs I listened to in 2021. There is no particular order.

• Alpha by CL
• Planet Her by Doja Cat
• Mini Mix vol. 1 and vol. 2, A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, and Mercurial World by Magdalena Bay
• Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3 by Tkay Maidza
• 1/f and Pink Noise by Laura Mvula
• If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power by Halsey
• Scaled and Icey by Twenty One Pilots
• 2000AND4EVA by Bree Runway
• The Bitter Truth by Evanescence
• Montero by Lil Nas X
• Harenchi by Chanmina

And that’s it. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. I will see you all in the New Year!

Best of 2017: Books

Continuing with the “best of 2017” theme, Adri and I are back and ready to list our picks for the best books we read in 2017. 

Before we get to the list, I have a couple of technical things to mention. To keep this organized, I’ve broken the post down into two sections: Fiction and nonfiction. Also, these are just the books we read this year and are a combination of 2017 releases and backlist titles. Because Adri is joining me, I'm not setting a limit on the amount of books we can pick for our respective lists. And, these aren't all the books we read and loved. This is only a very small percentage of them...

Fiction…

Adri's picks...

• Raven (TPB) By Marv Wolf man, Alison Borges, and Diogenes Neves
• Mirror's Edge: Exordium (TPB) by Christofer Emgard and Mattias Haggstrom
• The Gauntlet by  Karuna Riazi
• The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis

Comments: Okay, this is a sad, sad list. After I wrote it, I ran to Breana and demanded to know what fiction I read (jokingly of course)! Well this is it... sadly. I actually wanted to read more comics this year, but I'll do that next year.

Breana’s picks…

• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
• The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
• The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco 
• The Windfall by Diksha Basu
• Starflight by Melissa Landers
• City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett
• A Crown of Wishes by Rochani Chokshi
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova
• Rivals in the City by Y.S. Lee

Comments: Overall, I had a relatively good reading year. Most of the fiction I read ended up being highly enjoyable reads with unique settings, stories, and characters. There were very few exceptions to that, mainly because I was pickier this year and only read books I thought I would enjoy.

Nonfiction

Breana’s Picks…

• Gone by Min Kym
• Colored Pencil Portrait Painting by Alyona Nickelsen
• Undeniable by Douglas Axe
• The Cosmic Web by J. Richard Gott
• Wondrous Beauty by Carol Berkin
• Don't Live for Your Obituary by John Scalzi
• Discover Magazine

Comments: I didn’t end up reading as much nonfiction as I originally thought I would. Part of the problem was finding ones I was actually interested in. That being said, the books I did read were surprising in all the best ways possible.

Adri's Picks...

• Leading Lady by Stephen Galloway
• Color Index by Jim Krause
• Rarely Seen by Susan Tylet Hitchcock with a foward by Stephan Alvarez
• Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design By Deborah Nadoolman Landis with a foward by Anjelica Huston
• The art of Fashion Draping Second Edition by Connecticut Amaden-Crawford
• The Fabulous Fibonacci Numbers by Alfred S. Posamentier and Ingmar Lehmann
• Manga Art by Mark Crilley

Comments: In contrast to Breana, I read so much nonfiction, this list only scratches what I read. This year, I mainly stuck to fashion, designer's biography, art, and other biographies. I beleive I'll continue to read books like these into 2018, because I have a long list (that I manage to lose) of books I want to read from the library.

 What are some of the best books you read this year?

Musing Mondays (37) Books...

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

For my musings this week I'm just going to answer the random weekly question: Have you ever won a copy of a book (other than for review)? What was the book, and what were the circumstances?

I have won a lot of books through giveaways, but most if not all of them go towards reviews for the blog. So I can’t really say that many of them specifically fit the question.

What are you currently reading?

Musing Mondays (34) Space Exploration & Other Things That Have me Excited This Week

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

(Ok, so this might be a little off topic, but I just have to say that it’s completely awesome that Serena Williams won Wimbledon 2015 (Women’s Singles). Man, what a year for women’s sports!)

Anyway, I’m just going to move on to something that’s actually related to books. Since reading Space Exploration for Dummies, I’ve been more interested in watching shows about…well, the universe. Thankfully I have multiple History channels to watch—even a science one—that actually plays episodes dealing with the universe on some days. So far, I’m enjoying How the Universe Works, and looking forward to the new season that starts on July 14th.

Also, if you haven’t checked out NASAs Instagram you totally should. So I’m just going to link to it now. CLICK HERE TO GET TO IT

So what do you think? Do the books you read sometimes influence what you want to watch?

Musing Mondays (18)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about something book related each week. **There are a new list of prompts for Musing Mondays**

My Musings for the week...

Today I'm going to be answering the random weekly question: Give a list of 4 books you read last year that you’d recommend to others — and why.


Double Vision: Alias Men by F.T. Bradley. Really, the entire middle grade trilogy was fantastic and I would recommend it to just about anyone!

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Oh gosh, there’s a lot of things I really liked about this book, the writing style, the world building, and the characters combined with the interesting magic system. I think a lot of people would like this one, which is why I recommend it.

Courting Magic by Stephanie Burgis. Ok, I know this one isn’t a full length novel, but I recommend it as well as the books that go along with it—it was another really good middle grade series that I enjoyed.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab. I really liked this book. It has an interesting premise, plenty of mystery surrounding the Archive, and plenty of interesting characters.

There are a lot of other books that I recommend, but listing them all would make this post too long. Happy reading!

Musing Mondays (15)

     Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

    I thought I would answer 3 questions for Musing Mondays this week.  Well here goes:

     Long books or short books? 

     I will admit that I like longer books and don't mind an abundance of detail either.  I like when the world within the book is thoroughly explained.  I prefer long epic tales and usually look to read them first.  However, despite my love of lengthy novels, I occasionally enjoy a shorter one.  So, I guess you can say that I enjoy all kinds of books--long or short depending on how much time I have to read.

     Standalone or series?

     

     Both.  I like long series because it gives me time to get invested in the characters and the overall story.  But at the same time I also like standalones where the story is nicely wrapped up into one book. 

     Do book covers matter when deciding on what book to buy?

     

     Covers are just covers in my opinion.  I care more about the story rather than anything else.  So I try not to buy books based off the cover alone.

     Well that's it for today.  Basically, books are books. It doesn't matter if they're long or short, series or standalones, as long as the stories are great.  I try not to judge just by the cover, because it could look pretty, but the story might not be so great.  Question: Standalone or series? Long books, short books, or both? Do nice book cover's play a part in if you buy a book or not?

What we liked in 2013 [as far as books are concerned]

Now, 2013 wasn't all bad, amidst all the misses there have been some really great hits.  Such as the books listed below:
Double Vision: Code Name 711 by F.T. Bradley
The Rithmatist by BrandonSanderson
Ink by Amanda Sun
Curtsies and Conspiracies by Gail Carriger
Midnight Frost & Spartan Frost by Jennifer Estep
The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth Laban
This is what Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
Sky Jumpers by Peggy Eddleman
A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris
Blurred by Tara Fuller
The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle by Christopher Healy
Pivot Point by Kasie West
Hiding out at the Pancake Palace by Nan Marino
The Collector by Victoria Scott
Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza
The Seven Swords by Nils Johnson-Shelton
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
I'm sure I missed a few, but you get the point.  So, what were your favorite books of 2013?