The Friday 56 (121) & Book Beginnings: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

What if you once had thousands of bodies and near god-like technology at your disposal? And what if all of it were ripped away?

The Lord of the Radch has given Breq command of the ship Mercy of Kalr and sent her to the only place she would have agreed to go—to Athoek Station, where Lieutenant Awn's sister works in Horticulture. Athoek was annexed some six hundred years ago, and by now everyone is fully civilized—or should be. But everything is not as tranquil as it appears. Old divisions are still troublesome, Athoek Station's AI is unhappy with the situation, and it looks like the alien Presger might have taken an interest in what's going on. With no guarantees that interest is benevolent

Beginnings: "Considering the circumstances, you could use another lieutenant." Anaander Mianaai, ruler (for the moment) of all the vast reaches of Radchaai space, sat in a wide chair cushioned with embroidered silk."

56: "In my quarters, Kalr Five, disquieted by the day's events but of course expressionless, had my supper waiting for me--a bowl of skel and a flask of water, common soldier's mess."

Comments: Ancillary Sword wasn't as good as Justice or Mercy. But I still enjoyed it. A lot of vital things happened, and set up the conflict for the third book. So, it was definitely worth the read. What are you reading this week?

Most Anticipated 2018 Books

Hi, hello, how is everyone doing today? I'm here to share my list of most anticipated 2018 book releases. Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list and I’m not going to break it down into segments to cover every last book I want to read in 2018. There’s no point, and I like to leave room for books I’ll inevitably come across later in the year. Adri is also joining me today with the sole book she's waiting for...

Breana's picks...

• The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard—I have an ARC from netgalley for this one and have already read and loved it. I’m not going to say anything else about it now since the review will be on the blog closer to the release date. But just know that this story was amazing and entirely too short.

• Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik—I read Uprooted and liked the story. I didn’t really care for the Dragon, but I loved everything about the forest and the setting. So, I am very excited that Spinning Silver is going to be a thing. 

• A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney—ALICE IN WONDERLAND RETELLING WITH A BLACK PROTAGONIST! I am a sucker for Alice retellings and am looking forward to A Blade So Black.  

• The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton—There’s a lot of hype surrounding The Belles, but that hasn’t stopped me from being overly excited for it. This is the kind of book I’ve been waiting for.

• The Heart Forager by Rin Chupeco—The Bone Witch was a book that surprised me in 2017. I’d read some mixed reviews for it, but in the end, I loved the story. The end of The Bone Witch left a lot of loose ends that I’m hoping the sequel, The Heart Forager, will clarify.

• Dread Nation by Justina Ireland—I’m looking forward to this one because I’m interesting in what Ireland can do with the premise hinted at in the synopsis. 

• Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente—The synopsis literally says “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision in an over-the-top science fiction spectacle”. Listen, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of my favorite novels. So, obviously Space Opera made it onto this list. 

• Bruja Born by Zoraida Cordova—I almost forgot about this book. I loved Labyrinth Lost, and let me tell you, I'm so freaking excited for Bruja Born.

• The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden—I’m not ready for the Winternight Trilogy to be over, but the end is coming. And I’m excited to see how Arden plans to end the trilogy. 

Adri's pick...

• Raven: Daughter of Darkness—I was excited when this comic was announced because not only are there going to be twelve issues this time (the last one was six), but aldo an increase in conflict. The hardest part for me is that I've decided to wait for the trade paperback, if there is one.

What 2018 books are you looking forward to?

New Resolutions for a New Year...

Well, Happy New Year everyone. We made it to 2018. I’m back to blogging and have already had to DNF two books from two different genres. **Cries** That's not the way I wanted to start the year, but it is what it is, and I'm hoping from here on out that my next reads will be better. But, I digress. The actual point of this post is to talk about my resolutions for the New Year. I evaluated what I wanted to do differently from the past two years and have come up with a short list of reasonable goals for myself. So, without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2018...

• Finish a sketch book...

This is more of a personal goal than a blogging one, but I thought I might as well include it on this list because I may or may not share a few pages from my sketchbook...eventually. I don't usually manage to finish a sketchbook and the majority my old ones are are filled with doodles, old art, random notes to myself, and a lot of blank or missing pages. I don't care how long it takes me to finish my current sketchbook—it's larger and has more pages than my old one—so long as I make real progress on it.

• Finish more series...

This seems like a simple goal to accomplish. But let me tell you, I have a little problem with completing series. I’m not being dramatic. I’m being honest. I start them. I like the first two, three, sometimes even six books in the series. And yet, I don’t finish them. What got me thinking about this were the three books I got for Christmas: the last two books of the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie, and Cold Steel by Kate Elliott. The good thing about this goal is that I’m on the right track thanks to my binge-reading of the rest of the Imperial Radch trilogy, and my local library has a couple of the books I'm looking for.

• Actually read some poetry...

I don't read enough poetry. Plain and simple. I looked at the books I read last year and realized that I got through 2017 without reading a single book of poetry. Luckily, my local library has a pretty good selection of poetry, and I've already put several on hold including Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur and The Princess Saves Herself In This One by Amanda Lovelace.

• And last, but certainly not least: allow more flexibility with the blog...

I can't say that my method of blogging will remain the same by the time 2018 is over, despite the fact that I want to keep the number of posts at least at three per week. But I also need to remember to take some of the pressure off  myself when I don’t particularly feel like blogging as much, and post when I feel like it. I'm also going to remove the rating system from the blog. I want to see how it'll work without the birdcages. We'll see. Design wise, I have already started on an idea for a new header for the blog. I don't know when it'll be done or if I'll change the design at all, but you never know...

So, that’s it. Those are my blogging resolutions. What are your plans for the year? 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It’s officially 2018. We will be back to blogging soon. Until then, Happy New Year! We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe day.

—Our Thoughts Precisely Team

Thoughts on 2017...

Usually, I have a little more to say for this post, but I feel like I would be repeating a lot of the same things I said at the end of 2016. Instead, I decided to focus on one topic, and it’s a lesson I learned this year.

At the end of last year, I stated that I was happy with the overall look of the blog and comfortable with my posting schedule. However, as 2017 wore on comfortable became a synonym for static. Static ultimately translated into lack of motivation to continue blogging and reading. I was limiting myself based off of the original idea my co-blogger, Andrea, and I had when we first started the blog back in 2013. I had to stop and think about why that was. It’s been four—almost five years since we—Andrea and I—started blogging here. Adri has joined us. My reading taste has changed and so have the subjects I want to talk about. But, the blog hadn’t changed along with those things, and that’s where the trouble ultimately came from.

Fear of change is real. I’m not trying to be dramatic. It’s there, and I acknowledge the fact that I sometimes find myself stuck in that mindset. However, I also didn’t want to abandon the blog because I’ve spent a lot of time on it. And that’s ultimately what encouraged me to keep going.

The changes seem so simple now that I’m looking back at them a couple of months later. I could have done them a lot sooner. What I’m trying to say is this: don’t abandon something you’ve worked on, change it into something that better suites your vision, current hobby, reading preference—anything. Because if something isn’t making you happy, maybe stop long enough to evaluate why that is. Make the changes you think you need.

I learned that lesson in 2017.