Music Monday (55): Imagine Dragons, Diana Ross, Sade, Fugees, & Soul ll Soul

   Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: My pick today is Natural by Imagine Dragons. Admittedly, I don’t listen to enough of their music. That changed recently when I decided to check and see if they’d done anything and happened to listen to Natural. It’s now one of my favorite songs….

I’m also listening to I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross. This is one of my favorite songs by Ross….

Adri: Ironically, I first heard of Sade from a Community (or Public) Access Television Channel that was playing their song, I Couldn’t Love you More. As I searched for more music, I realized that I heard of Sade way beforehand. It’s just that when it came out and was the first thing on iTunes, I didn’t pay much attention to their album Soldier of Love – which I now love… So, for this Music Monday, my pick is Soldier of Love by Sade.

Andrea: Over this past week, I've been listening to some of my old favorites: Killing Me Softly With His Song covered by the Fugees and Back To Life by Soul 'll Soul. 

And that's it for today. What are you listening to this week?

The Friday 56 (137) & Book Beginnings: Farming and the Food Supply by Debra A. Miller

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...

Outlines how global warming is effecting agriculture and the steps that are being taken to remedy those effects...

Beginning: "Earth's climate is a complex system of interacting natural components."

56: "The negative impacts of climate change on agriculture will be felt differently in different parts of the world."

Comments: I'm currently reading Farming and the Food Supply by Debra A. Miller. It's one of the books I recently checked out from the library, and so far it's an interesting read. The beginning is from the foreword and the 56 is from page 53. What are you reading this week?

ARC Review: Seafire by Natalie C. Parker

Title: Seafire
Series: Seafire #1
Author: Natalie C. Parker
Source/Format: First to Read; eARC
More Details: Young Adult; Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Razorbill; August 28, 2018

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads...

After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains her ship, the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, whose lives have been turned upside down by Aric and his men. The crew has one misson: stay alive, and take down Aric's armed and armored fleet. But when Caledonia's best friend and second-in-command just barely survives an attack thanks to help from a Bullet looking to defect, Caledonia finds herself questioning whether or not to let him join their crew. Is this boy the key to taking down Aric Athair once and for all...or will he threaten everything the women of the Mors Navis have worked for?

The synopsis for Seafire by Natalie C. Parker doesn’t reveal much about the book, but I was still interested in it because I was looking to read something by this author. For the most part, I liked this book with a few minor exceptions. There were a lot of interesting ideas here and they were done well. Seafire was a fast paced story brimming with action. There was danger around every corner, and the Mors Navis was commanded by an all-female crew.

If you know anything about Mad Max: Fury Road, then you’ll probably like this book since Seafire was kind of like that movie. There was an almost dystopia feel to the story, because of how the world was described. There were hints of advanced technology—like some of the systems that kept the Mors Navis running—but it was hard to place a time period because some of those things were presented without much context about their origins. And instead of a harsh desert climate, this book takes place on a ship, and the setting was mostly open waters with few exceptions. Despite that, Parker made the story exciting with plenty of action and mostly memorable characters.

Caledonia Styx was fairly interesting. She had a tragic past and was determined to fight back against Aric Athair’s army. But at times, it seemed like she was too consumed by what happened and made decisions that put herself, Mors Navis, and her crew at risk. In the first third of the book, I didn’t mind that as much. However, the middle of the book was where I struggled with reading the story. I mean, for all her talk of trust and family and sisterhood, Caledonia seemed to almost use that to avoid having her actions and decisions questioned. Still, she wasn’t a bad character. As for the supporting characters, I liked how they were characterized. As a crew, they were skilled and worked well together. And it was interesting to see the character development happen while they were experienced harsh circumstances.

I was a little conflicted about the ending. On one hand, there were parts that I really loved. In the last few chapters the story picked up. The pace of the action and the revelations were on point. I liked that a lot. On the other hand, there was this one thing that happened that seemed to throw away some of the character development that Caledonia went through. That being said, it didn’t change how I felt about the rest of the book.

Since Seafire is the first book in a new trilogy, there’s more to the story, and I want to see where it goes. So, I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel....

About the author...

Natalie wears many hats: author, editor, entrepreneur. She is the author of Southern Gothic duology Beware the Wild (a Junior Library Guild Selection) and Behold the Bones (both available from HarperTeen) as well as the forthcoming Seafire Trilogy (Razorbill, 2018). Her first anthology, Three Sides of a Heart, is an exploration of the love triangle (HarperTeen, 19 Dec 2017). Parker is the founder of Madcap Retreats, an organization offering a yearly calendar of workshops and retreats for aspiring and established writers. Though she earned her BA in English literature from the University of Southern Mississippi and her MA in gender studies from the University of Cincinnati, she now lives on the Kansas prairie with her wife...

Website     Twitter     Goodreads     Instagram     Tumblr

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by First to Read for this review, thank you!

Music Monday (54): Res, RL Grime, Delta Heavy, & Meghan Trainor

   Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I’ve been listening to some newer music—like Nicki Minaj's album, Queen—but instead I wanted to mention one of my all-time favorite songs. So, today, I’m talking about Ice King by Res. I don’t recall when I first heard this song. I just know that it was a while ago. I like Res’s style, but Ice King is extra fantastic and it also happens to be the song that introduced me to her music...

Adri: Lately I've  practically been listening to the same group of songs, so here's two of them. Reminder (feat. How To Dress Well) (Jonah Baseball Remix) By RL Grime, and Ghost (Infuze Remix) by Delta Heavy. With both of these songs I adore the originals, but these remixes really stood out to me.

Andrea: On August 6^th, Adri and I attended Meghan Trainor’s Jimmy Kimmel Live performance. Her live performance was amazing, and I absolutely fell in love with her new song, Treat Myself. You can check out the video below. It is available for pre-order now and will be released on August 31^st, which is this Friday. Needless to say, I’ll be purchasing a copy of her new album, Treat Myself, and adding it to my playlist.

What are you listening to this week?

The Cookie Book Tag

It’s been a very long time since I last participated in a book tag, and I kind of missed doing this type of post. Recently, I saw someone do The Cookie Book Tag, and even though I wasn’t tagged, I really wanted to do this one since the questions looked fun. So today, Adri and I are going to do The Cookie Book Tag. This is going to be a long post. However, before we get started, there are some technical details that need to be listed.

The Cookie Book Tag was created by Nicole @ Sorry, I’m Booked. And you can check out the original tag post here: Sorry, I’m Booked, The Cookie Book Tag.

The rules…

• Link back to the person who tagged you + the creator of this tag 
• Pick a book that corresponds with the cookies theme 
• Have fun 
• Tag 1-3 people

Chocolate Chip: A Classic Book That You Love or Really Enjoyed (interpret classic how you want, it can be a classic written 100 years ago or 20 years ago)

Breana: I’m going to go with Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. It’s one of my recent classic reads, and it also happens to be one of the best stories I’ve read so far this year. It’s such a great story. The unusual narrator and setting are just two things I enjoyed about Flatland.

Adri: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is absolutely one of my favorite classics.

Thin Mints: A Fandom That You Really Want to ‘Join’ AND/OR a Hyped-Up Book You Want To Read (your source(s) of a book being hyped can be from anywhere)

Breana: There’s no particular fandom that I’m looking to be a part of right now. So, I’m going with a hyped book I want to read. This one is easy: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. I really enjoyed Uprooted for the world building. I read an excerpt of Spinning Silver and was immediately interested.

Adri: I'm actually looking forward to the sequel to the Dragon with the Chocolate Heart, The Girl with the Dragon Heart By Stephanie Burgis. As for fandom, I'm also not eyeing any.

Shortbread: An Author You Can’t Get Enough Of

Breana: Holly Black. I read The Spiderwick Chronicles when I was a kid, and since then, I’ve been hooked on her stories that focus on fairies. I love her interpretation of them since, more often than not, they’re tricksters that have a cruel streak.

Adri: Connie Amaden-Crawford. I’ve only read two of her books, but I’m looking forward to reading more of them to expand my sewing/design knowledge.

Samoas/ Caramel DeLites: An Emotional Rollercoaster (this cookie was hard … so any book that made you feel more than one emotion, strongly. The choice of emotions is up to you)

Breana: There was one book that had me on the verge of tears, the third and final book of The Divine Cities trilogy: City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett. There was no shortage of tragedies in this trilogy, but the finale book was on a whole other level. This book was a rollercoaster of emotions. The ending was incredibly bittersweet—so freaking sad—but I was also happy because it was a fitting end to one of my all-time favorite trilogies.

Adri: One of the most emotional books I’ve read is the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. The ending hit me in the feels once I started thinking about it.

Oreos: A Book Whose Cover Was Better Than The Story OR Vice Versa, Where The Story Was Better Than Its Cover

Breana: There are a number of books that fit the bill for the first half of this question, but I’m going to go with Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix. I really wanted to like this book. The premise was interesting and I loved the cover + how much it resembled an IKEA catalogue on the inside. But, I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Adri: I find the cover for The Time Travelers: Book One in the Gideon Trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer (and the other two books) absolutely gorgeous. Though interesting, the story wasn't my favorite.

Tagalongs/ Peanut Butter Patties: A Book That Wasn’t What You Expected (good, bad, or just different, interpret how you wish)

Breana: The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco was so unexpected. I mean that in a good way. The synopsis doesn’t do the book justice. It’s a slower paced fantasy, but I loved the magic system + the past and present storylines were fantastic. I need to get caught up on this series.

Adri: My most unexpected read was The Book of Elsewhere: the Shadows, by Jacqueline West. First of all, I never expected paintings to be so evil. Second I didn’t know I’d like it as much as I did (and I really need to finish reading the series).

Snickerdoodles: A Book You May Never Stop Rereading/ Loving

Breana: I’m going to go with Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. I loved the rest of the series, but Ancillary Justice will always be my favorite.

Adri: Can I add an s to book? Because I absolutely adore the Wondla Trilogy By Tony Diterlizzi. I don’t feel like I could read one without the other two! I love the art, the story, the characters. I feel like I could read the series forever and never get bored. However, if I must pick one, I'm going with the Search for Wondla.

Bonus: Choose a cookie I didn’t list and make up a question!

Monster Cookies have bold flavors and a long and varied list of ingredients such as M&Ms, chocolate chips, peanut butter, oats, and even sometimes raisins. It’s like a handful of cookie types mashed into one monster of a cookie. So… Monster cookie: name a book with a bold and whimsical title or a book title with four or more words.

Breana: The Hate U Give; The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet; and The House of Shattered Wings....

Adri: I’ve probably read more books with titles more than four words but I’m going with

 Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker by Stephen Galloway, and Dork Diaries: Tales from a not-so-glam TV Star by Rachel Renee Russell.

And that’s about it for today. We’re not tagging anyone specific. If you want to participate, then we tag you! Also, if you answer our Monster Cookie question, let us know in the comments down below.