Monday, October 16, 2017

Finally Fall Book Tag

I haven’t done a book tag in a very long time, and recently I’ve seen the Finally Fall Book Tag going around. I figured that it would be the perfect time to participate in it since its officially fall and October. Sorry summer, but I'm ready for cooler weather.

Before I get started, I have to get to the fine print for this post. This tag is created by Alina @ Tall Tales over on youtube. Check out her channel HERE and visit the original tag video HERE...
In fall, the air is crisp and clear: name a book with a vivid setting! 

I have two books for this answer: A Star-Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi. The world within these books is awesome—layered with mythology, magic, mystery, and politics—and the setting is part of what makes the books so good.

Nature is beautiful… but also dying: name a book that is beautifully written, but also deals with a heavy topic like loss or grief. 

I also have two books for this questions. The first is The Reader by Traci Chee. There is a bittersweet note to this story. The characters deal with a lot of things like grief, betrayal, and loss. The Reader is a gorgeous tale, and I’m looking forward to the sequel, The Speaker. The second book is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas—this one pretty much speaks for itself. 

Fall is back to school season: share a non-fiction book that taught you something new. 

I’m going to go with Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung by Min Kym. I might have mentioned this book before during Music Monday, but the review is posted on a different blog. That being said, this is a memoir written by Min Kym about her life. Gone is a candid account of Min kym’s experience. It also illustrated the kind of care an instrument like a violin requires.

In order to keep warm, it’s good to spend some time with the people we love: name a fictional family/household/friend-group that you’d like to be a part of. 

Hmm, this question is a little hard. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any families or friend groups I’d want to be a part of. Actually, I’d join one of the houses from Aliette de Bodard’s The House of Shattered Wings. To date, this book has one of the more unique uses of the fallen-angle trope that I’ve seen. It’s still a cool story and one I’d like to eventually reread before getting the sequel. 

The colourful leaves are piling up on the ground: show us a pile of fall-colored spines! 

I was actually quite surprised by how many of the books on my shelf didn’t have fall colored spines, and I ended up having to just pick some at random. I still had some trouble finding enough books to even make this stack...

Fall is the perfect time for some storytelling by the fireside: share a book wherein somebody is telling a story. 

This is an easy choice for me: The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco. I was late to the party. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter because I have read The Bone Witch and loved the story.

The nights are getting darker: share a dark, creepy read. 

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi—which comes out October 31st, just in time for Halloween—isn’t necessarily creepy like that. However, the business of eating someone else’s sin and taking on the burden of their guilt, well, in my book that’s suitably creepy.

The days are getting colder: name a short, heartwarming read that could warm up somebody’s cold and rainy day. 

I really can’t think of any other book beside The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis. There’s a lot of chocolate involved.

Fall (luckily, it’s my favourite season) returns every year: name an old favourite that you’d like to return to soon.

There are actually a lot of books I would like to reread. One of them is Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. It’s been a couple of years since I initially read Ancillary Justice, and I recall enjoying the story.

Fall is the perfect time for cozy reading nights: share your favourite cozy reading “accessories”! Spread the autumn appreciation and tag some people!

I’ll tag anyone who wants to participate.
This tag reminded me of how much fun these types of post can be. If you have any book tag recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Friday, October 13, 2017

The Friday 56 (116) & Book Beginnings: The Creeps: A Deep Dark Fears Collection by Fran Krause

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.
33897635Synopsis from Goodreads...

A follow-up to the New York Times best-selling Deep Dark Fears: a second volume of comics based on people’s quirky, spooky, hilarious, and terrifying fears... 


Illustrator, animator, teacher, and comic artist Fran Krause has touched a collective nerve with his wildly popular web comic series–and subsequent New York Times best-selling book–Deep Dark Fears. Here he brings readers more of the creepy, funny, and idiosyncratic fears they love illustrated in comic form–such as the fear that your pets will tell other animals all your embarrassing secrets, or that someone uses your house while you’re not home–as well as two longer comic short-stories about ghosts...

Beginnings: "Oh, hello! Thanks for picking up this book. It's kinda scary. We should probably prepare a bit before we read it."

56: "Sometimes I can't help but worry that any one of the random strangers I pass might be my soul mate, and I'm missing our only chance to ever meet."
Comments: My beginning is from the introduction, and my 56 is from Fear #56 because...well, the pages aren't numbered. Anyway, I received this book earlier in the week for review. I really enjoyed this collection of comics, and found it to be kind of fitting to read in October. I mean, today is Friday the 13th...

What spooky books, comics, or short stories have you read so far in October?

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Review: The Creeps: A Deep Dark Fears Collection by Fran Krause

The CreepsTitle: The Creeps
Author: Fran Krause
Source/Format: Blogging For Books; Hardcover
More Details: Comic; Humor
Publisher/Publication Date: Ten Speed Press; September 26, 2017
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Synopsis from Goodreads...

A follow-up to the New York Times best-selling Deep Dark Fears: a second volume of comics based on people’s quirky, spooky, hilarious, and terrifying fears... 


Illustrator, animator, teacher, and comic artist Fran Krause has touched a collective nerve with his wildly popular web comic series–and subsequent New York Times best-selling book–Deep Dark Fears. Here he brings readers more of the creepy, funny, and idiosyncratic fears they love illustrated in comic form–such as the fear that your pets will tell other animals all your embarrassing secrets, or that someone uses your house while you’re not home–as well as two longer comic short-stories about ghosts...
I’m always on the lookout for collections—short comics or short stories—because I don’t read enough of them. When I came across The Creeps by Fran Krause, I was instantly interested. Before getting a copy of this book for review, I wasn’t familiar with Krause’s artwork. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I genuinely enjoyed this collection of short comics.

The Creeps is filled with comics about deep dark fears. Think along the lines of being haunted by pets, falling through a portal hidden on the floor, and empty mascot costumes. The majority of the comics were, on average, only four panels long, but they were mixed in with a couple of longer stories that took up more than one page. I was expecting to really get a kick out of The Creeps, but it didn’t really make me laugh as much as I’d expected. That being said, the comics were still kind of creepy, and I liked the illustrations—bonus points for the fact that they were all in color.

All in all, The Creeps was pretty much the perfect October read.
This copy of the book was provided by Blogging For Books for this review.
About the author...

Ananimator and cartoonist. He is currently a teacher in the character animation program at CalArts, creator of several cartoons, and the creator of the Deep Dark Fears webcomic series and book.

Friday, October 6, 2017

The Friday 56 (115) & Book Beginnings: The Unnatural World: The Race To Remake Civilization In Earth's Newest Age by David Biello

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.
32478180Synopsis from Goodreads...

With the historical perspective of The Song of the Dodo and the urgency of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, a brilliant young environmental journalist argues that we must innovate and adapt to save planet Earth...

Civilization is in crisis, facing disasters of our own making on the only planet known to bear life in the vast void of the universe. We have become unwitting gardeners of the Earth, not in control, but setting the conditions under which all of life flourishes—or not. Truly, it’s survival of the innovators. The Unnatural World chronicles a disparate band of unlikely heroes: an effervescent mad scientist who would fertilize the seas; a pigeon obsessive bent on bringing back the extinct; a low-level government functionary in China doing his best to clean up his city, and more. These scientists, billionaires, and ordinary people are all working toward saving the best home humanity is ever likely to have. What is the threat? It is us. In a time when a species dies out every ten minutes, when summers are getting hotter, winters colder, and oceans higher, some people still deny mankind’s effect on the Earth. But all of our impacts on the planet have ushered in what qualifies as a new geologic epoch, thanks to global warming, mass extinction, and such technologies as nuclear weapons or plastics. The Unnatural World examines the world we have created and analyzes the glimmers of hope emerging from the efforts of incredible individuals seeking to change our future. Instead of a world without us, this history of the future shows how to become good gardeners, helping people thrive along with an abundance of plants, animals, all the exuberant profusion of life on Earth—a better world with us. The current era of humans need not be the end of the world—it’s just the end of the world as we know it...
Beginnings: "The view from space changes people."

56: "Mud compresses under geologic pressure by as much as 90 percent, but sand is far more resistant, squeezing out water to compress by maybe 40 percent."
Comments: The Unnatural World is another one of the books I recently checked out from the library. This book focuses on an important topic: the environment. While I did like this book, it was still more of an average read. 

What are you reading this week?

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Review: The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

The Bone Witch (The Bone Witch, #1)Title: The Bone Witch
Author: Rin Chupeco
Source/Format: Borrowed from the library; Hardcover
More Details: Young Adult; Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks Fire; March 7, 2017

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads...

The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite. But the girl was fiercer...

Tea is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in the kingdom. For theirs is a powerful, elemental magic that can reach beyond the boundaries of the living—and of the human. Great power comes at a price, forcing Tea to leave her homeland to train under the guidance of an older, wiser bone witch. There, Tea puts all of her energy into becoming an asha, learning to control her elemental magic and those beasts who will submit by no other force. And Tea must be strong—stronger than she even believes possible. Because war is brewing in the eight kingdoms, war that will threaten the sovereignty of her homeland…and threaten the very survival of those she loves...
Man, The Bone Witch was something else. Before diving into this book I read about it and came across some mixed reviews. I do agree that it was like Strange the Dreamer in that they’re both slower moving fantasy novels. Time is spent developing the characters, and establishing the world. But that’s reasonable since both books have a complex society and magic that stems from mythology—stories, traditions, beliefs, and such. That being said, I honestly enjoyed this story from start to finish.

The Bone Witch has a dual storyline told mainly from the perspective of Tea and that of another person. Both perspectives detailed Tea’s life from when she first discovered her abilities and everything that happened after that point in time. I was a total fan of the choice of narrative for The Bone Witch. The style of storytelling was fitting for the kind of story that Chupeco was trying to tell. This wasn’t the most action packed book, but the mysteries between the dual perspectives was more than interesting enough to keep the pages turning.

The world Chupeco created was steeped in tradition and dependent on magic. The society of the Asha was also interesting. There was a clear difference between the way things actually were and how the main character, Tea, initially thought them to be.

Oh yeah, then there was that end. It can’t just end that way. It can’t. But it did. I have to admit that this book has one heck of a clever ending with a cliffhanger that I never saw coming. I have too many questions.

The Bone Witch is one of the best books I’ve read so far in 2017. I know that Chupeco has written a couple other books unrelated to this series, and I might eventually check them out. Beyond that, I’m more than excited for the sequel to this book. I’m ready for it to be here already, and it’s only been a couple of weeks since I read The Bone Witch.

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