This Week in Books | 04/07/2018

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

Have you seen my INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY?

Now: Ever since I read Six of Crows (yes I will mention it at every chance I get) I've been on a duology kick, so right now I'm half way through the second book in Emily Skrutskie's duology about pirates, sea monsters and girls kissing girls. I'm enjoying The Edge of the Abyss a lot so far and I'm looking forward to seeing how this series wraps up!

Then: I finished The Abyss Surrounds Us at the weekend and really enjoyed it. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do separate reviews or a series review, but look out for a review of some kind at some point!

Next: I first read The Goblin Emperor in the summer of 2015 and, if someone put a gun to my head and made me choose, this is the novel I'd say is my all-time favourite novel. I've re-read or re-listened to it every year since I first read it, and I feel myself craving it during the summer because of my first memories of it so I think I'm going to re-read it again next.

What are you reading?

Top Ten Tuesday | All You Need is Love (and Books)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is a love themed freebie, so today I thought I'd talk about my bookish otps. I usually struggle with otps - something I've mentioned before is that, for whatever reason, I have more otps from films and tv shows than books - but today I decided to challenge myself to sit down and think about the romantic couples in books I love and was pleasantly surprised to discover that almost half of them are from books I read last year!

(Please be aware that there may be some spoilers in this post if you're the kind of reader who doesn't like to know who ends up with who!)

Cinder and Kai from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: There are plenty of sweet couples in this series, Cress and Thorne are especially adorable, but I've always had a soft spot for these dorks.

Judith and Lucas from All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry: I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did and I loved it, and I was especially surprised by how much I enjoyed the relationship between these two.

Monty and Percy from The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: Well done romances that grow from friendship are hard to do - quite often they come across as a little lazy to me - but the relationship between Monty and Percy was my favourite thing about this book.

Molly and Reid from The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: These two are just the cutest nerdy, body-positive couple and I love them.

Saba and Jack from Blood Red Road by Moira Young: When it comes to fictional characters I have a genuine soft spot for guys called Ben and Jack and I love this Jack in particular, but I loved Saba even more and their chemistry is fantastic.

Achilles and Patroclus from The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: I went into mourning after I finished this book and I adored the way Miller wrote the relationship between these two from childhood through to adulthood. If you haven't read this book yet you're severely missing out.

Rosemary and Sissix from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: The relationship between Rosemary and Sissix was such a pleasant surprise. I loved their chemistry and hoped something might happen but thought 'nah, the author's probably not going down that road' and then she did! This book is another one of my all-time favourites.

Meche and Sebastian from Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: The above quotation is one of my favourites and always tugs at my heart. This is another one of my favourite novels and I loved the relationship between Meche and Sebastian, both their awkward teen years and their awkward reunion as adults. This is another example of platonic to romantic love done exceptionally well.

Laura and Carmilla from Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: Definitely not exactly the healthiest relationship on this list, but Carmilla is one of my favourite classics and I've always loved the strange, intoxicating relationship between Laura and Carmilla.

Maia and Csethiro from The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: If someone held a gun to my head and asked me to pick my favourite novel of all time, this is the novel I'd pick. What I love about the relationship between Maia and Csethiro is that we only ever see its potential, but I love the way they interact with each other and I love that they work at becoming friends before anything else.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | My Winter TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR' - hooray for themed TBRs which, if you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know I love! 

I love reading books set in cold landscapes during the winter, such as Hannah Kent's Burial Rites and Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves, but I also love trying to tackle high fantasy and fat, epic novels that I can totally escape to in the winter, when the nights are dark and the candles are lit.

The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin: I'm half way through The Obelisk Gate at the moment but my reading year's been so poor I've accidentally left it despite having pre-ordered, and now also owning, a copy of The Stone Sky. I'd love to get this trilogy finished because I really enjoyed The Fifth Season and I want to know where this story's going!

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb: Frankly it's criminal that I haven't read any Robin Hobb and I've owned my copy of Assassin's Apprentice for a while now, so it's about time I got to it. I'm looking forward to (hopefully) enjoying a long series in which I can follow one character from childhood through to adulthood.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: My lovely friend Natalie @ A Sea Change really enjoyed this book and it sounds like a lot of fun - I'm all for a heist story, and I liked Bardugo's story in Summer Days and Summer Nights so I'm interested in reading one of her novels.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence: I tried reading this one earlier this year and, sadly, couldn't get into it, but I want to give it another chance. I've heard such wonderful things about Lawrence as a fantasy writer and I'm always drawn to stories set in nunneries so I'm hoping to, if not love, then at least like this one the second time around.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke: Natalie @ A Sea Change also loves this one and I still haven't read it because it's such a beast, but I think it'd be the ideal book to curl up with over winter and experience.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu: I don't know why I didn't realise it sooner, but over the past year or so I've really begun to notice just how European the high fantasy I'm familiar with is. I'd like to discover more Asian and African-inspired fantasy realms and this series sounds very intriguing - I've heard very good things thus far!

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: This is one of my favourite books of all time and I haven't reread it yet this year, so I think it'll be fun to curl up with it over Christmas. I love Maia so much.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: I've been meaning to start this series for a few years now, but there are almost ten books in the series now and each one is huge. So many people I know love this series, however, and I'd really like to watch the TV adaptation - I just want to read the book(s) first!

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis: Another chunky book and one that I think at least begins around Christmas time, so it's a fitting read for the winter. This is about a history student who time travels back to the Middle Ages during the outbreak of the Black Death, only to get stuck there. I've heard it's amazing so I'm looking forward to picking it up (hopefully) soon!

Which books made your list this week?

The New Disney Princess Book Tag!

I saw Deanna @ Deanna Reads Books do this tag and, being the Disney nerd that I am, I couldn't resist doing it myself.

THE RULES

• Mention where you saw the tag/thank whoever tagged you!
• Tag Zuky and Mandy's posts (the awesome creators of the tag) so they can check out the wonderful Princess fun throughout the blog world (Mandy @ Book Princess Reviews & Zuky @ Book Bum)
• Play a game of tag at the end!

SNOW WHITE

This book (like the movie) started it all

Favorite Debut Book from an Author

I know you're all so shocked, but of course it's Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Signal to Noise. This debut took me completely by surprise in 2015 and it's one of my favourite novels of all time.

CINDERELLA

A Diamond In The Rough

Just Like Cinderella, You Either Didn’t Expect Much Out of This Character in the Beginning But They Turned Out to Be a Total Gem

Neville Longbottom. What a precious bean. I don't think anyone really expected much from Neville, not even his own grandmother, and then he grew into one of the best characters in the Harry Potter series. I love Neville.

AURORA

Sleeping Beauty

A Book That Makes You Sleepy, or Just Could Not Hold Your Attention

I'm sorry to say it's Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, knowing how beloved it is. I did like it but it took me so long to get through; the circus itself fascinated me, but I actually found Celia, Marco and their relationship really boring. I might try rereading it at some point, though, because my tastes have changed a lot since I last read it.

ARIEL

Under the Sea

A Book With a Water/ Ocean Setting

I'm really looking forward to reading Julia Ember's The Seafarer's Kiss, a lesbian retelling of The Little Mermaid with vikings. All the yes. I'm saving my copy for the winter months because I'm going to Iceland in the first weekend of December, so I think Reykjavik will be the perfect setting to read about vikings.

BELLE

Beauty and the Books

Name A Book With The Best Bookworm/ Booklover

Hermione Granger is the obvious answer, and I do adore her, but instead I'm going to go with Catherine from Austen's Northanger Abbey, who loves Gothic fiction so much she wrongly accuses her future father-in-law of murder. Oops.

JASMINE

The Thief and the Princess

Name A Book With An Unlikely Love Story (Either in Terms of Romance, or a Book You Didn’t Expect To Love So Much)

I think I'm going to go with Agnieszka and The Dragon from Naomi Novik's Uprooted. Heteronormativity is real, so whenever a book is released with one female and one male protagonist we can be certain they're probably going to fall in love at some point, but when I started reading Uprooted I began to think there wasn't going to be a romantic relationship, after all. What surprised me most, though, was that when their relationship did become romantic, I actually really liked their chemistry. So kudos to you, Naomi Novik, you did a good job!

POCAHONTAS

The Real Life Princess

Name A Book That is Based On a Real Life Person You Want to Read or Have Read

It's been on my TBR for a while now and I still haven't read it simply because, when it comes to historical fiction, I don't tend to read many books set in the medieval period, but I really want to give Sharon Penman's Here Be Dragons a try. Penman is such a huge name in the realms of historical fiction, so I need to read some of her anyway, and Here Be Dragons follows Joan, Lady of Wales, also known by her Welsh name Siwan, who was an illegitimate daughter of King John and was married off to the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. I've always been fascinated by her, it's a shame we know so little about her.

MULAN

The Princess That Saved Her Country

Name the Fiercest Heroine You Know

That has to be Saba from Moira Young's Blood Red Road. I adore her, she's a real survivor and I wouldn't want to cross her.

TIANA

The Princess With the Coolest and Most Diverse Crew

Name A Diverse Book, Whether it is a Diverse Set of Characters (Like Tiana’s Group of Naveen, Louis, Ray, and More)or Just Diverse In General

That has to be Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, whose entire cast of characters are different species and genders and sexes and sexualities and nationalities and races whom Chambers uses to explore what makes us different and, more importantly, what makes us similar. It's often compared to Firefly and I can understand why, but honestly I think I'd much rather watch a TV adaptation of this.

RAPUNZEL 

Let Your Longggggg Hair Down

Name the Longest Book You Have Ever Read

I had a look on Goodreads and was surprised to realise that the longest book I've read so far is Winter by Marissa Meyer. I don't know why I was surprised because I never read books that are 800 pages long or more (my edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is only 766 pages long) although I'd like to read more long books in future, because I certainly own plenty to get through.

MERIDA

I Determine My Own Fate

A Book Where There is No Love Story/ Interest or Isn’t Needed

I'm going to go with Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, which is one of my favourite books ever. Our protagonist, Maia, becomes betrothed in this book and we do get a hint that he and his fiancee will be happy together and might even love each other one day, but there's no life-altering romance getting in the way of what is already a wonderful story.

ELSA & ANNA

Frozen Hearts

A Book in a Winter/ Cold Setting

No book has ever made me feel as cold as Hannah Kent's fantastic descriptions of the Icelandic landscape in Burial Rites.

MOANA

How Far I’ll Go

A Character That Goes On a Journey

I have to go with Nan King. Tipping the Velvet isn't my favourite of Sarah Waters' novels, but it's a true coming of age novel and such a fun, saucy romp through Victorian London. While reading it I got the feeling that Waters had a lot of fun writing it - there isn't much that poor Nan doesn't go through, and by the end of the novel she's a completely different person to who she was at the beginning.

If you'd like to do this tag, consider yourself tagged!

Books I Want to Re-Read

We all have a different relationship to re-reading, whether it's something we love to do and do often or something we never do. I'm a reader who's gone from one extreme to the other as I've grown; when I was younger I read and re-read my favourite books time and time and time again and was never any less delighted by them, and was recently reminded of this when I talked about Jacqueline Wilson last week.

I re-read Wilson's books an extortionate amount as a child, as well as my favourite Roald Dahls, such as The Magic Finger and Fantastic Mr. Fox, and my extensive Horrible Histories collection, but as I got older I began to devour more and more books until I didn't have the time to re-read if I wanted to keep reading new things. I fell in love with discovering new stories and characters and worlds and authors, just as I'd fallen in love with that safety net of familiarity in my childhood, and in doing so my love for re-reading was forgotten.

Then recently, having read Kirsty Logan's A Portable Shelter (reviewed here) and craving more short stories, I re-read Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (reviewed here) and really enjoyed the experience - especially as I didn't actually like the book the first time I read it about seven years ago. Now I'm keen to make more time for re-reading, and below are four books from my shelves I'd like to re-read, all for various reasons!

I first read Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus when it came out. Everyone was talking about it and I was certainly intrigued, which was unusual for me because I generally tend to be wary of hyped books since the dark reading years of my teens when every YA book was the same. I ended up enjoying the book, but not as much as I'd hoped and definitely not as much as what felt like every other reader. Morgenstern's descriptions and her world-building were stunning, I loved the idea of her circus, but I need characters to grab hold of me and make me care and something about Celia and Marco prevented me from doing that. Individually I quite liked them - Celia, in particular, and her relationship with her father intrigued me - but I didn't understand why the two of them liked each other and when I reached the end I realised I hadn't really cared what happened, I was just ready for it to end. My reading tastes have changed a lot since then, and I'd like to re-read this book at some point to see if I've grown to appreciate it more or if I feel just as 'meh' about the whole thing as I did then.

Sadly, you can only read Rebecca for the first time once, and I loved it when I did. If you haven't read it yet I can't recommend it enough, it's du Maurier's masterpiece and such a brilliantly written and plotted novel - it's all the more enjoyable the less you know going into it. Knowing what happens in the story and how it ends, I'd love to re-read it and see if du Maurier left any little nuggets of premonition for her re-readers.

The Goblin Emperor is one I've already re-read twice (once as an audiobook, so I guess that was more of a re-listen) and was the first book I re-read in a long, long time when I picked it up for a second time last year having loved it in 2015. If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to choose one all-time favourite book, I think I'd have to say this one - Maia is certainly one of my favourite protagonists of all time and I love how, more than anything, this book is hopeful, decent fantasy and such a soothing antidote to Games of Thrones' brutality. I can't get enough of this book, and I think it'll be one I continue to re-read until Katherine Addison gives me another book set in this world.

Persuasion was Jane Austen's final novel, published posthumously, and while Pride and Prejudice is a firm favourite it's actually Persuasion that's considered to be her masterpiece by many Austen fans. Until the past year or so, I definitely wouldn't have described myself as one such fan. Like The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories I was introduced to Austen through education when I was given this book to read during sixth form and it woke a hatred of Austen in me that it's taken me a long time to shake off. My reading tastes hadn't developed enough at the time for me to appreciate that Austen was writing a very tongue-in-cheek form of societal critique, and I was so frustrated that a woman I was constantly being told was an early feminist writer had written novel after novel about love and marriage. Why couldn't any of her heroines just stay single? Then I did that thing that most of us we all do: I grew up. As a twenty-something I understand Austen far more than eighteen year old me ever did, something I'm sure my English teacher would be incredibly proud of, and now I'd like to give Persuasion a second chance. I've actually started my re-read of this one and, while it hasn't completely grabbed me, I'm not hating it...

Do you re-read books? Is it something you'd like to do more of or less? Which books would you like to re-read one day?

The Aussie Book Tag

G'day mates! And now it's time for me to apologise to literally everyone in Australia. Cass @ Words on Paper very kindly tagged me in the Aussie Book Tag and, as you know, I'm always up for  a tag. You can find Cass's answers here and the original, created by Ngoc @ Happy Comes First and Julia @ Picnic Reads, here!

I've never been to Australia but I'd love to go (the only thing that really puts me off are the spiders because I am severely arachnophobic) and the more I thought about it the more I realised I've read barely any Australian writers; Markus Zusak, Garth Nix, Geraldine Brooks and Hannah Kent are the only ones who immediately spring to mind. You don't have to talk about Australian books and authors for this tag, but doing this has definitely made me realise it's a country that I seem to neglect in my reading. That's something for me to rectify.

If anyone has any recommendations, particularly about/written by Australia's indigenous population, please let me know!

That has to be Maia from Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, not only is it one of my favourite novels of all time, but Maia is one of my favourite fictional characters, too. He's such a good egg and I adore him. You can check out my review of The Goblin Emperor here!

This is a tricky one because I'm usually the grumpy one who hates what everyone else loves, but for this I'm going to go with Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë. I don't think everyone hates it by any means, but I do think Anne is forgotten next to her sisters and she shouldn't be. Of her two novels Agnes Grey is probably the lesser known, but I really enjoyed it when I read it and I'd love to see more people reading Anne's work.

I can't possible talk about a fictional squad without talking about Harry Potter. If I wanted to be part of any gang, it'd definitely be Dumbledore's Army because I am all for students standing up to bad teachers.

Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, which I reviewed here. I can't wait to read whatever Adébáyọ̀ brings out next and I highly, highly recommend this debut!

It'd be pretty easy to mention Harry Potter again here but I think Harry Potter gets enough love as it is, so instead I'm going to go with Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman which is one of my favourite books from my early teens. It's the first book I can remember crying over and it's still very special to me and so worth reading if you haven't already.

Isabel Greenberg's The One Hundred Nights of Hero (reviewed here) is a gorgeous graphic novel but it's so huge which means it can be quite difficult to read comfortably - it's worth it, though!

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is super depressing but it's such an iconic work of dystopian fiction and it's definitely worth checking out if it's on your radar. Is it the best piece of dystopian fiction out there? No, not necessarily, but it's a really interesting novel and I think it's worth a bit of your time.

I know I keep saying it, but no novel has surprised me more than Sarah Waters' Fingersmith (reviewed here). It's one of the twistiest, turniest novels I've ever read and it's so much fun - if you haven't read any of Waters' work, Fingersmith is a great place to start!

I adored Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (reviewed here), especially because I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did, and Becky Albertalli has quickly become my favourite YA author following her equally excellent sophomore novel, The Upside of Unrequited (reviewed here). Yet again, I recommend reading her if you haven't already!

I'm a big mood reader so the books I reach out for when I'm feeling slumpy usually change depending what I'm in the mood to read - sometimes it's YA, sometimes it's a thriller, but it's usually something I don't tend to read a lot of - but this year I find myself turning more and more towards Fantasy of Manners books when I'm feeling slumpy, particularly Gail Carriger's work. It's so fun!

Thanks so much for tagging me, Cass! I'm going to go ahead and tag some people below, so:

Natalie @ Orchestrating a Sea Change

Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

Mallory @ The Local Muse

Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews

Deanna @ Deanna Reads Books

Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Lynn @ Lynn's Film & Book Review

Catherine @ We'll Meet it When it Does

Vena @ Vena Isabella

consider yourselves tagged!

Top Ten Tuesday | Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books I Wish Had (More/Less) X In Them', so this week I'm talking about the books I wish had more pages in them!

Woman Who Brings the Rain by Eluned Gramich: This teeny little memoir was my first read of this year, and was also shortlisted for the English-language Wales Book of the Year in the non-fiction category. I've been really into learning more about Asia in this year and I loved the way this little memoir, about the author's time in Japan, was written, so I'd've really liked a much longer book. Perhaps she'll produce one in future!

Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember: This has LGBT+ protagonists and unicorns, so what's not to love? I really enjoyed Ember's debut, I just wanted even more of it.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor: Similarly, the only thing I wanted from Binti was even more of it because the universe Okorafor has created is fascinating.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue: Something's revealed at the end of The Wonder that I felt was brushed under the carpet very quickly considering the seriousness of it. I would have liked a few more pages so that what's revealed could have been dealt with more than it was.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: Okay so this book, one of my favourites of all time (possibly my ultimate favourite of all time), is perfect as far as I'm concerned, I just didn't want it to end. More please?

St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell: Pretty much every single story in this collection ended in medias res and I found it really frustrating. I think I might have liked the book a little more than I did if I felt as though every story actually had an ending.

Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale by Catherine Orenstein: I really enjoyed this, and I recommend it if you're interested in the history of fairy tales, but I'd love an updated version talking about some of the more recent versions and adaptations of Little Red Riding Hood.

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig: I loved Heilig's debut, the idea is just delicious, and the only problem I had with it was that ending felt a little rushed compared with the pace of the rest of the book. I'd've been happy for a slower ending, but it didn't really take anything away from my enjoyment of the book.

Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: I don't think this novella really needs to be longer, it's an ideal size for what it is, but I loved the concept so much that I'd've happily read a full-length novel - especially as I don't read enough horror.

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: This is one of those classic Gothic Victorian stories, told in hindsight in a 'tell-don't-show' way that so many 19th century stories were, but the idea is so interesting that I wish it was longer and a bit more, well, more.

What did you talk about this week?