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?

Top Ten Tuesday | Books I Struggled to Finish

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 'Ten Books I Struggled to Get Into But Ended Up Loving or Ten Books That Were A Chore To Get Through or Ten Books I've Most Recently Put Down', so I decided to talk about some of the books I struggled to get through. Some of them I ended up enjoying, some of them I really didn't, and the first five are all books I had to read for school/university.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare: I had to read this at school and at university and I can't stand it. I know Hamlet's a masterpiece, I know it's many people's favourite Shakespeare play, but I loathe it; Hamlet's so whiny and useless and I can't believe I kept having to study it over and over again.

Regeneration by Pat Barker: I didn't completely hate this novel, set during the First World War, but I was 17 when I read it and I definitely found it pretty dull. Having said that, I do remember quite a lot about it so maybe it had more of an impact on me than I realise.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: I made myself read this over the summer before my third year of university, knowing I would be studying it for my module in Victorian Popular Fiction, and I'm really glad I forced myself through it; not only was I well prepared to talk about it for my classes, but it also ended up becoming one of my favourite classics.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: I know this book is beloved by a lot of people, and I completely understand why, but I had to read it during sixth form and I hated it. All of the characters are pretty awful and I just didn't like it.

Persuasion by Jane Austen: This is one of the classics I had to read for school that I'd like to revisit, because it's thanks to this book that, at 18, I convinced myself I hated everything Austen. The older I get the more I understand Austen and I'd like to try reading this again because, as beloved as Pride and Prejudice is, a lot of people consider this novel to be her true masterpiece.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler: This is a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew in the Hogarth Shakespeare series and I was really excited for it. I ended up hating it, but I forced my way through it because it's fairly short. Check out my review here.

Requiem by Lauren Oliver: I really, really liked Delirium, the first book in this series, but both Pandemonium and Requiem were such disappointments for me and Requiem in particular I really had to force myself through, only to be given the most disappointing ending I've ever come across in a series. I could see what Oliver was trying to do, but I think she should have wrapped the story up just a little more.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: Undoubtedly this is a beautiful book, but I didn't love this one as much as I thought I would because it took me so long to get through it. Morgenstern's writing and her descriptions were beautiful, but I found Celia and Marco's relationship a bit too dull to really be invested in and, looking back, I don't think I ever really cared how the book was going to end.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik: I had a similar problem with this novel, I loved the ideas behind it but something about Novik's writing meant I didn't completely get on with it and it ended up taking me a while to finish it. I enjoyed it, but when I put it down I didn't feel compelled to pick it back up. Check out my review here.

Diving Belles by Lucy Wood: Unfortunately this one is probably my most disappointing read of this year because I so wanted to love it, but I realised fairly early on it wasn't what I was hoping it would be and that meant that, like Uprooted, I just didn't feel compelled to pick it up and read it and I ended up having to force my way through the end just to cross it off my TBR. Check out my review here if you want to know more about why I wasn't a big fan!

Which books made your list this week?

Reading Wrap-Up | May 2013

Considering May was the month in which I had my very last exam - an exam that I had less than a fortnight to revise for thanks to my dissertation deadline - I still managed to get through five books. Perhaps not the biggest pile ever but still pretty good, I think, as I only had the latter half of the month to really get back into my reading.
     Let's start at the beginning, and finish at the end:

My Rating: 

The Massacre of Glencoe happened at 5am on 13th February 1692 when thirty-eight members of the Macdonald clan were killed by soldiers who had enjoyed the clan's hospitality for the previous ten days. Many more died from exposure in the mountains. Fifty miles to the south Corrag is condemned for her involvement in the Massacre. She is imprisoned, accused of witchcraft and murder, and awaits her death. The era of witch-hunts is coming to an end - but Charles Leslie, an Irish propagandist and Jacobite, hears of the Massacre and, keen to publicise it, comes to the tollbooth to question her on the events of that night, and the weeks preceding it. Leslie seeks any information that will condemn the Protestant King William, rumoured to be involved in the massacre, and reinstate the Catholic James. Corrag agrees to talk to him so that the truth may be known about her involvement, and so that she may be less alone, in her final days. As she tells her story, Leslie questions his own beliefs and purpose - and a friendship develops between them that alters both their lives. In Corrag, Susan Fletcher tells us the story of an epic historic event, of the difference a single heart can make - and how deep and lasting relationships that can come from the most unlikely places.

The first book I finished in May was Susan Fletcher's Corrag - also known as Witch Light - a stand-alone historical fiction novel centered around a young girl named Corrag who has been imprisoned and is waiting to be burned at the stake. Charged with witchcraft and murder, Corrag is accused of having something to do with the Glencoe Massacre. Then Mr Leslie, an Irish Jacobite, travels from Ireland to Scotland to interview Corrag while she waits for her execution in the hope of finding evidence that King William was involved in the massacre, for if Mr Leslie can somehow prove the king's involvement he hopes to get King James back on the throne.
     The real story, however, is Corrag's. In exchange for her information regarding the massacre she asks Mr Leslie to listen to her life story before she is executed and an unlikely friendship develops between the two. This novel is just beautiful; Fletcher's writing style is gorgeous, and the story is told in such a way that it's as though Corrag is telling her story to you, too.

     If you're a fan of historical fiction then I highly recommend this, but it's perhaps not quite the right novel for readers out there who like something action packed and fast paced; Corrag takes its time, but it's worth the wait.

My Rating: 

There are no laws in Saba's world. When her twin brother is stolen, she pursues his captors through a wild, wasted land. She must become a warrior to survive. On this dangerous road she can trust no one. Not even the handsome thief who saves her life - and steals her heart.

Next I read Moira Young's Blood Red Road and I adored it, which is strange as when I first picked it up I thought I was going to hate it. I first came across it in a bookstore after several people recommended it to me and when I picked it up and flicked through it I was terrified: this book doesn't use speech marks, and the protagonist's voice is pretty, for lack of a better word, distinctive. So I put it back on the shelf. A couple of days later I came across it in another bookstore where it was only £2. The universe was obviously trying to tell me something, so I bought it and one night when I couldn't sleep I picked it up with the intention of just skimming a few pages. I was up until four in the morning having read over half of it.

     It's the characters that really drive this novel forward and that's why I loved it so much. Our heroine Saba lives in a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world with her father, brother and sister until one day a group of men called the Tonton take her brother away and kill her father. Saba adores her brother and sets off to rescue him, and along the way she goes through a lot of crap. 

     Saba is angry and selfish and tough and I love her; if any of you out there are missing Katniss Everdeen then give this book a read. This novel is fast-paced and exciting, a must-read for any dystopian and post-apocalyptic fans out there.

My Rating: 

Trapped in space and frozen in time, Amy is bound for a new planet. But fifty years before she's due to arrive, she is violently woken, the victim of an attempted murder. Now Amy's lost on board and nothing makes sense - she's never felt so alone.

Beth Revis's Across the Universe was the third book I read in May, and something a little different for me as sci-fi is not a genre I read a lot of. Obviously this is something I need to change. Luckily for me this novel was fairly easy to get into as there were plenty of dystopian elements to it and dystopia is a genre I know pretty well.

     A spaceship is leaving for a new planet three hundred years in the future and the novel begins with our heroine Amy being frozen for the voyage alongside her parents who are needed on the new planet. Everything doesn't quite go as planned, however, when Amy finally wakes from her frozen state only to discover that she has been woken fifty years too early, and a search for the culprit begins as other frozen people find themselves in danger.

     I decided to pick this one up after seeing so many other people raving about it, and while I did enjoy it it's not one of my favourite dystopias out there. Amy and Elder were interesting characters to follow but sometimes, I don't know why, they irritated me a little bit. Overall, however, it was an enjoyable read and I recommend it to any fans of dystopia or sci-fi. At some point in the future I'm sure I'll continue with the trilogy.

My Rating: 

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

I actually started The Night Circus back in the beginning of April but I didn't get round to finishing it until last month. This is yet another book that I have heard so many people talking about and one that I just had to pick up because the cover is so beautiful.

     The story stars two main characters - Celia and Marco - who, from a young age, are pitted against one another in a competition. They know neither who their competitor is nor what the competition really entails until they are both enlisted into The Night Circus; an elaborate and enchanting attraction which travels the world with an array of astounding performers and peculiar tents.

     It was a beautiful, beautiful read, but it was very description heavy. I don't have a problem with description at all, but when there's a surplus of it I often feel like I'm not getting anywhere no matter how much I read. As much as I enjoyed this when I finally finished it I felt as though I'd acheived something and I'm not quite sure that's the best feeling to have upon reaching the end of a novel. It is the length of time it took for me to feel as though the plot was going somewhere which meant this novel missed out on a five star rating, but I still highly recommend it to anyone out there who loves to read about magic. This is a stunning book and one that should bring hope to any budding writers out there, as the first draft was in fact written up during NaNoWriMo.

My Rating:

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

It's a real shame that I had to end the month with a book I didn't enjoy very much at all. In fact there were so many things in this novel that I felt could have been better or had more potential that I've actually written a full review on it which you can find here if you'd like to check it out.

     Marie Lu's Legend is a YA dystopian novel - the first in a trilogy - which takes place in a futuristic American society in which there is a severe divide between the wealthy and the people in the slums. We follow two protagonists - June and Day - who are on opposite sides of this divide. June believes Day is behind the murder of her brother and sets out for revenge, only to discover that not everything is as it seems.

     If anything this was a quick read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys quick reads or perhaps someone who is only just getting into the dystopian genre and would prefer to start with something a little easy. For me there was just no depth; there was a lack of world building and the characters were far too two dimensional. It's safe to say I won't be continuing with the trilogy.

So that's everything I read in May. If you have any comments about any of the books mentioned here then feel free to leave them below and I'll get back to you! Don't forget to check back in at the end of June for another monthly wrap-up!

     Toodles! J.