Top Ten Tuesday (#5): Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly blog meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish that allows readers to share their lists and opinions on a number of subjects from their top ten book covers to their top ten villains.

This week's topic for December 24th is:

Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me


1. Cress by Marissa Meyer
I just realized that this book is my most anticipated book for 2014. How can I resist futuristic fairy tale retellings with cyborgs, sassy spaceships, and people from the moon?? If there's anyone who could get me a copy of this book before the actual release date, it'd be Santa. If you can't do that, Santa, a pre-order would be fine, too.

2. Across the Universe series by Beth Revis
I've already read this series, but I had borrowed the books from my friend who raved and ranted and bugged me until I did read it. I automatically fell in love with this series, but I really need to get a copy of my own.

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Waiting on Wednesday (#4)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to highlight some upcoming releases that we're impatiently tapping our feet for. It's a great way to to keep track of some of the most anticipated releases amongst other book bloggers and a new way to discover books yourself.

At the moment, the book I'm most excited for is:

Moth and Spark
Author: Anne Leonard
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Viking Press
To be published: February 20, 2014
Find: Goodreads

A prince with a quest. A commoner with mysterious powers. And dragons that demand to be freed—at any cost.

Prince Corin has been chosen to free the dragons from their bondage to the Empire, but dragons aren’t big on directions. They have given him some of their power, but none of their knowledge. No one, not the dragons nor their riders, is even sure what keeps the dragons in the Empire’s control.

Tam, sensible daughter of a well-respected doctor, had no idea before she arrived in the capital that she is a Seer, gifted with visions. When the two run into each other (quite literally) in the library, sparks fly and Corin impulsively asks Tam to dinner. But it’s not all happily ever after. Never mind that the prince isn’t allowed to marry a commoner: war is coming to Caithen.

Torn between Corin’s quest to free the dragons and his duty to his country, the lovers must both figure out how to master their powers in order to save Caithen. With a little help from a village of secret wizards and a rogue dragonrider, they just might pull it off.

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Waiting on Wednesday (#3)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to highlight some upcoming releases that we're impatiently tapping our feet for. It's a great way to to keep track of some of the most anticipated releases amongst other book bloggers and a new way to discover books yourself.

At the moment, the book I'm most excited for is:

The Waking Engine
Author: David Edison
Genre: Scifi & Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Books
To be published: February 11, 2014
Find: Goodreads

Welcome to the City Unspoken, where Gods and Mortals come to die.

Contrary to popular wisdom, death is not the end, nor is it a passage to some transcendent afterlife. Those who die merely awake as themselves on one of a million worlds, where they are fated to live until they die again, and wake up somewhere new. All are born only once, but die many times . . . until they come at last to the City Unspoken, where the gateway to True Death can be found.

Wayfarers and pilgrims are drawn to the City, which is home to murderous aristocrats, disguised gods and goddesses, a sadistic faerie princess, immortal prostitutes and queens, a captive angel, gangs of feral Death Boys and Charnel Girls . . . and one very confused New Yorker.

Late of Manhattan, Cooper finds himself in a City that is not what it once was. The gateway to True Death is failing, so that the City is becoming overrun by the Dying, who clot its byzantine streets and alleys . . . and a spreading madness threatens to engulf the entire metaverse.

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Top Ten Tuesdays (#3): Top Ten 2014 Releases I'm Dying To Read

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly blog meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish that allows readers to share their lists and opinions on a number of subjects from their top ten book covers to their top ten villains.

This week's topic for December 3rd is Top Ten 2014 Releases I'm Dying To Read.

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Thoughtful Thursdays: Reading Music

A new weekly feature I'm going to try for a while. It doesn't mean that I only think on Thursdays! There are always some random book-related thoughts flowing through my head, so I thought I'd set a certain day to actually write them down. (It may or may not also be a convenient way to keep this blog updated!)

Reading Music
It's kind of a conundrum. When I'm reading, I prefer to have music playing in the background as opposed to silence. At the same time, listening to the wrong kind of music can easily distract me, especially when there are actual lyrics to the music and you know every single word. I don't know about you, but it'd pretty difficult for me to shed a tear for the death of a character when Icona Pop's "I Love It" is blaring. That's why I prefer listening to instrumentals when reading.

I can spend hours making my own custom music playlist, but for those of you who are sometimes as lazy as I am, here are a few other options I recommend:

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Waiting on Wednesdays (#2)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to highlight some upcoming releases that we're impatiently tapping our feet for. It's a great way to to keep track of some of the most anticipated releases amongst other book bloggers and a new way to discover books yourself.

At the moment, the book I'm most excited for is:

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Author: Leslye Walton
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magical Realism
To be published: March 25th, 2014
Find: Goodreads

Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga. 

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird. In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration. That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo. First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human.

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Top Ten Tuesdays (#1): Books I'd Recommend to My Future Kid

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly blog meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish that allows readers to share their lists and opinions on a number of subjects from their top ten book covers to their top ten villains.

This week's topic for November 19th is Top Ten Books I'd Recommend To X Person. Specifically, I'm going to make this a list for the Top Ten Books I'd Recommend To My Future Child. There are some books that have shaped my entire childhood and have taught me the joy of reading, and there are a few books I wish I  read earlier in my life as I feel like I'd have appreciated more then. These are the books that I'd like to pass on my children if given the opportunity.

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Waiting on Wednesday (#1)

Admittedly, I would've rather had my first (well, second) post be an actual review, but I can't review any books until I actually finish reading them, so please be patient with me. In the meantime, I leave you this.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to highlight some upcoming releases that we're impatiently tapping our feet for. It's a great way to to keep track of some of the most anticipated releases amongst other book bloggers and a new way to discover books yourself.

At the moment, the book I'm most excited for is:

Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3)
By Marissa Meyer
To be published: February 4th, 2014
Find: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard.

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

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