Book Review: The Hammer of Thor

TITLE: The Hammer of Thor
Book 2 in the Magnus Chase series
AUTHOR: Rick Riordan
PUBLISHED: October 2016
CATEGORY: Middle-Grade/YA
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: Magnus has to search for Thor's hammer, which has been lost. Again.
MY REVIEW: The first book I finished for the year 2017 is a book I fully expected to like and did. Rick Riordan never disappoints. Even his average books such as the Kane Chronicles are damn entertaining. The latest Magnus Chase book is no exception.
One of the things I really loved about this book was Alex. We have an actual gender-fluid character in a major mainstream series. Like...that's pretty huge when you think about it. It shouldn't be huge. But it is and as far as I can tell, Riordan pulled off the representation well. Plus, Alex was just an awesome character.
If you loved the first Magnus Chase book and are just a Riordan fan in general, this latest installment will not disappoint you.
WHO SHOULD READ: Fans of the first book, Percy Jackson fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five lost magical objects

Notable Releases of the Week: 1/1-1/7

Instead of doing a release thing at the beginning of the month, I am going to be switching to a hopefully weekly format this year. As my tastes have widened and stretched, so have the number of books I've gotten interested in. So every Saturday or so, I will have a list of books/comic books being released during that week that I am interested in or think people should know about.

Passenger Book 2: Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken

Passenger was a big buzzy book from last year. If you've been waiting for the sequel, it's out now.

Witchlands Book 2: Windwitch by Susan Dennard

I wasn't as enamored with Truthwitch as apparently everyone else was. But I enjoyed enough that I'm looking forward to this sequel along with everyone else.

X-Files Origins Books 1 and 2 by Kami Garcia and Jonathan Maberry

Were you a big X-Files fan back in the day? Did you ever wonder what Mulder and Scully were like during their teen years? Well, this is your chance to find out in two YA books by popular YA authors.

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti

YA thrillers man, I'm weak to them.

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

On the adult fiction side of things, the one I'm into this week is this short story collection by the author of my favorite essay book: Bad Feminist.

Letters to a Young Muslim by Omar Saif Ghobash

On the non-fiction side of things, I have a feeling this book is going to make waves this year. The Daily Show did an interview with the author the other night that was great.






Manga available this week (in the US): One-Punch Man Vol. 10
Your Lie in April Vol. 11

Graphic novels: Star Wars-Han Solo mini-series by Marjorie Liu
Spider-Gwen vol. 2: Weapon of Choice
Secret Six Vol. 2: The Gauntlet

Book Review: The Boy is Back

TITLE: The Boy is Back
Book 4 in the Boy series
AUTHOR: Meg Cabot
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: October 2016
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
PREMISE: A guy and girl rekindle their romance when he returns after years away.
MY REVIEW: The last book I read in the year 2016 was a quick light-hearted romp by a author who never fails to put a smile on my face: Meg Cabot. If you are familiar with Cabot, you probably already know what to expect from this one and yes, it is usual rom-com type predictable-ness. But honestly, after the crap-pile that was 2016, it was kind of what I needed.
For those that are unfamiliar with the Boy series, it is a light romance series told through various things like email or instant messaging. I highly recommend the early ones, which are more fun, if a tad dated by the tech used. This one uses more updated tech but still tells cute romances and has the hilarious character of Dolly Vargas, who kind of deserves her own book.
If you're in the mood for cute romantic comedy that is very fast-paced, this series is a good way to go and the latest installment is as fun as the others.
WHO SHOULD READ: Meg Cabot fans, fans of Rainbow Rowell's Attachments, romantic comedy fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five good mood boosters

Book Review: The Bronze Key

TITLE: The Bronze Key
Book 3 in the Magisterium series
AUTHOR: Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
PUBLISHED: August 2016
CATEGORY: Middle-Grade
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: Call and his friends try to discover who is attempting to kill Call at the Magisterium.
MY REVIEW: Oh Magisterium series, you are clearly Harry Potter fanfiction. Why can't I quit you? I blame the awesomeness that is Tamara. As well as addicting fast-paced plots. Both Black and Clare are masters at keeping readers coming back for more. This series (and the fact that I also can't seem to quit Mortal Instruments no matter how hard I try) is proof.
The latest Magisterium book is very much like the first two: snark and lots of things happening. There was one major thing that surprised me at the end. But if I know Clare...that thing is probably not going to stick. So I'm not getting invested in feelings until the last book. If it sticks THEN I'll give props to the series.
But it looks like we have two more books to go so I have awhile to wait and see how to feel about said thing. If you were a fan of the first two books, you will likely love the latest installment. Or you'll curse the authors for the cliff hanger. One of the two.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read the first two books, Mortal Instrument fans, younger Harry Potter fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five evil cliffhangers

2017 List of Book Goals/Things You Can Expect For the Blog

So I always have some bookish goals and I always kind of switch things around the blog because...I just do. There's no real reason to be honest. Blogwise...not much is going to change. I'm still going to do mainly just book reviews and book lists. I'm thinking of changing the format of the book lists. The main thing that is going to change is that I'm going to be including comic book reviews now, along with book reviews. I'll just be doing first volumes for long running series, such as Saga. But if there are mini-series, or separate story arcs, such as Rebirth and what not, I'll review those. I'll be continuing doing classics and this year I'm going to be starting to get dive into plays and possibly some poetry. We shall see how that goes. I will also be continuing to do the comic book guides for beginners. I just have gotten side-tracked and some characters such as Iron Man require research on my part because I don't really know them all that well myself.

For now though, here are the book goals for 2017:

1) Read 175 books.
I read 169 books this year. That was even with me ditching things right and left. So this goal is totally doable. As always, I'm not really strict about the number. If I don't make it, I don't make it. I just aim for this number to get books off the gigantic TBR list of doom.

2) Classics project of the year: Read all the Shakespeare plays I have not read yet and his poems/sonnets. This is not as ambitious as it sounds. I've already read around six of his plays. I just want to read others such as Tempest purely for bragging rights.

3) Stick to the one classic book a month thing I did last year.

4) Finish Flavia de Luce series

5) Finish the Harry Dresden Files series (I got up to book 10 this year, this is totally doable)

6) Get farther into Discworld books (I read 3 this year. Better then last year, at least)

7) Get North and South done (leftover goal from last year)

8) Get Gone with the Wind done (another leftover)

9) Genre focus of the year: feminist books. I have a bunch on the list I want to get done.

10) Complete the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. I always mean to do it, but then I get side-tracked. This is the year I'm doing it.

2016 List of Favorite Books

I meant to separate these into lists up until the new year. Unfortunately, my computer crashed last week before I could get the posts typed up. So this list is incredibly late and I have some reviews to catch up on because I managed to squeeze in some books into the last week of the year. So, here is a rather quick list of my favorite books that were published in 2016.

Middle-Grade Books:
Middle-School Princess Book 2: Royal Wedding Disaster by Meg Cabot
Trials of Apollo Book 1: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

YA:

Witchlands Book 1: Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
The Girl From Everywhere Book 1 by Heidi Heilig
Charlotte Holmes Book 1: A Study in Charlotte by Bethany Cavallaro
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepytys
On the Edge of Dawn by Corinne Duyvis
The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters
Wrath and the Dawn 2: The Rose and the Dagger by Renne Ahdieh
We Are the Ants by Shawn David Hutchinson
Lois Lane Book 2: Double Down by Gwenda Bond
Conqueror's Saga 1: And I Darken by Kiersten White
You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan
Winner's Trilogy 3: The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
Jackaby 3: Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter
The Fixer 2: The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Raven Cycle Book 4: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
Illuminae Files 2: Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Monsters of Verity book 1: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Adult Fiction:
Mediator 7: Remembrance by Meg Cabot
The Others: Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop
Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa
Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray
Broken Earth 2: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
Queens of Renthia Book 1: The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Kate Daniels 9: Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews

Non-Fiction:
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward and other authors
We Were Feminists Once by Andi Ziesler
Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin
You Can't Touch My Hair (and Other Things I Still Have to Explain) by Phoebe Robinson

Favorites of 2016 Part I: Non-2016 Backlist Books

As I have been for the past few years now, I'm breaking up my favorites list, because there were a lot of favorites this year. Here are my favorite books I read this year, that were not published in 2016 in no particular order:

Simon VS The Homo Sapien Agenda by Becky Albertalli (YA) (Contemporary)
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling (Non-Fiction) (Memoir)
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari (Non-Fiction) (Humor/Social Commentary)
Illuminae Files series Book 1: The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, (YA) (Sci-Fi)
Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Classic) (mystery)
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (Middle-Grade) (verse, Historical Fiction)
Embassy Row Book 2: See How They Run by Ally Carter (YA) (Mystery/Adventure)
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (Non-Fiction) (Memoir) RIP my queen
Love by Numbers Trilogy by Sarah MacLean (Adult) (Historical Romance)
The Naturals Book 3: All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (YA) (Mystery/Paranormalish)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Classic) (Historical Fiction)
Magnus Chase Book 1: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (YA/Middle-Grade) (Fantasy)
Thursday Next Books 4-7 by Jasper Fforde (Adult) (Fantasy/Steampunk) Now I'm stuck waiting for the next book like everyone else...
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden (Classic/YA) (Contemporary)
Discworld series: Wyrd Sisters, Sorcery, Pyramids, Eric by Terry Pratchett (Adult) (Fantasy)
The Others series Books 2-4 by Anne Bishop (Adult) (Urban Fantasy)
Flavia de Luce Books 2-5 by Alan Bradley (sold as adult, I say it's Middle-Grade) (Historical Mystery)
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Non-Fiction) (Essay)
Cormoran Strike 3: Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling (Adult) (Mystery)
To All The Boys I Loved Before Books 1 and 2 by Jenny Han (YA) (Contemporary)
Star Wars: Lost Stars and Bloodline by Claudia Gray-Let Claudia Gray write all the Star Wars books!
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore (Non-Fiction) (Biography)
The Diviners Book 2: Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray (YA) (Historical Fantasy) Pines for the next book yet again...
Willful Machines by Tim Floreen (YA) (Dystopian/Sci-Fi)
Lunar Chronicles Book 4: Winter by Marissa Meyer (YA) (Retellings/Sci-Fi)
Kate Daniels series Books 7 and 8 by Ilona Andrews (Adult) (Urban Fantasy)
Young Elites Book 2: The Rose Society by Marie Lu (YA) (Fantasy)

Part II (2016 standalones) will be up tomorrow.

Book Review: Kate Daniels series books 7-9

TITLE: Kate Daniels series
Book 7: Magic Breaks
Book 8: Magic Shifts
Book 9: Magic Binds
AUTHOR: Ilona Andrews
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: 2014, 2015, 2016
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: Kate continues her relationship with Curran despite things such as the return of her father.
MY REVIEW: So the past year or so, I've been playing catch up with the Kate Daniels series. There was no particular reason I stopped keeping up with it. Things just sort of happened that way. Too many books on the TBR list.
But this past year, I've been catching up on series, and this is one of the series I was determined to catch up on and I'm so happy I did. Because, wow, have things gone down in these past few books. I can't help but compare this series to Mercy Thompson, where after her getting together with Adam, things have gotten boring. That is not so in the Kate Daniels series. Things are still happening, and Kate's character continues to develop beautifully. Thank you authors for remembering that character development doesn't just magically stop when people get together. So many long series tend to forget that little detail.
If you have read the first few Kate Daniels books, absolutely continue the series. Even if you've gotten to Curran and Kate getting together. I promise, the fun doesn't just stop because they're together now. The chemistry is still there, and plot is still there. I can't wait for the next book as always.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those that have read the rest of the Kate Daniels books, Mercy Thompson series fans, Urban Fantasy series fans
MY RATING (for series): Four out of Five bad-ass women leads

Book Review: You Can't Touch My Hair (and Other Things I Still Have to Explain)

TITLE: You Can't Touch My Hair (and Other Things I Still Have to Explain)
AUTHOR: Phoebe Robinson
PUBLISHED: October 4rth, 2016
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Memoir/Essays
PREMISE: Comedian Phoebe Robinson talks about a variety of subjects from feminism, to black girls hair, to race relations and back again.
MY REVIEW: I confess, I'm not terribly familiar with Phoebe Robinson. I've listened to a podcast or two of her and Jessica Williams (whom I'm more familiar with, being a Daily Show junkie) show but that's about it. After this, I may have to rectify that, because Phoebe Robinson is frankly hilarious.
If you are a white person who gets terribly offended when people rightly criticize us for the nonsense we do, this probably won't be your book. Robinson does not sugar coat things. She calls out stuff that needs to be called out. There's a great explanation in here about micro-aggressions, that everyone should read. But it's not all seriousness. There's a lot of hilarious bits in here, including a beautiful (and now sad, considering the election results) chapter written the future first female president.
If like me, you have gotten hooked on memoirs/or essays by lady celebrities, this is a great one to pick up for when you want something that will both make you think and make you laugh at the same time.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the 2 Dope Queens podcast, celebrity memoir book fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five on point jokes

Book Review: Stars Above

TITLE: Stars Above
Book 4.5/companion book in the Lunar Chronicles series
AUTHOR: Marissa Meyer
PUBLISHED: February 2016
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Sci-Fi
PREMISE: A collection of short stories taking place in the Lunar Chronicles series.
MY REVIEW: Short story add ons to series seems to have become a thing in YA. When it comes to a series like Lunar Chronicles, I don't particularly mind it. Especially if it's a wide variety of stories such as this collection.
Some of these I have read before as they were released with previous Lunar books. But some were new. Most, didn't really add anything revealing, except for maybe the one with Scarlet's grandmother. We learn about her grandfather's identity and some more about what Scarlet's childhood was like. Others were just nice supplied info.
If you are a die-hard Lunar Chronicles fan who is going through withdrawal from the series, this is a nice way to live in the world a bit longer. It's also a nice holdover for if you're waiting for Meyer's next series which apparently is dealing with superheros. To which I say, hell yes.
WHO SHOULD READ: Lunar Chronicles fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five happy endings