Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Every bookworm's favorite thing is a collection of pretty bookmarks, right? Well... I'm one of those weird bookworms who never uses bookmarks. I used to try to use them when I was little, but they kept falling out. Also, where do you even keep your bookmarks when you aren't using them? I'd always manage to lose the few bookmarks that I had. Some of my friends are really confused by how I can read so much without bookmarks. They always wonder if it's hard for me to remember where I left off. I don't know if I consciously started doing this because I needed to remember pages or if this is just how my reading pace has evolved, but I have a particular way of reading books that makes it easy to remember the pages. The first day, I usually only read a little bit, about 25-50 pages, to ease into the world and characters. The next day, depending on how much time I have, I read another 50-100 pages, and so on and so forth. What ends up happenin...

Title:  Court of Fives Author:  Kate Elliott Genre: Fantasy My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : On the Fives court, everyone is equal. And everyone is dangerous. Jessamy’s life is a balance between acting like an upper-class Patron and dreaming of the freedom of the Commoners. But away from her family, she can be whomever she wants when she sneaks out to train for the Fives, an intricate, multilevel athletic competition that offers a chance for glory to the kingdom’s best competitors. Then Jes meets Kalliarkos, and an improbable friendship between the two Fives competitors—one of mixed race and the other a Patron boy—causes heads to turn. When Kal’s powerful, scheming uncle tears Jes’s family apart, she’ll have to test her new friend’s loyalty and risk the vengeance of a royal clan to save her mother and sisters from certain death. In this imaginative escape into an enthralling new world, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott’s first young adult novel we...

Title:  The Immortal Heights Author:  Sherry Thomas Genre: Fantasy, young adult My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: In a pursuit that has spanned continents, Iolanthe, Titus, and their friends have always managed to remain one step ahead of the forces of Atlantis. But now the Bane, the monstrous tyrant who bestrides the entire mage world, has issued his ultimatum: Titus must hand over Iolanthe, or watch as his entire realm is destroyed in a deadly rampage. Running out of time and options, Iolanthe and Titus must act decisively to deliver a final blow to the Bane, ending his reign of terror for good. However, getting to the Bane means accomplishing the impossible—finding a way to infiltrate his crypt in the deepest recesses of the most ferociously guarded fortress in Atlantis. And everything is only made more difficult when new prophecies come to light, foretelling a doomed effort… Iolanthe and Titus will put their love and their lives on the line. But will it...

Hello blogosphere, I've been really sick for the past week, which is why I haven't had any blog posts up recently. I used my sick-and-in-bed time to catch up on a lot of reading, though! I'm feeling a lot better and hope to start posting as usual in the next day or two :) Here's what I've been reading this past week: The Scorpion Rules WHY didn't I read this sooner? It was nothing like what I was expecting (to be fair, I had no idea what it was about and then I read the blurb after I finished the book and went, huh, that's not what this book was about at all ). So yes, the blurb is incredibly misleading. This isn't a cookie cutter dystopian book at all, and I really enjoyed how complex and tense and unpredictable it was. I love Talis but I also hate him. Talis is the best kind of villain because you don't really even think of him as the bad guy. Of course it's those other people... right? There are so many morally ambiguous cha...

Title:  Elantris Author:  Brandon Sanderson Genre: Fantasy My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Elantris was the capital of Arelon: gigantic, beautiful, literally radiant, filled with benevolent beings who used their powerful magical abilities for the benefit of all. Yet each of these demigods was once an ordinary person until touched by the mysterious transforming power of the Shaod. Ten years ago, without warning, the magic failed. Elantrians became wizened, leper-like, powerless creatures, and Elantris itself dark, filthy, and crumbling. Arelon's new capital, Kae, crouches in the shadow of Elantris. Princess Sarene of Teod arrives for a marriage of state with Crown Prince Raoden, hoping -- based on their correspondence -- to also find love. She finds instead that Raoden has died and she is considered his widow. Both Teod and Arelon are under threat as the last remaining holdouts against the imperial ambitions of the ruthless religious fanatics of Fjordel...

How often do you reread books? I never used to be a re-reader. I had a couple of books that I'd read parts of over and over again, but I never really was into reading all of my favorite series over again. When a new book came out I'd just hope I remembered the old stuff or that it would come back to me as I read the new book. I just felt like there were so many new books to read that I never wanted to spend time on old favorites. But there were still times when I just really needed a familiar friend. I re-read parts of my favorite books when I'm upset, or when I've read a bunch of mediocre or un-enjoyable books in a row. Re-reading Tamora Pierce Recently, I've started re-reading some of my favorite books from when I was younger and seeing if I still feel the same way about them. Tamora Pierce was a huge favorite of mine in 5th grade and middle school, so I started rereading her Wild Magic series. When I was little, I hadn't read that m...

Last year I got really ambitious and tried to fill out a bingo card for sci-fi and fantasy. That didn't turn out so well, since about halfway through the year I just got too busy to try and read the books on my chart. I decided I wasn't going to do any reading challenges this year, but then I remembered a fun one I used to do that doesn't require too much effort. It's called the A-Z challenge, and it's basically exactly what it sounds like. You try and read books that start with every letter of the alphabet! There are some variations: some people only count titles, some do authors, and some count both interchangeably. I'm going to try doing just titles, but if I get stuck I might amend that to include authors :)  There are also obviously some letters that are really hard to find at the beginnings of words, so for Q, X, and Z as long as it's somewhere in the title/author's name it'll count. So here's my A-Z chart, filled out with what ...

Title:  Fortune's Pawn Author:  Rachel Bach Genre: Science fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Devi Morris isn't your average mercenary. She has plans. Big ones. And a ton of ambition. It's a combination that's going to get her killed one day - but not just yet. That is, until she just gets a job on a tiny trade ship with a nasty reputation for surprises. The Glorious Fool isn't misnamed: it likes to get into trouble, so much so that one year of security work under its captain is equal to five years everywhere else. With odds like that, Devi knows she's found the perfect way to get the jump on the next part of her Plan. But the Fool doesn't give up its secrets without a fight, and one year on this ship might be more than even Devi can handle. If Sigouney Weaver in Alien met Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, you'd get Deviana Morris -- a hot new mercenary earning her stripes to join an elite fighting force. Until one alien bite t...

This week's theme: Historical Settings I want to see This theme is great because it goes hand-in-hand with my discussion post about how annoyed I was with the huge number of fantasy novels set in medieval worlds. I would love to see technology and magic go hand in hand. Who says technology and magic can't coexist? 1. Ancient Egypt. Hands down my favorite historical period growing up. I think it helped that my first chapter book ever was the Magic Tree House book where they went to Ancient Egypt (Mummies in the Morning, anyone?) 2. Renaissance Italy. There are so many things to love about the Gentleman Bastards series, but one of my favorites is how magic is woven into a Renaissance-era Italy-inspired world. Culture is flourishing and art and technology are both shaping each other, which is such an exciting time to read about! 3. Feudal Japan. I love the rich history and culture of Japan, and the few historical fiction/fantasy books I've read ...

Title:  The Magicians Author:  Lev Grossman Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy, Satire My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn't real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery. But magic doesn't bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would. After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin's yearning. But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they'd imagined. Psychologically piercing and dazzlingly inventive, The Magicians, the prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, is an enthralling coming-of-age tale abou...