Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Round 3 of Bullet reviews! I'm still working my way through November 2016, but I'm hoping to finish November this week and then I'll only be 2 months behind on reviews instead of 4! The bar is so low haha This week's books are Heartless, A Torch Against the Night, and Gemina. These were all "big" 2016 releases, ones that I/the bookish community was hugely anticipating. One book exceeded my expectations, one was a disappointment, and one was just as incredible as I thought it would be. So which one was which? Check it out below! Heartless by Marissa Meyer Genre: fantasy, fairy tale retelling Rating: 3/5 stars What I liked: the descriptions of the food! I love cooking and baking, and all the descriptions of Cath's baking made my mouth water and inspired me to try baking some lemon-flavored things Jest was a really cool character, as was the Hatter. It was interesting to see how archetypal Alice in Wonderland charac...

This week's edition of Bookish Eats features: Empire of Storms Empire of Storms has been quite a polarizing book in the SJM fan world, and I went into it with both eyes wide open. I wasn't expecting it to be spectacular, I knew there were things that would annoy me, but I also knew that SJ Maas has proved my skepticism wrong on multiple occasions. I don't know how she does it, but somehow I will spend most of the book rolling my eyes and waiting for things to happen and not really caring about anyone, but then towards the end things will come together in this giant emotional crescendo and I will just be so overcome with FEELS that I put on my rose-colored glasses and decide I liked the whole book quite a bit! So...what does this have to do with macarons? Macarons, the ones with a single "o", are adorable, tiny little French cookies. They are delicious. They are also at least $2-3 each and after my baking adventure I totally understand ...

I read so much  genre fiction. I love it, it helps me get through the day sometimes when I have another world to escape into. Genre fiction is entertaining and emotional and so much fun! But lately I have been making an effort to read more news articles and nonfiction books. Part of it is the whole "Be a well-informed citizen because this presidency is going to be full of misleading information and alternative facts " but part of it is just because I love to learn new things and I think reading is a great way to do it. So here are the top 10 nonfiction books I want to read this year!   I've been meaning to read this for a while, and I actually just bought myself a copy so I am looking forward to this insightful commentary on how to live in a world where you are judged for the color of your skin - whether the world acknowledges that or not.   This book was recommended to me by a friend, and a collection of essays on feminism in the South Asia...

Title:  The Girl Before Author:   J.P. Delaney Genre: Psychological thriller, mystery My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life. The request seems odd, even intrusive—and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating. Emma Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant—and it does. Jane After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street she is instantly drawn to the space—and to its aloof but seductive...

The sun is setting on the Obama presidency, quite literally. I'm holding onto the last few hours of feeling free because I know the Trump presidency is going to weigh down on me and my communities, as a woman, a child of immigrants, and a person of color. I know it's going to be a tough few years for many of us, but I will continue to do my best to support people whose voices aren't being heard. To get through the next few years, to honor an incredible president and human being, and to check out the recommendations of a fellow bookworm, I'm going to attempt to get through this list of books that Obama has recommended throughout his presidency: http://ew.com/books/2017/01/18/barack-obama-book-recommendations/ This is going to be a long-haul project, for sure. I'm thinking 5 years, reading one book every 2 months with a friend. I'm hoping that's infrequent enough that this won't feel like forced reading for school but frequent enough that I g...

Okay, here's round 2 of the bullet reviews. In case you missed the first set, I'm doing a couple of quick bullet point reviews of books I read last fall/winter so I can catch up by the end of the month (fingers crossed). This week's books are The Trespasser, The Revanant, and The Accident. My loose theme for them is that they are all mystery/suspense novels, and I read them all in October. They're actually very different; Trespasser is a character-focused and psychological mystery, The Revanant is not a mystery but it is very suspenseful and intense historical fiction, and The Accident is more of a fluffy, fun mystery. The Trespasser by Tana French Genre: Mystery, psychological thriller Rating: 5/5 stars What I liked: this is yet another winner from Tana French! She's my favorite mystery author because of her books are character-centric instead of plot-twisty (but there are still awesome revelations!) I loved getting to see the other perspect...

Title:  The Bear and the Nightingale Author:  Katherine Arden Genre: Historical fiction, fantasy My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil. After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. A...

I was looking online for a reading challenge to do this year, and I found an awesome one at Pages of Starlight ! You can check it out by clicking on the link. I love that this challenge is mostly sci-fi/fantasy and speculative fiction, because that's what I usually read. Still, it has enough unique criteria that it's going to be challenging to read them all. I really like how a lot of the challenge focuses on diverse books, because that's something I care a lot about. I keep saying I'm going to do more DiverSFFy posts, and even though I read a lot of books featuring POC and LGBTQ authors/main characters, I don't feature them enough. I'm hoping this challenge will help motivate me to expand my horizons and actually feature some awesome diverse books. Here's the challenge grid: I have a few ideas for books I want to read that fulfill the challenge, so I'm going to list them here: 2) Historical Fantasy: Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear ...

I'm about 3 months behind on reviews, what a way to start the year! In an effort to catch up, I'm going to do bullet point reviews so that I can get my thoughts out quickly and catch up by the end of the month! Some books I read in the last 3 months need full reviews because I have so much to say about them, so there will be a few of those too! My first 3 books are Blood Song by Anthony Ryan, Hammered (Iron Druid chronicles) by Kevin Hearne, and Throne of Jade (Temeraire) by Naomi Novik. Funnily enough, Blood song is book 1 in its series, Throne of Jade is book 2, and Hammered is book 3! I put them all together because they're all fantasy books, I read them all in October, and they all got 3 stars. 3 stars from me usually means I was kind of bored with the book, it was annoying enough for 2 stars but it wasn't enjoyable enough for 4. Perfect for bullet reviews, because I never have much to say about 3 star books! Blood Song by Anthony Ryan Genre: Fantasy ...