Snowflakes and Spider Silk

There's no shame in loving genre fiction When I first meet people and we start talking about things we like to do, I always mention my love of sci-fi TV shows and fantasy books. There's always one of two reactions: 1) OMG I LOVE THEM TOO or 2) Aaaaaaaah I see (accompanied by eyes glazing over and a slightly vacant nod). I once had a friend tell me, "Oh, I don't read genre fiction anymore, it's too childish for me." It crushed me because I felt like I was being judged for enjoying what I did, and if I didn't have a taste for the more "refined" or "literary" works, did that make me a second-class reader? Is loving the emotional journey and entertainment value of a story somehow less valid than loving the intricacies of prose and metaphor? To be completely honest, one reason I love genre fiction is that it's all about transporting you to another world, whether it's in the past or future or on a magical world we'v...

The Magicians  is a pretty irreverent fantasy series: the whole point of it is to be subvert common fantasy tropes, like the idea of a heroic Chosen One and magical boarding schools being joyful experiences. The books are so snarky and subversive, and I wasn't really sure if the TV show would be able to capture that without being grating and annoying. I can't really say if I like the books better or the TV series better, because they each do some things better than the other. The TV series made the main cast of characters a lot easier to relate to, and the casting was absolutely perfect . I found Quentin a lot more likable in the first season of the show compared to the first book. In the book he is just so broody and directionless and depressed (which is the whole point, but it's still tough to get through a whole book of angsty Quentin). Quentin on the show is all of these things as well, but the faster pace of the show means he grows out of it quicker and it...

This week's edition of Book vs Adaptation: The 100 by Kass Morgan I've been watching The 100 for three years now, and although it took five episodes for this show to grow on me, I've been hooked ever since! Even if the science/logic is sometimes sketchy and the characters manage to magic themselves out of ridiculously dangerous situations with hair and makeup intact, I have come to love the characters. Especially all the fierce women on that show. Literally every single one of them is a QUEEN Not to mention all the POC and queer representation. This is a show that has a truly diverse cast and doesn't pigeonhole its characters by race, gender, or sexual orientation. I was really curious about what the source material for this show was like. Did it have the same level of moral complexity? Did it prominently feature women, POC, and queer characters? Were they even kind of the same story, or was the show just based on the same premise as th...

I've been watching a lot of TV shows and movies of books that I've read recently, and I thought it might be fun to compare how the same story plays out in different forms. My first post is on Ian McEwan's Atonement, since I just finished watching the movie tonight and it's fresh in my brain :) I'm going to do my best to compare the two without any major spoilers!   I listened to the audiobook of Atonement a couple of months ago, so one of the most interesting changes I noticed was that I had already fixed the narrator's voice as Briony's voice in my head; it was really strange hearing a different voice in the film! I don't think I would have had as strong a voice in my head if I'd read a hardcover of the book instead of listening to it. One of the biggest things I was curious about was how an unreliable narrator and nonlinear story were going to be incorporated into a film. The writing style and the unreliable narrator were my fa...

There's something to be said about first impressions. I know we aren't supposed to, but I definitely have judged a book by its cover (those retro sci-fi covers with the giant block print from the 80s? Run away, run far, far away!). I have become pretty good at judging whether I will like a book or a series after the first book. Either I love the characters or I can't stand them, I'm entranced by the world/plot twists or I wish they were more complex. And occasionally I just can't stand how blatantly/subtly sexist or problematic a book is, and then I won't continue with that book or series. Sometimes, though, I decide to give a series I didn't care for a second chance. The most striking examples are both of SJ Maas's series, Throne of Glass and ACOTAR. In both series, I thought the first book was okay, but I didn't fall in love with the main characters. I also didn't find the world-building all that interesting. But both books...

Let me start off this post with a universal truth: Neil Gaiman is freaking brilliant, and his imagination is unparalleled. There, now that that's out of the way, we can talk a little bit about why I have such a love-hate relationship with his books and stories.  Some of his books are truly some of the most gorgeously written books I have ever read. They're so rich and full of fantastical creatures that I would never have been able to think of my own head; even cliche creatures like fairies and princes and every-day-nobodies all have some sort of endearing or terrifying twist that makes them seem fresh and new no matter how many times you've read that kind of story before. Stardust and Neverwhere are two of my favorite Neil Gaiman books, and Neverwhere is one of my favorite  books, period. I also really liked the hilarious  Anansi Boys , and I don't know if "liked" is the right word for how 3rd grade me felt about Coraline  when our teac...

I don't read non-fiction very often. According to my Goodreads, I've read over 1,100 books and only 14 of them are non-fiction. I read to escape reality and get my mind off of whatever is bothering me, and fiction is always the way to go for me. But sometimes, I'm more in the mood to learn or think. Even then, I don't always head straight for non-fiction. I might read a historical fiction book to learn more about a time or place in history that I am not familiar with. I might read a news article or an editorial or two online.  I've found that when I do pick up a non-fiction book, it's a very specific kind  of book. I hardly ever read biographies or autobiographies; the only ones I've read are the ones from my biography projects or book reports in elementary school! I don't know why, but reading about the experiences of any one person isn't that interesting to me. There are exceptions, I really do want to read Malala's story s...

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...

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...

Fantasy vs. Science Fiction Worlds There's this age old tradition of fantasy novels taking place in the time of lords and ladies, princesses, dragons, knights, and young village boys who set out to make their fortune. There's also a tradition in science fiction, in which books are either set in the future or in parallel universes in order to make the technology landscape viable. But who says that magic and technology can't co-exist? The line blurs a little bit in steampunk novels, since they're set in the past, usually around the Victorian era, but feature steam-powered automatons and scientific contraptions. Still, this seems like a very small niche for science fiction and fantasy to overlap. I am an engineer, so I am such a nerd when it comes to cool technology, but a little magic here and there would be cool too! How can technology and magic co-exist? I think one of my favorite series as a kid is a great example of how magic and technology can ...

I know it's only October, and I've got a good 3 months more to read all sorts of fantastic books, but I'm really excited about some of these and I just can't wait until December to tell you all to read them! Here are some of my favorite reads (some ARCs, some not) from this year. Fantasy Uprooted is one of those books that is really slow and you don't realize how much you're falling for it until you're halfway through and you realize you just can't put it down. It's lyrical and beautiful, but it also has one of the most unconventional fantasy protagonists I've ever written. Agnieszka is an unapologetic klutz and actually pretty terrible about learning how to control her magical powers, but she's also fiercely loyal and headstrong and brave. The setting is such a big part of this story, which I loved. No surprises here! I cannot believe how much this series has changed from book 1 to book 4. I really disliked the fir...