Snowflakes and Spider Silk

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...

I don't usually read books in one sitting. I like to digest books slowly, and my attention span for books is pretty small;  I can't sit and read for more than an hour at a time. Sometimes I'll love a book so much that I read it for an hour, take a break, and keep coming back for more! Other times I'm stuck at the airport with nothing to do, so I end up reading for a lot longer than I usually do. And sometimes I just think "One more chapter..." and end up staying up hours past my bedtime. Here are the books that grabbed my attention so well that I devoured them really quickly.   One of my favorite books ever, this book grabbed my attention from the first paragraph and did not let go until I was up waaay too late turning the last few pages.   Sleeping Giants was a quick read because it's entirely dialogue/journal entries, but it's also an intense, fast-paced, and intelligent sci-fi novel that keeps you hooked. ...

Haven't done one of these in a while! Here are the books on my spring TBR that I'm looking forward to!   A nonfiction book and an Obama recommendation that I've been meaning to read for a while, looking forward to reading it soon!   I enjoyed Truthwitch and I'm looking forward to the sequel, hopefully I can get my hands on a copy this spring! I adored book 1 and I got this one at the library so I'll be reading it very soon! I'm so excited to see how this crew works together to get out of this next mess :)   I've been seeing this novella around everywhere  and it's been getting such great reviews, I'm really excited to read it soon.   The only way to cure a VE Schwab-induced book hangover is to read more VE Schwab, right? ;)   Pyrre was one of my favorite characters in the Unhewn Throne books, and I got approved for the eARC on Netgalley, so I'm excited to read about Pyrre...

I'm catching up, now I'm only a month and a half behind on reviews instead of 4 months XD I've been on and off the blog a lot because I've been flying out every weekend for grad school interviews, but now I'm done! Hopefully this means I will get a regular schedule going again and I will finally stop being months behind on reviews. This week's bullet reviews are all anthologies. I usually review each story in an anthology separately, but Dangerous Women was just too big for that and I loved basically all the stories in Arcanum and Stories, so I don't have too much to say about each short story/novella. I will talk about my favorites in each anthology though! Dangerous Women edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois Genre: fantasy, science fiction, mystery, contemporary, historical fiction Rating: 3/5 stars What I liked: I like how this anthology covers literally every genre, every story is something completely new! Lots of badass women of...

Title:  The Roanoke Girls Author:  Amy Engel Genre: Mystery, psychological thriller My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: After her mother's suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother's mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran fast and far away. Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to...

Sorry I've been AWOL for a couple weeks, I've been flying out all over the country for grad school interviews. This week is my last one (thank goodness, all the traveling and meeting new people is so tiring  even though it's a lot of fun), so hopefully I'll get back into the rhythm of updating the blog regularly. I also have to decide where I'm going soon...that's gonna be tough o.O I wasn't flying around this past weekend, but I did go to my first author event! I've been trying to meet at least one of my favorite authors for 5 years now but something always comes up last minute or I'm not able to get to where the signing is because it's 2 hours away on a Tuesday night and I'm a broke college student without a car. But this year, I'm no longer a college student and  I have a car! Double jackpot. I went down to Huntington Beach on Saturday to see Victoria Schwab on her A Conjuring of Light Tour, and I had such an amazing time. I wa...

Title:  Miranda and Caliban Author:  Jacqueline Carey Genre: Fantasy, Retelling My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Miranda is a lonely child. For as long as she can remember, she and her father have lived in isolation in the abandoned Moorish palace. There are chickens and goats, and a terrible wailing spirit trapped in a pine tree, but the elusive wild boy who spies on her from the crumbling walls and leaves gifts on their doorstep is the isle’s only other human inhabitant. There are other memories, too: vague, dream-like memories of another time and another place. There are questions that Miranda dare not ask her stern and controlling father, who guards his secrets with zealous care: Who am I? Where did I come from? The wild boy Caliban is a lonely child, too; an orphan left to fend for himself at an early age, all language lost to him. When Caliban is summoned and bound into captivity by Miranda’s father as part of a grand experiment, he rages against his...