Friday 30 September 2016

The Book Sacrifice Tag

It's been too long since I've done a tag. I must, for the sake of my sanity, do a tag.



1. An Over-Hyped book: Let's start this off with a Zombie Apocalypse! Let's say you're in a book store, just browsing, when BAM! ZOMBIE ATTACK. An announcement comes over the PA System saying that the military has discovered that the zombies' only weakness is over-hyped books. What book that everyone else says is amazing but you really hated do you start chucking at the zombies knowing that it will count as an over-hyped book and successfully wipe them out?!




Divergent. I liked the first book well enough, but the more it was hyped and the more I read on, the more I started to hate it. It was honestly shoved in my face so many times. I even tried watching the movies, which I honestly think was way too long, at least it felt that way, it wasn't really that long, anyway I got bored. It needs to go.

2. A Sequel: Let's say you've just left the salon with a SMASHING new haircut and BOOM: Torrential downpour. What sequel are you willing to use as an umbrella to protect yourself?



Between the Spark and the Burn. I know that the first book isn't exactly well loved, but I really liked it. I was so excited to read this book and when I finally did, I wanted to unread it, it just wasn't all that I was expecting it to be.

3. A Classic: Let's say you're in a lecture and your English teacher is going on and on about how this classic changed the world, how it revolutionized literature and you get so sick of it that you chuck the classic right at his face because you know what? This classic is stupid and it's worth detention just to show everyone how you feel! What Classic did you chuck?



The Great Gatsby. I read that book and hated every character in that book except Gatsby because he was such a sweetheart. Nick was okay too, I guess. The rest I just hated, the whole story was just devastating and I was left unhappy after I read it and just hating everything.

4. Your least favourite book of life!: Let's say that you're hanging out at the library when BAM global warming explodes and the world outside becomes a frozen wasteland. You're trapped and your only chance for survival is to burn a book. What is the book you first run to, your least favourite book of all life, what book do you not fully regret lighting?



Daughter of Darkness. I wish I could bleach my eyes because I don't want to see anymore after reading that awful book. It actually beats out Twilight for my least favourite book ever which is kind of saying something. This book isn't overly well known and I'm glad for that. Just don't ever read this book. If you insist on having to know why I hate this book so much, I'll leave a link to the wiki page here. I honestly don't want to have to go over what happens in that book.

What books do you hate, Munchkins?

Blue Lily Lily Blue Book Talk

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3)
Blue Lily Lily Blue
by Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: October 21st, 2014

Spoilers

Synopsis:


There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up. 

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs. 

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost. 

Friends can betray. 
Mothers can disappear. 
Visions can mislead. 

Certainties can unravel.

My Thoughts:

I gave this book 5 stars. The books in this series just keep getting better and better. I'm terrified yet excited to read the last book in the series.



Blue and Gansey have been getting so close and adorable and I ship them so hard. I feel like their slow burning relationship is going to be one of the most satisfying ones in literature history. I mean, they're gone three books without even kissing yet. When it finally happens I'm probably going to cry, or sob. (I cry easily). Something about anticipation makes everything so much better. Relationships can go stale if the couple in question gets together to soon. 



Now Gansey, his future is in question because I feel like it's incredibly obvious that he is Blue's soul mate, but it hasn't exactly been confirmed yet, I mean, she could have just killed him and that was why she say his spirit in the first book. So they may not even be soul mates and that makes me nervous. What else makes me nervous is that Gansey is going to die no matter what, we just don't know how or when or if he is going to come back to life at all. I just want Blue and Gansey to be together.



Throughout the series, Noah has managed to keep my attention. Something weird happens to him in every book. He's also really sad, I just don't want this kind of after life for him. He still seems like he is suffering and he's also very ominous at times. I want to know what's going on with him. Will everything be better by the end of the series or will he be stuck reliving his death all the time, having temper tantrums and disappearing at random times. 



Also, Blue has been confronted by the fact that she has to choose something for her future. She wants to go to school and get a degree, but she doesn't exactly have the funds and she may not even get in. She's also threatened by the fact that all of her friends are going to go onto higher education, they will leave and she'll just be left behind. I mean thinking about it, Noah would probably still be there, but the rest are probably going to leave. 



Oh my gods, the part where it's revealed that Ronan actually dreamt Matthew into existence, I actually gasped. I feel like maybe I should have expected that since it was sort of hinted at in earlier books. Like when he was described as looking more like his mother than his father while Ronan and Declan both take after their father. Now thinking about it, that whole thing probably has to be resolved, cause if Ronan dies, then Matthew will fall asleep and never wake up. Anyway, Ronan's going to have an entire series to himself soon, so I guess it could be resolved there.



Also, Ronan and Adam are getting closer, since I sadly spoiled myself for that. I can see it all clearly now and every-time they're alone together my internal mantra is "KISS! KISS! KISS!" I can't wait to read the next book specifically for this reason.



I'm also curious about Artemis making a reappearance and what that could mean for Maura and Mr. Gray, also blue, but mostly the former. 

I want to know more about the sleepers. Who are they? What are they? What's keeping them asleep, or I guess awake in Gwenllian's case. They just feel very creepy and sometimes ignorance is not bliss. I want information. 



At first I couldn't really remember who the Greenmantle was, but I caught on quickly because it did in fact seem familiar. He wasn't as evil as I thought he was. I actually really liked him, it was his wife, Piper that I wasn't all that fond of. She was just very self absorbed. Let's just say that her ambition and evilness make her a Slytherin.




Quotes:

“I know when I'm awake and when I'm asleep," Ronan Lynch said.Adam Parrish, curled over himself in a pair of battered, greasy coveralls, asked, "Do you?""Maybe I dreamt you," he said. "Thanks for the straight teeth, then," Adam replied.” 

  “As they moved through the old barn, Adam felt Ronan’s eyes glance off him and away, his disinterest practiced but incomplete. Adam wondered if anyone else noticed. Part of him wished they did and immediately felt bad, because it was vanity, really:   See, Adam Parrish is wantable, worthy of a crush, not just by anyone, someone like Ronan, who could want Gansey or anyone else and chose Adam for his hungry eyes.” 

“It kills Dittleys and does terrible things to my friend.""YOUR DEAD FRIEND.""That's not his fault. Why didn't you say you could see him?""I DIDN'T SAY I COULD SEE YOU, EITHER.""But I'm not dead.""BUT YOU ARE PRETTY SHORT.” 

“Behind him, he heard Ronan say, "I like the way you losers thought Instagram before first aid. Fuck off.”

“What do we do now?" Gansey asked.From the other room, Calla bellowed, "GO BUY US PIZZA. WITH EXTRA CHEESE, RICHIE RICH."Blue said, "I think she's starting to like you.” 

Wednesday 28 September 2016

Top 5 Gateway Books to Your Favourite Genre

I was so close to choosing romance because I really love romance, but then I realized that I also really loved Fantasy and these books do in fact have romance in them, so I'm just going to go with Fantasy. Also, these books were incredibly hard to put into order, I love them all so much, for different reasons, some I love for the ships, others for the action, others because I love the characters so, so much. But I'm going to stand by what order I put them in.

5. Falling Kingdoms



This book isn't an overly long one. It's also told from the points of view of several different characters, as fantasy novels often do. So even if you really don't like one of the main characters, chances are you will like one of the others. It's fast paced and incredibly engaging. I loved it.

4. Throne of Glass



I have a long standing love for this book/series. When I mentioned ships earlier, I was talking about this series. Oh my gods, so many ships. I'm not going to spoil anything, but read it. The main character is such a badass and she's been through so many tough situations. If that isn't enough to peak your interest, she's also an assassin who mostly everyone is afraid of.

3. Mistborn



So I just finished this book last week and I loved it so much. The magic was unique and a freakishly simple concept. The main character, she isn't exactly a physical badass, but she is totally capable of kicking your ass.

2. The Name of the Wind



The first time I ever heard about this book was when I was in the 7th grade. My teacher told me to read it because it was really amazing and it was his favourite book. I didn't take his advice for a long time, I finally picked this book up in March. It was amazing and it blew my mind. I absolutely loved it.

1. Harry Potter (Philosopher's Stone, if we must get specific)



I don't know what else you were expecting. This was my gateway book/series into fantasy. This book is fun and exciting and the characters are relatable. It's a book series for all ages. I don't think I can say anything that I haven't already said about this series.

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Top 10 Book Adaptations

These can be either movies or tv shows. I left it open to both because honestly there really aren't that many tv shows based on books, and I decided to make this a list for books that I've read only, just so that I can rate it well.

10. Harry Potter Franchise



So the movies were not exactly on par with the books, but they had a lot of the stuff in there, I loved the cast, and even though they missed a large chunk of stuff *cough cough* Order of the Phoenix, I still really enjoyed watching them, and I do watch them often.

9. Safe Haven



I've seen quite a few Nicolas Sparks movie adaptations, but Safe Haven happens to be the only book by him that I have in fact read. I loved the movie, personally I liked it more than the book. It was exciting and romantic. Had a little bit of a thriller aspect, not really, but it had some action in it.

8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower



I loved both the book and the movie of this. I was first attracted to this movie because it has both Logan Lerman and Emma WATSON!!!!!! Meaning I loved the hell out of that movie.

7. Pretty Little Liars



I have been watching this show since it was in the beginning of the third season. I've loved every second of this show, I've had all my ships and some have sailed while others sank. I still love it. Now the books, a whole other story. I didn't like them at all, I read about 3 of them and finally decided to call it quits.

6. Peter Pan



I love anything that is Peter Pan related, but my personal favourite is the live action movie with Jeremy Sumpter. He was childhood crush. I felt like the movie expanded a lot more on the world and the characters just because the book was really short.

5. The Shining



Okay, so the book and the movie are way different, but they are both iconic. I really enjoyed both of them. I have my fingers crossed that they will decide to also make the sequel into a movie because I love Doctor Sleep so much and I want to see it on the big screen.

4. Practical Magic



You know that movie with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman? About the witches and the murder? It's fabulous. I loved both the movie and the book. They are honestly entertaining in such different ways and they both have special places in my heart.

3. Game of Thrones



I read the first book so I'm counting this. I've heard that after the first book the show goes off a bit on it's own, but from what I could tell in the first book, it was pretty accurate. Either way Game of Thrones is one of my favourite shows of all time so it not being on this list would have been a crime against humanity.

2. The Vampire Diaries



I may be one of the rare humans that have in fact read the books, I only have on left of the quartet and then I'm done. So the Vampire Diaries was the first "Teenager" show I ever watched. I went from watching Disney all day everyday to mixing it up a little bit. I'm so glad I did because I still love the show to this day.

1. Catching Fire



This may be the best book to movie adaptation ever in existence. I mean, there were actual lines from the book in the movie!!!! I was so excited. Finicky was played perfectly, thank you Sam Clafflin. Over all i felt everything I was supposed to and I loved it.

Sunday 25 September 2016

The Final Empire (Mistborn) Book Talk

The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)
The Final Empire 
by Brandon Sanderson
Release Date: July 25th, 2006

Spoilers

Synopsis:


In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with color once more?


In Brandon Sanderson's intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage — Allomancy, a magic of the metals.

My Thoughts:

I gave this book 5 stars. It was exciting and adventurous. It had a whole new unique magic system. It wasn't overly confusing or difficult. It was easy to catch onto and also incredibly useful.




I have to admit, I was so confused before I even started reading these books, I had to do actual research for this because I couldn't figure out which book was the first in the series. People kept saying it was The Final Empire, others were saying it was Mistborn. I finally came to the realization that they were the same book, just with a different title. I think the UK edition was The Final Empire and the American one was Mistborn. Anyway, I worked everything out and I ended up with a copy of Mistborn. 




I started this book back in July when on a camping trip. I was really loving it, but I was only about 200 pages into this book and I was halfway through my trip and I wanted to have read more than one book on this trip, so I read a few shorter books and decided I would come back to this later. Big mistake. It has taken me two months to get back into this book. I picked it back up a few days ago and just fell in love with the story. The plot, the characters. I wanted to be in the story. I finally understand why everyone thinks this book is so amazing. 




I'm still not completely versed on what every single metal does and what the user is called, but I think I'm getting better at it. The idea is a simple one and I had no issues understanding how things worked.




I ship Vin and Elend so hard. They are the cutest couple ever. Elend is so witty and sarcastic, plus he loves books and reading. How could I possibly hate this guy. There is no possible way I could dislike him.




Vin has had to go through so much hardship in her lifetime, her mother killed her sister and then almost killed her. Her brother beat her and treated her like absolute shit and then he left her with no explanation. Her father was not winning any awards anytime soon. She was left by everyone in her life. Abandoned. I just thought it was perfect when Elend came back to her after leaving her. She was so lonely, heartbroken after Kelsier died, having been left again. She finally had someone come back to her after leaving. I was overjoyed by this.




The evolution of Vin was fascinating to observe. She went from street urchin to high class lady of the court. She was not only that, she was also a Mistborn. She probably never thought she would amount to anything and then to suddenly have all these chances placed at her fingertips, happy.




Since the whole showdown involving the Lord Ruler happened in this book, I'm curious to see what conflicts arise in the next books. I thought that the fight would last throughout the trilogy which seems to be the basic protocol for fantasy novels, but I guess this one is different. 




When Kelsier died, I was vert surprised. I thought her would be common place in this series. I mean, I could not believe that Kelsier would just die in the first book, I felt like he had so much more living to do, so much more he had to teach Vin. He was her mentor! He couldn't just die and leave her hanging.




In the final showdown, I thought it was relatable that Vin's first try when killing the Lord Ruler didn't work, not even her second try. A lot of the times I've noticed in books that the first try often works and I'm sitting there reading it like, "How? How could you figure this out so quickly? Ever heard of trial and error?" I felt like in this aspect it was pretty relatable that the first few times you try you're probably going to fail.




Quotes:


“My behavior is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I'm quite prone to such bouts of deplorability--take for instance, my fondness for reading books at the dinner table.”  

“But you can't kill me, Lord Tyrant. I represent that one thing you've never been able to kill, no matter how hard you try. I am hope.”  

“How do you 'accidentally' kill a noble man in his own mansion?""With a knife in the chest. Or, rather, a pair of knives in the chest...”  

What? Is that boy crazy?""Most young men his age are somewhat crazy, I think," Sazed said with a smile. "However, this is hardly unexpected. Haven't you noticed how he stares at you when you enter a room?""I thought he was just creepy.”  

“Women? Women are like...thunderstorms. They're beautiful to look at, and sometimes they're nice to listen to-but most of the time they're just plain inconvenient.” 

Wednesday 21 September 2016

Waiting on Wednesday

The Struggle 
By Jennifer L. Armentrout
I read the second book in this series during the summer and I fell in love with the series even more. It was left on a huge cliffhanger and I need this whole thing to be resolved. I need this book to come out yesterday.

Top 5 Characters You Wouldn't Want to Switch Places With

This was a bit of a harder list because for the most part, I usually want to be the main character of books, that's the allure of reading. I did finally make a decision. I'm happy with those that I chose.

5. Kestrel 



So she is really cute with Aron and I ship them together so hard, not to mention she is insanely smart and clever and can get herself out of most situations. I just felt so bad for her when her father, who claimed to love her, totally betrayed her and she ended up in that slave camp. I don't think I would do so well knowing that my own father had betrayed me and I was forced into such an ugly life.

4. Jay Gatsby



I love Gatsby so much. He was probably the only character in the entire book that I actually loved. I just wouldn't have wanted to be him because he was surrounded by terrible and selfish people, besides Nick, of course. They used him and discarded him. Daisy used him as a scapegoat. She killed her husband's mistress and had the blame put on Gatsby because he loved her, then took off with her cheating husband while Gatsby was murdered by Tom's mistress's husband. Nick was the only one who seemed to care. It seems like a terrible life to me.

3. Hannah Baker



The book was about her suicide. I don't know how else to put this. The story is going through the reasons why she killed herself, making everything 10 times worse than if I had never known why.

2. Bella Swan



She has no ambition. No drive. She doesn't really want to do anything with her life except be with Edward and occasionally fight off vampires who don't agree with her relationship. I see nothing enviable there. Not a single thing.

1. Katniss Everdeen



I don't think this one is a surprise at all. While I did really like Katniss, she just had so much tragedy in her life. She is forced into an arena at 16 to kill other teenagers. She is then forced into said arena again, to kill other people who have been forced to kill teenagers. Not enviable. Not even mentioning her personal life. Peeta goes insane, tries to kill her after forgetting to love her. She is insanely PTSD. The sister she went into the games to save, dies anyway. Her best friend is the one who invented the thing that killed her sister. Her father is already dead and her mother ends the book by abandoning her.

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Top 10 Books That Got Me Into Reading

For the most part, these books aren't in any order, except for number 1 which was the tipping point into my obsessions with books.

10. Fantastic Mr. Fox



This book to this day, remains one of my favourite books of all time. I've been itching to reread this for many years now. I originally read this in, I think, the third grade. I can't exactly remember, but I just remember hating books, but loving this.

9. The Witches



Another Roald Dahl book. Ronald Dahl may have just been the exception of my childhood hatred towards books. Anything her wrote was just fascinating to me, it was outside the box and put in a way that my child brain revelled in, although, the movie scared me the first time I read it. I still have this book on my shelf today.

8. Kensuke's Kingdom



Unlike the rest of the books on this list, I never actually read the book myself. My teacher read this book to us. At first I was bored and didn't want to listen, because I'm actually really bad at paying attention, but I subconsciously listened, and eventually I looked forward to listening to this book everyday. It was an amazing story and I had such a great time with this.

7. Mr Popper's Penguins



In the fourth grade I was still under the impression that I hated reading, my teacher was determined to get me to read a book that year. So she asked me what I liked. I told her animals. She went and pulled this book out and told me to read it. I loved this book so much. I could never get myself to watch the movie. It just looked so different in the trailer, I couldn't ruin my image of this book.

6. Dog Lost



This book had a dog on the cover, so of course I had to read it. It was a really sad book, but I loved it. I read it over and over again and for the longest time it was the only book I would read. No matter how sad I found it, I just could not stop reading it over and over again.

5. The Frog Princess



My friend was going on and on about how good this book was. She was totally harassing me to read it and finally one day I checked it out of the school library. I got about a chapter in and decided I didn't want to read it so I put it back down and returned it. A couple weeks later my friend was still harassing me to read this book, so I went and checked it out again, brought it home. I really wasn't even going to try reading it again, but I got bored and decided to read it. I stayed up till 1 am reading this book. Considering how young I was I'm surprised my parents let me. I fell in love with the book and instantly had to read the rest in the series. I have every single on of those books still on my shelf.

4. The Underneath



I read this book in the 2nd grade. It was the first book I read that I actually didn't hate. I even enjoyed it. It wasn't enough to get me into full time reading, but it was a good gateway book.

3. Henry and Ribsy



I really don't remember what this book was about, but I read it right after Mr. Popper's Penguins, and it was the book that forced me into casual reading. I was no longer a one book a year kind of girl. Maybe 3 or 4 a year.

2. Talking to Dragons



My teacher was forcing me to get a book for silent reading because apparently Garfield comics weren't actually books (I still call bullshit on that) so I just walked along the shelves and pulled a random book off the shelf. It ended up being this one. This explains why this is the fourth book in a series and I haven't read any of the others. It could have been a stand alone though, it was about a different character. This book took me a month to read, but it was worth it. I really liked it.

1. Harry Potter



This was the series that once I finished, I could no longer just casually read books every once in a  while. I was obsessed. Checking out all sorts of books from the library, borrowing my sisters books because at the time I thought she had so many. I eventually even started buying my own books, and I've long since passed the point of no return.