Showing posts with label reading recommendations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading recommendations. Show all posts

7 Sept 2021

Top Ten Tuesday (21): Top Ten Books Guaranteed to Put a Smile On Your Face

07 September 0 Comments

  

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. See all the posts every week by clicking on the link to read their blog!

Today's Top Ten Tuesday theme is all about books that I think will put a smile on your face, which means they put a smile on mine! I tried to give you a mix of genres and even ones that put a smile on my face AFTER it crushed my soul, so enjoy those!
 
 

What books always make you smile?
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5 Feb 2017

#52wks52bks: Week Six Recommendations + #Interview with Patty Blount!

05 February 1 Comments
You may or may not know, but this year I am hosting a 2017 reading challenge! Every week for the whole year there are different themes and the idea is to read a book that fits the theme within that week! It will help you keep on track for your Goodreads Challenge as you will be at least thinking about a book for a whole week even if you don't quite get to it. 

But don't worry, if you don't finish a book or skip a week or start late, that's okay! This is just to make you think more about the types of books you are reading and to broaden your horizons.

If you didn't see the original post with all the challenges, click HERE.
If you are participating (or want to without checking, that's cool too), you can keep track of your reads with my Handy Dandy Charts.

This week's theme is...

Book With "Some" In the Title

Here are some books that you can check out to read for this week's challenge!

I'll be reading...

SOME BOYS

Author: Patty Blount
Series: N/A
Source: Purchased from Kobo
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: August 5th, 2014

Summary:

Some boys go too far. Some boys will break your heart. But one boy can make you whole.

 When Grace meets Ian she's afraid. Afraid he'll reject her like the rest of the school, like her own family. After she accuses the town golden boy of rape, everyone turns against Grace. They call her a slut and a liar. But...Ian doesn't. He's funny and kind with secrets of his own.

 But how do you trust the best friend of the boy who raped you? How do you believe in love?

 A gut-wrenching, powerful love story told from alternating points of view by the acclaimed author of Send.

Purchase:
Amazon | Chapters | TBD
I also have the wonderful Patty Blount here for an interview so you can learn more about the book I am reading this week!

Describe SOME BOYS in 10 words or less.


Patty Blount: Grace won't back off. No matter what people say. 

How long does it take you to write first drafts?


Patty Blount: The first draft literally took seven weeks to write. But there were several months of thinking, playing around with ideas, and research that also went into that first draft. I first got the idea in February and finished writing the first draft in October.
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29 Jan 2017

#52Wks52Bks: Week Five Recommendations + #Interview with BECKY CHAMBERS!

29 January 1 Comments
You may or may not know, but this year I am hosting a 2017 reading challenge! Every week for the whole year there are different themes and the idea is to read a book that fits the theme within that week! It will help you keep on track for your Goodreads Challenge as you will be at least thinking about a book for a whole week even if you don't quite get to it. 

But don't worry, if you don't finish a book or skip a week or start late, that's okay! This is just to make you think more about the types of books you are reading and to broaden your horizons.

If you didn't see the original post with all the challenges, click HERE.
If you are participating (or want to without checking, that's cool too), you can keep track of your reads with my Handy Dandy Charts.

This week's theme is...

Book You've Heard A Lot About But Haven't Read

Here are some books that I highly recommend that I *have* read that I think you guys should read! This way you have some books to choose from ;)

I'll be reading...

THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL, ANGRY PLANET

Author: Becky Chambers
Series: Wayfarers #1
Source: Purchased from Kobo
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication Date: August 13, 2015

Summary:

Somewhere within our crowded sky, a crew of wormhole builders hops from planet to planet, on their way to the job of a lifetime. To the galaxy at large, humanity is a minor species, and one patched-up construction vessel is a mere speck on the starchart. This is an everyday sort of ship, just trying to get from here to there. 

 But all voyages leave their mark, and even the most ordinary of people have stories worth telling. A young Martian woman, hoping the vastness of space will put some distance between herself and the life she‘s left behind. An alien pilot, navigating life without her own kind. A pacifist captain, awaiting the return of a loved one at war. 

 Set against a backdrop of curious cultures and distant worlds, this episodic tale weaves together the adventures of nine eclectic characters, each on a journey of their own.
Purchase:
Amazon | Chapters | TBD

I also have the wonderful Becky Chambers here for an interview so you can learn more about the book I am reading this week!

Describe THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL, ANGRY PLANET in 10 words or less.


Becky Chambers: A wormhole construction crew goes on a space road trip.

Which character from your book would you most like to be friends with?


Becky Chambers: That is a really tough call. I’m going to go with Dr. Chef. I just want to garden and eat snacks with him all day.

How is writing a sequel different to writing the first book in the series?


Becky Chambers: The biggest challenge is figuring out how much worldbuilding stuff to reiterate, and how much to let the reader remember on their own. I was constantly reminding myself that the only reason the lore is obvious to me is because I wrote it, and someone who read the first book a year or more ago will have forgotten things. That was an especially tricky thing to consider, given that A Closed and Common Orbit doesn’t follow the main characters from the first book and can be read as a standalone. I wrote it with the assumption that the reader’s read the first one already, but it had to work on its own as well. In the end, I decided not to repeat myself. I gave a few subtle reminders -- Aeluons don’t move their mouths when they speak, Harmagians use carts to get around, that kind of thing -- but for the most part, I trusted folks to follow along. 

Have you learned anything in the process of writing that you wished you'd known when you first started?


Becky Chambers: You will always, always, always think your work is terrible when you’re in the middle of getting it done. It doesn’t matter how many book deals you get or how many people tell you they like your stuff. All of us are our own worst critics. I’ve yet to meet an author who isn’t.

What's your favourite thing about being an author?


Becky Chambers: Creatively, I love being able to take something from inside my own head and put it into someone else’s. I think that’s kind of magic. And honestly, one of my favorite things is hearing how people interpret things differently than the way I imagined them. I get such a kick out of that. 

On the practical side, being my own boss is the best thing in the world. Yes, there are deadlines and whatnot, but for the most part, I’m on my own. I work when I want to work, I don’t have to stress about taking sick days or asking for vacation time, and I don’t have to sit around and look busy when I’m done for the day. It’s totally worth the quarterly taxes.

Why do you write Science Fiction novels?


Becky Chambers: Because I love real science. And yeah, I’ll be the first to tell you that my stories are not hard science fiction, so that may sound like a funny thing for somebody writing character-driven stuff to say. But science and science fiction have a symbiotic relationship, regardless of whether you’re drawing diagrams or not. It’s hard to find people working in STEM who weren’t inspired by books and TV shows when they were young. So I see myself as kind of a support class for the people who are doing what I view as the real important work. If all you get out of my books is a fun escape, then I’ve done my job, and I’m good with that. There’s value in taking your brain elsewhere for a while. But the hope that my stuff will spark an interest in space and exploration for someone out there is what keeps me working. And that doesn’t mean I want my readers to go for a career in science (though I’d consider that a huge achievement). Just an interest. A spark. I want people to care about space exploration. I want people to see the universe as something we’re a part of, something that belongs to us all equally. I want people to think about how small and fragile and precious our species is, and what we’ll need to prioritize if we want to keep existing. That’s why I write.

There was a lot of science involved in your book. What kind of research did you do?


Becky Chambers: I grew up in a family that works in science and aerospace, so a lot of it I just absorbed through proximity. My mom’s an astrobiology educator, so she’s usually my first stop when I have questions about whether or not something works the way I’ve written it. I like to keep things plausible, even if they’re unlikely. For The Long Way, I did spend some time in the library reading up on wormholes. The explanation I give in the book on how they work is pretty user-friendly, but I wanted to have a clear understanding of what I was riffing on. That’s true of most of the tech and physics in my books. If you’re going to mess with something, you have to know what you’re messing with.



Becky Chambers is the author of the award-nominated science fiction novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and its stand-alone sequel, A Closed & Common Orbit. She also writes nonfiction essays and short stories, which can be found in various places around the internet. In addition to writing, Becky has a background in performing arts, and grew up in a family heavily involved in space science. Having lived in Scotland and Iceland, she is currently back in her home state of California. She can be found online at otherscribbles.com and @beckysaysrawr.
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22 Jan 2017

#52wks52bks: Week Four Recommendations!

22 January 2 Comments
You may or may not know, but this year I am hosting a 2017 reading challenge! Every week for the whole year there are different themes and the idea is to read a book that fits the theme within that week! It will help you keep on track for your Goodreads Challenge as you will be at least thinking about a book for a whole week even if you don't quite get to it. 

But don't worry, if you don't finish a book or skip a week or start late, that's okay! This is just to make you think more about the types of books you are reading and to broaden your horizons.

If you didn't see the original post with all the challenges, click HERE.
If you are participating (or want to without checking, that's cool too), you can keep track of your reads with my Handy Dandy Charts.

This week's theme is...

BOOK ABOUT A ROAD TRIP

I have included some books that I want to read but haven't yet read. Here is a list on Goodreads for where to find these books because there are SO many to choose from!
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20 Jan 2017

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays (3): YA to Adult SFF Recommendations! #SFFFridays

20 January 3 Comments
To show you more about this month's theme for Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays, I'm doing a "If you read this, you will like that" round up of the Adult SFF books that you can easily transition into if all you have read is YA SFF! Clicking on the cover will take you to the Goodreads page so you can learn more about the book. Please note that all the books listed here are ones I have read. If I have reviewed the book, you can see my review by clicking on the title.

Breakdown for the month...


January's Theme: YA to Adult Crossover
January 6: 2016 Release Roundup
January 13: Review of OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon from Shannon @ Shannon Reads
January 20: YA to Adult SFF Recommendations
January 27: Review of THE ALCHEMISTS OF LOOM by Elise Kova

If you liked ILLUMINAE, read 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

Safe to say if you have read my review of ILLUMINAE, you will know that the entire time I was reading it, I was comparing it to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The two both have such similar plot story lines that it is hard not too. While ILLUMINAE has a different format for story telling via the emails, different transmissions, and pictures, but the plot itself is so strikingly similar to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. I will say that 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY doesn't have romance but it has more philosophical wonderings about life, space, and what it means to really be alive. I highly recommend checking it out!

If you liked FALLING KINGDOMS, read A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

I love the FALLING KINGDOMS series by Morgan Rhodes and it is extremely similar to the A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE series by George RR Martin. So if you liked that, you will enjoy ASOIAF. And I'm sure most of you have watched the show but the books are 100x better.
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