Top 5 Tuesday #61: Retellings, Series, Standalones

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

I haven’t done this meme in a while since last week was BOOK TAG WEEK!!! and… I don’t know what the excuse is for the other weeks. But I’m doing it now! 😊 I think I’ll just catch up on the ones I haven’t done in this post since I like the topics. I’ll start with this week’s topic.

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This week’s topic:

Top 5 standalone books

(Perhaps standalone books are more your thing. Tell us your top 5 standalone books.)

I tried to select books I haven’t mentioned or haven’t chatted about often.

“The Blade Itself” by Joe Abercrombie

I buddy-read this with Emily at Embuhleeliest back in June. We were trying it out to see if it’ll serve as a nice chunky series for us to jump in and get hooked on like we did with Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings. And, so far I’d say Abercrombie’s series has potential.

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Genre

Fantasy

Series

First Law, book 1

Pubbed

2006

From Goodreads

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian — leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.

Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Indie Bookstore Tag

And here we are on the last day of BOOK TAG WEEK!!! Did you have a good time? I sure did since I wanted to post stuff and was able to do so despite being unprepared for the week. So I’ll consider this BOOK TAG WEEK!!! a success.

I’ve decided to wrap up BOOK TAG WEEK!!! with the Indie Bookstore Tag, which was created by Vintage Books over on YouTube. Sure, I should have waited for Independent Bookstore Day to do it, but… eh. (I think it has already passed in the U.S.) I’m not patient. (I’m an inpatient procrastinator, yes indeedie.)

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What book(s) are currently in your bag?

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Blogger Stats Book Tag

Hope you’re not tired of BOOK TAG WEEK!!! yet because… it’s still going.

Well, today’s tag is the Blogger Stats Book Tag, which I found over on Tattooed Book Geek forever ago and totally planned to do way back then but… I didn’t. However, there’s no time like the present, eh?

Anyway, the tag was created by Stuart at Always Trust in Books.

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Last 3 books you read

The Adventures of Rama by Milo Cleveland Beach

A children’s picture book based on the epic Hindu classic, the Ramayana. The illustrations are from a 16^th-century Mughal manuscript.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

I reread this by audiobook, which is narrated by Roy Dotrice. I enjoy the series and am now rereading the third book, A Storm of Swords.

The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Ryder Hanrahan

It’s the first novel in a grimdark fantasy series about gods at war and how it affects people and places. I’ll post a review soon…ish.

Book Courtship Tag

Another day, another book tag because it’s BOOK TAG WEEK!!!…

Today’s tag is the Book Courtship Tag for which I was tagged forever ago by a blogger who has retired their blog (yes, this master procrastinator’s procrastination extends over years). The tag was created by booktuber Leah of Hi I Love Books.

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Phase 1 — Initial Attraction: A book you bought because of the cover

Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield

Oh, there are SO many of these. I’d say about 90% of the books I buy are because of their cover, lol. Hurricane Summer is a YA contemporary novel, I believe, about a girl visiting Jamaica when a hurricane passes through. I hardly ever try contemporary YA novels, so this was certainly a cover buy. The cover looks like a painting to me. Also, the end pages are a painting of Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica. It’s gorgeous. I couldn’t pass that up.

Horrible Histories Book Tag

BOOK TAG WEEK!!!… continues.

This time, I present the Horrible Histories Book Tag, which was created by Laura who runs Corner of Laura and who also tagged me! 😀 Thankie! Thankie!

From Laura’s post, I learned that Horrible Histories is actually a book series that was adapted for British TV, plays, films, and radio. Her post was the first I’ve heard of it, but it does sound pretty interesting.

Well then, to the tag!

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Shouty Man: A book that tried way too hard

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

It’s fantasy inspired by African folklore and although I liked it, I do think it tried hard to be dark and violent and gruesome at first. I really think that’s what turned people off earlier in the story. It was too much at once.

Anti-TBR Book Tag

Hey, hey! So, I’m mightily unprepared for the week so I declare a BOOK TAG WEEK!!! 😀

Brace yourself.

Book tags are coming your way everyday this week starting with the Anti-TBR Book Tag, which was created by booktuber Nicole & Her Books. I was tagged by my buddy-reader in all things Robin Hobb, Emily at Embuhleeliest.

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A popular book EVERYONE loves that you have no interest in reading

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

It’s a World War II book and I’m no longer interested in historical fiction novels from that period. However, it’s VERY popular. People are always coming into the bookstore seeking a copy.

Let’s Rewind: August 2021

Hmm… I wonder if last year’s August was as good as this one for me… probably not.

Let’s Rewind is a monthly wrap up but instead of talking about only books, I include all types of other stuff, like articles… bookish news… commercials… random-ass links… movies… art… podcasts… cartoons… and whatever else happened to me in the month. You know, the usual stuff that people talk about in monthly wrap ups. So read on to see what I did and read this month. You might stumble upon something that interests you.

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August was such a rejuvenating month for me. What can I say? I had fun and I enjoyed it. I mean, yea, I had some really low moments and even a health scare, but it ended on a high note and the health scare turned out to be an unnecessary worry, so great month! 😀

Best Books So Far in 2021

The following are the best books I’ve read so far this year. They are a combination of favorite reads and ones so entertaining that I HAD to rate them highly and include them on this list. I wanted this to be a nice, round 10 books, but instead I have 9 with some honorable mentions.

The variety of books here reflects my reading taste, so you’ll see novels but also comics and picture books as well. They are listed in order of what I most recently read.

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Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray
★★★★★

Three Illustrated Books by Akiko Miyakoshi

After reading the three books by Miyakoshi below, I now consider myself a fan of her work. I love her illustrations. They have a coziness to them that greatly appeals to me. I also like her stories. The ones here are charming, relatable, and fantastic. They do a great job depicting a child’s voice, and I had a wonderful time reading them, although I’m not a fan of the endings. They tend to fall a little short for me. Anyway, here are more details on what I read.

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The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi (illus.), transl. from the Japanese by Kids Can Press

Genre

Children Fantasy

Series

n/a

Pubbed

2010

(Goodreads)

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My thoughts

I began my introduction to Miyakoshi’s work by reading The Tea Party in the Woods, a charming story about a girl who befriends animals she met at a tea party in the woods.

Because it had snowed all night, Kikko’s father decides to visit grandma’s house, which is on the other side of the woods, to clear the walk for her. But he forgot the pie for grandma. Believing she can quickly catch up to her father, Kikko decides to follow his footsteps in the snow to take the pie to grandma. But on the way through the woods, Kikko arrives at a tea party with a bunch of animals in attendance.