Family of Books Tag

I enjoy doing book tags. Yes, it’s true. And it’s that time of year when there are many, many tags to fit the drastic change in season and the family-centered holidays that pop up around this time of year. This and the most recent tag I did would have been great leading up to Thanksgiving, but since I discovered them after that holiday, I’m posting them late.

This one is the Family of Books Tag, where we’re given bookish questions that match certain family members. It was created by booktuber Acacia Ives.

Parent: A book that hugs you when you need it.

Advertisement

Shelf Control #4: “Whisper Hollow” by Chis Cander

Shelf Control is a weekly meme created by Lisa at Book Shelf Fantasies where bloggers feature books they own and would like read. It’s a way for readers to take stock of what they own and get excited about the books on their shelves and on their devices.

This cover of this week’s book made me assume it’s a horror novel, but it seems more like a mystery with a hint of horror.

---

My pick for the week:

Title: Whisper Hollow

Author: Chris Cander

Genre: Historical; thriller

Published: 2015

Length: 400

Goodreads overview:

Set in a small coal-mining town, a debut novel full of secrets, love, betrayal, and suspicious accidents, where Catholicism casts a long shadow and two courageous women make choices that will challenge our own moral convictions.

One morning in Verra, a town nestled into the hillsides of West Virginia, the young Myrthen Bergmann is playing tug-of-war with her twin, when her sister is killed. Unable to accept her own guilt, Myrthen excludes herself from all forms of friendship and affection and begins a twisted, haunted life dedicated to God. Meanwhile, her neighbor Alta Krol longs to be an artist even as her days are taken up caring for her widowed father and siblings. Everything changes when Myrthen marries the man Alta loves. Fourteen years later, we meet Lidia, a teenage girl in the same town, and her precocious son, Gabriel. When Gabriel starts telling eerily prescient stories that hint at Verra’s long-buried secrets, it’s not long before the townspeople begin to suspect that the boy harbors evil spirits—an irresistible state of affairs for Myrthen and her obsession with salvation.  

Where I got it: From a pile of free books at work.

When I got it: 2015

Why I want to read it: I picked it up because I love the cover. I don’t think I read the synopsis when I took the book, but I assumed it would be psychological horror and that I would like it. I need to try it to see if that’s true.

“Girls in Pants” by Ann Brashares

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series is shaping up to be one of my favorites. It’s one of few young-adult contemporary books I like.

Quick overview:

It’s the third summer of the sisterhood and the girls — Carmen, Bee, Lena, Tibby — are preparing to go to college. They’ve all decided on schools that are a few miles from each other and are looking forward to new experiences, but are worried about what they’ll leave behind.

In this installment, Bee is dealing with boy trouble at a soccer camp where she’s a coach, Lena is sneaking to take art classes after her father sees her drawing a naked dude, Carmen is babysitting Lena’s grandma while plotting against her mom (as always) and trying to catch the eye of a cute guy, and Tibby is hiding from her problems and trying to hold onto her old life before moving on to a new one.  

Booksgiving Tag

I recently discovered the Booksgiving Tag, which was created by booktuber SophiesSeries, and decided to do it to add a bit of the Thanksgiving celebration to my blog. My family doesn’t traditionally celebrate Thanksgiving, but we usually join in the fanfare surrounding the holiday, plus we love the excuse to eat and be merry with family and friends.

I’m thankful for many things this year and I feel truly blessed despite my complaints that life isn’t going as I want it to. Still, I’m pretty lucky and grateful for all the opportunities I have. And, regarding this blog, I’m thankful that I am able to blog, that I’ve stuck to it, and that I’ve gained many followers on here and have discovered many new bloggers and booktubers who often introduce me to new books and other media.

Thank you all for sticking with my blog! 🙂

The Wrangler/Savior

What character would be most likely to chase after a turkey and what character would be most likely to save it?

For this, I’ll choose characters from my favorite anime (is it an anime?) Avatar: The Last Airbender. The turkey saver would be Aang because he loves animals and is a vegetarian, but the turkey chaser would be Sokka because he’s always up to something crazy and whenever there are animals about that can be eaten, he usually chases them. That’s how he ended up like this:

Beauty and the Beast Book Tag

Here I am with another book tag to distract myself from the many, MANY Black Friday deals that are tempting me to spend money I don’t have. I consider myself tagged by Liam at Hey Ashers, whose blog you should check out (and I highly recommend his snarky chapter-by-chapter recap of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.). The tag was created by Kirsty @ Kirsty and the Cat Read.

Before I get to the tag, I must admit that I’m not a huge Beauty and the Beast fan. I enjoyed the original Disney movie, but didn’t care much for the story. I’m more of a Cinderella girl. However, I am looking forward to the new Beauty and the Beast movie, starring Hermione Granger Emma Watson, that’s supposed to drop next year.

From the preview, it seems that the story is mostly the same as the original Disney movie, but I’m curious to see if any major changes were made. Also, I’m looking forward to Chip, who’s my favorite character in the story. By the way, if you haven’t seen the trailer yet, here it is:

Weekend Reads #63: Q&A Announcement

As announced in my Addams Family Book Tag post, I recently hit 800 subscribers and that number keeps growing! I’m really happy about this and I’m really thankful for all those who have subscribed, commented, and interacted with my blog in some way. To show my appreciation, I’ve decided to do a

Q&A!! 😀

I don’t share much about myself on here so this would be a good way for y’all to get to know me better, though I am a bit nervous about revealing more about myself.

I’ll leave this announcement up for about two weeks or so. You can post your questions in the comments section below, or, if you’re not on WordPress, you can send them to me via Twitter (my Twitter handle is @ZezeeWithBooks) or by email (zezee112@outlook.com).

With that said, this Q&A is now open. Go ahead and post your questions below. 😛

---

What I’m reading this weekend:

I’m still reading Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb with Emily at Embuhlee liest. I’m enjoying the story so far though I don’t like any of the characters much. The world is interesting and I’m curious about the Rain Wilds because it’s mentioned but we don’t know much about it yet.

I picked up M.R. Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts on Friday and am already hooked on the story because it has made me so curious about what is going on and who the little girl is. I also wonder if she’s locked up or being protected from something or both.

I also started Superman: Red Son on Friday. It’s a comic book that reimagines the superhero as a member of the Soviet Union rather than the U.S. So instead of being born on a farm in Kansas, Superman is instead born on a collective farm in the Ukraine. It was written by Mark Millar with art by Dave Johnson, Kilian Plunkett, Andrew Robinson, Walden Wong, and Paul Mounts. I’ve only read a few panels so far but I look forward to an intriguing story.

And that’s it for this weekend. What have you been up to? And remember to leave your questions below! 🙂

Judging A Book By Its Cover: Lord of the Flies

My beautiful copy of the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition of The Lord of the Flies was featured by Millie, of Milliebots Reads, in her “Judging a Book by Its Cover” post.

The post is a weekly meme where she features beautiful cover designs and packaging of both classic and contemporary books. Check it out!

Milliebot Reads

This is my weekly post where I highlight and appreciate cover designs and the general physical appearance of books. We all judge book covers to some extent. I can’t say that I’ve ever decided against a book with terrible cover art if I liked the sound of the plot, but I have purchased special editions of books or multiple editions of books based on their cover art. If book covers didn’t matter, publishers wouldn’t put out so many beautiful editions!

This week, I’m happy to present a special post – Zezee, from Zezee with Books has photographed her awesome edition of Lord of the Flies so I could feature it here on my blog. She’s informed me it’s a Penguin Classics Deluxe edition (of course!), published this month, ISBN: 9780143129400.

View original post

Shelf Control #3: “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys

Shelf Control is a weekly meme created by Lisa at Book Shelf Fantasies where bloggers feature books they own and would like read. It’s a way for readers to take stock of what they own and get excited about the books on their shelves and on their devices.

This week’s book celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and was written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

---

My pick for the week:

Title: Wide Sargasso Sea

Author: Jean Rhys

Genre: Literary; historical

Published: 1966

Length: 190 pages

Goodreads overview:

Jean Rhys’s reputation was made upon the publication of this passionate and heartbreaking novel, in which she brings into the light one of fiction’s most mysterious characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

A sensual and protected young woman, Antoinette Cosway grows up in the lush natural world of the Caribbean. She is sold into marriage to the coldhearted and prideful Rochester, who succumbs to his need for money and his lust. Yet he will make her pay for her ancestors’ sins of slaveholding, excessive drinking, and nihilistic despair by enslaving her as a prisoner in his bleak English home.

In this best-selling novel Rhys portrays a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.  

Where I got it: My university’s bookstore.

When I got it: Umm…2008?

Why I want to read it:

Well, I know the whole point of this meme is to feature books I haven’t yet read, but I think I’ll include books I want to reread as well. This is one of those books. I’ve always wanted to reread Wide Sargasso Sea. I didn’t like it when I first read it for a Caribbean literature class because I found it very confusing. I’d like to see if my reaction to the book has changed. Also, I read Jane Eyre earlier this year and liked it so it would be good to follow that up with the story of the madwoman in the attic.

Wide Sargasso Sea is on the must-read list I set for myself this year, but it’s highly likely I won’t get to it until next year.

Related articles:

Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (theparisreview.org)

Charlotte Brontë May Have Started the Fire, But Jean Rhys Burned Down the House (lithub.com)

The Book That Changed Jane Eyre Forever (bbc.com)

“The Curse of the Wendigo” by Rick Yancey

“I have had my fill of fear. I have stared too long into the abyss, and now the abyss stares back at me.”

Halloween was a couple weeks ago and in honor of the unofficial holiday, I decided to read the second novel in Rick Yancey’s Monstrumologist series, The Curse of the Wendigo. The series follows a teenaged boy called Will Henry, who works as an assistant to one of the greatest monstrumologists of his time, Pellinore Warthrop. Dr. Warthrop is a scientist who studies specimen commonly classified as monsters and he often takes Will with him on his adventures and investigations.

Like the first novel, The Monstrumologist, this second book is a frame tale, the bulk of which is told through Will’s journals. In the present day, Will has died leaving behind his journals, his sole possessions. The director of the retirement home where Will resided asked his writer friend, who we assume is Rick Yancey, not only to try to ascertain the truth of the journals, the contents of which are highly unbelievable, but also to possibly track down any of Will’s remaining relatives. In his attempts to do so, Yancey publishes Will’s journals, which we now read.

Book Haul #29: Used & New

…And I’m back with a book haul post. Here are all the books I’ve acquired recently. If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve probably seen them already. Oh well.

Used books

I don’t usually buy used books but these were in such great condition that I grabbed them. I picked up The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd because I saw lots of rave reviews for it last year, and I got Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley, with illustrations by Douglas Gorsline, because I heard it’s a book that book lovers will enjoy. I think I first heard of it on the Book Riot Youtube channel.