“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” by Seth Grahame-Smith

My reading experience with Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was one of the best I’ve ever had. While reading the book, I went on a guided bus tour of Washington, D.C., and was told facts that confirmed some of the passages from the story.

I also visited an old train museum and read the book while sitting in its café area, which was restored to maintain how it looked back in the late 1800s. Doing so also helped to cement the novel’s worldbuilding in my mind making it easier for me to imagine the setting. I felt as if I was looking out on history while reading a story that called to it.

Goodreads summary:

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation. (Goodreads)

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Tome Topple Readathon TBR | Round 4

YES! 😀 Tome Topple is back and I’m gonna participate!

I’ve wanted to do this readathon ever since booktuber Sam from Thoughts on Tomes started it last year, but never got the chance to. But I think I’ll have the time now. All I’ll do is work and read. 😀 That’s paradise for me, y’all (except the work part).

The whole point of Tome Topple is to read big books (over 500 pages). Being a readathon, it crunches the allotted time to complete the book(s) to 2 weeks. Of course, there’s no pressure to actually complete the book(s) during that time. The readathon simply encourages us all to read the larger books on our shelves.

This round of Tome Topple will run from midnight on August 4 to 11:59 p.m. on August 17. I’m so ready for it!!

Book Haul #38: Attack of the e-books

Never had I thought a day would come when I would purchase as many e-books as I do physical ones. I’m spoiled on the sweet deals I keep finding for e-books, but I doubt I’ll like them more than the physical copies. I’ll always prefer holding a book in my hand rather than reading on a screen.

Physical books

Comics Roundup #16: Bored by Riverdale and Fairyland

Here are two comic books I thought I’d love: Archie and I Hate Fairyland, Vol. 1: Madly Ever After. Both are popular and have been mentioned by bloggers and booktubers so often that I thought I’d be an immediate fan. But instead, I was bored.

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I Hate Fairyland, Vol. 1: Madly Ever After by Skottie Young (illus.) with colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu

Genre:

Fantasy

Goodreads summary:

An Adventure Time/Alice in Wonderland-style epic that smashes its cute little face against grown-up, Tank Girl/Deadpool-esque violent madness. Follow Gert, a forty year old woman stuck in a six year old’s body who has been trapped in the magical world of Fairyland for nearly thirty years. Join her and her giant battle-axe on a delightfully blood-soaked journey to see who will survive the girl who HATES FAIRYLAND. (Goodreads)

My thoughts:

My opinion on this is an unpopular one. Just about everyone who has read this comic loved it and it’s easy to see why, but it just didn’t work for me. At first, I thought it was my mood that was the problem, but recently when I tried to reread it, I hopped around instead. I simply wasn’t interested.

Hogwarts Tag

Since yesterday’s tag eased my headache, I decided to do another Harry Potter-themed tag. I found this Hogwarts Tag over on Read All the Things. I do not know who the creator of it is.

Am I a pureblood, half-blood, or muggle born?

Considering how superstitious my family is and tendency to foretell events from their dreams (I’m not making this up, though I’m not sure if what my family members foretell always occur), I’d say I’m half-blood, but we’re super secretive about having magic because we mix so much with muggles.

Harry Potter Tag | via Bookidote

I have a migraine and it seems that it’s here to stay for the week, which means I can hardly think straight so there won’t be any book reviews (as I’d planned but didn’t share on here) for some time. However, a painful head puts me in the mood for Harry Potter (not really but any excuse is welcome) so here’s a Harry Potter book tag.

The tag was created by Trang over at Bookidote and the graphics were created by her as well. The only rule for this is that we’re banned from using the Harry Potter books in the answers. Oh boy.

A book you found the theme interesting, but you’d like to rewrite it.

Gilded Cage by Vic James is a YA dystopian fantasy novel set in the present day where some people, called the Equals, have magical abilities and enslave those who lack them, the Commoners. The novel was published earlier this year and has received mixed reviews. Though I liked it as I read, the story suffered from several plot holes that made parts of it unbelievable. I don’t think I’d do a good job if I should rewrite it, but I do wish the story had a stronger foundation.

Summer Reading Tag

It’s been a while since I’ve done a book tag, so since we are now boiling in the middle of summer, I thought why not do the Summer Reading Tag. The tag was created by booktuber Amy Jane Reads.

What three books do you want to read this summer?

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

The Iliad by Homer, trans. by Robert Fagles

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

I keep changing my mind about what I want to read next because I read according to my mood, but these three were on my summer TBR and I really would like to read or at least start them this summer. I would also like to sneak in one of Ann Brashares’s Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants books, if I can. Those are perfect for the summer.

“Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things” by Jenny Lawson

A couple weeks ago, I was on a roll reading memoirs about mental health. I started with Susan Cahalan’s Brain on Fire, which pricked my interested, then picked up Madness by Marya Hornbacher, which was absorbing though sometimes unsettling, and moved on to Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson, which was totally hilarious.

Quick summary:

“In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest.” (Goodreads)

My thoughts:

I cut that Goodreads summary short because that’s what the book’s about and all you need to know going in. You don’t even need to read the rest of my review, unless you’re really interested in knowing what I thought of the book, because it’s best to just hop right in. Trust me, you’ll enjoy it.

Judging A Book By Its Cover: Ramayana

Check out Milliebot Reads’s recent post on the art in Ramayana: Divine Loophole by Sanjay Patel.

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 do purchase special editions of books and multiple editions of books based on their cover art. If book covers didn’t matter, publishers wouldn’t put out so many beautiful editions!

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Weekend Reads #74: Hooked on Comics

Weekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I plan to read on the weekend. This weekend’s topic:

Comic books

I love comic books and graphic novels. Though I used to read the Archie comics as a kid and read Art Spiegelman’s Maus in middle school, it wasn’t until 2015 that I developed a love for this form of storytelling and started to add them to my book collection.

How it all began

My thanks goes to the online book community because it’s reviews by bloggers and vloggers that sparked my interest in comics. I didn’t know much about comics and didn’t understand some of the industry jargon, like distinguishing between what’s considered a comic book or a graphic novel and figuring out what “trades” refer to, but over time, after watching bookish videos and reading blog posts and articles (like “Graphic Novels 101” in issue #23 of the Diamond Bookshelf magazine), I learned and picked up some tips. Visiting my favorite comic bookshop also helped. The employees were always helpful in explaining things to me and recommending comics and MAKING ME BUY THEM!! (I can only visit when I have money because they always tell me about something I’ll like.)