Mango Book Tag

I knew I HAD to do this tag the moment I saw it.
Okay, okay. Yes, I say that about almost every book tag I see, but this one is different because it’s named after my favorite fruit and the questions and such are based on mangoes! 😀 🥭

PLUS!! I ate a sweet, juicy mango a few days ago, and… Oh man! The mango was so good! My mouth is watering thinking about it right now. It had been so long since I’d eaten a mango. I miss it so much.

So, yea, I had to do a mango tag. 🥭

The tag was created by Nandini at Novels and Nebulas. She loves mangoes (of course!) and was inspired to create this tag after reading the Tiger at Midnight series by Swati Teerdhala. One of the characters, Esha, loves mangoes too, which I think is pretty cool. I don’t think I’ve ever read about a character who loves mangoes. 🥭

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“Boy Snow Bird” by Helen Oyeyemi

This novel had been sitting on my shelf unread for a while, so when a bookclub I’m in chose it for one of our reads, I was enthusiastic to do so. I’d heard great things about it and that it’s inspired by the Snow White fairytale, so I thought the book sounded promising. But unfortunately, the story wasn’t as outstanding as I thought it would be.

Genre

Historical Fiction; Magical Realism; Literary

Series

n/a

Pubbed

2013

Goodreads summary

The widely acclaimed novel that brilliantly recasts the Snow White fairy tale as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity.

In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman.

“Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky” by Kwame Mbalia

I finally got around to trying one of the Rick Riordan Presents books! 😊 I enjoyed reading Riordan’s Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus novels, so I was glad and eager for novels published under his imprint since they would also be fun middle-grade fantasy novels but would instead tap into other world mythologies and folklores.

Apart from that, I was also interested in Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky because there are few middle-grade fantasy novels that center on a Black character and is grounded in Black culture and myths. So I was beyond excited to read this, and I enjoyed it!

Genre:

MG Fantasy

Series:

Tristan Strong, book 1

Pubbed:

2019

Goodreads summary:

Seventh-grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in.

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 13 | Picture Books & Graphic Novels… Maybe Some Comics Too?

Okay, I have no idea what to call this shelf. This bookcase that we’re almost done touring has a weird design because the shelves aren’t equidistant apart. I tried to make them so, but I ended up with shelves that my books could hardly fit on when placed vertically.

This bookcase was originally intended for the general household books, which is what I call all the books that aren’t on my bookshelves. We have loads more in the basement and this bookcase was intended to hold them, but then we (well, my dad) ended up placing some built-in shelves down there, so I happily took this deep bookcase.

Because this shelf can’t hold books that are placed vertically (except some mass market paperbacks) I placed here books that can’t fit anywhere else and stacked them horizontally. So you’ll mostly see here picture books and hardcover graphic novels. I also have some art prints I got at conventions but have yet to put up and an Assassin’s Creed calendar that I like too much to get rid of although it’s several years old.

Anyway, here’s the bookcase we’re almost done touring:

And here’s the self we’re on. (Can you believe it?? We’re almost at the end of this bookcase!… And then we have a whole other bookcase to tour. I hope y’all are enjoying this because the touring series will be going on for a while.)

“Greyborn Rising” by Derry Sandy

Here’s a paranormal novel set in the Caribbean that includes creatures from Caribbean folklore. There are jumbies, soucouyants, lagahoos, and a nefarious obeah man intent on letting in more monsters from the Grey.

(Btw, I know the author and received a free copy of the book to read and review; but my thoughts below are my honest reaction to the story.)

Genre:

Paranormal; Fantasy

Series:

n/a

Pubbed:

2019

Goodreads summary:

The Greyborn are Rising and only the Order can save humankind.

The world consists of three parallel realms; the Grey where Greyborn—preternatural creatures of legend live; the Ether which is the realm of Heaven and Hell; and the Absolute where humans make their home, blissfully unaware of the tripartite nature of their world.

NEWTS Magical Readathon | 2020 TBR

Here we are barreling into August with the coronavirus still hot on our tail. If you’re like me, you’re tired and depressed by the negative news cycle that seems to become more bleak each day. The Magical Readathon is one of the most fun reading events I participate in each year, so I was especially looking forward to doing the NEWTs this August.

However, this will be the end of the Magical Readathon — or, at least, the end of the readathon while it’s heavily influenced by the Harry Potter books. The host, booktuber Book Roast, has decided to discontinue the readathon for now due to negative comments J.K. Rowling made concerning the transgender community. She plans to relaunch the readathon using her own ideas instead of Harry Potter as the inspiration. The NEWTs that will be held this August will be the last of its kind, and there are a few minor changes in how it will run; so check out Book Roast’s video for more details and for the NEWTs prompts.

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Here are a few facts about the readathon, if you’re new to it and would like to participate.

• The Magical Readathon is based on the exams in the Harry Potter books.
• The first part of the readathon is called the OWLs. It took place April 1-30.
  • However, you can do your OWLs now and the NEWTs later, if you like… something like that. Visit the readathon’s website for those details.
• The second part of the readathon is called the NEWTs. It will take place August 1-31.
  • However, since this is the last iteration of this event, Book Roast has altered the rules so that you can do the readathon whenever you like and for as long as you like.
• You get to choose a wizarding career to pursue and this year extra training was introduced, which you can also partake in.

Bookshelf Tour, Pt. 12 | Totally Fantasy (continues)

Do you write in your books?

I don’t write in mine and I hate it when I see writing in the margins, which is why I sometimes avoid used books. The writing in the margins interferes with my thoughts about the book. If it’s on the page, I’ll read it, so I’ll read whatever’s written in the margin and it will affect what I think of what I’m reading.

I don’t write in the margins mainly because it takes away reading time to do so. I like to read uninterrupted. I don’t even like to stop to look things up, which is why I typically dislike reading fantasy novels where I have to look up words or names of people in the glossary. It disrupts the reading process. What I do instead is highlight. I highlight every damn thing. If I read a book that has beautiful writing I admire, the pages will be bleeding yellow. I’ll highlight all the passages and don’t realize until I’m done. Then I’ll feel bad for defacing my book.

I think it was only one time I ever wrote in the margins and that’s when I read Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James, a history book about the Haitian Revolution. I was so angry reading about how slaves were treated that my thoughts bled out. I had to write them down, so I wrote in the margins. When I loaned the book to a friend (back when I wasn’t so hung up about loaning books), he found my thoughts interesting to read along with the book’s passages. But I kind of felt bad because my jots in the margins most likely affected how he read. I still have the book, but it’s on the other bookshelf, not this 3-books-deep one we’re still touring.

We’re on the last row of the fantasy shelf, which is the fourth shelf from the bottom or the second shelf from the top. It has a whole lotta books:

How I Read Books Tag

It’s FRIDAY!!! So I’m doing a book tag. 😀

I was tagged by the wonderful Alex at Whimsy Pages to do this tag. (Thanks Alex!!) Unfortunately, I do not know who created it, but if you do, please let me know.

Do you have a certain place at home for reading?

Nope, I do not. I read every and anywhere, but I mostly read in bed during the day. I tried reading in bed at night, but I always fall asleep. I do love reading in the living room on the sofa because that area gets A LOT of natural light, but my family is noisy sometimes and my dad hogs the TV and loves to play it LOUD, so in my room on my bed is where I read.

Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages?

I can stop anywhere and pick up at whatever point I stopped. If it’s a story that I’m REALLY hooked on, then it’s harder to stop because I want to know what happens next immediately. In that case, I don’t stop and end up doing everything one-handed with half my attention on it.

“Brass Carriages and Glass Hearts” by Nancy Campbell Allen

I was looking forward to reading this novel. I started listening to Allen’s Steampunk Proper Romance novels last year on audio and took a quick liking to the first book, Beauty and the Clockwork Beast, which is influenced by both the fairytale Beauty and the Beast and the classic novel Jane Eyre. I liked the second book as well, but the third one wasn’t as engrossing as the first two. However, I was still interested in the series and even more so because the fourth book, this one, hinted at some Cinderella influences. Unfortunately, my reading experience with Brass Carriages and Glass Hearts was not as great as I thought it would be. I didn’t like it. 🙁

(Btw, I received an ARC through NetGalley to review, but my thoughts below are my honest reaction to the book.)

Genre:

Paranormal; Romance; Historical Fiction; Steampunk

Series:

Steampunk Proper Romance, book 4

“The Inheritance” by Robin Hobb & Megan Lindholm

My buddy-reader in all things Hobb, Emily at Embuhleeliest, and I completed the last novel in Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series last year and have been craving more of the story ever since. Will Hobb write more stories in this epic fantasy series that’s 17 books long (including a prequel)? I don’t know, but I think there’s potential for her to write more and if she does, Emily and I will read it.

Well, wanting more of Hobb’s stories no matter what they are about, Emily and I decided to read Hobb’s anthology of short stories, The Inheritance, which contains stories written under the pseudonyms Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm.

We began with the Hobb stories, of course, since they are based in the Realm of the Elderlings settings (so that we completely wrap up that series) and then moved on to the Lindholm ones. They weren’t what I expected.

Genre:

Fantasy; Sci-Fi

Series:

Realm of the Elderlings (some stories are set in the same world)