Mini Book Tag Week: Opposite Book Tag

My mini book tag week continues with the Opposite Book Tag, which I found on the Book Forager just a few days ago. I decided to do it because it pushed me to take a look at the digital version of my collection to answer some of the questions. I love playing around with it, lol.

First book in your collection | Last book you bought

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology by Cory O’Brien, illus. by Sarah E. Melville

I don’t remember the first one in my collection, so I went with my copy of The Great Gatsby, which I actually took from my dad. It’s pretty old, so it’s been in my family’s collection (and now mine) for a while.

Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes is the most recent book I bought. I got the e-book version because it was on sale for less than a dollar.

A cheap book | An expensive book

The Ambassador’s Mission by Trudi Canavan
A Song of Ice & Fire boxed set by George R.R. Martin

One of the cheapest books I own is the mass market edition of The Ambassador’s Mission, which I bought used for $0.25. One of the most expensive is a boxed set of the Song of Ice & Fire series, which I got for a little over $50 with a discount.

A book with a male protagonist | One with a female protagonist

Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
When Life Gives You Mangos by Kereen Getten

Way of Shadows is a grimdark fantasy novel about a boy who becomes an apprentice to an assassin, which are called wetboys in this world. The story is very dark and gritty, but I enjoyed reading it so much that I completed it within a day or so although it’s over 500 pages.

I recently completed When Life Gives You Mangos and really liked it. It’s a middle grade contemporary novel set in Jamaica about a girl who has trouble remembering what occurred last summer. There’s a big plot twist in it that I did not expect, lol. It was good.

A book you read fast | One that took you a long time to read

A Time Code by Ruth Ozeki
Cartography of the Void by Chris Abani

I chose these two books, which are from the same series of books called the Face in which diverse authors talk about their face and identity. So both are nonfiction and are very short at just over 100 pages, but I read Ozeki’s book a lot quicker than I did Abani’s. I think it’s because I liked the format of Ozeki’s book more and was very intrigued by it.

Ozeki basically spent 3 hours staring at her face in the mirror and writing down her thoughts and the time stamp at which she had them. It was really interesting as she talks about her background and identity, family, and beliefs.

Abani discusses his relationship with his father, who his father was, and the differences they had. He also talks about how people relate to and approach him based on how they perceive his face. People often believe he’s from other places.

Both are very well written pieces. I recommend both.

Pretty cover | Ugly cover

How the Stars Came to Be by Poonam Mistry (illus.)
In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce

How the Stars Came to Be is a beautifully illustrated children’s picture book that’s worth seeing in real life. I love the details in the illustrations.

I don’t like this version of the Song of the Lioness covers. They don’t look good to me; unfortunately, they are the versions I have. In the Hand of the Goddess is the second book. It’s YA fantasy about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to become a knight.

A national book | An international book

Beloved by Toni Morrison

I wasn’t sure how to address these categories, so I went with a book that’s both nationally and internationally recognized and acclaimed. Beloved is such a good story and well worth the read. It’s historical fiction about a woman who escaped slavery to Ohio and whose house is haunted by the ghost of her dead baby.

A thin book | A thick book

Sobek by James Stokeo (illus.)
The Sculptor by Scott McCloud (illus.)

Sobek is one of the shortest, thinnest comic books I’ve ever read. It’s a fantasy story about the giant crocodile god, Sobek, whose followers ask him to save them from followers of Set who are terrorizing them. The story is a little funny, but I bought and liked the book because of its detailed illustrations.

The Sculptor is a graphic novel about a guy who makes a deal with Death so that he can sculpt anything he wants with his bare hands. It was an interesting story and worth the read, but the book is thick — over 400 pages long.

A fiction book | A nonfiction book

Rasputin’s Daughter by Robert Alexander
Rasputin: A Short Life by Frances Welch

I’ve been fascinated by Rasputin ever since I learned about him in middle school. It kind of boggles my mind all the stories I’ve heard about him. They make me wonder if they are true, especially the many times people attempted kill him.

I read Rasputin’s Daughter as a teen and really liked it. I was quickly hooked and easily declared the book a favorite. I’d like to reread it to see if that’s still so. And Rasputin: A Short Life is a biography that I own but haven’t yet read.

Romantic book | Action book

A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole
The Boys, Vol. 1: the Name of the Game by Garth Ennis, illus. by Darick Robertson

I don’t read many romance novels and often get annoyed by some of the ones I do read, but I really liked A Duke by Default. It’s about a young woman who travels to Scotland from New York for an apprenticeship in swordmaking and ends up falling in love there. It was an entertaining read.

And so too was The Boys, a sci-fi comic book series about superheroes behaving badly and the people who try to police them. I enjoyed the comic book so much that I finally decided to watch the show, and I liked it too.

A book that made you happy | A book that made you sad

Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb

It made me happy because of how things turn out for the characters I love and it alleiviated the worry I had about a certain character’s fate. But it also made me sad because it’s the last book in the Fitz and the Fool trilogy and the larger Realm of the Elderlings series and because of what becomes of some of my favorite characters in the story.

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There we have it.
Another tag done for this mini book tag week.

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