Wyrd & Wonder Wednesday: So Many Things! Oh, my.

For the month of May, my Wednesdays on here are dedicated to the Wyrd & Wonder Challenge. I’ll share my picks for the topics that pop up in the current week on the Wednesday. Most likely, the picks will be repeats of what I post on Instagram (that’s if I manage to post anything on IG).

For this post, I’ll do the challenge topics for May 23-31. So, here it goes!

Book rainbow…

So pretty 😊

I love these things. I’m supposed to focus on spines, but I wasn’t in the mood to do an IG post, so covers it is. I have here:

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons | Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett | Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling | Ramayana: Divine Loophole by Sanjay Patel (illus.) | River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey | A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin | Riverkeep by Martin Stewart | American Gods by Neil Gaiman | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling | Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

On the shelf…

I have this collection of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo by Anonymous, transl. by J.R.R. Tolkien

I don’t remember when I bought it, but it was from a second-hand store, and I bought it long ago, probably when I was trying out the Lord of the Rings books. I’ve yet to crack this one open though.

#TropeTuesday — Chosen One

Shaman’s Crossing by Robin Hobb

I know it’s overdone, but the Chosen One trope is one of my favorites. For this, I went with Shaman’s Crossing, the first novel in Robin Hobb’s Soldier Son trilogy and the only book in the trilogy that I really liked although it’s written very well (had to say that because I’m still smarting from how frustrated I was with the second and third books).

This one features a reluctant Chosen One. Nevare is the second son in his family and believes that means he’s destined to become a soldier, like his father who was also a second son. But Nev gets caught up in some magical entanglements that result in him being the reluctant Chosen One to help save the Specks, people who live in forests. It’s a good story, but (ugh!) Nevare was SO frustrating and exhausting to read about.

All the feels…

Is what Robin Hobb’s books give me.

Oh my gosh! Reading Hobb’s books is such an emotional rollercoaster, I feel wrung out by the end and have to read something light to recover. I do HIGHLY recommend her books because they are all great reads. I just chose one at random to feature for this category. Above is the last book in the Liveship Traders trilogy — Ship of Destiny.

#ThrowbackThursday

Featuring the books in Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series:

First Test | Page | Squire | Lady Knight

I enjoyed reading these books as a teen but have yet to reread them. They are up next in my reread of the Tortall books. (AND they are over 10 years old, so BONUS points for me!!) 😀

Off the beaten track…

With First Year by Rachel E. Carter

It’s the first novel in the Black Mage series, which seems to be YA fantasy. I’ve seen it described as being like the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce, which is why I got it.

5-star fantasy reads…

For which I went overboard

This more than I wanted to include since this post is already quite long, but I couldn’t help myself. I have here…

The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb
Of course there’s a Robin Hobb book here! I wouldn’t be me if one wasn’t. It’s the second novel in the Tawney Man trilogy and one of my favorites of Hobb’s books.

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
This is an old YA fantasy novel that I enjoyed reading. It’s about a young woman who moves to a military outpost and gets snatched by the natives there to help them save their land. It’s slow-paced but SUCH a good read!

Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe, illus. by Roc Upchurch
The first in a fantasy comic book series about a band of women from diverse backgrounds who work as mercenaries. This volume was such fun! I need to continue with the series.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep, had to include this one. It’s a favorite and Cazaril is one of my favorite characters. It’s about a man who has taken the long way home from war and is looking forward to a peaceful, restful life but gets caught up in political and spiritual machinations.

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu, illus. by Sana Takeda
The first in an epic fantasy comic book series that’s borderline horror sometimes. It’s about a young woman who has a monster inside her and is trying to find out about her past and her mom. It’s SUCH a good read and the illustrations are SO gorgeous.

Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
Okay, so this isn’t straight-up fantasy and is more historical fiction with (I guess) a fantastical element that could be thought of as horror, but it’s SUCH a good read that I had to mention it too. It’s set back in the day and is about the high seas adventures of a freed slave who stows away on a slave ship (to escape his debtors and a woman intent on marrying him) that’s bound for Africa to pick up the mysterious Allmuseri people. It was surprisingly funny in some spots.

#ShelfieSunday

So glad I’m pre-prepped for this. Here’s one of my fantasy shelves from when I did a tour of my bookcases last year. If you want to tour my fantasy shelves, start here. For the very beginning of the tour, click here.

Fav Wyrd & Wonder read

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham, illus. by Lan Medina

I read some fun stuff for W&W this year. (I’ve yet to review any, though.) The ones that stand out the most are the two shown above.

Paladin of Souls (which follows the Curse of Chalion, mentioned above). It’s about a former queen (I guess? What do you call the mother of the reigning queen who was the queen before her?), who everyone thinks is mad, one day deciding to go on a road trip that leads her to do a couple errands for the gods (who she’s been trying to avoid and have been cursing this whole time because she finds them annoying and dangerous) that involves many demons. Lol! Ista grew on me.

Fables, Vol. 1 is the first in a comic book series that’s inspired by fairy tales and contains many (probably all?) fairytale characters. It’s basically a who-dun-it mystery involving fairytale characters, and it’s SO good!

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WELL, THAT’S IT FOR THIS W&WW.

LET ME KNOW IF YOU’VE READ ANY OF THESE.

(I’M CURRENTLY HOSTING A GIVEAWAY!! ENTER TO WIN A FANTASY NOVEL OF UP TO $30USD.)

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