Hello gentle reader,
I’ve recently posted twice on The Great Noveling Adventure blog. Maybe you’d like to check out what I wrote about Publishing in France here or my pointers on How to Prepare for a Twitter Pitch party here.
Have a great weekend!
Monthly Archives: January 2015
TBR Books Tag
Hello gentle reader,
I came across this blog hop on Sara Letourneau’s blog and I thought it could be interesting to join in the fun.
1. How do you keep track of your TBR books?
Behold my highly-sophisticated tracking system:
– With printed books, I keep all the books I’ve already read on my bookshelves. Therefore all the books that aren’t on there, but instead on my coffee table, bedside table and dining table? They’re my TBR books.
– – With ebooks , I have a hand-written (!) list of my TBR books which I keep inside my Kindle cover.
2. Is your TBR pile mostly print or ebooks?
I had to check numbers to answer this question. It turns out I have 10 TBR ebooks and 14 printed books.
3. How do you determine which book from your TBR pile to read next?
It depends entirely on my mood. I also like to switch genres and categories, in order to avoid comparing books too much. For example I’ll read a YA Fantasy, followed by a YA Historical.
4. What’s been on your TBR pile the longest?
It has to be The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke. I bought it when it came out, in 2012, but didn’t read it then. It’s rare for me to wait a long time before reading a book I bought, but for some reason I never got around to read this one.
5. Pick a book you recently added to your TBR pile.
My most recent bought-but-not-read-yet book is A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. I love Libba’s writing, so I’ll probably read it soon.
6. Pick a book that’s on your TBR pile strictly because of its beautiful cover.
None. I don’t buy books because of their covers, but because I like the author, the blurb or because I’ve read good reviews.
7. Pick a book on your TBR pile that you’re apprehensive about reading.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. It’s been recommended to me numerous times, which is why I bought it, but I still need to work up the courage to read it.
8. Pick an unpublished book on your TBR list that you’re excited for.
Easy: Half Wild by Sally Green (Half Bad #2). I just CAN’T WAIT.
9. Pick a book on your TBR pile that basically everyone has read but you.
It must be Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. The only reason I haven’t read it yet is because I’m worried I’ll read the series very quickly, then I’ll have to wait for the next books to come out…
10. Pick a book on your TBR pile that everyone recommends to you.
The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski. I own a signed hardcover copy of it, but I haven’t read it yet for fear of having too long to wait for Book 2 (are you noticing a pattern here?)
11. Pick a book on your TBR pile that you’re dying to read.
The Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor. I own it, I want to read it, but I need the time and the right frame of mind to do it properly, so it hasn’t happened yet.
12. How many books are on your Goodreads TBR shelf?
I’m not on Goodreads… yet. One day, I promise.
13. Tag some people!
I’ll tag friends who are always recommending books to me : Lauren Garafalo and Jessica Rubinkowski .
What are some of the books on your TBR pile? Have you read any of the books listed above? Feel free to leave me a comment below!
2015 – Most Anticipated Books
Hello gentle reader,
Happy New Year!
In 2014 I read 41 novels, 16 novellas, 3 non-fiction books, 5 WIPs and I re-read 4 books. I’m very pleased with all the books I read last year, and I’m already looking forward to all the books I’m going to read this year!
In my Waiting On Wednesday posts, I already mentioned YA books I’m eagerly anticipating: THE GIRL AT MIDNIGHT by Melissa Grey, HALF WILD by Sally Green, THE SHADOW CABINET (Shades of London #3) by Maureen Johnson, THE WICKED WILL RISE (Dorothy Must Die #2) by Danielle Paige, A WICKED THING by Rhiannon Thomas, AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir, UNDER A PAINTED SKY by Stacey Lee, A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by Victoria E. Schwab, and LAIR OF DREAMS (The Diviners #2) by Libba Bray.
Today I’d like to add four books to this list:
Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley (Expected publication: 28th April 2015 by HarperCollins)
Neil Gaiman’s Stardust meets John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars in this fantasy about a girl caught between two worlds…two races…and two destinies.
Aza Ray is drowning in thin air.
Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live.
So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.
Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia.
Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?
The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough (Expected publication: 28th April 2015 by Arthur A. Levine Books)
Antony and Cleopatra. Helen of Troy and Paris. Romeo and Juliet. And now . . . Henry and Flora.
For centuries Love and Death have chosen their players. They have set the rules, rolled the dice, and kept close, ready to influence, angling for supremacy. And Death has always won. Always.
Could there ever be one time, one place, one pair whose love would truly tip the balance?
Meet Flora Saudade, an African-American girl who dreams of becoming the next Amelia Earhart by day and sings in the smoky jazz clubs of Seattle by night. Meet Henry Bishop, born a few blocks and a million worlds away, a white boy with his future assured — a wealthy adoptive family in the midst of the Great Depression, a college scholarship, and all the opportunities in the world seemingly available to him.
The players have been chosen. The dice have been rolled. But when human beings make moves of their own, what happens next is anyone’s guess.
Achingly romantic and brilliantly imagined, The Game of Love and Death is a love story you will never forget.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (Expected publication: 5th May 2015 by Bloomsbury Children’s)
A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.
Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (Expected publication: 12th May 2015 by Putnam Juvenile)
A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.
She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.
So tell me, which books are you most looking forward to reading in 2015? Feel free to leave me a comment below!
EM Castellan 