4/5 Stars: Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree

I picked up this book back in March on the recommendation of a friend, and I’m so glad I did. I didn’t intend on binge reading, but it was fantastic and exactly what I was looking for at the end of the day. The book had just enough action to keep me turning pages, and at a time where stress is everywhere, I felt like I could let go and relax a bit into Travis’ world. For a debut novel, Travis hit it out of the park, and I can’t wait to see where this takes him next.

We follow the story of Viv, an orc barbarian, who is trying to give up her heated battle forged ways and open a coffee shop. She (of course) comes up against trials and tribulations, and makes (and loses) some friends along the way. If you’re a fan of high fantasy worlds but want to see a lighter side, I highly recommend giving it a read.

4/5 Stars

Quiet, but Still Reading

I know it has been a while since I made a post here – but that doesn’t mean I’ve slowed down in the reading! My goal of 20 books read for 2021 is almost complete, and while it’s a far cry from the 50 books that I used to read pre-kids, it’s still something. I am a firm advocate for reading – period. It doesn’t matter what you’re reading, so long as you read. Comics, romance books, magazines, they all count in my eyes. I’m currently making my way through The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, and I am absolutely loving it. I knew a bit of what to expect since I read (and loved) the Night Circus many years ago, and while this novel is a bit confusing (it involves many timelines that sort of merge into a central one) the world building is constantly what draws me in.

It’s exquisite, to put it bluntly. I always feel like the world is alive, that the author is able to create a flow that just speaks to me. Even if the story itself is something that I find difficult to follow along with, the writing is superb. I appreciate that.

2021 has been a particularly lucrative one as far as reading ‘good’ books goes (for me, personally). Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan was fantastic, and I had a great time reading The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso. I was able to delve into a handful of novellas by Martha Wells that were all great reads of their own merits, and the comic ‘Sunstone’ by Stjepan Šejić was beauty on every page.

I was also able to take some time to read some ‘just for me’ books, The Book of Hedge Druidry, by Joanna van der Hoeven, and The Witch’s Shield, by Christopher Penczak. While these books were not exactly what I was looking to find, it was nice to round out some knowledge and there were portions of each book that spoke to me.

My TBR pile keeps growing, and that’s always a great thing. Up next I’m hoping to read The Hidden Palace, by Helene Wecker (#2 to the Golem and the Jinni), and The Color of Dragons, by R.A. Salvatore and Erika Lewis. I even managed to read a few Canadian authors this year, something I attempt to remind myself of as often as I can. They’re not always books I completely enjoy, and I know that life is too shore to waste it reading bad books – but they don’t have to be 5 star reads in order for me to complete them and learn from them. I’ve branched out a little bit but of course there is always more room when it comes to reading. With any luck I’ll discover even more authors that I’ve never heard of who have gems to share with book worms like myself.

In any case, I’m sorry for the lack of posts. Some days are more difficult than others when it comes to reading (I’ve had to put my physical books away during multiple sclerosis relapse days because it is too painful to hold them) and sometimes it just slips my mind. That being said, books are (and have always been) an important part of my daily routine, even if blogging is not, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Review: Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan

I’ve never been one to write a review where I talk about the entire contents of a book because I really don’t want to spoil it for people. I know plenty of people who write those types of reviews, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, but it’s just not my jam. I just wanted to put that out there.

When a book enters my TBR pile it usually happens one of three ways. One, a friend recommended it. Two, I read about it some place online. Three, I happened to be browsing ‘what should I read next’ lists or recommendations off of sites like StoryGraph or even here on GoodReads. ‘Age of Myth’ entered my pile from all three of these methods. I was searching for an epic fantasy book to read because I hadn’t read one for some time, and this one popped up on my feed. After I purchased the book I noticed that the back cover has a brief review from Mogsy over at the BiblioSanctum, who I adore and have been friends with for a number of years. We don’t always like the same books, but when she gives a 4.5/5 star review, I know it’s going to be a good read.

I was not disappointed at all with Age of Myth. It was everything I wanted – but not perfect. It was a book I found hard to put down, beautifully written (the world building is absolutely top notch) with a fascinating story. There are multiple story lines going at once, so if that’s something that doesn’t interest you, you might want to take a pass – on that same note, the stories do converge fairly early on, making it much easier to keep track of everyone.

Female protagonists, epic deities, a ‘big bad’ – and let me say that’s one thing that I actually think the book did not need. Further on you meet ‘a big bad’ on top of a few other ‘bads’ wandering around. You’ll know who I’m talking about when you meet him, and it is a very stereotypical ‘big bad’ and one that I think the book absolutely did not need. It felt a bit like HBO trying to force blood/gore/elicit emotion that I was already feeling before the ‘big bad’ even showed up. I’m not even sure their role was needed at all. I might be alone in that feeling, but it seemed unnecessary.

I finished this book within a week, it was that good. It was a great epic fantasy read, and exactly what I was hoping for. Thankfully the second book is already out, and I’m thinking of picking it up as an audio book because Tim Gerard does the reading and apparently it’s quite amazing.

5/5 stars

Goodreads Challenge – Progress Update

While I may not have been keeping up very well with the site, that doesn’t mean I haven’t managed to read a few books this year! I’m still hoping to get more detailed reviews up, but in the meantime this is what my 2018 GoodReads Challenge looks like. I really wish I were the type of person who could do audiobooks, but for some reason they continue to put me to sleep, no matter who the reader is or what I’m reading. If you have a suggestion for me about audiobooks I’d love to hear it! I feel like I could optimize my time better if I were listening along to a novel instead of just filling that space with xyz background noise.

One of my goals this year was to read books written by Canadian authors, and as you can tell by my list, I’ve managed a couple. My favourite would have to be American War, but there’s lots of time left in the year for that to change. I’ve been using CBC reads to find Canadian authors that I’ve never heard of before and so far it’s working out wonderfully.

I love branching out with my book genres and I hope I continue to find amazing new authors that I’ve never read before. What are you currently reading and how is your GoodReads challenge stacking up? I do hope to complete 50 books this year, but with a new baby on the way (due end of July) we’ll just have to see how things go.

Reading Challenge: 2018

I know, I have fallen behind in posting to this site for many months now, the last one being back in July 2016. I didn’t even write at all in 2017, even though I did read books. I can’t promise that I’ll be any better about it in the upcoming months but I do want to try. I set myself with a new reading challenge over on GoodReads for 2018, last year I managed 30 books which seemed a bit abysmal for someone who enjoys books as much as I do. Sure, things are busy, but even just a few minutes before bed can allow you to get some wonderful reading done.

So this year I’ve decided to aim higher, 50 books. 50 is what I would ‘typically’ read before having children, before moving to a new province, before my life became the complicated mess that it is these days. I am not sure if I’ll actually make it, but I am sure going to try. That’s approximately one book a week (give or take a few days) and so far I’ve managed two books for 2018. I don’t want to force myself, but on the other hand I don’t want to continue to fall so far behind, either.

Along with that new reading goal I decided that I wanted to read more Canadian authors, so I went to CBC Books and looked up what books people were talking about. My first two 2018 books were both by Canadian authors, and I’ll be talking about them more in the upcoming days (hopefully, again no promises). I’m trying to decide what I want to read for my third book of the year, something a bit different than what I’ve been reading I think (I’ve stuck to a lot of plain fiction).

Hopefully putting these goals down in text here on the site will inspire and motivate me to actually get the reading done (and the writing). I’m sorry for slacking so badly over the past year, and I can’t wait to share what I’ve been reading with everyone.

Do You Bookclub?

The start of a new year is a great time to find motivation to do all sorts of projects that you may not otherwise think about. That includes promising to do more reading, too. Lately book talk has revolved around Emma Watson starting a book club on goodreads that anyone can join. Not only is this fantastic motivation from a celebrity but she’s ready some pretty amazing books, too. She clearly states that the club is going to focus on books about equality, as it pertains to her work with UN Women. The book club holds the logo “Feminism is for everyone” and the first book up for discussion is ‘My Life on the Road’ by Gloria Steinem.

I have been wanting to expand my reading and so I joined the reading group and I also picked up the book this weekend. I haven’t gotten very far into it yet, but I’m excited. The group has over 80,000 members which does make for incredibly busy discussions. I don’t plan on participating a great deal but I will lurk and read some of it. A lot is nothing to do with equality or women’s rights at all, but are Emma stalkers, hoping that she’ll open communication with them.

We need more book clubs like this. They don’t necessarily have to be the exact same subject, but we (society) needs to be encouraging people to read and we need to offer motivation for people to branch outside of their comfort zones in what they read – without judgement. I don’t care what people are reading as much as I care that they ARE reading.

The club seems to be very well rounded. There are some members who have read thousands of books and recorded them to Goodreads, and others who have only one or no books recorded. I’m interested in seeing what books make the list, and what others think about them.

How about you, do you belong to a book club?

Reading Challenges for 2016

Each year I like to challenge myself with reading books. The past few years have felt less like a challenge and more like a goal I knew I could easily reach. My first year completing was 2013, and I set my goal to 30 books, and ended up reading 36. The following two years I set the challenge to 50 books and read a total of 52 books for the year. This year, 2016, I’d like to really challenge myself, and so I’m setting my goal to 65 books for the year – and I’d like half of those books to be audiobooks.

You may think that sounds a bit strange, purposely listening to audiobooks rather than choosing to read the books, however I think it’s a great goal for myself. These days I spend a lot of my spare time knitting and while I’m good at knitting, and reading, I’m not (yet) good at doing both at the same time. There are actually people who can do that, read and knit at once, but I am (so far) not one of them. I’d like to be able to fill that spare time with audiobooks.

Where to get these audiobooks was my next decision. There’s Audible which is one of the largest suppliers, but I’m not sure if I want to dedicate $14/m to a subscription or just pay as I go. I believe the $14/m only gets you a single book a month, and that’s certainly not going to be enough for me. Audiobooks are typically more expensive than regular books though there are free versions out there. The problem with free versions is you never know if the reader is going to be someone you can tolerate, and depending on the software you use it’s very easy to lose your place. I’ve signed up for kindle unlimited to test out the audio narration whispersync feature, I’m hoping it may be a good alternative to someone like me who doesn’t mind spending money on books or subscriptions, but who has a limited budget.

Have you set up a reading challenge for yourself this year or do you prefer to just take books as they come? Let me know in comments!

First Reads at GoodReads

One of the best features that GoodReads has is the ability for authors and publishers to give away copies of their new books. Some are signed, some are limited editions, and all of them have been released within a 6 month period from the ending date. It’s not only a fantastic way for readers to score some advance copies from their favorite authors and discover new authors, but it’s a great way for writers to interact with fans, and to get their name out.

The contests work as free publicity, thousands of people see your book there and enter the contest. Maybe a handful like it enough that they buy the book even with the contest going on. Either way, it’s win win for everyone involved.

Every so often you can also catch a great giveaway over on The BiblioSanctum which is one of my favorite book review sites. Have your own recommendation? Why not mention it in comments below!