Random Musings of a Bibliophile

When I first heard about Lovely War  by Julie Berry, I remember thinking, "Whoa, that's ambitious." And it is. The scope and depth of this story with all of its intricacies and thematic elements is massive. Berry manages to hold it all together beautifully. She managed it so beautifully that it is so far my favorite YA read of 2019. The  ecstasies  and  the  wounds of love were Aphrodite's work. Forging passions was what she was born to do. She, too, was a  welder, a mistress of fire of a different sort, working in materials more powerful and  resistant  than carbon and iron. And what did that toil do to her? In 1942 New York City while men are partying on the eve of shipping off to war, a stunning couple arrives at a hotel in the midst of the revelry and departs for their room followed by an overly enthusiastic bellboy. But none of these figures are as they appear. The couple is Aphrodite and Ares on a secret assignation that turns out t...

Top Ten Tuesday  is a Meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish This Week's TTT Topic: Reasons I Love X X= The Queen's Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner This is my favorite series containing two of my top ten favorite books and my favorite character of all time. I have never written reviews of these on the blog because sometimes something just means too much to put it coherently in to words, but this format allows me to sort of explain myself without having to find the perfect words for each aspect of all four books. 1. Irene Attolia-The titular character of the second novel in the series, Attolia, is rare for me to find in a book. I don't often get heroines who see the world and interact with it as I do, but she does. (I'm fairly certain if she took the test, her personality type would be INTJ.) I know a lot of people who read these books don't like her (or her actions in the infamous chapter three of the second book), but from my first reading of...

Yes, there is still almost a whole month left in the year, but I don't read many new books in December. I'm so busy this is definitely a month  of rereads for me. (Except for the Cybils books I need to finish.) Every year Jamie at Perpetual Page Turner  creates an end of year reading survey. It's a fun way of recapping the year and I've participated that last couple of years. I still wait until the end of December to do all my Top 10 Best of Lists though. Number of New to Me Books: 137 Number of Rereads: I don't count rereads, but it was a lot more than I've read in the last few years. This is because I decided to not do the Goodreads challenge this year and just enjoy myself. I'm continuing this policy in 2016. Genre I Read Most of: MG Realistic Fiction (my Cybils category!) Best Books of 2015 (links to my reviews) MG Realistic: The Penderwicks in Spring  by Jeanne Birdsall MG Speculative: A Pocket Full of Murder by R.J. Anderson YA Reali...

Sometimes I read a book, and I even enjoy it, but I don't have much to say about it. I jot down a few thoughts and then I move on. When these start to pile up, I put them together in one post. Here are some recent Speculative Fiction Reads (both MG and YA) and my thoughts. Avalon  by Mindee Arnett  I wanted to like  Avalon  so much. I enjoyed the author's previously published work,  The Nightmare Affair , quite a bit and this new book has such an interesting premise. The concept is intriguing. There is a corrupt government type agency, intergalactic mobsters, mysterious happenings in a Bermuda Triangle sort of place in space, and some pretty high stakes. AND I WAS BORED OUT OF MY MIND. I shouldn't have been. There was some intense stuff going on. I blame it on the characters, who are flat as paper and just as easily disposable. They were all types and none of them, including the narrator ever moved beyond that. When the plot twists actually started occur...

I love anything N.D. Wilson writes, but his Ashtown Burials Series has become one of my all time favorite series and that status was cemented when I read an e-galley of its latest installment, Empire of Bones . This is a series and you need to read the first two installments before reading this one. They are The Dragon's Tooth ( my thoughts ) and The Drowned Vault ( my thoughts ). If you haven't read those, go now. Don't waste any more time. Synopsis: Cyrus and Antigone Smith have thwarted Dr. Phoenix's plans—for the moment. And they've uncovered a new threat from the transmortals and managed to escape with their lives. Their next adventure will take them deep into the caves below Ashtown, where they will look for help from those imprisoned in one of Ashtown's oldest tombs.  Like its predecessors, Empire of Bones gets off to an action packed start and just keeps going. There are moments of calm but they are briefer than ever as the heroes are ra...

Featuring Bit, age 8 I have never reviewed Megan Whalen Turner's books because sometimes it is hard to talk about something you have THAT MUCH love for. They come up in My Favorite Things posts a lot. I wrote this for The Queen's Thief Week Chachic hosted. But writing individual reviews? I just have never been able to contemplate that. Yet if it is possible to write a review for one it is The Thief . Bit begged for months to have this book as a read aloud. I kept putting it off because a) I thought it might still be too mature for her and b) if she didn't like it I would have been devastated. Recently I decided it was time to give in, particularly as I could make it fit in with the study of Ancient Greece and Rome we have been doing for history. I couldn't have been happier with her reactions. The Story (From Goodreads) The king's scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief...

The myth of the labyrinth and the minotaur has always been a favorite of mine, which is why it is embarrassing to admit that I have never read The King Must Die by Mary Renault. It is, after all, supposed to be the quintessential novelization of Theseus. I think I have built my expectations of it so high I'm afraid to read it in case it doesn't live up. I did intend to read it before I  read Dark of the Moon by Tracy Barrett., but then I saw Dark of the Moon sitting so enticingly on the new arrival shelf at my library and I couldn't resist it. Synopsis (from Goodreads): Ariadne is destined to become a goddess of the moon. She leads a lonely life, filled with hours of rigorous training by stern priestesses. Her former friends no longer dare to look at her, much less speak to her. All that she has left are her mother and her beloved, misshapen brother Asterion, who must be held captive below the palace for his own safety. So when a ship arrives one spring day, ...

It is hard to write a review for a book when I have the sort of reaction to it that I had for Gil Marsh by A.C.E. Bauer. I was disappointed in it, but not through any fault with the actual writing. This is one of those cases where the author's vision for her story did not match my expectations as a reader. Keeping this in mind I'm going to try and split this into two parts. Synopsis (from Goodreads): Good looking, athletic, and smart, Gill Marsh is the most popular kid at Uruk High School, even though he is only a junior. When Enko, a new kid from Montreal, shows up, Gil is wary. Yet Enko is easy going and matches Gil's athletic prowess without being a threat. Soon, the two become inseparable friends, practicing, studying, and double-dating. Then suddenly, to everyone's shock, Enko succombs to an aggressive cancer. When Enko's parents take his body and return to Canada, Gil is unable to even say good bye. He is inconsolable. Determined to find Enko'...

Another year of reading is gone. This was a good year as several of my favorite authors released new books and I discovered a couple new favorite authors as well. I decided this year that I would keep my favorite list at 10. I cheated a little last year by sneaking in two extras. It was a difficult task, but I managed to whittle it down to 10. Here they are  in no particular order: Links are to my reviews: Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta The Inquisitor's Apprentice by Chris Moriarty The Coming of the Dragon by Rebecca Barnhouse The Dragon's Tooth by N.D. Wilson The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Deedy and Randall Wright Chime by Franny Billingsley Arrow by R.J. Anderson A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall A few weeks ago I wrote about my Favorite Characters of 2011 and there are some more really great books on that list that I loved this year too.

A Review Featuring Bit, Age 7 I can hardly believe we are almost halfway through second grade. Four more weeks and we are done with the term. We are well into our study of ancient cultures that is focusing on Ancient Egypt, and these next four weeks find us immersed in the Middle Kingdom. We have been reading Roger Lancelyn Green's Tales of Ancient Egypt to give Bit some background and understanding of the religious system. The Story Tales of Ancient Egypt is a collection of tales and myths from Ancient Egypt. Go figure. The book is divided into three sections: Tales of the Gods, Tales of Magic, and Tales of Adventure.There are 20 tales in all. Bit's Thoughts   I like Tales of Ancient Egypt because it will help me understand history more. I also like it because I like Egypt. My favorite story was "The Story of the Greek Princess". I like this tale because the people are so clever in it. It is also the story of Troy which I know about from reading The Trojan H...