Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

July 2019 Monthly Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on July 31, 2019August 28, 20196 Comments

Hello! It’s the last day of July and it’s time to recap what happened! It’s almost August and time for school to start back up soon. But I won’t be working, woo! Well, writing is work but it’s very flexible. This year I’ll have one kid in homeschool and one kid in public school.

Books Read:

I read 15 books this month. Three of them were rereads.

Beasts of the Frozen Sun – Jill Criswell
Ash Princess – Laura Sebastian
Carve the Mark – Veronica Roth (reread)
This Is How You Lose the Time War – Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
City of Brass – S.A. Chakraborty
Champion – Marie Lu (reread)
Jukebox Joyride – Jacob Stein and Jason Rabinowitz
Goof-Proof: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing the Perfect Query Letter – Victoria Loder
The Thousandth Floor – Katharine McGee
Nottingham – Nathan Makaryk
The American Dream? – Shing Yin Khor
City of Ashes – Cassandra Clare (reread)
Allegedly – Tiffany D. Jackson
The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater
There’s Something About Sweetie – Sandhya Menon

I finally read one of Maggie Stiefvater’s books! I’ve been talking about how I wanted to read The Raven Boys for months, and there’s a readalong going on, so it was a good incentive to finish.

Blog Stats:

Twitter: 2095 followers. Almost at 2100!
Blog stats are still pretty steady.

Writing:

I’m so surprised at how much progress I’ve made this month! The first 21 chapters of The Brightness of Shadow are available for beta reading now. I ended up adding two chapters (they’re short) and added another scene that wasn’t originally planned, but should contribute to the overall character arc.

I entered a local contest, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. My boy entered the same contest in a different age category. I had the hardest time writing it… I started three different stories but settled on the third one. It was inspired by something that happened to my brother.

Life:

No hospital visits this month! I would say maybe therapy was working, but no. I guess my family member doesn’t like the staff. Whatever keeps this person out, I guess.

So school is going to start back up, and my dd is going to go to public school, and my boy is going to be homeschooled again. We just toured the public school today and dd is hoping to join the swim team there. They have a 3D printer there.

It looks like we’re going to refinance the house soon! This will be good, because we’ll be able to pay off a ton of bills and reduce our interest rate. We’ll free up a ton of money every month and we’ll have enough cash to redo the yard, get a new dishwasher, get new furniture, redo the kitchen counters, and get some electrical work done.

I’m really looking forward to getting a new bed and living room furniture. We used to have a really nice sectional couch, but it was ruined during our house fire ten years ago and we haven’t had anything really nice since. I guess I’ll probably have to share pictures! It might be a month or two still, but the loan guy says it shouldn’t be a problem!

So that’s what happened this month! Hope you had a great July too, and have a wonderful August as well.

Of Curses and Kisses Cover Reveal!

By Brookelorren on July 31, 2019July 31, 20194 Comments

Last week I was chosen to be one of Sandhya Menon’s Street Team members! I’m excited because her books are great and she’s such a nice person. Anyway, one of her new books (coming out February 18, 2020) is Of Curses and Kisses, which is a Beauty and the Beast retelling set at a private school in Colorado!

She revealed the cover today and I’m allowed to share it with you!

It looks adorable! The release date is still months away, but you can read an excerpt over at Bustle! You can also pre-order it already.

Books on my TBR From the Last Ten Years

By Brookelorren on July 30, 2019July 25, 201925 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). This week was a freebie… at first I had no clue what to do today, but I was inspired by Whimsy Pages to create a list of books from the last ten years that were still on my TBR! I decided to do one book per year, like the one where we listed our favorite books (one per year) that we did on May 28th. I didn’t have a book on my TBR from 2010, but thanks to that week’s list, I was able to find a book that I’d like to read from that year, so now it resides on my TBR as well.

2009: The Maze Runner

I actually checked this one out of the library, read a couple of paragraphs, and then didn’t come back to it. The book sounds interesting enough, but I was interested in other books at the time. This one remains on my TBR.

2010: Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour

I first heard about this book through Top Ten Tuesday a couple of months ago. It sounds like a good book, so it went onto my TBR.

2011: The Miracle of Freedom: 7 Tipping Points that Saved the World

I love history, and this book sounds really interesting. This book is about how lucky we are to be living in the world we are today, because there were several turning points in history, that if they turned out differently, could have caused human history to turn out differently.

2012: The Raven Boys

I talk about how I need to read one of Maggie Stiefvater’s books almost every week. Why haven’t I? So many books, so little time.

There’s actually a readalong going for these books, and I’m really planning on doing it. So maybe I’ll read it this month?

2013: Vicious

V.E. Schwab is another author I talk about wanting to read. Every. Single. Week. I’ve even purchased some of her books. Yet I haven’t read one of her books yet. Soon.

2014: The Auschwitz Escape

I’m pretty sure I’ve liked every single Joel C. Rosenberg book that I’ve read so far. I haven’t read this one yet, but I’d like to. There’s actually several of his more recent books that I haven’t read yet.

2015: Uprooted

I still haven’t read anything by Naomi Novik, even though both Uprooted and Spinning Silver look good. Perhaps sometime this year.

2016: The Underground Railroad

I hadn’t heard about Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad until last year, but it looks like a really good book. Don’t know when I’ll get around to reading it, but hopefully someday.

2017: Eliza and her Monsters

I just recently added this book to my TBR, but it looks pretty good and I’d like to read it sooner rather than later.

2018: American Panda

There are so many amazing books I’ve read from 2018, but one of the books that is still on my list is American Panda. It seems like such a cute book. Why haven’t I read it yet? Probably for the same reasons I haven’t read any of the other books on this list. I’d like to though.

So those are some books from the last ten years that are on my TBR that I haven’t read yet. What are some of the books on your TBR that you have yet to read?

The American Dream?

By Brookelorren on July 29, 2019July 29, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently read The American Dream?: A Journey on Route 66 by Shing Yin Khor (thank you to Netgalley and Zest Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy!). It’s an adorable graphic novel detailing the journey of an American Immigrant and her dog along the historic Route 66, from Santa Monica to Chicago. In today’s world, where there seems to be such animosity between people in the United States, a book like this is good for everybody to read.

In The American Dream?, Shing details her travels along Route 66 with her dog Bug, where she camps out in her car for most of the trip. She tells about the sites she encounters along the way and her feelings about them. The book has a way of immersing you in her journey, which I just loved.

The Sights. I enjoyed reading about all the sights she saw along her journey. I’ve driven parts of Route 66 without knowing it before, as I’ve lived in Los Angeles and have traveled through the Southwestern United States quite a bit, but I don’t always stop to see all the little places along the way. There are many historic and touristy places off the side of the road, and Shing visits many of them. She talks to some of the people she meets along the way or explains some of the history. It was quite interesting (and not all of the history is happy, either).

The Illustrations. The illustrations in The American Dream? are adorable. One of the main things I like about this book is how it draws you into the journey with her. A written description of the places she visits wouldn’t be the same as her visuals. They’re not photographs (we could always google those) but they’re detailed enough to make you feel like you’re there on the journey with Shing (and her dog).

The Immigrant Perspective. Shing’s perspective as an immigrant separates this book from other travel memoirs or guides. She sees things that I would never have thought of while making her journey. As an example, she saw a sign that said “American Owned” and it seemed like code for racism to her. My initial thoughts to reading the sign was “What? Is there a problem with foreign corporations buying up tourist stops along Route 66 or something?” From her perspective, she was seeing that as code for the shop owners to say “we’re not immigrants.” Without being able to stop and talk to the owners, we can’t tell whether their intention was racist or not, but I can see how someone might take it that way.

I enjoyed reading The American Dream?, and thought it was an adorable, easy to read graphic novel. It’s appropriate for both Upper Middle Grade readers and Young Adults. I’d recommend this book for several different reasons. Not only is it an interesting travel book, but it also allows you to see the United States from an immigrant’s perspective. We can always use more books that can help us see the world through someone else’s eyes.

ABC Book Challenge – D

By Brookelorren on July 28, 2019August 3, 2019Leave a Comment

Another week, another edition of the ABC book challenge! This week is all about books that begin with the letter D! I found this challenge over at Me, Myself, and Books, but I think it was started by Thrifty Bibliophile. On to the D books!

Descendant of the Crane has such a lovely cover! It’s a Chinese-inspired fantasy that sounds like it will be great to read. I found it on sale at Amazon.com last month, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.

I read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl a long time ago, back when I was in Middle School, but it’s a significant book and deserves its place among books that begin with the letter D.

It’s been several years since I read The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin. I loved this book, which talks about how humanity created things as simple as the calendar and then proceeded to invent things and explore the world, and I’ve read it twice so far. Maybe it’s due for a reread someday.

We can’t talk about books that begin with the letter D without talking about one of my favorite books ever: Divergent. This book is a life-changer for me. It’s the book that got me into YA and got me writing again, which all led to this blog. No wonder I own it in four languages!

Another significant set of books in my life were the Dragonlance books. My future husband gave these to me a couple of months after we met. We named our two kids after characters in this series (my daughter named her cat after another character). I regularly think about philosophies and concepts in these books, such as evil turns in upon itself and when people believe they are too good, they turn into people like the Kingpriest of Istar and start persecuting people who don’t live up to their standards.

So those are some books that start with the letter D!

The Thousandth Floor

By Brookelorren on July 25, 2019July 24, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently read The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee, and I liked it quite a lot. This book is not without its controversy, however. In interest of fairness, I’m going to talk about what I liked about the book, as well as the more controversial elements of this book. That way you can make a more informed decision about whether this book is for you or not.

The Thousandth Floor takes place in 2118, in a giant tower that soars 1000 stories in the air. It deals with the über-wealthy, the poor, and the places where their lives intersect. Not one of the characters in this book is a saint. I feel a sympathy for most of these people, but at the same time… wow, they really mess up. It makes for an interesting story that climaxes at a party that ends in tragedy.

What I Liked

This story was fun. The characters on the upper floors live lives where money isn’t a concern and morality is quite loosely defined. Most of the parents aren’t very involved in their children’s lives, sometimes even drinking alcohol with them. On the lower floors, the characters are just trying to survive, and their descent into illegality has more to do with survival than just trying to have a good time.

Still, they all have their secrets. Some of these secrets are deadlier than others. As I read this book, sometimes I’d be afraid to read on, afraid that one of them would get caught. Of course, if you read the prologue, you know something bad is going to happen. You just don’t know who. I didn’t know until the end.

In many ways, this seems to be an escapist read. These aren’t really problems that I have to deal with, and there can be something satisfying about wealthy people with problems.

The Controversy

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this book, which may make you decide not to read it.

The “incest” storyline – from nearly the first chapter, you find out that Avery, a girl that was genetically designed to be as “perfect” as possible, is in love with her adoptive brother. They’re not genetically related, but if you find this sort of thing creepy, then you’re probably better off not reading this series.

Skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers – there is one character who is bi. None of the characters seem to think that it’s a big deal or anything. However, the character does die. I can see how this might be troublesome.

Other Social Issues – The Thousandth Floor seems to have some social difficulties. The white girl is perfect. The brown girl seems to be the villain. The Indian guy is the computer genius. Drugs are used to take advantage of a boy. There’s some sexual harassment. This seems to be a pattern.

Conclusion

The Thousandth Floor is fun to read. It drew me in from the prologue (and I don’t care for most prologues). However, this book isn’t without its controversy, and there are issues you should be aware of before you should decide to read this book or not.

Books with Settings That are New to Me (Top Ten Tuesday)

By Brookelorren on July 23, 2019July 19, 201920 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, where we make a list about our favorite book topics! Today’s topic is “Settings I’d Like to See More Of” but I’m not too picky about the settings, so this week I’m going to twist the topic a bit and write about books on my TBR that have settings that are new to me. Last month, I challenged myself to read more books from different countries and states. There are so many places in this world and I still have to read about a lot of them. So today I’ll go through my TBR and find books from places I’ve never been and have yet to read about.

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

Piedmont Valley, Italy, Medieval era ~ Rora

My “Read Around the World” challenge doesn’t include historical novels, but I think maybe I’ll make an extra column for historical novels. I’ve never read about this particular part of the world or about this particular group of people (except for a couple of lines in Foxe’s book of Martyrs). This is on my summer TBR, so I hope to read it soon.

Ukraine ~ Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine

Fun fact: while Ukraine is officially known as Ukraine today, during the Holodomor (what this book is about) people usually called it The Ukraine. But don’t do that today because it’s considered insulting. At the time of this book, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and now it’s not. The farmers at the time didn’t want to go for collectivization, and Stalin tried to starve them. I’ve never read a book set in the Ukraine, so it made today’s list.

North Korea ~ Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il

Evidently, Kim Jong Il of North Korea could fart rainbows. Or something like that. There aren’t too many books set in North Korea. I don’t think I’ve ever read one, in fact (maybe some world history books that might talk about it for a chapter).

The Azores ~ The Tenth Island: Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores

I’ve been to the Azores before. It was in the middle of the night at the airport, and I was only there for an hour, but I can technically say I’ve been there. Didn’t really see much because it was dark though. It would probably be more interesting to read this book set in the Azores.

Israel ~ Lone Wolf in Jerusalem

I’ve read several books where the characters visit Israel, but I don’t think I’ve read a book where the main setting was Israel.

Russia on the Eve of Revolution ~ Blood Red, Snow White

I did read The Bear and the Nightingale, so I don’t know if this should count, but these are completely different time periods. This is an interesting period of history though.

Ottoman Empire ~ And I Darken

This is another book that’s on my seasonal TBR for this summer. While we can travel to the location that And I Darken was set today, we can’t exactly travel to the old Ottoman Empire.

Afghanistan ~ The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan

I don’t think I’ve read any books set in Afghanistan. This one is set in the 1980s. I’m sure the country has changed since this book took place, but the great things about books is that you can visit different locations at different time periods.

Hong Kong ~ Somewhere Only We Know

Hong Kong is another location that I’ve never been to in real life, and probably not in a book either. If I did, it was only a small part of the book. This book looks a lot more fun than most of the other books on this list too.

Thirteenth Century Wales ~ Here Be Dragons

The Infernal Devices took me to Wales in the 19th century for a bit, but I’ve never been to Wales in person, and I’ve certainly never been to thirteenth century Wales. It looks like it might be an interesting place to visit.

So that’s ten places that I’ve never taken a book to. Have you been to these places, either virtually or in real life? What bookish settings did you write about today? Next week is a freebie, and I took some inspiration from Whimsy Pages and will be writing about ten books from the last ten years that are still on my TBR!

Nottingham

By Brookelorren on July 22, 2019July 21, 2019Leave a Comment

How well do you know the story of Robin Hood? To be honest, I really didn’t know the story well before reading Nottingham by Nathan Makaryk. Of course, this is just one interpretation of the tale (and I’m pretty sure the legend’s traditional ending is a little different) but after reading the story, I feel like I know Robin Hood a little better.

I recently read this book after receiving an Advanced Reader Copy (thank you Bookish first and Tor Books). Overall, I enjoyed the book, although the ending wasn’t really my thing.

In Nottingham, Robin is the son of a nobleman who went off to fight the crusades. They’re having difficulty arming the soldiers, and when a shipment of weapons doesn’t show up, King Richard sends them back to England to investigate. They find out what happened to the weapons, but in the process, are drawn into the really ugly (and bloody) feud between the nobility and peasants, both of whom are suffering from the burdensome taxes.

The Rent is Too Damn High!

It seems that Jimmy McMillan (the guy pictured above and founder of the Rent is Too Damn High party) brought up a timeless truth: the rent is too damn high! People feel that today (I recently saw an article about people paying $1200 a month to rent a bunk bed), and they felt that way in the 12th century. The legend of Robin Hood came from a time when historically, the ordinary people were having a really difficult time making ends meet. Nottingham captures that feeling quite well, and really doesn’t put the blame on anyone. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and this book gives even the “villains” reasons for their actions.

That doesn’t mean I liked all the characters. I despised some of them (as people, they weren’t supposed to be likeable). Even the unlikeable characters here had good motivations for doing what they did.

This story has a lot of parallels to our own time (beyond the rent being too damn high). As someone who has friends whose political opinions range from very conservative to very liberal, I know that most people want to do the right thing. Most people aren’t the bad people the other side makes them out to be. They just have fundamental differences in worldviews that make it hard to agree on the solution. This happens all throughout this story as well. There are good people and villains on both the Robin Hood side of the story, as well as the Sheriff’s side of the story.

Writing

The descriptions in Nottingham were well-done. Sometimes authors have difficulty with fight scenes, but I think Mr. Makaryk did a good job with those. I ended up writing a page and a half of quotes from this book into my book journal.

While I enjoyed the writing, this book may or may not be a little on the long side, depending on your mood. There are a lot of different points of view in this book. Each character had their own unique voice, but with so many different characters, there’s a lot of story here. Don’t let the fact that this book is only shortly over 490 pages fool you: the type is fairly small, so the word count is a lot higher than most books of this length. Read this book when you’re looking more for a Game of Thrones style read than something you can quickly devour during a day or two at the beach.

The End and Last Thoughts

The end was really the one thing I can say I didn’t like about this book. I don’t really want to give away spoilers, but this not a book that ends well (that is, happily). There were good guys and bad guys on both sides of the struggle here, and there could have been multiple ways for Nottingham to come to a satisfying conclusion, but it didn’t really do that. Throughout the book, it seemed like some of the problems were insurmountable, and evidently, they were (at least for the immediate future).

Although I wouldn’t recommend this story if you’re in the mood for a happily-ever-after, if you’re looking for a story with complex characters, a lot of struggle, and an intricate world, you might want to check out Nottingham. It doesn’t go on sale until August 6th, but you can pre-order it now.

ABC Book Challenge – C

By Brookelorren on July 21, 2019July 10, 2019Leave a Comment

Hello! Time for another episode of the ABC Book Challenge, which I found over at Me, Myself, and Books, but I think was started by the Thrifty Bibliophile. Today we’re looking at books from My Books over on Goodreads that start with the letter C. I’m going to do a mix of books that I have read and books that I want to read today.

The first book I’ll highlight is Veronica Roth’s Carve the Mark. I’ve read this book five or six times now, and I still get things out of it. This is one of those books that I’ve enjoyed more rereading than the first time around, because there’s a huge cast of characters, the world is so unlike ours, and there are things hidden in here that I didn’t see the first time through.

There are two books on today’s list that are coming out in 2020. The first one is Chain of Gold, which comes out on March 3. I’m looking forward to reading about Will and Tess’s children, along with the other shadowhunters of their generation.

I reread Marie Lu’s Champion about once a year, along with the rest of the Legend series. I love this book, and am looking forward to the final book in the series coming out on October 1st.

Veronica Roth gets two books on today’s page: The Chosen Ones comes out on May 4, 2020. I know Goodreads is listing it as The Chosen One, but Amazon has an “s” at the end of the title, so I’m going with that. You can already pre-order the Kindle edition of the book, but I plan to get it in hardback, so I wait.

The final book on today’s list is Color Outside the Lines, a collection of short stories by several well-known authors. Edelweiss actually approved me for an ARC! It won’t be released until November, so I haven’t read it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

So there are a few books that start with the letter C that I’m looking forward to reading, and a couple that I love!

I Should Have Read That Book Tag

By Brookelorren on July 20, 2019July 17, 2019Leave a Comment

Hello! I found yet another great book tag I wanted to do. This time it’s the “I Should Have Read That” book tag. Now, I’m not dead, so I can still read these books, so maybe someday I will. Right now, I haven’t. I found this tag over at Madison’s Inkwell, but it was started by Booksnest.co.uk.

Here are the rules of the tag:

Thank the person who tagged you and link back to their post
Link back to the creator’s blog (booksnest.co.uk)
Answer the questions below
Tag 10 others to take part
ENJOY THE TAG!

Let’s get started!

A book that a certain friend is always telling you to read

My friend Lydia at my old job was always raving about Vampire Academy. I really do need to read it someday… I just haven’t yet.

A book that’s been on your TBR forever and yet you still haven’t picked it up

I haven’t read 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West yet. I’ve had it on my TBR since April 25, 2013. It still sounds good, I just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.

A book in a series you’ve started, but haven’t gotten round to finishing yet

I do plan on finishing the Pennies series by Pepper Winters, but I haven’t yet. I got this one from the library, and I’ll have to buy the next one, and I just haven’t. But I will… someday.

A classic you’ve always liked the sound of, but never actually read

I have every intention of reading Les Misérables at some point… after all, both Legend and Sky Without Stars were inspired by this book, and I loved them both, but again… I still haven’t read this one.

A popular book that it seems everyone but you has read

Lots of people have read this one, and maybe people think I’m a heretic for not reading it, but I don’t really plan on reading Harry Potter any time soon. It’s not like there aren’t thousands of other books I can be reading.

A book that inspired a film/TV adaptation that you really love, but you just haven’t read it yet

Uh… I don’t watch a lot of television or movies, so I’m not sure I can answer this one.

A book you see all over Instagram but haven’t picked up yet

I don’t go to Instagram a lot (usually only when I see on Twitter that someone has posted something over there) but I have seen King of Scars a lot on Twitter over the past year, and I haven’t read this one yet either. I do plan on reading this one at some point… I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.