Last year, everybody was talking about The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. When I saw it on sale last year, I had to pick it up. I didn’t get around to reading it until this year though. It was an enjoyable, but fairly dense, book.
In a land resembling medieval China, Rin is struggling to make a tolerable life for herself. Being a poor orphan girl, she only has one shot: she needs to ace the Keju exams, or she’ll be forced into a marriage she doesn’t want. Getting a scholarship into the prestigious Sinegard academy may be her ticket out of marriage, but it won’t be the end of her struggles. Not only is the academy more difficult than anything she’s ever experienced, war is on the horizon.
What I Liked
There was a lot that I liked about this book. I liked Rin, the protagonist, and her determination. The supporting characters were interesting and unique. I also loved the Medieval China-ish setting. This is still a world we don’t see a lot of.
This is a very dense book with some heavy themes and philosophizing. I copied down several quotes into my book journal, like “the creation of empire requires conformity and uniform obedience” and “It was, simply, what happened when one race decided that the other was insignificant.” When war comes to this land, there is a race of people that wants to wipe out the other. The war is quite brutal.
Things to Note
There is magic in this book, but the magic doesn’t seem to be the central focus of The Poppy War. Rin doesn’t really start to develop her powers until later in the book, so later books in this trilogy might be different.
Like I said earlier, the war in this book is quite brutal. The Poppy War is a pretty heavy book. If you’re in the mood for a light contemporary, you might want to wait on this one. Some people might find the brutality in this book to be triggering. War is hell, especially when one of the parties doesn’t see the other side as worthy of humanity.
While I’m typically not a mood reader — I stick to my seasonal TBR pretty well, like to create monthly TBRs, and generally read my ARCs when they’re scheduled — I definitely want to read the sequel, The Dragon Republic, when I’m in the mood for something dark.
I was recently given the opportunity to read Goof-Proof: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing the Perfect Query Letter. Thank you, Victoria, for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review! If you happen to be a writer who’s getting ready to query, this book might be of interest to you.
I have very limited experience querying. It’s pretty much limited to querying one short story and my novel to Author-Mentor-Match (I figured it couldn’t hurt). Prior to sending out these two queries, I went to several web sites trying to make sure I didn’t screw up anything too badly. Goof-Proof provides you with the essential information you need to create a query, all in one place.
At 25 pages, Goof-Proof is a quick read. It’s not an 800-page tome covering every little detail in creating a query letter. You’re not going to read chapter upon chapter about how to find the perfect comp titles, or how to craft the perfect hook that will reel in an agent. If you’re a busy writer, do you really have time to read all that anyway? You’d probably be better off reading craft books or taking Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass. This book does give the most important details you need to keep in mind as you develop your query letter.
In addition to the important query letter details promised in the title of this book, Ms. Loder also includes important insight about what it’s like from the agent’s side of the desk. If you spend a lot of time on writing Twitter, you may have heard a lot of this information before, but if you’re just getting into the writing community, this is good information to know.
Overall, I would recommend Goof-Proof: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing the Perfect Query Letter to newer novel writers who know they need an agent and have no idea how to actually create a query letter. This book might also be helpful to someone who has been querying, but hasn’t had much luck yet. It might not have anything new to offer if you’ve spent the past week visiting various author advice sites studying querying, however. This book also doesn’t cover short story queries (although some of the advice here will also work for your short story).
Goof-Proof doesn’t come out until July 23rd, but you can pre-order it now.
It’s Tuesday again, and you know what that means! Another edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re going to talk about Auto-Buy authors. You know, the authors that are so good they could write about the alphabet and you’d buy it. You’d die for a chance just to buy a copy of their grocery lists. To be honest, I actually only have two 100% auto-buy authors. But there are other authors that I adore that, when I hear they have a new book coming out, my ears perk up. So I’m going to include some of my favorites on this list too.
Let’s get started!
Marie Lu
So this one shouldn’t be a surprise at all if you read this blog regularly. Like my other auto-buy author, I own all of her books in English (except for her Middle Grade book, although I’ve read it), multiple books in Spanish, and one book in German. I’ve also written multiple fanfiction works for both my auto-buy authors.
And I have two of her upcoming books pre-ordered at the moment. My husband thinks I’m weird because I have Rebel pre-ordered both on the Kindle and a signed hardback ordered. I started ordering her books on Kindle because I don’t really want to wait to start reading her books. And Kindle books download at midnight Eastern time, which means 10 PM in my time zone.
Veronica Roth
Veronica Roth is my other auto-buy author. I own Divergent in four languages. Of course I’ve also pre-ordered The End and Other Beginnings, which happens to come out on the same day as Rebel. Curse you publishers!
I felt so bad because earlier this year, Ms. Roth came to Denver and I found out about it about three weeks ahead of time… and all the tickets were sold out. I got on the waiting list but wasn’t high enough on the list. Now I check the Tattered Cover’s web site regularly, just so I make sure I’m not missing anybody.
I don’t own all her short stories, but I’ll probably have to start working on that one. I don’t have The Chosen Ones (out May 4, 2020) pre-ordered yet because right now only the Kindle one is available for pre-order and I want the hardback edition.
Cassandra Clare
I don’t own all of Cassandra Clare’s books, and probably won’t buy them all. She’s pretty prolific. I did buy all of the core Shadowhunter books (although not all in hardback), but I don’t own any of her books in a foreign language.
At some point I probably will read all or most of her books, but I’ll probably get some of them from the library.
Oh, and Chain of Gold is currently scheduled to come out on the same day as Marie Lu’s Kingdom of Back, both of which I’ve pre-ordered. Again, what gives, publishers?
Leigh Bardugo
I don’t own the Grisha Verse books and don’t own King of Scars (yet), nor do I own The Language of Thorns or any of the Grisha Verse novellas. But I have pre-ordered Ninth House, which happens to come out on… October first, the same day as Rebel and The End and Other Beginnings. It’s going to take me over a week to read just the books coming out that one day.
Sabaa Tahir
The only books I’ve read by Sabaa Tahir so far are the An Ember in the Ashes books, but I’ll definitely buy Ember 4 as soon as it comes out. I’ll have to wait until she publishes something else until I can truly say whether I’m ready to hand over the private keys to my Bitcoin account and just say “please, take my money! Just keep writing!”
Renée Ahdieh
I haven’t read everything that Ms. Ahdieh has written (still trying to get around to reading The Rose and the Dagger) but I’ve enjoyed everything that she’s written so far. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to read The Beautiful or not (when I heard it was a book about vampires I was like “meh”) but I got to read the beginning of that book and I thought it was really good.
Holly Black
Ms. Black is another author that I haven’t read everything she’s ever written (I haven’t even read The Lost Sisters) but I jumped at the chance to pre-order The Queen of Nothing as soon as I could. I’ll probably end up reading more of her backlist at some point as well.
Joel C. Rosenberg
I haven’t read everything by Joel C. Rosenberg either, but I’ve liked everything that I’ve read that he’s written. I haven’t read any of his nonfiction books, but I have read two of his completed series as well as one of his books from another series. Eventually I’ll have to read some of the books that I’ve been missing. Not many of my blogger friends write about his books, so I don’t hear as much about them.
Brad Meltzer
To be honest, there are a lot of Brad Meltzer books I haven’t read. Some I have no interest in reading (like his superhero books and books for kids). But I do like a lot of his books, and I’ve liked all of the thrillers that he’s written so far. So, while not quite an auto-buy author, an author I enjoy reading a lot.
Glenn Beck
You can tell that some of these photos (which I got from Goodreads) are old, because right now Glenn Beck looks like he’s auditioning to be the next Colonel Sanders. Anyway, I’ve read most of Glenn Beck’s books and I really like them.
He’s written several different kinds of books, from political nonfiction books to thrillers to Christmas books. His nonfiction books of short stories like Miracles and Massacres and Dreamers and Deceivers are pretty informative.
So there’s my two auto-buy authors and eight more authors that I usually enjoy reading. I didn’t think I was going to make it to ten today! Next week, we’re going to do a summer activity (kind of) and talk about bookish settings I’d like to see more of. See you then!
It’s books like This Is How You Lose the Time War that make me glad that I don’t give books a star rating on my blog. This is a book that is unique and kinda defies a rating. It may be a book that you either love or hate. Or, you could be in the middle and appreciate it’s brilliance, but the story didn’t have you at the edge of your seat. That is where I am on this book.
I have to thank Bookish First and Saga Press for providing me with an ARC!
Red and Blue are time travelers, fighting on two different sides of the same time war. They start to write letters to each other. First, the letters are taunting. Then, they start to develop a mutual respect for each other. That respect grows into love. Of course, since they are on opposite sides of the war, so their bosses cannot find out. If they do, that would be a mess. I can’t say much more of the plot without giving away spoilers.
Its Brilliance
First, the good: This Is How You Lose the Time War is a brilliant book. As Red and Blue travel through time, you get to see snippets of history which the time travelers sometimes change, sometimes keep the same. We see the Mongols, Atlantis, ancient Rome… as someone who loves history, I really enjoyed this aspect of the story. I think my favorite line in this whole book is the tongue-twister about the Mongols found on page 35 of the ARC.
This book is smart in several other ways. Red and Blue are constantly trying to find new things to call each other, such as “My careful Cardinal” for Red, and “Dearest 0000FF” for Blue. It was fun to see the new words they’d call each other. There were several words I ended up looking up in the dictionary. Also, the way the plot resolves itself was lovely. I think there would be a lot of things you’d catch if you reread this book.
The Downsides to this Book
Yes, this book is brilliant. That in itself is a pro and a con. The book can be confusing, especially in the beginning. It took me a while to really start to understand what was going on. Even then, the book didn’t have me hanging at the edge of my seat, needing to know what was going to happen next, until close to the very end.
Conclusion
This Is How You Lose the Time War may be a book that you love, or it could be a book that you hate. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific, but it really is that type of book. While it is brilliantly executed, it’s also a book that won’t be for everyone, or for every mood. If you’re looking for a beach read that you can just enjoy and wash over you, this won’t be it; however, if you’re looking for an intelligent book that will get you thinking, you might enjoy this one.
This is the second week of the ABC Book Challenge, which will run until the end of the year. For this tag, which I originally found at Me, Myself, and Books, and was able to trace (tentatively) back to Thrifty Bibliophile, I’ll go through my TBR and find books that begin with that particular letter. I might do a mix of books on my TBR and books that I’ve read (depending on the letter).
I absolutely adored Sky Without Stars, the first book in the System Divine series by Jessica Brody. Between Burning Worlds, the second book, is expected to come out in 2020. And I’m expected to read it.
Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague has a really long title, but it sounds really interesting. I love history, and this is one element of history I don’t know much about.
I saw a review for The Boy and His Ribbon a while ago and it sounded interesting, but I’ve still never gotten around to reading it. I’m guessing it’s probably not as dark as Pennies which is by the same author? Anyway, it’s another B book that I hope to read at some point.
Last year, I read The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, and of course I’d like to read the next book in the series at some point.
Occasionally, I mention Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy on this blog, because it’s such an interesting account of this important figure from World War II. This is the only book on this list that I’ve already read. I’ll probably end up rereading this book again at some point.
Hello! I found another great book tag, the ARC book tag, that I thought looked like fun. It was created by Book Princess Reviews, although I found it over at Kristin Kraves Books. In just a little over a year (when I first started reviewing ARCs) I’ve been blessed with so many amazing ARCs, and I’m grateful to the publishers for offering them to me. So here are the details:
When I first started receiving ARCs, they were the “Read Now” kind you get off of Netgalley. The Titan Strain wasn’t the best book I ever read, by far, but wow. I was so overwhelmed by getting to read a book before it was released to the public.
Evidently, there is a second book out now, The Osiris Contingency. Amazon is giving a free three-month trial to Kindle Unlimited for Prime Day this year; maybe I’ll get the three months and read it then. I’m not sure I’d want to pay $5 for it.
WHAT ARC WOULD YOU SELL YOUR SOUL FOR?
Okay, I’m going to be honest here: I wouldn’t literally sell my soul for a copy of Rebel. I draw the line there. But I would consider crawling on broken glass wearing a pair of shorts, walking over hot coals, camping outside a bookstore in the snow… you get the idea. I did download a copy of the Rebel Sampler, but since there are no ARCs for this book, I’m just going to have to wait like everybody else. I’ll have to wait longer for the hardback because I’m getting a signed copy, but I’m also getting the Kindle copy, so guess what I’m doing at 10 PM Mountain Daylight Time on September 30th?
USING ARCS YOU HAVE RECEIVED OVER THE YEARS, SPELL OUT A-R-C.
I haven’t received an ARC starting with A yet
ULTIMATE QUESTION: TO DNF OR NOT DNF AN ARC?
It would take a lot for me to DNF an ARC. Maybe I’m weird, but I think of receiving an ARC as accepting a freelance assignment. The publishers send me an ARC, in turn, it’s my job to read and review the book. So I do.
I think the only exception would be ARCs that I won in a contest from someone other than the publisher. I have an ARC I won over a year ago that I haven’t gotten to reading yet (although I intend to).
NAME AN ARC YOU DNF’D AND AN ARC YOU COULD NEVER DNF.
This question appeared in the original book tag, and since I finish all my ARCs, I don’t have an answer here, but I’m putting the question here in case someone wants to do this one.
WHAT ARC DID YOU GO OUT AND BUY A FINISHED COPY OF AFTER?
I don’t buy finished copies to the majority of ARCs I get (just a few). One of the books I did buy a finished copy of was Sky Without Stars. The first printings had a special print under the dust jacket that I wanted; besides, I wanted a hardback copy of the book.
I also couldn’t pass up the finished copy of Finale because it came with an amazing pre-order gift. I’d also buy books from my auto-buy authors.
WHICH MEDIUM DO YOU GET MOST OF YOUR ARCS IN? (PHYSICAL/EBOOK/AUDIO)
I get most of my ARCs in ebook format. I’ve started to get a lot more ARCs in physical format from Bookish First (I’ve had such good luck with them).
GIVE BLOGGERS ONE PIECE OF ADVICE REGARDING ARCS (REQUESTING/REVIEWING).
Requesting: My advice regarding requesting ARCs is don’t request too many. I know, everybody says that. The first books you request, you’ll probably get rejected (or more commonly, ignored). Once you do a few “Read Now” books, you’ll probably start getting accepted for book requests. The more books you review, the more likely it’ll be you’ll get accepted. At that point, you’ll want to dial down your requests WAY back, or you’ll have a flood of reviews to do.
Reviewing: I keep a blog schedule (pictured above). When I get an ARC, I add it to my calendar, so I know when I need to review it. A lot of publishers don’t want the review published more than a month ahead of the pub date, so that’s when I tentatively schedule my reviews. It helps me not to request too many books too. Right now, I have ARC reviews scheduled through September 9th, so I know not to request an ARC with an ARC prior to a mid-October pub date unless it’s a book that I absolutely must read.
That’s All!
So if you’d like to do this tag, feel free! I hate leaving people out that want to do it, but if you do complete this tag, please send me a link so I can see it!
I recently finished reading City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. I started reading it for a readalong last December and… then I got distracted by a shiny — ooh, a book! — and I kept forgetting to get back to it. Don’t let the fact that I got distracted while reading this book deter you. I did like it.
Nahri is a young woman just trying to survive in old-timey Cairo. This isn’t an easy task, as you can imagine. She doesn’t have a family to fall back on, and she has become skilled as a con-artist in the process. Until she accidentally summons a djinn. Whoops.
From that point, her life will never be the same. The next thing you know, Nahri and the djinn are running away from monsters. They end up taking shelter in Daevabad, which seems like a good idea at first, but happens to be ruled by a monster of a different kind.
There’s a lot to this book, which makes the book both intriguing and… perhaps a little overwhelming.
First, City of Brass has quite an array of supernatural beings. Some of them I’m familiar with, like the djinn, but then there are many other tribes and cultures with different affinities, and it’s all really hard to keep track of. Then each culture has a rich history and… I certainly can’t remember it all. Never mind that I got distracted and went off and read a bunch of other books before finishing this one, I had trouble keeping this all in my head while I was reading it.
Then, there’s the court of Daevabad itself. There are rebels and the ruling family has its history and everybody is fighting against each other. It might not have been as difficult if I hadn’t already been trying to keep track of all the supernatural beings.
There is a bit of a love triangle with Nahri and the djinn that she ends up summoning and the younger prince. It’s not resolved in this book. I have my personal favorite that I’m rooting for, but I’ll have to read the next book to see what happens.
My guess is that this book is one that would be better upon a reread. While I enjoyed the book, I’m not sure if I liked it enough to reread it. The characters were interesting enough, but I didn’t feel a connection to them like I do in some of the books that I can reread over and over and over again.
So, while City of Brass is well-written and has an amazingly complex and intricate world, it didn’t end up being one that I’ll gush over for years to come. That’s mostly on me, not the book. If I would have felt more connection to the characters or been more familiar with the culture, I probably would have liked it more.
Hello! As you know, it’s Tuesday again, so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Today’s topic is “Character Freebie”. Am I the only person that has trouble coming up with topics for the freebie days? I found a topic that I wanted to do for the freebie at the end of this month, but what to do about characters? I searched around and discovered that today was the Call of the Horizon Day. So I decided to celebrate this (very) minor holiday by highlighting characters who have traveled or who have gone on journeys, answering to that call of the horizon (or perhaps being forced on that journey).
The first character that came to mind when I decided on this topic was Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. I once did part of one of those “virtual walks” which was supposed to cover the distance walked on this epic journey. I didn’t get very far though.
A real person that traveled a lot was Laura Ingalls in The Little House on the Prairie series. She was born in Wisconsin, made the trek to “Indian territory,” then moved to Minnesota, and then finally settled in Dakota territory for the remainder of the books.
A lot of things can make you decide to travel. Perhaps you’re running away from something. Maybe you have to move due to poverty. Or perhaps you’re traveling across the country because you think your little brother needs to be rescued, as Free did when she took a road trip across the country with Cole in Into the Hollow.
Perhaps a lot of people like to hang out in their comfortable homes and avoid the call of the horizon unless they are forced to make it. Maia in Spin the Dawn probably wouldn’t have chosen to leave her family and travel as far a she did if she hadn’t felt compelled to do so as a way to protect her family. It’s this beautiful story’s book birthday today, by the way.
I thought this topic would be a lot more difficult than it seems to be. Maybe because traveling and avoiding enemies can make for an exciting book. One of the books that I’ve read recently that involves an epic journey is Julie Kagawa’s Shadow of the Fox.
I don’t talk about The Iliad much because Gareth Hinds’s graphic novel representation was just okay for me, but you can’t deny that the journey taken by these warriors certainly was noteworthy. Even more so would be the journey taken in The Odyssey, which I might have enjoyed more, but I haven’t read that one.
The characters in An Ember in the Ashes and the following books take quite a long journey. Like many of the characters here, I’m sure they would have preferred to stay at home. Nevertheless, struggle strengthens a person and also makes for a more interesting book.
The Throne of Glass series certainly takes you on an epic journey. Over the course of these books, Aelin and her allies travel the world in order to defeat their enemies and save the world.
A Song of Ice and Fire covers the lives of many characters across a vast world. Like most of the characters answering the call of the horizon today, most of them aren’t embarking on their journeys for the fun of it. Their survival is at stake.
While they don’t travel particularly far in the first book of The Mortal Instruments, the characters in this series do quite a bit of traveling. These books take you from New York City to Idris to Paris… and even to an alternate world. Life as a shadowhunter evidently involves quite a lot of travel.
Well, there you have it: characters who have answered the call of the horizon. Next week, we’re going to talk about my auto-buy authors. I actually only have two actual auto-buy authors, but there are several that I will read most of what they write, so we’ll talk about them.
I recently had the opportunity to read Beasts of the Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell (thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy!). I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for older young adult readers.
Lira’s known loss, but everything seems to fall apart shortly after she finds a boy, half-dead, wash up onto the shore. He’s from another land — enemies of her clan. The boy happened to be the same boy that saved her from gods-knows-what years before. She decides to save him, and that’s when her adventure started. And you’ve all heard the ancient Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times”.
What I Liked
There’s a lot I liked about Beasts of the Frozen Sun. Lira is a strong-willed character who is willing to do what is right, even if it could be dangerous or defies her own family and clan. She cares about her good friend and about her family. She’s also willing to see past a person’s birth circumstances and judge a person on what’s in their heard. Lira happens to have the ability to see into a person’s soul, and Reyker — the boy she saved — is not who he appears to be at first.
The culture and circumstances seem to go along with what the societies this story was based on were like historically. I like to read about girls that kick butt just as much as the next person, but realistically, girls are generally not as physically strong as trained male warriors (unless they have some sort of magical power). In most ancient cultures, girls weren’t much autonomy and were controlled by their fathers. When fighting, Lira doesn’t have a physical advantage over the invading warriors. Her father thinks that he can use her as a pawn. Of course, Lira overcomes this.
I also enjoyed the relationship she develops with Reyker. Their trust in each other develops very slowly, as you would expect with people that grow up being taught to hate each other. Although their relationship takes time to grow, it becomes strong and I found myself wanting to see everything work out for them.
This book has political maneuvering and evil characters making deals with the enemy. I liked the twists and turns it made.
What I Liked Less
The story took a little while to grow on me. By the end, I didn’t want to put it down, but it didn’t immediately grab me. That happens often with books that have prologues, but at least the prologue to Beasts of the Frozen Sun directly ties into what happens afterwards.
Other Things to Note
YA books cover a wide age range, and I wouldn’t recommend this book to younger YA readers. There are also things that could trigger some readers. This book has a male-dominated warrior culture, and the way they treat the captured women is not good (although not really elaborated on). There are executions and one attempted rape.
Beasts of the Frozen Sun ends in a cliffhanger. It’s not a massive cliffhanger where you’re just dying to find out what happens next, but I definitely was left with wanting to find out what happened next. I’ve already added the next book to my TBR.
Today, going on every Sunday until the end of the year, I’ll be publishing the ABC book challenge. This tag, which I originally found at Me, Myself, and Books, and was able to trace (tentatively) back to Thrifty Bibliophile, has you going through your TBRs and finding books that begin with that particular letter. I might do a mix of books on my TBR and books that I’ve read (depending on the letter).
There are a ton of books that start with A on both my TBR and read shelf over at Goodreads. So many, that it’s going to be difficult to narrow these books down to a reasonable number. One of the A books that I really liked was Alex, Approximately. It’s a cute teen summer romance featuring the enemies-to-lovers trope. I devoured it in two days.
One of the fun things about this tag I think will be talking about books I haven’t had the chance to really mention before. Agenda 21 is a thriller that came out in 2012. In this world set in the future, life is highly planned out for you. Children grow up in group homes, not with their families, and your mate is chosen for you. It’s a fairly bleak existence, until our protagonist decides that she wants to escape.
Almost all of the Anne of Green Gables books start with an A (Rilla of Ingleside I think is the only exception). These are really sweet books that I loved as a kid, and really should read again someday. It’s the story of Anne, an orphan who gets into a lot of trouble at first, but eventually grows up, gets married, and has a family.
American Panda looks like an adorable book. I haven’t read it yet, but would like to at some point in the future.
So there are some letter A books for the ABC Book Challenge. B is another letter that I have plenty of books on Goodreads for, so I’ll probably have quite a few books next week. When I get to X… not so much, I think.
