Booktube-A-Thon 2016

I have decided that despite not actually having a BookTube account, I will participate in the Booktube-A-Thon this year. I've chosen my seven books for the read-along and I'm going to include them below and my reasoning why I picked the ones that I did.

1) Read a book with yellow on the cover: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

I didn't actually know at first what I would pick for this. I don't have very many books that have yellow on their covers. At least not many that I could think of. Then I remembered that one of the people I absolutely love on BookTube (Peter Likes Books) actually raved about a book that I owned. That book would be The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. I had entirely forgotten that not only did I buy this one, I actually also bought the sequel. It is the largest of the books on my Booktube-A-Thon pile, but I hope to get through it quickly. 

2) Read a book only after sunset: A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson

Don't ask. I don't know. I don't read memoirs normally and for a reason that I don't happen to personally know, I decided that the book I am going to read for my only after sunset challenge. Why? Who knows! So Joan learns that her husband is going to a new job several thousand miles away and she just doesn't want to go with him. Sudden bout of apathy. I want to know why she felt the way she did. I want to know if she figured it out while she lived by the sea in the cottage for a year. It sounded interesting and it's under 200 pages....that was a big draw for me. 

3) Read a book discovered through YouTube: The Martian by Andy Weir

Not only did I get it. I got the edition that I wanted. Not the one with Mark Wahlberg's face on it really big. No the original orange version of it despite having bought it more than a year after it was released. I like science books nearly as much as I like alien books. I'm bad at math and science related stuff, so I don't know WHY I like it. I heard about this when I first started watching Booktube, which was also right around when I started up this blog. I liked the way they talked about how Mr. Weir combined actual science with humor in the novel. I cannot now remember which booktubers I actually saw it on besides jessethereader and even then I think I'm not remembering correctly. Anyways, moving on. I can't wait.

4) Read a book by one of your favorite authors: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.

This would be me cheating actually. I'm still sort of "Eh" on the C.S. Lewis front. The slight problem is I don't really have a favorite author. I like so many that I'm just like uhhhhhhhhh that one? I am actually in a buddy read with a friend of mine and we are reading the Chronicles of Narnia in publication order and I decided that I would use that slot (or slot seven) to read the next book in the series. I am liking it right now, and I've even already named some cyber pets after the characters in the book. I want to know how Eustace will do without his cousins there with him. He definitely seems much more....mature...than before. I'm glad that he's not a vicious little prick like in the beginning of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That's good!

5) Read a book older than you are: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

I think I've read Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I'm pretty sure (like 85%) that I have. So I decided that for the book older than me, I'd pick something that wasn't super long and I went with this one. I think even the edition I'm reading is older than I am. Considering Mr. Twain died in like 1910 and I wasn't born for nearly another 80 years....that counts for older than me. Its nearing five times my age. I love classics too, so this should be very easy!

6) Read a book and watch it's movie adaptation: Paper Towns by John Green. 

Psych! I know that the picture at the top has TFIOS. I was going to do that one because my sister loved it and is obsessed with Shailene Woodley, so I figured that she would have a copy of the TFIOS DVD. We couldn't find it, but she did have a copy of Paper Towns so I decided that I'm going to read that instead. She gave me the book and DVD at the same time. This doesn't sound too terrible, even though I am not usually one for YA contemporary books. I prefer classics or fantasy.

7) Read seven books: The Tuesday Club Murders by Agatha Christie.

I just grabbed the nearest book to my person. It just so happens that the nearest one to me is actually one of my great-aunt's favorite authors. She'd had a huge collection of Agatha Christie books that she was going to send up for me. Unfortunately they were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. This is one of the only ones I have now. I think it's good that I'm reading this one. It will be a good way to both close out Booktube-a-thon and to honor my great-aunt.

June 2016 Wrap Up

Hello again~ I know I've been doing terribly the last few months. Just all of a sudden I didn't want to read. It wasn't so much a slump as it was just too hot and I  didn't want to do anything. I guess you could call that a heat slump? But we finally got our AC in the window and now I'm a reading fiend! All of the italic summaries are from Goodreads.com.

So far I've read a total of 19 books for June~


Book #1: The Wizard of Oz: The First Five Novels by L. Frank Baum

Oz, the Great Wizard! The very name of L. Frank Baum's magical character conjures a world where diminutive munchkins live and work, wicked witches run riot, and the mighty Oz himself rules over an Emerald City reached by a yellow brick road. The Wizard of Oz: The First Five Novels is your passport to this marvelous realm and wonders that have enchanted readers young and old for more than a century. Lavishly illustrated by W. W. Denslow and John R. Neill, this volume includes:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Marvelous Land of Oz

Ozma of Oz

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

The Road to Oz

The Wizard of Oz: The First Five Novels is one of Barnes & Noble's Collectible Editions classics. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world's greatest authors in an exquisitely designed bonded-leather binding, with distinctive gilt edging and a silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensable cornerstone for every home library. 

I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I gave it 4/5 stars for some of the things Dorothy said (holy cow is she a snotty little bitch sometimes!). I've wanted to read the series for a long time and had promised myself that if I finished and won Camp NaNoWriMo April this year, I'd buy myself the three omnibuses....I did. 


Books #2-9: Bleach Vol 1-8 by Tite Kubo

Hot-tempered 15-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki, the hero of the popular fantasy-adventure Bleach, has the unsettling ability to see spirits who are unable to rest in peace. His sixth sense leads him to Rukia, a Soul Reaper who destroys Hollows (soul-devouring monsters) and ensures the deceased find repose with the Soul Society. When she's injured in battle, Rukia transfers her sword and much of her power to Ichigo, whose spiritual energy makes him a formidable substitute Soul Reaper. But the orange-haired teenager isn't sure he wants the job: too many risks and moral dilemmas.

I marked these all under the same set because they're manga and it's actually kind of difficult to do it much of any other way. I have had the first eight volumes of this series for a very long time and I have read them so many times that they are already turning a dark yellow-brown kind of color. I rated it 5/5 stars. I love how absolutely clueless Ichigo actually is to a lot of things. When you read it, you wonder, how did he not see them before. How has he never seen a Hollow before when he can see spiritual beings? How has he never seen a Soul Reaper before? 

Books #10-14: Yu-Gi-Oh! Vol 1-5 by Kazuki Takahashi

10th grader Yugi spent most of his time alone playing games... until he solved the Millennium Puzzle, a mysterious Egyptian artifact! Possessed by the puzzle, Yugi becomes Yu-Gi-Oh, the King of Games, and challenges evildoers to the Shadow Games... weird games with high stakes and high risks! These graphic novels contain new stories not seen in the anime, including the origin of Yugi and his friends!

I did the same thing for this series as I did for Bleach above it (and will also do for Fruits Basket when I get to it). It's just much easier to put a manga series as a single entry than as however many volumes. Each one takes all of an hour, usually less, to read. Anybody who plays Duel Monsters, or Yu-Gi-Oh to some, would have heard of this series. I adore both the books and the card game itself, and enjoy both despite the extremely different rule system between the two versions. Yugi appears to be a little person with a very huge heart and even managed to in one move win over both of the boys that were bullying him. He takes the trust and support of his friends above everything else and seeks to 'punish' those who break that trust. It's a very good series of manga for those who want to watch a small high school boy finally gain the friends he's always wanted. 

Book #15: The Capture by Katheryn Lasky

Pushed from his family's nest by his older brother, barn owl Soren is rescued from certain death on the forest floor by agents from a mysterious school for orphaned owls, St. Aggie's. With new friend, clever and scrappy Gylfie, he uncovers is a training camp for the leader's own nefarious goal.

I have yet to actually figure out where/when this series is set. It appears to be long after man, or the Others, has wiped itself from the face of the earth. Either way, the main creatures in the novel are owls. I have seen the movie that was based on these novels, and my friend had decided to give away her own copies (vol. 4-15) I had to have them. Recently I picked up the first three volumes and read them. In this one, Soren is pitched from his nest. I feel bad for the little owlet because of his lack of flight feathers. He is trapped on the ground and is stolen by a very terrible band of owls that call themselves St. Aegolius's School for Orphaned Owls. I have yet to figure out if they are intentionally doing ill to the young owlets or if they believe that they are doing some good for the owls that have fallen out of their nests or lost their parents. 

Book #16: The Journey by Katheryn Lasky

It began as a dream. A quest for the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, a mythical place where each night an order of owls rises to perform noble deeds. There Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger hope to find inspiration to fight the evil that dwells in the owl kingdom. The journey is long and harrowing. When Soren and his friends finally arrive at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, they will be tested in ways they never dreamed and face challenges they never imagined. If they can learn from their leaders and from one another, they will soon become true Ga'hoolian owls-honest and brave, wise and true.

Soren and Gylfie have escaped, and I felt for them (and for Grimble). I am glad that Soren's dreams had come true and he's actually at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. I knew when I read the part about the St. Aggie's owls being not even remotely the evil that they should fear, that something terrible was going to happen that involved a character from the movie that had yet to be introduced. I absolutely loved the book and I can't wait to get through vols 3-15!

Book #17: The Rescue by Katheryn Lasky

Ever since Soren was kidnapped and taken to the St. Aegolius School for Orphaned Owls, he has longed to see his sister, Eglantine, again. Now Eglantine is back in Soren's life, but she's been through an ordeal too terrible for words. And Ezylryb, Soren's mentor, has disappeared. Deep within Soren's gizzard, something more powerful than knowledge tells him there's a connection between these mysterious events. In order to rescue Ezylryb, Soren must embark upon a perilous quest. It will bring him face-to-face with a force more dangerous than anything the rulers of St. Aggie's could have devised-and a truth that threatens to destroy the owl kingdom.

I was not expecting most of what actually happened in the book. I had convinced myself that what happened in the movie was at least a little related to what happened in the book. Boy was I ever wrong! Nothing is what I thought it was going to be at all. I was definitely surprised by the reveal of Metal Beak's identity. I was not expecting it to be who it was. Holy crap. I am so excited now to read the rest of the books and find out just how Soren and Eglantine deal with it all.


Book #18: VECTOR by Vaun Murphrey

Homecomings usually involve burgers, fries and apple pies but that's not on the menu for Cassandra and Silver. They're launched into assassination attempts, bar brawls, and relationship drama just in the first 24 hours. Can they protect everyone they love from all comers before it explodes in their face? Find out in VECTOR, Book Three of the Weaver Series.

I got this from NetGalley in return for an honest review, so you'll be seeing more over there. I love this series. I just started PHOENIX and I saw she's working on a new one that I have managed to forget the name of. I loved this one as much as the rest of them. Cass and Silver end up having to help some of the people they hate the most. I don't know what's going to happen to them now....since they are in a new place, but I hope it all works out for them. VECTOR is definitely a very good book. I currently recommend it to anybody who wants to read it. The entire series is fantastic.


Book #19: The Love Spell by Phyllis Curott

This is the story of a love spell that worked. Ivy League lawyer and Wiccan priestess Phyllis Curott has a supercharged career in law and filmmaking, but one thing is missing: love. She casts a sexy spell, and her dream lover soon arrives. But he’s not who he appears to be and there are unforeseen consequences. In this hip, compelling tale of spiritual and sexual awakening, she must seek the aid of an otherworldly suitor, a daemon, to discover how modern relationships and their problems are paths to the greatest magic of all—true love. This wise and erotic memoir is rich with spells, potions, and rituals for love. The author shares accessible techniques of sexual magic for the accomplishment of personal goals and growth, revealing how sexual ecstasy can lead to the discovery of our innate divinity and an empowered life.

This is a memoir. I don't read memoirs ever. I'm pretty sure this is the first one I read, and if I had known what they were actually like, I might have picked them up sooner. For some silly reason, I had it in my head that a memoir was going to read like a history book and I was very not interested in that. If I had not seen the little word "memoir" on the cover, I'd have thought this was just another fiction novel. I enjoyed the story and it didn't take me nearly as long to read as I thought it would. Overall a 4/5 stars. There were parts of it that I did not like, but I think it's more to do with not having grown up then. I'm sure if I were from the same era as this novel's setting, I would understand more.