Sifting through my "Reccomended" list on YouTube, I came across this book tag. I got very excited almost immediately. Pokemon is one of those things from my childhood that I'm still in love with. I mean, I could kick myself now for selling it, but I used to have a base set holographic Charizard. I started collecting that long ago. It was original!!
Anyway, I was on BookTube just flipping around in the videos when I saw this on PeruseProject's channel. I couldn't resist. She linked the original video, which sadly I couldn't see as I was watching on my television. I did notice when I was doing it, there were only 15/18 types. They had skipped three that I think would have made for brilliant prompts. I have added them here.
With no further adieu, let's begin!!
With no further adieu, let's begin!!
Normal: Your Favorite Contemporary
For this I have chosen Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett. This book was really good back when I read it. I loved the way that the girl was so oblivious to what was going on around her. She completely missed subtle clues about the identity of the boy she was talking with online that were there. That she could have used to figure out who he was when she moved. It probably felt strange to her, moving to the town her online best friend lived in and to still have no idea who he actually was. Bailey was a great character and I enjoyed her story a lot.
Fire: A Fiery Romance
For this I went with Leo Loves Aries by Anyta Sunday. It's an LGBT+ book featuring two males who fall in love/lust with each other. As I was reading it, they were hanging out with their new roommate/tutor when out of the clear blue they were doing the do on the couch. It was so sudden and I hadn't been expecting it, or them suddenly just dropping trousers in the middle of the kitchen. I loved the rest of it, but holy damn was the sex just a surprise.
Water: An Easy Read
Some prompts are harder to come up with good, non cop out answers to. I don't want to cheat and use manga, graphic novels, or like middle grade books that I fly through. They are designed to be easy reads. My answer for this is going to be The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. I sailed clear through it. The premise is the kind of tricks that the mind can play when one is lost, scared, and malnourished. It was such a quick easy read for me. Other people in the group who were reading it were taking much longer. I still think that what the man saw was what was really there. A little girl throwing rocks at a bear. It was very quick and easy though.
Electric: Book That Kept You Humming
For this one for a while before making my decision. The one that made me think a lot long after I had finished it was Still Alice by Lisa Genova. I work regularly with those affected by various types of Alzheimer's Disease and dementia. Lewy Body, Prefrontal, Early Onset, it's crazy just how many types. This book stuck with me, and is still sometimes in my mind (I read it last year) because it was an interesting look at dementia from the view of a person with the disease. It followed Alice, as she started to forget, was diagnosed, and eventually just forgot everything.
Grass: Favorite First in a Series
This could have so many different answers! Tons of books came to mind right away as my favorite books in a series. The top one was Renegades by Marissa Meyer, but I haven't read the next book in the series, so I didn't want that one (hopefully it does steal the top spot from the one I picked though). The book I actually chose was Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. I'm presently on volume three (of a known four) and while yes, Hunting Prince Dracula (#2) and Escaping from Houdini (#3) are good...I think the first will always be my favorite. It follows a young woman named Audrey Rose Wadsworth in 1881-1882 as she does the unthinkable for a woman of the time and studies forensic medicine/science with her uncle and his apprentice, Thomas Cresswell. They somehow get themselves included in the Jack the Ripper murders of Whitechapel. The twists were amazing and though I had a pretty good idea of who did it at first, the logic behind why was impressive.
Ice: Character As Cold As Ice
The book that popped into my head was The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon. Not the main character, but one of the supporting characters was so cold it was a wonder that people didn't see their own breath around him. He is the leader of her particular faction within in Scion London, and he is very cold hearted. He was willing to turn his back on people he could well have saved simply because he simply didn't want to. Such a jerk!
Fighting: Action-Packed!
Oh boy. I was doing so well....I suppose for this I would go with The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. I would not want to be that poor linguist. Every time she turned around somebody was doing something (including summoning a bunch of naked Vikings to raid a Walmart....) to attempt to kill her and/or stop their project that they were working on. The story was brilliant and I loved the way you jumped from action scene to action scene with hardly any romance tossed in there.
Ground: Down-to-Earth Characters
I will go with The Before Now and After Then by Peter Monn. Danny doesn't want to be in the limelight, he's just your average kid. He goes to school, he goes home from school, he hangs out with this friends....that's it. Then he moves to a new school and he starts to realize that it's okay to just be okay with who he is and find himself someone who accepts him as is. I loved the way he was down-to-earth and just a normal kid you would see walking down the road.
Flying: Favorite High Fantasy
I have two for this. I couldn't pick between them. Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind (Wizard's actual first rule? People are stupid) and The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. I've not finished either series. I own all of the Lord of the Rings, but only the first four of the Sword of Truth. I want to re-read both. In Wizard's First Rule we follow Richard and Kahlan as they try to stop a horrid man from doing horrid things with magic. It's been so long that I forgot. The Fellowship of the Ring is the beginning of Frodo's journey to destroy the ring. We follow them as far as almost to Isengard as they acquire the ring, form the party, and then start of on their journey. Kind of wondering if anybody's ever done the Lord of the Rings as a D&D/PF adventure? I would. I would want to. I'd even let them pick whatever species they want to be.
Bug: Book That Annoys You
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. I cannot figure out what people love so much about it. It's a terrible book that was based on an only slightly less terrible book from another author. It does not accurately describe the BDSM culture. It has what just amounts to physical and emotional abuse. I hated it and I think anybody who read it and liked it are strange indeed and don't know how relationships like that actually work and should be taken to their nearest BDSM club for a lesson in proper ways.
Rock: Hard to Describe
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. I tried to explain what this was about to the activities director at work. She just sort of stared at me like I was suddenly speaking French because I was just doing a terrible job. It's difficult. This girl Alice, and this girl Alaïs, are the same girl? They are just separated by something like 1500 years. It was weird. I didn't really like it, and I don't feel like continuing the series. There was a grail and books, and something that I didn't quite follow. I just made it to the point in reading where I may as well just finish it.
Ghost: Everyone Can Die
This was another difficult one, but I think here is where I'm going to put Renegades by Marissa Meyer. The whole point of the book is a massive standoff where people from either side (Renegade or [insert name here]) can and will kill each other. Sometimes I think they do it just for the fun of it. I really enjoyed the story and look forward to Archenemies.
Dragon: Great Magical Creatures
My choice for this one is a series instead of a single book. I'm going with C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. There are a lot of really nice magical creatures. From a talking lion, to rats the size of large dogs, large dogs the size of horses, centaurs, fauns...the only thing I think it was missing were dragons. I loved the stories, and I felt terrible at the ending. It was a good series and one I have and will reread.
Dark: Dark and Twisted Plot
I'm going with a book I read a very long time ago, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. This book just wigged me out so bad. The plot follows a girl who is accused of killing her parents because she didn't like them. It turns out the entire time that she was innocent of the crime, but her sweet as sugar sister did it because reasons that I can't remember off hand. It was just weird and terrible and I hated that I liked it.
Fairy: Fairy Recommendation
As funny as it sounds, the only one coming to mind is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke because there is this running search for the Raven King (a fairy) and then there's the Thistledown man, a fairy that lives in the king's old castle. I don't read many fairy/fae books. I've not read more than I think 20 pages of Sarah J. Maas, so I can't help there. It's the only one I've finished.
Poison: Murder/Attempted Murder
This is going to be Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. It's a story with two murders. One in-world fictional and one in-world nonfiction. Susan Ryeland is given a book to edit for her company. A murder-mystery by an acclaimed author...who was found dead. It was said that you'll die if you read the book. The whole point of the book was figuring out who killed the character in the author's book, and who killed the author. It was great.
Psychic: Great Magical Realism
My choice for this is one of my favorite books, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I loved it when I read it and I felt really bad for the two younger people. They were forced into a battle they had nothing to do with and they had to duke it out. It was very good and I'm super glad I read it. It is about two teens who are used as contestants by these two wizards who are fighting each other.
Steel: Hard to Pick Up
I'm angling this more like a difficult to read, as opposed to literally difficult to lift. Either way the book I chose works for this. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It was good, but it was also so dense. I gave up on it a few times because I just didn't feel like I was making any progress on it at all when I read it, even though I would read 50-75 pages at a go. The thing is HUGE. Anyway, follows a young man falsely imprisoned to prevent him from marrying a pretty girl. Yeah. Then he breaks out, gets lots of money, just upends a bunch of people's lives, marries the pretty girl anyway, and that's it.
Well, there we have the Pokemon Book Tag. I hope you enjoyed it and feel like doing your own version of the tag. I tag....EVERYONE.
