Hey, y’all! Sorry I’ve been a little sparse with the book reviews lately, but life happens, and reading is (unfortunately) not always my #1 priority. To alleviate my time between reviews, I decided I’m going to jump on the meme train! WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @Taking On A World Of Words, where I have to answer three simple questions: what am I currently reading, what I have recently read, and what I want to read soon. I did this for the first time last week and really enjoy this meme, as I am always reading multiple books at once and queueing my next choices right on my nightstand. So, here we go!
What am I currently reading?
- King’s Cage (Red Queen #3) by Victoria Aveyard: The next installment of Mare Barrow’s adventure is finally here! This YA series takes place in a country called Norta, where people with “silver blood” and powers rule over those with red blood, who are believed to have no powers. Mare is a Red herself, but she has the powers of a Silver that wind her up in a lot of trouble that I will not go into too much detail about in fear of spoilers. I’ve reviewed the two previous novels in the series (Red Queen (#1) and Glass Sword (#2)), and although the second book was kind of a letdown from the first (which I loved), I’m hoping that Aveyard picks up the pace again in this third book.
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: So, sadly, my love for classic literature started a little late in my life, and now I’m playing catch up. While many people read this book back in high school for one class or another, I was reading war novel after war novel after war novel mixed with a little Shakespeare, and although I’m not complaining, I wish we had delved a little more into the classics. I was re-reading The Princess Diaries a few weeks back and fifteen-year-old Mia goes off about how much she loved Jane Eyre, so I figured that was as good a place to start as any. I’m only 100 pages in, but I’m here for the long haul.
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman: If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times – I will spend so much money on books with modern day retellings of mythological stories, and American Gods was promised to me as kind of/sort of that. My AP Literature teacher from high school who I still keep in contact with all but threw this book at me, saying I would love it and even buying a copy for me for high school graduation that I totally forgot I even had until I bothered to move my bookshelf over winter break. Despite my slowness in getting to it (and forgetting about it), I am very excited to read it! Also, they’re making it into a TV show which looks fantastic, so of course I have to read the book first.
What did I recently finish reading?
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty: Well, color me surprised. This was a book that I had written off as a hyped-up novel due to suburban mom book clubs, but I finally picked it up once they made it into a HBO show with the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgard, and Adam Scott. Although 9 times out of 10 I despise the movie/show that arises from a book, nothing gets me to read the book faster than announcing there’s going to be some sort of adaptation of it. But Big Little Lies was more than I had expected it to be. Although not overwhelmingly creative or well written, it was an easy read that took me no time at all considering it’s 450 pages, and she kept me invested and guessing all the way throughout and up until the end – and that is a feat. 4/5 stars, full review coming soon.
- Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds by Ping Fu: I received this autobiography to judge for the University of Florida’s Common Reading Program 2017. I’ve been trying to read more non-fiction books recently, and thought that this would be a good choice; however, I was immensely disappointed when I rolled onto Goodreads and saw that Ping Fu, the author of the book, had largely fabricated her own story, exaggerating and lying about different aspects of her story. Even if what she had said was true, Fu tended to sound like she was bragging about rather than sharing her story, even adopting a condescending tone when trying to discuss the advanced world of 3D printing technology to the reader. 1/5 stars, review not even worth it; was red listed for CRP choice.
- Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) by Leigh Bardugo: I have loved Leigh Bardugo ever since I picked up her Grisha trilogy almost three years ago now. The world that she has created – with the Shu, Ravkans, Kerch, Fjerdans, and more – is a twist on a trope in which a select portion of the population has powers, but she does it so beautifully that it doesn’t even seem cliche. I was nervous about her adding to the same world, as Six of Crows runs parallel rather than perpendicular to the original Grisha trilogy – but that was for nothing. Six of Crows was like Ocean’s Twelve taking place in the world of the Grisha – and I loved every second of it. Additionally, there is no love triangle in this book either (*sounds of angels singing from heaven*), but it does suffer from what I call “convenient love” – where there are six of them, and all of them are nearly paired up by the end of the novel. All in all, it really was an incredible book and only received a 4.5 / 5 because I couldn’t quite get into it at the start. 4.5 / 5 stars, review coming soon.
What do I think I’ll read next?
- The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’s Lives by Theresa Brown: So, obviously this one is for school (#StudentNurseLife), but I am interested to see what stories she feels so inclined to share during this book. Theresa Brown is an RN (Registered Nurse) who after becoming a mother, left the world of English academia behind to become a nurse. She’s written two books about her time as a critical care/palliative/oncology nurse, and this is her second book. We’re required to read it for class to understand how much can happen in one shift, and how even the most mundane things can greatly affect our patients’ lives. I’m actually weirdly excited to start it.
- Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas: It’s not that I’m having a hard time getting through the Throne of Glass series or anything, but I just can’t seem to quite get super invested in it. I think that the premise of the story is creative and enticing, but Maas’ execution in telling it doesn’t quite seem to match. I think she took a dip in the second book with her quality of writing as well, so I’m really hoping she gets herself out of the rut in the third installment of the series.
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah: I LOVE Trevor Noah. He’s basically one of my favorite human beings of the moment, and the only good thing that has come out of Trump getting elected besides hilarious SNL skits is my continuing love, respect, and admiration for Trevor Noah. I had the opportunity to see him come do a show and talk at my university last year, and it’s still one of my favorite college memories. I was a little wary of him replacing Jon Stewart, who I almost three years ago now and who was genuinely so funny and brilliant right off the bat, but Noah himself is the same way and more. This autobiography is about how he was born, half-white and half-black in apartheid South Africa, which, as the title would suggest, is a crime. I am super excited to finish reading it to allow for my respect for him to only continue to grow.
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