Category: reading

Review: Woman of Blood & Bone

the book in question

Max is an immortal witch. Literally, she keeps dying and something always brings her back. It is a fact she keeps from most people she knows, as trauma has shown her most people don’t handle coming back from the dead very well. Yet she and her best friend Striker have stuck together, especially at her tattoo parlor. One day a rather disgusting man comes in with his heavily pregnant wife and as the two of them conspire to get her away from him, the man turns out to be less than human. Which comes as a surprise, because Max didn’t notice. Protecting the pregnant girl is the name of the game, as Max finds herself the newest target of this demon’s attention.

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Review: One For The Money

the book in question

Cat Caliban has decided to start a new career after her children have grown and become parents. As an independent woman who had never had the opportunity to be so independent because of the times she lived in, she decides to go for detective work. Because that’s the sort of book she likes to read! While studying up for it, a crime happens in the apartment complex she owns and she has her very own murder case on her hands. However, it is less a matter of her wanting to prove herself (though it is true she does) and more of how the police aren’t putting enough manpower into solving the crime of a old homeless woman.

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Review: The Day the World Ended!: A Comedy

the book in question

Sam Ballard returns to his hometown after the change of the guard in Washington DC, only for the world to fall apart. After hooking up with his one time hookup Jules after his return to his small town, all technology fails to work in the morning and no one knows what is going on. Instead of doing anything about it, Sam and Jules want to have sex and drink wine. Only the world around moving on drags Sam around to try to figure out anything that is going on.

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Review: Gale

the book in question

Miranda lives on Gale, where those in charge demand everyone to be the same and to only be allowed the same amount of resources. Miranda is not the same: she suffers from seizures, which aren’t on the approved list of illnesses to be treated, and she has started having visions. In a short amount of time, she begins to learn why her world is how it is and what the truth of the dragon is from her visions.

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Review: Old School Evil

the book in question

Jayce is a homeless man with a beast inside of him, quite literally. A monster he calls wolf, who keeps him solitary from other people and barely making it day to day. Elsewhere, in a nursing home, a man named Max is looking for Jayce. Or for a way out of his prison, which he thinks he will manage if the son he has never met finds him something he wants.

Brian Cave’s Old School Evil takes a while to get going, but after it gets there it is a wildly fun ride. It exists as a love story to 80s cartoons and it succeeds in that regard. The old supervillains are old, bodies wasting away as they managed to live so long. And their children have suffered, if not directly, than indirectly from the crimes of their fathers’ pasts. It is both realistic and not at the same time.

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Review: A Song Below Water

the book in question

Tavia and Effie are not-blood-sister-sisters. Tavia is a siren, who must keep the fact she is a siren under wraps. Effie is not a siren, but is plagued by events which happened when she was nine, the loss of her mother, and currently lives with Tavia as they go to high school together. While Tavia is trying to figure out how to permanently silence her voice so as to stop fearing what will happen if people find out about her, Effie is struggling with not knowing who she is and her fear that the events of her past will happen again. Together they fight for themselves and each other.

I really loved this story. Certainly a lot of the magical influences were straight up one-to-ones for racism and sexism, but as all of this is still ever present, it’s certainly a subject that needs pushing in our literature.

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Review: A Man

the book in question

Keiichiro Hirano’s A Man follows the story of the deceased Taniguchi Daisuke – who was never Taniguchi Daisuke. His wife, Rie, discovers after his death that the man she married is not the man he claimed to be. She asks the help of an attorney, Kido Akira, in discovering who her husband actually was. Kido goes on an investigation to discover who Rie’s husband was, what happened to the real Taniguchi, and why a man would pretend to be another.

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April Is As April Does

April Is As April Does

Been a while, but I’m about to start up keeping people updated here. I have books, I am trying to put myself out there, it’s a big deal.

But I don’t want to talk about that right now. I want to talk about the 2020 OWLs Readathon. A themed readathon on its third year. It’s my first time, but after The Bookie Trials I joined just last weekend, I want more involved readathons. It is a lot more fun like this, plus it helps me find more books.

First things first, choosing the career. Depending on the career are the OWLs or NEWTs you need to take, which all have their own prompts. This is hard for me, because I like a lot of these career paths. One might think I’d go for Journalist/Writer, but considering that this CampNaNoWriMo I’m doing some worldbuilding, I’ve decided upon Alchemist. (Also, because it requires me to do all twelve OWLs and I’m just like this).

Ancient Runes

a book with a heart or heart rune on the cover or title

I have this on audio, so I figured I might as well. I was trying to do as many indie authors as possible, but I didn’t have any immediately which filled in this prompt. Plus, my Lyri is reading this too, so that’s double the reason for me! “How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father?” (418 pages)

Arithmancy

a book with the Number Two, balances/opposites, or outside favourite genre

I had no idea what this book is about, but you can just see by the title that it is about duality. Then I read the blurb and I’m hooked. “It doesn’t matter how many shades of gray might exist, some people see only in black and white.” (1231 pages)

Astronomy

read this book mainly when it’s dark outside

Considering I read whenever, I picked out a short one to make sure I read mainly when it’s dark outside. It was on my list and there are a lot of authors in this flash fiction project! “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” (47 pages)

Care of Magical Creatures

creature with a beak on the cover

I picked this one up the last time I was at Powell’s (shortly before they fired everyone and closed during this pandemic, I want to scream). Anyone who knows me knows I am a crow in my Paper Wings group, so the cover called to me. Then I looked what it was about and it seems right up my alley. “A Crow alone is no Crow.” (442 pages)

Charms and Herbology

book with a white cover and a book that starts with M

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/533016.Naoki_Urasawa_s_Monster_Volume_1

My sibling has been on me to start reading Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, so here it is! I could not for the life of me find the English translation on Amazon, and the original Japanese price is wild, so that’s why you get a goodreads link instead. I assure you, no one in this house paid 800$ for a single manga volume. “Who could have known that Tenma would create a monster!” (volume 1: 216 pages, volume 2: 212 pages)

Defense Against the Dark Arts

a book set at the sea or the coast

I didn’t have to check at all to see how much this book was set at sea. “Mermaid” sort of implies it, yes? Plus, it is a cozy mystery and I want to read a mermaid cozy mystery. Who doesn’t? If it’s really good, I have an #otspsecretsister to recommend it to! “Welcome to Sirenia, the mermaid colony in unchartered waters!” (110 pages)

Divination

assign numbers to TBR and use RNG to pick

Picked this one up when asking the Writing Community on Twitter to recommend me their books. I’m wanting more short stories, so I’m glad that my RNG gave me this one! “The world of imagination is a magical place filled with fantastical stories.” (164 pages)

History of Magic

a book about witches and/or wizards

It’s not that I don’t have a million books to read about witches or wizards, but this one is about sisters and I love me sibling interactions! “My name is Clementine and my magic is making me lose sleep.” (236 pages)

Muggle Studies

a contemporary novel

https://www.amazon.com/Break-Shot-First-Years-Taylor/dp/B081D93GP6

Contemporary for me usually goes to urban fantasy, but I assume the “perspective of a muggle” might say no to that. So I’m taking a shot at this memoir, because I like reading about musicians.  “I’m James Taylor and I’m a professional autobiographer.” (1h 33m)

Potions

a book under 150 pages

Because I need poetry in my life, here is about 100 pages of it. And no one can tell me that people aren’t picking up poetry books, because here I am, enjoying poetry. “This is a book about angels and fairies, love and hope, pain and loss, but most of all friendship.” (106 pages)

Transfiguration

includes shapeshifting in the story

A friend of mine told me how Academy was big. I believed her even before looking into it, but I can’t say I’ve read much myself outside of Harry Potter and a few lesser known ones. So it’s time for me to read a recent Academy, which includes a Shifter. Obviously. “Bloodwood Academy for the Supernatural has only one rule: Don’t mingle with students outside your race.” (291 pages)

(Extra) Dragon Tamer Training

DRAGONS

DRAGONS. (360 pages)