Book Check In 4/26

This week I was doing a bit more work from home so I had less time to read. I only read 4 books. They were all 4 of the Protector of the Small quartet (First Test, Page, Squire, and Lady Knight) by Tamora Pierce. I read like 2 chapters of A Darker Shade of Magic, I got distracted by Kel. Like I mentioned in my last check in, the Protector of the Small quartet is my favorite.

I love Keladry of Mindelan. Her dedication, her commitment to helping people when she sees something wrong happening. She’s so good! I love the involvement of other cultures that expands in this book. The other series in Tortall sometimes involve other cultures, but I like that because Kel grew up in the Yamani Islands, she has a lot of the culture. I do think it would be nice instead of just being a white girl who was raised with the culture, it would have been nice if she were Yamani herself. But that opens up a whole thing of how she would be able to become a page in Tortall. Maybe if she were half Yamani, her father still a Tortallan Baron but her mother Yamani. I think that would’ve added an extra layer to the story, made it more interesting.

I’m now onto the next series of the Tortall stories: Trickster’s Choice (by Tamora Pierce). I am technically still reading A Darker Shade of Magic. I plan to get there sooner or later, but the first two chapters didn’t pull me in that much and I’ve been really seeking distractions from all the stress, so I put it aside for now. I’ll probably work on it some more this week.

As always, you can see all the books I’ve read on my reading list.

Book Check In 4/19/20

This week I read 7 books!!! Absolutely bonkers. It was kind of a bad week so I was definitely reading books to escape. My grandfather caught COVID-19 about a week ago and died this morning. We’ve all been very stressed about it so I was reading especially a lot. This week I finished The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Lioness Rampant, Wild Magic, Wolf Speaker, Emperor Mage, and The Realm of the Gods, all by Tamora Pierce, as well as All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

So I finished the Alanna series, and then the whole Immortals series! The Woman Who Rides Like a Man is easily my favorite of the Alanna series, I think it diverges the most and is the most unique, has the most character growth. Like I talked about last week in my check in, The Alanna series isn’t my favorite because it feels the most similar to other books. In this one, she’s in a different part of the nation which makes it a little more exciting, it’s your stereotypical fantasy desert set up, but it’s still a little more fun than typical fantasy Europe. Alanna spends time learning about herself and trying new things. The other books it feels like she’s more guided, but this one it seems like it’s more her choices guiding the story.

I always under-rate the Immortals series before I read it. I for some reason when I think about it, remember not loving it, but then I reread it and it’s so great! I think because I read in story-chronological order (Beka ➡ Alanna ➡ Daine ➡ Kel ➡ Aly) and I’m always so excited to get to Kel, the Immortals series (Daine) seems like it’s an obstacle I have to get to before I can get to my fave. But it’s actually a great series!!! I like this series more than Alanna because it feels a lot more unique in terms of fantasy, even though in broad strokes, it is pretty common ideas. I think it’s a really fun and exciting story, and I like that each book is a separate thread that come together for the plot of the final book.

Like I mentioned in my last check in, I mostly read All the Light We Cannot See because my dad kept nagging me about it. Everytime I told him about whichever book I was reading, he would ask me when I was gonna read All the Light We Cannot See. I was kind of hesitant for a while because my taste is pretty different from his, but I finally caved and borrowed it from the library. I was surprised at how much I liked it! It weaves the story of two different people in WWII (including the lead up to the war). One is an orphan from Germany who wants to get out and change his life and become an engineer. The other is a French girl who loses her sight when she’s pretty young. Their lives become intertwined in ways that you don’t fully realize until the end of the story. It’s a really lovely book.

I am currently reading First Test by Tamora Pierce, first in the Protector of the Small Quartet (my favorite!). I’ve also started A Darker Shade of Magic. This one was recommended to me by my sister in law.

As always, you can see all the books I’ve read on my reading list.

Book Check In 4/12/20

Since my last check in, I read 4 books! 2 were rereads, and the other 2 were new. I finished Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire, read The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, as well as Alanna the First Adventure and In the Hands of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce.

Come Tumbling Down is the most recent in the Wayward Children series and continues that adventure. I really liked it and was satisfied, but I’m sad that it’s the most recent (published this year!). The books in the series have been coming out 1 per year so I can’t expect another till next year at the earliest. I’ll be reading some of Seanan McGuire’s other series to satisfy me while I wait :) I hope the next Wayward Children book focuses more on Cora. I really like her.

The Memory Police was totally different in tone than all the other books I read this week. It was described in the blurb as “Orwellian” and I think that’s fair. It also reminded me somewhat of the Giver (by Lois Lowry). On this island, things disappear, but not just that things get lost, they are taken away in its entirety, and people forget what meaning those objects once had to them. Some people are able to remember these objects, and if they are found to have the ability to remember, they are taken away by the Memory Police. It was kind of creepy and really good. I couldn’t put it down. It was originally published in Japanese and just last year was translated to English, which is kind of a bummer because there’s not much info out there about it. It had a kind of weird ending and didn’t totally satisfy me, and when I went looking for more info I couldn’t find any. Even with that, I still would recommend this book, it’s very different from other things I’ve read.

And as I mentioned in my last check in, I started the Alanna series. When I do my Tortall reread (when I’m feeling stressed or nostalgic or both) I start with the Beka Cooper series and it launches you right into the Alanna quartet. I’ll be honest, the Alanna books aren’t my favorite of the Tortall books, I think they’re the most similar to other books, girl dresses as boy to become a knight story, and it doesn’t feel as unique. But they are also the first written chronologically, so I give them a pass. The later books have more varied stories and characters that are really fun, but Alanna is present through those later books so I like to include her in my rereads.

I’m currently reading The Woman Who Rides Like a Man by Tamora Pierce, which is one of my favorites out of the Alanna saga, as well as All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which my dad has been recommending to me for literally a year. So far I’m liking it more than expected

Book Check In 4/4/20

Since last week, I read 5 books. I got excited, and I’m under quarantine.

I finished Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, read In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire, and also read Terrier, Bloodhound, and Mastiff by Tamora Pierce (all 3 books of the Beka Cooper series).

Sabrina & Corina is a collection of short stories and I’m really into it. It was part of my library’s “Our Voices” collection that I’ve been making my way through. The collection is books about marginalized people written by people from those same groups. She focuses on Latinx and Indigenous characters and her stories are really good. I kept staying up too later reading because I can’t put it down. I really liked these short stories, and I liked how as you read more of them, you learned more about the author, based on the details that kept popping up in every story. I don’t read enough short stories, which is a bummer cause I really enjoy them.

In an Absent Dream may be my current favorite of the Every Heart a Doorway series. I really really liked this one. I’ve loved all of them, but this one in particular caught my fancy. A girl who keeps going back and forth between a magic realm and our world, trying to make a fair deal with people from both sides. I could hardly put it down, I whipped through it.

I love all of Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books, and when I’m feeling particularly stressed or nostalgic, I reread them all. With all this coronavirus stress and quarantine craziness, I needed something soothing like that. Of all the Tortall books, Beka Cooper is tied for my favorite (with the Protector of the Small quartet). I love Beka and I love these books, they never fail to make me tear up or laugh out loud.

I’m currently reading Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire, which is the next in the Every Heart a Doorway series. So far this one also promises to be awesome.

I’ll also probably start the Alanna series soon, it’s next in my Tortall reread, but I have literally 15 ebooks borrowed from the library that I need to get reading, so we’ll see what happens.

As always, my full book list can be found here.