“Kathy.”
“Mm?”
“We’re pretty much in the middle of September right now.”
“Yep, I can see that. I have a tear-away calendar thingy on my desk.”
“Well, one generally writes a TBR post at the beginning of the month.”
“Eh, that’s debatable. There’s no Blog Police skulking around checking for these things, ready to clap you in handcuffs (and not the fuzzy ones). So you can technically write a TBR whenever. Hell, you can even write them at the end of the month and be like, ‘Here are all the books I thought I was going to read this month…and here’s what I actually read.’ Do whatever you want, you know? The world is your oyster. Break free from the shackles of conformity.”
“I mean, sure, shackles and oysters. But this one’s just a case of you being a lazy procrastinator.”
“Oh my god, you are ruining my brand. Why are you even here?”
“Well, I’m you. And you’re me. And this is an overlong conversation you’re having with yourself. And I feel like we should just get to the post before we scare off the readers. What’s left of them, anyway.”
“But I’m not the one who started–UGH. Fine.”
Right, so here we have the latest TBR post I’ve done to date! It’s a badly stitched-up mix of “TBR” and “What Did I Just Finish Reading?” and “What Am I Reading Now?” and “Hey, You Like Voting For Things, Right? (‘No,’ Said 50% of America) Well, Here’s A Thing You Can Vote For!”
It’s awkward, kind of ugly, and suffers from a heavy case of identity crisis.
My own little Frankenstein’s monster. Please treat it kindly. <3
(Fun fact: that above conversation was originally twice as long and included a side-argument about adjectives. No, I don’t know what’s wrong with me either.)
Recently Finished
➽ Bloody Rose (The Band 2) by Nicolas Eames:
Great sequel to a great debut. Review here.
➽ Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton:
Oh boy. I have a lot of thoughts on this one and I’m in the process of trying to sort them out. Review to come.
➽ The Deepest Roots by Miranda Asebedo:
A YA contemporary/fantasy/mystery/paranormal story that didn’t really work for me. Review to come.
READING NOW
➽ Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon:
McCammon wrote one of the my favourite books of all time–Boy’s Life–and I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while now. It’s a doorstopper historical mystery (at nearly 800 pages) that centers around a witch trial and I’m loving it so far. McCammon’s gift for creating atmosphere and interesting characters really shines in this one.
➽ Los Nefilim by T. Frohock:
A historical gothic fantasy (aka my favourite subgenre) about angels and daimons. I’ve had the book for a couple of years now and I figured now is a good time to get started on it, seeing as how the sequel’s dropping in a few months.
➽ Equal Rites (Discworld 3) by Terry Pratchett:
I’m reading this as part of the Discworld Readathon and very much liking it so far!
YET TO READ
➽ Nightingale by Amy Lukavics
YA historical horror set in an asylum and featuring an unreliable narrator. It’s also been blurbed by Paul Tremblay so I’m rather quite curious.
➽ The Nine (Thieves of Fate 1) by Tracy Townsend:
Another book that’s been milling around on my shelves for a year. It’s about a mysterious, magical book and it’s set in a secondary world that’s kind of similar to our own…but not really? I don’t know. The blurb gives you a lot without really giving you anything.
➽ The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang:
This one will probably/maybe/hopefully be a buddy read with Justine from Milkz Bookshelf!
➽ The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar:
A historical fantasy (yay!) about a (dead?) mermaid set in 18th century England. I’ve been hearing amazing things about this one and I can’t wait to dive in!
➽ The Tower of Living and Dying (Empires of Dust 2) by Anna Smith Spark:
Sequel to one of my favourite books of last year. I’m hoping it’s be as brutal and bloody and beautiful as the first.
Undecided (aka Oh God Choices are Hard Help Me)
Both of these are ARCs I want to knock out before October, but I have no idea which one to tackle first. So if you’d like to relieve me of my choice paralysis, vote for one and tell me in the comments below!
➽ Time’s Children (The Islevale Cycle 1) by D.B. Jackson
A blend of high fantasy and scifi in which a 15-year old boy is sent back in time to prevent a war and finds himself in an adult body. I did say I was going to take a break from scifi for a bit, but the premise for this one is just too interesting to pass up.
➽ The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
Sequel to Lee’s Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue in which the former protagonist’s sister is the new protagonist. It’s got adventures and pirates and well, petticoats, presumably. Should be good fun!
0 comment
I’ve been seeing those Nicholas Eames novels more and more and really want to check them out! Good luck with your reading 🙂
Thank you! And I highly highly recommend Eames’ books–they’re a *ton* of fun. And I have a feeling he’s only going to get more popular in the SFF fandom
I am looking forward to catching up with the Nicolas Eames series:). And delighted you are enjoying Equal Rites so much – I love Pratchett’s writing, particularly the earlier stuff. As for your choice – Time’s Children… yes, you’re right – that premise is awesome.
I will be interested to see what you make of Mrs Hancock and the Mermaid, as I didn’t end up being wowed. Happy reading!
I’m not very far into Equal Rites, but I’m just really charmed by it so far! It feels a lot more…cozy (?) than Colour of Magic, which I love. And so many people have been showering Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock with 5 stars, so I’m curious to see what I’ll think of it too.
And one vote for Time’s Children it is! 😀
That’s funny… I never think of Discworld as cosy but I suppose in the modern classification of the term, it is. But Esme Weatherwax is just the most wonderful character.
Yes, I’m curious to see what you make of Mrs Hancock and the Mermaid, too. I didn’t give it 5 stars… But it would be a boring old world if we all liked the same thing, wouldn’t it?
Glad to see you’re enjoying Equal Rites! I’ve added the first Band book to my list after reading your review on GoodReads, it sounds right up my street!
It balances humour and character work so well! Hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
Firstly, I have conversations with myself like that all the time, loved it!
Next, YAY THAT YOURE ENJOYING EQUAL RITES! I didn’t mean to write that all in caps, but it feels too hard to fix now.
Finally, Ladies Guide to Piracy and Petticoats has my vote.
Haha all caps seem super appropriate! 😀 And Pirates and Ladies in petticoats it is!!
I think you can do a TBR post at any point in time. It makes perfect sense to me, Kathy! These all look great, but you know which one I especially look foward to hearing your thoughts! I am hoping to have lots of reading time this weekend since I won’t be able to do anything outside the house! ♥️
I’ve been seeing TBR posts from other bloggers pop up in the last few days so that gives me comfort. 😀 And I’m definitely going to get started on Mermaid and Hancock this week! Falling behind on ARCs make me rather anxious. I hope you’re having a super super productive reading weekend! <3
I’m always hesitant to try out “funny” Books because I don’t know if I’ll think they’re funny, too, so I wasn’t all too interested in Kings of the Wyld. But I met Nicholas Eames at Worldcon and Bloody Rose sounds much more interesting to me. Plus, I think I’ve only read/heard one bad review of Kings of the Wyld. The buddy read will happen! I’m excited! But I’ve only budy read with a friend I’ve known since high school so I dunno how this works. 😅😅
Also, before you mentioned that you were talking to yourself I was like omg she’s talking to a spren! >.>
Ahahaha you’re so immersed in the Stormlight Archive world, I love it!! XD
And yeah, if the “bunch of dudes embark on a rescue mission/adventure and make a whole lot of silly jokes” isn’t really your thing, then maybe try Bloody Rose first! I think it works really well as a standalone.
And I’ve only done one buddy read too! It was a lot of “I’m on page 50, where are you??” 😀
I seriously am lol 😅 I might do that! Do people from the previous books make cameos?
That works lol
Yup they make cameos! Ahh now I’m wondering if it’s better to read Kings of the Wyld first. The first characters don’t appear too often but some of their scenes are kind of huge to the story and I don’t know if you’d prefer to know their background story first
I’ll read Kings of the Wyld first. I’m nosy I like knowing everyone’s backstories and getting all the references lol.
Great post! Talking to yourself is a sign of genius. You should read the lady’s guide. I’m jealous that you got an ARC. I’m dying to read it.
Haha well, I guess I should be talking to myself more often, then! 😉 And I’ll go with Lady’s Guide!
I vote for The Lady’s Guide, I’ve only seen meh reviews of the other one. Also, you need to read The Nine immediately, it’s amazing!
Ooh interesting, I personally haven’t seen anything about Time’s Children yet. And I’ll be starting on The Nine after the weekend. Can’t wait!!
I see you have a lot of great books ahead of you. 🙂
I vote Lady’s Guide. Exciting that you got an ARC of that one! I’m really looking forward to that book.
I’ll be very surprised if I get through everything on this list, especially since a lot of them are +500 pages, but I’ll try. 😀 And Lady’s Guide it is!
Hah, that conversation with yourself is so relatable 😀
I really want to read The Mermaid as well!! And The Lady’s Guide!! The Gentleman’s Guide was one of my favourite books and I can’t wait to read the sequel. You’re so lucky to have an ARC!
So yeah I’m voting for the Lady’s Guide 😛
Lady’s Guide it is! I loved, loved Felicity in Gentleman’s Guide so I’m super stoked that she gets her own novel. Plus, aro/ace rep in mainstream YA books is always a good thing. 😀
Yees exactly!
I have conversations with myself all the time, so you have nothing to worry about! Hmmm except I might be a little crazy so maybe that actually shouldn’t reassure you 😂😂 Great post! Good luck with the second half of your TBR!! I vote for The Lady’s Guide!! I want to read those books, but if I am being honest I probably won’t get around to them any time soon 😂😂
Haha I like to believe “a little crazy” keeps things interesting. 😀 And thank you!! I’ll start with Lady’s Guide, then!
Fellow Terry Pratchett fan here! I have lost track of how many Discworlds I’ve read. The ones with the witches in are the best. And the ones with the character Death too.
This is my first time reading through the Discworld books and I wasn’t too impressed with the first ones, but First Rites is definitely making me into a fan! 😀 And I’m really, really excited about getting to Mort next month!
I used to have quite a few Pratchett books and I’ve kept the ones I liked the most. Mort is one of those. One thing that annoys me about the books is there are no chapters. Also the plot gets chaotic and confusing towards the end, always. But there are some funny moments and great characters!
Hahahaha! Keep talking to yourself via your blog! I do that too and so it makes me look crazy if you do it 😛
I vote The Ladies Guide!
It was pretty carthartic, I should totally do it more often. 😛 And I think your posts enable–er, *inspire* me to show my crazy side 😀
Haha! I am happy to keep enabling if you keep on doing it! 😛
Hahahah, the blog police made me laugh 😀 😀
Enjoy your tbr, and hope they will all turn out to be wonderful 🙂
Gah! Why am I getting to this so late!? Thanks Norrie!! 😀
One, I positively love how you opened up your post. It made me giggle and I thought it was clever and honestly, so relatable as to something *I* would do, i.e., barating myself for not posting in time, so I enjoyed it. And I actually really liked this middle-of-the-month check in kinda post, telling us what you’ve read, what you are reading and what you hope to! Plus, you have a ton of great books in there.
As far as my vote, I pick Time’s Children, mostly because I’m super curious about that book myself and selfishly want to read your review over it to see if I’m going to bite the bullet and get it. <3
AWW, thank you, Nicole!! <3 So glad you enjoyed it. 😀 And now that I've done the post, I actually kind of like it too! Like, I never have a clear idea of what I want to read at the beginning of the month, so doing a TBR in the middle makes more sense. Leave it to me to accidentally stumble into something good. 😛
And haha, I'm honoured to be your guinea pig for Time's Children. <3
I think it’s a really neat way to do a TBR list. And if it works better for you, then obviously, that’s the best! I look forward to reading more of these awesome posts, if you end up doing them. <3
That makes it sound so bad (:P), but yes, I really want to hear your thoughts on it, after you read it!
hahah omg. LOVE that intro 😂
The deepest roots looks interesting .. so is this pretty cover ! Los Nefilim looks also interresting by what you told us – now i’m just not sure if I could keep up and not get lost somewhere ahah.
Oooh the Nightgale – i’m interrested aswell !
As for what you should pick .. mmh Id go for the Mackenzi Lee’s one !
Pirates and Petticoats it is! 😀 I finished Los Nefilim last week and there’s definitely a lot of angel/demon politics going on, but it wasn’t too hard to follow!
What do you mean by politics? Like, actual human politics but in their version or do you mean something else? 🤔 because if it’s the first one … yeaah maybe not. One thing that doesnt interrest me at all (talking of which, kinda being forced to go vote on monday)
Like, there are angel hierarchies–so we have the archangels up in heaven (I think?) and then the angels on Earth and so on! And we get some of these angels rebelling against the higher-ups and betraying them to the demons. I’m making it sound complicated, but I swear it’s not! Haha 😀
And ooh, you’re in Canada, right? Is it a provincial election?
Yes! Is it the provincials, i think.. yeah- as its not the highest federal one.
Aaah okay! Gotcha, the other book I have read with angels had that too – so I should be fine
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