Recently Read: The Assassin's Blade

I have been reading two books at the same time all month this month for some reason. I never do this so I have no idea why it started now. I'm having trouble committing to just one book at a time. I have been working on The Picture of Dorian Gray for about a week, which was stressing me out because its summer and I want to read everything on my shelves! I'm enjoying Dorian greatly, but it is a slower read and takes more effort to read than other books on my shelf. The point of that tangent was to say that I picked up The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas while taking a break from Dorian.

This is a collection of the five novellas that go along with her Throne of Glass Series which I love. I have read the first two books, Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight, and am excited for the third book which is released this September. I had not read any of the novellas so I was eager to pick them up.

What's cool about these novellas, is that the five of them together make a prequel for Throne of Glass. Each novella builds upon the previous one, and they don't feel like filler or fluff which can happen with novellas sometimes, they feel like a complete novel. These novellas give so much insight in Celaena's character and her past. In this book we meet Sam, Celaena's first love and Arobynn, the Assassin King who has trained Calena since she was a young girl and learn more about the betrayal that landed Celaena into Endovier.

This book was very fast paced, just like Maas' other novels, and I would recommend it to those who read the first two books and need more Celaena before the third book, Heir of Fire comes out in September. (which by the way has another gorgeous cover) These novellas really add to the series, and although I don't think you'll be totally lost if you don't read them, they are very enjoyable to read and do add to the series and the character development.

 Throne of Glass Review
Crown of Midnight Review

Top Ten Tuesday: Books about Friendship

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
My list is in no particular order

1. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, Ann Brashares The first YA series I read that I really loved and got attached to the characters.

2. Peaches Trilogy, Jodi Lynn Anderson  I read this after the Sisterhood series and it was equally as good.

3. Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling Harry, Ron and Hermonie are the most loyal of friends. These books contain so much love and loyalty.

4. Papertowns, John Green Q's friends are willing to skip their high school graduation ceremony to help him learn an important lesson.

5. The Rules of Civility, Amor Towles This is one of my favorite books of all time, it is so beautifully written and makes very raw and honest comments on friendship and loyalty.

6. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald Nick and Gatsby have one of the most interesting literary friendships I have ever encountered.

7. Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes and Watson are perhaps the most famous bffs in literature, and for a good reason. Their friendship dynamic is my favorite out of all the friendships I have read, as well as my favorite relationship I have seen on screen. I could go on about my love for Holmes and Watson's friendship forever.

8. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck This is a heartbreaking story of friendship.

9. and 10. Percy Jackson series and The Heroes of Olympus series, Rick Riordan These books both contains groups of friends that kick Greek mythology's butt! 

May Book Haul Part 1: Jane Austen and Adult Fiction

Since school ended this month, I have treated myself to some books for summer reading. I bought the whole collection of Jane Austen novels in the Vintage Classics publishing versions (I had previously purchased Emma in this edition), I bought Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. I now have a little collection of classics by this publisher, and love the way they look displayed together.

I also bought two adult fiction books that I found used for great prices. 

I bought American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. 

Part two of this haul will include young adult and graphic novels, which I will be more likely to read over the summer than all of the Austen novels. The only Austen I have read is Pride and Prejudice (my review here.) I am looking forward to reading these novels and then searching for the best movie/tv adaptations of them. Leave me your suggestions on where to start with the reading, or which adaptions you love. 

Recently Read: Wuthering Heights Graphic Novel

I read Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights the summer before my Junior year of High School, so about abut three years ago? Wow that's crazy to think about how old I'm getting! But I enjoyed the book. I read the first half very quickly, Heathcliff and Catherine's story really sucked me in, but the second half with Catherine's daughter Cathy and Linton was a little slow moving for me.

I wanted to reread this book this year, and I put it on my list of rereads and classics to read in 2014. While at my local used book store, I found a little graphic novel adaptation of the story and picked it up. This graphic novel is part of the Classics Illustrated series and was adapted by Rick Geary.

It was great being able to revisit the story and refresh myself on the details through this graphic novel. This book has really great characters, and their troubles and personalities show through in the graphic novel adaptation. Wuthering Heights is a rather long book, but the graphic novel took me about half-an-hour to read. Graphic novel adaptations of classics are such a great idea. They could serve as a great introduction to a classic by helping to make the plot and characters more clear and provide background knowledge of the story before diving into a lengthy classic, or they could be a great way of testing out the story before committing to the lengthy book.

Next, I am eager to pick of some graphic novel adaptations of some of Shakespeare's plays as well as an adaptation of Charles Dickson's Great Expectations by the same publisher that did the above mentioned Wuthering Heights.  Any classic graphic novel recommendations?

Recently Read: Where Things Come Back

I recently finished Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. 

This book is about the residents of a small Arkansas town named Lily, specifically Cullen Witter who is seventeen years old. During one summer, someone claims to have seen a species of woodpecker in Lily that has been extinct for many years, and Cullen's little brother disappears.

This book evolved beautifully. The plot is both simple and extremely intricate, the writing style could be explained the same way too. Cullen's understanding of the world expands greatly in this book, and this book comments on some interesting ideas and themes. I think this book will be different for everyone who reads it, different pieces will  resonate with different people.

I really enjoyed this book and found myself thinking about it when I wasn't reading it. It's not very long, but it manages to make an impact on you. I am interested to check out more of Whaley's work. His second book, Noggin was just released not that long ago, and it has a very interesting premiums.

Man You're Crazy: Books with unreliable (and sometimes just plain crazy) Narrators

I really enjoy reading books narrated by unreliable narrators. It is so fascinating to me! I've complied a  list of books with crazy narrators.

Patrick Bateman from American Psycho by Brent Easton Ellis
Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 
Esther Greenwood from The Bell jar by Sylvia Plath 
Humbert Humbert from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 
Lia from Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson 

Some would argue that Nick Carroway from The Great Gatsby should make this list too... but I'm unsure of how I feel about that. What do you think? Whose your favorite crazy narrator?

May To Be Read List

Required reading is over!! I finished my last book that I needed to read for my classes last night and I'm very excited to choose my own reading again. Because the last couple weeks of April was pretty crazy with school I had to scrap some books of last months TBR but one carried over to this month and the others I will read soon. Prepare yourself for a long list.

Currently Reading: Well kinda, I plan on starting this book tonight so I have't started it yet, but the first book I want to read this month is Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. I don't know much about the plot, but I have heard its a great book multiple times.

Next I have an e-copy of If I Stay by Gale Forman from the library so I want to read that, plus it is being made into a movie soon so I would like to read it before the movie comes out.

I would like to continue The Lux series by reading the third book Opal by Jennifer L. Amrmentrout and I probably won't be able to stop myself from reading the fourth one Origin too.

Next is the second in the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, Pretties. 

And the carry-over from last month which I'm not sure if I will get to or not is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. 


The next two books I know I will for sure get to this month. I plan to reread City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare before picking up City of Heavenly Fire when it is released May 27th (I already preordered my copy from amazon).


Well, there's my huge list, I guess we will see how many I get to this month. What are you planning to read this month?