Weekly Wrap-Up: Undecided Reader

What's New:
I'm having some trouble deciding what to read next because I have a huge pile of books I want to read this summer and I know I won't have time to get to all of them. For now I am just picking up books until I can find one that pulls me in enough to get me to commit.

Reading Update:
Since my last wrap-up I have finished The Raven King (review below) which I really enjoyed. I thought it was a really solid conclusion to the series, but I'm so sad to see this series end. I also read Diane di Prima's Memoirs of a Beatnik which I have lots to say about. This is such an interesting look at the sexism in the movement and the literary world in general just with the history of why it was written the way it was. I know a lot of people hate the Beats, but I find them really interesting and quite brilliant.
What I Bought:

What I Posted:
Last week:
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain Review

This week:
The Raven King by Maggie Stefviater Review
TTT: Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of 2016
On My TBR... (5)

My Last Wrap-Up

Stacking the Shelves Hosted by: tyngasreviews.com
The Sunday Post Hosted by: caffeinatedbookreviewer.com

Have a great weekend!

On my TBR... (5)

Back today with another look into what's on my physical TBR. Let me know what I should read right away!

On my TBR (1)

On My TBR (2)

On My TBR (3)

On My TBR (4)

On my TBR I have a book that is...

A re-telling

Haven't even hauled this one yet!

Receiving Mixed Reviews

Part of a series I really need to catch up on

Different from what I would normally read

A Reread

Top Ten Tuesday: New Release 2016 (Part 2)

As usual, I'm totally behind in the new release department, so I haven't even read half of the new releases from the first half of the year yet! But, here I am today with ten more 2016 releases that I want to read.
You can see my first list of 2016 releases I want to read here.
Hosted by: The Broke and the Bookish

1. The Muse by Jessie Burton
Release Date: July 16, 2016
I just bought Burton's debut the other day, and I can't wait to get into it. I already know I will love The Miniaturist and will be wanting this one too. Also very interested in the crossing timelines and art world mentioned in the premise!  

2. A World Without You by Beth Revis
Release Date: July 19th
I have yet to read anything by Revis, but all of her books intrigue me! This one is about time travel and superpowers.

3.  A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Release Date: September 6, 2016
The Rules of Civility is one of my all-time favorite books and I have been eagerly waiting for Towels to come out with his second book! Regardless of premise, I was going to be picking this up automatically.

4. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
Release Date: September 20, 2016
Love the sound of triplet teen queens. Also love that cover.

5. Bright Smoke, Cold Fire by Rosamund Hodge
Release Date: September 27, 2016
I'm a sucker for Romeo and Juliet retellings and I liked Hodge's dark twist on Beauty and the Beast in Cruel Beauty so I think she will do R&J justice.

6.The Good People by Hannah Kent
Release Date:October 2016
The premise of this one sounds so interesting. 1825 Ireland mixed with magical realism in the form of changelings! I haven't read Kent's first novel, but I really want to and this one sounds great too.

7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Illustrated Edition 
Release Date: October 4, 2016
AHHHHH!!!!!!

8. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
Release Date: 2016
Crossing my fingers that this book where women can "manipulate beauty" has some feminist themes!

9. Black Widow: Red Vengeance
Release Date: 2016
I thought book one (Review here) was a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to book two. I'm all about that female super hero action.

10. Captain Marvel Novel by Shannon and Dale Hale
Release Date: 2016
See! I told you, female super heroes.

What made your list? No way I need more books on my TBR, but we all know that's not going to stop me.

Recently Read: The Raven King

Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Publication Date: 2016
Page Cont: 432
Rating: 5/5

Add on Goodreads

Also by Maggie Stiefvater:
The Raven Boys Review
The Dream Thieves Review

The first half of this review will be spoiler free.  The second half may contain 

spoilers but will be hidden. I will let you know when this switch happens and make sure to be 

careful while reading comments just in case!

I read Blue Lilly, Lilly Blue and The Raven King back-to-back and I'm sad that I am now finished with this series, but I am pretty satisfied with the ending. I decided not to do a review of book three because I found I didn't have much to say. I found it to be my least favorite of the series. There wasn't a lot of character development or development in the relationships between the characters which I was kinda bummed by, but even though it was my least favorite, it still earned a solid 4/5 because I was sucked in and loved the atmosphere as usual. The characters are what makes this series so great, and I was hoping for some specific developments in book three that didn't happen, but book four was back on track with the character development!

If you haven't started this series yet, please do! It's so addicting and enthralling; just make sure to have all the books on hand so you can marathon! I thought this was a great conclusion. It had a great mix of action and emotion and I already want to reread the series. I think this is a series that will improve upon rereading because there are so many clues and foreshadows worked into the earlier books that I wouldn't have caught the first time. And can we all agree that the real star of this show is Ronan? <3 Gansey who??

Spoilers below: highlight to reveal

OMG finally! I have been waiting for Ronan and Adam to acknowledge their feelings for one another. And shout out to Adam for being attracted to girls and boys and not making an internal crisis about it. He just accepted it without questioning himself and acted on it. I really respected the way that Stievfater built intimacy in Ronan and Adam's scenes in subtle ways. There was no large make-out scene but you felt the intimacy and the spark when they were together. This did wonders to make the romance REAL and not typical YA fiction romance. 

I knew that beloved Gansey was not really going to die, but I was really hoping that the ending woudn't be hokey or a cop-out. I was decently satisfied with how the end went down, but I also feel like it might have better if Gansey actually died or something bigger had happened. I don't know, I would love to reread so I could solidify my thoughts on the ending. I would love to hear yours below, just make sure you mark your spoilers. I also found Henry's role in the novel and the end particularly to be a little random and weird. What did you guys think?

Have you guys read anything else by Stiefvater? I want to read The Scorpio Races for sure, but I have heard mixed things about Shiver and the following books. What did you guys think of them and how do they compare to The Raven Boys? It might be hard to read that series after TRB because from what I can gather, this one is much better and came later in Stievfater's writing career. I love her writing though, so I would be up for reading anything she writes, regardless of plot. 

Recently Read: Circling the Sun

Author: Paula McLain
Genre: Adult/Historical Fiction
Publication Date: 2015
Page Count: 366
Rating: 4/5

Add on Goodreads 

Beryl Markham was the first female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic from east to west in 1932. She also spent most of her life living in Kenya and trained prize winning horses. She defied gender expectations and got herself in a lot of trouble because of it. She was unlucky in love and passionate throughout her life, and McLain captures it all in this fiction retelling of her childhood to young adult life.

So when I reviewed The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, I did a five reasons to read format and I thought it worked really well, and I think that format will work really well for this novel as well. So here are five reasons you should read Circling the Sun: 

1. Beryl Markham is a real and accomplished woman. I picked up this book because I had read McLain's The Paris Wife about Hemingway's first wife Hadley and loved it. I knew it had something to do with the movie Out of Africa which I had never seen but that was it. I had never heard of Beryl before, and I'm so glad that this novel introduced me to her. She was a courageous and accomplished woman that deserves her spot in history. I plan on watching the movie soon, but since the movie follows another female character in the book, I'm not sure if Beryl will be portrayed in a positive light (Beryl appears as Felicity in the movie). Beryl trained prize winning race horses, taking after her father, and lived most of her life in Kenya. She then took up flying and was the first female (and human in general) to cross the Atlantic solo from east to west. 

2. McLain does an excellent job of bringing real people of the past to life. In both of McLain's novels, the characters feel so real. You forget that this is just a fictionalized account of these lives and not the real character herself narrating for you. McLain's characters are accurate (as far as I'm aware) and complicated. She does an excellent job of picking women from history with amazing stories to tell, and telling them in a way that sucks you in and consumes you. 

3. The African backdrop is beautifully created. After finishing this book I wanted to read every novel set in Africa I could get my hands on. The backdrop of early 1900's Africa was beautiful and complicated. The beautiful scenery clashed with the trouble of colonization and modernization in a really interesting way.  

4. This is the other side of the story in Out of Africa. While I have not seen this one yet (I plan on watching it soon though now that I have read this!) I know a lot of people love this book/movie. The movie centers around Karen Blixen the author of Out of Africa and Karen Blixen plays a large role in this novel. I am happy that I read this before seeing the movie, and I would love to read Out of Africa before seeing the movie to get the full experience of all of the characters.

5. You follow Beryl from childhood to mid-adult years and get to see so much character development and growth. While I did feel that some of the parts of Beryl's life were skimmed over or rushed, I loved seeing her growth and motivations. She was real, her relationships were real, and the respect I feel for her is real.  

Markham also wrote her own account of her life titled West with the Night which I am interested in picking up now. The reviews of this that I have seen have all been positive, and I would love to hear her story in her own words as it is quite a remarkable story. I highly recommend both of McLain's novel that I have read; she is an auto-buy author for me. 

Weekly Wrap-Up: Busy Weekend

What's New:
This weekend is super busy. I'm writing this from my apartment; my summer class meets on campus tomorrow for one day since it's a mostly online class. This means I had to drive up to my campus apartment which is two hours away, and I will be driving back the same day the class meets. Then the next day, my younger brother graduates from high school. It does not seem like he is old enough to move out and go to college!

Reading Update:
This week I finished Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater and of course jumped right into The Raven King. I am hoping to finish it this week and I would love to read two books this week. We'll see how that goes though.

New Books:

Library Sale

I picked this classic up because it was at my library sale for two dollars and it's one I have been wanting to pick up for a while. It's a romantic thriller I do believe, let me know if you've read and enjoyed it.

This is a fictional account of Edna St. Vincent Millay, one of my all-time favorite poems. I haven't read anything by Robuck, but her other two novels featuring real literary figures as fictional characters have gotten a lot of praise so I think she will do Millay justice.

This one was super popular a while ago and I'm glad I found a cheap copy of it. It's a thriller and translated fiction.

Library 

I have this one out on loan as an ebook from my library. From what I have heard, this is a reimagining of Jane Eyre where the main character really enjoys the novel Jane Eyre and she murders people/ wants to murder people? Don't really know. I will link you to the vague but mysterious Goodreads synopsis.  

Catch Up on Posts:
Monday-Recently Read: Robin Archive vol. 1
Tuesday-Top Ten Tuesday: Poolside Reads
Thursday-The Intimidating TBR Tag!

Last Week's Wrap-Up

What's Next: 
I have a review for Paula McLain's Circling the Sun planned, and hopefully I can get some of my draft posts that I have been meaning to type up for months now out of the draft pile into the post pile.

Stacking the Shelves Hosted by: http://tyngasreviews.com/
The Sunday Post Hosted by: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/

What did you read this week?

Intimidating TBR Tag!

This tag has been floating around on both Booktube and blogs and I have been meaning to get to it for a while and today's the day! I'm going to be picking from books that I already own for this tag. I have quite a few unread books on my shelves, some of them have been unread for quite a while.

1. A book you have not finished

I started De Profundis a couple of years ago when I first bought it, but put it down for some reason and haven't picked it back up. I love Wilde and have every intention of reading this soon. I loved the letters and poetry in this Penguin volume I have read so far, and the bits of the title work too. 

2. A book you haven't had the time to read

Queen of Shadows came out in the second week of my fall semester last year so I had zero time to read it when it first came out and its huge size has kept me from picking it up in the mean time. Hopefully I will be getting to it this summer. 

3. A book you haven't read because it's a sequel

I read The Diviners when it first came out and have forgotten everything that has happened in the two plus years we have had to wait for the sequel. I can't talk myself into committing to rereading book one and then jumping into book two since they are both ginormous so I'm not sure when I will get to this one. 

4. A book you haven't read because it's brand new

Just bought a copy of Possession at my library's book sale at the beginning of this week.  

5. A book by an author you read a book from previously and didn't enjoy 

I read and loved Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, but HATED The Grapes of Wrath so I'm leary to pick up more by him since all of his books have that Depression era Western American setting. This one is much shorter than The Grapes of Wrath so it's got that going for it at least. 

6. A book you haven't been in the mood to read

I liked Tess of the D'urbervilles but Hardy is such a slow paced read. I might listen to this one on audio book soon, but I have not been in the mood to trudge through another Hardy lately. 

7. A book you haven't read because it's enormous

I really want to pick this one up because it sounds great and has of course won the Man Booker, but it's 850 pages.

8. A book you bought because of the cover and then heard less than favorable reviews for

I bought this one based on the cover and the fact that it was a Peter Pan inspired retelling. It's not that I have heard bad things about it, I just haven't really heard anything about it at all. 

9. The most intimidating book on your TBR

Both of these books are super intimidating because of their size and complicated, involved plots, but I really want to read both. Maybe after school ends next year I will work on tackling some of my heftier reads. 

If you want to do this tag, feel free! Just make sure to leave me a link to your post in the comments. 

What's the most intimidating book on your TBR? Does length or involved plot intimidate you more?