TTT: 5 Underrated 5 Star Books

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

This week's prompt is a good one, as it allows us book bloggers to shout about our favorite books that don't get the love that they deserve. So get ready for some shouting because these books are AMAZING and I think they should get a lot more love and attention.


 A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin

I will never not put this on a list of underrated books because this book I read in undergrad is still my favorite urban fantasy novel EVER. I have yet to read another book that captures my imagination like this one did.


The Lost City of Z by David Grann || my review

This was a gem I found while doing my nonfiction reading challenge. The author really did his homework, the book is as well researched as a textbook and reads like a soap opera. What more could you want??

 52 Loaves by William Alexander

Okay. so. I found this book while on a bread-making forum researching how to get the perfect crumb (fancy word for texture). It was Christmas break and my dad was struggling to make the perfect loaf of homemade bread and this book popped up and I have never laughed so hard while reading a nonfiction book. This book is amazing and everyone should read it.


Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen || my review
I bought this book for a couple of dollars at a thrift store a couple of years ago and only recently read it and my mind was BLOWN it was so LYRICAL and BEAUTIFUL and why aren't more people shouting about it??


 Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Dapznik || my review 

I got this book from Netgalley so I'm literally confused at the absence of glowing reviews because this fictionalized memoir was beautiful and touching and atmospheric and I thought it was really well done. It introduced me to a land and a people and a culture I know very little about.




That's it for me! What about you? Have you ever heard of/read these books? If so what did you think?

TTT: 5 Foreign Netflix shows you need to see

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

When it comes to Netflix shows, I'm somewhat of an unintentional hipster.

Mention Stranger Things to me and I'll just stare blankly at you before telling you about this obscure Russian drama you just have. to. see. Somehow, without quite intending to, I manage to miss out on all the latest top shows that everyone and their mother are watching.

Instead of binging on Orange is the new black or Handmaid's Tale or really anything hip, I tend to watch obscure, mostly foreign, Netflix shows and let me tell you I have found some gems. So if you are trying to add a little diversity to your TV watching, read on!

The Ministry of Time

Country of Origin: Spain 

Language: Spanish with good English subtitles

Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy

Brief Summary: What if there were doors that lead to the past? And what if a Spanish bureaucracy was created to manage those doors? This fast-paced beautifully-shot drama features the lives and adventures of several agents who travel through time to advert disasters. 

Seyit ve Sura

Country of Origin: Russia 

Language: Russian? But also with random Turkish phrases? (with good English subtitles)

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance [WWI]

Brief Summary: This romance, which takes place in Russia during WWI, is a star-crossed lovers affair between a Turkish Russian officer ((yeah wanna guess how long it took me to figure out nationalities? aGeS)) and a Russian noblewoman. There are things I LOVE about this series ((hello healthy representations of masculinity)) and things I don't ((hello unhealthy representations of obsessive love)) but overall: highly recommend. 

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Country of Origin: Australia 

Language: English

Genre: Historical Fiction, Murder Mystery [1920s]

Brief Summary: This is a fun murder mystery series featuring, well, Miss Fisher, a witty, brillant, English socialite. She somehow manages to come across dead bodies nearly everywhere she goes and forces her help upon the local police who want nothing to do with her. Overall it's a lot of fun!  

The Paradise

Country of Origin: England ((still counts as diverse right?? kind of?))

Language: English

Genre: Historical Fiction

Brief Summary: This series follows one girl as she leaves the countryside to work for one of the world's first department stores-- The Paradise. ((it's actually a lot more interesting than that sentence might lead you to believe!))

Land Girls

Country of Origin: England 

Language: English

Genre: Historical Fiction, WWII

Brief Summary: During WWII women could join the Land Army-- where they were shipped out to British farms to help raise crops for the war effort. This series follows several city girls as they adjust to life on the farm and life during the war. Highly recommend!

HONORABLE MENTION

Okay so I've only seen the first episode of this series so I can't really recommend it, but! I so rarely see Koren art/shows/books/etc I felt like I should tell y'all about it anyway. 

Secret Healer

Country of Origin: South Korea

Language: Korean but with decent subtitles

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, romance?

Brief Summary: From IMDB: A barren queen seeks the help of shaman to give birth to a prince.

That's it from me! Five foreign netflix shows I love and one I just started. Have you heard of any of these? Any foreign shows I need to check out? 

TTT: Books to get out of a slump

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

We've all been there.

You're sitting in the library (or bookshop) faced with an impossibly large number of choices to fill the slot of what you're going to read next. There's mystery. Fiction. Science Fiction.  Romance. Amish romance. (side note: can you believe that's a thing? That genre has always made me feel vaguely uncomfortable because it is, by definition, a very voyerstic genre)

Yet nothing sounds good. You can't put your finger on why exactly but every novel just seems...meh.

You, my friend, are in a reading slump. A murky weird state of being where the thing you normally love-- reading amazing books-- just doesn't seem to be jiving for you anymore. I would be a special sort of witch if I could give you a sure-fire prescription to pull you out of this reading funk.

After all, each slump is different and requires a different book to clear away the clouds and remind you how fun and amazing and awesome reading is. So I've thought up a couple of possible scenarios and my best suggestions to end your reading slump!


if you need a good laugh...
maybe you just binged on WWII novels and now feel like life is a sham and the only constant is the ever looming spectre of death and IF SO here are two hilarious novels to make you laugh 

 Bossypants by Tina Fey || 52 Loaves by William Alexander

if you are tired of typical book format....
after all, linear narratives are SO TYPICAL. maybe you're craving something DIFFERENT than the masses something UNIQUE. if so try: 

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

Told almost exclusively through interviews and transcripts this non-standard format was somehow both interesting yet still engaging

if you need some that is as beautiful as poetry...
maybe you've been reading classic novels or something that was old and stuffy and DRY and you want something beautiful for your eyes to feast on BUT you also want a story. if so try:

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

*insert heart eye emoji*

if you just need a cute romance...
maybe you just need a little cute romance novel to restore your faith in the world. maybe you've read too much ANGST and GRIT and you want something lighthearted and fun. if so try: 

the woolly hat knitting club by Poppy Dolan

Hopefully if you currently find yourself quagmired in a reading funk then one of the above categories applies to you and maybe, just maybe, with a little bit of luck you can find an end to your reading slump!

What about you? Any sure-fire ways you get yourself out of a slump? 

Top Ten Tuesday: 5 book-reading memories

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

Have you ever looked at a book you've read and the memory of where and when you read it is almost more vivid than the memory of the book itself? For this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt I scanned through my Goodreads bookshelf and picked out five books that I have distinct memories of reading. Bonus points, three of the five are AMAZING books that you need to read today.

   Pies and Prejudice by Ellery Adams || 3 stars 

This was a so-so murder mystery which fell flat in a lot of ways BUT one afternoon while I was listening to the audio book I embroidered this piece so something good did come of it. 

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones || 2 Stars

Once again a not-so-great book. I heard about this through someone's blog and well...kind of hated it. The novel had some really problematic issues with consent and also the main character was super annoying BUT! One night while I was reading this I got a SOS call from my friend: her brand new car had stopped working in a parking lot and she needed help. I drove over mainly providing just moral support as, after turning it off and on again, her car worked, I kid you not. 

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen || 5 Stars

Ahhh now we are on to the AMAZING books. I'm the janitor for my church and one afternoon after cleaning I had a small break before praise team practice started so I snuck upstairs to one of the rooms that had a bunch of couches and read this book for a while. 

The Witches of New York by Ami McKay || 5 stars

Have you ever started a book and realized, within just a few pages, that you have stumbled upon something great? That's what happened to me with this book; I started it in a dark parking lot on New Year's Eve and knew immediately that I had found a new love. 

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde || 5 stars

I had wanted to read this book for a while and so when I found in my local library's bookshop for 50 cents, I was pretty pumped. My family and I were about to go on a cruise and loaded up on ALL THE BOOKS. When I wasn't seasick, I read this amazing novel. Jasper Fforde is just brilliant, that's all there is to it. 

That's it for me! What about you? What are some of your book reading memories? 

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Novella/Short Stories

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

Happy Top Ten Tuesday on a Wednesday! This week's post will be full of little rebellions as I'm trying something new-- asking YOU about YOUR favorite novellas and short stories.

Weird right? You see I don't really read novellas and short stories-- but not because I carry some weird bias against them. I never hear about them, they never pop up on my Goodreads, they never make it onto my ever-growing TBR list and so...I never read them.

So let me start by mentioning my two favorite books that fit this week's category and then go on to plead you for your recommendations.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor || Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee

This books are amazing which is a stroke of luck for me because they also happen to be the only novellas/short-stories on my 'read' Goodreads bookshelf....

Which brings me to the next part of this post: help me add some diversity to the books I read by telling me about your favorite novella or short story/anthology. 

I know with book blogs we tend to gleefully shout our opinion into the void of the internet but my goal for this post is to do less shouting and do more listening. Did you write a whole post for this week's prompt? Comment below with the link! Do you have a favorite novella you want to recommend? Please do! Have you read Binti or Conservation and want to fangirl over how amazing they are? ME TOO.

Top 5 books in 2018 (thus far)

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

When I saw the prompt for this week I wasn't sure how many books I would be able to rummage up. My reading life took a huge dip recently and I wasn't sure if I had read that many amazing books in 2018. A quick trip through my Goodreads shelves showed me just how wrong I was! Here are five 5-star reads I discovered this year.

Lyrical Masterpieces

The Witches of New York by Ami Mckay || Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

click on the images to go the reviews and read my ravings

Innovative Sci-Fic

Sleeping Giants by Sylvian Neuvel

I somehow forgot to write a review for this book?? Let's just say on page one I wanted to put it down because it has such an unusual format-- told almost exclusively in interviews and that's not really my thing. However I'm really glad I stuck with it, as it was a brilliantly thought out sci-fic novel. 

NONFICTION

    

The Lost City of Z by David Gramm || 52 Loaves by William Alexander

Can we take a second to appreciate the fact that two non-fiction books made it on my best reads list?!
Who am I.
I'm telling you, this nonfiction reading challenge has completely changed my reading life. I started 2018 feeling like reading nonfiction books was this massive chore I never wanted to do. But then I discovered that nonfiction can actually be pretty great?!


Whew! That's it for me. What about you? What are some of your top 2018 reads thus far?

TTT: 5 Atmospheric Books with Rich Worlds

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

The prompt for this week was 'bookish worlds you would want/hate to live in'. After browsing my Goodreads bookshelf for inspiration I realized that there weren't many book worlds that I wanted to live in, or didn't want to live in. And lukewarm list posts are never any fun, so I keep digging.

As I searched, I started to compile a list of books that created rich, detailed worlds within their pages. Worlds vastly different from ours; worlds just a little bit skewed from ours-- these books do a beautiful job painting a massive canvas of a world, and then showing you a tiny corner of it.

Let's get to the books!



Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

Ahhh this beautiful magical realism novel excels at creating a magical, mirror-image of our world and does so effortlessly.


Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The world in this book isn't /too/ different from our own, but the writing in this book is so atmospheric and lyrical I had to put it on the list.


The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

What list would be complete without at least one Becky Chambers reference?? This sci-fi novel creates such a detailed world and really thinks about all the nitty-gritty realities of cross-species interactions.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Beautiful. Innovative. Imaginative. And under 100 pages. Literally there is no reason why you shouldn't be reading this book right now.


Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde


Jasper Fforde is a wizard with words and the ideas that pop out of his head are so interesting and unique it borders on the absurd. And so does this dystopian novel! Absurd and dark, he weaves together an alternate world no one would want to visit.






That's it for me! What about you? What are your favorite bookish worlds? 

5 Beautiful Blue Book Covers

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

This week's prompt for Top Ten Tuesday was books with your favorite color on the cover. After rummaging through my Goodreads shelves, I've come up with five books that not only (a) have my favorite color on them (b) are in and of themselves GORGEOUS but also (c) are amazing books.

What more could you want?

                                           

                                                                

Click on the covers to go to Goodreads!

All of these books are amazing (or expected to be amazing). Binti, Conservation of Shadows, and Record of spaceborn few are all science fiction, All the Light is historical fiction, and Sing a New Song is actually a devotional I picked up through NetGalley a while back. Also apparently I am now playing a game to see how many times I can talk about Record of a Spaceborn on this blog. Can you tell I'm excited to check it out? 

Have you read any of these books? What are some of your favorite book covers? 

5 Books I Want to Get My Hands on Early (pub + unpub)

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

As you may or may not know, I don't really follow new releases. The hype of new books tends to fly right over my head, which is buried in whatever old book that caught my fancy.

After all, there are so many amazing books out there, I can happily spend all my time reading them. So this week I'm doing a slight twist on the theme-- books I would slay a lion to get early-- and instead presenting you a list of books I want to read now please and thank you but can't, for various reasons listed below.


record of spaceborn few by Becky Chambers

Behold! The only unpublished book on this list. Becky Chambers is one of my favorite sci-fi authors and I adore everything she has written. I can not wait for the third book in her series (hopefully it's a series and not a trilogy!) which should come out this summer.

I might actual pre-order it. *gasps from the audience* I know, I know, I believe that I have sought out and purchased...one book? A couple years ago I loved a series and the latest book was released and instead of waiting for my library to have it I actually bought it online and I haven't done that since (if I buy books I buy them at the dollar store).

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

This book has technically been published but I currently on the waiting list for the audiobook because WIL WHEATON. The Trump presidency might be over by natural causes by the time I finally get this audiobook.





Educated: A Memoir  by Tara Westover

A friend recommended me this memoir and when I read the synopsis I was HOOKED. I am now roughly the 50th person in line for the book at my library. #PatienceIsMyVirtue








Swear You Won't Tell? by Vedashree Khambete-Sharma

I read about this mystery novel by an Indian author on a blog recently and really wanted to read it. I submitted an interlibrary loan for like one of the two copies that exist in American libraries. My library decided instead to just buy the book and so when it comes in I'll get to read it (I believe the book was put on the slowest freighter coming from India so maybe next year I'll get my hands on it).




The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

I read a Holly Black book a while ago (Darkest part of the forest) and LOVED IT. When this book came out I knew I had to read it-- after, of course, the roughly thirty people ahead of me on the hold list.








That's it for me! What about you? What books are you super excited to get your hands on?

5 Sequels I can't believe I haven't read yet

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at its new location at That Artsy Reader Girl!

Have you ever read an amazing book-- the type of book that you love so much you start squealing when you find out it has a sequel? And then, have you ever just...not read the sequel?

No? Just me? Okay cool.

This week I wanted to highlight some series that I loved...and then got distracted and haven't managed to read the sequels yet. Now everytime I moan about not being able to find a good book to read you are allowed to hit me over the head with this post and tell me to stop complaining.




 The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

The first book in this series lived up to its hype, a feat I believed to be impossible, until one day I finally picked it up at my local library. I was blown away...yet I haven't found time to read the sequel?


The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad #6) by Tana French

I've mentioned Tana French once or twice on my blog which is disproportionate to the amount of love and adoration I have in my heart for her writing. She is hands down my favorite murder mystery author and I've been obsessed with her books since the first one I read years ago. I was shocked when I discovered she had published a new book in her series...yet I haven't read it yet?

First Among Sequels (Thursday Next #5) by Jasper Fforde

I've mentioned this series once or twice here and it really is riveting. The writing is so inventive and surprising and novel. Next time I'm craving a book that is clever and sardonic, I'm picking this one up.


The Night Masquerade (Binti #3) by Nnedi Okorafor

I read the first novella in this series a while ago and was instantly blown away by just how impactful and brillant a story she managed to fit into such a small number of pages. The series is thoughtful, universal yet foreign, and I can not wait to read the third book.

Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2) by Diana Gabaldon 

Many moons ago, before I know about book blogs, I Googled a list of top romance books-- and the first result was Outlander. After reading the massive tome I realized that it deserved every accolade given to it. Ever time I think about reading the sequel I worry I have forgotten every important detail from the first book but really I just need to read a summary and dive into this sequel!




That's it for me! Let me know, have you ever waited ages for no good reason to pick up the sequel to an amazing book? 

TTT: 5 books not set in the USA

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at its new location at That Artsy Reader Girl!

Welcome back to my first non-Sunday post in far too long! When I first saw this week's prompt-- books that take place in another country-- I figured it was going to be difficult. Most of the books I read are set in the US. But when I had a look through my Goodreads list, I found it surprisingly easy to rummage up five books set in non-USA locations!

• The Lost Girls
• This is a travel memoir written by three friends who spend a year traveling the world-- it was an interesting read!

• The Scribe of Siena
• This book is set in Medieval Italy and follow the journey of one woman thrown hundreds of years back in time.

• My Life in France
• This memoir of Julia Child's life was engaging-- and made me want to get into the kitchen and cook more! Ironically few of the dishes she described were ones I would want to make (most were very heavy with tons of cream and butter).

• Song of a captive bird
• This fictionalized memoir is about Iranian poet Farough and it was a wonderful, riveting read.

• The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club
• This is a fast paced easy-to-read novel about a woman who finds herself suddenly a single mother raising two precocious boys in England. It was fun, but I haven't been motivated to seek out the sequel just yet.

That's it for me! What are your favorite non-USA books?