As a book reviewer, I read a lot of books before they’re released. It’s more than just getting books before they’re released. It’s about reading some great reads, sharing your thoughts, and hopefully helping the rest of the community pick that book as a favorite.
Simone and Her Books
books, reviews, and recommendations
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Hey readers!
I just wanted to take a moment to shamelessly plug this new book club that I’m help running with my online friends. It’s called Words Between Worlds.
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Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I’m not a big Valentine’s Day celebrator, but I know many of you love the day of Love, so I hope you have a wonderful one.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to write a little bit about a very famous book series that is finally playing its final film in theaters right now. I’m talking about 50 Shades of Grey.
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“A novelist is a person who lives in other people’s skins.” – E. L. Doctorow
I didn’t know much about Forough Farrokhzad. I’ve actually never heard the name before, but when I received this book from Netgalley, I was interested in reading the life of a poet and how that life can be fictionalized to tell the tale. I didn’t know that fiction was really the only way you can tell her story.
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An epic fantasy with daring sword fights, magic spells, but no prince in disguise. This is a book you’ll want to read, fall in love with, and hopefully see it turn into a movie.
Here’s more about the book
Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles. But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass?a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.
In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.
It’s kind of tough for me to put into words how much I liked this book. While it did have its flaws and it wasn’t the most perfect read, I still enjoyed it. I wanted to read this book in particular because it takes place in the Middle East and that’s one of the areas I wanted to focus reading this year.
From the synopsis of this book, you would think that this is a simple tale about a young woman who finds herself in a magical universe right in the middle of Cairo. However, this book is way more than what this story tells you. The book is deeply steeped in Middle Eastern culture, folklore, history, and there is also some hints at Islam as well.
In its essence, this is a book about the power struggle between two tribes of the Daeva. One group called the daeva believe in the power of fire while the other group, the djinn, don’t. This division between the two groups of people causes for some massive political and social issues amongst the people. Let’s not even get into the half-human born folks that live in Daevabad as well.
What I personally loved was Nahri. She’s a daeva born into the human world and lived on the streets her entire life. She’s a thief and a liar and she knows nothing about the powers she possesses aside from the occasional wound healing very quickly. When she summons Dara, her Afshin, he whisks her away to the world she belongs.
As you can see, there’s obviously some issues with someone who grew up in the human world coming to a world made up of magical beings. This goes double for someone who can heal and bring something to the world that’s been missing for a few years.
I loved reading this part of the book because you get to learn about these worlds alongside Nahri. You get to see her thoughts and how she reacts and her reactions were completely natural.
The epic battles throughout the story were also well created and thought out. I can see the fights in my head between the people and the emotions were definitely prevalent in the reads. These were some of the parts that really drew me into the story, made me care about these characters, and eventually made me want to read more.
It took me a while to get right into the book mostly because the world building was a little off. SA Chakraborty would explain a concept of the daevas or the djinn to you, which was a little confusing. However, then you see Nahri ask the same questions you asked yourself and suddenly everything makes sense.
Nahri and Dara don’t arrive in Daevabad until halfway through the book. In my opinion, I feel like it should have been sooner so that we can learn alongside Nahri all the little details about the world. I had to do a lot of googling to understand the certain weapons they used, the origins of the djinn and daevas (there’s an origin and you can look it up!), and even some of the Arabic phrases she threw in there every once in a while.
There is also an issue with the wording of things. Whenever Chakraborty introduced a new point in the plot, it was really confusing and I needed to read it a few times over to understand it. It may have been the way I was reading, but it definitely threw me off and pulled my final star. Even though the world building was a little confusing for me, it was immediately nullified by the elaborate writing, the action and adventure of it all, and reading about a world that I don’t regularly read.
The end of the book got me hooked and I will admit, I shed a few tears. I know this is the first book from a debut author with another book in this series coming soon. The first books are always the toughest, but if they grab you enough, then you’ll definitely want to read the second. I will definitely be looking out for the second book in the future.
- Hardcover: 544 pages
- Harper Voyager (November 14, 2017)
- Rating: 4/5 stars
- Buy The City of Brass on Amazon
Simone and Her Books is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This in no way affects my opinion of the above book.
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I always love the beginning of the month because that means I’ll be picking out and sharing my reads from Book of the Month. As everyone knows, I’m a huge fan of this subscription. Even though I’m pretty broke lately, I’m still picking out books for my Book of the Month. I shouldn’t even be buying more books, if I admit.
But I’ve got my latest box and I can’t wait to read both of these books. Here’s a little more about each.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
This novel was just announced as Oprah’s official February pick for the Oprah Book Club. If Oprah is approving it, then I’m definitely reading it. However, I picked the book before the announcement was made, so maybe I just have the same taste as Oprah does. Here’s more about it:
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
I’ve been a fan of Kristin Hannah’s ever since I read The Nightingale a few years ago. That book was an incredible read about two sisters fighting their own battles throughout World War II. The ending made me sob like a baby while I was sitting on the subway. You have to give a book props for making me cry. I don’t cry easy.
Alaska, 1974. Untamed. Unpredictable. A story of a family in crisis struggling to survive at the edge of the world, it is also a story of young and enduring love.Cora Allbright and her husband Ernt, a recently-returned Vietnam veteran scarred by the war, uproot their thirteen-year-old daughter Leni to start a new life in Alaska. Utterly unprepared for the weather and the isolation, but welcomed by the close-knit community, they fight to build a home in this harsh, beautiful wilderness.
At once an epic story of human survival and love, and an intimate portrait of a family tested beyond endurance, The Great Alone offers a glimpse into a vanishing way of life in America. With her trademark combination of elegant prose and deeply drawn characters, Kristin Hannah has delivered an enormously powerful story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the remarkable and enduring strength of women. About the highest stakes a family can face and the bonds that can tear a community apart, this is a novel as spectacular and powerful as Alaska itself. It is the finest example of Kristin Hannah’s ability to weave together the deeply personal with the universal.
What did you get this month in your Book of the Month Club box?
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My friend, Michaela, at The Ardent Biblio recently talked about reading War and Peace for the first time. If you aren’t aware, War and Peace is considered one of the best books of all time written by the most prolific writers, Leo Tolstoy.
However, it was originally written in Russian, is over 1400 pages long, and it takes place during the Franco-Russian War. Unless you’re actually studying the text, there aren’t many people who decide to pick this book and read it. And if you do decide to read it, there’s a lot of families, a lot of names, and a lot of important moments you have to remember.
But a copy of the book has been sitting on my shelf for years. I even dedicated some time to read Anna Karenina (Tolstoy’s other epic classic) a few years back only to stop reading it one day and never picked it back up.
When it comes to books like this, I’m immediately intimidated. I felt the same way about Game of Thrones when the show first came out. I was weary with reading the novel because of all the characters, the places, and the events you had to remember. I think this is one of the many reasons why I put off reading War and Peace.
Today just happened to be the day I decided I will read it. I know that some of this influence does come from Michaela, but the other part comes from the fact that I’m currently watching the TV adaptation of the book. Here’s a trailer below:
So you must be angry at me for watching the BBC version of this show rather than reading the actual novel. Don’t worry, I will definitely read the novel in time. I just would rather watch the show first before diving into the book.
But why?
I think we’ve come to a day and age where reading classics (or some more difficult fantasy novels) has become easier. Aside from the myriad of translations you can choose from (definitely check out The Ardent Biblio post about it above), many of the beloved classics from yesteryear are now available on TV. Movies and retellings and mini-series have been made in abundance for so many classic books. I remember the day I watched all of the BBC Pride and Prejudice and after watching the epic mini-series, I decided to read the book. I read Little Women after watching the 1995-film version with Winona Ryder for the millionth time.
Similarly to many other books I come across, I always have a tough time with visualizing characters and people. With a ton of names and events, it’s hard to keep track of them all. I always find myself flipping from the front of the book and the family tree and the index back to the page I was reading. God forbid the author doesn’t even give you that! Even when the novel is simpler, I always find myself using some actor or actress I feel is appropriate for the main character instead of dreaming up someone in my head. I should have gone into casting or something for these movies.
What watching the show does is allow me to visualize what may have been more difficult without. I’m able to see who exactly is Pierre and Andrei and Natasha and all the others. I can see them in my head and when I read the book I can use that to help shape the story. When I go to the book later on, I’ll be able to read with those characters in mind and be able to visualize the nuances of their emotions and reactions.
I’m also able to visualize the story. You may think that this will spoil a novel for me, but it doesn’t. When a book is as popularized to make a movie, I feel like the spoilers are gone. You already know what’s going to happen or you can read about them online. But the visualization of the story allows me to follow along and understand the bigger events that happen.
Of course you’re not going to get the whole book in the show. If anything, the shows and movies provide a bone structure for you to go back and read the book and fill in the muscle and the tissue. A movie without the book isn’t the same as the movie with the book. You get to a battle scene with its gore and guns and fighting and for some reason these scenes have always been really tough for me to envision in my head. Instead, I get this battle scene played out for me and I can go back later and fill in the gaps I missed about that scene.
The last added bonus of watching the movie before reading the book is that you’re never disappointed. I’ve read books before watching the movie and felt the upset of it not being true to the film. I’ve seen movies that were even better than the book and that annoys me to no end as well. Watching the movie before the book sets me up for good reading with well-crafted scenes and if the adaptation is really good, it can really blow the book out of the water (but that’s a post for another time).
Y’all probably hate me now because I do this weird method of watching the adaptation before reading the book, but for some reason it’s worked for me. I’ve been able to really enjoy some of my favorite classics because I was able to watch them played out like this. It’s also great when the people who made the movie put in the extra work to make it incredible. With an adaptation like War and Peace, there’s a lot of ground to cover in more than just three hours. I mean, look at what happened with the Lord of the Rings movies.
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I feel that recently there’s been a lot of bad news. Well, the past year has been filled with bad news and it’s been really tough. You want to keep in mind your self care, but when the president is doing funny things or someone scares another group of people it’s difficult to keep focused.
People feel worse from bad news and that kind of feeling can leak into other parts of your world. I know that I’m very guilty of this and have had stress and anxiety from being too connected to the bad stuff happening in the world. My husband is even convinced that his stress about winter has made me stressed about winter.
So I’ve decided to dedicate my Friday posts to sharing some good news. This will include some bookish-related news, but mostly fun stuff I find and read on the Internet. I figured that the world can do with a bit of good news so might as well include them here.
For this Friday, there just happened to be a lot of stuff going on. First there was the State of the Union address, which I won’t get into. It caused a ton of controversy, so I spent the rest of the week reminded myself that there are worse things in the world and way better news to share.
I’m obsessed with War and Peace
My big obsession this week has been Leo Tolstoy’s classic tale called War and Peace. However, unlike most people in the bookish world, I’m watching the BBC 8-part series. I spent my evenings this week laughing at Pierre for being such a turd and seeing all these women either losing their husbands to war or other women or just to themselves. A lot of women waiting around for their beaus to return from whatever they’re doing. It’s kind of fun and really dramatic.
Also, I can’t help but to watch this show and think about how Russia used to be before the French took over and then communism. I wonder if Russia will ever experience a glory like they did when they were just a monarchy.
Super Blue Blood Moon
Photo used by NASA “I see a blood moon rising…”
I’ve been living in blood moon world while playing Zelda: The Breath of Wild on Nintendo. Every time the blood moon rises in the game, the folks I already killed miraculously come back to life. This isn’t that terrible of a fate especially when you don’t keep track of your kills.
But when I heard there was going to be a blood moon FOR REAL I had to check it out. While I missed the real thing in the city, I saw the telescopic images from NASA and you have to admit that this thing is pretty cool. I’m not a big science person and my husband loves it more than I do, but I think that a giant red moon is something that you got to see. Also, the craters from meteors look pretty spectacular on the lunar surface.
Dumbledore is Gay and No One is Doing Anything About It
Photo used from BoingBoing If you weren’t aware, many years ago JK Rowling made a statement that Dumbledore is gay. Back then, people were outraged with knowing that Dumbledore is gay and how that goes against some of the more Christian sensibilities in the world.
Now, as the new Crimes of Grindelwald movie news comes out, it sounds like Dumbledore won’t be exploring his new sexual freedom with his bestie and possible former lover, Grindelwald.
I didn’t know much about the controversy, so I did some research and I can see why people are so upset. When the world is crying for some representation on all marginalized voices, you’d think this would be a good chance for JK Rowling to show that Dumbledore is more than just the kooky professor and wizard. However, it sounds like Rowling won’t be making any attempts to explore this part of the famous wizard’s life.
I wish that they would really approach this theme. Having one of the most famous wizards of all time be openly gay means a lot to the LGBTQ community as well as any marginalized fans of Harry Potter. After the display of minorities in the books and films, you’d think that JK Rowling would grow up a little and bring the films into 2018.
I just think it would have been a great opportunity to explore this and it was just missed. We can have a movie with a bunch of monsters and mythical creatures, but we can’t have a gay Dumbledore? Probably the saddest news I heard all week.
The Cover Reveal of A Court of Frost and Starlight
This is the last piece of news for the week, but I’m so excited to share it! The Internet was abuzz this week when Bloomsbury released the latest cover for Sarah J. Maas’s latest book, A Court of Frost and Starlight. This book in the epic series will be a novella that bridges the last book (A Court of Wings and Ruin) to some spinoff series Maas will be writing. I think I will pretty much read anything Sarah J Maas writes because her work is incredibly detailed. Also, she announced that she’s pregnant and probably will be busy with the baby soon, so this might be it for a little while…
If you’re not an avid follower of this series, this is a good high fantasy you’ll have trouble putting down. I mean, it took me a day to finish one of the books, which was 800-pages long! These books are so good with romance, action and adventure, politics, and a lot of kick ass girl power.
This cover is so so beautiful and if you’re a follower of the series, then you know about the tattoos down her right arm. Even if you’re not a fan or haven’t read it yet, you have to admit that this pic really gets you psyched for the new one!
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It felt like only a few hours ago that I was writing my January wrap up. Now I’m sharing with you all my February TBR.
As it goes with TBRs, it’s player’s choice. You set out to read a certain number of books or specific books and sometimes that turns into an abandoned project or a bigger challenge. While I’ll be sharing my reads for February, keep in mind that this isn’t all set in stone.
It’s finally the month where I get to read whatever I want because I’ve caught up on my reviews. So this month, I’ve decided to pick up some long-standing books as well as some new popular fantasy novels I’ve been eyeing for some time. Here’s the full TBR:
- The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
- The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
- Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
- Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer
- Theft by Finding by David Sedaris
- The Journals of Sylvia Plath edited by Ted Hughes
- The Universe of Us by Lang Leav
- The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
- Hot Mess by Emily Belden
- London Belongs To Me by Jacquelyn Middleton
As you can see, there really isn’t any rhyme or reason for the books I chose. I chose these books because they were the ones I immediately wanted to read. I don’t think that’s bad and in many ways, it’s good. I love breaking up my books into different types depending on my mood. I think these will be fun. What do you plan on reading this month?
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And the first month of the year is done and February is just along the way. I loved reading this month. Although I did have to catch up on a ton of books, I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I was able to read all the ARCs I received from NetGalley to put me back on a good track with them. I was able to try a new regime with a lot of failures. It’s been a pretty trying month and on top of that, I turned 33!
But let’s go into the details.
I read 9 books
This is a new record. I don’t think I’ve read this many books in a month in my life except for maybe college. I wasn’t sure how much I read in college, but it was enough to burn me out at the end of it.
I’m finally going to start reading some books that interest me and approaching books that come my way thoughtfully. I think I’ll have to write a blog post about it because it’s been a process and a lot of telling people “no,” which I don’t do very well.
Without ado, here’s my list of reads from January 2018:
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer – will be continuing this series soon, but I just wanted one fun read for myself this month!
The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking – This was a super quick read, but super informative. I’m so obsessed with the hygge lifestyle that I wrote about it in a post for Book Riot.
The Philosopher’s Flight by Tom Miller – This was an ARC I received from Simon Books and it was a pretty interesting fantasy novel! I can’t wait to read the next book in the series and see how Robert will continue to fight against the Trenchers.
Haikantwithyou by Nicole Best – This was a pretty quick little poetry book about the beginning, middle, and end of a relationship. So many of the haikus in this book were so poignant and made me reflect on some relationships I had as a kid.
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko – This (as well as the next book) was one of the big reads for January. I loved this book and its dive in Native American culture, the experience of being Native American, and how this world needs to accept and nuture instead of turn people away.
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender – This one came in my Capsule Books box and was quite honestly the strangest book I ever read. While I wasn’t a true fan, I’m currently reading the second book from this box and I’m definitely seeing a theme here. I’ll chat about that more next month.
Indecent by Corinne Sullivan – This was another egalley that I was reading for review. While this wasn’t my favorite book of the bunch (and my first serious 1-star review in a really long time), perhaps there is something redeemable in the story that I missed. I was bored. I didn’t want to finish it, but maybe you will!
Catalina by Liska Jacobs – This was my final egalley to read for January and I loved it. I think I might have missed some bigger points here about drug abuse and depression, but honestly this read like some rom com or a dramedy that I’ll see adapted into a movie later this year.
Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao – This was the last book I read this month and it’s the one still clinging to the spaces in my brain. I couldn’t put this book down and the way they describe the strength of the female friendship will make you wonder if your friendships are as strong as theirs.
I started life as a full-time blogger
January has been such a transition from being a full-time office worker to a full-time blogger. While I’m not making any money off of this (yet), I’m enjoying spending my time reading books and writing reviews and sharing my thoughts with you all. I do hope to get more done in the coming months.
I feel like January was the test month. Don’t commit to creating anything until you’ve got this whole staying at home and creating something for nothing down. I’ve been adjusting and re-adjusting to life living and working from home and being my own boss. It’s been tough. There’s a certain obligation to always be working, but some days lack inspiration and I feel like doing nothing. Some days I would rather watch TV or play video games than talk about the book I just read.
But after a month, I feel like I’ve put together a plan that will allow me to work and not have that sense of obligation to do work. I believe that I am able to generate enough work for myself to be busy all day long.
It’s easy to fall behind or become prey to procrastination. I’ll probably struggle with this my whole life, but I also carry within me the ability to stay strong and keep moving and strive forward.
I will be better. I think that’s the best I can do right now.
I hope you enjoyed this! What did you end up reading this month? Anything worth sharing?
Simone and Her Books 