ANNOUNCEMENT!

I just wanted to make a quick announcement to let you know that BookSass has officially moved! I've been playing around with the idea of moving BookSass to WordPress for a while now, and I've finally done it. The new link is booksassbookblog.wordpress.com and I will only be posting there from now on.

So why did I decide to move?

There are a few features WordPress offers that unfortunately, you just don't get with Blogger. And while I've been very pleased with how I've grown on this platform, I'm very excited to see how I continue to grow on WordPress. From what I've noticed, WordPress is more commonly used and, it seems, the more popular blogging host. WordPress also offers a more detailed look at your blog's statistics than Blogger currently does. I have experienced a bit of a learning curve in trying to figure out how to use WordPress, but I'm pleased with the results, and I hope you will all come with me to the new blog!

Top 5 Wednesday: Future Classics

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

The topic for today is "Future Classics", so here's a handful of books I think will be just as well known in the decades to come.

2018 Bookish Goals 6-Month Check-In

Today I'm doing a post to check-in on my bookish goals for 2018. I never did a post at the beginning of the year to announce what those goals were so this will all be new information to anyone reading this post, but at the end of the year, I'll have this post to refer back to when I wrap up my bookish goals for the entire year.

READING GOALS:

• Read 100 books total - On Goodreads, you can set a reading goal for the number of books you want to read in a calendar year. Goodreads is a pretty handy way to keep track of where you're at in your goal as the goal tracker can calculate how many books ahead or behind your goal you are. I set my goal to 100 and as I'm writing this post I am 25 books ahead of schedule. If I can keep up this momentum, I should end the year well above my goal. 

• 100 Women Writers - In order to make sure I'm reading more women writers, I have a list of 100 which I would like to read works from. I don't expect to complete this challenge this year, but I did want to make progress on it. I have a post on this where I track my progress, linked here. 

• Continue with series' I've started - I have a pretty bad habit of starting series, but not continuing with them or finishing them. I have a post with the list of series I've started (linked here) and one of my goals this year is to continue with some of the series and possibly finish a few others. 

• Decrease number of owned TBR books - While using the KonMari method to purge my book collection, I decided to come up with a way to force myself to finally get through my owned TBR books. I explain this further in my KonMari post (linked here), but basically, my goal is to cut my owned TBR books in at least half. At the start of the year, I had around 60 unread books, so I'm hoping to get that under 30 by the end of 2018. 

• Reading women year-long challenge - The Reading Women challenge is similar to the 100 Women Writers Challenge in that both make it a goal to read more women. However, the Reading Women challenge is year-long and has prompts to help you pick which books you'll read. I have an updated post on this as well, linked here. 

• BookRiot read harder challenge - I do this challenge every year. It's a fun way to read outside of your comfort zone. 

• Read 1 Shakespeare play a month - This goal is fairly self-explanatory. So far, I've kept up with this and I'm really enjoying it. 

SOCIAL MEDIA GOALS:

• Start a blog - So obviously I've accomplished this goal. I did have specific things I wanted to do with this blog that I'll get into. Initially, I wanted to post once a week, but this has turned into twice as I've begun doing Top 5 Wednesday posts. Though this will be changing again as I plan to start doing weekly reviews on Fridays. 

• Post 1 book review a month - I've followed this for the most part. There was one month I didn't have a review, but I made up for it by posting two the next month. Again, I'm hoping to post weekly reviews soon. I'm also hoping to diversify the types of book I'm reviewing and review books from different genres and at least one book by a woman every month. 

• Start a bookstagram - I've also done this (linked here) and post 3-4 times a week, which is what I had hoped to be doing. 

• Start a booktube channel - Clearly, I wanted to dive fully into the online book community. This is something I've been wanting to do forever, and I'm currently working on it. When I start my channel, I hope to upload weekly, with one video a month being a review.  

✿ Those are my goals for 2018, do you have any? Subscribe to BookSass for more bookish goodness and thanks for reading!

Top 5 Wednesday: Best Books You've Read So Far in 2018

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

Today I get to talk about a few of the best books I've read so far this year. I've read so many good books that this was actually a bit of a challenge to narrow them down.

June Wrap Up

June was an incredibly busy month for me. I'm still prepping for a move and all the craziness that comes with that. I also participated in the cramathon and Book Riot's #riotgram challenge. I read a total of 14 books, published 8 blog posts, and started working on a secret something that you may be seeing soon.

BOOKS WRAP UP: 

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklos Nyiszli
My Rating: ★★★★★

This is an account of Nyiszli's experience working under Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Because of Nyiszli's position at this camp, there isn't much information given about what life was like in the camp for the average prisoner, but this is the only book I've read on the Holocaust that gives a clear description of how the exterminations took place. I think this is a must-read piece of Holocaust literature if you're looking to learn more about how Auschwitz-Birkenau operated and the attitudes of the camp's leaders towards prisoners.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

My Rating: ★★★★★

Full review for this coming soon. To make a very long story short, I absolutely loved this. I already know this will be one of my top 5 favorite reads from this year and if you've been thinking about reading it, I highly recommend you do so.

Top 5 Wednesday: Books You Want to Read Before the End of the Year

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

Today's topic is all about books you want to get to this year. I have so many books I want to finally read, most of which are books I already own, so this was hard for me to narrow down to just five, but I managed it.

BOOKS: 

1984 by George Orwell

This is incredibly well-known and something I probably should have read by now. I have been slowly working my way through my physical TBR, but focusing on my classics. I've had this for a few years now, and really just want to finally read it.

Series I've Started

I was completely inspired to do this by a video by Book Roast (linked here). These are all of the series I've started. I will be letting you know where I'm at with each series, whether or not I'm continuing with it, and why or why not. These are just book series I've started, this doesn't include comic or graphic novel series.

DNF - I did not/ will not continue this series.
Ongoing - I plan to continue with this series.

BOOKS: 

House of Night Series by P.C Cast (DNF)

I struggled to read through Marked, book 1 of this series. It was so incredibly cheesy and reeked of the authors' I'm-trying-to-appeal-to-the-youths dialogue. I have a bindup of the first two novels in the series, and immediately after finishing this, decided I would not be reading the second book. Not only will I not be continuing with this series, but this has left me wary of the author as well.

Legends of the Goldens Series by S.B.K Burns (DNF)

This was a very strange book. The protagonist is a psychic vampire who got knocked up by a human but has a thing for an android. This novella is only around 100 pages, but it was all over the place and left me very confused by the end of it. There isn't enough introduction to the world in the beginning of the book, so things you feel you should already have known, you don't end up finding out about until it's too late to make sense of the information. I gave this two stars and have DNF'd the series.   

Ghostgirl Series by Tonya Hurley (DNF)

I read this when I was about 14 and although I enjoyed it at the time, I never continued with the books. If I wanted to read the other books, I'm sure I would have done it by now, so I'm considering this series DNF'd. 

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite LGBTQ+ Books (Non-Cis M/M)

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

The topic for today is one I'm actually super excited about, and it is "Favorite LGBTQ+ Books that do not feature cis M/M relationships". I have a particular beef with the fact that whenever LGBTQ+ books are mentioned, it is almost always books with a cis M/M relationship. Now don't get me wrong, I love that are so many books featuring gay relationships and, of course, I would like to continue seeing more published. I just feel that we should also be promoting and publishing works that focus on other spectrums of the LGBTQ+ community, specifically more books with F/F relationships (Natasha from Cats and Paperbacks has a great post examining F/F relationships in YA. I'll link that here in case you're interested.) However, for this topic, I've tried to find books that represent different aspects of the spectrum. So, below are my Top 5 Favorites fitting this topic.

BOOKS: 

George by Alex Gino

This is a really cute MG novel about a young boy who is trying to understand why he doesn't feel comfortable in his body and likes certain things he's told he's not supposed to. I'm using he/him/boy terms because I'm not sure if George is clearly identifying himself as a girl by the end of the book, I think it just indicates that the story is leaning in that direction (correct me in the comments if I'm wrong!). I loved this book and think it's a great way to start a conversation with children about gender identity.

Book Unhaul

First, a little backstory - I've always been that reader who held onto their books and refused to unhaul any. I actually used to be horrified by the idea of getting rid of any of my books. Lately, though, I've been really burdened by the number of books I own and was wanting to go through and purge my collection. I've seen more and more people mention unhauling books and I recently read The Art of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (post on that is linked here) and was super inspired to finally do it. Most of these will be donated, I might sell some or do a "books for trade" thing with a few, but I'm definitely getting rid of all of them. Not all of these were bad or books I disliked, but they're all books I don't want to keep, so even if I liked them I'd rather them go somewhere where someone else who will love them can find them. I'm not sure how many books are on this list exactly, but it's a lot, so settle in.

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Fathers/ Father Figures

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

In honor of Father's Day, today's topic is Favorite Father/ Father Figures.


1. This is probably no surprise, but my first pick is Luke from the Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. I love the relationship between him and Clary, especially in City of Ashes when I feel he is his most fatherly. And I appreciate the good-stepdad representation this book has because so many YA books have uncaring or cruel step-parents.

2. Choice two is Big Mav from The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. A large part of THUG's story is Starr's family dynamic. I loved how her family was represented in this, especially her father. He is someone she absolutely loves, even though she doesn't always feel close to him or like she can talk to him about anything. At one point, he realizes this and although the situation becomes a bit of a mess for Starr, I thought it was beautifully resolved and I loved the relationship her and her father ended the novel with.

3. Though I wasn't a huge fan of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is one of my favorite fictional father's. He isn't overly strict and allows his children to be curious and to be thoughtful instead of telling them what is right and what is wrong. Encouraging a child to think for themselves and form their own opinions, rather than telling them what their opinions are, is something I will always appreciate in a parental character.

4. In the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Haymitch isn't technically Katniss' father, but I think everyone can agree he's definitely a father figure in her life. I love the dynamic between him and Katniss. He's helpful when he needs to be and shows that he cares for her, even though it's sometimes done in an unusual way, and she proves that she cares for him as well by showing him tough love, which seems to be what Haymitch needs. It's clear from book one that they are important to each other, and I liked that they showed us this rather than expressing it through words.

5. My final pick is Humbert Humbert from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. I know this one may be a bit confusing but bear with me while I explain. The topic for today is not good fathers/father figures, which Humbert certainly isn't, but he is one of my favorites to discuss and he is a father figure, so he makes this list. Humbert is one of the most interesting and distinct characters I've ever read. The idea of a fictional father figure is a character who acts fatherly. For the most part, Humbert's thoughts are NOT fatherly, but the dynamic between him and Lo often reflects that of a single father with a preteen daughter. When Lo is particularly bratty, he often responds to her behavior in the same way a father would to his daughter, which makes him seem almost relatable. This is then followed up with some reminder to the reader of what a trash person Humbert is. I've always thought it was interesting that as the reader, we are given these relatable moments, before immediately being reminded that Humbert is a pedophile and someone we should absolutely not find relatable. I don't know if this was by accident, or intentional on the writer's part to make the work more jarring. Either way, Humbert remains a very interesting character and one of my favorite father figures in literature.

✿ If you did a Top 5 Wednesday post, link it below in the comments so I can check it out. Subscribe to BookSass for more bookish goodness, and thanks for reading!

Reading Women 2018 Reading Challenge Check-In

This is a new-to-me reading challenge I've recently heard of and I've decided to start doing it. I really love reading challenges and how they diversify my reading or introduce me to books I wouldn't otherwise think to read. I'm doing several reading challenges already, but I enjoy them so, why not do another? The page for this reading challenge is linked here.

The prompt for this challenge is to read books by or about women, and under this prompt, there are 24 challenges (with a bonus 2) to help you find different kinds of books by women to read. Below is my anticipated TBR for each challenge. Completed challenges will be in bold.

Challenges:

1. A book by a woman in translation (bonus if also translated by a woman) - The Vegetarian by Han Kang

2. A fantasy novel written by a woman of color - The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh.

3. A book set in the American South - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. 

4. A short story collection - Almost Famous Women: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman

5. A graphic novel or memoir - Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

6. A book published by an independent press - Grace by Natashia Deon

7. A book set in Russia or by a Russian author - Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich 

8. A book with a viewpoint character who is an immigrant or a refugee - Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

9. A book by an Australian or a Canadian author - The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

10. An essay collection - Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America by Samhita Mukhopadhyay

11. A book about someone with a chronic illness - Still Alice by Lisa Genova

12. A true crime book - Lizzie Borden by Arnold Brown (This is obviously written by a man, but the subject of the book is a woman)

13. A book by an African American Woman about Civil Rights - Black Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson

14. A classic novel written by a woman (bonus points if not Austen or a Bronte) - The Awakening by Kate Chopin

15. A poetry collection - Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments by Sappho

16. A book where the characters are traveling somewhere - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

17. A book with a food item in the title - The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith 

18. A book written by a female Nobel Prize winner - Mighty Be Our Powers by Leymah Gbowbee

19. A book from the Reading Women Award 2017 shortlists - Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward 

20. A memoir by someone who lives in a country different from yours - I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

21. A book inspired by a fairytale - Ash by Malinda Lo

22. A book by a local author or recommended by your local bookstore - Beloved by Toni Morrison

23. The book that has been on your TBR the longest - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte 

24. A book in a genre you have never read - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Bonus:

25. A book by Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own

26. A book by Flannery O'Connor - A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

Top 5 Wednesday: Summer Reads

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

Today's topic is Summer Reads. During the summer I tend to lean towards books that are light and fun, set during the summertime, or have an adventurous aspect to them. Some of these I've already read, and some are ones I've put on my own summer TBR.

BOOKS: 

Never Ever by Sara Saedi

This is a reimagining of Peter Pan that I read a few years ago. It's set during the summertime and takes place primarily on an island. I remember this being a very fun and quick read, which I think makes it perfect for summer.

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

*SPOILERS*    TW/CW: Suicide, Rape, Sexual Assault, Mental Health (Depression), 

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Publication Date: October 18, 2007
Format: Ebook - 288 pages
Rating: ★★★ (2.5)

Goodreads Page



I wasn't planning to review this book because it's been out for so long and I feel like everyone already knows what it's about or has already read it, but while reading it I had such strong feelings that I basically said fuck it, I'm doing a review. So here we go.

*First things first, while reading this I heard of the allegations against the author, Jay Asher. My review is not influenced at all by the author or anything concerning him personally. My review is strictly for the content of the book. Article here if you have no clue what I'm talking about.

When I saw the hype this book got, I thought I would love it. When I actually started reading it though, I realized I was not a fan, and thought for sure I would hate it. I thought it would be a one-star read, which is a very rare rating to come from me. It wasn't until a little over halfway through that it started to pick up and my thoughts on the content became conflicted. I cannot think of another book that has ever left me feeling so divided.

Review: 

The short and sweet answer to how I felt about this book? I have mixed feelings, but overall, I strongly disliked it. We'll get to why in a moment, but let's start on a positive note. I did like that this book brought a lot of discussion to the topics of teen suicide (and suicide in general tbh), bullying, and how your actions affect others, however insignificant those actions may seem to you.

Now for why I didn't like it. There were several reasons, but I'll start with the minor annoyances first.

May Wrap Up

I finished a total of 9 books and published as many new blog posts in the month of May, all of which will be listed below.

BOOKS WRAP UP:

The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
My Rating: ★★★★★

Wow, what can I say about this one? To start, this was a hell of a story to kick off the month with. I had seen a really great review of this and wanted to read it, then I found that it also worked for the buzzwordathon, the buzzword this round being "girl". This story has little plot but is a fantastic character study. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, because of the content. If you're bothered by things like rape, physical abuse, torture, pedophilia, or violence, I would say stay away from this, especially considering the victims and abusers are mostly children.

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

My Rating: ★★★★★

This was my second book for the buzzwordathon. This took me a while to get through, not because I wasn't enjoying it, but because it is about a topic I know very little about. That said, this was really easy to read as the writing is accessible and I did learn a bit about more about Pakistan's general history and the recent politics there. 

Caraval by Stephanie Garber 
My Rating: ★★★★

This may be the first audiobook I've been able to listen to without losing focus. I've seen a lot of people say they were disappointed in this, but I loved it. I didn't go into this expecting too much from it, and for that reason, it was just a really fun read for me. I loved the role color played in this, and the idea of caraval as a game. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, it felt very

Dogs Vol. 0 by Shirow Miwa

My Rating: ★★★★

This is the prequel to a manga series about a group of hitmen. This gives some backstory to the characters and shows how they all come together. I don't know if I'll continue with this series. I enjoyed this, but there are so many other books I want to read that this just isn't a priority right now. 

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
My Rating: ★★★★

I listened to this on audiobook and really enjoyed it and the fact that it's narrated by Hillary herself. I thought this would be more "Why didn't I win? Also, fuck Trump.", and though there were some digs at Trump here and there, this was primarily about Clinton's campaign and her feelings and experiences during the election. While this mostly focuses on the past US Presidential election, there's a decent amount of Hillary's past given, we get bits about her career as a whole and mentions of things like her emails, and Bill's affair. It felt transparent, or as transparent as a politician can be.

Gold Shadow by L.C. Perry

My Rating: ★★★★

This was my first read-for-review book, which was really exciting. I read this slowly and really paid attention to the details so I could review it fairly. While I didn't find this to be perfect (what book is??), I did enjoy it. The full review is linked here. 

Horns by Joe Hill
My Rating: ★★★★★

I may be doing a special review of this soon-ish...maybe. I absolutely loved this! I had been wanting to read this for a while, and I'm so glad I finally did. I could tell just a few chapters in that this was going to be a new favorite. I loved the concept and the main character, Ig. I also really enjoyed the pop culture references and the parallels between Ig and Satan. This is considered horror, and while it does fit the genre, it reads like more of a thriller/murder mystery type story than it necessarily does horror.

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen

My Rating: ★★★★

This is a feminist essay collection centering on celebrity women who are criticized for not fitting what society considers to be the 'ideal woman'. This was a decent collection and I think it would be a good book for people who are wanting to get into more books about feminist issues. However, for me, this didn't feature any new ideas and it had a tendency to drone on. I've read other feminist essay collections I would recommend over this one.

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
My Rating: ★★★★★

Unfortunately, I didn't love this one as much as the other plays I've read. It was alright overall, but not one that I would consider rereading. This is largely about Roman politics, which is something I'll admit I don't know much about, but it wasn't done in a way that I found terribly interesting. I was familiar enough with the basics of Caesar's story that there really wasn't anything unique to this to keep me interested, as the story is entirely about Brutus betraying Caesar resulting in his death.


POSTS WRAP UP: 

• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Authors You'd Want to Write Like - linked here
• KonMari Method for Book Purging - linked here
• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Books I Disliked, But Love to Discuss - linked here
• Review: Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed - linked here
• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Books You've Read Because of Booktube/Bookblogs - linked here
• Books by leynes Tag! - linked here
• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Recent Additions to Your Wishlist - linked here
• Review: Gold Shadow by L.C Perry - linked here
• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: TBR Benchwarmers - linked here

✿ Have you read any of these books? Comment below what you read this month or link your wrap up post if you've made one. Subscribe to BookSass for more bookish goodness and thanks for reading!

Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: TBR Benchwarmers

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

Today I chose the topic "TBR Benchwarmers". These are books that have been on your TBR way too long.

BOOKS:

The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

I really have no excuse for this one. It's been sitting on my since 2015 and I still have not read it. I've heard amazing things about this, and continue to hear about it even though the hype has died down a bit, but for some reason, I just haven't picked this up yet. It even sounds like exactly the kind of thing I would enjoy. I do plan to read this sometime this year as part of my new TBR rule which I briefly mention in this post. Maybe I'll get to it this summer? It seems like it might be a good summer read. 

Review: Gold Shadow by L.C Perry

•Disclaimer: This book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review•

Title: Gold Shadow (Bronze Rebellion #1)
Author: L.C Perry
Publication Date: December 2, 2017
Format: Mobi File
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Page

Synopsis:

In the North American continent, eighteen year old Ebony has been living as a slave for as long as she can remember. The underground cities, the tattoo, the scars and the shackles are a part of the only world she has ever known. She knows that in order to survive, she will have to stay strong. And she will stay strong, cursing those in power, until her very last breath. She waits for a meaningful way to die as she quietly pushes her body to its limit…but that all changes when rebels from the surface drop down right in front of her. 

Now, Ebony is challenged to envision a life beyond slavery as she and the other escapees are thrown into the center of a rebellion against the monarchy. She has to embrace this glimmer towards a real life…this glimmer called freedom. But what can she contribute to a rebellion that is doomed to fail like those before it? How can they stop a corrupt monarchy that has lasted for a century? Among the lower class, those with hope are hard to come by, but Ebony has found refuge with people full of it. And through their strong desire, an idea emerges…one that has never been done before. The princess of the country is coming of age and what better way to send a message to the king and queen than to kidnap their only daughter?

⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫

Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Recent Additions to Your Wishlist

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

Today for Top 5 Wednesday I chose the topic 'Recent Additions to Your Wishlist'. I thought this seemed like a really fun topic, and might give you some insight into the kinds of books I like to read, but that I might not always find an opportunity to talk about here.


BOOKS: 

The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

I've mentioned The Picture of Dorian Gray a few times before. It is one of my absolute favorite books, but I haven't gotten to read any of Oscar Wilde's other work, so this collection is a must for me. Wilde's work encompasses plays, essays, letter, and poems in addition to his stories, and this is the complete collection of that. 

TAG: Books by Leynes Tag!

This is a tag that has been floating around parts of booktube recently. It was created by Adrian from Stripped Cover Lit (channel linked here) about Hélène from books by leynes (channel linked here). This tag looked really fun, and I love both of their channels, so here we go.

Questions:

Question #1 - That Stupid Accent: What is your favorite piece of literature by an author foreign from your country?

Answer:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

I absolutely adore this book. I think for this tag question, it is especially worth mentioning that Nabokov originally wrote Lolita in English, despite the fact that Russian was his native language. I can't even imagine learning that level of fluency in a second language.

Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Books You've Read Because of Booktube/Bookblogs

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

For today's Top 5 Wednesday topic I'll be talking about something I'm sure we've all had first-hand experience with, and that is 'Books You've Read Because of Booktube/Bookblogs'. I have been suckered into reading a hyped book on more than one occasion and it hasn't always worked out well, so below I'll be sharing some of these books with you.


BOOKS: 

Rook by Sharon Cameron

I read this in 2015, around the time it was published, for a booktube book club I participated in at the time. This was a dystopian/historical fiction retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel (which I've never read) and is set in a version of France that has experienced a new revolution and is being controlled by a religious sect. I don't remember much of this now, but I know at the time, I really liked this and gave it 4 or 5 stars. This is a book I hope to reread eventually and after I've read The Scarlet Pimpernel first.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

This was soooo hyped up on booktube around the time of its release. Like many other people, I fell into the trap and bought and read this just because a bunch of people online told me to. I read this in one sitting and absolutely loved it after. However, in the three years since reading this, I still haven't continued with the sequel and no longer necessarily plan to. The world was fairly interesting but fell into quite a few of the YA dystopian/fantasy tropes that were common at the time. Since reading this, I no longer feel this is a 5 star read, and honestly don't know how much I'd like it if I reread this now.

Bitch Planet Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick

Bitch Planet is a comic book series where unruly women or women who do not fit the idea of femininity are sent to, and imprisoned on, another planet for their crimes. I was so excited to start this when I first got it. The idea of women committing a crime by not being what men want them to be was such a cool idea, and I was sure I was going to love it. The artwork was well done, and the story was interesting, but it did have a few issues. I felt that parts of the story were confusing or poorly explained, and it seemed to jump around a bit too much and covered too many things and characters for it to be considered a 5 star read. I know other people have noticed these same issues, and although I haven't read the next volume in this, these issues may or may not be resolved in the continuations.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

I saw this recommended quite a bit on youtube between various booktubers. I know the Sookie Stackhouse series is fairly popular and spawned an even more popular show, but I did not understand the hype for this. I liked the first book enough to read it, but the concept as a whole felt pretty basic and I have absolutely no intention of continuing with this series. If you like generic characters and plots this is the book for you. If not, I would say pass on this. 

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

This series follows our main character, Amy Gumm, as she is thrown into Oz and finds herself joining an organization working to dethrone the now-evil Dorothy. This series did not disappoint me. I really enjoyed reading about a version of Oz I've never seen before. In this, Oz has been twisted into something darker than the world presented to us in the original series and movie, good is wicked and wicked is good, and I found the concept to be creative and interestingly done. This is a series I continued reading and I highly recommend this to anyone who might be interested. 

✿ Have you read any of these? What are some books you read because they were hyped up on booktube or in the book blogging community? Comment below, or subscribe to BookSass. Thanks for reading!

Review: Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

Title: Love, Hate & Other Filters
Author: Samira Ahmed
Publication Date: January 16, 2018
Format: Ebook - 288 pages
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Page

Summary: 

American-born seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home, and being paired off with an older Muslim boy who’s “suitable” to her mother. And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and maybe, just maybe, pursuing a boy she’s known from afar her entire life who’s suddenly falling into her orbit at school.

But unbeknownst to Maya, there is a danger looming beyond her control. When a terrorist attack occurs in another Midwestern city, the prime suspect happens to share her last name. In an instant, Maya’s community, consumed by fear and hatred, becomes unrecognizable, and her life changes forever.

⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫

Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Books I Disliked, But Love To Discuss

For today's Top 5 Wednesday Rewind topic, I chose 'Books I disliked, but love to discuss'. Some of these were books that disappointed me, some I was very unsure about going into them, and some I just plain hate.

The Books:

• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews - This was the first book I ever DNF'd and to this day, is only one of three. I knew in the second chapter that I was probably not going to like this. I pushed myself through it until page 73 where I realized I would not be able to continue with it. I was trying very hard to make it at least 100 pages in, which would have been about 1/3 of the way through, but I just couldn't. The writing style wasn't just one that didn't click with me, it was plain terrible. It sounded like the author was trying way too hard to sound like a teen and failed miserably at it. The story is largely focused on a girl character who has cancer, but within that 73 pages I read, she's barely mentioned. I know this book is fairly popular and it seems like you either love it or you hate it, but for me, it was hate. 

• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - Ooooh boy. I have a review coming very soon for this and I think that will give more of an explanation as to how I felt towards this. Long story short, my feelings for this were incredibly conflicting. I didn't understand the point of the main character's existence, there was some very apparent blame put on the people this girl believed to be the reasons she committed suicide, there was one scene towards the end that I found particularly abhorrent. Maybe this book was helpful to someone, but I know it to have done quite a bit of harm as well. However, this is a book I love reading/seeing other reviews for, and getting to hear others' perspectives on.  

• Nameless by Lili St. Crow - This book is the perfect example of a great idea with poor execution. Nameless is marketed as something between the Godfather and Snow White. I loved the fantasy world the author was telling us about, but nothing in her writing showed us that the world was what she was describing. This book was riddled with problems ranging from confusing characters to inconsistencies in world building to over-explanation in certain areas while lacking in explanation when it came to the history of this fantasy world. Again, the idea for this was brilliant, unfortunately, the author didn't seem equipped to deliver.  

• The Old Man & the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - I have very mixed feelings toward this one. I think several things factor into my dislike of this novella. Firstly, I am not a fan of Hemingway as a person, so I'm sure that contributed in some way to any negative feelings I had toward this. Second, this is a book that was assigned reading for me in high school. While most of the books I'd been assigned in school I enjoyed, this was not one of them. I'm sure there is a deeper meaning I'm missing but at a surface reading level, this is a story about an incredibly unfruitful fishing trip. I can recognize that this is a work of literary fiction, but I just don't get it. This is a very good character study, but for me, that is just not enough. 

• Insurgent/Allegiant by Veronica Roth - These are actually two separate books, but they were equally as disappointing for me so I'll be talking about both as if they were the same book. I cannot describe how much I loved Divergent. I thought it was going to be the next big thing, I saw the potential for it and was beyond ready to see where the story was going. Unfortunately, where it was going was Insurgent, and subsequently, Allegiant. Not only did the world and characters not go in the direction I thought they would, but the storyline in both books felt lackluster at best. I love hearing from people who actually enjoyed books 2 and 3 of the Divergent trilogy because I just don't get it, and it's interesting to hear what they have to say. 

✿ What are some books you like talking about but did not like? Comment below, or subscribe to BookSass. Thanks for reading!

KonMari Method for Book Purging

Last month I listened to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo on audiobook. Though there were a few things I disagreed with or found a bit preachy, I enjoyed it overall. I learned several tips on organization and storage, and how to get rid of unnecessary clutter in general. If you're curious as to what the KonMari method is, here is an article I found that explains it a bit.

I personally do not like clutter. I'm not a minimalist by any means, but I prefer to have fewer things and designated places for those things to go. I will be implementing some of her tricks into how I store and organize my possessions, but I don't think I'll use this method too precisely for my clothes, household items, etc. as I don't keep enough of those around to feel burdened by them.

However, I did use the KonMari method to purge my book collection. So, I thought I would do a blog post on how that went, what my collection looks like now, and how I organized and cataloged my books.

Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Authors You'd Want to Write Like

This month our Top 5 Wednesday topics are Rewind topics. This means that instead of having new prompts for every Wednesday, we get to choose any of the topics from previous months and make those our topics for the month of May. The first topic I chose is "Authors You'd Want to Write Like".

Authors:

• My first pick is Leigh Bardugo. She has a very atmospheric writing style and is a master at setting a gritty vibe that carries consistently through her books (you can see this in her Six of Crows duology). She is definitely an author I look to for 'setting' inspiration as I aspire to create the kinds of settings she manages to achieve. 

• Adam Silvera is my second choice. I've only read one of his books, History Is All You Left Me, but it blew me away how invested I was in the character's lives after reading about them in just one book. I felt for them as if they were real people that not only existed but that I knew personally. I would love to be able to convey strong emotions in my writing as well as he does. 

• For my third author, I have Jack Ketchum. Ketchum is a really great author to read if you're looking for books that have topics or themes that are difficult to read or make the reader very uncomfortable, an example of this being his novella, I'm Not Sam. He handles taboo subjects so well and I hope that any writing I do that handles topics like that would be written as well as his. 

• Fourth is Cassandra Clare. Of course, I had to mention CC, how could I not? Her more recent books, such as her Dark Artifices trilogy, have been so completely realized and so well written IMO. She manages to cram so much into her novels without it feeling like the aspects of the novel were crammed into it. Everything from world building to politics to relationships (whether those be romantic, platonic, or familial) are combined seamlessly. My hope is that my writing would be so well put together that it blended as smoothly as hers does. 

• Vladimir Nabokov is my final pick. Lolita is one of my all-time favorite novels. For me, it is a perfect example of what beautiful writing looks like. Though Nabokov's native language is Russian, Lolita was originally written in English, which I think shows what a strong grasp he had on the English language. If Nabokov can write so beautifully in a language that is not native to him, then my goal as a writer would be to obtain, and write with, the same level of understanding of English as he has.

✿ Those are my Top 5 Wednesday picks for today. If you did a T5W post, link it below, I'd love to check it out, or you can subscribe to BookSass. Thanks for reading!

April Wrap Up

April was a pretty intense month for me. I participated in Camp NaNo with a goal of 33,000 words (which I got really close to, but ultimately failed at. No surprise there), I've been prepping for a move, one of my dogs had a health scare, and I participated in a couple readathons. Somehow in all this though, I still managed to read a total of 10 books.

WRAP UP:

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō
My Rating: ★★★★

I listened to this on audiobook which I think was the perfect format for me to consume this. I would recommend reading a physical copy if you want to take notes though. I didn't agree with every aspect of the author's decluttering philosophy, but there was plenty of good advice in this. Reading this has left me very inspired to purge my book collection using this method, so we'll see how that goes. I will be doing a post on that soon, so when it is available, it will be linked here.

Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

My Rating: ★★★

Full review here. This was an okay story, but it wasn't anything special. I wanted to love this so much, so it's pretty disappointing that it wasn't what I was hoping it would be. The plot was generic, and all but the main character felt 2-dimensional. This is the author's debut novel, so maybe these issues will improve in the future, but for me, this was kind of a letdown.

Nasty Women Edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay & Kate Harding 

My Rating: ★★★★★

This is a very powerful essay collection, which is a genre I've really been feeling lately for some reason. I loved every essay in this. There were, of course, some that stood out more than others, but every single one gave me something to think about, quotes to highlight, and some piece of wisdom to take away from it. I read this as a borrowed ebook, but I plan to get a physical copy so I can annotate this and fully review it essay by essay.

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Fandom Items

Today's Top 5 Wednesday Topic: Favorite Fandom Items. These can be items you own or items that you want. I personally don't buy or own very many fandom items, so these weren't exactly easy to come up with, but I think I found some good ones.

1. This item is one that I want so bad and it is Louise Belcher's pink bunny ears hat. I think the ears are so cute and Bob's Burgers is one of my favorite animated shows.

2. The 'One Ring' from the Lord of the Rings series. I actually own a replica of this already on a neck chain and it's one of my favorite pieces of jewelry.

3. This isn't really an item, but it's another thing I've been really wanting to get. I want to get a Shadowhunter rune tattoo. I'm not sure yet what rune I want to get, I just don't want it to be the angelic rune, at least not the first one. I plan to get several, but I'm still looking for the right one to start with and where to actually put it.

4. Of course, Harry Potter has to be mentioned. There are so many fan items from this world that I would love to have, but I'll mention my most wanted and probably the easiest to find, and that would be a house sweater. I freaking love sweaters, and I have so few, none of which are HP related. I have been on the lookout for so long for a Slytherin house sweater that looks comfortable and well made. If you have any idea where I might be able to find one, please comment and let me know.

5. My last favorite fandom item is one that I already own, and that is my Lip Gallagher t-shirt. If you didn't know, there is a really great show called Shameless and on the show, one of the characters, Lip, has a white t-shirt in one episode with black text reading "Fuck you, you fucking fuck." And I own that same shirt. I don't really wear it out in public (for obvious reasons) but I love it.

✿ I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, please feel free to subscribe to BookSass. If you did a Top 5 Wednesday post as well for this topic, comment the link below and I'll be sure to check it out. 

Review: Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

Title: Down and Across
Author: Arvin Ahmadi
Publication Date: February 6, 2018 (Viking Books)
Format: Ebook - 330pgs
Rating: ★★★

Goodreads Page

Summary: 
Scott Ferdowsi has a track record of quitting. Writing the Great American Novel? Three chapters. His summer internship? One week. His best friends know exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives, but Scott can hardly commit to a breakfast cereal, let alone a passion.

With college applications looming, Scott's parents pressure him to get serious and settle on a career path like engineering or medicine. Desperate for help, he sneaks off to Washington, DC, to seek guidance from a famous professor who specializes in grit, the psychology of success.

He never expects an adventure to unfold out of what was supposed to be a one-day visit. But that's what Scott gets when he meets Fiora Buchanan, a ballsy college student whose life ambition is to write crossword puzzles. When the bicycle she lends him gets Scott into a high-speed chase, he knows he's in for the ride of his life. Soon, Scott finds himself sneaking into bars, attempting to pick up girls at the National Zoo, and even giving the crossword thing a try--all while opening his eyes to fundamental truths about who he is and who he wants to be.

Top 5 Wednesday: Ideal Mash Ups

Today Ideal Mashups is the Top 5 Wednesday topic. Ideal mashups are mashups we would want to see, similar to when book synopses say something along the lines of "For fans of _____ and ______." This topic took me foooorever to come up with, but I finally thought of some I liked.

1. The 100 (TV Show) and Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I really love the idea of The 100's post-apocalyptic world and I think it would be interesting to see some kind of paranormal group (like Shadowhunters) in a dystopian setting as paranormal dystopian isn't something I've ever seen happen before in a book. I would also love to see more badass female characters like Emma and Clarke.

2. This one is an ideal musical mashup - Deftones and Godsmack. Nothing would make me happier than to find a band that has the same sound as Deftones with a voice that's soft and eerie like Chino's, but that can also growl like Sully and has the same lyrical genius as Godsmack.

3. The shows - DeathNote (anime) and Riverdale. I think it would make for a very interesting story to have something with a dark kind of power like a death note fall into a town that is already creepy and has a subtle paranormal vibe like Riverdale. Imagine what that kind of power would do to a character like Betty who, although outwardly perfect, has a dark side. And every small town story has that perfect Betty character.

4. GTAV and Left4Dead. I love how interactive GTAV is and I love the storyline and world of Left4Dead. I want to see a zombie game with a world as big and developed as the one in GTAV. Instead of only being able to explore the areas that will advance you in the game, having the ability to move freely around an entire map and interact with other survivors, maybe forming alliances/communities would be really cool.

5. This mashup is a song/author combination. Avenged Sevenfold's song Nightmare and the author, Stephen King. I think the song lyrics could inspire a really creepy, old-timey mental asylum set story. An author like Stephen King who can write creepy and weird fiction well would do a great job, in my opinion, of bringing a story like that to life.

✿ I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, please feel free to subscribe to BookSass. If you did a Top 5 Wednesday post as well for this topic, comment the link below and I'll be sure to check it out. 

Important Works: A Discussion

Yay, another discussion post! I enjoyed the last one I did so much that I decided to do another with a different topic that's been on my mind a lot lately. And that topic would be, Important Books.

Now there are a few things that have prompted this; one being a video by rincey reads on youtube (linked here), and something I said in my last discussion post on separating authors from their works. I mentioned that being able to distinguish an author from their work comes in handy when an author may be problematic, but their work is influential or 'important' (this is linked here if you would like to read more on that). While writing that other post I began thinking about what makes a book important, which led me to think of rincey reads' video on disliking important books, and how to discuss the topic as a whole.

So, what makes a book important?

I think the first thing to go into is what an important book is. The content of this post is, of course, my opinion. There is no definitive list of qualities a book must have to be considered important. However, what I think most people mean when they say a book is important, is a book that has been influential to a significant number of people, whether it be in a positive or negative way (importance does not necessarily equate 'goodness'). Others might consider an important book to be a book that handles an important topic.

Now, this is just what I think the general public would consider to be an important book. I personally, think an important book is whatever book you, the reader of the book, would consider to be important.

 "The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you." - W. Somerset Maugham.

Top 5 Wednesday: Auto-buy SFF Authors

Today's Top 5 Wednesday topic is auto-buy authors that write SFF. I personally don't read very much Sci-Fi, so most of these are auto-buy fantasy authors, but there's one on this list who did write a SF book that I liked well enough to want to continue with the series.

#1 - Cassandra Clare 

Of course, Cassandra Clare is on this list. She's not just one of my top 5 SFF auto-buy authors, she's one of my top 5 auto-buy authors in general. If you've browsed some of my other blog posts, then it's no secret I'm a huge fan of the Shadowhunter Chronicles. It was the series that reignited my love for reading, it led me to discover booktube, and it's the first series I ever felt the need to own all of the books to. Even if these weren't reasons for her to be on this list, I've found that her writing and the complexity of her stories get better with every book she writes. And it's for that reason that she remains an auto-buy author for me.

#2 - Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo is the only author I have ever preordered a book from, besides Cassandra Clare. I have not read her Grisha trilogy, but I have read and own the Six of Crows duology (Crooked Kingdom being the book I preordered). Her writing is so atmospheric and she has such a talent for creating interesting characters that are easy to be invested in. I can't wait to see what she does in the future, but I'll be reading her books regardless.

#3 - A.G Howard

A.G Howard's Splintered trilogy was my first time reading her work. I read the first book in one sitting and binged the other two books within a few days because I loved them so much. She's published a few other books that fall into the fantasy genre since, and although I haven't read them yet, I definitely plan to. She reimagined the world of Wonderland in such a dark and unique way that I trust whatever she publishes, I'll love.

#4 - Jay Kristoff

Though he writes fantasy as well as SF, the only book by Jay Kristoff I've ever read is Illuminae, which is a SF book he co-wrote with the author Amie Kaufman. I wasn't expecting to like the book very much as I'm not really into SF, but I freaking loved it. I found the mixed media writing style to be so interesting and different from anything I had seen before. I also genuinely enjoyed the plot, which again, was unexpected. The book primarily takes place on a spaceship, which did not appeal to me at all, but I really loved the setting and the way it was presented. If Jay Kristoff can make me a fan of a SF book, then I trust whatever he chooses to write and I'll buy it and support him for that reason.

#5 - Sabaa Tahir

I loved Sabaa Tahir's book, An Ember in the Ashes so much when I first read it. It's been a couple years since, and I still need to pick up the sequel. But this isn't because I didn't enjoy the first book, because I remember thinking it was amazing in fact. It's just that I had read it in one sitting and quickly forgot too many of the details to continue reading the series without rereading An Ember in the Ashes. I'm not sure when I'll get to that, but I definitely plan to. So I don't care what she publishes, I will continue buying her books because I know I'll love them no matter what they're about.