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.

Books I've Binged

✿ There are only a handful of books I've ever read cover to cover and when I was thinking about them I thought it was interesting which books those were. Some I read in such a short amount of time because they were quick reads and some I read quickly because I could not put them down. Either way, here those books are.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

I read this in 2015 when I was deeeeeep in a dystopian/fantasy phase. At the time, I thought it was the best thing I'd ever come across, though I'll be honest I may have let the hype for this one get to me. What I find so interesting about this one specifically is that I could not put this down once I picked it up, but in the almost three years since I read this, I still haven't continued with the series. I think I rated this 5 stars when I read it, but since then my opinion has changed so much so that now it's probably only a 3 star read for me. I have continuously told myself I will read the sequel eventually, but as time has gone on, my desire to continue reading the series has decreased. And I know I'd have to reread this in order to know what's happening if I continue with the sequel, which I don't really want to do.  

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Jokesters

I've been watching Sam's channel for years and have seen dozens of her 'Top 5 Wednesday' videos and it occurred to me that I could be doing the T5W topics here on my blog. So, hopefully, I'll be doing these every week.

✿ This week's topic is Favorite Jokesters, in honor of April Fools' Day. This was pretty tough for me, I don't know why, but I had such a hard time thinking of characters that fall into this category.

1. My first pick comes from the HP world, and no, it's not either of the Weasley twins, though I do love them. One of my favorite pranksters (and characters, in general) is Peeves. He is so mischevious and I loved reading every scene he was a part of. I think it's such a shame that his character didn't make it into the movies because they would have been even better with him.

2. Pick #2 comes from another one of my favorite series' and that is Simon Lewis from The Mortal Instruments. The topic post mentioned jokesters, pranksters, and funny characters, and while Simon isn't necessarily a prankster type of character, he is definitely a funny character. Simon is so witty and he always makes really cheesy jokes that are almost so cheesy they're actually funny and I absolutely love him.

3. This one is from the show Bob's Burgers and that would be Louise Belcher. She's my favorite character on the show for the reason that she's so funny. Any prank or scheme that the kids try to pull off is usually thought up by Louise. She's snarky and sarcastic and I love every bit of it.

4. Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare is one of my favorite literary characters period. But, he especially works for this topic because a majority of the play's plot is created by Puck's impish tricks. I love him even more for not seeming bothered at all by the fact that he causes so much chaos.

5. My final pick is a villain that comes from the DC comics universe. Don't worry, it's not the joker, it's actually Edward Nygma a.k.a The Riddler. I love everything about this character. The riddles, the drama, the complexity with which he goes about his schemes, I love it all. I have read comic books that feature the Riddler and I've been pleased with them, but my favorite portrayal of his character is on the television show, Gotham. I loved seeing the transformation from Edward to Riddler and I think Cory Michael Smith does a great job with the role.

March Wrap Up

WRAP UP:

Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
My Rating: ★★★★

This was a really fun read. I loved the virtual world and I feel that the corrupt company aspect was fairly interesting to read about. I wish that the ending had been a bit more developed. It feels like it all ends too abruptly and it's just very anticlimactic. Also, what I think was supposed to be the last minute plot twist didn't really feel like anything too significant. A few of the other plot twists scattered throughout the book were either uninteresting or I had already predicted them. There will be a sequel though, so maybe that will improve.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

My Rating: ★★★

I had to let this one sit for a while before I could form coherent thoughts on it. I have never read a book that had me so divided. There were a few things I enjoyed and they redeemed the book for me, but mostly I couldn't stand this book. I have so many issues with this, and my thoughts are so jumbled that I think I'll have to do a review at some point because I can't express my feelings in a single paragraph. I will say that it's genuinely nice to know that so many people found this book helpful and benefitted from reading it.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

My Rating: ★★★★

I picked this up for the spring 24hr readathon. This was...different. I liked the story overall. I felt that it was fully realized given how short the book is and the ending definitely made me cry. All this being said though, I didn't really 'get' it. I'm not sure what the point of the monster's stories was, they just didn't seem to really be relevant to what was going on in the main characters life. The whole situation with the bully also confused me, the bully's actions and the fight didn't seem to have a point.