Books That Have Got To Go: Part 1

Those of you that have been following the blog since the beginning knows I did a series of books to donate posts last summer. If you’re new here, this is how these posts go. I tell you the books I’m donating and my reasons for doing so. Basically you get a bunch of mini reviews. I donate all of my books to my local library for their fundraising sale. It’s a win win for all. Alright let’s get into it.

1. Plays By George Bernard Shaw: I had to read these for a class two years ago. I liked them but I frankly won’t ever reread them so they’re just taking up space on my shelf. Shaw is a funny man though. If you like Oscar Wilde, I recommend Shaw.

2. The Alienist by Caleb Carr: This is one of my mom’s favorite books so I got my own copy to read…except I never actually read it. I’ve had this book for three years and haven’t even touched it so I don’t think I will. It’s a murder mystery set when Roosevelt was president, so that’s fun.

3. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: If you were here last summer you’ll know I was not as impressed with Fangirl as everyone else in the world is. I think it was just too hyped up for me and I expected way too much from it. You can read my review here. 

4. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Chima: This was one of my many thrift store purchases that I just never got around to reading. I have no idea what it’s about or if it’s any good. I remember buying it because it gave me Gregor the Overlander vibes and I loved those books as a kid.

5. The Dragon Queen by Alice Borchardt: Another thrift store find that I never got around to. I wanted to read it because it was another King Arthur tale but I kind of got burnt out on Arthur for a bit after that class I took on his legends. 

This completes part one of three in this round of donations. Have you guys read these books? Do you agree with me on some of them? Do you have any plans to donate any of your books?

Review: The Lunam Ceremony by Nicole Loufas

I received this ARC free for review from XPRESSO Book Tours. I was not paid and all thoughts are my own!

Now that all the legal stuff is out of the way we can get into talking about this book and the giveaway attached to it!

Synopsis 

Born from a curse that allows her kind to shift from human to wolf, Kalysia won the genetic lottery. She is the offspring of an original, born to lead and bound by her duty to produce an heir to continue their bloodline she must leave the only life she has ever known to take part in The Lunam Ceremony. This ancient ritual will solidify her place in the pack and determine who she will love for the rest of her life. There’s just one problem – Kalysia doesn’t believe in love.
That changes when she falls into the hands of Dillan Dukes. The attraction is undeniable. The connection unbreakable. He is everything love at first site is supposed to be, suddenly her future doesn’t look that bad.
Unwilling to give up hope on going to college and having the life her and Dillan fantasize about outside the pack, she reluctantly takes on the role as pack leader. When an unexpected proposal is made that will grant both Dillan and Kalysia their freedom she is willing to put her ego, and her heart aside, to make her dream come true.
One night.
One act of selflessness.
For the life she’s always dreamt about.
Only things are not what they seem.
Can Kalysia and Dillan find happily ever after with the consequences of that night haunting them forever?
Will one fateful night destroy Kalysia’s future along with the future of the pack?

Review

When I first started reading this book I was apprehensive. I wasn’t expecting Kalysia to be a sheltered girl forced into a lifestyle but as the novel progressed I realized that there was so much more. Kalysia is a fiercely strong character who wants to make a change. She’s wonderfully human, she makes mistakes big and small and then tackles the consequences. There is something so appealing about her. I’m interested to see where this series is going. 

Understand this is a New Adult book so some material is not suitable for younger audiences. There isn’t any gratuitous sex scenes but it’s mentioned a lot.

Overall I would give this 3.5 stars out of 5.

Giveaway!!!

Basically you could win a $15 Amazon gift card if you click the linky link.

https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/classic/aff53f5/main.html

If you’re interested in buying the book, it’s available on Amazon!https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

I Honestly Loved I, Iago

I love Shakespeare and his characters but I love Iago the most. I became obsessed with the character my senior year of high school when we read Othello in my AP English class. There was and still is something so fascinating about this villain Shakespeare created. He is petty and ambitious, conniving and intelligent, and just evil. Perhaps the evil that stems from no real reason is why he is so appealing. We can place our own stories or reasonings on him. This brings me to my new favorite book I, Iago.

It is the story of Iago’s life as the fifth son of a merchant forced to go into the military and finds he flourishes. This book is so humanizing and doesn’t feel forced in the portrayal of a good and truly honest Iago that lets his ambition get the better of him. I appreciated how Nicole Galland actively included exact quotes from Othello into the dialogue. It helped keep the book focused when the plot got crazy. It would remind me where the story was based off the play.

The love story between Iago and Emilia was honestly beautiful and I was charmed utterly by it. This book just swept me away and I’m so happy it is in existence. This is in my reread pile for sure.

Book Tour and Giveaway: The Requiem Red by Brynn Chapman

On Tour with Prism Book Tours.

The Requiem Red
by Brynn Chapman
YA Historical Urban Fantasy
Hardcover, Paperback & ebook, 300 Pages
April 5th 2016 by Month9Books

Patient Twenty-nine.

A monster roams the halls of Soothing Hills Asylum. Three girls dead. 29 is endowed with the curse…or gift of perception. She hears messages in music, sees lyrics in paintings. And the corn. A lifetime asylum resident, the orchestral corn music is the only constant in her life.

Mason, a new, kind orderly, sees 29 as a woman, not a lunatic. And as his belief in her grows, so does her self- confidence. That perhaps she might escape, might see the outside world.

But the monster has other plans. The missing girl’s share one common thread…each was twenty-nine’s cell mate.

Will she be next?

My Review:

I loved this book! I literally could not put it down, so I definitely made a mistake in starting it at work. I found it so interesting to keep having a narration change between 29, Jules, and Dr. Greyjoy. I was able to get a much bigger idea of what was going on in the novel with the narration switches and there was no confusion as to who was talking. It is a difficult balance to maintain and so many authors fail at it but this was just superbly done. The detail in this book is stunning. It’s a scary and beautiful world with rich and realistic characters. I hope there is a sequel in the works because I cannot be left hanging like this or I shall suffer greatly. I highly recommend this if you want a book you can devour in one setting and feel fulfilled from it.

The Giveaway:

If you want a chance to win this awesome book and other great stuff, enter down below.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/YjlhNTVkYjM5ZWFmYzRlN2Y3YzM0MmVlMDkyNjI2OjE0NA==/?

Goodreads│Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Book Depository

Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, Brynn Chapman is the daughter of two teachers. Her writing reflects her passions: science, history and love—not necessarily in that order. In real life, the geek gene runs strong in her family, as does the Asperger’s syndrome. Her writing reflects her experience as a pediatric therapist and her interactions with society’s downtrodden. In fiction, she’s a strong believer in underdogs and happily-ever-afters. She also writes non-fiction and lectures on the subjects of autism and sensory integration and is a medical contributor to online journal The Age of Autism.

Website│Goodreads│Facebook│Twitter│Pinterest

Other Books by the Author

Tour Schedule

April 10th: Launch
April 11th: Cover2Cover, Alpha Fangirl Book Blog, & Zerina Blossom’s Books
April 12th: Mythical Books, BritLitBibliophile, & Wishful Endings
April 13th: Mel’s Shelves, deal sharing aunt, & Colorimetry
April 14th: Christy’s Cozy Corners & Addicted Readers
April 15th: Reading Addict & Mom with a Reading Problem
April 17th: Grand Finale

Tour Giveaway

– US Prize Pack: Signed The Requiem Red, The Violet Hour audiobook, and handmade “misneach” necklace (US only)
– The Requiem Red ebook (INT)
Ends April 22nd

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To Dance With Kings by Rosalind Laker

Hey guys! If you all follow me on Instagram (BritLitBibliophile) you have seen this book multiple times because I am obsessed with this book. I picked this up over my winter break from a thrift store on a whim because I thought it might be interesting and if it wasn’t I was only out 99 cents. This is 99 cents well spent.

I’m just going to give the synopsis from the back of the book because so much happens that I don’t want to give away in my own synopsis.

“On a May morning in 1664, in the small village of Versailles, as hundreds of young aristocrats are coming to pay court to King Louis XIV, a peasant fan-maker gives birth to her first and only child, Marguerite. Determined to give her daughter a better life than the one she herself has lived, the young mother vows to break the newborn’s bonds of poverty and ensure that she fulfills her destiny—to dance with kings. Purely by chance, a drunken nobleman witnesses the birth and makes a reckless promise to return for Marguerite in seventeen years. With those fateful words, events are set into motion that will span three monarchies, affecting the lives of four generations of women.

Marguerite becomes part of the royal court of the Sun King, but her fairy-tale existence is torn out from under her by a change of political winds. Jasmin, Marguerite’s daughter, is born to the life of privilege her grandmother dreamed of, but tempts fate by daring to catch the eye of the king. Violette, Marguerite’s granddaughter, is drawn to the nefarious side of life among the nobles at Versailles. And Rose, Violette’s daughter, becomes a lady-in-waiting and confidante to Marie Antoinette. Through Rose, a love lost generations before will come full circle, even as the ground beneath Versailles begins to rumble with the chaos of the coming revolution.”

Rosalind Laker has created some of the most well rounded women I have ever come across in “adult literature.” I was honestly expecting a lot of romance and sex with no character development but it had it all. Marguerite is a headstrong business woman who will not be told what to do by any man. Jasmin grows up from a spoiled child to a woman who has faced many hardships and has grown ten fold. Her story is the most tragic out of them all. Violette has a rather short story that ends abruptly but in her short part of the novel she becomes a different woman as well. Rose sees the most horror out of all the women but comes out on top. This is just a beautiful story and its so engaging.

DISCLAIMER: I will note that in Jasmin’s story she is brutually beaten and sexaully assaulted by her husband so if that is something you’re not interested in reading about at all, this might not be the book for you. The descriptions aren’t too graphic but it happens often so that’s why I’m putting the disclaimer.

So I loved this book and will be reading more of her work. Let me know if you’ve read any of her other books or this one. What did you think? Do you think you’ll give this a try?

Carpe Librum Book Haul

  
So one of the greatest things about living near the nation’s capital is the ability to go to independent bookstores. I was googling used bookstores to go to and I was attracted to Carpe Librum because of it’s name, it has high reviews, and the prices are super low. When I got there I was not disappointed because there were so many books and for dirt cheap. No book is over $4, which is a steal. I managed to get five books for only $13.

Sepulchre: I’m always a fan of stories that intertwine the past and present and I’m hoping this won’t let me down.

Cloud Atlas: I’ve been hearing about this book for a really long time and never thought to give it a try until now. Apparently I picked up an edition from England which is pretty neat.

The Illuminator: A story about the beautiful illuminations in old books. Sign me up for medieval intrigue.

An Ember In The Ashes: I honestly don’t know much about this book except that it did very well last year in the bookstagram and book blogging communities. For $3 I had to see what was up.

The Autobiography of Henry VIII: I love any fictional account of the Tudors. I rarely see any from Henry’s perspective so this should be a fascinating read.

Anonymous Book Recommendations

Hello everyone! So yesterday I decided to have a little fun and ask people anonymously online what their favorite books were. I frequently use the apps Whisper and Yik Yak to vent or talk to random people. I decided since everything is anonymous people are probably more willing to give book recommendations because if they’re weird no one will know it’s  your favorite. I’m going to list all the book recommendations I got by app and by posting and I will link the amazon page to each one.

Yik Yak

I got a good response on here from my college feed but only two suggestions from my home feed. Since I live off campus and Yik Yak uses your location to determine where you can post, I had two places to ask the question.

Home Feed

L’Etranger  or The Stranger by Albert Camus

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

College Feed

One person said the Dictionary

One person said Facebook

The Culture Series by Iain Banks

Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Perks of Being A Wall Flower by Stephen Chbosky

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Looking For Alaska by John Green

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Anything written by Timothy Zahn (I got no specific book names but they’re all Star Wars books)

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

 

Whisper

Anything by Donna Tartt or Sarah Waters

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

The Witches by Roald Dahl

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Are any of your favorite books on this list? Are you going to try to get book recommendations from anonymous sites?

The Worst Book To Movie Adaptations

Hey everyone! We’ve all been through this. We find a book we absolutely fall in love with and want it to make it to the big screen. Then our dreams come true and we have some regrets. Maybe we should have been more specific in our wishing. Maybe we should have said a good movie. We see the cast list slowly appear and get more and more nervous but push our fears aside because maybe we are being too hasty. We get to the theater and find that our fears have been founded. The movie is a trainwreck. It has strayed so far from the books that you wonder can it even be called an adaptation.

I know this feeling all too well, so I’ve complied a list of the worst adaptations. Your’s might be different or the same but these are the movies that let me down the most.

1. EragonLiterally the worst movie adaptation I’ve ever seen in my life. This movie is basically just a whole different plot with the same name and characters. The costumes were awful because at one point Eragon is wearing what looks like a white medievalesque top and blue jeans. The acting was appalling.  Everyone seemed so lifeless and the fact that the guy who played Eragon was able to get a job after this film is amazing. Saphira looks totally wrong too. She’s blue and that’s about all that is correct. Honestly, the onlly saving grace of this movie is Jeremy Irons. If I could have this movie remade the only person I would keep would be him. Maybe I’m biased because I love Jeremy Irons. This movie gets a negative ten out of ten.
2. The Lightning Thief Not as bad as Eragon but still not good. I felt like they took what was an excellent and action filled book and turned it into a boring movie. Everything just felt lack luster to me. The fight scenes were over so fast and without any style. The capture the flag scene was also not good. There just seemed to be a lack of heart that went into this. Also Annabeth is blonde for goodness sakes. I know when they did the second movie of this (which I did not see) they made her blonde but really its too late. Only saving thing of this movie was Nathan Fillion as Hermes.
3. City of BonesJust bad. I mean I don’t know how else to put it. Horrible casting choices I think was this film’s main issue. It again goes with the lifelessness thing I talked about before. Also no one looked right in my opinion but maybe that’s just me. However, the new Shadowhunters TV show is pretty good. Not 100% like the book but still good. My review of the pilot can be found here.
4. Bram Stoker’s DraculaThis movie is such an issue for me. There is a lot I like but there’s a lot I hate and ultimately that outweighs the good it does. For the most part I’m a fan of the casting. Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins were fantastic choices as Dracula and Van Helsing. If I could redo this movie they would stay for sure. They embody all the things I enjoyed from each character. Unfortunately, their amazing performances don’t outshine the disasters that are Keanu Reeves and Winona Rider. They are god awful. Keanu Reeves cannot do a British accent to save his life. He sounds like a surfer who happens to live in England so he may have slightly picked up an accent. Winona makes Mina, my favorite character, immensely dull and simpering. I also cannot enjoy the love story with Drac and Mina because it does not exist in the book and I just hate that we have to add this weird romantic, reincarnation plot to a perfectly good story. It’s silly really. The things this movie does right is Lucy’s transformation into a vampire and just Gary Oldman as Dracula. My other issue is the blatant over sexualization of Lucy. Lucy is a flirt but never sexaully explicit. It’s too much and completely out of character.

So those are my four main terrible adaptations. If  you could add to the list what would you put? Any disappointments I missed (or didn’t miss) out on? Let me know down below.

Bookish New Year Goals

Happy 2016! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s celebration. Since its that time of year again I figured I’d make some goals but specifically for books. 

The goals are as follows:

1. Read 50 books this year, not including ones for class.

2. Write on this blog at least once a week.

3. Finish all those E-ARCs from Netgalley.

4. Try to write more in general.

These seem pretty simple and really 3 can help reach the goal of 1 and 2. Let’s see how this goes. What are your bookish goals for this year?

Barnes and Noble Leather Bound Books: Are They Worth It?

  
Anyone that has ever been to Barnes and Noble has probably seen all the beautiful leather bound books on display. You walk over and admire them but might not buy them because most of them are wrapped in plastic so you can’t see what the inside look like. So the question is, should you be buying them all, only your favorites, or none at all.

I now have four different copies and I have to say I love them. The four that I have are utterly beautiful and immensely sturdy which is what I bought them for. I had worn down both my copies of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula from excessive reading and wanted something that would hold up. I couldn’t resist these copies because they were $10 each which is the cost of so many paperbacks these days and they just looked good. I’ve now had both of these copies for I think three years now and they still look phenomenal. After the success of the first two I asked for The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Le Morte d’Arthur and I’m just as impressed. They’re all stunning, sturdy, and are well printed. 

All those positives being said, I don’t recommend every copy. Some of the copies just aren’t as attractive and look rather cheap. I’ve been looking for a good copy of Pride and Prejudice but the Barnes and Noble version is immensely tacky. Many of the children’s classics have this same cheap look. Some of the other leather bounds are beautiful but I have no interest in their contents. 

My recommendation is to buy your favorite books in the leather bounds if they’re available and look good enough for your tastes. Of course if you’re just looking for decorative books on the cheap I would recommend them as well. The most expensive copy is only $20 so it won’t be too much money out of your pocket.