Always Me

It's already the end of August - meaning 16 of the 24 tasks for  Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge  are complete!  The tasks I completed required me to read a western and a book of colonial or postcolonial literature.  For the tasks, I selected  Retribution Rails (Vengance Road #2) by Erin Bowman  and  Who Fears Death  by Nnedi Okorafor  respectively.  Read on to see my mini reviews and what's next for September: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  Retribution Rails , a companion piece to Vengeance Road , is fantastic and I'd even say it's better than the original. It has everything I could have asked for in a gritty western adventure from train robberies and stagecoach chases, shootouts and gunfights, to outlaws and bad men. Plus, I love that Bowman does her own thing with thing with the genre - it's so much more than just those tropes. Her world-building is absolutely outstanding - as far as I'm concerned i was ...

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader , and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by  Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader  and  Laura @ Blue Eye Books . For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs. This week I'm spo...

❋  ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Everyone in the universe knows the outlaw Ia Cocha and fears him. One thing they don't know is that Ia is actually a seventeen year old girl. In reality she is a top notch pilot and a criminal mastermind who has spent her entire life terrorizing the imperalist Commonwealth that destroyed her home. When Ia gets caught by the Commonwealth, they see the truth of her identity as an opportunity. They will force her to serve them and prove once and for all that no one beyond their control. Before long, Ia is stuck plotting her escape at a Commonwealth military academy. Her new acquaintances, though, Brinn and Knives, cause Ia to begin to question her own alliances. Ignite the Stars by Maura Milan is a YA sci-fi debut and promising series opener. I was really hoping to love it - I mean, the cover and the blurb definitely hooked me. While I liked it well enough, it didn't quite distinguish itself enou...

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today I'm sharing two ARC mini reviews (I received the ARCs from NetGalley in exchange for honest reviews):  Open Mic Night at Westminster Cemetery by Mary Amato &  Trapped in Room 217 by Thomas Kingsley Troupe .  Both of these stories will be available on September 1st and both are ghost stories.  Read on to see my thoughts: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Open Mic Night at Westminster Cemetery by Mary Amato is a YA paranormal fantasy story told in the format of a two-act stage play. If you like a good ghost story, you're going to have to try this tale because there is so much to like about it. It's a darkly humorous and quirky, features a fantastic variety of characters (including Edgar Allan Poe himself), and it asks intriguing questions about life and death. It did leave me wanting a little more, especially about the wider ghostly world though as this is set entirely in one cemetery. The story is very visual and could be...

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the first Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is a Back to School/ Learning Freebie which gives me quite a bit of options as to my topic.  Since I don't often talk about nonfiction books, I'm sharing some nonfiction titles I'd like to read.  Without further ado, here we go in alphabetical order by title: Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World's Most Famous Detective Writer by Margalit Fox  - True crime featuring the creator of Sherlock Holmes - I need this in my life. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson  - I was really impressed by  The Devil in the White City and I'm going to have to read more of Larson's worth. The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession by David Grann  - I loved The Lost City of Z  and as s...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Christopher Bach was a cop in one of the largest Lunar cities when the Central Computer suffered the Big Glitch, and became a war larger than anyone expected. Since order has been restored, Bach's life hasn't been the same. Now he is a private detective a la his favorite hard boiled and noir characters and his partner is his dog Sherlock, a genetically enhanced and super smart bloodhound. His newest case will require him to track biohackers to the infamous Irontown, if he wants to catch the people who afflicted his client with an engineered virus. If he can get in and out in one piece that is. Irontown Blues is my first John Varley book, and I enjoyed it so much that I highly doubt that it will be my last. This new sci-fi noir novel is set in the same universe as his Eight Worlds series, but you don't need to be familiar with it to follow this all new story. Honestly, all I needed to ...

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. This week I'm sharing some more of my favorite Disney songs.  This week I've picked "He Mele No Lilo" from Lilo & Stitch (2002)  and "That's How You Know" from Enchanted (2007) .  I love that opening number from Lilo & Stitch in Hawaiian.  What reminded me of it - I just heard a 5 year-old kid belting this so...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I received a free ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. Larry was just your regular caribou, who was cruelly excluded from his crew. He and his kin happened to be the sole Jewish reindeer in the North Pole. Larry was bullied and treated the worst way, until his plan saved one Christmas Day. Schmuck the Buck: Santa's Jewish Reindeer is the newest release by EXO Books.  It's a 60 page holiday book that is illustrated by Karina Shor.  It's a modern and refreshing take on the classic Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer .  Usually, I'm not all that interested in holiday themed stories (and it's so early in the year), but I particularly enjoyed the voice and style of the author in their previous sci-fi novel, The Last Day of Captain Lincoln  which I read during Sci-Fi Month back in 2016.  Although, the two couldn't be much different on the surface both have a great heart and provide intriguing social commentary with a touch...

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader , and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by  Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader  and  Laura @ Blue Eye Books . For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs. This week I'm s...

❋  ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft is a YA anthology of short stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era. History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations - bold, powerful, and rebellious. From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together - magically or mundanely - has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. This collection delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures...

❋  ❋  ❋   ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Sancia is a thief and the heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, her new target, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. Sancia’s been sent to steal a powerful artifact that could totally revolutionize magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic which uses coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience and the ability to break the laws of physics and nature--have already used it to transform the city of Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. If the Houses get their hands on this artifact, they will be able to rewrite the entire world. Now someone wants Sancia dead and to keep the artifact for themselves - and no one in the city stands a chance against them. If Sancia has any hope at all of surviving what's coming she'll have to marshal unlikely allies and figure out how to handle the artifact's power for her...

❋  ❋  ❋   ❋  ❋ I received an ARC of this novella from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Creeper is a scrappy girl who lives on the streets of post-Civil War New Orleans, but she has big plans. She plans on gaining passage on the smuggler airship Midnight Robber by earning the trust of Captain Ann-Marie. She'll do just that by sharing a secret of a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon called The Black God’s Drums. Creeper has her own secret: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities. I was so excited to when I learned I was approved for The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. Since I'm a fan of alternate history and steampunk as well as Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, this novella sounded like an absolute must read. Luckily, this story was absolutely brilliant - and one of my favorite reads of 2018. Although it only clocks in at 11...

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the first Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Books to Pull You Out of a Reading Slump.  The books I'm sharing below are recent releases that are all absolutely addicting for one reason or another.  Here we go, in alphabetical order: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton Cadaver & Queen by Alisa Kwitney Children of Blood and Bone by Toni Adeyemi Fresh Ink edited by Lamar Giles The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert Neanderthal Opens The Door To The Universe by Preston Norton Nothing But Sky by Amy Trueblood The Point by John Dixon Scream All Night by Derek Milman Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young Have you read any of these books?  What books have helped you get out of a reading slump?  As always thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!