5 Books I Read From Recommendations

(Top Ten Tuesdays is a fantastic meme from The Broke and The Bookish. Check it out here. Mine are shortened to 5 because I can only 4/10 times find the time to do 10 books, but the sentiment is the same.)

Top Five:
Books I Read By Recommendation

I can't believe I missed last week's Top Ten Tuesday on villains! Villains are one of my favourite aspects of literature. Anyway, here's 10 books I read by recommendation. I don't get recommended books often - I have an unusual taste in books - so I've done my best.

1. The Lie Tree
by Frances Hardinge

I was recommended The Lie Tree by a friend on Twitter a year ago (so don't ask me who; my memory only extends to five minutes ago) and bought it a few weeks after and have stared at it every day since, excited af to read it. That's right, the first book on this "Books I Read" list, I haven't even read. Go me! But seriously though, it's not often that I'm recommended a book that I'm genuinely interested in and excited to read. A year on and I still look at it on my shelf anticipating the time when I will finally read it.

2. Red Queen
by Victoria Aveyard

Now for one that I have actually read. I had Red Queen forced upon me by my best friend late last year after I bought it her for her Christmas present, then I had Glass Sword forced upon me when that came out earlier this year, and currently Cruel Crown is sitting on my bookshelf saying "Hey! You! Read me! Hi! Can you hear me? Over here! Stop god damn ignoring me!". I did enjoy these books however I was much more into the banter we had over Cal, Maven and Kilorn afterwards than the books themselves.

3. The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho

I need to clarify something first: I wasn't recommended this, I stole it off someone's bookshelf. I swear it was an accident though! I stayed at my uncle's in Edinburgh last weekend and happened to notice this, a marvelous book that has been said to change lives, sitting unassumingly on his bookshelf, and decided to read it over the weekend. Then didn't finish it and forgot to take it out of my bag. I will get it back to him, I swear. As a review though, I didn't see as much in this book as people proclaim. A lot of the "lessons" it teaches resonated a lot with what I believe, which was really refreshing for me, but I don't think I actually learned anything new from it. I reckon it's just one of those books that you have to read and see what it does for you though. Astoundingly magical for its simplicity.

4. Half Bad
by Sally Green

By far the best book I have ever been recommended. Also my favourite modern novel. Like shit I love this. I've never resonated so much with a book in my life. I know I liked Half Bad for different reasons to most fans, and, like All The Bright Places, I thus feel unqualified to review it. But. Just please. It's so good.

5. The 5th Wave
by Rick Yancey

I have to say, I expected better from my friend's girlfriend. I really didn't like this book. I mean, you're in a world where most people are dead and the rest are going to kill you, and all you can do is dream about that boy you had a petty high school crush on? That's the definition of an unrelatable and hatable character. Nu thanks. I know lots of people loved it. But no. Thank you. Goodnight.


Abi Ainley

What do I do if It Was Fantastic But I Couldn't Finish it? - The Magician King by Lev Grossman (Discussion)

The Magician King

by Lev Grossman

Released: 9th August 2011
Publisher: William Heinemann
Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Maybe Romance?
Other books by Lev Grossman:
The Magicians
Codex
The Connector (Non-Fiction)
Goodreads Description:
The Magicians was praised as a triumph by readers and critics of both mainstream and fantasy literature. Now Grossman takes us back to Fillory, where the Brakebills graduates have fled the sorrows of the mundane world, only to face terrifying new challenges.
Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent's house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. And only the black, twisted magic that Julia learned on the streets can save them.
The Magician King is a grand voyage into the dark, glittering heart of magic, an epic quest for the Harry Potter generation. It also introduces a powerful new voice, that of Julia, whose angry genius is thrilling. Once again Grossman proves that he is the cutting edge of literary fantasy.




Discussion


I mentioned The Magician King recently in my “Top Ten Fantasy Books” as my second favourite fantasy book. At this point I was about three quarters of my way through it and confident as hell that it was going to be one of my favourites. Everything about it was perfect: the writing; the imagination; the setting; the ridiculously, amazingly complex and interesting characters. All my friends knew about Fillory and it’s fortune telling hares and islands where everyone was grumpy yorkshiremen. But what happens when I get 100 pages off finishing and just can’t go on any more?

I’d been trying to finish the final 150/200 pages for a week and found myself slowly falling into a reading slump. I don’t regret putting the book down and leaving it be, but how can I possibly review it? Do I give it 5* for the inspiring first three quarters that had me drawing, writing and making music again, that gave me my sadly missed imagination back again, or do I give it 2* because I couldn’t finish it? I could go half way and give it 3.5* but that doesn’t feel quite right. You don’t give such a life-changing book such a small rating, however you also don’t give a book that you couldn’t finish such a high rating.

You might have encountered a book like this before – it’s engaging and exciting for the first three quarters but drags on forever in the later parts – I sure have, but usually the engaging and exciting parts aren’t quite this engaging and exciting. The damn book took over my mind for the couple of weeks I read it over, guarding every move I made. I can’t rate it low! But also… I can’t exactly rate it high. It’s almost as if I read two different books, the first being a fantastic, creative, inspiring fantasy classic, the other being a dull, wannabe urban fantasy. GUYS! I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!

I don’t know whether to recommend The Magician King or not. Read the other reviews. I have a feeling this will have to be the first instance in which I really can’t supply an opinion, not because I have none, but because I have too many!


Links
Goodreads
Amazon UK
Amazon US


Abi Ainley

Top Ten: Books for Songs

(Top Ten Tuesdays is a fantastic meme from The Broke and The Bookish. Check it out here.)

About my lack of posts last week: I've been writing a couple of advance reviews for the next few months, I'm not lazying around, I swear! I also have a Goodreads review that I think I might extend and maybe turn into a discussion topic, so that might be coming in the next week or two ;)
Top Ten Five:
Books for Songs

I was so excited to see that this week's prompt was audio. As a huge music fan and acoustics nerd this is my dream prompt. The only problem was I had too many ideas! I narrowed it down to two. For this post I'll be shuffling my 2016 Spotify playlist and assigning a book to ten songs. My second idea was to just do a list of 10 of my favourite music, acoustics, music psychology, music biography etc. books and I might still do this at some point if it takes anyone's fancy? Yep, there's only five here but this is the best I could do with my time. Hope you enjoy! :D

1. Cruel to be Kind by Nick Lowe

Fitting with the light-hearted tone of this song, I took a light-hearted approach to choosing this graphic novel.
I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason

A fun, creative graphic novel about a rather dire situation. If you haven't read this, I recommend it. You can get through it in little to no time and it's reasonably entertaining. The art, as usual with Jason, is incredibly fun and makes it worth buying. :D

2. Time Warp by the cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN! (not that we've done it yet but..)
Time to hunt out a book that messes with your mind and includes a hella lot of pelvic thrusts.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman

It's creative, sometimes messed up and has sexual bits. I think this is the closest I'll get without scouring through every book I own.

3. Bagpipers by Béla Bartók

I love this piece but damn it's gonna be hard to come up with a book for it.
Romance by the Book by Jo Victor

The huge historic house and the dusty, classical theme combined with the countryside, folk elements.
See my review: Romance by the Book by Jo Victor

4. Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads
THIS VIDEO!

I can't possibly think of a book magnificent enough to be paired with this song & music video so watch the video again:


5. Stay With Me by Faces
I know your name is Rita, 'cause your perfumes smelling sweeter,

So something with a funky piano accompaniment. Hmm...
Swift by RJ Anderson

There were plenty of books I could've chosen with pianos in but I was scrolling through my "read" list on Goodreads when I suddenly realised that this song epitomises how I read RJ Anderson's books. They really are a one night stand. When I'm needing a lift or I'm in a reading slump, I pick up the first one I see and read it cover to cover, before putting it away not to be read again for a few years.

Top Ten: Favourite Fantasy Books

(Top Ten Tuesdays is a fantastic meme from The Broke and The Bookish. Check it out here.)

(Also, I know some of these books come more under supernatural, but I tend to count supernatural as a sub-genre of fantasy. To me fantasy is essentially everything that's not real or based off science. Enjoy :D)

Top Ten:
Favourite Fantasy Books

As a huge fan of fantasy you'd think it'd be easy as pie for me to come up with ten fantasy books that I love. Well, you'd be slightly mistaken. This is the part where I open up my Goodreads "read" shelf to remember what books I've read.

10. All The Birds in The Sky
by Charlie Jane Anders

The two main characters are an engineer and a magician. Need I say more?

9. The Pygmy Dragon
by Marc Secchia

This guy is one hell of a writer. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes bad. I read and reviewed his book Dragonfriend last year, which I found to be quite confusing despite being a fun read, but The Pygmy Dragon was a completely different kettle of fish. The world and story is beautiful and conquers the topic of social segregation. Secchia is an indie author so if you're into supporting indie authors I recommend picking up this book.

8. Unspoken
by Sarah Rees Brennan

I still need to read the rest of these! I absolutely loved the idea of two people who had been able to speak to each other telepathically forever before finally meeting. The whole development of how they realised that the voices in their heads were each other was done fantastically. I really need to read the other in this series. But then again, I really need to read everything.

7. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
by Holly Black

A devout Holly Black fan, I couldn't not include one of her books in this list, my favourite being The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I can't say I remember a great deal from this book, but I can't really say I remember a great deal about anything haha. All I remember is reading the damn thing in one sitting at the library and wishing for the life of me it was in a series. It's not. Cri.

6. The Dragon Children: The Prophecy
by Hannah Byrnes

A beautiful telling of two children brought to a world of dragons to fulfil a prophecy. As a lover of dragons, I had to include this. I remember finishing it and being like "No. Can't stop. More pls. No stop. You do me an upset." The dragons were beautifully described. If I were to live in a dragon universe it'd be this one, hands down.

5. The Witchstruck trilogy
by Victoria Lamb

I love Elizabeth Tudor and I love witches. This book was a brief moment of heaven about a witch named Meg who goes to work as a maid for the exiled Lady Elizabeth. Despite its glaringly obvious historical mistake, claiming that Dr John Dee went to Oxford - M8 no, he went to Cambridge - and the dire ending, Lamb creates a story that twists around you as you read it.

4. The Witch's Daughter
by Paula Brackston

Right. Don't get me started on this book. It's sooooooooooooooooo good! The main character is a witch named Elizabeth and the story switches between telling her life story (of 384 years) - which is one of the most beautiful things I've ever read - and present day, in which she's teaching a new witch named Tegan, all the while awakening old memories. The whole structure is beautiful and unmatched. Stunning.

3. The Watcher in the Shadows
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Very gothic and very steampunk. The writing is breath-taking and the world is creative and mind-twisting. This isn't as character-driven as I usually like, and very much relies on Zafon's masterful descriptions, but it's definitely one of my favourites. Zafon is a favourite author of mine; he knows exactly how to take you away to another world. ;)

2. The Magician King
by Lev Grossman

This is one I'm reading at the moment, but I already know it's going to be influential and a classic in my life. I've done my usual and read the second without realising there was a first here, but DAMNED IF I CARE. I'll read the first one after as a kind of back-story because The Magician King is FANTASTIC! The world is mesmerising. When I'm not reading it, I'm thinking about it, I'm drawing it, or I'm doing maths. I haven't drawn in a long time but Grossman writes characters, things, places that need to be drawn. Plus: The main character, Quentin, has completely unexpected and unprecedented Asperger's. It's great. Can't been a good bit of casual Asperger's in a book.

1. The Half Bad trilogy
by Sally Green

I'm pretty sure I recall writing a review for Half Wild, and if you read that review you'll know exactly how I feel about this series. There was a bit of an uproar about the end of Half Lies (the third and final book in the trilogy), which I won't mention because spoilers and that, but I thought it was beautiful. I thought it was a bit shoved into the end like she'd had an idea that didn't fit with the story so she had to make the story fit with the idea and it didn't quite work, but still: This was a damned good series and ain't no one changing my mind about that.