Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Take Place In Other Worlds

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week, it's the annual Halloween-themed freebie. I had a hard time coming up with something I haven't done before, especially considering I don't read a lot of horror (I'm too easily frightened!), but decided to look at books that take place in other worlds.

His Dark Materials: This amazing series takes place in a parallel version of England, called Brytain, which is both quite similar to and very different than our own.

The Old Kingdom: Perhaps my favorite other world, this richly-imagined land has its own magic system and an intricately designed world of Death as well.

Wild Magic: Like many (maybe all?) of Tamora Pierce's books, this series takes place in the medieval-esque, magical world of Tortall.

The Lord of the Rings: Middle Earth may be the most iconic fantasy realm of all!

Oryx and Crake: This is less "another world" and more "a version of what our world could become". Honestly besides her thinking that CD-ROMs were going to be the storage mechanism of the future, this felt eerily prescient.

The Hunger Games: This is another one that is, I think, technically set in the far future, but it's such a different social arrangement that it's basically another place entirely.

A Song of Ice and Fire: These gigantic novels create and explore the rich territory of Westeros, its seven kingdoms, and the larger world beyond. It's loosely inspired by medieval Europe.

Wicked: This one is based on an already-established fantasy world, Oz, which is familiar even to those who haven't read Baum's books because of the enduring popularity of the film. I love the rich politics of the world that Maguire fleshes out!

Stardust: This is a fairy tale, and has both a "real world" and fantasy realm of its own. It's truly magical to read!

A Wrinkle in Time: This series of books is almost more magical realism than anything else...rooted in our world, but with supernatural possibilities for the Murray family (time travel! space travel! angels!) that mean it's not quite our world as we know it after all.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Take Place In Other Worlds

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Series

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week is a freebie, so I'm going to tell you about my favorite series of books. I don't do a ton of series reading, lately, but some have long-since earned a place in my heart while others are just too good to ignore.

Harry Potter: Of course! I am a millennial, I grew up with these books and I love them and my hot take is that the first four are the best and the back three is where the strain of trying to get them out timely started to show and they could have used more editing.

The Lord of the Rings: I read these as a kid and still love them, but the movies are so great at cutting them down to the most impactful points of the narrative that I often forget how long they really are and how much about trees there is.

A Song of Ice and Fire: Please please please finish this series, George! I love his story-telling and character-building. He goes on as much about meals as Tolkien does about trees though.

The Hunger Games: I think the final book of this trilogy was its weakest, but as a whole there's a reason they're already classics even though they're just over a decade old.

The Plantagenet/Tudor novels: I am not going to pretend these are good. They're not. But they're fun and I'm an absolute sucker for them.

The Old Kingdom: My book backlog is very real so I haven't gotten to the two new books yet but the original trilogy is wonderful. I'm always shocked that these aren't more widely read.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries: These are cheesy and kind of silly and sometimes that's what you need! It was obvious in the last few books that she was starting to be ready to be done with them but they're still delightful brain candy.

A Wrinkle In Time: I'll admit that I tried to read the fifth one and just could not get into it, so I only count the original quartet in my head, but I've read and re-read these over and over and they're magical.

His Dark Materials: I honestly believe literally everyone should read these. The world, the characters, the story...perfection.

The Immortals: Teenage me couldn't really get into The Song of the Lioness, but got ALL the way into Wild Magic and its sequels. Tamora Pierce is a gift.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Series

Book 187: La Belle Sauvage

"The steamy, noisy kitchen was the safest place in the world, it seemed to him. Safety had never been anything to think about before; it was something you took for granted, like his mother's endless, effortless, generous food, and the fact that there would always be hot plates ready to serve it on."

Dates read: November 2-6, 2017

Rating: 8/10

I tend to think that it's the books we read as adolescents that often end up making the biggest impact on us. It's an age where we're still impressionable, but able to handle sophisticated concepts, and a book that makes the right connection with you can totally blow your mind in a way that you just don't experience much (if ever) with books you read later in life. And I've found that even if I read those books again later and objectively maybe they're not especially good, it doesn't really matter. I still love them.

One series of books that has held up spectacularly well, even from an objective standpoint, is Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. I recently revisited them as audiobooks and they remain just wonderful. There's always a tension I feel when a beloved book gets revisited by its author after a long time for any sort of companion piece...what if it's just not as great? So I was both excited and wary when Pullman announced a new trilogy, The Book of Dust, set in the same world as the original one, and then again when I finally held a copy of the first volume, La Belle Sauvage, in my hands.

La Belle Sauvage is a prequel, as original heroine Lyra Belacqua is just a baby in this one. Our new protagonist is Malcolm Polstead, a relatively normal preteen boy who goes to school, helps out in his parents' pub, likes to explore on the local river in his boat, and sometimes helps out at the nunnery down the road. Two events happen in a short period of time that change his life: the first is the arrival of baby Lyra at the nunnery, and the second is an assassination he sees while boating. Both of these bring the outside world and its rapidly changing politics much closer to home, and soon even school isn't safe. And then, as an epic flood rages, Malcolm, along with Alice, the older girl who works for his parents, find themselves racing to protect Lyra from danger.

This book does a great job of introducing its world (an alternate universe England known as Brytain, which I think is the first time I've seen it given a name, but I haven't read the novellas yet) to a first-timer, as well as providing backstory on characters and situations that returning readers already know: the rise of the power of the Church, Farder Coram, althieometers, Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter. And while Malcolm is about the same age as Lyra was at the beginning of The Golden Compass, and they both go on an adventure over the course of the book, they're not especially similar characters: while Lyra was high-spirited and bold, Malcolm is quieter and more solitary. He's got a decent amount of pluck, though, and makes an engaging hero that you get emotionally invested in.

I can't really evaluate this book from the perspective of someone who hasn't read the original series yet, but because of the way that the series is structured (this book is first in time, and then the original series, and then apparently the next book in this series will be a sequel to the original series), I'm going to go ahead and recommend it as a good starting place for people who are intrigued by it. The book is appropriate for older kids, but the series eventually takes a strong theological bent which may go over the heads of less mature ones, and may prompt discussions that parents should be ready for. If I'm being perfectly honest, I didn't think this book was as strong as The Golden Compass (I think that one did a better job of world-building), it might not be a fair comparison because that's one of my favorite books of all time. That being said, this is a very good book and an engaging adventure that has me longing for the next one already!

One year ago, I was reading: Perfect Murder, Perfect Town

Two years ago, I was reading: The Good German

Three years ago, I was reading: Missing, Presumed

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Book 187: La Belle Sauvage

Top Ten Tuesday: Audiobooks I Really Liked

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week we have a total freebie, and I couldn't figure out what to write about until it hit me: I actually do a lot of non-fiction and beloved classics re-reading on audio, so I wanted to share some of my all-time favorite audiobooks!

His Dark Materials: Phillip Pullman, the author, narrates the trilogy with a full voice cast and the magic is just as real in your ears as it was on the page.

Sabriel: If you've ever read these books, you know that Tim Curry's voice is PERFECT for them (especially Mogget!).

Harry Potter: I'll admit I'm a little jealous that I can't find the Stephen Fry narration in the US, but honestly Jim Dale does beautiful work telling these wonderful stories.

The Queen Mother: I confess, I'm a royals junkie. The Queen Mum died before I got really into the British Royal Family, but listening to this was a cool way to be introduced to a very interesting woman.

Basque History of the World: Northern Nevada has a significant population of Basque people, who I knew very little about before I listened to this fascinating book about them.

The Princess Diarist: The world lost a skilled, witty voice when we lost Carrie Fisher, and listening to her tell her story in her own voice is a great experience.

Troublemaker: Scientology is super weird, to put it mildly, and while I keep meaning to catch up with her show about leaving the church, Leah Remini's actual warm, authentic voice telling her story about it is a must-listen.

Believe Me: Eddie Izzard's comedy often rests on the strength of his storytelling and his voice, which is delightful and enlightening in this beautiful, funny memoir.

Nixonland: The Nixon presidency, with its paranoia and division-stoking, seems ever more relevant today and I learned a lot listening to this book about it.

Stardust: I love listening to Neil Gaiman read his own amazing work. His voice is so distinctive and evocative.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Audiobooks I Really Liked

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Resolutions for 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week's topic is a freebie, so I'm going to use the opportunity to make my reading resolutions for 2017. I know it's typical to do this a little closer to the beginning of January, but here we are.

Read 50 books: This is always my goal (though I "count" my years beginning and ending on my birthday for the purpose of this blog). Last calendar year, though, I read 101 books. I don't expect this year to be so robust for job-related reasons, but 50 is definitely something that I can do.

Buy fewer books: I own several hundred books that I haven't actually read, both in hard copy and on my Kindle. I know, but almost all of them are secondhand so it's not quite as horrifying in the bank account as you might think. I don't need any more books, but I know that won't stop me from buying them. I'm just going to try to buy less often.

Read more ARCs: I'm really bad at ARCs, you guys. I read about so many awesome books, so I request and sometimes get review copies, but then I have so many backlist books, too! I'm resolving to both work my way through the ones I have and be much more judicious about requesting new ones so I feel less guilty about being a bad ARC reader (I definitely do plug the books, if I like them, once I've read them, so I don't feel abjectly terrible).

Keep better statistics: I love reading other people's year-end posts with charts and graphs about their reading, but I keep only pretty minimal statistics on my own. I'm going to do a much better job of finding some metrics that matter to me and tracking them in 2017, and try an infographic to sum it up!

Read more authors that aren't like me: I'm a middle class, able, heterosexual, cisgendered, white lady. The experiences people like me have are mostly easily accessible. But of course, they are far from the only ones in the world. I'd like to read more books by people who have different experiences, that show me the world in a way other than the one I usually see it.

Interact more with the bookish community: I've got a dedicated Twitter for this blog, but I don't do nearly enough to keep up with all the bright, witty people I follow there. And I know that there have been times where I read a good post on another blog and don't bother to say anything about it. I'd like to be more present among the book lovers of the internet this year!

Do more re-reading on audio: I've finally found my speed for audiobooks- celebrity memoirs and re-reading the books I love but haven't had much time, with all the reading-for-the-first-time I do, to dive back into. Hearing His Dark Materials in Phillip Pullman's own voice is pretty magical and an excellent way to revisit the books I love while I'm walking the dog or driving to work.

Make room for mood reading: I tend to stick to a strict reading schedule, based on approximately when I bought the books in question (oldest books first), with ARCs rotated in as well. While I'm not often a mood reader, there are some books I'm holding back on reading that I'm interested in now, simply because I bought them "too recently". That's silly. Maybe I'll rotate in at least one "mood read" per month going forward.

Go to a bookish event: Reno doesn't tend to be much of a literary hotbed, but there are authors who come through and do speeches and/or signings (Stephen King came last year...on my wedding day). Maybe one of these days I'll make it a priority to get to a literary conference (I do really want to go to one), but for this year, I'm going to try to make it out for at least one event!

Read more outside my comfort zone: I know what I like- mostly contemporary literary fiction, some historical fiction, and a bit of nonfiction history. And that's generally the wheelhouse I like to stick to, because it's the one where I'm most likely to find books I enjoy. But the pool of "books I loved" can only be broadened by getting regular doses of sci-fi/fantasy (like A Song of Ice and Fire), or mystery/thrillers (like Gone Girl), or romance (like the Southern Vampire Mysteries), or YA (like The Hunger Games), and so I owe it to myself as a reader to pick up the occasional book that doesn't fit my usual pattern so I discover more books like the ones I highlighted, which are favorites.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Resolutions for 2017

So You Miss The Hunger Games?

With the final movie having come out a few months ago, The Hunger Games are officially over. Like most readers, I tore through the trilogy in what felt like no time...more than once even! While Katniss Everdeen inspired her really obvious knockoffs (Divergent, anyone?), nothing has quite lived up to Collins' trilogy. And while they're not all quite the same, obviously, here are some of my favorite YA series led by bad-ass female characters:

The Old Kingdom trilogy: For me, these books are the most similar to Collins' and the most likely to be enjoyed by the Hunger Games crowd. Anyone who loved tough, strong Katniss should love equally tough and strong Sabriel, whose beloved father has disappeared into the realm of Death while fighting a powerful necromancer. She has no choice but to rely on the skills he taught her to find him and save her home from evil. These books are fantasy rather than dystopia, but they've got a similar girl-on-a-quest narrative, and a similar approach to the obligatory "love interest" plot point (in that it's a relatively minor plot point...and bonus for no artificial love triangle!). For me, the second volume of this was the weakest (I didn't like Lirael as a character as much as I liked Sabriel), but the first and third were great. There's actually a fourth one that's come out, and I can't wait to get my hands on it and read it because Garth Nix is amazing.

The Immortals quartet: Anything by Tamora Pierce is a solid choice for a young feminist (she's also got the Young Lioness quartet that's very popular and well-regarded, but that one didn't do nearly as much for me when I read it), but this series is my favorite. Daine Sarassri is an orphaned young woman living in a fantasy kingdom called Tortall who discovers that she has a kind of magic, not of the traditional spells-and-charms kind, but a rarer kind of Wild Magic that allows her to commune with animals. Her gift has always set her apart from people, so she's more comfortable with four-footed than two-footed company. Daine, like Katniss, is proud and private and awkward and uses her strength to protect the ones she loves, and her adventures make for compulsive, entertaining reading.

His Dark Materials trilogy: This one is stretching it farther from The Hunger Games base, but it does feature a headstrong, scrappy girl who fights back against the system. The plot is complicated and gets into some strong theological questions like the nature of sin, so the reading is a little bit slower paced, but don't worry, it's not drudgery by a long shot. Lyra Belacqua is an unforgettable heroine and readers who gobbled up Katniss' fight against the Capitol should enjoy Lyra's push back against authority in her world, too.

A Wrinkle In Time Quintet: If you've read them, you might be wondering how I'd compare them to The Hunger Games, which is fair. But I think you can trace a line from smart, stubborn Meg Murray to smart, stubborn Katniss Everdeen without too much trouble. Neither Madeline L'Engle nor Susan Collins is afraid to let their heroine be prickly and sometimes unlikable. Both Meg and Katniss fiercely love and work to protect their younger sibling at great risk to themselves. Unlike The Hunger Games, we actually get to see later stories from the perspectives of the younger siblings in question, and the part of the story that involve an older Meg make me wish we'd gotten a better look at older Katniss.

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So You Miss The Hunger Games?