Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and it is now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is Characters I’d Name My Pet After. Here’s my list:
1. Juliette (Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi)
2. Lila (A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab)
3. Mare (Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard)
4. Feyre (A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas)
5. Cardan (The Cruel Prince by Holly Black)
6. Angus (Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
7. Theo (Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian)
8. Hedwig (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling)
9. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
10. Kaz (Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo)
(All photos taken from Goodreads)
What’s your list of books on your Top Ten Tuesday?
Title: A World Without Princes (The School for Good and Evil #2) Author: Soman Chainani Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy Publisher: HarperCollins Source: Purchased Format: Hardcover Release Date: April 15, 2014 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
After saving themselves and their fellow students from a life pitched against one another, Sophie and Agatha are back home again, living happily ever after. But life isn’t exactly a fairytale. When Agatha secretly wishes she’d chosen a different happy ending with Prince Tedros, the gates to the School for Good and Evil open once again. But Good and Evil are no longer enemies and Princes and Princesses may not be what they seem, as new bonds form and old ones shatter.
Review:
Agatha and Sophie finished their fairy tale and returned to their home of Gavaldon from The School for Good and Evil. One day, Agatha wishes that she had kissed her prince, Tedros, at the end of their fairy tale. That wish causes their happily ever after at the end of their fairy tale to be erased, sending them back to The School for Good and Evil to find their ending. However, this time the school has changed. Since they didn’t end their fairy tale with a prince kissing a princess, the people at the school have realized that fairy tales don’t need princes to be complete. The school now separates the girls and the boys. The return of Agatha and Sophie makes everything spin out of control, leading to an epic battle between the girls and boys.
This story looked at the gendered stereotypes in fairy tales. In a typical fairy tale, the prince and princess end up together at the end. In Sophie and Agatha’s fairy tale, neither of them needed a prince, because they ended up together. This would be fine, but it shows that the boys aren’t needed. That left all the princes wondering what they were supposed to do. I loved that this flipped the gender stereotype and explored a new type of fairy tale.
This story also explored appearances. Appearances play an important part in fairy tales too. The characters in fairy tales assume that an outward appearance is true, though it often isn’t. A woman may trust an old lady, who turns out to be a witch who poisons her. A girl may trust the woman she thinks is her grandmother, who turns out to be a wolf. Some of the characters in this story appeared to be one gender, but they were another gender. The characters blindly trusted each other’s appearances, even though it really didn’t make sense. This was a clever way to play with the gender stereotypes by changing appearances.
I loved this story even more than the first one! It finished on a cliffhanger, so I can’t wait to read the next one.
What to read next:
The Last Ever After (The School for Good and Evil #3) by Soman Chainani
The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories #1) by Chris Colfer
This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!
What I just finished:
This weekend I finished A World Without Princes (The School for Good and Evil #2) by Soman Chainani.
What I’m currently reading:
I’m currently reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab.
What I’m reading next:
Next I will be reading The Lady and the Highwayman by Sarah M. Eden.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?
The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.
This Sunday I’m reading A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani.
Goodreads Synopsis:
After saving themselves and their fellow students from a life pitched against one another, Sophie and Agatha are back home again, living happily ever after. But life isn’t exactly a fairytale. When Agatha secretly wishes she’d chosen a different happy ending with Prince Tedros, the gates to the School for Good and Evil open once again. But Good and Evil are no longer enemies and Princes and Princesses may not be what they seem, as new bonds form and old ones shatter.
Title: As Kismet Would Have It (Dimple and Rishi #1.5) Author: Sandhya Menon Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary Publisher: Simon Pulse Source: Purchased Format: Ebook Release Date: April 30, 2019 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Will Dimple and Rishi find their happily ever after? Find out in this funny, romantic, endlessly charming e-novella sequel to the New York Times bestseller When Dimple Met Rishi!
Dimple Shah has a lot of opinions about marriage, but they boil down to this: It’s not for her. Sure, she loves her boyfriend, Rishi, but why does she need to validate that with an institution that has historically never favored the woman? Why go through all that hassle?
Rishi Patel deeply disagrees. He believes in the power that comes with combining love and tradition, and when the time comes, wants nothing more than to honor those things in a huge celebration with his friends and family. He knows Dimple loves him, but in hearing her rant about how marriage is a “construct of hegemonic masculinity” for the millionth time, a small, niggling part of him worries that it’s not the institution of marriage Dimple has a problem with; maybe it’s him.
The two lovebirds find themselves at a philosophical impasse. Can they find a way to work it out, or does kismet have other plans?
Review:
Dimple and Rishi have been together for a year. Rishi is looking forward to getting married, but Dimple is hesitant. She loves Rishi but she doesn’t want to get married. They have a couple of conversations about marriage over the months, first at a jewelry store when they look at engagement rings and then at the wedding of one of Rishi’s relatives. It all ends with the same conclusion: Dimple doesn’t want to get married. This leads Rishi to wonder if she doesn’t want to marry anyone or if she just doesn’t want to marry Rishi.
I loved seeing the characters Dimple and Rishi again in this story. This story is set between the books When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something About Sweetie.
These characters were more mature than they were in their first book. This story ends a year after the first book, so they are in a different place in life. Rishi is thinking about his future, which he wants to begin by marrying Dimple. Young adult characters don’t often talk about their future adult lives, because they’re busy living in the present. This story showed young characters that were maturing into their adult lives.
This story is a must-read for fans of Dimple and Rishi!
What to read next:
There’s Something About Sweetie (Dimple and Rishi #2) by Sandhya Menon
Love at First Fight (Dimple and Rishi #2.5) by Sandhya Menon
Title: Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney (illustrator) Genre: Middle Grade, Historical Fiction Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: September 29, 2020 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
From bestselling and award-winning husband and wife team Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney, comes an innovative, beautifully illustrated novel that delivers a front-row seat to the dramatic events that led to African Americans earning the right to vote.
“Right here, I’m sharing the honest-to-goodness.” -Loretta
“I’m gon’ reach back, and tell how it all went. I’m gon’ speak on it. My way.” -Roly
“I got more nerve than a bad tooth. But there’s nothing bad about being bold.” -Aggie B.
Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B., members of the Little family, each present the vivid story of their young lives, spanning three generations. Their separate stories – beginning in a cotton field in 1927 and ending at the presidential election of 1968 — come together to create one unforgettable journey.
Through an evocative mix of fictional first-person narratives, spoken-word poems, folk myths, gospel rhythms and blues influences, Loretta Little Looks Back weaves an immersive tapestry that illuminates the dignity of sharecroppers in the rural South. Inspired by storytelling’s oral tradition, stirring vignettes are presented in a series of theatrical monologues that paint a gripping, multidimensional portrait of America’s struggle for civil rights as seen through the eyes of the children who lived it. The novel’s unique format invites us to walk in their shoes. Each encounters an unexpected mystical gift, passed down from one family member to the next, that ignites their experience what it means to reach for freedom.
Review:
Loretta, Roly, and Aggie were three generations of a Black family who lived in the American south in the early 20th century. They each had different perspectives on their lives, which they tell in their monologues in each part of this book. Loretta lived with her father and two sisters, on a farm where they picked cotton. They weren’t officially slaves, but they were often treated as if they were. One day, Loretta and her sisters found a baby in a field, who became their brother Roly. During Roly’s childhood, they were able to buy their own piece of land. When Roly got older, he married and had a daughter named Aggie. His wife left when Aggie was a newborn, leaving Aggie in the care of Roly and Loretta. Aggie grew up in the 1960s, so she had a completely different perspective on the world than her older relatives.
Most of the stories that I’ve read about slaves or their ancestors have been for adults, so I loved that this one was for children. There were some tough scenes, such as when Loretta’s father was insulted by his boss or when their farm was attacked just because they were Black. These are important parts of history that need to be taught to everyone.
Even though these three storytellers were from the same family, they had different perspectives on the world. Loretta had seen her father suffer, and she had suffered herself while picking cotton. Roly was just a few years younger than her but he had a different upbringing. He had a more comfortable life, looking after the animals on their farm, and he wasn’t interested in moving higher in the world. Loretta was inspired by the civil rights movement of the 60s and wanted to make a change in the world. Though they were from the same family and lived in the same place, the time period that they were living in changed the way they viewed the world.
This is a beautiful and important children’s book.
Thank you Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Wunderkind PR for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney (illustrator)
Have you read Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It? What did you think of it?
This is a weekly meme hosted by Wandering Words, where you give the first few lines of a book to hook your readers before introducing the book.
Here are my first lines:
“Kell wore a very peculiar coat.”
Do you recognize these first lines?
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And the book is… A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab.
Goodreads synopsis:
Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.
Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.
After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.
Have you read A Darker Shade of Magic? What did you think of it?
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