moss-reads

[moss-reads]

havent kept up on updating this as ive been reading this year, especially since ive almost read 25 books already which was my goal, but anyway!

i finished The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and i'll say that honestly? the plot with the twins was the least gripping part, but still really good

maybe its my own bias and interests, but the second a trans character i was even more hooked then i was and i think that part was done so well for a book set in the 60s-80s, especially such a small part that didnt even necessarily need to be included but i loved seeing it

and the book did really open my eyes even more to racism and colorism, and it was so gripping and interesting to see how the plot laid out

stella's pov reminded me a bit in structure and time period and basic plot, of the seven husbands of evelyn hugo which i finished recently and enjoyed and i think im starting to realize i do really enjoy nonlinear stories especially ones set through time, and dealing with race or lgbtq+ issues, and ive ended up loving those stories the most out of what ive read this year

and i loved reading desirees as well as judes, the beginning just felt a bit slow and the story wasnt like how ive heard people describe it for, it was described more like a mystery of a girl tracking down her lost twin after she suddenly disappeared, rather than the twisty story it was, but i think i quite enjoyed what it ending up being rather than what i expected

i dont think this was a new favorite book, but there were a few moments that really gripped me and pulled me in and it was a really enjoyable read

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i just finished Hunger Pangs by joy demorra, @\thebibliosphere here on tumblr and it was absolutely remarkable

it's a rather long book but i actually *needed* it to be longer and cant wait for a sequel whenever that comes!

the characters and the worldbuilding was absolutely delicious, and the writing itself was the best i've read of a book like this in a *long* time, it felt in the best way possible like reading a long fanfic that you have to binge all in one night and you think about for years, and thats 100% a compliment, it was SO funny in spots and for a book mostly about a vampire and a werewolf falling for eachother and bangin' it didnt have that stink that a lot of novels about romance have where it feels so shallow, it felt rather convincing and again the world building was insanely lovely and i just wanna know so much more about this world and this story

i dont even have that many words because i enjoyed it so much and i'll be thinking about it forever, also it needs more fanfiction about it and more people need to read it for that to happen so *please* look up the blurb and check it out, it was so so lovely

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i feel myself slipping out of a love for YA books or series

i read 20 books under that genre last year, but only a handful not counting the hunger games did i love and i only dont count the hunger games because i have read them before and will always love them, YA books or not

i've only read one so far this year, Elatsoe which i enjoyed deeply and i have tried desperately to read others this year and i just cant find it in me

my love of fantasy is still so steadfast but the things ive found myself loving so intensely have felt more adult

and its funny cause i also read a decent amount of middle grade, considering its what got me both into reading and back into it after almost 5 years of barely reading anything but fanfiction

i feel like the problem is things that are categorized as young adult feel very teen focused, when young adult is such an extensive age range and i am still a "young" adult, im still only 8 in adult years but im starting to really expand my tastes

and this doesnt even mean i read anything high brow, like i said i still read middle grade and struggled way too much through macbeth to look down upon anything simpler, but i think theres just too much drama and teen pettiness in YA for me to really enjoy it being so far removed from teenhood now

im still going to give it a try, and i did very much enjoy most of what ive read of it, but i think it depends on what specifically im reading in this category

i feel like booktube also got me back into reading but im starting to stray from the YA fantasy tastes i see so so often on there, and no longer really trusting these assessments of fantastic books, and im either enjoying old YA way more or things outside that realm entirely

its weird, cause i thought id stay more into YA because it felt easier to read but honestly its almost gotten harder, and so much of it is long series now that end on cliffhangers and cant be put down after one book like a lot of the things ive loved

hell, maybe my complaints primarily with fantasy series then anything else, and books being dragged out way too much for no reason when so many books ive really loved deserve to be so much longer

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" On earth we're briefly gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong is a work of art, its messy and complicated but beautifully poetic all the way through, i've never gave a book 5 stars so fast, and Ocean's narration of the audiobook is so perfect, my favorite thing is when authors read their own work and you can hear all their emotions they poured into their writing come up off the page

i have so many thoughts and none at all, it was a masterpiece and im so glad i gave it a chance

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also on the topic of best books ive read for this reading challenge, so far the most boring was definitely earthsea, which is ironic because i did also read macbeth and a lot of people find reading plays boring and

not going to lie i also very much did, but it was nice to finally read such a classic and find out what everyones been talking about for years, since i was never made to read any shakespeare in highschool

earthsea wasnt bad tbf, it just wasnt really for me and didnt feel that exciting or full of a lot of stakes to draw me in more

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i've been reading different books for a reading challenge, and of the prompts ive currently finished and while id still say The Ocean at the End of the Lane was by far the best ive read so far, i also read Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger and id say its definitely the second best ive read so far this year! it really was a neat little fantasy book, its about an indigenous girl in a sort of magical version of our world, with faeries and vampires and ghosts, and she has the power to summon ghost animals and the plot focuses on solving her cousin's murder, which are all things in the summary of the book so i dont feel its spoiler-y

The pacing was a little odd at times, and it took me a bit to get used to the narrator for the audiobook but otherwise i did really enjoy it, it was funny and i found myself laughing out loud a few times, the story had a nice conclusion, albeit a little bittersweet, and i think the world building was very nice even for a currently stand alone novel or at least, theres a prequel i believe but it didnt feel like a lot of fantasy books now that are duologies from the get go

The main character Elatsoe,(or Ellie as shes referred to throughout the book) is Lipan Apache and asexual, both things Ive learned the author are as well! and i think the book definitely has good representation and its nice to see a story with an asexual character where its just a part of her character, but its not something anyone tries to fight against or change, and there doesnt seem to be any angst associated with that part of her identity which is really refreshing in books with a lgbt+ main lead, and the book primarily focused on her family and the powers she has passed down from her tribe, as well as stories of her sixth great grandmother as she attempts to solve and even bring justice for her cousins murder and i think it really was a nice story, a simple mystery aspect with a nice fantasy twist and it was really well executed!

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so far i've only read 3 Neil Gaiman books, and each one has been better than the last and i'm kind of astonished, since ive not heard a lot of overwhelming praise for his work besides appreciation for them

I read Coraline in 5th grade and absolutely loved it, but it Terrified me

and then i read Stardust last year, and would safely say the movie adaption is one of my top 3 favorite movies and the book definitely lived up to the expectation and the differences from the movie vs the book felt fitting for the different medium they are in

and I just recently read The Ocean at the End of the Lane and that has to be my current favorite of his work and one of my favorite books right now, im not a huge horror fan but i am a huge The Magnus Archives podcast fan and saw this recommended as having the same vibes, and i would say it absolutely does and i loved it for that, and could see where the podcast would have taken inspiration if any from this book, and if none was taken id be so surprised because its marvelous and fits into that genre of horror so perfectly to me

the audiobook especially adds to it, because Neil Gaiman narrates it himself and with the main character being sort of him as a little boy, i think it really worked and didnt pull me out of the first person pov at all

ever since finishing it i'm now just clawing at any opportunity to read something similar because it was just magnificent and i hope i can find something similar soon!

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ive started A Wizard of Earthsea and while i think the writing (from what i can tell from the audiobook) is great, its struggling for me to fully live up to the praise ive heard about it, and maybe depending on how the book ends i dont know if i'll continue on

it feels like its trying to be a sort of fairytale, or folkhero story but a lot of it isnt very interesting or intriguing and feels very run of the mill

that might purely be the fault of me reading it after having read a lot of great fantasy, probably many that have taken inspiration from these novels anyway, or the fact that i had just finished The Hobbit before starting this which... obviously is a lot to live up to in way of older fantasy series

and again, i dont think its bad and very much enjoy the diversity and some of the themes, i think ive just seen the latter used so much that it isnt pulling me in as it would if this is something i read as a kid i guess?

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Anyway, if you don't vote for Biden to Teach Him A Lesson and Trump wins, I'm sure all the thousands more Palestinians killed in Gaza when Trump gives Netanyahu full steam ahead and pulls all diplomatic support for a ceasefire/peace process, the Ukrainians and/or other Eastern Europeans likewise genocided when Trump gives Putin everything he wants and pulls out of NATO, the immigrants deported and put in concentration camps, the protesters detained en masse under the Insurrection Act, the women who die from being refused divorces and reproductive care, the LGBTQ+ people legislated and harassed out of public life, the people of color murdered by fully sanctioned white supremacy, and the societies around the world affected by America's collapse into a theocratic fascist dictatorship will definitely fall at your feet in thanks and give you the Gold Medal For Twitter Social Justice. So yknow, that's very important.

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Tryna cleanly peel off the price sticker from your new book

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tress of the emerald sea is absolutely Enthralling and i like the way it approaches love and this planetary scifi so far

when i first started i wasnt sure if i could handle the writing style, since ive yet to read anything by brandon sanderson but im really warming up to it and enjoying it a lot! tbf i am only 5 chapters in, so we shall see, but so far i really love the whimsical storytelling and how self aware it is! i knew absolutely nothing going in and just saw it recommended because of how in demand it was, and oh boy it took MONTHS to get it in on libby so hopefully i enjoy the rest!

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dang i forgot the henchperson of indeterminate gender is fat in the books, since both live action protrayals are not

but it would have been nice to see that,not because they were a villain, but because i love the change in the show where they question their choices and leave count olaf and im all for more rep of fat people when i dont remember the show having barely any, when at least the movie had Mr. Poe and a few other assorted characters

let more fat people exist in media, like please throw in a few fat characters so its not just like one villain or a side character, but damn let us exist in your stories or at least in the adaptions of the stories that include them!

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im not sure why but getting towards the end of the night circus REALLY made me want to reread a series of unfortunate events again

i have no idea if its because of the writing, or the characters, or the plot but damn the vibes i felt when reading it reminded me so much of those books

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the night circus says what if every piece on a chessboard had a personality and a history all their own. what if the victor of the last game was still skulking on the board. what if the queens were imbued with unearthly magical power and aimed directly at each other. and what if they fell in love

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the night circus is a fantastic book and i think has shot to the very tip top as my new favorite

what a beautiful and immersive bit of story telling

truly the best written thing i have ever read, and just the most wonderful story with the best pacing for the story within it and just fantastic characters

time to read the starless sea next, i know truly nothing about it besides it being a story about stories, and consider how great this story was?

erin morgenstern you are a fantastic author

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i have not read anything/listened to an audio book since probably the beginning of november and i can feel the reading slump just getting worse

reading 25 books from end of june-middle of september for a reading challenge bingo probably fucked me up a little bit, especially cause some of them i did not enjoy

i just wanna read one dang book but i have no idea what to start on

need to stop just constantly being on the internet or a game

i read 50 books this year and im hoping trying to at LEAST meet that next year will motivate me so i can at least try to push through

a lot of them will probably be ones i started this year, or even last year that i need to finish

maybe ill re-read something by rick riordan cause that helped me last time, or try to continue listening to the second ASOIAF book unless my brain shuts down while reading it again cause its too depressing

like i know what happens in it! i watched the whole show, i just think you have to sit in it too long with the book

god i just hope i can get back into it, This Poison Heart (not so much the sequel tho) and Shadow and Bone REALLY kicked me into gear so i hope i can find something similar thats new and more of a middle grade/YA book thats easier to digest and not fuck off long and really draws me in

maybe ill at least try to finish my reading journal entries from this year to get back into the swing of things, but thats more art related

who knows, i wish it was easier to read cause i was SO proud of myself but now i dont have any motivation

need another giveaway that i wont win just to motivate me to read lmao

[moss-reads]

IG: poemsforthemoon_