#leigh bardugo you dissapoint me

[rhiannons-bird]

wait- he’s beginning to look hot? like an actual healthy human man? ew.

[whatkindofnameisella]

asked by no one and just for myself, a book year in review!

overall i had such an interesting year in books! i think the biggest thing was getting into discworld for the first time, but i had a few other fun adventures - a nonfiction here and there, a few rereads, a few dissapointments, lots of fun.

a list of some of my favorites/notable reads w/ my thoughts! spoiler free as possible in case you want to use this as a rec list :-)

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett - tied for favorite of the year. the coolest exploration of the power of words and the most moving attack on capitalism ever. i loved Moist as the main character, funny and cunning and desperately caring despite himself; i think you can never go wrong with an ex-convict-turned-hero character, and the way Pratchett knows how to reference backstory without overwhelming the current plot fits perfectly with it. i loved the image of an old building bursting with letters and the idea that, sitting around for so long, they have a voice of their own, a magic that is only resolved through the way delivery and words connect us to each other. and who would’ve thought that in the same book you could put a middle finger to capitalistic methods of worker exploitation/crunch? apparently Terry Pratchett. absolutely magnificent.

Sargent’s Daughters by Erica E Hirshler - my other tie for favorite! this book is a biography of John Singer Sargent’s painting The Daughters of Edward Darly Boit. i kind of don’t know how to explain why i like it so much. but it’s six months later and im still thinking about it, so that has to count for something, right? maybe the fact that i’m an art nerd and a history nerd and from the northeast made learning about the history of Boston, the Boits, Sargent, the 1880s-90s art scene, and this painting all at once such a treat. i just think the way Hirshler chose to tell the story, the selections of art and history she used, created such an atmosphere. i’ve never been a non fiction reader before!! but damn if i didn’t love reading this!!!!

Folk of the Air (the cruel prince) trilogy, Holly Black - okay. vulnerability time. im not a enemies to lovers person. [horrified gasps] i know, i know. and while i did like jude and cardan’s relationship in the end (which is a testament to Black’s writing), i loved how i felt like it kinda…. wasn’t the center of the story? in the last book, maybe the last two books, maybe, but in the first book i adored the turn the story took in the second half. Jude’s character was so compelling to me, and (spoiler ish!!)im obsessed with the arc Black created (intentional or not) of her becoming Madoc. and just female anger and different expressions of femininity and what will you do to be accepted and FAE IM OBSESSED WITH IT NOW and UGH!!! they are some good books!!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - this was a reread, but what is there to say except… if you havent read these what are you doing i guess? like. when i say that these are the best ya books ive ever read, you can rest assured that this comes from an embarrassingly large library of ya books in my head. the first book especially is just… the plot, the characters, the world, the writing technique…… all of it’s there all of it’s so good. kaz and inej my beloved <3

King of Scars Duology by Leigh Bardugo - okay second vulnerability time. I didn’t actually love these books. [hisses and boos from the soc crowd i just said i was a part of] i know!! i’m sorry!! i liked them i just didnt love them!!! they are fun if you are looking for a fast-paced ya book to read with good character work, but i just felt that the plot was lacking. like up through the first half of King of Scars i was so in love, and then after the thing with the fold i was like… eh… i thought this was supposed to be about how glorification of religion and political leaders is bad and what is this hard left? but. that isn’t to say. that i do not like Zoya and Nikolai. because. ZOYA AND NIKOLAI!!!! like their characters separately (see my swooning for angry women above) but also their relationship is just more of that good good Leigh Bardugo character/romance work that she knows how to do SO WELL (see the fic i wrote and am still proud of). so these books were still enjoyable for sure, dont get me wrong, i consumed them in a weekend each, but compare them to soc and just… the plot is less tight, certain decisions are a bit why, etc etc. 7/10. Zoya my beloved <333

Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson - this was the first time i had ever endeavored to read books this long and ho boy. what an adventure. these books also get the okay review of King of Scars for the complete opposite reason - the plot is at times so tight and so stiff that i felt like the characters lost dimension. i didn’t even finish Oathbringer! i just read the part where Kaladin returns home because Kaladin, stormblessed, my boy. the first book and maybe the first half or so of the second were really the best to me. the buildup of kaladin’s backstory and all of his fight scenes, especially the final two flashbacks in the first book where you Realize what lands him with a slash mark and the arena fight in the second book where he catches the shardblade… truly unmatched. but also the world is too big and too Fantasy and too righteous so i just… will probably never finish Oathbringer. oh well.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - i bring this one up not because i liked it but because it was SUCH a let down, my god. if you are not picky about writing technique and just like to go along for the ride with a novel, and also enjoy or can stomach some hard science, this is the book for you. but compared to Artemis i was just like… Andy my boy, where did all of the writing technique go? I loved Artemis and The Martian so much and this was??? like the narration was just… weak… and the flashbacks were placed awkwardly, and the character beats are not exactly what i want them to be, and the plot is really just Going There, so… i DNFed. i will say that as always with Andy Weir, all of the science was SO COOL, so maybe one day when i am craving Space Stuff and to turn my literary analysis brain off i will give it another chance, but until then, Andy my guy, please write a book that i like next time.

lightning round because i want to do more but cannot stand having to write these for so long!! lets do em short baybey!!

A Gaggle of Various Discworld Books, once again by Terry Pratchett - i just wanted to list the other discworld books i’ve read this year, so here they are, in order of being read!! Night Watch, Monstrous Regiment, and Men at Arms. of the three Monstrous Regiment is probably my fave, because girls and because interesting takes on war, but Night Watch has a special place because Vimes, and Men at Arms was cool because Carrot and Angua, and kind of them together but it was a bit stilted. next on the list is Small Gods and who knows what after, maybe Thud! bc once again Vimes, but this is too long already GO GO

American Primitive by Mary Oliver - nothing else much to say except i still love Mary Oliver and her wonderful affinity for expressing appreciation for life. some of my fave poems were Wild Plums, Wild Roses, Postcard from Flamingo, and University Hospital, Boston

The Wind by LR Berger - i mentioned this in the notes of a “tag the books youre reading” a while ago, but i know this poet in real life and have both her books now and she is just lovely! once again some faves are: Blue Yonder, Stanzas of Rome, and so many others but my book is not next to me and im trying to be quick aaaaa

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard - at first i hated reading this but now i love it so so much. Dillard definitely has A Style but once I cracked it i found it really poignant and relatable, especially the end chapters. so many beautiful metaphors to talk about writing. 

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - this is at the end only because im just now remembering that, for once, i actually finished reading this, because yes, up until this point, i had not actually read through Good Omens one complete time [more boos and hisses]. sorry. something about this style that i have also found happening to me in Discworld books is that for some reason it just takes me So Long to read, and i get distracted and feel like blegh. but also i am finding the problem is sometimes sleep, so who knows? anyways despite sometimes feeling like it was just taking Forever this story is an old friend now and was very comforting through the tribulations leading up to Nutcracker season this year, and of course i already love it, so five stars!! 10/10!! you know this by now!!

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson - okay i think this is the last one and im panicking because i legitimately cannot remember if i read this this year? anything before april i cannot remember. what. but i think i read this because i read The Vanishing Stair at the end of last year so supposedly i got this around christmas or birthday which means i was reading in jan or feb?? anyways. this was a good book. the Truly Devious series is so much fun and honestly so funny?? like i dont think ive ever laughed out loud more at a book series than this. and i loved the vermont vibes and the 1930s vibes in the flashbacks and the overall mystery, and sometimes they could be a bit formulaic but you know what i liked them enough not to care, and that is the ultimate stamp of a good book to me. go read the truly devious trilogy it deserves more love!!!!

okay, i think ive reached my book review limit for tonight. i did not think this was going to take this long. or that i was going to write this much. but hopefully you found a new book to read or enjoyed an opinion on one you already have and i hope this wasnt an absolute bore!! i wrote like 400 words of something last night and want to try and add something, anything, before i pass out, so good night and happy reading for 2022 :-)

[aedicn]

Hi! 24 & 48 :)

hello friend :)

24. Have you read a book that was really hyped up but you didn’t enjoy??

Ugh so many. The first one that comes to my mind is definitely Uprooted by Naomi Novik. Idk if retellings are just not my thing or what but that book is ridiculous af. I absolutely hated and was so dissapointed in Wonder woman by Leigh Bardugo. I also loved Nevernight and The wrath and the dawn but I didn’t like sequels: Godsgrave and The rose and the dagger. I dnf-ed Looking for Alaska after 50 oages because I couldn’t handle it 

48. Do you write, highlight, underline etc in your books?

No omg I could never do that to my precious books. I put those post it papers (or however it is called) to mark my favourite scenes in tog and acotar. You can’t even tell how many papers there are, especially in hof and qos lol

ask me please :)