Category: Readathon

Books!, Manga, Readathon, Signal Boost

What I’m Reading (12)

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

Welcome to the beginning of May. Wow, this year is really flying by. Pretty soon I’ll be releasing my Most Anticipated Summer Releases post and my Favorite Reads of 2018 (Part One) post. That is just crazy to think about. It also tells me that I have a lot more reading I need to accomplish before the year is up. Thankfully there are a lot of great new books that have just been released or are coming soon.

So here we are at the part where I talk about my recently completed reads, my current reads, and the reads I hope to start very soon.

As for recently completed reads, I read Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, and Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw over the weekend, and then I finally finished Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett.

Now, for current reads…I don’t really have an update. At this exact moment I am not reading anything. However, either later today or tomorrow after work, I will be doing my laundry and I hope to read Ancient Magus’ Bride Vol 2 and Blue Exorcist Vol 1 & 2 while waiting for my clothes.

Then there is what I am hoping to start reading soon. I’m probably going to start my May reads with Queen of the Tearling, maybe. I actually haven’t decided yet.

Anyway, that is all for today. Happy reading everyone. I’ll be back soon with another bookish post.

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Book Review, Books!, Manga, Readathon, Signal Boost

April Wrap Up and May TBR

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

Another month has come and gone, and it was a pretty good month for reading and books. Since Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon just ended this past weekend, I am doing my readathon wrap up in this post instead of a separate one.

First up is my list of books read over the month of April. As always, if I have a review of the book up, I will include a link to it in case you missed it or you are new to the blog.

Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young (5 stars)

Now a Major Motion Picture by Cori McCarthy (5 stars)

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi (4 stars)

Critical Role: Vox Machina: Origins, Issue #6 by Matt Coville (5 stars)

Avatar: the Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow, Part 1 by Gene Luen Yang (5 stars)

Avatar: the Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow, Part 2 by Gene Luen Yang (5 stars)

Avatar: the Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow, Part 3 by Gene Luen Yang (5 stars)

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol 1 by Kore Yamazaki (5 stars)

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett (4 stars)

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (5 stars)

Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw (4 stars)

So, for Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, I did just all right, starting and finishing two books during the readathon. It took me most of the day to complete my first read, mostly because Signy Cullen came to visit and we hadn’t seen each other in well over a year so we did a lot of talking. And after finishing my 525 page first book, I wanted something shorter and faster to read, which led from reading the amazing fantasy book by Adeyemi to the mysterious book by Ernshaw. It was a quick, though a bit predictable, read at 305 pages, so overall I had a pretty good time.

There is one other readathon update I need to put in here and that is my fiance’s report. He decided to join me and read a backlog of manga we’ve been collecting. So in both books read and page count, my fiance totally beat me for the day, and I am so proud of him. Here is his wonderful stack of now completed manga.

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Now it is time for my book haul and monthly OwlCrate unboxing.

The Harry Potter pencils are great, my fiance rather enjoys the coffee, and I am happy to have another beautiful pillowcase. Hopefully I’ll be able to read Ace of Shades very soon.

Finally, it is time for my May TBR. I decided that I wanted to try something different, and copy something that I saw another book blogger do recently. This time around I asked my fiance to go into my library and choose 4-6 books for me to read in the month of May. So, needless to say, this should be an interesting month of reading.

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This seems like a pretty cool TBR…though I’ll have to add a couple books…you know, like the latest release from Rick Riordan.

Anyway, that’ll be it for today. I’ll be back soon with another bookish post.

Books!, Graphic Novel, Manga, Readathon, Reading Challenge, Signal Boost

What I’m Reading (11)

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

First thing to mention in this post…please help me decide on my TBR for Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. I have a poll attached to my post here, and it will be open for two more days.

Next up, let’s jump into what I’ve read recently, what I’m currently reading, and what I’m hoping to read soon.

First up, today was laundry day, so I actually did manage to do some reading today. I read all three volumes of Avatar: the Last Airbender – Smoke and Shadow and it was wonderful. I’ve really missed Aang and Katara and Zuko and Sokka. It was missing Toph, but it was still a great story.

Oh, I also managed to read the first volume of The Ancient Magus’ Bride, which I was really intrigued by. It was a strong first volume, and I plan to read more of it soon.

As for current reads, I’m still working on Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett. I will blame my recent illness for me not accomplishing a lot of reading in the past couple weeks. Hopefully I am actually on the mend and will be getting back into the swing of writing up more posts and reviews and such now.

Finally, in the column of what I’m hoping to read soon, I am planning on a lot of reading this weekend on account of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. In the past, 24 Hour Readathons have been typically very productive for me, so I am super hopeful that it will be a great weekend. Plus my fiance is planning on reading a bunch of manga, and my best friend–Signy Cullen–is also coming to visit and will be reading as well. I am actually pretty excited about hosting a reading party.

Okay, well I think that is about all for today. I’ll be back soon with another bookish post.

Books!, Readathon, Reading Challenge, Signal Boost

Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon TBR – April 2018

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

It is almost time for one of my favorite readathons again. The next round of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon will be taking place this weekend. You can find your exact start time by using this link here. For me, the readathon will begin at 8:00am on Saturday, April 28th and it will end at 7:59 am on Sunday, April 29th.

Thankfully, since this is one of my favorite readathons, I have convinced my fiance to give me a reading day instead of our normally scheduled Dungeons & Dragons.

This naturally means that I need to figure out what I’m going to read, and here is where I would like the help of all you lovely people. I have a few different options for what to read, and I can’t decide which one I’d rather do right now, so I’m going to share the options with you and then you can vote at the end of this post. The poll will close at midnight Friday, April 27th, so when I wake up on Saturday morning, I’ll be able to see the results and can just start reading.

All right, let’s just go over the options.

Option #1: Animorphs series read

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Okay, this picture contains literally the entire series from my childhood (mostly because there is another row of books behind the front row. I’ve been talking about wanting to read through the series again, because this was one of my major childhood obsessions, and I want to see how the books hold up after all these years. If this is the option chosen, I want to see how many of them I can read in the 24 Hours. Since they are pretty much about 120 pages or so each, I’m thinking I can make it through a good portion of the 63 books of the series–this includes the specials because the main series is just 54 books.

Option #2: Iron Druid Chronicles series read

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I read the first few of these rather quickly, and then it got to the point where they were coming out in hardcover for a year before finally coming to paperback. And I love that it means Kevin Hearne is becoming more successful, but as a fan that has been with him since the early paperback days, and who has to have matching sets on my bookshelves, this success also feels like I’m being punished for being a fan because then I have to wait longer. Anyway, I want to reread the first few so that I can continue on with the series, especially since the final book just released in hardcover. Plus these books are hilarious and include a lot of folklore and mythology.

Option #3: Finish April TBR

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These are the books from my April TBR that I still haven’t read. They all sound really interesting, and this would probably be a good time to try and read them so I can be very productive with this month’s TBR. Plus, I still have this feeling that I should just sit down and read Children of Blood and Bone without interruption, so a readathon would be a good choice. And I just received my copy of Ace of Shades in the mail, so it really is a good time to pick it up.

All right, so there you have it…the three options I am giving you lovely readers. Now vote and help me figure out which books to read this weekend. My Dewey’s TBR is in your hands.

 

I do believe that is all for today. I will be back soon with more bookish content.

Book Review, Books!, Readathon, Signal Boost

Review: The Glass Magician by Charlie N Holmberg

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

I hope you all are having a lovely day. Right now I imagine that I am figuring out where to go for dinner with my fiance, and then we’ll settle down in our hotel room and enjoy our jacuzzi tub. (Honestly, this might end up helping me with my writing project for Camp NaNoWriMo…I’ve written fantasy or paranormal stories with elements of romance, but this is my first actual romance). My series review for The Paper Magician series continues now with the second book, which I read recently during a 24 Hour Readathon–the latest session of Readathon by Zoe, actually.

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Summary

Three months after returning Magician Emery Thane’s heart to his body, Ceony Twill is well on her way to becoming a Folder. Unfortunately, not all of Ceony’s thoughts have been focused on paper magic. Though she was promised romance by a fortuity box, Ceony still hasn’t broken the teacher-student barrier with Emery, despite their growing closeness.

When a magician with a penchant for revenge believes that Ceony possesses a secret, he vows to discover it…even if it tears apart the very fabric of their magical world. After a series of attacks target Ceony and catch those she holds most dear in the crossfire, Ceony knows she must find the true limits of her powers…and keep her knowledge from falling into wayward hands.

The delightful sequel to Charlie N. Holmberg’s The Paper Magician, The Glass Magician will charm readers young and old alike.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4.5 stars

Wow, this was a great second novel. Before the announcement of the fourth book, I would have praised this for being a fantastic middle novel to a trilogy, but now it is just properly a series. And I’m not going to complain at all about that, because I am really enjoying the magic system and the characters.

Ceony’s journey gets so very interesting with this installment. There are consequences from the previous book that come up in this one. Also, the potential relationship between Ceony and Emery Thane develops further, in a way that it really couldn’t in the first. Ceony being in Thane’s heart really helped her develop feelings for him, but I wanted to see more from his side. Though the story is focused on Ceony, I do feel that I got that development.

I flew through this book as well. Obviously I read it during a readathon, so I’m reading at a fairly fast pace anyway, but I feel like this book did maintain a faster pace, which is excellent after the steady building of the world from the first. There is more paper magic, and we learn more about some of the other magic forms as well, particularly glass magic. I was so intrigued by all of the new magical details.

Needless to say, I am super excited about reading the third book very soon, and then I’ll be ready to read the upcoming fourth book before it is released in May.

Where to Buy

You can pick up a copy of The Glass Magician from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore.

Book Review, Books!, Readathon, Signal Boost

Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

Finally I have a review up for Middle Grade March. This is a book I read during the latest Readathon by Zoe, but I wanted to make sure I put up an actual review for it instead of just saying that I really enjoyed it. So, Neil Gaiman is just one of those authors that I continuously heard lots of great things about, and I eventually gave him a chance with the Sandman comics. A good friend of mine recommended that series, and I loved them all. Since then I’ve been wanting to read more Gaiman, and I’ve managed to read Stardust, The Sleeper and The Spindle, and now The Graveyard Book. I’m really enjoying what I’m reading, and I definitely plan to continue making my way through all of Gaiman’s published works.

Let’s jump into the review now.

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Summary

After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family…

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages. 

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

The first few chapters of this book were absolutely outstanding. I was pulled into the story very quickly, and the way things were described or the ways some of the characters spoke left me laughing. Several times I had to pause in my reading to read a passage to my fiance, and he found it all very interesting too. This book certainly has an interesting premise, and as always I love the way Gaiman describes things. Also, the realistic yet also otherworldly way that the atmosphere of the story makes you feel.

And yes, Bod does have a number of adventures as he grows up in the graveyard and learns from those around him. But I can admit that there were points where I felt like the story dragged a bit more than I’m used to with a Gaiman story. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t interesting though. Perhaps my feelings were also partly due to reading this during a readathon.

All in all though, this is a lush world, with intriguing characters, and looking back I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to wanting to know more about the Jacks. The story switches from Bod and his life, to the man called Jack, the one who killed everyone else in Bod’s family. Jack has been looking for Bod this whole time because his job killing the whole family isn’t complete.

We get to see Bod grow up, from toddler to young boy, to middle grade young man, and it is interesting to see the friends he makes and the lessons they teach him. I did really enjoy this read, even if I didn’t give it the 5 star rating that seems typical with any Gaiman book I read. I definitely like how Gaiman can take a quirky concept and make it seem fairly normal.

Where to Buy

You can pick up a copy of The Graveyard Book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore.

Book Review, Books!, Readathon, Reading Challenge, Signal Boost

Readathon by Zoe Wrap Up

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

I’ve already read as many books in March as I did in the entire month of February, so I’m feeling pretty good about my reading so far. On Saturday, my fiance had a guys only hangout with his friends, which left me free to participate in a 24 Hour readathon, hosted by Zoe Herdt (readbyzoe on YouTube).

Anyway, though the readathon was scheduled to start at midnight in each time zone, I decided that getting a good night’s sleep in was more important. So I woke up a little before 7:00 am, grabbed my stack of books and something to drink, and settled in on the couch to read.

I decided this time around to randomly decide what I was reading, so each time I was ready for a book, I would grab one of the dice I typically use for Dungeons & Dragons, and roll it. The number rolled would be the one I read, starting at the top of my stack of books and counting down the spines.

So my first read of the day was The Master Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg…or at least I thought it was. I made it all of one chapter in before getting the feeling that I was missing something. A quick Goodreads search revealed that I had somehow mis-shelved my books, and I needed to be reading The Glass Magician instead. Thankfully I didn’t really notice anything spoilery, so it worked out all right.

I finished that book at 9:15 am, and then decided to make up a quick bite to eat before diving into my second book, which ended up being A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.

I finished my second book of the day at 11:00am, so I can honestly say that the readathon was really working for me. Both books I read were pretty good, and I was feeling like I could possibly make it through a few more books with the pace I was keeping.

The dice gods then decided that my third read would be The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and I started reading that at 11:15am. Honestly this is about when the readathon started to slip away from me.

First I had to drop my fiance off at his friends’ apartment, so we wouldn’t have to worry about any chance of driving under the influence of alcohol–we’re both pretty responsible about that. But, after making a quick Starbucks trip, and then dropping him off, I decided to grab lunch from Chipotle.

Then it became pretty difficult for me to focus on my reading. The apartment started to feel quiet and empty, even when I had Netflix playing in the background. So I didn’t finish my Neil Gaiman book until 3:45pm.

I still thought maybe I could get back on track, and at 3:55pm,  I started Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I watched the movie several years ago, but the book had just sat on my TBR.

Not anymore. I will say that I did at least manage to get through the book…but it took most of the rest of the evening, with breaks to go to our local nerd store and get new miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons, and then I took a break to do a mini ghost hunt in the apartment, and then I made myself an adult milkshake (which was delicious), and then a couple hours after that I went and picked up my fiance.

Overall though I am pretty pleased with how I did with the readathon. I finished four books, for a total of 1179 pages read, in less than 24 hours. I’m going to try and have proper reviews up for some of these reads pretty soon.

Did any of you participate in Zoe’s 24 hour readathon–and how did you do? If not, did you read anything great recently? Thanks everyone and I’ll be back with another post again soon.

Book Releases, Book Review, Books!, Readathon, Reading Challenge, Signal Boost

What I’m Reading (3)

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

I guess I’m just going to make this my regular Wednesday thing…to just briefly talk about what I have finished reading, am currently reading, or will be starting to read in the upcoming days. It is an easy post to put together, and it means I’m at least having some sort of regular content.

Obviously, what is weird about the post today is that it is the end of the month and my wrap up post will be coming tomorrow.

Oh well. It happens sometimes.

Anyway, let’s just jump into my reading discussion.

I am still currently reading Daughters of the Storm by Kim Wilkins. It is a good read, but I’m not feeling like I want to read it every free chance I get, so I’m only about 40% or so finished right now. So maybe I’ll finish this week.

My other current read is Phantom Pains by Mishell Baker. I absolutely loved the first book, and with the third one out in just a couple more weeks, now is the perfect time to read this. Expect a review coming soon.

I really want to try and squeeze More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer in this week so I can have a review up by release day.

And if you haven’t checked out my post from Monday, it will give you an idea of all of the books I may or may not read this weekend.

But I am adding one more book to that readathon TBR…because I had an ARC waiting at my door when I got home from work on Monday.

I loved the first book and now I get to read book two early. Yay! I love being a reader and a book blogger.

That’s all for today. Happy reading everyone!

Books!, Readathon, Reading Challenge, Signal Boost

Readathon by Zoe TBR

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

I’m sure by now most of you know that I love 24 hour readathons. I feel like they are usually so productive for me, so I look forward to them whenever I find out about them. Well, now is that time, because Zoe Herdt (readbyzoe on YouTube) just announced her next readathon date, and as it turns out, I’m actually going to be available to read.

It turns out that my fiance is going to go hang out with his buddies on Saturday, so that leaves me alone at our apartment and I can totally read while he’s gone. Of course that also means that I need to go to the store and get snacks and coffee/tea to keep me fueled for a reading marathon.

Anyway, you can find Zoe’s announcement video about the readathon here.

So this readathon will take place on Saturday March 3rd, from midnight to 11:59, and yes, it is that time for your time zone. Now, I don’t think I’ll be starting to read at midnight, but I’ll still be able to do some pretty good reading by waking up around 6 or 7 am.

The hard part for this is trying to decide what I’m going to read for this event, so I’m just going to choose a few books that I’d like to try reading, and then I’ll read from those books based on my mood during the readathon.

Now, since this is taking place in March, I’ll also say that I’m once again doing Middle Grade March, so I may have a few MG books on the TBR. I don’t know.

Okay, I’m going to pause in writing this and go look at my bookshelves to figure out what I might want to read.

Wow, that took a little longer than I thought it would, but I found eight books that I want to try and read during the readathon. Realistically I know that I’m not going to read all of them, but we’ll see what happens.

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I have a decent blend of books: Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult. They are all fantasy, but I’m just kind of in the mood for those right now.

Obviously with the movie coming out, I feel like it is the perfect time to read A Wrinkle in Time. I think I read it when I was much younger so I don’t really remember the book, but the movie trailers look great so I’m going to enjoy reading this.

Speaking of book to movie adaptations, I have never read Howl’s Moving Castle, but I saw the movie in college and I remember it being really interesting. Well, since my fiance and I recently bought a few Studio Ghibli films, including Howl’s, now seems like the time to read it, finally.

I read Stardust during a previous readathon, and I have been wanting to read more Neil Gaiman (aside from the Sandman comics that I absolutely loved), and with The Graveyard Book also being a Middle Grade, it will work for the readathon as well as Middle Grade March.

The Waking Land is a fantasy book I heard about last year in a B&N article about upcoming fantasy releases and it sounded really interesting, but I just now got around to adding it to my library. With the sequel coming out later this year, this will be a good time to read it.

I’m trying to reread the books in the Paper Magician series in anticipation of the upcoming release of the fourth book, so it is time to read the second one, The Master Magician. These are shorter books, so they are perfect for readathons.

I saw The Lost Rainforest in my local grocery store and it sounded so cute that I could not help but pick up a copy.

Now York is a book that came in I believe an OwlCrate Jr box last year, so I saw a bunch of BookTubers talking about it, and the concept just sounded so interesting that I went and bought my own copy.

Finally is new release Reign the Earth and I have been excited about it since I learned about the book last year at BookExpo.

So I do believe that is all for today, and I will definitely have a readathon wrap up.

Books!, Manga, Readathon, Reading Challenge, Signal Boost

Manga Madness Wrap-Up

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

I went into this readathon with high expectations. Knowing that I read volumes of manga really quickly, I envisioned getting through most of what my fiance and I got for Christmas.

What I was conveniently not thinking about was the fact that I returned to my old job this past week after nine months on special assignment. That meant that I had to adjust from working basically an office job to a manual labor job–I work at a factory that builds laundry dryers.

So what happened was from Monday to Wednesday, I did no reading at all. My mind was exhausted and my body was just one aching mass of muscles.

Basically I did not read nearly as much as I had wanted to, but I still managed to get through a few volumes of manga to start my 2018 reading goal with a nice little boost.

Let’s just jump into the wrap up.

On Sunday, day one of the readathon, I started with My Hero Academia, Vol 7 while at the laundromat and managed to finish it. Thankfully I had brought a few volumes with me and so I immediately jumped into Vol 8. By the time I finished my laundry, I had reached around the halfway point.

And that’s where I stayed until Thursday morning. On Thursday we decided to call off work for the day because we were so tired and sore. This worked in my favor because I was able to do a little reading and a little work on some blog posts and trying to catch up on watching a few BookTube videos. Because of how draining work has been, I have fallen even more behind on reading all of your lovely posts. I’m beginning to feel like I’m going to have to pick and choose what posts to read in my backlog to catch up and then just make sure to schedule time every couple days to stay caught up. I will figure something out.

Anyway, on Thursday I finished My Hero Academia Vol 8 and then took a quick break to watch a couple BookTube videos while I ate breakfast. Then I made my way through Vol 9 before writing up a couple blog posts. Yes, I have figured out that I also have a massive backlog of various blog posts I need to find the time to write up. This process is not going to be as simple as I would have hoped a couple weeks ago.

Then we reached Friday. I was determined to read My Hero Academia Vol 10. Thankfully I am kind of an early riser, and my fiance and a friend of ours sleep a little later. So I closed myself off in my library and started reading…and working on the blog…and still trying to catch up on BookTube videos.

So pretty much, because my focus was divided amongst all the various tasks I felt like I needed to do…I ended up not accomplishing much at all.

I did finish My Hero Academia by the end of the readathon. So, I read 4 volumes of manga over the course of a week. Not really my greatest success story of readathons, but hey, 4 volumes is better than nothing, and I feel glad that I managed to finish off what I did.

I’ll keep rolling out manga reviews, but it may take a bit of time. I’m still trying to get my body used to my new work load. In the meantime, I am currently reading Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman, and I’m also trying to get some more tags and reviews prepped up for the blog. Sorry if my posts start to be a bit more sporadic. I’ll get a new post schedule figured out as soon as I can manage it.