April Wrap-Up

  Hello everyone! It feels like it's been forever since I posted. April dragged by, especially for my last week of spring coursework. I'm officially done for two more weeks before I start my last summer course. That being said, I didn't get a lot of reading in last month; I only read three books... Now that I don't have classes, I should be able to read more in the next few weeks. The three books I read last month will be described in more detail below.

(goodreads.com)

  The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh: This book was required reading for my first book club meeting. I chose this particular book because it wasn't solely based in fantasy, but had some folktale elements to it as well, which I thought might go over well with my first batch of attendees. Most of my fellow readers liked the book, which made me more confident in my choice. The plot of this book centers around the Arabian fairy tale One Thousand and One Nights and follows our two main characters, Shaharzad and Khalid. Since claiming the throne, Khalid has taken a new bride every night, only to murder them the next morning. Shazi volunteers herself as tribute to the evil boy king Khalid in order to enact her revenge on him for killing her best friend. After her marriage, Shazi beings to weave a fantastic tale for her new husband every night in order to stall her execution. As Shazi and Khalid begin to get to know each other more than they had originally intended, truths come to light as a result of Shazi's snooping and Khalid's growing love for her.  This book was rife with magic and secrets on both sides. Shazi goes into her marriage, thinking herself an assassin, but slowly realizes there's more to the king than she thought. The twists Ahdieh took on the original tale were interesting and created more of a background for her characters in this world. I really enjoyed Shazi as a strong female lead in this story; she does not need a man to save her. I also really liked some of the side characters, like Despina and Jalal, who both brought the witty banter with them. I'm intrigued enough by the ending to read the next and final installment, when I have time. I gave this book 3.5/4 out of 5 stars.

(goodreads.com)

  A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi: Keeping with my apparent theme of Arabian fairy tales, this book is the second in Chokshi's Star Touched Queen world (it is not a series, but the second book set in the same world). I loved her previous book so much that I had to pick this one up.  Plus, can we please take a moment to WORSHIP THAT COVER ART THOUGH MY GOD. I really enjoyed following Maya's sister Gauri's perspective because they are two fundamentally different characters. Gauri has grown up into a warrior, vying for her evil brother's throne and willing to do whatever it takes to secure it. She fights for her people and they're freedom from her brother's tyranny. Unfortunately, she gets captured on the battlefield and taken to an enemy kingdom, where she meets Prince Vikram, heir to the throne. Where Gauri is serious and logical, Vikram is inquisitive and witty. Their banter back and forth throughout the entire book was my favorite part. Vikram gives Gauri the opportunity to join him on a quest, given to him by the Lord of Wealth in the realm of dreams. Each of them have their own reasons for desiring the ultimate prize of one wish, but will they survive to earn it? I loved the pace of this story; it was almost never boring. The romance was also a slow-burn, which I appreciate. Is it wrong to want one of those creatures who talk nonsense and sit by battle fields eating the remains of the dead? There were so many parts of this where I had no idea where the plot would turn and what the characters would do to improve their dismal situation. I enjoyed this ride and I was super bummed when it was finally over. I gave this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

(goodreads.com)

  Shadowcaster by Cinda Williams Chima: This one was one of my most anticipated reads of this year, especially after what happened in the first book to this new series. Let me start off by saying that I HATE the new covers. There are two camps when it comes to Chima's new covers: love or hate. I think that the previous cover with the beautiful gems on would be so much better, but alas, I have no choice but to accept this one. Although Alyssa looks super bad ass here, I can't help but think this looks almost exactly like the Throne of Glass covers, so it's not even an original concept to me. I fell in love with Chima's Demon King series, and this one is its sequel series taking place a decade in the future. In the first book, Flamecaster, we followed Ash, the son of Han and Raisa, where he escaped his homeland to attend the wizard academy after his father's murder. This book follows Ash's younger sister, Alyssa (great name!) and heir to the Grey Wolf Throne. I'm not going to lie, Alyssa's story was not as exciting as Ash's was. I had high hopes because obviously her name is mine and I wanted to love her the most, but more than 3/4 of the book felt like there wasn't anything really going on. Alyssa spent a lot of time pining for her lost brother and trying to force her feelings down, which is obviously unhealthy. I really liked Hal in this book though, even is he has the worst luck ever. I didn't quite believe the attraction in this one, but I'm curious to see where the story goes from here. I think the third book might see family reuniting under one major cause to win this war. I'm also still confused and eager to learn more about a lot of things: the mage marks on the necks of two characters who still feel underdeveloped, a mysterious queen bent on capturing them both, DRAGONS, etc. The mainland war seems almost non-important now, but we'll see what happens. I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

  So those are the books I read this month. The next book in my book club is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, so expect a review of that coming soon. What did you read last month? What are you planning to read this month? Are you a member of a book club? Let me know in the comments. Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

February Wrap-Up

    Hello!  I hope everyone is relishing the end of Winter as we move on into March.  Last month I definitely felt the pressure of necessary homework on my leisure reading, so I didn't get to everything I thought I would, but I still read three books, which is nothing to scoff at.  For the first time I can remember, I've found it hard to concentrate on my reading outside of schoolwork (which I've always had a hard time concentrating on, but I digress).  Sometimes I find it difficult to prioritize, even when I know it's the right thing to do.  Anyway, here's what I read last month.

(goodreads.com)

    My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand:  I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book, but I'm actually really glad that I picked it up.  A few of the BookTubers I follow have raved about how witty and fun this book is so I thought I deserved a little of that lightheartedness in my life.  It was definitely an interesting take on historical events...in a good way.  Lady Jane Grey is widely known as the "9 day Queen" because she ended up ruling England for only 9 days before being executed.  Fortunately, there are no beheadings in this book (that I can recall) and focuses mainly on a vile plot to overthrow the true King Edward (Jane's cousin), along with a lot of nobility that can shape-shift at will into animals.  It reminded me almost of a Patronus; but if the wizard turned into their Patronus form instead of projecting it.  Needless to say this book was really entertaining and I honestly laughed out loud in several places.  Very reminiscent of my Georgia Nicholson books, which I appreciated.  I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

(goodreads.com)

    Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge: This book took me by surprise.  I had really enjoyed Hodge's other book Cruel Beauty and thought it would be along the same line, but I was wrong.  This book was way more action-packed than the first and followed a heroine that resembled one of Sarah J. Maas' female characters, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Rachelle acts as a sell-sword to the King after surviving a harrowing ordeal in the forest which resulted in her becoming bound to its will.  She is eventually tasked with guarding the prince, who has also been touched by the forest.  Legend tells of a sword that could destroy the forest for good and release the souls it's claimed, so Rachelle and the prince set out to find it.  This story propelled itself forward, relying heavily on the plot and the tension to save the kingdom.  I would say that I liked this a tad more than Cruel Beauty, so if I were to recommend reading them in any order, I'd start with this one.  I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

(goodreads.com)

    Caraval by Stephanie Garber:  This was one of my most anticipated releases of this year and it did not disappoint (entirely).  I loved The Night Circus, so when I heard of this and that it was compared to it, I had to have it.  Where Night Circus revolved around two lovers over the course of decades, this story revolved around two sisters, Scarlett and Tella, who are sequestered on a remote and conquered island and abused by their father.  They have always dreamed of attending the invite-only Caraval, but have never been allowed to leave.  By chance, they are able to flee their island and get to the performance, just in time for one of the sisters to be kidnapped.  The rest of the story follows Scarlett as she tries to find her sister through the twists and turns of the game.  I loved that I couldn't guess where the plot was going to end up.  This is no ordinary game and the stakes are more real than they seem at first glance, so I loved the suspense aspect of the story.  I liked how mysterious all the characters were and how that played into the game and Scarlett's illusions.  The only thing I didn't like about this book was how Scarlett described her feelings as colors.  At first it seemed poetic, but by the end of the book I was cringing at the metaphors and symbolism because it just felt SO WRONG.  I thought it must be because her name is "Scarlett" and she must have always resorted to visualizing her feelings as colors, but it didn't end up mattering in the plot of the story so I thought it was kind of pointless.  Despite that setback, I ended up giving this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.  It seems like the author has another book coming after this one, so I'm curious to see where it'll go from here.

    Those are all the books I read last month.  Let me know in the comments if you've read any of these and what you thought if you did.  I'm about 75% through one of my other most anticipated releases of this year right now, so I'm excited to get that review up for next month.  What you you reading right now?  Let me know or follow me on Instagram to keep up with my reading lists!  You can also check out reviews I write for my library here under "Lax Literarian."  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

Updates!

  I'm back!  Sorry that took so long, but I really needed a break.  A lot has happened since the holidays, so I'll try to catch you up to speed.  I have announcements, health updates and even a review of The Bachelor so far, which I've missed terribly!  I'm also going to be updating my "Book Reviews" tab with my most recent finished novel, The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon.  At this point, I'm going to try to get back into my regular blogging routine so I don't lose my luster, so we'll see how that goes, but I'm at least going to give it a shot.  Can't hurt, right?

  First things first: health.  Not that I really need to update you all on this, but I've been doing alright.  Over the holidays I did have a serious flare up situation, (just Christmas Eve and Day mostly, you know, the important days...), in which I could barely walk and that is not an exaggeration.  My husband had to carry me around at times, (which was less than stellar and incredibly degrading), but it was all due to a lack of drugs and once I got those back I went back to "normal."  Needless to say the holidays were a lot more stressful than I had originally anticipated, but I'm glad I survived.  More recently I've been battling the ever-present virus that keeps circulating around my profession.  Working with kids has its downsides and constant exposure to various illnesses is only one of them.  I ended up catching some sort of upper respiratory virus, which was actually the flu in disguise, and gave that to my mother, who has been miserable.  We currently have at least three boxes of Puffs Plus Vicks going downstairs as well as two boxes each of DayQuil and NyQuil, among other things.  Luckily I haven't been working because of back-to-back snow days, which have picked this week to drop at least two feet of snow on us.  So I've been spending most of my time inside, in comfy pants watching Netflix, reading and working on my colloquium for my internship.

  Nice segue, self!  Right now my internship is at a stand-still.  I recently made the decision, after the holidays, to forgo teaching at the high school level in favor of having the opportunity to teach at the middle school level.  Although I'm glad to be out of my high school nightmare, I'm currently in limbo regarding my middle school placement.  It's been about two weeks at this point since I officially left my freshman and although I miss some of them, I miss being in the classroom more.  I've been trying to be as patient as I can, but it's difficult when you aren't in control and there's literally nothing you can do to speed things up.  I've been trying to keep myself busy, but I feel like I'm slowly losing my sanity.  I don't want to lose anything I've built up over the last few months.  I feel like I haven't done anything meaningful with my life in awhile and that I need to do something productive to help reaffirm my passions.  That's partially why I've been trying to read more for leisure, just so I can become a more literate English teacher, (which should be a no-brainer).  I don't want to lose the connection I have to my subject matter and I don't want to lose my excitement over the prospect of teaching my preferred age group, but it's slowly getting less bearable.  I've been trying to come up with curriculum units I could do with an imaginary class, seeing as all my other intern friends are either planning or currently teaching their solo week plans.  I feel like I'm falling behind, but not by choice, and it's frustrating.  Hopefully I hear something about where I'm going by next week, but at this point I'm not holding my breath.  I'm just hoping something happens for me so that I can continue to improve and finish strong.  I didn't realize just how close we were to the end up until a few weeks ago, but by April I'll be expected to look for jobs for next year.  By May I'll hopefully have my Masters degree and register for graduation.  My final months of university are approaching.  YIKES.

  As I said before, I have a lot more free time on my hands at the moment, so I'd like to use it accordingly to improve on and rediscover my passions.  I got a lot of books for Christmas, so I plan on trying to get through as many of them as possible and add to my collection along the way.  I've been spending a lot more time on Goodreads, updating my profile and my lists so that I can get more accurate recommendations.  I've also been watching more BookTube YouTubers to get book recommendations and to see what's out there, what's popular and what other readers are most excited about.  I was seriously considering turning my YouTube channel into a BookTube channel, but I'm still working on that.  I've determined that I really don't like being on camera, especially now that I don't look my best when I'm sick and I'm very self conscious about my appearance.  I would, however, like to continue to blog and write about books, seeing as that's my area of expertise.  I will see if I can update my tabs to include a link to my Goodreads account, but until then you can find me here.  I will try my best to keep up with this and hopefully my love of books will continue to grow.

  Lastly, we have reviews.  I have been watching this latest season of The Bachelor with much enthusiasm.  Starting with over 30 women was exhausting, but now that we're already down to 11 it feels manageable.  The most important things I took away from the first three episodes are that Ashley's are still my least favorite kind of people, Canadians are awesome, there IS such a thing as too much country, (and whiskey), muscles and competition aren't everything, and there can be more than one virgin in the house at a time.  Needless to say it's been an interesting season so far, culminating into what I believe are the three top ladies at this point: Kaitlyn, Whitney and Jade.  It's obvious that Chris has a natural connection with Kaitlyn.  She's obnoxious, care-free and ridiculously funny.  She's not afraid to get down and dirty outside or open up about her feelings.  She seems like an all-around great girl and a great fit for Chris, who seeks normalcy above all else.  She's my front runner at the moment, so I'm rooting for her.

  Jade is my second favorite, solely because of her genuine nature and girl-next-door vibe.  She's quiet, but respectful and patient, and Chris notices her anyway.  I also think they would be great together, but we'll have to see if she stands out over Kaitlyn.  Jade totally deserved that Cinderella date!  Ashely I. was getting on my nerves, complaining about her lack of pampering.  The reason the sisters chose Jade is because she doesn't normally get this sort of treatment and deserved to get some, not because she would look good in the expensive, outlandish ballroom attire.  That wasn't the point and the fact that Ashley somehow missed that makes me think she's not long for this show.  Obviously she's not right for Chris.  Those Jersey girls can't be trusted around shiny objects...

  Whitney I'd rather not like, but I can't deny that her and Chris had a pretty rad date crashing that wedding.  Their connection is also obvious, so I'm curious to see if it will eventually outshine or succumb to Kaitlyn's or Jade's.  Next week's episode looks like we'll be seeing more drama unfold from unlikely sources, so anything is possible!  If you'd like another place to get recaps of The Bachelor, I particularly love Mel Got Served.  She's hilarious and has a unique approach to reviewing each episode.  She also does recaps of other popular reality television programs, so if you're into that, please go check her out!
  That's all I have for this week.  I think that's enough actually...  If I'm still not doing anything next week, I should be able to upload my blog on time, or at least at a decent time.  I'm thinking about adding one or two more shows to recap along with The Bachelor, but I'm having trouble narrowing it down.  I just started watching Agent Carter, in addition to Arrow, The Flash, Gotham and Agents of Shield, which are all returning from their mid-season finales.  I've gotten to the point where I have too many shows to watch that I've gotten behind, so I'm trying to catch up.  The Amazing Race is starting again soon, as is Vikings, which I'm very excited about, so maybe I'll leave it at that.  Let me know what you guys think and what shows you'd like recaps and/or reviews of.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

Short but Sweet

    Happy Thursday everyone!  I hope everyone has had a great week so far, with more good days to come.  It has finally started raining here, after what I feel was about a week of predicted rain with nothing to show for it.  On the not-so-bright side, it's going to be really gloomy for the next few days, so I'll have no excuse to go outside.  Bummer...  But getting to spend the day outside for my job has  been the biggest perk.  I finally found a job that I'm good at, (relatively speaking), and I love it.  It's fun to play with the kids and be active during the day.  Honestly, I'm still working on dealing with the kids because they're so young but it's gotten a lot better.  I've found that hard work really does pay off and eventually everything will fall into place.
    Let's just hop right into TV news.  Only two shows were on this weekend worth mentioning and they were Game of Thrones, as usual, and the new season of The Bachelorette!!  SPOILERS:

    Game of Thrones was awesome this week as we see Tyrion reeling from the aftershock of his speech.  He's visited by three spirits: his brother Jaimie, his sell-sword Bronn and the Prince of Dorne himself.  Oberyn ended up being the unlikely savior by proclaiming himself as Tyrion's much-needed champion against the Mountain.  We'll see how this plays out for him, but I'm betting it doesn't go well.  On the other side of Westeros, Arya, The Hound, Lady Brienne and Podrick are all on their way to The Vale to see if Sansa is there.  Guess what?  She is!  She's safe in Petyr's warm, creepy embrace, especially after he pushes that crazy bitch Lysa out of the Moon Door.  I feel bad for her son, who now has to sit on the throne and pretend to rule The Vale while Petyr actually calls the shots.  On the other hand, that sickly bastard will probably die soon anyway, so it's better this way.  At least Daenerys got some this week, FINALLY.  Lord knows we were all waiting for that to happen.  I'm secretly hoping that by the end of this season we will have confirmation of Lady Stoneheart's existence.

    The Bachelorette has begun and it might be the best bachelorette ever.  The lady is a fox, and a Phi Mu to boot, so she has my respect.  I have to say, the group of guys she has to chose from isn't bad either.  Andi will have her work cut out for her this season, but I already have a few favorites.  Obviously it would be stupid to come out with a top five at this point because every time I do that almost all of the guys on my list become jerks.  So in the spirit of competition, I will only point out two that I thought stood a fair chance with Andi this season: Dylan and Tasos.  I liked Dylan initially because he's from Boston so, you know, I have to stick by my New England guys.  Tasos, on the other hand, can speak French.  Also, his name is friggin Tasos, what's not to love?! (except his earrings...).  I'm excited to see how this season will work out, but from the looks of the previews it looks like your typical reality show dating roller coaster ride.  Rooting for Andi to find the love she deserves!

    That's it for TV reviews this week.  Sadly, because of all the finales that happened last week, I barely have any shows to watch now.  My reviews will most likely return to a more literal approach, having four books to read by the end of the summer.  I will say that my husband and I went to see Godzilla on Monday and it was AWESOME!!  I went into the movie having never seen a traditional or original Godzilla film, so I had no preconceived notions about what I should like or shouldn't like.  I loved the action and it was just a good old fashioned monster movie in my opinion.  The people involved didn't even matter, it was just all about the big guy.  I highly recommend it, from the point of view of someone who usually hates scary monster movies.  This weekend I'm hoping to see the new X-Men movie, so maybe I'll be able to review that one next week too.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.