#recsmas

[themelodyofspring]

Recsmas 2019 | Day 6

A Young Adult Book - Skyward

“You’re a warship.”

“Clearly not,” M-Bot said. “I’m here to categorize fungi. Didn’t you listen to my last orders? I am not supposed to get into fights.”

“Then why do you have guns?”

“For shooting large and dangerous beasts who might be threatening my fungus specimens,” M-Bot said. “Obviously.

This book has a quirky teenager, a talking ship, a petty admiral, and a pet slug called Doomslug.

Skyward was a fun sci-fi novel, with a lot of cool new concepts to read, and diagrams of the ships to explain their working.

[polar--star]

Recsmas 2019 Day 13 - A sad book: The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James is a standalone ya sci-fi novel, and I found it to be quite sad at parts - and quite creepy at others!

[lizziethereader]

On the 1st day of Recsmas I recommend to you..... 

a happy book: Heartstopper by Alcie Oseman

because it’s adorable and soft 

[frozen-sea]

RECSMAS 2019 → Day Five: A Book About Family

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

“With distaste, Harriet reflected upon how life had beaten down the adults she knew, every single grown-up. Something strangled them as they grew older, made them doubt their own powers—laziness? Habit? Their grip slackened; they stopped fighting and resigned themselves to what happened. ‘That’s Life.’ That’s what they all said. ‘That’s Life, Harriet, that’s just how it is, you’ll see.’ “Well: Harriet would not see. She was young still, and the chains had not yet grown tight around her ankles. For years, she’d lived in terror of turning nine--Robin was nine when he died--but her ninth birthday had come and gone and now she wasn’t afraid of anything. Whatever was to be done, she would do it.”

[raoulgoldenlake]

Recsmas 2019–Day 4

A First Book

Educated, by Tara Westover. I chose a book that was an author’s first book, not the first book in a series. Educated is one of the most impactful books I’ve read all year. It’s the Glass Castle times one hundred, with a major trigger warning for physical and verbal abuse, but the resiliency of Westover’s spirit really comes through.

Published: 2018

My Rating: 5/5

Gay?: No

[vaellinn]

recsmas 2019: late edition

hi I definitely forgot to participate even though I was REALLY looking forward to recsmas this year!! so here’s my list:

a happy book - graceling by kristin cashore (YA fantasy, one of my favourites as a teen, held up upon re-read this year)

short book - and the ocean was our sky by patrick ness (a kind of retelling of moby dick?? beautiful artwork)

book released this year - the five: the untold lives of the women killed by jack the ripper by hallie rubenhold (non-fiction, personally didn’t like it very much but I appreciated the idea behind the book)

first book - an ember in the ashes by sabaa tahir (YA fantasy, the rest of the series was kind of a let-down but I really liked the first book)

book about family - the immortal life of henrietta lacks by rebecca skloot (non-fiction, I really liked the parts of the book that focused on the family of henrietta lacks, but the author inserted herself into the story a lot which was, imo, detrimental to the book)

young adult - the gilded wolves by roshani chokshi (extremely YA, has a lot of fans, but I personally didn’t like it... at all - much preferred what it’s often compared to... six of crows by leigh bardugo)

book that made you smile - the hating game by sally thorne (romance, was actually pretty funny)

good romance - the unhoneymooners by christina lauren (another romance, probably one of the best books I’ve read all year)

book that’s not a novel - i’ll be gone in the dark: one woman’s obsessive search for the golden state killer by michelle mcnamara (non-fiction/memoir, I liked it, but it was sad to read about for a lot of reasons: the author’s death, the crimes, the victims, the fact that the author was right about the person behind the crimes but she died before she could see it)

awesome guys - the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid (lol historical? contemporary? literary fiction? I didn’t like this book very much but it made me laugh to think of it with this prompt)

diverse - moloka’i by alan brennert (historical fiction, a book about a leper colony in hawaii during the 1930s-1950s, very sad, very interesting, very compelling characters)

book recommended to me - born to run by christopher mcdougall (non-fiction, hated this book, but everyone and their father recommends it when looking into non-fiction recommendations)

sad book - muse of nightmares by laini taylor (YA? fantasy? romance? kill me, I loved this book!! the CHARACTERS!!! ugh)

long book - the lies of locke lamora by scott lynch (fantasy, no book has ever felt longer to me. have extremely mixed feelings about this book, I honestly can’t tell if I liked it or not)

final book - queen of nothing by holly black (YA fantasy, I thought the last book was the best in the trilogy tbh)

book about friends - what if it’s us by becky albertalli and adam silvera (YA contemporary, I really liked the ending of this book but I know a lot of people were divided about it)

book you don’t see on tumblr - recursion by blake crouch and dark matter by blake crouch (speculative/sci-fi, I really like how blake crouch puts philosophy and well-rounded characters together, though I admit that these two books are extremely similar. I still really liked them both)

children’s book - the fork, the witch, and the worm by christopher paolini (chrisopher please write more about murtagh, I am begging you, what was this???)

book that made you cry - black sun rising by c. s. friedman (fantasy? please do not read this, it was horribly written)

good villain - severance by ling ma (post-apocalyptic, I liked how this was written, and who doesn’t like zombies)

non-fiction - the radium girls: the dark story of america’s shining women by kate moore (non-fiction, the best one I read this year. fascinating topic, tragic and scientific and interesting and horrible)

those were the best and the worst of them for me this year!! happy recsmas :)

[solaceinprose]

RECSMAS 2019: DAY 10

Day 10: A book with awesome guys - I’m going to cheat because I think all of the guys in this series deserve to be recognized. I’m choosing The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. The books are Illuminae, Gemina, and Obsidio. The guys in this series are pretty great, and even though they all have their own issues and faults, that is what makes them even better. It isn’t just the main characters, Ezra, Nick, and Rhys. The side male characters also hold their own. The series itself is amazing, and if you read it and find that you don’t have conflicting feelings about AIDAN, the AI of the story, then you’re not alive. I highly recommend the audiobooks as they are read with a cast, and elevated the story for me. 

[theomnilegent]

Christmas Reads - What Light by Jay Asher - Review

What Light is your average Christmas holiday romance. It’s cheesy, it’s sappy, it’s a little too perfect, and it’s exactly what I needed to read this Christmas.

Set on a Christmas tree lot in Southern California, What Light is the story of Sierra and Caleb, how they meet, and how they fall head-over-heels in love. Both seem like old, familiar friends – probably because they’re hardly original characters. Sierra grew up on a Christmas tree farm, has an obsession with unique words, and isn’t looking for love. She’s exactly the sort of down-to-earth-yet-quirky, girl-next-door protagonist that is seen in a lot of YA fiction. Caleb, likewise, is tall, dark, handsome, and hiding a terrible secret – the poster boy for a male protagonist in a YA novel. Nevertheless, these two won me over quickly with their little winter romance, breezing through tropes and clichés like there was no tomorrow.

That’s one of the things that made this book so great – it might be cheesy, it might be clichéd, but it knows it, and owns it. It doesn’t go over the top, but instead tells a pretty believable story of first love found in amongst the Christmas trees. At times, though, the conflicts that arose were needless and kind of grating – they pull the reader out of the happy little love story and back into the real world, so to speak. There was a lot of miscommunication present between Sierra and her family, or Sierra and her friends, that grew tiring after a while, and is resolved in a matter of moments when Sierra finally gets her act together.

However, all of that is very believable teenage behaviour. Sixteen-year-olds and miscommunication go hand in hand. Some might call Sierra and Caleb’s relationship insta-love, but I don’t think that’s the case – more like a serious case of teenage hormones causing feelings that are sudden, deep, and no less real because of it. Falling for someone while in your teens usually is sudden and overwhelming, so if anything it was just another believable aspect of the love story.

Caleb’s dark and tragic past (if it can be called that) was probably the least likeable part of the story. It was understandable how a young teen under great psychological stress might have a violent outburst like the one described, but the fact the whole town held it against him, even years later? That no one ever sought help for him and his family? It seemed unbelievable that something like that could happen and nothing be done about it. There was a few passing mentions of court-ordered counselling, but based on how Caleb behaves, his low self esteem and blaming himself for his mother’s unhappiness, it seems like he really needs to be in long-term therapy. As does his mother. The least likeable thing out of all of this, though, was that Sierra becoming involved in his life fixed so many of his problems; it read like a case of “love cures all, even long term mental illness” when that simply isn’t the case in reality.

What Light is a charming little novel, and a great Christmas read. It sets the tone well and pulls the reader straight into a winter wonderland of whirlwind romance. It has its faults, but otherwise it tells a good love story, and if that’s all you’re looking for, I recommend it.