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Lady Midnight Begins a New Day

By Brookelorren on February 20, 2019January 21, 2019Leave a Comment

I went on a Cassandra Clare marathon read right before Queen of Air and Darkness came out. Lady Midnight, of course, is the first book in the most recent of her series, The Dark Artifices.

It’s interesting to see how Young Adult books have changed over the last 18 years or so. You can do that over the course of the Shadowhunter’s Chronicles. Lady Midnight originally came out in 2016. Compare that with City of Bones and you’ll see a huge difference in how YA literature has changed. Not only has Cassandra Clare improved as an author, but what is permitted in a YA book has changed as well.

I could tell when I read the final books of The Mortal Instruments that Emma and Julian should not become parabatai. They did, however, because they didn’t want to be apart from each other. I love them as a couple. Maybe not as much as Clary and Jace or Will and Tessa, but they’re great together anyway. But they’re not supposed to be.

In this story, people are starting to show up dead, and Emma thinks that these deaths might have to do with her parents. The Shadowhunters have to figure out what’s going on — before it’s too late. Complications arise in this story (of course). The Cold Peace is still going on with the fairies, and they send Julian’s brother Mark back — temporarily. If they figure out who’s behind the murders, Mark will be able to choose whether he want’s to stay with his family, or return to the Wild Hunt.

There are so many things I loved about this book. One of the things I thought was well done was the setting, which was Los Angeles. I went to USC, so I know the place well. I loved how well the setting was done.

We have new characters in this book! Cristina is Emma’s new friend from Mexico, Kit is a boy with the sight that finds out he’s actually a shadowhunter, and Mark (although not new) returns from fairie a changed person. We’ve met the Blackthorns before, but it’s been a few years, and they’ve grown up since then.

Lady Midnight was an excellent start to The Dark Artifices and I highly recommend it.

Books I LOVED with Fewer Than 2000 Ratings on Goodreads

By Brookelorren on February 19, 2019October 5, 201936 Comments

Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today’s topic is “Books I LOVED with Fewer than 2000 Ratings on Goodreads.” This is another of those “hidden gems” kind of weeks, which is a good thing. There are SO many amazing books out there that not as many people have heard of. So here are some of my favorites that are lesser known, defined this week as books with 2000 or fewer ratings on Goodreads.

I really enjoyed Crow Flight by Susan Cunningham. One of the things that drew me to the book was the whole computer thing: the characters bond over an artificial intelligence simulation that they do together. There was a lot more to the book that I enjoyed than just that though. There was a puzzle to be solved here that was fun.

I liked Frequency by Christopher Krovatin as well. I was drawn to the book by the whole music aspect. I liked the characters, and even the villain was somewhat sympathetic. As I write this, it only has 22 ratings on Goodreads, which is far too low.

Into the Hollow by Lynn Vroman is another book that I loved, but as of this writing it only has 34 ratings on Goodreads. I loved the setting, and I loved how the characters were from difficult home situations but overcame that and found each other. I’m sad that more people don’t know about it.

The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson got a few more ratings (currently at 627), but it should be a more well-known book. It has something of a Romeo and Juliet vibe, a great Irish setting, and Celtic magic. It’s unfortunate that I don’t hear more about this book.

When I started to figure out what books I was going to include in this week’s list, I was pretty sure that there wouldn’t be anything from Marie Lu on this list. Last year, Wildcard was one of the hottest ARCs out there, after all. However, Life After Legend only has 688 ratings on Goodreads, while Life After Legend II only has 47 ratings. I loved them both, so even though they’re short (22 and 5 pages, respectively), they belong on this list. The lack of reviews could be because they’re hard to find. Life After Legend was originally given as a Warcross pre-order gift (I’m still looking for an original if you have one you’re willing to sell), but now is available at the back of the paperback version of Warcross. Life After Legend II was a Wildcard pre-order gift; if I were to guess, it’ll probably be included at the end of the paperback version of Wildcard or with Rebel.

Echoes by Alice Reeds only has 265 ratings on Goodreads. Fortunately, there is a sequel planned for Echoes called Fissures, which should come out in winter 2020. It’s not on Goodreads yet, but Ms. Reeds has announced that there will be one.

I loved Erin Summerill’s books Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave. Ever the Hunted has over 7000 ratings, but Ever the Brave has only 1773 ratings. The third book, Once a King, has less, but I haven’t read it yet.

My favorite book that I read last year was Enchantée by Gita Trelease. I was pretty much hooked from the first page. I was very surprised to see it only had 319 ratings (as of this writing). Newer books are on average going to have fewer ratings, but this one should have more.

Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok was another five-star book for me that I read this year. I absolutely loved it! It currently has only 71 ratings. It definitely needs some more hype!

I really liked Mike Chen’s Here and Now and Then, but it only has 184 ratings on Goodreads. This time-travel story was beautiful and left me in tears at the end. I hope that it gets to see a lot more love.

So there you have it! Ten books that need more ratings on Goodreads. What stories did you love that need more love on Goodreads? I can’t wait to see what you have to say.

Next week is supposed to be Places Mentioned in Books That I’d Like to Visit. I did a post like this last October, so I’m going to go in the exact opposite direction and mention places I definitely don’t want to visit.

The Iliad Graphic Novel

By Brookelorren on February 18, 2019February 18, 2019Leave a Comment

Let’s face it. The classics can be difficult to read. When I saw The Iliad in graphic novel form available on Netgalley, I decided to read it. It’s been a book I’ve been meaning to read for years, but have never gotten around to it.

This book makes it easier to read The Iliad, but I have to be honest with you: this book was still difficult for me. The book has a huge cast of characters, some of whom only show up on one page. This person dies, that god helps this hero out… it’s a little difficult to keep track of. In addition, there are a lot of place names to try to keep track of. After reading this book one time, I still don’t feel like I have a good grasp of this part of the Trojan War.

The pictures are pretty good, but they happen to be on a grand scale, which makes it more difficult to convey well through art on a book-sized sheet of paper. In the places where there are a lot of soldiers or ships, the pictures seem a little busy. I’m not sure what could be done about that though.

The book seems to be true to the original story, although I never managed to read it, I do know a decent amount of Greek mythology. I was surprised to discover that the story of the Trojan Horse is not part of The Iliad though. I would have liked to have seen that.

If you’re curious about this classic, The Iliad graphic novel is an easier way to understand the story. With the huge cast of characters and all the customs that are completely different than ours, it still isn’t the easiest book to read, but it’s certainly easier than the original Homer.

Children of Blood and Bone: Good, but Not the Book for Me Right Now

By Brookelorren on February 14, 2019February 13, 20193 Comments

One of the most popular books of 2018 was Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone. I wanted to see what all the excitement was all about, so I naturally signed up to get on the waiting list at the library to read this book. And waited months. Despite it’s popularity, and despite the fact that I realize that this is a well-written book, it was just not the right book for me right now.

I don’t know if you’ve experienced it or not, but I experience it all the time: most of the time, I’m drawn to the right book at the right time. Like last fall, after I had just started studying Welsh, I start reading The Infernal Devices, and one of the main characters, Will, utters Welsh phrases every now and then. It may be a minor thing, but it helps me identify with the characters. I didn’t experience that with this book.

Which doesn’t mean that this wasn’t a good book. I can tell the writing was good. The story seemed to have good pacing. I liked the characters. In this story, Zélie, a girl whose ancestors were magical in a land where magic has disappeared and the government reviles magic, tangles herself up with a couple members of the royal family: Amari, a princess who is appalled at what she discovered her father did, and Inan, a prince who has a secret. Along with Tzain, Zélie’s brother, they go on an adventure, where they find betrayal and friendship. The stakes are high: if they fail, magic could disappear from the land for good.

This book explores several themes: what it feels like for people to unfairly target you for intimidation because of who you are, what happens when people have too much power, and where should your loyalties lie. These are good questions to explore, and this book does it well.

Children of Blood and Bone didn’t quite resonate with me, even though I know it’s objectively a good book. For me, the mythology was just okay. I would have preferred a little more romance in this book. Perhaps, at another point in my life, I may find more ways to identify with the story and enjoy it more. Just as Will’s Welsh made me appreciate The Infernal Devices better, perhaps I’ll learn more about the culture in this book and appreciate it more at a later date.

I probably won’t read the sequel this year, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t reread Children of Blood and Bone at another point in my life. Right now, it’s me, not the book, that causes me to not be enthusiastic about this series. That could change. I certainly would not want to try to persuade anybody else to not read this book, because it might be just the thing that somebody (perhaps you) might need to read to inspire them to make them better people.

Favorite Couples in Books

By Brookelorren on February 12, 2019February 11, 201933 Comments

Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday! Valentine’s Day is coming up, so this week we’re talking about favorite couples in books! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Fangirling on Friday’s topic is also about couples in relationships, so I’m combining topics, so consider this my Fangirling on Friday post too (a few days early)!

Dune (Day/June) – Legend

Day and June are absolutely my most favorite couple! They’re so cute together. They both go through so much, and they both are willing to sacrifice for each other. I just love them. After Champion, I was heartbroken because of what happened. I love them so much, I’ve written a lot of fanfiction about the two of them.

I loved Life After Legend and Life After Legend II. I’m eagerly anticipating Rebel, the fourth Legend book, this fall!

FourTris – Divergent

Four and Tris were probably the very first Young Adult couple that I fell in love with. I absolutely loved them together, and for me, they belong together forever.

Of course, the ending of Allegiant was heartbreaking to me. I wasn’t about to accept it. That’s what got me into fanfiction. Divergent fanfiction is fun to read, and I’ve written some Divergent fanfiction myself.

Adelina/Magiano – The Young Elites

Another couple that I’m absolutely in love with is Adelina and Magiano from The Young Elites. Even though Adelina is evil, Magiano is a good influence on her. It seems like I have a thing for cinnamon roll boys and the girls that love them… anyway, this is another story that broke my heart, but I’ve also written fanfiction to heal my heart. I haven’t published it yet, but I’m working on it.

Clace (Jace/Clary) – Mortal Instruments

Clary and Jace are a couple that I love as well. I ship them so much. Even though there’s other couples in The Mortal Instruments, they’re my favorites. Over the course of this six-book series, they go through so many trials, but they are always there for each other.

One of my favorite lines from Jace is “Break up with Clary? Are you insane?”

Akos/Cyra – Carve the Mark

I love Akos and Cyra together as well. They’re perfect for each other. Cyra causes pain to anybody that touches her because of her currentgift, and Akos disrupts the currentstream, which helps take away her pain. It’s a good thing that they end up liking each other!

I’ve written fanfiction for all five of the above couples. I guess that’s just a thing I have… if I don’t have enough of them, I write more!

Mariko/Ōkami – Flame in the Mist

Do I really need a reason to like them together? I just think they’re kinda hot as a couple. They had sparks flying even before Ōkami realized that Mariko was not a boy — which he found disturbing.

Will/Tessa – The Infernal Devices

I loved Will and Tessa together, and it was one of the reasons why I ugly-cried through the last two chapters of Clockwork Princess. Cassandra Clare masterfully dealt with the whole mess of how Tessa loved both him and Jem. I can’t wait to read more of their family’s story in Chain of Gold later this year.

Elias/Laia – An Ember in the Ashes

I feel for this couple so much. They just can’t seem to get a break. And now we have to wait until 2020 to find out what happens to them! Ms. Tahir, you have to put them together! If she doesn’t, there’s always fanfiction. Because they need each other. I need them to be together, finally.

Lazlo/Sarah – Strange the Dreamer

I love Lazlo and Sarah together. It’s so sweet how they meet in dreams and have their first kisses together and all that. And then they have to be broken apart…

But this story ends on a hopeful note. And there’s always fanfiction?

Free/Cole – Into the Hollow

There wasn’t a tenth couple that really jumped out at me when I thought of couples in books. I didn’t want to say Jude/Cardan because although I like them together, they’re a fairly toxic couple. But I really liked Free and Cole in Into the Hollow. This is a book that I didn’t think got enough love when it came out.

Free and Cole are such a wonderful couple together. They both come from dysfunctional homes that they’re embarrassed about, but they want to make a better life for themselves. And they’re good for each other as a couple. They might not be the first couple that I think about when I think of book couples on Valentine’s Day, but I loved this book, and I loved them together.

So what about you? What OTPs do you dream about or love? Yes, I’ve literally dreamed about some of these (and one dream became the basis for my book, The Brightness of Shadow). I can’t wait to see what everybody says this week.

On next week’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday, we’re going to talk about books that I loved that have less than 2000 ratings on Goodreads. Most of these books aren’t eligible for that (although I was surprised about one book). For Fangirling on Friday, we’ll be talking about slow-burn romances. A couple of these might show up again there. Be back then!

Second Star: Calling Peter Pan!

By Brookelorren on February 11, 2019February 11, 20196 Comments

I was recently scanning Netgalley for something soon-to-be released, and I saw Second Star by J.M. Sullivan. Ooh, I know J.M. Sullivan! She’s one of the hosts of #AuthorConfession on Twitter! I always love to read books fantastic people (although I have to confess, it can make writing a review more difficult sometimes).

Second Star by J.M. Sullivan is a Peter Pan retelling. So if you love Peter Pan, then you already have a reason to read this book. I think the story is okay, although I haven’t seen it in years (the Disney cartoon, that is). I’ve seen some of the Peter Pan movies over the years, like Hook, and I’ve never read the original book. Like Heartless, I think you’ll get more out of this retelling if you’re more familiar with the original story.

Our story follows Peter and Wendy. Peter is a mechanic on the Jolly Roger, a star ship out on a mission. Wendy is an intelligent girl whose parents push her to be an overachiever. At the military academy, Wendy seems to develop a crush on the historical James Hooke, a captain who was lost years ago. Eventually, the paths of Hooke, Peter, and Wendy cross on a star far away from Earth.

The Good

Ms. Sullivan does a great job combining the classic Peter Pan tale with a futuristic starship story. There’s Tinc, a nanobot that Peter put together that behaves eerily like Tinkerbell from the classic story, SMEE, who is Captain Hooke’s assistant, the Lost Boys, and even mermaids. The book speaks of themes like immortality (which Hooke is searching after) and there’s even a thimble in there. I probably miss a great deal since I haven’t seen the classic cartoon in eons, but there’s a lot of cleverness in there.

The friendships are great in this book. Wendy seems to be a little difficult to warm up to, but her friends are loyal and she loves them back. I’m glad the kids she became friends with at the academy get to be with her on all of her adventures.

What Could Be Better

While Second Star was very entertaining, it seemed like it could use a little more polish. It’s difficult to describe why I felt this way, although it’s a very subjective measure rather than anything concrete I can point out.

One other thing that I thought could be better is the relationship aspect of this story. The friendships in this book are great, but Wendy and Peter have something of an insta-love that would probably be better if they slowed down a bit. While I could understand if they felt insta-attraction, they were emotionally invested in each other a little too quickly for my taste. There’s the possibility of a love triangle in the second book (I kinda hope not though).

Overall

Second Star was overall entertaining, even though it’s not likely to make any of my best-of lists. I do plan on reading the second book in this series, and not just because J.M. Sullivan wrote it. I want to find out what happens to Peter and Wendy. If you’re only going to read one book this year, I probably wouldn’t choose this one, but if you like Peter Pan or retellings, you might want to consider adding this to your TBR.

TBR Book Tag

By Brookelorren on February 10, 2019February 10, 20198 Comments

Today I’m doing the TBR book tag! I found it over at Kati’s Bookaholic Rambling Reviews but it started over at A Perfection Called Books. It looked like fun to do so here we go!

How do you keep track of your TBR pile?

Goodreads, of course! I’ve had an account there for a long time, but I only started using it to keep track of my books and look up all the new books coming up recently (like last spring).

Is your TBR mostly print or ebook?

I don’t know? I don’t really care and have no clue. I just click on the book if I want to read it and say “Want to Read”. I buy both. Library check-outs I just go with what’s most convenient and/or quicker. I buy hardcover books from my favorite authors, and ebooks I get when they are on sale, if they’re a pre-order of a book with a big difference in price between that and the hardback, or occasionally some other reason (I have Wildcard in both ebook and print format because the mail was slow and I didn’t want to wait to start reading it).

How do you determine which book from your TBR to read next?

Lately I’ve been choosing books off my seasonal TBR at the beginning of the month. I read ~1 ARC per week and one older book. Sometimes I deviate from it for one reason or another (like if the library gets a book in that’s been on my wait list).

A Book That’s Been On Your TBR List The Longest

Rora has been on my TBR since April 25, 2013. I was reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs at the time and I thought the story of the religious sect that holed up in the mountains and fought against persecution sounded really good. I finally bought it last year. It was on my summer TBR Wipeout Challenge last year… still haven’t read it. But since I now own a copy, I guess I’m closer to reading it now? I still want to read it, it’s just competing with so many other interesting books.

A Book You Recently Added To Your TBR

Margaret Rogerson and Laura E. Weymouth were talking on Twitter one day about how it would be cool if someone wrote a crossover fanfic between Sorcery of Thorns and A Treason of Thorns, and I said I’d do it. So now I just have to read both books.

This isn’t the first time I promised a book’s author to write a fanfic for them. I wrote Brenna Morgan and the Silver Portal after telling Katie Masters I’d write a fanfic for her. I guess it’s what I do now.

A Book In Your TBR Strictly Because Of Its Beautiful Cover

What does the Fox say? Well, the Wicked Fox cover says “read me.” They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but the cover can really get you interested in the book. I guess authors don’t always get a lot of say in what their covers are going to look like (if they’re traditionally published) but I’d be okay with that, for the most part, because I think that most of the time, publishers do a much better job at designing covers than I could ever do. If publishers keep coming up with covers like this, I’ll keep buying books.

A Book On Your TBR That You Never Plan on Reading

Hmmm, if it’s on my TBR, then I plan on reading it? Otherwise it goes off the TBR. Sometimes I put might read books on my TBR if I’m trying to win a contest, but if I don’t win the contest and later on decide I don’t want to read it that badly, it leaves the TBR.

An Unpublished Book On Your TBR That You’re Excited For

Hello, I’m Brooke, and I’m a Legend fangirl. Of course I’m excited for Rebel, the fourth Legend book, to come out. I had this book pre-ordered within an hour of the title reveal. If I end up begging for any ARC this year, this would be the one.

There’s a lot of other books on my TBR that I’m excited about on my TBR, of course, but Legend. I’ve written almost 20% of the Legend fanfics up on AO3, and currently have a novel-length Legend fanfic in editing and another Legend/Warcross fanfic I’m planning. Of course I’m excited about this book.

A Book On Your TBR That Basically Everyone’s Read But You

Well, maybe not everybody, because then I wouldn’t still be 26th on the waiting list at the library for it, but a lot of people have read A Court of Thorns and Roses. And I haven’t yet.

I still have to finish reading Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash though. I know they’re not the same series, but I do kinda like to finish a series by one author before I start reading the next. I’m currently reading Tower of Dawn, but if I haven’t finished Kingdom of Ash by the time this becomes available at the library, I’ll have to read this one first (I own both of those). Gotta read the library books as soon as they come in.

A Book On Your TBR That Everyone Recommends To You

I wouldn’t say that everybody recommends the Grisha Verse books to me, but these (along with Six of Crows and King of Scars) are books that everybody seems to love, and I’ve wanted to read these books for a while now.

I own the first book in this series, and I’m 3rd on the waiting list for the second book. I’m not worried about not finishing this book before the library makes the second one available to me, because I’m scheduled to read this book next week.

A Book On Your TBR That You’re Dying To Read

So if you’ve read The Wicked King, you know why I’m dying to read The Queen of Nothing. It doesn’t have a cover or anything yet, but yes, I really want to read this book soon. Maybe not quite as badly as I want to read Rebel, but this book is a must-read for me. And it will be one of those books that I end up pre-ordering, just like I did with The Wicked King. I have the other two hardbacks, so hopefully they’ll design a hardback that will look nice with the other two.

How many books are on your Goodreads TBR shelf?

199 right now.

That’s the TBR Tag! If you want to do this one too, consider yourself tagged.

Favorite Diverse Reads

By Brookelorren on February 8, 2019January 27, 20194 Comments

It’s Friday, so that means… it’s tie to Fangirl! Today’s topic is Favorite Diverse Reads. To be honest, I never really pay too much attention to whether a book is diverse or not, but I know that representation matters to people who are underrepresented in books, so it’s good for authors to think about diversity.

I’m just going to lump Marie Lu’s books all together, because they’re all diverse. Day from Legend is primarily Mongolian, while June is part native American. Although The Young Elites is a fantasy novel set in a fictonal world, Adelina Amouteru could probably be described as Middle Eastern-ish while Magiano is black. In Warcross, Emika is Chinese while Hideo is Japanese. There is also a nonbinary character in the sequel, Wildcard.

The Ember in the Ashes Quartet is set in a Roman-ish type of land with characters of various races. Laia is a character with Middle Eastern-ish roots (the Roman Empire at its height controlled Northern Africa and a good deal of the Middle East anyway). This series also has a lot of folklore from the Middle East as well.

Flame in the Mist is a book resembling the setting of feudal Japan. I absolutely loved this book and it’s setting.

Probably diversity is not the first thing that you think about when you think of Enchantée, which was set in France right before the French Revolution. Most of the people there are going to be European and white, right? While Enchantée does have a lot of historical accuracy to it, despite it being a fantasy book, France wasn’t 100% white at the time. France was already expanding its colonies, and Lazare, the main love interest, was the child of one of the guys that left to colonize India (I think) and one of the natives there, so yes, even this fantasy book set in Europe has it’s own diversity to it.

So there are some books that I love with diversity in it. Next week, I’m going to combine Fangirling on Friday with Top Ten Tuesday for my favorite couples in books. Since Top Ten Tuesday is out out on Tuesday, I’ll be posting a few days early.

Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key

By Brookelorren on February 7, 2019December 27, 2018Leave a Comment

Recently, I read Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key.

Last summer, I was on Twitter and there was a discussion about things that it would be really cool to happen to you as a writer. Katie Masters (who is really nice) wrote that it would be really cool if someone wrote fanfiction of her work. So I said “I’ll write a fanfic for you.” Because that’s one of the things that I do. Write fanfiction.

I didn’t know that she already had a book out until months later! So that’s how I happened to end up picking up Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key. It was a good book, and I’m looking forward to reading more stories from her.

Brenna’s family moves around a lot. Her parents are writers and she’s homeschooled. When they stop by Ireland for four months, she’s immediately drawn into an adventure involving fairies… both good and bad. She has to protect a girl, but she doesn’t know who she is or where she’s located. And there’s this cute boy, Patrick, that is her closest neighbor that she discovers also sees fairies.

There were a lot of things I liked about the story. We don’t get too many stories set in Ireland, so I really liked that. There’s a wee little bit of Irish in this book… Irish is the second-most difficult language that I’ve ever tried learning (Hebrew is slightly more difficult for me) but I thought it was cool to see it here. And no, you don’t have to speak any Irish to enjoy this book.

The fairies in this book share many similarities, although they are slightly different from, the fairies you might find in The Cruel Prince or The Shadowhunter’s books. These fairies are tricky, but they could potentially lie.

I liked the adventure in this book. After Brenna agrees to protect the girl, she has to find out who the girl is, where she is, and how to protect her. With the help of Patrick and some new fairy friends, she discovers the answers and even gets into a couple of fights. This propels the story forward.

The relationships in this story are good too. Brenna is close to her mom, and she seems to share a typical mother-daughter relationship with her. Mom threatens to share embarrassing baby pictures with her, cajoles her into going to school on time (they decide that she’ll attend school while she’s in Ireland), and is upset when her adventures take her out too late at night. She has a slow-blossoming love relationship with Patrick, a fairy that might be taking an interest in her, and a friendship that she develops at school.

It’s not the perfect book. It has the feel of a debut at times. There were a few places where it should have said “breathe” but said “breath” instead, but I’ve seen minor things like that in books from more established authors as well. Overall, the book was good.

I did write that fanfic too, if you’re interested. “Brenna Morgan and the Silver Portal” is a crossover fanfic that occurs after this book, where Brenna is in college, Patrick is visiting her, and they just happen to run into Jace and Clary and get portaled into Erenya (my world from the book I’m writing) and have to go on a quest in order to get back.

Books That Have Been on My TBR the Longest

By Brookelorren on February 5, 2019February 4, 201929 Comments

It’s Tuesday again, and Welcome to this week’s Top Ten Tuesday! As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic was supposed to be “Upcoming Releases I’m On the Fence About” but it seemed a little negative to me and I just put a book on my TBR suddenly without thinking about it much, so I’m doing “Books on MY TBR the Longest that I Still Haven’t Read”. It goes well with the most recent TBR additions, which we did last week. So here goes:

One of the oldest books on my TBR is 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West. These books with the years on them are usually pretty interesting. Lately, I’ve found that history is a great way to find ideas for the books I’m writing too. This book has been on my TBR forever.

To be honest with you, I’m actually not grabbing the books added last on my TBR. I have some entries from 2013… and then they go straight to 2018. So I’m going to mix it up a bit because otherwise it would be really boring. A Court of Thorns and Roses was one of my oldest 2018 adds.

You’ll probably see a pattern between the oldest books on my TBR and the books I added in 2018. Anyway, New Deal or Raw Deal? was a book I added in 2013. There’s a lot of controversy regarding the whole New Deal and I don’t think there’s a clear-cut answer, because it did some good things and some not-so-good things. I suppose what we’re going through today might be looked upon history the same way. Anyway, here’s another book to learn about the past.

Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu is another one of my oldest TBR entries from 2018. It’s going to have to stay on my TBR for about another year, because it’s not supposed to be released until 2020. I think it’s supposed to come out in the spring though, so maybe I can start begging for an ARC by the end of this year at least?

The Real Thomas Jefferson: The True Story of America’s Philosopher of Freedom is another book I added in 2013. These books are really thick, but the type is pretty large. I still haven’t read this one yet though.

Here’s another book that has been on my TBR for a while that hasn’t been released yet. I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading Kingdom of Back long before I end up reading The Winds of Winter.

Throughout history, most of the world’s population has not lived under conditions that we would consider to be free. The Miracle of Freedom: 7 Tipping Points that Saved the World covers seven major events form history, going all the way back to the days of the Assyrians, that led to freedom for people. And I still haven’t read this book, even though I put this on my list in 2013.

All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire sounded like a good book, and I added it to my Goodreads to try to win a contest, but I still haven’t read it yet. It still sounds like a good book, about two people who become friends, are separated, and then are reunited again, with some trouble brewing too.

Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy sounds like an interesting book. This was another period of history where a lot of people didn’t trust each other. I still haven’t read this book yet, but I really should someday.

When I first heard of the Holodomor, where Stalin tried to starve the Ukrainians, I thought it was a fascinating period of history that I wanted to learn more about. Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine sounded like an interesting book when it came out, but there was a wait list at the library and I didn’t want to wait for it. When I last went to Barnes and Noble with some money to spend, they didn’t have it. So I still haven’t read it.

So there you have it: some of the oldest books on my TBR. I think I’ll read A Court of Thorns and Roses fairly soon… I am on the waiting list at the library for it… but who knows when I’ll get to the others. What’s one of the books that have been on your TBR for a LOOOONG time? I’m looking forward to seeing what books people are on the fence about this week!

Next week: My favorite couples in books.