Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Characters

For That Artsy Read Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

May 10: Bookish Characters (these could be readers, writers, authors, librarians, professors, etc.)

Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow – Beatrice Belladonna is definitely a bookish character. She works in a library and ends up keeping another, magical library. I sort of picture her as an owl reading a book!

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix – The book club in this book has sort of an interesting evolution. They’re founded for the purpose of reading Great Literature. But they start on true crime instead. They branch out from there to fictional crime and best sellers. By the end they read Dracula for research purposes.

Beach Read by Emily Henry – Augustus Everett writes literary fiction. January Andrews writes romance novels. When they discover they’re staying next door to each othr for the summer, they decide to swap genres.

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman – Irene is a spy for the titular Library. She finds and protects important works of fiction from different realities. She has a simple mission: retrieve a dangerous book from an alternate version of London. But the best laid plans…

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner – When Chawton, the final home to Jane Austen, is threatened just after WWII, a group of Austen fans band together to save the home and protect Austen’s legacy.

The Book of Speculation by Erica Swyler – Simon is a research librarian who gets a book from a rare book dealer that has some kind of connection to his family. As her reads the story it tells, he becomes afraid for the safety of his sister.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman – Nina prefers books to reality. She works in a bookshop, and her closest companion is her cat, Phil. She’s not convinced that real life can ever live up to fiction. I know the feeling!

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern – Zachery is a grad student who encounters a book that tells him a story from his own life. Confused as to how this happened, Zachery follows clues to an ancient, secret library far below the surface of the Earth.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books and Adjectives

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

Today’s topic is

March 22: Books With an Adjective In the Title (Submitted by Nicole @ How to Train a Book Dragon)

I also decided to evaluate the adjective: does it accurately describe the book? Let’s see!

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong – Yep, “violent” describes this one pretty well I’d say. The other adjective I might use is “gory.”

A Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire – I don’t think I would call this book, or the swan in it particularly “wild.” Actually considering the fact that the swan is significantly human, I might call it fairly tame. He can talk and reason!

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie– Yes, in this case I would call the affair at Styles (a murder, naturally) fairly “mysterious.” Nothing that Poirot can’t handle though!

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides – This adjective is fairly literal. The patient in this book is silent. She does not speak. We do, however, learn a lot about her regardless.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab – In this case it’s not really literal. Addie is perfectly visible, but her life is “invisible” because she’s always forgotten as soon as she’s out of sight.

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman – Again, not literally “invisible,” but definitely a shadowy organization.

Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill by Maud Hart Lovelace – It’s hard to say here, because I don’t know how big the hill actually is. The book doesn’t give an elevation! But I suppose it’s a big step for the characters.

The Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell– Definitely metaphorical once again (wow, there are a lot of books with “invisible” in the title!) But she does disappear, as in, people can’t find her.

Royal Blood by Rhys Bowen – Yes, several of the characters here have “royal blood.” And there are some concerns about blood being spilled, but the actual murder in this case is a poisoning.

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elizabeth Robinson – Well, the book is fiction, so I suspect it’s not “true.” At the very least it’s fictionalized. As for “outstanding,” it’s probably not the word I’d use, though it’s not bad by any means.

#WyrdandWonder Book Bingo

I participated in Wyrd & Wonder‘s book bingo this month as part of their month long challenge. Take a look:

Here are the rules:

• Grab the bingo card (yell if you want a blank one) and comment to let me know you’re taking part
• Read fantasy books! Hopefully some of them match some of the prompts
• Each read may only be used for a single prompt
• Novellas count (for any prompt)
• The read-along prompt can only be completed by The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
• Post your completed* bingo card on your blog or any social media channel at the end of the month and tag me so I can see how you got on and include you in the draw
• Completed bingo cards must be posted by end of day on June 1st
• Winner will be picked on June 2nd

* completed in the sense of showing what prompts you managed to read / what books you read

IMAGE CREDIT: pegasus images by Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com

I got a diagonal bingo from the top left corner down to the bottom right:

Unreliable Allies– In Genevieve Cogman’s The Invisible Library, Irene is a sort of interdimensional Librarian (yes, with a capital “L”) who must collect important works of fiction from different realities. On her newest mission she must work with Kai, a trainee Librarian who may be hiding something from her. Some other allies both from the Library and the world where she’s looking for the book, turn up, and they may all have their own agenda.

Reluctant Hero(ine)– In VE Schwab’s The Invisible life of Addie LaRue, Addie makes a bargain early on with a mysterious spirit. She gets eternal life, but she’s be immediately forgotten by everyone she meets once she’s out of sight. Addie spends a lot of time regretting that choice, but her only way out is to lose her soul.

Freebie Another book I read this month that doesn’t fit any prompts for this bingo is A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman. It’s a collection of retellings of Asian myths, legends, fairy tales, and folklore.

Finish A Series- I finished CL Wilson’s Tarien Soul series, reading the final book, Crown of Crystal Flame this month. Overall I enjoyed the series, but I felt that it was a bit too long at 5 books. I think the story could have been told as a trilogy.

Chosen One- Diana in Shadow of Night counts as a chosen one, I think. In the first book in the All Souls series she knows she a witch but has no connection to her power. In this one she starts to learn about the nature of her magic and her family history. She turns out to be a “weaver,” a kind of ultra-rare witch who can make new spells. She’s also a timewalker, who can travel through time. Her marriage to a vampire is practically unprecedented in the supernatural community (different kinds of creatures aren’t supposed to be closely involved) and there are some prophesies about her offspring, and potentially her ability to save supernatural creatures from extinction.

#WyrdandWonder Challenge Catch Up

I’m trying to do this year’s Wyrd and Wonder Challenge celebrating the fantasy genre. Since I can’t do a prompt a day (I keep forgetting) I’ll try to do them once a week or so.

So here we go:

Day	Prompt
May 1	We’re going on an adventure what will you be reading this Wyrd and Wonder? (in theory. Until we tempt you with other recommendations) For the first week in May I read Shadow of Night (second in the All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness Now I’m reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman On my immediate TBR (as in, these are sitting on my shelf) Crown of Crystal Flame by CL Wilson (last in the Tarien Soul series) White As Snow by Tanith Lee To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (I think this counts as fantasy, since time travel isn’t real) The Blue Girl by Charles DeLint The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness we’ll see how many I actually get through!
May 2	Pop this in your book bag of holding What one fantasy book have you read since last Wyrd and Wonder that you want to put on the rest of the party’s radar? Well since I’ve never participated in Wyrd and Wonder before, this should be pretty easy. It’s not though: so. many. choices! I did recently really enjoy Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl. It’s set in a sort of limbo between life and death, where the main character, Beatrice, and her friends have to relive the day of their death over and over until they can vote on who will be the only survivor of the group.
May 3	#MapMonday I’m sharing the map of Florin and Guilder in The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Why? Because, even through I prefer the film, I think the book is sometimes unfairly overshadowed by it.
May 4	I never knew my father #TropeTuesday This year, Tuesdays are all about fantasy tropes we love (to hate) #TropeTuesday In honour of Star Wars Day (May the Fourth Be With You) we’ll kick off with orphans, foundlings and other secret heirs to the throne / a grand inheritance / the magic in their blood I’m going with the Tarien Soul series for this one, since the final book is on my TBR for the month. The heroine, Elysetta, has a loving adoptive father, but she’s never met her biological father, so I’m counting it. The reader knows who her biological family is, and what happened to them, but so far in the series, Elysetta hasn’t met them. I expect that will (or, at least, it may) change in the conclusion.
May 5	I can do this all day Underdogs or victory (in battle) against the odds (in honour of Cinco de Mayo) In Ashling, the third book in Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn series, there is going to be a rebellion against the totalitarian Council. The Misfits of Obernewtyn can help the rebels with their unique powers and abilities. But in order to do so, they must first convince the rebels to overcome their prejudice against Misfits, and accept their help. To do so, they participate in a sort of test of their abilities, called BattleGames.
May 6	Fly my pretties A book featuring any flying animal character or on the cover is fair game today, but bonus points if it’s a pegasus (our 2021 Wyrd and Wonder mythical mascot) Does this have to book a book I’ve read? If not, I’ll go with Pegasus by Robin McKinley (which is on my TBR)
May 7	Fantasy from around the world Fridays are all about celebrating fantasy from around the world – this week focuses on fantasy settings inspired by non-European cultures Most recently, I really enjoyed Gods of Jade and Shadow, which was set in Mexico and played with some Mayan mythology. I read Akata Witch and Akata Warrior fairly recently too, and those are an interesting look at some west African magic.
May 8	Currently reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
May 9	Spine poetry OR Mother’s Day spine poetry (combine book titles into a poem) or celebrate fantasy mums (mother figures, female mentors etc) for international Mother’s Day For this one, I’ll give a shout out to October Daye (of the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire) who is mother to a daughter she hasn’t seen in years. The absence wasn’t her fault. She’d been turned into a fish. But her daughter doesn’t know that.
May 10	Mixed feelings Maybe it didn’t meet your expectations, maybe you loved some bits but not others, maybe it made you both incredibly happy and very sad… but tell us why! I found Mary Robinette Kowel’s Glamourist Histories good enough that I wished they were better. They’re regency romance a la Jane Austen, but with fantasy thrown in. The main characters are Glamourists who work with a sort of art form known as glamour. This takes a physical toll on the worker, but it was very hard to understand how glamour actually worked. So the parts that dealt with that weren’t clear, and it felt like it was a big part of the series that I wasn’t completely getting. But I enjoyed it in spite of that issue.
May 11	Reluctant hero(ine) #TropeTuesday Since I’m currently in the middle of the All Souls series (read the first two books, and am currently watching season 2 of the show) I’ll go with this one. In the first book, A Discovery of Witches, the heroine, Diana, is pulled into a struggle between creatures (witches, vampires and daemons). She knows she’s a witch, but she’s not happy about it, and keeps distance from her magical heritage. Except in this book she realizes she can’t do that anymore.