Tag Archives: books

Tome Topple Round 12 TBR

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You know, I don’t know why I keep making TBRs because I never stick to them lol But they’re fun, so why not?

Hello everyone! Today I’m going to be talking about my TBR for Tome Topple, a… bi-annual? I’m actually not sure how often it happens because quarantine made everything weird, but it’s a readathon created and hosted by Sam of Thoughts and Tomes (as well as other co-hosts each round), where you try to read tomes (books over 500 pages) in two weeks time following the given prompts.

You can check out Sam’s video below:

Here’s the important information:

  • Dates: August 8th-21st (starts midnight in your timezone)
  • One book can be used for ONLY two prompts! So the minimum number of books is 4-5, and the max is 9.
  • Prompts:
    • The tome that’s been on your TBR the longest
    • A tome audiobook
    • The tome you’ve most recently acquired
    • A standalone tome
    • Read one (1) tome
    • A tome written by a Black author
    • Tome from a genre you don’t usually read
    • Tome on your TBR with the most pages
    • A tome you started during another round of Tome Topple
  • If you complete…
    • 1-3 challenges: STUDENT
    • 4-6 challenges: SCHOLAR
    • 7-9 challenges: SAGE

The prompts are optional! This is a chill readathon where the main goal is to read at least ONE tome (a book over 500 pages). That’s the baseline. The prompts are there for inspiration and fun!

Now that we have all of the important information, let’s talk about the books I hope to read. I’m aiming for four books, but even I know I most likely won’t complete these, buuuuuut that’s okay! I’ll at least have tried.

Also, disclaimer for me: some of the books I’m picking are less than 500 pages, BUT they’re in the mid-high 400 page range, so I’m counting them for this challenge. I’m trying to pick books already on my shelves like a good doobie.

I’ll be combining a bunch of the prompts together, so…

1 . A tome written by a Black author / read one tome

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin –

This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

I’ve been wanting to read this series for yearrrrrs, but due to my incessant reading novels slump, it’s been hard for me to pick anything up. I did start reading it when I first bought it to see how I liked it and remember being hooked really quickly, so I’m hoping that this will be a read that I thoroughly enjoy and such. (The book itself is 468 pages, so not quite tome level, but it’s fine.)

2. A tome audiobook / a tome with the most pages on your TBR

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson – (Below is the synopsis for the first book, The Way of Kings)

According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed…

They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won.

Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself – and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne.

On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn’t understand and doesn’t really want to fight.

What happened deep in mankind’s past?

Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?

After finishing the first book, I was left reeling with everything that had happened! The book left off on such pivotal moments that I know are going to send the characters into new journeys and such, and ahhhh I can’t wait to read it! I’ll be listening to the audiobook, which is 48 HOURS long. (Help.) The physical hardcover book itself is over 1,100 pages, which is probably the longest book on my TBR right now. So. Yeah.

(I listen to audiobooks on the 1x speed because I like to take every word and sentence in, allowing me to visualize everything in its entirety, so this is going to be a big endeavor if I’m going to complete each of these challenges, just saying.)

3. Tome that’s been on my TBR the longest / genre I don’t typically read from

The Chronicles of Narnia (books 1-7) by C.S. Lewis –

Narnia…the land beyond the wardrobe door, a secret place frozen in eternal winter, a magical country waiting to be set free.

Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor’s mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don’t believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In Narnia they find a country buried under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the Lion Aslan, they realize they’ve been called to a great adventure and bravely join the battle to free Narnia from the Witch’s sinister spell.

Yeah, I have the movie tie-in edition from a million years ago when Prince Caspian came out, so it’s a bind up of all of the novels in the series. Now each book itself is roughly 120-ish pages (more or less), but the bind-up itself is 766 pages. I’ve owned this edition since 2008, so it’s definitely my oldest tome on my TBR by far, and it’s also from a genre I rarely read ever: classic. It’s still fantasy, of course, and like many, I already know the story (at least of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), so it won’t be totally foreign to me, I hope. I just always struggle reading classics, but I hope to read one book in the series per day to break it down and such.

4. A tome I’ve most recently acquired / a standalone tome

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern –

Far beneath the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for his door, though he does not know it. He follows a silent siren song, an inexplicable knowledge that he is meant for another place. When he discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his campus library he begins to read, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities, and nameless acolytes. Suddenly a turn of the page brings Zachary to a story from his own childhood impossibly written in this book that is older than he is.

A bee, a key, and a sword emblazoned on the book lead Zachary to two people who will change the course of his life: Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired painter, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances. These strangers guide Zachary through masquerade party dances and whispered back room stories to the headquarters of a secret society where doorknobs hang from ribbons, and finally through a door conjured from paint to the place he has always yearned for. Amid twisting tunnels filled with books, gilded ballrooms, and wine-dark shores Zachary falls into an intoxicating world soaked in romance and mystery. But a battle is raging over the fate of this place and though there are those who would willingly sacrifice everything to protect it, there are just as many intent on its destruction. As Zachary, Mirabel, and Dorian venture deeper into the space and its histories and myths, searching for answers and each other, a timeless love story unspools, casting a spell of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a Starless Sea.

I had gotten this book around the time of its release, and, well, I had a hard time getting into it. The writing is kind of what puts me off from it, but I’m going to give it a go as it’s the only standalone tome (at 496 pages) that I have that’s newer. I hope I can get into it, but with all of these other books I hope to read, I don’t know that I’ll get to it.

I don’t have a book for the prompt for a tome from a previous round of tome topple, so those are all of the books on my TBR! I hope to read just one of these, which I think will be a major accomplishment in itself.

Are you joining in? What’s your biggest tome on your TBR? Which tome have you had the longest? Tell me all the things!

Books/Series I Plan on Rereading | Top Ten Tuesday

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So I know it’s Thursday, but I meant to do a post for TTT this week, I just completely forgot what day it was, so here we are!

If you don’t know what Top Ten Tuesday is, it’s a weekly meme hosted by Jana of That Artsy Reader Girl where you talk about your top ten ____ for that week. This week’s topic was a freebie, so we could create our own or go through the archives of TTT and pick one from there.

Today I wanted to talk about ten books/series I hope to reread over time for either nostalgia reasons, because I want to, or because I’m horrible at finishing series and need to reread because I forgot everything that happened.

Let’s jump into it! These are in no particular order.

10. Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her … but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead … quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the ToG series, and I recently started rereading the series because I never finished the last two books due to life a few years ago. And let me tell you, I want to punch Celaena in the face to get rid of some of that arrogance she has, but I also know the series will pick up and evolve as it goes. It’s really interesting to reread this and see how I view it now versus then. But I hope to continue with and actually finish the series this time!

9. A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

Much like ToG, I never finished the last book in this trilogy because it came out right around the time where life really sucked and my reading habits plummeted, so I want to reread the first two books in order to read the third (and the novella). I’m also rereading these series because, well, they were some of my favorites when I read them, and also because I want to read them before reading Crescent City. I’ll get there eventually!

8. The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth – that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

I started these a millennia ago, and, like every series on here, I am horrible at finishing reading the last book. I LOVED the first two books with all my heart when I read them, and I got through part of The Iron Queen before putting it down and never picking it back up. It wasn’t bad; my interest at the time just shifted and changed. So I hope to reread this trilogy (and the other novellas and others in this series eventually), and finally know what happens! Seriously, if you like fey, read these books. They’re quite good!

7. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

The first book in the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer! See where the futuristic YA fairytale saga all began, with the tale of a teenage cyborg who must fight for Earth’s survival against villains from outer space.

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

With high-stakes action and a smart, resourceful heroine, Cinder is a Cinderella retelling that is at once classic and strikingly original.

Do I even need to say by now that I never finished this series? However, unlike the previous series I’ve mentioned where I never read the final book, this series in particular is one where I never finished the last TWO books. Ugh, I’m horrible. This was a series that was so hyped, and I remember not liking Cinder a lot (it was good, just not my favorite), loving Scarlet, and really enjoying Cress, but I just. Never. Continued. I think this was, again, around the same time where things in life got hard so I just didn’t finish. But I want to! I really do! One day~ *shakes fist determinedly*

6. The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

At his coming-of-age party, Matteo Alacrán asks El Patrón’s bodyguard, “How old am I?…I know I don’t have a birthday like humans, but I was born.”

“You were harvested,” Tam Lin reminds him. “You were grown in that poor cow for nine months and then you were cut out of her.”

To most people around him, Matt is not a boy, but a beast. A room full of chicken litter with roaches for friends and old chicken bones for toys is considered good enough for him. But for El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium—a strip of poppy fields lying between the U.S. and what was once called Mexico—Matt is a guarantee of eternal life. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself for Matt is himself. They share identical DNA.

I read this book (for fun, I think) way back in my early-mid high school days and remember loving it SO so much. It made me creeped out, angry, shocked, and just a whole lot of emotions. I’ve been meaning to reread this one for years, and I hope to get to it soon. I mean, if you can remember how a book made you feel almost 15 years later, I’d say it’s in need of a reread, right? I wonder if I’ll still feel the same way or not.

5. The Unicorns of Balinor series by Mary Stanton

Introducing a new fantasy series about a girl, her unicorn, and her quest to restore peace in Balinor. After a terrible riding accident, Ari cannot remember anything of her past and is sent to live on a farm with foster parents. What Ari doesn’t know is that she is not from our world, but from Balinor, a land of sorcerers and unicorns! Her parents, the King and Queen, sent her to Earth to protect her from a raging war before they were banished from their homeland. Now Ari–Princess Arianna–has found the road back to Balinor. As she struggles to remember her heritage, she must face the challenge of restoring peace to Balinor.

This is purely for nostalgic reasons (and because I never read the last book. Shocker.) but this kids story about a girl and her unicorn friend were magical when I read them as a teenager (I had owned them for years and never read them until my teens). They’re super short books – about 120-ish pages each – with big font, and there’s eight of them, so I think these will be super fast nostalgia reads that I can’t wait to get to!

4. Fushigi Yuugi by Yuu Watase

When best friends Miaka and Yui open the pages of an ancient Chinese book, they are transported into the Universe of the Four Gods, a parallel world to ancient China. Now, to escape schoolwork and family problems, Miaka flees to the parallel world, only to find a lot more danger and romance than she bargained for.

A series I’ve actually finished before! Wow! This manga series is one I read in my teen years and fell in love with. I’ve been slowly rereading it for the last year or so maybe, and wow did I forget a lot, but also wow, is it cheesy lol But I love it because it brings back a lot of great memories I have with this series. There’s 18 volumes total and I’ve reread the first five already, so I’ll continue my reread over time.

3. The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the worst thing she’d ever been through. That was before her planet was invaded. Now, with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating craft, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But the warship could be the least of their problems. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady plunges into a web of data hacking to get to the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: Ezra.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

I. Love. This. Trilogy. So. Much. I love the mixed media of story telling, and as a visual learner type of person, seeing the different forms of media really engaged me while I was reading. I thought each book held its own unique magic in this otherwise very stressful and scary situation that everyone went through. I want to reread this trilogy just for the pure pleasure of it.

2. The Daughter of Smoke and Bones trilogy by Laini Taylor

Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

This trilogy was everything to me when I read it. I love Laini Taylor’s writing and how she can make sentences so beautiful. But this trilogy had a great love story of star-crossed lovers, of an age-old war, of finding oneself, and so much more. I want to reread it just for the sheer joy of it, and I hope to do it soon (after I read Muse of Nightmares, of course).

1 . The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson

In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.

On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

Again…never finished this trilogy. I think when I read the first book on audio, and then the second book physically, I lost the magic of it. I remember not feeling engaged or intrigued enough in the story, but I think I can remedy this by reading all of the books on audio the second time around.

And there you have it! There’s some of the series/books I want to reread! I’ve mentioned a lot of these in pasts posts similar to this one, but since I have yet to reread them, this still rings true.

What are some books or series you want to reread? Do you reread books at all? If you do, is it purely for nostalgia or something else?

Reading Rush TBR

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Hello everyone! Hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m going to talk about my TBR for the Reading Rush, which is hosted by Raeleen of padfootandprongs07 and Ariel of Ariel Bissett. They’ve been hosting this readathon for a couple of years now, I believe, and I decided that I wanted to give this readathon a go. I’ve been having…okay luck with readathons this year, and they made these challenges super easy to combine books for, so that’s what I’m doing.

If you’d like to hear a little more about the Reading Rush for this July 20th-26th stretch, then here’s their video:

They also have videos specially for the reading challenges and the vlog challenges:

So, with that, let’s jump into the reading challenges, which, by the way, you can combine or switch up as you see fit to fit your reading style/habit/mental health, so keep that in mind as we go! I’m going to list them all below, and then talk about the books and how I’m combining the challenges for the books.

  1. A book that is the same color as your birthstone.
  2. Read a book that starts with the word “The.”
  3. Read a book that inspired a movie you’ve already seen.
  4. Read the first book you touch.
  5. Read a book outside/a book that takes place outdoors/that has a cover of the outdoors/etc. (Be safe during quarantine, please.)
  6. A genre that you want to read more of.
  7. A book that is set on a different continent than where you live.

I think these challenges are pretty fun! So for this readathon, I’m only picking two books. I’m combining five of the challenges for one book, and then the last two for the second.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

A tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts – The Princess Bride is a modern storytelling classic.

As Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess Buttercup is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchmen, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry Prince Humperdinck, and rescued once again by the very crew who absconded with her in the first place. In the course of this dazzling adventure, she’ll meet Vizzini – the criminal philosopher who’ll do anything for a bag of gold; Fezzik – the gentle giant; Inigo – the Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and Count Rugen – the evil mastermind behind it all. Foiling all their plans and jumping into their stories is Westley, Princess Buttercup’s one true love and a very good friend of a very dangerous pirate.

“Buttercup’s Baby” is at the end of this edition.

Here’s how The Princess Bride fits into the first five challenges:

  1. My birthstone is the peridot for August, which is a pale green gem, and there’s a lot of pale green in this cover (I have a peridot ring so I color matched the cover lol).
  2. “The” Princess Bride.
  3. I. Love. This. Movie. It’s so cheesy and so funny, and I’ve been meaning to read the book for a long time now, so I’m going to give it a go!
  4. When I was thinking of books for these challenges, The Princess Bride was quite literally the first book I touched because it was the first pale green cover/spine I saw on my shelf.
  5. I can read this outside if I want to because we have a porch and such, but I’m not about to read in 90+ degree Fahrenheit humid weather, so I’ll just read by the windows. There; sunlight.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Thus memorably begins Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, one of the world’s most popular novels. Pride and Prejudice—Austen’s own “darling child”—tells the story of fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters who must marry rich, as she confounds the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy. What ensues is one of the most delightful and engrossingly readable courtships known to literature, written by a precocious Austen when she was just twenty-one years old.

Humorous and profound, and filled with highly entertaining dialogue, this witty comedy of manners dips and turns through drawing-rooms and plots to reach an immensely satisfying finale. In the words of Eudora Welty, Pride and Prejudice is as “irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be.

Here’s how Pride and Prejudice fits into the last two challenges:

6. A genre you want to read more of: I want to read more classics, or at least the ones currently on my shelves for now. I just find them much harder to digest and read because the language is so different from how we use it now, even through translation.

7. This book is set in the United Kingdom in Derbyshire, England, so yeah. Since I live in the USA, it’s set on a different continent from where I live.

Now, do I think I can read both of these books in the span of a week? I’m not very confident I can lol But I’m going to try, and that’s all that matters. I’m really only participating in the Reading Rush to have fun, and I liked the challenges, so why not?

Are you participating? How many books are you reading? Are you going to try to read one book per challenge, or combine a few together like I did? What’s your most anticipated read for this readathon? Let me know in the comments!

Songs That Remind Me of Books | Top 5 Wednesday

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Hey, back with another one that I haven’t posted in a million years: it’s Top 5 Wednesday!

Top 5 Wednesday is a fun meme hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes, where you discuss five books/bookish topics related to the prompt given for that day.

Today’s prompt: “Songs that remind you of your books! Explain why a specific song reminds you of a book. You can do five songs for five books or five songs for a single book, do what y’all feel.”

This one sounded like a lot of fun, so here we go~

5. Merry Go Round of Life by Joe Hisashi from/for Howl’s Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones

Okay, this is totally cheating, but I don’t care. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favorite Ghibli movies, and the song Merry Go Round of Life is so beautiful. I recently started reading the novel version for the first time (at the behest of my best friend who’s read it and loved it more than the film, which is saying something), and I got to say that even though I’m not very far into it, it’s already so different from the movie! In a good way, though. But of course, this song is obviously playing in my head while reading it, because how could it not be? Honestly, the whole soundtrack for the movie is, so yeah lol

4. Songs composed by Jeremy Soule for The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Movie and video game scores are seriously inspiring when it comes to, well, anything, let’s be real. This particular compilation of songs are from various games such as Skyrim and Oblivion. I love listening to instrumental music a lot, and I can say that I often get lost in my own world when listening to tracks such as these because they allow your mind to really craft its own world to their sounds. I think that this mix really speaks to The Way of Kings because it’s an epic fantasy with many ups and downs, twists and turns, glory and defeat, and I think the varying music really speaks to that.

3. LION by (G)I-DLE for Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

I love this song LION by (G)I-DLE. It’s so powerful and sultry and makes me feel strong and like I can kick ass. The first thought that came to my mind was Celaena and her journey to get to where she is, and I thought that it was an appropriate song for her.

2. Scared of the Dark by Lil Wayne & Ty Dolla $ign for The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

As I was listening to this song, I was thinking about how much strife Starr went through, and how she was scared of many things after what happened to her friend, Khalil. The Hate U Give deals with a lot of topics of racism, police brutality, self-identity, family, gangs, and more. This song really talks about not being afraid, even if your environment and the people around you are against you. I think Starr really learns that in this book, so it fits.

Also, the whole Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse album is a bop, so go watch the movie, then go listen to the soundtrack.

1 . Paper Rings by Taylor Swift for Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Alrighty, this series is probably one of the cutest, heartwarming, diverse LGBT+ reads I’ve ever read, and I love it so much. I also love the song Paper Rings, and I thought it was appropriate because it’s all about being content with the person you’re with, and how you want to be with them no matter the circumstance. I think it’s a cute song fitting for a cute series.

Alright, this was harder than I thought it would be haha! But I think that these songs fit these stories. Do you agree?

What song(s) do you think fit the current book you’re reading? Or what about a song that fits one of your favorite books? Let me know!

Books That Make Me Smile | Top Ten Tuesday

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I haven’t done a Top Ten Tuesday in a long while, so I figured, hey, why not jump into the bandwagon again?

What is Top Ten Tuesday?

“Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.”

Today’s topic: books that make you smile for any reason!

So I’m totally going to cheat and also include webtoons because they’re still reading material, so…. yeah. And these aren’t in any particular order, but here’s the countdown!

10. Nice to Meet You by Wishroomness

A super cute and funny rom-com that just constantly makes me laugh and smile in each episode. I love it a lot!

9. Castle Swimmer by Wendy Lian Martin

A fun story about two merboys falling in love, and how their destinies intertwine. I mean, how could I not smile at this?

8. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Need I even say anything? Wholesome. Adorable. The sweetest.

7. Freaking Romance by SnailLords

Not only does this series make me laugh out loud because it’s exactly my humor, but it’s made me smile numerous times from the amount of cheesy scenes.

6. Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

I really love all of these hockey player stories, and this one is no exception. It just makes me smile seeing the dynamic between two friends to lovers.

5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The family dynamic in this book made me laugh and smile on more than one occasion! I love how tight knit the family is and how everyone interacts with one another.

4. Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

This is my first time reading this series and I love it! It’s a great adventure story that has made me smile, for sure.

3. My Giant Nerd Boyfriend by fishball

This comic is about me and my husband. Not really, but a lot of the way they interact with one another is very similar to how me and my husband are, so I smile a lot reading this.

2. Plain Boy and Prince by amanduur

This has all of the tropes, which makes it hilarious and adorable. I mean, c’mon, look at the picture that’s used in the header. xD

1 . Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe

Of course I couldn’t forget one of my favorite series, Lore Olympus, in all of this. This series has made me feel quite a wide range of emotions, and smiling came along with feelings of giddiness and happiness.

What books have made you smile? Do you have any fond memories with those books? Let me know!