Top Ten Tuesday #77

Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish!

What I Am Thankful For...

I'm really thankful for everything. Especially everyone that I have interacted with on my blog, my Twitter, and the ones that have come and gone that I will never forget. Yeah. So I guess you could say this is one of those heartfelt posts where I thank everyone, and if you're not on the graphic, it either means my brain forgot about you, or there wasn't any space. I AM THANKFUL FOR EVERYONE. EVERYONE. And everything.

Yes Jeann, that is you. I could not not do it :3

What are you thankful for??

Review: Six of Crows

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Six of Crows #1
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Release Date: September 29th, 2015
Source: Book Expo America
Date Read: 11/16/15 to 11/21/15
465 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

SIX OF CROWS. SIX OF CROWS. YES I FINALLY READ IT. And yes REVIEW WILL BE LONG. Longer than my usual at least.

I have to admit, I don't know why I waited so long to read this. At first, I was going to wait until I finish The Grisha series, but that ended up not happening, so I just said "Ah screw it I'm reading this". Yes, I was a little intimidating by the length and the million perspectives, and the first chapter was a little weird, but this book was perfection. And it has been a while since I have said that.

Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Matthias, and Nina. Oh what to say about them. Character development? Yes. Massive shipping between characters? Yes. Love for each and every one? Yes. Let's be honest, I thought six characters was going to be WAAAAAY too much for my poor brain, but no. NOPE. I didn't even hate one perspective. That is how well done this is. Plus, I initially thought Wylan was just being thrown in there for no good reason. I thought he was going to be useless, but he ended up being a lovable, adorable, USEFUL, squish. Yes, I will call him a squish with no regrets.

Oh, and the setting of it all. I am just going to say one word. MISTBORN. I mean, for days, Holly has been telling me "Val, you gotta read Six of Crows," and then she mentioned heists and team members, and I was like "Wait, like MISTBORN?". And then while reading I kept on mentioning Mistborn, because you can totally compare this to Mistborn! One team, one impossible heist, some can use powers, others can't. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, since Bardugo's writing is much different from Sanderson's, but the resemblance is definitely there. Though I can say without doubt that all the characters in Six of Crows had much different personalities than the ones in Mistborn.

"Fine. But if Pekka Rollins kills us all, I'm going to get Wylan's ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost."

Brekker's lips quirked. "I'll just hire Matthias' ghost to kick your ghost's ass."

"My ghost won't associate with your ghost," Matthias said primly, and then wondered if the sea air was rotting his brain.

And the plot itself was ingenious, with twists and turns and explanations for when things could have gone horribly wrong. This team was tested time and time again, and each time I thought "Well damn here is where everything goes to shit." Guess who was proven wrong almost every time? Yeah me. If I can say one thing with certain, Leigh Bardugo knows how to write a masterful, thought out heist. (She could probably rob a bank at this point. And get away with it)

Though, I also found it incredibly convenient that when shit went down, it was miraculously solved. This doesn't lower my love for this book at all though, but it is something that Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight and I talked about. I am just surprised there weren't more setbacks. [Spoilers] I can't believe I am saying this, but I felt like someone had to go. Death was needed here [End Spoilers]

Print from RedBubble (evieseo) that Shannon had bought

To sum it all up, and I'm sure you've heard everyone say this, but you should read this book. However, NOTE. Although I was told that you did not need to read The Grisha Trilogy to read Six of Crows, there were spoilers for Ruin & Rising in the book. In other words, I would suggest that if you are planning to read The Grisha series, read that first! Or at least if you just read Shadow and Bone and are planning to continue the series, you should finish the series first. Even though the spoilers had nothing to do with the characters in The Grisha series, I still let out a "oh" while I was reading Six of Crows.

But if you don't care at all, then YES. GO FOR THIS. You will fall head over heels for all the characters.

Discovering A New Superhero To Love

Ever since playing Arkham City and Arkham Knight on the Playstations (still playing the latter), I've come to fall in love with Oracle, otherwise known as Batgirl in the past. However I hated how her past story took such a dreadful turn. This ended up turning me towards research (Wikipedia and Batman wikis), and finding out when, why, and how Oracle stopped being Batgirl. 

Barbara being shot in the spine by the Joker, and being paralyzed because of it, put a damper on the whole Batman storyline because I realized I would never be able to play as Batgirl. And it sucked just thinking of it like that. Don't get me wrong, I respect anyone with a disability, but I was just so disappointed in the fact that it happened. I really wanted to play as Batgirl, and I would have loved to see her in action. Plus, why is the girl the one to suffer such a major tragedy? You don't see this happening in male superheroes.

With all of this on my mind, I thought to myself "There must be SOMEONE out there who thought the same thing," and luckily, there was! Thank you for Gail Simone, for not only getting Batgirl back in action, but doing it correctly.

Batgirl (Volume IV): The Darkest Reflection by Gail Simone
Publisher: D. C. Comics
Release Date: July 17th, 2012
Source: Library
Date Read: 11/14/15
144 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰

The nightmare-inducing brute known as Mirror is destroying the lives of Gotham City residents seemingly at random. Will Barbara be able to survive her explosive confrontation with this new villain, as well as facing dark secrets from her past?

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

So this isn't necessarily going to be a review, but more of me gushing about how this set everything right again.

Some Background: Barbara Gordon is the commissioner's daughter, and because of her relationship with Batman, she's part of the team, but still works alone. However, after getting shot by Joker, she becomes paralyzed. Since she can only help mentally, she becomes Oracle, helping Batman with everything related to IT. This is where the video games leave off in her story.

Enter in Batgirl, The New 52. Here, Batgirl/Oracle/Barbara recovers the ability to walk due to neural surgery. After three years of being in a wheelchair, she is  Now you might think, "But why Val why? What's the point of the struggle when there is no disability? How is this fair to anyone else with this disability?" Actually, this aspect of the story was done very well. Throughout the first chapter, Barbara is constantly battling with herself. Why should she have overcome her disability, while others couldn't? She describes this as "Survivor's Guilt".

This very first chapter goes into depth on this as well. The villain, Mirror, doesn't believe in miracles. Due to his past, he believes that everyone deserves what could have happened to them, in other words he wants a world where no miracles exist. Therefore, he aims to kill everyone who doesn't deserve the miracle they got.

Obviously, Barbara is on this list, and this villain is a reflection of what she is battling inside. So yes, even though she does regain the use of her legs, she still suffers from PTSD (of guns and gunshots) and also feels extremely guilty for it.

Also, love seeing Barbara move out of her father's home and be independent. It's going to be interesting seeing how all the relationships develop throughout the series!

How do you feel about disabilities being cured in fiction? Does it take away from diversity? Is it not fair for others who are suffering from a disability?

What are your thoughts?

Top Ten Tuesday #76

Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish!

Top Ten Quotes I Loved From Books I Read In The Past Year Or So

So here comes all the fonts again! Good thing I just downloaded a bunch of them! Oh man though, from the past year? I keep having to yell at myself for not keeping track of ANY QUOTES.

Note: Books will not be linked because I'm a lazy poo.

The quote from The Love That Split The World is from an ARC, and may not appear that way in the final copy.

Review: The Summer of Chasing Mermaids

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: June 2nd, 2015
Source: Library
Date Read: 11/12/15 to 11/14/15
416 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰1/2

The youngest of six talented sisters, Elyse d’Abreau was destined for stardom—until a boating accident took everything from her. Now, the most beautiful singer in Tobago can’t sing. She can’t even speak.

Seeking quiet solitude, Elyse accepts a friend’s invitation to Atargatis Cove. Named for the mythical first mermaid, the Oregon seaside town is everything Elyse’s home in the Caribbean isn’t: An ocean too cold for swimming, parties too tame for singing, and people too polite to pry—except for one.

Christian Kane is a notorious playboy—insolent, arrogant, and completely charming. He’s also the only person in Atargatis Cove who doesn’t treat Elyse like a glass statue. He challenges her to express herself, and he admires the way she treats his younger brother Sebastian, who believes Elyse is the legendary mermaid come to life.

When Christian needs a first mate for the Cove’s high-stakes Pirate Regatta, Elyse reluctantly stows her fear of the sea and climbs aboard. The ocean isn’t the only thing making waves, though—swept up in Christian’s seductive tide and entranced by the Cove’s charms, Elyse begins to wonder if a life of solitude isn’t what she needs. But changing course again means facing her past. It means finding her inner voice. And scariest of all, it means opening her heart to a boy who’s best known for breaking them . . .

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

I was pleasantly surprised with how this Little Mermaid retelling went, like REALLY HAPPY that all the reviews I read of The Summer of Chasing Mermaids lived up to the book. This is truly a diverse novel, with a person of color who has a disability (in that she is mute).

For me, seeing Elyse without her voice, with all her dreams and plans crushed because of it, literally crushed my heart. It constantly made me think of my own future, and what would happen if that was all taken away from me. However, I realized, like Elyse, that having a home and finding your family is what really matters. Which is why it is not only the love interest, Christian, that helps her recover what she's lost, but also her family and friends. 

Even though the plot revolved around Elyse helping Christian fix up his boat to win the Pirate Regatta, a race that the both need to win due to an idiotic bet his father made with the mayor, it mainly focused on Elyse's recovery. As she hung out with both Christian, his adorable little brother Sebastian, she learns to look forward to the future again and face her fears with the sea. 

Speaking of the adorable little child---I mean brother, I can't really put into words how much of an impact he had on Elyse. First off, CHILDREN. You don't normally see such well developed children in YA, especially in the form of a younger brother. And he definitely had a personality. He loves mermaids, and he always wants to go searching for them in the cove. My favorite part is that this is not gender stereotyped at all, especially his love for dressing up as a mermaid. And everyone's support for him (Except the father and the mayor because ugh).

So here's a sum up so far of all the amazing things going on in this book.

• Diversity
• Feminism in Gender Equality/NO Gender Stereotypes
• Awesome friendships and family
• Romantic interest is not a jerk, and actually APPRECIATES Elyse for who she is, even though she can't talk.

Oh, and I forgot something.

An actual mention of self-pleasure AND I AM SO HAPPY because it was in a positive light (why wouldn't it be?) and though it wasn't super detailed, it was very easy to understand what was going on. I think this is such a good message to the target audience (and I mean everyone, really) because it shows that masturbation isn't this taboo thing, and it's good to explore your body. So yeah, this made me incredibly excited because I honestly thought this novel wasn't going to get any better.

I think I'm going to stop here because I have done so much talking about the awesomeness of this book. However, before that, I do want to mention that it has kind of bothered me that the model on the cover seems whitewashed. Is this just me and my thinking? It was mentioned that Elyse was dark-skinned, but I'm not sure how dark. Anyways, it has nothing to do with the content of the book.

Overall, everyone needs to read The Summer of Chasing Mermaids, because even though it is a contemporary retelling, it sure does a good job in tying it back to The Little Mermaid. Like a REALLY good job. So yes. READ. READ IT. 

Review: Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: September 8th, 2015
Source: Library
Date Read: 11/4/15 to 11/10/15
290 pages

Rating: ✰

From one of the greatest writers of our time: the most spellbinding, entertaining, wildly imaginative novel of his great career, which blends history and myth with tremendous philosophical depth. A masterful, mesmerizing modern tale about worlds dangerously colliding, the monsters that are unleashed when reason recedes, and a beautiful testament to the power of love and humanity in chaotic times.

Inspired by 2,000 years of storytelling yet rooted in the concerns of our present moment, this is a spectacular achievement--enchanting, both very funny and terrifying. It is narrated by our descendants 1000 years hence, looking back on "The War of the Worlds" that began with "the time of the strangenesses": a simple gardener begins to levitate; a baby is born with the unnerving ability to detect corruption in people; the ghosts of two long-dead philosophers begin arguing once more; and storms pummel New York so hard that a crack appears in the universe, letting in the destructive djinns of myth (as well as some graphic superheroes). Nothing less than the survival of our world is at stake. Only one, a djinn princess who centuries before had learned to love humankind, resolves to help us: in the face of dynastic intrigue, she raises an army composed of her semi-magical great-great--etc.--grandchildren--a motley crew of endearing characters who come together to save the world in a battle waged for 1,001 nights--or, to be precise, two years, eight months and twenty-eight nights.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope.

Guys, I don't know if you have ever read any of Rushdie's books, or even heard of this one because it is adult, but I just have to say that it really caters to a specific type of reader. And that reader is not me.

I'm not sure WHY was the November book for book club, but I am discontent. I honestly do not even remember voting for this, which is sad to say. Either that, or I was completely misled as to what this would actually be.

HERE'S WHAT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE ABOUT: Humankind is at stake, as the descendants of a djinn have their powers revealed due to the cracks in the universe. They have cool powers like levitation, detecting corruption, shooting lightning from their hands, etc. Like seriously, it's like X-Men, or it could have been.

WHAT IT REALLY WAS: Sex, sex, sex, random facts about the neighbors of the characters' neighbors and I don't even know what's going on because I DO NOT CARE ABOUT ALL 30 OF THESE SIDE CHARACTERS.

Luckily, I wasn't the only one that brought up my hatred of this book. One of my friends thought that most of the women portrayed in the story were only used to incorporate sex in the novel. Which again, not something I was interested in at all. AND WHY? Ugh. Also, the writing, it is not something you can read in a night. Even if it is less than 300 pages. It is just so dense and even skimming the rest of the book wasn't worth it. I understood nothing. And frankly, I'm glad I didn't.

As you can see. This isn't a book for me. And I know you guys have probably never heard of this, but I'll just say this is more of a warning than a review. I do not recommend this to readers who hate dense, detailed writing about characters that are not the main characters, and about unnecessary details about "romance". This does not truly focus on the fantasy aspect of all the characters and the djinns, which is why I was misled in the first place. 

LE SIGH.

(If by some chance, you HAVE read this, then I am thoroughly impressed because this is a really hard book to get through!) 

Top Tuesday #75

Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish!

Top Ten Book To Movie Adaptations I'm Looking Forward To

There are actually going to be some of my favorites coming to the big screens soon! And when I say soon, I unfortunately mean a couple years from now. But that's okay right? I can always wait? (No I cannot). I guess the only thing I have to worry about is the casting. Will the cast fit my favorite characters? WILL THEY? I guess we'll find out!

Also, I have no idea whether any of these are confirmed? I'm pretty sure most of them are?

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor - I would pay with everything I have to watch this now. I literally do not know HOW they will create this film because it just seems so complicated! I guess it will all be CGI basically? STILL WANNA SEE IT. 

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater - Oh man the casting will have to be perfect for this!

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Need I say more than watch this trailer?

All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven - I'm pretty sure Jennifer Niven was going to be her own screenwriter, but who knows?

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo - I didn't know this would be an option! I badly wish for this to happen! (And then I'll have to finish the series). 

Unwind by Neal Shusterman - I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS GOING TO BE A THING EITHER. Man Shannon must be really happy that this is an option.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - This is in development I'm pretty sure? I have read this a long time ago, but I did enjoy it, so I do want to see where they take it. 

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - IF THIS IS GOING TO BE A MOVIE I WILL BE SO FREAKING EXCITED. I loved this book. Did I mention that? This reminds me that I need to get my hands on the graphic novel.

The BFG by Roald Dahl - I could've SWORN I saw some animated version of this book when I was younger and in elementary school. BUT OK I will take the live action version!  

I skipped out on #10 because I am still confused on what is confirmed and what is optioned. I don't want to get my hopes up ahahah.

What movies are you looking forward to?