“If you’re as good as your word, words should be good enough.”
from “Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell
Author: Michelle
Two Book Tuesday
It has been notoriously difficult to get my hands on the books I really wanted to read this month. I’ve had a title requested at Barnes & Noble for nearly 4 weeks with no delivery date in sight, hunted down three books at local libraries only to have them checked out mere hours before my arrival, and just had pretty bad luck all around.
Once I finally found a handful of books to read, I sat myself down and started Bob by Wendy Moss.
Honestly, Bob feels like a story I might have read when I was a child. There is a sense of nostalgia and childlike wonder and belief in the imaginary that brought me back to my early years as a reader.
It was such fun remembering along with Livy and discovering where Bob came from.
The second title for Two Book Tuesday is Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat. It has been on my TBR for an absolute age and I’m going to read it, even if it kills me! (spoiler: it probably won’t)
I’ve heard that it’s about a prince who is betrayed by his brother and sent as a slave to serve the prince of another country with whom tensions are high.
It sounded interesting and it’s been suggested to me a number of times, so we’ll see what the verdict is once I get into it.
What do you think of these two books?
Do you think I’ll be captivated by Captive Prince?
Let me know in the comments!
Writing | Mythentario
Their meeting was the kind of slow-coming, unavoidable fate that one reads about in grand stories, but it was one that would shape the path of their combined future irrevocably.
Dylan couldn’t breathe. He was lying on the cold sidewalk outside of his apartment building staring up at the sodden, dark grey clouds hanging low in the sky.
He honestly had no idea how he’d gotten to be in this position.
“Oh, I am sorry!” A lilting voice said.
Dylan looked down, or rather up, at the owner of the voice. The blonde man was perched across his chest, slim wrists bracing him up as his hands pressed into the wet concrete on either side of Dylan’s head.
“Oh…”
Their eyes met and Dylan couldn’t help but fall into those sea foam orbs, his discomfort at being knocked over and soaking wet falling to the wayside as he stared up at the other man.
“Umm, hello there. I think you’re the one I’ve been looking for.”
“One what?” Dylan found himself asking. He was beginning to question why the other man had yet to stand up.
And then he saw it. The tip of a tail peaking over the man’s shoulder, twitching slightly.
‘From nerves?’ He wondered. For all his knowledge of creatures, he had no idea what exactly the tail was supposed to communicate.
“You’re the one who let us go, my brethren and I… don’t you remember?”
And suddenly Dylan did. He remembered the almost suffocating humidity of that jungle night, the way everything went absolutely still, and how his heart seemed to want to leap from his chest at the sight before him.
As a Mythentario, he’d been hired to track and kill a ravenous nest of naga that had recently appeared in the area and begun killing livestock and stealing children.
Or so he’d been told.
What he had found instead was a small group of adolescent naga that had been offering shelter to those who’d been sold into slavery or suffered abuse. Both were crimes that had been ignored by those who held power in the region.
Mythentarios were not just hunters of demons and monsters, they were also keepers of the peace and were tasked with dealing out justice to those who broke the laws of the land.
That justice took the form of fever and boils in the guilty and those who had turned a blind eye. The perpetrators died painful deaths and those guilty of willful ignorance had been left with visible scars to mark their crimes.
Dylan returned home after making sure that the victims would be cared for and then he made the trek back into the jungle to see if he could locate the naga’s nest again but had been unsuccessful. It appeared that they had moved on once the Mythentario had taken care of things.
“I remember.” He said. “But I don’t understand why you’ve been looking for me. You didn’t wait for me to arbitrate for your group and it’s been years since that happened. What could you possibly want from me now?”
Their eyes met again and Dylan could almost feel a bit of the power the naga’s distant cousin, the gorgon, held as the world seemed to slip away.
“Of course I would search for you. You’re my soulmate.”
©2019 S Hostetter
Music Review | Favorite Songs of 2019
I listen to a lot of music.
No, really, I turn it on as soon as I wake up in the morning, when I hop in the car to drive someplace, and when I’m just sitting around. There is always music playing, either from my phone or in my head. Actually, about the only time I don’t listen to music is when I’m in bed, trying to fall asleep because having noise in the room means my brain won’t shut off.
What can I say? I’m just a musical person.
Spotify automatically creates a playlist of your top 100 most played songs of 2019 and it was a pretty eclectic list, so I’m choosing to share with you my top 10 favorite songs instead…
Continue reading “Music Review | Favorite Songs of 2019”
February TBR
I try to pick at least three books to read each month and here’s what I have in the pipeline for February… Some have been on my to read list for ages, others are quirky, and one just sounds like fun!
Nonfiction:
One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer by Nathaniel Fick
If the Marines are ‘the few, the proud,’ Recon Marines are the fewest and the proudest. Nathaniel Fick’s military training begins with a hellish summer at Quantico, and just after 9/11 Fick finds himself leading a platoon into Afghanistan.
Two years later he advances to the pinnacle — Recon — on the eve of the war with Iraq. Leading twenty-two Marines into this deadly conflict, he vows to bring them all home safely. To do so, he’ll need luck and an increasingly clear vision of the limitations of his superiors.
Fick unveils the process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won insights into the differences between military ideals and military practice, which can mock those ideals. One Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but ultimately it is an inspiring account of mastering the art of war.
Graphic novel:
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
This book contains many stories, big and small, about and pertaining to the following things: Gods, monsters, mad kings, wise old crones, shamans, medicine men, brothers and sisters, strife, mystery, bad science, worse geography, and did we already mention true love?
Critics are saying it is probably the best thing since sliced bread.
Romance:
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius–his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House.
There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and is basically a list of challenges that you can participate in each Tuesday and I think it’s a fun way to get to know your personal library.
The challenge for today was “Book Cover Freebie (choose what kind(s) of covers you want to talk about: prettiest, most unique, most misleading, weirdest, most memorable, creepiest, ugliest, etc.)”
Here are the covers and I’ll be sharing my thoughts below…
Fragment by Warren Fahy is probably one of my favorite covers, it’s just so ominous and really does the story justice. The characters within must deal with deadly creatures in order to survive and escape the terrifying island they’ve discovered, but something else escapes too… dun, dun, dun!
Ghost by Carole Cummings, book one in the Wolf’s Own quartet, was initially quite difficult for me to get into. I love the intensity on Fen’s face here, as if he’s going to take you right out of existence if you’re not careful. Cummings just kind of drops you into this world and, as much as the cover made me want to read this book, I had to really work to get into it. Once it got a hold of me, this series did not let me go!
The God Engines by John Scalzi instantly caught my eye when it came across my desk at the Germantown Community Library. I immediately added it to my “To Read” list and waited (im)patiently for it to come out of new book status. This book is amazing and certainly lives up the creepiness that it’s cover exudes.
Once Upon a Flock by Lauren Scheuer is just as cute as the cover indicates! I kind of just stumbled across this title while I was organizing the shelves at the library and absolutely had to add it to my stack of books to take home.
The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic by F. T. Lukens has a very simplistic style of cover art, but it is also very telling about the story’s contents. Quirky and 100% having re-readability, this title is great for an afternoon or lunch-break read. I just found out that the sequel was just recently released and I cannot wait to get my hands on it!
Seven Tears At High Tide by C. B. Lee has such a beautiful cover. It looks like a painting that I would love to have on my wall and, when I found out that one of the Main Characters is a selkie, well I just had to have it. There just aren’t enough books about selkie in the world today.
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson was just too cool not to check out from my local library. I actually ended up listening to the audio book (same cover) and it is an amazing story… I only wish that we had more to read in this universe.
Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz again, has a simple cover, but some times simple is good and this is one of those times! I adore how the two fish hooks have been placed to form a heart (yes, this story is romantic) even while the title puts you on edge (and it really should, because the story is also horrifying).
Touch by Alexi Zentner is the only title on this list that I have not read, but the cover is what made me add it to my “To Read” list in the first place. This cover looks like it came right out of my childhood growing up in the woods of northern Wisconsin. I only wish I could read this book AND enjoy the same views from my own window… alas, Memphis, Tennessee rarely gets snow!
What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera might be the last book on my list, but it’s just as good as all of the others. The cover and the story are both contemporary and so very well done. I love the little details such as the torn jeans and the lack of socks to the postage on the box and the way the two boys are looking back at each other. Such a good book!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I will earn a small amount, if you purchase an item through these links. All proceeds go to purchasing supplies for Micro-Preemie socks that are knitted by hand and donated to a local Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Thank you for your kind support.
Music Minute | Talk You Out of It by Florida Georgia Line
I’m not normally a fan of country music, it’s just too… twangy? But Talk You Out of It by Florida Georgia Line is most certainly an exception to that (even if it’s got that twang, lol).
The premise of this song is a guy wanting to take his girl out, convincing her to spoil herself and enjoy dressing herself up, and then realizing he really just wants to talk her right back out of it. It’s cute, catchy, and actually kind of sweet.
I wouldn’t say that the music video is anything amazing, but it offers some interesting visuals and lighting, so if that’s your thing, enjoy!
Meandering Michelle 