Thank you, llamareadsbooks! Emmalita’s review got me quite interested in Sword, Stone, Table: Old Legends, New Voices since I’ve always liked Arthurian myths and retellings. As I’m working on improving the diversity of the voices I read, this anthology of “gender-bent, race-bent, LGTQIA+ inclusive retellings” from a diverse group of authors will help with that. I’m looking forward to reading this next year 🙂 Giving and receiving books is the best way to celebrate the holidays! Merry Book Exchange!
“Power taken and not returned incurs a debt. And the universe, and the debt, will always come to collect, one way or another.” #CBRBINGO – Mythic
Legendborn (Legendborn, #1) by Tracy Deonn
This takes tired YA fantasy tropes and makes them feel so fresh. Just a super solid book and I can’t wait to see where she takes the rest of the series. So I finished this book back in July and I was riding high off of it, but I procrastinated the review, so my middle-aged brain is having to strain a little on this one. Bottom line before you read any further, if you normally stay away from YA fantasy like I do, because of […]
cbr12bingo – Red!
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
Every entry into Rivers of London starts with a splash; we are always diving head-first, sometimes literally, into rivers of blood. Every delightful cover, all done by Patrick Knowles, is a map with a big, red, bloody “X” marking the spot. Every cover is a map, every map is filled with teensy tiny detail, and every seemingly unrelated sketch or nursery rhyme lyric builds together into the marvelous mess that is London. I love his minute details; I feel like I’m looking at a Where’s Waldo illustration for […]
The King Arthur Legend Grounded in Historical Reality
Bingo Square: Throwback Thursday I originally read this novel, and the rest of the trilogy it belongs to, over a decade ago when I was in Iraq. It was a gift from the same friend that turned to me onto A Game of Thrones, and I had fond memories of this take on the Arthurian legend that mostly attempts to be grounded in reality. As a historical fiction nerd, I can definitely see why this approach appealed to me, especially since it leaned heavily on […]
The end of the Sequence
Silver on the Tree is the final book in The Dark is Rising Sequence. Here, all the important characters from the Light and the Dark come together for the final battle. I’m not sure if it was because both times I listened to this, it was too late to give it my best attention, or if it was the story itself, but this was my least favourite of the series. Alex Jennings returns as narrator, along with the other characters adding a sense of unity […]
Things get darker
Ah! Where did Alex Jennings go? After listening to the same narrator for the first three audiobooks in the series, I was initially jolted to hear a different voice for The Grey King. I thought nobody would do as well with this book as Alex Jennings had been doing. But happily, I soon accepted Richard Mitchley’s voice and as the story unfolded, it made a lot of sense to have a different narrator. Although, Will Stanton was in the previous two books, The Dark is […]