Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves Waiting for Me to Read Them
/46 Comments/by Suzanne
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 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is actually Top Ten Longest Books I’ve Ever Read, but I’ve already done a post like that recently and haven’t read any longer books since then, so I tweaked the topic a bit to focus on big books I own but haven’t read yet. Today I’m sharing a list of 10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves Waiting for Me to Read Them. Some of these, like IQ84, have been sitting on my shelves for years and I just keep bypassing them for shorter and less daunting reads. Others, like the Maas books, are newer additions that I’m excited to get to, but still tend to side eye and skip over in favor of shorter reads.
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10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves
Waiting for Me to Read Them
IQ84 by Haruki Murakami (1,157 pages)
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS by George R. R. Martin (1,051 pages)
THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON by Tom Clancy (1,028 pages)
A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara (814 pages)
EMPIRE OF STORMS by Sarah J. Maas (693 pages)
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL by Philppa Gregory (661 pages)
QUEEN OF SHADOWS by Sarah J. Maas (645 pages)
THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco (535 pages)
MUSE OF NIGHTMARES by Laini Taylor (514 pages)
THUNDERHEAD by Neal Shusterman (504 pages)
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What are some big books sitting on your shelves waiting to be read?
Review: WILDCARD
/12 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: Warcross
Series: Warcross #2
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on September 18, 2018
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction
Pages: 341
Also in this series: Warcross
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads
WILDCARD REVIEW:
Marie Lu’s Warcross was one of my favorite reads from 2017. It was an action-packed, thrill ride and I adored the main character Emika Chen and her Warcross teammates, the Phoenix Riders. Emika’s overall badassery, the brilliant worldbuilding that took us inside the world of the Warcross Games, and the comradery that develops between Emika and the Phoenix Riders, really made Warcross an exciting and entertaining read for me. It also had a killer ending that left me anxious to get my hands on the next novel in the series, Wildcard.
I always find it hard to review books that are part of a series. I want to share so much but also don’t want to spoil anything for readers who haven’t started the series yet, so here’s a general list of what worked and what didn’t work for me as I was reading Wildcard.
- Emika Chen is still all kinds of awesome. It seems like everyone she encounters in Wildcard is trying to use her for some purpose or another, but she remains determined to do what she thinks is right, no matter what. I really admired her strength and that fierce determination.
- Wildcard is a much different read than Warcross. Where Warcross is mostly about the excitement of the Warcross games and having us get to know Emika and Hideo, Wildcard makes a much more emotional punch as it takes us deeper into Hideo’s character and explores the heartbreaking backstory of Hideo’s younger brother, who was kidnapped and hasn’t been seen since. Hideo has been searching for his brother for years and we can see firsthand in Wildcard how the search for his brother has shaped Hideo’s every move. I really liked the added depth that the history of Hideo and his brother gave to the overall story.
- I don’t want to say too much about him, but I think Zero was actually the most fascinating part of Wildcard for me. In many ways he steals the spotlight from Emika at times, but his whole story was so interesting that I honestly didn’t mind that one bit.
- I also really liked the direction that Marie Lu took with Emika and Hideo’s relationship. If you were shipping them in the first book, I think you’ll be pleased, and I actually think even if you weren’t, you’ll be more into the complexities of their relationship this time around.
- I did have some issues with the pacing of the novel. I remember breezing through Warcross in a day or two, but Wildcard took me almost a whole week. Most of it went by fairly quickly but there were a few times when I found myself skimming because it felt like the story was dragging.
- Even though I liked that this book was a different read and that it went way beyond just playing Warcross, I have to say I really missed the actual playing of the game, the practice sessions, and all of those things that made the first book so much fun.
- Since the Phoenix Riders team was one of my favorite things about the first book, I wanted them to have a much bigger presence in this novel than they ended up having.
- This will probably end up being just a “me” thing, but the ending seemed a little off. It’s hard to describe but I got to what I thought was the end, but then turned the page and it kept going. Then I thought it was over a second time, turned the page, and there was still another chapter. I was starting to wonder if it was ever going to end, lol.
Wildcard is a more intense read than Warcross in a lot of ways. The stakes are definitely higher in this second installment since it moves beyond the idea of a bunch of teams trying to win a video game tournament. Some of the differences worked for me, and some of them didn’t quite work, but even with the issues I had with Wildcard, I still think it’s a very worthy follow-up to Warcross.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo’s new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she’s always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.
Determined to put a stop to Hideo’s grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone’s put a bounty on Emika’s head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn’t all that he seems–and his protection comes at a price.
Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?
About Marie Lu
Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Legend trilogy and The Young Elites trilogy. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing Assassin’s Creed, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California (see above: traffic), with one husband, one Chihuahua mix, and two Pembroke Welsh corgis.
Weekly Recap #73: Week of 9/30-10/6
/38 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
I don’t have much to write about this week. I’ve been busy at work with our last two major deadlines of the year looming on October 15th. So I’ve been working, working, working all day and sitting around like a slug all evening, lol. On the plus side, I do have a trip to NYC coming up in a couple of weeks that I’m stoked about. I still need to come up with a few more things to do, which sometimes gets challenging since I’ve already done most of the obvious touristy activities. What I do know so far is that I’ll be seeing Hamilton and Springsteen on Broadway while I’m there, celebrating my birthday which happens to be that week, and hanging out with one of my best friends so I’m really looking forward to it.
Because of my work deadlines, I didn’t really get much reading done this week either. I finally finished Wildcard last night, and it was my only read for the whole week. I don’t know if it’s just because I was so tired all week, but it took me a lot longer to read that one than Warcross and I found myself skimming at times. I still ended up really liking it in the end thankfully, but I was surprised that I didn’t find it more riveting since I thought Warcross was so epic. My library loans for Sea Witch and Good Luck with That also came through at the end of last week, so I’m shuffling up my upcoming reads to try to fit those in before they’re due to go back to the library.
Aside from that, I did find one new TV addiction. I’m two years late to the party, but I’m officially obsessed with This is Us. As I’ve been sitting around like a lump this week, I’ve watched 12 episodes from season 1 and can honestly say that all the hype surrounding this show is real. I’ve loved every minute of it so far. I still haven’t watched a single new fall show yet and at the rate I’m going, that probably won’t happen until after my trip. If you’ve discovered any good ones though, let me know. Almost all of my shows got cancelled so I’ll be looking for new ones to watch.
Oh well, that’s it for me. I hope everyone else has a great week!
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [30 Sep] Weekly Recap #72: Week of 9/23-9/29
- [2 Oct] Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Authors I’d Love to Meet
- [3 Oct] Can’t Wait Wednesday – THE GIRL KING by Mimi Yu
- [5 Oct] The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain ★★★★★
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM