Can’t Wait Wednesday – THE GIRL KING by Mimi Yu
/34 Comments/by Suzanne
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll just be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.
* * * * *
My selection for this week is THE GIRL KING by Mimi Yu. Unwitting sibling rivalry, a wolf shapeshifter, and deadly forbidden magic?! Yes, please!
THE GIRL KING by Mimi Yu
Publication Date: January 8, 2019
From Goodreads
Two sisters become unwitting rivals in a war to claim the title of Emperor in this sweeping tale of ambition, sacrifice and betrayal for readers of Sabaa Tahir and Alwyn Hamilton.
All hail the Girl King.
Sisters Lu and Min have always understood their places as princesses of the Empire. Lu knows she is destined to become the dynasty’s first female ruler, while Min is resigned to a life in her shadow. Then their father declares their male cousin Set the heir instead—a betrayal that sends the sisters down two very different paths.
Determined to reclaim her birthright, Lu goes on the run. She needs an ally—and an army—if she is to succeed. Her quest leads her to Nokhai, the last surviving wolf shapeshifter. Nok wants to keep his identity secret, but finds himself forced into an uneasy alliance with the girl whose family killed everyone he ever loved…
Alone in the volatile court, Min’s hidden power awakens—a forbidden, deadly magic that could secure Set’s reign…or allow Min to claim the throne herself. But there can only be one Emperor, and the sisters’ greatest enemy could turn out to be each other.
* * * * *
I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂
Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Authors I’d Love to Meet
/48 Comments/by SuzanneTop 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 Authors I’d Love to Meet. I remember doing a similar topic last year, but the great thing about being addicted to books is that I’m always discovering more authors that I’d love to meet. I’m always interested in meeting authors that I think I could not only chat with about their books, but that (assuming I didn’t just sit there and flail speechlessly because I’m meeting my favorites), I could also have real conversations with about what’s going on in the world socially, politically, etc. and how real world events shape what they’re writing about at any given moment. For those who are interested, here’s my list of authors from last year: Top Top Authors I’m Dying to Meet.
And below are ten more authors that I think would be equally fascinating to meet someday…
* * * * *
10 Authors I’d Love to Meet
1. ALICE HOFFMAN
Alice Hoffman is the author of Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic, Faithful, and many more, and she has been a favorite of mine for years. Her prose is so lyrical, yet so natural and effortless at the same time. I’d love to talk to her about where she gets her inspiration from for the magical stories she writes.
“Books may well be the only true magic.”
* * * * *
2. LIANE MORIARTY
LIane Moriarty is the author of the best selling Big Little Lies, which has also been made into a very popular TV series on HBO. I’d love to chat with her about her success. Did she ever imagine that she would basically become a household name when she was writing Big Little Lies?
“The good thing about writing a novel is that you’re creating an imaginary world and can take a break when you need to.”
* * * * *
3. LEIGH BARDUGO
Leigh Bardugo is the author of two of my favorites series, the Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. I’d love to talk to her about how she came up with the whole idea of the Grishaverse, as well as her writing process.
“I think the first trick to writing a feminist work is to write plenty of women. That way you get to write characters, instead of worrying about paradigms.”
* * * * *
4. MICHELLE OBAMA
I just adore Michelle Obama. She’s so intelligent and an all around class act, and I’m beyond excited that her book is coming out soon. I’d love to meet her not just because of her status as a former First Lady, but just because I think she would be so fascinating to talk to about pretty much any topic.
“Failure is an important part of your growth and developing resilience. Don’t be afraid to fail.”
* * * * *
5. GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
I think it would be somewhat intimidating to meet George R. R. Martin, but I’d still love to, mainly because I’d love to ask him about his process and if he ever has regrets about killing off some of his characters.
“I have a huge emotional attachment to characters I’ve created, especially the viewpoint characters.”
* * * * *
6. TOMI ADEYEMI
Tomi Adeyemi is the author of the immensely popular Children of Blood and Bone novel. I’d love to meet her and talk about what comes next for the characters I fell in love with in the first book of this series.
“I want a little black girl to pick up my book one day and see herself as the star. I want her to know that she’s beautiful and she matters, and she can have a crazy magical adventure even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger.”
* * * * *
7. BECKY ALBERTALLI
I’d love to meet Becky to thank her for writing wonderful books filled with some of the most relatable characters I’ve ever come across. I can’t wait to read her upcoming collaboration with Adam Silvera.
“People really are like houses with vast rooms and tiny windows and maybe it’s a good thing, the way we never stop surprising each other.” (Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda)
* * * * *
8. KATHERINE ARDEN
Katherine Arden is the author of one of my favorite series, The Winternight Trilogy. I’d love to talk to her about her inspiration for this series and to see if she would give me a sneak peek of the final book, which I’m dying to get my hands on but it doesn’t come out until January 2019.
“Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.” (The Girl in the Tower)
* * * * *
9. DAN BROWN
I’d love to meet Dan Brown, mainly just to see how many more ideas he has for Robert Langdon books or if he’ll be introducing a new series anytime soon.
“I’m fascinated by power, especially veiled power. Shadow power. The National Security Agency. The National Reconnaissance Office. Opus Dei. The idea that everything happens for reasons we’re not quite seeing.”
* * * * *
10. RICK RIORDAN
I’d love to meet Rick Riordan to thank him for writing books that have made my son love reading.
“Being a hero doesn’t mean you are invincible. It means you are brave enough to stand up and do what’s right.”
* * * * *
Question: So there’s my 10. What authors are you dying to meet? Would any of mine make your list?
Weekly Recap #72: Week of 9/23-9/29
/34 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.
Thanks so much to everyone for their kind words about my grandmother’s passing. They really meant a lot to me. I traveled to attend the funeral services this week. They were lovely — I think she would have been pleased — and now I’m back at home and back at work. I probably could have taken another day or so off, but I just prefer to stay busy.
Because I like to stay busy, I have also been working to get caught up on the blog for the past couple of days. I still have a little catching up to do with comments, etc but hope that I’ll be fully caught up by the end of the weekend.
Reading wise, I actually ended up finishing two books from my backlist, Girl out of Water and Bone Gap. Both were available in audiobook form from the library so I listened to them while I was traveling. I also read and sadly did not like The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton. I wanted to like this one so much, but the pace was just so slow, the timelines were actually very confusing, and there were way too many characters to keep track of. It’s an epic that just turned out to be a little too epic for me. I’ve seen a few other Morton fans say this one is quite different from what she usually writes, so I would still like to try another of her books. This was just disappointing since it was one of my most anticipated reads for the fall.
I don’t have much else to report at this time. New fall TV shows have started. I DVR’ed several, including the Murphy Brown reboot, but haven’t had time to watch any yet. I also saw that SOLO is now out on DVD so I’ll probably try to rent that soon since we never made it to the theaters to watch it. The rest of my time will be filled with soccer. Our season should be ending on 10/1 but so many games have been rained out that we have makeups scheduled all the way through 10/9, then still have to work playoffs in. I’m leaving for NYC on 10/21 so we’re going to be cutting it close, lol.
Oh well, that’s it for me. I hope everyone else has a great week!
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [23 Sep] Weekly Recap #71: Week of 9/16-9/22
- [25 Sep] Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Books By My Favorite Authors That I Still Haven’t Read
- [26 Sep] Can’t Wait Wednesday – NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Liane Moriarty
- [28 Sep] The Spy with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke ★★★★½
- [28 Sep] Unstoppable Moses by Tyler James Smith ★★★½
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM