5 Series I’ve Given Up On

I’ve come to accept that there’s a time in your reading life when you just have to say, “Enough is enough!” and give up on that series that you’ve been “meaning” to read. This has happened to me several times over the years and I wanted to share a few of those with you today.

I just want to clarify real quick, I’m definitely in the middle of some series that have…ahem…stalled…but that I’m still planning on getting back to (Caraval, Jackaby, or Miss Peregrine’s for example). In contrast, this is a list of series that I have legitimately no intention of going back to.

I Am Number Four series

I really liked this series and meeting the whole cast of characters, but it just has droned on and on. I think there are like…10 books at this point? I’m just done with the series and it would probably read too young for me anyway.

Cassandra Clare

I never ended up reading book 6 of The Mortal Instruments series let alone The Dark Artifices series. This is another case where I really liked the series when I was in high school, but I think that the writing probably wouldn’t live up to my current standards.

Legend trilogy by Marie Lu

I’m pretty sure I read the first two books in this series? But then by the time the third book came out, I’d lost interest. I had a copy of Champion on my shelf for a while, but I eventually unhauled it.

Firebird trilogy by Claudia Gray

Similar to Legend, I read the first two books and I actually still have the third sitting on my Kindle, but I feel no draw to get back to it.

Rick Riordan

This is another series that has kind of exploded with the number of books that are in it. There’s like three different series that are all intertwined or something? I’ve just completely lost track of which books I’ve read in which series. I’ll always love Greek and Roman mythology and they were great for the time of my life that I was in when I was reading them, but I need to move on.

What are some series that you’ve given up on? Let me know in the comments! And stay tuned for another blog post coming soon featuring series that I’ve finished and remember nothing about!

Super read-alikes for Superbowl LII

I know this community is super into football, right? Wait, we’re not? Ah, just kidding of course. I’m actually not a HUGE fan myself, but I married someone who has three brothers and they all love sports of any kind. I have watched more sporting events with these guys in the last five years than I had my entire life previous. I would go so far as to say that I haven’t missed a major sporting event for the last five years. Baseball, football, basketball of course, but also golf, tennis, soccer, horse racing, etc. THESE GUYS LOVE SPORTS.

So my purpose with this post is to help make the Superbowl a little more accessible for those of us who will only be watching for the commercials and the half-time show.

Here’s to you guys

The New England Patriots

The Patriots and Tom Brady are the obvious favorites of this Superbowl. They’ve been like eight times in the last 10 years. They’re a dominant dynasty. We all agree that these guys are good. Their defense isn’t great so they’ll mostly be counting on their #1 offense (led by Tom Brady of course) to outscore their opponent.

If you like the Patriots, you might also like:

I think most readers and bloggers would say that they like these books. Cassandra Clare keeps coming back to the same world with new-ish stories and you can pretty much count on a new book coming out every year. These books have a consistency that could be perceived as either comforting or boring depending on the reader. I would say that the overall idea behind these books was pretty unique at the time and hasn’t been able to be adequately replicated by anyone since. The series is super mainstream these days after having both a movie AND a popular TV show made based on it.

This series is the Patriots. While there’s not a ton of depth throughout the series (defense), the fact that the series remains consistent and that a new book comes out so often means that nobody can forget that it exists (offense). I mean, the first book came out over ten years ago, but like Tom Brady, there’s still something really ageless about it.

The Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles were a surprise this year. The last time they made it to the Superbowl was in 2004. They have a great new quarterback, Carson Wentz, but when he got injured at the beginning of December, there wasn’t much hope that the team would get this far. Luckily, they came up with a backup plan. Nick Foles had been the Eagles QB in the past, but was replaced by Wentz as the starter. He got a chance to come back and has helped the team to make it to the Superbowl. With their amazing defense, the Eagles hope to shut Tom Brady down.

If you like the Eagles, you might also like:

Neal Shusterman made a big splash a couple of years ago with National Book Award winner Challenger Deep and there has been a moderate amount of buzz surrounding his recent Arc of a Scythe series. But did anyone remember that he has a four book series that came out before that? Shusterman’s Unwind series is a social commentary that was ahead of its time.

This series and Neal Shusterman are the Eagles. Shusterman’s had some really great recent stuff (Carson Wentz), but when it comes down to it, it’s the past (Nick Foles) that’s going to make an impact. Like the Eagles, the Unwind Dystology doesn’t necessarily have a “star player”, but it’s really effective as a “team”. On Goodreads, all four books have a significantly higher than 4-star rating (4.18, 4.25, 4.23, 4.48 respectively). Cassandra Clare’s books may be flashy and get a lot of publicity, but I think Neal Shusterman’s books deserve our respect as well.

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So there’s my in-depth bookish analysis of the Superbowl. I hope football makes a little more sense now and that you feel inspired to read some of Neal Shusterman’s books (to be completely transparent, I haven’t actually read any of his books either, but I plan to).

What books would you say best represent these two teams? And are you going to be watching the Superbowl today?

And here:

I know this is what you really came for

Top Ten Tuesday: New Releases That I Totally Meant to Get to in 2016 but Didn’t

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is a freebie, so I decided to go with a topic that I think they had earlier this year that I didn’t get to: New releases that I meant to read in 2016, but didn’t.

Books that are literally sitting on my shelf right now:

They just sit on my shelf and mock me. Honestly, looking at some of these I’m genuinely surprised that they only came out last year–they seem older to me.

Other books I meant to read:

 

Are any of you guys in the same boat as me? Or am I alone? Which one of these am I totally missing out on and need to read ASAP?

Top Ten Tuesday: Exciting Early 2016 Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The First Half of 2016

This is pretty similar to a TTT that I did a few weeks back, so there are some repeats.

Top Ten Tuesday: Author Collabs

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Top Ten Author Duos You’d LOVE To See Write A Book Together

1) Sarah Dessen + Morgan Matson = Contemporary YA with the best girl/girl best friendship ever.

2) Leigh Bardugo + Laini Taylor = Fantasy with crazy world building and hardcore heroine.

3) Jennifer E Smith + Kasie West = YA romance with the girl we all wish we were and the best male lead.

4) James Dashner + Michael Grant = Hardcore boy(s) survival story.

5) John Green + Rainbow Rowell = Something contemporary with all of the feels.

6) Cassandra Clare + Gail Carriger = STEAMPUNK. Snarky heroine.

7) Veronica Roth + Marie Lu = Dystopian world, heroine who has so many more skills than I could ever dream of.

8) Marissa Meyer + Rosamund Hodge = Best fairytale retelling of all time.

9) Ally Condie + Kiera Cass = Civilized dystopian world. Love triangle.

10) Megan Shepherd + Lauren DeStefano = Mildly science-fictiony with a thread of something dark, almost gothic.

HW Assignment: The Iron Trial by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

Note: This post was used as a homework assignment and contains spoilers.

The theme in this book that I think children will most relate to is internal conflict. Initially, Call feels conflicted over the Magisterium. Even though his dad warned him against it, Call starts to feel at home and is enjoying his time at school. “He imagined being a mage and playing in bubbling springs and conjuring movies out of thin air. He imagined being good at this stuff, one of the Masters, even. But then he thought of his dad sitting at the kitchen table all by himself, worrying over Call, and felt awful” (107-8).

Another example is when Call finds out that he is really the Enemy of Death. He has a hard time deciding whether or not to tell anyone what he’s found out. He doesn’t want the others to hate him or to take away his magic. He justifies his actions to himself, “Even if he had been Constantine Madden once, it wasn’t like he remembered any of it. He was still Callum, wasn’t he? Still the same person. He hadn’t become evil. He didn’t wish harm to the Magisterium. And what was a soul, anyway? It didn’t tell you what to do. He could make his own decisions” (286). In this quote, Call also expresses conflict over his identity. He thought he was one person, but then finds out that he may have a darker side to him. I think this is another aspect of the story that children will be able to relate to. For the most part, kids try to be good, but they may have a dark side. Something within that tells them to say something hurtful to someone or steal a candy bar from the store. As the series progresses, I think that Call will be able to confront the bad side of himself and will be a good example to children who want to do the same thing. A similar example of this is Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. He’s told at the beginning of his journey that he could equally belong to both Gryffindor (good) and Slytherin (evil). Harry has an internal Gryffindor versus Slytherin battle throughout the entire series. Elisabeth Gattullo Marrocolla’s review of The Iron Trial on School Library Journal also compares the book to Harry Potter. She says that Clare and Black have created “…a cast of characters that’s both recognizable and excitingly new.”

Lastly, it’s refreshing to me that this book isn’t focused on the “golden-child, chosen one, savior of us all” character (Aaron). I think a lot of kids feel overshadowed by one or more of their friends or siblings, and I think they will be able to relate to Call in that way as well. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen is another book that includes the theme of feeling overshadowed. In this case, Sydney feels overshadowed by her older brother Peyton, first because of his personality and then because of a drunk driving accident that he caused.