TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books I’d Want With Me While Stranded On a Deserted Island

 Thanks to Jana for hosting Top Ten Tuesday every week. I made this video back in January and these books are ones that I have read and are some of my favorites. I would like to re read these soon, and highly recommend if you have not read any of these or are hesitant. 

Review: The Last Days of New Paris by China Mieville

 

A book that I had high expectations for and it was confusing as hell. Thus us the second book I have read by China Mieville. The first book was a little confusing but it was enjoyable and thrilling. This one was hard to follow. It is dual timeline and it involves surrealist art.

The book start in 1950 in Paris and we follow a guy named Thibaut who is running from Nazi's and manifs that have come to life by an S-blast bomb. The Nazi's are trying to kill the resistance and the manifs. The manifs are killing everyone in their path, and the resistance are killing Nazi's and the resistance. The second timeline is in the 1940's where the war is still raging and it focuses on one guy who makes this box that brings the art and landmarks to life.

If you are confused as hell by my above description, don't worry because I read the book and I don't even know how to properly describe and review it. The afterword makes it seem like this is a somewhat true story and it has description about the art that it included throughout the book. 

If you are into art and know who certain artists are and who painted what, then you may enjoy this. There were chunks in this book where it just listed a bunch of artists names and I skimmed because one, I don't know who the hell they are, and two is that there names were difficult to pronounce and I was not about to waste my time doing that. 

There was a plot twist that I was not expecting because I know nothing about art. 

Coming Up With Titles Is Hard! //Sunday Post #5

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from the Caffeinated Reviewer.

 I am going to start off this weeks post with the title name. I had no freaking clue what to name this post. I had a good week last week. Got a lot of work done, chores done, summer school went great, but I just didn't want to title this a productive week. Because even though I was productive in some areas, other areas just took a back seat. The main thing that I guess that I am trying to say is that I had a good week and I didn't feel stressed about the things that didn't get done. 

Spent the whole day today working on my Youtube channel and planning out videos and also planning out the next few months TBR's and what readathons I am going to be participating in. My plan for the upcoming week is to vlog my reading since it is a full week left of the month.

1. The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities Anthology by Rick Riordan
2. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Monday: Review: The Last resort by Susi Holliday

Tuesday: TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books I Hope To Read In One Sitting

Wednesday: No Post

Thursday: TAG THURSDAY: Halloween in July

Friday: REVIEW: Heart of the Impaler by Alexander Delacroix

Saturday: SUMMER 2021 BOOK UNHAUL

1. Last Days of New Paris review
2. Top Ten Tuesday
3. Making waves tag
4. The secrets of us review
5. Blog tour post

 This week's book haul is going to be my video of the books I got from Dollar Tree. 

Hope you all have safe and fun week!!

SUMMER 2021 BOOK UNHAUL

 PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE AND COMMENT. 

Thanks for watching.

A summer book unhaul had to be done for all of the books in my most recent book haul. When I get rid of books, I take them to my local little free library and they are usually gone within the week. 

REVIEW: Heart of the Impaler by Alexander Delacroix

 

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early. This book will be released on December 7, 2021. 

I am so excited that I got a e-arc of this because for as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with Dracula and Transylvania. Just a disclaimer that this book has NOTHING to do with vampires and it is the historical fiction of Vlad Dracul, Vlad Dracula and the Wallachia throne. 

If you go into this book knowing nothing of the prince and voivode, then you will probably not like this book. If you go into this book and not wanting a romance, then this is not for you. There is a love triangle between Vlad Dracul, the Grand Boyar eldest daughter Ilona and Vlad's cousin Andrei Mustaf, heir to the Moldavia throne. 

With this book not being released for another couple of months, I definitely don't want to go into much detail and spoilers. There is betrayal, regicide, and executions. It goes into detail the treaty between Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire. It mentions the impaling that Vlad Dracula is famous for. 

Going into this I was reminded of other book series particularly Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games. It mentions a game of thrones and the characteristics between our main love interests scream Peeta and Katniss. 

I absolutely loved this book. I give it a 5. I didn't know what to expect going into it. I wasn't sure I wanted to read about a romance, but I flew through it just for the romance. The ending made me anxious because I was anticipating a death of some characters. 

I hope that there will be a sequel one day.

TAG THURSDAY: Halloween in July

 Over on Booktube, there was a series going on called Summerween. Then this tag popped up and I knew that I had to do it. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the atmosphere, the decor that comes out every year, dressing my kids up and taking half of their candy is a plus. Also while thinking about these questions, I realized that I don't read that many creepy books. I have read some this year but the thing with those is that they don't release until the end of this year. So, some of my answers will be short and vague as to not give spoilers. 

1. What book gave you the creeps?

• The Dead and The Dark doesn't come out until next month. I got an e-arc from NetGalley and I was reading this at night when I had time to myself. The content isn't necessarily scary, but I did read this in my pitch dark bedroom with my hubby asleep beside me. When I got to a part where they were digging in a potter's field, my husband said the word NO in his sleep and it scared the hell out of me. So I was creeped out.

2. What book gives you the best Halloween vibes?

• The is the graphic novel adaptation of the novel which I have not read but every October my kids and I watch the movie.

3. What’s your favorite vampire book?

• It's my favorite purely for nostalgia reasons and that I met some of my best friends through this book.

4. What book scared you so much you had to sleep with the light on?

• This book wasn't that scary but I did have some paranoia about shadows every now and then.

5. What’s your favorite book about witches/goblins/ghosts/demons?

• This is about ghosts. A girl "wakes up" to find that her body has been buried in an old cemetery and she has to get along with the residents. It's funny.

6. What book do you wish was scarier than it was?

• The cover is a total con. It looks like it would be a haunted house, but nope.

7. What’s your favorite book that takes place in October?

• No answer for this one.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books I Hope To Read In One Sitting

 

HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYONE!!!! I hope you are all having a great summer or winter. Today's prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is Books that you have read in one sitting or want to read in one sitting if you have the time. I went with the second because I almost never read a book in one sitting due to work and my three womb gremlins. The books I have chosen are what I hope to get to this year and maybe *fingers crossed* can read these in one sitting.