Review: Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin

 

The last book I read in 2021. I listened to this on audio and read long with it because this has illustrations and it was well needed during all of the battle and constant naming of everyone and who was who and which lord was family to who and who was fucking who.

This is set 300 years before A Game of Thrones when the Targaryens ruled all of Westeros. We are introduced to Aegon the Conqueror who married his two sisters and made them queens. He also took control of all seven kingdoms except Dorne and when all of the lords swore fealty to him, they handed over their swords and Aegon then created the Iron Throne. 

We then read about his children and when he dies who would be heir and then there is fighting and betrayal and a crap ton of incest and dragons. This read like a history text book and it does answer some questions but it was also very confusing because character names are constantly reused and it was kind of unoriginal. 

This is also the source material for the new HBO show House of the Dragon. On Goodreads, it is marked as the first book in a Targaryen history series, and that a second book is being written. 

Tag Thursday: New Year's Book Tag

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! I hope that these six days so far have been good for you. May 2022 be the year the pandemic finally comes to an end and that we can begin to find a new and better normal. I have so many reading plans for this year and there are a lot of challenges that I want to participate in. But now onto the questions.

1. HOW MANY BOOKS ARE YOU PLANNING TO READ IN 2022?

I always set my Goodreads reading goal at 100. In 2021, I read 136 books. This year I want to focus on finishing series and reading bigger books, so I think that I won't read as much but 100 is still my goal. 

2. NAME 5 BOOKS THAT YOU DIDN'T GET TO IN 2021 BUT WILL MAKE A PRIORITY IN 2022.

    1. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

    2. WinterGarden by Kristin Hannah

    3. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy

    4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

    5. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

3. WHAT GENRE DO YOU WANT TO READ MORE OF?

I want to read more horror. I usually only read horror during the month of October, but I feel I am missing out on the hype of the new released horror. 

4. NAME 3 NOT BOOK RELATED GOALS FOR 2022

    1. Interact more with blogging community on a daily basis, not just on meme days.

    2. Get back into my daily planning. It took a hit during the first year of the pandemic and last year, I just could not focus enough to make it a priority. 

    3. Get my kids into another activity. They are currently in girl scouts and we are just getting into cookie season so this goal is completely insane to me at this point because cookie season is like a full time job almost. But they want to get into out school district sports program and play soccer, basketball and learn self defense at out local gym. 

5. WHAT'S A BOOK YOU HAVE HAD FOREVER AND ARE DETERMINED TO READ

I have read this series multiple times and have never read the 10th book. I have finally found it and bought it, so I am planning to re-read the series. This series was the only thing I read in 8th grade. My school library had a few of the books in the series and I would read them over and over. Hoping that they have aged well. 

6. ONE WORD THAT YOU HOPE 2022 WILL BE

The word that comes to mind is HEALTHY. I want the pandemic to be over just as much as everyone else. The health of my daughters, husband, family and friends will continue to be at the forefront of my mind. 

Review: Our Last Christmas Together by Matt Mikalatos

 A series that I started reading years ago and has always been on my mind. I recently found out about this novella about a year ago and I just never prioritized it. I don't read Christmas books because I am a scrooge and barely tolerate the holidays starting in November, but I do it for the kids. Anyways, I decided to read this little ebook and I enjoyed the little trip back into this world. It did make me cry and I gave it a 5 stars for it. 

This is set between the first and second book and all of the humans have gathered together to celebrate Christmas. They are having lots of food and socializing. Jason is on the verge of being killed for chopping down a tree for Christmas and the Elenil don't understand the Christmas customs. There are also three speakers who have to tell a Christmas story. Jason tells his quirky story first and then Madelyn is the last and her story was about her grandfather who was about to die and it just made me miss my grandpa that much more. It will be 17 years on January 15th and I miss him everyday. 

This novella has made me excited to pick up the third and final book in this series. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books for 1st Half of 2022

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's prompt is anticipated releases for January-June 2022. I have a list a mile long and it is really hard to just choose 10. 

January: The Red Palace by June Hur

               Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

               The Starless Crown by James Rollins

February: I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

                Daughters of a Dead Empire by Carolyn Tara O'Neil

March: A House Between the Earth and the Moon by Rebecca Scherm

            Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

April: Aru Shah and The Nectar of Immortality by Roshani Chokshi

June: Those Summer Nights by Laura Silverman

Review: Animal Farm by George Orwell

 

I have read and completed a George Orwell book. When I was a senior in high school, I had to read 1984. I read half of it and then had a baby and was excused from that assignment. I eventually want to read it, but this one was more recommended to me. I knew that it was a satire about the Russian Revolution and it can also fit any dictatorship or communist country today. The day after I finished this, I went to the zoo with my family and my zoo has a new farm area and there were so many pigs, that I caught myself side eyeing them... yep. 

Everyone knows what this is about but if you were like me and didn't have to read this in school, then it is about a farm where the animals overthrow the humans and thrive on their own. They are ruled by the pigs who start the revolution. They eventually make commandments and have the other animals work and produce the food. The pigs even teach the puppies to be guard dogs or the bodyguards and hitmen. The pigs change the rules to fit them and after years, the animals get tired of it. They confess to being traitors just to be killed because they can't live that life anymore.

I had no idea how short this book before reading it, but while reading it I got bored because it was repetitive and the story wasn't going anywhere. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR// Sunday Post #21

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

Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope that this is the year that the pandemic will end. How was everyone's holidays. I took a unplanned hiatus from blogging because life and procrastination. When I had some free time, I spent it watching YouTube, reading or listening to Kpop with my kids. We had a great Christmas weekend. We were gifted a zoo membership by one of our girl scout co-leaders and we went twice in one week. Once during the day to see the animals and then the night after Christmas day to see the Christmas Lights. 

On New Year's Eve we got a call that we didn't expect and my husband ending up making a 3 hour drive with our kids to the coast to see his grandmother who is now living with his aunt and her family. She has severe dementia. It hit very quickly. She had been repeating things during conversations in the summer and when we called her on Thanksgiving, she still remembered my husband. When my husband and kids arrived yesterday, she didn't know them. She raised my husband since he was a baby and she has forgotten him. Alzheimer's is now public enemy number 1 to our family. 

She is such a big gamer and here she is doing a puzzle on her tablet with my oldest. Her first great grandchild.

Thursday: TBR Thursday #6

Animal Farm Review

Tag Thursday

Top Ten Tuesday

Our Last Christmas Together Review

Fire and Blood Review

Tiger Honor Blog Tour

I received a book from my top ten Tuesday book wishlist post on the 21st. I was so excited to get this book because I have been seeing it EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!

MY BOOKTUBE VIDEOS 

HAVE A GOOD WEEK EVERYONE!

TBR Thursday #6

 This is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads, where you post a title from your shelf or e-reader and find out what others think about. 

I am patiently waiting for The Winds of Winter like everyone else. I really enjoy George R.R. Martin's writing and I can't wait for House of the Dragon on HBO Max.

With all the fire and fury fans have come to expect from internationally bestselling author George R. R. Martin, this is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros.

Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.

What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.

With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire and Blood is the ultimate game of thrones, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.