Authors I Want To Discover

If you’ve read any of my posts in the last week or so, you’ll know that I’m currently staying at my great aunts house. My great aunt and my cousin (whose childhood room I am now occupying) are massive readers which is great. Suddenly I have access to lots of books that I’ve never had before.

It’s kind of the best thing ever.

Because of that, I’ve decided to make a short list of authors I really want to get to this summer. Obviously, there are so many that I want to read so I just picked out a few today. I made a similar list the other day about authors I want to read more of, but this one is just focusing on authors I’ve never read before.

Jonathan Safran Foer

By the time this post goes up, I may have already gotten to this. My cousin, Naomi, has copies of both Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated—both of which I’ve wanted to read for ages. I’m hoping to have read EI&IC a few days ago.

Tess Gerritsen

I’m a massive fan of the TV show Rizzoli and Isles, and this is the author of those books. My aunt has leant me the first two books, warned me they’re very different to the show and basically wished me good luck. We’ll see how this goes.

Gabriel García Márquez

My cousin seems to have a bit of an obsession with South American literature, which I am totally okay with. I’ve been meaning to read some Gabriel García Márquez for ages, and Naomi seems to own all of them so there’s no better time than now.

Junot Díaz

See above comment. Again, I’m not entirely sure which ones Naomi owns but I’ve seen his name pop out on the spines of books a few times. I have no idea what any of his books are about, but I’m interested anyway.

Charles Bukowski

This is another one Naomi owns a few from. I’ve wanted to read some Bukowski for ages, but I’ve just never picked anything of his up. I think I’m going to start with Ham on Rye, which I’ve heard lots of great things about.

Essie Fox

So neither my aunt nor cousin own any Essie Fox, but my lovely friend Lori of Books o’ the Wisp read Elijah’s Mermaids a few months back and loved it—Essie Fox has been on my radar ever since.

So those are some of the new to me authors I’m hoping to get to this summer. What are authors do you want to discover this year?

REVIEW: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: YA/New Adult, Fantasy, Retelling.

Publication Date: May 5th 2015

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Format: Paperback

Pages: 416

Rating: 5/5

A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

This was sent to us from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This is no way altered my opinion of this book.

How can I put this simply?

I flipping loved this.

I feel like I've just read a whole series that spans across three books just from the first one. So much happened in this book that it efficiently blew my mind and I was just so excited reading the whole thing. There wasn’t one point in the book where I wanted to put this book down.

First of all, if you’re looking for a fantasy series with an easy and quick to understand world, this one is for you. There are barely any new words to learn that are difficult and the structure of the world makes logical sense that you barely even have to concentrate on the facts.

This book is quite different to other fantasy books in the way in which it is written in first point of view (others tend to be written in third). That was a surprise for me, going into this book. However, a welcoming surprise, since I dread reading books with multiple points of view.

One of the things that I noticed in the middle of the book was that we lost a bit of

Feyre’s traits I adored the most. Feyre was initially a huntress and she had a lot of fantastic insight in survival and protecting herself and her family and during her stay at the castle, I felt like since she had no use for it. Thus, her strong character weaned down to a weaker female being that we see in so many castle based books. Luckily, we actually did get to see her skill put to the test once again during the end of the book, so that was satisfying.

Okay, let’s get down to the boys.

Tamlin.

I love him.

Rhysand.

I find him interesting.

A lot of people think this is going to be like Warner and Adam in the shatter me series and I really just don’t want to think about that at all.

I really really love Tamlin and I do ship Feyre and Tamlin together, but I also can see that there is something looming in the distant future.

I am just so conflicted because I don’t want to be persuaded off Tamlin but knowing Sarah J Maas, that might happen.

The stress is real folks.

Anyway, I adored this. I totally recommend this for sure!

Thank you Bloomsbury Australia for sending us a copy of this book for review.

REVIEW: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Title: The Snow Child
Author: Eowyn Ivey
Genre: Adult, Historical, Retelling.
Publication Date: February 1st 2012
Publisher: Headline Review
Format: Paperback
Pages: 423
Rating: 3.5/5

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone—but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place, things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them. 

I’ve been meaning to read The Snow Child for the longest time. I’m not entirely sure what drew me to it in the first place, but it was probably the cover. I didn’t really know anything about the book, and it’s one that would probably stay on my Goodreads ‘wishlist’ shelf for years before I ever picked it up because money. I just happened to spot it on my cousins bookshelf and I thought I’d give it a go.

I loved the first two parts—I thought they were really gorgeous. The writing was very beautiful, and it felt very magical. I feel like it had an almost Burial Rites sort of feel to it—I think it’s the desolate setting and the wintery feel it has. I liked that, because as I’m sure some of you will know, I really adored Burial Rites. I just wish the story telling had been as strong. Unfortunately, the third part really bought my star rating down. The writing was still nice, but I didn’t like where the story went. I wanted to keep that innocence, that magical element of the first two parts but it just wasn’t there. I would have much preferred it if it had continued that way.

This is kind of an unpopular opinion, but I’m not really a fairy tale fan. I love Disney films, but for whatever reason I’ve never really clicked with fairy tales in book form. It actually surprised me that I liked the book at all. Sometimes I just really struggle to get into the whimsical, strange type of fairy tale. If you’re into that, I’m sure you’ll love this book, it’s just not quite my cup of tea.

Can we just quickly take a moment to appreciate the authors name though? Does it not sound like something out of Lord of the Rings, or some other high fantasy novel? Serious name envy right there.

My Ten Most Read Authors

I mentioned in my post the other day about authors I want to read more of, that I’d be doing this post. I’m talking about my most read authors today. In fact, I’m updating you on my most read authors. I did a post on this last July, and I thought today would be a good time to redo it.

I’m doing it a little differently this year. I’m only focusing on my top 10 most read authors, rather than listing all of them. Some of these haven’t really changed, but others have…let’s move on anyway.

Firstly, drawn for number 10/9 are Rick Riordan and Maggie Stiefvater with seven books. I’m sure most of you understand their amazingness. My favourite Riordan so far is Son of Neptune, and my favourite Stiefvater is The Dream Thieves. I haven’t finished either series so no spoilers please!

Next, we have James Patterson with eight books. As I mentioned in the last post, I’m not a fan of James Patterson anymore. In fact, I really dislike him so he’s never going to go up on this list.

With nine books each we have Maureen Johnson and Cassandra Clare. Like Patterson, I’m no longer a fan of Cassandra Clare but I absolutely adore everything that Maureen Johnson touches. I’m working on reading every single one of her books. I think my favourite MJ is The Madness Underneath because FEELS.

With ten books, there’s two of my favourite childhood authors—Jacqueline Wilson and J.K Rowling. I loved HP obviously, but I couldn’t pick a favourite between Prisoner of Azkaban and Deathly Hallows. I can’t even remember my favourite Jacqueline Wilson.

Now onto the top three! With eleven books there is the wonderful Richelle Mead. I’m not sure if I could pick a favourite because I loved the entire Vampire Academy series. I’m also very very excited for Soundless.

Number two…why, it’s Agatha Christie of course! I’ve read 12 Christie’s so far and the only reason I haven’t read more is because I’m scared of a world where I have no new Christie to experience.

My number one should surprise no one. It’s Lemony Snicket! Snicket is kind of my bae and he will always hold this incredibly special place in my heart that no writer will ever replace. I’ve read 15 of his books and I will read anything he puts out under this name.

Other People's Book Collections

I’m currently staying at my great aunts house in a very small town in Cornwall, England. As you can probably imagine, there’s not a lot to do here. Luckily, I’m staying in my lovely cousin Naomi’s (who you’ll probably hear mentioned frequently from now on) childhood room. Naomi, like my great aunt, my mum and me, is a big reader.

Her room is kind of my heaven.

There are books everywhere. I honestly feel like I’ve just stayed in my own bedroom, only with different books. I’ve never stayed anywhere before that had books, other than Michelle’s. It’s a weird sort of feeling, and I won’t deny that a massive smile spread across my face when I saw all the books.

The best thing is, the majority of Naomi’s books are ones I haven’t read yet. They’re mostly classics, or they’re more diverse that the ones I own and I love that. I finally get the chance to read all these books I’ve wanted to for ages but haven’t because they were too expensive to buy back home or they weren’t available.

I’m going to try and read as many of them as is humanly possible. Naturally, there are a few higher up on my lists than others. I’ve read Stardust by Neil Gaiman already, which for some reason is always roughly $27 in Australian bookstores. I spied some Angela Carter who I studied last semester and really want to read more of. I mean, she has books on writing novels, Charles Dickens and learning to speak Welsh. I’ve got the time of my life in front of me.

Anyway, the main point of this post was to basically fangirl over the fact that I am so incredibly lucky to have a family of readers, even if it meant coming all the way out to Cornwall for them.

I wanted to know if any of you have ever been in a similar situation. That is, finding yourself with this whole new collection of books to explore at your leisure. Let me know in the comments.