T5W: SFF Besties

T5W is a weekly meme created by Lainey from gingerreadslainey, now hosted by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes. You can check out the goodreads group to learn more.

---

May 15th: SFF BFFs -BooktubeSFF Awards Crossover Topic-
— Discuss your favorite friends in Scifi and Fantasy, or characters you’d be BFFs with.

---

For some reason, this topic was so hard for me It was one of those situations like when someone asks for a book recommendation, or your fave book, and suddenly you forget every book you’ve ever read, only in this case, it was me forgetting every friendship I’ve read about in SFF *sigh*

These might not all be my absolute favorites of all time, all the time, but they were all memorable and I enjoyed reading about their friendships. (And, at least for most of them, I wouldn’t mind being best friends with them.)

In no particular order, as usual…

---

Karou and Zuzana from the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor– Zuze is probably my favorite character from this trilogy, and I think she’s an amazing friend. I loved the relationship between these two a lot ❤

The Gangsey from the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater– I love these losers, and I (mostly) love their friendships.

Temeraire and Lawrence from His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik– These two, oh my gods ❤ They are too precious, and I love them. I can’t wait to read more of the series.

Sissix and Ashby from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers– I’m not sure my closest friends and I could manage to live together on ship for so long (maybe?), but these two did their best.

Nina and Inej from the Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo– I loved these two so much, and while I’ve forgotten a lot of specifics about their relationship (time for a re-read!), I do remember loving it.

---

Tell me about some of your favorite SFF friendships (or characters you’d want to be BFFs with)!

Advertisements

Top 5 Wednesday: Mother Figures

T5W is a weekly meme created by Lainey from gingerreadslainey, now hosted by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes. You can check out the goodreads group to learn more.

May 8th: Mother Figures
— In honor of Mother’s Day (in the US!), discuss your favorite mother figures. TRY to refrain from using HP characters. We all know those 🙂

It’s kind of sad how hard this was for me haha. But, once I thought of one, more came to me. It was still hard getting to five, and I’m not sure I actually remember all of these characters well enough to stand by my choices

In no particular order, as usual…

---

Charlotte Branwell from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare– I really liked Charlotte, and she was the first character I thought of besides Molly Weasley 😛 Even though she was quite young (early 20s, if I remember correctly), she definitely had a mothering personality.

Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne– Okay, it’s been since college, but I think Hester was a good mother? I think I remember her being really protective of Pearl, but also raising Pearl to be a strong, independent, proud person.

Jennifer Honey from Matilda by Roald Dahl– Obviously Mrs. Wormwood was horrible, but Miss Honey was wonderful. She cared deeply for Matilda, treated her well, saw the intelligence in Matilda, etc.

Frannie Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green– It’s also been a long time since I read this, but I vaguely remember Hazel’s mother being strong, supportive, and loving. Didn’t she encourage Hazel to live her life to the fullest, or something like that?

Dunya from The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden– I liked Dunya and Vasya’s relationship, and how much Dunya cared for and protected Vasya. She might have been a little stern at times, but she truly seemed to love Vasilisa like she was Dunya’s own daughter.

---

Who are some of your favorite mother figures?

T5W: Bookish Things I’ve Changed My Mind About

T5W is a weekly meme created by Lainey from gingerreadslainey, now hosted by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes. You can check out the goodreads group to learn more.

May 1st: Bookish Things I’ve Changed My Mind About
— This can cover any bookish topic you want: tropes, characters, TBRs, genres, anything!

Ooh I like this one! And I kind of hate it because there are so many things haha. To keep it simple, I’m going with things I’ve more recently changed my mind about. (And by “recently,” I mean over the last 2-4 years.)

I guess these are…bookish habits, mostly?

---

DNF-ing Books

Until a few years ago, I couldn’t do it, usually. Once I started a book, I had to finish it. I think part of that was because I didn’t have access to many books when I was growing up, so my options were to either read whatever I could actually get my hands on, or not read at all.

Un-hauling Books

I couldn’t stand the thought of getting rid of (most) books, until a few years ago. (Again, probably because books were rare commodities for me for a long time.) I do still technically own the books I’ve unhauled, because they’re in storage, but I’m working on figuring out what to do with the ones I’m sure I really don’t want to keep.

Bleh, Romance

I really did not care for romance novels until very, very recently (like within the last 6 weeks, I believe). I read erotica, and still do sometimes, but I’d given up on romance. Part of why was that even my younger, less aware self, was put off by the sex scenes in the romance novels I’d read. I could rant about this for a long time, but basically, I didn’t encounter a scene in which a female character’s pleasure was given at least equal page time and importance as a male character’s, until I picked up some erotica. I also found some of them really boring, or like they were trying too hard to be cute or amusing. Then, I discovered The Naughty Librarian on YouTube, and was introduced to Tessa Dare. I picked up Romancing the Duke and instantly fell in love. Now, I’m basically addicted to historical romances.

Audiobooks!

I wanted to love them for soooo long, but I couldn’t do it. I also couldn’t listen to podcasts. I eventually figured out that is has something to do with the weird subtitles like thing my brain does when I hear someone speaking (I think it’s called tickertaping). It came in handy with note taking, sometimes, but mostly it was a pain in the ass to be honest. Weirdly, it started fading and now only happens under certain conditions since I had to go gluten free a few years ago. Whether that was a coincidence or not, I don’t care, I’m just glad I can finally listen to audiobooks. I spent a lot of time not realizing it was me and not the audiobooks that was the problem 😦

Reading Multiple Books

Somehow, I’ve stopped doing this. I used to never only be reading one book at a time, but now I’m rarely reading multiple books. It’s bizarre. Maybe my focus is better, or I feel freer since I started DNF-ing, so I don’t feel like I need backup books for when my current read gets too boring or whatever. Who knows? I do still sometimes have a couple going at once, but it’s usually because I’ve put one down to read something else for a specific reason (ARC coming out soon, readathon or challenge prompt, etc.), and plan to pick it back up ASAP.

---

What are some bookish things you’ve changed your mind about?

T5W: Rainy Day Reads

T5W is a weekly meme created by Lainey from gingerreadslainey, now hosted by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes. You can check out the goodreads group to learn more.

April 24th: Rainy Day Reads

Last week for Top 10 Tuesday, we had the same prompt, but I switched that one up and went with Books I’m Saving for Rainy Days.

For this list, these are all books I’ve read that I think would be good rainy day books, for one reason or other. In no particular order, as usual…

---

The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire– So far, I’ve only read Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones, but I feel like these have the right vibe for rainy days (especially the latter). Plus, they’re novellas, so you could probably read each one in a few hours.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë– Nothing says “Pick up some Gothic lit!” like a gloomy, rainy day. I loved this one, and I feel like it would be a good choice for snuggling up with some hot tea (or whatever) and a cozy blanket and reading through the rain.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw– This one has the perfect vibe for rainy days, in my opinion. It’s a little dark and spooky (without crossing into horror), the writing is beautiful and evocative, and it reads pretty fast.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells– This sci-fi novella is a fun, quick read, if that’s what you’re looking for on rainy days. I love Murderbot so much, and I can’t wait to continue on with this series.

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand– If you want a rainy day read that’s dark and does venture into horror territory, with a cast of strong female characters and some diversity, this is the book for you. I freaking loved this book (review here), and I think a rainy day would be a great background soundtrack for reading it.

---

What books do you think would make great rainy day reads?

T5W: Fave Booktubers, Bookstagrammers, and Book Bloggers

T5W is a weekly meme created by Lainey from gingerreadslainey, now hosted by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes. You can check out the goodreads group to learn more.

April 17th: Favorite SFF Booktubers -Booktube SFF Awards Crossover Topic-
— Discuss your favorite booktubers who discuss science fiction and fantasy books! (This is for the Booktube SFF Awards, but you could also include bloggers and IGers as well!)

This was so painful oh my gosh. SFF is what I read the most of, and I follow so many great people. I decided to not include bloggers I follow here on WordPress, just to help narrow things down, because I definitely follow the most people (who talk about SFF a lot) here. I don’t think any of these people read and post exclusively SFF books, but I think that’s the majority of what’s usually in the stuff they post.

In the order I came across them while scrolling through IG and YouTube while making my list (but otherwise, in no particular order)…

---

• G from BookRoast on YouTube and Instagram
• Jade from Jadeyraereads on YouTube and Instagram
• Mary from books.andcookies on Instagram and Tumblr
• Austine from NovelKnight on NovelKnight (blog) and Instagram
• Kristen from myfriendsarefiction on Instagram

---

Choosing only 5 was so hard *cries*

I feel like I could do a top 15 or more for WordPress blogs, top 10 or more for IG, at least top 5 for other blogs, but YouTube…

I just don’t watch many booktubers anymore (or YT in general). There are only like 3-4 booktubers I watch religiously (or at least regularly), but one of those is Sam. I didn’t include her channel on this list because I feel like it’s (kind of?) obvious that I watch and love her videos.

---

Who are some of your favorite SFF bookish people?