T5W: Books For My Younger Self

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.

September 12th: Books For My Younger Self
— This was recommended as a topic on twitter and I love it! Books that you wish your younger self would have read to learn a life lesson, get more self confidence, open your eyes to a new perspective, etc.

I almost didn’t do this one because there were so many books I could have picked (and my power and internet keep going out which complicated things).

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27 Hours by Tristina Wright– This one is the one book I would choose above all others to present to my younger self. Teenage me probably would have cried as much as adult me did to see us represented in a book.

 

Basic Witches by Jaya Saxena & Jess Zimmerman– This one is way less serious, but oh wow do I wish a book like this had been around for younger me. Maybe I would have figured some stuff out about myself and my beliefs sooner, instead of wasting so much time on things that had been pushed on me but never quite felt right.

 

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven– I know this is one of those books that’s now criticized a lot, but my opinion hasn’t really changed. I wish teenage me had had this book. Finch has been one of the only characters with a mental illness that I’ve read about and related to. Teenage me probably would have felt a lot less crazy if I’d had this book back then.

 

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead– This one is just fun, nothing deep or serious about it and why I wish I’d read it when I was younger. I’ve always loved vampires, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to read this one because I didn’t have access to it when it was new, and by the time I did, Twilight was around and I just assumed the VA books were going to be similar to those Oops.

 

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon– This one also isn’t on the list for any huge reason, it was just super cute and fun. I’m not a big fan of a lot of contemporary books, especially the cuter ones, but I think if I’d encountered this book sooner, that would be different.

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T5W: Favorite Teachers/Mentors

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.

March 28: Favorite Teachers/Mentors 
— Typically, we read about our protagonist being taught by someone wiser than they, whether is it is a teacher as we know them or more of a supernatural/magical mentor. Talk about some of your favorites! 

I was *thisclose* to not even doing this topic because I was having a really difficult time coming up with characters who could be considered mentors or teachers…that I actually liked…and weren’t from Harry Potter.

I ended up thinking outside of books, which got my mental gears turning and helped me come up with more than five, so I ended up having to narrow it down, in a shocking turn of events 😛

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Baghra from the Grisha Verse trilogy by Leigh Bardugo– Oh my gosh, I loved this woman so much and I still have so many feelings. So. Many. Feelings. (If you’ve read the series, and liked her, you probably know why.)

 

 

Miss Honey from Matilda by Roald Dahl– I almost forgot about her, but happened to catch sight of my Dahl section and totally face-palmed. Miss Honey gave me hope when I was a kid in an abusive home, and I actually had a teacher who was as close to being like Miss Honey as is possible in the real world.

 

 

Bob the skull from The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher– Ok…Bob isn’t exactly a teacher. He’s more like a portable encyclopedia with a snar-castic attitude. But I love him, and he really helped Harry out, so I’m counting him. (Bob is probably one of my all-time favorite book characters, as a side note.)

 

 

Dimitri Belikov from The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead– All swooning and such aside, I loved Dimitri and I think he would be a fantastic (and terrifying) teacher. I feel like he’s going to be gracing a lot of lists this week heh.

 

 

Antiope from Wonder Woman– I don’t care if she counts or not for other people, she counts in my opinion. I freaking loved Wonder Woman (I’ve been driving my kid crazy by re-watching it so much haha), and Robin Wright was freaking badass. (I had to use this gif because I snorted soda when I came across it.)

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Honorable mentions:

• George Feeny from Boy Meets World
• Robert Langdon from Dan Brown’s Langdon series
• Tieren Serense from the Shades of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab
• Katherine Watson from Mona Lisa Smile
• Miss Peregrine from the Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs
• Gandalf from The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Who are some of your favorite fictional teachers/mentors?

 

T5W: Books I read because of the internet

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.

 

September 27th: Books You’ve Read Because of Booktube/Blogging/etc. 
–Discuss the books you’ve picked up because you’ve heard of them in the online book community or platform you use 

 

I had a hard time remembering how I learned about some of the books on my shelves, but I helped myself out by narrowing this down to books I either found because of booktube or blogs, or decided to read because of booktube or blogs.

In no particular order…

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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater– I seriously doubt I would have read this book/series if it hadn’t been for almost everyone online I know (and trust the bookish opinions of) telling me to read it, or raving about it on their own.

 

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll– I’m pretty sure I saw this on booktube first, then on a few blogs. However I found it, I instantly knew I needed it and ordered a copy ASAP. It is gorgeous, a bit creepy, and I recommend it to everyone. (Reviewed here.)

 

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples– I want to say I first saw this on booktube, but I have no clue about who’s channel. I remember seeing it on a few blogs and booktube channels around the same time and knew I had to read it.

 

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead– I was definitely aware of VA before booktube and blogs, but it was a booklr pair-up thing (something about trading book recs a year or two ago) that actually got me to read the first book.

 

Unteachable by Leah Raeder– I found this one because of booklr, and I really liked it. It’s definitely not for everyone, and maybe I would hate it if I re-read it now, but I’m still glad I read it.

 

 

 

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I think it would have been easier to do a list of 5 books I read because of the internet, but didn’t like, because I kept changing the books I picked 😛

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Have you read any books because of booktube, or some other platform?

First Lines Friday

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

The Rules:

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

 

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“There’s a big difference between death threats and love letters–even if the person writing the death threats still claims to actually love you. Of course, considering I once tried to kill someone I loved, maybe I had no right to judge.”

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Interested? Keep reading to find out which book this is from.

Spirit Bound (book 5 in the Vampire Academy series) by Richelle Mead

Ok, I’m not actually going to give the synopsis for this book, because spoilers! But, here’s what the Vampire Academy books are basically about:

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess (Moroi are basically vampires that are alive, can use elemental magic, and aren’t evil), and her best friend Rose Hathaway is a hot headed, short tempered Dhampir (basically half human, half vampire). Dhampir’s are trained to be guardians of Moroi, and Lissa and Rose are set on Rose being Lissa’s guardian when they graduate. Why do the Moroi need protection? Well, the Strigoi (like the undead vamps we all know about) seem particularly keen on killing off (or turning) the Moroi royals, and Lissa is one they’re really fixated on getting their fangs on. There’s plenty of drama, action, forbidden romance, heartbreak, betrayal, and more in this series, so don’t let the cringe-worthy original covers fool you like they did me. The books are way better than the covers make them seem 😉

Check out the series on goodreads

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Have you read the Vampire Academy series? What did you think of them?