Casey, with a book: March 2018

reviews

Review: Blood Water Paint

Saturday, March 24, 2018

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Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

Historical Fiction in Verse, 304 pages

Published March 6, 2018 by Dutton

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My rating: ★★★★

This book is both fascinating and timely, and I appreciate it in so many ways.

It's a fictionalized first-person account of the real seventeenth-century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who was known for being one of the rare women to take her rapist to trial.

WWW Wednesday [1]

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

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WWW Wednesdays is a meme currently hosted by Taking on a World of Words

What are you currently reading?

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Fantasy, 384 pages
Published January 2, 2018 by Little, Brown
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I've had this book going on in the background for several weeks because it's a buddy read (that's going rather slowly - but only because we're two ridiculously busy people). So far I am really, really liking this. Should I have ever doubted Holly Black? Now I have free reign to finish the book, so I'm hoping to do so in the next week or so!

lists · memes · top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring TBR

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

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We've already established that TBRs mean nothing to me, so these should be taken with a grain of salt. But if I did manage to read all 10 of these books by June 21, I would have to pat myself on the back for staying up to date with recent publications and tackling that TBR.

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Gal. You can find the prompts here.

These are the books on my Spring TBR that are...

...Spring Releases

1. Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Fantasy, 352 pages

April 24, 2018 from Wednesday Books

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I'm probably the most picky Fantasy reader around (yet strangely it always makes it's way onto my TBR) but most of the reviews indicate that this is going to do something different. In a genre that I find tends to have lots of action but little actual substance, I am here for something different. Fingers crossed for this one.

lists · top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Surprised Me

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

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This prompt was a lot of fun, because surprising books are often the most memorable. Most of these are books I loved (some of my all-time favorites are in this list!), but it was also fun to rant a bit about some books I just did not like!

Let me know your thoughts on any of these if you've read them!

One of the Boys by Daniel Magariel

168 pages, Fiction

Published March 14, 2017 by Scribner

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My rating: ★★★★★

This was one of my favorite books of last year. Despite the fact that it is kind of heavy content (it's about child abuse and drug addicted parents and toxic masculinity) the writing was so clear and beautiful, I just couldn't put it down. I was reading it under my desk at school. I did not expect to fall so deeply in love with such a depressing book.

reviews

Review: Bygone Badass Broads

Thursday, March 8, 2018

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Happy International Women's Day to all of you leading ladies out there!

I'm excited that the first review of this blog is for a book that celebrates powerful (and totally underappreciated) women from all walks of life with all sorts of incredible stories.

memes · waiting on wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday: Rabbit & Robot

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

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Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that everyone’s excited about!

This week I'm anticipating:

Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith

Science Fiction, 448 pages

September 25, 2018 from Simon & Schuster

goodreads | pre-order | read an excerpt!

Synopsis:

Cager has been transported to the Tennessee, a giant lunar-cruise ship orbiting the moon that his dad owns, by Billy and Rowan to help him shake his Woz addiction. Meanwhile, Earth, in the midst of thirty simultaneous wars, burns to ash beneath them. And as the robots on board become increasingly insane and cannibalistic, and the Earth becomes a toxic wasteland, the boys have to wonder if they’ll be stranded alone in space forever.

I don't even know where to start with this one.

Firstly, I'm an unapologetic Andrew Smith fangirl. He has such a unique, authentic, weird voice. Sometimes too weird. But the weirdness ultimately speaks to a deeper truth, it's a way of giving form to the inner workings of the mind.

memes · top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Quotes

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

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I really didn't get the timing right for my first foray into Top Ten Tuesday. I am not a quotes person.

I like to annotate books as a way of helping me engage with a text while I'm reading it, but I do not mark things just because they sound nice, and I rarely find things that truly speak to me. That said, I was surprised that it wasn't that difficult to come of with a list (of only five) quotes that have stuck with me for one reason or another.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

arc hauls · book hauls · lists

Book Haul [1]

Sunday, March 4, 2018

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Welcome to the first book haul of my blog!

A couple days ago I got to work and found a box of books with my name on it! (Seriously, my dream come true!) Inside were some ARCs - and one comp! - some of which I requested, some of which were a surprise, all of which I'm super pumped for:

lists · tbr

TBR Wist

Friday, March 2, 2018

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TBRs are not my thing.

It doesn't have to do with being a mood reader, it has to do with biting off more than I can chew.

Honestly, picking out a stack of books I'd like to read each month sounds like a luxury. Like, the idea of having a nice little checklist of books and finishing all 176 books I wanted to read and then posting my huuuuuge wrap up stack on #bookstagram sounds too good to be true. People who can do that are bookish superhumans.

lists · releases

March 2018 Releases

Thursday, March 1, 2018

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I am a list lover -- I am drawn to book lists more than any other kind of content in the bookish corners of the internet. They're a fun way to get bite-sized bits of information, but sometimes they can run together if they don't have a personal touch. So I thought I would try highlighting not only books that are on my radar this month, but books that I have read that are coming out this month to help anyone reading to gauge their interest. If you've read any of these, let me know your thoughts!

March Books I've Read

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Novel in Verse, 368 pages

March 6, 2018 from HarperTeen (HarperCollins)

goodreads | print | audio

My rating: ★★★★ (I really liked it)

This book won me over with it’s beautiful and powerful words about the beauty and power of words. It is in many ways a love poem to poetry itself, although it is also a story about the daughter of Dominican immigrants in New York, and the juxtaposition of her self-discovery and the feelings of shame and smallness imposed by a strict Catholic upbringing. It is a story about finding one’s voice that I think will resonate with a lot of people, especially young women, even if their circumstances and upbringing are different.