So, I got married Saturday! We've been gone since early last week and are so happy to be back... no wedding photos yet, but we are LONG overdue for our monthly bookworm post and thought it would be a nice way to ease ourselves back into things. This month, we thought we'd pull from our college course backlog, Amelia and I both have deep literary roots, so all our "fun" classes were mostly... well... literature related: I took a Tolkien + Rowling class that touched on C.S. Lewis, so I'm ALWAYS in search for well written books about magic (and "monsters"); Amelia took a Graphic Novels class and is the first person I text for recommendations when I'm standing in the comic book store.
June's Recommendations
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Quentin soon finds out that learning Magic isn't the cure-all for his dissatisfaction with life. He and his friends graduate from Brakebills to find out that they have ABSOLUTELY no idea what they're going to do with themselves... and then... an old classmate shows up and guess what.... FILLORY. IS. REAL.
I seriously don't have the words to explain the love I have for this trilogy. A little bit of Narnia, a little bit of Harry Potter and even The Neverending Story all rolled into one... there were even a few Doctor Who references sprinkled in. A LOT of people will tell you it's the "grown up Harry Potter" but don't go into it with that thought in mind... be open minded. Either way, you'll see the parallels and you'll LOVE IT. I found out Lev Grossman (the author) will be in Nashville for the Southern Festival of Books next Sunday October 12th and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go and try to contain myself.
Feed by Mira Grant
The book is about a "crew" of young, traveling bloggers in a post-zombie apocalypse world where mass media has given way to internet journalism. Georgia and Shaun Mason, along with their friend Georgette "Buffy" Meissonier (tip of the hat for the choice of this character name) are invited to cover Senator Ryman's presidential campaign and of course, like all the best stories, they uncover a conspiracy and the roots are INCREDIBLY deep.
This book follows absolutely ZERO of the "rules". People live. People die. The good guys don't always win. The bad guys sometimes get away. You will shut the cover and think "WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK", but I don't think that's a bad thing, I loved it. It did, however, cause me to run out and buy the other two books in the trilogy, Deadline
Kellis-Amberlee is a fact of existence. You live, you die, and then you come back to life, get up, and shamble around trying to eat your former friends and loved ones. That's the way it is for everyone.
Amelia's Recommendations
Mercury by Hope Larson
Tara is living with her aunt and uncle because her farm home burned down, and her mom can't seem to hold down a permanent job. Tara's aunt gives her some of her mother's jewelry, which includes a necklace that can detect metal. This may seem like a small detail, but it ends up being very important. The author, Hope Larson, provides normal information about Tara's life, like conversations with boys and her friends, while still keeping your attention.
At the same time the novel switches from Tara's point of view to Josey's point of view. Josey is the fairly-sheltered daughter of a farmer. Of course a handsome 'gentleman' partakes in a business deal with her father searching for gold. The two girls stories intertwine with one another and in the end Josey's past greatly affects Tara's future.
Aside from the plot the black and white art is extremely powerful and simplistic.
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Scott is your average slacker/band guy and he plays bass in the band Sex Bob-Omb. This first graphic novel basically just lays the plot line for the subsequent six. The novel introduces the rest of Sex Bob-Omb including Stephen Stills and Kim Pine (who is my spirit animal). Scott has recently started dating a 17 year old girl named Knives Chau, which is a running joke to all of his friends. Although, Knives is freakin' adorable, Scott has a dream about a girl on rollerblades.
Later when Scott meets Ramona (the girl on the rollerblades) he pretty instantly falls in love with her (even though he is still dating Knives). Scott gets an email from Matthew Patel who is Ramona's 'first evil ex'...and he has demon hipster chicks to help him. After defeating Matthew, Scott finds out that he has six other evil exes to defeat before they can be together.
I love to talk about these two novels together for a few reasons, they both use black and white art, both are about love and magical-esque elements, and Bryan Lee O'Malley and Hope Larson are married!
You can find us on Goodreads, June and Amelia. Did y'all prefer when we told you a month in advance what we were reviewing, or are you indifferent?
What are you currently reading? Have any recommendations?
Have you read any of these books, what did you think?
I *loved* Feed! I really, really love zombies and that series is just, gah, it checks all the boxes for me! I haven't read Mercury or The Magicians yet though, thanks for some more additions to my reading list ^___^
ReplyDeleteI love Scott Pilgrim, one of my major wishlist items in the full box set. I loved cosplaying the video game Ramona this year at a con :)
ReplyDeleteGreat! I put the Magicians and Mercury on hold. (I'm now number 62 on 113 copies of Waiting for Alaska, so I should probably get that soon).
ReplyDeleteI'm indifferent to if you tell me ahead of time or not about what you are doing next month, I'm probably not going to check them out a head of time and I'll forget what they are.
I'm currently reading 'Women Who Run With The Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman'. Mr LPU picked it up for me some time ago, and after sitting around for a while I finally decided to read it.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't take me long to really get into it, it's certainly one viewpoint that makes a lot of things that have happened in my life make sense, but I guess it's arguable whether it's true or just a coincidence (much as I love fiction, I tend not to enjoy "real life hocus pocus" like ghosts and such).
The most recent 'real' fiction book I read, was book five or six in Naomi Novik's 'Temeraire' series, again something else I picked up from Mr LPU - our local small bookstore used to order each new one in for him without even being asked, but they shut down a couple of years ago, and it seems I'm a few books behind :( But if you're a fan of dragons, I can totally recommend the series (at least as far as I've read it!)
I've just added The magicians into my amazon basket along with The night Circus. I can't wait to read them. I'm a huge Tolkien, Cs Lewis and Harry Potter fan but my favorite childhood author and inspiration to my latest tattoo is Roald Dahl. If you didn't read them as kids you have to go read Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox (all have been made into movies too) The Twits and Georges Marvelous Medicine and more. And yes, I love Scott Pilgrim. I just recently got Ramona inspired pink hair :) Thanks again for the recommendations.
ReplyDeleteI always look forward to these posts! Im not into graphic novels myself but have heard a lot from a friend about how good of a read it is. I did see the movie though! Magician's sounds really good, especially since I also really loved The Night Circus.
ReplyDeleteYey! I love me some good graphic novels <3
ReplyDeleteThis is going to sound really weird, but as soon as I saw the link to this post on Instagram, I knew that it was about Lev Grossman and The Magicians. The series is incredible. I'll look for you next weekend at the Southern Festival of books! 😃
ReplyDeleteBeing bookworms please tell me you guys remember the Book It! program from elementary school where you would have to read a certain amount of books and then you'd get a free little pizza from Pizza Hut?! I was all about that haha. Well, they're bringing the program back for adults! Nowadays I'd probably care less about their pizza and more about the awesome nostalgic feelings having this program back brings up. :)
ReplyDeleteI was all about Book It! growing up reading and pizza have always been my two favorite things!
ReplyDeleteRight!? They're the best.
ReplyDeleteI love Matilda so much! Forever one of my favorite books and movies.
ReplyDeleteOh I bet you're an adorable Ramona!
I hope you get a hold of them soon! Waiting for books on hold really tests patience!
ReplyDeletexoxo
AHHH!! You look amazing! Seriously, what a doll.
ReplyDeletexox
:) I have June's copy of Feed and I need to finish it because I know I'll love it!
ReplyDeleteOh man, local bookstores closing is the absolute worst! I'm usually a huge fan of dragons so I may have to check those out!
ReplyDeletexox
I can totally understand that. Graphic Novels are a preferred taste. I love the movie so you still get almost the full effect of the graphic novels!
ReplyDeletexox
Smart Lady! I still need to pick it up, but after hearing June talk about it I can't wait!
ReplyDeletexox
Amelia, pray tell, where did you get that amazing skirt?
ReplyDeleteIt's the Essential Elegance skirt from Modcloth. You can find it here http://rstyle.me/n/ijyqw5gpe
ReplyDeletexoxo
Thanks ever so much! <3
ReplyDelete