Books · Musings

Something That Breaks my Bookish Heart

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As a book lover, this makes me so sad. 

I have a series that I love. I buy the first one or two books and fall in love with the world. I can’t wait to read more. 

But wait! The next book in the series isn’t out until next year?! That’s such a long time to wait!

But I suck it up because, as a writer, I understand that good books are not made in a day. It takes time and effort, and more rewriting and refining than anyone realises. Heck, I’ve got books I’ve been working on for years. 

And then, the day comes. It’s here! I’m so excited I rush to the bookstore and snatch it off the shelf.

It’s so beautiful. The cover is everything I wanted. It smells like paper and ink, and it’s a heavy, tangible presence in my hand. 

Then I get it home and place it on my bookshelf next to the others in the series. 

I almost cry then, realising what the publisher has done. 

It’s a different size.

I know it doesn’t make a difference to how much I love the book, and I know how much time the author has spent working on their baby. And a small part of me that I squish down and ignore knows that if I had waited a few months, I would have been able to get a book with the same specs. I just had to wait for the next release. 

But I didn’t want to wait for that book. I wanted it in my hand as soon as possible, so I could finish the journey.

As much as I adore this series by Taran Matharu, it breaks my book lover heart just a little when my books don’t match on my bookshelf. 

What series do you have that don’t match on your bookshelf? Are you okay with it, or do you wait and go back to buy the last book so they all match?

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Three Series to Re-Read in 2020

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I’m a serial re-reader. When I find something I love, I tend to come back to it every few years, just to remind myself what it is about the series I adore. 

The Moorehawke Trilogy

One of my favourite series is The Moorehawke Trilogy by Celine Kiernan. It’s such a great story, of a girl who shouldn’t have had to leave home but did, all to overcome the somewhat insane ramblings of her king. 

It’s got everything I love in a series. Adventure, a touch of magic, overcoming all the odds, and a wholesome romantic sub-plot that happens because two people are forced to support each other through a trial that neither could overcome alone. You can tell from the spines that I’ve read and re-read these time and again, and I’ll certainly be doing that again this year. 

And how stunning are these covers? We’ve already established that I’m a visual person, and these are some of my favourites.

Trickster

The Trickster series is my all time favourite by Tamora Pierce. Oh, I adore most, if not all, of her books, but this one is the one I come back to again and again. 

Another coming of age style story, this volume of Trickster is made up of the two books, Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen. I find the world building in all of Tamora Pierce’s books fascinating, and this one is no different. Not only that but the way this series deals with racism and prejudice is just wonderful. 

Healer Series

The Healer Series is my favourite of the Maria V. Snyder books I’ve read. Another series full of rich world building, with side characters I fell in love with only sentences in. The world is colourful and stunning, even though it’s dealing with the fallout of a major plague. 

This series is a story of friendship that overcomes all odds and love that is hard won. It’s a story of sacrifice and of happy endings even when life is difficult.

So those are the three series I’ll be rereading this year! While there are more that I might pick up, these are the ones I’m really looking forward to. 

Do you re-read series? What are some of your favourites to go back to?

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CampNaNo April 2020

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CampNaNo has begun!

This means I’ve got no excuse not to write this month. But working from home thanks to lockdown laws has actually made this harder for me, not easier.

I usually get some great writing done on the train in to work. Because I start an hour earlier than most, I almost always get a seat, and I can pull out my laptop and tap away for an hour until I get into the office.

But now I’ve lost that, and I’ve had to build some new routines. I’m still refining those, working out what in my new schedule does and doesn’t work for me. I made the mistake the first day of camp of writing after nine o’clock at night. That didn’t go so well for me – there were more yawns than words.

Thankfully I’ve got a little helper, and she has one of the rules of NaNo down pat; don’t let your inner editor out. With Junior Editor Ellie’s support, my delete button became inaccessible, and I had to focus on putting more words down than on reworking what I’d already written.

“I’m such a great help, mum.”

Between helpful Ellie and the virtual write-ins my region are doing this month, I should be able to hit my goal no problems. Then again, maybe I should set my goal higher to make it more challenging for that reason.

I can get this, right?

Are you doing Camp this month? What are you aiming for? New words, editing, or something else?

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That Bookstore Feeling

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There are few places where I am as happy as I am in a bookstore. 

There’s something magical about walking through the shelves of books stacked almost as tall as I am (okay, I’m not very tall so that’s not much of an achievement) and just looking at the covers. 

My local Australian bookstore Dymocks, like many around the world I am sure, writes handy little thoughts on series, then sticks them to the shelves underneath the books. I love taking the time to stop and read those, especially when it’s a series I’ve already read. That might sound counter-productive, but one of my favourite things is finding out what others thought about a book or series I’ve read. Did they like it as much as I did? If not, why? What was it that drew someone to a book I didn’t like, or didn’t interest them about one I did?

Then there’s the smell. Paper and cardboard and ink, nowhere smells like a bookstore. Even a library can’t quite capture that same smell to me, but maybe it’s about knowing when I’m in a bookstore I’m about to walk out owning a brand new book, not just borrowing one someone else has. 

At this point I feel compelled to point out that there is no right or wrong way to read. Ebooks certainly have their place, and I myself own a lot of them. You can’t beat them for convenience. So long as you are reading, you’re doing it right.

But for me, nothing will beat the feeling of holding a book in my hands while I read it.

What’s your favourite way to purchase books? What about to read? Do you have more ebooks or physical books?

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First Book in a Series · Reviews

Review: Scythe

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The expression don’t judge a book by its cover has never applied to me. I’ll be the first to admit that I walk into a bookstore and peruse through the shelves of fantasy and YA fantasy, waiting for something to jump out and grab my attention.

Sometimes it’s a cover, or sometimes it’s a title. With Scythe by Neal Shusterman, it was both.

How stunning is the cover? Not only that, but the title is short and punchy and immediately gripping. 

So I turned over the book to read the blurb and was immediately hooked. 

Fantasy is my normal genre. I love magic and dragons and made up places. The Arc of Scythe is a little different to the kind of thing I usually read. 

Set in the future, though no one can remember how many years exactly it has been since the Age of Mortality, as they call it, Scythe has no magic in it. Instead, humanity has advanced so far in technology they were able to create an AI that could finally take control of the things that we are not necessarily good at and make the world a perfect place. There is no more hunger, no more poverty, and perhaps most interestingly at all, no more death. 

What would happen in a society with no more death? Or rather, when being dead was just a temporary state where you were revived within days? Well, rebellious teenagers would start to Splat off buildings for fun and the adrenaline rush. Jobs would become somewhat unnecessary, leading to a lot of people doing make-work. 

And, to avoid humanity getting completely out of hand, there would still be a need for people to die. 

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to that very profession – not killing, but gleaning. The Scythes are the only people who are able to permanently end a life. 

So begins a compelling story of morality, death and fear. Shusterman drew me into the fantastical world from the first chapter and I didn’t want to put the book down. 

Part of what I loved about this story was that I couldn’t decide if I saw the world as utopian or dystopian. To me, it was a blend of the two that I couldn’t seperate. Sure, things seemed perfect. Until you or your loved one was chosen to be gleaned and your world collapsed. 

I didn’t expect to adore this story as much as I did. Between finishing Scythe and writing this, I have already devoured the second book in the trilogy and started the third, and just today I picked up the first book in another series by Shusterman. 

According to Junior Editor Ellie, this was a very tasty book! I would have to agree with her. Though some ratings say from ages 12+ I would put it more in the 15+ range because of the prevalence of death and philosophy, but it’s definitely a book I would pick up and read again.

Have you read Scythe? What questions about our current way of life did it raise for you? Did you see it as utopian or dystopian? I’d love to know!

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Writing

What are your goals for 2020?

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I’m so pleased to say that I’ve already reached one of my goals for 2020 – finish this final rewrite of the first book in my series, The Belladonna Trilogy. I wasn’t so far away from it when the year commenced, but reaching it still feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

It’s so amazing to look at that final word count and think only years ago I was struggling to get down a hundred words a day.

I knew I’d be able to reach this goal, and reach it quickly. So why did I set myself such an easy goal?

I think having things you know are easily achievable is an important part of goal setting. When I look at the rest of my goals for 2020 – Finish three full drafts, get something published, and write 500K words – they seem like mountains standing between me and the finish line of this marathon, and I am not a runner. At all.

When I set a goal, I tend to over commit. Like the time I decided I wanted to write 100K in NaNo and then was made redundant November 1. Job searching and stress put a real damper on my plans for that.

As a result, having a goal I could achieve in January was such a relief for me. It’s a reminder that yeah, I can do what I’ve set out to do. Some of my goals will take blood, sweat and tears, but they’re going to work. I will get there.

So far this year I’ve written 20,000 words in 10 days. That’s an average of 2,000 words a day. Already I’m looking good to hit my 500K this year, but I know not every month will be easy like this.

The words written spread of my BuJo for January

Even though I’ve already achieved this goal, there are still a lot of goals on my list for this new year. I’m really excited to get started.

What are your goals for 2020? Have you reached any yet? What one are you most excited for this year?

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First Book in a Series · Reviews

Review: Akarnae

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You know you like a book when you have not one, but two autographed editions.

Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you I’m a sucker for autographed books. In this instance, I walked into my local Dymocks to browse around their fantasy sections.

And there, sitting on the end of the shelf, practically beckoning for me to pick it up, was Akarnae.

I knew nothing about this book. Nor had I ever heard of the author, Lynette Noni. But that little ‘Autographed Edition’ sticker sold me. I picked up the first and third books in the series, because those were the two they had autographed, paid, and left.

I didn’t read them right away. I have this condition called book-aholicism, where I buy hundreds of books to read and then put them on my shelf to gather dust. I think I picked up Akarnae over a month later to finally read it.

When I did I couldn’t put it down.

I posted on Instagram that night; A picture of the book from the side. I was already up to chapter seventeen and had no intention of stopping. The next day I bought book two in the series and proceeded to binge read all three of them.

Noni introduces our main character, Alexandra Jennings, as a strong and stubborn young woman whose parents love her dearly but are caught up in their admittedly fascinating work. When Alex arrives at a new boarding school, she’s quickly thrown into a Strange New World.

In this new world, we meet mysterious Aven, followed quickly by sweet, smart Bear and troublemaker Jordan. Bear, Jordan and Alex are thrown into an adventure the likes of which they never imagined as Alex tries to figure out how to get herself home.

The characters in this series captivated me from the first moment of reading them. They felt real, and I was pulled along through their struggles and their triumphs during their school year.

I also adored the world. Medora is so like our world in so many ways, yet we would have to advance scientifically and gain magical abilities for it to be truly comparable. There was just enough realism in it that often while I was reading Akarnae, I forgot that I was in fact in a book and not experiencing something.

Yes, I would recommend this book. It would be a great read for anyone who loves YA fantasy, or for anyone who likes books about academies, schools, or universities. It gets a little dark later in the series, so I wouldn’t recommend this book for younger readers.

And as for that second copy: well, how could I walk past that stunning special edition and not pick it up?

Have you read Akarnae? What about any of the other books in the series? What did you like about them? What didn’t you like? Reach out to me in the comments, I’d love to know!

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About Me

Tori Johnson1 Comment

Hello! I’m Tori.

I’m a local from Sydney Australia, and I adore words.

I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. As a child, I remember sitting up in bed to read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by the hallway light, and hiding underneath my covers when my parents came down to ‘check’ I was asleep. Before I was at school, I was making up FanFic – though I didn’t call it that then. It was The Word Game, and I played it in the car with my parents, talking the stories I loved and adding my own characters and twists to them. I started NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2017 and a Bookstagram page in 2018.

Outside of words, I’m an easygoing chick from Sydney. I’m married to an amazing man and am a fur mum to the most beautiful British Bulldog I’ve ever seen (who is currently barking at her own reflection in our TV).

I fell off the wagon with reading this year. I hate to admit it, but I did. I don’t think I’ve read more than a handful of books all year. Starting this blog is in a way a promise to myself to try again, and to start reading more. It’s accountability; after all, if I’m going to be telling you what I think about a book, I really should read it first.

I’m also doing it because fantastic books should be shared. Buying a copy of a book I love for all of my friends and family isn’t a financially viable option, so instead I’ll share them here. I’ll let you know what books I’m looking forward to, what books I couldn’t put down, even if a book made me cry. So far, that’s only happened once with Bridge to Terabithia.

Most of my posts here will be about books. Reviews, anticipation for new releases, sometimes even thoughts on an overall series. I’ll also include some posts on writing, NaNoWriMo, and bullet journaling for writers. My aim to start off with is to post twice a month, perhaps getting more frequent later on down the line.

You can get involved too! Drop me a comment to let me know what books you want me to look at next. Comment and join the conversation. If you’ve already read something I review, that’s great! Let us all know what you think! Especially if you disagree with my review; books are subjective.

Let’s build a community where we can talk about words. In six months, I want to have a collection of reviews people can turn to for ideas of what they want to read or write next. When March comes around, right before the first Camp NaNo, we’ll delve more into the writing side of things.

So reach out! Comment or send me an email. I won’t bite, unless you’re made out of chocolate, and in that case I have to meet you.

Signing off for now.

Tori.