I’ve seen quite a few booktubers post this tag and I thought it looked like fun, but it didn’t occur to me that I didn’t have to be on youtube to do it until I saw CKReads‘ post, and it occurred to me that I was allowed too. I can be kind of stupid sometimes. Anyway, nobody tagged me, but I want to play. This tag was created by A Daydreamer’s Rambles.
Dark Chocolate — A book that covers a dark topic (abuse, domestic violence, rape, lonlieness, bullying, death, etc)
I went through everything I’ve read in the last year or so and I couldn’t find much that dealt with these topics. Well, that’s not true. I read plenty of fantasy books which include pretty much every topic in that list, but I felt like the intention here was to give a contemporary or historical book. In the end, I found A Gathering Light, by Jennifer Donnelly. I read this quite a few years ago now, and I really enjoyed it. There are two plots here, interwoven. One is the true story of Grace Brown who drowned in 1906 under mysterious circumstances. Then there’s Mattie Gokey, the fictional girl who reads Grace’s letters and figures out what happened to her. There’s a whole lot going on here, and it’s hard to know what to mention without giving spoilers, but broadly speaking this book deals with feminism, racism and classism, as Mattie struggles to find her place in the world.
White Chocolate — Your favourite light-hearted/humourous read
Jenny Lawson of The Blogess is always hilarious, so I was expecting good things from Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, and it did not disappoint. Somehow, she manages to write about mental illness and her struggles with the way her brain is wired while also making me cry with laughter. It’s full of sentences like this: “I am the Wizard of Oz of housewives (in that I am both “Great and Terrible” and because I sometimes hide behind the curtains).” Love.
Milk Chocolate — A book that has a lot of hype that you’re dying to read.
I’m thinking that you already know what Ready Player One is about, because I feel like the last person in the world who hasn’t read it. Just in case, the basic premise as I understand it is that in the not-too-distant future the world sucks and no one wants to go outside, so everyone lives their lives in an MMO call the Oasis. The creator of this paradise dies, and leaves everything to the person who can solve a quest he’s set up. But it’s also somehow set in the 80s. Somehow. I don’t know. It sounds awesome.
Chocolate with a caramel center — Name a book that made you feel all gooey in the middle while you were reading it
Eleanor & Park is made of adorableness. The romance is beautifully crafted, it grows at a perfect rate, and I just… ack, yes. This book is like a cosy blanket of cute. Also, the side characters are well fleshed out, and there’s a lot going on in both Eleanor and Park’s lives that they have to work through. Especially for Eleanor, things are not simple.
Wafer-free Kit-Kat — Name a book that surprised you lately
I didn’t read The Name of the Star all that recently, but it did surprise me a lot. For some reason I had it in my head that Maureen Johnson’s books would be fluffy and light and heartwarming and stuff. I was disillusioned pretty quickly when people started getting murdered in horrible ways. This was a way better book that I thought I was getting, and I can’t wait for the last book in the series to come out.
Snickers — A book that you are going nuts about
I keep lending my copy of Cinder to people and then getting sad because I can’t lend it to someone else while they have it. I need more copies. Cinderella retelling with cyborgs and androids and a plague and people who live on the moon and YES PLEASE. A random little detail that I loved was that the world is split up into six countries/empires/places ruled by a single government or monarch: the Eastern Commonwealth, which is Asia; the African Union; the American Republic; the European Federation; Australia and… the United Kingdom. I’m not saying I approve of the UK refusing to play with the rest of the continent, but it’s totally what we would do, and it made me giggle.
Hot Chocolate with Cream and Marshmallows — What book would you turn to for a comfort read?
Indigo’s Star is a book from my childhood which I love as much now as I did when I was 12 and accidentally read it straight through the day I first picked it up. It’s actually the second book in a series, but I was given it as a present and read it first. I love all of the books, but this one is still my favourite. The Casson family live in my heart and comment on my life. They make me feel better. I don’t even really know how to summarise this book. It’s about family and love and art and friendship and bullying and… life. I’ve been known to read this the day before exams when I’m freaking out because it makes me feel loved, and it also makes me feel small in the best way. Like there are far bigger things in the world than this exam, and everything’s going to be okay.
Box of Chocolates — What series have you read that you feel has a wide variety and a little something for everyone?
It has recently come to my attention that not everybody in the world who reads a lot of books has read the Discworld series. This troubles me greatly. These books are hilarious, clever, realistic (in spite of everything that makes you think they wouldn’t be, like, say, being set on a flat world atop four elephants atop a turtle), and gripping. I’ve put Equal Rites here even though it’s the third book in the series because the first couple are in a slightly different style, and I think this is where Pratchett really hit his stride. You don’t need to read these books in the right order to know what’s going on, but there are recurring characters, which is why I recommend this one: everyone in this book is first introduced here, and they go on to do… well, maybe not great things. Things, though. Lots of things. Sometimes they are good things. Sometimes they are just rude songs about hedgehogs.
I don’t really know who has already done this tag, so… I tag you if you haven’t!
Snuggly Nookery 