Tell Me Tuesday #8: In which Elizabeth's lack of reading is exposed

Hosted by La La Toadstone

Well, the title is a bit misleading.  It's not that I haven't been reading, it's that I've mostly been rereading.  To give you an idea this has been the main staple of my reading diet this year:

To be honest most of my reading has been in the car, aka audiobooks.  I've already made it all the way through The Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens series, and almost all the way through The Song of the Lioness series.  Basically I think this is going to be the year that I read ALL THE TAMORA PIERCE NOVELS.  Not that I haven't read them all before, but this will be my first time reading them all in one year!  I don't know what I'm going to do when I finally get to the end of her books in audio format - it's been so easy picking what I'm going to listen to next!  Luckily I have another couple months til I manage to go through them all.  (Except her Beka Cooper books since I originally read those in audio format and want to go through them in written form this time.  Especially keeping in mind said events in the third book that absolutely destroyed me.  I'm actually not entirely sure I will reread that third book.  We'll see how I feel when I get there I guess.

Actually, looking at my Goodreads list, it looks like I've read more books than I realized! Although it's probably not up to snuff with how much I usually read, especially once you take out the picture books and rereads haha!  

 

1. I went through all of Richelle Mead's Bloodlines series and I felt like it was pretty on par with the Vampire Academy series (although I had less of the swoons.  I love Adrian, but I'm pretty picky with my OTPs).  It had a lot of the same faults and a lot of the same pacing issues - consistently my favourite and least favourite books were the same number into the series in both Vampire Academy and Bloodlines.  But overall it was still a fun series to read, although not one I'll likely revisit.  But I'll definitely be reading more Richelle Mead!

2. To say I had high expectations going into this would be a bit of an understatement.  It seemed like this was everyone's favourite book of last year, even people who aren't big into contemporary YA (like me).  And I did like it (and am very glad I got absorbed enough to check out a physical copy of it. The narrator does a really good job, but the way this book is formatted, it is a book that is meant to be read), but I could see what was coming from a mile away (although I thought that couldn't possibly be it because well...everyone loved it so much!  In any case, I will definitely be picking up Nicola Yoon's next novel - while I have mixed feelings on the ending of this one, the writing is really gorgeous and I did enjoy reading it quite a lot.  Also have you seen this cover?? I would frame this and hang it up on my wall!

3.  And speaking of covers I would frame and hang up on my wall - Thorn will definitely be a contender for my top reads this year.  I actually met Intisar at Chessiecon last year!  I had been wanting to read this book for ages actually (hello it's a Goose Girl retelling!!) - but my library doesn't have a copy.  After getting to hear her talk, I really REALLY wanted to read this!  Luckily La La was kind enough to let me know when it went on sale so I snatched it up and lo and behold here we are.  I think this actually may be my favourite Goose Girl retelling.  I absolutely adore Shannon Hale's Goose Girl so really I'm just happy to have two retellings of this that I love, but I loved how fleshed out Khanani made her world building and characters.  It definitely wasn't a perfect book, but it had beautiful writing, and wonderful characters, and I am totally sold on whatever she wants to write. Because if this is how she writes for a debut novel? It's already this good - I can't even imagine where she's going to go from here.

And speaking of Shannon Hale...

 

I got hit with a need for SWOONS.  And so this happened.

1. I was actually disappointed with this - I honestly don't know why I keep reading Austen reinterpretations and retellings because I don't think I've found a single one I've liked.  Which I guess is what happens when you love the source material so much.  But it was especially disappointing because I know how well Shannon Hale writes - and you definitely see it here, but it kept devolving into the silliness you see in other Austen novels.  And to be honest I would have been ok with that - if she had just chosen one or the other.  It just didn't fit, unfortunately.  I'll still be trying her sequel though, I like her too much not to try it :)

2. I'm actually currently reading this!  So far it's been fairly good as reinterpretations go, but it definitely feels like more of a reinterpretation of the BBC series than of the book itself.  (I know this because I am currently watching it for the first time and a lot of the references seem to fit the scenes awfully well and to use dialogue I don't remember being in the book.  Which considering the number of times I've read it seems likely it's not actually in the book. Although not impossible.)

3. And I checked this one out from the library as well.  After all the flailing I did about this ship  it's honestly strange I haven't read it before! I think a little of me is scared it won't hold up to the miniseries.  Which seems unlikely. And if it doesn't...well oh well who cares?  I'll still have Armitage playing Thornton and I can have the feels that way too!

And that's what I've been reading over the past few months!  What about you guys? Anything good? (Anything with swoons? This mood doesn't appear to be dying down! I need all the recs!)