Books

The State of the Reader: 5/31/23

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<–The State of the Reader: 3/8/23         The State of the Reader: 6/14/23–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 11

Total: $90.47

Books Finished: 0

Books DNF’d: 1

Title: Dark Planet Warriors: The Complete Serial
Series: Dark Planet Warriors
Author: Anna Carven
Date Added: March 35, 2023
Date Started: March 31, 2023
Date DNF: May 14, 2023
Percentage Completed: 70%

Cover of Dark Planet Warriors: The Complete SerialMedia: eBook/Kindle/Library

Oh my god this book was bad.  It was so bad.  SO SO bad lol.

“Why did you read so much of it then, TSN?”

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The Stillness of the Sky by Starla Huchton (Flipped Fairy Tales #2) (DNF)

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Title: The Stillness of the Sky
Series: Flipped Fairy Tales
Author: Starla Huchton
Date Added: August 16, 2017
Date Started: November 21, 2018
Date DNF: November 23, 2018
Reading Duration: 2 days
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tales (Retellings), Romance, Young Adult (YA)

Cover of The Stillness of the Sky by Starla Huchton (Flipped Fairy Tales)Pages: 322
Publication Date: January 7, 2015
Publisher: Self
Media: eBook/Kindle

Once upon a time, my life was certain: it was insignificant, and it was cruel. But I refused to let it define me, no matter how great the cost.

Once upon a time, I made a wish. The world I knew grew wider than the sky and higher than the stars, and I listened to the voice within me, reaching out for freedom.

Once upon a time, my wish became my fate, and my destiny the hardest lesson to learn: kindness may be the most difficult path, but it can save entire kingdoms.

This is a “Jack and the Beanstalk with a different gender retelling,” which has never been one of my favorite fairytales.  I don’t hate it, but I could never be completely on Jack’s side.  I mean he did break into someone’s house and steal their shit so why wouldn’t the giant be angry about that?

As with most fairytale MC’s the mother is absent, though this time not dead.  She left when Jack was younger, leaving her with an abusive and alcoholic father, though apparently this was by Jack’s own choice, because if she’d gone with her “who would’ve taken care of the animals” 🙄.  Of course there needs to be a catalyst for a story (had Jack gone with her mother there wouldn’t be a plot), and I think Huchton is trying to say it wasn’t that the mother didn’t want her, but rather Jack made her own (poor) choices, but it’s pretty infuriating.

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The State of the Reader: 3/8/23

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<–The State of the Reader: 12/14/22         The State of the Reader: 5/31/23–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 10

Total: $19.21

Books Finished: 3

Title: The Cruel Prince
Series: The Folk of the Air
Author: Holly Black
Date Added: August 1, 2019
Date Started: October 31, 2022
Date Finished: January 3, 2023

Media: eBook/Kindle

I had mixed feelings about this one.  For the most part I liked it: enemies to lovers, slow burn, and all that, but some of the shit Jude did was so unbelievably stupid it was hard to suspend my disbelief.  Yes, even beyond the foolishness most YA protagonists do.  There’s also something about the world building that bothers me, but I can’t put my finger on it.  It’s meant to show how common the weirdness of faerie is for Jude and her twin sister, but it almost makes it come off as shallow as opposed to just every day strangeness.  I put the next book on my TBR list, but I don’t know when I’m going to get to it.

Note: I’m just going to list out the other two books I finished since I started them after I put this post on impromptu hiatus.  Sorry, I just have a lot of catching up to do and lack the time and energy to do my regular detailed post.

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Blister by Jeff Strand

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Title: Blister
Author: Jeff Strand
Date Added: October 1, 2017
Date Started: November 12, 2018
Date Finished: November 20, 2018
Reading Duration: 8 days
Genre: Thriller, Horror, Suspense, Dark, Humor

Cover of Blister by Jeff StrandPages: 275
Publication Date: June 21, 2016
Publisher: Sinister Grin Press
Media: eBook/Kindle

They call her Blister. She’s a hideously disfigured twenty-three year-old woman, living in a shed next to her father’s house, hidden away from the world.

Jason Tray is a successful cartoonist, banished to his agent’s lakeside cabin for a few days of mandatory rest and relaxation. One night, while hanging out with a couple of the locals at a dive bar, he takes them up on their offer to go “see Blister,” having no idea what they’re talking about.

He peeks through the window at the most nightmarish thing he’s ever seen.

In the morning, he wakes up, hung over and regretful. He’s better than this. He needs to…apologize?

From the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of PRESSURE, DWELLER, and WOLF HUNT comes a tale of fiendish secrets, ghastly crimes, and human monsters.

Blister’s premise is a bit of a bait-and-switch, and it kind of has to be.  You can’t squeeze a 275 page story out of a man being an asshole to a disfigured woman and then apologizing the next day.  Obvious questions about how she became disfigured come up, as well as why the hell she’s living in a shed, and just when you think all the questions that can be answered are, something else happens to keep the story interesting.

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The State of the Writer: 12/25/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 12/11/22         The State of the Writer: 3/5/23–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Updating language details on Scrivener

Since I’m working on updating my term glossary with Ravic surnames and they use a lot of jewels/gems/precious stones, I figured this image would be fitting.  I’m finally putting the language notes into Scrivener, which is the final part of the update.  I did each separate group, but now I’m doing a more general language notes with gender markers.  I’m still debating doing a separate post that kind of explains some of the world, but it would definitely be after we move lol.

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The State of the Reader: 12/14/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 11/30/22         The State of the Reader: 3/8/23–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 3

Total: $15.97

Books Finished: 0

Books On Hold: 1

Title: Ecofeminism
Series Title: Critique Influence Change
Authors: Maria Mies & Vandana Shiva
Date Added: July 13, 2020
Date Started: May 3, 2022

Cover of Ecofeminism by Maria Mies & Vandana ShivaMedia: Paperback

I shelved this in order to switch to another research book for a bit.  I got some amazing notes from this one, and obviously intend to go back.

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The State of the Writer: 12/11/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 11/27/22         The State of the Writer: 12/25/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Working on surname details

I really hope I have the name of the piece and artist correct.  I checked some images with the titles and artists in English to match up where this information was.  I’m fairly certain the characters are Chinese (I went to Google translate and I put them into Traditional Chinese and I think I might be right), but it’s one of those situations where I recognize the language but don’t know it.

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The State of the Reader: 11/30/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 11/16/22         The State of the Reader: 12/14/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 1

Total: $2.99

Books Finished: 0

Books On Hold: 1

Title: The Cruel Prince
Series: The Folk of the Air
Author: Holly Black
Date Added: August 1, 2019
Date Started: October 31, 2022

Media: eBook/Kindle

Not on hold by choice.  The library loan ended before I could finish, and it’s a high demand book so I wasn’t able to renew.  I had to go back on the waiting list, so it’s on hold until I get it again.

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The State of the Writer: 11/27/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 11/13/22         The State of the Writer: 12/11/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Working on surname details

Image is just one of the many I have for character ideas.  I love Pinterest as someone who uses artwork for inspiration, but I hate it for the sake of visual artists.  It’s almost entirely made up of stolen art and even if you do find the source, you can’t leave links in the comments.  I have seen more people being called out for it though.  With all visual artists are going through now with this AI generated art bullshit, I don’t blame them for mass exodus from sites like DeviantArt, which forces you to opt out of having your work used for such, and you don’t even know if that makes any difference.

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The State of the Reader: 11/16/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 5 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 11/2/22         The State of the Reader: 11/30/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 1

Total: $0.00

Books Finished: 1

Title: The Charmer, Volume 1
Series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Circus of the Damned
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton & Jessica Ruffner (adaptation)
Illustrator: Ron Lim
Date Added: September 25, 2022
Date Started: October 13, 2022
Date Finished: November 6, 2022

Cover of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Circus of the Damned, Volume 1: The Charmer by Laurell K. HamiltonMedia: Paperback

I was 100% certain I was going to (want to) continue this series when I first started reading it, but as I mentioned last week I think I’ve matured beyond the “possessive paranormal boyfriend” type into more of the “protective but respecting of boundaries paranormal boyfriend/husbando type.”  I mean it’s what all of my fanfics focus on.  In all seriousness there’s a major issue with lack of consent and this whole concept of “owning” people (yes, vampires, lycanthropes et al are people insofar as they’re sentient beings), which is never challenged by the narrative.  If I do keep reading, though, I have enough conflicting feelings for it to make for some good critique.

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