Hey All! Hope you’re all having a wonderful start to your new year! It’s been awhile since I last posted- not counting the post I accidentally made about Roger Chillingworth. I must have hit the wring button when I decided to set it aside. Anyway, I thought I’d take a bit of time to share with everyone what sorts of books I’m reading right now so that I might feel some accountability when it comes to the posting bit of this blog. I’m always looking for a new book to read and something to keep myself entertained and thus, I usually find myself wandering the book aisle of Target. This is also largely due to the fact that Target is the closest thing my town has to a bookstore since Borders shutdown. Sigh.
Now, my Target excursions have yielded many books to add to my library and I’m so excited to dig in! That being said, let’s get into that list!
Number one: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
My main inspiration for reading this book actually came from the preview that I watched when I went to see The Mummy during the summer. I learned from my grandpa, who I had taken to the movie with me, that this movie coming out in November was actually based on a book. This little fact was filed away in my brain, and generally forgotten about, until the other evening. I was at Target (of course) and as I was browsing through the various books, I saw the title of a movie I was anticipating watching, gracing the the tan shelves at Target. I was excited by the opportunity presented to me because it was like the universe had actually wanted to help me for once! I want to read the book before I watch the movie and so I was excited that this book seemed to come so willingly into my possession. I’m super excited to read this book and have actually already started it. My French accent isn’t the greatest, in fact it’s pretty much the worst in the world, but I give it my best shot! Luckily this book was also available on Audible, so I got the narrated version with Dan Stevens’ voice. So far I’ve been listening to the audio book while I’ve been reading, mainly because Dan Stevens is able to give the characters way better voices than I can with my horrible French.
Number two: The Lady Sherlock Series: A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas.
This book caught my attention right away due to the fact that it is based in the world of Sherlock Holmes, of which I am a huge fan! I was a bit skeptical when I first saw it because it seemed a bit strange to me and reminded me a bit of Fan Fiction. Funny enough, this was also what encouraged me to give it a try. For those of you who don’t know or haven’t guessed it, I am a giant nerd. I do enjoy a bit of Fan Fiction every now and again because it’s a nice, creative way to immerse yourself into a different world. Anyway, I figured if I’m able to read Fan Fiction on the internet with out to much fuss, I should be able to give a published author the benefit of the doubt in concerns to her work. So, I decided to buy it and it now sits with the rest of the books that I plan to read on my bed side table.
Number three: Pride And Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Now, I’ve known about this book for quite sometime and in fact I’ve read Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, also written by Grahame-Smith. I loved that book, it was given to me by my aunt, who shares my love for the creepy and quirky. Anyway, I loved the book and when the movie came out I was generally okay with it. Though I did end up liking it, I was extremely skeptical of the book because the idea of mixing such a famous historical person with vampires was just a bit too far out of my own realm of literary comfort. But, since my aunt lent it to me and also highly recommended it, I decided to give it a shot. It was due to this unexpected love for Vampire Hunter that I decided to give Pride and Prejudice and Zombies a try. I enjoy Grahame-Smith’s writing style and I’m excited to see how he integrates such a horrific monster into Austen’s romantic plot. Yes, there is a movie out based on this and yes, I have watched it. I don’t know why this always happens to me, but I always end up watching the movie before I read the book! But, the movie was splendid and was actually another thing that prompted me to read the book. According to the producers and director of the movie, Grahame-Smith stuck by his source material extremely well and for the movie they simply followed suit. Like with Abraham Lincoln, I’m just skeptical of how well he’ll be able to mesh the clash of genres, but I have high hopes that it turns out to be one of my favorites!
Number four: Red Queen By Victoria Aveyard
This book was from yet another Target excursion. Whilst browsing the book aisle in Target, I wondered across many familiar titles that I had seen on all of my previous ventures into Target. This time however, a crimson coated cover caught my eye. From front cover to back cover and every page in between, the book was entirely red. I know that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover however, the cover of a book is also meant to reflect the plot and characters within it’s pages. So, just like how I often watch the movie before I read the book, I also bought this book primarily because of its cover. That wasn’t the only reason though! I, of course, also read the description on the inside of the cover and after deciding that the plot was a perfect fit for me, I put the book in my cart and proceeded to check out. Now if you’ve never heard of it, Red Queen is basically about two races of people, one with sliver blood and one with red. The silver-blooded race has amazing powers and because of that, they rule the world and basically put the red-blooded people under their thumb. One day it is discovered that a red-blooded girl has the same powers hat a silver-blooded noble would have. To cover this up, the royalty claims that she is the long lost princess. However, the girl is sick of the prejudice of the silver-bloods and aids in any way with a rebellion brewing among the red-bloods. I’m extremely excited to start this book and when I finish, it’ll move into my “to-be-reviewed” pile.
Number five: Touched by Elisa S. Amore
Touched was a book that I had actually never seen in person before I received it. I saw an advertisement for it once when I was scrolling through Facebook, a rare occasion itself. The idea of it was interesting to me and as far as young adult-fantasy-romance novels, it seemed like something I would enjoy, especially since I enjoyed Hush, Hush so much. The book is about angels of death who are sent to Earth in order to ensure that each man meets his destiny. One angel however, is thrown completely off guard by his target and the two fall in love. Loyalties are tested and lives are at stake in this first novel by Amore. There are two books in the series so far, I believe, and I do have both of them. I’m very excited to read both and see how they compare to the Hush, Hush series. It’s always interesting to see how different authors interpret popular lore and mythology, so I’m eager to compare how Fitzgerald and Amore differed in their interpretation of angels.
So those are the top five books on my reading list right now. I do have a few other titles that I’m excited to read as well, but I don’t want to get too far in them until I finish these five. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was actually just recently gifted to me and I cannot wait to start reading it! My classes permitting, I’ll be reading as much as I can and hopefully posting more often. Also, you guys should check out my aunt’s blog too! I’ll put her link below and as always guys,
Happy Reading!
Maddison C. Jones
Here is my Aunt’s blog: https://animosbones.com/
My personal blog: https://maddisoncjones.wordpress.com/
In My Opinion 