Reading List
Rating Key¶
🛑dropped = hated it, did not finish (DNF) (dark red)😡
⭐ = did not like it, difficult to get through but I finished it (red)😒
⭐⭐ = it was just okay, probably wouldn't recommend or read again (orange)😑
⭐⭐⭐ = liked it, some complaints, but overall good (yellow)🙂
⭐⭐⭐⭐ = loved it, thoroughly enjoyed it, definitely recommend (green)😊
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = obsessed, can't stop thinking about it (dark green)😍
I like to go over the way I rank my reviews since it's an ambiguous scale and I want to provide clarity for what I personally mean when I mark something with a certain star rating. For some people, if you mark a book with anything other than 5 stars then that means you hated it, but that's not the case for me. If I mark all books I like with 5 stars then the scaling system should really just be a thumbs up or thumbs down system instead. Using a scaling system like 5 stars helps me to categorize my reading by what I liked (3 stars) vs what I loved (4 stars) vs my next great obsession (5 stars).
Books on Writing¶
| 📖 Book | 📋 Review |
|---|---|
| The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I love this book, it's full of so many writing tips and tricks that are foundational and longstanding good principles to always remember. It's also a great book to own a hard copy of because there are example for everything that are really great to see and highlight. This guide is so full of quality information for writers and it doesn't waste any page space on anything but outlining that information as cleanly as possible. Definitely a book I recommend all writers have a physical copy of. |
| Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little by Christopher Johnson | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I highly recommend this book to all writers, no matter what mediums you primarily work within. This book is all about how to write quality content, not just short form copy. This book taught me so much about the quality of words and how to write quality content over quantity content, whether I've needed 3 perfect words for some ad copy or want a clean, quality final draft for my novel that doesn't drag on and on. |
| Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This book is all about how all writing is poetry if you know what you're doing. All good writing is art, so all writers can benefit from this insightful work on how to take all your writing from just words to an art form. |
| They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This book is fantastic for students and anyone who writes academically. It's about how to take your writing from project completion to meaningful discussions that add to whatever field you might be in. This book is also great for anyone looking to learn how to make sure all their content has deep, impactful meaning. |
| Writing and Rhetoric by Brett McInelly and Brian Jackson | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is another great book for students and academic writers, but also anyone looking to strengthen their persuasive writing skills and engage meaningfully with the world via their writing. |
| Falling Into Theory: Conflicting Views on Reading Literature by David H. Richter | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Being a writer starts with being a reader and this book is a great start for learning how to take your reading comprehension to the next level, especially if you love the study of literature. |
| Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry by Laurence Perrine | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Poetry may be the most concise writing form. Whether you're interested in writing poetry or not, learning the skills poets have to put only the most important words to the page to get their message across is a great skill to have as a writer. |
Books on Marketing¶
| 📖 Book | 📋 Review |
|---|---|
| Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I've been in marketing for almost 10 years, so I can be rather harsh on marketing books since they often suffer from being conceptually incestuous. What I mean by that is most books on marketing are actually just products to sell to marketers and not actually helpful for marketers to use in practice. So when I find marketing books that are actually helpful and insightful, with actionable things most marketers can employ, I like to make note of them. Contagious was a very interesting read that really dived into the psychological reasons some things spread within a community while others don't. This book deepened my understanding of the psychology of gossip and how to utilize the oldest and strongest marketing strategy there ever was—word of mouth. |
| The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money and Stand Out from the Crowd by Allan Dib | 📖reading... |
Standalone Fiction¶
| 📖 Book | 📋 Review |
|---|---|
| Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ This book was such a good read. It wasn't written "as Charlotte Bronte" but still kept the vibe of her writing and the eery worlds she creates. It felt like a very "book accurate" book for technically being "fan fiction" about Rochester's wife Bertha. This new take on the story felt like a very realistic possibility for the true story behind Rochester's wife in the attic. It made me really want to learn what happens to Jane in this universe, when Rochester inevitably does the same thing to her. I felt for Bertha a lot after hearing her story like this. I will say that I didn't love the formatting. For example, they didn't use quotation marks for dialogue, and it was often really hard to tell whose POV it was (Bertha or Rochester) because the book doesn't really follow any standard formatting conventions. But I do think this added to the vibe of Bertha's story, exemplifying how she's a free-spirited person and not really educated. If Bertha herself was telling her story it would have the same, format-free, unrestricted feeling as well. |
| Weyward by Emilia Hart | 📖reading... |
Fantasy Series¶
| 📖 Book | 📋 Review |
|---|---|
| From Blood and Ash Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout | 📖reading... |
| From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash 1) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I loved this book! The main character Poppy is very likeable and easy to root for. The worldbuilding so far is very robust, which I personally love. It can be confusing but it's definitely very well thought out. (spoiler alert!) I especially loved how this series combines the concepts of vampires, werewolves, gods, and even zombies in a very new and unexpected way that seamlessly works very well all together. |
| A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (Blood and Ash 2) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The ending of book 1 was such a cliffhanger, I was so excited to get into book 2! I loved book 2 a lot as well, though I will say, (spoiler alert!) I wished it took more time for Poppy and Casteel to reconcile after his betrayal. It would have been nice to see that play out a little longer than it did. Instead their relationship and Poppy's acceptance that everything she ever thought she knew was a lie all resolved rather quickly. |
| The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash 3) | ⭐⭐⭐ This installment in the series was very slow until the very end when it quickly picked up again. I felt this portion of the story really didn't need to be its own book. Instead, I think we could have ended book 2 with the main events of this book. |
| The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash 4) | 📖reading... |
| A Soul from Ash and Blood (Blood and Ash 5) | 📘to be read |
| Visions of Flesh and Blood (Blood and Ash 6) | 📘to be read |
| The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash 7) | 📘to be read |
| Flesh and Fire Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout | 📖reading... |
| A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Wow, I could not put this book down! Every second was great to read. This book delivered on all its promises, a girl trained her whole life for one job, to assassinate a god she was destined to marry. The premise gave me chills and so did each page. I felt like this book actually delivered more on the enemies-to-lovers trope than From Blood and Ash. So far I find myself even more invested in Sera and Nyktos's story than Poppy and Casteel's. |
| A Light in the Flame (Flesh and Fire 2) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Just as good as the first book, not a second wasted. I couldn't put it down! Sera and Nyktos's story is so engaging and turbulent. |
| A Fire in the Flesh (Flesh and Fire 3) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I know reading this book before The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash 4) and A Soul from Ash and Blood (Blood and Ash 5) goes against the recommended reading order, but I realized I cared more about the Blood and Ash books not spoiling the Flesh and Fire books for me than I cared about the Flesh and Fire books spoiling the Blood and Ash books. So I went ahead and read away and so far I don't regret it. This book was gripping from start to finish like every book in the Flesh and Fire series for me so far. I think the pacing is quicker, which unfolds the complex world-building to me as the reader quicker, which makes the story and world-building make easier and faster sense too. Because Blood and Ash's pacing is so much slower, it's harder to keep the world-building nuggets we get front of mind as new things unfold. |
| Born of Blood and Ash (Flesh and Fire 4) | 📘to be read |
| Maze of Shadows Series by Kathryn Ann Kingsley | 📘to be read |
| The Unseelie Prince (Maze of Shadows 1) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I loved this book! The world-building is beautifully alive and feels very inspired by actual folklore and myths. The angst and turmoil of this book's conflicts are also so palpable. |
| The Unseelie Throne (Maze of Shadows 2) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great plot and fantastic conflicts. The author really researched the history of fae lore and that was really cool to see displayed in a well-thought-out world. |
| The Unseelie King (Maze of Shadows 3) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I had no idea how the author could possibly wrap up and solve all of the complex conflicts in this story but somehow she did it in the most pleasing and beautiful way. 10 out of 10 series for gut-wrenching conflicts and profoundly satisfying resolutions. |
| ACOTAR Series by Sarah J. Maas | 📖reading... |
| A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR 1) | 📘to be read I really liked this book! It was fun to read about fairies and fae courts, curses and challenges. The plot was a bit slow until the very end though where it picked up and really piqued my interest. This series is also marketed as a beauty and the beast retelling, but that comparison is rather tenuous in my opinion. The curse of the fairy beast (Tamlin) is present but then barely plays a role in the overall story. Ultimately, I would say the beauty and the best connection is tenuous at best. |
| A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOTAR 2) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The second installment made me feel a bit gaslit as a reader. It seemed like the trajectory for a few plotlines in book 1 got cast aside for different ideas in this book and like there wasn't time to update book 1 to reflect those changes. It felt at times like many of the character's personalities were suddenly very different from things established in book 1. For example, characters suddenly being vilified in order to keep Feyre in the position of always being the primary victim in any given situation. This felt frustrating and like I can't trust the author's characterizations because they could very suddenly shift at any given time, particularly with Tamlin and Lucien. |
| A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOTAR 3) | ⭐⭐ In my opion this should have been Nesta's book, but there seemed to be an unwillingness to really let her be the main character of her own storyline. She was the true main character of this portion of the story. It was frustrating to have the true main character's story narrated to us from Feyre's perspective for some reason. There was also more personality retconning in this story with their "deadbeat absent father" suddenly showing up at the end to be heroically killed in an effort to selflessly save his daughters, (just kidding readers, he's actually been secretly a great dad this entire time and actually has been doing a TON of work to secretly help his daughters). Getting together an entire fleet of ships to help his daughters who he hasn't seen or spoken to in who knows how long is a serious amount fo effort for someone who also couldn't get up to feed his starving girls? It just seemed like a very stark character shift all of the sudden. The drastic personality shifts in this serie's characters depending on what the plot needs gives me whiplash as a reader. You never really know who any of these characters are because in the name of the plot anyone's personality could suddenly completely change. |
| A Court of Frost and Starlight (ACOTAR 4) | ⭐ I really don't want to be harsh with a series I know so many people love, but I really didn't love this book. It's essentially a "Christmas" in-between book where Feyre has everything she ever wanted and we are all supposed to hate and judge Nesta for no reason the whole time. I just don't understand how Nesta went from becoming this integrated member of the group in the last book, literally helping to save the world (including the fae world) and then suddenly became a really mean drunk? She just seems like a scapegoat character to add social drama and watching how the other characters react to her obviously intense emotional pain was really hard to watch too. Everyone treats her like she's some kind of villain for behaving like a traumatized person and these reactions to Nesta just make no sense to me. |
| A Court of Silver Flames (ACOTAR 5) | ⭐⭐ It was really difficult for me to get through the beginning of this book. The way Feyre treated Nesta, putting Nesta in front of everyone in Feyre's "new family" to judge and sentence her, made me really uncomfortable. It's such an obviously horrible way for Feyre to handle this situation. It felt like she was kicking her sister while she was already very down and we as the reader are supposed to be on her side about it? It also made zero sense to me why Nesta was suddenly acting this way after being super involved in the last book. In book 3 it seemed like Nesta had her tough time coming to terms with her new life and new world and then came to terms with it, only for her to immediately backslide by a lot. Also, there was a lot of serious relationship development between her and Cassian in ACOWR only for that to basically get written out immediately in the next book like all those profound romantic moments and words never happened just days ago? The characters' decisions don't make a lot of sense to me. Their decisions seem more like plot devices than decisions that make sense for their characters. Like how did Nesta and Cassian's relationship go from the seriousness and depths of… “I have no regrets in this life, but this. That we did not have time. That I did not have time with you, Nesta. I will find you again in the next world - the next life. And we will have that time. I promise.” to her hating him in the very next book? This is such a huge plothole for me. Like I've seen that quote everywhere, and yes, it is super romantic, but utterly ruined given that all of that is suddenly and randomly erased and completely forgotten so that we can go back and actually see Cassian and Nesta's relationship buildup that we didn't get to see in ACOWR because that book was written in Feyre's POV instead of Nesta's. |
| TOG Series by Sarah J. Maas | 📘to be read |
| The Assassin's Blade (TOG 0.5) | ⭐⭐ I was excited to get more backstory and lore on Celaena. She has so much potential to be a really interesting character. I should really like a story about a feral girl who grew up with the king of assassin's as a father who trained her to be the best assassin in the land. But this book really didn't tell us anything new and made Celaena's character more confusing to me. Celaena takes great pride in being the best assassin, but her moral alignment suggests she would not want to be an assassin. There's even a line in this book where Sam is like, "We can't be like that" referring to this evil guy Farran (who kills people), and Celaena literally responds, "We're not like Farran, we know how to do it but we don't enjoy it, that's the difference." Really? You say you don't like assassinating people but now that you're free you still choose to do it and one of your reasons is money because you like fancy things. Her saying she doesnt like killing doesn't even make sense either since she's out of the guild here and can literally choose to do anything else but literally wants to start an assassins guild of her own. What the characters say and do and decide don't make any sense and greatly contradict each other, making the characterization so far just really unbelievable to me. I also really hated how much we were supposed to hate Lysandra who was literally trained since a child to be a prostitute. When Celaena finds out the assassin king bought her virginitiy and slept with Lysandra, Celaena is enraged with jealousy and even throws a knife really close to Lysandra's face out of anger. That was wild to me. We were supposed to feel so betrayed and hate Lysandra so much and I honestly was just really appalled at Celaena who had no interest in saving this girl that could have so easily been her own situation and instead slut shames this child who was forced into prostitution. Just wild, I almost wish I didn't read this book because now I honestly don't like Celaena after that. |
| Throne of Glass (TOG 1) | ⭐⭐⭐ Starting the Throne of Glass series I was rather bummed to learn that this book essentially takes place at "assassin school." I know the format of a school, academy, or gauntlet provides a lot of plot structure but I just find it so boring, I just want to skip right to the interpersonal dilemmas and skip the push ups, trainings, and lectures about different kinds of weapons and poisons. Later in the story when we get to the magical lore, the word marks, and the secret magical murders taking place by hidden rune portals is where this book got way more interesting to me. I thought that was super clever. The story lost me a bit with Celaena being only 18 years old, like not even 19 years old, only 18 years old. Having such an emphasis on her young age made a lot of her story feel pretty unbelievable to me so I liked to pretend she was actually like 26 at least. I also felt some whiplash from the whole Dorian will they won't they thing. I felt like the author couldn't decide whether they were endgame or not so there would be really beautiful romantic lines about how he can't imagine life with anyone else but her, but then actually nevermind, those profoundly serious romantic words were just words and they're just friends. I may also just be more used to dedicated romance writers who make love interest plotlines way more clear and I personally like that. It feels like a waste of my time to build up to a soulmate relationship in a story only to have the rug pulled out from under me several times because it was actually a soulmate red herring. |
| Crown of Midnight (TOG 2) | ⭐⭐⭐ Celaena is now the king's official assassin and is being sent on all kinds of missions to assassinate different important people. But, she now has a concious and can't bring herself to kill these people. So she instead pretends to assassinate these people by convincing them to fake their own deaths and get out of town. Personally I found this plot point a little hard to swallow. I just can't imagine that really working, but no one argues with her and everyone goes through their own efforts to fake their own deaths and leave everything they've ever known to flee into obscurity. Like not a single person argued with her on this? They all just listened to her and cooperated? It seems like a cop out a bit to me, to avoid Celaena being forced to actually do anything wrong while still maintaing the cool title of "assassin" for her. The ending half of this book piqued my interest. I love the magical lore with the word marks and the doors and the king's monster creations. I also loved finally finding out more about Celaena and how she's fae, that makes her abilities make a bit more sense to me. I did find it a little bit comical how many names Celaena is burning through though. Like she was Celaena, then Lillian, then Elentiya kind of, and now Aelin. This book series could be called, "The Girl With Many Names." I don't really know why finding out her true identity warranted a fourth name change. I also don't really understand why we're only learning these origins about Celaena now when she has technically known she was fae and who her parents were this entire time? I think it would have made more sense if maybe she had traumatic amnesia or something rather than her just not sharing this info with us until the very end of her second book, especially if the story is coming from inside her own head. |
| Hier of Fire (TOG 3) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I'd definitely say this was the most interesting book in the series so far with more characters in play and more interesting characters in play too. I also loved learning a lot more about Celeana/now Aelin I guess and her background, etc. I thought it was interesting the parallels between Aelin + Rowan and Feyre + Rhysand (Aelin's an "assassin," Feyre's a "hunter," both Rowan and Rhysand are dark and mysterious men and are both enslaved to evil ladies and both Aelin and Feyre free them). A beef I have with this book is Nehimia's death. It would have been a great death that Celaena could beat herself up about and really hurt over, but then we learn that Nehimia literally orchestrated her own death for the sole purpose of getting Celaena to be the hero, something she was basically already doing: "Nehimia thought her death could spur me to action, so she orchestrated her own death." (a literal quote from this book from Celaena). This is just a wild plot point to me and totally unecessary to make this the circumstances around her death. It would make way more sense to just let it be an assassination, not like this on purpose plan Nehimia had, that's so weird to me. All of Celaena's many many names are also getting to be a bit much. |
| Queen of Shadows (TOG 4) | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Empire of Storms (TOG 5) | ⭐⭐ This series is proving hard for me to get through. It took me a long time to finally finish book 5. My reasons for not enjoying the series feel rather petty, but sometimes that's just how it goes as a reader. I feel like I need to listen to a podcast breakdown of the plot to grasp what I've even read in the past 5 books. Listening to the book might also be greatly affecting my experience with these books, I'm not sure. It just feels tired and ridiculous to me how many names the main character has, like I'm not even sure what to call her because she has so many names, and then at the end of this book she sacrifices herself and they keep repeating this line "nameless is my price" which sounds like a cool sentence but what does it mean?? It's supposed to be meaningful because ANOTHER title she has among her growing list of names is "nameless" which I just find woefully ironic, I just can't 🤦She's literally the most opposite of being "nameless" she could be, the only reason she has this title is because it's being so strongly asserted in this book's final moments that the title "nameless" applies to her, not because it in any way feels true. I find this to be my biggest gripe with Maas books in general though. Nothing feels really organically wrought via a naturally flowing plot, but rather randomly strongly asserted events/decisions according to the author's whimsy in that moment of writing. |
| Tower of Dawn (TOG 6) | 📘to be read |
| Kingdom of Ash (TOG 7) | 📘to be read |
| Empyrian Series by Rebecca Yarros | 📘to be read |
| Fourth Wing (Empyrian 1) | ⭐⭐⭐ This world is fun and interesting but I'm not exactly in love with it. I don't love the "military school" premise just because I'm not a fan of books set in school settings in general. Everytime they're in a classroom or a teacher starts teaching I die a little inside. But I do love the premise of dragons and riders and magic. A couple gimmicky things that bother me were how Violet conveniently recites world-building facts out loud when she's nervous or how she has brown hair with silver ombre highlights, how her mother apparently does love her but would basically send her to her death, why of all the magic things magical modern pens are the most exciting thing for new recruits, or how she bonded with 2 uber powerful dragons for no real reason other than pure main character syndrome. I also didn't believe how or why Violet and Xaden fell in love. It seemed to just happen and it felt like we were just told to believe they're in love now rather than reading through all the interesting and unique human things that go into falling in love with another human being. They felt more like characters who are each other's designated love interests than two people who fell in love with each other. I think part of why I felt this way reading their romance plotline was how Violet objectified Xaden so much. I don't think she ever gives a reason beyond how hot he is for why she's interested in him. |
| Iron Flame (Empyrian 2) | ⭐⭐ This book felt a little all over the place and I didn't understand half of what was going on. But the part that lost me the most was when we learn (spoiler alert!) that Xaden is an intinsic and we're supposed to be shocked by this information when Xaden and Violet have literally been reading each other's minds since very early on in book 1. Then were were supposed to feel so betrayed that he hadn't told her about this secret of his yet when she knows firsthand why he would keep this a secret, or we were supposed to feel betrayed because now maybe her feelings were manipulated since he could read her thoughts BUT then we learn that he literally can't actually read thoughts, he can just read "intentions" so don't worry reader, Xaden is safe from being canceled for any ability that could remotely compromise full consent, but Violet's gonna go ahead and feel betrayed for awhile anyway for the sake of the plot. This plot point really lost me. AGAIN, they're bonded to mated dragons so they could ALREADY read each other's minds! |
| Beasts of the Briar Series by Elizabeth Helen | 📘to be read |
| Bonded by Thorns (Beasts of the Briar 1) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great book that really delivered on the promise of a more grown-up retelling of beauty and the beast. The story is so complex, dynamic, and imaginative. I wasn't bored for a second! I burned through this book and you will too. |
| Woven by Gold (Beasts of the Briar 2) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I loved this book just as much as the first book. Great continued momentum! We finally got to the part where the princes find out what "Gaston" did to her and it didn't play out as dramatically as I was hoping it would. I felt like her complicated feelings around her abuser got wrapped up too quickly with her very quickly being super okay with his demise. I think there was a missed opportunity here too by wrapping up this plot point so completely all the sudden, I wanted Quell to take "Gaston" to the winter realm and then he would become an ally for the rebels and kidnap her later with actual power behind his evilness. I just wanted that plot point to run out a little longer I think. |
| Forged by Malice (Beasts of the Briar 3) | 📖reading... |
| Broken by Daylight (Beasts of the Briar 4) | 📘to be read |
Science Fiction¶
| 📖 Book | 📋 Review |
|---|---|
| Annihilation Series by Jeff VanderMeer | 📖reading... |
| Annihilation (Southern Reach 1) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fantastic read, mind bogglingly mysterious and spooky in a way I've never experienced before. |
| Authority (Southern Reach 2) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Just as eerie and mysterious as book 1. I'm on the edge of my seat! "Strange fiction" is officially a new favorite genre of mine. |
| Acceptance (Southern Reach 3) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I did not see the ending coming and I was really grateful that the book did have a conclusion and answers to the mystery. I was worried it would wrap up more loosely and vaguely but the resolution fetl very satisfying and interesting too! |
| House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski | 📖reading... |