Top 5 Wednesday: Top 5 Books To Read Without Knowing the Synopsis

I'm baaaaack for another Top 5 Wednesday! This week's topic is the Top 5 Books To Read Without Knowing Anything About the Synopsis. So basically, books that you go into blind. It's hard for me to go into a book without at least trying to find out something about it. The books I picked though, I do think they are more fun if you go into them knowing next to nothing, or just the vaguest of vague. I'm just going to list my picks, but I'm not going to tell you anything about them, because that would defeat the purpose!

 

  

-- Shadowlands by Kate Brian -- Read it and Find Out!

-- Night Film by Marisha Pessl -- Read it and Find Out!

-- Vicious by V.E. Schwab -- Read it and Find Out!

-- And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich -- Read it and Find Out!

-- The Merciless by Danielle Vega -- Read it and Find Out!

Those are my picks! There were probably more I could have put. Now I know some of my picks are kind of popular, and you might already know something about them, but I think they would be fun to go into blind. If you want to join in on the Top 5 Wednesday fun, you totally should! Each Wednesday is a new topic to consider and enjoy. Check out all the other Top 5 Wednesday-ers Here!

#TheReadingQuest Progress Post #2

#TheReadingQuest is over, officially, and I didn't complete my quest...

Even though it's technically over, I'm going to continue on with it anyway. Since it's based on a video game format, I'm going to do my own thing. The way I rationalize it is that it takes me FOREVER to beat a video game. I'm that type that plays for awhile, gets stuck at some point, stops playing for a time, and eventually picks back up where I left of. So, I'm seeing #TheReadingQuest as just a big game. I would love to maybe finish all the Quests. I'm just going to keep making my way across the board.

For my ROGUE QUEST, I managed to finish three books in the allotted time. The Three Challenges I finished were:

A BANNED BOOK:

Gossip Girl (#1) by Cecily von Ziegesar

A BOOK COVER WITH A PARTIALLY OBSCURED FACE:

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

A BOOK WITH <500 RATINGS ON GOODREADS:

Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel

The two challenges that I didn't yet complete were A BOOK PUBLISHED BY A SMALL PRESS and A BOOK WITH A ONE WORD TITLE although I do have ideas of what I'm going to read for those.

So I failed at completing #TheReadingQuest in the time allotted, but I'm going to continue on anyway. I had a lot of fun taking part in it. If I was better at readathons, I might have succeeded and finished it, but I'm not. I might keep doing my progress posts because they are fun. Did you do #TheReadingQuest? If so, did you complete your Quest?

book cover images are from www.goodreads.com and the gif is from https://giphy.com/gifs/swamp-people-troy-tRJJmcOu5EBYk/links

Review: Chew, Volume 6: Space Cakes by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Title: Chew, Volume 6: Space Cakes

Written and Lettered by: John Layman

Drawn and Colored by: Rob Guillory

Published by: Image Comics, Inc.

Released: 2013 (Omnivore Volume 3 Edition)

Source: Library

Summary: The adventures just get tastier in Chew, Volume 6: Space Cakes. Tony is out of commission for a while, in the hospital, so his family and friends have to pick up the slack.

His sister Toni has a lot to do this Volume. As an agent for NASA, she can investigate anything and everything. She also has some secret special skills.

John is getting used to his new partner POYO, who is taking all the glory.

Crime is on the rise, with painters being kidnapped, vampires showing up, and a tragedy to eclipse all tragedies.

My Thoughts: CHEW IS THE BEST!! I have so much fun reading this comic series. The story is wacky and zany, I never know what's going to happen next. The art is fantastic too! Bright and colorful, and a lot of times really disgusting. I also love finding all the little hidden extras in the panels. It adds just that much more fun!

This comic series is an experience, an experience I recommend everyone partaking in.

I enjoyed the story in this Volume, how we got to spend a lot of time with Toni. Her interactions with everybody were just a lot of fun. I loved the back and forth she had with Caesar. I was also kind of sad with how it ended. Tragedy, TRAGEDY!

Can't wait to see where everything goes next. It will be awesome. I can't recommend this series enough. It's a ton of fun!

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4.5/5

Deliciously Disgusting!

Reading Right Now! (131)

What I'm Reading Right Now! is...

-- Gossip Girl (#1) by Cecily von Ziegesar -- I picked this one up for a couple of reasons. One, it's been on my shelf forever. Two, I'm taking part in this thing called #TheReadingQuest, which I know I have no hope of actually completing. I'm taking the Rogue's journey, and one of the squares I had to complete was a banned book. The Rogue path was a hard path to take. So I was searching my shelves for a book that I could use that had been banned, and Gossip Girl totally worked for it. It had been banned from some school libraries because of crude, sexual content and a lot of drug use, which is kind of accurate. I mean, I don't agree with banning books, but the lifestyles practiced by the characters in Gossip Girl are not good influences for teens haha.

This book is all about a group of ridiculously wealthy teenagers and their exploits in New York City's Upper East Side. This first book is a lot like the first episode of the CW Show. I am enjoying reading it. It's very addictive and kind of fun. These kids are soooo far from where I was as a teenager, so I can't relate to them at all. I do have almost all the other books in the series, so this #ReadingQuest kind of gives me a great excuse to go through them.

Oh and #TheReadingQuest officially ends on September 10, 2017, but I plan on continuing making my way around the gameboard and just seeing if I can eventually finish it. It's supposed to be in the same vein as a game, and I don't know about you, but it takes me forever to beat a game.

What are my plans for what I'm reading next???

I'm very mixed on what I want to do next. Since I'm almost finished with Gossip Girl, there are so many books I want to pick up and read. Maybe I'll try that reading more than one book at a time thing again, see how I do. Probably not well, but I'll try anyway. So here's what I might dive into next:

  

-- The Siren Chronicles: Book 1 by Douglas J. Sloan -- I need to read this one so I can review it. I thought that I was going to be on a blog tour for it, but I haven't heard anything back about that. It's a short read, so it shouldn't take me too long. I can also use this for my #ReadingQuest as a book published by small press.

-- Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley Doyle -- I just want to read this one. I saw it on my library shelf and snatched it up. It's new, so I imagine that maybe I won't be able to renew it because other people will want to read it. I also really enjoyed this author's first book, The Accident Season.

-- Bzrk (#1) by Michael Grant -- This is coming up due at the library, so I need to read it. I really, really love Michael Grant's Gone Series, and have been meaning to pick up some more of his books. This book would also count towards the #ReadingQuest Rogue path as a One Word Title. If I finished this, and The Siren Chronicles, then I will have completed the Rogue Path for #TheReadingQuest which would be AWESOME!!

So that's what I'm Reading Right Now! and my plans for what I would like to read next. What are you Reading??

Review: Bluescreen (Mirador #1) by Dan Wells

Title: Bluescreen (Mirador #1)

Author: Dan Wells

Published by: Balzer + Bray

Released: 2016

Source: Library

Summary: Welcome to Los Angeles 2050. The future is an interesting place. Technology has advanced so much that it's literally inside you. The majority of the population has a djinni implanted in their heads, and are able to plug in anywhere and everywhere. VR Gaming is super popular, and with a blink, you can check your email.

Technology also has its downsides. Since robots have taken over most of the menial labor jobs, work is hard to find. The city can be split up into the very rich and the very poor.

Marisa lives in Mirador, a lower income neighborhood of Los Angeles. She's a great VR gamer, trying her best to aim for the big leagues. She's also a pretty skilled hacker.

When a fancy new drug starts making the rounds called Bluescreen, Marisa thinks nothing of it. When her friend Anja takes it, she starts to get worried. This new drug is dangerous, and has a more evil intent than anyone could have ever realized. Marisa must save her friend and her city from a new evil.

My Thoughts: This was a pretty fun ride! Dan Wells did not disappoint. The world was a pretty cool thing to witness. All this technology right at your fingertips. The world was also interesting in how dangerous and corrupt it could be. Drugs, gangs, gaming, danger, Wells pretty much stuffed it all in there. I'm interested to see where everything goes next.

I will say, it did take me a little bit to get into the world. There was a lot going on, and it took me a little while to catch up. I found it interesting and sad how far the technology had come, but also how poor most of the population was. There was no middle ground.

I would also recommend this book as a diverse read. Some people might not count it because it's written by a straight, white guy, but ignore those people. It had characters from all over the world, and it also had a main character that was an amputee. Sounds diverse enough to me.

I am kind of curious how this is going to translate into a series. I think it could have worked really well as a stand-alone. I assume the next book will be about Marisa finding out about her past, which will be interesting.

This was a fun, exciting read, with a lot of twists and turns. I'm excited to see where it goes next and what Dan Wells does with this series. It was a fun ride.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5

Drugs Are Scary.

Review: The Lost Causes by Jessica Koosed Etting and Alyssa Embree Schwartz

Title: The Lost Causes

Authors: Jessica Koosed Etting and Alyssa Embree Schwartz

Published by: Kids Can Press

Released: September 5, 2017

Source: NetGalley and Kids Can Press e-arc

Summary: Five kids struggling with life walk the halls of their high school. Sabrina, whose family fell apart after the death of her brother, is addicted to drugs and always searching for the next high. Z, who is not the favorite child in her wealthy family. Justin, whose anger is always red hot and ready to erupt, Gabby, whose OCD rules her life, And Andrew, convinced that his body is falling apart, but doctors disagree. They feel alone, ignored, and that their families don't care.

These five kids all get called to a mysterious meeting, with two people claiming to be therapists. Nash and Patricia say they were picked for this meeting because nobody seems to care about them. They are Lost Causes to their families.

After the meeting, the five notice differences about themselves. Their physical problems have disappeared, and they've acquired some mysterious new abilities.

Patricia and Nash are with the FBI! And the five of them have been recruited to solve the murder of Lily Carpenter. Even though Patricia and Nash lied to them and changed them, they are happy to be part of something, and to have a purpose.

These five loners become a group, whose special skills help them in solving crimes, and so much more. 

My Thoughts: Thank you to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for letting me review an e-arc. Even though I received this book for free to review, all thoughts, opinions, and reviews are honest and my own.

This was great! I was hooked from the first page. I loved the concept of it. I love anything with powers, friendships, murders, and crime solving. This book was just fun for me.

It was kind of a mash-up of Criminal Minds, with a pinch of X-Men, and the fun of Scooby-Doo. It just really worked for me all around.

I enjoyed all the characters. Each one was different from the other, and each one had a special place in the group. I also loved how they acted like immature teens from time to time. They weren't written as little adults in teen bodies, they felt realistic.

I found Andrew to be the most annoying of the bunch, but I still liked him. His hypochondriac status before the serum was extreme, as well as a little amusing. To all those people that really suffer from that, sorry, I wish you didn't. When Andrew got his super brain, he was still annoying, but likable. Always bragging about his super brain. He reminded me a lot of Spencer from Criminal Minds.

Z was the hardest character for me to pin down. 

I liked Sabrina's character, but I can't say I was the biggest fan of her romance. I don't know why I didn't love it, it just didn't do anything for me.

Justin and Gabby were great too! I think their issues were well thought out and felt real. And I absolutely loved their little romance! It was so sweet and adorable.

I love super-power anything, so I really enjoyed them getting their powers and learning how to use them. I'm glad each power was unique and different. Powers are just so fun!!

My favorite part of this book was the friendship this group formed. It was kind of heartwarming. And it didn't feel rushed, it felt like a natural thing.

I found the whole case really interesting too. I had no idea how it was going to go or how everything was going to turn out. The twists and turns were great! I had to keep on reading to see how everything would end.

I just thought this book was a really fun ride. It kept me hooked. I loved this little group of Lost Causes, and I want to see what happens to them next. I want more books in this series! This one did end on a cliffhanger, so I really hope we get to learn what happens next. Thanks again to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for letting me review an e-arc. I definitely recommend picking this one up when it comes out.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4.2/5

So Addicting and Fun!

August 2017 Wrap-Up!

Here's all the books I read in August! I feel like I had a pretty good month. I read two review books, which I'm pretty proud of. I've been trying to do better with reading my review and NetGalley books, because as a blogger, I feel like I'm supposed to be better at that haha. I watched some TV this month too, as always. I'm thinking about bringing back my Movie/TV Series Reviews because I kind of miss doing them. Would anyone be interested in those posts? Let me know.

BOOKS READ IN AUGUST

  

  

-- The Lost Causes by Jessica Koosed Etting and Alyssa Embree Schwartz-- NetGalley Review Book -- RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 -- 4.2/5 -- This was my favorite book of the month! I loved it and definitely recommend getting it for yourself. My review for it will be up tomorrow. I just loved the friendship in this, I loved the special abilities aspect, and I really enjoyed the mystery of it all. As far as I know, this is a standalone, but I want it to be a series so badly. I just had a lot of fun while reading this one and am so glad I got to discover it and read an early copy through NetGalley.

-- Doubt, Volume 2 (Doubt #3-4) by Yoshiki Tonogai -- Library Book -- 4/5 -- This was a fun manga horror. I didn't expect the ending at all, but I kind of had an early inkling of who the baddie was. I'm going to read more from Yoshiki Tonogai, because I did enjoy this series.

-- Breaker by Kat Ellis -- Library Book -- 3.7/5 -- This read was decent, I liked it well enough. It is a mystery/thriller about a boy who is the son of a serial killer. He goes to a new school and finds himself in the same class as the daughter of his father's last victim. Again, I figured out the baddie before the end of the book. I also thought more could have been done with some of the side characters, because they interested me, and it felt like whatever story they could have had was cut short. I had questions about some of the side characters, that's what I mean. But I enjoyed this. I'm going to read more by Kat Ellis.

-- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart -- Library Book -- 3/5 -- I don't think you can be on any type of book social media: booktube, blogs, goodreads, bookstagram, and not be at least somewhat aware of this book. This book has so much hype surrounding it. So many people that say it's fantastic. I am sad to say that I wasn't impressed by this. I can see why people liked this. It's written in a very lyrical, mysterious way that can draw you in. I just found this overhyped. I figured out the ending, I thought it was fairly obvious, so I wasn't shocked by that. I also didn't really sympathize with any of these characters. I felt like they did stupid things, and that stupidity led to the ending they got.

-- Emma In The Night by Wendy Walker -- NetGalley and St. Martin's Press Review Book -- RELEASED: AUGUST 8, 2017 -- 3.5/5 -- This was another NetGalley Review Book that I got to read, so thank you St. Martin's Press! It's already out. My review is already posted here. I really do enjoy mystery thrillers, I find them a lot of fun. This one was just an okay read for me. It was a little dull in the way that they unraveled the mystery. I understand why it was told that way, but it wasn't the most exciting thing to read. I was surprised by the twists and turns this took. I'm interested in reading more by Wendy Walker. 

And I just want to say, I love getting the chance to read books early and share my reviews. It's awesome, and I hope I get to continue to do it. My ultimate dream is to be one of those people who gets physical arcs mailed to me, that would be the best!

-- Chew, Vol. 10: Blood Puddin' (Chew #46-50) by John Layman and Rob Guillory -- Library Book -- 4/5 -- Chew is my FAVORITE FAVORITE comic series at the moment. I love it! and find it to be so much fun. This Volume wasn't my favorite of the series that I've read so far, but it's Chew, so I still love it. Tony was very angry in this Volume. This Volume also contained the much anticipated battle with The Collector, and that battle just felt too short considering all the build up. Can't wait to read the next Volume though! I don't have many more Volumes left, which makes me sad.

-- Daughter of the Pirate King (#1) by Tricia Levenseller -- Library Book -- 3.7/5 -- I was really excited to read this one because I LOVE PIRATES!! The character in this had been compared to Captain Jack Sparrow, which is one of my favorite fictional pirates! But... I wasn't blown away by this book. I don't feel like a lot happened in it, in the grand scheme of things. I wasn't completely onboard with the romance, especially the quick(ish) way it started. I also wasn't the biggest fan of Alosa, like I didn't fall for her. She was nothing even remotely close to Captain Jack Sparrow. I also felt like this book toed this weird line between being a light hearted Pirate adventure and then switching to the dark side. I'm going to read the sequel, because I am interested to see what happens. I know I said Alosa wasn't my favorite character, but she does seem to have an interesting backstory, which I want to learn more about.

That's everything I read in August. I don't think I did too bad a job. I'm happy I read two review books. I'm going to continue to try knocking my review books out. The only way that I think I'll be able to completely keep up with my review books is if I get my library book addiction under control, which has a very, very slim, pretty much nonexistent chance of ever happening. I feel like I mostly enjoyed all the books I read in August too! There was only really one that disappointed me.

TV SHOWS/MOVIES WATCHED IN AUGUST

 

  

As I said earlier, I'm thinking of bringing back my movie/tv show reviews. And if I do manage to stick to that goal, I want to write reviews for all these things that I watched in August. I don't know if you guys would be interested in that. Let me know if you would. But if I really feel like doing it, I'll just do it.

-- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me -- Rented from Library -- I was bad and never wrote up my July 2017 Wrap-Up, but I'm going to try to put that up at a later date. But in July, I binge-watched Twin Peaks Seasons 1 and 2, and I really enjoyed it. It was weird, funny, and just an experience to watch. I'm really excited to eventually watch Twin Peaks: The Return. I think it's so cool that they brought it back 25 years later!

Anyway, after I finished the Series on Netflix, I wanted to watch all things Twin Peaks so I could be ready for The Return, whenever I do watch it. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is supposed to be a prequel to Twin Peaks chronicling Laura's last days.

I did not like this movie. It just felt like David Lynch was given free rein, and he took everything too far. Most of the characters I really liked in the TV Series weren't in this, they had filmed scenes for it, but they had all been cut. None of the lighthearted humor from the show was included, which was one of my favorite parts. This whole thing was just dark and weird and not that fun to watch. It wasn't a pleasant experience. 

-- The Twilight Zone TV Series -- All the episodes that were on Netflix -- I've been watching this on Netflix for a couple months and finally finished it. I love The Twilight Zone. I thought it was really fun watching all the old episodes. There were some episodes that were just okay, but most of them were a lot of fun.

-- The Defenders -- Netflix -- So Fun! I really enjoyed this highly anticipated Netflix series. I can't wait for the next season, but I know it will be a long time before it comes out. I was familiar with almost everyone's story before watching this, I just have to go back now and watch Seasons 1 and 2 of Daredevil. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are probably my favorites, but Daredevil is edging his way in there too. This was just really fun. I love it.

-- Firefly -- Rented from Library -- WHY DIDN'T I WATCH THIS SOONER!?!?! I loved this. I now feel the pain of all the original fans, after it got unfairly canceled. This was great! It's a Sci-Fi/Western Mash-Up. It has the best crew. And it's just a whole lot of fun. I'm mad that this only got 1 Season. FOX Network, you messed up, you messed up baaaad. LOVED THIS!

And that was my August 2017! How was yours?