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AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Sanity Savers

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re not talking about books at all! We’re talking about the things we do to stave off insanity. What are we doing with our time now that there seems like so much more of it?! How are we going to survive if quarantine doesn’t go away AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!!

Work (Believe it or Not)

 

 

I’m one of the lucky ones that gets to keep working by commandeering my wife’s crafting room and turning it into a home office. For the first two weeks, I was so busy getting used to the new accommodations, adjusting to everything taking longer from home, and generally just putting out little fires everywhere. (see what I did there?) It was so much work that I barely had a moment to spare thinking about isolation and the world going insane around me. Now that I’ve climatized, I can’t seen to keep hitting refresh on cnn.com!

Reading (of course!)

 

I mean, we’re readers, right? We read in the best of times, how can we be expected not to read in the worst of times! I was hoping this would mean that I’d have so much more time to read, but honestly, that hasn’t changed. Probably because of the other things on this list, but there it is.

Catching Up on TV (and Video Games)

I know, it’s a bit of a cheat to put TV and video games as one item, but they both serve to destroy my time doing anything productive. When it comes to video games, I’m a bargain shopper. I don’t buy them when they come out. I buy them when they go on sale (half price or less) thinking I’ll play them when I “have time.” I should have more time now, but as I said above, I don’t. And when it comes to TV, my wife and I usually take forever to get through a season of something. Lately though, we start and end a season within the same week, or close to it. Our latest was The Stranger on Netflix. As most of the best shows usually are, this one was based on a book. Now we’re struggling to find the next show to watch. Please drop me your binging recommendations in the comments!

Writing (sometimes)

Another of the more productive things I tend to do in the best of times, and another thing that I still wish I was doing more of. I started off last week writing and thought I’d continue the momentum all week long. NOPE! But alas, the times I do sit down and do it, I love it. It’s maybe the best escape of the list, especially if I can find myself completely immersed in the worlds of my own making.

Home Projects

I never thought this would make the list, but it did. I’m a procrastinator, through and through. But since we aren’t really leaving the house, I’m stuck nose-to-nose with all those things that are on the “eventually I’ll get to this” list. So far, I’ve done a bunch of landscaping in the front yard and a bunch of organizing in the basement. That may not seem like a lot (and it’s not) but for me, it’s A LOT!

Fun fact about this post: Oh, I also started running again on Sunday. Don’t forget to leave me your binging recommendations!
AllBooksReviews

Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

RUTHLESS GODS
by Emily A. Duncan

Macmillan
April 7, 2020

From Goodreads:

Darkness never works alone…

Nadya doesn’t trust her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him. Malachiasz is at war with who–and what–he’s become.

As their group is continually torn apart, the girl, the prince, and the monster find their fates irrevocably intertwined. They’re pieces on a board, being orchestrated by someone… or something. The voices that Serefin hears in the darkness, the ones that Nadya believes are her gods, the ones that Malachiasz is desperate to meet—those voices want a stake in the world, and they refuse to stay quiet any longer.

Thanks to the good people at NetGalley and Macmillan for providing me with a eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wicked Saints, the predecessor of Ruthless Gods, was a strong debut with enticing characters, a great premise, a unique magic system, and limitless potential. Ruthless Gods, however, didn’t follow through on any of of the first book’s promises the way I had hoped.

As we rejoin our beloved characters from book one. A little time has passed, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing really happened and it seems like maybe they just say around waiting for the second book to start.

They thing proceed to embark on a journey that none of them knows anything about, including why they’re actually doing it at all. Each one of them then spends the rest of the book flip-flopping back and forth enough to frustrate any politician. It goes something like this:

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate hime, I LOVE HIM, I hate him, I hate him…

This kind of conflict can be great if there are reasons for each step, but without any reason at all it reads much more like a group of people who should be medicated.

Without a clear goal to the seemingly random quest and characters would say one thing and do another, everything about this story seems listless and random.

I was excited to read this sequel, but unfortunately I found nothing but letdown. It was left open for at least one more book, but at this point, I can’t imagine I’m going to pick it up.

AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Authors – F, G, H, I, & J

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re talking about favourite authors F through J. This one was even tougher than last week. If this theme has made me realize anything, it’s that I jump around from author to author A LOT. There aren’t very many that I’ve read deep into, and some are being put on these lists based off of a single book, or books that I have on my TBR!

F – Jonathan Franzen

So, right off the bat, Jonathan Franzen is one of those authors who I’ve only read one book from. To be fair, The Corrections is a fantastic book that has stayed with me 10+ years later. I have another of his on my bookshelf that I auto-bought on his name alone, though I haven’t read it just yet.

G – Neil Gaiman

Anyone who doesn’t have Neil Gaiman on their top authors list has probably never read a Neil Gaiman book. The guy has this ability to make you laugh at silly, slapstick antics and still come away feeling emotionally torn over one issue or another. It’s almost like he’s able to walk into a room and give you a bag of candy. And it’s really good candy, so you eat the whole bag. And when you’re done he comes back and says, “That wasn’t candy. It was vegetables. You’re healthier now.”

H – Hugh Howey

Hugh is another 1-booker, but what a book! Wool brought me out of a huge reading slump once upon a time, and I’m a fan of his online antics. There’s a video of him crashing a book party where a bunch of his fans were meeting in costume and he shows up, also dressed in costume. Pretty epic.

I – Walter Isaacson

Okay. This is my biggest stretch so far. I haven’t read any of Mr. Isaacson’s books, but I have 2 on my shelf. One on Steve Jobs, and one on Leonardo DaVinci. I’m very much looking forward to reading them, it just hasn’t happened yet!

J – Jay Kristoff

 

This guy. THIS guy! Jay Kristoff is a creative juggernaut. I imagine the stuff he’s thrown out is world’s ahead of some of the awful, awful books I’ve read in my time. I have to believe he has like a literary Midas touch. Jay works on a story, it’s dripping in gold.

 

Fun fact about this post: You think this week is bad? Just wait until I start inventing names because I can’t find an author with a name that starts with X!!
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Authors – A, B, C, D, & E

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re talking about favourite authors A, B, C, D, & E. This was a tough one, and while sometimes I used the first name and sometimes the last, I didn’t have to cheat or really reach to use middle names of anything like that.

A – Amie Kaufman

Unearthed left me wanting a little more, but for her part in the Illuminae series, she totally deserves to be the first author named in this series.

B – Pierce Brown

Yup. You all knew this one was coming. Author of the Red Rising series, which is one of my favourite series of all time.

C – Chuck Palahniuk

This guy single-handedly brought me out of a multi-year reading slump, and inspired me to finish my own first novel. His writing style is truly unique. Also, it’s pronounced pal-a-nik. You know you were wondering.

D – Philip K Dick

The brilliant mind that brought us Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, Man in the High Castle, and a ton of other titles that you’ve probably heard of multiple times in multiple forms of media, even if you’ve never picked up one of his books.

E – Ernest Hemingway

One of the smoothest writers I’ve ever read. The pages seem to fly by whether he’s writing about murder or an old man on a boat prepping a fishing pole.

 

Fun fact about this post: Wow. This list started out with the young and current and just got older and older the further down it went…
AllBooksReviews

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

WANDERERS
by Chuck Wendig

Del Ray
July 9, 2019

From Goodreads:

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it. As the rest of society collapses all around them–and an ultraviolent militia threatens to exterminate them–the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart–or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

There are many words that come to mind when I think about describing Wanderers. Thoughtful. Prophetic. Disturbing. Entertaining. Funny. Heartfelt. Relevant. Amazing. And that’s just the tip of this epidemic iceberg. If I had to boil it down to a single word to describe Wanderers: Important.

From the opening chapter, this book left me wanting more. More action, more confrontation, and more answers! Every time a question was answered, two more took its place.

The sleepwalkers are driven down the road by a cast of characters I won’t soon forget. Oddly enough, considering they become known as shepherds, they’re all black sheep of their respective flocks. Such personality in each one, and real enough that you can feel the joy when something good comes their way, or the dragging disappointment when they make a decision that you, the reader, don’t agree with. And there are plenty of bad decisions being made!

At 782 pages, it’s a long story! (If it’s ever made for the screen, it better be a Netflix series and not a 2 hour movie.) But the story doesn’t lose you. It doesn’t go off in tangents of whimsy. Believe it or not, it’s very streamlined. I tried to look at it and see what could have been cut, and the answer is nothing. Everything Mr. Wendig left in this book was crucial to telling the story. He didn’t even spend time leading into the “walkers”. You start reading, and in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, “I wonder how long it’ll be before we actually see a—Oh, there’s one.”

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. I read it around the same time as a certain Bionic Bookworm, and I know she hated the ending. I pretty sure I don’t hate it. But I do have questions. And I don’t just mean the normal kind of questions where the author would say, “I’m leaving that up to your imagination!” Before giggling and running away to hide in a forrest (unless you’re inside somewhere, in which case they would have to hide behind a couch or a vending machine, but still giggling.) My questions are more like, HOW? Many things are explained, scientific reasons given that are convincing enough for lamen like me. And then there are a few things left completely unexplained. Small things, to be fair. Small but nagging. 

But why do I call this book important?

Wanderers tackles a wide gamut of cultural issues that are all extremely relevant, even more so in the wake of the current Coronavirus situation. In addition to that, racism, religion, sexism, politics, technology dependance, violence, and society as a whole. I wouldn’t say there’s a deep dive on any one of these issues, but they’re all there. At the very least, a book like this has the potential to start a dialogue that could turn into something bigger. It’s not going to solve racism, but maybe it makes a few people think twice. Maybe someone puts a little more kindness into their day and it spreads as far and as wide as any virus. 

This is easily my favourite book of the year so far. Warning: it’s going to stick with you. It’s a book hangover waiting to happen. And it’s the kind of book that made me worry that the more great books I read, the harder it’s going to be to find books that are great. Don’t wait. Start now, especially because it’s going to take a while!

Fun fact about this post: I first discovered Chuck Wendig on his blog where he doles out writing advice, long-ass posts about apples, and macro photography on Monday, and does it all while being absolutely hilarious. www.terribleminds.com
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Bookish Habits

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re looking at bookish habits. This was a tough one to figure out, because I’m so blind to the habits I have. They all blend into my daily life so seamlessly, it’s hard to see that they exist at all. Upon a closer look, here’s what I discovered:

Constantly Rearranging Bookshelves

Right now, my book are arranged in two sections. Read and unread. The read are arranged by genre, and the unread by the ones I want to read most. Though there’s nothing saying that next month I won’t rearrange by author name, or alphabetical by title.

Getting More and More Books Even When I Have Too Many to Read

Whether I’m cruising NetGalley for yet another ARC, or falling for another Amazon book sale, I can’t seem to stop myself from adding more and more books to my pile.

Getting My Hackles Up When People Diss Reading

“Why bother reading? I’d rather wait for the movie to come out.” Cue roaring laughter from people that don’t realize they’re making themselves sound like dumbasses. I’m not going to begrudge anyone who doesn’t like to read. But the people who have their cute little quips imply reading is stupid, pointless, for losers, or anything else makes me see red. I don’t like hunting, but I don’t talk shit about it. I don’t like figure skating, but I don’t talk shit about it. Why some people talk about not reading like it’s something to brag about is so far beyond me. Would these same people brag about not using math since being in high school?

Buying Additional Copies of a Book Because of a New Cover

This isn’t a common one, but it’s been known to happen. With those books that are the absolute top of my list, I can’t resist buying additional copies with a better cover. Witness the first copy I bought of The Art of Racing in the Rain, and then the second. (and no, I didn’t stop at 2 copies…)

 

Using Goodreads More Than Any Other Social Media

I can’t remember the last time I was on Facebook. I’m not interesting enough to post much on Instagram. I’m too old for Snapchat and TikTok. And twitter might be the only one that comes close to claiming as much of my time as Goodreads.

Fun fact about this post: Not sure if this counts as a hobby, but there is ALWAYS a book next to the toilet…
AllBooksReviews

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

THE UNSPOKEN NAME
by A.K. Larkwood

Tor Books
February 11, 2020

From Goodreads:

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

The good people at Tor Books and NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Unspoken Name was a fascinating premise with some great characters, but despite a plethora of glowing reviews from the rest of the world, the plot just didn’t come through for me.

The premise is a young girl, chosen to be ritual sacrifice, given a chance at the last minute to escape death and become something far greater. A life spent helping, and learning from, a great and powerful wizard. (No. Not the wizard of Oz.) Under his training, she’ll become a warrior, spy, and assassin, though the degree she does any of those things is up for debate.

I was in love with this premise. It showed so much process, but I found it to be full of half-truths. And very quickly, the book becomes about something else completely. But more on that later.

The characters were fantastic. I enjoyed them all. Deep, developed, and all with their own lives and backstories. These weren’t just people waiting in the wings until the novel needed them. However, after getting to know them, they started to do things that completely went against their nature, at least as far as I understood it. Gave me the impression that many of their decisions were based purely on plot development, which made everything feel just a little cardboard.

I usually enjoy when a book can surprise me. This book did that a lot, but not in a good way. Most of twists and turns didn’t make sense to me, which as I said above, the characters had something to do with. But also, you’re told this book is one thing, and it ends up being another all-together.

With the amount of love this book is getting, I feel like I’ve missed something. I would suggest you take my review as a grain of salt (or less) and try it out yourself.

Fun fact about this post: Yesterday I said I was going to cut down and requesting ARCs, and then requested two more ARCs. I hate myself.
AllLifeWrap-Ups

January 2020 Wrap-Up

Posted on by J.W. Martin

January is over? Already? Finally?

On one hand, I can’t believe it’s already February, but on the other hand it feels like Christmas was 6 years ago. How does that happen?

Anyway, it’s been a while since I did one of the monthly wrap-up thingies, but I did a ton of reading (more listening) this month. Then there’s the Cheapskate Challenge to check in with, and my very first use of an awesome bookish gift from my wife!

Books I read this month

TEN! I don’t think I’ve ever read that many books in a single month before. To be fair, the majority of them were audiobooks, but even so… TEN!

Strange Exit
by Parker Peevyhouse

 Digital ARC

The Girl in the Tower (Winternight #2)
by Katherine Arden

Audiobook

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2)
by James Dashner

Audiobook

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
by Mark Manson

Audiobook

The Long Walk
by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)

Audiobook

The Shining
byStephen King

Audiobook

The Winter of the Witch (Winternight #3)
by Katherine Arden

Audiobook

Mr. Monster (John Cleaver #2)
by Dan Wells

Audiobook

Obsidio (Illuminae Files #3)
by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Hardcover

Own the Day, Own Your Life
by Aubrey Marcus

Audiobook

 

The Cheapskate Reading Challenge

After the first month, I’m happy to see that my score for the Cheapskate Reading Challenge is 20!

For anyone looking for an easy way to keep track of the points for the books you read, I’ve built a simple spreadsheet, available for anyone who would like to use it. All you need to do is:

  1. Hit ‘Make a Copy’ or you won’t be able to enter any data.
  2. Then just enter your book titles and select the category of each book from the dropdown menu.
  3. The spreadsheet will assign each book the proper amount of points and give you a running tally.

 

What I’m Reading Next

Lastly, I made my first use out of the most thoughtful and creative gift from the holiday season. My wife, whose creative endeavours never cease to surprise, made me a reading scratch ticket.

Each rectangle has a book title underneath. Leading up to the holidays, my wife talked to some of people that know a bit about what I might be planning on reading soon, and she even convinced me to re-arrange our bookshelf by ‘read’ and ‘unread’ in order to put to right kinds of books on the ticket. Book number one, Iron Gold! 

 

How was your January? How are you doing the Cheapskate Reading Challenge? And how is February looking for you?

 

Fun fact about this post: On a side note, look at how immaculately clean Iron Gold is without its dust jacket. There’s no way it’s going to be that clean by the time I’m done reading it. No way!

 

 

 

AllFirst Impression FridayMemes

First Impression Friday – Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Welcome to another First Impression Friday. In case this is your first time, here’s the rundown:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think
you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

 

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope.

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it. As the rest of society collapses all around them–and an ultraviolent militia threatens to exterminate them–the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart–or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

Let’s talk about Wanderers by Chuck Wendig.

So, I’ve got the audiobook version for this one. I already knew it was a big book, but I was still pretty surprised the first time I opened it up and saw it was 32+ hours! That’s easily double and triple of “normal” audiobooks. But don’t let that scare you away.

The first few chapters have been dynamite. Not a ton of action, but intrigue is everywhere. Each paragraph fills my mind with more questions that I can’t wait to get the answers to. My inner monologue on this one has basically been:

“What? Why is… ohhhhh. Awesome. Hey, wait. Who’s that? Why are they…? AWESOME!”

Definitely looking forward to more and more and more.

 

My Prediction: 4+ stars

Fun fact about this post: Chuck has been one of all-time favourite bloggers (terribleminds.com). In fact, I was reading his blog posts way before I read any of his books!
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

5 Books I NEED to Read in 2020

Posted on by J.W. Martin

It’s Time! It’s the first Top 5 Tuesday of 2020! Shanah has some awesome topics cooked up already. The first one being the 5 books I need to read in 2020. This has been the first topic of the year for a while now, and I thought it would be depressing fun to look back on the last 2 years of these posts, and see how I failed did.

Top 5 Books I MUST Read in 2018

Invictus
by Ryan Graudin

DID NOT READ

That’s right. This book has been on my shelf for 2 complete years and I did nothing but stare at it and feel bad about myself. And guess what! It’s not the last one on this list with the exact same story!

 

Sea of Rust
by C. Robert Cargill

DID NOT READ

See? Told you.

 

Nevernight

Nevernight
by Jay Kristoff

READ IT!

Yay! I got one! See? I’m not completely useless!

 

All Rights Reserved
by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

DID NOT READ

I’m useless again. But since we’re talking about this book, author Gregory Scott Katsoulis recently started following me on twitter. Not sure what I did to deserve such a prestigious follower, but I’m pumped to have him.

 

A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic
by V.E. Schwab

DID NOT READ

This one is probably my biggest shame over the past two years. It’s usually the first book I bring up when talking about books I need to read and it’s been on my shelf for over 2 years. smh

 

Okay. So 2018 didn’t turn out anything like I wanted it to. I still read a lot of great books that year, and it was also the year that I discovered the slippery slope of ARCs. I had no idea how common it was for requests for digital ARCs to be granted, and I spent 2018 almost exclusively reading ARCs. Let’s see how the year after that went…

 

 

Top 5 Books I MUST Read in 2019

The Lies of Locke Lamora
by Scott Lynch

READ IT!

Look at that! 2019 starting off with a bang! This one might have had to do with the fact that it was a buddy read with the Top 5 Tuesday creator herself.

 

Godsgrave
by Jay Kristoff

READ IT!

Two for two! There’s no way I can keep up these kind of results. Or can I?

 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

DID NOT READ

Nope. I guess I can’t.

 

Scythe
by Neal Shusterman

DID NOT READ

I haven’t had this one on my shelf since the very beginning on 2018, but probably 6 months or more…

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
by Chris Hadfield

Apparently, being non-fiction doesn’t get you read any faster than anything else when it comes to my lists…

 

 

Hmm… Not much better. I’m seeing a trend developing. I was able to limit my requests of ARCs in 2019 by quite a bit, but still too many. Hopefully I’ll have even more control in 2020 so I can get around to reading the books I really want to read…

 

Top 5 Books I MUST Read in 2020

Gideon the Ninth
by Tamsyn Muir

Who hasn’t heard about this book? I’ve been hearing about it everywhere and all of it ranges from good to great to amazing.

 

Sabbath
by Mick Mamatas

I only heard about this one at the end of last year. Basically, an eleventh century warrior dropped in present day New York to hunt down the living personifications of the seven deadly sins. See you there. I’ll bring the popcorn.

 

Darkdawn
by Jay Kristoff

Third year, third book of the Nevernight series. And considering the others are pretty much the only titles off of previous years’ lists to be read, I feel pretty good about this one.

 

Iron Gold & Dark Age
by Pierce Brown

I was trying to pick newer books, so I was going to go with Dark Age, but I haven’t read Iron Gold yet (I know I need my Red Rising fanatic card confiscated.)

 

Wanderers
by Chuck Wendig

This is the only book in this entire post that I don’t already own. That’s going to cost me some points in The Cheapskate Reading Challenge, but I think it’s going to be worth it!

 

Fun fact about this post: I now consider all 12 unread books on my MUST READ THIS YEAR list. Hold me to it. Please. Someone has to.