Books Via Ashley

This post is especially for white people. We need to educate ourselves on what it means to be black in the US. Beyond listening to my POC (that's People of Color) friends when they speak about the injustices and prejudices they face, and following more POC on social media to gain a broader perspective, I also read as much as I can. These are six books I think are very helpful to understanding the history and reality of black people in the United States. Fiction 1) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas Starr witnesses her unarmed friend get shot by a police officer and decides to speak out. I think this book should be required reading in all schools. 2) Americanah   by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Ifemelu moves to the US from Nigeria and learns for the first time what it means to be "black". 3) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead In this book, the Underground Railroad is a literal thing that helps Cora escape from slavery in Georgia. But with a slave...

So you really liked The Hunger Games and want some more of that sweet sweet dystoptian YA feeling. I'm guessing you've already read Divergent by Veronica Roth and Maze Runner by James Dashner (if not, were you even part of the YA dystopian craze??). Here are some other series I think you'll enjoy: Red Rising by Pierce Brown Basically Hunger Games in Space with super evolved humans. The main character is of the lowest caste (a Red) and fakes his way to the very top of society in order to take them down. ***Content Warning*** This book has a lot of violence (about the same as HG), and there is high use of profanity. Partials by Dan Wells One of the most underrated series in my humble opinion. 99% of the world's population has been wiped out by a weaponized virus during the war with the Partials—engineered organic super-humans—and no new babies are being born. Sixteen year old Kira is trying to find a solution. When a supply run ends with them capturing ...

Hello everyone! *waves* Remember how I said I was "back" and then didn't post anything for tover a year? Well now with this global pandemic I finally am returning to this blog. Lots of people are reading more than ever now, and I've had many people ask me to recommend various books. So I thought I'd do some posts more along those themes, and perhaps the occasional book review sprinkled in between. Today, the theme is inspired by traveling and exploring. I, like many of you, am tired of being stuck inside and unable to travel. One of the thing I love most about books is it's a way to escape and go on a new adventure. And I especially love books about finding a new world, ones that capture that awe and fascination and magical sense of a new place. It calls to that part deep within me that longs to see stunning vistas and meet new people and get to know a culture different from my own. Here are five books that capture that feeling, and will leave you aching t...

And another month has come and gone! Sometimes I feel like I get the most reading done during my busiest months? I don't know how that works because it seems like a paradox, but maybe my mind just needs to chill more when I'm busier. Anyway! In August I read ELEVEN books! Your Soul is a River - Nikita Gill (5 stars) Red Sister - Mark Lawrence (4.5 stars) Meet Cute - Various Authors (4 stars) The Rogue Not Taken - Sarah McLean (4 stars) Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik (5 stars) Wicked and the Wallflower - Sarah McLean (3 stars) Because You Love To Hate Me - Various Authors (2 stars) Alanna: The First Adventure - Tamora Pierce (4.5 stars) [ reread ] In The Hands of the Goddess - Tamora Pierce (4.5 stars) [ reread ] The Woman Who Rides Like A Man - Tamora Pierce (4.5 stars) [ reread ] Lioness Rampant - Tamora Pierce (4.5 stars) [ reread ] So, first of all, I reread one of my FAVORITE series from when I was younger, The Song Of The Lioness quar...

July has come and gone! It was a busy and slow month for me, reading-wise. I only read 5 books! Outrun the Wind - Elizabeth Tammi (3.5 stars) The Princess in Black - Shannon Hale and Dean Hale (3.5 stars) Lifelike  - Jay Kristoff (4.5 stars) Circe - Madeline Miller (4.5 stars) You Are A Badass - Jen Sincero (4 stars) The last three books of the month were really good. I buddy read Lifelike and Circe with a friend and they were great to read along with someone else! Badass  was a really good boost and motivator and just what I needed to read right now! I started a lot of books in July, but haven't finished them yet, or finished them in the last couple days (so they don't count for July). On my August TBR... So many books! Seriously! I've got some great ones on hold at the library, plus a few interesting ARCs to read. Looking forward most to Foundaryside by Robert Jackson Bennett. A seriously amazing author (Brandon Sanderson blurbed him sooooooo...

June was a bit slow in terms of books. I feel like June went by SO FAST but I was so busy I didn't get that much reading done. I mean, I still read 5 books (though one is technically a novella that I read in a day), so that's not nothing, but I definitely felt like my momentum from the previous months waned. The Queens of Innis Lear - Tessa Gratton (5 stars) Beneath a Sugar Sky - Seanan McGuire (4 stars) The Dream Thieves - Maggie Stiefvater (4 stars) Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie Stiefvater (4 stars) The Raven King - Maggie Stiefvater (3.5 stars) Geekerella - Ashley Poston (4 stars) So first off, the Queens of Innis Lear was stunning. I did a buddy read and it was perfect! It's definitely going on my top books of 2018. You can read more on my full review, linked in the title above. Sugar Sky was the third novella in a series, and again some beautiful writing. I finished the Raven Cycle series and it was so good and unique. Look for a review of the ...

Alright! We're almost halfway through 2018! In January I posted about which books I was looking forward to the first half of the year. I think for future posts like this I'm going to break it down into overlapping thirds because it's hard to know what books are coming out more than six months ahead. What books are you looking forward to? Tell me in the comments! June Sweet Black Waves  - Kristina Pérez June 5 A retelling of Tristan and Isolde! Rage  (Stormheart #2) - Cora Carmack June 11 The sequel to  Roar , second book in the trilogy! A Reaper At The Gates  (Ember #3) - Sabaa Tahir June 12 The third book in the  Ember in the Ashes  series July Calculating Stars  - Mary Robinette Rowal July 3 Elma York dreams of being the first Lady Astronaut. Spinning Silver  - Naomi Novak 10 July A unique retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. The Supervillain and Me  - Danielle Banas July 10 This seems like a fun twist on the superh...

May was a CRAZY month. It was my birthday at the beginning of the month, and then we went on vacation at the end, with lots of work in between! I had so much going on, and yet I still read ten books! Sky in the Deep - Adrienne Young (5 stars) The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (3 stars) A Court of Frost and Starlight - Sarah J. Maas (3 stars) Down Among the Sticks and Bones - Seanan McGuire (4.5 stars) The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater (4 stars) Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire (4.5 stars) [ reread ] Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman (4 stars) The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid (4 stars) Nothing But Sky - Amy Trueblood (3 stars) Beyond a Darkened Shore - Jessica Leake (4 stars) I finally seem to be getting out of my book slump! I really enjoyed most the books I read this month. Most Anticipated was Sky in the Deep . What a beautiful story about love and redemption. The plot itself is simple, but the characte...

February was kind of a crazy month. We traveled for a friend's wedding (which was so fun and lovely), and then upon our return home I was sick, got slightly better, then my husband got the flu and I also got sick again (though I had never really gotten better). So my energy level has just been really low. I also had a lot of books to read from NetGalley which I had procrastinated and then was trying to frantically read, but I was also kind of in a book funk this month. Nothing really satisfied what I was craving (not even sure what it is!), so I started a LOT of books, only to move on to something else. I'll go back to those books eventually, but I didn't finish them last month. However, in February I read 7 books! So that's something for being in a reading slump. The Blood of Olympus  - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Sword of Summer  - Rick Riordan (3.5 stars) The Hidden Oracle  - Rick Riordan (3.5 stars) The Cruel Prince  - Holly Black (2.5 stars) Percy Jack...

Well, I certainly started off the year with a bang! Even though I got home from our holiday and went straight back into working and life, I still had enough time to read quite a bit! It was great having my library card reactivated. SO MANY BOOKS! And for FREE! I check out ebooks through Overdrive and they just arrive on my Kindle. Technology is truly amazing. I read a total of 12 books this month! If I keep up that pace I'll definitely overshoot my goal of 100 books this year. The Red Pyramid - Rick Riordan (3 stars) Lola and the Boy Next Door - Stephanie Perkins (3.5 stars) Retribution Rails - Erin Bowman (4.5 stars) Mother's Milk - Rachel Hunt Steenblik (4 stars) The Macedonian - Nicholas Guild (3.5 stars) The Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan (4 stars) Warcross - Marie Liu (4 stars) The Last Olympian - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Son of Neptune - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Mark of Athena ...

Another great year of books has come and gone, and this year is looking to be just as amazing! Here are some of the books I'm looking forward to for the first few months of 2018! January The Cruel Prince - Holly Black Jan 2 Jude fights within the Faerie Court to win a place for herself and to save her sisters. Reign the Earth - A. C. Gaughen Jan 30 After a political marriage to save her people, Shalia discovers she has the magical powers her new husband wants to eliminate. February The Belles - Dhonielle Clayton Feb 6 Camellia joins the royal court in order to be the best of the Belles, but discovers that dark secrets lurk behind the beauty and that she is far more powerful than she ever imagined. The Queen's Rising - Rebecca Ross Feb 6 Brienna is caught up in a plot to overthrow the King and bring back the rightful Queen, and her magic. But who will be that Queen? The Rogue Queen   (Queen #3)  - Emily R. King Feb 13 The third book in the Hundredt...

Wow, 2017 was a GREAT year for books! I read a total of 104 out of my goal of 100 for the year. The Reader - Traci Chee Wayfarer - Alexandra Bracken Windwitch - Susan Dennard The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead Behind the Throne - K. B. Wagers Queen of Shadows - Sarah J. Maas Empire of Storms - Sarah J. Maas The Assassin's Blade - Sarah J. Maas Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon Carve The Mark - Veronica Roth Caraval - Stephanie Garber When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi After the Crown - K. B. Wagers A Gathering of Shadows - V. E. Schwab [reread] A Conjuring of Light - V. E. Schwab Daring Greatly - Brené Brown Beyond the Savanna - Maryann Martinsen Empress of a Thousand Skies - Rhoda Belleza Norse Gods - Neil Gaiman Traitor to the Throne - Alwyn Hamilton Starflight - Melissa Landers The Magicians - Levi Grossman Snapshot - Brandon Sanderson Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters [...

What a year! I read SO many good books in 2017! There were many series that I started or continued or finished, plus some wonderful stand-alones. Honestly, I could probably list a top 20 or 30, but there were some that really stood out to me this year which made it slightly easier to narrow it down to the top 10. Again, these are my favorite books that I read this year. I think almost all of them were also published in 2017, but many were not! I also did not include any rereads of books. So, without further ado, here they are, in order! Top 10 Books I Read in 2017 A Conjuring of Light - V. E. Schwab Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson Strange the Dreamer - Laini Taylor No Good Deed - Kara Connolly When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzie Lee Moxie - Jennifer Mathieu Daughter of the Pirate King  - Tricia Levenseller Illuminae  - Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman Honorable...

I hit my goal of reading 100 books this year! And of course read a few more beyond that ;) My month was mostly taken up by work and then travel for the holidays, but I still got a good number in! They were all great books too! A Perilous Undertaking - Deanna Raybourn (4 stars) The City of Brass - S. A. Chakraborty (4.5 stars) Tropic of Serpents - Marie Brennen (4 stars) The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan (4 stars) Vengeance Road - Erin Bowman (4.5stars) I finally renewed my library card and I was able to check out the last three books from there. I'm loving the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan! I've got the rest on hold at the library! Vengeance Road was the last book of this year, and it was a fun and exciting Western adventure! The City of Brass was a wonderful historical fantasy set in a world inspired by Eastern cultures, filled with djinni's and magic. What were your favorite books of Dece...

Living between Europe and the US has some perks... and some drawbacks. For instance, all my books are in the US (and I have a LOT of books). Plus for many sites where I find good deals, the shipping to Europe is outrageous. So, basically, over the last year I've occasionally ordered books when I've found some great deals and had them sent to my address in the US. This means that I got to open ALL of them at once when I got here for Christmas! I also had a friend get me five ARCs of various books, totally as a surprise!! So without further ado, my book haul: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer This includes Cinder , Scarlet , Cress , Winter , and Fairest . BookOutlet had the whole series for massively cheap for Black Friday! A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi Totally a cover buy (also BookOutlet)! And I've heard great things about the story ;) A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab I have this series in Kindle format and I NEEDED it in hard...

What the... November went by WAY too quickly! I swear it was just the beginning of October, and now Christmas is approaching! Well, let's just jump right into it! In November I read eight books! And considering that two of them were over a thousand pages each, which is equivalent to three normal books, that's a pretty good number! The New Dark - Lorraine Thomson (2 stars) The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan (4 stars) Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur (4.5 stars) Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson (5 stars) [reread] Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson (5 stars) Gone Viking - Helen Russell (3 stars) A Curious Beginning - Deanna Raybourn (3.5 stars) A Treacherous Curse - Deanna Raybourn (4 stars) So, obviously the highlight of the month was OATHBRINGER . Oh. My. Goodness. This book blew my mind in so many ways... It definitely fulfilled and exceeded expectations. And rereading Words of Radiance beforehand was also great. This series is just incredible. If you h...

October! What a busy month for me! My sister visited and then I had a couple very busy work weeks, but I still got a LOT of reading done! Though I guess this is actually becoming fairly average for me. All in all, I read 10 books this month! I've now read 90 out of my goal for 100 for the year! Let's take a look: Invictus - Ryan Graudin (4.5 stars) The Tiger's Daughter - K. Rivera Arsenault (2 stars) The Last Namsara - Kristen Ciccarelli (4 stars) Even the Darkest Stars - Heather Fawcett (3.5 stars) House of Shadows - Nicola Cornick (4 stars) Artemis - Andy Weir (4.5 stars) Angelfall - Susan Ee (4 stars) World After - Susan Ee (3 stars) End of Days - Susan Ee (3 stars) Forest of a Thousand Lanterns - Julie C. Dao (3.5 stars) I read a lot of ARCs from NetGalley this month (most of which were October releases), including The Tiger's Daughter , The Last Namsara , House of Shadows , and Artemis .  Angelfall and the subsequent two books were a ...

September was a busy month for me! We took a trip at the beginning of the month to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary (yay!) and then we had TWO weddings to attend! A month full of love! All these trips meant I was able to get a fair amount of reading in though! In total I read nine books! Burning Glass - Kathryn Purdie (3 stars) Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng (4.5 stars) Tower of Dawn - Sarah J. Maas (4 stars) Moxie - Jenniefer Mathieu (4.5 stars) Godsgrave - Jay Kristoff (4 stars) 4:50 from Paddington - Agatha Christie (4 stars) Hanna Who Fell From The Sky - Christopher Meades (3.5 stars) Wicked Like A Wildfire - Lana Popovic (4 stars) Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein (4.5 stars) A few books really stood out this month. Moxie was incredible and awesome! I finally ready Wicked Like a Wilkdfire , which I received in the August FairyLoot box, and I really really liked it! I got an ARC of Little Fires Everywhere and it was just as beautiful as Celeste ...

Wow. I felt like July was reaaaallllyyy   long this year. Anyone else feel like way? It's probably because for once I wasn't  traveling! We had a lot of big changes though, including getting a new apartment and packing everything! But I still found the time to read TWELVE books! Roar - Cora Carmack (4 stars) Always and Forever, Lara Jean - Jenny Han (3.5 stars) Hunted - Meagan Spooner (4 stars) A Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan (5 stars) The Summer of Impossible Things - Rowan Coleman (4.5 stars) No Good Deed - Kara Connolly (5 stars) The Crowns of Croswald - D. E. Night (4 stars) The Fifth Doll - Charlie N. Holmberg (3.5 stars) Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins (4.5 stars) Skullsworn - Brian Staveley (4 stars) Daughter of the Burning City - Amanda Foody (3.5 stars) Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (4 stars) [ reread ] It was a really good month for books! As you can see, I have a few 5 stars from this month! Five st...

Back in January I wrote about which books I was most excited about this year. I only went up through June because there just wasn't much information about books that were being released after that. But now it's July (wait, whaaat?!) and the last half of 2017 has some pretty amazing books releases! July Because You Love To Hate Me  - Various Authors Release: 18 July Anthology of short stories about everyone's favorite villains. The Last Magician - Lisa Maxwell Release: 18 July A girl with magic must go back in time to save the future. No Good Deed - Kara Connolly Release: 18 July A retelling of Robin Hood where an Olympic archer goes back in time. Read my review here . August Shimmer and Burn - Mary Taranta Release: 9 August In order to save her sister, a girl must smuggle magic into a plague-ridden kingdom. Wonder Woman: Warbringer - Leigh Bardugo Release: 29 August A story of Diana, Princess of the Amazons, before she becomes Wonder Woman....