Alexis Lampley's Blog, page 22
November 22, 2015
The Song of Achilles
by: Madeline Miller
Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful--irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.
They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta had been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice. {cover copy}
I will be honest. I was on the fence about this book for a good long time. I had seen so much praise about it that it interested me, and I actually didn't read the cover copy before diving in. For the longest time, I wasn't sure if this was going to be a DNF book or a book I loved. I have never felt so divided and for so long when reading a book. I was interested, but I wasn't decided. It was odd. It wasn't until Patroclus did something very brave with a "spoil of war" that I knew I was going to end up loving this book. I had read a lot of people saying that this was a heartbreaker and they cried. But I wasn't sure I was going to feel that way. I was skeptical because I knew what was coming, so how could I cry {turns out, I was surprised by what happened after all} and then, last night, right as I was breathlessly reading the part that would have been heartbreaking, my husband announced that we were starting the movie we were going to watch, and so I didn't finish the book until this morning. I was reading along, thinking, "Dang. I didn't get the proper chance to get the feels on this one thanks to my husband." And then the book deals an even bigger heartbreaker and yes, I closed this book while crying. And then about 30 minutes later my husband was talking about something completely unrelated that reminded me of the ending and I got all teary again. So yeah, I liked this book. I'm glad I didn't put it down when I was tempted to.
My father was a king and the son of kings. {first line}
"This was the cruelty of adults. Do you understand?"
"There is no law that gods must be fair..."
"Disapproval had always burrowed deep in me..."
"I do not need to say that panic swelled, that it became a live thing, slippery and deaf to reason."
"I remembered how hard a thing indifference was to bear."
"True is what men believe."
"He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature."
"My mind is filled with cataclysm and apocalypse: I wish for earthquakes, eruptions, flood. only that seems large enough to hold all of my rage and grief. I want the world overturned like a bowl of eggs, smashed at my feet."
"There is no honor in betraying your friends."
"I can see the temper rising in him. It is like watching a storm come, when there is no shelter."
• sun • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}
Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful--irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta had been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice. {cover copy}
I will be honest. I was on the fence about this book for a good long time. I had seen so much praise about it that it interested me, and I actually didn't read the cover copy before diving in. For the longest time, I wasn't sure if this was going to be a DNF book or a book I loved. I have never felt so divided and for so long when reading a book. I was interested, but I wasn't decided. It was odd. It wasn't until Patroclus did something very brave with a "spoil of war" that I knew I was going to end up loving this book. I had read a lot of people saying that this was a heartbreaker and they cried. But I wasn't sure I was going to feel that way. I was skeptical because I knew what was coming, so how could I cry {turns out, I was surprised by what happened after all} and then, last night, right as I was breathlessly reading the part that would have been heartbreaking, my husband announced that we were starting the movie we were going to watch, and so I didn't finish the book until this morning. I was reading along, thinking, "Dang. I didn't get the proper chance to get the feels on this one thanks to my husband." And then the book deals an even bigger heartbreaker and yes, I closed this book while crying. And then about 30 minutes later my husband was talking about something completely unrelated that reminded me of the ending and I got all teary again. So yeah, I liked this book. I'm glad I didn't put it down when I was tempted to.
My father was a king and the son of kings. {first line}
"This was the cruelty of adults. Do you understand?"
"There is no law that gods must be fair..."
"Disapproval had always burrowed deep in me..."
"I do not need to say that panic swelled, that it became a live thing, slippery and deaf to reason."
"I remembered how hard a thing indifference was to bear."
"True is what men believe."
"He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature."
"My mind is filled with cataclysm and apocalypse: I wish for earthquakes, eruptions, flood. only that seems large enough to hold all of my rage and grief. I want the world overturned like a bowl of eggs, smashed at my feet."
"There is no honor in betraying your friends."
"I can see the temper rising in him. It is like watching a storm come, when there is no shelter."
• sun • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}
November 13, 2015
The Raven Boys
by: Maggie Stiefvater
"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve. Either you're his true love... or you killed him."
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.
His name is Gansey, and he's a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue had a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she con't entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore. {cover copy}
I would just like to start by saying that I really need to stop buying so many books. I have SO many I haven't read yet. But now I need to buy more, because I need the rest of the books in this series. I really enjoyed this book. I just enjoy Maggie Stiefvater's writing in general. Her descriptions make me happy and also make me work harder on my own descriptions in my writing. So, bonus points to her! The characters had a wide range of personalities and worked really well together, in my opinion. And several of them were quite surprising. The character arcs and relationships were really well done. I think my favorite character might be Ronan. You'll see why {I hope haha}. As for the plot, I think you need to go into this one not expecting to see the hook come to fruition. This isn't about Blue's love life as much as it's about these character's search for a supernatural holy grail of sorts. That being said, I didn't mind that at all, and was fully engaged and entertained throughout the novel. {Fun fact, the first quote I chose to feature because I have actually had to sneak one of my birds into a college class with me because I didn't have time to take him home after the vet. So this quote made me laugh}.
Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she'd been told that she would kill her true love. {first line}
"What was the punishment for smuggling a live bird into classes?"
"This is what you get ... for using your DNA to make a baby."
"My words are unerring tools of destruction, and I've come unequipped with the ability to disarm them."
• dreams • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}
"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve. Either you're his true love... or you killed him."Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.
His name is Gansey, and he's a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue had a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she con't entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore. {cover copy}
I would just like to start by saying that I really need to stop buying so many books. I have SO many I haven't read yet. But now I need to buy more, because I need the rest of the books in this series. I really enjoyed this book. I just enjoy Maggie Stiefvater's writing in general. Her descriptions make me happy and also make me work harder on my own descriptions in my writing. So, bonus points to her! The characters had a wide range of personalities and worked really well together, in my opinion. And several of them were quite surprising. The character arcs and relationships were really well done. I think my favorite character might be Ronan. You'll see why {I hope haha}. As for the plot, I think you need to go into this one not expecting to see the hook come to fruition. This isn't about Blue's love life as much as it's about these character's search for a supernatural holy grail of sorts. That being said, I didn't mind that at all, and was fully engaged and entertained throughout the novel. {Fun fact, the first quote I chose to feature because I have actually had to sneak one of my birds into a college class with me because I didn't have time to take him home after the vet. So this quote made me laugh}.
Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she'd been told that she would kill her true love. {first line}
"What was the punishment for smuggling a live bird into classes?"
"This is what you get ... for using your DNA to make a baby."
"My words are unerring tools of destruction, and I've come unequipped with the ability to disarm them."
• dreams • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}
November 11, 2015
Bad Magic
by: Pseudonymous Bosch
Magic is bad. As in fake. Cheesy. Unreal. At least, that's what Clay, who has seen one magic show too many, thinks.
When words from his journal appear mysteriously on his school wall as graffiti, he never imagines that magic might be to blame. And when the same graffiti lands him at Earth Ranch, a camp for "troubled" kids on a remote volcanic island, magic is the last thing he expects to find there.
But at Earth Ranch, Clay encounters one strange surprise after another, until he no longer knows what to expect. Is he really talking to a llama? Did he really see a ghost? What is the scary secret hidden in the abandoned library? The only thing he knows for sure is that behind the clouds of vog {volcanic smog}, nothing is as it seems. Can he solve the riddle of Earth Ranch before trouble erupts? {cover copy}
Whenever I need a good laugh and a good mystery, I can count on Pseudonymous Bosch. The secret series is one of my favorite Middle Grade series, and I was so excited to see this book on the shelves at the bookstore the other day that I snatched it up without even reading the cover copy. Bosch is an insta-buy. I always get such a good feeling when I read these books, and while I can sometimes anticipate what's going to happen, more often than not I am surprised by the twists and turns in these books. And invariably, I always learn a thing or two as well! And Bad Magic did not disappoint. This is the story of Clay, younger brother of our main man Max-Earnest from the first series, and the trouble he keeps getting into when he is not, in fact, trying to get into any trouble at all. He used to love magic, but with the disappearance of his brother went his love for the fantastical, and it is not until unexplainable things keep happening to him that he can begin to admit that maybe, just maybe, magic is involved. I think there's a lot of promise here for this new series to be just as good as its "older brother" and I can't wait to see what happens next!
This book begins with a bad word. {first line}
"Vog is a portmanteau (pronounced port man toe): a word that is made by squeezing two words together. In this case volcanic and smog. Funnily enough, the word smog is also a portmanteau. It combines the words smoke and fog. Which makes vog a double portmanteau. A portmanteau-teau, perhaps."
"Life is a test. The llama was there to help."
"Repeat after me: Chocolate, brown. Licorice, black. Anything else I'm taking back!"
"Alas, there is more to writing a book than moving letters around, One also has to choose the words that the letters create; that's the part that always stumps me."
"Magic, it is what is left when you stop pretending to understand."
"And there you have it, my friend. Magic. Right in front of your eyes. It's in every book if you know where to look. Of course, there are some books that are more magical than others. And some authors."
• chocolate • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}
Magic is bad. As in fake. Cheesy. Unreal. At least, that's what Clay, who has seen one magic show too many, thinks.When words from his journal appear mysteriously on his school wall as graffiti, he never imagines that magic might be to blame. And when the same graffiti lands him at Earth Ranch, a camp for "troubled" kids on a remote volcanic island, magic is the last thing he expects to find there.
But at Earth Ranch, Clay encounters one strange surprise after another, until he no longer knows what to expect. Is he really talking to a llama? Did he really see a ghost? What is the scary secret hidden in the abandoned library? The only thing he knows for sure is that behind the clouds of vog {volcanic smog}, nothing is as it seems. Can he solve the riddle of Earth Ranch before trouble erupts? {cover copy}
Whenever I need a good laugh and a good mystery, I can count on Pseudonymous Bosch. The secret series is one of my favorite Middle Grade series, and I was so excited to see this book on the shelves at the bookstore the other day that I snatched it up without even reading the cover copy. Bosch is an insta-buy. I always get such a good feeling when I read these books, and while I can sometimes anticipate what's going to happen, more often than not I am surprised by the twists and turns in these books. And invariably, I always learn a thing or two as well! And Bad Magic did not disappoint. This is the story of Clay, younger brother of our main man Max-Earnest from the first series, and the trouble he keeps getting into when he is not, in fact, trying to get into any trouble at all. He used to love magic, but with the disappearance of his brother went his love for the fantastical, and it is not until unexplainable things keep happening to him that he can begin to admit that maybe, just maybe, magic is involved. I think there's a lot of promise here for this new series to be just as good as its "older brother" and I can't wait to see what happens next!
This book begins with a bad word. {first line}
"Vog is a portmanteau (pronounced port man toe): a word that is made by squeezing two words together. In this case volcanic and smog. Funnily enough, the word smog is also a portmanteau. It combines the words smoke and fog. Which makes vog a double portmanteau. A portmanteau-teau, perhaps."
"Life is a test. The llama was there to help."
"Repeat after me: Chocolate, brown. Licorice, black. Anything else I'm taking back!"
"Alas, there is more to writing a book than moving letters around, One also has to choose the words that the letters create; that's the part that always stumps me."
"Magic, it is what is left when you stop pretending to understand."
"And there you have it, my friend. Magic. Right in front of your eyes. It's in every book if you know where to look. Of course, there are some books that are more magical than others. And some authors."
• chocolate • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}
November 5, 2015
The River of No Return
by: Bee Ridgway
Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonite battlefield, Lord Nicholas Falcott wakes up in a hospital bed in twenty-first century London. The Guild, a secretive fraternity of time travelers, helps him make a new life in the modern world. They tell him that there is no return. But Nick yearns for home and for one beautiful woman in particular, now lost to history.
Back in 1815, that very woman, Julia Percy, finds herself the guardian of a family secret inherited from her enigmatic grandfather... how to manipulate time. But there are those who seek to possess Julia's power, and she begins to realize she is in the gravest peril.
The Guild's rules are made to be broken, and Nick discovers how to travel back to the nineteenth century and his ancestral home. Fate and the fraying fabric of time draw Nick and Julia together once again... soon enough, they are caught up in an adventure that puts the future into their hands. {cover copy}
My first thoughts upon closing this book were: There had better be a sequel. I looked it up about five second later. There will be. {Soon, I hope}. It took me a while to read this, but only because life got in the way. This book was great. I loved it. But I wish more had been resolved at the end of this one. It doesn't leave me with the feeling as though it is entirely complete, but then adds an epilogue teasing me with more. Rather, I feel this story is not over and will need another book to complete. Or ended too quickly. Something other than what it's doing now. For a lot of people, there's nothing wrong with that. But it's something that usually turns me off to a book. But I loved this one so much, I just want to know what happens Right. Now. and get the answers to my questions. My pet peeves aside, this was so my kind of book. It had a flavor of Pride & Prejudice amidst the time travel and secret societies, and I loved the combination of an old school love story in a modern {at times} setting. I'm such a sucker for time travel. And this cover? I'll be honest, that's partly why I bought this book. But I was delighted to encounter that the intricacies of this plot and the twists and turns it took me on actually lived up to the fantastic-ness of the cover.
Julia sat beside her grandfather's bed, holding his hand. {first line}
"Each one of those stars was an inferno, a terrible burning hell, spilling its light from endless raging fires out into time and space. But from this distance they were beautiful."
"You wear your past in your body and your face. We all do."
"If time is a river, it is a deep and strong one. It is easy to drown, easy to get swept away."
"In each moment your emotions reinterpret you, invent you anew, move you forward--remember, they are your time machine. Despair is different. The self that has no possibility is in despair. It cannot move. It cannot reinvent itself. It sinks into death."
"...when you ask for compliments, the compliments you receive always sound like false coin."
"I love her like I love my own life. She is my heartbeat."
"No man is a man until he has been made weak by a woman."
"She was a mercurial young woman, mostly full of fun, though sometimes a darker thread appeared in the bright fabric of her personality."
"America! Home of American girls. Raised on promises."
"...there is nothing like staring your own slow motion death in the face to bring clarity to a situation."
"If this is insanity, it feels good."
"In the time it took for her [to] take a step, she knew that she loved him."
"The beauty of youth is a gift, but it will go. The memories, though, they pile up, and they never go."
"Wasn't it always that way that on a clear, lovely day one's griefs and trials seemed too much to bear?"
"So the future of mankind is set in stone, and while individual lives may sparkle and shine, we are little more than spirits, melting into air."
"But surely that is what hope is! 'The tune without the words.' Maybe not knowing the words means that we can make them up as we go along."
"Now what the f**k, I politely ask, are we going to do about it?"
"Don't borrow trouble from tomorrow."
• wasn't • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}
Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonite battlefield, Lord Nicholas Falcott wakes up in a hospital bed in twenty-first century London. The Guild, a secretive fraternity of time travelers, helps him make a new life in the modern world. They tell him that there is no return. But Nick yearns for home and for one beautiful woman in particular, now lost to history.Back in 1815, that very woman, Julia Percy, finds herself the guardian of a family secret inherited from her enigmatic grandfather... how to manipulate time. But there are those who seek to possess Julia's power, and she begins to realize she is in the gravest peril.
The Guild's rules are made to be broken, and Nick discovers how to travel back to the nineteenth century and his ancestral home. Fate and the fraying fabric of time draw Nick and Julia together once again... soon enough, they are caught up in an adventure that puts the future into their hands. {cover copy}
My first thoughts upon closing this book were: There had better be a sequel. I looked it up about five second later. There will be. {Soon, I hope}. It took me a while to read this, but only because life got in the way. This book was great. I loved it. But I wish more had been resolved at the end of this one. It doesn't leave me with the feeling as though it is entirely complete, but then adds an epilogue teasing me with more. Rather, I feel this story is not over and will need another book to complete. Or ended too quickly. Something other than what it's doing now. For a lot of people, there's nothing wrong with that. But it's something that usually turns me off to a book. But I loved this one so much, I just want to know what happens Right. Now. and get the answers to my questions. My pet peeves aside, this was so my kind of book. It had a flavor of Pride & Prejudice amidst the time travel and secret societies, and I loved the combination of an old school love story in a modern {at times} setting. I'm such a sucker for time travel. And this cover? I'll be honest, that's partly why I bought this book. But I was delighted to encounter that the intricacies of this plot and the twists and turns it took me on actually lived up to the fantastic-ness of the cover.
Julia sat beside her grandfather's bed, holding his hand. {first line}
"Each one of those stars was an inferno, a terrible burning hell, spilling its light from endless raging fires out into time and space. But from this distance they were beautiful."
"You wear your past in your body and your face. We all do."
"If time is a river, it is a deep and strong one. It is easy to drown, easy to get swept away."
"In each moment your emotions reinterpret you, invent you anew, move you forward--remember, they are your time machine. Despair is different. The self that has no possibility is in despair. It cannot move. It cannot reinvent itself. It sinks into death."
"...when you ask for compliments, the compliments you receive always sound like false coin."
"I love her like I love my own life. She is my heartbeat."
"No man is a man until he has been made weak by a woman."
"She was a mercurial young woman, mostly full of fun, though sometimes a darker thread appeared in the bright fabric of her personality."
"America! Home of American girls. Raised on promises."
"...there is nothing like staring your own slow motion death in the face to bring clarity to a situation."
"If this is insanity, it feels good."
"In the time it took for her [to] take a step, she knew that she loved him."
"The beauty of youth is a gift, but it will go. The memories, though, they pile up, and they never go."
"Wasn't it always that way that on a clear, lovely day one's griefs and trials seemed too much to bear?"
"So the future of mankind is set in stone, and while individual lives may sparkle and shine, we are little more than spirits, melting into air."
"But surely that is what hope is! 'The tune without the words.' Maybe not knowing the words means that we can make them up as we go along."
"Now what the f**k, I politely ask, are we going to do about it?"
"Don't borrow trouble from tomorrow."
• wasn't • {last word}
{view on Goodreads}
October 31, 2015
The Stack: October 2015
Audible has helped me out quite a bit this month, but I still managed to read several of the books without it, surprisingly! For some reason this month flew and I read extra slowly and the combination left me feeling a little down because there were so many books I wanted to read that I haven't yet gotten to! There's always next month, of course, but I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, so I don't know how many books I'll actually read. But I'm almost finished with one, so I'm thinking you'll at least get two book reviews in November!The Marvels Brian Selznick See review
The Bone Season Samantha Shannon See review
Siege and Storm Leigh BardugoI liked this one better than the first, and looked forward to the third.
The Lightning Thief Rick Riordan See review
Ruin and Rising Leigh BardugoA really good ending to the trilogy. I thought this was even better than the second and I like the trilogy a lot more than I thought I would after reading the first one.
In Progress Jessica HischeThis is a woman after my own heart. I loved this look inside her process and I loved the tips and tricks she showed us that I was able to employ in my own work after reading this. Very helpful. Very cool book.
Shiver Maggie Stiefvater See review
