Spring Books I'm Looking Forward To

Spring Releases

The end of February-April Books That I'm Looking Forward to Coming Out

As the weather is (fingers crossed) starting to take a turn away from snow and ice, I'm getting really exciting for the books coming out this spring!! I'm stopping my list at the end of April in terms of release date because May is literally the end of the school year, which just automatically gets grouped into summer books for me then. Besides, I already have a huge list of books coming out for these two months alone.

End of February

The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith

The Seventh Sun by Lane Forbes

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold

March 

Anger Is My Middle Name by Lisbeth Zornig Andersen

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

Haven Fall by Sara Holland

Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas

Moment of Truth by Kasie West

Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare

Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis

New Waves by Kevin Nguyen

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

The Sinner by J.R. Ward

The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren

The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel

Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi

April 

Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed

They Went Left by Monica Hesse

Crave by Tracy Wolff

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Time of Our Lives by Emily Wibberley

Thanks for reading! And hopefully this list grows even more! :)

1917 Movie Review

1917

Movie Review

4.12 out of 5 Stars

While this film was mildly on my radar when I saw the trailer, the more and more buzz started happening around it, the more and more interested I became in it. Considering the hype that has been going around about this movie, I'm really glad that I saw it and I'm even more glad that I really liked it! I don't know any technical phrases or cinematography jargon, but there was something about this that just seemed smooth and seamless, which was really fascinating and entrancing. ***Note: There will be spoilers. ***

It was such a moving story. It was very action-filled as well, but the whole thing was permeated with very personal relationships, then put into sharp contrast with the fatigue and almost distance with the general troops. You could see the connections between them all and how the general horror of the war was taking its toll on everyone. But really, its the bond first between Blake and the unknown brother (later revealed to be Richard Madden) that initiates the film, and then it's the friendship between Black and Will (Schofield?), and then it ends with the other Blake brother finding out about the death and Will looking at the pictures of his family. So while there is a lot of action, this whole story was so strong though because it explored the depth of those relationships in a traumatic time and explored the fabric of those relationships when they are twisted and pulled.


So many great actors came out for this movie. Even knowing that, for example, Colin Firth was going to be in the movie, I hadn't really looked up who else would be there. Let me list: Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Richard Madden on top of Colin Firth, Dean-Charles Chapman, and George MacKay. Everyone did a great job, but wow, there were so many faces I recognized. Again, they all did amazing so far as I'm concerned. There was some minor distracting pieces to having random actors show up from out of the blue -- or so that's what it felt like to me -- but really they all just contributed amazingly.

The visuals for this film were completely stunning. It was brutal and bleak, but stunning. I think this is part of the reason why the whole movie was so captivating, but I can't quite place my finger on more details as to why that would be. It was just constantly moving from start to finish, and in the mix, would capture these sweeping shots of the landscape. It was simply great.


The plot was slightly on the weaker side. It was a touching story, and even though at first brush very simple, it still was able to do a lot. It doesn't change the fact that this really was just about delivering a message to prevent a battle from taking place, and certainly there were stakes in preventing the battle from happening, but it wasn't overly complex. However, I think that it was good in this case because so many other things could be roped into the focus of the movie, like the horror of the war in general and how the relationships between the characters were so important. 

I'm trying to think of a favorite scene, and... I think... it may be... errrrrr... the scene where Blake is stabbed and dies? That's a very bleak and morbid scene, I know, but there's a lot to it. Not only is is a horrible death because Blake wanted to do a good thing for the soldier who stabbed him, but it flips the roles between him and Will. Suddenly, everything falls on Will to deliver the message, and added to that is the new message to the other Blake that his brother is dead. What's more is that Will is forced to take on the mantle again of the same sort of heroic acts that he didn't want to accept before. What's even more compelling is that Blake was the one trying to tell him that the medal of honor means a lot, especially to families left behind and Will is the one who really just values getting home to his family. In a sad way, Blake's family will get the medal from his deeds, and Will will get to go home.

Overall, the story seemed excellently emotionally executed. Really, this seemed to me like a British, WWI, version of Saving Private Ryan, hitting a lot of the same emotional notes. It was stunningly put together and excellently emotionally driven. While the plot was on the simpler side, it highlighted the weight of the emotions and bleakness of the setting, and the acting was great. Definitely would want to watch it again.

Thanks for reading!

Swiftathon 2020 TBR

Swiftathon: A Taylor Swift Read-a-thon

(I'm following the one set out by @swiftathon13 on Twitter, which runs from January 13 - February 13. More info on their Twitter!)

I'm so excited! I'm going to be participating in @swiftathon13's read-a-thon that starts on Monday! The whole thing is inspired by Taylor's latest album Lover, and there are different descriptions that match each song from the album. More info can be found on their Twitter or Insta (same handle), but here are the books that I'm selecting as options for the read-a-thon so that I am ready to go!

1. I Forgot that You Existed- The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
2. Cruel Summer- Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
3. Lover- Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
4. The Man- Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies) by Scarlett Curtis (and many others)
5. The Archer- A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
6. I Think He Knows- Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
7. Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince- Die for Me by Amy Plum
8. Paper Rings- Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare (sort of fits, sort of doesn't)
9. Cornelia Street- The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
10. Death by a Thousand Cuts- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
11. London Boy- Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
12. Soon You'll Get Better- Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys
13. False God- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
14. You Need to Calm Down- Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
15. Afterglow- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
16. Me!- A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
17. It's Nice to Have a Friend- All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
18. Daylight- Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Eeeee!!! I'm super excited for this! I don't know how I'll update on this,  but I'll figure something out. [UPDATE: I will be bolding and coloring the titles of the books I have read :)] For now, I'm just looking forward to starting on Monday.

Thanks for reading!

Movies 2020

Movies I'm Looking Forward to in 2020

Here are the movies that I'm really looking forward to this year!

The Assistant

Birds of Prey

Dolittle

Onward

Mulan

The Call of the Wild

Black Widow

Legally Blonde 3 

Soul
Tenet

Artemis Fowl

In the Heights

Free Guy

The King's Man

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Death on the Nile

West Side Story

Thanks for reading!

2020 Resolutions

2020 Resolutions

*Cracks fingers*

Here we go. 

Last year I made very vague resolutions that I think for the most part went well. They might have been more concrete, which will be something slightly different this year. But... I liked them. They were small little reminders not to get completely lost in the craze and chaos of the rest of my life. In the same way, I want to keep that tether strong and see if it can go even further this year, adding more concrete benchmarks at every step. So without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2020. :)

1) Journal More
This was the first resolution that I wrote down for last year as well. And where I sort of kept up with it last year, it was so laid back that I really, really, had a lot of room to improve. So- more concrete. Here it is: I am going to resolve to journal at least once a week. I think that should be more than doable, even if things start to get overwhelmingly busy. At the very least, even if things do get extremely busy, I'll owe it to myself to have that hour or two once a week, even if it's on a weekend.


2) Blog Upkeep
I really like blogging. I really like reviewing. And I really love reading. In a lot of ways, I want to maintain this blog better this year. For one thing, I sincerely want to keep up with the little "course" I've designed. There's more information if you follow the link. But also just generally, I want to read more and keep writing reviews. I think I may stay away from ARCs and NetGalleys because those can get really stressful and the time pressure on those may crush me a bit when I get swamped with school. Like with journaling, I'm going to hold myself to at least one post a week. God knows this is where I'll likely fail because one post a week on top of my "course" is going to be a lot when school and work get thrown in as well. But we'll see how it goes.


3) Project Project Project
Oof. This is going to be the one that keeps me super busy but the one that I am most excited for. I don't really want to go into more detail, but I do have another project that I am giving myself benchmarks and deadlines for.

And that's all folks! We'll see how these go, and best of luck with anyone else's resolutions.

Thanks for reading and here's to 2020!

From Sense to Sensibility... and then Back to Sense Syllabus

From Sense to Sensibility... and then Back to Sense

Exploring the Pendulum of Female Expectations and Expectations of Females in British Literature

Introduction:
Welcome to what may be the height of my nerdiness! This is From Sense to Sensibility... and then Back to Sense, a self-structured, self-run, self-study of how women are portrayed in British literature, revealing what they wanted out of their lives and what behaviors were expected and deemed acceptable for them. I really missed being an English major, so even though I still have loads and loads of reading assignments, I decided to create my own "course" if you will to bring some English literature studying back into my life. This is what I came up with, and I'll write more about the inspiration behind it roughly halfway through the "course."

What do I mean by a "pendulum"? In short, I will be personally exploring what women wanted out of romantic relationships during their time and what roles or personalities were the best ways, or the acceptable ways, to achieve those wants. My theory is that there has never been a real consistency for women in terms of what they could or could not do. ("Do" can be replaced with the following: say, wear, want, desire, take, give, etc.) There are probably some consistencies, to be sure, but the behavior defining the role they needed to act varied over the course of time as societal interests and tastes changed. Again, I am specifically interested as to what behaviors were acceptable for them, especially in relation to finding a romantic partner, but I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds of other ways that women have been a part in this never-ending pendulum pattern.

Some notes on this syllabus:

• First, everything that I write and reflect on for this "course" can be found under the tag "Sense to Sensibility." 
• Second, I don't know how well I will stick to this schedule. I am still in school, and while there is a break halfway through that corresponds with my finals season, school will be my priority and if this falls behind, so be it. I'll update the syllabus as needed should that happen.
• Third, there are two authors that do not fit the criteria of being female British writers: Madame d'Aulnoy and Lewis Carroll. Why? Well, for Madame d'Aulnoy, she wrote a massive amount of popular fairy tales that (from very preliminary research) heavily broke into English culture. For Lewis Carroll, Alice is a young girl and her portrayal I think will offer an interesting perspective for that period, even though Carroll was a man. I also just really love the madness and youthful chaos of Wonderland, so I think it will be pure fun as well. 
• Lastly, the "course" is broken up into four sections, one for each century from the 17th through the 20th. At the end of each century, there will be a week to review and reflect on that sections alone along with how it fits on the pendulum. It also makes it each for people to jump in and out if they want to. (Which I would love!)

How's this going to work? Ideally, for each book or reading selection, I'll have an individual reflection on each- mini essays on what those works reveal about female expectations. I'm not quite sure what those will look like, but as of right now I imagine I'll highlight some theme or motif from each. At the end of each section then I'll write an essay about each century as a whole and have a week to only think about everything from that century and how it fits into the course as a whole. No new readings or anything. We'll see what else comes up, but for now we'll try to start here.

Schedule:
17th Century (5 Weeks)
Week 1 (1/13): Miscellanea Prayers. Meditations. Memoratiues. by Elizabeth Grymeston; The Countess of Montgomery's Urania by Lady Mary Wroth
Week 2 (1/20): Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra Behn
Week 3 (1/27): The History of the Nun by Aphra Behn
Week 4 (2/3): CCXI Sociable Letters by Margaret Cavendish
Week 5 (2/10): A selection of fairy tales from Madame d'Aulnoy: "The Blue Bird," "Prince Ariel," "Babiole," "Princess Carpillon," "Belle-Belle," and "Princess Belle-Etoile"

Week of 2/17: Focus: How hard it was to find 17th century women writers

18th Century (6 Weeks)
Week 1 (2/24): Fantomina by Eliza Haywood
Week 2 (3/2): Evelina by Frances Burney
Week 3 (3/9): Cecilia by Frances Burney
Week 4 (3/16): The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Week 5 (3/23): A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe
Week 6 (3/30): A Vindication on the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft; Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin

Week of 4/6: Focus: Women and the Gothic novel


BREAK HERE 
Behind the Course: The First Inspiration and Thought Seed Behind This Notion of a Pendulum


19th Century (5 Weeks)
Week 1 (5/18): Emma by Jane Austin; Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin
Week 2 (5/25): Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Week 3 (6/1): Why do I know those gals (above) but not these gals (below)
Week 4 (6/8): North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell; Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Week 5 (6/15): Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll; The Heavenly Twins by Sarah Grand

Week of 6/22: Focus: How to Catch a Husband 101

20th Century (4 Weeks)
Week 1 (6/29): Pilgrimage Volume I by Dorothy Richardson
Week 2 (7/6): The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett; Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Week 3 (7/13): A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf; My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Week 4 (7/20): A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney; The Millstone by Margaret Drabble

Week of 7/27: Focus: Overall wrap-up and thoughts on the pendulum


Phew! This is going to be a lot of reading, a lot of work, and a lot of determination. I do feel very determined though to finish this "course" however, if only because in researching I realized how many more women authors there are out there that I had no idea existed and yet have contributed so much to the literary canon. I also realized though that they were a bit rare, especially in the earlier years. I can name Austen and the Brontes off the top of my head, but then in terms of classic literature, I think of like Dickens and Hardy, Wilde and Orwell. For example, why have I never read Ann Radcliffe? And why had I never heard of Elizabeth Gaskell before? I clearly have a lot to educate myself about and I can't wait to start!!!

Thanks for Reading!

Review of The Wicked King by Holly Black

The Wicked King by Holly Black

4.2 out of 5 Stars

Okay, so straight up- fresh from the finish- I don't know how I feel about the ending. We'll... we'll just come back to that later.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Wicked King. I really, really loved The Cruel Prince though and at the end of the day, I couldn't bring myself to give this one the same rating as the first one. Comparatively, I think the first one had a much tighter grasp on the relationships between the characters than this one did, and that made the difference between them. This was still such a great book, and certainly, the political maneuvering that Holly Black performs is still just as mesmerizing as it was in the first book. There were a couple of moments when I was just like, yeah-yeah-let's-move-on, which was a little surprising, but even then those moments were fleeting and I was shoved right back into the thick of the plot.

SPOILERS BELOW


PLOT:
I'm not sure if this was the smartest move on my part, but I jumped straight into just reading this without refreshing myself from what happened in the first book-- which I read nearly two years ago. So while I was in my warm-up speed of digesting the story, the actual plot was already starting to happen and I kind of missed it. Maybe this was helpful though, because I don't think I was sidetracked by an expectation. It seems like the most important plot line was resolving the conflict with the Undersea. Within this however, we are tied back to the greater issue from the first book which is succession and who gets to sit on the throne. (And then we get into Carden v. Jude, Jude v. Madoc, Carden v. Balekin, throw Oak into the mix, etc. etc... whatever.) However, there was the other plot line of the stupid wedding between Taryn and Locke. That is what my rusty brain first latched onto, but ultimately, it boils down to being fairly insignificant on its own. By this, I mean that it really just seemed to serve as a method for distracting Jude more. It's a giant shiny toy that gets thrown at the reader first that, while it does have some important pieces to it, really just ends up being shiny. The actual meat of the story was lying underneath it in the beginning.

It wasn't like the story was hard to follow or anything. It was just slightly distracting when I realized that the wedding wasn't actually all that important. Especially when the book breaks in half, this distraction and tear from the story was driven home. When it came to Book 2, I actually set the book down and stepped away from it for a couple of days. I just didn't want to deal with it. I felt like I was about to go deep-sea diving when I was already at the bottom of the ocean. In that moment, I could tell that everything was about to get shifted to the actual focus of the book in a way that would require so much more energy and attention. Instead of being fully incorporated throughout the entire book, it felt like the important plot was heavily thrown at the end with sprinkles of it in the rest of the book. It ended up being worth it because holy cow so much happens in that last third of the book. Which brings us to the ending.

While I was slightly prepped for it, nothing could have prepared me for Carden proposing to Jude. Nothing. Not. A. Thing. And it all ended up both working beautifully and falling apart spectacularly in a way that seems almost unreal. This ending, or endings like this, are the ones where my mind feels like a tattered cloth, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing because it was so engaging and unexpected, or if it's a bad thing because that was too wild of a ride. The whole ending is a bit of a blur it went so fast. I abso-freaking-lutely loved the part though where Carden gets the sand to rise out of the water and he traps Nicasia in a tree. That was great. A sight to behold. Love it. Did not love Jude's blow up. That seemed way to out of character for her, someone who is a master of self-control. And then it all goes to crap of course, but I'm so curious to see what the effects of Jude's exile will be, and more importantly, when Carden will let her come back. That's my real concern with this ending, I think: that they'll stay separated for so long in the next one that I'll be bored.

CHARACTERS:
Jude: Oh Jude. I still admire this character so much. I just reread my review for The Cruel Prince, and I have to say, I liked that she's flawed. Not just in that she has a genuine fear of the fae, but that she works with it because she has a stronger hunger for power. What I think is so interesting about her character though is when it is contrasted against Val, the dead king's seneschal. Jude makes it a point to say that Val isn't bound to any of his oaths, especially now that the king is dead. But Val pretty much refuses that outright, connecting it to his love for the dead king. And it pricks at my mind because Jude doesn't have a connection like that that she openly admits and relies on. I think/hope she will come to hold herself to that standard when it comes to promises to Carden, but we'll see 'bout that after the whole exile thing. Her trust is likely shattered a bit, but ultimately, she does need at least one solid touchstone for reliability or she could never gain traction in the fae world again (which is, I suspect, the bigger point Val was getting to).
Carden: Carden's development was one of my favorites of the entire story. Even from the beginning, I loved watching him go from not really giving a crap about being king to wanting to really take control of his reign. I do have a lot of follow up questions about his character though. How upset is he with Jude? Cause surely he's at least a little mad if he exiled her. Or maybe he really is just truly invested in being king and is keeping her exiled to appease the Undersea Queen. Phew. So much to think about. But I love his character. I'm still a little wary of him, but I love his character. I want to see more of him in the next one.

Balekin: Bye ***** and good riddance.

Nicasia: I think there's more to Nicasia's story than what we've really seen. At least, I hope there is. I think there will be a great opportunity to see more of her in the next book as the ambassador between the kingdoms, and I hope that gets taken.

Madoc: My biggest question about Madoc's character is how much he's going to be involved with Jude's exile and if he'll try to win her back so to speak. If that is the case, I really hope Jude tells him to shove it, because Carden isn't playing around anymore. If anything, I think he may kill Madoc as a way to get even with Jude for killing Balekin. Multiple birds. One stone. It would be a bit of a shame though because if Madoc and Jude could just get past each other's petty power plays, they would've been a great team.

WORLD:
I love this world that Holly Black has created so much. It is weird, and unnerving, but not over the top like her other series. Moreso than that, I love how because it's fae, they all have to work while using and stepping around the truth, and I think she does an excellent job of that. It is one of my favorite things to see her do in her writing. There are such fine nuances and details to the characters and their choices that every piece of dialogue becomes a game.

The Wicked King, while not as good as the first book, was still completely enthralling and I'm curious more than anything else to see what happens in the next one. Luckily, I don't have to wait this time around.

Thanks for reading!