#author: jaclyn moriarty

[havewereadthis]

"A funny, touching, revealing story written entirely in the form of letters, messages, postcards - and bizarre missives. Hilariously candid, shows that the roller coaster ride of being a teenager is every bit as fun as we remember--and every bit as harrowing.

Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia keeps disappearing, her absent father suddenly reappears, and her communication with her mother consists entirely of wacky notes left on the fridge. On top of everything else, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the "Joy of the Envelope," a Complete and Utter Stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else.

But Elizabeth is on the verge of some major changes. She may lose her best friend, find a wonderful new friend, kiss the sexiest guy alive, and run in a marathon. So much can happen in the time it takes to write a letter…"

[earlyzakariya]

Sometimes the book you're reading hits so hard you start crying in the middle of the library

Anyways here's the quote(s) that made me cry

"'You know I don't remember our mother ever once saying sorry about anything?'"

"'So what I'm realizing,' Imogen continued, 'is that you're more grown-up than Mother. She was small in your dream because she is much smaller than you,'"

"'And then she might be able to see us properly,' Imogen put in, 'and start being our mother.'"

[karathespellbinder]

I have a big plan to make a post comparing historical coal mining (my background is in Scottish coal mines from the 1800s in the Central Lowlands--def the nerdiest hyperfixation I've had to date) and the mining conditions of the Shadow Thread mines the captured children endured during the Whispering Wars. I definitely noticed a lot of similarities and I cannot wait to write it all out mwahaha

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

🦘 Booklr Reads Australian - Authors on My Shelves 🐨

so, I’ve been trying to think of a way to recommend a lot of Australian authors really quickly for Booklr Reads Australian. what I came up with was just to give y’all a giant list of all the authors I have at home! 

most of them are YA and/or fantasy authors, and I’ve marked my favourites with an asterisk (*) but if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an ask 😊

1. Sarah Ayoub 2. Eugen Bacon 3. Shirley Barber * 4. AJ Betts 5. Danielle Binks * 6. Cally Black 7. Steph Bowe * 8. Alice Boyle 9. JC Burke 10. Meg Caddy * 11. Frances Chapman 12. Wai Chim * 13. Claire Christian 14. Lyndall Clipstone 15. Claire G Coleman 16. Katherine Collette 17. Harry Cook 18. Cath Crowley 19. Robyn Dennison 20. Cale Dietrich 21. Lauren Draper 22. CG Drews * 23. Michael Earp 24. Kate Emery 25. Sarah Epstein 26. Alison Evans * 27. Fleur Ferris 28. Carly Findlay 29. Helena Fox 30. Lisa Fuller 31. Emily Gale 32. Meg Gatland-Veness 33. Sophie Gonzales 34. Erin Gough * 35. Leanne Hall * 36. Pip Harry 37. Sonya Hartnett 38. Adam Hills 39. Simmone Howell 40. Megan Jacobson 41. Amie Kaufman 42. Melissa Keil 43. Nina Kenwood 44. Sharon Kernot 45. Kay Kerr * 46. Will Kostakis 47. Jay Kristoff 48. Ambelin Kwaymullina 49. Benjamin Law 50. Rebecca Lim 51. Gary Lonesborough * 52. Kathleen Loughnan 53. Miranda Luby 54. Tobias Madden 55. Melina Marchetta 56. Ellie Marney * 57. Freya Marske 58. Jodi McAlister * 59. Margot McGovern * 60. Nikki McWatters 61. Anna Morgan 62. Jaclyn Moriarty 63. Liane Moriarty 64. Garth Nix 65. Lynette Noni 66. Carly Nugent 67. Poppy Nwosu 68. Kate O’Donnell 69. Shivaun Plozza 70. Michael Pryor 71. Alice Pung 72. Emily Rodda * 73. Autumn Royal 74. Omar Sakr 75. Holden Sheppard 76. AG Slatter 77. Jo Spurrier 78. Krystal Sutherland * 79. Jared Thomas 80. Hayli Thompson 81. Gabrielle Tozer 82. Christos Tsiolkas 83. Alicia Tuckerman 84. Ellen van Neerven 85. Marlee Jane Ward 86. Vikki Wakefield 87. Lisa Walker 88. Jessica Watson * 89. Allayne L Webster 90. Anna Whateley * 91. Samantha Wheeler 92. Jen Wilde * 93. Rhiannon Wilde 94. Lili WIlkinson 95. Gabrielle Williams 96. Rhiannon Williams 97. Fiona Wood 98. Leanne Yong 99. Suzy Zail 100. Nevo Zisin 101. Markus Zusak

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Stolen Prince Of Cloudburst | Author: Jaclyn Moriarty | Publisher: Guppy Books (2021)

[shy-fairy-levele3]

2023 Book List

Unbelievably I read a staggering 70 books in 2023! The most ever! My only disappointment is NOT finishing Dracula Daily, I came so close...

Wolf Brother Michelle Paver

Skin-Walker Michelle Paver

Be the Serpent Seanan McGuire  

She Who Became the Sun 

Soul-Eater Michelle Paver

Nona the Ninth Tamsyn Muir 

The Girl in Red Christina Henry

As yet Unsent Tamsyn Muir   

Outcast Michelle Paver  

Leonard Cohen: On a wire Philippe Girard

Oath Breaker Michelle Paver 

Ghost Hunter Michelle Paver   

 Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life Alan Cumming

M is for Magic Neil Gaiman

Silverwing Kenneth Opal 

Last Violent Call Chloe Gong

Malice: Malice Duology #1 Heather Walter  

Pandora Susan Stokes-Chapman

A Lady for a Duke Alexis Hall                                    

Boyfriend Material Alexis Hall

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries Heather Fawcett  

Motorcycles & Sweetgrass Drew Hayden Taylor

Conventionally Yours Annabeth Albert  

The Unbalancing R.B Lemberg  

Stone Blind Natalie Haynes

The Winter Soldier: Cold Front Mackenzi Lee 

Ruby Nina Allan

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter Theodora Goss

Husband Material Alexis Hall

The Secret Service of Tea and Treason India Holton  

My Dear Henry: A Jekyll and Hyde Remix Kalynn Bayron

The Monsters we Defy Leslye Penelope

Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix Aminah Mae Safi

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman Alan Rickman

Morgan Is My Name Sophie Keetch

Threads That Bind Kika Hatzopoulou

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman Theodora Goss

Feeling Sorry for Celia Jaclyn Moriarty

Daughter of the Pirate King Tricia Levenseller

A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix C.B. Lee

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour Tee Franklin

Magic for Liars Sarah Gailey

The Story of Owen Emily Kate Johnston

The Brilliant Death A.R. Capetta

Circle of Magic: Sandy’s Book Tamora Pierce

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror Daniel M. Lavery  

Death's Detective- Malykant Mysteries #1-4 Charlotte E. English

The Salt Grows Heavy Cassandra Khaw

A Touch of Darkness- Hades & Persephone #1 Scarlett St. Clair

Mortal Follies Alexis Hall

Witch King Martha Wells

The London Séance Society Sarah Penner

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future David Attenborough, Jonnie Hughes

A Game of Fate- Hades Saga #1 Scarlett St. Clair

Immortal Longings Chloe Gong

Hooked Emily McIntire  

Foul Heart Huntsmen Chloe Gong

Signal to Noise Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Daughter of the Siren Queen Tricia Levenseller  

Starter Villain John Scalzi

The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl Theodora Goss

Starling House Alix E. Harrow

A Marvellous Light: The Last Binding #1 Freya Marske   

A Restless Truth: The Last Binding #2 Freya Marske 

Thornhedge T. Kingfisher

What the River Knows Isabel Ibanez  

The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments Hadley Vlahos

Misrule: Malice Duology #2 Heather Walter

The Raven and The Reindeer T. Kingfisher

A Power Unbound: The Last Binding #3 Freya Marske

I started some series, and I finished some series. I found new favourite authors and revisited some old favourites. Please take them as recommendations, or if you have read any of the same books come talk about them with me!  

Reminder you can also follow me on The Storygraph to see what I am reading in real time, where I am simply shy_fairy   

Previous Years Reading lists can be found here: 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015

[rockinlibrarian]

fellow jaclyn moriarty fan! hello :3

Hello! Yes! Let's talk up Jaclyn Moriarty, fellow fan! Jaclyn Moriarty is an Australian author whose sister Liane eventually got more famous on this side of the world because she writes grownup books that get made into shows and stuff, whereas Jaclyn, who HAS written a COUPLE grownup books, MOSTLY writes children's and YA and so gets ghettoized by tasteless people. 🤪 When I first discovered her, she only had the first few Ashbury High books out, which (wrongly) were being marketed as typical realistic YA, so I'd had no temptation to pick them up, until I read an interview with her on a book blog and there was an instant "THIS IS A KINDRED SPIRIT! WE ARE OBVIOUSLY BEST FRIENDS WHO HAVE NEVER MET! ALSO SHE'S FUNNY! Maybe I should actually read one of her books." So I picked up her newest at that time The Murder of Bindy McKenzie (US title--it has a bunch of different titles around the world but always about Bindy) because it had "murder" in the title and was about what today would be referred to as an "autistic-coded" girl so that would be more interesting than straight up realism, and, okay, it was like nothing I'd ever read before. It was epistolary...realism?...but off-kilter, WEIRD. It was both funny and heartbreaking, which is always a nice blend, but my biggest takeaway was just that it was DIFFERENT and I liked it. So I read her other books only to discover they were ALL like that, and also even when there was romance the primary relationship focus was friendship which was really refreshing.

Then she came out with the Colours of Madeleine books which mixed FANTASY into this off-kilter worldview so that got EVEN WEIRDER and more wonderful and just when I thought I'd figured out all the twists it'd hit me with bigger ones out of nowhere! Also they spelled my youngest child's name right! Like Madeleine L'Engle!

By this time I was following her on social media and it became clearer the kindredness was from us being ADHD and loving stories. Whoo! And that's also when I found out she was working on a MIDDLE GRADE FANTASY ADVENTURE! WITH PIRATES! And I was like take THAT me of a decade or so ago that thought our tastes in books didn't overlap! And I can read it to my kids! So I've been reading each Kingdoms and Empires book to my kids and am now trying to get my hands on the latest, but my new library has a smaller budget and I can't get away with buying books just because I want to read them quite as easily. But I do have an excuse, because I'm definitely going to read a few chapters of Bronte Mettlestone to the Summer Reading camp group this summer (the theme is Adventure! How can I not!) So I'll HAVE to make sure we have the whole series...!

Anyway, I'm convinced every last person in the Kingdoms and Empires has ADHD, or at least some sort of neurodivergence, so these stories are truly a delight to read.

Thanks for letting me go off on this topic, anon friend!

[lavellenchanted]

Book asks! 10, 25, 30?

10. A book that got you through something

Ooh interesting question! I tend to go back to childhood favourites and comfort reads when I'm going through a tough time, but one that comes to mind is Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty - I remember rereading it in university and getting to the part where Elizabeth realises that she and Celia aren't really best friends any more, but that doesn't mean that they're not friends at all, and it really helped me come to terms with the fact that I'd grown apart from a lot of my old school friends.

25. A book by your favourite author

I'm supposed to pick just one favourite author?? How about a favourite author?

In terms of actual writing style, I adore the way Laini Taylor writes - it's dreamy but immersive and so visual and pulls me right into her stories, and I think Stranger the Dreamer/Muse of Nightmares really showcase her talent.

30. Your favourite middle grade book

I am tempted to say everything Diana Wynne Jones ever wrote because she is incredible, but I'm gonna give a shout out to The Witch Trade by Michael Molloy which has been imprinted on my psyche since I read it at like 11 or 12.

book rec asks

[thefanficwriterscraft]

S2E3 - MULTIMEDIA IN FANFICTION [PART 2] (OR, SNACKLEHOLT BINGSLEY LARPS WARRIOR CATS ON THE AMAZON KINDLE)

Here is our latest episode 🎉

In this episode, Lani (@copper-dust) interviews author and multimedia artist @rosalui. They talk about Rosa’s work in a huge number of fandoms featuring anything from fake newspaper articles to academic pastiches. Rosa talks about the appeal of non-conventional storytelling and the draw of writing pieces because you can’t find them anywhere else. This is a short episode, but a very sweet one, which we hope you enjoy!

This week, we mention: 

Fandoms: Naruto, Mo Dao Zu Shi, Harry Potter, Avengers, Captain America

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 

Wattleford, Bumbleby. 'Potterwatch: Underground Radio and the Voice of a Revolution.' Hogsmeade: Widdershins, 2006. by RosaLui

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty

MediAvengers by nottonyharrison

Steve Rogers Might Wear Tights, But He’s Not Your Pin-up Girl by RosaLui and whatalchemy

tin soldiers by idrilka

Bird Lovers, Backyard by Thalia Field

Macarthur Park by Richard Harris

Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter

Check The Spindle by @copper-dust

Your recommendations for this week are:

No recommendations this week but Jo would like to push The Every again, which she just finished and insists is incredible.

You can find us online at:

The Fanfic Writer’s Craft: tumblr ; spotify

Rosalui (@rosalui): tumblr; AO3; livejournal

Lani (@copper-dust): tumblr ; AO3

Jo (@pebblysand): tumblr ; AO3

[storybook-souls]

2, 12, 15 mwah!

omg hey mer

2. top 5 books of all time?

impossible question. the hobbit, the westing game, the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, the princess bride, the hunger games. i don't know if i necessarily stand by these but they were the ones that came right to mind

12. did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

absolutely! ender's game is still one of my favorites, i LOVED frankenstein, i loved their eyes were watching god, i really really liked the great gatsby in spite of myself, i adored the tempest. i also got really into both beowulf and the canterbury tales even though we didn't actually read all of either. and the good poems poetry collection deserves an honorable mention for getting me from "girl who hates poetry" to "girl who loves poetry" in one year.

15. recommend and review a book.

i already did this one but i'll do it for a different book: Gravity is the Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty is the most surprisingly wonderful book I've read this year; I only picked it up from the library because I dimly remembered the author's name from reading her YA stuff when I was a teenager and it sat on my shelf for weeks before I finally started it and then I read it all in like three days. it's about a woman who's been getting chapters of a mysterious book in the mail since she was a teenager, but really it's about grief and resilience and human connection and the reasons we go along with strange, impossible ideas and the reasons we want to believe in magic. it's hopeful, it's funny, it's constantly surprising, it's heartbreaking, it's satisfying...beloved book. 5 stars.

[silversshadow]

2023 Book Roundup

And it’s once more that time of the year!

When I provide a list of what I read and what I thought at the time.

First off is my first book where I couldn’t finish it. Small Town, Big Magic by Hazel Beck, who appears to be two authors working together from the “about” in the back. I got this as a Christmas book from an aunt and I think I tried to read it about 6 times and never got through the first chapter. The premise seemed really cool! A modern secret society of magic, some romance – I was excited! But the first page was incredibly hard for me to get through. There’s this air of arrogance that was immediately off-putting. And listen, normally an annoying protag is something I can push through if they give me something else to work with – I liked The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie/The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty for crying out loud and Bindy starts out real obnoxious, but the opening hook was enough to get me interested and you could tell she wasn’t supposed to be likable and – I’m going to stop before this turns into me talking about that better book. This book just felt like the authors were making a fun of the idea of a feminist character – like a parody book would, I don’t know if this was intended to make an incredibly unlikable protagonist or if the authors did it on accident. Again, it just seemed to be mean-spirited, maybe it gets better – but I don’t think I’ll be picking it up again.

Next up was Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan, right off the bat – I do think I enjoyed it better than I did the first book, Daughter of the Moon Goddess. The pacing seemed to have improved, at least to me, and the descriptions were just as beautiful as ever. I think that was one of my favourite parts – just how wonderful the descriptions we got were. I think it did suffer from some of the same negatives I had from the first one – the love triangle was by far the most annoying part, and I know that may just be a personal thing. The ending of the first book made it seem pretty clear which direction things were going to go in, but the sequel just brought it back to almost square one only with more ~angst~ to it. I don’t know if I’ll ever come back for a re-read on this one. Usually when I finish a book I just know if it’s something I’ll recommend or enjoy a second or even third time – in this case, I’m leaning more towards not. It was pretty good – but I think that maybe it just wasn’t the right story for me.

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He was next on my reading list, and it was a really interesting murder-mystery and political drama. Of course, it had some romance in it, but I thought it felt very natural compared to other books of its length. He’s descriptions were vivid and it was just a very good time for me. The one caveat, and it is kind of a big one, is that the story ends on a cliff-hanger. And it’s not a duology or a trilogy or – allow me to explain. It ends abruptly, with the introduction of a new obstacle, but we don’t get a conclusion to it as the author mentions in her notes that this is it for our protagonists’ journey – and while she may write something else in the same world, it will be about someone else. For people who like a complete story, all the loose ends tied up, this is not for you – unless she changes her mind and comes back to it. I personally really liked it, and will be happy to check out other works she has, in fact Strum the Zither is currently on my list once I’ve gotten through my current stack of books.

I then read the Sands of Arawiya duology by Hafsah Faizal – We Hunt the Flame and We Free the Stars. I read the first one fairly fast, I really enjoyed it. The descriptions were all vivid, and while the prose was a little more flowery than I tend to like, but it fit the almost fairy-tale feeling that I had while reading it. It’s a multi-POV novel, which I personally like in order to get a better idea of the world and see multiple perspectives on events. Again, the first one was a very enjoyable read. I found the second novel a lot harder to get through – it felt a little too melodramatic at points, and while I really appreciated that characters had what were reasonable reactions to events, it just seemed a little, I don’t know, I don’t want to say played-up for dramatic effect, but it seemed like the characters were a lot more undecided. Though there is a side character who I found absolutely delightful in the sequel, the first novel painted her one way, and then we meet her and she’s kind of feral which was fun. Overall, it was a good series, but the second one took me lot longer to read than I thought it would. Enough so that it actually took me over a month to get through.

Around here I started reading a bunch of different webcomics which I will not be going into, the main reason being that I don’t like to discuss an unfinished project. At least with “book one” in a series you can usually get a vibe for where things are going, or even stop if it feels like a good point to. But with webcomics which are one long story, you never know if they’re going to Pull Some Shit™. So just know that the reason our list may be a little light this year is because of the webcomic break, lol.

Next is Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, I read Mistborn (just the first one) back in the day, and while I really enjoyed it and the worldbuilding, I wasn’t too keen on a few aspects. I keep hearing about how good a lot of his other works are too, so I wanted to try and get into one of his series early enough to not have a large backlog to get through. I will admit, this one is a little weird for me to talk about. There were a lot of points where the actual narration of it (first person from a “side” character) was a little to trying to be funny or LOL random, and it actually took a while for me to get used to it and start really enjoying it. But you know what? Sanderson does some good worldbuilding. Once I got past the parts of the narration I found off-putting I actually really enjoyed the sort of silly-vibe it had. In the author notes The Princess Bride was cited as an inspiration and I get that, this would certainly make a fun movie if it ever got adapted – though I really don’t know how they’d handle the absolutely necessary to the plot narration. All-in-all, I am looking forward to more from this world.

Making good on an earlier promise, I read Strike the Zither, by Joan He, and when I tell you it had a good first impression, I mean I opened it to a quick list of characters, then art of a few characters, then a map. If there is something about me to know, it is that I love a map. Did it live up to the expectation it set for me? I did, in fact, really enjoy this one. I am going to make sure to let y’all know it is only book one. And it super ends on a cliffhanger so if you want to wait until you also have Sound the Gong I would not be surprised. The mid-novel twist was one that I was not super happy with at first, but after a while I was more interested in what would happen because of this and how the situation would be resolved. It was a little similar in terms of narration to the previous novel I had read, but due to the difference in narrators and story structure it was a little more serious. There was also a pretty funny moment where a couple of things happened in the novel and I was like, “this feels familiar, where have I heard this before” and then I get to the authors note and find out it was inspired by The Romance of Three Kingdoms and the legends and time in general. That was fun, I did not know enough of the original work or time period to know what was going to happen before it did, but the authors note also implied that it was still be different enough that people who do know will still be able to enjoy the twists. I’m looking forward to the next one.

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin, was next, and its sequel A Venom Dark and Sweet. I! Love! A! Cool! Magic! System! Tea Magic! The protagonist was also super likable to me, and the descriptions were so vivid and for something where tea and food are important getting those right was very much needed. I flew through reading these two, they were very easy to digest which I appreciated. I also really loved that the protagonist never lost sight of her goals, she had her objective and even when other things were going on she did not forget what she wanted to get done. While I felt the romance happened a little fast, in that they meet, and have an instant connection – the choice to have them bond using the magic made it seem a little more like, “Oh these are two people who under normal circumstances would have just taken longer to get there and the magic sped it up” but then Plot happens and while they care for each other their goals came first. I did appreciate that a lot. Book two has a switch up where we get two different POVs which didn’t happen in the first – but it changes between first- and third-person perspective, which I’m personally not super fond of, but it was not too off-putting. There was never a point where I got mad about someone doing something dumb just to make the plot happen, and I just had a genuinely good time reading it.

Finally got my copy of Nona the Ninth by Tamysn Muir, so that’s what’s up next. I read it. I felt many emotions. The Locked Tomb is such an interesting series to read because I’m laughing quite a bit but it’s also like, “if I wasn’t laughing, I’d weep”, a lot too. Reading Gideon, I felt like I knew what was going on, reading Harrow, I went from ??? to “Ohhhh”, reading Nona, I thought I knew what was happening, then I didn’t, then I did? Maybe? I’m absolutely going to have to do a complete re-read of the series once it’s done. What do I say about my time here? If you liked the other books, read it. If you didn’t you will not know what the hell is going on and won’t enjoy it. Nona was a delightful character and at the end I was incredibly sad but also laughing? I feel like any sort of, here’s why you should read this will fall flat, if you don’t mind body horror and characters making bad decisions for good reasons, good decisions for bad reasons, or decisions for reasons – The Locked Tomb is just, it’s the time ever.

I also have, after many a year, gotten the Howls Moving Castle trilogy of books, Howls Moving Castle, Castle in the Air, and House of Many Ways by Diane Wynn Jones. I know it was many peoples first experience with her, that or the Christomancy books, but for me, my first and only experience with Jones was Power of Three, and I’ve always wanted to read these ones. I figured after the harrowing experience I had just gone through this would be a good gentle-er read. I think overall, I enjoyed Howls Moving Castle the most, I do think that they all had a very tongue-in-cheek kind of silliness to them, and can understand why they were so popular with younger readers. It was fun to go on an adventure and see these little pieces of peoples lives and the way characters would be in one book and then be referenced or show up again later. I did feel there were moments where I was definitely reminded “yeah this was written in the 90s” so like, keep that in mind if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, but I did have a good time reading something a little more straightforward.

After many, many, many, years I have finally gotten all the original Emelan books by Tamora Pierce. It’s kind of a funny story, I got the (at the time) most recent book The Will of the Empress as a gift and read the whole thing before learning it was part of a series. And it took a long time before I was able to get both of it’s preceding quartets Circle of Magic (Sandry’s Book, Tris’s Book, Daja’s Book and Briar’s Book) and The Circle Opens (Magic Steps, Street Magic, Cold Fire, and Shatterglass) as well as another written later, Battle Magic. This series has come to mean a lot to me, as it was one of the first ones that had actual on-page queer relationships and it has always treated the reader with what I feel is a lot of respect. It’s simultaneously aimed at younger audience, but touches on some heavy topics in a way that doesn’t feel like talking down to children. I’ve not read the other series she has, though I know they are also a much beloved part of many peoples youths, but I’ve always wanted to. The found-family here is incredible, the world-building and characters are wonderful, and the stories themselves are put together in a way that makes them worth a re-read. A highly recommended from me series if you have the time to read a decently long set of books and want to get incredibly attached to the characters.

Coming up on the end of the year, I decided to re-read an old childhood favourite that I would try to come back to around the holidays, The Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill. I ended up picking a good time for it, as the day I spent curled up by the window was one where we had a good snowfall. Despite it being a story about a young girl coming of age during a war, it also captures a really cozy winter feeling during the quieter moments. I think back when I first read it, I was not able to really appreciate how good the descriptions were, but it really held up. I was thinking about maybe reading the sequel, Blade of Fire, but because this one ends on a fairly solid point, and the next leads a little more into the third I ended up not. Really, I just wanted to read it for the winter coziness. It was also nice getting to go back to an older book that I don’t think was widely known and, if anyone actually reads these, maybe getting someone else to give it a shot.

And then I was let go from my contract job due to some restructuring, and as it was the first week of December, I decided to re-read all The Lord of the Rings. So, like, I did that. What do I say? I think at this point pretty much everyone at least knows about J.R.R. Tolkien and his masterpiece of worldbuilding, so I don’t really need to go into any sort of further “here is why you should read it.” I also re-watched the extended editions for the movies, because for some reason, the December holiday season just feels like a good Lord of the Rings watching time. My only hope is to one day convince my parents to watch them with me.

And that sums up 2023! I’ve already gotten a few books I plan on reading for 2024, which involve one prequel, two completed series, and a couple of sequels to other books. Here’s hoping for a successful reading year!

[ren-commendations]

The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty

6/10 part whimsy, mostly family drama, all the feelings. 

I first read this back in middle school, and it really stuck out to me. After I left middle school I wanted to find it again and it took me almost 7 more years to find this book again. I’m so glad to finally found it again. Re-reading it it was pretty similar to how I remember it, which was that is was good. The writing takes a bit of time to get used to, a lot of changing perspectives, but after a while you kind of fall into place and it’s not bad. 

There were some chapters I was less fond of than others, and moments where I didn’t care for certain characters as much as others, but even parts I liked less had a part to play in the greater narrative, so I cannot begrudge it too much.

The story follows Listen Taylor as she starts middle school, as well as experiencing conflict that arises from her dad’s girlfriend’s family secret. All of it ties together rather neatly and the author is really good at appealing to the emotional aspect of everything, which I enjoyed and why I wanted to re-read it. It really stuck out to me as experiencing life and emotions from someone else’s shoes. All the characters are flawed, and very human, but each have their own points to empathize with what they are going through and the decisions they make, which made me remember this book even all these years later. 

[paperbooksplease]

This anthology has

~ Space stories ~ Time stories (both pretty deterministic, probably coincidentally) ~ Just plain contemporary stories ~ A witch in an underground cave ~ A good mix of moods ~ A story by Jaclyn Moriarty (hence my interest) I liked it

[readastray]

My Favourite Books By Australian Authors

My Favourite Books By Australian Authors

On The Jellicoe Road – Melina Marchetta Taylor is leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs—the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought she would never see again. And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor’s only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived…

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars | Author: Jaclyn Moriarty | Publisher: Guppy Books (2020)

[coollovebibliophilethings]

Begin, End, Begin edited by Danielle Binks

What a brilliant collection of #AussieAuthors #LoveOzYA

Title: Begin, End, BeginAuthor: Danielle Binks, Amie Kaufman, Will Kostakis, Alice Pung, Michael Pryor, Melissa Keil, Ellie Marney, Lili Wilkinson, Gabrielle Tozer & Jaclyn MoriartyIn: Begin, End, Begin (Danielle Binks)Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Contemporary, Short story collections, Young adultDates read: 30th June – 26th…