whittybooks

[whittybooks]

The Empress of the Bright Moon

The Empress of the Bright Moon

Weina Dai Randel

Started: Jan 1, 2018

Finished:  Jan 3, 2018

Mei has been sent to a taoist temple miles away from the castle with no way of knowing how she will ever see Pheasant again, and she purely hates it there.  Eventually, she starts learning how to meditate and garden and get used to the life there.  But one day she hears that Pheasant, the Emperor, will be going to visit the monk that stated she would be Empress, at a different temple.  She planned her escape and started the journey to the temple. 

Once there she finds that only Empress Wang has arrived, Mei is upset.  But the next day as she is wandering she suddenly finds Pheasant.  He recognizes her immediatly and sneaks her back into the castle and has her in her own private garden.  Eventually Wang finds out and starts to cause problems, she kills Mei’s dog and tries to feed it to her.  But then Mei becomes pregnant, and she has a boy.  Suddenly she has a little more power, and even more so when Pheasant names her Supreme Lady, a title he created, making her his head concubine.  

The Empress starts to undermine Mei at every turn, tries to turn the other Noble ladies against her, and eventually kidnaps one and her son and hides them in a shed, chained up, with a pair of wolves.  They decide they are going to impeach her, and send her to trial.  When he goes to his Uncle to let him know of the trial upcoming the next day, they try to win him to their side.  It seems like they have succeeded, until the next day, when no one shows up for the trial.  They find out that Wang and his Uncle have been plotting together and have set up a false trial and have killed everyone close to Pheasant and Mei.  Mei starts to reclude, hide away and even avoid Pheasant.  But then one day Wang shows up and wants to see Mei’s new daughter, while she was visiting she kills the princess.  

Eventually, Wang and his Uncle also try and form a coup, but they have half the guards and the townsfolk on their side, since they started spreading rumors that Mei killed her daughter herself, along with other ones.  Eventually Wang is caught and his Uncle is banished.  A trial is set for Wang and she is found guilty and they get divorced.  Pheasant annouces that he will be marrying Mei, making her Empress.  

I did some research after this about the Tang Dynasty and Empress Wu.  She was the first and only Empress of China and added a lot of culture and economic growth to China.  A lot of the story in these books is works of fiction, however there are bits of truth, there were rumors spread about her before the Emperors divorce to Wang, though it is not known who started them. 

[whittybooks]

The Moon in the Palace

The Moon in the Palace 

Weina Dai Randel

Started: Jan 1, 2018

Finished:  Jan 1, 2018

Mei was told from a young age, from a Taoist monk, that one day she would be the most important woman in China.  Well things didn’t look like that to her, shortly afterwards her father dies and they end up going to a relatives house where they get treated like shit.  He takes all of the money that her mother and 2 sister and her have, and they get treated like servants.  Eventually, her younger sister dies. 

But one day a notice arrives, Mei is to become one of the Emperors 14 new concubines in training.  She has to leave her mother and older sister behind, but she promises to send them money when she can.  When she arrives she expects to be shown to the Emperor immediatly, however, that is not the case.  First she and the 13 other girls go through months of training.  But, there is a bright side, the Emporers birthday is coming up, and if they give him a gift that gets his attention, they will receive his favor.  Mei comes up with a puzzle for him, in poem.  He is drawn to that gift, and asks to see Mei.  Mei shares the news with her friend who tricks her and takes her place to win back favor over the Emperor.  

Mei eventually does earn her way into the Emperors favor, but she also befriends someone she thinks is the crown prince’s stable boy, Pheasant.  The two of them become very attached and start to fall in love.  However Mei has been raised into the position of a Talent, which is low in the concubine hierarchy, but she cannot jeopordize her position. 

She starts to earn favor also by making friends with one of the 4 Supreme concubines.  She gets a job in the Emperors wardrobe and is selected to sit with him during a polo match.  She finds out that Pheasant is not a stable boy, he is in fact one of the Emperors heirs.  Which makes their meetings even more trouble, especially if they get caught.  She tries to end things with him.  Then the Emperor forces Pheasant to marry.

One night, one of Pheasants brothers tries to form a coup to make himself Emperor and added poison to a dish.  Mei saves herself and tries to save the Supreme concubine, but she ends up saving the Emperor also.  Eventually the Emperors health starts to fail and they are made to keep watch over him all day long.  When he passes, it is announced that Pheasant will be the new Emperor and his uncle, the reigning Reagant, in charge of the kingdom.  And all of the Emperors former concubines have to be sent away to live in temples.  

[whittybooks]

And I’m back!

So, I’m trying this again

I have started a physical copy of the books I’m reading, but I also am going to try a digital copy also.

Daughter of the Burning City

Amanda Foody

Start: Dec 21, 2017

End: Dec 30, 2017

Spoilers ahead!!

Sorina is the adopted daughter of the proprietor of the “Carnival of Sin” called Gamorrah. She resides in the uphill with her illusions, she is a jinx worker and can create people with her mind and other illusions, and they have their own freak show. One day she comes back to find that one of her illusions has been murdered. She didn’t think that was possible since they weren’t real, but they were her family. At the next town they were in another one of her illusions is murdered again. She starts to become worried and her father Villium decides to start training her to take over as proprietor and learn the secrets of Gamorrah. She also meets a boy in the downhill called Luca who is a poison worker who cannot die. The downhill is the seedy part of Gamorrah, where the thieves, assassins, prettyworkers and general poor live.

She starts trying to figure out who murdered her family with both her father and Luca separately. Her father thinks it’s someone from the outside and Luca is thinking it’s someone from the inside. When they move on to the third city she thinks she is safe, she has guards for everyone. She helps Villium capture an Alliance member who they think is behind everything, they think it’s because he wants to start a war. She goes out one night with Luca and sees the princess die mysteriously, who’s wedding she was at when they abducted the alliance member. She rushes home and finds another one of her illusions dead.

She figures out that her illusions are linked to people in the towns they have been in, prominent Alliance figures have died each time. Sorina realizes that a jinx worker has linked these people to her illusions. She goes to her father with this information, and they question the man they captured about who is the leader. Her father then tells her that Luca is a spy and has been sending information out.

Sorina is extremely hurt and upset, she has fallen for Luca and is confused about how he is involved, because a mind worker has to also be involved in all this too. She starts putting the pieces together and realizes that Luca is an illusion also and that some of her memories are missing. She releases Luca and finds her fathers steward who tries to kill her since she figured it all out, she uses her illusions, Tree and Hawk, to kill him and escape. She runs to her father to tell him about Agni and finds that he isn’t surprised. She realizes that her father is the other half, the mind worker, the one who has been erasing her memories. He admits to all this, using her illusion, Crown, to kill Alliance members to start a war. She brings out her illusions and they end up killing Villium.

She ends up continuing to run the freak show, Luca takes over as the stage manager and her illusion Nicoleta takes over as the proprietor.

[whittybooks]

Wild Beauty

Wild Beauty

Anna-Marie McLemore

Started: Dec 30, 2017

Finished: Jan 1, 2018

Estrella and her 4 cousins always lose the man they love, it runs in their family. They also have the ability to grow flowers and trees associated with their name. Well, one day they find out that Bay, the girl all 5 of them are in love with, is in trouble. So they go to the land to make a wish to help save her. The next day Fen appears.

He seems lost, has no clue who he is or where he is, and has no memory of his party, though he understands them. As he and Estrella get closer and try and help get rid of Bay's cousin, Reid, he starts to regain some memories. Estrella's mother doesn't like that her daughter is falling in love, it means that Fen will most likely disappear. Fen attacks Reid and is getting beat up when the ground takes him back, that's when he regains all of his memories. At that time, Bay had found out why her family send all their bastard and troublesome children there, because they disappear there. They disappear, because a horrible mining accident happened and Bay's family covered it up. Most of the men working weren't even registered and died unnamed and uncounted. And Estrellas family helped cover it up by covering the land with gardens.

Estrella, her cousins, mother, aunts, and their grandmother's all started to dig up everything they had created and eventually the bodies started rising.

[whittybooks]

Read Harder in 2018! NYPL’s Suggestions for Book Riot’s Annual Challenge

At the start of each new year, our friends at Book Riot issue a challenge: Read consciously, thoughtfully, and outside your comfort zone.The newest installment of the Read Harder Challenge lays out 24 new tasks for 2018. 

This year’s categories are better than ever, with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion in many different forms—and a touch of whimsy. (A book with a cover you hate, and a book you couldn’t finish in school? Sold.)

Challenge-takers, we’re here for you. Below are suggestions in each category for books in the New York Public Library’s collections. You could even add an extra facet to this challenge: Complete it using only books you checked out from your local library!

Find our suggestions here.

[whittybooks]

So as we can see I have been TERRRRRRIBLE about keeping up with this.  I will try and do better!  I need to go back and review the books I have read so far.  It hasn’t been many thankfully.  I’ve had a slow start this year.  

King’s Cage

re-read of Queen of the Tearling and The Invasion of the Tearling

The Fate of the Tearling

The Name of the Wind

The Wise Man’s Fear

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

The Queen of the Night

[whittybooks]

Next 3 books! 

Windwitch 

The Girl from Everywhere

Caraval

Currently reading:  The Last of August

[whittybooks]

First book of the year! Feed!

So, my first book of the year was actually a present from my Secret Santa! Thanks Olivia!  I didn’t know anything about it other than what was on the back cover, zombies, and awards.  Let’s go!  This also fills the category of book written by an author who uses a pseudonym  

Feed!  By Mira Grant 

Started January 3, 2017

Finished January 10, 2017

Thoughts: 

It started off as a typical zombie novel, a few years after the initial outbreak with the main characters job as bloggers.  They get a huge break covering the presidential campaign.  But as soon as they get started things take a turn for the worse and hell breaks loose.  The campaign gets sabotaged left and right and friends and security keep dying.  It is up to them to find out who is behind this.  

Other than Shaun and Georgia, the Senator and his wife Emily, even though she had a small part in the book were my favorite characters. They tried to make the world they lived in seem normal. And Emily was seen as weird for it. During the end funeral scene Emily sent a home made pie, and Shaun remarked that that was weird. In our world it isn’t, in theirs it is. But that was something that she did.

It was fairly obvious as to who the saboteur was, there weren’t a lot of external characters and when he was introduced he was immediately regarded as rude and vile.  Really, Tate?! However, the end did make up for it.  There were some surprising plot twists throughout the book.  

4/5 🐰🐰🐰🐰

[whittybooks]

I have already challenged myself to a few things this year.  

1.  To read 60 books (this challenge is 52)   

2.  To keep a book journal (that is what this is for!)  

I have finished my first book.  No, Goodreads I don’t count the other as my first one, so review...ish, more like notes incoming.  There may be spoilers!  So warnings ahead!