#top books

[calming-chaos]

#book blog #bookaddict #bookaholic #bookshelves #bookstagram #booktok #bibliophile #booklovers #bookstack #bookworm #top books #books reviews #bookish #new books #favorite books #rina kent #rebecca yarros #stephanie garber #meagan brandy #lauren asher

[ismahanescorner]

The Apothecary Diaries | Gush!! 🩷

heya!! so i’ll prolly be doing more of these gush-y review-esque posts about stories that i’m consuming in multiple media formats!

if you’ve been following along with my wrap-ups, you’d know that i binged the apothecary diaries manga in december (i’m currently waiting on vol. 11 to be released). i’m also watching the anime weekly (i can’t wait for temple rescue coming up!!). i also have the light novel on hold from my library so i can read ahead!! 😅

the story isn’t all that new or innovative if you’re an avid enjoyer of historical chinese (east asian) court dramas. however, it is very compelling and intriguing, and the pacing of reveals is pretty good as well!

the characters are instantly loveable and are the reason for my current -tiny- hyperfixation with the story. i just adore maomao and jinshi!!! 😍😍😍

if you’re in the same camp of being swept by your overwhelming love for these two idiots, please let me know so we can gush together!! 🤭🤍

🖼️ collage by me! 😊

#the apothecary diaries #books #manga #top books #popular books #book recommendations #light novel #chinese drama #collage #anime #jinshi #maomao #c drama #court drama #china #ismahane’s corner #gush review

[new-york-no-shoes]

Would anyone be interested in my top ten books of the year?

#if not it’s so so fine! #just curious if anyone is a reader and wants to know/discuss #personal #2023 reads #books #top books #bookish #taylor swift

[thetypedwriter]

The Brothers Hawthorne Book Review

The Brothers Hawthorne Book Review 

You know, this book is pretty good! You might be taken aback by my surprise, but Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ series about the wealthy Hawthorne family has been fun at best and poorly characterized at worst.

The entire series has been carried on its entertaining elements: from the puzzles, riddles, and enjoyable (albeit predictable) twists and turns, only the plot and its labyrinthine lines has made these books enjoyable at all. 

However, this book tones down the puzzles and focuses a little more on the characters, a recipe that works really well for me and what I’ve essentially been begging Barnes to do since the first title, The Inheritance Games. 

This novel, called The Brothers Hawthorne, is a misnomer. It’s only about two of the brothers, Jameson and Grayson, leaving Nash and Xander as one-dimensional as they’ve always been. But hey, I’ll take it. Two brothers getting some characterization is better than the zilch we’ve been getting in previous books. 

The book alternates POV’s between Jameson and Grayson, chronicling different plotlines of them trying to solve two very different mysteries.

Jameson’s story follows a rather thin chain of events where he gets entangled with a secret club called The Devil’s Mercy. The club boasts clients of only the rich and powerful variety, a club that Jameson can’t help but be tantalized by. 

Jameson’s chapters simply follow him trying to get into The Devil’s Mercy, gain the attention of the man in charge, the Proprietor, and then solving a puzzle put forth by the Proprietor against other competitors for Vantage, a Scottish castle that belongs to Jameson’s estranged father. 

The focus on Jameson, for lack of a better description, is boring and ridiculous. It’s in my opinion that Barnes couldn’t think of anything better for Jameson to do than finding more rich people who are also hungry and who also love to play games. I like the bits with Jameson and his father, but there weren’t enough scenes of them.

Unfortunately, only a handful are sporadically sprinkled throughout the book. If there had been more of Jameson coming to terms with his complicated relationship with his mysterious father, it would have been much more interesting than anything dealing with The Devil’s Mercy. 

Grayson’s plotline, on the other hand, is handled with much more care and consideration. Even though the stakes are much lower (no Scottish castles or jumping onto bell towers) it's a hundred times more intriguing because I actually learned about Grayson’s emotions, his ties to his family, and his flaws. With Jameson, you kind of do, but it’s shallow and not nearly as deep as Grayson’s begrudging affection for his half-sisters. 

Grayson’s story essentially revolves around keeping the true nature of Sheffield Grayson (his father) dead and buried and away from his sisters. He sabotages their efforts in learning what happened to Sheffiled Grayson with the mentality of protecting them. However, the more time he spends with them, the more his affection—and his guilt—grows. 

While not the most novel of plotlines to exist, the emotions feel real at the very least. It’s the first time in the entire series where Grayson and Jameson feel like different, distinct people to me and not just pretty archetypes for Avery to agonize over.

Grayson’s family dynamics fascinated me much much more than any cockamamie game Jameson was playing in England because he’s constantly hungry due to an inferiority complex stemming from childhood. 

The relationships Grayson builds with his sisters and their mother, in addition to coming to terms with the fact that he’s not perfect and certainly not okay, is a heavier reckoning than Jameson trusting Avery with a secret that’s not that deep and not that interesting. 

Speaking of Avery, her bits were so painful that it hurt. 

Every time Jameson or Grayson mention her I wanted to retch. Her and Jameson are just so perfect together. Perfect to the point that it’s unrealistic and fake. Every time Jameson solves a riddle, Avery is right there with him, equal in terms of logic and intelligence. 

I get that Barnes wants to portray Avery as smart, but the idea that they’re completely and utterly synchronized every single step of the way feels so paltry and disingenuous that it makes me actively dislike any part of the book that contains both of them.

Jameson on his own is tolerable. Jameson “burning” for Avery and “breathing” for Avery is absolutely stupid. Thank goodness she was just a side character in this and didn’t have her own POV. 

Other than the complaints about Avery, The Brothers Hawthorne is an enjoyable read. Could the characterization be more complex and sophisticated? Yes. Is the plot pretty foolish and duplicitous? Yes. Is it more enjoyable than the last few books of the same series? Also, yes. 

Will I read the next installment? Unfortunately, yes. 

While The Brothers Hawthorne is a step in the right direction, these books are still more candy cotton fun than true substance. You know what though? Sometimes that’s okay. Not every book you read has to have an intricate plotline with heavy elements and intense characters. 

Sometimes books can just be fun. 

Sometimes all you want is cotton candy. 

Recommendation: The Brothers Hawthorne is probably my favorite book in the series since The Inheritance Games. If you’re still on the Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ bandwagon, don’t jump off now. Read The Brothers Hawthorne and enjoy the morsels of characterization that get tossed your way. 

Score: 7/10

#the brothers hawthorne #the inheritance games #jennifer lynn barnes #ya book rec #yaromance #ya fiction #book blog #book review #book recommendations #book rec #popular fiction #books #popular books #top books #favorite books #book recs #7/10

[tafadhali]

Top Books Read in 2023

System Collapse by Martha Wells

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Greenwing & Dart series by Victoria Goddard

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass

Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds & Jason Griffin

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

The October Country by Ray Bradbury

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

Translation State by Ann Leckie

#2023 in review #top 10 #top books #martha wells #stephen king #victoria goddard #actually rereading both lays of the hearth fire books was my reading highlight lol

[juniperusashei]

The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy translated by Cathy Porter - 5/5

This is why Jane Austen’s books never go beyond the wedding. Sofia Tolstoy lived a long, mostly miserable life, controlled and overshadowed by her husband, the more famous Leo Tolstoy. Had she not carried thirteen children (not counting the miscarriages), had she not been so occupied with editing and transcribing Leo’s work, getting it past the Tsar’s censors, and publishing it to furnish income for her family, would she be remembered as a better writer than Leo ever was? Unfortunately, much of Sofia Tolstoy’s writing aside from her diaries have been kept secret by the estate, but spending so much time with this hefty volume represents a “what could have been” of a great literary mind, lost to history.

I had read about Sofia Tolstoy’s life and her diaries in Andrea Dworkin’s Intercourse, which considers parallels in her life to Leo’s The Kreutzer Sonata. I was vaguely aware that they had a long and fraught marriage, but I expected at least some sort of arc. On the second page of her diary (out of almost five hundred!) she already laments, “I am terribly sad, and am withdrawing further and further into myself. My husband is ill and out of sorts and doesn’t love me.” The first year of their marriage (Sofia was 18, Leo was 34) was bad (tainted by Leo’s affairs with maids) and it only got worse for the next 48 years. By far the most disturbing episode was when Leo wrote The Kreutzer Sonata as essentially a thinly-veiled murder threat. Every time it seemed like Leo was about to die, I cheered, and when he finally did it was depressing that Sofia spent her last seven years of freedom grieving for someone who never cared for her. A literary feat in their own right, her diaries also demystify the cult of Leo Tolstoy:

“I have served a genius for almost forty years. Hundreds of times I have felt my intellectual energy stir within me and all sorts of desires - a longing for education, a love of music and the arts… And time and again I have crushed and smothered these longings… Everyone asks, “But why should a worthless woman like you need an intellectual or artistic life?” To this question I can only reply: “I don’t know, but eternally suppressing it to serve a genius is a great misfortune".

I have spent a long time reading this. I frequently found myself putting it down because it was too overwhelmingly tragic. Like all real diaries, there are definitely a lot of slow moments of everyday life, but experiencing fifty years of someone’s life in the span of mere months really makes you feel like you’ve got a parasocial relationship with that person. Perhaps that’s why reading diaries interests me; it helps keep alive those forgotten by history.

#sofia tolstoy #autobiography #nonfiction #diaries #5 #top books #august 2023 #2023

[ritikarajpal04]

The 5 Books Every Artist Should Have on Their Shelf

I believe that as artists we must never stop learning, sharing and growing. Knowing where to look when you need to gather inspiration or strategize business advice can help you feel like you aren’t alone on this path.

Here are 5 books that have played an insightful and crucial part of our development as artists and shaped our career as business owners.

1)Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists Paperback

By Sharon Louden

This book offers working artists a collection of personal stories from people who have been there. Reading through their experiences you get a sense of the practical and nitty-gritty side of making a living as an artist. These stories validate the artistic struggles we all face and also inspire about the possibilities that await. The diverse perspectives of the artists are at once brutally honest, aspirational, and funny.

2) Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

By David Lynch

When you admire an artist's work, you often wonder, “how do they even get these ideas?” David Lynch charmingly takes readers through his process of finding and harnessing creativity. A longtime practitioner of transcendental meditation, Lynch offers deeply delightful insights into generating ideas. Weaving together life, art and consciousness, this book turns the idea of the suffering artist on its head and instead replaces it with the idea that our mental capacity, and ability to reach inner peace acts as our biggest creative driver.

3) Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

By David Bayles & Ted Orland

Art and Fear is one of those books that we have highlighted, creased, and bookmarked with dozens of torn up sticky notes. It’s a book that artists continue to recommend and connect with. Written in a straightforward manner, this book tackles the insecurities all artists face when finishing projects or putting your work out to be critiqued. It’s concise, clear, compelling and worth coming back to over and over. For anyone that has felt either internal or external pressures that have kept them from creating (and who hasn’t?), this book deserves a prominent place in your bookshelf.

4) Creative Block

By Danielle Krysa

This book is both beautiful and insightful. Perfect for setting out on the coffee table and picking up from time to time. Danielle Krysa from The Jealous Curator highlights 50 artists’ strategies for getting over a creative block and finding inspiration. Laid out with large, colorful pictures, you can flip through the artworks and read selections about how that particular artist deals with art world challenges in a refreshing and candid manner.

5) Art, Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist

By Lisa Congdon

Lisa Congdon started out as a hobbyist and transformed her passion into a business that lets her make a full-time living as an artist. In this practical guide, she uses this firsthand experience to lay out a framework for taking your artistic career to the next level. This book details specific strategies and tools to help enhance your business acumen and turn your creative drive into a profitable business. Congdon goes into detail about best practices to market and promote your artwork, navigate the world of galleries and collectors, and get a handle on the legal side of things.

Photographs taken from Google

#artwork #books #bookworm #literature #digital painting #painting #top artists #top books #traditional art #original art

[royalpain16]

The 10 Best Books of the Year, According to Amazon Book Editors

#best books #book review #top books #books #2022

[bookslutskye]

so i recently got top surgery and this was on my discharge papers after a mild complication

#me and my family have been laughing about this nonstop #transmasc #top surgery #book talks

[zestsoflemon]

9 Money Management Books You Must Read For Practical Advice

9 Money Management Books You Must Read For Practical Advice @everyone

When it comes to managing money, there is an abundance of books available to help individuals gain insights, knowledge, and strategies to improve their financial well-being. Whether you are looking to enhance your understanding of personal finance, investment, entrepreneurship, or wealth building, the following list of books encompasses a diverse range of perspectives and expertise. By delving…

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#2024 #advice #books #finance #finance books #financial literacy #practical advice #top books

[harley-quinns-riddler]

Darke Homecoming by Rosanna Leo | #BookReview

The Book Review Darke Homecoming by Rosanna Leo is an excellent addition to the Darke Paranormal Investigations, bringing the romance and spooky vibes. Rosanna Leo holds a special place in my heart. Why? Because her books read like they are meant just for me, especially the Darke Paranormal Investigations series. Ghosts and spooky historical places? Romantic leads that are respectful? Beautiful…

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#book recommendation #book reviews #darke homecoming #good reads #paranormal #romance #Rosanna leo #top books

[guide-to-galaxy]

BLOG TOUR: My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino (BOOK REVIEW) || I would go into the Forest

I know it’s quite early to announce this but I think I might’ve found my favourite book of this year. That or I won’t make my favourite books vie for first place at the end of the year. Not that I really do, anyway. Thanks ever so much to TBR and Beyond Tours for the review copy and a spot on the blog tour! Here’s the link if you wanted to go see the other posts ⭐. See my Disclaimer Page for a…

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#blog tour #blogging #book review #books #characters #fantasy #horror #My Throat an Open Grave #paranormal #top books #ya

[thetypedwriter]

The Starless Sea Book Review

The Starless Sea Book Review by Erin Morgenstern 

This book made me feel like I was drowning. 

In honey. 

If you don’t get that reference, don’t worry. Morgenstern will beat you over the head with it every single chapter until you can never see honey the same way again. 

Now, I feel like I’m in an odd camp where I actually haven’t read Morgenstern’s famous masterpiece The Night Circus. I’ve always wanted to get around to reading it, but it always seemed to slip right past my to-be-read pile. 

So when The Starless Sea came out, I thought yes! This is my chance to get in on a Morgenstern book early. 

Too bad I didn’t like it. 

The Starless Sea starts off really interesting. There’s a series of vignettes that hook the reader right away, including a pirate and a girl, an acolyte in training, a dollhouse village, and a fortune-teller’s son. The fortune teller’s son turns out to be the main protagonist of the novel—Zachary Ezra Rawlins. 

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a hermit-like young man in his mid-20’s studying game design. He ends up finding an old book at his university’s library in which his real life childhood memory is one of the chapters. The other chapters of this old novel? All chapters that we as readers have been consuming since the first page. Very meta, Morgenstern. 

Understandably baffled, Zachary Ezra Rawlins sets on a quest to uncover the book’s secrets, leading him to the very real underground world of the Starless Sea, including its inhabitants, puzzles, and magic. 

Throughout the journey, Zachary Ezra Rawlins meets other characters connected to the Starless Sea in some capacity and finally gets the answer to the question that has plagued him since childhood: what would have happened if he had opened that door? 

I genuinely wish I could go more in depth about this book’s plot, but there’s only one main problem—this book doesn't have a plot. Go ahead and read that sentence again. I’ll state it once more for good measure: As an objective third-party outsider with absolutely no stakes in the matter, The Starless Sea contains no discernible plot to speak of. 

I can say that the plot was a convoluted mess that didn’t make any sense. Zachary Ezra Rawlins (yes, it does get annoying repeating this again and again, yet Morgenstern opens every chapter with it) goes deep down underground past the Harbor into the Starless Sea for…reasons. 

He encounters numerous puzzles and magic and lots of rooms that Morgenstern likes to describe in excruciating detail, mainly that they’re dripping in honey and occupied by cats. The other people he encounters don’t answer most of his questions, leaving the reader bewildered and frustrated. 

One character in particular is a man that Zachary Ezra Rawlins falls in love with for seemingly no reason at all. They have about three stunted conversations, including one where the other man whispers menacingly in his ear in the dark about bees and owls and swords for ten minutes, and then Zachary Ezra Rawlins is risking life and limb in the abyss of the Starless Sea to rescue him. 

Another character is trying to blow up the Starless Sea for inane reasons that don’t make sense, but essentially get boiled down to she’s trying to protect it.

The other characters include Zachary Ezra Rawlins’ college friend who gets way more page time than she needs to, the keeper of the Starless Sea that answers nobody’s questions, Mirabel who is apparently the embodiment of fate, and her parents, who have been trapped in time and space for…a long time? 

None of these characters called to me. None of them were awful, but all of them outside of Zachary Ezra Rawlins were either too brief, underdeveloped, or abstract for me to connect with on any kind of emotional level. 

I wanted to connect to Zachary Ezra Rawlins, but none of his actions held much depth, his thinking was too shallow, and his commitment to his love interest Dorian actively didn’t contain any kind of logic or understanding. 

You might be wondering: if she didn’t like the nonsensical story or the characters, did she like anything?

Indeed, I did. The setting of The Starless Sea was really incredible. I’m always in awe of people’s creativity and imagination, both qualities Morgenstern seems to have in droves. The descriptions of the rooms, the Harbor, and the Starless Sea itself were all intricate, beautiful, and extremely symbolic. 

I wish I could say that I liked Morgenstern’s writing, but it really grated on me. What started off as moving writing, well-crafted sentences, and intentional symbolism turned into a repetitive slog that drove me up the wall. 

I like symbolism as much as the next person, especially subtle symbolism, but Morgenstern’s symbolism is the opposite of subtle. 

Morgenstern’s symbolism wants to beat you over the head with a key. Or a bee. Or a sword. Or a crown. Or an owl. You get where I'm going with this. What could have been a really cool series of motifs turned into a pretentious drone that aggravated me more and more as I continued to read. 

Overall, I was really disappointed with The Starless Sea. With a little more plot direction, tightening of the characters, and less symbolism, The Starless Sea could have been an alluring and fantastic read to rival the everlasting fame of The Night Circus. 

As it stands, however, The Night Circus would only need to contain a recognizable plot to be better than The Starless Sea for me. 

Recommendation: If you are a Morgenstern fangirl and will be reading The Starless Sea regardless of what I say, fantasize about the incredible setting of The Starless Sea and hope to forget about everything else. If you’re like me and haven’t delved into Morgenstern’s worlds just yet, start and end with The Night Circus. 

Score: 4/10

#the starless sea #erin morgenstern #the night circus #book blog #book review #favorite books #top books #popular fiction #Popular Books #Book Recommendations #book recs #book rec #4/10

[bertena]

Spiritual Books to Read on a Snow Day

Hey this is the perfect weather to grab that book from the shelf or your eReader and snuggle up and read a great book. Here is a list of some of my favorite books. Remember though to join us on Sunday at 7pm on Zoom – click here to join Womb Awakening: Initiatory Wisdom from the Creatrix of All Life Initiatory Wisdom from the Creatrix of All Life (Books)Bertrand M.D., Azra, Bertrand, Seren,…

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#book club #books #divine-feminine #god-dess #healing #Spirituality #top books #women

[juniperusashei]

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson - 5/5

I read all of The Summer Book in a single weekend at the seaside when it stormed the whole time. The polluted waters of the Gulf of Mexico are a far cry from Tove Jansson’s idyllic Gulf of Finland, but somehow the weather completely immersed me in this little novella (collection? Not sure what to call it.) Like Fair Play, there is no story or overarching arc, but rather it is a portrait of a place, a time, and two characters: a six-year-old girl and her very wry grandmother. It’s at once sweet and pastoral, and somehow extremely funny. Every chapter (story?) could stand on its own, but when read all together the reader feels transported to the small island with Sophia and her grandmother. It feels akin to Calvin and Hobbes in tone, and a lot of the humor comes from the juxtaposition of the two characters’ attitudes, but this is where a lot of the meditative tone comes in as well. Save this book for the summertime, and read it as close to the seaside as you can get.

#The Summer Book #Tove Jansson #5 #may 2023 #2023 #top books

[lindsglenne]

Best 2023 Releases

Leave me alone—I read 235 books in 2023. You try whittling that down to a Top 20! At least I narrowed it down to 23 books released in 2023. Continue reading Untitled

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#2023 #best books #best of #blog #blogger #blogging #book #book blog #book blogger #book blogging #Books #contemporary #literature #mystery #novel #reading #romance #thriller #top books #ya #young adult