Posted on

Book Reviews: Shades of Magic by V. E. Schwab

Shades of Magic is an adult fiction trilogy by author V. E. Schwab, who also writes as Victoria Schwab for Young Adult readers.

I read the first book in the series, A Darker Shade of Magic, in February.  Books two and three, A Gathering of Shadows and A Conjuring of Light, I consumed while on vacation in Cuba in March.

Here are the synopses and covers of the three books in the Shades of Magic series!

The first book is pretty great as a standalone. However, if you read the second book, you will definitely want to read the third pretty much right away.

Book One: A Darker Shade of Magic

“Kell is one of the last Antari―magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes―Red London―and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.”

Book Two: A Gathering of Shadows

“Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagant international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic’s balance, another London must fall…in V.E. Schwab’s A Gathering of Shadows.”

Book Three: A Conjuring of Light

“As darkness sweeps the Maresh Empire, the once precarious balance of power among the four Londons has reached its breaking point.

In the wake of tragedy, Kell―once assumed to be the last surviving Antari―begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. Lila Bard, once a commonplace―but never common―thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry.

An ancient enemy returns to claim a city while a fallen hero tries to save a kingdom in decay. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible.”

And finally, here’s my review of the Shades of Magic trilogy!

I LOVED this series.

Without giving too much away, it’s a very unique setting – there are four different Londons. Red, White, Grey, and Black. Each London has different characteristics, and special, rare magicians called Antari are able to travel between them.

The characters are lovable and unique, and their goals and challenges are full of believable, though incredible, twists and turns. It’s an exciting series that reads quickly, but that’s not all.

I think what I love most about this series is V. E. Schwab’s beautiful writing. It’s poetic, dramatic, and lyrical. Full of metaphor and imagery, the author paints an exquisite picture of a fantastic world and its people. It’s an image I can’t get out of my head, even a month after reading.

Other Great Stuff

The concept itself of these books is really awesome, as I’ve already mentioned.

I also love the physical design of these books. The whole series is really fluid and thematically well stitched together. The cover designs are gorgeous, as are the section and chapter dividers. I even loved the font more than I usually do.

Overall, 5/5 stars for all three of the Shades of Magic novels.

This is a fantastic take on magical worlds. I highly recommend it, for young and adult readers alike!

Pick it up as soon as you can and travel to a world with four Londons! Who wouldn’t love that?!

Happy Reading!

– Paperback Patronus

Posted on

Book Review: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Since posting about The Three-Body Problem on my Bookstagram, I’ve discovered that it’s pretty hyped.

However, before that, when my book club, #thebreakfastbookclub, chose it as our April book, I’d never heard of it.

A Little Background on The Three-Body Problem

This book is science fiction and was originally written in Chinese. Kevin Liu translated the edition I read. It is the first in a trilogy. It’s called The Remembrance of Earth’s Past, and is wildly popular in China.

Here’s the cover:

And here is the synopsis of The Three-Body Problem from Amazon:

“The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple award winning phenomenon from China’s most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.”

Finally, here’s my review of The Three-Body Problem!

This was a tough one for me. I didn’t enjoy it very much, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t interesting.

I liked that the story was expansive, spanning the lifetime of a couple of characters and incorporating many other characters’ stories along the way.  Also, the story’s present-day time was a bit more futuristic than real-life 2018, which I found enjoyable.

The book also really made me think. The possibility of intelligent life living somewhere other than Earth is an existential one that is very absorbing.

However…

Over My Head, in More Ways Than One

First, I didn’t understand a lot of the math and science in the book. The “Three-Body Problem” is a math problem that I understood the concept of. However, there was a lot of other science and math in the book. The text does explain it, just not in a way that made sense to me. And that made it hard to read.

Second, I have very little understanding of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which was the historical time-period around which much of the story was based. I could definitely have done some research to make this more relevant to me. However, I was already having a hard enough time reading the book because of the math and science that I didn’t want to put more effort into it.

Finally, I found the names of the characters, which were obviously all Chinese, to be very difficult to keep straight. This is a me problem, not a book problem, obviously. But it was just another thing that made this book a frustrating reading experience for me.

Overall, 2/5 stars for The Three-Body Problem.

I normally love sci-fi, but this was way too much. It is a really intriguing concept, but it fell short for me. I’d recommend it to people with a strong understanding of science and math, or a strong understanding of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Or both. Otherwise, I’d skip it.

Happy Reading!

– Paperback Patronus

Posted on

The Slump is Real: SAD, Vacation, Reading, and Social Media

What is a slump?

Well…

I missed my March reading target, even though I was on vacation from work for two weeks.

No March Wrap-Up yet, on Bookstagram, or here.

I haven’t even chosen an April TBR, and it’s the 17th. Of April.

The only 2 books I’ve finished so far this month I started in March. I’ve read Furiously Happy, and The Wide Window.

I’ve also only posted 4 times on Bookstagram this month, and I normally post once daily.

What’s going on?

I’m slumping.

It’s here, the dreaded slump everyone on Bookstagram lives in fear of and talks about constantly.

A slump is different for everyone, but generally it means we’re reading and posting on Bookstagram far less often than usual. Generally, this makes the person experiencing the slump feel bad.

Unpopular Opinion: It’s fine.

Here’s an opinion that some people might not agree with: WE DO NOT NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR SLUMPS. I see so many people posting in their stories about how they’re sorry they’re not posting as often as usual or how they’re sorry they haven’t posted in a while…

I literally don’t care. At all. In fact, you’re probably doing me a favor by not posting as often, because it’s less that I feel obligated to look at (that’s probably a story for an entirely other post).

But seriously. Don’t apologize for doing you. I certainly won’t be. This is definitely not an apology post. It’s an exploration of whim and of understanding what makes me tick and who I am as a person, reader, and Bookstagrammer. I wish I were reading more now because I love to read, not because I feel bad for not “providing a service to my followers.”

I still don’t feel that great about it.

But that’s because I have my own sets of expectations about how much I read and how much I engage with the Bookstagram world, and I’m not meeting them now.

My reading target for 2018 is 110 books. Thankfully, through participating in a few readathons in January and February, I was able to get ahead. I’m now at 47 books for the year, which means I’m almost halfway to my target while we’re only about a quarter and a bit through the year.

But if my slump were to continue for another couple of months, I’d start to worry. I need to work on my expectations of myself, I know, but at least I have some leeway at the moment.

Suspicions About What Started the Slump

As the title of this post suggests, I’ve got a lot of ideas about potential causes of this slump.

SAD

The first is SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder. I wrote a post about this over on my mental health blog. I get really down in the Winter and am less productive in general. Also, I sleep more, which cuts down on my reading time. We’ve had an even rainier and greyer Winter here in Vancouver than usual, and it’s not been good for my motivation and reading habits.

Vacation

The second reason is my vacation to Cuba. It was great for my reading, because we spent most of our days on the beach. However, when I got back I was a bit sick and super exhausted. I tend to get what I call “vacation hangovers” when I have to go back to my routines after being away, especially on trips that are really relaxing. My vacation hangover made me literally want to do nothing but sit on my armchair staring at my phone games.

Reading

I’m reading a book I’m not really enjoying, The Three-Body Problem.

A photo from our meeting.

It was the #thebreakfastbookclub pick for March, and I still haven’t finished it. I find that reading a book I’m not that into pretty much always puts me into a slump. However, I have serious reading FOMO and I’ve almost never DNFed a book in my life, so I have to keep going. Thankfully, I should finish it in the next couple of days, and then I’m going to pick my next book really carefully.

Social Media

This is also kind of to do with Cuba. It was also great for my Instagram addiction, because there was very little wi-fi and what we could get cost money and was incredibly slow. So it was nice to not have to worry about posting or interacting on Bookstagram, but when I got back I felt like I didn’t feel like doing it anymore.

How I’m Dealing With It

I find the best way to deal with a slump is to just ride it out. If I’m trying to force myself to read I’m not going to enjoy it. Likewise, if I’m uninspired about posting on Bookstagram, my posts aren’t going to be as successful as I want them to be.

When I notice that I’m not really enjoying a book, I do my best to choose my next read carefully, so that I know it’s something I’ll really love. I’ll choose a book by an author I already like, or one that’s super hyped and that I’m really excited to read.

I also find that making to-do lists and journaling helps me get my motivation back.

Finally, I think sometimes it’s just important to do what your body is asking for. On top of having a vacation hangover, I’m also during the heaviest training weeks for my half marathon. This is physically exhausting (and rewarding). It’s in less than three weeks! So if my body wants to sleep more and read less, that’s what I’m letting it do. For now, anyway!

Hope to see you (virtually at least) soon!

Let me know how you deal with slumps in the comments!

– Paperback Patronus

Posted on

Book Review: Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things is the second book by blogger The Bloggess, aka Jenny Lawson.

I have been wanting to read Furiously Happy since it came out in 2016. I have no idea why I only got to it now. First, because of its seriously eye-catching cover, and then because I found out about its content. We’ll get to that in a second.

Here’s that cover:

Yes, that is a taxidermied raccoon. And yes, it belongs to Lawson.

And here is the synopsis of Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things from Amazon:

“In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.

As Jenny says:

“Some people might think that being ‘furiously happy’ is just an excuse to be stupid and irresponsible and invite a herd of kangaroos over to your house without telling your husband first because you suspect he would say no since he’s never particularly liked kangaroos. And that would be ridiculous because no one would invite a herd of kangaroos into their house. Two is the limit. I speak from personal experience. My husband says that none is the new limit. I say he should have been clearer about that before I rented all those kangaroos.

“Most of my favorite people are dangerously fucked-up but you’d never guess because we’ve learned to bare it so honestly that it becomes the new normal. Like John Hughes wrote in The Breakfast Club, ‘We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it.’ Except go back and cross out the word ‘hiding.'”

Furiously Happy is about “taking those moments when things are fine and making them amazing, because those moments are what make us who we are, and they’re the same moments we take into battle with us when our brains declare war on our very existence. It’s the difference between “surviving life” and “living life”. It’s the difference between “taking a shower” and “teaching your monkey butler how to shampoo your hair.” It’s the difference between being “sane” and being “furiously happy.”

Lawson is beloved around the world for her inimitable humor and honesty, and in Furiously Happy, she is at her snort-inducing funniest. This is a book about embracing everything that makes us who we are – the beautiful and the flawed – and then using it to find joy in fantastic and outrageous ways. Because as Jenny’s mom says, “Maybe ‘crazy’ isn’t so bad after all.” Sometimes crazy is just right.”

Finally, here’s my review of Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things!

This book was fantastic. I’m going to get that out there right away.

As the title states, it’s definitely a funny book. I don’t normally have visceral, physical reactions to books. It’s very rare that I cry while reading (the last time was Lily and the Octopus (review upcoming), but that was really a case of grief I was already sitting in and poor timing, and I can’t remember a time before that). I laugh out loud at books far less often (read: pretty much never). But I was laughing out loud at Furiously Happy. Throughout. Poolside in Cuba while people were eating a fancy à la carte meal nearby. In the hotel lobby while drunken revelers sang raucously beside me. On a bus full of half-asleep homeward-bound travelers at 12:30am. On my armchair, at home in my apartment, all by myself. Everywhere. This book is really funny.

The “horrible things” this book was about, however, were more important to me. And they were what really drew me to the book in the first place. Jenny Lawson has an anxiety disorder. She also has multiple sleep disorders, a personality disorder, rheumatoid arthritis, and goes through periods of clinical depression.

Lawson talks a lot in her book about having people on Twitter to talk to about her mental illnesses and the struggles she deals with in her daily life, and how it helps her to know that there are other people out there who feel like she does. That’s the way I felt reading this book. I have an anxiety disorder and a couple of chronic health conditions, and her struggles were so relatable. She also talked about several really great coping strategies that are definitely going to be helpful to me in the future. And I think most importantly, she consistently talked about her struggles with humour and optimism, even if they were dark and scary. It gave me an enormous sense of hope, and great ideas for how to help myself and others when things are not good.

Other Great Stuff

I loved the formatting of this book. It had relatively short chapters. The chapter titles were hilarious and were inevitably explained in gut-splittingly humourous fashion. Funny images were dispersed throughout. It also had really funny footnotes. I’m a sucker for a good footnote. All around, I loved the formatting of this book almost as much as the content.

Furiously Happy.

The book’s namesake, this is an idea that Lawson first came up with on her blog. She explains it best, and that explanation is quoted in the book synopsis I posted above. However, I do love how she elaborates on it:

“In fact, I’m starting a whole movement right now. The FURIOUSLY HAPPY movement. And it’s going to be awesome because first of all, we’re all going to be VEHEMENTLY happy, and secondly because it will freak the shit out of everyone that hates you because those assholes don’t want to see you even vaguely amused, much less furiously happy, and it will make their world turn a little sideways and will probably scare the shit out of them. Which will make you even more happy. Legitimately. Then the world tips in our favor. Us: 1. Assholes: 8,000,000. That score doesn’t look as satisfying as it should because they have a bit of a head start. Except you know what? Fuck that. We’re starting from scratch. Us: 1. Assholes: 0.”

Theoretically I love this idea, and I think that the amount of laughing I did at this book suggests that my body loves it just as much as my mind does. There are many things I’m going to take away from this book, but I think I’m most excited about trying to bring the “furiously happy” mindset into my life.

Overall, 5/5 stars for Furiously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things.

I highly recommend this book, both for those suffering from mental illness(es) and everyone else in the world, because everyone is touched by mental illness, even if not directly. And it’s just a really funny book that will brighten anyone’s day, whether you connect with the subject on a personal level or not. Guaranteed.

(Furiously) Happy reading!

– Paperback Patronus