Hello Lovelies!
I was lucky enough to receive/buy a TON of books this holiday season. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump since I started University. Something about reading a book a week for my literature classes got me burnt out. YET, I will trudge on and conquer my reading slump once and for all! So, what gets me excited for reading? A book haul. Thus, why I am sharing my newest buys with you today. This might be a bit of a long post so let’s just jump in!
- The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller & The Killing Joke by Alan Moore


First, we have Batman! In the interest of complete honesty, I have never read an actual comic. Ever. It’s not because I’m not interested, but because my big brother refused to properly educate me. So now I have to bring myself up to speed. I bought Dark Knight Returns because it has the interesting premise of Batman fighting against Superman. If it explores power imbalances and moral ambiguity, then I’m sold! Then, I bought The Killing Joke because it sets up Batman and The Joker as foils really nicely. It questions whether batman could have gone down the wrong path as The Joker and why he didn’t. I’m SO excited to read these! (prepare yourself to read that a lot during this post)
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster

HOW GREAT WAS STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS?! Oh, it had everything a fangirl could possibly want. It had good vs evil, a rag tag group of rebel underdogs, a wonderfully evil villain, a blossoming romance, the old characters you love, stunning visuals, AND MORE. The only downside? You don’t know their personal thoughts. I want to know everything going through the heads of these characters during every scene. It is also said that some questions are answered in the novel that aren’t in the movie. Hopefully we get more information on Maz Katana, aka my favorite new character. I’m SO PUMPED to read this. I literally CANNOT wait.
- Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

I actually know very little about this book and I’m going to try and keep it that way. Apparently it’s about a dystopian society where the US and England have to merge, become a new society called The Tearling, and migrate to this newly discovered continent. They revert to the government of Kings and Queens, leading us to our main character’s story. Kelsea is heir to the throne and is destined to take the crown at 19. Before then, her mother is killed and she is sent away until she is ready to assume the throne. The time comes and there are a ton of assassins trying to kill her, the government has become totally corrupt, and she has to earn her crown. I’m interested in this because people say the political intrigue and world building is really great. Plus, there is no romance line…truly shocking.
- Falling Kingdoms by Mogan Rhodes

Again, I don’t know a ton about this series. From what I understand it follows the perspectives of four people from three different kingdoms. To quote this beautiful summary: “As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed… and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.
The only outcome that’s certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?
It’s the eve of war…. Choose your side.”
I mean, come on! How can you not want to read this?! I’m hooked already.

I’m apparently really feeling the dystopian genre this season. Reboot is about a world where when people die they come back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. How cool is that underlying premise? More perfect=less human. I love it already. The story follows Wren, one of the deadliest reboots, while she trains Callum who is still practically a human. While she views him as dead weight most of the time, there is something in him that she can’t ignore. As the summaries say “the perfect soldier is done taking orders”. HECK YEAH.
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Alright, I admit it. I bought this for the 80’s pop culture references. Really. This book follows Wade Watts, a poor boy from a small family. The only time he really “lives” is when he is in the virtual utopia, OASIS. One of the game owners is about to die and he has left an easter egg for the players to find. First one to find it earns the title of co-owner and a small fortune(240 billion dollars). Wade, and every other player, dedicates his life to solving the puzzles hidden in the game. Many of these challenges are based on, yes you guessed it, 80’s pop culture references. It seems pretty simple. Yet the closer he gets to winning, the more he realizes just how far other players are willing to go to win. We join Wade as he struggles to solve the clues and simply survive. I can already tell that this book will make my nerdy heart sing~
- The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

I heard of this book from my fav, John Green. He talked about how much this book inspired George Lucas while writing Star Wars. Moving on to related literature is the most natural progression in my obsessive Star Wars research. This book is about the hero’s journey, what it consists of, why we like it, and how it has shaped our culture. It’s guaranteed to make me geek out. Literary theory that inspired one of my favorite science fiction stories? Yes, please.
- What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

I have been waiting for so long to get my hands on this! I kept forgetting about it and coming back, but I finally have it. This book is all about how the brain constructs the stories we read. It’s the brain science behind imagination. AMAZING.That’s really all I have to say about it because I don’t know much else about it. I think that sums it up pretty well!
- Every Day by David Levithan

This book is about a person who wakes up every day in a new person’s body. Brilliant premise. This person knows no other life than this and has just come to accept it. The person wakes up, figures out who he/she is today, tries to cause as little anomalies as possible, and moves on. That is until the person doesn’t. The person falls in love with a girl and impulsively decides to act of his/her own accord for once. Will this person get a chance at a real life? I’ll have to read it to find out! AHH! I honestly have no idea how this will turn out and it’s so exciting! I mean how do you escape that life? Wow, I’m so ready to read this!
- Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley

I have actually read this already! I cannot pass up a Bryan Lee O’Malley graphic novel. This story follows Katie, a fiery chef who is in the process of building a new restaurant. After a series of truly unfortunate events, she begins to wish she could have a do-over button. It’s apparently her lucky day because she is given the opportunity to erase her mistakes by writing them down, eating a magic mushroom, and going to sleep. In that order. But will a perfect life be all that it’s cracked up to be? This novel has so many cool supernatural aspects that I will leave for you to be surprised by. This is such an insightful novel and actually gets pretty dark at some points. I absolutely adored it. The art was STUNNING and I found myself constantly wanting to live in her world. Katie is extremely relatable. Even in the we are all selfish, overly ambitious, and kinda self-absorbed way. Just me? Well she’s also relatable in the human, ultimately good, funny, and spunky way. My verdict: a treat to read, go pick it up!

I’M SO EXCITED TO READ THIS. It’s about a shy, introverted girl named Anda. She loves to play on a MMORPG and take on an alter ego. She loves that she can become a leader, fighter, and hero in this online world. Things become a bit more complicated when she befriends a goldfarmer, a poor Chinese kid in real life. This person’s avatar illegally collects and sells valuable objects to other players. This is explicitly stated to be illegal in the game. However, “Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person’s real livelihood is at stake.” What a great twist, right?! I think this will be a very interesting read about our daily decisions and how they affect others. I’m eagerly anticipating this graphic novel in the mail!
- To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story by Casey Sciezka and Steven Weinberg

Last, but certainly not least, To Timbuktu! This is about Casey and Steven, two recent college grads who are teaching English abroad. They meet in Morocco, fall in love, and travel the world together. This is their story in words and pictures. I’m very intrigued by this graphic novel. Mostly because I would like to teach English abroad at some point. Apparently a considerable amount of this book is about their teaching experiences. Needless to say, I am stoked!
Whew! That was a long one, sorry about that guys! I am so incredibly excited about these books. Hopefully you found a book that you might want to pick up as well! I had a lot of fun writing this one and kudos to you if you are actually still reading at this point. (: Please feel free to give me some book recommendations or comment if you’ve enjoyed any of the ones I’ve mentioned! Maybe next post I will write a book review/discussion…hmm.
Until then!
Rachael ❤
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