Day 6: A book that makes you sad.

This one, I've mentioned countless times and I'm really sorry, but I have to mention this book again.

Heart-Shaped Bruise
by Tanya Byrne

This is a book about what was and what could have been. It's a book full of pain, faked bravado, revenge. It is a book about why people do what they do, no matter how incomprehensible their actions are.

This is a book about the story's antagonist, which is an interesting concept in itself.

You shouldn't love her, but you do. The beauty of this book is that it reverses the concept of what is acceptable and what is not and you root for Emily even when you know how dysfunctional she is and that you should despise her.

I read somewhere that an interesting villain thinks that they're the hero of the story. That's precisely what Emily is. She justifies herself every step of the way and you know that she could be better than this. You just know. And so you rage at her for every chance she does not take to turn back and become the person she could have been.

And since this book starts right at the end, you know very well that she's not going to turn back. She's not going to be the person you can clearly see she has the potential to become.

God, this was a gorgeous but painful read.

“It was like this blackness that crept into the corners of my life until everything was grey and dirty. My insides felt burnt out, like if you cut me open, all you would find would be smoke. No heart. No bones. There was nothing left, just the anger. It followed me everywhere. It sat on my bed and watched me sleep and when I had to eat, it looked at me across the table.”

 “I don’t know if that’s ever happened to you, if you’ve loved someone, loved who they are, then found out they’re not that person after all. It doesn’t just break your heart, does it? It breaks you. Then you’re not who you thought you were, either.” 

Day 5: A book that makes you happy.

I'm having a hard time deciding this one because all books make me happy.

I'm trying so hard to not pick something written by either Terry Pratchett or Catherynne M. Valente. I'm really trying to force myself to pick outside of my comfort zone (that's not working).

Do I pick Catch-22? Good Omens (nope, Terry Pratchett AND Neil Gaiman)? The Princess Bride?

In the end I went and picked two book series that I very much enjoy.

(Ya, okay, I cheated.)

The Bridgerton Series by Julia Quinn
The Pennyroyal Green Series by Julie Anne Long

The two series have several similarities:

• historical romances set around the Regency era
• revolve around families
• contain references to books in the series

And also many differences:

• the Bridgerton series is more lighthearted and whimsical
• the Pennyroyal Green series is a lot more solemn but it has tonnes of hilarious moments

They're both pretty good and it all depends on whether you want something sillier or something a little more... "realistic"?

His mouth captured hers, trying to show her with his kiss what he was still learning to express in words. He loved her.He worshipped her. He'd walk across fire for her. He—
—still had the audience of her three brothers.
Slowly breaking the kiss, he turned his face to the side. Anthony, Benedict, and Colin were still standing in the foyer.Anthony was studying the ceiling, Benedict was pretending to inspect his fingernails, and Colin was staring quite shamelessly.― Julia Quinn, The Duke and I

Kinkade sketched the occasional nude woman, and was generous about passing the sketches around to the men and cheerful about accepting criticisms and suggestions, which he seldom incorporated, as he had his own vision. He signed them O.McCaucus-Bigg
A new soldier was always puzzled by this, given that this wasn't Kinkade's name."O.McCaucus-Bigg?""Braggart, are you?" Kinkade would roar. "Not as big as mine,laddie!"A good joke, suitable for thirteen-year-old boys and bored sergeants and subalterns.― Julie Anne Long, Since the Surrender

Day 4: Favourite book of your favourite series.

Oh nooo. This one was tough.

The Discworld series is so full of strong women characters - Susan, Tiffany Aching, Angua, Granny, Magrat...

But if I had to pick a book, just one book, I'd have to pick this.

Monstrous Regiment (Discworld series)
by Terry Pratchett

This book is so good as a girl power book.

Think Mulan.

Like all of Pratchett's books, Monstrous Regiment is witty and funny and angry and sad. It makes you think and weep and laugh.

The women of this book are remarkably well written, something I can say of all of Pratchett's female characters. They're fleshed out incredibly well and you cannot ever mistake one for another (a problem I have with a lot of fantasy novels).

Oh god, why did I think that I could write about this book. I get so many feels when I even think about it.

“What does a man stand up to do, a woman sit down to do, and a dog lift its leg to do?” And then, when everyone was too embarrassed to answer, she’d triumphantly shriek “Shake hands!” 

Day 3: Your favourite series.

(still in Singapore)

Nooo, I cannot think of any other series to beat the one I've ranked as my favourite since I was 12.

The Discworld series
by Terry Pratchett

Yeah, okay, I'm so obsessed with Terry Pratchett.

“Ankh-Morpork! Pearl of cities! This is not a completely accurate description, of course — it was not round and shiny — but even its worst enemies would agree that if you had to liken Ankh-Morpork to anything, then it might as well be a piece of rubbish covered with the diseased secretions of a dying mollusc.”

I first read the Death Trilogy (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music) when I was 12 when my mum brought it home.

I was hooked from the first.

This series is made up of quite a number of subseries, all covered in this guide.

I cannot stop recommending this series to everyone. You don't necessarily have to read the other books, which is the beauty of this series. It's a pretty pick-and-choose deal. Each book has a theme of its own and you can definitely pick a book by the theme you wish to read on.

Day 2: A book that you've read more than 3 times.

VROOMMMM

I'm actually in Singapore for the F1 races and concerts so I've queued this up.

Anyway, I'm going to pick...

The Witching Hour
by Anne Rice

Secretly one of my top favourite books.

This book is full of evocative imagery. It's seductive, compelling and intrusive.

It's also a hugeass book of potentially triggery things so I'm not going to start recommending this to anyone.

The Witching Hour is one of those books with what I personally call an unstable timeline. You start with the present and veer off to multiple points in the book. It could be extremely overwhelming and quite confusing for anyone who don't enjoy being a little off balance.

This book has many faults.

Nevertheless, I love it.

“I believe in Free Will, the Force Almighty by which we conduct ourselves as if we were the sons and daughters of a just and wise God, even if there is no such Supreme Being. And by free will, we can choose to do good on this earth, no matter that we all die, and do not know where we go when we die, or if a justice or explanation awaits us. 

I believe that we can, through our reason, know what good is, and in the communion of men and women, in which the forgiveness of wrongs will always be more significant than the avenging of them, and that in the beautiful natural world that surrounds us, we represent the best and the finest of beings, for we alone can see that natural beauty, appreciate it, learn from it, weep for it, and seek to conserve it and protect it. 

I believe finally that we are the only true moral force in the physical world, the makers of, ethics and moral ideas, and that we must be as good as the gods we created in the past to guide us. I believe that through our finest efforts, we will succeed finally in creating heaven on earth, and we do it every time that we love, every time that we embrace, every time that we commit to create rather than destroy, every time that we place life over death, and the natural over what is unnatural, insofar as we are able to define it. 

And I suppose I do believe in the final analysis that a peace of mind can be obtained in the face of the worst horrors and the worst losses. It can be obtained by faith in change and in will and in accident and by faith in ourselves, that we will do the right thing, more often than not, in the face of adversity.For ours is the power and the glory, because we are capable of visions and ideas which are ultimately stronger and more enduring than we are. 

That is my credo. That is my belief, for what it's worth, and it sustains me. And if I were to die right now, I wouldn't be afraid. Because I can't believe that horror or chaos awaits us. 

If any revelation awaits us at all, it must be as good as our ideals and our philosophy. For surely nature must embrace the visible and the invisible, and it couldn't fall short of us. The thing that makes the flowers open and the snowflakes fall must contain a wisdom and a final secret as intricate and beautiful as the blooming camellia or the clouds gathering above, so white and so pure in the blackness. 

If that isn't so, then we are in the grip of a staggering irony. And all the spooks of hell might as well dance. There could be a devil. People who burn other people to death are fine. There could be anything. But the world is simply to beautiful for that.At least it seems that way to me.”

Day 1: The best book you've read this year.

I know I've mentioned Deathless already and it's genuinely a fabulous book and definitely the best I've read this year. I fangirled about it over here.

I definitely can't pick it again, so I'm going to pick a close second.

Caesar's Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire
by Annelise Freisenbruch

This book was such an enlightening read. I was so sick of reading about men in history and that's the main reason I picked it.

MINDBLOWING OKAY.

Besides the book The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, I've never read about women in history written this way. You really see how cunning and manipulative and intelligent these women can be. You see how they were so limited by their times. You see how so much and yet nothing has changed.

If you want to read a book about how pivotal women are in ancient history, this is it. I loved this book and if you enjoy reading history, I think this would be a great book for you.

30 Day Reading Challenge

Thanks to my weird ability to read at speeds of 2000 words per minute, I've been able to read two or three books a day in my free time. I keep hundreds of books on my phone just in case I get bored commuting or eating alone.

“I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I’m like that. If I stop reading, I die.” - Patrick Rothfuss

 Because of that I've kind of amassed a huge list of read books, I've decided to actually start and finish the 30 Day Reading Challenge.

30 DAYS GUYS LEGGO

If you're joining in, let me know so I can check your list out!

Religion and hypocrisy.

I was brought up Catholic and ever since I could think for myself, I've wondered about the hypocrisy that causes Catholics specifically to preach compassion but never practise it.

When I was younger, a child, I questioned my grandmother about divorce in the Catholic Church. For some reason, which I have not been able to comprehend even now, divorce is one of the things you just shouldn't follow through with when you're Catholic (read: Henry VIII and that whole pesky business with the Anglican Church).

"Well," she told me. "Marriage is sacred and you shouldn't marry more than once."
"What if you marry someone abusive?" I asked.
"Then you shouldn't have gotten to know them before you married them," she explained patiently.

Wait, what.

• I SMELL VICTIM BLAMING

I can't believe that there are entire generations of people who grew up without questioning this mentality.

And this is the problem I have with man made laws decreed to be god approved.