Happy Hobbit Day!

Image does not belong to me.

Happy Birthday to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins!

 

I had to interrupt my usual blogging to make a Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins appreciation post. Both of them have their birthdays on September 22nd, and guess what? That's today! I hope everyone celebrated with a hearty second breakfast.

 

Bilbo Baggins is probably my favorite book character ever, for a lot of reasons. One, his exchanges with Gandalf and everyone else in the Hobbit are really hilarious to read. He just gets so flustered so easily and starts tripping over his words and it reminds me a lot of myself, when I get flustered so I suppose I can connect to him in that way as well.

 

Secondly, do you know how much Tookish courage it must have taken him in order to go on the quest with Thorin and Company? A lot. A whole Smaughoard worth. He's a hobbit, and hobbits are fairly respectable, especially Bagginses, and they don't just go off on random Dragon-slaying, thieving adventures. All Bilbo wanted was to stay comfortably at home. But then his Tookish side awakened. And thank Goodness it did.

 

He changes so much over the course of the book, and I remember even when I was young I loved listening to my Dad read about his journey. Even though Bilbo doubts himself in the start, he continues to persevere. The company would not have succeeded without him.

There are so many more reasons why Bilbo Baggins is my favorite book character, but those are just a few. He proves that no matter your age, your reluctance, your self-esteem, all of us have a Tookish spark in us. And if you are unhappy with your current state, then you can always, always do something a little unexpected.

 

Happy Hobbit Day, everyone.

Monday Musings (3)

Hosted by Should Be Reading every Monday! Haven't done one of these in awhile, but since I haven't done one, I wanted to! Here is the description she has to share:

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

Today, I'm going to talk about what books I am currently/about to start reading! Lucky me, I get to do book reports in two classes! My favorite type of homework. For History Class, I have to read a novel set in a historic time period of the twentieth century, and I chose 1918. The book I'm going to start reading is Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson.
It's about a sixteen year old girl named Hattie who moves out to Iowa to claim her Uncle's land after he passes away, all by herself. Why did I choose this one? I really love independent women/young women protagonists from this time period. Her adventure sounds like a very entertaining one to read.

Secondly, I have a book report for English due, and it's to read and do this whole big assignment on a Non Fiction book. For this one I chose Spook by Mary Roach. It's about Science investigating the afterlife, and to be honest from what I have read it's a lot different than I had expected. It's actually pretty witty and humorous in some parts. My favorite quote so far is after she apologizes to the person she was working with. He says: "It's okay, you only lost your mind twice."

And the last book I am reading right now is The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima. This is just a free time reading book. I wanted to read this one because Chima has been a favorite author of mine ever since I read her Seven Realms Series in May or June, I believe. A very skilled author. Thus far her Heir Chronicles isn't quite as good in my opinion as the Seven Realms but I am still liking it.

[[On a non-bookish note, Once Upon A Time returns this Sunday! Who else is excited?]]

Review: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

This review is posted on my goodreads account here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1054856378
I wanted to post it on this blog too, because I'm proud of it haha. Plus, I'm trying out a new, less formatted style of review for this book.
MINOR SPOILERS??
Siege and Storm is the second book in the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. I finished it on September 18th, 2014.
My rating is 4.25 because of reasons.
This first reason is because this book was so much better than the first book in the series. There were still a few points in the middle where personally I got through rather slowly, but that's more of a personal problem than a problem with the book.
This took me eleven days to get through, probably difficult with school just starting up. Lots of homework, less time for reading, but it still wasn't quite at the level of hooking where I was putting my reading above everything else.
I did like the characters though, both Mal and Alina were very well thought out, and showed a lot of character growth throughout this book. It was interesting to see how Alina has changed from the beginning of the first book, where she denied having powers and despised being unique, to the end of the second book where she says she would never give up her Grisha abilities. It shows that the events of the trilogy thus far truly have changed her.
The setting was very in depth, I felt like it could have had a bit something more, for example a bit more explanation about who the Fjerdians are, and why they have such a rivalry, and so on but overall it was satisfying.
The plot was steady, I felt like it maintained a steady pace throughout, there were some exciting parts and others that weren't quite as exciting, but it was all quality matireal.
It left me wondering at the end of the book: where's Nikolai? What happened to him? And what ended up happening with Baghra, where is she? Why did Genya change in appearance so much? Why did Alina? And most of all, how will this all end?
I guess I'll just have to pick up the last book to find out!

Thanks for reading. Do you think I should post my Shadow and Bone review on my blog as well, or leave it on my Goodreads? You can find more of my reviews on my Goodreads account, here.

Bout of Books 11.0 Wrap-Up

Here it is! My final Bout of Books 11.0 Update, and this time it is the long overdue wrap-up post...

First off, thank you so much for the hosts of this read-a-thon, and the individual challenge hosts for each day. I loved how encouraging everyone was and the challenges were so creative and fun to do! Also, to anyone who commented on my blog during the read-a-thon, thank you! It really encouraged me to read even more.

Now, before this turns into a full on speech, I should get to my progress for the week! I read three and a half books in seven days!

• Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta-- This book was a solid five star book for me, which was really something as I was venturing out of my genre with this book. Jellicoe Road was a real emotional rollercoaster and it had me sobbing, laughing, and gasping out loud at the sheer cleverness of this book.
• Six Months Later by Natalie D. Richards-- While this book was still enjoyable and I finished it in one day, it wasn't quite as good as Jellicoe Road in my opinion. The characters weren't quite as powerful as Marchetta's were, and I just didn't find myself invested into the writing style. However the plot had me hooked!
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld-- Four stars from me, because while I really liked it, it just took awhile for me to get really into the book. I have loved the steampunk genre ever since reading Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, and I've always wanted to read something by Mr. Westerfeld. The illustrations in this book were spectacular.
• Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld-- Next, I continued on with the Leviathan Trilogy and read the second book, Behemoth. I thought there was quite a bit of character growth in this one and I found myself really able to connect with these fully-fleshed out people. While I didn't manage to finish this one during the Read-a-thon, I did get halfway through!

There we have it, the three and a half  books I read! I might post a review of The Leviathan Trilogy soon, so stay tuned. That's all I really have for this post! Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters Sitting At My Lunch Table

Top Ten Tuesday, as always, is hosted by Broke and Bookish and this week the topic is Top Ten Characters who would sit at your lunch table. I thought it was a very fitting topic for today! (And just to set the record straight I never eat lunch with other people. I'm pretty anxious when it comes to socialization. But let's pretend I had people sitting at my table.)

1. Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck from Lord of the Rings by J R. R. Tolkien and...
2. Peregrin "Pippin" Took from Lord of the Rings because the two of them are such fun and energetic hobbits that would make lunch really entertaining. It wouldn't get boring with these two around.
3. Hermione Granger from Harry Potter by J K Rowling because we share the same interest in reading and she's super smart so maybe she could help me with studying during lunch sometime.
4. Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones because she's a bit on the quieter side like I am and she's a really sweet person most of the time.
5. Cather from Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell because we both like to write, and we're both rather introverted.
6. Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit by J R. R. Tolkien since who can have too many Hobbits at their lunch table, am I right?
7. Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter by J K Rowling is a very likely choice for me as well, since she is kind-hearted and just a wee bit strange, like the rest of my friends. I think we would get along really well.
8. Cat from The Seven Realms by Cinda Williams Chima because even though she's a little on the tougher side, I feel like she would be good at our table.
9. Annabeth from Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan since she is also really smart, and I feel like she might fit in at our table.
10. Agatha from School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani because she's a misfit just like me, and we could get along famously.