🌸 Second Sundays April 2024 🌸

Hello and Happy April!The temperatures have been fair and we've been getting some rain here in the desert which has been so nice. I'm here for it as long as it lasts!

My reading plans for the rest of the year are starting to take more solid shapes and I'm getting more confident that I'll stick to them, so I may have that announcement for you next month. 🤗

But for now here's the bookish stuffs from the last month!

☕📚 April Book Club Pick 📚☕

This month the Cup of Tea book club is diving into another classic, Stardust by Neil Gaiman! I read this book years ago and fell in love with the movie adaptation when it came out. After reading The Last Unicorn and rewatching the movie last month, I wanted another lighthearted and lightminded book, and this one spoke to me from my shelves. Come join us in the Cup of Tea tier to get in on the adventure!

🦄 March Reads & Reviews 🐉

Who knew that last month's book club pick would keep me on a Peter S. Beagle kick for the whole month? 🤷‍♀️ It was a little bit of a mixed bag of enjoyment and story lengths but overall I enjoyed myself. 😊

The Last Unicorn was a reread for me but it had been so long I actually didn't remember much! For those who may have missed this one, the story is about a unicorn who lives in solitude in a magical forest and upon hearing a rumor that she may be the last of her kind, she sets out to find the answer. The characters she meets and teams up with ranges from a butterfly who only speaks in songs and other mythical creatures to a bumbling wizard and an evil king.

This read through I found I liked some characters and disliked others more than I remembered, which was a surprise. The story is very whimsical and there are moments where Beagle meanders almost too much to keep my suspension of disbelief, but he always reeled me back in with some humorous line or heartfelt moment. Overall this is a classic that I think every fantasy reader should pick up at least once. And the animated film is a fun follow-up as well, though if you don't have the nostalgia attached like I do, keep in mind it is from the early 80's. 😉

The Way Home is a collection of two novellas (or arguably one short story and one novella) set in The Last Unicorn world. Both follow a girl named Sooz - the first taking place when she's nine years old and the second when she is seventeen. I absolutely loved the first story. The children in Sooz's village are being snatched up by a griffin, and she personally goes to see the king to get some help. She meets up with character favorites from The Last Unicorn (I won't spoil exactly who) and despite being only 60 pages long, the story goes through all the highs and lows of a longer book with the classic Beagle prose, humor, and heartwarming moments.

The second story I didn't enjoy as much. In this one, Sooz whistles a tune she learned and has been holding on to since she was nine which reveals a secret that takes her to a fairy realm. Sorry for the vagueness - trying very hard to avoid spoilers! While the story was interesting it meandered too much and too often to the point that Beagle really lost me and because of that there was one reveal at the end of the story that I didn't completely understand. This one might benefit from a much slower and more concentrated reread. Also, none of The Last Unicorn characters make an appearance. That isn't to say that there weren't any good characters in this story - one named Dakhoun is clearly the highlight. There was also a very dark moment that completely took me aback and by the end of the story I felt like that moment had no true purpose or payoff, so it felt grossly unnecessary.

I think if you're wanting to spend a bit more time in The Last Unicorn world, I'd say you could be satisfied with just the first story and maybe only go for the second if you're a completionist when it comes to reading everything an author has written.

I was fortunate enough to get an ARC (advanced reader copy) of I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons. I was hoping I would have finished by the time of this blog, but the last half of March was slow for reading. I'm about half-way through though so I wanted to share my thoughts anyway. 😉

In this book we're in a world where dragons are pests and we follow their impact on three main characters - a dragon "exterminator" who doesn't like his job, a princess who doesn't like any of her suitors except the one who doesn't like her, and a prince who would like nothing less than to go on an adventure. And of course there's dragons. Lots of them! Think How to Train Your Dragon mixed with Beagle's quirky fairytale style.

This is the most humorous of the Beagle books I've read. He has some great one liners that almost had me laughing out loud. And the dragons are just loveable. It's a very sweet, lighthearted story so far and I've got high hopes that it's going to be a new favorite.

The book comes out on May 14th if you're interested!

🤓 Quarter 1 Tier List 🤓

This year I thought it would be fun to do quarterly breakdowns of the books I've read to see how things are ranking as far as my level of enjoyment.

So far it's pretty even reading year which is cool!

📚 March Book Haul 📚

Nine more for the hoard!

From Bottom to Top:

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo - I love me some fox spirits!

The Glittering Plain and The Princess and the Goblin - books 3 and 5 of the "A Book That Inspired Tolkien" series. And yes I intend to find out how many there are and get all of them because what kind of Tolkien fan would I be if I didn't?

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura - if I remember right one of the booktubers I watch said this had Studio Ghibli vibes

The Truth of the Aleke by Moses Ose Utomi - the sequel to The Lies of the Ajungo. I really wanted to read them back-to-back. So excited for these!

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland - this is another ARC. It comes out on May 7th and it is going to be so PRETTY. Sprayed edges. Say it with me. SPRAYED. EDGES.

Nothing Special by Katie Cook - the comic book has arrived and later in the year the art book and other goodies from the Kickstarter will arrive. I'll share when they get here! In the meantime you can read it on Webtoons. 😁

The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss - both of these are repurchases. I own the first one in a mass market paperback that my eyes just can't handle anymore and the second I had in hardcover at one point that was just too heavy for reading. (I learned my lesson with the A Song of Ice and Fire hardcovers.) These are also part of my 2024 reading plan that I'll be sharing later. 😉

🌸 April New Releases I'm Excited For 🌸

I've only got one on my radar which is The Last Phi Hunter by Salinee Goldenberg.

First of all, how EPIC is this cover?! 😍 It's about a spirit hunter going after the most elusive and dangerous demon in the world while trying to help a pregnant woman (who is not what she seems) get back home. It comes out April 9th. I'm so in!