Hi! My name is Penny and as usual I'm
here to talk about some bookish things,
specifically today I wanted to talk
about the books that I read in March.
But I also thought I'd do it in a
slightly different way. So I found this
website called Challonge.com, and it's
helped me put together like a tournament
battle of all the books that I've read in
March. So basically we're gonna pair up
each of the books and have them battle
it out until we come up with the
absolute champion for the books that I
read this month. I think it'll make more
sense as I go along but we are basically
going to have three rounds and the
semi-finals
and then the finals. So as I said I did
read 20 books this month so we're gonna
have to get going if we want to get
through this without it taking forever!
So let's get into round one! The first
two books that are gonna be battling it
out is Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray and
The Skies of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. So
Lair of Dreams is the second book in the
Diviners series. This is a YA
paranormal mystery series set in the
1920s and we've got a bunch of different
characters discovering that they have
different supernatural powers and
getting involved in murder
investigations. Now I did like this
second book much better than I like the
first book. I think the first book was
just a lot of setup. This one was less of
that and I did like the characters a lot
more. But I still don't feel like the
plot was anything amazing. The other book
in this battle is Skies of Pern by
Anne McCaffrey. I've probably been reading the
Dragons of Prern for like the
last 20 years or something? This, I think
it's book 17 in this series and I've
told myself that I will at least
continue up to the books where Anne
McCaffrey's son Todd McCaffrey took over
the writing. In this particular one there
is a natural disaster that leaves
the Dragonriders of Pern reconsidering
what their purposes is on the planet of
Perm. There have been some big changes.
We've also got a group fighting against
some of the new technology that has been
introduced to Pern, and causing quite a lot
of trouble. There were elements of this
that I really liked but I did think that
it was rather unfocused and for the most
part the writing
was just a slog to get through. So which
of these two books would win this battle?
I think I would have to go with Lair of
Dreams, even though I do suspect that
this might have been different if I had
listened to Skies of Pern in audiobook
because I listened to Lair of
Dreams an audiobook and it definitely
helped me to get through it but still
Lair of Dreams will be heading on to
the next round.
The next round is 2 YA fantasy
books so we've got Chosen by Kiersten
White against Come Tumbling Down by
Seanan McGuire. So chosen is the second
book in the Slayer series. So this is a
new series sit in the world of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer.
We're following a girl named Athena, or
Nina for short, who was always planning
to become a watcher, which is the group
of people that watch out and train and
look after the Slayers. But then she ends
up becoming a slayer and it kind of
changes her whole view of the world.
I do think Kiersten White did a
really good job of capturing the feeling
and the tone of the original Buffy the
Vampire series. And I will also say I
think you really need the context of the
rest of the Buffy comics to really
understand some of what's going on in
the world of this book. If you've just
read the TV series, then some of the
stuff that's going on with Buffy in this
book won't make a lot of sense to you.
Then Come Tumbling Down is the fifth
book in the Wayward Children series by
Seanan McGuire. This series is about
children who have, in the past, found
magical doors through the magical worlds
but then unfortunately have found
themselves back in the real world. And
there is this boarding school where
they're able to stay and just get used
to the real world again and commiserate
with each other about the fact that
they've lost their access to these
magical worlds. Now this series, every
second book is a book about one of the
characters finding their own magical
world and then the ones in-between
basically follow more of the school
setting. And they tend to end up going on
different quests. And this latest book
was of that second type and I tend to
not enjoy those ones as much. And this one,
sadly, I just really didn't enjoy it. I
didn't
think it had much of a point. The characters
didn't feel particularly true to
themselves and I felt like they were just
placeholders put into the story in order
to say the things that Seanan McGuire 
wanted to say. So unfortunately, Come
Tumbling Down just didn't hit the mark
for me. And so for this pairing, Chosen
will be heading on to round 2. Next,
we have 2 YA sci-fis battling it
out. So we have Warcross by Marie
Lu and The Hunger Games by Suzanne
Collins.
So in Warcrosss we have this
virtual game that everybody loves, and
our main character doesn't have much
money so she has been hacking the system
to get what she needs.
Then she ends up getting caught, but the
owner of this game decides to employ her
in order to track down a worse hacker.
Now in all transparency, I listened to this
at about two and a half times speed,
pretty much all in one go...
so it's possibly true that I didn't give
it a real chance to become one of my
favorite books. But at the same time I
can kind of tell that it never would
have been. I thought the hacking was
completely unbelievable. The game itself
didn't feel very real or well-developed.
I guest most of the twists and turns. I
don't know. It was okay, but I can
definitely see why it's been getting
some mixed reviews. Some people will
probably quite enjoy it, especially if
you haven't read anything like that
before. But if you have read a lot of YA
sci fi then it's probably not doing
anything particularly new or creative.
Then Hunger Games. Now hopefully you all
know what the Hunger Games is about. We
have this dystopian world where the
country is broken into twelve districts
and every year the capital puts on these
Hunger Games where a girl and a boy from
each district is put into an arena where
they're expected to fight to the death.
Now I have seen quite a few people are
rereading this because it was going to
be a new book in the series released
later in the year, and so I also thought
I would reread it. I was a little bit
concerned cause Ihad seen that some
people haven't enjoyed their reread, but
in the end, I found the reread really
enjoyable. It totally stood up to all my
memories. I think it was really well
paced, the characters seemed very
believable... I mean The Hunger Games
itself doesn't really make a lot of
sense, but if you overlook that, I think
it has a lot of really great messages.
And of course, knowing how things are
going to end up, it was interesting to
see how some of those themes were
already starting to be weaved in right
from the beginning of the series. And I
am excited to continue the series. So not
surprisingly the Hunger Games easily
takes out this competition. So on to
round two! And the first competition
almost doesn't seem fair. So we've got
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson up against
Lair of Dreams.
So Elantris, if you haven't heard about
it, is an epic fantasy novel in which
there used to be this wonderful city of
Elantris, where the people who lived in
the city were beautiful and godlike and
had magical powers. Then one day they
lose all their powers, their skin goes
blotchy. They're basically treated as
diseased and so the city is quarantined
off. But there's still people outside the
city who then get this disease and are
thrown into the city. So we're following
a character who that has happened to,
we're also following a new princess, and
we're following this priest who has been
tasked with converting everybody to his
religion. So this was a reread for me and
honestly, it's one of my favorite books.
so it's not a surprise that I absolutely
loved it. I think Brandon Sanderson has
just such a skill with world building. He
did a really great job at character
development in this particular book and
the magic system, of course, being Brandon
Sanderson is really interesting and has
a really interesting influence on the
plot. So this is another competition
where it's not really a surprise that
Elantris wins. Next, we have the Obelisk
Gate by N.K. Jemisin
up against the Guinevere Deception by
Kiersten White. So the Obelisk Gate is the
second book in the Broken Earth trilogy.
I read the first season a couple of
months ago and I really loved it it. It does
some really interesting things with
perspective and some really interesting
things with the magic system and the
moon. So I had high expectations going
into this book. Unfortunately, those high
expectations weren't really delivered on..
I did enjoy this although I did think it
had quite a big slow bit in the middle.
I just... overall I don't think that this
developed the plot as far as I thought
it was going to. The only thing that I
was particularly interested in was
pretty much revealed on the very first
page of the book. So I don't know. I'm
hopeful that the third book in the
trilogy is gonna somehow bring this
series all together into a satisfying
close. It definitely doesn't run for me
the fact that I loved the Fifth Season,
but it was a little bit disappointing.
Then tthe Guinevere Deception was
the second Kiersten White book that I
read this month. This is a new series. I'm
not sure if it's gonna be a trilogy but
it is an Arthur and Camelot retelling,
except that in this story
Guinevere is actually changeling
with her own magical abilities. And I
thought this was okay. It's a YA
fantasy, so it doesn't really try to do
anything too ambitious but it does put
an interesting spin on the classic
Arthur and Camelot story. And it
definitely made me interested in
learning more about those legends. But I
guess there were just some bits that again
were quite slow and didn't feel 100%
realistic. So this is one where it's a
little bit hard to pick a winner because
I think that the Guinevere Deception
achieved exactly what it set out to
achieve. On the other hand the Obelisk
Gate is probably very ambitious in
what it was trying to achieve. And then it
didn't achieve that... but what it was a
trying to achieve was so much more than
the Guinevere Deception was trying to
achieve. I did in the end give these
both three stars. Mmm... I guess at this
point, I would be more likely to
recommend the Guinevere Deception to
the right person than I would be to
recommend
The Obelisk Gate. So I'm gonna go with
the Guinevere Deception. Our next
competition is between Trail of
Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse and
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by - I can
never remember this author's name.
Melissa Bashardoust. So Trail of
Lightning is like a post-apocalyptic
story set in a world where there's been
some kind of giant flood but we are
following characters who are on this
Native American reservation where they
built a wall, so they're somewhat
protected from what's going on in the
rest of the world. However, they do have
their own problems, which includes the
fact that there are gods
hanging around causing problems and
there are monsters. So our main character
at Mags is a monsterslayer and she was
trained to do that by this immortal half
God type person. She also has quite a bit
of emotional trauma that she is dealing
with, when she meets up with this other
guy and they partner up trying to slay
this particular monster. Now I did vlog
my experience of reading this in my Bookie
Trials Royal Weekender vlog. But in
the end I really enjoyed the experience
of reading this. It reminded me a lot of
the Kate Daniels series, which is one of
my most favorite series. Just in that
Mags is a very prickly character but
because she's always doing her best to
do the right thing, she ends up kind of
gathering this found family to her and
she doesn't really know what to do
with that, which is just a dynamic that I
really enjoy. So I really love this. The
other book, Girls made of Snow and Glass.
This is a Snow White retelling. It's told
in two perspectives. One set in the
past which is the stepmother's
perspective, and then one set in the
present which is the Snow White
character's perspective. And there is a
magical element added to this retelling
that I thought made the story really
interesting. Unfortunately, I think the
character development and the plot
development didn't quite live up to
what it could have been, given that
introduction of
that magical element. But I definitely
did appreciate the ideas that were put
into this retelling.
Next, we have the won by John miles up
against the princess dearest by Carrie
Fisher. This is kind of a weird
competition because it's a fiction book
versus a nonfiction book but anyway... The
One is like kind of a thriller in some
aspects. It's more of a speculative book.
So the idea of this book is that there
is now a DNA test which allows you to be
matched up with your soulmate. So you can
put in your DNA and then if your
soulmate has also put in their DNA,
you'll be able to connect with each
other. And it basically follows a whole
bunch of different characters as they go
through this process and meet up with
their soul mates and it isn't always how
they expected it to be. Especially my
most favorite character in this book was
a serial killer and having him meet his
soulmate was definitely a really
interesting perspective to be added to
this book. I just think some of the
stories were less interesting than
others. Some of them felt a little bit
drawn-out just so that it would fit
nicely within the book as a whole. And
for the most part, the stories are not
interrelated at all although there is
one thing that happens in one of the
stories that does then make you question
some of the things that are happening in
the rest of the stories. I also think
just the way it was written had like this
subtle sense of humor that I really
appreciated. Then the Princess Diarist is
written by Carrie Fisher. Basically her
telling the story of how she got the part
on Star Wars and how she started having
an affair with Harrison Ford at that
time. And then there is also like a tiny
bit of it that is her actual diary
entries from that time. I did think it was
really interesting to see how because
Carrie Fisher dropped out of university,
you can tell that that made her in some
ways feel like she had to prove herself
intellectually when she was in social
settings. And so even though in general I
enjoy her writing style, I do think
sometimes she comes off as a bit
pretentious and I think it's just her
trying to prove her intellectual-ness.
And you could see that in her original
diary entries that it was very similar.
Like a lot of it I really enjoyed but
sometimes she just came off as a little
bit pretentious.
There is also some poetry in her
original diary entries and I really
enjoyed the poetry and I really wish
we'd gotten a Carrie Fisher poetry
collection. But unfortunately, we've
missed out on our opportunity for that.
So even though I said it's weird to
compare these two, I think it's quite
clear that The One is the book that's
going to be moving on to the next round.
next we have Illuminae by Jay Kristoff
and Amie Kaufman up against Chosen by
Kirsten White. So I already talked about
Chosen. Illuminae, I'm holding the
physical copy here but I did actually
listen to this in audiobook form. I have
previously read the physical book and
this is a book that's told all in like
multimedia format, so there's like
pictures and interview transcripts and
all sorts of things throughout the book.
That makes it really interesting when
it's being converted to audio form. This
is a full cast narration and I think
they did a really good job of just
changing some things up a little bit so
that it made sense in the audio format.
Although I still think you miss out a
little bit if you don't see all the
pictures. So the story of this book is
about two teenagers who have just broken
up when the planet that we live on, which
is an illegal mining colony, it gets
attacked by the competitors to this
mining operation, and they end up on the
run through space trying to get to
safety.
The story is really action-packed and a
lot of fun and in the end I gave it four stars.
So if I had to compare these two books,
I think I would definitely say Illuminae
is the one that deserves to move on to
the next round. So next we have 2 middle
grade books. One graphic novel and
one that I listened to on audiobook. So that
is Karen's Witch - a baby-sitters club
little sister graphic novel, and then a
Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison. So
firstly, Karen's Witch. The baby-sitters
club books are a middle grade series that
I personally loved when I was a kid and
it taught me a lot of things. And then
there was a spin-off series about the
stepsister of one of the main characters.
Her name was Karen and
she was convinced that their next-door
neighbor was a witch named Morbidda
Destiny. And this first story is just her
kind of convincing herself of that story
and getting herself into trouble
because of it.
I thought the art was really cute and
adorable and the story is just also cute
and adorable.
Then the other book, a Pinch of Magic is
about this family that lives on this
island. The middle sister has always had
dreams of traveling the world and going
on adventures but then she discovers
that there is a curse on her family,
which means they can never leave the
island. But they do each get a different
magical item with a different magical
ability. And in the story they basically
are working towards trying to remove the
curse so that they can be free. In the
beginning, I thought this was just kind
of so-so, okay, but then there was an
element introduced later in the story
that is one of my favorite elements to
have in a story.
It's spoilers to tell you what it is
but if you know me, you might be able to
guess. Either way, I did think this was a
really fun middle grade story and I am
looking forward to continuing the series.
So it's hard to decide which one should
win here. I did give Karen's Witch four
stars, so you would think it would get
ahead of a Pinch of Magic, which was only
three stars. But if I'm completely honest
I have to admit that Karen's Witch, a lot
of the reason why it got four stars was
just nostalgia and also that thing where
it's just a simple children's graphic
story - it's not trying to be anything too
fancy. And while I would recommend
Karen's Witch to anybody who enjoys the
Baby-sitters Club books, I probably be
more likely to recommend a Pinch of
Magic. So I guess I'm gonna put that one
through to the next round. Next, we have
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman up against
the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
So I already talked about the Hunger Games.
Anansi Boys is about this guy who's
about to be married but when he
discovers that his father has died and
when he goes to the funeral he discovers
that not only was his father a Spider
God, but he actually has a brother that
he never knew about. His brother then
comes to stay with him and it turns out
he
is very annoying and he kind of ruins
this guy's life. And so this is basically
the story of him trying to get rid of
his brother. It's a really funny book and
I think Neil Gaiman did such a good job
of like bringing everything together in
the end so that even parts at the
beginning that you thought were just
like small little jokes turned out to
actually have a meaning within the
greater story. There are so many little
subtle jabs at the way that society is
and kind of tries to get you to
reconsider about the way you live your
life. I really enjoyed reading this which
I wasn't expecting because I often don't
like Neil Gaiman stuff. In fact, the only
book by Neil Gaiman that I think I've
really enjoyed before was American Gods.
This now, is another one of his that I
like. So I'm trying to decide what the
next Neil Gaiman book I should try
should be. If you've got any
recommendations then do leave them down
below. And this is another one where I
think it's again pretty hard to decide a
winner because they both really great
books. But I think I'm gonna have to put
the Hunger Game through to the next
round because I do think that the pacing
in The Hunger Games is a lot better than
the pacing in Anansi Boys. It does
have a few slow bits in this and while
this was really fun and funny I did feel
a lot more engaged and like emotionally
invested when I was listening to the
Hunger Games. Then our last pairing for
round two is Edgedancer by Brandon
Sanderson against the Lightning Tree by
Patrick Rothfuss. So Edgedancer is a
little short story novella type thing
set in the world of the Stormlight
Archives between book two and three,
which is where I'm up to. We're following
an Edgedancer, who is a person with
particular magical abilities, called Lift.
And really Brandon Sanderson is just
trying to create a character who is
technically a knight in the Stormlight
Archive world, but who is really
different from what you might expect for
a knight.
Unfortunately, I felt like Lift often didn't
have particularly clear motivations. And
it is a theme in this book that Lift is
quite young and she's kind of
questioning - how do people know
what to do? And while I do think that
that is a really interesting theme,
unfortunately it just meant a lot of
this book felt quite directionless. And I
think it's what made this book sometimes
feel quite slow-paced, even though it's
like super short. Then the Lightning
Tree is another short story. This one is
set in Patrick Rothfuss' world of the
Name of the Wind and we're following a
character from that series called Bast,
who is part Fae and in this story he's
basically doing favors for the children
of the village in order to gain
information. And unfortunately, he also
spends a lot of time trying to make out
with girls. That part of the story I
really didn't enjoy. It just felt kind of
pointless and yeah... but I did enjoy the
rest of the story. I thought it had some
really good themes about the kind of
things that people might be struggling
wit. and how Bast was able to help them.
And I thought it was interesting
learning a little bit more about the Fae.
However, overall I think that
Edgedancer actually had a bit more
substance, so this is the one that I
would put forward to the next round. Okay
so now we are on to round and three. And
for this we just have four pairings and
I talked about all of these books before
so we should go quicker from now on.
First up we've got Elantris against the
Guinevere Deception. I just feel like
there is no comparison here. Tthe
world building in Elantris is so much
better. The characters are just so much
more fleshed out and their motivations
feel so much more real. In the Guinevere
Deception, I'm not sure if you really
thought it out, that all of what the
characters are doing would actually make
sense. So Elantris is the one that moves
forward. Then we have a Trail of
Lightning up against The One. This is one
where the two books are very different
so it's hard to compare them, but I would
say while I think The One was really
intellectually stimulating and just
interesting thinking about what it would
be like to be paired up with your DNA
soulmate, that this one, Trail of
Lightning, I definitely felt much more
emotionally engaged with. There were a
lot more twists and turns. And
like The One it was also kind of
subtly funny throughout. So Trail of
Lightning moves on to the next round.
So next we have Illuminae up against A
Pinch of Magic. So both of them I
listened to on audiobook.
It doesn't feel entirely fair to be
matching YA books up against middle
grade books. Clearly there's a lot
more to this. There's also an AI
character in Illuminae who I absolutely
love, even though he's kind of broken. I
just think if there's a lot of elements
and a lot of things going on in this
book. It's really thick. Whereas a Pinch
of Magic, while it's a pretty solid middle
grade book, Illuminae is the one that has
to move on to the next round.
Next, we have the Hunger Games up against
Edgedancer. As I said, this one did have
some pacing problems, whereas I just
thought the pacing in the Hunger Games
was really good. Like the whole time I
was listening to it I always wanted to
keep listening to it rather than
stopping. Like I would get home from my
walks and I would think, maybe I could
just listen to it a little bit longer
while I do other things. But Edgedancer
even though it's really short, I had
to really kind of push myself to get
through it. So Hunger Games is on to the
next round. Okay, we are on to the
semi-finals! So there are just two
competitions in the semi-finals. Firstly
we have Elantris, which I just remembered
I have on my shelves. I haven't been
holding it up because I listened to the
audiobook but here it is. We've got Elantris
up against Trail of Lightning.
These decisions just get harder and
harder as we go up the rounds. In the end
I think that Elantris is the stronger
book, just because, I mean, there's
interesting and unique magical elements
in both of these. This is native-
american-inspired, which I haven't read
many fantasies that are based on that
kind of mythology, I guess. Whereas
this is like a completely unique world
with an amazing magic system and
probably I would say the magic
system in this is more clear than how it
works in this one. Both of them are
subtly funny but even though I still
think the characters on this were good, I
think that the characters in Elantris
were even more well developed. And both
of them had really great like twists and
turns but again this one I could almost
see things coming. But it was like I
could see it coming and I just knew it
was gonna be like a train crash and I
couldn't stop watching. Whereas this one
I just couldn't see anything coming and
everything was amazing. I mean, it was
a re-read so I could kind of see things
coming but some of the stuff I'd
forgotten about and even though I should
have known, I should have been able to
remember, but it still surprised me on a
second read. SorI'm gonna move Elantris
into the finals. Then we have Illuminae
up against the Hunger Games.
I feel like again, I listened to both of these
on audiobook and I feel like The Hunger
Games is more in my head because I
more recently listened to it. But it's
probably true for both of them that once
I got going I wanted to keep listening
to these audiobooks. I found it really
hard to stop listening to them because I
wanted to know what happened next,
even though both of these were rereads
so I knew what was gonna happen. So it's
not like I was listening because I
wanted to find out what was gonna happen -
I was listening because I wanted that
emotional payoff of experiencing what
was gonna happen next. So I think both of
these did get me emotionally invested. I
guess in the end, and I'm not sure if
it's because of the differing formats,
and the way that the stories were told,
but I guess I was more emotionally
invested in the Hunger Games and
Katniss's story. So it's tight but I
think the Hunger Games goes into the
finals. Okay, so here we are in the finals!
We're gonna decide what was the best
book that I read this month. It's
interesting that it's come down to two
books that I listened to on audiobook and
books that were rereads.
I don't generally reread a lot of books
but this month I did a a few. So,
comparing Elantris against the Hunger
Games. Again, one is a YA dystopian
sci-fi and another one is an epic
fantasy so obviously my preferences are
gonna play a part here. Because I do have
a strong preference towards epic fantasy.
I mean both stories are really unique.
Being a dystopian,The Hunger Games
probably has more to say that is
relevant to our current world.
That's what dystopians do. But this
also has a lot of really good themes and
lessons in it. I really love one of the
main characters, Raoden, he has an
amazing leadership style and I think
that that was really interesting to read
about. I feel like you probably know
which way I'm gonna go. Elantris! Winner
of the month! I mean given that this is
one of my most favorite books ever and
it was a reread, it's not really a
surprise. Brandon Sanderson is one of my
most favorite authors so ahhh not a
surprise. But it's also interesting to
see which books made it through to the
semi-finals. I think pretty much all of
the books from round 3 and above are
ones that I would recommend if they're
something you're interested in. But
anyway that is my wrap-up of the books
that I read in March. Do let me know
if you thought that this format was an
interesting way of doing things. Was it
enjoyable to watch? Also, if you've read
any of the books that I talked about
today I'd love to hear your thoughts
about them down in the comments.
Otherwise, thank you so much for watching.
I hope that you're having a really
wonderful day, keeping yourself safe, and
I will see you next time :)
