2018 r/Fantasy Book Bingo Reading Challenge – TBR and Update

In May I was reposting the original post from Way Too Fantasy about the r/Fantasy Book Bingo Challenge here in the blog.

I started this challenge in end of April and finally managed to make a nice graphic with my TBR in the original Bingo Card.

The white squares are the challenges I haven’t picked a book yet. The challenges are:

  1. Fantasy Novel that Takes Place Entirely Within One City
  2. Self-Published Fantasy Novel
  3. Novel with Fewer Than 2500 Goodreads Ratings
  4. Novel Featuring God as a Character.

I will probably pick two books from my writer friends for challenges 2 and 3. I still have no idea about which ones for 1 and 4. Any ideas? Along the year I’ll surely change my mind about the books for a couple of challenges too, I’ve picked up a tough Dystopia for one of them and I rather read Dystopias in winter. For me, it doesn’t work to read serious Dystopia under a sunny blue sky.

The squares written in blue are the challenges I already completed and the ones in black are still to be read. So far I have read 6 books out of 25, and when 50% of the books are finished I’ll post my midway reviews.

To have less information filling up the card I was putting only the title of the books in each square. To know which challenge belongs to which book please take a look at the original Bingo Challenge card

So, without much further ado, here’s is my TBR Bingo Card:

FantasyBingo_Leticia3

And you, are you also doing this or other reading challenges? What do you think of the books I chose? Let me know in the comments.

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The one Readathon to rule them all – TBR #theonereadathon

 

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I’m hyped for this Readathon, created by  Don’t Have a Degree in Reading

So I put together a TBR list for between April 29 – and May 12, 2018!!! 

I won’t dwell on explaining the Readathon rules or challenges since this was already done so well by the booktubers involved. Take a look at the Readathon hosts links at the bottom of this post for more information. 

I also found great book recommendation links on this Youtube video: 

Kitty G

I confess that I’m in doubt whether I will manage to complete all those challenges with my daily life limited time and preparations for a trip to Brazil, and it could also happen that I change one of my TBR choices. There is nothing I like so much as jumping out of a planned TBR ;-). All considerations aside, here are my choices for each challenge:

 

1. Read a fantasy book written by a POC Author

Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas #1) by Zoraida Córdova

 

2. Read a fantasy book w/ a POC MC

The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1) by  Helene Wecker. I know, this one has been a benchwarmer for a long time, but I hope to be able to finally read it.

 

3. Read a fantasy book under 300 pages

Less than 300 pages is usually too short for me. I often get a feeling that the story was undevelopped and rushed, but The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton could be interesting.

 

4. Read a fantasy book 1,000+ pages 

Since I already read all GOT series, I consider a challenge to find another fantasy book with 1000 pages that I would like to read at the moment. Perhaps I’ll read a series adding to 1000 pages instead?

Another idea would be to read The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2) by Patrick Rothfuss, but this will only happen if I have time to read the first book of this series and decide to go on with the series.

In any case, I’ll probably read 1000 pages during the Readathon.

5. Read a fantasy book that is a stand alone

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black is a stand alone as far as I know.  And I’m planning to read more from this author since I liked The Cruel Prince.

 

6. Read a fantasy book written by a non-English speaking author

The Last Wish (Saga o Wiedźminie #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski, Danusia Stok (Translator). A lot of people seem to be crazy about The Witcher and there is even a game inspired on this series. So it’s time I check it out.

 

7. Read a fantasy book set in a non-European location

The Killing Moon  by N.K. Jemisin. I heard the world is based on Egypt and the plot has something like ‘dream magic’. I also hear all the time about this author, so I’ll check one of her books..

 

8. Read a fantasy book w/ LGBTQIA+ rep 

China Mountain Zhang by von Maureen F. McHugh. This is classic sci-fi that won a lot of prizes. It seems interesting.

 

And you? Any Readathons you are participating in? If you will participate in this one or another leave a link to your blog/youtube channel on the comments.

 

 

 

Readathon Hosts: 

Don’t Have a Degree in Reading: https://bit.ly/2n0D854

Beck’s Books: https://bit.ly/2uGhpVg

Ally Evans: https://bit.ly/2qQ4KeT

Chris Bookish Cauldron: https://bit.ly/2mSgITj

Read and Find Out: https://bit.ly/2F3BTJx

thatbookishgamer: https://bit.ly/2JdPlwG 

James Chatham: https://bit.ly/22EbOpf

 

#TheReadingQuest Wrap up

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My Mage Path was an adventurous one, full of hilly ups and downs. Two not so great books and 7 books/comics that ranged from extremely funny and relatable to quite OK, even if I might be tired of vampires or the humor of the comic book wouldn’t always fit with my favorite type of humor.

So, between the Mage path and Sidequests, I read 5 books (I couldn’t bring myself to finish the 6th of them), 3 comic books, a short story, and I had a lot of fun reading most of them.
I haven’t calculated the points and levels my mage character gained because tbh, right now I have a headache and this makes me not nearly energetic enough for that. I’m sure other people read more books than me, good for them, lol.



So, with these following books and comics was my Mage’s path laid out.

A BOOK WITH AN ONE WORD TITLE:

“Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock #1)” by Faith Hunter. — 4 Stars
I liked this book. It had some pacing problems which made the ending feel rushed and tbh I’ve been mostly tired of books with vampires. But Beast, the alter ego of Jane Yellowrock was quite interesting and original.

A BOOK THAT CONTAINS MAGIC:

“Burn for Me: A Hidden Legacy Novel” by Ilona Andrews. — 5 Stars
I’m a huge fan of Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels series and this new series didn’t disappoint me at all. Read if you like romance with a strong heroine + mystery + a well-built fantasy world.

A BOOK BASED ON MYTHOLOGY:

I changed my mind and ended up reading “The Goddess Test (Goddess Test #1)” by Aimee Carter.  — 1 Star. I thought that reading a book about the Myth of Hades and Persephone was a good idea. However, in this case, it wasn’t. The mythology was twisted beyond recognition and all the Greek Gods had boring names and characters.  Next time I promise I’ll read The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni #1) by Helene Wecker. I felt I got bad book karma from changing my mind at the last minute.

A BOOK SET IN A DIFFERENT WORLD:

“Old Man’s War (Old Man’s War #1)” by John Scalzi. — 5 Stars
The author’s voice gives this science fiction war story a light and humorous touch with real ROFL moments. And the story has great science fiction insights that are quite plausible to happen, so the question remains, would someone enlist once they turn 75?

THE FIRST BOOK OF A SERIES:

“To Your Scattered Bodies Go (Riverworld)” by Philip Jose Farmer. — 1 Star – DNF
I DNFed this book. This was the second book in this ReadAthon with a very interesting premise that developed in the dullest way possible. In this case also into a book full of prejudices and negative views on mankind. Some people think this a sci-fi classic, it even got a prize. Well, this wasn’t, unfortunately, the first well-talked book that was nothing for me and certainly won’t be the last.

 

Side quests

EXPANSION (READ A COMPANION NOVEL OR SHORT STORY):

“The Demon in the Wood: A Darkling Prequel Story (The Grisha Trilogy) (Shadow and Bone 0.1)” by Leigh Bardugo. A short story based on the Grisha verse.  — 4 Stars.
A short Darkling background story.

POTIONS (A BOOK CONCOCTED OF 2+ AUTHORS):

“Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2)” by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff, Marie Lu. — 5 Stars. The second book of an awesome sci-fi series. This book was as fun as Illuminae, and Illuminae was a lot of fun. I consider myself now over the top spoiled for boring sci-fi after this series.

MINI-GAME (READ A GRAPHIC NOVEL, NOVELA, OR POEM COLLECTION):

“Adulthood Is a Myth: A Sarah’s Scribbles Collection” by Sarah Andersen.  — 5 Stars
This is quite funny and relatable. My only complaint: It’s too short! I could read one thousand pages of this, lol

OPEN WORLD (READ WHATEVER YOU WANT):
“Heart and Brain: Body Language: An Awkward Yeti Collection” by The Awkward Yeti, Nick Seluk — 3 Stars
I would like to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Funny, but not so much my kind of humor, after seventy pages it got tiresome.

ANIMAL COMPANION (BOOK REFERENCING AN ANIMAL ON THE TITLE):
“Fowl Language: The Struggle Is Real” by Brian Gordon
I would like to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
As a mother of a six and a four-year-old, I could relate and laugh at the very funny jokes. My favorites were the ones about tired children, sibling’s fights and why they won’t try the food.

READATHON TBR || BookTube-A-Thon

 

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I wouldn’t be a good BookTube follower if I would not follow and try to participate in the BookTube-A-Thon, a weeklong Readathon event that (so far as I know) started in Ariel Bissett’s YouTube Channel and became a happy celebration of BookTubers and reading.

So, without much further ado (after all, I should be tackling my TBR right now), here is my TBR list with the challenges I finished already and my TBR for the yet to be done challenges:

The 2017 Reading Challenges:

1/ Read a book with a person on the cover.

For this challenge, I chose “Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock, #1)” by Faith Hunter.
My review: I’m right now on page 32. I have only started but so far I like this book. Let’s see where it goes.

2/ Read a hyped book.

I heard frequently of “Every Heart a Doorway(Wayward Children, #1)” by Seanan McGuire on Youtube and even now it seems to be one of the most read books in the Readathon.

My review: 3 stars. A very interesting premise, but somehow underdeveloped. Great story ideas were thrown in a shallow way that surely needed more depth. I hope the next books in the series develop it further.

3/ Finish a book in one day.

This was the first challenge I finished because short is quickly done. For this challenge, I chose the “Curran POV Collection”, a collection of scenes you can download on the web page of the authors Ilona and Gordon Andrews. This scenes will mostly only make sense if you read the Kate Daniel’s series (and I sincerely recommend this series as awesome paranormal fantasy).

My review: 5 stars, ** spoiler alert **

Curran: “I spat the ear out and knocked it toward him with my paw. No, you can keep it. Doesn’t taste that great.” This line still makes me laugh by myself one day after reading this book.

Curran POV shows his side on the scenes that were mainly told in Kate’s POV during the series. It shows the hard side of what is needed to be the alpha of the shapeshifters in Kate’s world. Not an easy day at the office for sweet and wild Curran. 😉
I wished there would be more of this series than only the next book. This is also a short book that you can (unfortunately) read in one day.

4/ Read about a character that is very different from you.

I’m planning to read “Old Man’s War (Old Man’s War #1)” by John Scalzi because the character is an old man, someone very different than me. If I don’t have time to read it this week, I’ll read it the next week so my review will be here eventually.


5/ Finish a book completely outdoors.

I’m not sure I’ll manage this in a very rainy July? When I get a couple of sunny hours I do take the books to the playground where my kids play, so most books have seen sunlight. But to finish it all outdoors would be unpractical right now.


6/ Read a book you bought because of the cover.

“Northanger Abbey (The Austen Project #2) by Val McDermid”. The one published by HarperFiction with the gloomy Abbey on the cover. Besides the cover, I also chose this book to finally read something by Val McDermid, an author my mother likes a lot and because I did like the original “Northanger Abbey” by J.Austen.

My review for this book: 5 stars, A fresh and modern retelling of a classic. Now, can someone please tell me where can I find the Hebridean Harpies series?


7/ Read seven books.

If I have the time I’ll read “The Archived (The Archived #1)” by Victoria Schwab still this week. But probably I’ll delay until next week and post my review later on. After all, why hurry? Only non-connoisseurs drink a good wine quickly.
And you? Are you participating in this Readathon? Let me know in the comments!

UPDATE AFTER THE READATHON

I didn’t manage to finish the fourth book, but I think that 3 books with my hectic real life were quite OK. I did start Skinwalker and “This Savage Song”, which I read until page 61.
Not so bad and I also managed to read a lot on the playground, so I consider Challenge number 5 half done. 🙂

So my final results were:

1/ Read a book with a person on the cover.

Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock #1) by Faith Hunter — 32 pages

2/ Read a hyped book.

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1) by Seanan McGuire — 176 pages

3/ Finish a book in one day.

Curran POV Collection (Curran POV #1-9) by Gordon Andrews, Ilona Andrews  — 157 pages

I skipped Challenge 4 and will be reading this book later.

5/ Finish a book completely outdoors.

This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity #1) by Victoria Schwab — 61 pages, finished after the readathon.

Later update (3/8/17): I didn’t manage to read this whole book outdoors, but all my books have been outdoors one moment or another so I consider this challenge half done.

This was a 5 stars book with great characters and an original and poetic story.

6/ Read a book you bought because of the cover.

Northanger Abbey (The Austen Project #2) by Val McDermid — 358 pages

And I didn’t read the seventh book yet, but later on, steady as I go…
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