The Greek Gods Book Tag

Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little corner of the internet. Today I’m bringing you my answers to The Greek Gods Book Tag, which I found over at Reading Every Night. Especially with undertaking both Path or Pantheon and Olympic Readathon this month, mythology is very much on my mind, and so it seems like a great time to sit down and do this tag. Although I might be more Egyptology based, my son is a big fan of Ancient Greece, so between what I already know and his mind constantly pinging, I’ve ended up knowing more than I thought I would ever need.

Rules:

• Pingback to Zuky here so she can read all your posts!
• You can use her graphics if you like, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
• Tag as many people as you want, but please share the love.

Here we go!

My answer to this always used to be very quickly Les Miserables, but one of the ‘downsides’ to being a book blogger is that I read so many books, it’s hard to hold onto a book that I love so much. This is always such a difficult question, and these days my answer changes depending on my mood, never mind what day of the week it is! Here are just a few of my favourite reads this year:

• Mina and the Undead
• It’s Behind You
• The Box in the Woods
• From Blood and Ash
• Ace of Spades

I read a lot of books with badass female characters; in fact it’s often one of my demands from a book. I could pick so many books to talk abot here, but one of my most recent reads with a badass female lead is Sorcery of Thorns. Elisabeth goes through so much in the book, right from the very start, and she rises to meet every single challenge. It was a five star read for me, and is easily one of my favourite standalones.

Of course I have to mention Poppy from From Blood and Ash, especially book two onwards; Feyre from A Court of Thorns and Roses (again especially from book two onwards!); and Stevie Bell from Truly Devious who is my favourite non-fantasy protagonist.

I even wrote a whole blog post about strong female leads which you can find here, and another book tag that was all about women’s history, and so more strong women, here.

These questions seemed so much more fun before I had to try and answer them…! I think the first one that springs to mind is Ship of Shadows which I read last year and has still stayed with me; book two is out this month, and my son and I will be fighting each other to read it first!

Above I’ve already mentioned Mina and the Undead, and that absolutely gets a mention as a fantastic debut that I will forever be in love with. Recently Amy – the author and I – read It’s Behind You together, and the author Kathryn Foxfield’s debut novel Good Girls Die First was one of my top reads last year.

The Wolf and The Woodsman HAS to be mentioned as well, because it’s absolutely stunning, and I’m still struggling with a book hangover from it, months later! I can’t recommend that one enough.

I don’t read as much non fiction as I used to now that so many lovely publishers and authors send books my way (I love every single one of you). But before I was working on a bit more of a tight timeline, I read a lot of Ancient Egypt non fiction. Two of my favourites have been Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt by Chris Naunton, and When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney. Both are a great place to start if you’re looking for something to guide you in the right direction with modern information.

This is almost as hard to answer as what my favourite book is! I do always tell people that One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich is worth reading as it is one of the most powerful classics I know of, and I took a lot from it on each ocassion I read it.

I’ve also been recommending Malice to everyone this year because it’s such a powerful, brilliant read.

EUGH. This is where I rant about A Court of Silver Flames again. As far as I’m concerned, that book ruined the series, and I’m just pretending the series ended after book three, as book 3.5 leads on to it, and I want to deny all knowledge of it ever having come into the world. Grrr.

I’m going to have to mention Ace of Spades again here, because it’s one of the most powerful books that I’ve ever read. It tackles so many issues in one book, all while being beautifully written and absolutely stunning. Here’s the synopsis:

Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light.

Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power.

Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high-school game…

I’m going to go with Among the Beasts & Briars. I’ve read so many beautiful books, but the cover of the standard and limited editions of this one are both so utterly gorgeous, I couldn’t pick any other book.

This question is easy to answer. The Starless Sea. I seem to be in the minority of mankind when it comes to this book as most people absolutely loved it, but I really couldn’t stand it. I kept reading it, hoping it would get better, but by the end of it, I was just left flummoxed why I’d wasted all my time on those 800+ pages. It still irritates me more than a year later than I pushed through and didn’t just throw it out of the window.

I read The Girls I’ve Been really quickly. It was one of those that I read in the space of a day, along with with A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder and its sequel, Good Girl, Bad Blood, both of which I read over the space of a weekend, absolutely loved, and couldn’t get enough of. I’m looking forward to the third and final installment in the series coming out later this year. Young adult thrillers are some of my favourite books and I do tend to read them quickly because I absolutely love them. I’ve linked to some others further up in this thread that I read quickly as well, books like Mina and the Undead, and even chunky bois like From Blood and Ash. I’m generally a quick reader, but when a book grabs me? I can’t put it down.

So there we are! This was a fun, challenging tag and I think that the following people would really enjoy it:

• Fiona
• Ellie
• Sammie
• Kerri
• Ellie Mai

Thanks for stopping by my little space, and come back again soon for daily blog posts!