book love – marginalia and such

5 things: fantasy reads (or recent loves)

I read in all genres, but I always come back to fantasy. It is truly my not-so-guilty pleasure. And I have read a lot of good fantasy this year. I am especially partial to what I think of as magical girl fantasy (much like magical girl manga), so I scoured my list of 2016 goodreads books for my top 5 of 2016 (read in 2016, not published). Here they are in all their wondrous glory:

Beyond the Red by Ava Jae / The Queen of Blood, Book One of The Queens of Renthia / Newt’s Emerald by Garth Nix / Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge / A Matter of Magic by Patricia Wrede

These books are otherworldly, mythic in scope, and full of wit and wonder.

i’ve been reading: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

I’ll be posting a reading update later this month, but I just can’t stop myself from gushing over Naomi Novik’s Uprooted. I received a preview of the first three chapters at a library conference and was hooked from the start. It’s been a long time since a book enthralled me so much. I wanted nothing but to stay up all night reading, and that’s saying something (I take sleep very seriously). The writing is just as enchanting as the story; I can’t wait to get a copy of my own so I can read it again, savoring every little detail. This may very well be the best book I read all year. I’m definitely feeling the good book hangover.