#FridayReads – The Obelisk Gate

If someone ever asks you who my favorite author is, I want you to tell them that it’s N.K. Jemisin. Not that old man in New Mexico, not the lady from the UK, not even Tamora Pierce. Nora K. Jemisin. Tell them I love her; tell them she destroyed my life. I’ve been screaming her praises for the past year, and nothing in this world can make me regret it. Why? Because The Fifth Season was phenomenal, and its sequel, The Obelisk Gate, did not disappoint.

Picking up almost directly from the end of The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate is essentially about Essun’s quest to save what remains of the world, if only to have some place to continue rasing her still-missing daughter, Nassun. Nassun, on the other hand, learns how to cope in a world that fears her, with a father that despises her.

#FridayReads – “Folding Beijing”

I might not always be reviewing something, but I’m definitely always reading. Most days, it’s fan fiction, but sometimes I like to check out original works. For this #FridayReads,  I decided to look up Hugo Award winner, Hao Jingfang’s “Folding Beijing”.

In “Folding Beijing”, waste worker, Lao Dao, makes a trip from the Third Space to the First Space and back, in order to obtain the money to send his daughter to a good kindergarten. Along the way, Lao Dao’s eyes are opened to the reality of his place in the folding city.

Top 5 Wednesdays: Books You Want To Read Before The End of The Year

So my physical, personal library is actually about 650 books deep. That’s a lot, I know, but it’s also probably nothing compared to some others. In any case, within my personal library, I have a bookshelf specially dedicated to all of the novels that I have yet to read. That’s about 30-something books – not counting another 20-something unread trade paperbacks – just waiting for me to get to them. So at any given time, I have a book waiting to be read.

Still, some books are more of a priority than others, and this week’s Top 5 Wednesday is about the books I want to read before the end of the year. You’ll notice that N.K. Jemisin’s The Obelisk Gate is not on this list, because I know that I won’t have a problem knocking that out as soon as I’m done rereading The Fifth Season. In fact, you can expect that review by the end of next week.

However, for this list, I want to focus on the books that are already on my shelf that I need to get done with as soon as possible. So these are the five that I need to read before the end of the year:  

This Week in Comics – August 23, 2016

Oh my, I haven’t done one of these in forever! It feels like it’s been months since I’ve been able to do a This Week in Comics post, and I’m so happy that I can get this out before Wednesday.

This week’s post includes the end of the first Insexts arc, what looks to be a major moment in Civil War II, 3 Batverse titles, and, possibly, the plot for the Wonder Woman movie. Also, at least four of these reviews were written to the music of Toto, as I’ve recently found out that I’m a bigger fan than I thought I was.

Onto the comics:

Last Week in Comics – 1st Week of August 2016

I know what you’re thinking. It’s not the first week of August. However, these comics that I’m about to write about were definitely put on sale and bought during the week of August 3rd, so I’m going to talk about them in that context.

Also, two of the comics I’m writing about are bi-monthly. So reading this post before you pick up this week’s comics will probably help you out a bit.  

#FridayReads – Fanfiction

Would you believe me if I said that I’ve been trying to write this post for three weeks now? If I only make it to 250 words, you gotta let me live, okay? Okay.

So this week for #FridayReads, I chose to talk about fanfiction. Also, shoutout to L Jones Edition for starting this community blogging event. I don’t know that last time I tagged their wordpress, but I’m going to try to do better going forward.

So anyways, I like fanfiction. I know that I say that a lot, but you have to understand that I read the stuff like every day. The entire reason that I am so big on fandom is because I partake in the consumption of fanfiction. I love new headcanons, I read a ton of meta, and I even just wrote my first big fan theory. I’m just out here checking off all of the points on my fangirl list.

Top 5 Wednesday: Authors You’re Waiting On Another Book From

It’s a good thing that I didn’t set this post to publish yet, because I would have had a blank page on my site right now. Thankfully, I knew that I wasn’t done.

In this week’s Top 5 Wednesday, I’m listing the five authors that I’m waiting for another book from. Four of the five authors were people I reviewed last summer, which is fine because a lot of my favorites are dead. One of my picks has a book being released in January, which is technically against the rules because I know when the book is coming. However, because January doesn’t count as the end of this year, this particular author still counts for me.

That being said, here’s my list:

Last Month in Comics – July 2016

You know what I just found out? Archie Comics puts the designation for whatever Variant cover you might have picked up on the bar code in the back of the comic. I’m about to start my third ongoing comic from the New Riverdale lineup, and I collect The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina for my cousin, but this is the first time that I’ve ever noticed this.

You learn something new everyday.

Now Archie Comics, doesn’t always call them variants on the cover, but the bar code designation will say whether it’s cover A, B, or whatever. Cover A being the main cover, and anything else being a variant. Midtown comics also lists the different covers that way on their site, along with the artist’s name.

In any case, here’s Last Month in Comics – the July edition:

Top 5 Wednesday: Most Unlikeable Characters

If I somehow manage to push out 5 posts in the next 5 days, I’ll be surprised and terribly accomplished. If not, I’ll still have managed to do one post for every week in July. That doesn’t seem like much, but anything is plenty when you’re depressed.

Today’s Top 5 Wednesday topic is Most Unlikeable (non-villain) Characters, which might be a bit of a reach for me. The thing about it is that it’s so much easier for me to pick out unlikeable characters in a show than I do in a book. In a book you end up knowing everyone’s motivations, so you tend to sympathize with them more. In a show, you only know what the directors and writers want you to know, so you make your own opinions. For me, that’s a little easier.

Yet and still, every written character is not meant to be liked.