“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.”
– Kate DiCamillo
I read a lot. That isn’t even an exaggeration to make myself look intelligent or cool! Last year I read almost 150 books/series and I plan to break the 150 book barrier this year!
I’ll make a list of comics/manga I want to discover or read again later. Today it’s all about novels!
1. The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: to master his family’s fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen’s alleged age of peace, Mamoru realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.
Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.
Synopsis via Goodreads
My sister Jessica recommended this book to me a few months ago and I’ve been LONGING to take time to read it. It has one thing going against it though. It is a bulky fantasy. I don’t mind reading long books! Fantasies are just difficult for me since I oversaturated myself with them in middle and high school.
I WILL read it soon and let you know how it goes!
2. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself — all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter’s story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.
As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.
Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida’s storytelling but remains suspicious of the author’s sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.
Synopsis via Goodreads
It has been AGES since I read this book. It is one of those books that had me hooked the moment I started reading! I haven’t read it though for maybe. . . thirteen years? I’m thinking about taking this with me on the plane to Greece and reading it in one sitting.
3. The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright
Ffion is the last hedgewitch in Foxhall. To work her magic, she takes only what nature can spare, unlike the witches of the powerful Foxhall coven, who sacrifice whole forests to fuel their spells. But across the warring kingdoms of Wales, all magic is fading. Even the dragons have vanished.
Prince Taliesin would love nothing more than to watch magic die. But when his father charges Tal and his brother, Dafydd, with destroying King Offa’s dyke—the massive earthen wall raised by their Mercian enemies to the east, which may be the cause of magic’s disappearance—he begrudgingly seeks aid from a witch.
Because whichever prince succeeds in destroying the dyke will win the throne, and Tal is willing to do whatever it takes to become king. Even if the Foxhall coven refuses to help him. Even if he’s forced to team up with a spitfire hedgewitch who hates him almost as much as he hates her magic. And even if Dafydd proves to be a worthier rival than he anticipated…for the crown, and for Ffion’s heart.
Synopsis via Goodreads
I’ve already started this book and love the Welsh narrators for the three main characters. I know it’s going to have an unnecessary love triangle and I’m bracing myself for the painful drama. So far though, it is rather lovely. I’m a sucker for Welsh accents, fantasies with enchanted forests, and nontraditional characters. We’ll see if it lives up to my expectations.
4. A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
For Lila Reyes, a summer in England was never part of the plan. The plan was 1) take over her abuela’s role as head baker at their panadería, 2) move in with her best friend after graduation, and 3) live happily ever after with her boyfriend. But then the Trifecta happened, and everything—including Lila herself—fell apart.
Worried about Lila’s mental health, her parents make a new plan for her: spend three months with family friends in Winchester, England, to relax and reset. But with the lack of sun, a grumpy inn cook, and a small town lacking Miami flavor (both in food and otherwise), what would be a dream trip for some feels more like a nightmare to Lila…until she meets Orion Maxwell.
A teashop clerk with troubles of his own, Orion is determined to help Lila out of her funk, and appoints himself as her personal tour guide. From Winchester’s drama-filled music scene to the sweeping English countryside, it isn’t long before Lila is not only charmed by Orion, but England itself. Soon a new future is beginning to form in Lila’s mind—one that would mean leaving everything she ever planned behind.
Synopsis via Goodreads
This will be another re-read for me. I really like Namey’s novels, especially those narrated! Unfortunately, the library doesn’t have this book anymore so I have to wait till they rent or buy it again. Sad, sad, day.
5. The God and the Guhimo by Sophie Kim
Kim Hani, the once-terrible gumiho known as the Scarlet Fox, spends her days working at a café and trying not to let a certain customer irk her. Seokga, a trickster god thrown from the heavens for his attempt at a coup, spends his days hunting demons and irking a particular gumiho. When a demon of darkness escapes the underworld, and the Scarlet Fox emerges from hiding before quickly vanishing, Seokga is offered a chance at redemption: kill them both, and his sins will be forgiven. But Hani is prepared to do anything to prevent Seokga from bringing her to justice, even trick her way into his investigation.
Synopsis via Goodreads
I like Asian fantasies (even if they aren’t in manga form 🙂 ) and am looking forward to reading this book! This might be a romance too which would be a lovely bonus.
6. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
Over the course of a single week, a woman who is ready to die discovers an unexpected reason to live.
Following the deaths of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the English village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss.
Helen retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit. Then, one cold autumn night, a chance encounter with an abandoned pet mouse on the street outside her house sets Helen on a surprising journey of friendship.
Synopsis via Goodreads
This seems like my type of book. I’m a big fan of stories like The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, where the characters go through transformative experiences. It seems like this one involves an older woman. So, this might just be a Studio Ghibli-esque story! Hopefully I am right.
7. Comstock Lode by Louis L’Amour
It was just a godforsaken mountainside, but no place on earth was richer in silver. For a bustling, enterprising America, this was the great bonanza. The dreamers, the restless, the builders, the vultures—they were lured by the glittering promise of instant riches and survived the brutal hardships of a mining camp to raise a legendary boom town. But some sought more than wealth.
Val Trevallion, a loner haunted by a violent past. Grita Redaway, a radiantly beautiful actress driven by an unfulfilled need. Two fiercely independent spirits, together they rose above the challenges of the Comstock to stake a bold claim on the future.
Synopsis via Goodreads
Goodness, I’ve tried to read this book THREE TIMES. I haven’t finished because I get distracted or I lose access to the audiobook NOT because I don’t like it. Louis L’Amour is one of those authors who couldn’t be boring even if he tried. I’ll try listening to it again, but if I lose it again I’m going to sit down and read my physical copy!
8. The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Francis Hardinge
The hungry Forest is moving forward like an army, a green and constant threat to the humans living in and on an increasingly crumbling Wall. Feather, accompanied only by her scaled ferret, Sleek, must avoid the Forest’s tentacles, and the many dangerous creatures it shelters, to return the community’s precious spyglass to its rightful place. Along the way, she develops her resilience, and meets other people living on the Wall, whose stories and experiences open her mind, and those of her community, to new horizons.
Synopsis via Goodreads
Oh, look, another forest! I’m looking forward to this book because it is supposed to have some beautiful illustrations.
9. Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods by Catherynne M. Valente
This is another sad book that’s sat on my to-be-read shelf for too long! I love a good mystery, especially if it is set in the 19th or early 20th century. Hopefully, I can find a physical copy of this to read so I don’t have to read it on my phone.
Osmo Unknown hungers for the world beyond his small town. With the life that Littlebridge society has planned for him, the only taste Osmo will ever get are his visits to the edge of the Fourpenny Woods where his mother hunts. Until the unthinkable happens: his mother accidentally kills a Quidnunk, a fearsome and intelligent creature that lives deep in the forest.
None of this should have anything to do with poor Osmo, except that a strange treaty was once formed between the Quidnunx and the people of Littlebridge to ensure that neither group would harm the other. Now that a Quidnunk is dead, as the firstborn child of the hunter who killed her, Osmo must embark on a quest to find the Eightpenny Woods—the mysterious kingdom where all wild forest creatures go when they die—and make amends.
Accompanied by a very rude half-badger, half-wombat named Bonk and an antisocial pangolin girl called Never, it will take all of Osmo’s bravery and cleverness to survive the magic of the Eightpenny Woods to save his town…and make it out alive.
Synopsis via Goodreads
I’m sensing a pattern! (Cough. . . this also has a mysterious forest). I love Valente’s children’s books so I’m thinking this will be a wonderful read!
10. The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does.
Written in illegal English—instead of French—the postcard is signed only with the letter “M,” but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he’s determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battle ships of a lost empire’s Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself.
Synopsis via Goodreads
And there you have it! If you have any recommendations I am all ears!
From the Perspective of an Old Soul 