The OwlCrate Society

I mentioned in one of my recent posts that I have been subscribed to OwlCrate for about a year, and it's been pretty awesome. I love being exposed to new books that I had not previously heard of, and would never have picked up on my own (because, honestly, there's only 1 out of the 12 I've received so far that I would have gone out and bought new). So it's been good for that, plus the book-related swag has been very cool. Some of it isn't necessarily useful or interesting to me, but I can re-gift those items. Most everything has been fun and interesting and I've also discovered new Etsy artisans along the way because of OwlCrate.

In addition to these discoveries, I've also fallen into a beautiful community of readers and writers who share my love of all things books, and OwlCrate! OwlCrate's creator Korrina Ede decided to start an official "book club" Facebook page called The OwlCrate Society where we can all share about books we're reading, deals & sales currently on, book hauls, TBR lists, OwlCrate stuff (of course), and several other topics. Not that I need to learn about or buy any more books, but it's so rewarding to see what other people are reading; to find out if that book that everyone's talking about is actually any good; to make suggestions of books I love to others; to have a sense of community that I don't necessarily have in my life otherwise.

Along with all the fabulous book talk, there are also several book bloggers in the group. It is through the sharing of their amazing blogs that I was inspired to re-establish my own blog. Not that mine will ever be anywhere near as in-depth or interesting as some of theirs, which I felt bad about for a minute... But then I remembered what I wrote in my "first" post, from early last month... That this blog is really just for me. If other people read and enjoy it at the same time, that would be so great!

I will not, however, let myself feel bad about not being a professional reader and blogger. I read a lot, compared to others in my circle, but I can not read several books in a week. I enjoy reading, but to read that much, it would almost be a chore. When I love a book, I can get through it in about a week, maybe a weekend if there's nothing else going on. But there have been very few books I've loved enough to do that, or very few weekends that have been slow enough to allow me to do that. And that's ok! I have other hobbies and interests to occupy my time, I don't need to read at every break in my day.

So anyway, I just wanted to share with you the spectacular-ness that is The OwlCrate Society. It is one of the most encouraging, accepting, and positive Facebook groups I have ever seen. Which just goes to show that book-lovers are the best people, amiright?

Book Haul: August & September

So, yes, I have said several times that this blog is just for me, just for my records, doesn't matter if I have followers or not, "I'll only publish one post a week so that I can keep up," blah blah blah... But has that stopped me from reading articles with titles such as "How to get more traffic to your blog" or "7 Habits of Successful Book Bloggers" and the like? No... it has not.

I have been inspired. Inspired to take up my keyboard and write several blog posts, many of which I have no idea when I will publish. The following are books I have bought, been gifted, collected, etc. in the last month or so. There are some not pictured, as well. So, starting from the bottom of the pile:

A Great Reckoning - Louise Penny
The newest crime fiction novel in Canadian author Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, just released the end of August. It has become a tradition for my sister & brother-in-law to gift me the newest Louise Penny novel for my birthday, so here it is! I am one chapter in and already feeling at home with my old friends in Three Pines.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper - Phaedra Patrick
Books with long, intriguing titles such as this always get me. This one jumped right into my Chapters online shopping cart all on its own! It is a fiction about an elderly widower who goes on an adventure to discover who his wife was before she met him. It appears to be similar to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - another of my absolute favourites!

Grounded - Kate Klise
I found this book in the discount section at Chapters while vacationing in Moncton, New Brunswick earlier this month. The cover art grabbed my attention, but it really just sounds like it could be an interesting little gem. I have never heard of the author before, am not familiar with her works, but it would appear that she writes a lot of murder mysteries, so if this book is any good, I may try to find some of her other books.

The Vanishing Season - Jodi Lynn Anderson
Not your typical ghost story...Another book from Chapters' discount section, the cover art once again grabbed me with this one. I've already read it, so I won't say too much more here.

Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
I do not typically read non-fiction, but I had heard of this book before, so when I came across it at a yard sale last weekend, for only $1, I decided to grab it. It is an autobiographical account of the authors travels through Pakistan, building schools for girls, and the adventures (and mishaps) he encounters along the way.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling
I have started collecting and reading the Harry Potter series for the first time this year! It is a wonderful adventure, and I am falling completely in love with the wizarding world and the beautiful characters in it. My best friend actually sent me both The Goblet of Fire (not pictured) and The Order of the Phoenix for my birthday.

The Little Paris Bookshop - Nina George
I absolutely love the idea of this book - a bookshop owner who "prescribes" his clients just the right book to mend their broken hearts, but has yet to heal his own. My friend's book club read it in August, so I'm anxious to get into it soon so that we can share some thoughts on it.

Lullabies for Little Criminals - Heather O'Neill
Another $1 yard sale find. This coming-of-age fiction captured my attention mostly because of its Canadian author. I'm not sure if I'll actually read this one or not.

The Bone Clock - David Mitchell
While second-hand book shopping with my friend in Moncton, New Brunswick, I happened upon The Bone Clock. Recognizing it as having the same author as Cloud Atlas I was hard-pressed to leave it behind. I have no idea if it is the same genre as Cloud Atlas, but I can't wait to find out!

The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum - Kim Izzo & Ceri Marsh
I love a good etiquette book, and when it comes in the form of self-help, I'm a goner. I actually don't remember where or when I picked this book up, so when I was collecting the other books for the haul photo, I decided to throw it in.

Also not pictured is The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler because, if you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a sucker for Canadian authors.

What books have you hauled recently? Are any of these on your TBR list, or have you read any of them? Share your thoughts!

Hello again!

 So, as promised, here is the first of a series of posts outlining the books I have read from January to August 2016. I didn't keep a record of the exact dates I finished each of these books, or how long they took me to read, so I'll just take my list and cover a few books per post. I will also try to add photos. These first ones aren't the best, but I'll try to make future ones Instagram-worthy. ;)

The Fate of Ten
{spoilers ahead if you haven't read the series}
At the beginning of the year, I was very much in the mood to finish off various series I had previously started and was getting weary of. Even though they are no longer my favourites, I feel the need to finish what I started. I was reading a couple at the same time, but only managed to finish The Fate of Ten by Pittacus Lore. It is the sixth book, released last September, in the Lorien Legacies series. I had been snatching the books up as soon as they were released until that point. But I wasn't really feeling the series anymore, so I didn't read this book until January. The seventh book, United As One was released this summer without much fanfare that I was made aware of. There is also a sub-series called The Lost Files which I never read.

As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the series in the beginning. It's a YA science fiction about a double alien invasion: the good guys (Loriens), whose planet was destroyed by the bad guys (Mogadorians). The nine Lorien elders sent their child-successors (called Garde) off to Earth with their trainer/guardians (Cepans) when their planet was attacked. They are all that's left of Lorien. Knowing that the Mogadorians would eventually find the children, the elders put a charm on them so that as long as they were separated they could only be killed in their numerical order, and the survivors all receive scars when the others are killed. At the beginning of the series, the first three have already been killed, and we meet Number Four (who goes by the name John Smith). As the series progresses, we slowly meet the other surviving Garde as they find each other. Once they came together the charm was broken, so now they are all fair game, so it is imperative that they all come together so that their Legacies (superpowers) are stronger.

This installment of the story picks up right where Revenge of Seven left off: the Mogadorians have officially invaded Earth and have New York City under attack, so some of the Garde are there fighting against the Mogs, while others are stranded in Mexico after finding the Sanctuary and awakening the Entity - the spirit of Lorien. Not much actually happens in this book to advance the story, except that we meet a few new characters, lots of Loriens get injured, and humans randomly become Garde.

That's really all I have to say about that. I'm glad I read it, because I do want to finish the series, but it wasn't great.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (a pseudonym of Catherine Webb) is another science fiction novel, which I absolutely loved! I believe I bought this one from Indigo merely because the title and cover caught my eye, and the synopsis was rather intriguing. It is a really interesting time travel/reincarnation story, which I always love.

Harry August keeps living the same life over and over, but he remembers everything from his past lives. At first this freaks him out, but eventually he finds others like himself and joins a community which helps him to adapt. As he progresses through his lives he is tasked with a mission, because of his special ability to remember everything, to help save the future of mankind. The time travel/living life over, is sometimes hard to get your head around, but I love that kind of mind bender. It's a great book and I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoyed Cloud Atlas and The Time Traveler's Wife.

The Arrivals
The next book I read was The Arrivals by Melissa Marr. This one I actually found on a trip to a Dollar Tree store in Vermont last year. I always check the books at Dollar Tree because you never know what you'll find there, and they're only $1 - can't go wrong, right?! The title didn't really do anything for me, but the cover art was interesting and then I recognized the author (I read and loved her Wicked Lovely series, about faeries), so I thought, "This should be great!"

It's a "weird west" novel set in an alternate universe, which appears to be a lot like an old Western. Featuring vampires, monsters, demons, and an Egyptian Pharoah... Somehow, murderers get transported from our world to this alternate universe where they band together (allied with the vampires) to fight off the monsters and demons and attempt to keep peace in the land, all the while trying to figure out how to get back to our world. It was kind of fun, but it was weird, you guys. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, unless you like that sort of thing.


Well, I think that's all for this post. Let me know if you've read any of these books and what your take on them was!