WAYFARER (Passenger #2)
Alexandra Bracken
Releases 3 January 2017 from Disney-Hyperion

All Etta Spencer wanted was to make her violin debut, but she was thrust into a treacherous world where the struggle for power could alter history. After losing the one thing that would have allowed her to protect the Timeline, and the one person worth fighting for, Etta awakens alone in an unknown place and time, exposed to the threat of the two groups who would rather see her dead than succeed. When help arrives, it comes from the last person Etta ever expected—Julian Ironwood, the Grand Master’s heir who has long been presumed dead, and whose dangerous alliance with a man from Etta’s past could put them both at risk. 

Meanwhile, Nicholas and Sophia are racing through time in order to locate Etta and the missing astrolabe. They cross paths with a mercenary-for-hire, a cheeky girl named Li Min who quickly develops a flirtation with Sophia. But as the three of them attempt to evade their pursuers, Nicholas soon realizes that one of his companions may have ulterior motives. 

As Etta and Nicholas fight to make their way back to one another, from Imperial Russia to the Vatican catacombs, time is rapidly shifting and changing into something unrecognizable… and might just run out on both of them.

Info and image via Goodreads.

Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday, a book blog tag hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's topic is a general back to school theme. I've posted a couple of times about my concerns with the lack of diversity in the classical canon, so I thought today I'd share my Top Ten Classics Not Written by White Men. Here are some diverse picks to round out your English education!

(Because in my education I lacked the proper exposure, most of these books are by white women, not people of color. I am always looking for recommendations for PoC classics. Also note that I'm including an asterisk by the titles that I was exposed to within my formal education for your reference.)

1) Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. All of Austen's work is fun and clever, a great addition to the classical canon that presents a more feminine and romantic angle. (Seriously, Austen's sass is inspiring. Not to mention, she turns the tables by repeatedly failing the reverse Bechdel Test--her books are all about them women.) Pride and Prejudice* is the obvious choice, and I'd recommend it for sure, but Mansfield Park is my personal favorite!

As a recent college graduate, it is my duty today to share the love and offer my advice for the newbies. I blogged various tips and such during my freshman year, but after four years, I have an even greater perspective. So here are my final and biggest pieces of advice for incoming college freshmen!

1) Use RateMyProfessors.com. After a highly negative experience with one professor, I found this resource where students can write and read reviews of the teachers at their school. You have to be able to interpret these reviews wisely, of course--some teachers will get rated lower for having higher difficulty classes, rather than for being lesser skilled teachers--but for me, it's been incredibly helpful. I used it when choosing courses, and I added my own ratings too, to pass the assistance on.

WINDWITCH (The Witchlands #2)
Susan Dennard
Releases 3 January 2017 from Tor Teen

On a continent ruled by three empires, some are born with a "witchery," a magical skill that sets them apart from others. A shadow man haunts the Nubrevnan streets, leaving corpses in his wake—then raising those corpses from the dead. Windwitch continues the tale of Merik--a cunning privateer, prince, and windwitch--along with fated best friends Safi and Iseult, as they take on this new threat as well as many more political machinations.

Info and image via Goodreads.

Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday, a book blog tag hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's topic is the Top Ten Books That Have Been on My TBR Since Before I Started Blogging. Now, I didn't have a Goodreads when I started blogging four years ago, so I didn't have a defined to-read list. Instead, today I'm going to share the Top Ten Books That Have Been On My Goodreads TBR the Longest, starting back in December of 2013, almost three years ago.

1) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This is a 1937 classic novel, a romance, written by an African American woman. I've been keeping an eye on the diversity issue for a while now!

2) The Pledge by Kimberly Derting. Derting is an author I've liked for a while; this book is a YA fantasy dystopian focusing on prestige languages.

Today's my best friend's wedding, which is giving me feelings of all different sorts. It's such a big moment! We've been friends since we were both nine, through all kinds of adventures, and she has been the inspiration for some character or another in basically all of my novels. She's just incredibly precious to me, and so this is overwhelming. (Also, I've never really been in a wedding before, and now I'm a maid of honor. Yikes!)

Because I'm super busy today, I'm going to go with the wedding theme and show you some pins from my own wedding planning board on Pinterest. Although for me, it seems "wedding time" will be a long way away (*cries*).

Anyway. Here's my wedding mood board!

Last week, I shared my last "Waiting On" Wednesday book of 2016! Awesome, right? So we're taking a break this week to do a Wordy Wednesday instead. I put up the poll for you guys last week and you voted for an excerpt from a terrible first novel! 

I posted one of my first attempts at a novel here, but I haven't shared anything from the first full-length novel that I finished: THE DRAGON SLAYERS, which was an MG fantasy about a group of magically gifted girl friends and/or sisters fighting an evil organization of dragon slayers. I finished it when I was 11... and ended up throwing out the only printed copy and erasing the document from my computer because my friends didn't like the title. A+ critique managing skills, do not recommend.

I did, however, write some of THE DRAGON SLAYERS in my diary, which means I still have a small excerpt not lost to the winds of childhood whims. And so here you guys have it! The last remnants of THE DRAGON SLAYERS, which begins with two "poems."

Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday, a book blog tag hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's topic is Top Ten Books With _____ Setting, so I decided to go with Top Ten Books Set in Countries Outside the United States (excluding Harry Potter, because that's obvious). Here they are!

1) Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles. This is probably the 300th time I've posted about this YA sci-fi fairytale retelling series, but it just fits with so many different themes and ideas! The first book takes place in futuristic China, the second in futuristic France, the third partially in the Sahara Desert. It also takes place in space and on the moon varyingly and for most of the fourth book.

2) Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season. This intense, mature YA urban fantasy series takes place in a futuristic England. The third of seven anticipated books comes out next year.

So yesterday I spent a lot of time searching my room, trying to find a mysterious diaperish smell that had been hanging around for two weeks, despite me having done the kitty litter and taken out the trash and washed the laundry. My conclusion is that it was coming from my makeup bag--like, the actual bag, not the makeup. It's an old bag, and it's been through a lot, so it makes sense. It's probably got tons of old makeup stains and remnants, and I know Spartacus has intentionally pushed cups of various liquids onto it at various times, so it's time to throw it out. Whoo-hoo!

​Cats, amiright?

Thanks to the fact that I essentially rearranged my room, I am now suffering a fibro flare. So me and my soreness are just going to give you guys a short update today on the state of my life.

It's time for "Waiting On" Wednesday! This is a feature created by Breaking the Spine where bloggers share an upcoming book about which they are very excited. So here's the next yet-to-be-published MG/YA novel from the top of my TBR list!

SCYTHE
Neal Shusterman
​Releases 22 November 2016 from Simon & Schuster

In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed, or  “gleaned”, by professional reapers, “scythes”. Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythe’s apprentices, and—despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation—they must learn the art of killing and come to understand the necessity of what they do.

Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice. And when it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to glean the loser, Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another in a fight for their lives.

Info and image via Goodreads.

Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday, a book blog tag hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's topic is a free choice, so I'm gonna hit the next idea from the archives that I haven't done yet: Top Ten Books That Made Me Cry. Instead of telling you which made me cry the most (since I already kind of talked about that here), I'm gonna share with you the last ten books that made me cry. Enjoy!

1) Underwater by Marisa Reichardt. A beautifully written YA contemporary that really gets you into the mindset of someone struggling with agoraphobia after a traumatic incident. The deep emotional aspect of this book got me to tear up.

2) Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. Sepetys writes brilliant and heartwrenching YA historical fiction novels, and this one follows in the pattern of her other tearjerker, Between Shades of Gray. Salt to the Sea is about the worst maritime disaster in history, which took place during WWII on a ship full of vulnerable refugees.

Hey guys! It's August! So here's your Tumblr-ish fun for the month. I'll see you Tuesday!

AND THE TREES CREPT IN
Dawn Kurtagich
​Releases 6 September 2016 from Little Brown Books

When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt's home, it's immediately clear that the "blood manor" is cursed. The creaking of the house and the stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too--the questions that Silla can't ignore: Who is the beautiful boy that has appeared from the woods? Who is the man that her little sister sees, but no one else? And why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer?

​Info and image via Goodreads.

Welcome back (at last) to Top Ten Tuesday, a book blog tag hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's topic is Top Ten Books I'd Buy Immediately If Someone Gave Me a Gift Card. So here are ten books from the top of my to-buy list!

1) Leigh Bardugo's The Grisha Trilogy. Yeah, so that's actually three books (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising), but for the purposes of this post, consider it like a box set. This is a poetically written YA fantasy series that takes inspiration from Russian culture and has some nice (understated) romance. It's one of my faves.

2) Frindle by Andrew Clements. This clever MG contemporary is too good and too classic not to own, guys. Clements is a master writer.

3) S.J. Kincaid's Insignia Trilogy. Another set of three books (Insignia, Vortex, and Catalyst), a brilliant YA sci-fi about a sassy teen boy and a technology-driven space war. The worldbuilding is thoughtful and believable and smart, which I adore.