Tome Topple Round 5 TBR

Happy first day of Tome Topple, everyone. That’s right. It’s this time of year again already. Time to pull out all of the amazing sounding yet physically terrifying books we’ve been neglecting because they’re just too damned long. Honestly, I have more of those than I’d like to admit.

Yep, I was surprised too. I knew another round of Tome Topple was coming up fast, but this really snuck up on me. I always have a stack of tomes to get through, though, including some books I picked up earlier this week as well as all the titles I didn’t quite make it through during the last round of Tome Topple.

For those who may not know, Tome Topple is a readathon originally created by @thoughtsontomes. The goal of this particular readathon is to read books that are 500 pages or longer. The readathon runs for two weeks. It begins today, November 17th, and ends November 30th.

For the goal oriented there are some challenges that can be completed. Because who doesn’t like a little extra challenge with their readathons?

Here are the challenges:

1. Read more than one book.
2. Read a graphic novel.
3. Read a book in a series.
4. Buddy read a book.
5. Read an adult novel.

I’m hoping to get through a number of books this time. I’m not sure how much reading time I will realistically have this week as Thanksgiving is being hosted at my house this year, but I’ll try anyway, damn it. Without further ado here are the books that I’m planning on reading over the next two weeks.

Tome Topple TBR:

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service by Eiji Otasuka and Housui Yamazaki (640 pages)
Arcadia by Iain Pears (510 pages)
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (615 pages)

Who else is participating in Tome Topple? Are you reading any of the same books? Let us know below!

Throwback Thursday Review – Alichino Volume 1 by Kouyu Shurei

Alichino Vol 1
By: Kouyu Shurei
Translator: Amy Forsyth
Release Date: (Original Japanese) November 1998; (English Translation) February 8, 2005
Publisher: TokyoPop
Series: Alichino #1
Rating:


Sometimes we pick manga we never heard of up at the library. Sometimes this a turning point, a time when we discover older or more obscured series that we collect the boxed sets of and treasure forever. This is not one of those times.

Alichino Volume 1 by Kouyu Shurei is not the most excellent manga on my library’s shelf. However, it is one which they’ve collected all of the volumes of and that was enough for me.

Review – Puella Magi Madoka Magica Vol 1 by Magica Quartet

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Volume 1
By: Magica Quartet
Illustrator: Hanokage
Translator: William Flannigan
Release Date: (Original Japanese) February 12, 2011; (English Translation) May 29, 2012
Publisher: Yen Press
Series: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Rating:


I think its safe to say that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is an international phenomenon. The story is written by Magica Quartet with the art done by Hanokage, and I cannot recommend this series enough.

A new student transfers into first year high school student Madoka’s class. The girl is familiar, a person from something Madoka knows must have been a dream. It being anything else was impossible. Cats don’t offer magical powers in exchange for your deepest wish. Yet here this girl, Homura, is and she’s fighting a rather familiar looking cat. The offer is again given. If she speaks her deepest wish, she will be granted both magical powers and her wish. But it isn’t all fun and games. The world of magic is a world of high danger and seemingly little personal reward. The lost are not mourned here, and evil stalks the innocent.

Review – Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Autonomous
By: Annalee Newitz
Website: https://www.techsploitation.com/
Release Date: September 19, 2017
Publisher: Tor Books
Rating:


A book I had my eye on for some time was Autonomous by Annalee Newitz. This is a book about autonomy, what makes someone autonomous, and a race across the globe as an illegally distributed drug begins to rack up an unexpected death toll.

Autonomous is, in a lot of ways, very dystopian. Or it wanted to be. I can’t help but feel that everything wrapped up much too nicely to be considered dystopian. (In the traditional sense of the genre and not counting the Young Adult Dystopians that relate more closely to dark fantasy/sci-fi than to adult dystopian).

Review – Snotgirl Vol 1 by Bryan O’Malley

Snotgirl
By: Bryan Lee O'Malley; Leslie Hung
Website: http://radiomaru.tumblr.com/ ; http://milkmanner.tumblr.com/
Release Date: February 28, 2017
Publisher: Image Comics
Series: Snotgirl #1
Rating:


A graphic novel I’d heard about on booktube (that’s book based youtube videos for any who aren’t familiar with the term) and decided to pick up is Snotgirl by Bryan Lee O’Malley (creator of Scott Pilgrim) and Leslie Hung. While having a slight air of mystery here, this graphic novel doesn’t fall into the usual science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres I normally read.

#MangaMonday Review – My Hero Academia Vol 10 by Kohei Horikoshi

My Hero Academia Vol. 10
By: Kohei Horikoshi
Release Date: (Original Japanese) September 2, 2016; (English) November 7, 2017
Publisher: VIZ Media
Series: My Hero Academia
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Happy Manga Monday everyone! I think it’s safe to assume that’s we’ve all been waiting on the edge of our seats for the release of the next volume of My Hero Academia. Well, that day is tomorrow and I am here with an early review of My Hero Academia Volume 10 by Kohei Horikoshi.

This is usually the part of the review where I link up my reviews of previous volumes of series and give a disclaimer on how I’ll try to be as spoiler free as possible. Well, due to the brand new Manga Monday for the blog, a backlog of reviews for all nine previous volumes in the series, and a release date of tomorrow I decided to go ahead with Volume 10’s review first. Reviews of previous titles will be posted, however, and I’ll update this section accordingly.

Review – I Hate Fairyland Vol 1 by Skottie Young

I Hate Fairyland Vol. 1: Madly Ever After
By: Skottie Young
Website: http://skottieyoung.com/
Release Date: April 20, 2016
Publisher: Image Comics
Series: I Hate Fairyland #1
Rating:


One of the parts that I love so much about this series as a whole is that, yeah, the idea of a world that is perfect and charming in every way would become very frustrating and annoying very There is nothing I love more than completely over the top humor or stories that point out flaws and misconceptions in things usually considered ‘good’, ‘normal’, or ‘benign’. I Hate Fairyland Vol 1: Madly Ever After by Skottie Young does both of these things with near perfection.

New Release! – Warcross by Marie Lu

Warcross
By: Marie Lu
Release Date: September 12, 2017
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Series: Warcross #1
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


After a major reading slump in September and October, I’m back to my normal reading pace and have tackled several novels that have been sitting around for much too long. The first of these is a fan favorite and one I’d been meaning to read for a long time. I’ve done it. I’ve finally read Warcross by Marie Lu.

Why I Can’t Read Seasonally

I’ve always read whatever I want, whenever I want. So does everyone, right? Well, I thought so, too. Then I heard about this whole ‘seasonal reading’ thing. It started over the summer while watching a YouTube video by one of the more popular booktubers, someone who’s reviews I like, but whose reading tastes usually stray far from my own. This particular video was about ‘good summer reads’. Curious, I watched on. What were ‘summer reads’? Were those like ‘beach reads’, another term I’d heard bandied about for years but never quite grasped the concept of? My only idea of a ‘beach read’ was ‘book clung to like a lifeline when family and/or friends drag you kicking and screaming to the beach. Usually comes with side of sand and gross, sticky watermelon seeds.’


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