It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
What would you do to become a pirate?
Would you join an all-girl crew on a notorious ship?
Where would you want to travel?

Wait, no, that’s not right. We ask these three W’s:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

       

Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air by Jackson Ford (review will be posted 7/16)
★★★★★ || Goodreads
I loved the first book in this series and had been so looking forward to this one, and it didn’t disappoint! It had about 10,000% more feels than I expected. I went in thinking it’d be a funny action book, like the first one, and then I was completely blindsided by all these feels. What even is this?! What happened to my action/comedy, and why are my eyes leaking? Gross. While this was still undeniably funny, I thought it added so much more depth to the characters, too, and really upped the stakes as far as the world and powers.

Knightmare Arcanist by Shami Stovall (review will be posted 7/18)
★★★★★ || Goodreads
I absolutely devoured this freaking book. The beginning was a little slow and I wasn’t sure at first, but man, it really picks up. The magic in this world is freaking awesome. I’m absolutely in love with the idea and really enjoyed seeing what everyone could do. This book gets dark really fast, and I can’t even start to tell you how much I loved that. I actually renewed my Kindle Unlimited just so I could continue this series.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
This was a buddy read with Keri @ Are You My Book, and I only just finished this, so we haven’t had a chance to “debrief” on the end of this book yet. I have soooo many thoughts, though, and I can’t wait to discuss them with her! I was hoping to love this book, and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t quite love it. Nathaniel and Silas were fabulous. Especially Silas. Who’s surprised that I fell in love with a demon? No one? Oh, okay, I see how it is. Fine. He was absolutely fabulous. I thought the plot twists in this were either fairly predictable or were too convenient, to the point where it made the plot super easy. There were parts that just didn’t make sense to me.

This Week’s Reviews

   

Yet another week with no progress on A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, and I think if I don’t pick it up this week, I’ll have to officially DNF it. I’ve realized I really have absolutely no desire to pick it up again, but I loved the author’s first book so much that I really want to give this one a chance. So I might pick it up again later in the week.

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Status: 9%

Where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. Criminal mastermind Kelsier teaches Allomancy, the magic of metals, to another Mistborn, urchin Vin 16. The unlikely heroine is distracted by rich Venture heir Elend. Can Kelsier’s thieving crew take on the tyrant Lord Ruler and bring back colour to their world?

I didn’t make very much progress on this, though I am enjoying it so far. Sanderson’s books are always a little daunting for me because of their length and complexity, which is also the reason I love them. What can I say? I’m a bundle of contradictions. I’m already head-over-heels in love with Kelsier, so I’m looking forward to getting more into this one.

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The Ship of Shadows by Maria Kuzniar
Status: 63%

Aleja whiles away her days in her family’s dusty tavern in Seville, dreaming of distant lands and believing in the kind of magic that she’s only ever read about in books. After all, she’s always being told that girls can’t be explorers.

But her life is changed forever when adventure comes for her in the form of a fabled vessel called the Ship of Shadows. Crewed by a band of ruthless women, with cabin walls dripping with secrets, the ship has sailed right out of a legend. And it wants Aleja.

Once on board its shadowy deck, she begins to realize that the sea holds more secrets than she ever could have imagined. The crew are desperately seeking something, and their path will take them through treacherous waters and force them to confront nightmare creatures and pitch-dark magic. It will take all of Aleja’s strength and courage to gain the trust of her fellow pirates – and discover what they are risking everything to find.

I think I’m the odd man out on this one. Everyone I’ve talked to seems to love it, and I think it’s okay. I do think younger kids will appreciate it more than I do, because it provides some really great wish fulfillment for that age group. Some things I do appreciate: the diversity! The women travel to a bunch of different places, and the reader gets to learn about the different cultures, not to mention that the women themselves are from different backgrounds and countries. I think that was so well done! The magic is super freaking cute, and I’m really enjoying the adventures at sea and some of the action. I guess my biggest struggle is I just don’t particularly like Aleja. She seems too perfect to me. I mean, from the very beginning, you learn that she taught herself English and French just by reading books in English and French, and unless you’re a genius, that’s just … not a thing. You won’t learn how to have near-perfect pronunciation (which she does) just by reading, nor will you pick up the grammar and nuances to be fluent, not at 12, even if you’re able to teach yourself quite a bit of vocabulary and such. She just picks things up so easily (and impossibly) throughout the book and is obviously the best and cleverest, despite being surrounded by adult pirates who can’t do the things she can do. Which is why, like I said, I think this will work really well for kids that age. My brain just can’t shut off the voice that keeps yelling, “You’re a 12-year-old girl in historical times from a poor family, yo!”

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Stamped by Jason Reynolds
Status: 3 hrs 20 mins (55 mins left)

This is NOT a history book.
This is a book about the here and now.
A book to help us better understand why we are where we are.
A book about race.

The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.

Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas–and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.

I think this is the first time I’ve actually featured an audiobook on a WWW! This is a good one to have as a first, too. This is a YA version of Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning, because I wanted to read it, but who has the time to read 500 pages of nonfiction about race relations? Ugh. I struggle with nonfiction so much lately.

Stamped has worked really well for me so far, though. The audiobook is done by Jason Reynolds, as well, and if you combine that with the conversational tone the book is written in, it feels very much like just having a face-to-face conversation with a friend about history. I actually really like it and would probably listen to more nonfiction audiobooks if they were done in this style. It feels much more engaging and holds my attention better.

I’m surprised that I learned some things! Like did you know that Mennonites were among the first to argue for black rights, because they had come to America to seek religious freedom and they saw a sort of kinship in the race struggle? I live in a big Mennonite community, so I thought that was so neat!

I confess that this book discusses a lot of things I’m already aware of, because it may surprise you to know that when I was young, I read a lot of nonfiction, including history books. but for someone who isn’t as familiar with history? This book is a fantastic introduction to some concepts that people might not be aware of about the historical struggle for equality in America.

           

As soon as I finish The Ship of Shadows, I’ll be picking up This Is My America, since it’s a blog tour book and my stop is Tuesday, July 21. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll make of this one, because it’s not the type of book I’d normally read, but that cover gets me every time, and I really want to love these books with everything that’s been going on lately.

Technically, The Birth of Agent Big Butt should go on my currently reading list, since I started it last night, but it was already kinda crowded. This is a read I’m doing with Minion. I confess, I had some misgivings going in (and as Minion says, it mentions butt a lot in the beginning, and she’s nine and made that comment). However, I’m glad we picked it up, because she’s a super reluctant reader and hates reading larger books, but she picked it up right away and read 50 pages without hesitation, so … wow. This will probably be around a while, because our joint reads tend to be slow, so you’ll have plenty of time to get used to seeing it.

Remember how much I loved Knightamre Arcanist, waaaay up there in my finished reading? Yup, well, since I went out and got Kindle Unlimited, I plan on diving right into the sequel, Dread Pirate Arcanist, after I finish my blog tour reads. Because if there’s anything I need more of in my life it’s pirates and magic. Or pirates with magic. I’m not picky.

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