It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
Would you be a protagonist or a side character?
Would you be a villain?
What would you be willing to do to become the kind of character you’ve dreamed of being?

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.

           

The Ship of Shadows by Maria Kuzniar
★★★☆☆ || Goodreads
Everyone else seemed to love this. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it. No surprise I’m the odd man out. xD The protagonist felt a little too perfect at absolutely everything for me, though I think that will certainly appeal to the target audience, because it neatly fits into that wish fulfillment niche. I did love the piratey adventure, the all-female crew, the found family, and how much the book delves into other places and cultures!

This Is My America by Kim Johnson
★★★★★ || Goodreads
This one surprised me a bit, not gonna lie. Contemporary is always hit or miss for me, and it seems to mostly be a miss lately. Especially with Black issues books. I ended up loving this, though. It’s a raw, honest look into life as a Black American, especially in small rural towns. It does a great job of slipping in pertinent information for the readers, like how to properly behave with police, but it does so with an almost positive bent. It acknowledges the mistakes of the past, but in the same breath, proposes that the characters have a path to move forward. Doesn’t mean the pain and betrayal suddenly disappears, but it leaves hope for a better future.

The Menagerie by Tui T. Sutherland, Kari Sutherland
★★★★★ || Goodreads
Thanks to Mari for forcing me to … er, I mean, recommending that I read this series. This book was so freaking cute. I can’t even. First, I totally want a menagerie. But second, the range of creatures in this was fantastic, and they all had very distinct personalities. I loved it so much! This book was mostly about the griffins, and they were adorable. I loved Squorp. Okay, I loved them all, really. I felt poor Nira’s struggle with raising six cubs deep in my soul haha. Poor dear. I can’t wait to get to the other books in this series!

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
DNF @ 38% || Goodreads
This makes me sad, but I’m finally calling it. This has languished on my currently reading list for weeks now, and when I finally started reading it again, I just didn’t wanna. I loved H.G. Parry’s first book so much, but this one just wasn’t for me. It’s 90% telling and 10% banter (which I did love) with very little real action going on. I did think the premise was super interesting, but it just didn’t hold my attention. There’s a lot of political talk in this, but not even the fun scheming sort that I like. I’m sad to put this aside, but I’ll still be checking out her future books, because I think she has such unique ideas and I love her writing style.

Technically, Stamped is still an ongoing read, but I didn’t make any progress on it last week, because my free time was spent listening to a virtual writing conference I attended and catching up on sessions I missed. I need to finish it this week, though, so I can return it.

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Status: 16%

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 haven’t made a ton of progress in this, and there goes my whole “reading it for my anniversary” thing, but oh well. Hubby’s birthday is next Monday. Surely I can have it done by then. That’s, um, totally what I was aiming for. Yeah, that’s it. xD

I’m getting real squad vibes off of this one right now, and I absolutely love it. Yes, this is a heist crew I can get behind. I’m more than a little in love with Kelsier, and I’m curious about Vin and where she fits into everything. The magic is also super unique. I’m having a hard time remembering exactly what all the metals do, but I guess that’s not super important since I get the gist of it from the context.

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Saving Fable by Scott Reintgen
Status: 22%

Indira has been a character-in-waiting her entire life. So she can’t believe her luck when she’s finally chosen to travel to Fable and study at the renowned Protagonist Preparatory, a school known for producing the best heroes.

But Indira’s dreams of achieving hero status don’t exactly go as planned. A failed audition lands her in the school’s side-character track, and her best efforts to prove advisors–famous characters like Alice from Wonderland and Professor Darcy–wrong are constantly sabotaged. Indira is starting to feel like an evil antagonist might be to blame.

As the danger spreads, Indira discovers all of Fable is under siege. With her friends Maxi and Phoenix by her side, she pieces together clues that will reveal who is behind the dark magic threatening them all. But the more Indira uncovers, the more doubt she feels about her place in this world of stories. After all, can a side character really save the day?

I still haven’t read Ashlords. No, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but thanks for asking. Still, I saw Escaping Ordinary pop up on NetGalley a little while back, also by Scott Reintgen, and since I’ve been on a middle grade kick lately, I decided to request it. Which means I should probably, you know, read book one first? I expected to read this next month, but my hold came through already, so I just went for it, and it’s so freaking cute.

The whole premise is so very bookish that I can’t even. Indira Story has dreamed of being a main character, but when her dream is waylaid and she ends up on a side character track, everything changes. The voice in this is really fun and engaging. I mean, I whipped through 22% last night, it was just so easy to get into and seemed to go so quickly.

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The Birth of Agent Big Butt by Amy Winfield
Status: 72/410

Every day, each of us is given a chance to be a hero. There’s only one problem…

OUR BUTS.

“I would help, but I’m too busy.”
“I like to help, but I’m too tired.”
“I’ll help, but…but…but…”

NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF BUTS!

Agent Big Butt has a big butt too; he was born with one. Yet, this newborn never lets his enormous butt get in the way. This hero uses his huge, steely butt – which emits the most powerful and lethal gas known to man – to right every wrong he sees. In this new middle-grade novel from Amy Winfield, this superhero baby matches wits with an evil doctor, fights off bullies, challenges villains with equally crazy superpowers and finds his best friend too, all before his first birthday.

There’s a new superhero on the block, and his name is Agent Big Butt, but you can call him AB – the hero with a butt of steel…and a heart of gold.

This book is full of a lot of butt and fart jokes, and that’s just so not my sense of humor. Minion, however, seems to love it. We’re slowly plugging away at this, and she seems really into it. While the jokes aren’t quite my thing, I love the family bonds going on already, and the voice is really conversational and fun and easy to read. It makes for a really fun read-aloud.

       

I have no idea what I want to read next, so I’m just winging it. I will say that Dread Pirate Arcanist is still on the list, and I want to start that soon. I only put it off because I had some blog tour reads to get through first.

After that? I’m not sure, but I’ve been really feeling the middle grade reads lately, so I’ll probably just follow that train with Paola Santiago and the River of Tears. This is one of my most anticipated reads this year because La Llorona! How cool is that?!

Again, still feeling that middle grade vibe, but also looking for something a little spooky to break things up, so I’m thinking it’s time to pick up The Mulberry Tree. I love the rhyme in the summary, and it sounds like a fantastic read. It’s been a while since I read something creepy, so it feels like it’s time.

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