Summer is for Reading {Fantasy} Books

I think that autumn and winter is for writing. To cozy up inside, preferably under a quilted blanket with a cup of tea or hot coffee, and write your next big novel or just to journal or compose your next blog post. And summer? It’s for reading. For sitting in the sun, if it’s not too hot, or in the shade of a lush, green tree and tuning out the bird song and tuning into the words of wonderful authors you’ve not yet encountered – or meeting up with favorites from the past. Do you agree with my seasoning?

Although this thought might just be an excuse to not blog as much in July, who knows?

Anyway, if you’ve been keeping up on instagram you know I’ve worked a lot in different art journals, and shared little glimpses of them here and there. Also, started a “new” sketchbook this week, and I love how it looks so very much:

It’s one of my custom notebooks, made especially for me with my painting on the cover. I got three of them custom made back when. One with thin paper that I used as a writing diary and the other one, with thick drawing paper like this one, is now filled with my doodles, drawings and sketches.  I love it so very much, and I will share pages and WIP in the future I’m sure.

But back to reading. Right now I’m reading a novel by Jenna Glass, called The Women’s War. It’s a feminist novel where, through magic, women get ability to control their own reproduction!

I didn’t realize it was the first in a ongoing series, but that’s okay. I’ll try to source out book two, Queen of the Unwanted, that just came out this spring. I usually try to steer away from non-finished book series, because I am impatient and also, forgetful. I want to read all of the books at once if I can, not wait years for them to be written and published. It has happened before, and after a while I forget half of the plot and when I get back into it (if I do) I have to re-read the first ones. Who has time for that? Not me, as I am in my best book-devouring-age I think.

In other “news” I found this big stack at my local thrift shop earlier this spring, and it’s these books that has kept me entertained through the pandemic. I just bought the ones I thought looked most interesting, and it turns out all of them are great books I totally recommend you to check out.

All of them are YA fiction, but I think that is just a label that does not interest me, so let’s ignore it and list a few good books that you might want to check out (summer is not ending this week, right?).

iHanna’s Fantasy Book recommendations

• The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon was a thoughtful, bitter sweet read about two immigrant teens in the US and their first encounter. Beautiful but kind of sad. Not fantasy, although all the rest are.
• Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor – is the only book I
  haven’t read so far but I am guessing it will be a favorite because I loved her previous series so much (mentioned in this video)
• Cinder – Book One of the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer – the first book in what’s called the Lunar Chronicles. In my pile were also book two Scarlet, and after finishing both I went to the library and carried home the books about Cress and Winter as well as the prequel Fairest, and on my night stand I have Stars Above that I might read later. Yum!
• A Court of Thorns and Rosesby by Sarah J. Maas – which I think must be my favorite in this pile! The first book starts of with the poor, nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre that kills a wolf in the woods. It turns out that the wolf has friends, and a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for him being killed (it’s based on the Beauty and the beast in a loose and wonderful way). Feyre is dragged to a magical land she only knows about from legends, and there she discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin – one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world. Guess what happens next? If romance fantasy is something you are into, then you must read this one!
• Throne of Glass series, also by Sarah Maas, is the last one I’ll mention since I’m half into it too right now. It’s not in the pile, but because I liked Maas’ court-series, I wanted to try this one as well when I found it at the library. It’s written before the court-series, and I think you can tell that it’s written by a young, not as confident writer, but by book two I think it’s fine – and I like it although not as much as the court-series. Which will you pick up to read?

And while frequenting the library more than usual, I picked up an embroidered comic, that asks the question Does the words become clearer if they’re embroidered – in Swedish. I picked it up because of the embroidery, not the plot or theme.

It’s called Urmodern by Åsa Schagerström. I found it strange, but an interesting concept. And then a messeage from my library to everyone, in many different languages:

Comments are open. My biggest summer crush this year: reading! What’s yours?