Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

2016 Reading Challenges – Books Ahead!

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations5 Comments

It’s a bright shiny new year (several days in, even) and definitely time to talk about plans for the year to come–specifically, reading challenges.  I was a little burned out on the subject this time last year, and had a very laid-back time, rereading old favorites and, frankly, ignoring my “match-categories” challenge until the last quarter of the year.  Result–I’m ready to dive back into some more proper reading challenges in 2016!

What I like about challenges is that they focus me, and help me read the books I actually want to read, but don’t always think of.  Since I read a lot of books, challenge books make up a pretty small percentage, leaving me plenty of reading freedom but still helping me get some special types of books in.

So…what kind of books do I want to read in 2016?

More Medal-Winners

PictureThis is probably a direct result of spending Christmas talking to my cousins who are watching all the Academy Award Best Picture nominees (ever).  I’m not doing that, but I like the idea of working through a prestigious list.  The Pulitzer Prize is decidedly out, so I thought–why not Newbery Medal?  And when I looked at the list and realized I’d only read a third of them, that sealed it.  There are 94 total, I have read 32, and my goal is to read 15 Newbery Medal Winners, to bring myself up to half.

I’m joining the Smiling Shelves Newbery Challenge; there’s a (slightly) complicated point system, and it looks like I’m aiming for the third or AVI level.  This may inspire me to read a few more and achieve the Lowry level…I always liked her. 🙂

More Universes

If you were following along in November, you know that I wrote a NaNo Novel involving traveling into parallel universes.  The whole concept fascinates me, plus I have that novel to revise next year…so I want to find more novels that explore those ideas (GoodReads is so helpful for this kind of thing, by the way!)  I haven’t been able to find any officially-organized challenge around this topic (it’s slightly niche, I admit) so I’m just doing this one myself, with a goal of 12 books, or one per month.

More Diversity

I read a lot of British and American authors, and I’m pretty much okay with that…but I’m less okay with the predominantly white protagonists I’m reading about.  Racism, representation, and the role of media in shaping cultures’ unconscious (or conscious) views on certain groups is a MUCH bigger topic than I want to tackle right here…but suffice to say, I believe in beginning at home and so I want to read more diverse protagonists, particularly ethnically-diverse.

I’m setting a goal of 18 books with non-white protagonists, hoping that will be a low bar and suspecting I will find out it’s not…but we’ll see.  I feel sure there must be an official challenge around this topic, but I haven’t been able to find it.  If you know of one, let me know!

Edit: And thank you to MerviH, who pointed me to “Diversity on the Shelf” which I’ve now joined!  A goal of 18 books puts me on the Third Shelf level of the challenge.

More Shakespeare

shakespeare400A conversation on New Year’s Eve made me realize I have not been much in touch with Mr. Shakespeare in recent years, and that’s no good at all.  So I decided to throw the Bard into my reading challenge mix, and then went looking for a challenge–and found the Bardathon.  There are many, many ways to participate–in a perfect world I’d like to do Tragic Shakespearean (read 5 tragedies), Comedic Shakespearean (read 5 comedies) and Cinematic Shakespearean (watch 5 plays), but realistically that’s overreaching…so I’m only officially going for Mix-and-Match, to engage with 5 plays in any of the above-mentioned ways.

More Seasonal “Challenges”

…by which I mean Carl’s seasonal reading experiences, over at Stainless Steel Droppings.  I completely fell off the wagon on these in the second half of 2015, and am not going to get back on in time for the currently-running Sci Fi one…but starting with my favorite, Once Upon a Time in the spring, I want to get back engaged with these.  They’re the best for blogging community, and are just always so much fun.

So there you are!  Not too strenuous but a bit more focused and as of right now at least, I’m excited to explore where these will take me.  Happy reading in 2016!

NaNoWriMo Day Infinity…

On By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo1 Comment

What with Christmas and end-of-the-year posts, I got very distracted from sharing about my NaNo novel!  I was working towards a half-NaNo (25,000 words) during December, but happily, I finished ahead of time.  I got to 65,882 words and the end of the story on December 20th!

There will definitely be revision needed, thematically and on some POV issues I’ve mentioned earlier, but overall I’m pretty happy with how the first draft turned out.  Since it’s shorter than most of my first drafts, there’s plenty of space for expansion.  And considering this is a very complicated plot involving alien fairy tales, a conspiracy theory, a millennia-old treasure hunt and, of course, parallel universes, I’m happy to have managed a mostly coherent first draft in the frantic rush of NaNo.  Writing to the end helped me figure a lot out, and give me a better idea of the direction to take when I revise.

But that won’t be for a while.  I plan to let this one percolate in my backbrain for at least several months, maybe a year, while I focus on last year’s NaNo novel, book 4 in my Beyond the Tales series.  So it’ll be some time before this one pops up again.  But have a last excerpt in the meantime. 🙂

        I turned to go, and maybe I really would have gone—or maybe I would have walked five steps and turned around again—but it didn’t matter because when I turned to go, rather too fast and without looking around, I collided right into someone carrying a big lot of groceries, disrupted the antigrav field holding everything together, and sent a whole pile of food flying all over the walkway.

            “Oh—sorry!” I said, stooping down to catch some kind of wildly rolling fruit.

            “No, I wasn’t looking where I was going either.”

            My breath caught and I looked up, fruit in one hand but letting another piece go right by me.

            Of course it was Lark. Her hair was a little bit longer and I had somehow, irrationally, expected her to be wearing her blue coat, which she wasn’t, but it was still definitely, unmistakably Lark, briskly and cheerfully tossing groceries back into the antigrav net.

            “I’m sorry,” I said again. For a lot of things.

            “No harm done,” she said, tossing one last loaf of bread back into the hovering pile and standing up. She flashed me a grin, a familiar grin that made my chest hurt. “I’m Lark, I live here,” she said with a nod towards the house. I managed not to say I knew that. “Are you new to the neighborhood?”

            Because of course she’d introduce herself to any new neighbors. She was like that. “No,” I said, regretting it. “I’m—my family, we’re startraders. Our ship is—in port.” Or in orbit. I had no idea, but it probably didn’t matter. Then I started slightly, realizing what I hadn’t said, overlooking the obvious thing that she still didn’t know. “I’m Aza.”

Movie Review: Star Wars – The Force Awakens

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction6 Comments

star_wars_poster_full.0.0If your friends are like my friends, then you will understand why many of the conversations I’ve had recently began with a variation of, “So have you seen it yet?”  And by “it” we all understood that we meant Star Wars.  We’ve been comparing excitement and concerns for a good two years now, so we all have a good grounding of discussion.  I’m not getting this review up immediately, but I went to see the movie on Saturday of opening weekend.  I was clinging to caution right up until the lights dimmed (and maybe for an hour after that…) but the final verdict?  I liked it!

And from here on out, spoilers abound.  I warned you!

The story is set thirty years after Return of the Jedi.  The politics are slightly confusing, but the Rebel Alliance has evolved into/been replaced by the Resistance, who are fighting the First Order, heir apparent of the Empire.  And there’s a New Republic, but we’re not sure how powerful they are.  Much more importantly, Luke has disappeared, General Leia Organa is heading the Resistance and hoping to find her brother, a renegade Stormtrooper named Finn gets mixed up in galactic complications, then drags Rey, a scavenger on a desert world (but not Tattooine) into the mix too.  And there are battles and uses of the Force and funny droids.  Of course.

That is not a good summary, but you’ve probably seen it by now, so it doesn’t matter that much.  We know what I’m talking about, right? Continue reading “Movie Review: Star Wars – The Force Awakens” →

Blog Hop: Coming Soon…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: What are your most anticipated books of the year?

I am most desperately looking forward to The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, the final book in Catherynne Valente’s amazing, wonderful, beautiful series. Due out March 1st! I’m almost as eager for The Gift of Power by Tamora Pierce, the long-awaited and much-postponed next Tortall book, which I hear will be out…some time in 2016. Hopefully!

I’m also looking forward delightedly to Revisionist by Jim C. Hines, next book in his wonderful, reader-wish-fulfillment Libriomancer series.

Two more I’m anticipating, albeit less so: The Storyteller by Aaron Starmer, to see if his somewhat incomplete first two books get rounded off well by the last one in the trilogy; and The Untimely Deaths of Alex Wayfare by M. G. Buehrlen, mostly to find out if my guess about one character’s identity turns out to be true.

Are there any books you’re especially looking forward to? Anything I should keep an eye out for?

2015 Reading Round-Up

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations2 Comments

On the first day of 2016, it’s clearly time to look back at my reading for the past year, with lots of cheers and just one or two jeers.  My total count for the year was 194 books…if I had realized I was that close to 200 sooner, I might have tried to fit a few more in!  I’ve been listening to more audiobooks, and also trying to watch less TV and read more–and apparently that’s working out.  They weren’t all winners, but here are some of the best and worst of the year…

1) Best of…
I’ve been having fun splitting my “Best of” books for the past couple of years—it lets me highlight more of the excellent books I read during the past year. So here are a few of my best reads of the past year!

1A) Best Villain: Fairest by Marissa Meyer
Much as I hated waiting extra time for the final book in the Lunar Chronicles Quartet, I did very much enjoy this prequel novella from the point of view of the villain of the series, the horrible Queen Levana. Meyer did a wonderful job explaining how Levana became who she is…while not really making her any more sympathetic despite her hideous background. Meyer gives us much more insight into Levana and how she sees her actions, making her a far more complex character…but still definitely, incontrovertibly villainous.

1B) Best Romance(s): Winter by Marissa Meyer
Well-worth the wait, the final book (review forthcoming) in the Lunar Chronicles Quartet had not one, not two, not three, but four really lovely romances and delightful romantic couples. My favorite is probably still my favorite romantic couple of last year, Cress and Thorne, but there are wonderful moments with Wolf and Scarlet, and with Winter and Jacin. Cinder and Kai too, but they never quite did it for me as much. But still—a lovely bunch of romances, lots of balls in the air, and somehow satisfying for everyone involved.

1C) Best Hero(ine): Loose Changeling by A. G. Stewart
I have to love a heroine who is suddenly plunged into a world of magic and monsters and, while struggling to learn her new abilities, also manages to notice that dead hobgoblins are staining her carpet. Nicole is so real and so marvelously unlike most fantasy characters I’ve read.

1D) Best Series: Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
I started this series early in the year and read the final book (review forthcoming!) in December. The continuing adventures of Percy Jackson and a variety of Greek and Roman demigods, it was exciting, funny and even explored some deeper themes too—often all at once. Slightly more mature than the Percy Jackson series (but still very safely YA), I preferred it to the original series for the more extensive character developments. And we got to be in Annabeth’s head. That’s a win.

1E) Best Nonfiction: The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs and Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
I had a strangely good year in nonfiction when I have to give this one a tie. The Year of Living Biblically chronicles an agnostic Jew’s journey through a literal interpretation of the Bible and is astonishingly insightful, respectful and even meaningful in places. It would have won this category easily…until I read Daring Greatly, which had me highlighting extensively and then telling all my friends to read it too. All about vulnerability, why we need it and how we avoid it, it’s brilliant and probably has something of value for everyone. So probably this should go to Daring Greatly—but I really liked The Year of Living Biblically too.

2) Worst Book: Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang
I’ve read worst books in other years, and this one didn’t have the appalling writing of, say, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians (good title, terrible book) or How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend (ditto), but this one still fell very, very far short of what it attempted to do—and didn’t appear to notice that fact either. So if this category is really “book that irritated me the most,” hands-down winner for the year.

3) Most Disappointing: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Rejection Proof could have landed here too, but I’m going to give this one to Go Set a Watchman. I’ve never seen a book with higher expectations fall faster, and it’s honestly all rather sad. I had relatively modest hopes myself, but the book didn’t even meet those. In my own personal view of the world, just as there were only three (now four) Star Wars movies, Harper Lee only wrote one book.

4) Most Surprising (in a Good Way): The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I picked this audiobook up on an impulse because I had just read Go Set a Watchman and saw it at the library—and then it was wonderful. If I could think of the right category, I would have put it under “Best of” up there too. A wonderful story of women working together, finding their power and fighting injustice in their society.

5) Can’t Believe I Waited Until 2015 To Read It: Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan
I don’t usually double-list books, but this one is too obvious a choice to ignore. I always vaguely meant to read this series when the first book came out. Five books later, I finally did!

6) Most Hilarious Read
To be perfectly honest, this is basically my Terry Pratchett category. I don’t even look for other books anymore, I just check to see what I read by Sir Terry this year. There were three (well, four, but Raising Steam just wasn’t very funny) and none were break-out new Discworld favorites—so we have a split between Moving Pictures and Unseen Academicals, while my final Pratchett read comes in for my next category…

7) Most Satisfying Read: The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett
This is the final Discworld book (review, yes, forthcoming!), published posthumously, and I was somewhat nervous after the unfunny Raising Steam—which just made me so very, very sad. So it was immensely satisfying to read one last new Discworld book—and it was good. Not a new favorite, but a good, funny final adventure with Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegles and that makes me feel so much better about everything.

8) Surprisingly Great Reread: The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
I don’t usually put rereads on my “best of” post because it sort of feels like cheating–I already knew they were really good when I picked them up.  But I did a lot of rereading this year and wanted to get that on the list somehow…so this is my “didn’t realize how good it was” category.  I knew that Smekday was good–that’s why I reread it, and wanted to read the sequel, but this one jumped from “great book” to “new favorite” on a reread.  Sadly, neither the sequel nor the movie adaptation, while both good in their ways, could equal the original.  But that’s okay–because the original is excellent.

9) Most Looking Forward To in 2016: The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente
Like my most hilarious read belonging to Terry Pratchett, this category has pretty much belonged to Valente’s Fairyland series for several years.  I don’t know what I’ll have to look forward to next year when this series is over!  The fifth and final book will be out March 1st, and I already have it pre-ordered.  I’ll have a post on my other anticipated reads of 2015 up soon.

And that’s the story for another year!  What was your best read in 2015?  Or do you have a book to fit any of the other categories?  I’d love to hear about it!