Hi! My name is Penny and as usual I'm here to talk about some bookish things
specifically today we're going to be doing the Alphabet Soup tag: N is for
Novella. So this is a series of tags that Shawn the Book Maniac has been doing where
he's creating a tag for each letter. This is the letter N and I was tagged by
Gaia Athena. So I will leave links to both of their channels down in the
description, but let's get into the questions! So first we have N is for
Novella: name the last good one you read. So for me that was definitely The Test
by Sylvain Neuvel. This is a short story about a man who goes to take his
residency test and then things get quite intense. And it does take a look at how
your values influence your actions. I'm not entirely sure what the final
conclusion from the novella was but please read it and let me know what you thought.
N is fort neighbor: name a work of fiction focused or at least largely
concerned with neighbors. Now this was really hard because I read a lot of
fantasy and I feel like fantasy doesn't think about neighbours too much.
Regardless I eventually came up with the Midnight, Texas series by Charlaine
Harris. So this is set in the same world as True Blood but it's set in this tiny
town called Midnight, Texas. Basically these crossroads in the middle of
nowhere. And it just follows the different
paranormal dramas that the different people in the town are going through and
how they support each other during those times. It's a really strange series
because I didn't find the plot really that amazing but I just felt so attached
to the characters and I just really liked hanging out in Midnight, Texas.
N is for Name: name an author that you'd recommend whose first or last name starts
with N. And I know I already mentioned him but the best one that I think I
could recommend would be Sylvain Neuvel. I have almost finished the
Themis Files by him and that is a series I really recommend and I do need to have
a look and see what other stuff he's written because I can't imagine that it
wouldn't be amazing. N is fun Nuptials: name a work of fiction
that didn't suck about a wedding. Again, this was really hard because I don't
particularly like weddings and all the ones that came to mind first were about
weddings that I kind of thought were boring but then I remembered Magic Binds
by Ilona Andrews. So this is the ninth book in the Kate Daniels series I
believe and this is the one where Kate and her love interest finally tie the
knot. I think what I liked about this is that Kate herself isn't really into the
whole wedding thing. She's too busy off investigating a murder and just trying
to look after the people that she loves. But everybody else is like no, no, you've
got to have this wedding and they're making demands about what the wedding
should involve and she really doesn't care and I love that.
N is for not aging well:
name a book that you like less than when you read it. So I have a few options
for this. Firstly the Dragons of Pern series. I have been putting off
continuing this series. I haven't gone back and read any of the earlier books
but I have a very strong suspicion that if I did I wouldn't like them as much as
I did at the time when I was first discovering the world of Pern and Dragons
and fantasy. I thought it was so amazing but now having a lot more experience
about what amazing fantasy is like I'm not sure that the Dragons of Pern series
would count. Also Christopher Pike's books. Again, I haven't reread my favourite
favourites from when I was a teen but all the Christopher Pike books I have read
as an adult... weren't as good as I thought they were when I was a teen. And then
also the Valdemar Series by Mercedes Lackey. This was hugely formative for me
when I was a teen. I learned so much about different kinds of people and the
importance of diversity and like open-mindedness but I'm really scared to
go back and read the series because I suspect that the writing is not going to
be what I like anymore. I don't know. If you've read any of these series recently
and you think they're still great then maybe let me know.
N is for N: name a book title with lots of N's. So the best one that I could find for this
is the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. So three in the
title, two in the author's name. Honestly I went through all my books on
Goodreads and that was the best I could find. I thought I would find some kind of
crazy title that was full of N's but N just... it's like a filler letter
isn't it? Poor N. Obviously everybody's heard about the Seven Husbands of Evelyn
Hugo. It's about a Hollywood starlet who's had seven husbands and it just
tells the story of why she married all those guys and who her true love was.
N is for not sure: name a book you keep changing your mind about whether you
want to read it or not. So it for me that would be Unfettered. I actually almost unhauled
this at one point just because it's a short story anthology and it's really
thick and I thought am I ever going to get to it?
Probably not. I'll just unhaul it. And then I realized that it's signed by
Patrick Rothfuss and I thought can I really unhaul a signed book? And then I
had a look at all the authors that are in this anthology and I realized that
there are some of my favourites in there so I put it back on my TBR and I have had
people tell me that it's good so I want to read it but I also just never really
go for short story anthologies and I never really pick up books this long
unless I'm really excited about them so I go back and forth as to whether I
think this should still be on my shelves but I think I want to read it. I'm not sure.
N is for nitpick: name some small literary writing or book related thing
that drives you around the bend. So I could first I couldn't think of
anything I was like wow I'm just so relaxed. Nothing annoys me. And then I
remembered what really annoys me is when you have different editions of books
that look the same but are different sizes. So one example would be the Kate
Daniels series. First nine books of the series look like this, this size
and then the tenth book, the final book of the series,
comes along and it's this size. Same style pretty much but not the same size.
Another example I have the White Cat series by Holly Black. This is the first
book in the series. Then the 2nd and the 3rd books that I managed to get? This
size. I bought this one in a book fair and then when I bought this on Book
Depository I was like yeah, it looks like looks like the same cover. I should be
good with the editions matching and then I got it and I thought no, that's not
right. Very annoying. Like I don't mind if the
cover changes. That's okay but if it looks the same it should properly match.
N is for next to nothing: name a book you read as an adult you can
barely remember a blessed thing about. I thought that there would be a lot of
these because I have 650 read books on my Goodreads list and I thought for sure
there'll be a few of these that I don't remember and I went through and there
was really only one that I can't remember anything significant about. And
that is Blood Red Dawn by Karen E. Taylor. So this is a book that my mum gave me
and it was actually the seventh book in a series and I remember that I did read
it because I was like well I mean she gave it to me so why not and if I like
it maybe I'll go back and find the rest of the series. All I remember is that it
had vampires... maybe? I don't really remember. N is for New Zealand: name a book or a
writer you'd like to read from there. Now if you don't know, I'm from New Zealand!
So I know a few New Zealand authors although not as many as I'd like to but
I would like to do a separate video at some point about New Zealand authors and
even force myself to find some new ones but still I did struggle with picking
just one for this question. But I am going to. I decided to go with a Pip
Ballantine or Philippa Ballantine who wrote this Book of the Order which is one of
my favourite series. I mean if you look at it, the style is very
similar to Kate Daniels. We've got a badass woman, we got a lion,
same, same, and this other guy. He hangs out with her too. So I really love the series
Philippa Ballentine writes with her husband I believe called Tee Morris and
they no longer live in New Zealand, they live in the States, but I really enjoyed
these books and I'm reading some more books from their other series this month
and I'm excited how it's going to go.
N is for nodding off: a mind-numbing ly
boring book. So the ones that immediately jump to mind for me for this were
Golden Son by Pierce Brown which I just read. also Bloodwitch by Susan
Dennard. Both of those I found incredibly boring. I know lots of people
love both those books but I just did not care enough to pay attention. Another
example that I think will be considered blasphemy by some people is A Feast
of Crows by George R.R. Martin. In fact, a lot of A Song of Ice and Fire
I find it a little bit boring. Like I kind of like the bigger story but it
does go on and on. So for all of you who are being forced to feel guilty for not
having read A Song of Ice and Fire, please don't. It's definitely not for everyone.
N is for next: what is the next book you're going to read. So I have just
started to read Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful by Arwyn Elys Dayton. So
this is a bunch of science fiction short stories and I have already started the
Painted Man by Peter V Brett. I mean, I don't know what the next book I pick up
after this one will be. I think I'll be reading this for a little while but I am
really enjoying this as well.
N is for now it's your turn. Tag a bevy of
booktubers. So I do like the collective plural of booktubers - a bevy of
booktubers - that Shawn has created. To be honest, I'm really bad at tagging people.
It's funny I always feel like I'm going to be annoying people by tagging them
even though I never feel annoyed when people tag me so why would I assume that
other people will be annoyed? It doesn't make any sense but that's how I feel so
I also don't want to have to go look and figure out who's done this tag
already so basically, if you've gotten this far through the video to the end then
you are tagged unless you've already done this tag. So please let me know down
below when you've done the tag otherwise that is all for now. Thank you so much
for watching. I hope that you're having a wonderful day and I will see you next time :)