Moon Dragon's Den

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Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! You can call me Moony. This blog is always under construction, so things will be changing constantly. Feel free to look around!

If you’re interested in my bookish posts, you can find the books I’m currently reading, books I’m reviewing, as well as links to my other book posts and pages, check out my Reading Nook!

If you’re interested in my writing, you can find my current projects and their pages and tags, as well as tags to my writing posts, check out my Scribblebook!

If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to comment! (But I ask you to keep it kind. This is a positive space; I don’t tolerate hate. Any hateful or inappropriate comments will be deleted.)

Mid-week update 1/22/20

I am not where I wanted to be in my reading at this point in the month. I’ve been struggling to find the motivation to pick up the two eBooks that I’ve started. Not that I’m not enjoying them, because once I get going I get a good chink of pages read. It’s just a struggle to get either of these books picked up. So I’m putting Starsight and Renegades on hold for now, and back into my TBR jar in hopes that the next time I pick them out I’ll be more in the mood to read them. I’m starting Geekerella in hopes that something that (I assume) is going to be light and fluffy will get me back into the mood to read.

BOOKS I HAVE FINISHED:

Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Books I’m Currently reading:

Geekerella by Ashley Poston
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (Audiobook)

Books I still need to read:

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (library/audiobook)

I just finished Blue Lily, Lily Blue and started The Raven King today, and as soon as I’m done with that I’ll need to start The Hate U Give so I can finish it before it’s due back to the library. I’ll do my TBR drawing for February for my Monday post. I’m thinking of doing the drawing live on my Instagram? I’m not sure yet.

posts in the works:

Book Review: Come Tumbling Down
Book Review: The Dream Thieves
Book Review: Pretty Girls (to be posted Saturday)
Book Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Book Review: Serpent & Dove
February TBR

I’m working on finishing these and trying not to fall too far behind on the reviews. I’ll try to have them done and scheduled by this Saturday.

Pages in the works:

All Time Favorite Books and Series (in progress)
Smoke & Rain (WIP page, in progress)
Legendary (WIP page, finished and pending publication)
Aptitude (WIP page, finished and pending publication)

I’ve been making only a little progress at a time on each of the two in progress pages at at a time, but I’m hoping they will be posted soon.

Writing updates:

I’ve made some progress in Smoke & Rain, though maybe not as much as I might have hoped at this point. I had hoped to finish it by the end of December, but that hasn’t happened. I hit a pretty big block before the end of the month and have only just broken through it. I had a similar situation with the outline for Legendary, but recently got past that, too. I’m hoping that I can still get some work done even though I’m starting classes today.

Least Favorite, DNFed, and Most Disappointing Books of 2019

I’m not sure why this is listed as being posted a few days ago when I only posted this last night, so I’m giving this a little boost.

Moon Dragon's Den

Here’s the least of my wrap-up posts for 2019! When I stated this post, I thought that most of these were books I had to read for class, (I don’t want to go too into detail on those, with a few exception, and they’ll be marked with an asterisk) but after finishing up the post, most of them are actually books I picked up on my own, which I will go into more detail with. However, the books I disliked the most are some of the ones I had to read for class.

Least favorite books of 2019:

The Homecoming by Harold Pinter*- I chose to write a paper on this play and deeply regretted it. The plot was confusing and hated all of the characters. Do not recommend.
Blasted by Sarah Kane*– Um. I’m not sure what to say here. I literally stared at the wall for…

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Discussion Post: How do you feel about epilogues in books or spin-off series that jump forward in time?

This something new that I had been wanting to try out, and I’m not sure how this will go, but this is something I’m honestly curious about:

How do you feel about book epilogues or spin-off series that show where the characters end up in their futures, or follow their children?

I got the idea for this while thinking about my own writing. Back when Smoke & Rain was still being outlined, (back when it was still only a standalone) I started a little chapter to tack onto the end that jumped several years into the future, and showed how I imagined a birthday party would go two of my character’s kid. I got to thinking about that little chapter again today, and it made me wonder.

Personally, I love “next generation”-type story lines. I like seeing the characters I love interacting with their kids, seeing what careers they end up in, and all that good stuff. As long as it’s done right. I think I prefer spin-off series, because it gives me more time to get to know the new characters while getting to see my old favorites, but I’m definitely not opposed to a short post-canon epilogue. (Though, I want to say it again. As long as it’s done right.)

But. I have seen people saying that they prefer post-canon to be left up to their imaginations, which I can understand. I’ve seen a lot of amazing post-canon headcanons or OCs of the children of an artist or writer’s favorite pairing, and having a post-canon epilogue or a spin off series can take all the room for that creativity away.

So what are your opinions? Would you prefer the extra content from your favorite books and series, or would you prefer that extra room for creativity? Let me know in the comments below!

Least Favorite, DNFed, and Most Disappointing Books of 2019

(*-read for class)

Least favorite books of 2019:

The Homecoming by Harold Pinter*- I chose to write a paper on this play and deeply regretted it. The plot was confusing and hated all of the characters. Do not recommend.
Blasted by Sarah Kane*– Um. I’m not sure what to say here. I literally stared at the wall for an hour after finishing this play. That’s how twisted and disturbing it was.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley*– I honestly have no words for this. Basically, the government uses sex and drugs to keep their populace under their thumb.
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – My biggest complaint with this book was the fact that we spent the entire time in Rose’s head, and I just could not stand her in this book. I plan to finish the series and hope she gets better as it goes on, but my expectations are fairly low.
All Hallow’s Eve by Vivian Vande Velde-I was just…bored. There was really only one short story in this entire book that had me even a little bit freaked out, and of course, it might have been in part because I’m much older than the target audience, but I have the feeling that it wouldn’t have affected me much at that age, either.
Echo by Alyson Noel– For the most part, I was completely underwhelmed. I had built this up in my head because of how much I had enjoyed the first book, and it just didn’t meet those expectations. However, what got this book onto my least favorite books of the year list was Cade. He freaked me out through the entire book (which I guess makes sense since he was supposed to be the embodiment of evil) but I felt that the explicit attempted rape scene was unnecessary and what officially earned it a spot on this list.
Bad Moonlight by R.L. Stine– I reread this for the Rereadathon as a childhood favorite, but after a reread, I’m not sure why I liked it so much. Granted it’s a middlegrade book and I’m well outside the intended age range, but this time around I found it cheesy and not fantastically written. which I feel horrible for saying, but i would be interested in reading something more recently written or for a higher age group by the same author, to see if that’s a common trend.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas– I was pretty okay with this one until the end. I did not like Feyre as a character much, but I also didn’t like the way she was treated. February was a month full of books where the main characters were assaulted multiple times throughout their books and never having it properly addressed, and I was not here for it.
The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon-I was so excited to read this book. and then I got a hold of it, and was so disappointed. I really liked Natasha, and I really felt for her. But Daniel honestly ruined the book for me. I already didn’t like how pushy he was, and then when he, someone Natasha barely knew and had only met that morning, got upset with her for not telling him she was being deported, something that was obviously extremely personal to her. It made me incredibly upset and dislike him as a character.
Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi– being in Adam’s head didn’t make me like him any more. If fact, I think I like him even less.

DNFed Books

Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz & Micheal Johnson-This was such a weird book. There were so many different things going on that it didn’t make sense, new details about the wold popped up without warning, and by the second time the female main character was assaulted, I was done.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card– I couldn’t get into this book in the first place,and then when I realized that the characters were my youngest sister’s age (six) and being essentially experimented on and trained for war, I just couldn’t finish it.
After by Anna Todd- I don’t even know what to say about this book. Tessa and Hardin were horrible to each other and everyone around them. The only character I liked was Noah, mostly because I felt bad for him (the fact that she already had a boyfriend at the beginning of the book was he first red flag that I wouldn’t like it.) I thought there was so much wrong with this book that I would take up the entire post if I talked about it all. the final straw was the fact that Tessa kept saying that she was done with Hardin because of the rotten things he did (hypocrite, much?) yet she kept going back to him anyway. A lot of times because he manipulated her into coming back.
Allegiant by Veronica Roth-Reverse character development. lack of communication and constant lying between the main characters, that were supposed to be in a committed relationship. Not to mention, the end was spoiled for me years ago, so I had no motivation to read it.
Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw*– I couldn’t get past the first few pages. One of the two characters that was introduced in those first few pages was so irritating that I just couldn’t get past it.
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad*– I read almost a third of the book, and still had no idea what was going on. I was bored the entire time. I couldn’t focus on it even with the audiobook, fell behind in the reading schedule for class and had no desire to attempt to catch up.
Travesties by Tom Stoppard*– Another play I couldn’t make it through the first few pages of, this time because I was utterly confused.
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray– I put this down back in April(ish) and never really thought about picking it back up, so I officially DNFed it in December.

DISAPPOINTING books of 2019

Defy Me by Tahereh Mafi– It wasn’t so much that I didn’t like this book, but it didn’t live up to my enjoyment of the previous books for me.
Bad Moonlight by R.L. Stine– This was one of my Favorite books when I was younger, but when I read it for a rereadathon, I honestly didn’t understand why I had loved it so much.
Echo by Alyson Noel– I loved the first book in this series. Granted, it was years ago, but I remember loving it. However, this one… well.
Leah on the Offbeat and Upside of Unrequited be Becky Albertalli – neither of these lived up to the hype for me. This was another one where it wasn’t that I didn’t like the books, they just weren’t what i had been looking forward too.
The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon– There was so much hype around this book and so many people who were raving about so I honestly expected to like it a lot more than I did.

That’s it! I just want to say that these are my personal opinions, so if one of your favorite books is on this list, it’s noting against you! I understand that everyone has differing opinions and their own reasons for liking or disliking books, and I do my best to understand other’s opinions and reasoning on most things, and books are no different! Especially if they’re more personal reasons (relating to a specific character, for instance). Nothing I’ve written here is meant to be offensive, and I won’t be offended if you don’t like any of my favorite books.

Mid-week update 1/15/2020

I’m sorry this later than I had wanted, but today was a really hectic day. I had tuition due, work was at a different schedule than usual, I had lunch with and spent some time with a friend, and by the time I got home I had almost completely forgotten that I was supposed to post today. Better late that never, though!

UPDATE: my TBR jar

If you follow me on Instagram (here) you might have seen that I finally put together the TBR jar that I’ve been meaning to start for months! The idea is to use it to pick the majority of my TBR, filling the rest of the six spots after I choose my reread and whatever books I have to read for class. I’m really excited to start letting my jar choose my TBR for me in February!

Books I have Finished:

Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (this wasn’t on my TBR, but only because I forgot it was being released in January)
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (Audiobook)

Books I am Currently Reading:

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson (36%)
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin (76%)
Blue Lilly, Lilly Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (64%)

Books I still need to read:

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Geekerella by Ashley Poston
The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas (my library hold came in this week)

I’m not making as much progress with my reading as I would like, especially since I start classes again next week. But I think I’ve finally fallen back into the groove of things, so we’ll see how much progress I make in the next week or so. (It would be nice if I had a completely new ‘currently reading’ list for next week’s update, but I doubt that will happen.) I’m hoping to get the audiobook for This is How You Lose the Time War after I’m done with The Raven King, but we’ll just have to see how that goes.

Posts in the works:

Book Review: Pretty Girls
Book Review: Come Tumbling Down
Book Review: The Dream Thieves
Least Favorite and DNF’d books of 2019 (possibly scheduled? If not, close to finished.)

PAGES TO GO UP:

All Time Favorite Books and Series (in progress)
Smoke & Rain (WIP page, in progress)
Legendary (WIP page, finished and pending publication)
Aptitude (WIP page, finished and pending publication)

I have made progress in the Smoke & Rain page, but for whatever reason the WIP I’ve made the most progress on is the most difficult for me to talk about. Probably because I have to judge how much to say without spoiling anything.

I think that’s it for this week! Let me know how your reading month is going in the comments below!

2019 Wrap up

Well, this took a while, but I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out! This post got pretty long, so I included a “read more,” with all of the books I read listed underneath. Here are some of my reading stats for 2019!

Total Books read: 165 (two rereads)

Longest Book: Queen of Air and Darkness, 912 pages

Shortest book: Galatea, 20 pages

Reading Goal: 165/125 Books

Total pages read: 51,873

Average rating: 4.1

If you’re interested in seeing a complete list of the books I read in 2019, I included them, sorted by my rating, under the cut!

Most Anticipated Releases of 2020

I’m a little behind on this one, since Come Tumbling Down has already been released (and I’ve already read it.) But I still wanted to put out a list of all of the books I’m looking forward to this year! Since I’m focusing on backlisted titles, I don’t know how many of these I’ll read right when they’re released, but I plan to at least try to read them on audiobook if they’re available.

I didn’t narrow these down in any way, but I did highlight the ones I’m most excited for in bold. And of course, these are only the books that know if right at his moment, so this is perfectly likely to change. Here are sixteen books that I’m excited for in the coming year!

Girls of Paper and Fire Series #3 by Natasha Ngan (2020)
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (Jan 7th)
Infinity Son by Adam Silvera (Jan 14th)
Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed (Feb 4th)
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare (Mar 3rd)
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu (Mar 3rd)
Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi (Mar 31st)
Check, Please!, Book 2: Sticks and Scones by Ngozi Ukazu (Apr 7th)
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (May 14th)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (May 19)
The Damned by Renee Ahdieh (Jun 9th)
The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee (Aug 18th)
Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin (Sept 1st)
The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare (Sept 1st)
The Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
Skyhunter by Marie Lu (Oct 6th)

An honorable mention here is Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas, because while I’m interested in reading it, I’m also cautious about it, since what little of Maas’s work I have read, I haven’t been too big of a fan of. But I still might give Crescent City a shot.

Which books are you most excited for in 2020? Feel free to drop recommendations in the comments, I would love to hear from you!