In Pursuit of My Own Library

I have been reading since I was very young and have certainly progressed through various reading habits over the decades.  Events in my life influence the materials I am reading, but one thing has always remained steadfast in my reading: I want to read books of principle.  I don't need them to be written well, they just simply need the story to be based on strong fundamentals.  That seems to be a fading spot I have to look for with stronger and stronger lenses these days. The Waking Land by  Callie Bates With a 19 year old protagonist, I can see this book being shelved in the young adult section and that worries me.   I was anticipating this book with much enthusiasm and the promise to myself that I would get the review out ahead of time.  I want to help authors be successful in their work, and I enjoy being able to spread the word when they have a strong piece of literature being published.  Instead I ended up with a story that I've had to brew over the review for aw

Some titles just don't make sense until you read them.  This was one of those books.  I stared at this book for a really long time during my reading slump trying to decide if it was worth cracking open. I had enjoyed the first book with some slight hesitations in the nature of the characters.  Once my reading slump was over, I craved an exciting adventure story.  I felt like this would deliver just that and I had put it off for far too long. I wasn't entirely disappointed.  This novel had the adventure story, and it even had a mildly nostalgic 80s fantasy adventure feel to it.  This was the quest of all quests for the Blackfeather Three that makes you want to swashbuckle around your living room when no one is looking.  What could go wrong? Romance.  Not only does it not fit in these stories, each attempt at interjecting it into the story just falls flat.  All of the scenes feel forced and like the novel is trying to appease some editor by throwing it in there duri