A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

US pub date - 10/1/24

4.5 stars, rated up

This book was St. George and I was the dragon when it came to reading this. I don’t have the words for how absolutely amazing this book was. Steeped in legend, I found the writing made the story so vivid and engaging. There’s intense longing and I can’t write any more without spoilers. 

Although I wish that the characters were more fleshed out, I think this was still one of my favorite reads of the year ❤️

10/1/24 - ***coming back to say that this story has stuck with me 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the DRC

Monria Titans

Let's Read Some $#!7 by Peter S. Beagle, Melissa Sweeney, & Ann Liang

Welcome to another installment of Let’s Read Some $#!7 (LRSS)! In sum, the purpose of these videos is to introduce educational resources regarding the creation of video games, to promote literacy, to provide world-building tools for creatives, to provide books for escapism, and/or to get banned books into people’s view.

They go as follows: 1. Read the summary on the back of the book (if applicable). 2. Read the “Forward” and “Preface” (if applicable). 3. If there is no “Introduction,” read [part of] the first chapter.

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Even though the purpose is education/book introduction, I only read PORTIONS because of DMCA and Copyright.

Today, I read PORTIONS of 3 books from my TBR Stack:

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle THE UNICORN LIVED IN A LILAC WOOD, AND SHE LIVED ALL ALONE… …so she ventured out from the safety of the enchanted forest on a quest for others of her kind. Joined along the way by the bumbling magician Schmendrick and the indomitable Molly Grue, the unicorn learns all about the joys and sorrows of life and love before meeting her destiny in the castle of a despondent monarch—and confronting the creature that would drive her kind to extinction.

The Affinity Between Us by Melissa Sweeney Kevin is framed for a murder that didn’t happen. Nikki lost both of her older siblings and can’t trust her remaining family. And Derek wakes up, memories lost, on an island inhabited by beings called “humans.” From the birth of these three siblings, two tween Deities stir from their 500-year slumber and reintroduce themselves back into the world.

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang NO SECRET IS SAFE. ALICE SUN HAS ALWAYS FELT INVISIBLE at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student in a sea of über-wealthy classmates. But she has a plan: be top of the class, attend a prestigious university, secure a killer job, and finally lift her family out of poverty. Then her parents drop a bomb—they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship. But that’s the least of Alice’s problems because she has started uncontrollably turning invisible. As in completely, physically invisible. Alice realizes there’s an upside to her strange new power—unparalleled access to the secrets of China’s most rich and influential teens. Soon, Alice has a new plan: offer her invisibility services to find out what her classmates want to know—for a price. But between balancing schoolwork, a growing relationship with academic-rival-turned-business-partner Henry, and stealing secrets, things start to fall through the cracks. As the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if helping her family is worth losing her conscience—or even her life.

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Welcome Gamers! 2:43 Just Chatting 4:06 Read Aloud Prelude 5:12 The Last Unicorn 17:51 The Affinity Between Us 28:54 If You Could See the Sun 52:07 Commentary/Closing 55:41 Bookshop 58:18 Farewell

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TO SUPPORT – Buy Me a Coffee: 15% of the proceeds go to Kids Need to Read! – MonriaTitans Summary & Links – MonriaTitans’ Bookshop – LRSS About Page – Throne Wishlist

Unforgettable, snarky, and romantic, I Hope This Doesn't Find You is Never Have I Ever meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before if Lara Jean wrote hate emails instead of love letters.

Sadie Wen is perfect on paper: school captain, valedictorian, and a "pleasure to have in class." It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times: she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She'd never send them of course -- she'd rather die than hurt anyone's feelings -- but it's a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie's work.

All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. "You're attention starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you've been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft . . ."

Sadie doesn't have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them . . . that is, until they're accidentally sent out.

Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It's her worst nightmare -- now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they're not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there's one person growing to appreciate the "real" Sadie -- Julius, the only boy she's sworn to hate . . . .

READ AN EXCERPT 

I Hope This Doesn't Find You Excerpt by I Read YA on Scribd

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