The Coffee Book Tag

Tagged by Laura, header by Lindsey!

BLACK || a series that’s tough to get into but has hardcore fans

Dani:

You know I have to name The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.

Woo boy, the first hundred pages of Eye of the World are some the densest, most tedious in the fantasy genre. I'm talking Tolkein describing the forest levels of tl;dr. But if you can make it through, you are hooked by the (relatively simple in retrospect) epic. 12000 pages and 15 books makes for hardcore fans. Even now that the series is done, I'm hearing rumblings of a wotmania reunion in upstate NY next year.

Jessie:

First: same with Dani's answer but for discussion's sake: I am going to go with all of the books involved in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere. From the relatively easy Steelheart to the Mistborn Eras to the densest books known to mankind in The Stormlight Archive -- those books are an investment in time and money and brainspace. #worthit

PEPPERMINT MOCHA || a book that gets more popular during the winter or a festive time of year

Dani:

Harry Potter. I don't know why - maybe because the movies always came out around winter break, maybe because I generally get a new copy for the holidays, but come the first snow, it's time to break out Sorcerer's Stone.

Jessie:

I always feel like reading Claire LeGrand's Winterspell when it gets to around the end of November/early December. I've done it the last two years running and it really makes me feel like it's Christmas time.

HOT CHOCOLATE || favorite children’s book

Dani:

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I freaking love this book. The slow growth of Mary from sullen princess to compassionate young woman. Colin. Ben Weatherstaff and his robin. DICKEN. God I dreamed of living on an English moor without ever knowing what one actually was.

Jessie:

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I love that book and it still destroys me emotionally each and every time I revisit it. Old Dan and Little Ann were too good for this world but I still want to read this all the time.

DOUBLE SHOT OF ESPRESSO || a book that kept you on the edge of your seat from start to finish

Jessie:

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne was the last unputdownable read I had. It was just so much fun and so entertaining and shippy and I didn't look up for hours.

Dani: Elliot Wake's Cam Girl. Oh my god. I've mentioned I can't read a book in a day? Try one cross country plane ride. Compelling and visceral and holy crap why haven't you read this book?

STARBUCKS || a book you see absolutely everywhere

Jessie:

Bardugo's Crooked Kingdom and I am 100% okay with that because that book is wonderful terrible to behold. It's the end of the Six of Crows crew and everyone should be reading it.

Dani: I've got to pick Jess's unputdownable The Hating Game! Our community has turned out for this book so hard and I need it. 

THE HIPSTER COFFEE SHOP || a book by an indie author (a shout out!)

Jessie: Dahlia Adler is always a fantastic read -- either her self or her traditionally published novels are full of heart, naturally inclusive, and full of shippy goodness.

Dani: Jess stole mine! Fine, for amazing fluffy contemporary romances I recommend Rebekah Weatherspoon. I haven't read her harder eroticas, but the Sugar Baby series never fails to brighten my mood. 

OOPS! I ACCIDENTALLY GOT DECAF || a book you were expecting more from

Jessie:

I hate to say it because I was so desperate for a copy to love at BEA but: Spare and Found Parts by Sara Maria Griffin. The prose was occasionally lovely but the plot was silly and the characters were hard to invest in or care about.

Dani: This kills me because so many of my friends loved it, but Labyrinth Lost. I just found the pacing really slow and the characters an unforgivable mix of unlikable and unbelievable.

THE PERFECT BLEND || a book or series that was both bitter and sweet, but ultimately satisfying

Jessie:

Heartless by Marissa Meyer was a great mix of both bitter and sweet for the characters and for readers. The plot itself is a clever adaption of the Queen of Hearts mythos but it only gets darker and more twisty from there. 

Dani: Saga. This book (specifically the deluxe volume 1) is so full of heartbreak and triumph and humor and gray characters and amazing art that I just ugh.

CHAI TEA || a book or series that makes you dream of far off places

Jessie:

A lot of books make me want to travel, but historical fiction is one of the worst culprits responsible. Thanks to that genre, I want to travel to places that don't exist anymore or have drastically changed but have come to life thanks to these novels. Sally Christie's version of Versailles and French court in her trilogy of books are particularly good at this.

Dani: The Wrong Side of Magic. Can't get much farther away than Logos, the realm made of words.

EARL GREY || name of your favorite classic

Jessie:

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien? Unless we're talking like pre 1900s lit and in that case it would be Homer's The Odyssey. 

Dani:
I hate classics, why is this question always here? Animal Farm.

GREEN TEA || a book or series that is quietly beautiful

Jessie:

Laini Taylor's anything? But of course the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series tops this list for so many obvious reasons.  I mean: 

"The streets of Prague were a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century - or the twentieth or nineteenth, for that matter. It was a city of alchemists and dreams, its medieval cobbles once trod by golems, mystics, invading armies."

and then

“Happiness. It was the place where passion, with all its dazzle and drumbeat, met something softer: homecoming and safety and pure sunbeam comfort. It was all those things, intertwined with the heat and the thrill, and it was as bright within her as a swallowed star.”  

but also Ann Aguirre's Sirantha Jax books are also lovely:

“The ship shudders as we make the leap, passing into grimspace. Pleasure spikes through me, as if I'm taking a hit of my favorite chem. It sings through my veins, echoing the mad whorl of colors outside the view screen. If I had to describe it, I'd say it's like entering the heart of a dying star.”
―  Doubleblind

"But the truth is, the longer you love the same person, the more mysterious they become. March is like a pocket universe, full of stars, and I will never learn all his light."
―  Endgame
 "March knows what I want and what I can offer. He gets me down to my breath and bone; he will not try to change me. For him, I need not yield that which makes me Jax; I need not surrender the universe for March's sake. He will share it with me."
 ―  Endgame 

Dani: 

Definitely Laini Taylor. I have so many of her quotes highlighted. 

“I am one of billions. I am stardust gathered fleetingly into form. I will be ungathered. The stardust will go on to be other things someday and I will be free.”

- Days of Blood and Starlight

I also don't have a quote to hand, but I love how Rosamund Hodge writes. Lyrical and quiet and smarter than you. 

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