The City We Became | 
I‘m home early. My husband won‘t be home for at least two hours. Which means I can listen to the last two hours of this book while doing a puzzle. I‘m so glad you picked this one for #nywd @sprainedbrain
I got fancy new headphones for Christmas & am discovering the joy of #audiopuzzling. Puzzle people, what do you do with your puzzles when you finish putting them together?
so-soI can see why people love this. I liked the concepts and the character relationships. But it just didn‘t do it for me.
2nd book for #NewYearWhoDis @HOTPock3tt @monalyisha #NYWD22
I'm joining @Andrew65 in #12Booksof2021, sharing one book every day that was our favorite read from a select month. The City We Became won May hands down, and I read several excellent books that month. This incredible urban fantasy might even be my favorite read of the whole year. Every time I pass a Starbucks I chuckle and imagine it coming to life as a monster. #Fantasy #LGBTQ #DiverseBooks
pickIf you have this book and google on your phone have you seen the Google lens bring the cover to life? Very 😎
This is epic. The world inside our world Jemisin has created is layered complex and not going to be everyone's cuppa.
This reminds me a bit of Gaiman's bigger reads. My only complaint is I could have used more time getting to know some of the cities, but I understand why the action was more the focus, the pacing is excellent.
I've just discovered that this cover is interactive.... never come across this before! Wiggly tentacles surely improve any book 💚🐙
pickN. K. Jemisin‘s urban fantasy (the first in a trilogy) is a smartly imagined rejoinder to H. P. Lovecraft‘s racism by using his concept of “eldritch horror” and updating it to the ever-present problem of racism, “gentrification” and white privilege while making clear that New York‘s strength comes from its vibrant, cosmopolitan population. It‘s a clever, vivid read that really conveys the city‘s vibe and I look forward to reading the sequel.
pickSo cool and imaginative!
Took me a bit to get into it (I was a little more into her other novels, the high fantasy types of books) but this was really great and fun and well written. I ended up really enjoying it!
pick5 people wake up one morning to discover they‘ve become Avatars of the boroughs of New York City. Added to dealing with mundane problems like racism, homophobia, pice brutality, and gentrification, they also now have to worry about an Enemy that wants to erase NYC.
Took a while to get into with a lot of POV switching. It felt a little in your face with the messages, & the ending was too abrupt, but I‘m looking forward to the sequel. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
pickThis #audiobook is amazing. The sound effects were great and the narrator does a really great job. This is (in a way) an ode to NYC. I'd be curious if the author could pull this off in other settings. You'd have to be pretty familiar with all the nuances of each place.
#BookSpinBingo free space
@TheAromaofBooks
I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new - don‘t judge me I have a lot of books.
Join the fun if you want. This is day 251.
#bookstoread
#tbrpile
#bookstagram
Finally finished this one. I'll admit I put off reading the last chapter for a while because I just didn't want this ride to end. :')
This acknowledgment makes me very emotional. My only wish is that we all find a home to love as much as New Yorkers love theirs.
so-soThe idea of cities having human avatars is a great concept, though I thought the actual book struggled to make the whole thing clear to the reader, or maybe I'm just deficient in whatever's necessary to make the imaginative leap. This is only the first in a projected trilogy, however, and I think I'll reserve judgement until the whole thing is published. For now, 3 stars.
pickA friend loved this one, so I promised to read it as well so we could discuss. I liked it. Makes me want to see more of New York City someday. Looking forward to our book chat later this week! This was my June #BookSpin pick.
#BookSpinBINGO
Summer is just beginning for School Librarian Me; June was a busy month. However, I did end up with a bingo, thanks to a row of free spaces on this month‘s board! I‘m in the middle of the tagged book which was my #bookspin pick. I‘ll finish it up this week.
#BookSpinBINGO
so-soThis book was so imaginative and when i started it I thought I was really gonna love it, but despite this being the unpopular opinion I just lost interest maybe halfway through, I pushed myself to finish, while this was well written this wasn't for me.
#TBRPile 📚 “I sing the city. Fucking city. I stand on the rooftop of a building I don‘t live in and spread my arms and tighten my middle and yell nonsense undulations at the construction site that blocks my view.”
pickLove NK Jemisin, love the idea of a person being a physical manifestation/soul of a city. I did feel bad for Staten Island though 😐
pickThe avatars of New York and its boroughs find themselves awakened all at once. Yesterday, they weren't New York, just New Yorkers, and today they're facing an uncertain future, racism, gentrification, and an interdimensional being that wants them dead, all while figuring out how to be a city filled with millions of people. I absolutely loved this book, and it quickly slid onto my favorites list.
so-so⭐️⭐️⭐️ As a multiverse war emerges, NYC morphs; select residents become avatars of each borough. Together, they need to fight to save their collective city, but like regular humans, they can‘t always agree. Meanwhile, shit‘s about to hit the fan. A dark force aims to take over. Perhaps this has happened elsewhere? Maybe natural disasters aren‘t what they seem? Multiverse stuff isn‘t my jam, but the stellar audio narration/production sold me.
🎧👟 It‘s feeling like summer in middle Tennessee! ☀️ 6.5 mile #audiowalk is in the books. Still trying to wrap my brain around this book ...
pickJemisin writes with a rhythm and depth of skill that is refreshing and simple, and therefore highly memorable.
I have come to love a city (New York) that I have never lived in.
pickWow! Just, wow. 5stars. Urban fantasy meets Lovecraftian horror. N.K. Jemisin spanks H.P. Lovecraft with his own genre. Such a smart, and often funny, mind bending adventure.
pickI absolutely adored this book! It was a very slow start but once the Burroughs were introduced I fell in love with the entire story. I have never been to NYC and could see having spent anytime there, loving this book even more. #BOTM
pickFirst Jemisin and typically I'm not the sci-fi/spec.fic. type but Wow! It took 30ish min to get into but after that I was solidly hooked. I absolutely loved all the characters who seemed so real and made New York come alive for me in a way it's never been (ie no real desire to see it, folks, sorry 🤷🏽♀️).
The narrator also kicked ass on this and the audio was a delight for some very fun added affects I rarely hear on others.
pickJemisin‘s work is immersive on every level. Her worldbuilding‘s tops, her characters feel like they could wander off the page, and her plot is seriously scary in how it combines real world threats with supernatural ones.
It‘s so damned cool. I can‘t wait for more.
TMI time: I‘ve either been food poisoned or I contracted something awful from all the people I haven‘t seen at the places I haven‘t been to. It‘s a crackers and water day.
Hopefully it‘s also a sink into N.K. Jemisin‘s first contemporary fantasy day, but my concentration‘s kinda iffy so we‘ll see.
My current Last, Now, Next stack!
Last: The City We Became
Now: Sweethearts
Next: Two Girls Down
Although technically...I still have 100 pages left in my last before I can start my next... 🤓
pickThis was one of the best books I‘ve read this year. It really encapsulated everything that makes New York New York, and was simultaneously a compelling, interesting and meticulously plotted magical realism adventure novel. I can‘t wait to read more titles by this author.
Reading this one in my in-person book club. I'm not very far yet and already I'm confused but pretty happy that confusion. 🤔😂🤓
This week‘s library haul! I meant to keep the tagged book suspended a bit longer, but I wasn‘t quick enough on the day it rolled over. Oh well. I‘ve had N.K. Jemisin cravings lately and I guess the universe decided I oughta act on them.
Met all but my gaming goal in the #MyReadathon! This worked so well I plan to set up a weekly #MyGoalathon for the week to keep the productivity going.
pickAurora and I finished this on audio tonight. I loved the book and the audio narration was amazing. Jemisin is so ridiculously talented. All the ⭐️‘s
#authoramonth
pickWhat a wild, wonderful ride!
New York, beginning to wake as an cohesive entity (and avatar) is threatened by evil-doers from a parallel universe. Each of the boroughs is represented by an avatar that embodies the characteristics of their part of the city and four of them seek defeat of the evil. Statin Island, conservative and isolated, rejects them.; Jersey City, well, read the book.
“This is my homage to the city. Hope I got it right”
pickI didn‘t always feel like I understood what was going on in this book, but I really enjoyed it! Loved the audiobook. #AuthorAMonth2021
pickBrilliant. I loved the idea of superheroes being all shapes, sizes, colors, and then using art to showcase their strengths and personalities. The book started with a battle and ended with ... As a teacher, I know that each year my class has a overall personality to make each year unique and Jemisin personalizes each borough to show the uniqueness of NYC. Can't wait for the second one.
#AurhorAMonth @Soubhiville
pickNew York City takes on human form and rumbles with an evil non-Euclidean ding ho squigglebitch. There‘s a lot of fumbling in the first part this diverse multiverse novel—protagonists whose actions are based on nothing but intuition, for example—but Jemisin hits her stride by the midpoint & I was all in by the end, ready for what‘s next in the trilogy. Hybrid vigour for the win!
“But a march of angry white men, though,” Queens says worriedly. “That‘s never good.”
(Internet photo)
“Cruelty is human nature.”
Bronca restrains the urge to laugh. She‘s never liked that bit of bullshit ‘wisdom.‘ “Nah. Nothing human beings do is set in stone—and even stone changes, anyway. We can change, too, anything about ourselves that we want to.” She shrugs. “People who say change is impossible are usually pretty happy with things just as they are.”
