Today I was supposed to post a review. But you know what? That can wait. Because I was tagged by a friend in a tag she made up for her amazing cats, and just one or two days after this, she lost one of these cats very unexpectedly. This post is for Susan @ Novel Lives and in memory of her pet, Pavel. Anyone who knows Susan, knows that her cats are a HUGE part of her blog, so I was so sad to hear this.

Don’t let your heart break, Susan. Life sucks, and this sucks, but we are with you. This post is for you. Those who wish to support Susan through this sucky time, please tag yourselves!

The post cover for the tag – a collage of Susan’s cats with the texts “I was yelled at… ignored… Given the side-eye resting bitch face… and well, this did not end well for me, but they had fun, and that is all that matters. Of course.” And the post title: “Book tag. The Council of the Ninja Magic Conjuring Cats. In memoriam of one of its members.”

CNMCC Honoree Book Tag Rules

The only rules are as following:

1. Complete the tag (or die. I’m just quoting Susan here…)
2. Link back to the CNMCC (the original post)
3. All photos should be correctly labeled:
   – Council of the Ninja Magic Conjuring Cats (CNMCC) for full group photos
   – Individually Labeled as Liam, Gomez, and Pavel (or a combination thereof)
4. You won’t need to tag people at the end because everyone will do it or die. Their websites will fail. They will never get another ARC again. Reading slumps will be conjured, and misery will prevail. (Basically you tag youself and it’s like chain mail! LOL)

Liam: A Book That Gave You Resting Bitch Face

Liam of the CNMCC, displaying a quality resting bitch face

I feel like there are quite a few interpretations to ‘a book that gave you resting bitch face’! I’m going to take it as a book that was fiiiiiiiiiine, just fiiiiiiiiine, but no love was lost between us. But that’s just my interpretation!

There are quite a few books like that for me! Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (you had to be there to get it?), Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (why all the singing?? Stop it with the singing!!), The Virgin Suicides (I don’t even know why that one left me so lukewarm, but it’s like it had no real substance?), Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (I honestly don’t know another author who could bore me so, and I read like two or three of his books before I realized that I DON’T HAVE TO)…

But perhaps the most of all bitchface-inducing title that is well known would be Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. You know, the book that all New-Age-beginners extoll to the utmost degree. Either you have to read it when you’re 11, or I just don’t know. Total resting bitch face from me.

Pavel: A Book That Is Broken A Book That Broke You

An image of Pavel, staring into the camera quite fetchingly! Rest in peace, Pavel.

There are also many books that broke me! The one that I would love to feature the most is a kids book in Lithuanian, so you won’t really know it, but… It’s super existentially deep and heart-wrenching, and about discarded toys… I remember reading it still, despite being like 11 or 12. But since you guys don’t know it, instead I’ll feature a book that’s recently broken me! It was so tense, and the story was just heart-breaking. And yet, it was still heartwarming! It’s Brave Girl, Quiet Girl by Catherine Ryan Hyde, and you can also see my review for it here.

Gomez: I Don’t Even Know, And He Doesn’t Even Care

I was tempted to insert a static picture, but this video that’s featured in Susan’s original post just really beats everything: it’s Gomez walking around like he doesn’t care with a tote bag stuck right around his belly

So this should be a book which left me wondering what the hell I just read! Well, there have certainly been A LOT of those. Maybe not so strange to hear that most of these happen to be from indie presses or self-publishing. While there are definitely GEMS among those who decide to publish themselves (recent GEMS include Gnosis, The Sundered, Zeru), without the rigorous editing that bigger publishing houses make you go through, some really strange stuff can sometimes slip out the cracks.

This is a book that I don’t even remember how I decided to buy – must have been some very big sale on the kindle on the first few months that I had it. Because I don’t even read romance! It was full of some serious drama, people judging and ridiculous nonsense like “we never used protection and never got pregnant, so that’s why I didn’t know I was pregnant for 4 months” or something like that (how do you not notice a missing period for four months??!! Fellow women??) At the end of it, I wasn’t sure what I read and more importantly, WHY I kept reading 😀 (it’s quite long!) Actually, if you want to see the whole rant, take a look at my review. (What’s a little bit scary is that the author mentions that there was a lot from ‘her experience’ taken from it, and it certainly felt so by how she attacked some characters for no reason… Which is kind of worrying!)

And you know what, the book was so bad, I’m not even going to feature its cover, nor mention its name (you’ve got that review link for that if you want to see the hot mess.) You only feature good books! 😀

And that’s the tag! Please feel free to tag yourself!
(And please let Susan know she is not alone.)