Lately it’s harder finding tags to do that we want to do at the moment, so when we saw this post we hadn’t seen before we knew we needed to give it a go. We discovered Last Year I Was Reading on Cozy with Books. This meme was originally created by Reading Maria and started off on Instagram! A couple of week ago Candyce did the first post in this series and today is my turn. Let’s check out what this is all about an what I was reading last year!

What I (and you!) do is:

Take your current read and compare it to what you reading this exact time last year. Which one do you like better? What is different about the books? Any special facts/things you want to make note of or bring attention to?

Like Candyce I make a spreadsheet every year and I can easily look up what I was reading at the time. Usually I am reading multiple books at once but it looks like I was focusing on just one.

Last Year I Was Reading: The Black Flamingo – Dean Atta

A boy comes to terms with his identity as a mixed-race gay teen – then at university he finds his wings as a drag artist, The Black Flamingo. A bold story about the power of embracing your uniqueness. Sometimes, we need to take charge, to stand up wearing pink feathers – to show ourselves to the world in bold colour.

 

I’m Currently Reading: Warbreaker – Brandon Sanderson

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn’t like his job, and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.

Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.

Comparing the Books:

It’s so hard comparing these books! The Black Flamingo is a contemporary story and you could say it’s poetry. Whereas Warbreaker is a big fantasy book with a lot of world building. And they are both amazing reads. I rated The Black Flamingo 5 stars and Warbreaker is going that way as well.

It’s been a while but I remember loving The Black Flamingo. The book talks about a lot of important issues and is written in a beautiful way. I loved that it was written in verse and might want to pick up more books like it in the future. Warbreaker starts off pretty slow but is totally worth it in the end (I’m almostttt done!). I love the characters and love how you can tell that the author really fleshed out the world. It really seems like a real world, that’s how much detail we get about it.

The books are very different, they are written differently, they (mostly) talk about different topics and are written for different audiences I think. Both books deal with prejudice though and characters who find themselves. And like I said, I really enjoy(ed) both! Have you read either of these books? I would love to know what you think. Tell me all about it in the comments.