Tress of the Emerald Sea | 
pickWhat a delight! It‘s a Princess Bride story where Buttercup searches for Westley & instead of believing he‘s dead. What follows is a wild pirate adventure where Tress discovers her own strength & ingenuity as she travels on the seas of spores.
“Enjoy memories, yes, but don't be a slave to who you wish you once had been.”
“Even small actions have consequences. And while we can often choose our actions, we rarely get to choose our consequences.”
pickLots of world building that was redeemed with its the importance for the story by the end!
“Nothing was wrong with Tress. Her mind was functioning properly. She hadn‘t lost her creativity. She hadn‘t run out of ideas. She was simply tired.”
Second favorite quote:
“Tell me… what is your opinion of tiny pirate hats?”
pickI did it guys! I finally read Tress of the Emerald Sea and I really enjoyed it. I loved the charm that Tress brought to the story and I love that Hoid was the narrator. The humor in this one was unmatched and the Cosmere Easter eggs made it even better. I hope all of the Secret Projects are this good!
https://wildwoodreads.com/2024/02/09/7991/
pickThis cozy, clever, quirky fantasy lives up to its inspiration—what if in The Princess Bride, Buttercup was the one who went after Westley? In the course of attempting to save her noble true love from the evil Sorceress, a window washer runs away from home, dares life and death at sea, joins a dangerous crew, & unlearns a whole lot about people pleasing, taking charge, and accepting help. A delightful, surprising, heartwarming adventure of a book!
“…Empathy is an emotional loss leader. It pays for itself eventually.”
December 2023 Wrap Up
- Tress of the Emerald Sea ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- To Be Taught, If Fortunate ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Not much reading was done this month 😂
so-soI like Sanderson but I can‘t say I loved this one. It got boring and a bit tedious at times. I felt like the plot didn‘t really move forward for 200 pages.
I love the funny omniscient narrative voice in this stand alone fantasy book about a girl who joins a pirate crew to rescue her kidnapped friend.
Merry Christmas fellow Littens🎄🥰🩷 book pictured is a grift from my brother 🥰
I haven't read any of Brandon Sanderson's secret project books. It's pass time, so I'm starting with this one. These books are so pretty!
pickWhat an experience! The world that Sanderson has built here is a bit insane. Seas of different colored spores that react to water in (sometimes) horrifying ways? The humor in this book is constant, something that took me by surprise for some reason. It's quite fun! The whole book. I think it's a little long and wordy but I'm glad for the experience once I got used to the style. If you loved fairy-tales as a kid, you will love this.
3.5/4 stars
Yes, Tress was my favourite book of the year. And funnily enough the reread Warbreaker still won against the new Sunlit Man.
First half of my 2023 reading bracket. And from the beginning of the year every book had to compete against Tress!
pickIt‘s Sanderson so I knew it would be a good read but in the end, it was even more fun & entertaining than I expected. Tress has never left her home on the Rock but when the Duke‘s son—& her improbable friend—is kidnapped & held for ransom…about which the Duke decides to do nothing, Tress does the only thing she can—set out to save her friend. Along the way she leans a great deal about herself, makes friends, & battles a sorceress. Enjoyable read.
I‘ve never read a Sanderson book but I did get sucked into the Kickstarter hype 😝 but the boxes started arriving during my scramble to find a new apartment / moving back home / into a new place… so this is the first time I‘ve taken them out of the box…
I started the secret projects and so far I like this first one. It's so cute.
so-soThis story has solid bones somewhat mucked up with humor that often falls flat. At times, the tale really soars — I mean, IT IS Sanderson after all, but there are other moments that you trudge through just hoping to get out the other side. The author tells us he was inspired by “The Princess Bride” but wanted to show what happens when the Princess is the quester, and that pretty much the plot in a nutshell. Not (too) sorry I read it.
pickWhy is that cover NOT emerald green? Anyway, re actual book: Sweet. Fantasy adventure with a side of sporror and snippets of sci fi. Somewhere between T.Kingfisher and Terry Pratchett: there's some funny, perhaps less social commentary and more advice for the YA crowd, does direct to reader well, retains that ability to go dark or gross for a moment. 1/?
Talking rat with tiny pirate hat! I sincerely hope there's already fanart on Tumblr. ☺️🐀
LOVE the botanical progression in the chapter headings. 🌿
so-soI'm in the minority here, but I found this one just okay. There are some great characters, and the world building is unique. It has clever dialogue as well. For me, though, it dragged, and I found myself wanting to skim. It's my first Sanderson, but I've read it's very unlike his other work, so I may give him another chance.
pickA wonderfully fun fantasy filled with adventure, pirates, and some extremely beautiful and witty writing. Incredible all around. SPRINT to read this one!
I don‘t know that I‘ve ever been more puzzled and intrigued by the first few sentences of a book:
In the middle of the ocean, there was a girl who lived upon a rock.
This was not an ocean like the one you have imagined.
Nor was the rock like the one you have imagined.
The girl, however, might be as you imagined - assuming you imagined her as thoughtful, soft-spoken, and overly fond of collecting cups.
I meant to spend today reading and sewing, but it‘s 16:30 and I‘ve mostly just sewed. I finally put the darts in the shirt I‘ve been procrastinating on for months, and I made my first mini quilt! It ain‘t gonna win any prizes, but I‘m happy with it.
Hopefully I can read a whole bunch of TRESS this evening. It‘s great so far, but I‘m reading it too damned slowly and that‘s really impacted my enjoyment. Sigh.
pick5✨I really like that Sanderson got to do this story slowly and at first just for his wife. I‘m glad they decided to share it because I loved it! Inspired by Princess Bride, with the question with what would it look like for a young girl to go looking for her love lost at sea. A unique world, but with pirates, curses, dragons, and intriguing characters. The characters are all very well developed and lovable.
“Those stories always leave something out,” Tress said. “It‘s really not a problem that someone needs to be saved. Everyone needs help. It‘s hard to be the person who makes trouble, but the thing is, everyone makes trouble. How would we help anyone if nobody ever needed help?”
“But lies have a way of diluting a person. The longer you live them, the more you become a bucket of mixed paint, steadily veering towards generic brown.”
Yesterday, I did complete my Serial Reads, am almost halfway through a week of Bible reading, mostly keeping up with my pages for the tagged. Finished my physical read, and halfway through my first audiobook “A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe”. Going to hit on some more goals I hope by the end of today. #JubilantJuly #LitsySciFiBookClub @Andrew65 @TheSpineView
My hubby is gone for the week doing training so it‘s late night reading with my boys. Gandalf and baby E via baby bump. This book is so good, but I‘m enjoying reading it slowly. #HometownBookClub @Littlewolf1
“Listen,Tress. I promise you. I‘m not going to get married. I‘m going to go to those kingdoms, and I‘m going to be so insufferably boring that none of the girls will have me.” 🥰💛
Hopefully, what I‘m currently reading will be done by this time. However, I do know I have a reading plan to finish Tress of the Emerald Sea along with my Hometown book club book. I‘d like to keep caught up with my serial Reads, and finally finish the last 6 weeks of The Bible in 52 Weeks (Which was suppose to be done last December 🥺😬). I‘ll also try to finish another physical read that will TBD and an Audiobook also TBR #JubilantJuly
so-soBit of whimsy for adults and YA readers. Not quite a fairy tale but close. It is an adventure, coming of age, and young love story for sure. Tress is resourceful and smart and makes a great heroine. Quick read to pass some time.
Enjoy memories, yes, but don‘t be a slave to who you wish you once had been. Those memories aren‘t alive. You are.
Memories are fossils, the bones left by dead versions of ourselves. More potently, our minds are a hungry audience, craving only the peaks and valleys of experience. The bland erodes, leaving behind the distinctive bits to be remembered again and again.
