BookOwl

4.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* “Why do we tell stories? They are a universal human experience. Every culture I've  ever visited, every people I've  met, every human on every planet in every situation I've  seen…they all tell stories. Men trapped alone for years tell them to themselves. Ancients leave them painted on the walls. Women whisper them to their babies. Stories explain us. You want to define what makes a human different from an animal? I can do it in one word or a hundred thousand. Sad stories. Exultant stories. Didactic morality tales. Frivolous yarns that, paradoxically, carry too much meaning. We need stories.”   If you're feeling sad, a Brandon Sanderson book is what the doctor ordered (or even if you're not sad, it's not a bad idea to pick up a Sanderson book). I read Yumi and the Nightmare Painter after Tress of the Emerald Sea and am absolutely digging the women-centered stand-alone fantasy stories (although who knows, with it being the Cosmere

4/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* What a sweet, nostalgic return to the Percy Jackson universe The Chalice of the Gods is!   After saving the world on multiple occasions, Percy just wants to go to college with Annabeth and live a normal-ish life. Alas, the Olympian gods are standing in his way. To get into New Rome University, he must secure three letters of recommendations from gods or goddesses via completing various quests for them.   Percy: The first Greek deity to reach out to him is Ganymede, cupbearer to Zeus. Someone has stolen the Chalice of the Gods, a magical artifact that can grant whoever drinks out of it the gift (or curse) of immortality. Something you do not want in the wrong hands. Percy is to find it before Zeus hosts another party and smites Ganymede for misplacing the chalice. “It was like a job requirement for them: 1) become a god, 2) get a cool magic thing, 3) lose it, 4) ask a demigod to find it.”   In addition to Ganymede, The Chalice of the Gods introduces some ot