Category: General

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 18, 2014 by in General / 2 Comments

Despite the fact that I have a £10 Kobo voucher to spend, I actually haven’t bought anything this week! Shocking, I know. I have received two books to review, though — the first via LibraryThing Early Reviewers, the second via the author.

Cover of Wishes and Sorrows by Cindy Lynn Speer Cover of Ravensdale by Lucinda Elliot

I know, I know, it’s a miracle as far as my usual stacks are concerned. What’s everyone reading? Anybody doing the readathon? My stack is here, and my post will be up later in the day in time for the start. Also, if you drop by around hour four, I’m running a challenge!

Tags: ,

Divider

Readathon stack!

Posted October 17, 2014 by in General / 6 Comments

Readathon time! It doesn’t seem like it’s been long since the last readathon, but here we are again with the event coming up on Saturday-Sunday of this weekend. Naturally I’ve been working on my stack and trying to decide what to read. For once, I’m actually at my partner’s flat in Belgium for the readathon, which means a) I’ll probably be up for the whole thing because I have chronic insomnia here, and b) I only brought my ereader with me, no dead tree books. On the other hand, I have comics to borrow and a whole stack of library books too, so it’s not as though I’m short of reading material.

To reread:
-Robin McKinley, Rose Daughter.
–Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honour.
-Guy Gavriel Kay, A Song for Arbonne.
–Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave.

New:
–Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park.
–Keri Hulme, The Bone People.
-Robert MacFarlane, The Old Ways.
–Kurt Vonnegut, Galapagos.

To finish: 
-James Morrow, This is the Way The World Ends.

Comics:
-Loki: Agent of Asgard.
-Thor.
-Winter Soldier.

Anyone else I know doing it?

Tags: , , , , ,

Divider

Thursday Thoughts: Love Triangles

Posted October 16, 2014 by in General / 8 Comments

The latest prompt from Ok, Let’s Read is on… love triangles!

October 16: Love Triangles – Are you an out and proud hater of love triangles? Or, do they not bother you all that much? Do you feel like love triangles are overdone and have a tendency to be similar? What is it that you like or dislike about love triangles in books? Do you think that one genre or section of books overdoes the love triangle thing more than others? Do you think love triangles can be okay if done correctly?

I’m not really a hater of love triangles, as long as they feel authentic. You have to genuinely feel that the character in the middle could have feelings for both his/her paramours, and that they could have feelings for him/her. It has to be handled like they’re all people, not brainwashed adoring harems. It has to feel like more than a plot device — something necessary to the characters, as grounded in who they are and where they’ve been as their love or hate or indifference toward their parents.

Obviously, the genre everyone talks about for love triangles is YA, with The Hunger Games and its imitators. But it’s been a staple for hundreds of years — hello, Arthuriana. Although, I love Arthurian stories, but not many have ever really made me believe the love between Lancelot (or Bedwyr, the other common choice) and Guinevere and the love between Arthur and Guinevere, at the same time. Rare is the writer who can make me feel like there is no other way for it to happen. Guy Gavriel Kay somewhat manages, and John Steinbeck definitely succeeds.

All in all, I guess I’m pretty ambivalent? It just has to make sense.

Tags: ,

Divider

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted October 15, 2014 by in General / 0 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
Beauty and Chalice by Robin McKinley, both rereads. I love those books so much. It’s funny to think that I didn’t like Chalice thaaaat much the first time I read it, but it stayed on my mind and now I think it’s probably earned the title of “Comfort Read.”

What are you currently reading?
A huge mess, as usual, but mainly at the moment I’m reading Rose Daughter, Robin McKinley’s other Beauty and the Beast retelling, and Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park — I can’t believe I’ve never read Jurassic Park before. It’s actually better than I was led to believe? And the science is none too bad considering when it was written.

What will you read next?
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart, probably, and then The Bone People, by Keri Hulme. I’ve got both of them out of the library here, so I need to get on with it. I need to read some of my partner’s comics, too — Thor, Winter Soldier, Loki: Agent of Asgard.

Tags: , , , ,

Divider

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted October 14, 2014 by in General / 16 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is “Ten Places Books Have Made Me Want To Visit (whether fictional or real)”. I suspect we’re going to see a fair amount of agreement on this one? I’m betting there’ll be plenty of “Hogwarts”, “Middle-earth”, etc.

  1. Middle-earth (The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien) — imaginary. I didn’t say I was exempt from that.
  2. Tywyn (The Grey King, by Susan Cooper) — real. And Cadair Idris, and… everywhere else that Will and Bran visit.
  3. The Lost Land (ditto) — imaginary. It sounds so amazing, and I want to look in their library.
  4. Fionavar (The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay) — imaginary. Okay, it’d be a little bit like Middle-earth, really. But still.
  5. Camelot (Arthuriana) — somewhere in between. Possibly even both the imaginary courtly version to see the knights of legend, and the nearest real equivalent to see what it was really like.
  6. Scotland (Five Red Herrings, by Dorothy L. Sayers) — real. My mother has actually traced the whole route of solving that mystery. I wanna.
  7. Everywhere (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor) — real. All the travelling Karou does…
  8. London (Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman) — real and imaginary. Okay, London Below sounds pretty dangerous, but also really cool.
  9. Wherever Moomins live (The Moomin comics/books, by Tove Jansson) — imaginary. Because Moomins are cool.
  10. The Clangers’ moon (Clangers, by Oliver Postgate) — imaginary. Because I can totally communicate in whistles and I wanna know what blue string pudding tastes like.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Divider

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 11, 2014 by in General / 36 Comments

Hello everyone! I’m late with Stacking the Shelves this morning because my partner’s internet doesn’t want to access WordPress. I seem to have it sorted now — fingers crossed… So anyway, it’s not been a bad week, though I’ve so far resisted buying any books in the local shops (though I do know the location of just about all the publicly accessible English-language books in Leuven).

From the library

Cover of The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon Cover of The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane Cover of The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

Cover of Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear Cover of Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton Cover of Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Cover of The Bone People by Keri Hulme

I feel like I should like Mary Stewart’s Arthurian work more than I did the first time I tried it, so I’m going to try again, and the library provided that excuse. I’m pretty sure The Bone People was recommended to me by Jo Walton, so I was excited to find that. And there’s some other sci-fi stuff I should read, and The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane because the title makes me think of The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.

And a gift from the author…

Cover of Tales of the Little Engine by Lynn O' Connacht

x ecd6mm2aqwe““““““““““““““““ asz,.jupy[;ol <— That was my partner’s bunny’s commentary on the matter. Here’s a picture of her in her tunnel.

2014-10-10 07.29.47

And if y’all beat my record for number of comments on an StS post, my partner says I can give her a treat, and maybe we’ll take a video of that.

Anyway, I did also pick up some books on the Kobo store, as you might’ve expected.

Cover of Tribute by Ellen Renner Cover of The Martian by Andy Weir Cover of Bone and Jewel Creatures by Elizabeth Bear

Cover of Moon Called by Patricia Briggs Cover of The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner Cover of Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Cover of King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner Cover of A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner Cover of Clariel by Garth Nix

Clariel is obviously one I’ve been waiting for a loooong time, and Kobo messed me around a lot in getting it. Hot Key Books, the publisher, were really great, though. They recced me Tribute, so I picked that up too. Megan Whalen Turner is a reread for me. The others have been recommended by various people and so on.

Okay, that’s it. Remember, every comment increases Hulk’s chances of getting a treat. She ecd6mm2aqwes you!

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Thursday Thoughts: Reader Problems

Posted October 9, 2014 by in General / 4 Comments

This week’s prompt from Ok, Let’s Read:

October 9: Reader Probs – What are some of the “whiny” problems you find yourself coming across as a reader? Do you deal with book hangovers often? How do you react when a character you like is killed off? Do certain books you might be reading effect your daily life? Do you catch yourself day dreaming about characters in your books? In other words, how is the magical world of reading ruining your life?

I have a problem with all media, and that’s that when I come to care a lot about a character, I then get reluctant to read/watch when anything bad happens to them. So I am several seasons behind on Supernatural, never made it past Kill Ari part two in NCIS, etc, etc. (Sometimes I get through this by reading spoilers.)

I wouldn’t say reading is really ruining my life, though. Unless it’s through procrastinating from transcription to read, so I end up transcribing at 3am instead of sleeping — or spending all the money earned through said transcription work. The daydreaming and so on does happen, and it keeps me interested while I have to stand and work at the clinic, or when I’m volunteering at an event. It’s even better when I’m volunteering at the library!

My main problems are just making sure I’ve got a book to hand at all times, and a light to read by…

Tags: ,

Divider

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted October 8, 2014 by in General / 2 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
The Younger Gods (Michael R. Underwood). I wasn’t really impressed, sadly. Before that I read Venomoid (J.A. Kossler), which was similarly unimpressive. Both books for review, alas.

What are you currently reading?
Fair Game (Josh Lanyon), in preparation for reading the sequel for review. I’m at least sure that that’s going to be fun; Josh Lanyon is like my brain’s cheesecake. I’m also reading The Old Ways (Robert Macfarlane), because the title makes me think of The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper), and Galapagos (Kurt Vonnegut), because that’s on my list of 101 sci-fi books.

What will you read next?
ARC-wise, I need to catch up with the Flavia de Luce books and review the most recent, so that’ll probably be soon. New book-wise, either Clariel (Garth Nix) or Maplecroft (Cherie Priest), because I’m excited about both. Library-wise, probably The Bone People (Keri Hulme).

My life is complicated, y’all.

Tags: , , , ,

Divider

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted October 7, 2014 by in General / 24 Comments

This week’s theme for Top Ten Tuesday is “Ten Books For Readers Who Like Character Driven Novels”. I thought this one would be easy, initially, since characters are really important to me when I read, but it’s actually tougher than I thought.

  1. Pretty much anything by Guy Gavriel Kay. Even where his writing was less polished, more derivative, I fell completely in love with the characters. He’s one of the few authors who can reliably make me cry.
  2. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb. Sure, there’s a lot of plot too, but Fitz’s voice is the most important aspect of the story, and you just want to reach in and bang his head against something to force the sense in, sometimes.
  3. Sunshine, Robin McKinley. Not only is it vampires-done-right, but it’s first person narration, and everything Sunshine is as a character shapes the way the plot turns out.
  4. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern. If you count the circus as a character almost on its own (I do), then yeah, this one definitely counts.
  5. Seaward, Susan Cooper. I need to reread this soon. I loved it so much, and despite the shortness of the book, Cooper built up a relationship between the two main characters that I genuinely loved and wanted to follow.
  6. The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L. Sayers. Actually, as far as being character-driven goes, you’re best reading the whole series chronologically, to get a feel for the way everything fits together, for the way the characters develop. I don’t even think I’d necessarily say I’d start with this one. But it’s the one that really made me understand Lord Peter.
  7. Chime, Franny Billingsley. To say much about this would be to spoil it. A brief excerpt from my review: “Briony isn’t an easy narrator, and she isn’t reliable either, as she constantly tells us. The narrative isn’t a straightforward quest, it’s a maze, it’s full of funhouse mirrors.”
  8. Heart’s Blood, Juliet Marillier. This is the book where me and Marillier really clicked — I tried some before this one, and wasn’t impressed. But I got really involved with this, with the characters and their problems.
  9. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin. The narration is brilliant, the way it all slowly comes together, and I love what Jemisin does with her main character, and with the characters of the gods around her. Particularly when it comes to the child-god, Sieh, who has to act in accord with his nature, or he suffers.
  10. Among Others, Jo Walton. I strongly connected with this because I connected with Mori. Watching her grow up and begin to understand her world better over the course of the novel is a delight.

Wow, that actually took a lot of thought. Veeeery keen to see other people’s picks for this one!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Divider

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 4, 2014 by in General / 10 Comments

Good morning, folks! Shortly after this goes live, I’ll be on the way to Belgium again, whoo. So I’ll be around to check out your posts later than usual. This one is a short one by my usual standards, anyway — just three books to review!

Cover of As Chimney Sweepers by Alan Bradley Cover of One-Eyed Jack by Elizabeth Bear Cover of Sand and Ruin and Gold by Alexis Hall

Yep, that really is it. I’ll be buying a few more books for my Kobo before I set off, but I haven’t picked ’em yet, and I don’t have time to add them later. So they’ll be in next week’s post!

Tags: , , ,

Divider