You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Chit Chat About Books
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What Are You Reading? - 2017.1
Finished The Girl from the Metropol Hotel: Growing Up in Communist Russia
My review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1913569994
I am going to abandon The Teleportation Accident. I'm having trouble getting into it. I read for fun and this is too much like work.I started Two to Mango which is for my Survey challenge. Talk about go from dense and cerebral to light and fluffy! LOL!
Later today, I'll start the audiobook, December, also for the Survey challenge.
Peggy wrote: "I'm glad you're enjoying it Lisa! I plan to read it soon too. Maybe even tomorrow.I had over 4 hours of reading time on the plane today and finished Girl with a Pearl Earring. I had been putting ..."
Welcome back! And I enjoyed it more than I expected too.
I am also reading Old Man's War for the buddy read and the all about me challenge. I'm excited about starting this series.
I'm going to have to set aside Two to Mango so that I can start Old Man's War or I'll be left dangling in space while the rest of them take off in their rocket launchers.
I had to temporarily bail on December. I couldn't do the audiobook any more. The narrator was all over the place. One minute he's shouting, and the next, he's muttering and whispering. I returned it to audile and order the trade paperback.
I will start Angelfall on audiobook tomorrow.
Uhh, I hate it when narrators do that. I don't know whether it's because they think they are great actors or what. I just wish they would calmly read the text and not try to "enliven" it in any way.
It seemed that he was shouting out the profanity. At the beginning of the book, a character walks into the studio and says, "What the f***...". I almost jumped out of my seat, he startled me so much. Then he was muttering and I was having trouble making out what was even going on. I listened for two hours, and wasn't any the wiser. There was singing periodically which I think were likely lyrics written into the story, and that was distracting too.
I have finished Astrid and Veronika for the annual challenge. It is a quiet story about the friendship between women. I enjoyed the book, but part was troubling. I will have to think about it for a bit.
TrudyAn wrote: "I have finished Astrid and Veronika for the annual challenge. It is a quiet story about the friendship between women. I enjoyed the book, but part was troubling. I will have to think ..."Sounds intriguing, Trudy.
TrudyAn wrote: "I have finished Astrid and Veronika for the annual challenge. It is a quiet story about the friendship between women. I enjoyed the book, but part was troubling. I will have to think ..."I read it a few years ago, or actually listened to the audio. I remember crying so hard at the end that I almost drove my car off the road. I understand what you mean by troubling, TrudyAn.
That's too bad, Janice. The narrator can certainly make or break a book with how they perform. I'm still listening to Old Man's War and I'm either going to pick up The Girl in the Garden again for the monthly challenge or Bitterblue for the yearly challenge tonight.
I started The Final Empire and I'm really enjoying it. I liked The Stormlight Achives better though (can't help compare), and I think it is because the writing is better. The writing in The Final Empire, and specifically the explanations of the workings of the world and magic system seem slightly forced and not completely part of the story flow. I think I had a similar feel with Warbreaker.
Warbreaker was my one and only Brandon Sanderson to date, and I loved it. I did think the magic system needed more development but hopefully this will come in the next book - whenever that comes to pass :-)
I think you'll love his other books too. Do you plan on starting any soon?
Peggy wrote: "I started The Final Empire and I'm really enjoying it. I liked The Stormlight Achives better though (can't help compare), and I think it is because the writing is better. The writing i..."I have read a lot of reviews from people who have read both series that say that Stormlight Archive is better than Mistborn. I think Mistborn was one of Sanderson's earlier series, if not the earliest, so I guess his writing has gotten stronger and stronger as he has gone on. I can't wait to read Stormlight, even though the books are huge!
I was thinking the same Lisa. Yes, they are huge! I bought them in parts (not deliberately), so I have four separate books for the two actual books and they are about the size of the mistborn books.
Peggy wrote: "I was thinking the same Lisa. Yes, they are huge! I bought them in parts (not deliberately), so I have four separate books for the two actual books and they are about the size of the mistborn books."
I was looking at them earlier on Amazon and it looks as though you can only get them in parts now from there. I actually don't mind because I would rather have them in two smaller parts than one 1000+ page book. It's less intimidating ;)
Very true! The only thing (for me) is that I quickly forget details of the story, which isn't much of a problem when you start the second book in a series because most often the essentials from book 1 are in there as well. But with the two parts it really is just the one book, no recaps in the second book, so when I left a couple of months in between I sometimes had difficulties remembering everything. It's like reading a normal book and putting it aside for a few months when you're halfway through.
I agree his writing has got better over the years, like most authors. I'm curious about the recent mistborn books. I didn't have an issue with the magic system descriptions but maybe I'm used to that with the amount of fantasy I read. I might also be biased and just love everything he writes. lol.
Peggy wrote: "Very true! The only thing (for me) is that I quickly forget details of the story, which isn't much of a problem when you start the second book in a series because most often the essentials from boo..."When I finally get around to reading them, I'm going to make sure that I read both parts back-to-back so I don't forget what happens in between. It doesn't take much to confuse me so I'm going to go in prepared ;)
I think in The Final Empire (and also Warbreaker) the magic or the way that world works is explained more outside the story, while in The Stormlight Archives it's much more part of the dialogue between characters. Instead of it being literally explained to you, it's more like learning as you go along in the book. Which I prefer much more. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying the book a lot, it's just something that I noticed as different from later books. It's cool to see an author change and develop like that :)
Sarah wrote: "I agree his writing has got better over the years, like most authors. I'm curious about the recent mistborn books. I didn't have an issue with the magic system descriptions but maybe I'm used to th..."I haven't had any issues with the descriptions of the magic system either. However, that could be down to the fact that it is my first Sanderson so I don't have any benchmark.
Peggy wrote: "I think you'll love his other books too. Do you plan on starting any soon?"I'm planning to listen The Way of Kings. As its 45 hours long I realpy hope I'll like it :0
Just finished Burial Rites
for the 3rd time but still enjoyed as bit as much as the first time I read it.My Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1925289464
It's definitely worth it Margo! I think it has become one of my all time favourite series.I agree Dem, fantastic book!
I decided to have my own little toppler today because I had three books that were almost done but holding me up. So, I finished:Old Man's War
Two to Mango
Angelfall
Tomorrow, I can start two new books:
The Lost Girls on ebook for the group themed read
The Good House on audiobook because it's found it's way to the top of the queue.
I'm reading A Conjuring of Light the last book of the https://www.goodreads.com/series/1221... trilogy.It's very good so far...!
I finished Old Man's War for the all about me challenge over the weekend. I have started The Likeness also for the challenge plus I want to focus on this series this year.
I just finished Under a Painted Sky and rated it 3 stars. It is a good young adult historical fiction, specially considering it is a first novel. I am starting now Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, a non fiction pick for my book club meeting in April.
I have just finished The Final Empire. I thought it was fantastic. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
Glad you enjoyed it so much Lisa!I accidentally read part of the blurb of the second book in the series, and I haven't finished book 1 yet :/
Peggy wrote: "Glad you enjoyed it so much Lisa!I accidentally read part of the blurb of the second book in the series, and I haven't finished book 1 yet :/"
I wouldn't recommend skipping ahead to future book blurbs. It might give the game away. Too late I know for book 2 blurb but you can stay away from book 3 blurb now.
Glad you loved it Lisa!
I am also reading The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery which was originally a just because but I can use it for the all about me challenge too.
Sarah wrote: "Peggy wrote: "Glad you enjoyed it so much Lisa!I accidentally read part of the blurb of the second book in the series, and I haven't finished book 1 yet :/"
I wouldn't recommend skipping ahead t..."
Haha, I wouldn't recommend it either ;-) I read only two lines but there was one thing kind of spoilery. Luckily I was able to draw my attention away! I'm not going near any of the GR pages for the other two books anymore.
Kind of spoilery? I just went to the read the whole book blurb and it basically tells you everything that happens in book 1. You did well to tear yourself away in time!
Peggy wrote: "Haha, I only read that [spoilers removed]. I'm sure the whole thing is a super-spoiler though!"That's ok then. Definitely avoid the rest :-)
I spent the last 4 hours (except 20 minutes for dinner) flying through The Final Empire. I so wanted to finish it!My head is full now, so I'll just watch some Netflix for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow I'll start The Song of the Stork, which I got through Netgalley and will also be my final book for part 1 of the yearly challenge.
Peggy wrote: "I spent the last 4 hours (except 20 minutes for dinner) flying through The Final Empire. I so wanted to finish it!My head is full now, so I'll just watch some Netflix for the rest of..."
I was like that with The Final Empire too, Peggy. It gets to the point where you just can't put it down!
Change of plans. I couldn't access The Song of the Stork on my ereader, but I needed to read something on the train, so I started Crocodile on the Sandbank
Peggy wrote: "Change of plans. I couldn't access The Song of the Stork on my ereader, but I needed to read something on the train, so I started Crocodile on the Sandbank"I look forward to seeing what you think of that one. I have it on my maybe list for the yearly challenge.
I'm also only reading it because I need an archaeology book, but so far it's actually quite enjoyable.
Peggy wrote: "I'm also only reading it because I need an archaeology book, but so far it's actually quite enjoyable."It is funny, but I have only ever listened to the series so far. The first 7 were available on audio. #8, The Hippopotamus Pool will be the first one I "read".
Peggy wrote: "I'm also only reading it because I need an archaeology book, but so far it's actually quite enjoyable."Very good! I think it was Cherie that suggested I would enjoy it too. I may go with the audio of that one.
I finished The Ashes of London for the survey challenge. Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Next up for me is another survey challenge book, River God
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I had over 4 hours of reading time on the plane today and finished Girl with a Pearl Earring. I had been putting off reading it for some reason, I didn't expect much of it, but I loved it! I found it hard to put down and enjoyed reading about Vermeer and 17th century Netherlands.