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RETIRED THREAD: Vagabond Treehouse Book Club
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Narilka
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Aug 18, 2020 06:03PM
Looks like they're audio only. That's different.
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Yeah, the first short was actually the beginning of book 1, so don't bother. The shorts after book one and two were good though.
Choko, I started
. Rosie is interesting. A mix of snow white and hunchback of Notre Dame? HehNot sure if I like the twists on Avalon. I'm still in the early chapters.
Wandering Inn
I caved & paid to read up to the most current chapter release. Author is on "break" until September. She's basically trying to wrap up Vol3 for Kindle release and so the work for the audio can be done.
This volume is more meandering than others. I'm pretty sure one of the events I want to happen will be probably happen in this one. Yay! Woo! Dang thing isn't done yet and it's already at 7k pages. Hahahaha!
Ahh, but the plot holes (+ other mistakes) are a bit glaring. I still like the characters and most of the plot lines a lot. =)
Ugly Girl - Faite Falling- This is more YA than the other series I've read by Twomey.
- Hm, the writing is not as polished and the ideas are not as well developed in this one.
- Spastic is a good word for the way everything happened.
- Rosie & Bastien fell in love/lust faster than a snap of the fingers.
- Concepts for the Fae world are cool but the actual use within the story was clunky.
- The dialogue is NOT good. lol I can handle Rosie & Judah talking the lingo but EVERYONE is doing it! Lane, Bastien, etc. It doesn't make sense.
- Call me a wacko but I was having a hard time picturing someone with very bad humped spine & vision issues being able to easily run & have fun playing soccer.
Choko, did you start #2 of the series? Is it any better? I wasn't drawn into the story for this one like I was for the other series.
I'm eyeballing Vengeful Prince #1 (Territorial Mates) as the next try for Twomey. That was published in 2019 AND it's aliens in space. Bwahahah
No, I didn't start the second book. I was kind of waiting for you to see what we are doing... Yes, I agree with pretty much all of your observations. Very YA, haha. And it does feel clunky, as you said. I am willing to try Vengeful Prince next (✷‿✷)
Yay for being on the same page! Though, I did love the way Rosie could talk to animals. That was pretty cool. It was very Disney-esque.
When do you want to read Vengeful Prince? Since I caught up on Wandering Inn, my reading print is more open right now. Hahahah
I'm also open to trying other romance-adventure stories if you have other books you have been thinking about reading.
Audible PlusI just found out about this today and took a look around. If you are already an Audible member, you have access to this. It's unlimited streaming of the books in the Plus Catalog link.
If you are not a member, you can pay less for the limited catalog and able to listen to the books in the catalog. You can tell it's a part of the Plus Catalog because it will have the "Included" tag on it.
Website says that new books will be added each week.
I'm going to listen to all the Alien Audible Original adaptations. Those are fun. =)
I'm excited because I can finally wrap up the Extinction Cycle series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. Extinction War #7 is on there and I can check that off my list now. Woo! I like the series enough to want to finish but not enough to spend a credit and keep the book. Heh
As long as the options stay fresh & interesting, I'll probably keep Audible as my go to audiobook source. I was thinking about canceling next year but I won't if the Plus Catalog has stuff I want to read. =D
Soo wrote: "Audible PlusI just found out about this today and took a look around. If you are already an Audible member, you have access to this. It's unlimited streaming of the books in the Plus Catalog link..."
O M G. I need to clean house more so I can listen to more books lol
Mod
Audible has a clunky interface but at least you can do a genre/topic search and then narrow down results to "Plus Content". I'm on my 3rd Plus audiobook. Listened to the Alien canon trilogy Audible Originals. They're almost as good as movies! =D
Now wrapping up the Extinction Cycle series.
A bunch of Judith Tarr's books are on Plus. Makes me want to dive into the books I haven't ready by her! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh~~
I am happy to note that there are a ton of F/SF. Smattering of LitRPG. Lots of mystery, thriller, romance. Some great classics.
I saw some older Anne McCaffery when I did a quick search yesterday. This might be a great way to hit older series. I'll have more time today to search.This is so horrible :D The new Bobiverse releases in a month, I still have a lot of Joe Ledger to go and I'm waiting for a release date for Paternus 3's audio. Oh and they released a version Death on the Nile narrated by Kenneth Branagh. My audio TBR is slowly catching up to my "regular" TBR :)
SQUEEE!!! All the Joe Ledger short stories are included in Plus :D
Woohoo! Ya know. I think I only listened to one of the shorts for Joe Ledger. I'll have to give them a go too! I've run the road on a lots of (new to me) authors for thriller/mystery and most of them are not as good as Joe Ledger, Charlie Parker, Borne, Mitch Rapp, etc. So, I may be doing a re-read of Joe Ledger too! Haha
I'm about to dive into The Sword-Edged Blonde #1. The whole series is on Audible Plus. It was already on my TBR. =DI have zero idea why it's listed as a Fantasy & Sci-Fi. By listing, I mean what other people shelved the books under. I will find out and report.
It should be good! Many friends have read it and enjoyed.
PLUS! I like the narrator.
Woo-hoo! The Sword-Edged Blonde was great! I'm gonna chomp down on the rest of the Eddie LaCrosse series. Ya'll should add it to your TBR. Especially if you have Audible Plus. ;)
To go with the movie theme, I listened to the canon books that go with Alien. Did you guys know there's a series of books for Meg, the shark movie? I had no idea! Hahah! A few of those are on Audible Plus too.
Next up:
Probably followed by:
This is the 3rd book in the series but I doubt I'll miss all that much.
Audible Plus is a bit erratic in what books you can stream. It's working out okay for me though.
Oh, the first two books of the Vampire Files by P.N. Elrod are on there too. I'll probably check those out.
Also, is it cheating if they use the Jaws soundtrack for Meg? Hahahah
Mod
I think there's something about the difference between a movie and a book, where you don't get mired in the characters' annoying heads, so much...
I read about 1/3 of this book, Necrotech, before just needing a break... much of the intro reminds me of Resident Evil 2 (movie), with amnesia and body modding (even a bit of pseudo-zombie-ism)... but the MCs crudeness and general worldview just grates on me... and the book feels a bit repetitive in it's descriptions of the seedy underworld... I swear I heard the exact same descriptions paragraph-for-paragraph, in the span of five chapters...
Anyway, now I'm giving Dark Hollow a go...
Yah, I totally feel ya! The Alien audiobooks were good but the Godzilla one was like the movie in written print format without the fun of watching it happen. Or like how I chomped down a bunch of zany K-Drama but I couldn't read the same kind of stuff happening in a book unless it was described really well. The acting and soundtracks are what pulls off the range off the wall that I love to watch in a show. I don't think that amount of character development or depth gets shown in a book. It's more about the superficial action and reaction.
I love Charlie Parker but it's more of the darker stories. As a character, he's great though. Not an anti-hero setup for that one.
I know you have Audible Plus, you should jump into the Eddie LaCrosse books. I listened to two and they were fun. =)
He's more of the above average guy that does great things type of adventure.
A few years ago, when I saw that a book is a SPFBO winner/finalist, I would be intrigued to check it out. Now? I think I'd rather avoid them because the ratings are wrong. I've bought a lot of the audiobooks for SPFBO winner/finalist and most of them were bad. I'm just mentioning this because the Audible Daily sale is for Spark City. Good cover, okay title and decent blurb. Most of the reviews rave about the story and the couple of negative reviews talk about so-so plot, poorly constructed characters and lumpy execution.
My take away: Try for free and don't spend money until after reading for free. If you can get SPFBO books for free. A lot of them are on KU.
Though, honestly, it feels kinda bad that I consider paying for KU a decent deal to read more meh books than great ones. At least when there is a good one, there's enough of them to keep me on a happy book spree. =)
Anyone watch the movie the Winchester? I think it's labeled as horror. Just watched it and it's a great ghost story. Good script, great actors and tons of atmosphere. I'm never gonna get caught up on movies/shows/books. LOL =D
Look at all those options! Woo~
Currently watching Double World on Netflix. A Chinese wire-fu, action movie. A few of the characters look like they could be in Final Fantasy. =) I've been taking turns between audiobooks and Netflix. Totally ruining my humongous book spree. =D
Well Soo........nobody can ever say you don’t read many books! Lol. Enjoy the break. I’ve been binge watching Lucifer and Supernatural last few days too.
I need to watch the last few seasons of Supernatural. =D
I got hooked on music documentaries and I have not slept the last two days! TCM has had a run of them this holiday weekend and they have been showing the best ones after midnight... Needles to say, I have not been reading anything... I am hoping they stop after tonight so I can get back with my life (✷‿✷). But watching Jimmy Handrix and the rock and roll of that time, I am now craving that music... Crazy!
Yay music! Music is good.I got sucked back into How to Get Away with Murder and I'm amazed by how well the shows are pieced together. The flashbacks & stuff. I love the acting and script. Though, gotta say, the inter-relationships of everyone getting involved with one another is overly dramatic. Totally soap opera. Still, pretty smart.
Depictions of emotion, dealing with trauma & still living a life are good strengths of the show.
On the final stretch for How to Get Away with Murder and I'm rather irked by the change in plot. Ugh. Some of the extra drama was understandable given events but the latest spin stinks to high heaven. Well, the only thing I have left to figure out is how the ending happens. That's half the fun for the show. Will report if I'm on the money or not. =P
Ok. The writers worked really hard to tie up all the knots from S1 to S5. A lot of it wasn't believable but it wasn't terrible. All of S6 was the tie up of the mother of all tie ups. Gotta admire how well make up artists can transform people to look younger and older. It was pretty great. Though, some of the wigs were a bit off. =)
I did not expect a couple of the twists and that is why I love these shows. =D
I have to watch that show! I love the main actress so much ❤️! It seems everyone I know loves it...
If you watch it, have a buddy or come chat about it here. A lot happens and you will hate/love/can't stand all the characters. lol
I noticed a few weeks ago that you can change the speed of the videos on Netflix. I tried it on a show and it was kinda terrible. lol Video skips frames and audio doesn't quite sync.So, I watched a corny movie, Hurricane Heist, and enjoyed it more because I did it at 1.5x speed. HAHAHA
That was much better than the bad action flick, Polar. Main actor was great but the rest was terrible. Wannabe comic style with Asian Horror movie gore. Those guys were suppose to be professional assassins and they couldn't kill anyone without wasting an entire clip or two.
Mod
I find this description/complaint funny, since that's basically how the show operates... I watched 1.5 seasons I think, maybe 2.5, and the show was rife with abrupt changes and added layers of deception... that theme is common in most Shondaland shows, I think... I watched 4-5 seasons of Scandal and 8-10 seasons of Grey's Anatomy...
Mod
I got sucked back into How to Get Away with Murder and I'm amazed by how well the shows are pieced together. The flashbacks & stuff. I love the acting and script. Though,..."
Wait... are you on season 1, or you binged through to whatever season it's up to, now?...
Mod
Gotta admire..."
Nevermind... that's what I get for reading comments out of order, because I didn't scroll up enough...
Mod
So, I watched..."
cranking the speed on an action/thriller probably just ramps up the intensity/stakes, lol... not a bad idea for low budget entries...
I lost interest in Grey's Anatomy. I should finish Scandal. I loved the romance and the main character but the drama was getting too bizarre and overdone. Good actors definitely saved all of those shows! =)
Yeah, I was highly amused by 1.5x speed for the corny movie.
Looks like the options on Netflix went down a bit. Guessing all of the networks are making their own paid stream for shows.
Mod
Good actors definitely saved all of thos..."
Online streaming is like halfway to cable, at this point... the problems streaming solved are creeping back in... I just kinda live with the selection of Netflix & Youtube, for the most part...
It's really bizarre what can and can't get on Youtube now.
Mod
I mostly watch comedy and commentary on Youtube... SNL Weekend Updates, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, etc...
And the occasional rabbithole that screws up my recommendations for months...
Audible's Fall Harvest Sale is happening. I picked up 10 audiobooks. =)Lots of goodies on there if you wanted to try something but didn't want to spend credit/$10. Everything is $5.
Soo wrote: "Audible's Fall Harvest Sale is happening. I picked up 10 audiobooks. =)Lots of goodies on there if you wanted to try something but didn't want to spend credit/$10. Everything is $5."
Thanks for the heads up!
I got caught up on Sabrina and watched it to the end. Season 2 took a while to grow on me. I didn't like the story atmosphere change. By the end of S2, I liked the plot line and thought it was a good spin. Then the freakin' end of the show was A GIGANTIC PILE of terrible plot twists!!! AHHHHHHHHHH
It was like the script writers and director had a bet on how many ridiculous crap they could toss in together and get away with it because it was the end of the show. Ugh
Oh well. It was mostly good show.
OMG - Season 3 wasn't the last one. That crap in most of S3 was on purpose and there's a S4!!! I feel like bashing something. *eyeroll*
Mod
Yeah, I should have clarified that I had a change of heart between the beginning of S2 and end of it. S3 jumped the shark so many times, it was like the writers/director were playing jump rope! =P
Apparently S3 & S4 were planned out and production for S4 went right after. So... all the shenanigans were on on purpose. Ugh
You can get caught up so we can discuss what was cool and what didn't work. LOL
I ditched a bad wannabe hero/mutant story and started to watch #Alive while doing chores. So far, it's better than the book I ditched. =)Interesting take on zombies.
ALSO! They finally made a sequel to Train to Busan. It's called Peninsula. Suppose to be on Netflix in 2021. Hopefully, it's as good? Maybe not but willing to find out.
Warrior Nun - I can live with cheesy acting but why are there inconsistent accents and lack of knowledge? Like, why would an American kid keep an American accent when she grows up in an orphanage in Spain? I'm guessing that the setting is Spain. I was thinking Italy, but one of the lines was, "I'm still working on my Spanish." I may not love this show. Bummer!
On another note, #Alive was pretty good. Standard zombie flick with modern gamer perspective. There were a few times, I was like, WHY didn't you ____, _____ & _____?!?!? I mean, not everything in movies and games are real but making sure you've gathered up food & water is pretty basic common sense.
will be a standalone novel coming out 03/09/2021. We should BR it when it comes out. Sometime in March. I'll try to remember and ask for a thread. I read Sarah Beth Durst for the first time this year and really enjoyed my BR for
.I'm a little skeptical about the novel being an "Adult" but I think it'll be good regardless.
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