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What are you reading 2021
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Christine
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Jul 12, 2021 12:15PM
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I finished
and
Currently reading
(although I havent picked it back up in almost 2 weeks)
and
Ah I really enjoyed The Language of Thorns. The illustrations are so beautiful!
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Brittany wrote: "I'm listening to it so sadly I dont get the illustrations"Ah shame!
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This has been a roller coaster of a week in regards. Without further ado lets get into things.
-3 StarsThis book was more like a 2.5 stars for me but the main annoyance I had with the book wasn't the main focal point so I bumped it up. Overall this book was about as average as you could get. The main mystery wasn't overall bad but it didn't really have anything to separate it from the millions of other paranormal cozy mystery novels out there. Then there was my biggest annoyance with the book, the romance. I don't hate romance in my novels I just hate certain tropes and this book had the worst of the worst. The first trope we are hit with is the female MC who just got out a relationship and swears off men for all time only to promptly drool all over the first piece of man meat that the author dangles in front of them. I call them man meat because the author focuses more on how physically beautiful the men are instead of actually giving them character. Of course we can't just have one piece of man meat we need a love triangle with two piece of hot man meat and of course the man meat comes with prepackaged baggage for extra drama. Now I will give the author this in regards to the triangle. At least she didn't use the lazy YA love triangle with one guy from her old life and one guy from her new life. Then the final piece of crappy romantic tropes, the obviously stalker like behavior that is romantic because he just a misunderstood bad boy. She keeps putting of his persistent attempts at getting a date with her so he just finds her address and shows up at her house announced. I loathe this trope so much. This attempt to make this kind of creepy behavior seem super romantic is disgusting. We all know that in real life if something like this happened the cops would be called nine times out ten but we give it a hand wave in our fiction. Any way I need to save some ranting for later.
-4 StarsThis was an odd book for me. This book was a collection of short stories told by ghosts and those stories were about the day that they died. I grew up on these kind of books and the stories all felt rather nostalgic. If you've read enough of these kind of books then you will know how these stories will unfold. We even have an infamous monkey's paw story in this collection. Throughout this book it was sitting at a solid 3 star book for me. What bumped it up to a four star wasn't the ending or any particular story it was the authors blurb in the back. The author talked about how her mother told her ghost stories just like these ones when she was growing up and how these stories always had some kernel of truth to them. She then went through each story and gave some insight into her inspiration for that story. That kernel of truth if you will. It shone a new light on the book and made it feel a bit more personal. I don't know if I'd recommend this for horror fans who are used to more adult horror but if you're looking for a nostalgic trip or are looking for a book for a young kid getting into horror then I think you will maybe get some mileage out of this.
-3 StarsI had an epiphany while reading these books. I figured out what my issue is with these new iterations of childhood favorites. I can adapt to the character changes, the change to a modern setting, the change to the settings in general. What my issue is with these books is that the books are just bad mysteries. The originals were no Agatha Christie by any means but they had clues, investigation, the usual trappings of a mystery. These modern ones just have the characters bumble along until the solution falls into their lap. For instance in The Vanishing Game the boys have partially figured out what is going on but have no idea where the missing kids are. Instead of finding clues and figuring out where the kids are hidden at they just happen to see one while driving to school. They follow the kid, call the cops, cops question everyone and solve the case. Anyone could have done this. Notice a missing poster, spot the kid, call the cops, cops solve the mystery. The Nancy Drew one wasn't any better really. It was just randomly suspect different people until the final chapter when she has a big aha moment and solves the case. They just don't feel like satisfying mysteries.
-5 StarsNow that my library has the Demonbound series that is linked to this I wanted to do a reread so that I can have things fresh in my head. This book is just as fun as the first time I read it and I am so glad that I had this book this week.
-2 StarsI have some history with this book and I'm going to touch on that before I unload on this book. I vaguely recall reading this book at some point before I joined Goodreads and not really liking it. After joining Goodreads I've had this book recommend to me all the time. If you like this book you will love this book kind of deal. I've always ignored it though because of those vague recollections. This year I joined a team based timed challenge that required me to hunt down some books from time to time. There are plenty of Goodreads list out there for finding books but they are generally full of boring contemporary novels that don't interest me much. As a result I started looking elsewhere and that is when I found a subreddit for horror books. Depending on my searches I kept finding this book recommended but not just recommended but recommended with glowing reviews. This is where that kernel of doubt started to creep in. Did I really read the same book? Was it as bad as I seem to remember? This would have been about a decade or more ago and my reading tastes have changed. I finally caved and requested the book from the library. It was supposed to come in after the challenge was done and I was going to take a look see. Well the book showed up 3 hours later instead of 3 weeks later and it worked for the challenge so in I jumped.
To answer the question of did I read it before and is it bad, yes and yes. This book is bad and I've been slogging through it for about two days now. This book is a shining example of wasted potential. I think there was some interesting material here but instead of exploring all this interesting material we spend the entire book with this cast of shallow, annoying, idiots. I just finished this book and I'm writing this so I can purge this book from the memory banks and move on. Our book revolves around six people in their early twenties who are vacationing in Cancun. Four of the them are traveling together, one is a German tourist, and one is a Greek tourist that they had met at the resort. The German tourist has a brother who left to follow a girl he had hooked up with. He left his brother a map and told him to follow along. When the brother doesn't show up again the German tourist asks for help and our band of idiots trek into the jungle to find this missing brother. Up to this point the story itself doesn't sound bad. They find the trail on the map and follow it to this hill in the jungle covered in vines and flowers. Locals show up to try and get them to leave but when one of the idiots sets foot on the hill the locals change their message. Instead of trying to get them to leave the area immediately they now won't let them leave the hill. What follows is two days of the most annoying dialogue that answers no questions at all and makes me want to die of boredom. The first big problem is that entire cast of characters are shallow, annoying, and generally just stupid as hell. For instance they are heading for a day trek into the jungle in Mexico. Now smart people would bring the proper gear and supplies to do this trip. These idiots bring sandals, shorts, and bottles of tequila. They leave their phones at the hotel because they don't want them stolen so no one has a way to communicate with the outside world if something happens. When they find themselves stuck on the hill with little in the way of food or water, suffering from thirst and hunger, they decide to get ripping drunk because reasons. Characters aside I just hated the writing. You have all this interesting stuff to explore and elaborate on and the author spends 430 pages spewing pointless flashbacks and drama. The amount of absolutely pointless flashbacks in this book is staggering. Pages after pages after pages of our four friends having flashbacks to various points in their life and none if it has any relevance. It doesn't help the story, it doesn't develop the characters, it doesn't remind them of some skill they can use, it's just there to fill page space. I'm sitting over in one corner poking the big bad plant with a stick wanting to know more and the author is over there talking about some stupid memory from when one of them was seven years old or having them bicker over some stupid point that does nothing for the story. Then there is the flow of the story. There are no chapters in this book. It's just one long dialogue. In some ways I can respect this but it also made this book feel 1,000 times longer as it was just pages of pointless crap. I was so frustrated with this book that it overshadowed the few little points where I cringed in a particular gruesome scene or thought something was interesting. I didn't care about the characters and I didn't care about what happened to them.
I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. I've got to find some more books for my challenge but I think I'm just going to take the day to purge the above filth from my mind.
Mod
At least you had Guild Codex to make things better!
Read some fun books for a bit instead of challenge ones!
Finished
and wow. Still processing everything that happened at the end. Kate Quinn is definitely a new favourite author after this and The Rose Code and I'll be looking out for her new stuff for sure. Started
this afternoon, so I'm excited to see what all the fuss is about for this one.
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I just finished Song of Achilles and I really enjoyed the different perspective. It isn't perfect but I loved the ride all the same
Brittany wrote: "Yes! Glad you loved The Alice Network Jo. Told you its such a good one! You should totally go try her Rome stuff as wellI just finished Song of Achilles and I really enjoyed the different perspe..."
You were definitely right Brittany, thanks for the recommendation! I'm also itching to find some non-fiction books about The Alice Network and WWI spies now, I had no idea it was even a thing before reading this book. Unfortunately her Rome books aren't on Audible but I will definitely keep a look out in case they're added in future.
Mod
I too want some non fiction on that so if you find any good ones send them my way!
Brittany wrote: "I dont know what they would be like on audio but if they ever come up definitely watch for them. I own them all. Love the author so much!I too want some non fiction on that so if you find any good..."
I definitely will!
Recently I finished several interesting books.
- amazing dark sequel. I'm in love with author's writing style and definitely going to read her other books.
- one more great read! I wasn't sure about this book but loved it from the first pages.
- a pretty interesting interpretation but I'm a bit tired of such books.
- oh my! Nesta's story is my favourite!
- classics is always good especially when it's LoTR
Elena wrote: "Recently I finished several interesting books. - amazing dark sequel. I'm in love with author's writing style and definitely going to read her other books.[boo..."
Glad to see you enjoyed Our Dark Duet Elena! Highly recommend Vicious or A Darker Shade of Magic next :)
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recently. I give up with the Woods graphic novels I've lost interest. Dragon's Heart was an interesting enough prequel but really wasn't a complete story
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Thank you ladies :)@Jo I'm definitely going to start one of the series you've recommended later.
@Brittany Sad to hear you've lost the interest. Maybe a little break will help you to get it back :)
Elena!!! Nesta's story is my favorite too!!!!I'm with Jo, Vicious and A Darker Shade of Magic are great!
Not a lot to talk about this week. Work was busier this week and I was in a bit of a funk at the beginning of the week after The Ruins last week.
-5 StarsThis was my rebound book and In Death always delivers on making me feel better. I will admit that I was a bit hesitant heading into this one though. This one is a murder mystery centered around geek/nerd culture and I have had some bad experiences with murder mysteries of this nature. I've read more than a few books or watched TV shows from the late 90's early 2000's that decided to have geek/nerd culture as the theme that were pretty bad. It really reminds me of the Satanic Panic of the 80's and D&D. People who partake in this stuff are antisocial psychopaths who can't differentiate between reality and fantasy. It's gotten better now that aspects of geek/nerd culture of become more main stream but there are still many subcultures that are completely foreign to the average Joe.
That being said this book did a great job handling the subject matter. Eve doesn't necessarily understand it but it never felt like she was dismissive or condescending. Which makes sense considering some of the people that are around her. As usual I loved the banter between the characters and the mystery was good.
-5 StarsA reread for me as I joined a buddy read for the series. I love the book and the characters but man do I still hate that cover. I know that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but that cover kept me from reading this book for a while. It's that bog standard cheesy romance cover where the males are allergic to shirts and it just looks bad. I can't wait to finally get to the second book next month.
-3 StarsMore scientific adventures with Tom Swift minus the more questionable aspects of the first book. So far these are great popcorn reads.
Right now I plan on reading
and
This is the last week of the big challenge I am working on. After Wednesday, when it finishes, I plan to toss myself into a pile of manga and other fun reads for a while.
@Jo @Heather thank you for the recs :) I think now it's obvious what I'm going to read next :D@Gord looking forward to your review on Kuma.
I love the Kuma series. I read the fan translations for quite some time before it got dropped when the novels were licensed. I wouldn't call it a guilty pleasure but it's the ideal popcorn book for me.
Mod
@Jo I'm definitely going to start one of the series you've recommended later.
@Brittany Sad to hear you've lost the interest. Maybe a little break will help you to get it back :)"
I took a break before reading volume 4 and I just dont care about the characters at all so it isn't worth it to me anymore.
Mod
and it was disappointing. I loved the Warcross world, and we somehow got less of it in this one, which was not cool.I also finally read
and I loved it! It was so much fun! I've had an ARC of this book for the longest time ever! It's embarrassing! Please don't look at the release date 🙈 But it was a lot of fun!
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Too bad about Wildcard, I probably wont bother with it then
Hi I’m reading scars like wings by Erin Stewart havent got into it so far but only started today
Liliana wrote: "So I finished and it was disappointing. I loved the Warcross world, and we somehow got less of it in this one, which was not cool.I also finally read [bookcover:Broo..."
We've all been there with reading ARCs way after the release date! My copy of City of Brass I won in a giveaway was an ARC, got it in 2018, didn't read it until last year!
Recently I started reading
but I had to drop it after 11 chapters. The author gave way too much unnecessary information for me to stay interested and moving between three different timelines made it hard for me to understand the story. Another book I started is
. I've wanted to read this one for quite a while and I'm enjoying it. Somewhere last month I bought two new books to finish a series I own, so now I'm also rereading the first one
.
Gwen wrote: "Recently I started reading but I had to drop it after 11 chapters. The author gave way too much unnecessary information for me to stay interested and moving betw..."Ooooh! I loved Coraline!
Back for another week of weird and all over reading.
-4 StarsI would call this series a guilty pleasure but I don't feel guilty when reading books. I can feel a lot of emotions including embarrassment but never things like guilt or shame. For embarrassment I'm thinking of those awkward times when you are out in public and the book decides to get all hot and steamy on you. Back to this book, it's more Kuma bear. If you have made it seven books into the series you know what you are getting. Yuna finds a new power, defeats everything with ease, rubs elbows with the elite of the elite, etc. There was one element that was introduced in this book that stuck out to me even when reading the fan translation of the original web novel. Yuna finding something super rare, with a bear name of course, left hidden by God. I just start wondering how many of these are out there? What do they do? What will they become? How will it power up our MC who is already beyond OP? So many questions.
-3 StarsThis is the first of two books I read this week that a theme of racism and finding personal identity. This one involves a young Somalian girl living in London. Her father was presumed dead in the violence in Somalia until he was discovered one today alive and well. He joins his family in London and we get the story of how this disrupted the entire family. This is one of those books that I can see having an impact for some people but it just never felt like it landed for me personally. Maybe it's the culture and gender that made it harder for me to relate to. Maybe it was the story itself. It wasn't a bad story, I just didn't feel like it had a punch to it. There wasn't the emotional investment or impact for me.
-4 StarsThis was the second book with the theme of racism and personal identity. As you can guess from the score this one did land for me. So this one takes place in 1941/42 on the west coast of Canada in a town called Prince Rupert. Our MC is of mixed race with his mother being Tsimshian and his father being British and he also has a friend who is Japanese. There are basically two story lines in this book. There is our MC coming to grips with the native side of his heritage. His father is of course off fighting the war in Europe and he is living with his mothers side of the family. The other story line involves Canada's horrendous treatment of the Japanese during WWII. While this isn't set in the town I grew up in or even somewhere that I would call close it was set in Northern BC where I was born and raised. There were a lot of things that were said in this book, both regarding natives and Asians, that I had heard growing up in my small town in the 80's. It's hard to explain but this book just landed differently for me than From Somalia with Love. I just connected and felt things a bit more intensely with this book.
-4 StarsThis was one of the first things I read after my timed challenge came to an end and I was able to read freely. This wasn't planned either, it was just something that I stumbled across while looking for comics. This truly reads like a D&D campaign. The humor, the solutions, the character stereotypes, it was all there. I could even see times where there would be solutions to problems that were personally put there by the DM to match up with the characters backstory. I could see where characters were doing rolls and either failing or succeeding at them. You might think that would make for a boring story but it didn't. It felt really entertaining and I had a blast reading it. My biggest criticism would of course come with the ending. I don't feel like it really wrapped anything up and there is no more stories with these characters that I know of. There are campaign and character sheets at the back of the book so you could create your own stories but that's not the same.
-4 StarsAnother random comic that I stumbled across and enjoyed. Over the last several years there has been a real attempt to change up the Archie stories all while still cranking out the normal Archie comics that we all know. I've dabbled in a couple out of curiosity but it's not something I have the greatest interest in. Archie comics carry a large nostalgia factor for me as they were the kind of comics that were the most available growing up. It just feels kind of weird seeing these characters in some of these situations honestly. I have no interest in the TV show that was out either. The one comic I did rather enjoy was the Sabrina one that was full on hardcore horror. I read the first volume and thought it was interesting. This series of comics kind of hits that middle ground between the innocence of the first Sabrina stuff and that hardcore horror stuff. It still has horror elements to it but it's also aimed at a younger audience. It was just a fun fluffy read and I wish that there was more in this series but it doesn't appear that there is. That being said I haven't looked that hard yet either.
-4 StarsPart of my reread of the early series and just a fun read overall.
-4 StarsWhen I read the first book I thought it was sweet but it didn't really blow me out of the water either. I have to say that I've really enjoyed the next three books though. It's a basic romance story but I enjoyed that it felt like it wasn't following the usual tropes. Sure there were misunderstandings in the book but instead of stretching on forever because no one would talk about them they got resolved because our characters talked about them. It felt like the relationship was continuing to grow and become stronger as they worked through these issues. There was moments of physical intimacy instead of dancing around the issue and stretching out the first kiss for 50 some odd issues. It was just a fun read and I've already requested the final book in the series and the first book in the spin off series.
Outside of all of that I've finally started to tackle my massive backlog of fan translated manga that I've been avoiding for months. There is so much stuff there that I need to read. So far I've caught up on five series I was working on.
For the upcoming week I plan to read
and of course more manga.
Mod
Finished
. Started my next audiobook
, I've been on a bit of an adult historical fiction kick recently and I saw this one on someone's Top Ten Tuesday list last week, so I thought I'd give it a try! It's narrated by the same narrator who did The Rose Code and The Alice Network, so I have a good feeling!
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YA Addicted Book Club
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