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What are you reading in 2022?
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Brittany
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Sep 30, 2022 03:22PM
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was a good new fairytale. Not the greatest narrator though
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@Brittany oh, I'm glad you liked it. I've read the book a while ago and remember enjoying the story.
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which is part of my re-read, and I really enjoyed it! I actually forgot a lot of what happened in the book, so it was kinda nice to be surprised by it again. Lol.
And right now I'm in the middle of this spooky middle grade book, which I'm really enjoying! It's really silly and a little spooky, and I just really like Kiersten White's MG books.
It was quite a nice and productive week and next week we have public holiday on Monday, so I'll squeeze even more books!
- 5 stars amazing setting, language and story. Love the series so far. Books are not tightly related to each other, perfectly fine to read on its own too.
- 5 stars delightful re-read before jumping into the books I haven't read in the series. I think the time has come to continue reading this hilarious and gorgeous series.
- 3 stars am I predictable? No update without cozy mystery. At this point I might be tired of cozy mysteries pretty soon though the season is perfect for them. This series is even more suitable for the spooky season.
- 3 stars I've read the whole series in one sitting (short stories). A nice and cozy, also the teas are amazing but the stories themselves not so much.
- 3 stars too cheesy and cliche. I've basically picked this romance to hit the prompt on one of the challenges. Didn't enjoy much.
- 4 stars when I started reading, I thought it was underrated. But somewhere in the middle I got it. The book had so much potential with a strong beginning and not so good ending :(
- 3 stars I've enjoyed the setting of this one but not the actual mystery part :D
- 5 stars oh yeah! I got the final 5 books and enjoyed this one so much! It kinda made my day.
- 5 stars so funny! I laughed a lot reading it. The story is very simple and very cliche but that is what is meant to be and basically not-so-good things suited perfectly here.
Time for that weekly update and this was an odd week overall. I kind of got pulled into a reading void this week and did something I don't normally do. 
-4/4/5 starsI don't normally read series back to back all the time and I didn't plan to this week. I saw the first two books were available and I had some time until my next audiobook hold came in so I snagged them while they were available. I crushed out the first two books by Thursday and the third book came in so I crushed that one out as well. I sat here for most of Saturday listening to the third book while doing jigsaw puzzles. I find this kind of hilarious as I was a bit hesitant going into the first book. I didn't really remember the books from my last reading of them and it was the whole young person in a school thing again. This wasn't the first series that did this in the Tortall world or just in general. There was also the fact that the last quartet I read in this world was this big massive story involving the kingdom at war, immortals, gods, foreign kings, etc and with this one we were going back to a page going through training. There are two things though that dragged me into this quartet. The MC and the focus of the quartet. There is something about Kel that is just endearing. She is the first open female to go through page training and it's made very clear that is not wanted there. She faces harassment and bullying from nearly all the other pages and is pushed harder than anyone else by the training master. Through it all though she keeps a level head and slowly starts to win people over to her side. She wins friends through her being her and she wins over the training master with her skills. Through it all though she still faces harassment from not only her other pages but a certain conservative element of Tortall. This brings us to the second part of what I liked which was the theme or focus of the quartet. Initially I was a bit hesitant like I mentioned with the scaled back story but This glimpse into Tortall, the mindset of the people, and how the King/Queen navigate these waters was rather interesting. It was showing a kingdom in the transition from a more traditional conservative kind of idea to a more progressive one. Things like rights for those that are not of the noble class, rights for women, and so on. Normally I'm not a massive fan of politics or heavy political themes in my novels but this was handled well in my opinion.
There was one scene that I really loved and that came at the end of the third book when Kel gets her shield and she meets the Lioness. When she finds out that Alanna was the mysterious benefactor that has been sending her gifts the entire time. I loved what Alanna told her. That she was bringing change to the country by just being her. How she showed that a girl can complete the training and that she had done it with no magic. That she was inspiring other young girls to think about being knights. It just felt like such a sweet payoff for both Kel and the us the reader.
-4 StarsThis book brought us to the end of the Kyoto arc and man was this a good time. The final battle was intense and not because of the actual physical fight. It felt like this massive clash of ideologies. That this fight was more then just two men trying to prove who was the strongest and added this weight when either one would pick themselves back up again to keep fighting. This book also contains a pretty hardcore scene where the big bad guys right hand man is caught after the final scene. He want's to go trial to spread the word of his master but he is never given a trial. Using a hidden knife he slits his own throat, uses his own blood he writes a message on the wall, and then dies. The message on the wall is "This world is dead to me. I go to serve my master in hell." This whole scene just made me pause and go "damn". I think I said this last time but once this series ditched the villain of the week kind of theme and went for a longer story arc I really became invested. I have two more of these omnibus editions and then I'm done with this series.
-4 StarsThis series is sheer absurd stupidity and I am here for most of it. Yugi's rival, Kaiba, builds a multimillion dollar deathtrap game building to get his revenge on Yugi after only beat him once. There was no expense spared in this building and the absurdity of it all was just hilarious. Later Yugi is playing a game with another character and they are literally playing for their souls. Now to address a couple things that are kind of bugging me. There is a female character that is a friend of Yugi and she seems to only show up to be eye candy, get assaulted, etc. Then this volume broke out one of my most hated tropes in anime/manga that was everywhere for a while. The dirty old man character and I loathe this trope. This volume did something weird with it though. They took that dirty old man character and shoved it into an infant. This tiny little infant could somehow talk and the whole nine yards. Of course the female friend shows up to take care of the infant during the death game and then the harassment starts. Grabbing the breast while making a lewd face, the quips, etc, etc, etc. This was the one stain on the whole deathtrap game arc. I just hate this trope and putting it in an infant didn't make it any better.
-3 StarsNot much to really say here. More crazy fights with over the top powers. More revelations about what is going on. I'm still on board for more and it's a great help with those U's in my spelling challenges.
As for what is next,
On audiobook I'm planning on listening to
while I wait for some holds to come inFor physical books I'm reading some Quintessential Quintuplets this morning and then I'll be starting
I've got a five day weekend at the end of the week so I'll be able to get some heavy reading in here soon.
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Gord I love that you got so hooked into a series you had to binge it.
I'd be reading the fourth book right now if it was available but I have to wait. I just started reading at the right time and the story just clicked with me.
@Gord that Protector series seems very interesting. Great you've enjoyed it :)
The Tortall universe in general has been a great read. The Protector series is the third quartet I've read in the universe and I've enjoyed everything I've read so far.
Time for that weekly wrap up and a bit of a warning in advance. I'm not a professional critic or have any sort of experience or knowledge about writing. This week is a lot of "me no like this" "me no know why but me no like" instead of some sort of properly written examination of the book.
-2 StarsThe caveman reviews starts with this book. I was intrigued by the premise when I first saw this one earlier this year. Two strangers hookup for a one night stand and wake up in the midst of an alien invasion. Alright, I pretty much bounced off this book right from the get go. I don't know how to explain this but the writing just repelled me. I don't know how to explain this properly but it just felt a bit all over the place. Sometimes it was dropping the big words and trying to sound all deep and what not. Then there were times where it was trying to sound like an average person. It was just odd and I didn't click with it. Then we have the characters. Beth is a train wreck but was probably the one character I "liked". Mike is the other MC and, this is going to sound odd especially for an MC, he felt like he had no presence in this book. He was just kind of there and did the occasional thing but he just never had a presence for me. Beth's character simply overwhelmed his character in terms of presence. The book itself also didn't feel any better. The monsters were kind of all over the place and not well defined. The book just kind of sits there doing nothing for the longest time until a McGuffin was pulled out of no where and then poof things were kind of "resolved". I still think the premise was good but I really didn't think the execution was all that great.
-3 StarsAnother Redwall novel and pretty much what you would expect after 11 books. Redwall is attacked by evil foxes and rats, they are repelled, people are sent on a quests, there are tons of references to food. I'm going to be a bit critical of this book but I want to be clear that this was still entertaining and if I was younger I might have enjoyed it more. Overall I don't think this was one of the stronger Redwall novels and it just felt kind of padded. I swear every chapter or two someone was breaking out into song. Looking back at it this was nearly a musical. Combine that with the usual food descriptions all the time and things just kind of felt padded for me. If you trimmed out a bunch of the songs and food descriptions you could shave off a serious amount of pages. Outside of that this story just felt kind of samey to some of the other ones I read. Again, it wasn't bad but it didn't rock my world either.
-4 StarsThis was the perfect highlight of how far I've come with audiobooks. I started listening to audiobooks about a year ago as a way of motivating myself to go out for walks. I wasn't sure how well it would work as I was just not interested in audiobooks. They didn't make sense to me, I couldn't listen to them for more than a few minutes before my mind would wander, etc. This year alone I've listened to 41 audiobooks or nearly 14 straight days of audio. There has been some duds for sure in there but I've found that if done well the audiobook experience can really boost a books feel and this book was a great example of that. I originally read this as a physical book years back and gave it three stars. I still feel that the book itself is a solid three star experience but the narrator just adds something to this book and boosts it up to four stars for me. There is of course all the accents which just adds to everything. The narrator also had a lot of little things like heavy breathes, licking lips, etc that I have not enjoyed in other books but here it just works. It's hard to explain but it felt like this was a close buddy telling you about how messed up their week was instead of just a story being narrated you. I'm really looking forward to exploring this series on audiobook and seeing how things go.
As for what is next I'm not really sure. I'm still on holidays for a few more days so things are kind of up in the air.
I currently don't have an audiobook on deck but I will need to find one soon. If I don't get my next series book I might just find a challenge book.
For physical books I plan to start
next and then I've got
and
on the short list. After that I am getting slammed by library books and have a very busy schedule for the rest of the month.
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which it was so good to be back in this world, glad I found it at the used book sale!And
on audio. While I enjoyed the narrators voice and accents, unlike Gord I found the heavy breathing quite distracting. Still looking forward to listening to the next one next month though
@Brittany how was Rivers of London overall?
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Been re-reading FB&A series ready for the next one. I have the ARC of A Light in the Flame ready but I'm just trying to re-read A Shadow in the Ember first to jog my terrible memory, so I'm currently listening to the audiobook of it.
Also currently reading:
which is nothing like my usual read but I am loving it. It's so addictive. I'm on the blog tour for this this weekend so hoping to finish it today.
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Its a good book, 3.5 stars for me. So much potential for the series. I like the world that is being built and the characters are all different from one another. I like Peter and his easily distracted manner. This was definitely a first book in a series though but I see it getting so much better.
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Also Lost in Time sounds so good!!
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Also Lost in Time sounds so good!!"
I know!!! haha. I really wanted to but I remembered I read the first book last year so I decided to re-read via audiobook first. I just finished the audiobook, and so I'll be diving into the ARC tonight when I get home from work.
@Kay that's a nice re-read you had! I loved the B&A series so much.
@Brittany Looks like the next book has much more potential to be very good.
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I was asked by Jen to help run a B&A readalong in one of her facebook groups, so I thought since it had been a long time since I'd read them, I best re-read them haha. I still need to re-read TWOTQ but I have ALITF so I'm reading that one next instead.
My small update for the week. I was busy on weekend and didn't have time to update :)
5 stars - It's a highlight of this week. A random pick turned out to become one of the best books I've read this year. It's so good and unexpected. I don't want to spoil and advice you not to read the description before picking the book (if you decide to read it). I dived into the book not knowing anything about the ratings/plot/reviews and it was my best decision so far.
3-4 stars - One more nice cozy mystery series. After I read this book about war I really needed all that cozyness and going to need more for a while. So many CM series this week :)
3 stars - A little bit controversial. I don't like books featuring war and it was depressing. I knew this part of asian history, so it wasn't new for me, just disturbing and depressing, that's why I don't read books about wars (real ones).
2 stars - I decided to give the series one more chance (I didn't like the 3rd and the 1st book and never read 2, 4 and 5th). It's ok, the idea is fine, the romance between human and vampire is also a nice one, but something is totally wrong with how it is described in the book. So possessive, obsessive, unrealistic... It was a torture :(
3-4 stars - I finished the series and it was a nice one. Very light, fun, cozy as it supposed to be.
2 stars - I have nothing to say about this book. Just a question, what for?
5 stars - so cute and festive, great read for fall/winter. Loved it!
3 stars - just... what the hell was that? Very poor story developing.
5 stars - definitely on the top of year favourite list. It was even better than the first book, Mia became more mature, more sensitive and at the same time more deadly. There are so many little twists and turns, sometimes unexpected and very interesting.
5 stars - It was a re-read and once more this book made me think about starting running again (I had some injuries and stopped running for a while).
3-4 stars - I loved the steampunk and magic combined aspect here, very unique. The story is good and MCs are not annoying (though the covers were :D).
5 stars - Oh I'm going to miss this one, So far one of my favourite cozy mystery series.
4 stars - I've started a new, this time spooky, series by the same author. Not bad, but the previous one was better. Let's see how it goes.
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I think so! I'll be reading it next month :)
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I've heard good things about Verity and after your reaction to it I really need to get to it.
Balanced on the Blade's Edge is another one I have, good to see you've been enjoying the series and the MCs aren't annoying!
Yay for all the cozy mystery reading
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which was my 100th book of the year!Starting
@Brittany Congrats on your 100th book! That's amazing!
Congrats on 100 books. That is an impressive mile stone.
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Another week, another update and I have a few things to talk about this week because of some extra time off. 
-4 StarsThe crimes in this book were truly vile, the "good guys" were people I could not stand in real life, the ending left me feeling gross and angry but for some reason that I can't fully explain I loved it This was a 500 page book that I devoured in a day. I just couldn't stop reading it. I can't explain why but I was so engaged in the story that I just couldn't look away from things. I can see how this book would be disliked by a lot of people but I can also see why it's loved. I'm so glad I joined in on the buddy read of this series and I can't wait until next month for my next dose of vileness.
-3 StarsThis was the novelization of the 2018 Halloween movie and it was alright. It was a mindless popcorn reading that made me scratch my head in a couple of spots but if you don't think to hard about things it's fine. I'll be honest here, I know of the Halloween franchise and Micheal Myers. I have never watched any of the movies but I did read the original book way back in the day. I snagged this for a monthly challenge that needed the word Halloween in the book. This book seemed like an easy slam dunk.
-3 StarsOh boy do I have a lot to say here so apologies in advance. Growing up Manson was a name I knew for a couple of different reasons. It would pop up in the news every once in a while or in true crime shows that were on TV. Like many though I probably know about Manson more from pop culture. As a reader of mysteries and books of that nature Manson's name pops up a fair bit. After seeing Manson's name pop up twice in one week I was a bit surprised when browsing through new books at the library and saw this was on order. I finally caved to curiosity and ordered a copy of the book. I wanted to know more about the story and this book seemed to have a lot of positive reviews. This book was interesting at times and at other times it was an absolute slog to get through. The first few chapters dealt with Manson's family and his early life. Reading through these was rather interesting and gave me a foundation for what led to a person like Manson. Then we get to the chapters where is released from prison in 1965. I know that the author was trying to set the scene for what America, in particular California, was like at the time and how this lead to a person like Manson becoming what he did. It started with a chapter on Haight Ashbury and the Summer of Love. Again this was alright. As a person who knows little about the 60's and hippie culture outside of stereotypes this was interesting to read. Then it got into the music scene in the late 60's and life in LA at the time. Things like touching on the Watts Riots was interesting but reading about what stars were going to what clubs and buying which houses was just boring. I don't really care about the Beatles running away to India with some guru. These chapters had very little of Manson in them and just turned into this slog that felt that it would never end. It kind of picked up when it focused back in on Manson and the events that led up to the infamous murders but by then the damage had already been done. I really considered just tossing this book more than a few times. Basically I got through it by taking it a chapter at a time. This chapter has 20 something pages, of this chapter only has 16 pages, etc, etc, etc. I'm glad I'm done this book and can move onto something else now.
Now for my opinions on Manson. I think the author put it best in his closing statements at the end of the book. Manson was not a byproduct of the 60's. He was a byproduct of a the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's. He was in and out of "prison" on one form or another starting at the age of 10 and that kind of life creates a certain kind of individual. Trying to sum it as "he was just evil" I think is a bit to simple. Seeing how far off the rails things got by '69 was really surprising and I think that that what happened was rather inevitable really. Reading about what happened during the trial and afterwards really makes me think that what ever I saw in interviews on YouTube was more of an act then the real Manson. It was desperate attempts to remain in the limelight in someway or another because at the end of the day it was always about Manson. It was never about a certain religious belief, it was never about the end times, it was never about the followers, it was always about Manson. I really feel like I need some fluff after this book just to reset myself a bit.
-4 StarsStill early in the series and still enjoying myself
-4 StarsFor what ever reason I was hesitant to get into this series. There was this weird part of my brain that saw this spiraling into pure ecchi degeneracy. That is not a bad thing necessarily but it wasn't what I wanted. Happily though this turned out to a very wholesome SoL series about a widow rediscovering her love of cooking by helping to take care of her neighbor who is a teenage boy living by himself. I was only a quarter of the way into this series and I was already flogging my library to buy the rest of the book in this series. I'm sure I'll see them about this time next year if they even get approved.
-4 StarsYes, I was originally reading these as the trade paperbacks but I quickly discovered that those collections were missing the micro stories between events. That and I couldn't use them for challenges and it was eating through my Hoopla limit. I found out that my library had the physical omnibus collections so I started over again. I'm glad that I did as those micro stories just add to the whole experience. With this one book I'm now caught back up and I'm ready for the next one. The only problem with that is it's "on order" at the library and as much as I hate to beat a dead horse here I'm sure it will be another year before I see the next book.
Now for what is next.
On audiobook I am listening to
currently. I'm about half way through currently and really enjoying the book. For novels I want to finish
and
this week as I can't renew these books. Hopefully these books are good.
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This one was a lot of fun! They solve a mystery at a place called Sanguine Spa. Lol. I liked it, but not as much as I did the first book. It was still fun though.
I attempted to listen to the audiobook of this one but it was a big nope from me 😅 And it wasn't the book itself, it was the fact that it was audio. I just cannot do it. My mind wanders and I miss so much. So I gave up on it and bought the ebook and read that 😂 And I really enjoyed it! I just love the idea of killer mermaids!
And this is my only Elemental Assassin book/novella so far this month. This one is a lot of fun because it has ghosts! Well, one ghost. Lol. But it's perfect for spooky season.
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which was my 100th book of the year!Starting
"omgggg Feed is one of my all time favourite books. I love it so much.
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(re-read) and
I'm currently listening to
on audio and reading
physically.
Mod
Glad you enjoyed the Killer Mermaids! Fair about the audio.
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Honestly it's so different to my usual stuff but I am so obsessed with that series.
Wow, you all are reading so much! I feel like I'm missing on something :D@Kay How is The Midnight Library? I've started reading it ages ago and can't finish. Nothing wrong with the book, I enjoyed it at the beginning but at the point when she entered the story about being a swimmer I kinda lost the thrill and don't even want to open the book.
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Glad you enjoyed the Killer Mermaids! Fair about the audio."
I got all new furniture for my bedroom. It was just furniture from Ikea. Lol.
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@Kay How is The Midnight Library? I've started reading it ages ago and can't finish. Nothing wrong with the book, I enjoye..."
Erm... it's okay. I'm just past that part and I'm very meh about it. I'm listening to it on audio so I will continue, but I'm very 'meh' about the whole thing. It's a great concept but it's not really gripping me. We'll see how I go. Hoping to finish today or tomorrow.
Kayleigh {K-Books} wrote: "Elena wrote: "Wow, you all are reading so much! I feel like I'm missing on something :D@Kay How is The Midnight Library? I've started reading it ages ago and can't finish. Nothing wrong with the ..."
I felt very similarly about it Kay, the execution didn't quite live up to the concept!
Mod
and loved it. Not my usual type of book but still cant believe I waited so long to start it. I'll be reading book 2 soonBut for now starting
Interested to see what you think of
Brittany, I started it last year but just wasn't in the mood so put it aside. Want to know if it's worth going back to!
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White! I also got another bookcase, which I'm all excited about 😆
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed Feed, btw! I'm gonna have to read it!
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Yes you should absolutely read Feed. Should be completely your kind of book I think
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@Kay How is The Midnight Library? I've started reading it ages ago and can't fini..."
I have 1 hour of the audiobook left now so I am determined to push through and finish it.
@Kay @Jo I feel like the book is extremely overrated. And I totally agree with Jo, the idea is interesting, but the execution is so-so.
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