Gracielis

This is really good. It’s made up of different plot threads, but also images from places and events, and even meeting minutes and strange interludes from things like history and computer code.

It’s a very important book, in that it shows that we could save the Earth, but not by making an important invention and then keeping going the was we do now. We would need to address more than carbon, things like economic gaps, refugees, war, gender roles among other things.

Oh, and a “warning”: make sure you are comfortable when you start reading the book, specifically that the space you are in is at a comfortable temperature. I read the first chapter while being too warm on the first day of a heat wave after a week of rain. Don’t do that!!!

I liked this. I mean, it’s a bit strange but also quite interesting. The narrator tells her left’s story. She grew up in an underground bunker, one of 40 women who were caged and guarded by men who never speak to them. They are allowed no privacy or occupation, and are not even allowed to touch each other. The other women are older and remember life before the bunker.

One day everything changes.

The narrator isn’t really a likable character, and the story is quite slow, but it is interesting. I’m going to have to look into what else this author has written.

I liked these stories, but compared to the fantastic novels in this series I didn’t like this as much as them. Le Guin is an excellent short story writer, but the novels are much more engaging than this collection, to me anyway.

University intrigue, city politics, treason and old magic. Of the three Riverside books this would probably be my least favourite. A reason for that may be that I didn’t find a character to care about the way I cared about St Vier in Swordspoint and Katherine in The Privilege of the Sword.

Audiobook reread. I love this book. It deals with, among other things, power, balance, friendship between generations, the shrinking of magic loyalty.

A pretty cute fairy tale retelling.

It’s the end of the school year and as a teacher my brain capacity is temporarily somewhat reduced. So, this has taken quite a while to get through. It’s really good, though.

Battle, armies, intrigues, involvement of several factions and really powerful players. Laseen’s a badass.

Brain capacity for a teacher is somewhat reduced at the end term, so I opted for an audio reread while doing chores.

In The Tombs of Atuan we meet Tenar, who is taken from her parents at five years old to become Arha, high priestess to the eaten ones. We will also meet Ged, the protagonist from A Wizard of Earthsea, again. This is atmospheric and sort of creepy. Le Guin portrays a culture that is both ancient and sort of stagnant. Tenar is a believable girl and young woman without some of the annoyingness such characters sometimes get in fiction. I love this book.

This was pretty cute.

After a slow start, the book picked up in the last third or so.

The main characters are children, which I don't often read. It's not really a kids' book though. I liked the kids and some of the side characters. There were also two characters whom I despised more every time they showed up.

There's some interesting world building and I hope the rest of the series tells us more about the Eckrosie.

Wow, this was sad.

My first T. Kingfisher.

This really was very good, and a bit weird.

This series is very entertaining. In this book we see more of Plenimar when Seregil and Alec are captured by slavers and sold to a Plenimaran alchemist, leading to the creation of a rhekaro.

Ilar i Sontir, Seregil's first lover who betrayed him and got him banished from Aurënen, also shows up, and Phoria is still annoyingly paranoid.

I really enjoyed this. Beautifully written and interesting characters.

It's been a long time since I read an Agatha Christie-novel. I should read more...

I liked the linguistics part, being a language nerd. But I didn't like the story very much.

This is my favourite Green Rider book so far.

These books remind me somehow of the swashbuckling adventure movies I loved as a kid: The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Crimson Pirate, Robin Hood, Ivanhoe...

And having grown up on the edge of the forest, I love how Britain describes the forest, the wildlife...

I've been dragging my feet with this one. And now, weirdly, I can't find it. Time to pick something else to keep up my Spanish.

I really liked this. It takes place during a single dramatic night and primarily follows two compelling, though foolish and stubborn characters: Temper, an experienced soldier, and Kiska a young, restless woman who just wants to leave her hometown.

I decided to try to not compare the Malazan Empire books to the Books of the Fallen, because I wanted to avoid disappointment over differences.

I read this in my teens. Barely remembered the story. Then this winter we bought this book for our students to read and a bunch of English (ESL) teachers decided to read it over the Christmas holidays.

I enjoyed rereading it. It's a nice little mystery.

I don't really know how to rate poetry collections, so I don't.

I'm sometimes annoyed by historical novels. There is a tendency to make the characters modern, and especially to make female characters who wear trousers and fight with swords. And that can be great fun, but it also hides the strength that women had through history, and had to have to survive.

Cecily is not that. She is shown as a woman of flesh and blood: smart, strong, feminine and ambitious. I really liked this book, and will look out for any more novels by this author.

This was purposefully disjointed and creepy. The narrator is having hallucinations and is possibly in the middle of a nervous breakdown or a psychotic break.

Först of all, if you do not enjoy stories with explicit sex, stay away from this book.

I found this as “included” on audible, and I've been meaning to read it for years. I really enjoyed it. It is complex, lots of court intrigue and drama. And I really enjoyed the language, there is a rhythm and a melody to it that is a little old-fashioned perhaps, and quite ornate, and rather beautiful.

There is a section that I enjoyed a less, but overall I loved it.