The Ten Thousand Doors of January

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The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a marvelous story. If you loved the Narnia series, I'm willing to bet you'll love this book as well. 

One of the ways I can really tell I'm enjoying a book is when I can't stop thinking about it as I go about all the rest of my life.  This one had me, for sure, and I was always eager to get back to it and only grudgingly put it down when I really had to. 

I highly recommend you give this one a try. I don't think you'll regret it. 

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5 months ago

Upon a Starlit Tide

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Wow. This is not my normal kind of book but I read it for a challenge. I guess that proves the worth of participating in a challenge or two, because otherwise, I would have missed out on this. It was a really enthralling, well written story and I loved it. 

I only docked it a quarter of a star because there several words I didn't understand and Kobo dictionary was no help so a glossary would have been awesome. 

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5 months ago

The Forgotten Home Child

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Every Canadian should read this book. It's another example of what they skipped in history class, but is a part of our history that we should know. Genevieve Graham shares with us the sobering truth of what some of the newcomers to our country have endured, and sometimes, it's painful. That said, the book ends in a way which leaves you feeling informed and sad for what has happened, but happy for several of the main characters as they've preserved and overcame (though the scarring remains) and made good lives for themselves. I like the truth, but I don't like finishing a book feeling gutted. The Forgotten Home Child balanced this well.

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5 months ago

Thistlefoot

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This was a very different read for me since I don't usually do a lot of folklore but the premise intrigued me. 

While I was reading it (which took a while due to life circumstances) sometimes I was really enjoying it and sometimes it was more challenging (but that also may have been due to the life circumstances, I'm not sure).

Overall though, I'd say it was a worthwhile read. It was entertaining, and I am very interested by the concept of genetic memory so I really liked that aspect of it. 

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5 months ago

Arm of the Sphinx

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The second half was worth getting through the first half, because it got harder to put down as the book progressed. That might be on me because I left such a big gap between reading Senlin Ascends and reading this one and for the first while I was lost and trying to remember all the back story. 

I feel like for me, I can't get to the 4 star mark with this book because I'm one of those people who sees the story in my head like a movie while I'm reading and lots of times when entering a new scene the movie flickered and went blank. I'd have to re read a few times trying to get an idea of what the surroundings looked like. I don't think most people would have got tripped up on that, and probably it's better the way it is because if Josiah had done much more world explaining, the book would have been far too long. 

The plot is definitely intriguing and I'm going to read the next in the series for sure. 

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5 months ago