Sam
In all, I don't think this was a bad read. It was a bit confusing at times, and I was a bit confused as to why there were lizards everywhere, but it seems like it's an ode to the love of books. I liked the name dropping of famous authors and iconic characters, and there's some flip flopping of roles of those characters. You'll appreciate the Robert Louis Stevenson nod, the dig at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and other classical authors.
I thought it was okay. I don't think I was totally enamored with it, but it was something nice to read and since I watched 4 seasons of the Netflix series, it was interesting to see parallels. I can definitely see the basis for some of the Netflix characters. All in all, not bad, it had the appropriate amount of backstabbing, runaround, and general politickiness (new word!) one would expect from an election year.
I first read this a long time ago when I was a kid and it bored the crap out of me. I didn't understand the Genesis allegory nor did I really care back then. Now though, I've taken a harder look at the story and recognized the elements, and I have to say I like this much better. I read the story in about 90 minutes, so I'm looking forward to reading the rest of them in short order. I only ever got halfway through Horse and His Boy, so I want to get through all 7.
for the average person, this is a great resource, that serves well as inspiration and a new direction for the people stumped on how to be more successful. The only drawback is that unfortunately, it's aged a bit. while most of the principles have stood the test of time, the stories are just a little less modern, considering this book was published in 2004. but it was nice that he added real life stories, resources, and personal experience. I am going to start using a few of the principles he outlined.
I don't know what I expected when I cracked open this book. I was thinking something along the lines of swans being stolen, quite the literal interpretation. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was full of elegant prose, and the story unfolded nicely. It was a man's obsession about another man's obsession, and filled with art, rich descriptions, and emotion.
This one was a little off the wall but I thought it was fantastic. The pen and ink illustrations were a welcome integrated part of this short novella and it doesn't serve to further the plotline of Kvothe in The Name of the Wind and the Wise Mans Fear in any way. If you've read those books, which you should before picking this up, you should read this. It just tells the story of Auri, the mysterious little spright who Kvothe gets to know around the University and her daily life in the Underground of the schools. I thought it was fascinating and very well written, and I had it done within 2 hours.
I'm not sure if there's a Neil Gaiman book I DON'T love. To be quite honest, his books send me off into a world of whimsy and heartbreak I didn't know existed before.
To pick this book apart and analyze it would destroy every intention it had of being a book, so I'm not going to. Instead, I should tell you why you should read it. If you like reading books where not all of it makes sense but it just flows anyway, read this book. If you like subtle heartbreak and unknown magic, read this book. If you want to know what happens in the mind of a 7 year old boy who doesn't have friends but has the soul of an artist, read this book.
All I'm saying is, read this one. Take a glass of wine or a mug of tea and snuggle up with your kitty on your lap or sitting above you on your couch cushion, and read this one.
Technically this book isn't a horror book. But it comes close. I literally lost sleep over this book because of its graphic portrayals of Ebola and Marburg virus. It's probably not the best time to read this book either, what with what's going on in West Africa and the two American citizens down with Ebola Zaire virus.
What do you get when you combine witches, vampires, daemons, history, suspense, and romance? This book!
Deborah:
(Edited, found a link that actually works.)
I am impressed, and riveted, and enthralled. The way the book ended left me with the hope that there is another one on its way but the other part of me hopes we leave at this ‘magic 3' trilogy.
The book started with the consequences from the last book. If you haven't read that one, I'm not going to tell you. Things in this one got 20 times more dangerous, a little more complicated, and there weren't as many lovey moments between Diana and Matthew in place of their power over each other. That is a dynamic power couple. And I have the urge to fan art all over them. Do I have your permission, dear author?
I found an image that accurately depicts these two this book.
And Diana... whoa. Easily one of the best female leads in a book I have ever come across. From reluctant witch to finding her powers and actually USING them, she owns it. She has a solid moral code, is instinctually protective, and fiercely determined to right the world in the midst of a war between all the species. She has real fears, not just some silly ones, and though sometimes I wished she would have a little more independence at times, it reminded me that sometimes without our significant other at our sides, things are a little dark and gloomy.
Matthew. I won't say he easily won my heart at the beginning and I still got frustrated with him and his over-protectiveness, he was still a solid frontrunner. He has a dark side and a not-so-light side, and I think I watched too much Mad Men because as I've said before, I picture Jon Hamm way too easily fitting into his role if this were to be filmed. Though apparently many are calling for Richard Armitage to fit too. Both work. I like broody males sometimes if it adds to the character and they've got something to be broody about. And he is a fabulous mate for Diana. His moon meets her sun, and all that.
All the other characters I enjoyed seeing again, except for that stab in the heart in the early part of the book; that shock reverberated throughout the book and provided as solid underlying basis for the plot. Ysabeau, who I had mixed feelings for in the first book, redeemed herself many times over and I like her now. Marcus still confuses me sometimes as to how influential he can possibly get, but I'm glad to see he found someone of his own and that romance didn't distract from the book.
The evil sides of the story were well done in the scope of events, with a very real threat in terms of vampire relations to each other. The lineage is confusing, though it's meant to be; vampires spawning vampires is never an orderly affair. I found myself on the edge of the seat (hard, since I was laying on the couch for much of reading this) and nervous towards the latter half of the story.
Overall, I'm impressed, grieving that I finished the story so soon and secretly wishing for another. We can't be too greedy though.
Hmmm... at the beginning, if you've read the book and you know which book I'm alluding to, this sounds an awful like characters waiting around underground, (the good side) amassing their army, accepting refugees, while the lead girl is recovering and not being allowed to do anything ‘for her safety.' Sound familiar?
Yeah, I thought so.
In any case, I really get picky over the third books in trilogies. Usually that's where the biggest and best shit goes down, and it's an epic climax. While there were some things that surprised me, I really don't know what to think of this one. But if it's not satisfying, I'm setting the book down in the end saying ‘what the fuck did I just spend 2.5 hours on?'
Alina, after the run in with the Darkling in the chapel, lost her power, and she doesn't know if it's temporary or not. She's confused, doesn't know what she wants from her main man, Mal and she keeps visiting the Darkling via some supernatural power. Then she and Mal go and look for the elusive firebird.
Instead, they find Mal that's the firebird through some exotic lineage. What? That's a twist. So, to destroy the Darkling, they have to kill the one character I happen to like?
And then the big dark bad guy who still manages to be totally sexy kills his mom, who happens to be the daughter of the creator of all these exotic things that Alina must get bones from to make her power more powerful.If you're going to kill your mom, I guess throwing her off a mountain works.
I don't know why I have an issue with this book. It was well written, it flowed well, but maybe I was too busy poking holes in the plot to really get down to liking it. Sorry.
The last two pages made me kind of teary and warm and fuzzy, but the rest of it was more like a giant epic shrug.
I read the first one yesterday, and this one today. No judging. 250 average page books don't stand a chance in the space of a few hours.
This sequel offered more in the way of Alina actually using her powers instead of quelling them, but I still wasn't sure of what to make of her reluctant heroine-ness. There's dystopian YA novels galore with reluctant heroines, mostly teenagers, so in that respect it really doesn't stands out from the crowd.
The world building is pretty good, unique in some respects, and I will say this again, I pictured it in Russia. Not that that's a bad thing. The vocabulary, terminology, and names struck me as particularly Soviet.
Character development was stronger than the first, with each character being fleshed out a bit more, with the antagonist become more fully grounded. What really helped was Alina being on the edge of everything so much, knowing what she wanted to stand for even if she didn't know how to get her footing. There was the temptation, the flirtation, and the heartbreak... with more than one male character.
Overall, I'd say I liked this a little more than the first, and I'll let you know what I think of the third in a couple of days. :)
I got this one as an audiobook and I spent the whole weekend listening to it. Hands down, a favorite. It's made me want to read classics a whole lot more and I want to read the other famous book Dostoyevsky has, [b:The Brothers Karamazov 118732 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347630229s/118732.jpg 3393910].Surprisingly, this book was a relatively more easy read than I thought. I went in with an open mind and thought that the subtle philosophy about justice and law and order was great interwoven through the pages. It wasn't boorish, long, or lecturing.
First things first: I did pay attention to the disclaimers about this book. I am not going to stain your feed with wistfulness that this should have been more magical and fantastical.
First of all, the book is so visceral and real, that you can imagine any of the characters to exist in your very hometown. Jo really digs deep into underlying resentment in households that you really can't see from the outside, and she addresses some actual issues that people face. Drugs, rape, sex, poverty, filth, abuse, domestic violence, death, and love are just a few things she covers with the residents of Pagford.
The first shock I had though, and I do have to admit, this was with everyones previous exposure to her was with Harry Potter, just how gritty it was. Jo pulled out ALL of her stops. Every. Single. One. As she said, there are certain things you don't talk about when you write fantasy. You don't have sex next to a unicorn. It just doesn't happen. Here, there were teenagers bopping in graveyards near the newly deceased.
(had to, sorry!)
Content aside, Jo Rowlings writing is supreme. The best of the best. She never writes and disappoints with her style, so two of the stars go to her for that one.
I don't know if I'd honestly read this again. Time will tell whether I listen to it again or what, but not for a long while.
Oh yeah, before I cut out, I listened to the audiotape version. It was narrated by Tom Hollander, i.e, this guy.
Maybe I think I'm predispositioned to like fantasy romances, but I liked loved this book!
I was a bit nervous going into it, but decided eh, why not. Everyone had good things to say about it. Some it was more their cup of tea than others but I was objective going into it. Then I fell in love with it.
It starts off in an agreeable way. Meet Diana Bishop, academia extraordinaire, researching what you would think is a dead end, the history of alchemy, but turns out that it's actually quite interesting. She's also... a witch
Not that she wants to acknowledge it. She has no idea that she's probably one of the most powerful witches of her age, but she wants nothing to do with magic since her parents died at her age of 7. I can see that. Her mother was a witch and her father a powerful wizard, so if she doesn't want to use her powers, go her. But it turns out she uses them for little things, and that captures a vampires notice.
By the way, there are four classes of creatures in this world. Human, witch, daemon, and vampire. Witches and vampires are regarded as the more dangerous, whereas daemons are a little more relaxed if not wary, and turns out, in this universe, many of the most creative minds of history were daemons. (Einstein, Newton, Shakespeare, etc)
Anyway. The vampire. The sexy vampire. The tall dark and handsome one. Yeah, he's reading a book in the library when she's there, and he spots her pulling a book off the shelf by magic. But he's not there for that book. He's here, along with every creature in a ten mile radius because they felt a disturbance in the force when Diana recalls an ancient text, breaking some spell, and then as if it were nothing to her, gives it back, where it goes into hibernation again. This ancient text gives the genetic and hereditary history of every creature and how they came into being.
(You should really read the book if you're reading this review. I hate synopses')
I really liked this book because the romance was subtle and progressive, the history brilliant in its retelling, and the magic scary and dangerous. It had the elements I love so much, and it had them well done. This was no Twilight sort of book. It was grown up, sophisticated, and classy. Now I'm torn in a crossroads deciding whether to start the next one (I already got it. $4.99 on the Nook, baby!) in time for the third to come out in July, or go to other books I'm reading. You probably saw my status update about that.
It's been a while since I read a whole book in just under one day. And this one was like reading your own soul. You were hooked from the start. I'll start off by saying that I doubt my religion at times. I don't go to church. I believe in the idea of faith, just not in what form. I came away from this book with that changed a bit, though I can't explain how. The fact that Pi is enthralled with Hinduism, Muslim, and Christianity makes me wonder what is so enthralling about those other two. I feel inspired to read more on Hinduism and their millions of gods and their main aim is to just love. The survival part of it read a little like Gary Paulsens [b:Hatchet 50 Hatchet (Brian's Saga, #1) Gary Paulsen https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385297074s/50.jpg 1158125]. I don't know how that particular book popped into my head but the similarities are there. Pi is smart and resourceful, he can figure out how to put together something that will save his life and provide for a ferocious tiger for just a little while longer. I don't know about you, but that is genius. I don't know what I would do in his situation, and part of the book makes you think about that point. What would you do, when your only companion is a ferocious and instinctual animal, who would rather look at you as food? Would you last as long when every time you think you have the situation under control, something comes along to make it a little bit (or a lot, in some instances) worse? This is a book that should be introduced into high schools, if it hasn't already. Here we have this open minded young man, who wants to learn everything about himself and the world around him, and in the face of certain death, still wonders at the tiny miracles. He's standing in the middle of a storm that is throwing him this way and that, and he's still yelling “THANK YOU!” up into the torrential rain. Thank you for what, I still can't tell you ,but still, he's role model material, even if he is fictional. Isn't that something teenagers, his age in the setting, can learn from? I'm well past high school and I still got the urge to open my mind a little.
When I first started this book I had no idea who James Cook was. It was on the Nook my boyfriend gave me and he gave it a high recommendation, so I thought, why not? Once I started it, I read it straight in about eight hours. The way Dugard portrays Cook is realistic, while making the filler more of a story to make it smoother. This was no dry biography, and that's what I think I liked most about it. The only reason I gave this only four stars was because I didn't like some of the other men that came and went in the seam of the story. (Mostly Joseph Banks) All in all, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in world exploration, as James Cook rose to deserve being included among the greats like Magellan and Columbus.