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Books: 2nd Edition

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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby shastastwin » May 17, 2017 12:10 pm

I haven't read my copy yet (aside from the maps and the first page) because I want to finish rereading the series first. (Or at least Queen and King.) I didn't get started on that nearly soon enough.

I'm glad it was good! Gives me even more anticipation for my own reading. :D
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby ValiantArcher » May 17, 2017 6:13 pm

;)) Dot. I don't have a copy of Thick as Thieves yet; my mom may or may not have ordered one, so there may or may not be one arriving at some point. ;)) To be honest, I haven't been proactive about looking for a copy at all yet... Can you say, without spoilers ;))), if it has a similar feel to any of the earlier books or if it has an entirely new feel (I mean, they're all different, but, say...is it more like KoA or ACoK?)? I remember MWT saying that this book was supposed to be the second half of KoA, but that doesn't mean much...

I recently read They Also Served by Olga Gruhitz-Hoyt, which was about women serving in/alongside the military in WWII. It was a compilation of a lot of short accounts by the women in the various branches and was rather interesting, if only an overview. I may have to go back to the uni library and dig out some more books that go into more depth. ;))

I also reread The King's Shadow by Elizabeth Adler, which is about Harold and the Battle of Hastings. My recollection of it being pretty good, but not compelling was accurate - I found the first half more interesting than the second half, and Harold's flaws were pretty much glossed over while his heroics were expounded on (which makes sense, especially given the narrator). But that means it can go on the donation pile without much pang. ;))

I've got My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell in my bag to read over lunch break, and I'm eyeing Words of Radiance (still/again) by Brandon Sanderson - there's a long weekend next weekend, so I've got half an idea of sitting down and reading a good chunk of it then. ;))
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby daughter of the King » May 17, 2017 8:57 pm

Valia wrote:Can you say, without spoilers ), if it has a similar feel to any of the earlier books or if it has an entirely new feel (I mean, they're all different, but, say...is it more like KoA or ACoK?)?

Stylistically, I think it's more like The Thief than the other three.
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby ValiantArcher » May 17, 2017 9:04 pm

Dot wrote:
Valia wrote:Can you say, without spoilers ), if it has a similar feel to any of the earlier books or if it has an entirely new feel (I mean, they're all different, but, say...is it more like KoA or ACoK?)?

Stylistically, I think it's more like The Thief than the other three.

*wiggles eyebrows* Does that mean it's written in first person? (You don't have to answer that. ;)) ) But thanks! :) That's good to know; maybe that'll help me pick it up faster...
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby shastastwin » May 19, 2017 8:08 am

I finally made it to the library for another batch of audio books. I picked up the second Ranger's Apprentice book, Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows (read by a full cast of narrators! :D) and Lisa Unger's Ink and Bone. The last two are ones I've noticed a lot on Goodreads. Here's hoping they satisfy a bit more than Caraval did. ;))

Somehow I've gotten away from my policy of reading 1-2 books at a time. I'm currently reading the original Beauty and the Beast by Villaneuve (the more common Beaumont version is an abridged adaptation), The Fact of a Body (a memoir/nonfiction novel about a murderer whose retrial the author was involved in and the strange connections to her own life), and The Collected Poetry of W.B. Yeats (because I was in the mood for poetry a week or two ago), and rereading Gene Wolfe's story collection Innocents Aboard and Tad Williams' Stone of Farewell. 8-}

I really need to finish some of these so I can get my currently reading stack back to manageable levels.
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Meltintalle » May 19, 2017 8:52 am

Ooooooh, I just read Six of Crows and its sequel, The Crooked Kingdom! I've been wanting to discuss it with someone... ;;) (It's not one I'd necessarily recommend, but it was enjoyable. There are some interesting twists on common fantasy tropes and stylistic choices and the setting is fun.)
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby fantasia » May 19, 2017 10:22 am

shastastwin wrote:Somehow I've gotten away from my policy of reading 1-2 books at a time.
;)) Still can't read more than one book at a time to this day. I get a kick out of people who can.

So I saw you post about 'Uprooted' on FB the other day stwin. And I have to admit I'm very interested in that book. I wasn't a big fan of the Temeraire series by Naomi Novak (I'm in the minority, I know), but this one looked more up my alley and I fully admit Novak is a good writer.
So where is 'Uprooted' on your reading list? I want to hear your opinion of it, and anybody else's opinion that's read it. ;)
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby shastastwin » May 19, 2017 11:22 am

Mel, I'll go ahead and make Six of Crows my first listen from this batch, then! I'm feeling in the mood for a good heist story.

fantasia, that's a tricky question, as my reading list is apt to change from day to day. ;)) I'm thinking that as soon as I finish one of the books I'm on now, I'll dive in, as I'm also really in the mood for a fairy tale story right now. I'll be sure to share my thoughts when I get to it.
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby SummerSnow » May 22, 2017 9:37 am

I finished Thick as Thieves this morning.

I did enjoy the book, but I'm disappointed we didn't get more of Gen and Attolia. But that would probably be my complaint even if the whole book had centered around them. :p

I figured out fairly quickly that it was Costis, but the relation between Kamet and Gen was completely surprising to me. I've been looking back through the book in attempts to find where Kamet talks about him.

It was also a pretty interesting twist that Nahuseresh (?) was not actually dead, but very much alive.

I'm a bit confused about the timeline. When is Thick as Thieves supposed to have taken place? It seems like some time has taken place, but I wasn't sure how much time. :p

And now it's back to waiting, sadly.

daughter of the King, that was one of my favorite parts too!
And yes, everything with Gen is amazing!
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Arwenel » May 23, 2017 10:58 pm

I also read Thick as Thieves...

I think i like it more than A Conspiracy of Kings, but not as much as Queen or King. It felt a bit too rambly for me -- never really felt like i had a solid idea on where they were going or why -- but maybe that was because i was trying to get it read before i had to go to work.

Overall it was a good read, but probably not a favorite.
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby ValiantArcher » May 25, 2017 6:22 pm

Arwenel, how/when you read something does have a huge impact on how you feel about a book (which may not be entirely fair to the book, but I think it can also say something about the book if it doesn't come through despite the reading setting); but I'll be curious to see if I think TaT is rambly when I read it. ;))

Since I last posted, I've read My Lady Ludlow (by Elizabeth Gaskell), High Spirited Women of the West (by Anne Seagraves), and have started Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (by none other than P.G. Wodehouse).

I've a little uncertain about my thoughts on My Lady Ludlow. On one hand, there were some sweet bits and good quotes; on the other hand, the narrators got three or four levels deep at one point (and that recollection wasn't my favourite), which was confusing. :P But it was kind of fun to see where they picked certain bits from in the 2009 (I think?) Cranford miniseries. :)

High Spirited Women of the West was a non-fiction book I picked up offhand at the last library booksale. There were about nine or ten biographical accounts of various women in the western US while it was being settled - and some feminist (particularly, anti-men) sentiment in heaps at the beginning. :P The author had some points about the lack of rights for women in the mid- to late-1800s (such as suffrage and restrictions on owning property and businesses), but the way she handled it rubbed me all wrong. The rest of the stories, though, were pretty interesting, so there was that. I probably won't keep the book, though.

Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin is hilarious and delightful so far. I think we may perhaps see the end of the long Monty-Gertrude saga, which will hopefully end in a wedding (one way or the other, whichever is the best); we shall see, though. ;)) I've had a soft spot for Monty ever since my first introduction to Wodehouse - the old adaptation of Heavy Weather, where Monty was played by Samuel West (and the detective by David Bamber). ;))

I've stuck Words of Radiance in my bag and there's a long weekend...mayhaps I shall be able to fit in at least starting it. :P ;)) There are also two copies of Thick as Thieves floating around the family, but one was going to my brother-in-law next (and I've no idea if he's had time to get through it yet) and the other has gone to a friend (who has exerted her right as an adoptive sister to borrow a family copy (happily lent) ;))), and there are three of us still needing to read it so it may be a couple of weeks yet.
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby shastastwin » May 26, 2017 7:45 am

Meltintalle wrote:Ooooooh, I just read Six of Crows and its sequel, The Crooked Kingdom! I've been wanting to discuss it with someone... ;;) (It's not one I'd necessarily recommend, but it was enjoyable. There are some interesting twists on common fantasy tropes and stylistic choices and the setting is fun.)



I just finished listening to Six of Crows, and I enjoyed it a lot! The multiple narrators were a little odd in audio form because I really, really didn't like Inej's narrator at first and Kaz's narrator is also the reader for Sam's chapters in Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver books (and those two characters couldn't be more different!). It also took me a while to get into the main storyline after the prologue. Again, the perils of using audio for your first time with a book. ;))

I think my favorite characters were Nina and Matthias because of their individual and joint arcs. I also really liked Kaz as a character (though I'd not want him over for supper) and I really hope Kaz both grows enough to deserve Inej and gets his vengeance on Pekka in the next book, which I'll be looking for soon. ;) I was pleased that I guessed some of the smaller twists with character arcs, but I was still interested in what was going to happen on a larger scale.
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby SnowAngel » May 26, 2017 10:01 pm

ValiantArcher wrote:How are you liking the Nikki Boyd Files?
I'm glad you're enjoying Death by Living! :) And you're welcome. Though I should take my own advice and actually read it too. :ymblushing: ;))
;)) Haha! Yes, letting your parents see how many books you own, and how many books you own you really don't want/need can be a bit nerve-wracking. Both my parents are bibliophiles, though my mom is much better at clearing out books than my dad; still, my dad has been unimpressed at how many books are still in my room after moving two bookshelves worth out. :P I didn't show him how many I bought at the booksale either... :-$
Looks I am a little behind in this thread.

The Nikki Boyd Files ended up being okay, but not a keeper series.

Oh, I just might have been cleaning and put Death By Living back my shelf, I really need to get it back out. VA, you haven't read it yet? That's funny. :)

I currently have a book box full of books to giveaway or maybe trade at the bookstore downtown. Plus a rather large TBR for the first time stack, most of which I probably won't keep.

I haven't read as much lately as I would like to. I just finished writing a review for Behind The Scenes by Jen Turano.

And now I am reading Threads of Suspicion by Dee Henderson. It's the second book in the Evie Blackwell Cold Case series. Although I really liked the first book in the series, Traces of Guilt, and was really looking forward starting book 2, it took me longer to get into Threads of Suspicion than I was expecting. After starting Threads of Suspicion, I feel like Traces of Guilt was more of a prequel book than a true book one. About 4 characters are in both books, there were a bunch of the interesting supporting characters from book one aren't even mention in book two. Aside from that, the mysteries are quite interesting.

I went shopping with my mom this week and made a stop at the library to pickup my library holds including the latest N.D. Wilson book, The Song of Glory and Ghost. I can't wait to start this one! :D

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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby AJAiken » May 27, 2017 11:59 am

I picked up The Thief while on holiday in the US back in 2012 after it was recommended to me by this very thread. I loved it, and managed to source the others (mainly by living in Canada for a year), but the books are STILL not published in the UK! It's actually quite tricky to get them here ... so I will need to wait a bit until I can read Thick as Thieves.

Another book not published here (and not in print at all?) is The Last Unicorn, which a friend recommended. I thought it odd and yet completely beautiful.

I just finished Beyond the Wall by Tanya Landman. It has a beautiful cover which first attracted me to it, and then then fact it was a Roman Britain-set piece meant I had to buy it. I've enjoyed reading some of Rosemary Sutcliff's books recently and this had some of that feel. I liked the characters and the twists in the story, and I'll be looking out for the author's other books.

A recent non-fiction read that I highly recommend is Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of Twenty Lost Buildings from the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers by James Crawford. It's a fascinating account documenting thousands of years of history and mythology. The author really delved into all sorts of interesting stories about each building and the people who built them, lived and worked in them. My only frustration with the book is that though he was happy to rely on mythology to explain things about certain buildings, he wasn't happy to use the Old Testament in the same way. However, if you have an interest in history (not specifically architecture) it's a must-read.
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Meltintalle » May 27, 2017 12:57 pm

It took me a bit to get into the main storyline in Six of Crows after the prologue/cold open as well, so I'm not sure it's just the audio format... I kept expecting the events to play into the main storyline in different ways than it did. I kept expecting the girl to have survived (with powers like those Nina wielded near the end) as an antagonist or tool instead of being a redshirt.

Also, yay, you seem to have had similar reactions to the characters as I did, so I am really looking forward to seeing what you think of the resolution of the next book. :D

I went on a bit of a mystery kick last week. I picked up Patricia Wentworth's first Miss Silver novel, Grey Mask. It's a light thriller, in a similar vein to Margery Allingham or John Buchan, and I'm looking forward to reading others. Miss Silver was more of a side character, but a very competent detective.

I followed that with the first Phryne Fisher mystery by Kerry Greenwood. The 1920s fashions were vividly and lovingly described but a story is not carried on wardrobe and willfullness alone. :p The narrative style reminded me of Nancy Drew though the content was much grimmer than anything faced by the girl detective which ended up working against the story as it ended up treating the serious problems encountered by the characters in a casual fashion. Following so closely on the heels of a much-tighter plotted mystery-adventure, I was not exactly impressed.
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Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Arwenel » Jun 02, 2017 11:42 pm

I had an order of books arrive today, all by N.D. Wilson -- the 3 100 Cupboard books and the Ashtown Burials. So far, i've only read the first 100 Cupboards book.

On the whole, this wasn't a terrible book. I was invested enough to keep reading, and i'm interested enough to read the sequels. That said ...

The first part of the book was slow, which is unfortunate because the last few chapters had a ton of stuff crammed into them and i didn't feel like i fully understood what was going on. I really don't get why it took more than half the book to get to the traveling to other worlds promised in the back description -- imagine if the Pevensies didn't get to Narnia until 2/3rds of the way through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

The characters were moderately interesting, but none were particularly relatable. Henry comes off as super blasé about his parents a) having been kidnapped and b) not actually being his parents, Henrietta displays a lack of common sense without any accompanying character traits to explain it, the villain was creepy but i don't know who she was in this world or what she wanted, and the near-end reactions of Penelope and Anastasia both struck me as weird. There were a lot of minor characters that i imagine become important later on, and i certainly hope so because all they did was make the ending more of a pile-up.

On a more quibbly note, it irritated me that Henry and Henrietta have such similar names and living in a town called Henry. I can forgive Henry if it's related to him coming to this world in Henry, Kansas, but that doesn't make Henrietta any better. Doesn't help that i don't like the name Henrietta.

I might re-read this later, provided the next two books don't put me off the series entirely.
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