Cracked

This. All of this. I am going back to reread Auri’s story again, because of this.

I have said you shouldn’t read Auri’s story without reading the other two books. But now, after reading the following, I have changed my mind.

Guys, read this. And then go find Auri.

Fynralyl's Pen

I haven’t really read much in the last three years. For someone who wanted desperately to be a writer, a published author, in her youth, this is a terrible state of things. I got lost in the rat race, so to speak. Work is pretty much what I did, with very little leisure time. What time I did have was spent in front of the TV or killing dragons on the computer. Brainless. Boring. As little creative energy required as possible

And then the stress started pouring in to fill any and every possible moment where I might have otherwise been capable of creating anything.

I had wanted to move. I lived in a dry, flat, windy place, devoid of the scenery I felt would be conducive to my writing. I tried off and on, when we lived there, to create. I found myself rewriting other people’s stories once I’d…

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Four

Once a book was published, that used to be the final word from the author. Fans were left to speculate on what happened in the background–I mean, that is what fandom is for, right?

But we’ve become so obsessed with our theories and fanfiction that the authors are starting to catch on to our games. It is becoming profitable now for them to release extensions of their original books and series so that we can keep going with our favorite characters and worlds.

And…WE LOVE IT!

JK Rowling teases us relentlessly with Pottermore. Patrick Rothfuss gave us Auri’s story while we wait for the third Kingkiller Chronicle. George RR Martin put out a huge encyclopedia of his World of Ice & Fire.

Veronica Roth was not to be left behind. Four tells the same story as Divergent but from Tobias’ point of view. It is a bit of a prequel and a bit of a mirror. The writing is the same, fantastic action drama. A few of the pieces don’t QUITE line up, because Roth did originally start Divergent from this perspective, before switching to Tris, but it’s just a really cool way to read the story.

My only wish now is to get this from one of the antiheroes. Can we have Peter, PLEASE?!?!?! I would LOVE to get inside his twisted little brain. Or Caleb, so we can watch is brutal betrayal. There’s so many options for rewrites!

Sigh…I know it’s a long shot. See what happens when you give the fandom a little something extra? We never can get enough!

 

Fulfills PopSugar #5:  A book with a number in the title

March Photo Challenge: Signed

Now that I am reading more current books, and adding them to my home collection, something that I have gotten hooked on is finding signed copies. Barnes and Noble is great for this, because while I haven’t been able to make it to an actual book signing yet, B&N usually has a stash of great books from great authors.

I realize now a days that signed books maybe aren’t as rare or valuable, especially when you can find them at big box stores, but it still makes them seem more special, when you pull one off your shelf and see your favorite author’s signature there!

Here are the three I currently own. They just happen to be three of my prettiest hardcovers, too! (Ok, the Ransom Riggs maybe isn’t “pretty” per say…he gets the creepiest title, though!)

March Photo Challenge: Guilty Pleasure

I used to buy all used copies of books. Why spend the money on the new ones when I was just going to wear them out? I don’t remember the name of the site now, but I was part of this club at one point where I could trade back and forth with other members and get new “old” books all the time, just for the cost of shipping.

And then I discovered SERIES. Beautiful. Matching. SERIES.

You can’t just go buy used copies of them, because you’ll almost never find a matching set. It is possible, but difficult. Especially in the right condition. And it is so much lovelier to find them in a boxed set, if they come that way! Of course, that means I can’t buy it until after I’ve already borrowed the entire thing from the library…or wait until I buy it to read it. Catch-22!

Still, buying whole series and seeing their gorgeousness is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. These are just a few of them, I have many more!

WWW Wednesday 2/18/2015

 

 

Trying to get back in the swing of things–read Rothfuss’s two mega novels to kind of get over my vacation hangover and catch up on reviews, now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

What are you currently reading?

Dubliners & A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran

 

What did you just finish reading?

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

The Purge of Babylon by Sam Sisavath

The Slow Regard for Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

WWW Wednesday 2/11/2015

 

 

What are you currently reading?

Dubliners & A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

 

What did you just finish reading?

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Wonders by Paddy O’Reilly

Watch for these two reviews today and tomorrow!

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

The Empty Family by Colm Toibin

 

Daily Bookish Challenges | Day Five

If you liked this… You should try this…

People ask me all the time for book recommendations, and since my tastes are so varied, I usually can give them something. I tend to read whatever I can get my hands on, and that is EVERYTHING.

Here are a few recommendations based on popular books:

If you like…

…Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, you should try The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss

…The DaVinci Code, you should try The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury

…Gone with the Wind, you should try The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

…The Giver, you should try Breeder by KB Hoyle

Daily Bookish Challenges | Day Two

What’s on your book wishlist for the holidays?
Surprisingly, I don’t normally ask for books for Christmas.

*gasp*

WHAT?!

I know, right? As much of a book lover as I am, why wouldn’t I ask for books for Christmas?

Well, one, because it’s so damn hard to choose which books to ask for. I have such a huge wish list, I can’t just give the whole damn thing to my family. They would have no idea. My Nana used to get me the latest Nora Roberts books, but I have long outgrown those, so she’s stopped with that. Now, I usually just ask for Barnes and Noble gift cards, which I hoard until I can figure out what I actually want to purchase.

The second reason is that my mom LOVES clothes shopping. And she loves clothes shopping with her girls. So, every year, we would do a pre-holiday (and birthday, since it’s in November) shopping spree. She’d come down to Indy, take me to lunch, sometimes my sisters would come along too, and we’d all go crazy. So most years, I’d know what I was getting. But, my wardrobe would be set for the year–and it would be fashionable! Haha!

This year is a little bit different–since I live so far away now, we couldn’t do our traditional shopping trip. I missed it terribly. Instead, I built an Amazon wishlist, and there were quite a few books on there. They are exactly what you would expect from me:

Harry Potter by JK Rowling–I KNOWWWWW…but I still don’t own them, and it’s killing me. I would love to own the new UK collection, but if someone gets it for me, it’ll be the US version. If I buy it with my Christmas money afterwards though…I will be ordering it from across the blue.

Hogwarts Library–obviously.

I got The Wise Man’s Fear and The Slow Regard for Silent Things for my birthday, but The Name of the Wind is still on the list to complete the collection. I suspect it has already been purchased though…

Not that Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham–I haven’t read this one yet, but I keep hearing about it, so I must.

The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry–That big gorgeous gray and red hardcover version.

Quiet by Susan Cain

Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis box set

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Lunar Chronicles Series by Marissa Meyer

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

Chasers of the Light by Tyler Knott Gregson

 

I can’t wait to see what books I get, and I’ll be sure to do a book haul post in January! Happy Holidays!

 

WWW Wednesday 11/5/2014

 

 

What are you currently reading?

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

 

 

What did you just finish reading?

Tolkien by Devin Brown

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

Michal by Jill Eileen Smith

My Days with Princess Grace of Monaco by Joan Dale

Fairies by Skye Alexander

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

I will be really honest with you. I am a little giddy right now. Maybe ecstatic.

The very first review I ever did for this blog was Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles–The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear. I had just finished both books, and I had been blown away. Go check out that post if you want to know more, and if you haven’t read them yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

While the third book in the trilogy isn’t due out until next year sometime, Rothfuss just released a novella about one of the characters in the series, Auri. My wonderful husband preordered a signed copy (my first ever signed book!) of The Slow Regard of Silent Things, and it arrived yesterday.

He had given me the tracking info–and I think the UPS man was a little surprised because I was practically waiting at the door for him. Hiiiiiii give me my book now! Kthnxbi!

I had looooooved Auri in the Chronicles, so I was so happy when I heard this story was coming out. She is such a special character–extremely shy and skittish, and very mystical in the way she interacts with the world. She knows things that no one else knows. But she doesn’t do well around new people–she’s almost autistic in her social interactions–that’s really the best way I can describe her to you. At least that’s how she comes across in the Chronicles.

But then, in The Slow Regard, her mind just explodes into brightness and force. She is the only character. Or I should say the only animate character, unless you want to count a firefly like object. She is princess of the underworld, almost a faerie like creature down there. She understands everything about everything–how every piece fits together perfectly to keep the world turning. And if one of those pieces stops working, or gets bumped out of place, everything crumbles. She spends her whole life balancing on a fine wire, holding everything together, figuring out the puzzles and mysteries of inanimate life.

I know those two words don’t seem to fit together, but it makes complete sense to Auri.

Rothfuss cracks me up because he is so underconfident in his work that he has Author Notes at both the beginning AND the end of the story apologizing that this is not a normal kind of book. He is so sure that we are going to hate it because there’s only one character, and Auri makes soap for 8 pages.

But Patrick, if by some miracle you see this review…

I don’t often give 5 stars to a book, even though I love many. So rarely do I call a story perfect. This is a perfect story. Now, it does help to be familiar with the Kingkiller world in advance. Things do fit better that way. But, even without it, I think people will enjoy this. They don’t HAVE to know who “he” is to feel the wonderful sense of anticipation that is coming. The naming is in the story, but not in such a way that they will be confused, because Auri is so different from the other Chronicle characters.

Guys, read this novella. It is simple, it is sweet. Auri is one of the loveliest characters I have ever read. I want to read it again already.