Read This Month

I can’t believe tomorrow is already October. We’ve been in Dallas a month and a half, and things are finally starting to cool down. Or…at least as much as Texas cools. The State Fair just opened up, and my lucky husband gets to take a work trip over there today. I’m so jealous! Hopefully we can make it over there soon.

I read a ton of books great books this month. Now that I’ve set a schedule for myself, I’m getting quite a variety again. And I’m allowing myself to ditch books if they aren’t up to par, which I had stopped doing at one point. Gotta stop wasting time. Some books just aren’t blog-worthy.

(Which, on that point. Aaron’s Rod is on the list below, but I’m not going to do a post about it. I got about 65% through it before I had to give it up. Far enough to count it as “read” but I’m not going to bore you guys with a terrible post. Not DH Lawrence’s best work, let’s leave it at that.)

And now, the books!

 

Read this month:

Throne of Glass by Sarah Mass

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

Justine by Lawrence Durrell

The Innocent Man by John Grisham

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling

Atlantia by Ally Condie

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (which didn’t make it onto the list in the picture…oops!)

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Aaron’s Rod by DH Lawrence

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WWW Wednesday 9/10/2014

 

 

What are you currently reading?

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

 

What did you just finish reading?

Justine by Lawrence Durrell

The Innocent Man by John Grisham

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

Harry Potter 3 by JK Rowling

Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin

The Protector by Gennita Low

 

Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass.

 

This is one of those books that has everyone talking right now, so naturally, I couldn’t wait to read it. High fantasy with a female assassin? Yes please.

Unfortunately, for me, it didn’t completely live up to the hype.

It wasn’t terrible, I did like the basic storyline, and Celeana was a pretty badass character overall. But, I felt like the structure was just very elementary in development. I felt like I had read this book before at times, that I knew already what was going to happen.

There were also some character traits that just didn’t make any sense to me. The biggest of those–Chaol seems pretty naive for a Captain of the Guard. How in the world did he get to that rank without killing a man or seeing a man die? Not exactly the type of backbone I want protecting my castle…just saying.

Speaking of Chaol…and Dorian. TALK ABOUT A LOVE TRIANGLE HOLY CRAP. I probably won’t read the rest of the series (which is rare for me, and tells you just how disinterested I was in the first book), but have fun with trying to sort that one out. It’s about as delightful as Peeta vs Gale.

Anyway, I might be the only person on the bloggersphere who doesn’t like this book. And I’m really surprised that I didn’t. For me it was just iffy writing. This is Sarah Maas’ first book, so maybe she’ll get stronger as she goes. I don’t want to totally dismiss her, but this one wasn’t enough for me to keep going.

Has anyone  else read the other books in the series? Do they get any better as they progress?

 

WWW Wednesday 9/3/2014

We’re starting to get rolling, and I’m starting to feel better about my reading choices and blogging abilities. I’m definitely back in the swing of things now. Here’s what’s up this week:

 

What are you currently reading?

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

 

What did you just finish reading?

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (It’s driving me mad that I haven’t finished that collection yet.)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

Winter’s Tale by Mark Hellprin

Justine by Lawrence Durell

Teaser Tuesday 9/2/2014

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 

 

 

“When I was twelve, Arobyn Hamel decided I wasn’t nearly as skilled at swordplay with my left hand. So he gave me a choice:  either he could break my hand, or I could do it myself.”

–Sarah Maas, Throne of Glass

 

Whatcha Reading?

While I was traveling/moving, I was in love with my Kindle and my tablet. My books were packed up, and Kindle Unlimited had just been announced. I had also just got several books from my library’s ecollection that had been on hold forEVER. I thought it was perfect timing, because I was going to have so much downtime on vacation and no physical books to read.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I hardly read AT ALL.

I maybe read 3-4 books in 3 weeks. Ridiculous. Horrendous. But I was SO busy. We had a blast on vacation, and saw so many amazing people. And pretty much collapsed at the end of every day. And then we moved. And well, you know how moving is.

And I read that horrible Dumas novel. Ugh.

And so now I have unpacked all of my pretties…and have a bazillion electronic books to read. Which is not such a terrible thing, but my fingers are tingling every time I look at my bookshelves…which since they are in my home office…is every day. I may have to start alternating!

Here are the two books I am currently reading:

Anna Karenina I have been listening to since April. That is nothing new. It is one of the most tedious books I’ve ever read. I am not a fan of Russian Lit. It’s SO FORMAL. But, it gets me through chore-doing. And it’s starting to pick up a little bit, and the plot is thickening as much as Russian Lit can. I know it’s a big important classic….it’s just very slow.

Throne of Glass was a little slow to start for me, and I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. My blogger buddies really love this one, but I’m not sure it’ll be a favorite for me. We’ll see.

WWW Wednesday

 

 

Oh my gosh you guys, I’m back. Finally. I warned you, the last month has been absolutely insane, and for those of you who haven’t completely abandoned me, I thank you for sticking around. I fully plan on ramping back up to regular blog posts, challenges, etc going into September. We are unpacking our stuff this week, which means bookshelf organization! I always get really excited about my books about that time so who knows what I’ll post. Keep an eye on the Instagram…there’s bound to be some fun stuff there.

 

What are you currently reading?

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

 

What did you just finish reading?

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

Horns by Joe Hill

Winter’s Tale by Mark Hellprin

Justine by Lawrence Durell