Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Reading Challenge: Reviews on Station Eleven, The Witch's Boy, The Inheritance Trilogy and Stranger


Time to play catch up on the book reviews!

And to start with, we'll go with Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I'm not sure how I ended up hearing about this book but I thought it sounded interesting and the cover art definitely drew my eye. The story jumps timelines and follows an almost set course of characters from Arthur Leander, who died on stage performing King Lear; Jeevan Chaudhary, who rushed on stage to save him; and Kirsten Raymonde, a child actress who stood in the curtains and watched Leander die during his performance. The story continues for the rest of that night at first, following Jeevan as makes his way home after the performance all while he is hearing reports about a flu that is spreading through the city. Working with the information he has, Jeevan stocks up on food and water and barricades himself and his brother inside an apartment to wait out the disease. After those events, the plot jumps around, occasionally going back to Arthur, exploring the ins and outs of his life before he died on stage and the various people who were important to him. The story also zeroes in its focus on Kirsten fifteen years later when she's working with the Traveling Symphony and they return to a place called St. Deborah by the Water, where they find a man who calls himself a prophet and realize it would be safer for them to get away while they still can.

Back to the Challenge: Reviews on The Shadowed Sun, I Was Here, The Just City and The Shadow Society

At least I managed to come back before the end of the year. I think I get credit for that, at least a little bit. On the other hand, I've read 91 books so far and have only managed to review 16 books on my blog, including the ones on this post.

Lot of work to do; just a lot of work.


Next up for review, The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin. This is the companion to The Killing Moon and it takes place ten years after the events of that story. This time around, we follow three certain characters: Hanani, the first and currently only female allowed into the Hetawa, working as a Sharer-Apprentice who has the ability to heal; Wanahomen, a prince and the son of Eninket, who'd been seen previously in The Killing Moon; and Tiaanet, a young woman with a horrible past and terrible secret. The plot of the story focuses mainly on the effects of a nightmare that has swept through the dreamers of the city, leaving death in its wake.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Keeping up with the Challenge: Reviews on First Frost, Alias Hook, Illusions of Fate and The Magician's Lie

Books, books and more books. The challenge continues with reviews of the next four books of the New Year Book challenge. And these books were definitely a high, a great experience overall for these reads.

Let's dive right in.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Reading Challenge Continued: Reviews on Playing for the Commandant, Sublime, The Killing Moon and The Kraken King

So the challenge continues and while I'm attempting to read and write on the side, I'm working on catching up on this site. And look, I'm actually back one week later instead of three months or two years later, like I have been prone to do in the past.

As stupid as it might sound, I'm very proud of myself for returning here so soon. Progress is a wonderful thing to behold.

Now then, let's talk about BOOKS.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

New Year and Reading Challenges: Reviews on The Nethergrim, Compulsion, Gretel and the Dark and Vicious

The new year came and went and with it my sanity almost disappeared. At least everyone is recovering nicely, so there's that.

But with the start of the new year came the suggestion of a reading challenge. I've thought about the number of books I read every year and started to wonder if I could actually set a goal, mark down a number and set my mind to finishing that many books over the course of one year.

So that's exactly what I did. What number did I decide on, you ask?

100 books.

To some people it might seem a bit small, to others the number might be a little too lofty of a goal. I hope to make it to 100 books before the end of the year, maybe make it to October and already be done with my challenge. Then maybe next year I can make the number 150, then 200 and so on, you get my drift. But if I'm going to read 100 books, maybe it would be a good idea to come back to my little blog and write about the books I've read.

Sound good? Great, let's begin.