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My Review of A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy, #1) by Deborah Harkness

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Info from Goodreads:

(My review from Oct 2018 follows)

Book one of the New York Times–bestselling All Souls trilogy—”a wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight” (People)

Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.

Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar’s depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, and concludes with The Book of Life, coming from Viking in July 2014.

Paperback, 579 pages – Published December 27th 2011 by Penguin Books (first published February 8th 2011)

My Review (Oct 2018)

4.5/5 stars

I’ll start off by saying Wow and then I’ll say my biggest issue with this book was it’s very long, which isn’t wholly bad but I don’t love lots of description of place and setting and there’s a lot of science and history (I don’t necessarily dislike but…) that doesn’t drive the story forward. For a lot of people the science and history is doing to be a distracting, dragging deal breaker. If you can push past it, do. That said I’m also often an impatient reader; I think I just want to hurry up and get to the active parts! 

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This really is an amazing story, whether you’re a romance fan or not (I’m not). There are typical tropes of course, which may also be deal breakers for you (I for one tend to roll my eyes at them to say the least, however…) The romance is just one element that happens to be central to the plot. There’s so much going on beyond their relationship it doesn’t overwhelm the story. It’s thrilling, mysterious, and very well written. Deborah Harkness does an excellent job throwing curve balls. She also excels at character development. Even thinking about the characters now (there are many) they all stand out and carry their roles in the story well. I love when an author fleshes out their characters and they really do become their own thing, person, being. She does all of that. I will add that if you can’t stand extra masculine characters who happen to be VERY OLD (think immortal vampire) thus they’ve got some traditional “I’m the man” behaviors then you might not be able to stand this. But if you can get over that and see passed that for what it is, Matthew’s overall character as an alpha vampire, you might come to respect it especially given his sensitivities.

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The plot is compelling, especially the main characters Diana and Matthew. Their attraction to each other and resultant behaviors is exciting to say the least. Through their relationship (emotional and physical) we learn a lot about vampires. It’s a really neat way to present that information. I find this presentation to be unique (disclaimer: I do not read a lot of vampire/witch etc stories). I like her consistent reference to them being predators and their behaviors as such, instead of them just being these magical scary beings. The underlying system of magic is great, there are clear definitions of beings and yet we’re reaching for this mystery that connects us all throughout the story. Of course we’re learning about witches all along as well.

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Sure there were times when the story was slow, but all in all it was worth it. There’s some more cliches near the end that are kind of corny and hard to swallow but I ran with it; I think the story is strong enough to survive them. And there may have been some minor discrepancies here and there (little bits that read like huh?) but when the STORY CHARACTERS are this good things like that roll off the duck’s back and you forget all about them. I didn’t know what to expect when I discovered this book but I was impressed early on, declaring I would no doubt be reading the whole trilogy (waiting to receive the other two now). For me this was a story that had I had to review (check-in) throughout the book I wouldn’t have given it 4.5 stars but when viewed as a whole I’m happy giving it 4.5 stars. If you like Fantasy, especially witches and vampires, I recommend this book. It’s not all mushy love – though there’s plenty of desire & I appreciate that it never goes overboard – rather it takes us through the complexities of life as witches, vampires and daemons (not as much of the latter, which is fine). We see their behaviors, their needs, their history, it’s fascinating. Humans aren’t the only ones with prejudices and the life of these others creatures is rife with them. So what happens if a vampire and a witch fall in love? Why doesn’t Diana use her magic and what does it mean if she does? Why is Matthew so powerful? Can he reconcile his primal behaviors and needs? We get these answers in this book, even if not all of them and there’s clearly more to learn in the next two, the answers here are fully satisfying. The power these characters exude is fantastic. Let me say it’s palpable. So check it out. Happy reading!

I’ll amend this with what might be a little bit of a spoiler and say…

I read someone else describe this as a kind of mash up of Da Vinci Code & Twilight. I like the Da Vinci Code; I’m not a Twilight fan. In an effort to remain honest, I agree for the most part. So if you hate both of those proceed to this book with caution. 😀

Have you read this and/or the trilogy? What did you think? As I post this (after the fact) I’m reading book #3, The Book of Life so don’t spoil it for me! 😉 But I’d love to know what you all think. Will you read it now? Let’s chat, I love to chat!

If you’re interested in knowing what else I’ve read, am reading or plan to read let me provide you some links!

My Reviews

2019 TBR

Spring TBR

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My Review of The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst

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Info from Goodreads:

(My review follows)

The natural magic of the classic The Island of the Blue Dolphins meets the danger and courage of The Hunger Games in this dazzling, intricate stand-alone fantasy novel set in award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst’s beloved world of Renthia.

Life is precious and precarious on the islands of Belene. Besieged by a capricious ocean full of malicious spirits, the people of the islands seek joy where they can. Mayara, one of the island’s fearless oyster divers, has found happiness in love. But on the day of her wedding to the artist Kelo, a spirit-driven storm hits the island with deadly force.

To save her loved ones, Mayara reveals a dangerous secret: she has the power to control the spirits. When the storm ends, she is taken into custody by the queen’s soldiers and imprisoned with other women like her.

They vary in age and social status, but to many they are heroes who will aide the country or witches that will sacrifice themselves trying. No matter who they are, the women are sent to a terrifying place—an island filled with bloodthirsty nature spirits, and left without food, water, shelter, or any tools except their own instincts and magic. Whoever survives the Island of Testing will be declared heirs to the queen. But no matter if she wins or loses, Mayara knows that the life she dreamed of is gone.

368 pages – Published March 19th 2019 by Harper Voyager

My Review of The Deepest Blue

3/5 stars

It was very difficult for me to rate this book. In part because I’m a fan of this author and her Queens of Renthia trilogy as well as her book Lost (unrelated to this world or series). I think reviewing a book is made even more troublesome when you’ve been anticipating its release and it doesn’t live up to your expectations. That’s what happened here.

While I enjoyed the story, and I already enjoy spending time in Renthia, there are a number of things that felt superficial and missed their mark. I liked the main character Mayara. She’s tenacious and brave, and full of love for the people she cares about. The book opens beautifully on Mayara and Kelo’s wedding day. Right off the bat we get a taste of why Mayara’s family sometimes calls her reckless. We know this protagonist is going to take us on an adventure. For the most part the opening to this story was spot on. There is some spoiling that goes on in the rest of this review, not in detail but enough detail to spoil the story some or a lot.

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But then there were things that started to get to me. For instance, mentioning repeatedly how Mayara gets ready for a deep dive, how she compares so much to getting ready for a deep dive and every time she takes deep breaths we have to remember that that’s what she does when she’s getting ready for a deep dive. *Sigh.*

A major pet peeve of mine when it comes to reading in general, and something I’m trying to remember as I write my own book, is opportunistic writing, as I like to call it. I don’t like when characters are just made to fit because you need them to. Or turns in the story just go that way because the author needs them to, not because they flow naturally. In the case of this story, Mayara’s new found friend Roe has apparently been studying in secret and yet she seems to be no better at controlling the spirits than Mayara? How and why? In this case, if you’re going to make your character be awesome, more awesome than they should be, then build that case for us please. Don’t just say yup there you go, that’s how it is, Mayara is just a natural. Break some scenes down for me. Don’t just tell me oh yeah she’s not so good but then, she’s still got this. What does she figure out that helps her that she didn’t know before? How does she break through what she doesn’t know? Don’t just keep reminding me she’s not practiced but then showing me she’s plenty capable. Show me something in Mayara’s character that makes her special with regard to the scene. Other than her ability to swim and dive. Expand on these things.

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Again, these are notes to myself as I write and to all of us writers in addition to critique of this story. Remember show-don’t-tell is a relevant, worthwhile piece of advice. Even if it’s just a little scene or a little tidbit or even something that isn’t obvious, put it in there to show us this character has an edge. Show me, don’t just tell me they do. And don’t keep telling me about the same quality, that’s not enough to carry me through believing and rooting for her. Yes she’s brave and fearful and that’s real, but go deeper please. Show me how it comes to be that she navigates through these murky waters (pun intended) instead of expecting me to roll with it because she’s the main character, and ya know, that’s how it goes.

The author constantly tells us that Mayara likens every challenge to a deep dive and here’s the ritual that precedes it (please no more). Give us more of her inner character and how she breaks things down to get through them, but please know that once you’ve told us a couple times you don’t have to spell the same thing out every time thereafter. (Have I done it enough with regard to this detail? That’s how it felt reading.) It was things like that by the way that made me wonder if Mrs. Durst wasn’t getting confused with her art of writing middle grade. I’m probably reading into that since I know she writes in different age groups, nevertheless, that’s how I felt, that she at times forgot she was writing for adults.

Back to what I was saying: she tells us about getting ready for deep dives. (OMG, this again, really eLPy?) Tell us more about what’s happening that makes her capable of handling the spirits when, in this part of the world, girls hide their affinity for fear of being found out and sent to the island for testing. They don’t get to explore their affinities on their own or often. And maybe expand on this especially for those of us who have read the other series. What did Mayara miss by not being able to study her affinity? What does everyone miss? Don’t spend so much time on the same elements of love and Kelo and her family. Now she’s face to face with this affinity that she’s had to hide, how does she face it? What does that feel like for her to confront this?

It’s fair to say that we know from the start that this girl is going to be our hero, she’s going to go to the island. But what happens once we get there and even the immediate lead up to their departure feels so forced! She just so happens to be the last girl and now they’re off? So everyone else got to train for some undisclosed amount of time and she’s just shit out of luck? I know I’ve already given some spoilers here but I don’t think they’re too consequential however I won’t go into much detail in terms of other incidences that bothered me once they got to the island. All said and done for me it felt like the author tried too hard by not being creative enough to make Mayara the heroine. How? Why? How? There’s a lot that was opportunistic. Put her in a desperate situation because that’s what these stories do. Right? NO, don’t do that! I mean do it but show us readers how and why, not just because that’s what you think the story needs. Build us a sand castle but show us the tools, the methods, the failed attempts, the learning curves, the successes. Show us that the “it-just-so-happened-that” moments are realistic in your story, they don’t just happen. They happened. Don’t remind me I’m reading a made-up story.

Things like: so and so got injured so ya know, it’s all up to Mayara. Really? I mean, really? How perfect that our heroine has to do it on her own instead of someone more qualified with the spirits. Really? The whole scene on the island was tied up like a bow and way too neat. And I’m sorry but I was really hoping for the diversity of spirits that we saw in the previous trilogy. It’s really an inconsequential thing but I got sort of bored with the spirits seeming to be of the same five or so forms.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a fan of Sarah Beth Durst and I will continue to read her work. I do hope she continues in this world, in fact, I hope she explores the entire world, that whole darn map she drew for us! But please don’t sew them all up so nicely. I love happy endings, I’m not saying leave us with some sour bitter ends, but don’t make the bow so damn perfect!

There were some nice twists in this story, some conclusions that were satisfying but the end result as a whole was very disappointing because it was SO similar to another book she wrote. How did Mayara with her supreme lack of experience and training with spirits wind up in THAT position? I was left shaking my head going “REALLY! HOW?!” At least in one of the Queens of Renthia books the character built up, and worked up to her position. It didn’t “just-so-happen”. There are what should be deep emotional conversations that fall flat and/or feel like they’re written for a younger group. Then these violent scenes that are like whoa, was that for shock and awe, oh yes this is for young adult/adults. All in all, perhaps this book was rushed. It missed its mark for me. I don’t dislike Mayara or the other characters but I’m not connected to her. Do I want to see her again? Meh…sure? But give her some more meat please, more emotion, more depth.

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While you may think I’m a jerk and mean and all that fun stuff at this point – that’s fine – I will say I very much enjoyed the sociopath we met in previous books, Lady Garnah. She is a well-developed character who is both loathsome and likable in the strangest way. I dare say I had to root for her a few times. This character has had time to marinate and she works. She exhibits the difference between rushing a character and/or forcing their story to your will and allowing them to be who they are in the story. She was a welcome surprise and an A+ for me.

At the end of the book Durst explains that she wanted to write a book about someone growing and strengthening from love, not just pain. In her personal experience she grew a lot from her love for her husband and her family. I respect and admire her making this attempt to approach this from a different angle. That said while she didn’t completely miss the mark she kind of did because for me she tried so hard to stay on the love page that it felt like she may have deliberately avoided character and story development that leaned too much towards pain and hardship. I hope if we see Mayara again we get a full pallet of the colors of her personality and a deeper look inside.

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And it is with a heavy heart I give this book 3/5 stars. I have to be review with integrity so there it is. Sarah Beth Durst keep going, I can’t wait to read more, but this one I think IMHO needed more time in the oven especially given the deep philosophy behind what you were attempting.

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Note to myself and all authors, not every main character should be a queen.

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May Reading & Writing Updates

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So it has been a while, again, since I’ve posted but I’m getting it together. 🙂 Of course come on this is fun! Getting behind and running to catch up, not so much.

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But that’s fine. Let’s start off with what I’m reading, well what I’m still reading. I’m still reading My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel and Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy, #2) by Deborah Harkness. You might recall that I went ahead and DNF’d Everfair by Nisi Shawl, a decision I did not take lightly but it had to happen. April and these first two weeks of May… Holy cow it’s been two weeks since May started? Good lawd! I was saying, reading has been slow going largely because I’ve allowed myself to be distracted with other things at the end of the day. I’m correcting that now. I’ve updated my site (what do you think?) and I’m getting back to reading. My Great Aunt is still waiting for me to finish Shadow of Night so I better, and will, hurry that up.

I owe you my review for The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst. You’ll find that this week, hopefully tomorrow. Next up I’ll be reading The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan, #3 in The Memoirs of Lady Trent series. I’ll also be putting up some posts in the next few weeks about my writing experiences. As well I’ll share posts by fellow writers that I find to be especially helpful.

For This Post…

Above I’ve told you things you’ve probably already read if you’ve been here before so what’s new? Besides another episode of Game of Thrones (whoa, this last one was EPIC, at least as much if not more than episode #3, wow) and the Chi and Barry? Well
I got some new books at great prices, of course that meant I had to jump on them while I could. I’ll also share new additions to my TBR as well as my May/June TBR. Let’s get started.

Just today I received my latest book haul from Book Outlet. I’ve mentioned this site before but if you don’t already know about it let me tell you it’s a great resource for cheap books. They sell bargain books and scratch & dent copies. Also with each order you receive points you can redeem in a later order. In fact if you want to FOLLOW THIS LINK to Book Outlet you’ll help me earn points for referring a friend. I’m not just trying to sell you for points, I really think you’ll find their prices are sweet. They don’t have every book imaginable but they’ve got a lot. I figure I’ll get what books I can through them and then buy local or elsewhere.

This most recent haul includes:

This last one, the box set, I got three books for about $15, which I think is fantastic. I’ve heard loads of good things about V.E. Schwab, this series as well as Vicious and basically all her writing. I see on Goodreads the first book in this series is rated 5 stars by Deborah Harkness (author of All Souls Trilogy) of all people! I’ve also listened to some interviews with her on podcasts like Tim Clare’s Death of A Thousand Cuts. This probably bumps this up my TBR for me. These 9 books cost me under $50 with free shipping. Hey, that’s real good. I should be set for reading for a while…

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New Additions to My TBR

The following is a list of books I’ve added to my Goodreads TBR since April 1st until today May 13th. If applicable I give credit to the blogger or person who brought the book to my attention.

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Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery by Kelley Armstrong – Thanks Destiny @ Howling Libraries! – This book isn’t out until October of this year. It’s a collection of tales about witches and witchcraft by popular female fantasy authors. Not only does this sound interesting it could also be a great way to find new authors to read (as if I need anymore).

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Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker – Thanks Sofi @ A Book. A Thought. – The premise of this book, after seeing it on Sofi’s page, reached my interest. Two sister’s go missing and one comes back? Hmmm…

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Planetfall (Planetfall, #1) by Emma Newman – Thanks Tim Clare @ Death of 1,000 Cuts podcast – I was intrigued by his interview with her. She talked about her personal struggles with mental illness and her use of it in her books. As well, when it comes to writing she mentioned that sometimes she hates it but keeps going because she works through things and ideas by writing. This is something I think I also try to do. Point being the author interested me as much as this book about “one secret withheld to protect humanity’s future might be its undoing…”

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Kingfisher by Patricia A. McKillip – Goodreads recommended this to me and I added it because I read Riddle Master trilogy by this author and I really enjoyed it. Her writing is creative and poetic, original and dynamic. This book won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in 2017. I’m interested in this idea of ancient magic on the rise and a boy learning from his sorceress mother facts she’s kept from him until now.

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Middlegame by Seanan McGuire – So I’m pretty sure I heard about this book through Destiny @ Howling Libraries first and then again from Sofi @ A Book. A Thought, who highly recommends it. And I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m forgetting where else I’ve heard about it. This book has some high praises, even as it was just released a week ago (not including early review copies of course). On Goodreads it has 4.25 star rating out of 361 ratings. Roger’s skilled with Words. His sister Dodger’s skilled with numbers. They’re not human but they’re not exactly Gods either. Reed created them. Not their father, but not not their father. Hm…curious? I am.

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The Ice House by Tim Clare – This is the newly released sequel to The Honours which I read in April (here’s my review). You know by now I follow his podcast and am a fan. He’s a very talented writer and I look forward to reading this book probably this month to see whatever became of Delphine now that she’s an old lady.

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Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor – First I read The Book of Phoenix. Then I read Binti forgetting I’d read The Book of Phoenix. Naturally I need to read more of this author and this is book two, Akata Witch being #1. I just added these because I thought I already had, and I just got this and Lagoon below. This is (not Lagoon) a YA series the first released in 2011. In the first book the protagonist, a 12 year old girl, albino thus incredibly sensitive to the sun, befriends some other kids and is plunged into the world of the Leopard people where your worst defect becomes you best asset. They set out to track down a man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. I was hooked at “your worst defect becomes your greatest asset”, cool! Might be a good one for my niece and nephews.

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Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor – Besides what I’ve already shared, I added this book because well read the blurb:

” It’s up to a famous rapper, a biologist, and a rogue soldier to handle humanity’s first contact with an alien ambassador—and prevent mass extinction—in this novel that blends magical realism with high-stakes action.

After word gets out on the Internet that aliens have landed in the waters outside of the world’s fifth most populous city, chaos ensues. Soon the military, religious leaders, thieves, and crackpots are trying to control the message on YouTube and on the streets. Meanwhile, the earth’s political superpowers are considering a preemptive nuclear launch to eradicate the intruders. All that stands between 17 million anarchic residents and death is an alien ambassador, a biologist, a rapper, a soldier, and a myth that may be the size of a giant spider, or a god revealed.”

Yup, you know it, that sounds cool. Have you read any of these? Will you add them to your lists now? Let me know, give me a shout out and link back here if you do please. And let me know what you think if you read or have read these authors. I’d love to hear from you.

May/June TBR

Last but not least here’s what I hope to read from now until the end of June (not necessarily in this order):

  • Finish Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
  • Finish My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel
  • Start & Finish The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan
  • Start & Finish Women Wartime Spies
  • Start & Finish The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
  • Start A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
  • Start & Finish Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (I’m bumping this so I can share with the young folks)
  • Start The Book of Life (All Souls, #3) by Deborah Harkness
  • Start & Finish The Ice House by Tim Clare – because I just finished The Honours and why not?
  • Start & Finish Home (Binti, #2) & The Night Masquerade (Binti, #3) by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Start & Finish Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
  • Start The Greek Poets – Homer to the Present

And I almost forgot because I haven’t got it yet but Catching Teller Crow by Ambellin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina, published in Australia, is now in a paperback edition you can get through Amazon. Yeah!

That’s a great big list for me what with everything else going on, including of course my novel, gosh! Stay tuned there’s lots of fun to come. I’ll probably even tell you about my experiences helping out at my Aunt & Uncle’s sheep farm during their lambing season (AWESOME & inspiring). Maybe you’ll get to see some cute ass lambs. 😉 Thanks for reading my May Reading & Writing Updates.

Okay so whatcha got? Whatcha thinking?

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WWW Wednesday: 24 April 2019

Thanks Howling Libraries for your Wednesday meme post!

WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words where they revived it after its former host MizB at A Daily Rhythm. To participate you answer the 3 W’s (on Wednesday):

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What did you recently finish reading?
  3. What do you think you’ll read next?

And of course I’ll link back to the host (click the link above) as well as link back to the blogger I first saw participating in this (the link to Howling Libraries). Finally I’ll post my link back to me on the host’s page! Yeah, go networking! Should you decide to participate then that’s what ya do. 😀

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What I’m Currently Reading:

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Okay guys, don’t make any faces. No, that’s fine, make faces or what have you. Lol. Still reading the non-fiction (well it’s been a minute since I picked it up to be honest) My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel. So much to do so little time I kind of forgot about this investigation into all things anxiety. Whoops…

Do I even mention Everfair by Nisi Shawl? Ugh, I haven’t picked it up in ages. I have by default DNF’d this I think it’s fair to say. I keep swearing that I’m going to finish it because I got as far as I did but every time I think about it it feels like a homework assignment. I guess I feel bad because this is inspired by real historical events, it’s an awesome concept and she’s a good writer. It’s an alternate history/historical fantasy/steampunk novel (that sounds cool by itself right?) about the Belgian occupation in the Congo. Here’s part of the Goodreads’ synopsis:

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“Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo’s “owner,” King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.”

Now fast forward to discovering the narrative structure makes reading more difficult and disengaging than intriguing and engaging. Connecting with the characters was not so easily done and the story itself felt disjointed and lacking. But I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this! It has not been exciting as I thought it would be. So as of right now I’m going to DNF this book although I’ll let it linger on Goodreads.

Moving on…

I’m more than half way through Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy, #2) by Deborah Harkness. This is a big book in my world, 584 pages, but it’s pretty awesome. I loved the first one, A Discovery of Witches, and even got my

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Great Aunt reading it. She just asked me the other day if she could get book two as she would be finished with #1 soon. I was maybe a quarter in so

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she’s going to have to wait but I’ve turned up the reading especially considering the Goodreads group I’m in is reading this this month as well. I’d like to join some discussions.

This paranormal fantasy with some historical fiction going on as well as some saucy romance is well-written though very long what with all the setting descriptions (I do believe the author has a thing for historic buildings) among others. Let me just add that the romance gets turned up a bit in this book. 😉 There’s a large cast of characters but Diana (witch) and Matthew (vampire) are our main protagonists engaging in forbidden love, as adults. If you haven’t read A Discovery of Witches that might be a tad of a spoiler although it probably wouldn’t take you long to guess they’d

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hook up. I won’t say much more but I plan to use this book in a post about reading as a writer and how this story works. Deborah Harkness crafts a great story here with plenty of activity and intrigue, mystery and twists. I’ll finish this before the month is up and probably read the third book, The Book of Life, in May.

What I Recently Finished Was:

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The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst

I finished this a couple weeks ago now, I know I know I owe you a review and I promised it would be forthcoming. Well folks I’m behind, so let’s just say you’ll get it this week. While I enjoyed this book I was a little disappointed. I would recommend it should you like what you read in the synopsis or if you liked the Queens of Renthia trilogy by this author. But I don’t think it lived up to the hype, at least not for me. I’m sitting between 3 – 3.5 stars, so it’s still good there’s just some specific things that kind of drove me nuts.

And since I haven’t done WWW Wednesday in forever I want to add the book I finished before The Deepest Blue, which was The Honours by Tim Clare. His new book The Ice House is coming out in early May, really looking forward to that. Tim is a podcaster I follow and now an author I also follow. I do recommend you check out his work as well as my review.

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What Will I Read Next?

Next up is The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan. This is the third book in The Memoirs of Lady Trent series, a very interesting fantasy series

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imagining a world with not only dragons but many different species of dragons. I’ve got all five books so know you’ll be hearing a bit about this series for the rest of the season.

I’ll also be starting The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present and Women Wartime Spies, both books from my post Here’s What’s Up: Rediscovering books.

In addition I’ll be rereading Nnedi Okorafor’s The Book of Phoenix.

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Stay tuned for my May TBR (don’t think I ever posted an April TBR!) and plans for May. I do have my Spring 2019 TBR if you want to look a little farther into the future of what I plan to read. Then you can say oh yeah I do want to follow eLPy because I’m interested to hear about… 😉 And check out my 2019 TBR to look even farther in to the future. Expect updates!

I’ve got my mind on some writing based posts that I’m looking forward to writing, including Writer’s Block is Not A Thing. If you already disagree with me, great let’s discuss! So keep your eyes open for that post and see what I have to say. You never know, you just might agree with me after all.

Until next time this is what I’ve got for you for WWW Wednesday. If you read Everfair let me know what you think please. Maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea, because she certainly deserves credit for her writing talent. And what about the others? Have you read the All Souls Trilogy? Did you love it? Do you know there’s a TV series that just premiered some weeks ago? I haven’t seen any of it because I don’t want to yet, at least not until I’ve finished book two. I’ll probably even wait until I’ve finished the whole trilogy.

Okay folks, I’m out for now. Thanks for reading my WWW Wednesday!

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Here’s What’s Up With Writing

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Is it really Saturday again, already? Wow. As much as I would like to slow time down I fear that should we ever discover how to it would be an enormous mistake. It’s thoughts like that that make Science Fiction and Fantasy stories so appealing. We can explore possibilities and/or crazy hair-brained ideas in all their glory.

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Here’s What’s Up…

Today’s post is about writing and it’s about writing this blog. There’s so many blogs and bloggers out there, never mind all the YouTubers and their VLOGS. It’s not easy for everyone to make their mark and stand out. Some people don’t care. Maybe they’re just blogging for themselves or their family and friends. There are also those folks who just want the attention, they just like the idea of having followers and getting likes. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about (because I would get lost in the pits and potholes that is the internet and social media).

As I’ve said elsewhere, the purpose of this blog is to get to know me, more specifically me as a writer. I plan to publish my novel in 2020 but in the meantime this is my author platform. And still it’s not that simple. It’s not enough to just say hey I’m here, come read my stuff, and then hopefully when the day comes you’ll read my book! No, I need to draw you in. Stores have window displays. Kiosks and booths have their sales people right out front approaching you, getting your attention, offering you samples or glances at what they offer. Special offer just for you, right? Why should I be so different? I don’t EXPECT, I hope. So I’m always thinking about what I should or might do differently to appeal to readers.

There are a lot of book bloggers out there, fabulous! But how do you navigate through the crowd? What makes you stop and listen to what one or the other has to say? Do you follow every one you like or are you really picky and seldom follow? Maybe you’re someone who just surfs and reads whatever is at the top of the news feed drawing your attention. Do you read reviews because you want a new book to read or do you read reviews after the fact because you want to know what someone else thought about the book? I’m mostly one of the latter. Sure I read reviews before I’ve read a book but I don’t always like to. While most reviewers state whether or not their review contains spoilers, sometimes I just don’t want to know too much about the book so that it’s all a surprise to me. That’s how I feel about books I KNOW I’m going to read. However, if there’s a book I keep hearing about and it’s piquing my interest more and more then I’ll probably read a review or two to get a better sense and help me tip the scales.

While thinking about this over the past week I came to the conclusion that I really want to write more, including my reviews, from the angle of my being a writer. I’ve long felt that I don’t want to give writing advice because I don’t think I’m in a position to tell other people how to write well. That doesn’t mean I won’t provide suggestions or tips for the habit of writing. In fact I’ll probably write a post this coming week about my thoughts on writer’s block, if you believe in such a thing. What I want to do is give things the writer’s spin or the writer’s take.

Once I wrote a comment in LibraryThing about writing reviews for the author and the readers. A moderator came right back and told me that reviews ARE NOT for the author. I said nothing because sure she’s right, but does she have to be? Of course reviews are for the most part of other readers to get a sense of whether or not they want to read this book. And yet, what says I can’t write my reviews with the author or other writers in mind? That’s how I think after all, I always have my writer’s brain on. I don’t think I can turn it off to be honest. Huh… Here’s what’s up with what I’m thinking…

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My little brother was not much of a student. It’s just true. But he was a hell of an extreme sports athlete. Skate boarding, BMX biking, snowboarding, wakeboarding, it’s fair to say those were his favorites. So when he relayed to us one day that he would be attending school for film editing in Burbank, California I was surprised. He’s going back to school? Wow. Now I know trade school and art schools aren’t the same as grade school, but it’s still SCHOOL! And so he went.

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He was good. He liked it. He loved it. He was really good. He grew more and more passionate about making movies. He made little films about cooking food, cooking food on a bunsen burner, cleaning his room before leaving the house, such normal things but he made them cool with special effects and music. He gave you a new view on things from his mind.

Of course he also made movies about snowboarding and what not. As much as his friends enjoyed his ambitions, I’m pretty sure they had their days where they would just rather not perform for the camera. Lol. This was all before YouTube really blew up and everyone decided they were film editors. I think about what he would be doing now. How strange life is. I know he struggled sometimes knowing just what to do with this talent of his. That his timeline came to an end just before this film editing craze (I mean who doesn’t make YouTube videos these days, other than me?) I can’t help but think how cruel the irony of life.

His story teaches us through his story to use your skills as long as you can. Whether you celebrate Easter for the religious holiday that it is, the celebration of rebirth, or you just like the candy and watching kids hunt for eggs, we can all stand to appreciate that it’s not too late to give rise to that which lives within you. Not while you’re alive.

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Okay I got off track. That trip down memory lane was actually to share a memory of him from when he was back from school though not finished. We were at my mother’s house sitting on the couch off the kitchen. A movie was on TV though I don’t remember what it was. All of a sudden he started talking about the filming of the scenes and how it was cut. He talked about the editing, how the producer transitioned from the last scene to the next. I remember smiling and being taken aback because I wasn’t prepared for his reflections. But that is what an artist does. We see the art, but we also see the work. What made them make THAT decision? Why did they cut there? Why did they leave that? Interesting they used that transition. It’s a beautiful memory for me. While our arts are different, it’s a mental exercise and process we will always share.

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When I reading, watching movies or TV, listening to anything, my artist’s brain is activated. When I review books I’m thinking about what they did that just didn’t work and I thought was lazy writing. Or I’m thinking, wow that was GOOD! Ever read a passage and say oh come on, they didn’t even try? You don’t have to be a writer or an artist to think this way, but imagine when you are? The other day while talking to my partner about some writing breakthroughs I’ve had, I exclaimed that I just don’t know how George R.R. Martin walked around doing normal stuff with all that in his head!

I want to share these writerly perspectives of mine. I want to let other writers know what about a book or section didn’t work from the perspective of the writing. I mean this is constructive criticism right? Don’t we watch reality shows and pay attention to social media because we want to see what other people see and think? And that’s usually NOT constructive criticism? We value other people’s reactions whether or not we agree with them. This is what I will try to offer you. Perhaps you’ll find it interesting to hear how my brain works when it comes to writing. We’ll see. But I hope you will engage with me and the content here.

Please do respond to any or all of the various things I’ve mentioned or asked about here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Oh and I haven’t forgotten about my review of The Deepest Blue, I’ve been working on a draft. Reading that book helped to spawn my desire to be more intentional with writing about things from the eyes of a writer instead of just a blogger who’s also working on a novel NOT that that’s bad. I hope I’ve made it clear here what I’m doing and not just repeating other things I’ve said. 😉

Cheers everyone and Happy Easter. I hope it’s a beautiful weekend for you.

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Here’s What’s Up Catch Up!

Hello everyone and welcome to a new week! Now I know I’m supposed to do Here’s What’s Up posts on Saturday (cause I said I would) and today is Monday. But meh, I made the rules here so sometimes I break them. I’ve been missing some posts these last few weeks and not talking to ya all too much but I’m here!

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What’s there to say? First, spoiler alert if you haven’t seen Season 7 (the last one) of Game of Thrones or any for that matter. I saw the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere Sunday night after watching the last two episodes from last season. Man, that battle scene with the Night King and the dragons? Oh lord, I had goosebumps, still can’t believe that happened. As for last night I think it was a good start to what’s bound to be a great season, I mean it’s got to be if it’s the last right? Although I would have liked to see a little more reaction out of everybody when Bran said they’ve got your dragon and it’s one of them. They looked like oh shit and then we moved on. What! Come on you know that would blow your mind.

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Disclaimer by the way, I have not read any of the books. But this epic story is just that, epic. It is a fantastic example of good storytelling. And I love how there is such a diverse cast of characters. We weave in and out of their lives, watching them build, fail and rebuild. All along the way George R.R. Martin and the screenwriters build us up to little pitfalls or triumphs and enormous crescendos and destruction. It’s like you’re watching a real story line in history. My partner said he had to remind himself that this all didn’t really happen, that they never killed that dragon with just one toss of a spear, sending him plummeting onto the ice and into the lake. Gosh…that was too much! There is no one villain or one good guy, and how knows what’s going to happen next because Martin seems to love to “kill his darlings” as they say in writing. Hats off to George R.R. Martin and the production crew behind Game of Thrones! I could do without ALL the nudity but it’s still epic and well deserving of its popularity.

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Okay what else? Here’s What’s Up with Saturday night Boxing. (Another spoiler to follow regarding boxing match Saturday night.) Well I also watched a great fight between two awesome women boxers, Claressa Shields versus Christina Hammer. You might recall that Shields is an Olympic Gold Medalist in boxing and hails from Flint, Michigan. She won gold medals in both the 2012 & 2016 Olympics. She’s the first male or female boxer to win consecutive Olympic medals. She’s also only the 6th boxer, male or female, to hold all four major world titles in boxing. And she just turned 24 this March so she was 17 years old when she won her first Olympic gold in women’s boxing.

Christina Hammer is a very worthy opponent born in Kazakhstan but relocated to Germany soon after her birth. She’s a “multiple-time world champion in two weight classes” and has been named Fighter of the Year and Female Boxer of the Year and won the WBO Diamond Ring for Exceptional Performance.

I wasn’t prepared for Shields to beat Hammer so decisively, I really thought it would be more of a battle between the two. Don’t get me wrong Hammer held up and didn’t exactly do nothing but as the announcers and my partner were saying, she didn’t fight her fight, she fought Shields’ fight. At the end of the night Hammer was looking a little bit stunned by what had just happened herself and Shields was a damn proud woman. Hats off to them both! I hope they have succeeded in catapulting women’s boxing to a new level because they were great to watch. Women’s boxing deserves a lot more attention than it gets. It would be great to see even more qualified fighters in the ring on a regular basis. I would like to see a rematch between these two although I don’t know if it’s in the cards. And come on, Shields vs Hammer, even the title is cool!

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Here’s What’s Up with my Reading

In the world of books, I finished The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst. I will most certainly have a review for you tomorrow but I can say now that while I was really excited to LOVE this book I mostly just liked it. I’m a fan of Durst’s and I really enjoyed her Queens of Renthia series but this stand alone book set on the Islands of Belene, another part of the world Renthia, missed the mark just left of center for me. It was still a worthy read, and I will continue to follow Durst. In fact I really hope she keeps exploring other parts of Renthia and even Belene. But the story itself kind of fell flat. There’s exciting and interesting parts however there were some crucial details that felt like repeats. I’ll tell you more in my review but let’s just say I think I’m giving this 3.5 stars.

I bumped this and some other books up my Spring TBR because I need an ebook to read while I’m on my spin bike or in other instances where reading from my device is just easier than reading an actual book. Have you seen the hardcover edition of Shadow of Night? Very soon I’ll be starting The Voyage of the Basilisk. But first, I just started reading Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness because that’s the book myself and others voted to read in April for the Goodreads group I’m a member of. This second book in the All Souls Trilogy is almost 600 pages long so I need to get reading it! Know then that The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan is up next.

When I look at my TBR on Goodreads I feel so crazy because I want to read so many books like now but I do not have THAT kind of time. Oh well, a girl can dream… In the meantime I’m super stoked because I’ve been doing some impressive brainstorming for my novel. Tonight I plan to start putting these ideas to work on paper. (I brainstorm a lot into a voice recorder. It’s great fun talking to yourself. :D) Writing is an intense act to undertake let me tell you. I have decided to delete a character which means – oh my gosh – I’m going to have to delete a bunch of words I’ve already put together about her. I’ve also found a whole new direction to take things in.

The nature of my story has changed and it feels so right to me! But there’s so much juggling to do. One thing I’m practicing that’s helping me immensely is just getting some thoughts out to see how they look and feel and what branches off of them before I butcher and beat them. I have a heavy handed inner editor and she tries to stop nearly everything before it even comes out of my brain. Well she is getting put in her MF’n place, let me tell you.

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There you have it, Here’s What’s Up With Me! Game of Thrones, Boxing: Shields v. Hammer, The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst, Voyage of the Basilisk, Shadow of Night, and write write write! Woo! Can you tell I’m excited? Oh my gosh I almost forgot that I also got the ebook for The Caged Queen by Kristen Ciccarelli, Iscari Book 2. I really enjoyed the first one and this book got bumped up my 2019 TBR to Spring TBR because, like I said, I need some ebooks.

How about you? Do you watch GOT? Did you? What about boxing? Will you now? I tell ya you should check these women out, they are bad asses.

And how’s your reading going? Have you read The Deepest Blue? Voyage of the Basilisk? Shadow of Night? The Caged Queen? Let me know what you think because I would love to have a chat.

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My Review of The Honours by Tim Clare

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Info from Goodreads:

(My review to follow.)

TRUE HONOUR IS ENDLESS. JOIN US.

1935. Norfolk.

War is looming in Great Britain and the sprawling country estate of Alderberen Hall is shadowed by suspicion and paranoia. Thirteen-year-old Delphine Venner is determined to uncover the secrets of the Hall’s elite society, which has taken in her gullible mother and unstable father.

As she explores the house and discovers the secret network of hidden passages that thread through the estate, Delphine uncovers a world more dark and threatening than she ever imagined. With the help of head gamekeeper Mr Garforth, Delphine must learn the bloody lessons of war and find the soldier within herself in time to battle the deadly forces amassing in the woods . . .

The Honours is a dark, glittering and dangerously unputdownable novel which invites you to enter a thrilling and fantastical world unlike any other.

Kindle Edition, 416 pages – Published April 2nd 2015 by Canongate Books

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My Review of The Honours:

4/5 stars

This book gets a very well-earned 4/5 stars.

From the very beginning I recognized this would be a well-written book with beautiful prose. Tim Clare, I’d say, masters “show, don’t tell”. It took a little bit longer than I would have liked to get into the action, the meat of the book, but once that happened I was all in. The second half of the book seems to fly by, making it hard to put down.

I found that I wasn’t always guessing what would happen next, which is an easy thing to do when reading especially with books that are less than original. This is because I couldn’t guess, I didn’t know. The Honours is wholly original. It’s a worthy read even if you find the beginning kind of slow, keep reading, trust me you’ll be glad you did.

The ending wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped it would be but it wasn’t a “bad” ending, just left me with more questions. Luckily, at the time I read this I know book 2, The Ice House, is coming out in a month. I will be pre-ordering my copy soon and adding it to my Spring TBR. Some might find this to be a strange story and/or not what they expected, but it is very interesting and entertaining, to say the least. Well-worth the time spent reading it.

Considering I listen to his podcast, which is how I found this book in the first place, I must say he lives up to his hype. I wondered as I’d hear him critique people’s first pages (which was half of why I took to his podcast) if his reading really lived up to his critiques. Did he critique himself as thoroughly and did he live by his own rules? Yes folks he does. You might already know I don’t love loads of description, which would normally make this book slow to read. While it did make this a slower read in the beginning especially, it really made reading it like watching a movie for me. He does such a great job engaging the senses. This is an admirable work of art.

“Delphine woke with a start, gripped by the conviction she had missed her stop. The carriage was empty. She swung her feet tot he floor and turned to the window. Her groggy face gaped back at her. Beyond the glass, the night was rock-black. Her damp hair stuck to her cheek in strands. She shivered.

“Pulling on her duffel coat, she got to her feet and walked around the carriage. It was deathly quiet, aside from a steady ca-chuck ca-chuck. Her chest tightened. The train was heading back to the rail yard. She imagined spending the night on the cold carriage floor, Mother doubled over in tears on a deserted platform, policeman searching the tracks by electric torchlight, digging in snowbanks, the whisper of pencil lead on notebooks, her fellow passengers brought in for questioning, the finger of blame swinging sure as a compass needle towards the large man with the cigar – well, he was still with her when I left – the conductor recounting with relish the man’s sudden unprovoked aggression, his wild gesticulations and fiery eyes – like a fiend he was, sir, like a man possessed – the newspapers tattooed with lurid headlines: CIGAR-SMOKING CHILD-SNATCHER STILL AT LARGE, and Daddy, ashen, wracked with torment (at this she felt a pang of guilt), before a knock at the front door, and in she would glide to bellows of relief, to tears and a hug as tight and strong as plate armour.”

Now tell me that isn’t how your imagination works, especially when you were 12 years old? This isn’t even an eventful seen but I thought it gives you a very small taste of his writing, plus I really didn’t want to spoil anything or tell you too much about the book. It’s way more fun to discover it as you with no solid expectations or understanding of what’s to happen. And I think the name Delphine is lovely. 😉

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Have you read this? Are you going to now? Be sure to let me know when you do if you read this because of my recommendation, and if you don’t my giving my review a pingback or shout-out I would be so grateful. Don’t forget The Ice House is coming out in May, so read this in time to pick it up!

If you want to read more of my reviews CLICK HERE.

And check out my 2019 TBR as well as my Spring TBR to know what I’m reading, or at least planning too.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Here’s What’s Up With Me

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Happy Saturday everyone! Hope this post finds you well. I know I missed some posts this Wednesday and almost missed this Here’s What’s Up, but you know I couldn’t leave you hanging! Last week I mentioned I’ve been behind in reading. Well this week wasn’t much different, although I was able to finish Tim Clare’s The Honours, which I really enjoyed. You can find my review posted tomorrow, Sunday, 7 April, 2019. I recommend this book if you like fantasy, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t “horror” per se but maybe some of the elements lean that way. I’m happy to have finished this, the second half of the book was a quick read, I had to know what happened next, yes it was like that.

Here’s what’s up in the meantime,

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Folks I have been writing. Yes that’s right I got my butt in the seat and wrote thousands of words.

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Words for what? My novel silly. Because here’s what’s up: I’ve been in a writing slump for a little while now, lot of outside stressors getting in the way, as they do. But underneath it all ideas have been bubbling to the surface, until finally like a volcano – okay a little volcano, like the size you made in school – they burst forth! It’s still safe to say I’m looking forward to a 2020 publication date.

Writing is hard work. I take my hat off and fill my heart with the efforts of all the writers out there. While I’m reading I’m still a writer. It amazes me the things people make happen when they put pen to paper, even more so as I’m doing it myself. It’s also difficult not to beat your own work up as you’re putting it together. But you absolutely have to remember that a first draft is not a finished product. I remind myself of this again and again, every time I’m writing or brainstorming I tell my inner editor to shut the heck up, for real, shut up, you’re not helping. A person does not come out of the womb all grown up and in its prime. No we’re born with a lot of growing left to do.

And so I continue my writing as well as my reading. I’m also working on some short stories to submit, I’ll let you know how that goes. Now that I’ve finished The Honours (I’ve misplaced Everfair or else I’m sure I’d be finished with it, lol), I will begin The Voyage of the Basilisk (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #3) by Marie Brennan. I’m also going to find Everfair and finish that puppy, then I’ll start The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman.

As I said above I’ll have my review of The Honours posted tomorrow. This week you will find a post about my plans for April as well as a post about why I added some of the books I did to my March TBR.

Anything on my Spring TBR you’re interested in? Or have you read The Honours by Tim Clare? I think this book is underrated and deserves more attention. So look for more buzz from me about Tim, his book, and his podcast in the next couple weeks. Stay tuned!

Oh and share your thoughts, I love chatting! Thanks for reading everyone. 😀

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Here’s What’s Up: March TBR Additions

Hello friendly blog readers and bloggers! How are you all doing? Was this a good reading month for you? Are you reading more, less, the same? Any new books you just have to share? What’s happening with your March TBR additions, I know you’ve got some!

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I’m taking advantage of this Saturday being the last one in March and using it to post March TBR Additions as a Here’s What’s Up for Book Lovers Saturday series! Let’s dive in.

This is a monthly TBR wrap-up post. It’s simple, I tell you what I added to my TBR at the end of the current month! There’s my TBR (on Goodreads, 231 as of today) and my 2019 TBR (42, as of this second). I will also have seasonal TBRs, like Spring 2019 TBR. If I add new books to any of these specific lists I’ll let you know, otherwise assume they’re just being added to my general TBR, as in sometime in my life maybe I’d like to read this.

Here’s what’s up: In March I added 39 books to my TBR thanks to multiple sources, from podcasts to other book bloggers. I will give credit where credit’s due when available. Some books I just found.

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The following list is the books I’ve added to my TBR starting March 1st. If available, the source of the referral follows the title and author.

Okay so wow, there you have it. Just when you think you’re set on finding anymore books – which let’s be honest I’m just saying that because you never think that – you run into lists, posts, podcasts, and interesting covers, let’s not get started on series.

Are you reading any of these? Maybe you already have or want to? Let me know, I’d love to hear what we have in common or not. Don’t be afraid to tell me if you think any of these books are crap. I’m not afraid of opinions that are other than I LOVE THAT BOOK. Stay tuned for more information on some of these books and what made me add them to my list. Of course these list change and depend on my progress with reading and writing.

What do you think?

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Shelf Control – Wednesday, 27 March, 2019

This Wednesday bookish meme is hosted by BookShelf Fantasies. Thank you for letting us join in this fun!

From the host’s page:

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up!

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

  • Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
  • Add your link in the comments!
  • If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
  • Check out other posts, and…

My Shelf Control

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

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From Goodreads:

Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. According to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence.

In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores the newly discovered brilliance of birds. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research–the distant laboratories of Barbados and New Caledonia, the great tit communities of the United Kingdom and the bowerbird habitats of Australia, the ravaged mid-Atlantic coast after Hurricane Sandy and the warming mountains of central Virginia and the western states–Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird brain itself that are shifting our view of what it means to be intelligent. 

Consider, as Ackerman does, the Clark’s nutcracker, a bird that can hide as many as 30,000 seeds over dozens of square miles and remember several months later where it put them, or the mockingbirds and thrashers, species that can store 200 to 2,000 different songs in a brain a thousand times smaller than ours. 

But beyond highlighting how birds use their unique genius in technical ways, Ackerman points out the impressive social smarts of birds. They deceive and manipulate. They eavesdrop. They give gifts. They kiss to console one another. They blackmail their parents. They alert one another to danger. They summon witnesses to the death of a peer. They may even grieve. 

This elegant scientific investigation and travelogue weaves personal anecdotes with fascinating science. Ackerman delivers an extraordinary story that will both give readers a new appreciation for the exceptional talents of birds and let them discover what birds can reveal about our changing world. Richly informative and beautifully written, The Genius of Birds celebrates the triumphs of these surprising and fiercely intelligent creatures. From the Hardcover edition.

Paperback, 340 pages – Published April 11th 2017 by Penguin Books (first published April 12th 2016)

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How & When I Got It:

I don’t know. To be honest, it feels like I’ve had this book for a long time. When I found it lingering in my house late last year I assumed it was a book I’ve had for years because I’ve always loved birds. Then I saw the date of publication, and well, that solved some of that. Pretty sure I got this at a book store.

Why I Want to Read It:

I love birds.

Birds have always fascinated, since I was a girl. The start of spring is a great time to bump this up my TBR. You’ve heard it here now, a change to my Spring 2019 TBR & the first hint of my April Plans. And a sneaky addition to today’s WWW Wednesday. 😉

My favorite sign of spring is the growing sound of bird songs. I remember a couple weeks ago, even before the spring equinox, I stepped out my front door and immediately to my left in the shrubs was a pair of Robins. My heart joined them in their fluttering wings and feathers. I texted people close to me announcing what I’d seen. This was a beautiful sign for me. Regardless of the mess of the big world, in my small world, the Robins had arrived. I always wonder what’s happening inside the world of birds, especially since I live with two Parrots. When I was a little girl one of my favorite books was my first guide to bird watching. It was a thin hard cover, I still own it though the dust jacket is long gone. I drew pictures of Birds of Prey and put them in my bedroom windows to keep birds from flying into the glass. All things birds were cool with me. You can bet I will write about them one day.

I can’t wait to see what’s happening on the forefront of birds and their lives around the world. Hopefully you’ll join me.

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How do you feel about birds? Or what do you think about birds? Let’s talk!

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