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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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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: 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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