It's Monday

Your meme is hosted here: http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

Hmmmm.... I'm still reading The Golem and the Jinni, and I poked a bit more into Game of Thrones at the weekend.

I've stacked up my Once Upon a Time VIII books so next up will most likely be one of those.

What are you reading?

Once Upon a Time VIII

I'm slightly late to the Once Upon a Time challenge, but here we are, finally. :-) Carl at http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com hosts this challenge every year and it's all about having fun, escaping and reading fantasy, folklore and all good things really.

Here's this year's post explaining everything: http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/once-upon-a-time-viii - Carl's much better at explaining this stuff than I am.

For myself, I'm taking on Quest the First, which is "Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time categories. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres."



It took me a bit, but here are my five books. They are: Victory of Eagles by Naomi
Novik, the fifth book in her Temeraire series, a kind of alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars, with dragons. Next, is Here be Dragons by Marie Brennan, which I know nothing about, but sounds very interesting. Then there's The Snow Child by Eowyn Levy, which is based on the old fairytale. Fourth is  Some Kind of Fairytale by Grahame Joyce and last but not least, The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer.

I also want to do Quest on Screen: "Stories are not just limited to the printed page. Many entertaining, moving, profound or simply fun stories are told in the realm of television and film. To participate in this quest simply let us know about the films and/or television shows that you feel fit into the definitions of fantasy, fairy tales, folklore or mythology that you are enjoying during the challenge."

I'm not sure how yet - I kind of want to do a LOTR re-watch maybe, and also watch/rewatch other fantasy movies from my childhood, like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. I'll think about it. :-)

It's Monday

Your meme is hosted here: http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

I finished The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black during the weekend, which I liked a lot.

Now I'm on to book three of A Song of Ice and Fire - A Storm of Swords. I liked the first two books a lot, and so far so good.

I'm also trying to read at lunchtime at work, but I decided A Storm of Swords wasn't right for that because I never want to put it down - lol.

So I'm planning on starting The Golem and the Djinni for lunchtime reading.

What are you reading?

Very short reviews

I got a bit behind and now I have five books to review so I'm just going to do a sentence or so for each.

First up is The Sorrow of Empire by David Mack - a Star Trek TOS novel of the Mirror universe.

It's a solid novel - entertaining and 100% Star Trek with Spock fighting to bring down the Empire from within. I read Star Trek novels sometimes when I need some true escapism, although I haven't read a TOS novel before. It was an easy and interesting read.

Next is Still Foolin 'Em by Billy Crystal, which is part autobiography, part musing, and part reflecting on againg. It's very much Crystal's voice, full of self-deprecating humour and wry observations about life and love. It's a quick read, enjoyable, light-hearted and funny.

And we're up to The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris. (Women's Challenge read). The Trickster God has a few scores to settle with the Norse gods - with Odin, especially and of course, Thor. Most of what I know of Loki comes from the movies and Tom Hiddleston, but Harris's Loki is hilarious - he feels hard done by and put upon and by all of the Norse gods, if he's going down then he's taking them all with them. Bring on Ragnarok.

The Wild Things by David Eggers (TBR Pile challenge) is the novelisation of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are movie. I have to say, I liked it a lot. You have to suspend logic, and roll with it, but once you do that, and you go with Max to where the wild things are, then it works on the levels that it needs to work.

Lastly, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black. (Women's Challenge read). From the time Tana wakes up after a party in a bathtub, to the time she ends up in Coldtown, it's a pretty wild ride. I have to admit, it took me a bit to grasp hold of Black's worldbuilding with the Cold references, but once I got stuck in, I was there all the way, and Tana is a great central character - she's brave and spirited, but she also screws up and makes mistakes. Good times.

It's Monday

Your meme is hosted here: http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

I had a pretty productive reading week. I need to do a short reviews post soon - lol.

I finally finished The Gospel of Loki by Joanna Harris, which was overdue at the library. I did like it a lot, her Loki voice was hilarious.

I also finally read The Wild Things by Dave Eggers which he penned to coincide with the release of Spike Jonze's film of Where the Wild Things Are. I enjoyed that a lot, too.

Now I'm working my way through The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, which is so far so good.

What are you reading?

Connections

I realised  - not all that recently - that most of the friends I have at this stage of my life are online.

That's fine. I'm 42, I'm old enough and ugly enough to not care if people are going to judge me for that. I have two people that I count as some of my closest friends and I've only met one of them in person.

The other lives in Canada.

I live most of my social life online - on twitter, generally, in fandoms, and a little bit on tumblr.

And, once again, that's fine with me. I'm content. I have a healthy family, a good job where I work with good people, and I have hobbies that more than enrich my own inner life.

Oh, and cats. I have cats.

A few years ago, a real life friend of mine mentioned she hadn't seen BBC's Sherlock, and I happened to have just bought series 1 on DVD. We decided to have a watching-night and so regular Saturday night stitching-and-watching dates were born.

We do them at her place - she's not fond of cats and she's the caregiver for her mother who has Alzheimer's. We buy ice creams, we watch TV and we stitch and talk.

And, as absolutely fine as I am with most of my life lived online, balance is also a good thing. Meaning that it's good for me to be forced to leave my house once a week for something other than work, and to interact with someone I'm neither related to nor work with face-to-face.

We don't do much. We watch things like The Amazing Race and Survivor, and we stitch and talk, and drink tea.

But in this oh-so-fragmented modern world - that as I say I have no problem with, it's  where I live most of the time - a real-life, real-time friend connection is beyond important.

It's Monday

I'm really, really trying not to do just once-a-week meme posts, but sometimes my week runs away from me, pointing and laughing and that's the result.

Could be worse.

Anyway. Your meme is hosted here: http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

I finished Billy Crystal's book, Still Foolin' 'Em and it was pretty good. Very Billy Crystal, with lots of self-deprecating anecdotes about aging and Hollywood.

I still have The Dream Thieves on the boil but there's something about it I can't attach to. I don't know what because I really enjoyed The Raven Boys. I'm going to try and persist though.

I started The Gospel of Loki by Joanna Harris yesterday, and I only have until Thursday to read it because it's due back at the library. So far so good.

What are you reading?

It's Monday

Your meme is here:

http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-225/

I finished The Sorrow of Empire - a Star Trek Original Series novel over the weekend. It's set in the Mirror universe, after the episode Mirror, Mirror. I like a good Star Trek novel now and again, and The Sorrow of Empire provided some nice escapism.

I'm still working through Billy Crystal's book, and contemplating either The Gospel of Loki by Joanna Harris, or the third Game of Thrones book by George R R Martin next.

What are you reading?