A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan is framed as the memoirs of the early days of famed dragon naturalist, Lady Isabelle Trent.

Lady Isabelle decides to write her own story her own way, and delves into her own early life with refreshing honesty.

I was, I have to say, expecting more dragons, but ultimately A Natural History of Dragons isn't really about dragons at all, but about Lady Isabelle forging her own path in a world that has very definite ideas about what is and is not suitable for a young lady.

Needless to say, Isabelle has her own ideas on what's appropriate, and before she knows it she's on an expedition with her new husband to a remote location to study dragons.

I enjoyed A Natural History of Dragons, but I felt like I was waiting for something to happen the whole time. There's a lot of sort of .. running about with not getting much done, and a sub-plot that reminded me of an Enid Blyton novel I read as a youngster (I can't remember the name of it - it had Mountain in the title), and then at the end there's a bit of a rush of  A LOT OF THINGS HAPPENING VERY QUICKLY and it felt a bit unbalanced.

Still.

Dragons.

It's Monday

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

I'm about halfway through One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I'm reading on my lunchbreaks at work, so it's slow-going.

It's always good to revisit a favourite though.

I started The Snow Child by Eowyn Levy yesterday, and on Saturday, finished The Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan.

Not sure what's up next, but I'm hopefully back on track after a relatively slow reading patch.

What are you reading?

Health stuff and hey I read some books

See here: http://justaddbooks.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/readathon-and-health-thingies.html

And now, the sequel. (This gets TMI for anyone who's a bit delicate about discussion of interior ladyparts).

I went back to the doc, and I'm anemic (which, I had my period for three weeks, NO SHIT SHERLOCK) and I have an infection. So I have iron tablets and antibiotics. Yay.

Anyway. I'm waiting to hear back from the hospital about an ultrasound, and after that the doc said the next likely step would be a Mirena coil, which is apparently a tiny magic piece of plastic that gets fitted inside your ladyparts, lasts for five years, and reduces/stops your period.

I AM VERY ON BOARD WITH THIS. But nothing can happen till after the scan. Doc said getting the coil fitted wouldn't be my best day ever but honestly after the period of doom, I don't care - lol.

I also learned that, at the tender age of 42, I'm not menopausal. So, there's that.

And that's what you missed on Glee!

Now, reading. I'm a bit behind with the goodreads challenge now - six books apparently - but I have finished a few since I last did a mini-reviews post. I'm not going to do another one now - I'm too lazy - but suffice it to say I'm keeping up with my challenges - Women Writers, the TBR challenge and also Once Upon a Time, so there's that at least.

Most recently I've finished
A Storm of Swords part 1 by George R R Martin
Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
Adaptation by Miranda Lo
While We Run by Karen Healey.

I've had a good run because I did enjoy all of those books a lot. Especially Adaptation, and While We Run, which is the sequel to Healey's novel When We Wake. I'm going to hand-wave writing reviews because I'm lazy and still kind of recovering.

Now I'm re-reading One Hundred Years of Solitude for the fourth time (RIP Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and reading A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan which is taking me ages to finish for some reason.

:D

Readathon - introductory meme

I'm cheering rather than reading, but won't be doing any actual cheering until tomorrow morning my time, as I live in the future.

(Yes. The future IS so bright you'll need to wear shades.)

Anyway, on to the readathon introductory meme:


1) What fine part of the world are you reading (cheering) from today? New Zealand :-)
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? No stack, but I'm hoping to get around all the blogs on #teambutler :-)
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Mid-afternoon cup of tea tomorrow.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I'm 42 years old, I think I've taken part in one way or another in every single readathon and uh ...... I like cats.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? Same as always - have fun! :D

Readathon and health thingies

*\o/* I've been derailed this week by health issues, more on that further down.

First up, it's readathon weekend again! http://24hourreadathon.com/

I'm just cheering this time around, and I'm just waiting to hear back about my team - I've been next to useless all week, so I'm trying to gain back some ground.

Now, what follows will be TMI for some, but I need to vent - lol.

I have had the period of doom for the past 16 days. It's been at least twice as long as any period I've ever had and consistently heavy. The one bright side is that I haven't really been in pain. And I know there are women out there who suffer far, far worse than me every month, but I've always been super-regular and extremely predictable, so this has thrown me.

And with Easter and Anzac Day happening all at once, I couldn't get in to see the doctor until Wednesday. That, and I kept hoping it would stop on its own. (spoiler: it didn't).

So the doc believes I have fibroids, and gave me pills that allegedly slow/stop the bleeding. They've sort of worked. It hasn't stopped and it's sort-of slowed down a little bit.

I had blood tests on Thursday and the doc did a smear, and I'm booked in for an ultrasound at the hospital. The doc - who was lovely and patient and accommodated my weirdness (I can't lie flat on my back without getting panicky) said she wasn't worried that it was anything that needed urgent attention, because going through the hospital for ultrasounds can take a while, and I have to go for a follow-up next week.

So for now I'm just waiting, spending  what feels like all of my money on ladies' sanitary items, trying not to throw myself off a building, and trying not to snap at J and Spawn because mood swings.

And, like I say, I realise that other people have it far worse than I do, but it's my little corner and therefore I will whinge about the endless period of doom. At this point, I may walk into the doctor's office and just shout JUST TAKE IT ALL OUT I'M NOT HAVING ANY MORE KIDS TAKE IT ALLLLLLLLL.

*sigh*

Anyway. See you at the readathon. I'll be cheering on twitter and visiting some blogs also. :-)

It's Monday

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

It's been a couple of weeks since I did one of these, because for a couple of weeks I was basically reading the same books - lol.



Since then, I've managed to do a fair bit, I think.


I finished Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik, A Storm of Swords Part 1: Steel and Snow by G R R Martin, Adaptation by Malinda Lo, and While We Run by Karen Healey.

I have to say, I really enjoyed all of them.

Next up was going to be part 2 of A Storm of Swords, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez died, and so I'm reading One Hundred Years of Solitude for the fourth time.

What are you reading?

Readathon!

 It's getting near that time again, and if you're going "huh" then go

here: http://24hourreadathon.com/ and poke around.

Have a look here: http://24hourreadathon.com/history-of-deweys-24-hour-read-a-thon/ at the history, and then go back to the first page and sign up. Or, you know, sign up as a cheerleader, cheerleaders are awesome.

I always fail out as a reader, so I'm going back to my readathon roots with cheerleading. Every year there seems to be more and more readers signing up, which is great and I know Dewey would have got a kick out of that, but cheerleading is important too, and I think last year there were something like 38 cheerleaders to nearly 400 readers. (Four hundred readers. There were less than 40 when this started. That blows my mind.)

So. Anyway. This April's readathon is on April 26 and I will be shaking out my virtual pompoms once again. Join me!

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