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September Reads


mashiara

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I completely LOVED the Prisoner of Azkaban! That's my favorite book of the series.

I did enjoy it, it's probably my least favourite film but the book surpasses it by far. Not sure if I want to spoil it by reading on :P the last book I read as a kid in the series was the Order of the Phoenix I think.

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Just finished Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns yesterday. Absolutely amazing. Jorg is such an interesting character and getting inside his mind is so much [guilty] fun. Can't wait to read the next two and see what ultimately becomes of him. Has Lawrence mentioned what he's writing currently now that he has finished writing the Broken Empire?

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Over the summer, I went on a spree of reading Gillian Flynn's novels. Sharp Objects, which I believe was her first novel, was excellent; I enjoyed Gone Girl, but the darkness of Sharp Objects was more appealing. I then read Herman Koch's The Dinner, which was another great, thoroughly engrossing read. It is not the "European Gone Girl" as some reviewer described it; I think it's far better, with one important exception at the end. Now, though, I'm reading Night Film, and I find the writing to be awful. Every character, no matter their background, speaks perfect English. All the Internet posts cited are always grammatically correct with no misspellings and no improper punctuation. The narrator has been written to provide incessantly the definitions of words he uses in his thoughts. "I was dressed in the Russian vor look (vor is a Russian crime lord)" is an actual thought of the narrator. Whose internal thoughts read like that? For that matter, the narrator hasn't had work in a while, yet so far there is no detail as to the source of his money, food, and rent. I compare that to Gillian Flynn, who gives fascinating portraits of the manner in which her narrators live and their means of support. Right now, I classify Night Film as awful tripe on the level of a Scooby Doo mystery, but I shall continue to slog through and hope.

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I started with Deadhouse Gates, but it's going slowly because I got hooked reading It. It's so entertaining. I've put aside American Gods, I don't want to go through three long books at the same time. So far I like it, I'll probably pick it up again after It.

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Now, I am roughly in the middle of The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. So far it's a pleasant reading, but the parts told by Iris from the present time sometimes feel too long.

I will jump this bandwagon as soon as I finish The Blind Assassin. Can't wait! :D

I love The Blind Assassin it's slow paced, but the language is so beautiful.

Has anyone started MaddAdam? The new Oryx and Crake installation? Just found out that it's out and got the bookstore to order it. Doing a reread of the first two.

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A Trial of Blood and Steel series by Joel Shepherd got a lukewarm reaction from me. This is not due to plot, characters or prose, but the fact that I came to a realization that I am not a fan of military fantasy.

That being said, Sasha is one of the most believable female warriors I have come across in fantasy literature. The plot was interesting with themes such as family, religous intolerances, and stability vs innovation. If you like lots of battles (large and small scale) and tactics with a strong female protagonist, then this series is for you.

I need humour, so Cetaganda is next. Looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble Miles will get into!

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Finished Star Trek: Log One, the three short stories ranged from meh to great. The best was "Yesteryear" and is worth finding the book on its own, the other two stories were standard tropes through one took a while to develop which was surprising considering the whole book had a total of 184 pages..

I started Stone of Farewell just to get all the Author's Note, Dragonbone synopsis, and prologue out of the way so I can begin on page 1 tomorrow.

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I finished The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron today. It definitely picked up as the novel progressed, and I really liked all of the different aspects to the magic in this world. It does feel a bit PG though, think Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy, so I'm not desperate to read the next book immediately but I am sure I'll read it before the end of the year. Eli did remind me a little of Locke Lamora, so it has that going for it.

Up next will be Broken Angels by Richard Morgan. I read Altered Carbon ages ago, and don't know why it's taken me so long to move on to the next book (likely Morgan's penchant for graphic sex scenes).

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Okay so I have to send my copy of The Heroes back for a refund, so I think I'll start Sharp Objects tonight, as it's actually on top of the pile I have in my room that don't yet have a place :laugh:

I hope you enjoy it. A few people who reviewed it on Goodreads really detested the book, but they were in the distinct minority. I made some decent progress with Night Film. I finally reached the point of one big reveal, but unfortunately, it was one that anyone reading the book saw coming. Ugh.

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178 pages into Sharp Objects and I'm really enjoying it. I find Flynn's writing so easy to get lost in, and her stories are really compelling. I also love the mystery, the I'm-not-telling-you-everything narrative that I also loved in Gone Girl.

I'll look into Night Film too, though the comments don't look promising. Is there anything else by her that's worth reading?

ETA: I think it's called Dark Places in the UK? I just ordered a set of all three books with the funky covers, despite having Gone Girl on my Kindle app and another edition of Sharp Objects. I like things to match :laugh:

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Has anyone started MaddAdam? The new Oryx and Crake installation? Just found out that it's out and got the bookstore to order it. Doing a reread of the first two.
I read a review of MaddAdam last week and realised that i) I'd never read the second book and ii) I couldn't really remember the first book all that well. So I think what I'll do is order The Year of the Flood right now and then if necessary do a quick re-read of O&C (or possibly cheat with a summary as life is too short for re-reads) before getting round to the last book.

I'm about halfway through my brewing homework read (Yeast) and even though it feels a lot like studying microbiology again it's still pretty interesting stuff.

Also plodding on with Angelmaker, which, the faster I can get through it, the more I', enjoying it. I just felt that the first 30-odd pages were s-l-o-w and that if a reader hadn't read TGAW then they might not bother persevering until it really gets into its stride.

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