Weekly (Plus Hiatus) Wrap-Up: 26 October 2017

 

Happy Friday! I can’t believe the weekend is already here. So as you know, I had been on hiatus until earlier this week. I thought that I’d do a wrap-up of the books I read this week and the books I read while I was away from my blog — and I certainly read a lot of them! So without any further ado, here is my weekly wrap-up (plus hiatus reads). You might want to grab a snack — this is going to be quite a long post!

 

Books I read

 

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Mistborn: A Secret History by Brandon Sanderson

The Last Namsara by Kristen Cicerelli (Review)

Artemis by Andy Weir

Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor

A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

 

I told you I read a lot! Happily, almost all of these were in the 4-5 star range, the exception being The Last Namsara, which came in close at 3.5 stars. You can read my review of that book here. My five star reads were The Language of Thorns (fantasy perfection!), Artemis (spacey perfection!), and Night of Cake and Puppets (Zuzana is perfection!).

My most recent reads were The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and An Enchantment of Ravens, which happen to be two of my most highly anticipated books this year. Regarding Gentleman’s Guide, I liked it a lot (as anticipated), but I was a little disappointed that it veered slightly into another genre. I prefer my historical fiction to be just that: historical. I am not a huge fan of when authors pull in fantastical elements. For me, it just doesn’t work. But I did really love the characters and the representation! It’s such a fun and fast read, despite being just over 500 pages.

An Enchantment of Ravens is a weird one. There were parts I absolutely loved and part that really didn’t do it for me. I struggled a bit with some of the pacing and the characterization. But I love the descriptions and anything to do with painting. It’s a tough one to rate, and I’m going to have to think for a day or so.

Pretty much every book I read will get a review, but I need some time to catch up! You’ll start hearing about all of these soon 🙂

 

Books I DNFed

 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Otherworld by Jason Segal and Kristen Miller

Satellite by Nick Lake

 

I usually don’t have a section for DNF’s, however I’ve put down a enough books to justify one for this period. Victober was a bit of a disaster for me, as I’ve not read a single Victorian novel. However, with all the real-life things going on, gloomy tales of childhood trauma just aren’t cutting it for me right now. I may give Jane Eyre another shot at some point, but it will be my third attempt at reading it. I think the Brontes and I just don’t get along (I hated Wuthering Heights).

I also did not finish two young adult sci-fi books. I just realised that they both feature male protagonists. I set aside Otherworld pretty early because it became very apparent very quickly that it was not my cup of tea. I don’t like the cocky, overconfident rich kid vibe I was getting from the main character. He just seemed like a pain in the ass, and I wasn’t keen to keep going. 

Satellite is a different story. I put this one aside because I couldn’t work my way through the strange writing style. Satellite is essentially written in ‘text speak’. As in ‘u’ instead of ‘you’, no capitalization, etc. I thought I’d be fine with this, but I ended up really struggling to concentrate on the actual story — the writing style was just so distracting! I’d find myself rereading sentences because with the lack of capitalization, my eye couldn’t differentiate between one sentence and the next. I feel like this wont be a problem for some readers, but it just didn’t work for me. I’m a bit sad about that because it sounded like a promising story!

 

Books I am currently reading

 

The Seventh Decimate by Stephen Donaldson

The Dollmaker of Krakow by R. M. Romero

 

So I’m doing the Sbooktacular Readathon — you can check out my hastily edited TBR video here. An Enchantment of Ravens was the first I read for this readathon, and The Dollmaker of Krakow will bet the second. I only got a couple of pages in before I fell asleep last night, but it looks like a beautiful book!

The Seventh Decimate is my current proof read. I’m liking it well enough, but I’d be curious to see what other people think. It has definitely got a strong 80’s fantasy vibe — which makes a lot of sense as Donaldson was writing in the 80’s. I would love to know if this will resonate with modern readers.

 

Books I bought

(Buckle up, you guys. I was bad.)

 

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Steivater

The Dollmaker of Krakow by R. M. Romero

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Slated by Teri Terry

The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

 

Bad bad bad bad Justine. I acquired a month’s worth of books in only a couple of weeks. I guess it’s a comfort thing! I’ll do a proper book haul at the end of the month where I talk about these individually, but I’m basically building a fort of books and no one is allowed in. Except the cats. Maybe Scottish Fiance.

 

Book mail!

 

A Bargain in Silver by Josie Jaffrey

Geronimo Stilton: Cat & Mouse in a Haunted House 

Austral by Paul McAuley

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan

Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick

Rhyming Rings by David Gemmell

 

I got some fab book mail recently! I won a Twitter competition run by Josie Jaffrey and won her book A Bargin in Silver. Sweet Cherry Publishing sent me a package with a Halloween proof of a Geronimo Stilton children’s book, sweets, and some wee spiders (which Dax stole, forcing me to chase her. I eventually gave up and we played fetch). I received a review copy of Austral by Paul McAuley, which looks amazing!

Yesterday was a seriously good day for book mail. I received a package with Renegades and I Am Thunder. I didn’t think I was approved for these, so it was certainly a pleasant surprise! I also got Blade Runner (unsure if this is a novelization of the film or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep with Blade Runner on the front). I may have gone overboard with requests.

 

Netgalley approvals

 

Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View by various authors

The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin

Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

 

So I’m really looking forward to reading all of these! The Wicked Cometh and Birdcage are particularly exciting — I’m so happy that I got approved for them! I had requested Renegades because I didn’t think I’d be approved for a proof copy — surprise!  Fortunately for me, a few of these don’t come out until next year so I’m delaying some of the pressure.

 

Right, this has been one heck of a wrap-up — sorry if I rambled on too much! I’ve been busy over the past couple of weeks, and now it’s time to write some posts and get cracking on my reading.

 

What have you read this week? Do you have a book buying problem? Let me know!