I just finished:
-a poetry anthology, mostly devotional literature, by a former online acquaintance
-part 2 of a graphic novel series retelling a scifi saga
-children's illustrated of an adventure inspired by Inuit legend. Very nice painterly illustrations.
-a reworking of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale.
Update:
-a teen superhero origin story
-a series compendium of weird, sardonically funny, and occasionally grim space opera stories
-a children's illustrated about a vegetarian dragon
-an art history book focusing on the creation and legacy of Van Gogh's sunflower pictures
Setting aside the great big in-progress pile for now to focus in on an online friendly acquaintance's newly published baby. A nice chunky fantasy novel. Took me a couple of chapters to get properly into it but I'm starting to really enjoy myself.
Gonna try a middle grade story about a magical bakery. It's called Bliss. And there's another one that's self-published but seems to have a lot of positive reviews and be likened to Narnia, so I'll give that a try and post the title if I like it.
Do let us know, Kristi!
I suppose I could say I’ve been beta-reading a friend’s book for the second time. I really should stop procrastinating on the one sitting on my desk though.
Still on acquaintance's fantasy novel, as I have been very distracted by art things lately. Also started in on some promising poetry.
I stopped procrastinating on the aforementioned book. I’m now… about 4/5 through it. Fascinating WWII stuff, but can’t recommend due to some language and brief references.
Still working on the novel that was compared to Narnia. I'm deep enough in that I think I'm comfortable referencing it by name. It's called A Soul as Cold as Frost. After a teenage girl has a glowing orb shoved into her hands on the street, she finds herself able to see another wintry world peeking in through the cracks of our own. Soon she's caught up in a race to get the orb to its destination and reveal the truth within before she's caught and forced to battle to the death against an evil queen.
Described as an allegory, you can see hints of Christianity peeking through, but the worldbuilding is fresh and detailed. She over-metaphors sometimes, to my taste. On the other hand, when she describes a character, I know exactly what they look like. And she's also got some lovely ideas, like a character saying "I've wondered for a merry measure what this would be like." What a delightful idiom for a wintry tale!
Apart from a little awkward quasi-swearing (depending on your definition) in the first chapter, it's been clean, too.
I'm not sure I'm as engaged as I should be, but I blame that on listening to it on audiobook. The reader's voice isn't one I particularly enjoy, and every time I actually read without listening I'm much more engaged. I should probably try to read more of it the old-fashioned way just so I can give it a fair review.
Kristi, that sounds really intriguing actually. Let me know if it wraps up well.
Yeah, I’m curious to know whether the ending sticks the landing!
Took a break from WWII history after the previously mentioned book, and blitzed through a Nero Wolfe mystery last weekend before jumping into another WWII history book. I’d had some prelude to this one because I’d watched the 1953 film “The Man Who Never Was”, but this book goes into so much more detail (obviously) and is able to correct information previously put forward (because of the de-classification of information since the film and the book it was based upon (minus the fictitious third act)).
Ok! Books. ^_^
Recently I have read:
Castle in the Stars: A Frenchman on Mars by Alex Alice. Good solid adventure, starts in media res but gives you a quick intro to the series at the beginning, very pretty illustrations with kind of a soft watercolory look to them.
Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Sa, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist adapted by Gina Capaldi and Q.L. Pierce. An introduction to an interesting human in a difficult period in history, with painterly earth-tone illustrations.
A poetry anthology with an emphasis on life/death cycles and wetland wildlife.
Lionheart by Richard Collingridge. Simple prose, very evocative and daydreamy bright-colored illustrations. A story about courage.
A YA fantasy with fun worldbuilding but some forum-inappropriate content, in which the protagonist is a young co-monarch trying to learn the ropes before the deadline comes due for her to attempt an underworld journey.
An adult fantasy novella with some forum-inappropriate content featuring an heiress in a neo-Victorian setting with fairies trying to make amends for an injustice committed by her father.
Chivalry by Neil Gaiman and Coleen Doran. A beautiful, whimsical, and odd slow-paced character-driven graphic novel about an eccentric older lady who found the Holy Grail in a thrift shop, and the earnest young knight who wants to win it back from her.
A well-written but weird scifi novel with some forum-inappropriate content in which a first contact situation leads to humanity trying to prove their sapience to the alien community in a galactic singing competition. Extremely wide variety of alien life with sometimes conflicting interests and needs, satirical political commentary, and ultimately a deep thread of hope.
It’s been almost a month since I read the first of the Wheel of Time series. Expect to pick up the next one soon. (I don’t know all that’s in this series, but it sounds like there are some issues later?)
I read The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin last week. And I was pleasantly surprised at how clean it was, though I’ll put a little warning for Nazi brutality, even though it’s largely left to the imagination. The plot was fine, and I appreciated the historical bits, but found it lacking in the compelling character department, at least to my taste.
Reading the final skyward book of Brandon Sanderson (called Defiant). So far so good I feel that I missed a little by not reading the books that are supposed to happen while the main character is away from the rest of her squad. But since she feels a little lost too that helps. 🙂
He does all things well.
Recently read the English translation of Lonely Castle in the Mirror. There’s a couple of swears and a scene of a man behaving inappropriately toward a teen girl, but other than that, it’s clean reading. The story is of seven kids brought together through a magical portal, where they slowly open up to each other and find strength and healing.
