I can’t believe we find ourselves at the end of February. This year seems to be running away from me.
Reading during February was definitely better than January because I managed to read 4 books. Still not great but an improvement. I am also still up to date with my book reviews so that is a plus.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Today has been a particularly awful day at school which also meant I missed my precious reading time during my lunch break. I’m really hoping for a nice peaceful day off tomorrow which will also involve some reading.
What I am Currently Reading
I started The Fires of Heaven this morning and will be continuing with my challenge of reading a chapter a day of The Wheel of Time series. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is going really well so far and I am really enjoying it.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
Finally finished my first Wheel of Time book of the year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is my review.
What I Think I will Read Next
As per usual I have no idea what I will read next but these are some possible contenders.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.
In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?
In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.
In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.
In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.
Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn…..
Review
This was a reread for me but I will be honest I had forgotten a great deal and I definitely think I enjoyed this book more on the second read. At times I could not put this book down.
Perrin has always been my favourite character in the series and I loved the fact we got so much more of Perrin in this book and Perrin on his own without Rand all the time. I also loved how we ended up back in the Two Rivers and got to meet people from the first book again and see their characters develop further. Perrin’s chapters were definitely the chapters I couldn’t put down and flew through.
My least favourite character in the series so far is Mat. Mat has got to be one of the most annoying characters I have ever come across in a book series. I keep hoping he will improve and become less annoying. I have many books to read to see whether a less annoying Mat will ever happen.
I would have really liked to have seen a bit more of Egwene in this book but once she met the wise ones she kind of disappeared from the story and just became a background character. Thankfully, we got to see plenty of Nynaeve and Elayne in this book as I always love Nynaeve’s spirit and stubbornness. They had plenty of dangerous adventures of their own.
Rand is definitely growing up in this book. He accepts who he is and his destiny and he starts to plan and work out exactly what he needs to do to fulfil his destiny. I really enjoyed seeing this side of Rand and I liked how he integrated in with Aiel.
I absolutely loved this book but I am glad I decided to read it alongside other books. At being just over 1000 pages long it was a long slog at times and I needed some light relief. I give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons.
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About the author
James Oliver Rigney Jr. (1948-2007) was an American author of epic fantasy who wrote under the pen name Robert Jordan. Jordan also wrote historical fiction under the name of Reagan O’Neal, a western as Jackson O’Reilly, and dance criticism as Chang Lung.
Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.
Happy Monday!
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. My day has been rather long with lots of teaching but I did manage to do some reading today.
My chosen book to feature this week is another that has been sat on my TBR for way too long.
At first glance, the world has not changed: the trams on the boulevards, the grand hotels, the cafes abuzz with conversation. The street kids still play on the two great bridges that divide the city, and the smart set still venture down to the Morgue Ship for an evening’s entertainment.
Yet it only takes a spark to ignite a revolution.
For young Dora, a maid at the university, the moment brings liberation. She finds herself walking out with one of the student radicals, Robert, free to investigate what her brother Ambrose may have seen at the Institute for Psykical Research before he died.
But it is another establishment that Dora is given to look after, The Museum of the Worker. This strange, forgotten edifice is occupied by waxwork tableaux of miners, nurses, shopkeepers and other disturbingly lifelike figures.
As the revolution and counter-revolution outside unleash forces of love, betrayal, magic and terrifying darkness, Dora’s search for the truth behind a mystery that she has long concealed will unravel a monstrous conspiracy and bring her to the very edge of worlds.
Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.
Hello!
I have been book buying which is very naughty and going against my plan for less book buying this year. On Thursday I went to Ely for the first time and discovered Toppings. Now as you all know I love Toppings in Bath so obviously I had to see the Ely branch. This led to buying some books. Two books I bought for my husband and two I bought for myself.
The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie – This is my next Agatha Christie read in my challenge so I was quite pleased to find it in the shop.
Nightflyers by George R. R. Martin – I really like Martin’s work and it is nice to read his books that aren’t Game of Thrones related.
I’m really hoping I get around to reading these soon as they are both rather short so shouldn’t take me too long to read.
I have been at school today which was a bit of a shock because I only usually do school at the beginning of the week. This week has so far been rather busy so not much reading has happened but I’m still trying to fit in as much as I can.
The poem I have chosen today is by a new poet for me. Ursula Askham Fanthorpe (1929-2009) was an English poet, who published as U. A. Fanthorpe.
Atlas
There is a kind of love called maintenance, Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it;
Which checks the insurance, and doesn't forget The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs;
Which answers letters; which knows the way The money goes; which deals with dentists
And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains, And postcards to the lonely; which upholds
The permanently rickety elaborate Structures of living; which is Atlas.
And maintenance is the sensible side of love, Which knows what time and weather are doing To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring; Laughs at my dryrotten jokes; remembers My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps My suspect edifice upright in the air, As Atlas did the sky.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello!
How is everyone’s week so far? I was overjoyed to actually finish a book this week. I really do feel like I am slacking with my reading at the moment but I just seem to struggle for time.
What I am Currently Reading
I’ve decided for the rest of the week I am going to push ahead with this book and get it finished. I am really enjoying it and I’m so close to the end that a chapter a day is far too restraining.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it is my first 5 out of 5 Dragons read of 2024. Here is the review if anybody is interested.
What I Think I will Read Next
As usual I’m not sure what I will read next but here are a few contenders.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Behind a veil of treachery and haunted bones, a dragon curse is about to set the world ablaze… Dragons didn’t exist until recently. Neither did traitors, until Miriam Huckerpucker started nosing around in The Vault where she and the other undeads are holed up, when they are not out in the countryside picking up haunted bones, which is what they do for an unliving. For Miriam, who has been in the game for a while, with a refined skill set in magic spelling and swordy gymnastics and mourning classes, the hard part is not bone picking but catching homing pigeons which like all living beings don’t fancy the undead at all. When no pigeons arrive from the undead expedition to barbarian lands, where the first known dragon’s bones lay waiting, Miriam suspects a traitor is messing about with the pigeon post. Mustering someone who is literally dying to get a new occupation and also getting an undead dog into the bargain, her investigations unravel a sinister plot far bigger than The Vault.
Review
Firstly, a massive thank you to Astor Y Teller for gifting me this wonderful book in exchange for an honest review.
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I started reading this book but I was definitely not expecting this wonderful world Teller has created. The book follows Miriam Huckerpucker who is a bone collector for The Vault. She is also an undead with an unusual skill set of swordy gymnastics and magic spelling. She also overthinks things and has a suspicious mind.
On one of her adventures Miriam meets Crazyjones who is a farmer and the adorable Tenderloin who is his dog but things are not as they seem. This meeting is a fantastically funny introduction to the book and introduces these wonderful characters to the reader. There is no messing about with this book and you are thrust straight into the storyline which I loved.
I loved Teller’s writing style and imagination and I flew through this book and laughed constantly. The names of the characters are hilarious and are excellent descriptions for the characters. I also love the world that Teller has created and I can’t wait to learn more about The Vault and the undead. I’m also fascinated by the bones and really hope we learn more about it all. I’m also hoping to see a lot more of Tenderloin as he is very cute (yes he is my favourite character). I loved this book and can’t wait to read the next one. This is a definite 5 out of 5 Dragons from me.
🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲
About the author
Everybody makes a story about themselves. Here is my take:
I started out
1) as a kid telling myself stories using my imagination, then
2) growing up to tell stories to others as a gamemaster (which I still do), then
3) getting sucked most unwilling into occult stuff (the flip side of quantum physics?), escaping that to
4) hesitantly get an education in programming, then
5) surviving dull years surrounded by the machines that go ping and keeping the weekends occupied by reading and being artful and conjuring exhaustion for the work week, then
6) saying enough is enough and submitting myself to another long streak of education, this time in art, where I started out painting (and still do) but graduated in spontaneous storytelling (or bearing witness to my imaginary worlds if you want a fancy way of saying it) then
7) start writing down these stories instead of telling them to an audience, ending up like
1) the kid I began as, telling myself stories using my imagination…
…which is the nation I prefer to be in (after doing my stint of travelling abroad) and where I go by the name of Astor Y Teller.
The rest of me can be gleaned from the books and if not, it’s not worth telling.
Lady Book Dragon 