Taken in the Washington Park Arboretum when the skies were still blue. Well, I took an unexpected holiday break from the blog. I’ve still been reading and still writing reviews, hoarding them ^.^ I also have a post coming on what’s been going on and what I have coming up, but in the mean time here’s a recap of my reading last year: I really put the pedal to the metal as far as reading books go. My goal was…
The medium in which I consumed The Forest Bull is by audiobook. It was a fairly painful experience; the audiobook narrator is a woman but the book is from the point of view of a man (…wut?), thus making her sound terribly like a female trucker for the entire book. Narration aside, I tried to get past this poor move and focus on the great story that this book had the potential to be. The book is about three humans…
(Lila Bowen = Delilah S. Dawson, for the record)This is another book that I just had to give a 100/5 Stars score. It is SO GOOD. Every word, every move, and each piece of the story is so captivating and absolutely magical. Wake of Vultures is set in 1860’s Texas and follows Nettie Lonesome, a young woman who is as alone in the world as her name suggests. She was orphaned as an infant and adopted/enslaved by two pretty terrible…
Ink and Bone was a great story told by a terrible storyteller. The whole time I kept waiting for the moment where something amazing would happen, the story to click, and for me to feel like a part of the book. This first half was pretty painful- very slow and I had a difficult time caring about what happened. I wanted to stop reading so bad, but it really takes a lot for me to stop reading a book. After…
Lady Killer is a different a fun story about basass 1950’s housewife… who is also an assassin. Josie spends her days caring for her two daughters, making dinner for her husband, and tracking down her latest assignment. The shit hits the fan when the big boss of the “company” she’s worked for for 15 years worries her loyalties to her family will have a negative effect on her work. Josie decided she wants out and enlists the help of another…
Neverwhere is classic Neil Gaiman but one of my least favorites of his so far. It has all of his usual twists and surprises but with the pizzaz I have come to expect. Though a series of events, Richard finds himself in London Below, which has many of the same things as London Above but with more Tube stops, warriors, monsters, and a floating market that’s always in a different place. In order to leave London Below behind and to…
I picked up this book from ECCC (more happy memories!) and I hate that I waited to long to read it. It is a beautiful book; a sturdy hardcover with no jacket (yay!) and is beautifully designed. I wish more hardcovers were made this way. (What’s with dust jackets anyway? I feel the same way about DVD covers; I don’t like them but I can’t bring myself to get rid of them.) The pages are also great quality and I…
In September my in-laws came out to take Joe and I on a little vacation to Victoria and the Olympic Peninsula. On Thursday after work we drove to Port Angeles and stayed the night there so we’d be able to take an early ferry to Victoria. On the way we ate at Sogno di Vino (I do not recommend), an Italian restaurant in Poulsbo. Leaving Seattle On Friday we took the Coho ferry to Victoria from Port Angeles and drove…
This is the fifth book and second world I have read of Dawson’s and I absolutely love her authorly abilities. She has a magical way of creating worlds or versions of our world without having to explain too much, but you totally know what’s going on. She seamlessly gives details throughout the story so it doesn’t seem like you’re reading paragraph after paragraph of descriptions and rules, because you aren’t. Servants of the Storm is set in Savannah, GA (visiting…
This is a great steampunk read! The book follows Cara Devon, who is back in London for the first time in seven years to tidy up her father’s affairs following his death. To the outsider, her father has nothing but his house left to his name, but Cara knows that he spent his fortune collecting rare and precious artifacts and hiding them throughout London. Viscount Nathaniel Trent offers his services to help Cara sell off her father’s artifacts, but they…