Non-Fiction · reading

Not Excited About Latest In Death book

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Random in Death by JD Robb came out a couple of weeks back. I read the excerpt before it came out.

I don’t have the book yet and I’m far, far down the hold list in my library. Even if every person only takes out for exactly two weeks and no one is late with the returning, it will still take months before I get it.

Normally I would be impatient and searching other libraries or haunting Google ebooks in the hope that a bigger excerpt shows up. I would be looking for giveaways and reviews that don’t mind the spoilers. I would be reading the excerpt over and over again. Maybe check out an older In Death book while I wait for the current one.

There was a time when I used to buy the In Death. There was a time with I used to arrive at the library the day it came out and check it out the very day the library got it. I didn’t do that this time.

This time I find myself content to wait for my hold on the book. And that’s a strange thing indeed.

I’m more excited about Smolder by LKH. Which is what I’m reading right now. It’s strange because I haven’t actually read an Anita Blake novel in a long time. Maybe this one will be good. I was interested when it came out, but not terribly excited. Hopefully it will be good.

Hopefully I’ll be excited about Random in Death by the time I actually have it. Maybe I’m burning out on the In Death books, but I hope not.

fantasy · General · reading

Reading: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

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I have got Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse.

I have barely gotten started but this is a book that grabs hold and doesn’t let go.

The publisher page for this book has this poem:

A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

This quote – prophecy? – explains the title. I am getting used to it. The excerpt is on the publisher site, too.

The first line is fantastic. It is one of the best of the first lines I have read in a long, long time. Well, no, it is a few lines down because there is another quote to begin Chapter 1.

Today he would become a god. His mother had told him so.

The first chapter is kind of gruesome. Actually, very gruesome. But it sets a stage and makes you want to read and read and read until you are done. Which I have not been able to do until now!

I am already about a quarter done and am enjoying myself immensely. I believe all major characters/settings have been introduced!

It does seem to be inspired by various pre-Columbian American cultures, which is interesting. I love the world so far, the magic, the different kind of magics and people that are here.

There is singing magic and the boy whose mother told he would become a god – yeah, he has some interesting magic too. There are priests and deadly politics.

There are also odd pronouns – I don’t quite have the hang of them yet. Still getting used to that part and it jars me every time I read it because I don’t really understand what the different pronouns mean. I need more explanation for this part. But it will come in time, I am sure.

General · reading

Out of my Reading Rut

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Reading Rut: when you feel like most of the books you are reading are very similar. Not the same, no, just similar.

That is where I was with my reading. I feel like this happened because I started taking more suggestions from Amazon. Amazon will pretty much only suggest similar items to what you’ve already bought/searched; that is both the strength and weakness of its algorithms. Sometimes similar is what you want, but sometimes it gets boring.

My visiting other blogs fell down a hole. I started visiting twitter again, which helped, but book suggestions didn’t happen like it used to. I have considered getting into Bookstagram or booktok, but haven’t done it. I may at some point.

Anyway – on twitter – I discovered a YouTube video KJ Charles had posted of what was on her TBR pile. It was a long video, about 40 minutes. (It seems like a long video to me.) She (I had never before heard her talk or seen her face. Quite nice) made this video with Ashland Public Library MA – thank you libraries!

I have also discovered my own library has an YouTube account, but they, sadly, do not do TBR videos with authors. Ashland Public Library has a whole playlist of TBR videos with authors: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF7TVD3UhPxovOUopStAn4XAcNOMF2HyJ

I had only watched a few minutes before I discovered two new interesting books. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse and a whole new series of historical mystery fiction set in India by Abir Mukherjee. They both sounded good. Not that I have either yet – have only found excerpts and previews so far.

But I probably wouldn’t have discovered them if it weren’t for this video. Well, possibly I might have discovered Black Sun. I think I have heard it, but Black Sun is a common title. There is Black Sun’s Daughter and some others, so I think it is possible I heard of it and confused it with some other book. But I dunno if I would have heard of Abir Mukherjee otherwise.

So I am out of my reading slump!

I am anticipating watching the other TBR videos and getting more recommendations. It seems they have done this Gail Carriger, Meg Cabot, Jayne Ann Krentz – all authors I like! There are authors as well that I have never read, but perhaps I should take that as a suggestion, hmm?

But, yes, this TBR video has gotten me out of this reading rut!

reading

Thoughts on an unknown book by a favorite writer

Sonia Lal1 Comment

That feeling you get when you discover one of your most favorite writers will have a new series out, probably sometime next year.

There is no info, no cover art, no blurb, no short description! There certainly isn’t any excerpt. There is nothing at all!

And yet you know, know, that it will be absolutely fantastic.

General · reading

Banned Book Week, 2020

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It is banned book week once more, a week to celebrate literacy and reading.

I haven’t been keeping track of banned book weeks for the past couple of years and this year I decided to take a look.

This year’s top ten list of banned books from the ALA include:

  1. George by Alex Gino
    Reasons: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community”
  2. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
    Reasons: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people
  3. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now”
  4. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity
  5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author
  6. Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
    Reasons: Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police views
  7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experience
  8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students
  9. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuse
  10. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
    Reasons: Challenged for profanity, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message

The list has changed a lot since the last time I looked at it, and I don’t remember when that was. A few years back anyway.

I have heard of only four books: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Of Mice and Men by John Steinback, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

I have read only two: Of Mice and Men by John Steinback and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Of Mice and Men was required reading in school and I remember nothing of it.

It seems George has been on the list for the past few years and I hadn’t even heard of it.

All American Boys has “too much of a sensitive matter right now” as a reason to ban it and I really don’t know what that means. I wonder if that means there will come a time when it is not banned because the matter is no longer sensitive.

General

First Day of Fall, 2021

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Today is the first day of fall of this year. Days have been getting cooler, but are still pleasantly warm.

I have seen a few leaves change color. I look at them and know this lingering warmth will soon be a memory.

Fall is also my favorite season. 😀 I enjoy crisp, cool days when all you need is a hoodie to keep warm.

I was reading Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost, which is one my favoriate poems ever. It cycles through all the seasons but I feel like fall is the season it is most concerned with.

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
fantasy · reading

Breaking of a mouse’s heart

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I’ve started reading The Light Fantastic and this is my second Terry Pratchett book.

There was the faintest of pure sounds, high and sharp, like the breaking of a mouse’s heart.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

This quote is utterly fantastic. I cannot quite picture what this sound is like – the death cries of a mouse? But it’s sticking in my head.

And I’m only in the beginning of this book. And the beginning of Terry Pratchett novels.

reading

D is for Death Scenes

Sonia Lal4 Comments

adult_human_skull_-_asian_male_thumbnail__60388.1530765307.500.659Death scenes should be meaningful, yes? I think so. If not meaningful, they should at least be memorable. They stick with you. Maybe you return to it, over and over again in some fashion.

These are some of the most memorable death scenes I recall.

  1. Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web. I read this book over and over again in childhood. The death of Charlotte – the first time I heard it, it was very shocking. Less shocking, obviously, the second and third and fourth time I reread it. But I think her death is one of the reasons why I reread this book so often.
  2. Sergeant Bothari from the Miles Vorkosigan books. He was both a rapist, and if I remember the books right, a victim of rape. He was a torturer and also mentally disabled. He also protected Miles throughout his childhood. Yet I feel his death was just. Perhaps his life is a tragedy, always heading that since birth.
  3. Henry from The Time Traveler’s Wife. I had a lot of problems with this book, but for some reason Henry’s death sticks out in my mind. Henry loses his feet and then is shot to death while time traveling by his wife’s brother. His death seems more memorable to me then the whole book.  Which is a bit odd, I suppose.
  4. Rue from the Hunger Games. Really, there were a lot of deaths in this series, but who can forget this scene? And how important it was to the rest of the series?
  5. Dorothea from Black Jewels. Anne Bishop does revenge really, really well. Dorothea is enemy number one in this series and her death was perfect.
reading

C is for Characters

Sonia Lal4 Comments

Characters! Sometimes you read a book more for the characters than the plot. Lots of times, in fact. If the characters suck, oftentimes I stop reading.

If some characters come out in a new book, I would read it and I don’t really need to know anything else. Do you have favorite characters like that?

Five of my favorite characters:

  1. Eve Dallas from the In Death series by JD Robb
  2. Daemon from Black Jewels series by Anne Bishop
  3. Miles Vorkosigan from Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
  4. Mercy Thompson from Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
  5. Meg Corbyn from The Others by Anne Bishop

 

reading

B is for Books

Sonia Lal5 Comments

06_17_2013_book-smell-e1371501750113
photo: David Flores

B is for Books

So . . . books. Libraries are closed, bookstores are closed. But! Books can still be ordered online and downloaded from your favorite platform. Ebooks from libraries are a thing.

Including the Internet Archive. It seems the Internet Archive has more recent books. I have known of the Internet Archive existence for quite some time, but I thought it had only old books, books that are so old they are in the public domain.

It seems that is not correct. They announced a national emergency library (http://blog.archive.org/2020/03/24/announcing-a-national-emergency-library-to-provide-digitized-books-to-students-and-the-public/) where they are allowing more recent books to be borrowed. The same item can be borrowed by multiple people at the same time.

I had the impression – somehow! – that the National Archive held only old books. I supposed that is because I have only ever gone looking for old books on it. Alice in Wonderland, The adventures of Tom Sawyer, a book on the birds of India someone wrote when they traveled to India during the British Raj, old dusty books like that.

I wasn’t even aware they had any other kind of books even available. I suppose I wasn’t paying attention, but I am shocked. Shocked they had recent books available at all, let alone that they decided to make some kind of national emergency library.