Sunday Salon - Right Now (8/17/14)

Time: 9:02 am Pacific

Place: Some place other than home

Listening to… Episode 292 of Books on the Nightstand

Watching... Newcastle vs Man City

Reading... Too many books

Planning...  To post some book reviews, read a bunch of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, watch a bunch of lectures for a course I am taking online through Coursea.org (one on the French Revolution) and to just generally survive the day.

Feeling... Tired; haven't been sleeping well for the last little while.

Wanting... To go back to bed.

Thinking... Not a lot at the moment

Looking forward to... Seeing my sister.

Books finished since my last Sunday Salon:

• Road Ends 

• The Goldfinch

• Empty Mansions

• We Were Liars

• The Circle

Books reviewed since my last Sunday Salon:

• HHhH by Laurent Binet (July 2014)
• Boxers by Gene Luen Yang (July 2014)
• Saints by Gene Luen Yang (July 2014)
• Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, The by Sun-mi Hwang (Aug. 2014)
• Ocean at the End of the Lane, The by Neil Gaiman (Aug. 2014)
• Mysteries of Udolpho, The by Ann Radcliffe (Aug. 2014)
• Pursuit of Mary Bennet, The by Pamela Mingle (Aug. 2014)
• Frog Music by Emma Donoghue (Aug. 2014)
• Bear, The by Claire Cameron (Aug. 2014)
• Tale of Two Cities, A by Charles Dickens (Aug. 2014)
• Fault in Our Stars, The by John Green (Aug. 2014)
• While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell (Aug. 2014)
• Clash of Kings, A by George R.R. Martin (Aug. 2014)
• Enchanted, The by Rene Denfeld (Aug. 2014)
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (Aug. 2014)

Books I hope to finish this week:

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

• The Cuckoo's Calling

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday, however you plan on spend it.

#BtHreadathon Update No. 3

I realize that its been a few days since I last updated as to what I had read.  I had other things up and I just put it aside in favour of those of other things.

Friday
Half-Blood Prince:    83 pages read
Mrs. Hemingway:     11 pages read
Total pages read:       94

Saturday
The Circle:                  48 pages read*
The Cuckoo's Calling: 42 pages read
Total pages read:          90

* = completed reading

I did start reading The Word Exchange, but it wasn't enough to think it was enough to record it (it was a few pages); I hope to read a bit more today and that I update sooner than have at the moment.

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Pages: 438
Published: 2013
Challenges: I Love Libraries, Blogger Summer Reading
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Young Adult
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? Open her heart to someone? Or will she just go on living inside somebody else’s fiction? (from Goodreads)

Thoughts: I did read this book because others were reading the book and also because I really enjoyed reading her previous work, Eleanor & Park (at some point I'll get to Attachments, which I have heard is also pretty good and am looking forward to reading Landline this coming fall).  It took me awhile to get into this novel, probably because I was comparing it to my experience with Eleanor & Park, in which I got right into the book.  But once I was able to get into the book, I really couldn't put the book down and got into Cath's world, not only because of the story, but also because to a certain degree, I also wrote fanfiction at one point, but nothing to the extent that Cath did.

I really liked how the author was able to express Cath's trouble with trying to find her place in a world that was free of her dad and her sister and to find friends that understood her as much as her sister may have and the struggle that she had with not being with her sister all the time.  

Bottom line: If you enjoyed Eleanor & Park, you probably will enjoy this book. And even if you enjoy  other young adult/new adult books, this might be a book for you. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5/5

Pages for 2014: 12,603

If you have read this book, what did you think of it?

The Enchanted - Rene Denfeld

Title: The Enchanted
Author: Rene Denfeld
Pages: 256
Published: 2014
Challenges: I Love Libraries, Blogger Summer Reading
Genre: Fiction, Magic Realism
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries magical visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs, with the devastating violence of prison life.

Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest, and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners' pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honor and corruption-ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own. (from Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: I had heard really good things about the book and I thought I would give the book a try.  Much like when I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I had to suspend my disbelief when I read the book and just let myself experience the book.  While it took me a bit to get into the book, I did manage to enjoy the book.

I can't recall what made me enjoy reading the book, as it's been awhile since I finished the book, but it was probably the way the author used language that made it enjoyable and how she was able for me as the reader to draw me into the world she created.  It was also great that it was such a short book after reading a book with over 1000 pages.

Bottom line: If you enjoyed books such as The Ocean at the End of the Lane or you are fan of books with magic realism in it, you'll probably enjoy this read.  Even if you are a fan of literary fiction, you probably will enjoy this one as well.  Recommended.

Rating: 3.75/5

Pages for 2014: 12,165

If you have read this book, what did you think of it?

#BtHreadathon Update No. 2

Had a big day of reading today, although I only really read from two books.  But within those two books, I read a lot of pages and am anticipating about the same tomorrow.

Here is what I read:
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Read 69 pages
• The Circle: Went from about 71% to about 91% completed, which is about 106 pages

I read for about 3 and a half to about 4 hours (didn't really calculate as to how much I read).

#bthreadathon - Update No. 1

I am so sorry for not posting an update yesterday, but here I am!  It will be a quick one, as I am headed off to do some reading before I go off to dream land.

It really hasn't been a successful couple of days, as yesterday I didn't feel like reading.  But before I did head off to sleep I read about 130 pages from two different books.  Didn't read much during the day yesterday (Wednesday), but am hoping today is going to be better.

A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin

Title: A Clash of Kings (A Song of Fire and Ice #2)
Author: George R.R. Martin
Pages: 1009
Published: 2005 (first published 1998)
Challenges: Chunkster, Blogger Summer Reading, Bookish TBR, Roof Beam TBR
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Edition: Mass-Market Paperback
Source: Personal

Description:  A comet the colour of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk at night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles. (from Goodreads)

Thoughts: After reading A Game of Thrones, I suspected that I would be a bit let down with the second book.  What I found with the book was that it tended to be bleak and dreary to the point that at times I wondered when I was ever going to get end the least bit happy and I felt that the book seemed to plod on for pages on end, with the book never seeming to end (felt like I was going through torture myself at times), especially since the first book seemed to be full of action and plot twists coming left and centre.

Being it the case, since I have gotten this far in the series, I am definitely in it for the long haul and will find out who gets to claim the throne, if there is anybody left in the end.

Bottom line:  Even though it did seem to plod along at times, I did enjoy it and am planning on finishing up the series, whenever that may be.  And yes, you do need to read the first book in the series, as the story basically picks up from the end of the book and there are characters and events you need to have a little background about.  Highly Recommended.

Rating: 4.25/5

Pages for 2014: 11909